18w5d

Merry Christmas! I got to enjoy a nice long nap as my gift today and it was wonderful. Though now it has me wondering if I'm getting the bug that's going around...

The kiddos have had interesting things going on the past few days that makes me think they have a little stomach virus, and I haven't wanted anything to do with food pretty much for the past two days (even though I spent yesterday cooking and preparing for today... it's Thanksgiving all over again) and now I feel just plain awful. I don't know if it's the lack of food intake or something icky-I'm hoping I'll wake up in the morning good as new! If not... I'll be glad Patrick has one more day off work I suppose!

(And I must add... true love is your husband scrubbing the toilet at 11:30pm just in case you do get sick in the middle of the night-so you have a clean toilet to get sick into. Aww!)

17w6d

Baby went nuts after I had a brownie and ice cream tonight! It likes sweets, that's for sure. Felt kicking from the outside for the first time it was so strong :)

17w3d

Still no clear answers about my bloodwork but I'm not waiting around until my next appointment-sometimes I itch so horribly that my Jamberries lift at the edge! Not good for business, dear body.

I feel bad sometimes that there isn't anything to report on, but then I remember that that is a good thing. I've most definitely "been there done that" enough now to know what is going on, and I'm not going to constant appointments to be monitored-I'm so happy that I'm able for this to be so hands-off.

I've been finally able to feel the baby moving! It started last week-in week 16-and I can tell how incredibly busy this baby is going to be. I hope it's not an indicator of personality-I NEED more ham anything one child that is not incredibly high strung :) please baby-be it!

16w

I hate knowing that my bloodwork is back but I will have no idea what it says until tomorrow! After calling for over an hour and a half and getting no answer, I found out that OBGYN is closed Thursday afternoons for training. Don't they know I'm impatient?! Good thing I'll be up early in the morning anyway to continue the incessant calling-lets just hope that the doctor who ordered it is working!

15w4d

Yesterday I took my first halfway decent belly shot of this pregnancy. I feel so bad since I used to take the time to take decent shots-whoops. I'll probably do more when I'm bigger.

Today I finally had a doctor's appointment! It's strange actually having to wait 6 weeks in between but I'm glad because I'm welcoming a low-key pregnancy completely. I've gained a whole half pound (not surprised) and the heartbeat was at 154-156bpm. Today I also got my first "vibe" as to what this baby will be-I'm thinking girl, at least for today. People ask if we prefer one over the other and honestly absolutely the answer is no (and boy is there incredible peace in that-to be able to enjoy whatever comes!) the ultrasound was scheduled for January 3 so as long as baby is cooperative we will be finding out in a month.

Quad screen bloodwork was ordered today-I still need to go back to do it, the lab was very busy-as well as additional bloodwork the doctor requested to rule out some things with my odd itching problem. I've said it before and I'll say it again-there's nothing like leaving an appointment feeling like you've really been heard, especially with a seemingly "silly" problem. I'll get a call back about it as soon as its ready regardless-so hopefully I will have a solution that is more than just Benadryl soon!

15w

Last night I either felt a kick or was dreaming that I felt a kick. My intuition leans toward the dream. Though today I thought I felt a little movement. It would be about time for that-and I'm looking forward to it. It's very obviously one of my favorite parts of pregnancy.

My sciatic nerve is bothering me tonight since I carried Ava in the Ergo during our commissary trip today. My guess is that the first time I get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom it's going to be horrible. I think I'm going to have to stop wearing them... which is a massive bummer because that's how I get my shopping done! Adapt and overcome and start putting Maya in drop-in daycare for errand days.

14w

 Baby is the size of a lemon!

14 weeks today! I was hoping this far along would also make it easy to eat Thanksgiving dinner-not so. I had a crazy aversion to GARLIC of all things today-horrible because we put garlic in sooo much usually, and today was no exception-quite a few cloves between the mashed potatoes and the green beans. I'm not sure if I'll ever want to try those recipes again after this-whoops!

13w4d

I'm thankful for an uninteresting, uneventful pregnancy. As bad as I feel for this baby not having any "exciting" posts or things to write about-it's a tremendously wonderful thing as there are no problems and I can function as close to normal as possible... which is wonderful when I have to chase these three around every day!

As far as things going on, there's not much. I'm fine with not many appointments-it's not as easy as last time when we just dropped Maya off at the CDC. I feel normal-my energy level is picking up (I no longer require a nap just to get through the day-I'm going to make good of this time though because I know at the end the naps will come back) but my appetite, especially at night, is still bottomed out. Which explains why I haven't gained a single pound. It would be lovely to eat-especially since I'll be cooking a big Thanksgiving dinner in a few days!

My one ache (other than the intense food aversions to just about everything) is that my sciatic pain is already starting. It must just be super sensitive to change or something. It's worst when I've been sitting on the floor-which unfortunately is a lot!

And-it's a good thing we've spilled the beans because otherwise Maya would have by now. She talks about "my baby" all the time and asks if it's kicking yet-and she's convinced it's a girl. We will see soon enough!

12w2d

How in the world am I this far?! I'm not complaining though, especially since less nausea and more energy should be making its way back in my life very soon! I'm so ready. We had a pretty busy past week, followed by a loooong day yesterday and not much sleep last night (fighting Benadryl is hard!) and the longest day ever today-even the babies were asking to go to bed at like 4pm, it was a miracle that we got them to 7:30 so at least our morning (hopefully) wont be horrible. Thankfully the days that seem unending and impossible to get through are not that common-usually I can at least shut my eyes for a bit. I'm going to sleep well tonight I'm sure!

I am having the same problem as I did last time with horribly itchy legs. It's the worst at night but my legs are so torn up its miserable. I take Benadryl pretty freely so I can at least somewhat sleep-it was so awful when we were out of town last weekend and I woke up in the middle of the night just itching. Horribly. I sure hope this doesn't last the entire time!

10w3d

Definitely didn't miss the days of absolutely nothing NOT triggering nausea and the gag reflex! Today has been pretty rotten on that end of things... And now I feel horrible because I haven't eaten. Bedtime can't come fast enough!

10w

We finally had our first real appointment today! While the wait is hard, I know by now it's for the best.

Of course it took forever to get to the ultrasound. We went, had to wait a while, got my vitals, had to wait more, then they wanted to do an exam since I hadn't had one since just postpartum with the twins. My anxiety level was through the roof, as I know Patrick's was too-but it was pretty clear right away when she started that we were "only" blessed with one little bean this time (yay!) even though I definitely made her double check :) (And of course we'd be thrilled if we had two again-I just would never wish for another high-risk pregnancy AND it would mean that we would HAVE to sell our house-about a month before my due date so we wouldn't be penalized-and would have to upgrade to a different van. So we're thrilled that this will be "easy" this time-I can't wait to remember what it's like to only have to meet the needs of one baby at a time!)

We told Maya when we got home and she was completely underwhelmed. I should've known, as it was kind of a bad time to begin with, and she tends to react really strangely to things we think she'd be thrilled about. Now she's excited and keeps putting her hand on my belly asking if she can feel the baby kicking yet which is sweet.

Here we go now! We'll slowly tell family over the next week or so and then announce it (and publish these posts) in a week and a half or so. It's definitely going to be interesting to see the general reaction!

9w6d

Today I was getting ready for the day, and had a tank top on, but no shirt yet. Maya walks up to me, looks at my belly (which is about eye level for her) and asks me if there is a baby in there. Floored, I asked her what she thought-and she laughed and said "oh! That's just food!" (We often talk about how the babies' bellies get so big after they eat.) Ha, kid!

8w4d

How in the world am I this far along already?!

I've still been feeling pretty lousy lately, but that's good I suppose. Not good for my house, motivation, or things Patrick has to do, but good for baby!

I went in this morning for my nurse visit-thankfully they let me do the "you have lots of kids already" abbreviated version-I didn't have to sit through the class, just filled out the paperwork on my own and met briefly with the nurse, and had many viles of blood drawn-and was turned down for an early ultrasound (womp womp). I know the next week and a half will fly though and we'll be finding out if my hyperovulation gene kicked in again before we know it-I can't wait!

8w

8 weeks today! I've decided to do weekly pictures a little different this time-going along with the weekly "how big is baby" comparisons with the kiddos. Of course Maya had no idea why she was holding this kidney bean, little did she know her future brother or sister is that big this week! I hope everyone enjoys the pictures because I'm sure not going to work on them all being posed. If they are all in the shot and you can see the item of the week, that's good enough for me!

I'm still feeling sick, especially at night, and I'm still unbelievably exhausted. Nothing new. I'm starting to get a little antsy for my nurse visit and bloodwork and everything since it's only a few days away now. Still not sure when we're going to tell everyone either-it almost still doesn't feel real just because we don't talk about it here because of Maya or out because no one knows!

7w2d

Yesterday I felt wonderful! I had energy (and didn't nap during the afternoon when I could have) and my nausea was gone-and I actually thought about eating chicken for dinner. Why I didn't think to take advantage of that, I have nooo idea...

Today I'm back to feeling kinda rotten. Good rotten, since I know this won't last and that sick means safe, but woosa! When the twins were born I'd make sure to take it one day at a time-which honestly, mentally, worked great. Now I'm taking it a half day at a time-morning wake-up till naptime and post-naptime till bedtime (thank you, babies' new rise time... Eeeehhh!)

6w4d

The nausea and food aversions have definitely begun! It hit around Saturday (6w4d) and is going strong. I'm exhausted, partly because the babies are horrible sleepers right now due to the lack of crib rail (silly climbers) so it's a really fun early first trimester! :)

6w

What a raging hormonal day. I feel like I usually do during the nasty raging postpartum period!

In other news, baby has a heartbeat this week :)

5w2d

I am so unbelievably tired. I forget how exhausting growing a person can be... Plus this time we have three under four! (What were we thinking?!)

This has been the quietest pregnancy yet. This time the situation surrounding it was different, for one, and it will be baby #4 so it's nothing new (sorry baby! Just think of it this way, you won't be a guinea pig!) I am anticipating only a week or so more of this though, if this is like the others I better get my eating for the next few months in now!

3w4d

Surprise! #4 is in my belly!

It's no secret that Patrick and I love being parents. Sure, it gets frustrating at times/most days with what an intense first child we were blessed with, but of course we wouldn't trade a bit of the craziness that is our house for anything. Would I love to have the babies a wee bit more self sufficient? Sure! But that's right around the corner. So what do we do? Decide it may be an ok time for the next one!

If you read back far enough, or if you know me, you know all I have wanted was an unstressful #4. Getting pregnant with Maya and the twins was so hard-all I wanted to do was one day discover that oh, I'm pregnant! It didn't quite happen like that, but we were so blessed enough to have it happen this easily this time. On the other hand, I do have anxiety over it for some reason-maybe since a positive test is usually the end of a hard road, or that I know what some people will say behind my back ("MORE kids?!" to which I say-our life, my womb, the Lord said to be fruitful and multiply. My womb apparently likes being fruity) or the fact that people I love so dearly are walking down the same road we once traveled and I feel like this is unfair-I can't totally be happy for myself. Mind game!

I think I'm going to play the waiting game (for real this time) with going to Naval for my test. I'm not sure if they'll scan me early or not, too, since I'm at such higher risk of having multiples again since A&P were spontaneously conceived before. We shall see. Yay I'm pregnant!