Newlyweds to Three Babies in Less Than Three Years!

This is the story of how I felt finding out we were pregnant with our first three children, and how they have blessed our family.

My husband and I were just married and newlywed life was going as expected....for about 1 month until we found out we were PREGNANT!...It was a BIG SURPRISE! We had so many feelings, we were shocked, excited, scared and grateful.  

Surprised was definitely the way we and all our wedding guests felt. Especially since they had all just attended our wedding in February and here in April they were getting news we were pregnant. However it was exciting!

Above is our first ultrasound at 11 weeks and our 3d ultrasound at 30 weeks.

Josh and I had dated for 3 years before we got married. We spent time traveling, exploring, mountain climbing and skydiving. We enjoyed just having fun as a young adventurous couple. Both of us felt that a baby was another exciting adventure for us to raise together. Though we were scared, because we were about to embark on a 18 year long journey. We were extremely grateful that God had blessed us with a child, when so many couples don't have that opportunity.

For 10 long months I carried that baby inside me! Finally after he had been long overdue he arrived weighing a whopping 9 pounds! We were so happy and excited for the newest member of our family. While waiting for his arrival we felt prepared emotionally and physically. We were thrown two baby showers and were overwhelmed by all the gifts our friends and family had sent us. We felt very blessed and surrounded by love. When he finally arrived everyone wanted to see the new addition to our family.

We named him Harland Mack. Harland means "From The Land of Strength" and his middle name Mack means "Son of The Greatest" (my husbands idea) and he truly lives up to his name because he is one strong willed little boy. After eight months Harland started to grow out of that "baby" stage and was exploring and crawling everywhere and he lost his "baby smell". At the time I felt like he didn't need me as much anymore. Not that he was taking care of himself, but he was interested in the world around him. He didn't need my help to get around, and I longed for that baby stage again.

  Soon I realized I wanted another baby and a sibling for my son. Both of us knew we would want more kids eventually. Together we decided to have them while we are young and still had energy. So my husband and I agreed we both WANTED another baby and we started trying for a second child. After a few months I found out I WAS PREGNANT!

God had blessed our little family and I was so excited! I had a surprise plan to tell my husband with a "fake delivery" to our house. Inside was an egg shell that he had to crack to get to a poem that said, "We were once 3 soon to be 4". My husband was shocked and excited. We told our 9 month old he was going to be a big brother (even though he had no idea what we were saying) and the three of us hugged.

We let our older son announce the news by wearing a special shirt I made. It said "I Have a secret" on the front and "I'm going to be a big brother" on the back. A few people including my mother read the front and said "oh you have a dirty diaper?" without reading the back. Many people were happy for us but a few were skeptical of how close our kids were going to be.  I even had a seven year old tell us we needed to slow down. How wonderful it is to get parenting advice from a child.

Nine months later our second son Ephrome Theodore was born. We named him Ephrome (pronounced eff-rum) for three reasons. The first was because I had the name picked out for a while and almost named our first son that. The second was because I absolutely love vintage boy names from the 1800's and the movie Hello Dolly with Barbara Streisand. There was something about the way Dolly talked about her late husband Ephraim Levi. The way she speaks about how wonderful he had been to her, made me want one of my sons to grow up to be a husband like that.

The last reason we chose that name was because Joseph in the Bible named his second son Ephraim. It means "doubly blessed" or "blessed in the land of my affliction". We felt this was very fitting because we were doubly blessed with two boys. I picked Theodore as his middle name because I have always loved the name. I also felt  if we never had another child, it would be a waste if I didn't use it.

I noticed right away how different it was having a second child. We had very few people visit us in the hospital compared to our first when everyone wanted to come. We had even fewer people come to see the baby when we finally made it home. We were left scratching our head as to why it couldn't have been this calm and quiet when our first was born. Some of our friends and family had intruded into our space the day after he had just come home from Intensive care. We understood everyone was excited to see the baby but he was our first, and we were scared of him getting sick. Since he had been in the NICU for issues with his lungs, he was at a high risk of going back there if he got sick.

Now I had read all the articles I could on what life would be like with two kids. My husband and I were confident because we had the only child parenting routine down. Everyday was pretty much like clockwork and we knew what to expect from our only child. But then we had our second. Our oldest adjusted pretty well, I like to say he was a backward sour patch kid because he would be sweet and then sour. He would give his brother kisses and then seconds later try to hit him with a toy.

Every month that went by my oldest adjusted better and started to show more affection to our new baby. Having your children a year and a half apart is hard. Mostly because the oldest is still a baby mentally and still needs you. About as much as a newborn does just in different ways. As parents we felt overwhelmed with two kids. Being a stay at home mom, I was with them 24/7 and after a while it was driving me crazy. They both had different schedules and the baby kept us up at night, and my toddler woke up bright and early at 7 am everyday.

My husband and I had little rest, as we were trying to adjust to two children's needs and trying to juggle DIY projects our new house needed. We had moldy drywall behind our kitchen sink that need to be fixed quick, especially with a new baby in the house. After a couple months we got the two kid parenting thing down. I wouldn't say it was clockwork or anything that resembled a working machine, but we managed and were able to handle the kids. My husband and I became a team and encouraged each other when we needed it most.

We decided that we would wait to have more kids until the boys were a little older. I wanted them both to be potty trained and more independent before we got pregnant again. Waiting for us meant we wouldn't try for another like we did with our second. My husband and I decided early on not to use birth control methods. Personally I felt like we would be playing the role of God and that we might be altering the plan he has for our lives. We have always left it up to Him and believe that when he decides to bless us with another child we will put our trust and faith in his timing. That being said, it's not easy for me or my husband to trust the Lord with that aspect of our lives, but we strive to do so faithfully.

I am an organizer, planner, perfectionist and type A personality by nature. Oh how I would love to plan out exactly when my kids would be born so that no birthday parties are close together and my kids are equally spaced in age. However I am trying to let God guide my life. If I don't give over this important part then I am hindering what God has planned for me. His plan is always better then our own.

 When my second son was eight months old I had been feeling nauseous every morning for about a week and when I had an increase in hunger I started to wonder what was wrong with me. Then I felt it, that feeling I knew all too well. There was magic and butterfly's in my abdomen and I had only felt that feeling twice before. I told my husband I thought I was pregnant and he just gave me a wide eyed look and said "oh no". Maybe I was just crazy I thought to myself. But those butterfly's and the fullness I felt could really only be one thing. So I took a pregnancy test, the last one in a pack of three. The same pack from which I also found out I was pregnant with my second.

I took the test and covered it with a tissue so I wouldn't look until the time was up and I told my husband to look for me. He was scared to look so I pulled away the tissue and looked away so he had to be the first to look, and then I looked over and started to smile because I wasn't crazy.... I was just pregnant. We had put the boys to bed early that night when I took the test so we had an hour before our bedtime to talk about it. Both of us felt the same way, we were okay with having another child because we wanted another one eventually...but it felt TOO SOON!

We felt that we already had our hands full and didn't want three kids in diapers if our oldest was still having issues potty training. I was about to stop breast feeding my second child and was excited to start wearing my regular clothes again. I had been content with life and how we had been getting along....and then we were thrown a curve-ball. As we talked we kept reminding each other that God knows best and this must be the right time for another child.

My husband feels that the reason we had kids young is because he knows his body and knees will go out as he gets older. He was in the military and had issues with them then and continues to have them now. He wants to be able to play and keep up with the boys as long as he can so he is grateful we had our kids while he can keep up.

                       (We used this photo to tell our some of our family and friends we were pregnant.)

Its amazing how God changes your plans. As a mother I have learned that no matter what challenges come my way He is the one who strengthens me and gives me the wisdom to handle any situation that comes into my life. Every child is different and adds another layer of love to its family. I cant wait to meet my new little girl or boy. Its such a blessing when a family, no matter what size has another child.

This time around when we told family and friends we were pregnant the most common reaction was more of  "Oh Wow! Another? How many do you guys plan on having? instead of congratulations. Its going to be rough and exhausting for my husband and I while our kids are young. At some point they are going to be able to take care of themselves and will be so close in age it will be like having triplets. I hope we will look back on the early years and wonder how we did it, and see that it was only possible with God as our guide.

This time around I am excited and nervous. I find myself wishing that my body would grow a third arm to handle the chores. I look forward to what this new chapter in our lives will hold.

What about you? How did you feel when you were pregnant with your 1st, 2nd or 3rd?