Top 9 Questions Answered:

First of all, thanks to all of you for the sweet phone calls, texts, e-mails, comments and messages congratulating us on Baby Harris #2. We are thrilled to finally share the news with our friends and family and can't wait to keep you all updated on our second little peanut! I did notice, however, a trend in the questions we received after breaking the news and just wanted to share the answers to our top 9 questions with all of you who don't yet know. So here goes...

1. When are you due? My official due date is May 1st but we have already discussed an induction at 39 weeks to make sure our doctor will be the one to deliver. Of course, Austin came at 38.5 weeks, 2 days prior to our scheduled induction, so you never know, but it is pretty safe to say I won't make it our May 1st due date and will most likely deliver at the end of April, 2010.

2. Was this pregnancy planned? This is probably the top question asked to us by most people and we certainly understand people's curiosity considering Austin is only 11 months old. I don't have a great answer for this one though, technically the answer is yes AND no. We knew we wanted children about 2 years apart and we were thinking it might not be quite as easy for us to get pregnant the second time around so we figured that around Austin's 1st birthday we would actually start trying. Well, realizing we were about to start trying to conceive in the coming months, some precautions got thrown to the wind and well...you know the rest! It was certainly a surprise that once again, we were able to conceive so quickly, but we are very thankful for our fertility and will never take such a gift for granted.

3. How are you feeling? In one word, BLEH. The first trimester is always a difficult one and it's a little tougher this time around with my active little man to keep up with all day. The house could use a nice cleaning, the laundry is piling up and a trip to the grocery store is much needed...but the exhaustion, lack of energy and constant queasiness keep holding me back. Some days are certainly better than others, but I am always thankful that I have a constant reminder in my sweet baby boy to show me that the outcome is certainly well worth the moments of yuckiness.

4. Are you excited? Of course we're excited! Although I will admit that it is a different kind of excitement this time around, but we are thrilled and can't wait for baby #2's arrival nonetheless. It's hard to picture loving another child as much as I love my first baby, Austin, but I know I will and I can already feel the love for this child growing more and more daily. Austin is going to be a great big brother and we're very happy that he'll have a permanent playmate so close to his own age! Since Ryan and I both have very small and distant families with no children close to Austin's age, this was a priority to us.

5. How far apart in age will Austin and the new baby be? They will be about 18 months apart which will put them 1 year apart in school and of course a year and a half in age.

6. Are you going to find out the sex? If so, when? Oh yeah! We are not a family who loves surprises. We can't wait to find out if Austin will have a little brother of sister and we'll know when I'm about 19 weeks, which puts it around the beginning of December. It should make a fabulous birthday present for me!!

7. Do you have a preference, boy or girl? Ryan really wants a little girl and I'm pretty indifferent. I'd love to have one of both but I'd also love for Austin to have a little brother (and we'd be able to save so much money if we had another boy!!) I sure would love to buy some cute, pink, frilly things though!

8. Are you going to keep the name a secret again? We aren't anywhere close to having names picked out yet and it's still up in the air whether or not we'll keep the name a secret again. If it's a boy, probably so, but if it's a girl I think we might tell people because who can resist cute monogrammed girly things? All that being said, however, the first person to make a negative comment about any of our possible name choices and we'll be forced back into secrecy! So keep your mouths shut, we're not silly enough to name our child something like Sparrow or Moon Unit, have faith! :-D

9. So, how many children are you going to have? I know that with a first pregnancy so soon after we got married and a second one so soon after the first, people may start to think we're going to turn into the Duggar family and start popping them out on a yearly basis, but I assure you that's not the case! Ryan and I would be VERY happy as a family of 4!!