Finally, A Post : 31 Weeks & 4 days

Hey Friends!

I have been missing from blog world for quite awhile!!  However, we are doing well!  Just busy busy busy.  Once I have time to blog (at night or during nap time), I just want to sleep or do something where I don't have to think.  But, while I have a quiet moment, I did want to do a quick survey so that our sweet baby girl knows that this pregnancy has been on my heart and mind just as much as my other pregnancies.  It just may not be quite as documented as the other ones. :-) Although, I do journal a lot, and that is some documentation.  I definitely think I've been holding this pregnancy a little closer to my heart as I know it will be the last one.

So, before I do the survey, I'm trying to think of any updates.  I went to the midwife to do my glucose screening for diabetes.  I love those drinks - I know...so weird!  The week & weekend before my appointment, I had been so tired that I would just cry at night. Not every night, but I was definitely so tired that my bones hurt and I was extra emotional. I was very discouraged in thinking how I would be able to keep this up another 10 weeks!  I figured it was from being a mom to 4 little ones during the day as well as being pregnant.  The Monday after my test the nurse called and said I passed my glucose test, but I was pretty anemic.   I told her 'Oh Good!!'  I knew there had to be a reason I was sooo exhausted these past few weeks.  I've been on an iron prescription ever since & after about 5 days of taking it, I could tell such a differnece.  Am I still tired?  Yes, but not nearly as EXHAUSTED as I was.  So thankful for these tests and for supplements!!

We also had an ultrasound for baby girl done at 30 weeks.  It was so cool!  I had to have my placenta checked out as it was 'low-lying' at 20 weeks, but praise the Lord - it moved all the way up to the top of my uterus as baby has grown!!  I was sooo thankful as now I can proceed with my desire to have a VBAC.  I will post some pics soon when I can figure out how to get them off the disk!

Now, here is the classic survey :-)

How far along? 31 weeks and 4 days

Total weight gain: I've stopped weighing myself.  I eat nutritious food and drink lots of water.  My body is just going to do what its going to do.  I will work to lose the weight after baby arrives.

Maternity clothes? yes yes yes!  My belly is large!!!

Stretch marks? Haven't noticed any new ones after the boys stretched my tummy out.

Sleep:  Not great.  I am tired all the time & definitely nap during the day for *at least* 30 minutes while the kids are napping.  I'm up about every 3 hours to go potty at night & heartburn is now something fierce.  I love Pepcid, but even that seems to be losing the battle with my tummy.  Propping up with lots of pillow helps with the heart burn, but doesn't give a great night's sleep.  That's okay, I know it's just another way God designed my body to help adjust to waking with a newborn.

Best moment this week: Right now.  The boys have been sick with tummy issues this week, so they couldn't go to preschool today.  Warner & Harper are better, so they went on in, but Maverick and Crews stayed home with me.  (Side note: I really like it when just one or two of the kids get to stay home. It allows me special time with them & they love not having to share mommy so much.  I realized that Maverick knows the entire alphabet today!  Way to go buddy!) Instead of me packing M & C up, shortening their naps & mine, Chris is leaving work early and bringing home H & W.  Such a blessing to me!!!!

Movement: She moves all the time - most active in the evening, but I can feel her rolling around all through the day.  She gets the hiccups a lot, too.

Food cravings: vanilla ice cream, Sonic Ice (hello anemia!!), and protein of any kind, but mostly red meat.

Gender: definitely a girl! We had it confirmed that she is definitely a girl at our last ultrasound.

Labor Signs: Quite a few Braxton Hicks & painful hips - my body is getting ready!!  After sitting or lying down, it takes me a few seconds to hobble around before my hips start working again. 

Belly Button in or out? It is definitely a outie and it kind of grosses me out.  haha!  It never popped out with Harper, and with the boys I don't remember it popping out either - just being stretched flat.  It definitely pops out and you can see it through my clothes - yuck!

Wedding rings on or off? On!!!  They still fit!!!  I seriously can't believe it.  They have never made it this far before! lol

What I miss: Really playing with the kids.  I'm always warning them - watch Mommy's tummy or I can't carry you right now.  I know it's just for a little bit longer, but I can't wait to run and play and tumble with them!

What I am looking forward to: My Mom coming next week.  Getting more stuff ready for baby's arrival! 

Weekly Wisdom: I'm really trying to soak in being pregnant.  To enjoy the rolls, pokes, and jabs.  To not just want to pass out when I walk by a mirror and see my giant belly and double chins.  Pregnancy is such a miracle!  My body is only transformed this way for a brief amount of time.

Milestones:Getting Harper's old clothes out, rearranging clothes & furniture to get ready for a new baby!  Crews patting and kissing my belly saying Be-Be.   Harper talking to baby every day & telling her she loves her so much and she can't wait for her to be born so she can bathe her and watch Tinkerbelle with her and help change her diaper.  :-)  Precious sisters!

I also have realized that I'm almost 32 weeks!  I remember... with Harper, at this point I felt like I would be pregnant forever, and with the boys our big goal was 32 weeks, so I felt like anything over that was a really long time.  This time, I can't believe I'm almost 32 weeks & I' m not ready for it to be over yet!  It is going by so fast, and while I can't wait to hold her in my arms, I have lots to do before she arrives!!! I've been nesting like crazy - cleaning the oven, the pantry, the fridge, cleaning out clothes, getting ready for a yard sale, etc etc etc.  I need to slllloooowwww this train down and enjoy my little ballerina in my tummy!

31 weeks

Today's Craziness

So, today was one of the craziest days we've had in a long time. Every day has a dash of craziness thrown in, but today was just insane.  If you follow me on Twitter, you read most of it.  But, I wanted to do a little recap for the blog.  I know one day I will look back on this and laugh. I actually laughed a lot today - mostly out of disbelief something else was happening. 

The morning started off weird b/c everyone slept in!  That was great!  Then it just went crazy from there.  Crews and Warner started fighting in the hallway while I was doing laundry. I hear Harper scream and say Oh No!!! She is quite dramatic. Crews had somehow busted Warner's lip and he was bleeding everywhere.  I got him cleaned up. No big deal. 

Then, before lunch we were listening to Christmas music and coloring.  Everyone was doing so well.  I was fixing lunch while it was so peaceful.  When I go to deliver plates to everyone, Maverick is sitting there chomping away on a red crayon.  He had already eaten half of it!  Guess he didn't want to wait for lunch!  Lol!  It was disgusting though, red wax all in his teeth and red drool all down his shirt.  Definitely looked like a vampire. 

The boys were constantly fighting today.  Crews wound up in time out more times then I could count!  He has always been passive with the other two, but boy oh boy, the last two weeks his little fighter has come out and he is quite aggressive. 

Once naptime arrived I thought I was going to catch a break.  Well, Harper went to the bathroom and called me to come help her.  Right as I got there, she told me she was going to spray some bathroom spray.  Before I knew it she was screaming like crazy.  She had sprayed it right in her eye!  The next 20 minutes were quite crazy as she was crying and crying.  i know that had to hurt!  I flushed her eye with water, much to her dismay, and that seemed to help some. 

She went down for her nap, and I finished some laundry and then got to lay down for about 15 minutes before she was screaming from a dream.  She slept for a total of about 45 minutes.  Oh well. 

Once the boys were up, we had snacks, and everyone was happy.  I started dinner, and Harper helped me make some oatmeal raisin cookies.  Some how between putting cookies in the over & managing dinner, Maverick finds the trash and helps himself to an egg shell!  Awesome!  I am praying praying praying that he does not get salmonella!  At this point Chris gets home!  Yay!  Back up!!

We eat dinner, then the boys go upstairs to play.  Chris was busy doing something & I hear an awful cry.  I run upstairs and Maverick is bleeding everywhere!  He had busted his lip!!!!  I laugh at this point - REALLY!?  

Finally it is bedtime for the boys and some relief is in sight! Chris takes Harper's bedtime routine and I get in the bath!  Aaah!! And, for my children to know one day, I am not complaining when I write this!  I wouldn't have wanted to spend today anywhere but here - even if I did feel like I was losing my mind! :-) I just really want to record these details so I can tell them stories about the stuff they did when they were little!  hah! 


Here's to an easier tomorrow!


PS... Baby girl just kicked so hard she made my tummy jump!  Chris, also, got to feel a good hard kick tonight! Grow little one, grow! 21 weeks

Boy or Girl???

So the orignal post "Boy or Girl???" was supposed to go up this morning while we were at the ultrasound place.  Blogger did not go by 'my instructions.'  So, I'm starting with the original post, and adding our 'results' at the end of this post.  (go ahead, scroll allll the way down to watch the video :) I KNOW you want to!)

Original post:
I thought I would record what I think this baby is going to be & old wives tales.  Hoping baby cooperates tomorrow!  I'm a little reserved about finding out the sex of the baby as I have read about 2 different people (blogs I follow) having been told the wrong sex recently!!!  I'm going to have the ultrasound tech point out everything to us tomorrow!  ha!

Okay, so here we go:

My Instinct: From about week 9 or 10, I've thought this baby is a girl more than I've thought its a boy.  This pregnancy reminds me sooo much of my pregnancy with Harper - but, I know each pregnancy is different.  I've also had days where I am convinced this is a boy.  But, if I have to go with my 'gut' instinct, I would say it's leaned more toward girl than boy.  Girl

Dreams :  So, I've heard both sides - if you dream it's a girl, then you will have a boy/ dream boy, you will have a girl.  But, I've also heard what you dream is what you get.  This one helps a whole lot - huh?  However, I never once had a dream about a boy baby when pregnant with Harper, and never once dreamed about a girl baby when pregnant with the boys.  Weird, huh?    In the beginning of this pregnancy, I dreamed another boy was added to our family, but it wasn't really vivid.  3 nights ago I had the most vivid dream that I gave birth to a little girl who looked just like my sister.  She had auburn/brown hair that was curly, and weighed 8lbs 1 oz.  ha!  We'll see how true this holds up, I guess.  Oh, and my mom has had some dreams and they have always been that this baby is a girl.  I'm going to go with my super vivid dream & say this points to a Girl

Cravings:  More like food aversions. If I had to say I craved things it would be fruit (lemons, apples, pineapple).  That leans more toward girl. 

Heart Rate:  Has been 135 & 138.  Old wives tales say if its less than 140, it means boy, so I would say boy for this one.  ( I don't remember Harper's heartrate or the boys' heartrates at all) Boy

Shape of Belly:  Once again, no help. I have extra skin (gross, I know) from my pregnancy with the trips that throws this belly shape thing out of whack.  Watermelon?  Basketball?  I have no idea.  I haven't really gained in my hips or thighs, though, so I guess I would say boy

Hair on Legs:  grows faster than before pregnancy = boy.  My leg hair seems to have slowed down! So girl

Ring Test:  getting ready to do this with Harper when she wakes up from her nap. I will see if I remember to update this one later. :-) This one has always been confusing to me though! ha!

Side I rest on:  In the beginning of this pregnancy, it was always my left side.  But now, I always wake up on my right.  So, once again - no help!

Morning Sickness:  Oh good gravy - all day sickness.  Even yesterday I was sick & feeling awful (20 weeks, people!)- girl.

Nose:  If your nose seems to have grown wider = boy.  My nose has not grown wider (yet).  I must say it did with the boys!  Soooo, I guess girl.

Chinese Gender Chart:  says girl.

Girl: 7
Boy:2

Hah!  Well, looks like its a girl going by all this stuff.  We will see. You may be wondering what I 'want.'  Of course a healthy baby (what mom isn't going to say that?!) When I first found out I was pregnant, I really wanted another girl.  I wanted Harper to experience having a sister because my sister is so precious to me (my brother is, too, but it's just different).  I voiced my concern to Chris, and he made a very good point.  He said, Harper may not need a sister.  The path that God has planned for her, Warner, Crews, & Maverick may need a little brother.  He also said, if baby #5 wasnt a girl, it would just make my relationship with Harper all the more special - we'll be the only girls!  After talking to him, my heart really was put at peace with having a boy or a girl!  I am praying that baby is healthy, and that the tech can get all the measurements right away.  I hope to find out if baby is a boy or girl, too!  I'm going to take some sweet tea with me to get baby moving if I need to!  ha!

Can't wait to update tomorrow!  Little baby is moving around like crazy in my tummy right now!  Oh, and we felt the baby kick from the outside for the first time 2 nights ago!  I sooooo love this part about pregnancy!!!

One more note:  Harper only refers to this baby as 'she/her.'  I told her it might be a baby brother, and she says very seriously, 'But Mommy, it's a baby girl, not a boy.'  I've tried to tell her we don't know yet, but she is very convinced (and has been from the beginning) that it is a girl. 


Update:

Baby is healthy and very active!  My due date is right on track for mid-December (18th)!  Baby weighed in at 14 oz.  We wanted Harper to be the first one to know.  Chris and I did find out in the ultrasound room because I needed the girl to show me all the parts to know if it was a boy or girl!!!  :-)  We got an awesome DVD of the entire ultrasound! 



Edited to add:  The ladies in the video are our precious Jean & Debbie!  They have kept the boys & Harper since the boys were 5 weeks old. They come every Thursday to help out with the kids and to let me get out of the house :-)  We were sooo happy they were able to celebrate the big news with us!  They were sooo excited that they scared the boys - lol!  Harper is over the moon to have a sister on the way, and the boys are clueless!  Although, Crews will point at my tummy, then point at his.  Lol!