Luck, be my lady tonight.

I've never considered myself one of those lucky people, you know those people who regularly win cars in raffles and vacations for being the 1,000,000th customer (Marissa has a friend like that though and so do I).

Granted we do have the occasional strike of luck around here, like a few months ago when I woke to the sound of Creed playing in the bathroom. He usually wakes me first thing, and I immediately knew something was wrong. I ran into the bathroom to find him standing on a stool, sink running, with my contact case half open. No contact in sight. I wear gas permeable contacts that run close to $300 a pair and last about three years. AHHHHHHHH! I panicked and hopelessly searched the floor just in case because I don't have an optometrist here yet and don't have a way to get a replacement lens. It was nowhere to be found.

I shed a few tears as I comforted Creed who clearly knew he did something he wasn't supposed to. Then we said a little prayer together. I gave up on the search and picked up the rug since I noticed in my search it could use a wash and there, underneath the middle of the rug, sat my contact, still in perfect condition. Wow!

And then there was last Christmas, when Larry was heading from my parents' house up to Salt Lake to work and couldn't find his I-pod as he was getting in the car. He was pretty sure it was somewhere in the car and decided to look for it later. He called me that night to tell me that it wasn't in the car after all and asked me to check by my parents' kitchen table. He was 95% positive that's where it was, but there was a slight chance he dropped it in the snow outside. I got caught up putting Creed to bed and forgot to look until the morning, when I discovered the I-pod was not in the kitchen. It was not in the house. I had no hope in finding it in the 6 inches of fresh snow outside, especially after many cars had come and gone and it was probably smashed to pieces anyway, but like I good wife, I trudged out there in my wellies and kicked the snow around. I couldn't find it anywhere and just as I decided to go inside, my boot hit something. The Ipod, case full of ice. I took it in sure that it was ruined for life, but I accidentally turned it on as I pried the case off to break off the ice and it worked flawlessly. Yes, Larry was seriously lucky with that one.

Well, a month ago, I headed to the doctor's office with Creed in tow to hear our new baby's heartbeat for the very first time. Larry had to cancel last minute because he was stuck in a conference so I felt very alone when my doctor's eyes got larger and larger as she listened for a heartbeat and there wasn't one. When she finally turned the doppler off, there was a deafening silence, and I felt almost a sense of relief that at least for a moment, she didn't say the awful words that we both knew she had to say, because I didn't think my heart could take it. She slipped out of the room and came back a minute later, and asked if I could head straight to the hospital for an ultrasound. She said they would be waiting for me there.

I cried the whole drive there. It was all I could do not to loudly sob because I was trying my hardest not to freak Creed out, and from the backseat he kept asking, "Mama, you ok? Mama, you feel better, ok?"

Larry met me at the hospital door with a long silent hug and we headed up for the ultrasound. A chatty girl in the waiting room informed us that I'd be after her and a few other women, and I'm sure she was annoyed when they skipped everyone and asked me to come back, but I just couldn't bring myself to explain why they were rushing me ahead of everyone.

It only took moments for them to bring the baby up on screen and it was immediately clear that it was squirming all over the place. As I watched its tiny heart flutter, I can honestly tell you that I've never felt so lucky in all my life.

I'm due at the end of February and am trying to patiently wait until the 20th to find out what I am having. Just like my last pregnancy, I am still feeling sick (poor Larry has cleaned up a lot of throw-up) and now regularly feeling the baby move around makes the nausea even worse, but I swear, each tiny twitch and pokes makes me feel like the most incredibly lucky person on earth. Now we just have to wait until February to meet this fantastic new little person!

PS- If you see Creed and he asks you about the baby in your belly, please do not be offended, he currently thinks everyone has a baby in their belly.

PPS- I wanted to include a picture of my belly, but it seems I have no recent pictures because I've been the one taking all of our pictures. I tried to take one myself this morning and this was the best that I could do.

So I asked Creed to take one and this is how he did.
And then of course he needed me to take a picture of his belly too.