37 weeks

I am now 37 weeks and one day. Baby, you can come anytime now! Although you probably won't be here for at least another 2 weeks. I kinda want to enjoy these last weeks before you come, but also kinda just want you to hurry up and come.

The reason I want you to come now is because my body is just sore and tired from being pregnant. And while I felt like I was cool with waiting until 39/40 weeks for you to come, that all changed when my hemorrhoid decided to get super angry and painful. That is the last thing I want to be dealing with right now and it has been awful. If it would heal and get better, that would be a different story, but it might not until you come. So that's why I'm kind of in a hurry for you to come. For the sake of my poor booty.

It's ok though. I think I've managed to come to terms with it and will be here patiently awaiting your arrival while tending to my poor swollen booty. I do have to say, this pregnancy has thrown so much at me and each obstacle has made me all the more sure that this is the last time I ever want to be pregnant! I am so very thankful for you little baby, and also so very done.

We seem to be mostly ready for your arrival. Just a few last minute details to take care of. We had our home visit today and now have the birthing pool here. Our bedroom is all rearranged so the pool will fit. We got a carseat. Clothes and blankets washed. Diaper service arranged. Birth kit is here. I think all the major stuff is handled. I can't believe it's almost time to meet you!

You are definitely running out of room and it's not very comfy when you try to stretch out. It's still pretty cool though when you're rolling around in there. I just can't wait to see you on the outside and hold you in my arms. I am so ready to hold you and love on you.

Ok, one last complaint...Braxton hicks contractions are driving me crazy! How much practice does my uterus really need? I hope that the more they ramp up, the closer I am to the real thing because I need there to be a good reason for all this uncomfortableness. Ok, I'm done. I'm really excited to meet you because the cute squishy baby at the end is really what I'm going through all this for. I don't like doing it, but man the prize at the end sure is good.

I'll end with some bump progress.

32 weeks

36 weeks

30w4d

So I am about 30 1/2 weeks along. I should have done a post at 28 weeks for my update, but that didn't happen.  Sorry little baby, but I guess you should just get used to that being the way things go as #3. I will do my best, but it gets harder to keep up when there's more kiddos and I'm not the most organized person to begin with.

Anyway, this little baby is getting quite strong! I would say the activity level is in-between that of my 1st and 2nd kids. This baby is way more active than Raeya was, but not quite as crazy as Elisabeth. Hopefully this baby will be a nice balance between the other two. I am enjoying all the movement and watching body parts roll around in my belly. It is such a weird thing that you never get used to no matter how many times you do it. Weird and wonderful! Although like I said, little baby is getting strong and it hurts when too much pressure is put on my hipbone or the baby stretches out too much. Oh well, I still mostly enjoy it and know it is the one thing I will miss about growing babies. I won't miss the hiccups though, lol. This baby gets crazy strong hiccups all the time just like Elisabeth did and I find them quite annoying.

I'm finally down to one zofran a day, but still take unison/b6 3 times a day. It's definitely much nicer to have occasional nausea instead of constant nausea. I don't feel like I was able to get back to normal like I eventually was able to last time, but I feel so much better and I'll take what I can get. I just have a lot more aches and pains this time. I'm also more tired and the nausea comes on easily by over doing it. I just have to do the best I can and know that this isn't going to last much longer. The end is in sight and it will be all worth it once that baby is in my arms.

Oh another thing I forgot to mention about this little baby is it does not like being messed with. Anytime the heartbeat is checked, it kicks at the doppler or fetoscope and moves around like crazy. I think it's so funny. I love how their little personalities are there so early on.

Raeya and Elisabeth both love to feel the baby move in my belly and fight over having their hands on me. Hopefully that means this will be one loved little baby. Elisabeth has moved over to team boy while Raeya is still firmly team girl. I think it's a girl, but will be happy either way.

I think that's it for now. Here's my 28 week photo:

24 weeks

I meant to do a 20 week post, but that never happened. So I guess technically this is a 20/24 week post.

Anyway, I have been feeling much better. Even cut down to 2 zofran a day! I still need 3 unison/b6 a day, but often forget since I cut back on zofran and that has thrown my schedule off. When I do forget, I ended up not feeling so good. Nothing like how awful I felt before though! I am able to get out and about, but get tired easily and if I do too much, I end up feeling nauseous and need to take it easy the following day. Still a huge improvement though and I will take what I can get.

I am feeling the baby so much more now and can even see it moving around when I look at my belly. This is definitely my favorite part about being pregnant and quite possibly the only part I like! I have to say, while I greatly enjoy all the baby movements, I will be very glad to never be pregnant again. It makes me feel so much more connected now that I can actually feel the baby moving around in there. Jose has been able to feel the baby move a couple times and Raeya was able to feel it too. Raeya was really excited after she felt it, which is nice because she hasn't been too thrilled about another baby joining the family. Elisabeth said she felt the baby, but I'm not too sure. She can't really stop moving herself long enough to really feel it. Maybe as it gets bigger and has even more, stronger movement she'll actually feel it.

We had the 20 week anatomy scan and everything looked great with the baby. The tech said the baby was very cooperative which made her job a lot easier. We managed to remain team green even though I felt very tempted to find out! Later I was talking to Jose about how much harder it felt to wait this time and he reminded me about how exciting it was to finally meet our baby and discover whether it was a boy or a girl. He's right, it really was such a wonderful surprise both times and I'm glad we chose to do it again. I loved watching the anatomy scan, I could sit and watch my baby all day long. Here's a couple of photos from the scan.

Look at those lips!

Baby peaced out at the end.

I don't think I have much else to share right now, so I'll end with a some bump photos.

20 weeks

24 weeks

24 weeks

A Year Goes By

Life as a mom is busy and while I really wish I could blog regularly, I just haven't found a way to make it work. At this point I figure whatever I manage is better than nothing because this has been the most effective way to document my kids' milestones.

So with that said, I don't really even know where to begin with this update except to just go ahead and announce what brought me back here in the first place...

Baby #3 is due March 23. 2019!!!!

I am 17 weeks 3 days along as of today and already feel so far behind with documenting this pregnancy. I will try to do better though because I don't want this little baby to be neglected. Part of it has to do with how sick I've been.  I seem to have gotten sicker with each pregnancy. I started to get waves of nausea at about 3 weeks which was not a good sign. I hadn't even taken a pregnancy test yet. A few days later, I started testing even though it was early and got faint positives that got darker each day. I started taking unison/b6 at 4 weeks and was up to 3/day by 6 weeks. I started throwing up by 6 1/2 weeks, so I had to add Zofran to the mix because I didn't want to be throwing up every 2 hours like last time. I started with one and quickly got up to 3/day in addition to the unisom/b6. Even with all that and doing absolutely nothing but lay in bed, I still had 2 weeks of throwing up 1-2 times everyday.

It's been brutal, but it's finally starting to get better. I haven't gotten sick in a little over 2 weeks and even though I'm still pretty nauseous most days, I'm starting to have good days. Plus I've started to get out of the house a little bit again, which is really nice. Being stuck inside for 2 whole months really sucks. There's only so much tv you can watch before it starts to feel like your brain is melting!

Now that I've gotten the bad parts out of the way, I'll share some of the more fun stuff. This little baby is kinda crazy. At 12 weeks we asked our midwife if we could listen to the heartbeat on the doppler. She ended up finding the heartbeat in two different spots, but she said she was pretty sure it was just one baby because the heart rate was the same. Then the following week, I had an appointment at Kaiser and the midwife there did an ultrasound. She was on one side of my uterus and we clearly saw a baby. Then she moved over to the other side and we clearly saw a baby again. This seemed odd, but we waited for her to say something. She then slowed down and looked thoroughly and said, ok there's just one, I thought there were two for a second but it just got over there before I did! Little baby was just too darn active. You need to calm down in there and stop giving your mother heart attacks by pretending to be twins!

At 16 weeks, I started feeling little taps in my uterus that I thought might be baby. I know now that it was baby and I'm feeling baby move more and more every day. You are making me nervous though little one. I ordered a calm baby and it doesn't seem that I got what I ordered! That's ok, I still love you very, very much. A couple nights ago, I was laying on my back and felt a hard lump going horizontally across my uterus. I thought this was probably baby and I was feeling it and pressing down on it. All of a sudden I felt something flip and the hard lump was gone. Baby didn't like being poked and prodded.

It's so much nicer now that I'm starting to feel better and getting to enjoy some of the fun aspects of being pregnant. I can't wait to get to know this little one while I wait to meet him/her. My anatomy scan is a few weeks away on Nov.5 and we plan on waiting until birth to find out whether baby is a boy or a girl. Even though we waited with our first two, it feels harder this time. It's going to be really interesting though, because both girls say this baby is a girl and get upset when we tell them it could be a boy. I feel like it's a girl, but I could be wrong. We'll just have to wait and see.

I'll end with a couple of photos.

12 weeks

16 weeks

Almost 20 months

You will be 20 months old in 5 more days, but if I don't start this post now, who knows if it will ever get done.

My sunshine girl, it is so fun watching you grow.  I don't feel like I was sufficiently prepared for dealing with such a strong personality, but I am doing my best.  You have big emotions which means you are very happy, but also get very angry, frustrated, sad, etc.  I have been caught off guard by your huge tantrums and I'm trying to learn how to handle them.

That being said, you are endlessly entertaining.  You have so much personality and I am constantly cracking up at things you do, say, and faces you make.  You are extremely expressive.

*Well sweetie, you keep me busy and I never finished this post. I'm just going to move on and do a new post about what you're up to these days. Love you so much my joyful child!

16 months

Sunshine love, you are 16 months old today.  I am so sorry I got behind and haven't posted in 4 whole months!  You have changed so much since your 12 month post.  I will do my best to fill in all the new developments.

You started walking right before you turned 13 months and now you are a pro, running around like a crazy girl.  You can get off the couch all by yourself and sometimes you can even climb up on your own.  You love to stand up on things and are so proud of yourself.  You will stand up in bed in the morning with this grin on your face that says, "hey look at me!"  Same look when you stand on the couch, or the wipe container you little stinker.

The other day we were at the park and you walked up a slide!  I just stood there and watched you in shock as you did it, hardly believing my eyes.  Your sister just started doing that a few months ago, but of course you and your sister are very different people and you are much more daring than she is.  You are such a determined child and when you decide you want something, you don't want anything getting in your way.  Many tantrums have ensued from you wanting something you can't have or from you trying to do something beyond your capabilities and getting frustrated.

The amount of words you have amazes me and your ability to communicate is pretty impressive too.  You had a language explosion recently.  I tried to count how many words you had and I stopped once I got to 30 because it was too hard to keep track.

*Oh my, I wrote this months ago and never finished it! Oh well, I'm sorry baby.  I'm trying here.

One year old!

Oh my sweet Sunshine, you had your first birthday and are now one year old.  It just flew by so fast!  I still can't help but smooch on those chubby cheeks of yours and your smile is infectious.  You have this sweet little giggle that you do when you are amused and it is the most adorable thing ever.

You can stand up by yourself for a few seconds, but as soon as you realize that you're doing it, you slowly sit down.  You like to walk around with your walker toy or holding on to someone's hands.  Your Auntie said you took a step by yourself on your birthday yesterday, but I think like standing, you'll only do it when you don't know it's happening.

You are far more daring than your sister and have started climbing up on your walking toy.  You also were trying to climb up onto the couch yesterday, you weren't successful, but definitely trying.  I think we may have a climber on our hands, which will be new territory for us.

Some of your favorites include avocado, animals, balls, baby dolls, your sister, and of course mommy. Whenever you have something you really like, you hold it to your chest and rock it like a baby.  It's really cute, but also funny because you do it with anything you like.  It could be a doll, a water bottle, or a book, you will hug it and rock it to show it's something good.

Your birthday party was a huge success.  You had a great time and enjoyed a little bit of frosting off your cake.  You weren't too interested in eating it, but you made a nice, big mess.  The only bad part was cleaning you up after cake.  You had frosting all over your body and you thought it was pure torture to have it cleaned off.  You eventually forgave us and all was good again.  It was a lovely elephant themed party where everyone enjoyed some fun at the park with family and friends.

You are such a sweet baby and you love to give kisses now, especially to your sister.  You make a smacking sound with your lips to give kisses and we say besos and lean in which makes you smile and giggle. 

I think that's it for now my love.  I started this post the day after your birthday, but didn't get around to finishing it until now.  I want to get it posted before it's time to do another update!  I love you so much my sweet Sunshine and I can't wait to see what this next year has in store for us.