thirty-two weeks | baby five

I really can't believe I'm already 32+ weeks.  Saw my doctor yesterday for a regular check-up yesterday.  All is looking well.  I'm measuring a week ahead, but she also noted it was difficult to really find the top of my uterus because baby girl was so high up.  She seemed surprised, but girlfriend is still head down so I'll take it!  My blood pressure still looks good.  For now we have scheduled an induction for 39 weeks, which by her calendar is January 12th.  Less than seven weeks until I'll have a newborn in my arms.  And reality is she could come in as little as 4.5 weeks.  Oh man...

how far along:  32 weeks + 3 days (compare to 32 weeks with Ryann, Elsie and Thea)

size of baby:  A Florida pomelo? I don't know what that is.  Possibly close to 18 inches long and about four pounds.

weight gain: +26 pounds the last time I checked over the weekend.

maternity clothes: Yes, and I swear I don't have any comfortable pants at all.

symptoms:  Restless legs, exhaustion and occasionally hormonal.  But none of that has been too bad.  My back muscles have just been getting incredibly tight.  Overall I can't complain too much, but I do long to remember what it feels like to not be pregnant.  Lol.

exercise:  Walking walking walking.  Not as much as I'd like because I haven't been sleeping as well so I can't always get up before the kids to get on the treadmill.  Still managing 90,000-100,000 steps a week.

cravings/aversions:  Something that I don't have to cook myself?  But nothing too heavy.  Food is just irritating.  Not a lot sounds good, and having to make anything really drives me nuts.

movement:  She is pretty much insane.

sleep:  I had a few really really rough nights.  So I took benadryl a couple of nights.  Last night and the night before I woke up once to go to the bathroom, but managed to quickly fall back asleep.  So that is nice.  But I usually have a headache in the middle of the night when I wake up which is just annoying.

gender:  Girl

looking forward to:  Lots of things.  I'd say there are more things that I am anxious to get accomplished than actually looking forward to.  I want to get Christmas gifts wrapped and cards made and mailed.  I need to finish organizing the big girls' room and buy a mattress for Thea's new bed.  I need to order the wall paper for the nursery and I can't wait to get that set up.  But to be perfectly honest I fantasize about when I can crawl in my bed and lie completely on my stomach.  No joke.  Ask Christopher.  I talk about it all the time.  I'm 100% a stomach sleeper and I miss it so so much towards the end of pregnancy.

worries:  I've started to worry a bit about the whole labor and delivery process.  Overall, I assume it will go pretty much as it has with the last three girls, and that isn't a big deal at all.  I'm more worried about something throwing me a curve ball, needing a c-section, something popping up that I'm not at all prepared for.  But I'm sure we'll survive.

best moment this week:  Chris's aunt gave me the blanket she crocheted for baby girl and it is so pretty.  I love it.  A little sneak peak...

Also we haven't told the girls the name we've chosen yet, and it is driving Ryann crazy.  Ryann said something about baby sister this morning, and then she followed up with "Ugh! I can't keep calling her baby sister!  I need to call her by HER NAME."  Lol, poor girl.  I'm waiting until the Trendy Timber sign I ordered comes in.  Do a little reveal.  But on the bright side I know Ryann likes the name so she'll be happy.  :)

my photo from 31 weeks

thea says

Me:  "Do you see the moon up there?"
Thea:  "Yeah, I wike it.  It's pitty awesome."

Me:  "What do you want to wear today?"
Thea:  "I want to wear a pitty dress!  I want to pin and twirl in it!"

Me:  "I love you Thea!"
Thea:  "I love you so much mama."
Me:  "I love YOU so much!"
Thea:  "Thanks mama."
Me:  "You're so sweet."
Thea:  "I not sweet.  I toot (cute)!"

Thea:  "Hey!  I've got a gweat idea!"

I've had most of those in a note on my phone since September.  To be perfectly honest I still can't understand what Thea says half the time.  She isn't 2.5 yet so I shouldn't be all that worried, but she talks so much that her inability to enunciate words is relatively prominent.  The other morning Chris and I were chatting before he left for work while Thea was sitting in her high chair with her breakfast.  She kept repeating the same thing, and I swear it sounded like "I want Sarah."  I wasn't sure who or what she was talking about, I thought maybe the dinosaur vitamins that we had a while back and the triceratops perhaps?  So I kind of nodded, brushed her off, etc.  I was getting frustrated that she wasn't eating her breakfast, we needed to get dressed and get moving.  Just as Chris was walking out the door, I finally got it.  "SYRUP!  You want some syrup for your waffle."  "Yes.  I want 'sarah'." It sounded so much like she was saying Sarah.  I gave her some syrup and the kid proceeded to chow down on her breakfast.  Mom fail.

A couple of other great phrases that Thea has picked up include "Just weave me awone!" and "Just don't talk to me wight now!"  Thank you, older sisters, for teaching her those.  Oy.

Overall Thea has become quite the stubborn, intense (for lack of a better word) child the last few weeks.  Tuesday night we had quite the 45 minute battle at bedtime, because she wanted to sleep in the Elsa dress-up costume.  Now normally I don't really care what my kids wear or sleep in, but in this case the sleeves were scratchy, and the cape could actually be a hazard, so it just wasn't going to happen.  There was lots of screaming, flailing, trying to climb out of her crib, ripping off her pajamas, etc. etc. etc...  It was rough.  Finally when she was somewhat calm she decided I needed to change her diaper.  The dang thing was dry, but at that point I did not want to set her off again so I changed the stupid thing.  The kid then rolls over and tells me she is going to sleep right there on the floor.  I may or may not have proceeded to tell her that was a bad idea because sometimes at night bugs come out and they would crawl all over her, but they don't crawl in the crib.  Mean mom much?  But it worked.  "I be safe in my cwib?" "Yes, your crib is safe." "The bug crawl on da floor, but not in my cwib?" "Yep, not in your crib." I felt like a jerk, but she got in her crib and went to bed after that.  You do what you gotta do?  Let's just hope she doesn't start having nightmares about bugs...

thirty weeks | baby five

 

Reality? I'm likely giving birth in eight weeks or less.  To our fourth child.  Is that not insane?  I'm in denial.  Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited, but we've still got Thanksgiving, my Dad's birthday, Christmas, and a million other things happening before baby and then all the sudden, BOOM.  It is going to be baby time.

I had my 30 week check-up yesterday.  All is well, I've been feeling good, my blood pressure was good (114/78), I got my rhogam injection, baby sounded great and is head down, and I was in and out of the office in about 25 minutes total.  Not too shabby.  I'm now on bi-weekly appointments.  The end of this pregnancy is going to fly by no doubt!

how far along:  30 weeks + 3 days (compare to 30 weeks with Ryann, Elsie and Thea)

size of baby:  A summer cantaloupe.  Likely around 17 inches long and near 3.5 pounds. 

weight gain: +24 pounds.  Hoping I can I slow the weight gain down as I finish out this pregnancy, but let's be real, Thanksgiving + Christmas...

maternity clothes: Yes.

symptoms:  For the most part it has just been restless legs and exhaustion, but yesterday and today my back has been hurting quite a bit.  It is frustrating, but I guess not unexpected.  I scheduled a prenatal massage in hopes that it will help, because I'm not quite ready to slow down and take it easy just yet.

exercise:  Still just walking, which is pretty much what I intend to do for the rest of the pregnancy.  I look back at my pregnancy with Elsie and seriously can't believe how much I was able to work out.  I know I do a lot more chasing kids around and stairs and such than I did during that pregnancy, but still.

cravings/aversions:  Nothing in particular.  Actually I've been dreaming about white cheese dip from El Mez for nearly two months, however I don't want to eat any other food from there and I have a feeling it would make me feel sick, so I'm trying to convince myself it isn't worth it.

movement:  I've gone from feeling regular movement to OMG she is trying to bust out of my stomach all the time in a matter of two weeks.  There are periods where she is just not still at all and I swear it is like a cartoon when an animal swallows something, and then it proceeds to toss him around from the inside.  Does that make sense?  Anyway, definitely not lacking any movement these days.

sleep:  I'm definitely needing more and more sleep to function well.

gender:  Girl

looking forward to:  Setting up her nursery.  We decided on a name, that I may or may not share before she is born, and we've slowly started towards getting all the rooms switched around.  I'm hoping once we actually make a room for her that it feels a little more real!

worries: In the last few weeks Thea has become quite the handful.  Stubborn and persistent and just a touch difficult to deal with at times!  She is a runner and does not listen to me in public and I'm terrified that when I have a baby in my arms she is going to bolt and there won't be a thing I can do about it.

best moment this week:  I can't think of anything specific pregnancy related.  My mom and I worked on organizing the playroom and that was rather satisfying.  Unfortunately we then moved everything out of Ryann's room so we could paint and start the process of moving Elsie in, so the house is still in shambles per the usual.  I think that is just our life now.

A few more photos from the last two weeks... The snuggles, my 29 week belly (apparently I've been wearing red lately?), and with Whit, who is due just a few days after me!  Her first babe came almost right at 35 weeks, and I've never made it to 40 weeks, so it'll be fun to see who delivers first.

twenty-eight weeks | baby five

how far along:  28 weeks (compare to 28 weeks with Ryann, Elsie and Thea)

size of baby:  A coconut, roughly 16 inches and about 2.5 pounds. 

weight gain: +22 pounds.

maternity clothes: Yep, and some of them are bordering on too short.  LOVELY.

symptoms:  Pretty much I just get tired easily, and my legs are restless.  Same old same old.

exercise:  Walking walking walking!  I've been shooting to get in 100,000 steps a week.  Helps that I've started binge watching This is Us while I'm on the treadmill.

cravings/aversions:  No super strong cravings or aversions that aren't typical for me.  I'm not craving sweets be we have so much crap around the house right now.  Loving that it is consistently soup weather now!

movement:  Reading my old pregnancy posts I don't think she is as crazy in there as her sisters were, but the movement continues to get stronger and stronger.

sleep:  I could always use more.  I took a nap this afternoon and woke up thrilled to go to bed tonight.  Haha.

gender:  Girl

looking forward to:  Picking a name.  I want to order a personalized sign for the nursery this weekend, so I am determined to decide.

worries:  Late term loss is always in the back of my head.  Also a little scared of how I'm going to get in and out of places with three to four kids in tow.  It is hard enough getting Elsie and Thea out of preschool when they have a ton of crap to come home with them.  We just have to survive January through May and then Elsie will be in kindergarten next year.  I can do it, right?  Right...

best moment this week:  Thea has taken to 'talking' for baby sister.  She uses this funny little voice and pretends to be saying stuff for the baby, or she'll tell me "Baby sister said...."  I love it.  I just can't wait to see Thea hold her, I think my heart is just going to burst.  Assuming Thea doesn't suddenly change her mind and decide to hate babies.

Chris and I had planned to go the pregnant housewife and milkman route for Halloween this year (because I stupidly got rid of my pumpkin shirt from when I was pregnant with Elsie, why?!?!), and then I realized how awkward that was to try and explain to Ryann and Elsie.  So we threw these outfits on last minute and called it good.  The girls were thrilled that I was Pikachu.  Lol.