It’s currently my lunch hour on Monday, Oct. 12, and almost exactly the halfway point in my wife’s pregnancy. She’s exactly 19-and-a-half weeks along, and we will be scheduled for delivery during week 39. Time has really flown by. I can’t wait until our next ultrasound, so we can see how our little guy is coming along.

We went in today for my wife’s ultrasound and found out what we’re having. And yes, it’s a [CAN’T SAY]. We’re excited that our next baby will be a [CAN’T SAY]. Having a [CAN’T SAY] will be really cool.

OK, OK. I’ll stop playing around. We did go in today, and we did find out what we’re having. However, Sarah has asked me to withhold from posting the news to my blog until tomorrow night. That’s because her parents have been in Germany the past two weeks and are coming home tomorrow. Sarah would prefer to tell them in person instead of having them find out by reading it in this space.

If you can’t wait and are dying to find out, e-mail me. And if you’re a Facebook friend, I did post the big news there.

Until tomorrow night …

Are we having a boy or girl? I should know in about an hour. Stay tuned, as I’ll post something here and on my Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/lopinot) and Facebook pages.

With Sarah’s first pregnancy, I did a couple FAQ/Q&A features on the blog to answer some questions that have come up frequently. People seemed to like it then, so let’s delve into a new round. We’ll call it “Pregnancy Q&A: Part Deux.” Here you go:

Q: Are you and Sarah having a boy or girl?
A: We aren’t sure yet. We have an ultrasound scheduled for Wednesday, so we may find out during that visit. And yes, we want to know.

Q: What do you want, a boy or girl?
A: This will sound cheesy, but I honestly will be happy with either. I’ve written on here before how it would be fantastic and totally new to have a little girl, but it also would be awesome to see Oliver grow up with a little brother.

Q: Have you picked out any names?
A: No. And so you know, we don’t plan to share the name once we do have one in place. You’ll find out in late February or early March, along with the rest of the world.

Q: When’s the due date?
A: The official due date is March 5. However, our doctor doesn’t want Sarah to go past 39 weeks, so it’ll be at least a week earlier than that.

Q: Where’s the baby’s room going to be?
A: We’re not 100 percent sure. We may convert our guest room into a room for the baby. Or we may convert that room into Oliver’s toddler room and move the baby into his current room. We’ll likely decide fairly soon, as it’s a lot of work to get a room ready for a child.

Q: How has Sarah been feeling?
A: She has had any major morning sickness symptoms for quite some time. Even when she was feeling bad, it was mostly the case of being tired and maybe a tad nauseous. Nothing major.

Q: Are you ready to have a second child?
A: No.

Q: Are you excited?
A: Yes, very much so.

Q: What’s Oliver think of the pregnancy?
A: Honestly, he doesn’t have a clue. We talk about it, and he just stares blankly. We show Sarah’s belly to Oliver, and he just reaches out and pulls her shirt back down. My guess is that maybe – just maybe – he’ll have a tiny grasp of the concept as the date nears. For now, it’s of no concern to him.

Q: How’s Sarah’s job situation?
A: Not very good. She’s still looking, along with thousands and thousands of other people in the St. Louis area. Money’s going to be tighter this go-round, that’s for sure, and I surely am nervous about it. But we’ve survived in the past and I think we’re going to be fine this time, too.

Well, that’s another official Q&A in the books. If you have any other questions for me, please leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail. I’ll try to utilize this feature again in the future. Thanks for reading.

OK, so it was a little bit uncool for me to post the picture of Oliver last night and leave my “dozen or so” readers hanging (missed that post, check it out here). Here’s the big news: My wife is pregnant with our second child.

Yes, preggers. Bun in the oven. Baby on board.

Hard to believe it, but my sweet Sarah is incubating another little Lopinot. It’s quite difficult to describe how I’m feeling right now. Was this pregnancy planned? Uhh, heck no. It totally caught us off guard. But are we excited about it? You bet.

For those who really know us well, you’re aware of just how much we wanted and tried and tried and tried again to have our first child. We didn’t think No. 2 would come along this easy. In fact, we had scheduled a consultation with one of the doctors who really helped us along the last go-round. That appointment would have been this week or next, I believe. And that appointment would have been just the first step in what could have been a long waiting period filled with lots of heartache. However, we got lucky — hit the lotto without really playing, so to speak.

Our first child has been such a wonderful baby, other than some sleeping issues over his first seven months (long-time readers, friends and family know how tiring that was on us!). And he’s really coming into his own now, developing such a sweet, fun personality. He loves wrestling and laughing with me as much as he loves giving me a big hug and putting his head on my shoulder. I know for a fact that he’s going to absolutely love his little brother or sister. As much as I cannot fathom how exhausting it will be to go through the “parenting-an-infant” stage again, it also excites me to no end that Oliver will have a little buddy to grow up with, play with, be in each other’s weddings and on and on.

Our children will be really close in age, and their birthdays will be so close that it will be hard to avoid the inevitable “combined birthday” parties that we will likely plan. We’ll be 11 weeks into our 39-week journey on Friday (yes, I know pregnancies take 40 weeks, but our docs won’t let us go past 39). Oliver is 18 months old, and his second birthday is March 6. Due date for child No. 2? March 5. (Though, again, with the 39 weeks thing, we’re more likely looking at a late February delivery — just sounds cooler to use the official due date.)

So here we are, a happy family with another one on the way. Thank you all (and though I joke, I do get about 70-100 unique visitors a day so there ARE a lot of you) for being so supportive as I’ve chronicled the past two years of my life on this blog. And thank you for also joining us on this new pregnancy journey. It’s such a relief to finally be able to openly talk about the pregnancy. We’ve known since the first week, and it’s been a looooooong two-plus months. Anyway, I’ll have more — lots more — to say about this in the coming days, weeks and months. Talk to you all again soon!