Personally, Jared and I both kind of thought we were done having kids after Calvin. Not to mention, when Calvin was two months old, my cardiologist pretty much gave me a red light regarding having more children after his eyeballs popped out of their sockets when he discovered I had birthed four kids already...at my age...and with my heart condition.
But after some serious soul searching and prayer and getting a surprising green light from the cardiologist a year later (I'm convinced the Lord put words in that doctor's mouth), we felt we needed to have one more baby to complete our family.
Jared and I had our bets about what gender it was going to be. He said GIRL. I said BOY. Karcyn said GIRL two months ago but has insisted after that we'd be having a boy baby. Jake wanted a BOY (because boys rule apparently). Cooper wanted a BOY until he realized if that was the case, he'd have to share his room with three brothers, not just two. Then he started praying for a GIRL. I'm pretty sure Calvin didn't care either way.
I found it interesting that less than 5 minutes into the ultrasound this morning, I was the one who announced the gender. We're having a Karcyn Sandwich! Two boys above her and two boys below. That's right. More blue.
We also thought it was extremely appropriate that one of the songs playing on the radio while we drove home from the ultrasound was "Stuck in the Middle with You" by the Steve Miller Band. "Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right. Here I am, stuck in the middle with you." Yup, that will be Karcyn's new theme song.
Even before we started talking about it, I knew if we had another baby, it would be a boy. I almost feel like that was Heavenly Father's tender mercy to me so I could go into this decision with my eyes wide open and so I could mentally prepare. (Having a girl would be much more convenient for bunking purposes and the clothes we tucked away in the attic would be much less threadbare.) Yet, at the same time, I felt the pull of Satan saying "Are you really going to go through with this? You have plenty of boys already. They're loud. They break things. You barely have enough housing space for the 4 kids you have, let alone space for 4 boys in one room. You don't have to do this. You're body is tired and weak. You've had plenty of kids. Do yourself and your family a favor and be done."
But even though those opposing thoughts were tempting and as stinky as it would be to have 4 boys in a small bedroom, the prospect of another boy was not the determining factor. The point was that our family wasn't all here yet. Someone was missing. And in the final words of Elder Wirthlin, "Come what may and love it."
The kids are THRILLED to have a brother. Karcyn was the most excited of them all. Bless her heart. I'm thinking she probably doesn't believe mommy could have anything BUT boys. (She thought she, too, was a boy for a short time a couple years ago). Jared's not sad. Well, kind of. He had a free movie coming to him if he predicted correctly :) And I laughed and laughed when I realized he'll be in scouting with cold and wet overnight camp outs and other young men activities for many, many more years to come!
Just this afternoon, I've already gotten rid of the girl clothes I could get down on my own from the attic and they've already been taken to the D.I. Pod. (Only 3 more bins to go) And...no tears from me. I am going to miss the cute baby girl clothes, but my gratitude for being able to be pregnant one more time, however physically challenging it may be, overshadows that silly insignificance.
Now--if we could only come up with a name for the little dude. Sadly, with a lousy one-syllable last name that sounds like "ugh", we have nothing. We want to use William as the middle name after Jared's dad. Other than that, we're drawing a big FAT blank. So if you want to throw out some suggestions, we are all ears!!
