The Grand Reveal

Well we went public! So glad that I don't have to watch what I say anymore. I never really care who knows, but I'm always worried that someone will find out from someone else I told and be upset that I didn't tell them first.  We had planned on a cuter annoucement including pictures of the boys, but I came down with a bad cold this week and didn't feel like taking the pictures, editing them etc. I'll post a picture of the "announcement" that we posted on Facebook below.

I was thinking today about some of the symptoms I've had during this pregnancy that seem to be different than my other two. Also, things that are are the same as my other pregnancies, but I had forgotten about.  I seem to be very sensitive to smells during this pregnancy, and I don't remember that with either of the boys.  With some scents, even lotions and things that I bought for myself before I got pregnant (scents I like), I can't stand now. I bought a fetal monitor when I was pregnant with Beckett, and I have enjoyed using it to hear the baby's heartbeat with this pregnancy too BUT I always feel a little bit queasy afterwards because I have to use lotion on my belly so the monitor moves smoothly. The lotion almost always makes me a little sick, even when I try different lotions.  Sometimes I enjoy a scent for a few minutes, but soon, it will make me sick too unfortunatly. I have also developed a little rash on my shoulders, top of my arms, chest and back. It feels like little bumps. I had it when I was pregnant with Cash too, and it lasted until I delivered.  I seem to be having less heartburn with this pregnancy then I did with my other two, so that's nice!

I have probably already covered these things in my previous posts, but I can't remember and I'm too lazy to go check.  PREGNANCY BRAIN! Never had it with the other two, and I have it A LOT with this baby. 

Thanks for checking in!

Here is the announcement!

Bedtime Boys

I thought I would take a break from the pregnancy posts to talk about our nightly bedtime routine with the boys.

Usually dinner preceedes clean up time, including cleaning the kitchen, wiping off the table and vaccumming.  Next comes gathering pajamas, and preparing a little station with diapers laying on top of pajamas on the changing table so I can dress them quickly after bathtime.  The bath water is running at this point.  Next I wrangle the boys, usually having to stop them from taking out toys that I just finished putting away. I make sure a new episode of Team Umizoomi is either on TV and paused for their "after bathtime calm down" or one is queued up OnDemand for them.  Both boys get undressed, and I sing a little song I made up called "booty boy" as they dance in a circle around the living room.  Immediatly following the song, they run to the bath.  After bathing them, we get them dressed, and let them lay next to each other on the couch to watch the Team Umizoomi I "prepared" for them. As soon as the end credits roll, Beckett jumps up and says, "Oooook!!!! Lets go!" He loves his time alone with either Colt or me.

I have never really had a hard time getting Beckett to go to sleep. We recently moved a chair that didn't fit in our living room anymore, into his room as a "storage" of sorts until we sell it or move it elsewhere.  That has become the chair that we talk in everynight. I turn off the lights except the light on his sound machine that gives off a blue glow and his table lamp which dimly lights the room.  I say a prayer, and then he says his prayer which usually consists of praying for family members and a big, "AMEN!" Then he says, "Let's talk." The subject matter can change on any given night, but he usually likes to talk about Burt and Ernie, the Smurfs, or the Chipmunks.  The whole time, I kiss his little face, or rub his hands or arms and give him "the shivers" as I called it when I was a little girl. He used to fall asleep to me kissing his face when he was a little baby. The close proximity to his face would make him close his eyes, and then he'd realize that it felt good to close his eyes. We talk about whatever he chooses and I tell him a little story about the characters, and then he says, "I go get in bed."  I kiss his little face a few more times as I lay him down in his bed. I always tell him he is my "heart and soul boy", and he says, "Love you sign (sign language for I Love You),  CHECK (thumbs up), live long and prosper (from Star Trek) and hang loose!" Then I quietly close the door and walk out.  I usually don't hear from him again for another 13 hours!  I LOVE this time that I get to spend with him.  Cash had me all to himself for 19 months, but Beckett has never had that.  I love that he looks forward to that time everynight.

After putting Beckett down, I come out and depending on where he is in the Umizoomi episode, he can either finish it, or we get in bed and save the rest for the next day.  When we get in his bed, we say our prayers, mine first and then his.  He always prays for his family, and recently he has been praying for Christmas, Santa, his toys, etc. I think he has Christmas presents on the brain! He always says, "thank you for Jesus who died on the cross to save our souls, in Jesus name and give thanks, AMEN!" He likes to word things like we do.  Then HE says, "Let's talk." Again, the subject matter changes practically nightly. So far this week, we've talked about trucks, Christmas time, Santa, police officers, etc. He twirls my hair everytime he is sitting next to me, but particularly when he's tired, or I'm laying down with him.  He twirls it so tight that almost everyday I have a chunk I have to pull out because its beyond repair.  I love that he does it though. If my hair is in a pony tail, he says, "Can you take your hair down? I want to play with your hair."  He likes for me to tell him stories, but its also a time that I can listen to all the things he's thinking about or wants to say.  Cash loves to cuddle with me.  He puts his arms around my neck and pulls me in so we're nose to nose. That's how he used to sleep with me when he was a baby.  Tonight, I had just started to fall asleep and he brushed his hand over my face and said, "Mama, you're so beautiful." This woke me up, as I was so caught off guard. I thanked him and told him I loved him very much. He said, "I love YOU very much, Mama."  We laid there a while longer and then I told him it was time for me to go out of his room. I said, "I love you so much baby boy. You're my heart." He said, "I'm your heart and soul boy?" :) This made me smile. I have always called both the boys that since they were born. 

I wanted to write this post because I know that nights like these, where there is nothing particularly interesting going on, are going to be the ones I will miss the most. The simple act of rocking my son to sleep, or laying down with him until he's close to sleep. There are nights where I'm so tired, or try to rush it because I want some "me time" but then there are nights like tonight when I'm caught off guard by their sweetness.

I just love being their mother.

Now, my bedtime! I'll leave you with a conversation I had with Cash at bedtime a few nights ago...

October 13, 2013

 Cash: (turns over and throws his arm around my neck so we're nose to nose) "I wanna keep ya."

Me: I wanna keep you too. I love you so much. You're such a sweet boy.

Cash: ....Let's talk about girls.

Me: What girls?
...
Cash: Hermione and Ginny. (from Harry Potter)

Me: Oh, ok. Ginny is a very nice girl. She is very smart, and very brave and she plays Quidditch.

Cash: YES! Let's talk about Hermione.

Me: Hermione is very smart and very strong.

Cash: Does Hermione smooch Ron?

Me: What do you think?

Cash: Does she?

Me: Probably, because when people love each other, sometimes they smooch. Like me and Daddy.

Cash: (very seriously) Daddy doesn't love you, only I love you.

Me: Daddy loves me. Its nice when Mamas and Daddys love each other.

Cash: Only I love you. Daddy can't smooch you, only I can smooch you.

Me: What about Beckett?

Cash: Ok, him too.

Negatives and POSITIVES

SO its been a few weeks since my last weekly update. I am now 11 1/2 weeks!

Nausea has been a problem in both of my other pregnancies during the first trimester and this one was no different.  My weeks change on Saturday, and Beckett's 2nd birthday party (small family party) was on Saturday, September 14th. That was the first day I felt really sick.  It was kind of funny, because I was beginning to think I was home free from the nausea this time, and then BAM!

With Cash, I was sick from 6 weeks until 12 weeks. I didn't take any medication with him because I didn't know much about it. I was throwing up anywhere from 4 to 6 times a day. It was AWFUL!

With Beckett, like this pregnancy, I didn't start getting sick until around 7, 7 1/2 weeks and I thought maybe I wouldn't be sick with him. Of course, the nausea came, and I was very sick until around 9 weeks. I took some medication to help me be able to eat, and keep down what I ate. If I remember correctly, I was only taking one, sometimes two pills a day (way under the maximum amount). That helped, but I was still very nauseated without it. I prayed and prayed and PRAYED that it would go away because I couldn't handle the constant throwing up with a toddler running around. Thankfully around 9 weeks it subsided. I told myself that if the nausea went away, I wouldn't question why, but of course I was a little bit worried. At 10 weeks exactly I heard Beckett's sweet little heartbeat on a fetal monitor I bought.

This pregnancy has been difficult to compare to the others. Like I said, around 7 weeks I started getting really sick on a constant basis. I called my doctor as soon as I found out I was pregnant and told them I needed a prescription for Ondansetron, my nausea medicine. I started taking one pill in the morning. I quickly figured out that wasn't going to cut it.  By 8 1/2 weeks I was taking almost the maximum amount allowed in the instructions on the bottle, although I found out later that I could have taken more. It helped significantly BUT I was still sick, and throwing up.  The food aversions were pretty bad also.  Almost nothing sounded good. Things that may have sounded good one day, would be something that made me gag the next day.  Again, I prayed and prayed and PRAYED  that it would go away and I could feel normal again. Around 9 1/2 weeks it started to subside.  I am 11 1/2 weeks now, and I still feel nauseated sometimes, but its leaps and bounds better than constant nausea.

Everyone always says that after you give birth, every negative experience during that time is a distant, foggy memory afterwards because all you can remember is the happiness of holding your baby for the first time. I feel the same way about pregnancy.  Of course, I remember the hard parts of each of my pregnancies, but sometimes its hard to remember the hard parts in terms of how hard they actually were.  If I can remember correctly, I am experiencing some symptoms in this pregnancy that I didn't have  a lot of in my others.  I have been having headaches almost everyday that don't seem to want to go away. I have been having some stomach aches too, which I don't remember having with the other two.  My skin has been pretty dry, and I am getting a little bit of a rash on my shoulders and chest. I got the same rash with Cash, and I had it throughout my entire pregnancy. 

NOW for the postives! Haha! I just re-read this and realized that it sounds so whiny and negative.  Yes, there have definitely been some rough patches, but don't think there is a day that goes by where I don't thank God for this baby multiple times. We talk about the baby all the time with the boys. They both refer to it as "her".  I don't know why, because we never refer to a gender when we talk about the baby.  I am definitly showing a lot faster this time. I started really showing with Cash around 16 weeks. With Beckett it was around 13-14.  This time...11 weeks. I've heard that after your first pregnancy, your body just knows what to do, and how to move to accomodate the baby.  Not to mention my uterus expanded to hold an almost 10 pound baby about 2 years ago, so I expected the early show this time.  I know some of it is bloat, but I can definitely feel a little bump.

The MOST exciting thing that has happened today, is I finally found the baby's heartbeat with the fetal monitor this afternoon! Like I mentioned previously, we found Beckett's heartbeat at 10 weeks.  I have been using the monitor almost daily for a few minutes at a time to see if we could find it.  I started worrying that I wouldn't know that it was his/her heartbeat when I heard it, and confuse it with mine.  Today, I laid on my bed, and put the monitor on my belly. Within the first few minutes, I found it! It was much faster than mine, and very strong.  I'm going to try recording it later tonight!  I just so happen to look at the clock the minute I found the heartbeat and it was at 5:01pm. THEREFORE my prediction is that this baby will be born on May 1st (two days before the due date).  :)  Its weird how hearing the heartbeat makes you look at the baby as a real part of the family. There are 5 of us now, even if we can't see him/her.

On a side note, we got Cash and Beckett's halloween costumes today! They are both going to be policemen.  We let them pick out their own costumes and Cash was deciding between Harry Potter and a policeman.  Beckett was deciding between the Hulk, Batman and Superman.  He originally chose Batman, but had an absolute meltdown when he tried it on. We think he didn't like being constricted in the costume because it was a full body suit.  After that he was in no mood to try on anything else, so we got two policeman costumes. He plays policeman all the time so I think it'll be a winner. We had a lovely day going to Acropolis for lunch and getting their costumes. I love having Colt home during the day with us!

I have my second OB appointment on Tuesday, and we'll get to hear the heartbeat on their fetal monitor! Exciting! Talk to you soon, and thanks for reading!!!

A cute, strawberry blonde-ish gal

In my other two pregnancies, I have had what I call a "gender prediction dream".  I don't know whether its a woman's intuition or just one of those strange things that happen sometimes in life, but both times they have come to fruition. 

When I was pregnant with Cash, I dreamed that I gave birth to a little boy, average size with brown hair.  Cash was 7lbs. 8oz. (born at 38 weeks exactly) and had a moderate amount of brown hair covering his little head.

When I was pregnant with Beckett, I dreamed that I gave birth to another boy, but he was significantly bigger than Cash, and with much more hair.  Beckett was 9lbs. 14.5oz (born at 39 wks, 4 days), and had the most hair I have ever seen on a baby.

Last night I had my first "gender prediction dream" of this pregnancy. Of course, I know not to put too much thought into it, but it will be fun to see if I'm right.  Mind you, we were discussing names for this particular gender before going to bed. As I joked with my sister, "this may have influenced my thoughts before bed, and I need to wait for a completely uninfluenced, subconcious dream before I officially 'make the call'."  :)  According to my dream, its a girl! I dreamed that I had an easy delivery, and very easy recovery (was released from the hospital later that day in my dream).  She had strawberry dark blondeish hair and a very sweet face.  She looked a lot like I did when I was a baby! She was about Cash's size and may have been born a little bit earlier than her due date because I seemed surprised that she was coming so soon in my dream.  We named her Claire and something that started with an A for a middle name although I can't remember what it was. Neither are names that we are considering. For some reason, in my dream, I remembered the name that Colt and I are considering as our "front runner" and we named her that.

It was a lovely dream, and I can't wait to see if it comes true! Of course, pink or blue we would be thrilled. There are many benefits to both. November 12th we'll find out for sure!

Party of 5!

Well I suppose its time for an update! Our family of 4 is about to be a party of 5! I'M PREGNANT! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

On August 22nd, a Thursday night, I took a pregnancy test at 10 days past ovulation and laid it on my bathroom counter. I had a few things to do around the house, and two hours later I realized I had completely forgotten about it. I went back in the bathroom and looked at the test. I thought I saw a very faint second line, but you aren't supposed to even look at a test after 10 minutes because the results can be wrong because it has sat out for too long. I disgarded it thinking it was negative. 

When I woke up the next morning, I was nervous to take another test because I REALLY wanted it to be positive, but I was worried that it wouldn't be and it would be a huge let down.  I walked to the bathroom, took the test and stared at it for the next minute or two. I thought I saw a second line forming but again, it was so faint I couldn't tell. I had one of those "Pregnant/Not Pregnant" tests in my bathroom. I figured that would take out the guess work. It was my "lucky test" and I promised myself that I wouldn't use it unless I was pretty sure it was positive.  The test had a little hourglass that blinked on the digital screen. Blink, blink, blink, blink.  I have taken these before, and the longer they blink the more likely it is that they are negative. Blink, blink, blink. I looked away for a second to see if the line had become any darker on the cheap, internet purchased, dip strip test I used. It had. When I turned my head to look at the digital test, it had completed. P-R-E-G-N-A-N-T.  The test was looking back at me, seemingly smiling.  I cried. I prayed to God in thanks, and I tried to keep my cool and think of a cool way to tell Colt.

 I had hoped to think of a really cute way to tell Colt I was pregnant this time, but every idea I found on the internet was just not my style.  It was weird timing because he had to go to work all day. I had to decide whether I was going to wait until he got home, exhausted, or BEFORE his longest work day started to tell him.  Cash had gotten into bed with us a few hours before, and woke up when I tried to get out of the bed to take the test. He was playing a game on my phone when I walked out of the bathroom with the positive test.  I tapped him and whispered, "Tell Daddy that Mama has a baby in her tummy." He tapped Colt and said, "Mama has a baby."  Colt didn't hear him and rolled over.  I told him to do it again. This time he slapped Colt on the back and said, "MAMA WANTS A BABY!" Not quite what I was going for, but Colt got the picture. He popped his head up and said, "YEAH?!" I said yes, and showed him the test. It was one of the greatest moments of my life.

This time, the road to baby was longer for us.  We got pregnant with Cash the first month trying, and with Beckett we had just began to think of trying, and we were pregnant! This time it took 9 months. I went to the doctor last month to ask if there were any red flags in my blood work or anything that could give us an answer as to why it wasn't happening for us. She said everything looked better than normal, and sometimes it just takes longer. Apparently, even someone in their early 20s (peak fertility age), with no medical problems only has a 20% chance of getting pregnant every month. Who knew?!?

The fact that it took longer, only made me more ecstatic when we finally got the good news. It also made me thankful that everything happened in God's timing. Every time I prayed over the last 9 months concerning another child, I always asked that His will be done because He knows what is best for me and my family.  I know that having 3 children is going to be different and probably considerably harder than having 2. Maybe if I had become pregnant that first month, it would have been too much for me to handle.  It was kind of ironic, that this was the first month that when I prayed I said to God, "Your will be done because You know better than I do....but I feel like I can handle it on my end with Your help." :)  My dad joked and said, "God's will will always be done, but maybe He's open to suggestions." Haha! I like that.


So hear I am, 5 weeks and 4 days. So far, I just have the normal early pregnancy symtoms.  No morning sickness yet, except for one bout on Sunday morning. I notice that when I don't get enough sleep, I feel nauseated, just like I did in my other two pregnancies.  The only time I don't get enough sleep is on Sunday mornings. :) I have my nausea medication ready and waiting.  My first doctor appointment is on September 23rd. I already scheduled my gender ultrasound at Pregnancy Treasures on November 12th. I.CAN'T.WAIT.

The boys are excited about having another sibling.  I know they don't quite get it yet because I don't look any different. Cash always says its going to be a girl. Beckett thinks its a boy. :) We'll seeeeee!

Well I guess that's it for now! I will update more as the weeks progress. Thanks for reading!!!