You may or may not have noticed, but I have been absent. Â Not blogging. Â Not really facebooking. Â Not tweeting. Â Not Instagraming. Â Not pinning.
And I have missed you. Â Missed your kind words and your blogs and your awesome pins and seeing what you are up to on twitter.
And soon, I am hoping to get back in the groove again.  The separation anxiety has been too much.
Well, I might as well tell you why.
In about five months we will be gaining another member to our family. Â We are pregnant! Â Well, *I* am pregnant. Â But my dear hubby has been picking up the slack like crazy for the last few months so he gets full credit too.
Although we are thrilled and beaming and so, so thankful for this blessing, it has not been easy.  I have been very sick.  Its been severe nausea/sickness and exhaustion and migraines and some other not so fun stuff.  For someone who suffers from motion sickness even when not preggers, this nausea has been debilitation for me.  I would look at my computer screen and get sick.  It got to the point where I had to hide my computer because the mere idea of being on it would make me sick.
But, as of the last couple days, things are starting to look up. Â I am typing and not dizzy. Â YAY!
The idea of baking doesn’t make me want to set my kitchen on fire so I will not have to go near it.  I mean, not that I thought that.  That would be crazy.
So hopefully, over the next five months, I will be able to get back to what I love. Â Baking. Blogging. Â And hanging out with you.
For the first time ever, we are planning on not finding out the gender of our newest miracle.  This being our fifth child, I think we will be able to handle it.  I mean, logistically.  Emotionally I might be in the fetal position in my closet eating cool ranch Doritos and ceasar salad (that has been my cravings of late) because I CANT TAKE THE SUSPENSE.
I might need to lean on you for support.  Please tell me you have done this and it didn’t make you crazy.  Because if there is the slightest chance it will be stressful I might start stalking our ulstrasound tech.
My husband and children have unanimously decided that its a girl.  However, we currently have three boys and one girl, so I think the odds are in favor of a boy.  I have no idea.  I have never guessed right with any of them!
But no matter what we are blessed with, we know he/she is already so completely and utterly loved.
And I just want to really apologize for how absent I have been. Â I know I mentioned it before, but I sincerely miss you all. Â Your comments and interaction in the iambaker community has been such a delight! Â Getting to know you better is a true joy.
Oh, and one more thought. In making this cake I got to thinking… not only is this is fun “We’re Pregnant!” cake, but could also be a fun Gender Reveal cake!
Maybe I will just update this post when our new addition arrives! 🙂
***Just in case you want to know, I call this cake the Rose Cake. Â Its an original cake the I created in Feb. of 2011 and have made many since! Â You can see my full tutorial here, or my video tutorial here!
Congratulations are definitely in order! Well done for getting through the rough patch, hope all goes much more smoothly from now on. It’s great to have you back. I love how the whole family is in anticipation to see whether it’ll be a girl/boy. Don’t find out and spoil the fun 😉 Stick with it – what a blessing for the little one to be so eagerly awaited 🙂 Take care!
Congratulations and all the best!
Congrats!!! (And I’m with you – I didn’t feel like being bubbly and happy and shiny and BLOGGY…when all I really felt like doing was throwing up and going back to bed. So I have blogged maybe…four times, since I got pregnant 7 months ago. ;-))
Congrats again!
Dearest Amanda,
Congratulations!
We are expecting the arrival of our fifth at any moment!
May God bless you and strengthen you as you grow this new little one – boy or girl!
Love, Susan
Congratulations!!! How exciting for you. Just a bit of encouragement; I’m pregnant with my 3rd (20 weeks today, halfway!!!) and we haven’t found out with our first two nor do we plan to find out with this one. My husband says it’s the one surprise in life where you’re going to be perfectly happy either way, so why not have it be a big reveal when the baby gets here. Also logistically it works out just fine too, just bring a boy and a girl outfit to the hospital and go from there. 🙂
Now personally I’m hoping for a girl this time around, my first two are boys.
Good luck and I hope you keep feeling better.
Catie
Oh for exciting!!! Congrats on being halfway too.. thats exciting in itself! 🙂 Hope you are feeling great and hope you get the little princess you are hoping for… girls are sure a blessing!
Congrats!
I have two girls, ages 7 and 2.5. Waited until the delivery room to find out boy/girl for both. Drove the grandparents nuts, but was totally worth it!
This holiday season will be filled with even more joy. Congratulations to you and your family. Nice to have you back.
Congratulations!
Just wanted to throw my two cents in to say that we didn’t find out the gender of either of our kids, and it was a wonderful experience! Really motivating during labor and really magical in that moment of discovery! And actually it’s quite possible to manage it even if you don’t already have all the kid stuff – just buy the big things (crib, car seat, stroller, what have you) in neutral colors. It’s really the smarter financial decision if you plan on having more children anyway. When it comes to gender-specific clothes I don’t know a single mom who hasn’t been showered with baby clothes by friends and family. In fact that’s pretty much all they ever get for gifts!
And in your case you are already prepared either way and good to go!
Of course I love finding out what my friends are having too so I’m certainly not against it, I just really enjoyed the experience and always encourage people to give it a chance!
I am an admirer of your blog and recipes. Congrats on the new baby. Don’t worry about the sex. It is a gift from God and you will love him/her the same. I hope you keep feeling better every day and every minute. I have 3 of my own. Had problems with #1 and #3. hugged the toiletseat (as my x would put it) every morning with all of them to the last day…not fun. As soon as you held that baby in my arms the first time, all the pain and misery evaporated…I wish you the best with your family.
Congrats!
I never found out the sex of either child until the day they were born. There was no better reward after a hard labor than being greeted by your husband telling you if you had just labored a boy or a girl.
The second one was a little tougher. I moved about halfway through my pregnancy. Prior to moving I had an amnio performed. About week 35 I thought about calling my former OB and asking what the amnio report said about the sex of the baby. But, I stayed strong.
I can tell you it’s worth the wait.