Erin Akin Carroll

Thank you all so very much for your super sweet words of encouragement and your well-wishes! We are very excited and cannot believe that in 6 months there will be another little one in this house. Y’all asked a few questions so I thought I’d answer them for you.

How many weeks are you?

I’m 12.5 weeks right now and already have a slight bump. It’s amazing how much earlier I am showing than last time. I’m sure it’s because last time I actually had some stomach muscles to hold the bump down and this time I don’t have a prayer of having even a single stomach muscle to hold down the bump. The bump is out in full force!

When did you find out you were pregnant?

I took a pregnancy test on September 6 and it was positive. I took a few the week before and they were all negative, but then I was late and just knew I had to be pregnant. We had planned to try to get pregnant in either August or September and it happened in August. I was trying to avoid being as big as a house in the South Carolina summer. Thank goodness this baby will be a May baby. I do not do well with the heat!

Are you going to find out the gender?

Yes. We’re supposed to find out in about 4 weeks. Until then, I’m trying not to let my mind think either way. I don’t have any idea right now or any suspicions. I just don’t want to become attached to the idea of a certain gender before we find out for certain. We’re obviously thrilled that we’ll be having a baby and his or her gender doesn’t matter to us at all, even though there are obvious fun things about a boy or a girl!

How are you feeling?

Not great. It’s about like I felt with Hudson, but I haven’t actually gotten sick as many times. I just have a sensitive stomach and always have. I was sick with Hudson for about 24 weeks, so I’m hopefully the sickness with this baby won’t last as long. It’s easier this time because I’m at home and can grab a snack or something to drink to settle my stomach whereas last time I was at work and couldn’t do much about my nausea.

What is your due date?

The official due date is May 15, but we’ll be scheduling a c-section and are looking at May 7 or 8 for the delivery date.

How many times have you been to the doctor?

We went to the doctor at 8 weeks and had a sonogram, so we saw the sweet little baby and saw the little flashing heart beat. We went yesterday for our 12 week appointment and heard the heart beat on the doppler. It took my doctor a long time to find the heart beat because the baby is still so small, but surprisingly I stayed calm until she found it in there! It’s such a precious sound.

I’ll be attempting to do weekly pregnancy updates, which I didn’t really do when I was pregnant with Hudson and I kind of wish I had. It’s just so hard to be consistent with anything these days! My hands are full, full, full!

That’s right! Hudson, his daddy, and I will be welcoming Baby Carroll #2 in early May!

Everyone is excited and baby is healthy!

• Yesterday was my first time to attend a great program at our church for mothers called SPOTS. About fifty women gathered while our kids were being cared for and this week we heard from a woman who works for the Richland County Public Library. She told us all about different opportunities that are available for children and mothers at the library and we learned how to use some of the different resources. The best part was that I ran into someone that I have been wanting to meet for a long time through blogging and found out that she just joined our Sunday school class. It’s a crazy small world and I’m so excited to get to know her better and get our kids together! If you live in the area and you’re interested in attending, click on the link above.

• Today at Hudson’s school, they had the Storybook Character Parade. Each child came dressed as a character from a story and then they paraded them all through the building so the parents and friends could see all the costumes! The one-year-olds came in on the buggy and I was sure that Hudson would be screaming his head off when I saw him. But he was just munching on his cracker and doing just fine! After the parade, there was a party for the kids. They ate miniature pancakes, cheese, and grapes. And guess whose child ate two plates full of food? Yep, hungry Hudson!

• I’m going on a road trip with my mom tomorrow! I’m flying to Dallas early tomorrow morning by myself and hopping in a U-Haul with my mom. We’re turning around and driving right back to South Carolina. Seventeen hours later on I-20, we’ll get back here. TC and I ordered a beautiful sectional sofa for our living room (remember my post about changing our furniture arrangement?) and we’re finally going to go get it. We didn’t want to pay to have it shipped, so my mom is going to make the drive with me and then she’ll stay here in South Carolina with us for a few days. I’m sure we’ll have lots of great quality time together in the good old U-Haul. I’ll be sure to share pictures with y’all of the living room when it’s all finished!

On Sunday night, we made our way down to Riverbanks Zoo to participate in Boo at the Zoo. The zoo puts on this great event for kids and there are tons of kids running around in their Halloween costumes and stopping by different stations to trick or treat.

Some of the animals were even out, so the kids could see them, so that made it exciting for Hudson. He doesn’t eat candy (or we don’t let him) and doesn’t really understand the whole “trick or treat” thing, but we still had a fun time.

Hudson isn’t a huge fan of his costume just yet. It’s a shame because he has a school Halloween (or Fall party) on Wednesday and still has actual Halloween to wear his costume. Maybe he’ll get used to it by then.

He did much better when we were holding him and I think he looks pretty stinkin’ adorable. TC and I would just die laughing every time he’d put this thing on.

He absolutely loves lions and tigers and loves making a cat-like roar sound. And the real lions were even out that night just watching all the crazy kids in their costumes. Hudson was very excited to see them! Look how tiny he looks next to this statue.

We also saw the elephants and bears. “Bear” is one of Hudson’s new words, so he was very excited to see a real bear even though it was sleeping. We didn’t see any monkeys, but Hudson was calling for them with his monkey sound.

So we’re hoping that the next two Halloween events will be successful and he’ll get used to the costume. And if he doesn’t we’ll hope that as a two-year-old he’s more into Halloween! I seriously need to decorate my porch with hay, mums, and pumpkins. I’m so behind this year and just haven’t gotten it done. Maybe when my mom is here next week we can do it together. Mom, if you’re reading this, that’s a hint!