Wow! This has been one crazy week! I already mentioned it on my Instagram, but last week, after sharing my pregnancy announcement photo, my picture went viral. I’ll talk a little bit more about that (the good and the bad) below, but first I wanted to answer a few questions and share how my first trimester is going so far.

My due date is February 12th, which puts me just over 11 weeks right now…which is just crazy! I feel like I JUST found out. I’ve been blessed with pretty easy going first trimesters ever since my pregnancy with my Evangeline (my 4 year old.) Minimal/zero sickness, extreme hunger/cravings, and lots of fatigue. That’s about it. I’m really thankful for that because I know a lot of women really struggle in the beginning. My pregnancy with Clementine was my easiest pregnancy from start to finish so I’m hoping for a similar experience this time!

I mentioned in my last post that I had a major scare a few weeks back when we thought we had lost the baby. We discovered it was a subchorionic hemorrhage. I don’t wish that scare on anyone but at least I get to see our baby on the ultrasound quite a bit more!

I went in yesterday to check on the SCH and was relieved to see our little healthy baby and hear his/her heartbeat! The SCH is healing but it’s still there so I will be going back for another ultrasound in a few weeks. Even though I’ll be pretty early, we’re going to try to get a peek to see what we’re having! I’d be completely happy either way but part of me is hoping for another girl because of all the cute stuff we have from Clementine.

One reason I was so anxious to announce is because I was already starting to majorly show! I mean, it’s our 7th baby–my body knows just what to do. I was afraid that we’d announce and people would say “Oh yeah, we noticed you were getting chubby so we kind of figured.” Hahaha. Needless to say, I’m absolutely already back into maternity clothes.

I got this loose, flowy maternity dress from PinkBlush. This style is without a doubt my favorite style for the first trimester, when I feel chubby and don’t want anything clinging to my body. And the best part–it has pockets!! I know you ladies understand how big of a deal that is! I ordered multiple dresses from them last time around so I’m excited to wear them again.

I’m also really excited to order some Rockstar maternity jeans from Old Navy. I’ve never loved any maternity jeans before but I bought a pair for $2 at a local thrift store and they are pretty awesome! I’ll have to size up as soon as I get bigger (so basically in a few days) so I’ll be sure to share my thoughts on them when I try them out. They are pretty pricey (in my frugal mind) but I think they will be worth the investment if they fit well.

Anyway, going back to the craziness of this past week. When I shared our pregnancy announcement, I was afraid we’d have a few rude comments. I was amazed when nearly 24 hours had passed and I was overwhelmed by all the people who were so happy for us. Before long, it was being shared across the internet. We were featured on Popsugar, Babble, and Parents, to name a few.

At first it was really fun and exciting until the hateful comments started rolling in. I tried to avoid reading comments on other pages but I did see quite a few. It amazed me that people could be so hateful about such a joyful moment, forming judgments based on a simple picture.

It was kind of funny to me that some people were saying that it “must be nice to be so rich.” But then there were other people who were saying that we were obviously depending on government assistance (completely opposite judgments…neither are true.) I even saw one person say that my poor kids looked like orphans in their cut off shorts and flip flops hahaha. It just goes to show you that you can’t judge from a photo. It is very possible to have a large family, not be rich, and still have a wonderful life.

A lot of people have asked how we make it financially so I will be sharing a bit in a future post about how we make it work on one income, without feeling like we’re struggling.

The most frequent comment I saw was the famous “the world is already overpopulated.” I’m pretty sure that every person who is saying that doesn’t actually know if it’s even true. They are just repeating what they’ve heard someone else saying, just because they want to be angry about something and we seem like an easy target. I will admit that I don’t know much about the “overpopulation” issue but I did take the time to search the internet and found that it does seem to be a myth.

I was so tempted to respond to these internet trolls, and not in a very kind way, but I realized that would make me no better than them. So I started blocking people and tried to ignore it. Moral of the story: going viral is not fun and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. But in the end, I can tell you who is living a happier life (me!) 

But with the bad also came the overwhelming good. I have received numerous messages, comments, and emails from so many people, filled with encouragement. People from big families, small families, those who are going through miscarriages, infertility, cancer, etc. So many people sharing their stories and thanking me for sharing mine.

It encourages me to keep on sharing, even though part of me wanted to hide for a very long time. No stranger on the internet is going to steal my joy. I would much rather have my family than the approval of those grumpy strangers. But I wanted to thank all of YOU who took the time to write to me with encouraging words! It really helped me get through this past week. I’m still trying to work through getting back to everyone–so please be patient!

One more thing–I shared on my instagram but I never mentioned it here. Before I found out I was pregnant, I was interviewed for a blog post over at Little Miss Dessa for a blog series called “How Does She Do It?” The timing was funny as it went live the day after I made my announcement and had numerous people asking me “How do you do it?” So make sure to go check out that interview if you want to learn more!

I started writing down questions and blog post suggestions so make sure to leave a comment if you have anything specific you would like me to write about. Like I said before, I’ll be sharing about how we manage financially. I also will be sharing more about how I homeschool while taking care of the other little ones. But if there’s anything else you’d like to know, just let me know!

P.S. please be patient with me as I relearn how to not look awkward in front of the camera with no babies/kids haha. And don’t tell my neighbor we were out taking pictures in front of his tree again 😉

Sorry that this post was all over the place and thank you all for reading along!!