Our first three weeks...

Since my due date has come and gone, I've been reflecting a lot on the last few weeks... and even still on my delivery.

Something I've come to realize is that labor doesn't have to be crazy painful... Maybe I legitimately lucked out and the pain was really not as bad as last time. But I truly believe that learning to get yourself into a deep focus on relaxation, you allow yourself to go with the contractions rather than fighting them. That can make a huge difference in the level of pain you experience during labor. I'm thinking that my intense focus and relaxation was probably why the lady at the front desk took her sweet time checking us in. Nobody realized how close I was to delivery... Not even me! I took us all by surprise! I really think that I experienced far less pain this time than when I delivered Annie. I did not fight my labor with Macie whatsoever, and even pushing wasn't as painful. It was more work than anything else... I don't remember experiencing an intense amount of pain during the pushing stage, and that was truly amazing to me... even in the moment I remember thinking that it hurt worse last time. Obviously I'd be lying if I said it was completely painless, but for some reason it was far less painful than my last delivery. The contractions felt worse than the pushing stage, quite honestly!!

SO.... here's to all the moms out there about to give birth... My best advice to you if you're attempting a drug free delivery, don't fight your contractions. Focus on enjoying them... Ina May said it so perfectly in her book when she said something to the effect of, "You only get to experience labor so many times in your life, might as well enjoy it!!" Basically, try and keep things light. Don't worry, you will have moments of panic, that's normal, but it really does help you to relax if you focus on enjoying your labor! Also, it's a good thing to practice relaxing every muscle in your body before you go into labor. I found this REALLY helped me a lot. When I labored that last little bit in the car, I focused on literally turning into a blob. Relax yourself into a blob-like state... Seriously it works. Anytime I noticed myself tensing up anywhere, I noticed my level of pain increasing... so as hard as it was sometimes, I made myself relax wherever I was tense. Practice this!! It's very beneficial. Otherwise, just pray and encourage yourself. That's important too. Oh... And read some books! I highly recommend "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth," as well as her other book "Spiritual Midwifery." They are very hippy-ish reads, so remember that going into it, but they have so much good information packed into them.

As far as our first three weeks have gone, let me just say that I'd be lying if I said it's been easy on us. It hasn't been ridiculously difficult by any means, but I've really had a lot of challenges... mostly with making sure I relax, don't overdo it with the housework and taking care of the big kids, and getting enough sleep. Oh yeah... and that part about my kids really acting out.

Don't get me wrong, my kids aren't being total terrors, they just aren't themselves and that's to be expected. Joey has taken on an "authoritative" type role with his sisters... It's great that he takes it upon himself to help me, but sometimes he's been a little too helpful. Like when it comes to disciplining Annie (which usually ends in a big brawl, some time in "time out," and even some toys being taken away) or when he decides to help with the housework (which usually ends in a bigger mess for me and a very irritated mama which makes me feel like crap because he was only trying to be helpful)(poor guy... bless his sweet heart!!). Anyway... Joey absolutely loves our new baby, but he really needs to let mommy handle the parenting. Annie however, while she absolutely adores our new baby, she is clearly struggling with sharing her mommy. Totally understandable, and I expected that. I just didn't expect it to be so hard on me.

That's a whole other struggle... my emotional stability. Yes... I'll say it... I may have been a little unstable at times and can snap very quickly and easily. I try to remain calm and patient, but it really irks me when I'm feeding the baby and all hell breaks loose when there's nothing I can do about it and Jeff isn't home. Not fun... and then I feel terrible for over reacting and turning into a basket case. My poor kids. They are so forgiving of me. I just love them so so so so so much, and it hurts when I feel like all I do is discipline and say "no" all day long.

There are parts that have been easier for sure... obviously caring for baby. I have a lot more patience for that this time around, and I feel very confident in my ability to care for a newborn, so that helps a ton. I have also found it easier to transition because I recalled a few things to expect to happen again. For example, feeling like I'm neglecting my older kids. Going from total attention on my big kids, to almost complete attention on baby sometimes hurts my heart and I feel like I'm ignoring my other little loves. That really really hurts, but remembering that I felt like that last time and everything turned out totally fine has really helped me to cope. Also, when I was pregnant with Annie, I worried so much that I was taking away the special time I had with Joey and giving it all to Annie.. Then I also worried for some reason that I wouldn't have the same affection or relationship with Annie. That...my friends.... Is a ridiculous thing to worry about. None of those worries were worth my time, because no matter how many children you have, you truly love them all the same. Your heart just grows each time another baby is born. It's incredible. Soooooo anyway...remembering those things and going through the transition last time definitely helped me prepare for a smoother transition this time.

All in all, I really can't complain. Yes, it's been tough, I'm absolutely exhausted all the time, there isn't enough time in my day, my house work has taken a back seat, and I'm struggling to keep up with the cooking. Oh yeah, I'm lucky if I can get a shower by 1pm anymore. But... There are a lot of things that have been easier just since I now have a bit of experience under my belt. Practice makes perfect, that's for sure.

Breast feeding is also going a lot better this time. Macie has not had a bottle yet which is a huge accomplishment for me, and she seems to be getting plenty of milk from me which absolutely wasn't the case the last two times I've been down this road. I'm feeling very good about things, and I hope we can make it another month before trying a bottle.

Anyway... That's where things are at for us. Going fairly well! Still taking it one day at a time. Hopefully we will continue to find more balance in the coming weeks. In the mean time, I will continue to bask in the blessings that God has given us, and just enjoy life! Thanks for reading my dear friends! Hope everyone is having a blessed beginning to this wonderful fall season!

PS- I apologize for any errors or funky auto corrects. I'm on my phone because my computer is always dead.

Macie Lee's Birth!!

I am still having a hard time believing that I have another baby girl in my arms right now!! At 3:35 am on August 31st, 2013 an intense sweetness filled the delivery room as I brought a beautiful baby girl into the world!! She was 6 lbs 8 oz, 19.5 inches long, and wow did she make an entrance... A lot of people have been wanting to know the details, so I'll lay them all out now.

Not going to lie, everything about this delivery caught me by surprise. People are going to think I'm ridiculous for saying this, but part of me felt a little cheated initially because I hardly had time to process that I was even in labor until it finally felt real to me about 30 minutes before Macie was born. Also, I was not at all expecting to start labor until at least week 38-39... My doctor did tell me that he didn't think I'd make it to 38 weeks, but I really thought he was going to be wrong about that. Needless to say, I was very caught off guard when it really did happen that early!!

I had spent so much time in the months leading up to that moment, just preparing and praying... and envisioning how I wanted everything to go. For some reason my anxiety about giving birth again was extremely difficult to handle. The one thing I prayed for consistently was that God would bring me faith. Faith that He would have His hand on us, and that He would bring me peace and comfort that everything would go perfectly as planned. Why I was so anxious about it? I have no idea. But He sure brought me faith... not only in Him, but literally.

So... sometime around 1:15 am on the 31st, I woke up feeling a slight "trickle" and I thought maybe I was peeing... or that maybe my water was breaking. As I walked to the bathroom, it became evident that I didn't have much control over keeping this fluid in... Confused by the small amount and the fact that there wasn't any more leaking, I called Jeff and told him that my water may have broken, and to be ready to leave work in case things started to pick up soon. I called his mom (Jill) and sister (Jamie), unsure of a course of action at that point. We decided to go ahead and call labor and delivery to see what to do since SUPER mild contractions had started about 25 minutes after I suspected my water had broken (around 1:40 am). They started out about 20-30 seconds long and about 1.5 minutes apart. They were so mild that they required no focus or attention whatsoever. (I was literally standing up in the bathroom doing my hair while having these contractions). When I made the call, the nurse wasn't quite sure what to have me do other than to wait it out, see if contractions started coming on stronger, longer, and closer together, or if more fluid started leaking... I told her over the phone when I'd have contractions, so we both thought maybe it was still pretty early if it was indeed labor... and typically when one's water breaks it will continue to gush out during a contraction or when baby moves. That did not happen for me at all because Macie's head basically acted as a cork which was why I was so confused as to whether or not my water had broken.

I got off the phone, called Jeff and his mom and told them I would wait for about 20-30 minutes (until around 2:15am-2:30am) and see where things were. Well... needless to say I decided if things were getting real, I better get my crap together. So, after doing my hair, throwing stuff in my bag, getting things out of my car, and tidying up a bit, my contractions started becoming more noticeable. By the time I had everything together they were stopping me and demanding that I at least breathe through them. A great sign that labor was beginning... however, their timing was still so off. They lasted about 45-50 seconds at that point, and were about 2 minutes apart. Mine were getting longer, stronger, and further apart... weird... nothing like my previous labor.

At about 2:25 am I decided it was probably time to get checked out, despite my desire to wait it out for contractions to get into a more regular pattern. They were definitely uncomfortable and required some focus, but they weren't anything like I remember them being when I was deep in the throws of labor land with Annie. Regardless, I felt like I needed to be safe and get antibiotics going (I was GBS+ this time), and I think everyone else felt better about going in as well. With my last labor being around 4 hours, it was a good idea to be cautious. So I called Jamie and Jill and they arrived a few minutes later. Jeff's dad also came up to stay with the kids so we didn't have to wake them up, which was soooooo awesome!!

So off we went... I sat in the back seat with Jamie, who was a wonderful personal assistant... making phone calls, timing contractions, giving directions, she was awesome! We got about halfway to Monroe before the contractions started getting pretty intense. They weren't super consistent yet (they were getting there), ranging from 4-5 minutes apart I believe, but they were consistently around 90 seconds long. I had also noticed a bit of nausea and shakiness... that gave me some anxiety because I hate throwing up, especially in the car, and ESPECIALLY in labor. At that point, I decided I didn't want to be checked for dilation because I didn't want to be disappointed if I was only 4 cm and that uncomfortable already, and I didn't want to introduce bacteria to the baby if my waters had really broken. When the water bag is no longer in tact, contractions are typically stronger than when the water bag remains intact, so that made me nervous that I was in for a longer more intense labor this time.

I continued laboring by leaning over the back of the seat on my hands and knees, breathing through the contractions, all while focusing on relaxing every muscle that I could feel getting tense. Tension=pain... This really helped a lot... made things manageable. By the time we got outside of Monroe, I could feel the baby's head descending which caused a lot of pressure. I felt this more and more with each contraction. I was really starting to get a little nervous that my labor would drag on and the pain would get unbearable... so I prayed that God would have mercy and make the delivery a quick one because I was starting to doubt my ability to birth naturally at that point. (Classic signs of transition by the way). I think since I was so focused on the job at hand and staying relaxed, I was unable to recognize how close I really was to being done.. I was shocked at how much better I was at staying relaxed this time.

When we pulled up to the maternity center, Jeff was waiting at the door, and I think Amber (friend and fabulous photographer) was there waiting too. It got a little foggy at this point because things got really intense crazy fast... so my account may not be completely accurate. I grabbed my phone, got out of the car and raced through the doors in order to beat the contraction that was coming on... I may have had a mild melt down because I didn't remember where to go at that point and I didn't want to have a contraction right there in the lobby, but a nurse came out and I bolted over to her. I totally forgot we had to check in, so that kind of pissed me off a little bit that we had to stop. (Just as a reference, we checked in at 3:29 am). I felt really bad for the lady at the desk because I got a bit snippy with her.

After I made it through a couple contractions and scribbled on a consent form, they asked if I needed a wheel chair. Ignoring her question, I just asked for a room number... So Jeff answered for me and said we'd better get a wheel chair. Again, I asked for a room number... as she told me, I saw someone with the wheelchair coming down the hall in the distance, and I did not feel like waiting. I asked the nurse where to go and I was gone. I went in, hopped up on the bed, had a really tough contraction, and then the nurse asked to check me and see if she could monitor the baby for a minute. I was reluctant to say yes, but I felt a lot closer at that point so I consented to the cervical check. Sometime in there, I asked for a shot of nubain and for someone to run me a bath so I could maintain some sanity. It was really getting intense... Monitoring didn't really happen at that point, and when the nurse checked me and said I was at 7 cm, I was slightly irritated. I also decided that laying on my back was totally not happening... I could feel the baby's every move and it made the contractions far more painful. So I flipped back over on my knees, leaned my head against the back of the bed, and continued focusing on relaxing and letting the contractions do the work for me. It felt ten times better that way.

Not more than a minute or two later, my body started pushing... which was crazy because the nurse had JUST told me I was 7 cm... So somehow I went from 7 cm to complete in just a minute or two. So... I pushed. Nothing was ready, and I'm pretty sure there was a lot of scrambling going on behind me, but as the nurse asked me to try not to push, out came her head and soon to follow was the rest of her body.  So, at 3:35 am (6 minutes after arriving at the hospital!!) we had our second baby girl! Most amazing feeling of relief ever in my life. I think I sat there on my knees for a second, completely in shock. Macie had the cord wrapped once around her neck, so the nurse unwrapped the cord and I think she rubbed her down a bit to get her to cry and start breathing before handing her up to me. As soon as I had my baby Macie in my arms, the only thing I could do was laugh and cry at the same time... I could not believe that had just happened so fast. Seriously, nothing was set up, there were two nurses in the room, and no doctor in sight. It was awesome! A very beautiful moment! I loved that they let us just sit and soak in the moment before checking me over after birth.

Seriously, looking back, I couldn't have asked for a better experience. It was too much to process in the moment, but it was great having the opportunity to allow everything to happen completely naturally and to be able to do everything I needed to do to make myself the most comfortable. It was my birth center type experience in a hospital. It was truly amazing. I had so much love and support in the room, and that made it so much more special.

After a few minutes, the doctor came in and examined me. This part was not at all fun. Since I have a history of excessive blood loss, they decided to play it safe. The nurse gave me a shot of pitocin to keep contractions coming and to help keep my uterus nice and firm. After the placenta was delivered, the doctor had to remove a clot which was very painful, but as soon as she had the little bit of bleeding under control I was able to relax and enjoy our new baby.

As soon as she left, the nurses got everything all cleaned up while we all got a good look at our little princess. It was such a sweet time. I will never forget how crazy awesome that night was... Quite a story indeed. God was sooo good to me. He truly answered my prayers for mercy... as well as my prayers for faith. Not only did my faith grow in Him, I found out later that the nurse who delivered Macie was named Faith. I couldn't believe how crazy awesome that was. That delivery could not have gone more perfectly.

All is perfect in our little world right now. It feels like Macie has been here forever. Can't imagine our family without her. The kids are really loving their new sister! Joey is very excited about her. Annabelle was a little unsure about her initially, but she warmed up to her very quickly and is such a great sister. I feel so incredibly blessed to have had such a great birth experience. I'm just so in awe of how God designed our bodies to bring these precious tiny humans into the world. It's absolutely amazing to me. Almost two weeks later and I'm still enjoying this birth high!

Anyway... there you have it!! Macie Lee's crazy awesome birth!! Thank you, friends, for following my updates and being so excited with me. It's so much easier to get through pregnancy and birth knowing you have so many behind you who love and support you. I'm truly grateful for everyone who helped me throughout the last 9 months, but I am the most grateful to God for bringing me through my third pregnancy with good health and a healthy little baby. I am so incredibly blessed. Thank you for reading my friends!! God bless you!!

PS- Stay tuned for my delivery picture post!! Don't worry, I'm not posting graphic images... just the modest ones, as well as the first pictures of our little Macie Lee. SO excited to share them!! :)

37 week update

Well... at this point, our baby watch is now in effect! :) So exciting!! I cannot wait to meet our little peanut. It's hard for me to believe that it's already that time in my pregnancy. It really has flown by so so fast and it's very bittersweet. I've truly enjoyed this pregnancy the most out of all three. I've been super healthy, my weight gain is still under 15 pounds, and despite a couple of discomforts I've had to deal with, I've felt really good.

I still have my little worries that I'm trying to let go of... the first being that my platelets are still low. Apparently my doctor has it in my chart to redraw at delivery for some reason unknown to me. I totally forgot to ask why, so that will be something to ask at my next appointment (with a different doctor)(Dr. Hyde for those of you who might know him)(My doctor is going on vacation next week... of course). Dr. Cook did give me a little piece of mind and told me he didn't think my platelet level would cause a problem during delivery. So that made me feel a little better that no intervention is necessary for that.

Today's appointment went pretty well. Baby's measuring perfectly, still head down, and heart rate was nice and strong. Couldn't be doing better in that respect! I'm growing a very healthy baby here. Baby's still up pretty high in my rib cage right now though... so I'll be doing my best to try and coax the baby down up until delivery.

I've started to notice my braxton hicks contractions getting increasingly uncomfortable lately... and I have made a bit of progress, so that's all good stuff! I'm currently 3 cm and 50% effaced. Strangely enough that's exactly what I was at the same point in pregnancy with Annabelle... down to the day even! (I'm glad I recorded everything about her pregnancy! It's nice to have a reference point.) So needless to say, (and it's not a guarantee, obviously) I'm thinking that things may pan out to be similar to my last labor and delivery. We will see. Every pregnancy and delivery is different, so I'm not getting my hopes up for anything at all, including more progress before labor. While it's really nice to progress a bit before labor starts, women can still have very quick deliveries even without a lot of progress prior to the onset of labor. I also want to note, I know there are a lot of opinions about being checked for dilation before labor begins... I'm well aware of my option to forgo these exams... especially since they've only ever offered to check my dilation. It's never been forced on me at all. Personally, I just like to know where things are at. I'm well aware of the fact that it really means nothing until labor starts... it's just a personal preference and that's okay. I'm very aware of all the pro's and con's to these exams, I simply just like to know.

So anyway... Jeff and I decided since my progress happens to be the exact same as last time at this point in pregnancy, it would be extremely entertaining if this baby decided to arrive exactly when brother and sister did. They were both born 6 days early, on a Tuesday, at 7:50 am. So weird! Oddly enough, if this baby were to arrive 6 days early, that would also fall on a Tuesday. It would be crazy if that happened again.

Anyway, that's about it for now. I'll update again in a week. Thanks for reading, friends! :)

Week 35

Although I'm not technically 35 weeks until tomorrow, I decided to post an update now since there won't be much to update on next week... considering I feel completely confident that I'm measuring perfectly and baby is doing just fine.

Recently I started noticing more frequent and stronger braxton hicks along with a few indicators that my body might be dilating. Both of these things are completely normal at this point, especially for third time moms, but when I started having more and more unusual aching back pain accompanied with some leaking fluid over the last couple days, I decided I better get things checked out today... especially since we're going on a short camping trip this week. (My pain was not crazy bad or anything... just enough to irritate me I guess). SO I called the on-call doc and she said to come in... of course. And the whole way I was kicking myself for calling because I felt silly and ridiculous... like I was probably just thinking into it too much.

When I finally got there, they got me right in and had me on the monitors... of course. Baby looked perfect, just as I expected, but they were fairly concerned about all the "contractions" I was having. They were the same braxton hicks I had been having, but they were consistently about 5 minutes apart... I felt minimal discomfort from them except for very mild cramps and mild aching in my back. I know what painful contractions feel like, and these were not even close to being painful.

They ended up running a couple tests and checked my cervix to make sure the braxton hicks weren't causing too much progress. I have not been the least bit concerned about early labor, or that baby would even come before 37 weeks, and I'm still not too concerned about it. But as of now I'm dilated 2cm, which is perfectly okay. My body is surely getting ready a little earlier this time, but baby's birth is definitely not imminent. My cervix was still completely closed at this point in my last pregnancy, so I was a little surprised to hear I had progressed at all. But, women do walk around like this for a while sometimes. I just hope baby hangs around at least for another 4 weeks. That would be ideal for me so I can have everyone present for the birth. I have to admit, it is kind of exciting that things are slowly starting to happen... Makes it feel real that baby will be here in the next month or so!

Anyway... they were very glad I ended up coming in though. They discovered I have a nasty bladder infection which they are treating with antibiotics. The dr said if I had waited a whole lot longer it likely would have caused an assortment of issues and spread to my kidneys which would have been very unpleasant. Sooo needless to say the discomforts I've noticed lately were from the bladder infection and should subside soon. I really didn't have much to complain about in the first place, just wanted to be sure that my symptoms were normal before we left town. Glad I went in and now I can enjoy the trip a little more comfortably. Everything pregnancy and baby related is still going quite well. I feel great considering I'm getting so far along now. Thankful for each and every day, and each and every moment of this experience. Anyway, thanks for reading friends! I'll update at 37 weeks. :)

Weeks 33/34

Well, I'm blogging from my phone... Unfortunately. My MacBook charger bit the dust so we have our phones and an iPad... Not my favorite pieces of technology.
Anyway, we have been super busy on the home improvement train. We painted the trim in the kids room, repainted the walls, and put up some really nice chair rail trim to separate the two paint colors. We liked it so much that we applied the same concept to other parts of the house. We have one wall left and our bedroom to do. Otherwise it feels great to have fresh paint throughout the house... As well as freshly painted trim and doors.
I'm not sure at this point if I've found extreme motivation, extra energy, or both. I'm leaning more toward extra motivation since I know it will be way harder to get this stuff done once the baby comes. Either way, our house feels and looks so nice!
Anyway, baby updates... Baby is steadily growing and getting more squished. I am really enjoying this part of pregnancy. Sure, there are normal discomforts that accompany this part, but I love feeling the baby move and feeling little feet in my ribs... As weird as that sounds. Baby also has a very consistent schedule, at least that I have noticed... As soon as the kids are up and Jeff gets home, baby is kicking away in there. baby is also very active in the evening when the kids have settled into bed. Hopefully this schedule stays when baby is born. Other than that, baby is doing perfectly fine in there and weighs roughly 5 pounds at this point. Baby is also head down at the moment and measuring perfectly.. Dr was able to feel the baby's head and bottom at my last appointment... And we even heard/felt baby's hiccups when my Dr checked the heart beat. So cute!
All in all, I am feeling great. I am starting to experience a little swelling here and there so I have had to watch my salt intake. I have also noticed a bit of mild heartburn if I eat or drink anything other than water within an hour before bed. Not much else to update on... Still watching my weight. I have gained about 12 pounds at this point, which is great. No complaints there. My Dr is pretty pleased by that.
I have to say, its pretty cute how excited Joey is getting. About a week ago, he told me the baby could stay in longer. So I asked when baby could come out, and he told me that when the school buses start coming back then the baby could come out. That probably sounds super random, but it was really sweet that he said that. A few months ago when he asked when the baby could come out, I wracked my brain for something to say which would help him understand when that point in time will be when baby is ready to be born. Since he doesn't yet understand seasons or the concept of extended lengths of time, I told him that the baby will be born in the fall... And the fall time is when the school buses come by our house again. So I told him when he starts seeing school buses again, then it means that the baby will be born soon. I couldn't believe he remembered that! It was so sweet that he remembered what I said and is already keeping his eyes open for the buses. So cute!
That's about it for now. Next appointment is in two weeks, then I start weekly visits! Its all coming up so fast! Thanks for following me, dear friends!

Just a sample of what we did... it's continued into the hallway, and we did the same thing in the kids' room but with a different shade of tan. I absolutely love it!

Just a little belly pic... 34 weeks 4 days. Excuse the workout attire... and the umbilical hernia. I've been trying to stay active in order to help baby get into the optimal position. I'm also hoping that if I keep up with my exercise I'll make a bit of progress before labor begins... that proved helpful last time. 

Weeks 31/32

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!!

Week 28/29/30

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!

My chubby little pumpkin

Baby's profile

Baby was turning away so here's a good one of his/her shoulder.

Baby sucking on his/her big toe!

Hands in face.

Grabbing his/her wrist

Cute little hand!