31.5 week crazies

I decided to treat myself to a bath since Jerad was home to do bedtime with the kids. When I got out I yelled downstairs for him to please bring me up a glass if ice water when he put Marshall to bed. A few minutes later he put him to bed and went back downstairs. 

I called down again about the water and he came upstairs again without any. At which point I freaked the heck out and snapped "for the love of God what do I have to do to get some effing ice water???" 

A look flashed across his face like "um, you're an insane pregnant woman, I don't even know what you're talking about, please don't start throwing things." He apologized and said he hadn't heard me then tried to make small talk and mentioned that I hadn't been in the bath long. At which point I snapped "I got too hot!" 

Then, bless his soul, he tried to point out that I could have added some cold water (will he ever learn to just smile and nod?!?) needless to say neither one of us are having good nights. 

But I finally did get my ice water.

I'm not usually a hormonal irrational person so I thought I should record it for future reference:) 

Pregnancy #3: Weeks 28-31

28 weeks

29 weeks

30 weeks

31 weeks

Getting bigger and bigger! This baby is sitting soooo low. I feel like she's much lower than the boys were at this point. I'm constantly having to pick up my belly and try to shake/pry her away from my pubic bone so that I can walk without doing a crazy waddle. She likes to grate against the right side which causes this really weird tingly/uncomfortable sensation. Traditionally 30-32 weeks is when I start flipping out that I look like crap and my body is falling apart, then I make more of an effort to not be a frump, start doing more prenatal yoga, and seeing the chiropractor which limps me through the next few weeks.

Honestly, at this point (31.5 weeks) I feel pretty good! I do want to start going back to yoga, especially since I have some sessions I paid for and didn't use up last time, and even though I don't feel like my body is breaking I want to get in at least 4 chiropractor adjustments before the baby is born. My midwife always says that chiropractor's babies "just fly out" so it certainly can't hurt. Mostly I'm just being lazy, for some reason the chiropractor is the only place I don't like taking the kids with me (unless they're getting adjusted too). I have no idea why. It's a kid friendly office, the Dr. has 2 young boys of her own. I think I just feel like it's such a relaxing treat and corralling the kids or trying to coerce them into sitting still the whole time mars it for me somehow. But I will because I want to start going BEFORE everything starts feeling like it's falling apart.

In lots of ways I feel like this is my easiest pregnancy yet, but in some ways I feel like it's the hardest. It's just a whole 'nother ballgame being pregnant and chasing around two small children! I'm so exhausted by the end of the day that I'm in bed before 9pm every night, and usually closer to 8. After the kids go to sleep I do a quick toy pickup, vacuum downstairs, try to run the dishwasher and washing machine, then plop in bed and watch some netflix/hulu before going to sleep around 9:30. For awhile I was having HORRIBLE pregnancy insomnia. Like, would be awake for 3+ hours in the middle of the night for no reason then wake up an hour early and not be able to fall asleep until 5 minutes before my 5:30 alarm goes off. Not fun. Luckily, that seems to have passed and for the most part I'm sleeping through the night now and not even having to get up to pee, and if I do I'm usually able to fall back asleep quickly. I don't really remember having this many sleepless nights with the other two, so I'm hoping they're over.

For awhile I was feeling mentally finished with working at my job and had no idea how I was going to make it. Getting the kids up, packed, and out the door early, then working all day and coming home and trying to stay patient and upbeat during 'the Witching Hour' of dinner, bath and bedtime usually alone because Jerad has been working cray-zay hours was really taking it's toll. If he's home, he's usually up till 1 or 2 am doing drawings for permits, or estimates so I don't want to ask him to help do chores, because then he'd be up even later. Then the last 2 nights he's been installing gas and electrical at someone's house until 3am, then midnight.I may have had one moment where I was almost in tears and told Jerad I was just going to quit my job and we could live in the new minivan down by the river. He pointed out that our river is an underground river so there's not even any water and I'd probably get bored pretty fast.

Actually, he tells me I should quit and be a stay at home mom all the time which really doesn't help keep me motivated to be working which is unfortunate because we need the money.

Luckily last week I had Monday off since I wanted to stay home to let the kids recoup from our busy Gilroy Garden's weekend, then my Thursday midwife appointment got canceled and I'd already made arrangements to pick up the kids and take off work early so I did and my "weekend" started at 1pm on Thursday. I'm taking off at 1 again today for the new appointment and Marshall's 3 year well-visit then Monday is a holiday. Just that little bit of extra time has really recharged me and I'm feeling like I CAN do this whole working full time/being hugely pregnant/caring for 2 toddlers thing awhile longer.But, I'm basically out of paid time off which sucks because I still have 6-12 weeks of pregnancy left then it seems like after I go back to work after maternity leave there's always things that come up for the first month that make me late/miss work. Oh well, we'll figure it out!

So, that's about all for now. I'm huge and uncomfortable, but not unbearably so. I feel like this baby will be coming early (Miller was 10 days early) because of the discomfort and how low she is, but logistically it would work out best for us if she's a little late. We haven't made ANY progress on the nursery in the last few weeks and I really want to get that done so I can start putting her things away. Jerad's Aunt dropped off a bunch of really really really cute girls stuff that they've been collecting (for awhile, she was convinced Miller would be a girl)... which I may or may not have modeled some of on Miller...

He was so excited and Marshall kept saying "Miller is Beautiful!"

Then someone Jerad has been working for offered to let me look through 4 huge bags of girly hand-me-downs so at this point we should have everything we need and more up through 18 months or so. When we found out we were having a girl and I talked about buying girl's things Jerad said "she can just wear the boy's old clothes right?" bwahaha. I've done pretty good with the shopping. I bought $50 of clothes at one consignment store (which were all marked down an additional 50%), then $60 at another (which were marked down 75%). So I've spent $110 on clothes (size 1-18 months), then everything else people have given us. She will definitely be fashionable!

Update on "The List"

About three months ago I shared with you The List of things I was hoping to accomplish before baby #3 arrives.

I swore that I wasn't going to start a bunch of new projects till we actually got some in process things FINISHED, and that I was going to try to stick to the list instead of coming up with more things to do. Well, that hasn't really panned out... but we are making progress! Here's the updated list with things that we've finished crossed off, and newly added items highlighted:

Home Improvements:

Family Room: $-$$
-Finish built-in (this gets 1/2 way crossed off because it's about 50% done)
-get new comfy sofa? (one of Jerad's customer's gave us an amazing leather couch!)

-artwork on walls (this one is also about 50%)

Laundry Room: $
-Finish walls/ceiling/counter
-Add shelves
-Paint

-artwork on walls

(nothing has happened in the laundry room. Which is hugely unfortunate because I do a LOT of laundry and it's driving me crazy)

Backyard: $$$$
-re-grade so it slopes away from house and has spot for pool/playground

-build new retaining wall against back fence (the structural part of the wall is up, it just needs to be faced in something that's nice to look at)

-build new retaining wall where the playhouse will be
-install paver patio
-set up above ground pool
-deck around pool?

-install drains
-sprinklers and grass area
-covered seating area
-spruce up dog area
-sand area for the kids with a covered area

-bbq area

-firepit area

-cut down huge silver dollar eucalyptus trees that are going to fall on our neighbor's house next time the wind blows.

-plant flowers in barrels or some dog/gopher safe containers.

-extend yard and build new fence

Nursery: $
-move clothes out of master closet to make room for "nursery"
-retexture and paint walls
-new light fixture
-crib (have)
-dresser (have)
-shelves
-glider? (have)
-wall art

Kids bathroom: $$
-tile floor

-fix hot water regulator
-refinish bathtub
-retexture walls
-paint vanity

-new light fixture

-artwork

Master Bedroom: $
-reframe windows

-reframe door
-paint
-finish bedframe
-paint dressers/shelves

-artwork on walls

Master bathroom: $-$$
-tile floors?
-new light fixtures?
-add toilet sprayer
-re-texture toilet closet
-paint

Kid's Rooms: $

-Move toddler bed from Marshall to Miller's room

-Move second twin bed to Marshall's room

-Replace Marshall's broken ceiling fan

-Add ceiling fan to Miller's room

-Move around wall hangings/artwork to work with new room layouts.

-Patch and paint holes where artwork used to be.

If time (please please please):
-re-frame windows/door in front living room
-paint living room
-paint staircase
-paint upstairs hallway

-artwork/pictures in hallway/stairway

 

To buy for baby girl:
-newborn and size 1 disposable diapers
-rock and play sleeper? (we don't really need this but I've heard good things and it'd be nice to have a portable place to put the baby down)
-toilet sprayer
-pack and play? (we have 2 but Miller will use one when we travel and the other one is a cheap POS that I want to throw away each time I try to open/close it so I'd love to replace it)
-humidifier
-white noise machine
-thermometer

-new Sophie

-pack of aiden and anais blankets
-clothes and headbands and a few pink dipes:)

It doesn't look like a lot, but I feel like we've accomplished something!  The nursery really is almost finished, we just need to paint then start moving in furniture. We've spent days on the backyard and I think we're done with all the stuff that has to happen before it starts looking like we're actually doing any work:) I've cleaned and decluttered the Master bedroom and Jerad should be able to reframe the windows and doors and patch holes to get ready for paint in just a few hours. I'm HOPING we can get it painted along with the nursery and our bathroom this weekend.

Jerad's dad said he'd paint our front living room area if he has time which would be AMAZING! It has vaulted ceilings and if we did it ourselves it would take forever. I'm a crappy painter, and Jerad hates painting more than anything... his dad is a professional painter so he'd be much much faster.

The kid's bathroom and laundry room's really need to happen. Like I mentioned before, we don't even use their bathroom and I really want to get them bathing in there and using it to pee and brush teeth instead of ours. The biggest thing that needs to happen is Jerad fix the faucet so that it can have warm water, but it would be really really nice if we can paint and replace the flooring in there too.

We just need more time (ha!) and money (ha! ha!). Oh well, such is life.

Traditionally I start to freak out around 34 weeks about there still being so much to do, so we still have about 3.5 weeks before I get to that point. I've also been going on a huge purging and decluttering streak and I think we're going to try to have a yard sale in a few weeks.

As far as things we need for the new baby, at this point I don't think we really need anything! At this point we have a ton of adorable clothes, cloth diapers (no girl ones yet:), baby carriers and blankets. There are things I want to buy but I feel like it's fun little things to be cute or make our lives easier, there's nothing that I'm stressing about having to have. I have changing pads and swings and all that kind of stuff from the boys. I'd like to get an infant carseat (Miller's was a gift from a friend that expires soon), but we have an extra convertible seat she can use if we don't. I preferred going straight to the convertible with Marshall, but now that we'll have three kids it'll be nice to be able to load one of them in and out of the carseat in the house then pop it in the car.

Happy Hollows and Gilroy Gardens weekend

Last weekend we took the kids to Happy Hollows and Gilroy Garden as sort of a last family "vacation" before the baby comes/Marshall 3rd b-day/Mother's day hurrah. We had been planning on driving to the hotel on Friday, taking it easy and playing in the pool, spending Saturday at Happy Hollows then Sunday at Gilroy Gardens. At the last minute I decided that I wanted to do Happy Hollows on Friday since they close early and it's not as big or fun as G.G. then spend Sat and Sunday at the Gardens.

The problem with this plan was we had NO time to get ready:) On Thursdays I work a 10.5 hour shift, and have to pick up the boys afterwards. I went grocery shopping on my lunch break for all the food we'd need for the trip, then after I got everyone home started packing and cleaning. Jerad was planning on coming home and helping me, but one thing led to another and he ended up working till almost 10pm.

I have this thing where I can't leave for a trip until things are CLEAN. So I was scrambling trying to change sheets on all 5 beds (Marshall has 2 beds in his room), clean all the bathrooms (WHY do we have three?!?), and catch up on laundry. The house is usually pretty trashed by Thursday. I get everything nice and clean on the weekend, then it slowly goes to hell during the work week as we run out of time and energy. Miraculously the kids were huge helpers and my energy help up long enough to get about 80% of what I wanted to done.

We had planned on leaving at 7am so we could be there about when the park opened at 9, but we ended up leaving at 8 because we still had to load the car, finish packing, and vacuum. Marshall was super excited and patient and we were able to drive straight there with only one quick pee stop.

We hung out at the park till they closed at 3. Both the kids had a blast!

 

Jerad and Marshall are in the back car

It was hot. I was feeling pretty huge and uncomfortable by the end. There was a huge difference between going last month and this month. I think part of it was also that I had such a busy day Thursday and never really any down time to re-coup. I had pretty much constant braxton hicks contractions (which is not unusual for me), but coupled with the heat and being on my feet all day... lets just say I was glad that they closed early and we got to head to the hotel:)

Our hotel had an awesome indoor pool and once we got there and had dinner, we swam for about three hours.

Our hotel room was perfect. We had a suite with a mini kitchen so I was able to refrigerate the groceries I brought, and the kids had their own "room." The bathroom was attached to our room so I didn't even have to worry about waking them up for my many late night I'm-pregnant-and-pee-every-hour trips. This was also the first time that Marshall slept on a fold out couch bed instead of in a pack n play. At home the kids have been out of cribs around 8-10 months, so it's always awkward convincing them to sleep in boxes (playpens) at hotels, but up until now it hasn't worked having them sleep in the hotel beds because they just want to wander around.

The next morning Miller woke up with AWESOME bed head. It was a perfect mo-hawk. The picture doesn't do it justice.

We had breakfast and headed to Gilroy Gardens. They were filming a commercial and asked if Marshall wanted to be an extra! He was excited because he got to ride the carousel over and over while they filmed:)

We spent the rest of the day going on rides.

We had been planning on staying until the park closed at 6, but the kids were getting grumpy by 4 so we decided to head back to the hotel a little early for a little rest and pool time. Marshall insisted "we're noooooooot tiiiiiiiiired!" but this is what they looked like about 5 minutes after we walked in the door:

We made dinner and spent a few more hours in the pool.

The next morning was Mother's Day. Jerad told the kids to watch TV and "let mama rest" while he went downstairs to get everyone breakfast. Marshall was like "YES! TV and breakfast is going to magically appear!" and Miller took that as an opportunity to play peek-a-boo.

We checked out about 10 and headed back to the park for one last day of fun. Both the kids were so excited when we unloaded them.

The park is seriously so beautiful. Its a huge botanical garden. The next picture is from the top of the Ferris wheel looking over the park. You can barely see all the attractions through all the trees!

They loved this spinning tub ride. They both worked together to spin it and just laughed hysterically the entire time. So sweet!

30 weeks pregnant with all my babies!

On this little race car ride as the kids were all getting loaded on Marshall screamed out "Drivers! Start! Your! Engines!" courtesy of the movie Cars.

We finished up the day with a Garlic Dance Party.

And we were on the road at about 5, and home by 7. It was a busy 3 days but so worth it! And I'm so glad we had one last adventure as a family of 4 before we learn to adjust to being outnumbered by the kids and before I get too pregnant to still enjoy myself:) Knowing us I'm sure we'll have a few more little trips before the baby comes, but if we don't I'm glad we made these memories now.