H3: The First Trimester

Right, so I'm pregnant. Again.

Friday November 9th I was cleaning out my bathroom cabinets and found some old pregnancy tests. So of course, I decided I better take one right away. Honestly, I have no idea why. I wasn't having any pregnancy symptoms, had only had one period since having Miller, and wasn't even late for another yet. Surprisingly, the stick slowly turned pink. So I promptly chugged a bunch of water, and peed on another one which was an even darker positive.

I then immediately texted my friend Beth (I think she's been the first to know about each of my pregnancies:) that "my eggo is preggo."

I was going to wait awhile to tell Jerad and was even kinda having fun being the only one (aside from Beth) that knew, but then he did something that ticked me off (said he was too tired to load the dishwasher or something like that) and I almost snapped at him how exhausted I am doing all the errands, working full time, handling the vast majority of household chores and cleaning, all while  taking care of a 2 year old, baby, and being pregnant etc etc... so I decided to tell him before I let it slip the "wrong way."

I started thinking up cute ideas and ways to surprise him with the news and then was realistic that since he might not be excited at first, I probably shouldn't spring it on him with some elaborate plan and it'd be better to let it sink in. I knew he would eventually be happy, but it was going to be a surprise and he still wasn't completely sold on the baby #3 plan.

So I did the mature thing and Monday morning around 6:00am as I finishing getting ready for work, I put all the positive pregnancy tests on the back of the toilet and sent him a text message screen shot of the due date calendar saying "your baby is due on or around July 21st" with a message that said "Sorry Charlie ;)"

 

Then I left and figured he'd see it when he got up for work in the morning:)

He ended up seeing it before I left and stumbled down stairs with his phone (he hadn't even noticed the positive tests) and said "is this some really weird way of telling me you're pregnant?" To which I sort of stammered "oh. Yes. Late for work, see ya tonight!" But then he was so cute and so sweet and so excited about it (or did a really convincing job of faking it). In fact, I think he was even more excited about this one than he was with either Marshall or Miller.

Baby #1 is scary because you just don't really know what to expect or how it will change your life, baby #2 you worry about the logistics of being pregnant while caring for another child, then taking care of two at once (and Marshall was only a year old when we found out I was pregnant with Miller), and if you can love and take care of and afford another at all... but #3 I guess he just figured we knew what we were doing and what to expect by now.

Since we found out so early, I was sort of in denial for awhile. I wasn't having any symptoms, and we had a bunch of holiday parties and activities to keep me distracted. With each pregnancy I've gotten progressively nauseous and this one I started having morning sickness around 7 weeks. No one at work knew I was pregnant yet and getting up from my desk to dash to the bathroom and throw up multiple times a day was not fun. For weeks 7-10 the only thing that I could stomach and keep down was things like bread and crackers. Which was unfortunate because we've been mostly gluten free for the past 9 months or so, so suddenly eating wheat all the time made me feel sluggish and like crap. Which sucked but was still preferable to feeling nauseous and throwing up all the time.

However, around 10 weeks the clouds parted and I started feeling better. Which was great because I was actually able to enjoy Christmas and taking the kids out of town to the snow for Jerad's brother's wedding!

The difference in having Jerad around has been amazing! In retrospect I didn't realize how hard it was having him out of town for the majority of Miller's pregnancy. For the majority of this first trimester I was able to sleep in and nap at least two times a week which was heavenly. Friday's when I'm home alone with the kids I made myself (not that it took much convincing) lay down and rest/sleep while they took their afternoon nap, and I tried to get in at least one weekend nap as well. On the weekends Jerad would get up with the kids and make them breakfast and I would get to sleep in till 8 or 9. After the kids would go to bed there were quite a few nights where instead of vacuuming and cleaning I'd just peace-out as well. Jerad started taking over some, then eventually all of Miller's night wakings.

In other words, I had a pretty restful first trimester! Which is good because guys, my body is tiiiired. By the time this baby is born I will have been pregnant, breastfeeding, or BOTH for 3 years and 11 months straight. While working full time outside the house. Its not easy. But it is worth it. I'm so excited to meet baby #3! We'll find out the gender in about a month, and so far we're both hoping it's another boy. When he/she is born Marshall will have just turned 3, and Miller will only be 1.5, so having three boys so close in age just seems extra fun. Not to mention we already have everything we'd need.

In just another month we'll know! I have a list of names for both genders, but we haven't agreed on anything yet. In the meantime I'm just calling it "H3."

That catches us up through the first trimester.

And just for fun:

8 weeks. We'll call this the "before" photo since it's the earliest one I took.

13 weeks

I think since my body has never really had time to recover from being pregnant, it just falls back into "preggo mode" really fast. Now at 15 weeks I'm already bigger than most of my friends at 20+ and getting "are you sure there's just one in there?" comments. Oh well, I can deal with being huge since so far the kids have all been so adorable:)

I need to do better...

... with this whole blogging thing. On the one hand I feel like its such an effort, my laptop is broken which makes getting photos on here hard, and no one cares anyways, waa waa waa etc. etc. etc. But *I* care and honestly I have such a crappy memory I need to write things down so that I can go back and remember later. So, I plan to spend this week catching up and be diligent about documenting the kids and this pregnancy over the next year!

Expanding 2 more feet

Sorry to be so MIA. We've been making babies and stuff. I wanted to wait to say anything until we were saw a heartbeat, and thank GOD it was only one heartbeat. I'm sure excited, but twins would have meant 4 kids 3 and under. Looks like that won't be the case:) This one is due right after Marshall turns 3 and Miller will be 1.5. Looks like I'll have my hands full!

Miller Cash: 10 months

Man, I am clearly failing at being remotely on time with these... at least I take notes!

10 months is such a fun age! This little guy is SUCH a ham! If he does something that makes us laugh he'll keep doing it over and over. If he does something and doesn't get the laughing reaction he's looking for, he'll just fake laugh at himself. He is "talking" to us although not really saying any words yet. He will repeat "mama" and "dada" and some other sounds, but he's not associating them with anything yet. He waves, claps, and gives sloppy kisses. He makes car sounds when he "drives" Marshall's toy cars and trucks on the ground. As far as toys go he just wants whatever Marshall has. No baby toys for this baby!

At playdates, park outings, and story times he jumps right in with the big kids. In fact most of his frustrations stem from the fact that he thinks he's a big kid too:) He wants to go down the stairs, dive off of things face first, climb the play structure and go down the slide alone, have whatever Marshall does, and just do a lot of things that the big kids are doing:)

He loves being outside and bolts for the door the moment it's open. He loves climbing and will pull the throw pillows off the couch and use them to boost himself up. Climbing onto Marshall's bed is another favorite:)
 

Miller now has 2 bottom and two top teeth. He wants to eat food so badly but because of all his food allergies (that we can't seem to figure out and deserve a blog post of their own), is barely getting any solids.  Almost every thing he eats results in a hive outbreak, his eczema getting worse, and him up screaming and itching all night. He refuses to nurse so I'm still exclusively pumping. The one positive thing about this scenario is I am no longer solely responsible for night wakings:)

He recently started a HUGE "daddy phase" which Jerad is just tickled pink about.  He also loves the crap out of Marshall even though Marshall is continually taking toys away from him, pushing him over, and just playing too rough. For the most part I don't intervene and let them work it out themselves unless it looks like Miller is legitimately going to get hurt. He's shaping up to be a tough little guy, most of Marshall's love/abuse doesn't even phase him.

His sleep habits are finally getting reasonable. It's a piece of cake to put him down for naps (he's still taking 2/day), and I'd say he sleeps completely through the night about 40% of the time. Sometimes he needs a bottle or some eczema lotion. but always settles right back down. I said he takes 2 naps, but really he goes to "bed" around 7 then typically wakes up 30 min to an hour later and parties until 10 or 11 so I guess that's like a third nap. His other two naps are at least 2 hours each so I don't really count the 30 minute's he fakes me out every night. We're really trying to encourage him to go to sleep earlier. I love the crap out of my kids, but I need them to go to bed at a decent time in order to be a patient mommy and keep the house looking decent:)

I'm trying not to focus on it because I've learned sleep does not progress in a linear fashion. Things get better, they regress, what works one day won't work the next. Eventually all kids work it out and I am positive we'll miss this time one day so I try to enjoy it. We always did whatever it seemed like Marshall wanted and needed at the time (nursing, rocking, co-sleeping, earlier bedtime, later bedtime, reading books, music etc) and by the time he was 1.5 he would crawl up the stairs and happily get in his own bed when he was tired which was always around 7pm or so. Even though I'm hoping Miller changes his mind about this late bedtime business soon, Jerad and I do love the one on one time we get with him once Marshall is asleep. He also really enjoys having us and all the toys all to himself during that time. Just like Marshall, he will ONLY sleep at home and in his own bed. He never passes out on the floor, Marshall's bed, friend's houses, and rarely even in the car. I blame this trait on Jerad because I can literally pass out anywhere in under 5 minutes:)

We're going on a 4 day snow trip in December and I'm already dreading getting the kids to sleep.

I tried weighing him on our home scale and I think he's somewhere around 18 pounds, so just a peanut:) He can wear 6 or 9 month clothes, and 9 or 6-12 month pants. His feet are small, he's not really even a size 3 shoe yet.

I can't think of much else to say. Although by far he is my most difficult child, he is still such an absolute joy to be around and adds so much happiness to our little family. It seems like every day he is learning something new or doing something funny. I'm really trying to relish every stage and enjoy every milestone but man, time is still flying by so fast! It seems like Marshall was just 10 months old.

 I'll try to get the 11 month post up before he turns a year:) Somehow procrastinating feels like I'm keeping him a baby longer...

Catching Up: Pumpkin Patch

Well, by now we've been to about 5 pumpkin patches, but this is the first time we went this year. This was the day after the Pioneer Day Parade. I still had shingles that were pretty painful, but I was going crazy from being cooped up in the house the previous 2 days so I insisted that we pack up the kids and do something. Both kids had so much fun that we've gone back almost every weekend since!

I love pumpkin patches. That means Christmas is right around the corner!

Catching Up: Pioneer Day Parade

A few weeks ago Jerad took the kids to our town's annual Pioneer Day Tractor Parade. It was while I had shingles, and my worst day of it so I stayed home and slept. It was so heavenly getting to rest uninterrupted... but I felt so guilty not going. Jerad promised to bring both children home in one piece, and to take lots of pictures. I also reminded him about 5,000 times that it was going to be warm and to make sure they stayed hydrated so I think that's why they are drinking water in almost every picture haha.