...and then there were five!

for as long as I can remember, I've envisioned having four kids. to me, it seemed like a sufficient number of kids to emulate the big family feeling I so enjoyed about my own childhood. plus, I like the symmetry of even numbers. having grown up as the oldest of six, however, I thought I might not be cut out for being a mother of six, so four seemed to be the magical solution.

the Geiger six at the wedding reception my parents threw for us back in Washington state. there is a 14 year gap between oldest (me) and youngest (Krista). do you see why we used to call her Pink Baby?!

this is such a classic photo I had to include it, even though it was before Krista was born. I sewed my own dress if you couldn't tell. #homeschooled

all that to say that after our fourth child, Victoria, was born in 2023, I felt quite at peace with our family size ... but not to the point of giving away all of the baby stuff. after all, I was "only" 37. we did feel strongly though that we should wait at least two years before another baby, since Elizabeth and Victoria are only 19 months apart and that was a crazy ride. 

well, Victoria turned two last summer, and while I still did not feel a strong sense that our family was incomplete, Nick and I both agreed that we would be open to another baby. we practice the Marquette method of NFP, which gives objective, clear parameters for fertility based on measuring estrogen and LH (YAY SCIENCE!). and this past fall, instead of using that information for trying to avoid pregnancy (TTA) or specifically trying to conceive (TTC), we just let things happen as they may (known in pregnancy parlance as TTW -- trying to whatever). for every pregnancy except Victoria's, it has taken us at least six months of careful planning to achieve pregnancy, and since I just turned 40, I fully expected it to take at least that long to get pregnant -- or perhaps it wouldn't happen at all. my cycles have been consistently shorter since having Victoria (every 21-24 days which is just plain annoying) and I knew that could impact fertility in itself. 

October came and went without any news to report. and then, in November, just a few days after my breast biopsy -- BOOM! 

because of my "advanced maternal age" (eyeroll) and history of previous miscarriages, the OB ordered an early first trimester ultrasound. waiting for the scan, I was terrified in equal measure of something being wrong with the baby, OR of twins. I felt like I could handle baby number five at 40, but not babies five & six at once. 

thanks be to God, the scan showed one healthy little bean wiggling around. we told the girls around the dinner table that weekend, and they were all excited -- Cece perhaps most of all. she said, "good! we need some fresh blood around here. I'm getting bored of the people we have." I almost peed my pants laughing.

measuring right on track for 7 weeks. estimated due date is the end of July!

my first trimester symptoms were fairly mild -- no actual vomiting, but lots of nausea when driving which I have never experienced before, pregnant or not pregnant. of course there was the standard fatigue, bloating, heartburn de rigueur. and for possibly the first time in my life, I had an untamable craving for Taco Bell. the nacho fries with cheese sauce really hit the spot! as I type this, I'll be 16 weeks tomorrow and the nausea has completely subsided, but I am still territorial about the queso dip in the fridge as poor Nick can attest. I don't have an official bump photo to share yet, but you can surmise that the bump is bumpin' by Victoria's comment to me this morning: "Mommy, is your tummy full?" ha! yes, indeed.

another day, I was inspired to slather my ham and cheese omelet with pesto

and I was so excited that my favourite pizza chain opened a location near our house that I texted our family message thread to share my joy

of course, the question we all were wondering was if this little one would be our fifth girl, or if we would break the streak and have a boy. Nick, Greta, and I all thought the baby was a girl. Cece was one hundred percent sure the baby was a boy. and Elizabeth and Victoria changed their vote on a daily basis. my physician colleague/PCP, who had guessed I was pregnant before I told her, also predicted that the baby was a boy because my face looked different than it had with my other pregnancies (to which I responded, "yes, puffy?!" haha). 

I decided to get the genetic screening bloodwork done at 10 weeks because we were too impatient to wait for the anatomy scan. also, I hit my deductible for the year with all of the additional breast imaging, and I turned 10 weeks on December 31st so figured I might as well make the most of it before the deductible reset. the lab tech told me it could take up to three weeks for results to come back, which I thought was strange because my results had always come back in about a week for both Elizabeth and Victoria (I had it drawn for them after the anatomy scan to follow up on mild abnormalities seen on both of their scans, which turned out to be nothing). 

four days after the blood draw, I was just relaxing on the couch at 10 pm when my phone dinged with a new test result in the patient portal. Nick was out at a Christmas party with friends, and I thought about waiting until he got home so we could look at the results together, but after about ten seconds I couldn't resist and clicked through to find that the baby tested negative for trisomy 21, trisomy 18, and trisomy 13, and then scrolled down to find:

I had to read it about five times over to make sure I understood correctly, and then I called Nick right away and told him the news. he asked if he could share with the group and I could hear them all erupt into cheers. 

next up was telling the girls! we decided to wait a few days because Joe and Sabrina were coming into town for a medical appointment and I wanted them to be there for the big reveal. I texted my good friend who runs a baking business on the side to see if she could do a last-minute cupcake order for us, and not only did she make us the most delicious cupcakes, she also refused to take any payment for them. and then when I went to pick up the cupcakes, she had also made us an absolutely delicious dinner of sausage tortellini which has since gone into our regular recipe rotation. so incredibly sweet and thoughtful!

so, a whole new adventure begins! it still feels a bit surreal to me as my whole parenting experience thus far has been with my own set of Little Women. we are so excited to meet our little man and so grateful to God for the gift of another child!