Anotha One.

Well - here we are once again. Unfortunately with isolation happening, we weren't able to tell many people on a very personal level, but we're expecting baby #3!

Or "anotha one" as we are often caught quoting these days.

I am currently 18 weeks pregnant, and feeeeeeling it these days. Not only is sleeping more uncomfortable, but I am feeling large and in charge for 18 weeks. I'm pretty sure that I was this big almost full term with Leo, so this belly came to a little bit of a shock to me this early on. I think because it's pregnancy 3, my body was like 'okay, I know what to do' and boom - the belly came right away.

We're pretty excited to have another little nugget on the way. The boys are excited too, especially Leo. He really understands what's going on. He always rubs my belly and asks to snuggle the baby. He asks the baby how it's doing, and always tells us he thinks it's a sister and that Murphy wants a brother. Murphy follows suit with Leo and smack-rubs my belly and says 'baby' to it, but he doesn't really understand what's going on.

We have done gender reveals for both of the boys after our 20 week ultrasound, which is coming up soon, but we're going to keep this one a surprise. The decision came even before isolation began happening. We have a ton of friends who never found out what gender their babies were and they loved every part of it. They told us that the surprise is one of the best things you can have, and they're right. There are so many things at our fingertips these days, and so few surprises left in the world. Not to mention that this might be our last chance to be surprised by the gender of our newborn.

Any guesses on what we might be having?!

Initially we wanted four kids, but because pregnancy is so hard on me (hyperemesis gravidarum and an umbilical hernia), this could be our last one. It's really hard to actually write those words or say them out loud. For those of you who are done having babies - was it a hard thing to come to terms with? I'm finding myself saddened that this could be our last pregnancy (even though they are not fun), our last newborn, and once baby Cleary 3 is out of diapers that we would never have to do it again. We will see what happens, and obviously won't make any permanent decisions until we're sure, but just the thought of it seems to have a huge impact on me!

Having said that, we were having a laugh that if this was our grandparents generation every family would be on their fifth or sixth baby by now. I was looking at some of the statistics for families in Canada, and these days the average household has between one and two children. Looking at that statistic, technically we are about to have a 'big' family. It's definitely going to be a busy household. These boys already keep us on our toes, so adding another one - especially so close in age - will be extra busy! Leo just turned three, Murphy is one and a half, and come September we will have three kids all three and under, and potentially still be in isolation. Send help!

We might be a little crazy.

I never knew how much being a mom could change my outlook on life. I feel like with each pregnancy and each newborn comes a new chance to raise a great human being who could somehow impact the world, or could at least really impact some lives - as they already do ours. We really try and raise them right, and so far they have the most genuine little souls. I can't wait to see what they can do when they're older.

Don't get me wrong - we have our fair share of meltdowns, not sharing, and refusals to eat our health food, but (as we are continually learning) they're little, they're learning and testing boundaries, and it's all about how we react vs. what they do. Raising tiny humans is definitely not an easy task. Mitch and I are constantly learning as well, but we're doing our best, and we're supported by the best which we're very grateful for.

We can't wait for September (which is only 5 months away now) to meet baby 3, and hopefully by then everyone else will be able to meet him/her as well!

We hope everyone is taking care of themselves and staying healthy!

B