Our rainbow baby - It's a ... !!

I thought it was about time to do another update on our rainbow baby. Plus we have some big news to share… we found out the gender! 

We are treasuring every day of this pregnancy but missing Hannah Grace so much.

I'm so thankful to be past the morning sickness now, it's nice to be able to manage being out and about and getting things done without puking and almost collapsing! It finally started easing up at about 16 weeks, and by 18 weeks I was feeling a lot better; I still have patches of nausea, but mostly just if I get run down. We are 24 weeks now, and hoping time speeds by, as we can't wait to have this little one safely in our arms. This baby is very active like Hannah was, and we cherish every movement and kick! And are so thankful for the reassurance that these give.

About a month ago we had a really stressful week as we had our routine 19 week scan at the end of it. It was such a strong reminder of that same scan with Hannah, and how it shattered so many of our hopes and dreams and expectations for her. I cried tonnes in the weeks leading up to it, just missing her so desperately. And prayed constantly for our rainbow baby, that it would be healthy. There was no reason why anything should be wrong this time, but we don't take anything for granted. After a loss you no longer have the innocence that most people have while pregnant... we are far too aware of all the things that can go wrong. My emotions were all over the place - missing Hannah so much, worrying about this baby, trying to trust God, and desperately hoping everything is ok with this little one.

Well we had the scan, and praise the Lord everything is looking great!!! Our baby is healthy and active, and is growing well :) It was amazing to go to a scan and be told that everything was looking perfect, with no complications at all. What a blessing, and an answer to prayer! We don’t take anything for granted any more, so we are just so thankful to the Lord for this gift. 

When we were pregnant with Hannah we didn’t find out if she was a boy or girl until she was born. And we loved keeping it a surprise until then! But this time around we decided to find out. We knew it would bring up a lot of tough emotions either way, so we decided it was better to find out in advance so we had time to process before bubs was born. The birth will bring up enough emotions of its own. Although gender was so secondary to finding out that baby was healthy anyway! The Lord gave me a real peace about either; and I knew He would give us the strength to process the emotions of either having another little girl, or having to change our mindset to having a son this time.

We had the lady who did our scan write down the gender for us on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope, so that we could take it away and open it together later. Hospital settings are really stressful for me as they bring back so many memories, so we didn’t want to find out the news in that environment. 

When Jeremy and I left the hospital and opened the envelope, and he read out the gender, I just cried with joy. We were so delighted!!

I made gender reveal cupcakes as a fun way of making the announcement to my parents and sister. We want to take every opportunity we can to celebrate this baby :) Once they bit into the cupcakes, they would know whether the newest member of our family is a boy or a girl!

Here are photos of the cupcakes that reveal our big news…

I made both the cupcakes and the cupcake toppers, and was really pleased with the way they turned out!

 The suspense...

 And the reveal!

Yes, PINK… we excited to announce that we are having another little GIRL!!!!!!! 

Hannah has a little sister!

We are SO delighted that she is healthy and there are no complications, and we are so excited to be expecting another daughter. It does bring back a lot of memories of Hannah which is hard sometimes; but we are so looking forward to, God willing, being able to bring this little girl home with us which we never got to do with Hannah. We can't wait until November when we will get to meet her!

Jeremy and I are so in love with both of our precious daughters xxx