39 Weeks and Counting!

Here I am for the third time - 39 weeks pregnant!  I'm definitely not surprised, as my babes do not like to make early appearances.  Though I can't complain, as I am still feeling great with minimal swelling, no back problems or pains.  Just the usual heartburn and shortness of breath, which I actually think has gotten better the past few weeks, which hopefully means he has dropped a bit.  I'm waking up about twice per night, usually around 1am to go to the bathroom, and then around 5am to switch sides.  You would never think that moving from your left to your right side would be such a task!!  I definitely feel like I have a bowling ball sitting on my pelvic bone, the worst is when I go from sitting to standing.  But after I walk around a bit I feel fine.  Though going from cross legged on the ground to standing is a pretty tough task - I usually need a hand or two to help me up!

I've gained 40 pounds, which is right on track with what I gained with the other two, and my belly button is mega popped.  The kids LOVE their brother and are so sweet when they talk about him.   A few things I want to remember:

• Each day when I pick Hannah up from school, the first thing she says to me is 'Mommy, I love baby brother' and gives my belly a hug. 

• Henry will not go to sleep at night before feeling baby brother move.  He patiently keeps his little hand on my stomach while we read his night time stories until he feels his little foot kick him.  Then he pushes him back thinking it is so funny.  The two are already wrestling with each other!

• Henry sits on my stomach and refers to my bump as his 'chair'. 

Loving on their brother.

Sitting on his 'chair'.

Big Belly!!

Kisses and squeezes. 

The kids have had a lot of baby introductions with my sister Danielle just having Leah, and my friend Kelly just having Emmy.  So they know that mommy will go to the hospital and stay for a few days, and then baby will come home.  They know baby will eat from mommy's 'boo boos' and only drink milk.  They also know that babies cry and sleep a lot and have stinky diapers.  I think they have it just as figured out as I do!  I am still so anxious to see how they do once they realize that this baby isn't going back to the hospital and he is staying put in their house.forever....  Any day now baby boy, you will be in my arms, and I can't wait!!

Belly Comparisons - 29 Weeks (posting at 33 weeks)

I was great taking belly pictures with Henry, terrible at taking them with Hannah (only found a few, but I swore I was better!), and ok with baby 3 (as in 3 more than I have with Hannah), and wanted to get some comparisons up from the three (three!!) pregnancies:

29w 2d pregnant with Henry above.

28 weeks pregnant with Hannah.

29 weeks pregnant with Baby Brother. 

I hit the 33 week mark tomorrow - just 7 weeks to go!!

Baby Boy - 3rd Trimester

As of yesterday I am officially 2/3's of the way done.  Holy cow, this has gone fast, and this baby boy will be here before we know it!  I get asked a lot how I am feeling - and thought it would be a good time to do a post to remind myself in two years when I have baby fever that this pregnancy was not as easy as the first two.  Starting around 26 weeks I started to feel pregnant.  I'm guessing it doesn't help that I'm older, that my body and muscles are stretched out from the first two pregnancies, and that I have a 2 and 4 year old to chase after each day.  But I try to never lose sight of how blessed we are, this is what I/we wanted, it is only for a short 12 more weeks, and thankfully it hasn't been like this the entire time!

• Heartburn - brutal heartburn.  I definitely had heartburn with the first two, I just don't remember it being this bad.  By 10am each morning I have acid reflux up my throat, and it continues through the rest of the day.  I am taking two zantacs a day, and it helps a little bit, but does not make it go away.  It is to the point now where I even throw up in my mouth a tiny bit each day.  GROSS!!  Though I can tell you, that I remember the second I pushed Hannah out the first thing I noticed was the heartburn went away, like immediately.  And I only get it when I'm pregnant.  And no - that doesn't mean your kids have hair - Henry and Hannah didn't get hair until they were 2!

• Tender uterus.  It was so bad this past weekend that we made a trip into St. Lukes to have it checked out.  It was constricting my movements, I couldn't bend over without pain, anytime the kids brushed my stomach the pain was brutal, Hannah couldn't even lay down on my tummy.  Everything checked out fine, and I do notice that it does get better as I slow down, but how do you slow down when you have a 2 and 4 year old??!!

• Pressure on the bottom side of my uterus.  This just started this week.  It isn't terrible, but I don't ever remember having to slow down with the first two.  I could move from position to position without having to think about how I am going to transition.  Now I have to think about the easiest way to go from laying in bed to standing, how to get out of the car, etc.  Something again, that can be handled by slowing down, but that is tough to do!

• Shortness of breath, which is normal, and doesn't bother me.  I also snore at night - which doesn't bother me either!!  Andy has maybe had to pull up on my pillow to make me roll over so I'm not snoring in his ear every night! 

• I'm sleeping great - I make it through the night most nights without getting up to pee, which is pretty awesome. 

• This boy moves SO much.  Andy had his hand on my tummy the other night and he couldn't believe all of the acrobatics this kid was doing.  He asked me 'how do you sleep at night?'  It doesn't keep me up, which is great.  Maybe that means he is sleeping at night too and we will have a good sleeper on our hands!  I have definitely been feeling his different body parts over the past 2-3 weeks, his little hands, legs, knees, and elbows are punching through, which is so cool.

We have a healthy baby boy on the way, who is measuring right on, I passed my glucose test, keeping the weight gain under control, and am now down to every 2 weeks for Dr. appointments.  Ask me this week if I want to be pregnant a fourth time (not that the door is open for a fourth) but the answer is no way!

Here are a couple pics of the belly I took over the past week. 

Cousins!

Hard at work this week!

Pregnancy #3 Week 18

This pregnancy is flying by, and I have been pretty terrible about documenting things, which I will try to get better at now that I am showing and just a few weeks of knowing the gender!   Now that I am in the second trimester, things are going so much better.  I still am sleeping shortly after 9pm, but that isn't much earlier than we normally go to bed in our house, I'm eating a lot, but am on track with weight gain.  I checked my pregnancy journals from Henry and Hannah at at 17 weeks I had gained 13 pounds with Henry, 9 with Hannah, and just 7 with this baby.  Must be that I am busy chasing around more kids with each pregnancy and don't have as much time to just sit on the couch and eat!

Things going on right now at 18 weeks:

• Feeling baby's flutters and pops every once in awhile.
• I am constantly hungry.  I have Vanilla Special K every morning for breakfast around 7am, and then am eating my second breakfast of a bagel and cream cheese around 9am.  Then lunch at 11:30 followed by afternoon sweet snack, and dinner promptly at 5.  And usually a Reece's McFlurry as a nighttime snack.
• Still love sugar. 
• I have been drinking caffeine - which I don't normally do.  But I feel like it is the only thing sometimes that makes me feel better - so you do what ya gotta do - right??!!
• I packed all my regular pants away this past weekend, and broke out the maternity clothes bins.  I probably 'popped' around 14 weeks, which is the picture below when we were in San Fran.  I will take a more up to date belly pic and post later - but as you can guess, it is pretty obvious I am pregnant now!
• I get heartburn every day.  No different than the other pregnancies.  And no, my kids never have hair! 
• Baby is 7 ounces and 5 inches long.

Henry and Hannah are pretty cute with the baby in mommy's belly.  Hannah's new thing she says at night after I tell her I love her is 'I love you too mommy, and I like your baby'.  This morning she even asked to see her baby and pulled my shirt up and kissed my belly. 

Hannah thinks she is having a sister like Peyton and Baby Kate, Henry now thinks he is having a brother.  We will find out in less than 3 weeks!

First baby bump pic at 14 weeks. 

16 Week Check

I had my 16 week OB check this morning and everything seems right on track.  The nurse found baby's heart beat right away.  Measured in at 135 beats per minute....old wives tale signaling boy here!  I've gained 7 pounds so far, which isn't terrible, I think I'm right in line with where I was with Hannah, which is better than I was with Henry.  I seemed to go a little crazy on that first pregnancy....The exciting news is that I scheduled our 20 week ultrasound when we get to see our little babe and find out if baby is a boy or girl!  Tuesday, March 12th at 11am. 

So far my intuition has led me toward girl.  Main reason being that I was the sickest out of all the pregnancies during the first trimester, and that I'm eating sugar by the pound!  Seriously, I will pour a tablespoon on my Raisin Bran cereal.  And when my sister found out she was having a girl, it made me lean toward girl even more since we totally have that twin tuition thing going on.  We always text/email each other at the same exact time, our hair is always the same length, people have though we were twins our entire lives.  So I guess I just assumed that we would have the same gender baby.  But honestly, I really don't care either way.  Growing up, I didn't have any brothers and always said I wanted two boys and a girl, but since I've grown up and have developed such great relationships with my sisters, I would love for Hannah to have a sister and share that same bond.  And it would be fun to have a girl since Heidi just had a girl, and Danielle is having a girl, and my friend Erin just had a girl.  Andy's only comment is that he thinks boy, so that way they have house majority and get to make the TV choices around the house so that sports can be on the entire time.  Joy! 

 So in 1 month we will find out - pink or blue!!