Under Construction: July 2013

Really nearing the homestretch now!! I'm finding myself doing all sorts of preparatory work around the house... I've been obsessing over every little thing in my house lately. The carpet, the appliances, the back deck that needs built as well as new front steps, the yard... But I'm not going to lie... for some reason I've fixated the most on the interior paint and now I'm stressing about repainting the interior of our house. Having lived in our home for over three years now with two small children and a huge destructive dog, it really needs to be redone, especially since the sellers picked such a light color to paint the whole interior of the house with. We've done our best to keep it well maintained and cleaned, but it just hasn't been enough... especially since our primary heat source in the cold months is our wood stove. So needless to say, with all the hussle and bussle around the house plus the smoke from the stove, it really needs some TLC. Sooooo I've been searching and thinking and pondering and eyeing different color palettes and none have appealed to either of us... Until just recently, that is. I saw a picture of this super cute room on pinterest. The had white floor moulding and white chair railing separating two paint colors on the wall. So basically we took that concept and applied it to the kids room to see if it was something we wanted to do to the whole house. We decided to keep the top color the same since it's a nice off white color (we just touched up the scuffs and repainted all the trim and floor moulding), and for the bottom color we went with a paint called "hot chocolate." It turned out amazing... so amazing, in fact, that we decided to apply the same concept throughout different parts of the house. I can't wait to get started with it!! It's a lot of work, but the end result is totally worth it.

Anyway... that has nothing to do with baby or me at all. Things have been going fairly well. I'm definitely feeling more and more pregnant as the days go on. I can really tell I'm nearing the end now as my lower back is starting to get pretty achey and I tire out more quickly... Other than that and mild sleep issues, I've been doing pretty well lately.

I'm still watching what I eat, and I'm slowly pinning down foods that cause me pain and discomfort. It's nice to know precisely what causes my gallbladder to react. So far I know for sure that any kind of meat (particularly beef or even turkey burgers with added fillers) (not including chicken or ground turkey... I do fine with those), anything super greasy, red onions (weird... but it does cause me pain), and most cheeses minus mozzarella.. So really I'm not AS limited as I originally thought. Just have to stay away from those few items. I'm thinking that this cautiousness with my diet has also helped a lot with my heartburn issues I typically have with pregnancy. I haven't had heartburn at all since the beginning of my first trimester... which has been awesome!! I usually have it really bad, so it's been great not having to deal with that.

Recently I have added a few changes to my nutrition... I've been praying and doing a lot of careful research on this blood disorder I've developed during my pregnancy. Given my anxiety about things I try to stay away from google. I do suspect I had this with my last pregnancy as well, but I could be wrong. In order to increase my platelet count by my 36 week blood draw (to recheck the situation), I've added more vitamin c to my diet through juice, and lots of fresh fruit... I also started taking an alfalfa supplement. I did a little reading and found out that a lot of midwives will have some moms start taking it a couple months before delivery in order to help prevent excessive postpartum blood loss. I couldn't exactly find evidence that this is effective for someone with a low platelet count, but regardless, it has a lot of vitamin k in it which helps blood to clot better... and it's good for baby because I don't do vaccines at birth. Joey had the vitamin k shot but he required medical attention and we had a few personal reasons for doing so in addition to his medical needs after birth. So I'm really hoping that between the careful attention I've paid to consuming enough vitamins via supplements and natural food sources, I'm praying that this will really make a difference and I will have at least shown some improvement by my next blood draw in 5 weeks. My chiropractor said to try to get these nutrients through raw food sources as best as I can... which I've clearly been doing in addition to the alfalfa. Anyway, if my platelets don't increase by 36 weeks, I believe that my doctor is planning to try some medication to help with it before the baby arrives. He might not feel it's necessary though... we will see. So for now, I'm praying that I've reversed it naturally before my next CBC.

As for baby, all is perfectly well. I had my 32 week visit yesterday and everything was as perfect as can be. Baby had a healthy heart rate and I'm still measuring right on target. My weight gain is still nice and slow. I've gained a total of 12 pounds at this point. I'm pretty pleased with that!

I've now graduated to two week visits now! Crazy how fast this is going by. Seriously, thinking that we only have a month and a half until the baby is here is just mind boggling to me. I feel like I have so much to do still. I really don't have that much to do, but I really feel like I'm forgetting something really big that needs to be done.

Anyway, not much else to update on. I'm still really enjoying my pregnancy, and I'm trying to soak in every moment. It's going to be over so soon! I sure hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful summer we're having! God bless you, friends!!

It's so crazy how fast time is flying by!!! Oh my goodness, we could have a baby in our arms as early as the end of August... which is only 8-9 weeks away! However, I sure hope baby stays put until at least the 17th of September (one day past my due date)... but I'm not going to hold my breath. Both of my kids came on their own 6 days early, so this one may decide to follow suit... but it would be ideal if this baby decided to plan his/her birthday in our favored window of time. The time in which my due date falls has become somewhat of a busy crazy time for everyone involved in the birth of this wee one. Jamie will be out of town in my 37th week, so baby would do well to stay put during that week... and today I found out that my doctor will be out of town during my 38th and 39th weeks... so it would be perfect if baby waited until 17th-19th so everyone including my sister can be around. BUT... it is what it is. Baby is going to come when he/she is ready, and we'll just have to be okay with that! :)

As far as my pregnancy goes, everything is going pretty well. My platelets are a little low, so I'm going to try a few dietary changes to try and get them up before I'm tested again in 6 weeks. I really don't want to worry about it, nor do I want to take medication for it. My weight is still at a perfect spot which makes me super happy. I think I've just now hit the 10 pound mark. I suspect my weight will probably start to increase in these last weeks as I retain water and baby starts to gain more weight. Either way it's still my goal to gain no more than 7 lbs in addition to what I've already gained which puts me at ten pounds less than when I delivered Annie. Healthy weight for sure!

Baby is doing really well, measuring perfectly. My dr has no concerns as far as my little one goes. We had a 3/4D ultrasound on Jeff's birthday, and that was really fun! Baby wasn't as cooperative as my other two were, but I suspect that's because the baby was really sleepy. We could all tell that baby just wanted to rest and snuggle in for a while. I have to say, this little one has quite the personality already. I thought for sure this little one was just a super active baby who just had more trouble entertaining him/herself in there. Not the case... baby was actively moving around during the ultrasound, but we could clearly see that baby was just trying to find the snuggliest position in which to sleep! This makes me hopeful that I'll have another snuggly baby. Annie enjoyed being tucked in snugly in her own bed rather than being held constantly... Joey would have been happy in my arms 24/7, but clearly that's a little difficult to do. So I really hope this baby likes snuggling a little more than Annie girl did. She's just super independent, and that's okay!

The one interesting thing we saw during our ultrasound was that baby was in the same position as Annabelle during her ultrasound. At first baby's feet were by my ribs, but by the end of it, feet were up in his/her face. I also got a great picture of baby sucking on his/her big toe! JUST like at Annie's ultrasound!!! It was crazy!! Baby also really enjoyed putting the cord in his/her mouth. I suspect this one might be my first binky baby... but we'll see. I wasn't planning on using those since my other two didn't like them, but I may change my mind. It was really a lot of fun to see our baby's face and compare the ultrasound pictures to Joey and Annie's. Baby seems to have a very sweet personality already. I just can't wait to hold my precious tiny baby!!

Anyway, things are still going really well. I'm still having lots of braxton hicks, and they're definitely increasing in frequency and intensity which is great. Just means my body will be nice and ready when the time comes. I'm starting to get worn out a little easier now, but all in all I feel like I have the most energy out of all three pregnancies. Maybe it's just that I'm forced to manage my time and energy more efficiently? I don't know. Either way, I've been prepping and getting things ready and figuring out what to buy before the baby comes. I'm also soaking in every minute of this pregnancy that I can. I'm really enjoying having this baby all to myself right now. It's a little hard for me to share when my babies are born... I've had them all to myself for 9 months that it's sometimes difficult to let other people have a turn. haha

Here are some pics from our ultrasound!