Boy or Girl?!?

Well, it seems as though my updates are becoming farther apart, and I apologize to all my faithful blog followers for not updating more regularly! When I finally have a moment to update, they always become novels, so thanks for your patience again in reading! I want to get in the habit of updating once a week with smaller posts instead of once a month with huge posts, but for now this is how it will have to be!

Most important news first that I know many are anxiously awaiting...our gender reveal for baby #2!! We did two gender reveals. One with my family and friends in Albuquerque, and another with Clint's family at the lake in Abilene. We had a get together with my good friends Kelly and Leanne and my family at my mom's house. We did the whole balloons in a box thing. Brittany and Chase were able to tune in via skype! Thank the Lord for technology! We celebrated afterward with cupcakes made by my mom. My brother in law Nate took pictures for the occasion. (Unfortunately, my dad and Linda didn't make it so I had to tell them on the phone. Just bad timing as they were coming to ABQ the following week to help my sis and bro-in-law with their new house.) In Abilene we had a pinata filled with candy for my nephews to break, but apparently pinatas were not meant to be broken by a 1 and 3 year old! So I had to do the rest of the job and release all my pent up frustrations on the poor thing! Turns out it's very therapeutic to be able to release all your strength on something defenseless that needs to be broken! Ha! Seemed like forever, but it finally broke revealing the news. We celebrated with cookies made by my sis-in-laws. My sister-in-law Tarah took pictures for this occasion. Before we did the reveal I had everyone tally what they thought we were having on a chalkboard. Boy seemed to take the lead for both families. These reveals gave some excitement to this pregnancy that has had the potential to be more anxious and fearful this time around. I'm excited that I will get to share these pictures with my sweet baby in their scrapbook someday!

   

                           

                                 
       

                             

Drumroll......

IT'S A BOY!!!

We were fortunate to find out what were having at our 15 week appointment with the specialist doctor. I wasn't expecting to find out so soon, but it was pretty obvious! It was all confirmed at our 20 week ultrasound as well. Baby Schuelke is definitely a BOY!! Finding out was so bittersweet for us. It was a weird feeling at first to completely change our thoughts of the future for a boy instead of a girl. Because naturally, we had totally prepared ourselves for having a girl the first time around both mentally and physically with all of Blair's stuff. We both agreed, however, that God knew what was best for us in this situation for this child. A hope mom and I were talking and thought it was so interesting because it seems like a trend that after losing a child, your next child is the opposite gender. That trend has been the case for most of the hope moms that I know. God must know what our hearts can handle! Having a boy will give us a fresh start in many different ways. We will get to have lots of NEW and DIFFERENT clothes and other items for a boy, I will get to plan the nursery differently, and the mental preparation will just be a little different as well. We don't have to wonder/decide "should we use all of Blairs stuff or get new stuff?" I have hope that the Lord will bless our family again with a little girl someday, but until then we can put Blair's stuff away in safe keeping and enter the "boy world". We will raise our son to be a Godly man while telling him all about his older sister who he can be proud of :-). We have discovered that boy names are HARD to come up with! We have yet to agree on one we BOTH like! Ha! It seems that all the names I like, Clint doesn't , and all the names he likes, I don't. At least we have +- 20 more weeks to decide and I know it will be the perfect name for our son. We will keep you posted! It is also pretty special for Clint's side because we can now carry on the "Schuelke" name!

All my appointments have gone really well so far! Praise be to God! He is growing and developing right on track! Huge blessing! And I am feeling him move more and more each day, which is so special to me! The appointments continue to be the most anxious for me, but your prayers have helped so much! Thanks so much for praying! My faith has grown a lot in the past year and I know that our child is already the Lord's no matter what. Each day as his momma is a blessing that I don't deserve and an honor/responsibility I don't take lightly. My next appointment is August 3 with my regular OB and Aug. 17 with the specialist. So until then, I'll be busy exercising, trying to eat right, getting our house ready, and updating my blog of course ;-)