Final Stretch

36 Weeks

 At my 37 week, 6 day ultrasound, Olivia weighed 6 lbs 10 ozs, which is only the 38th percentile (previously she had been measuring 47th and 46th percentiles). The doctor didn't seem to mind, and that weight is 100% fine with me. I always assumed I would grow a small to average sized baby. And I really don't want to push a 10 pounder out! We got some good pictures of her face, toes and fingers. (5 fingers and toes, for the record. Yay!)

37 Weeks

Since hitting 38 weeks, I have started to really focus on when Olivia is going to get here, and how I will know I am going into labor. Every pain or symptom warrants a trip to the internet to see if labor is imminent. I usually get the same answer.... my body is preparing for labor; it could be days or weeks. Thanks a lot internet; I guess I should know that labor is "close" since I'll be 39 weeks in 2 days. I just want to know exactly how close ;) And exactly how I will feel as it's happening to me :) (Having the twins didn't help with this part... I never had to wait for them. I went to my 36 week doctor appointment, was told I was in labor & was sent to L&D, then delivered about 12 hours later. I wasn't feeling all of my contractions, only about 1/3 of them.)

38 Weeks

 Today was my last scheduled day of work. I was having contractions (some painful) all throughout the day. But then I have been having painful contractions for weeks now, so I don't think much of them. But having to wait until a contraction passes to stand up is not always fun at work. Thankfully (although I was exahusted by the end of the day) my coworkers are soo nice when I am pregnant. I still loved to cuddle with my boys before we put them to bed though. They are the sweetest sons I could ask for. They do try my patience often, and between them & my pregnancy... it is extremely hard to keep the house clean. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. As I type this I am having another painful contraction. I hope all of these contractions are making something happen! I have them daily, but never consistently. Now I just need to figure out if I should go back to work PRN or quit after my maternity leave??

38 Week belly - wow!


35 Weeks with Olivia (Singleton vs. Twin Pregnancy)

Weight Gain so far: 18 lbs.  If my weight gain stays on track I should gain about 23 pounds this pregnancy. I gained 50 last pregnancy!

Comfort Level:  I am WAY less uncomfortable than when I was pregnant with twins. I had to take off work at 34 weeks during the twin pregnancy because it hurt to stand up and hurt to walk. I was doing cares on the babies sitting in a rolling chair instead of standing up (especially the ones in the isolettes). I am now a little over 35 weeks, and I worked a 12 hour shift today. It was exhausting, but I wasn't uncomfortable at all. Of course I still have 5 weeks to get bigger, but hopefully I won't be giving birth to a 10+ pound baby, so I should still be smaller! I think it would have been way harder to have a singleton first, and then take care of that one while being pregnant with twins!

On the other hand, I do miss sleeping in, especially after my 12 hour shifts. Looking back on my blog, I am reminded that I could sleep in until noon after I worked. Ohh, those were the days :) Sometimes we just take the mornings a little slower, and then I am usually okay. At least until Alan gets home.. :)

Kicks: A lot of people have asked me if I feel less movement with this pregnancy since there's "only one". Actually I feel MORE. And the kicks sometimes knock the breath out of me, and are more painful than the boys' movements ever were. I think there are 2 reasons for this. She has more room to really get those kicks and punches ready, and she doesn't have anyone else to kick besides Mommy. Matthew would kick Adam in the head (while Adam would put his hands up to defend himself). I saw this on several different ultrasounds, and it made me sad :( This time, all the kicking is aimed at Mom! She has a favorite spot to kick on my right lower side. My mom actually said that is where I liked to "elbow" her as well when she was pregnant with me.

Doctor's Appointments: Olivia has consistently measured about 2 weeks behind on the fundal measurements. But on her ultrasounds she has been right at 46-47th percentile for size. (I get monthly ultrasounds because of my hypothyroidism, which I got after the boys were born.) So I think she is growing perfectly! About a month ago by T4 level came back low, although my TSH level was fine, so they increased my armour thyroid from 30mg to 60mg.

It has been a concern that she was transverse, and then that she may be breech at my last appointment (They were not sure if that was her head or butt sticking up). However after they scared me about the breech thing, I had an ultrasound right after that, and she was actually head down! Yay! Hopefully she stays that way! She also had her legs completely stretched into my right side. Her knees weren't bent at all.. little stinker.

Other thoughts: I get the comment, "I bet you're so ready for her to be here!" Yes and no. This is the last baby we plan to have, so this is my last 4.5 weeks of pregnancy EVER. I don't want to wish it away. I also know how much work babies are on the outside, so even though I am really excited to meet my daughter, I am enjoying the last few weeks of our family of 4.. I am not so uncomfortable that she has to come out right now. Also my hubby and I are celebrating our 5 year anniversary next week. 2 days completely kid free! Alan has all but threatened me not to give birth before this :) As my due date gets closer though, I am getting more and more excited to meet our daughter!

27/28 Weeks

At my almost 28 week midwife appointment, I only had a 25cm fundal measurement, or 25 weeks. I had also only gained 1 pound in the last 3 weeks (according to their scales at least). My midwife was a little concerned since I also have hypothyroidism, which can cause slow growth/IUGR in a fetus. All of my thyroid levels have been good though. I also went over a day's worth of my food intake (which happened to be the day before when I was working.. I usually eat less those days), and she told me I need to eat more. So I was a little concerned after I left the appointment, thinking I was starving poor Olivia. Adam and Matthew do steal a lot of my food!

The midwife office set me up with an appointment with a perinatologist to do a growth ultrasound. The next week at 28 weeks, 5 days we headed out for our ultrasound.The boys have never come with me to an appointment, but I thought it would be neat for them to see an ultrasound of the baby inside momma's tummy. Matthew ended up waking up on and off until 1:30am the night before complaining of his ear hurting, so we decided not to bring him & his germs. But Alan and Adam ended up coming with me. Adam sat on Alan's lap during the ultrasound, and was interested in the ultrasound. It probably would have been too much to bring both little hoodlums though :P

According to the ultrasound, Olivia is measuring perfectly! She was 2 lbs 10 ozs, which was the 43rd percentile. We got a good shot of her girl parts, and I am now convinced she is a girl! I had my doubts before because I really couldn't see. All of her organs are working great, yay! They also took my thyroid level again. I am supposed to go back for a monthly growth ultrasound (which I don't think I really need, but it is nice to see her)

Olivia's face. She looks a lot different than the boys already!

She has been kicking and moving a lot inside me, but she seems to move less when the boys are around. So Adam & Matthew haven't gotten to feel her move :( It is probably a protective instinct, the cats also either freeze or run away from the boys :P

Getting Ready for Olivia (Including learning to sew!)

26 Weeks

 





Preparing the Nursery: Within a week of learning we were having a baby girl, we had our nursery fully painted. I was so impatient to get some girly colors in our house! (We had a nice 3 day weekend after our ultrasound, so that helped.) We used dark purple on two walls, and light pink on two walls, and I love the way it turned out. Alan did a great job (I was not allowed in.)

Alan hard at work

This is how we make our names official. Buy/paint the letters and hang them up. No going back now!

Diaper changing area (Homemade hair band/bow holder hung on wall -- another Pinterest idea)

The closet with a second hanging rod and some organization.

Learning to Sew: Something about the girl pregnang hormones made me really, really want to sew some things for my baby girl. It was probably also partly that she didn't have much of anything as far as clothes/blankets/burp cloths/etc in girly colors. I kept some of the neutral colors from the boys' stuff, but that wasn't doing it for me. So I bought a  Brother XL2600I sewing machine (supposed to be really easy to use, exactly what I was looking for) for my birthday! Plus fabric of course.

The day my sewing machine arrived I made a pillowcase dress, two burp cloths and a fitted crib sheet:

Next I made this cute little pink "peasant dress".

And this halter top dress.

Also I've made several receiving blankets, more burp cloths, and two bibs. I am becoming slightly addicted to it, it is a lot of fun! Of course after the baby comes, I don't see having much time for this after Olivia is born, so I am learning what I can now. Yay for the internet for free patterns/tutorials :) Sewing has become my time to focus on Olivia. Most of my other time time is of course spent focusing on the boys requiring my attention on the outside :)

It's a GIRL!!!

Adam and Matthew will have a......


We are so excited!!!

The last few days have gone by soo incredibly slowly as I waited for the day of our ultrasound. Last night I  could hardly sleep because of all my excitement and nervousness. I was so worried they would find something wrong with the baby. Then of course I wanted a girl, but didn't want to want a girl too badly, because I didn't want to feel disappointment if it were a healthy baby boy. Basically all the unknowns were driving me crazy!

This morning the hours crawled by as I waited for my 2pm appointment. Finally I met Alan at the Sam's Club next to his work, and we drove to my appointment. I was so nervous as the tech called my name and I walked into the room. I really don't know where all this nervousness came from, maybe I thought it was too much to ask to get exactly what I wanted.. a healthy baby girl. The tech wasn't very talkative, but he slowly showed us the dhead, stomach, heart, umbilical blood flow, arms and legs. I was looking for any abnormalities, but didn't see any. Then he asked us if we wanted to know what it was. Of course I said "Yes!" I tried to see for myself, but I couldn't tell. The tech calmly said, "It's a girl." I said, "yay" and grabbed Alan's and, and we smiled at each other :)

Everything looked great with the baby. She measured exactly 19 weeks, which is what I am today. Heartbeat of 136. Weight; half a pound.

I asked the tech how certain he was that it was a girl. He said, "If it's a boy, it has the wrong parts."

As we were leaving, Alan looked so happy, proud and handsome. He wanted his little girl :)

Thoughts on birth, this time around

I've started thinking a lot about giving birth to this little baby inside of me. In only 5 months I will be a mom to 3. This is very hard for me to wrap my mind around. And really, I don't want any expectations of the newborn stage this time. I don't want to think it will be complete bliss, or the complete opposite. I just hope it's easier emotionally, more restful and easier on our marriage than with the twins :)

But I've been thinking a lot about the birth. With the boys I was with a midwife group through a hospital for the first half. When they found out it was twins at 20 weeks though, they kicked me out! I found a doctor, and she did an amazing job taking care of me and delivering my twins vaginally. But I still had an epidural, pitocin to speed up labor, and my water was artifically broken.

But there is something I have always wanted to experience. Natural birth. No epidural or IV pain meds. Which means I wouldn't want pitocin (unless absolutely necessary) because of the painful contractions it causes. I wouldn't want continuous monitoring, so I could walk around. Etc, etc. But natural birth has always scared me. It means pain. But also, depending on where you deliver, it could mean nurses talking about you behind your back, which I really didn't want. If I am going to try going natural, I want to be as supported as possible, while still feeling I am not risking the baby's safety at all.

I talked to my doctor about giving birth naturally, and she was open to it. But our conversation was very brief, and she said most of her patients choose the epidural. Which is fine, but I wanted someone who had lots of experience without the epidural, because I feel like the skills/knowledge needed by the provider is so different. I also wanted the nurses to be very supportive of the idea too.

So, even though I love my doctor, I started researching. I found a hospital with a midwife group that has great reviews. They allow ambulation during labor, intermittent monitoring, and are very natural birth friendly. Then I found out they do water births. Just the thought of laboring in water made a lot of my anxiety about the pain go away. This sounds like the perfect method of natural pain relief to me! I have mixed feelings about giving birth in water. But the more I think about it, the more I like the idea, as long as they monitor the baby's heartrate so I know he/she is not in any distress. I also like the idea of giving birth in a hospital, where all emergency equipment/personnel is right on hand, so I don't have to stress about that.

Yesterday I had a meet and greet with one of the midwives at the practice. She said basically everything I wanted her to say, so I decided to switch! I have a hard time making these kind of big decisions, especially when I am worried about hurting someone's feelings (my doctor's), so this was a huge deal to me! I am excited though. Thinking about a possible water birth/natural birth has made me more excited about this pregnancy. And due to all these changes, we will be doing the anatomy ultrasound almost a week earlier than before, only 6 days left. That is also very exciting :)

--
Little update on the boys: Matthew had a fever the last 2 days, and has been very lethargic and cuddly. In some ways it was nice for Mommy. He started getting better around noon yesterday, and he is back to his normal, crazy self today. I felt Adam wasn't 100% before, but no fever. He seems fine today too. It has been a crazy winter today for sickness for a lot of families, so I'm thankful it wasn't more serious.

Pregnancy Update

I haven't written much about my pregnancy with #3 yet. Half the time I forget that I am pregnant, since Adam & Matthew keep me so busy! I feel like this third baby will just be added to the mix, and hopefully that will be a positive thing. I am hoping I will be more laid back and able to enjoy babyhood. I am so looking forward to nursing one baby at a time. Of course I am also nervous about adding a baby to a sometimes already crazy house!

 

This pregnancy has been harder than my first. Probably because I am chasing the twin tornadoes around. I was extrememly tired the first 14 weeks. But I used it as an excuse to take it easy and snuggle with my boys. The house got messy, and we went out to eat more, but we survived :) I remember being lazy during my twin pregnancy, but somehow the house wasn't quite as messy. I was a little more nauseous with this one during the first trimester, and much more picky about what I ate. VERY picky. Only one thing at a time really sounded good to me, and often it was different for breakfast, lunch and dinner. My nausea started getting a lot better around 12 weeks, and my energy returned around 14-15 weeks (finally). I also had stressful issues I didn't have last time. I spotted quite a bit during weeks 5-8. I was sure I was going to miscarry, but the baby hung on. Then later I thought I was leaking amniotic fluid (of course my mind goes to worst case), but that was a false alarm.

4 Weeks - Still "showing" some from the twins :P
On the balcony overlooking the Smokey Mountains in Gatlinburg, TN where we found out.

I felt the baby move for the first time at 14 weeks. I know it was the baby, and felt it off and on for the the next few weeks. I am 17 weeks now, and I feel the baby move pretty often. It is so neat :) I can't wait until baby gets a little stronger, and we can start seeing the kicks and feeling them from the outside. We find out the gender in a little over 2 weeks, and we are both so so excited to find out. I think most people know I would love a girl, but we are also okay with a houseful of boys. We are done after this one, so this little one will complete our family, no matter what the gender. 

16 Weeks - Tiny Bump!

 

Adam & Matthew love babies. Everything small or tiny is a baby. A tiny blueberry.. "Baby!" Tiny grape.. "baby!." Tiny ball of playdough.."Baby!". And always with a squeaky, high pitched voice. Then the normal size fruits/objects become "Momma". They know where Mommy is growing their little brother and sister, and I think they understand that baby will move into the nursery across from their room. I showed them a video of a 15-20 week baby developing in utero, and Adam understood right away. He pointed to the video, then my belly, while repeating "Baby, baby." Matthew sort of got it, but he also pointed to his own belly as well and said, "baby" :P

 

Alan's nickname for the baby is "Little Feti" but thankfully he hasn't nicknamed by belly (yet).

16 Weeks



 

Big News

We are expecting #3!! I am 12 weeks along (almost 13). Due June 12th.
The above pic is how we announced it on Facebook!


It is a singleton this time. The doctor confirmed this with not one, but two ultrasounds, so we're pretty certain!

We are excited to meet the new addition next summer :)