16 weeks

Lovely picture.  I know.  Max is in Vegas so I had to set up the tripod and figure out positioning all by my lonesome.  My sons were no help at all.  So this is like take 5 and I'm kind of cranky and so you get this face.  If I can deal, so can you.

This was a slightly eventful week.  I had my doctor appointment this past Monday.  Cookie sounded very healthy and had a heartbeat at 153.  Little bugger was super active though and only would stay in one spot for about 3 seconds before you could hear the heartbeat fade away.  Then the doc would have to search for him/her again. I wonder if this is a preview of how active the baby will be once s/he is moving around. 

Other than that everything else checked out ok.  This was my first visit in the office so it was my initial OB appointment.  I had to have the regular tests done plus a couple extra since I am contemplating a water birth this time.  I really want to go all natural when I give birth to Cookie and I have heard a water birth is really helpful in dealing with the pain so why not.  I love baths.  Why not be in extreme pain while in a nice "relaxing" tub?

I also had to have my thyroid tested since I am experiencing hot flashes.  It is almost embarrassing to type that.  It makes me feel like I am in menopause which isn't embarrassing at all.  It is ridiculous to be embarrassed about that.  I am pregnant and it screws up your body.  Anyway, this is the first pregnancy I am experiencing hot flashes so doc just wanted to be sure everything was copacetic. I actually haven't gotten the result back yet.  Hmm, I was supposed to hear back within 24 hours.  I'll have to call on Tuesday.  I'm sure if something was really wrong they would call, right?  Dog gone it.

I'm disappointed by my weight gain.  I gained 59 pounds while pregnant with Dexter and 55 pounds while pregnant with Simon.  That's a LOT.  I didn't watch what I ate while pregnant with Dexter and so when I was pregnant with Simon I ate much more carefully.  Obviously it did nothing as I still gained that much weight.  I have been trying to be really mindful of what I am eating this time so I don't gain so much.  I thought I was doing extremely well but the scale said differently.  I am in no way going to tell you how much I have gained thus far but just know it's too much. 

Heartburn has also kicked in already.  The other night I was drinking water before bed and that gave me heartburn.  It's always so annoying when something like water gives you heartburn.  I don't get it all the time like you do at the end but it's started.  It's never started this early before.  What the heck. 

I had a scare the other night.  I woke up around 1am to some cramping.  It was coming in regular intervals and I got terrified that something was wrong with the baby.  I downed two giant bottles of water and laid on my side.  I know if you are dehydrated it can bring on contractions.  After 45 minutes or so it finally subsided, thank goodness.  It always amazes me how much you can love someone you have never met.  Nothing like a night like that to remind you how much you love the little miracle growing inside of you. 

15 weeks

It happened!  I felt little Cookie move.  The first time was on Sunday.  Technically it was when we were leaving the cabin and I was scolding Dexter for something, who knows what.  I was giving him the "I mean business" look and I felt that familiar flutter.  Of course, it was easy to pass off as something else especially since I was in the  midst of some stern parenting but on the way home I felt him/her again right where my seat belt was digging into my belly.  Cookie must not have liked how tight it was.  What a wonderful feeling.  I know what it feels like of course as I have had two kids already but to feel it again after so long, oh divine.  A real reminder that there is a miracle growing inside of me.  A whole brand new person, a mix of Max and I with a personality to be discovered growing and physically proving s/he is in there.  I can't get over it.  I just love it. 

I have felt Cookie several times since then.  Not every day and not often but still, sometimes.  That is enough for me.  I know that soon I will start to feel the baby all the time and near the end it will actually get painful at times but for now it is enough.  I remember at the end with Simon, it felt like he would take his heel and bump it along all the ribs he could reach like a xylophone.  That hurt.

Other than that not too much new has happened.  It seems like the tiredness is finally wearing off.  I have stayed up until 10 several times this week.  I know, crazy!  I still need a little rest time in the afternoon when the kids go down for a nap but at least it's not so bad.  Good timing too because in a week I have two more kids starting in daycare and I will need my energy!

Max and I have not gotten too far with our baby names.  Well, we have the girls name nailed down but girls names are always easy.  The boys name, well, not so easy.  I have a deadline for us of 20 weeks.  This sounds ridiculous I'm sure but Max is an excellent judge of how people react to things so he correctly identified the sex of both Dexter and Simon by just reading the signs the doctor gave us while performing our 20 week ultrasound.  This might sound like a load of bologna to you but seriously, the kid is good.  I have absolutely NO desire to even have an inkling of what this baby is so aside from barring Max from the appointment, I told him he is not allowed to share his opinion with anyone, will write his guess down on a piece of paper which I will put away until after Cookie is born (then I can see if he was right again) and we have to have the names picked out.  I want no mind games going on thinking Max is just compromising on a name because he knows the baby is actually the opposite sex.  Nope.  So, we have 5 weeks.  I have the appointment scheduled and that is our deadline.  Hopefully we make it.  So far, it isn't going well.

You guys should see how big my stomach gets after I eat dinner.  Last night Max was chuckling at me and said, "You easily look like you could be 6 months pregnant right now".  It's ridiculous!  I like having a baby belly but this is making me feel like I will be so huge by the end that I will be stuck on the couch like a beached whale.

Now, I am no spring chicken.  I have been through this twice now so I don't need to hear any "you think you are big now!" stories.  I know I will get bigger.  I know I will get huge.  I know that my feet are going to swell and will fit into no shoes.  This is concerning this time around since I am due in February.  I was able to deal with flip flops for both my July baby and my October baby.  I don't think flip flops will fly for a February baby.

FYI- My pictures lately have not been good... I realize this.  I keep forgetting to see if there is a smudge mark on my lens and that's why the photos have been blurry.  Either that or Max has really forgotten his photo skills I taught him :)

14 weeks

The last week has gone by uneventfully. I am officially in my 2nd trimester. Already. I was hoping for that magical tired switch to finally be turned off but it's still on. I feel like I'm not as tired as I was but still tired. I have a hard time if I go to bed too late (aka 930) or if I don't get that small respite during the kids nap. obviously this won't happen all the time and I just have to deal with it. Perhaps the more kids you have the longer this particular symptom lasts. I will have to test this theory I guess when we continue on this baby making path.

Dexter still loves to talk to my belly and feels like he isn't REALLY talking to the baby unless my shirt is pulled up and my belly exposed. He says this means the "door" is open. Dexter really doesn't like shut doors so he assumes the baby doesn't either. He has also been pretty consistently telling us the baby is a boy now. Typical man, can't make up his mind.

  I can't sleep on my belly comfortably anymore. This seems really early especially since I am a stomach sleeper. I was able to last a lot longer with the other two. It is possible, yes, but not comfortable. I'll miss it very much.

I have made the switch into maternity clothes. I was not looking forward to this and still don't enjoy it. I am not quite big enough for them but my regular clothes are just too tight and uncomfortable. I also stretched out all my clothes when I was pregnant with Dexter and dealt with it but I have gotten new clothes since and I don't want to ruin them. I know I have said I look forward to the 20 weeks belly and I am still, for more reasons now, looking forward to it.

I spent some time with my little niece recently and it made me really look forward to having a wee little one around the house again. Yes they are more work but oh, the cuddles! I am having a hard time really believing that is in my near future. Obviously I know I am pregnant and we have started to get junk we need but to actually be around a baby was a different type of eye opener. Simon has just grown so fast it's hard to remember him as just a little one. Uh oh, I better stop there. I'll start to get teary thinking of my kiddos when they were babies.

13 weeks

The weeks are going by pretty quickly!  I just know this pregnancy is going to whiz by and before I know it this baby will be making his/her way out.  I can't picture having 3 kids yet so I'm glad there is time!  Plus, it will be winter when this baby comes and I'm definitely not ready for winter.

I'm having all the same symptoms as previous weeks... well ONE symptom.  Exhaustion.  Tired, tired, tired.  I can't get enough sleep.  I have never been blessed with the ability to take a nap so I need my 11 hours of sleep a night to make it though the day.  I also need the kids 2nd nap to be able to collapse on the couch and recover from the morning.  Every pregnancy you have the more tired you are it seems.  I remember being so tired when I was pregnant with Dexter and I couldn't even believe the lack of energy I had.  I spent so much time on the couch.  Now I look back and laugh at myself.  This brief amount of time I get to write this blog is about how much time I'll get sitting down until 2nd nap.

Max and I started getting some stuff for Cookie.  A couple weeks ago we bought a newborn stash of cloth diapers for Cookie so I suppose we started preparing then but this week we bought our new infant seat for the little mister/misses and we bought a new car seat for Dexter.  We plan on keeping our Camry and shoving everyone into the back seat so we needed to get some different car seats so they all fit.  Again, Max and I are on crazy pills.  Max is an incredibly gifted debater (especially against me, who cannot argue my side for anything) and he says that 2-3 car seats are going to cost us a heck of a lot less than a van.  I guess I can see the point in that. 

Anyway, so Cookie gets the Graco Snugride 35 in Orlando and Dexter gets the Diono Radian R100.  We will start with these two seats and hopefully one of the seats we already have will continue to work for Simon.  If not, well then I guess Simon gets a new seat as well.  All the research I did on 3 car seats in a small car showed that to have 3 seats across you need a Diono Radian.  It is the narrowest seat with the best safety rating.  Spendy freaking bugger let me tell you. 

I'm still waiting to feel Cookie for the first time.  I am thinking that the little bops I'm feeling is probably just my muscles stretching.  I'm excited because I felt Simon at 14 weeks so if that holds again, I only have to wait a week!  THEN things will really seem real.  Another little baby to cuddle and love.

My poor boobs only get an 8 month break from breastfeeding.  Poor things.

I feel like I'm quite big for 13 weeks.   I did a comparison of all the kiddos. I guess my uterus never gets a break either :)

12 weeks

Not too much new to report.  The first trimester is pretty boring isn't it?  Well, not if it's your first go-around but once you hit #3 it's boring. 

With the closing of the first trimester next week, I hope to report a giant increase in my energy and the need to sleep for 11 hours a night to be behind me.  I do daycare people.  These kids just don't understand I can't go go go for 14 hours straight.  Crazy buggers.  I'm so, so, so tired.  I could easily have fallen asleep a 1/2 hr ago.  I can't wait for this part to be over.

I swear, SWEAR sometimes I feel the baby but I tell myself there's no way.  It's way too early to be feeling this little one.  I felt Simon for the first time at 14 weeks.  I feel like it would be around the same time but if I keep feeling those little bops then I will just have to admit that I am feeling the baby.  I just really don't think I would so soon.

My belly- aka gut- seems to really fluctuate.  It's always bigger after I eat.  In my "reveal" on FB I looked gigantic.  I have had so many people comment on how large I looked.  I do believe it was all due to angle and the fact that I had baby in there and food baby in there.  We took the photo right after dinner.  I'm already looking forward though to the 20 week look.  That is always my favorite.  You look pregnant but are still cute pregnant.  You haven't quite reached huge pregnant but you can tell there is a baby there.  Plus the baby is moving much more strongly at that point and that is so much fun.

No cravings this week.  I made myself a chocolate shake yesterday with the Magic Bullet and that thing HIT. THE. SPOT.  I will probably be making one all the time now.  Cookie likes his/her sweets.

The name game sucks.  I'll leave it at that.