#2 Brandon Drive

Some people think it's weird that I spent my entire life from age 5 til the day I got married in the same house.  

Our address was #2 Brandon Drive.

Man, I loved that place.  

I haven't spent a night there in almost 11 years.  That's a third of my life!  Yet, it is still one of the most important places in the world to me.  

Several months ago when Todd and I found out we were expecting a boy, we had the HARDEST time naming this kid!  We have always used family names.  Our biggest obstacle was that we used our top two male names on our first son.  Oops.  Weren't really planning on a #2.  Then Bronwyn told us she wanted us to find another "B" name, since she is the only "B" in the family.  I thought that was soooo sweet.  

So one night when I was visiting my mom, my little step brother got out a baby name book, and started reading from the B's.  When he said "Brandon" I immediately thought of my old address, and quickly loved the idea of naming my son that.  Todd had it in his list of top 5 names, but we eventually narrowed down our name search to "Thomas" and "William".  

(Side story:  I also had the joy of showing my 15 year old step brother what maternity pants look like.  He got a real kick out of that!  It was hilarious!)

The night came when I told Todd we absolutely had to name this baby.  Afterall, we had known for a whopping two weeks that this child was a boy!  That was when I realized how much I really wanted to name him "Brandon".  Todd could see that it meant alot to me, so he decided to make all my dreams come true.  :)  (For the millionth time)

So here I am, 33 weeks pregnant with Brandon Todd Bigelow.  

It is hard to believe that we are down to the last weeks of this pregnancy.  I am definitely ready to be done!  Physically, I have felt horrible for the vast majority of it.  And even though I know I won't feel really great for quite some time, being done with the pregnancy is the first big step in getting back to normal.  When I was pregnant with Ty, and thinking that he was my last child, I had many feelings of sadness.  It was hard to accept that I would never carry a child inside me again.  

I have not felt that way at all this time!

I feel ready to leave this chapter of my life behind.  I will spend the next month enjoying feeling a baby inside of me for the last time.  I will enjoy the last time in my life when people think my belly is cute (and emotionally prepare for how awful my belly will look afterwards!).  I look forward to spending the summer laying around and nursing my new little guy.  But what I really look forward to is feeling good again.  Having energy.  Sleeping well.  Not throwing up.  And being able to keep up with my family.  I look forward to watching my kids love on their little brother, and feel the spirit that he will bring into our home.  I can't wait to see my husband napping on the couch with his newest son.  Is there anything sweeter than loving dad holding his newborn?  

So I will push through this last month, knowing the best is yet to come.  Our family will be complete, and someday (hopefully sooner rather than later) I will feel well again!

(Slightly returning to the #2 Brandon Dr. theme....)

Last weekend my mom and I judged the Sugar Salem Jr. Miss program.  It was so fun to be HOME!  So many memories of my Jr. Miss past.  So wonderful to see old friends.  The ultimate luxury to spend two nights in a hotel with my hubby and no kids!  I have a feeling it will be a loooong time til we have another chance to relax!