It’s been a while since I gave an update on the bun in my oven (especially since I somehow managed to keep up with weekly and monthly pregnancy updates with the last two) so I figured I may as well share what … Continue reading
After sharing my last post updating everyone on the kiddos my bestie informed me that I left one out. Which is very true… and actually intentional so I’d have a topic for another post…. the bun in my oven! Yes, in case you missed the announcement, we are thrilled to be expecting baby #3 this June. Here was the oh-so-cute and cuddly announcement photo we shared (taken by the always amazing Layna Rae Photography).
Since I haven’t been keeping up with weekly or monthly updates like I did with K and HG, I’ll give you a quick run down of the pregnancy thus far.
I had a sneaking suspicion that I might be pregnant during the first weeks of October so I decided to take a test. I always get a kick out of how fast my lines show up on the pee sticks despite the fact that they all say you have to wait three minutes. I like to think it just means I’m super pregnant. When I first saw that little pink line I was thrilled. I cried. I prayed. I thanked God for our newest gift. And then I realized I had the daunting task of keeping this HUGE secret from everyone I knew. Why? It just so happened that my in-laws were in town that weekend and I wanted to make sure I shared the news with Z first, and in a special and private way. Luckily our 6 year anniversary was that next weekend so I decided to make a plan to share the news then. But that meant I spent the entire visit with his parents and rest of the week sitting on my golden ticket news. I will admit it was kind of fun to have that little bit of time to myself but I was definitely itching to tell him.
So, how’d you tell him?
Our anniversary rolled around after what seemed like the longest 4 days ever and we decided to make a day of it. We started with a trip to the shooting range, followed by lunch at home with the kids, then an afternoon movie, and an overpriced fancy-pants dinner at Texas de Brazil. I had been battling a sinus cold the entire week, and slyly dodging any of my family’s attempts at getting me to take medication, so the romance of the day was slightly overshadowed by my sniffles and nasal speak. Still we had a great time and I would get more and more excited as the day went on, thinking about the moment I would surprise Z with the news. When we got to dinner I knew Z would want to order from the wine menu, and would probably offer me some. Luckily my head cold was a good excuse to decline a drink. Once his wine arrived he recommended we get up and take a spin around the salad bar. I quickly suggested that we make a toast first and raised my water glass. He said what I’m sure was something very sweet and touching, I wasn’t hearing anything over the nervous pounding of my heart, and then I smiled and toasted, “Cheers to 6 wonderful years and our 3 beautiful babies”.
He smiled and raised his glass before my words really sunk in. The moment was classic. His smile dropped slightly as his eyes widened before his smile stretched back to the full width of his face.
“Three? You’re pregnant?”
I just nodded and grinned.
The rest is sappy old married couple stuff complete with hand holding, (since we couldn’t smooch with my awesome cold accompanying us) tears from both of us, an explanation of when I took the test, how far along I was, etc. Definitely worth holding onto that secret for a few days. We shared the news with our family and friends gradually over the next couple of weeks and, of course, made the obligatory Facebook post right around 12 weeks. The support and love we’ve received has been overwhelming. Of course there have been a few people that have called me crazy/insane/nuts, or just looked at me like I told them I decided to pursue my life’s passion of becoming a member of the Blue Man Group, but to those people I just smiled and reiterated my excitement.
So how are you feeling?
I’m 19 weeks today and can say without any hesitation that this pregnancy has been the hardest yet. It’s totally thrown me for a loop with all the intense morning sickness, all-day nausea, food aversion, headaches, and lack of energy. I dealt with morning sickness with both K and HG but it was quite manageable. This time is totally different and very unpredictable. I know God had a very specific timeline in mind for this pregnancy because I honestly think I would be totally worthless as a mother (and human, for that matter) if it weren’t for the help of my mom and dad. Living with them while Z is in grad school has been a Godsend overall but especially in these last few months of yuck. Thankfully I think I’m past the worst of it and as long as I eat something every 2 hours I can fight off most of the nausea and headaches. Still waiting on that 2nd trimester energy boost to kick in. Where are you energy? I miss you!
Any crazy cravings?
Nothing too nutty but I have had much more specific cravings this time around. I remember going through sweet and salty phases with K and then a meat phase (which usually ended up resulting in ordering Turkey burgers from our favorite burger joint) with HG but that was a fairly broad. This time I’ve wanted grilled sweet potatoes with garlic aioli, pickles (duh), ranch oyster crachers, vanilla ice cream, and starburst… but just the reds. Like I said, the food aversion has been more prominent than the cravings but when they do come they are quite specific.
Boy or Girl?
We don’t know, and we won’t know! I never thought I’d have the patience to not found out the sex of a baby but I figured it would be fun to do at least once and there’s no better time to do it than now. We’re sitting pretty with one of each, so why not. The only question will be if we can both hold out. Luckily I only have one more ultrasound left to temp us.
Does this one have a nickname?
For those of you who have been around for a while you’ll remember that K’s gestational nickname was Little Manatee (because she looked like a little sea cow in her first ultrasound) and HG’s was Pumpkin (because of our pregnancy announcement). Both of them adapted new nicknames (The Bean and Mush respectively) after they were born but it was fun to have a little nickname for them while they were cooking. This one has been called a number of things so far. Because my first craving was sweet potatoes and I expressed my desire for them to my bestie, she has very affectionately called baby Sweet Potato. We’ve also referred to baby as BP3 (baby Pierce #3), and more recently my friend Leslie channeled the force and said BP3 sounds a lot like C3P-0 and so adapted it to BP3-0. All adorable but nothing has really stuck with me. Maybe it’s because I’ve just become used to saying “baby” when I talk about him/her with the kids, especially K. Who, by the way, hopes it’s a girl. No, boy. No, girl again. No, definitely boy.
Anything else?
Let’s see. K fluctuates on her interest in my growing bump. She’ll catch a glimpse of it and run up to me and hug or kiss my belly saying something sweet like, “I love you baby boy/girl”. I melt a little each time. Then I’ll tell her that soon she’ll be able to feel baby move and she acts like I’m diseased and wants nothing to do with such nonsense. Four year olds, am I right?
HG doesn’t seem to notice at all. He’s become more aware of other babies when he sees them out at stores and will often point and exclaim “BABY” so we will sort of run with that acknowledgement, place his hand on my tummy, and repeat “baby”. He’s more interested in tractors and planes though, rightly so.
I started feeling the first flutters around 16 weeks and am now feeling more prominent nudges and kicks. I love it! Kicks are always the first thing I miss once the baby is born.
I really like the midwives at the hospital we’ll be delivering at and have so many great things about all of them but I’m still a bit uneasy not having my angel Diane with me this time around. I’ve been teaching my childbirth classes at a midwife’s office here in town and when my dad asked why I didn’t just use her. I told him I would but she only specializes in home births and he just dropped his head and gave a very definitive, “no, no, no”. Don’t worry dad, I don’t have plans to give birth in your house. But who knows what will happen (wink).
Like I said before, my parents have both been life savers during these hard/sick months but I’ve also loved being close to my mom for this pregnancy. I really missed her during the last two while living in Georgia so being with here every day has been wonderful.
What about your weekly/monthly bump photos?
I absolutely loved taking weekly and monthly bump photos with K and HG. It was fun to watch my belly grow and compare bumps at the same time in each pregnancy. SO fun. I tried doing things a little differently this time and started taking some my point of view photos as well as a few classic profile pictures just for reference. Here is my bump evolution thus far!
Until next time…
Hello 3rd trimester, I didn’t expect to see you so soon!
No seriously, this pregnancy is flying by WAY TOO FAST! I’m so excited to meet this little one but I feel like we just announced it to the world! It’s been a very eventful month and baby boy is growing strong and riding low! He’s giving me LOTS of crazy movements these days which leads me to believe he’s going to be one energetic little boy! These aren’t little pokes and jabs but back flips and full stretches. Fairly soon after my last update another exciting milestone started happening: braxton hicks contractions! Gotta love these practice runs for the BIG DAY. They seem to be stronger this time but I just credit that to my body being more used to the sensation since it’s done it before. I’ve been using each one as a chance to practice my labor relaxation techniques: focusing my attention on relaxing every part of my body sans the contraction itself and really letting my body do what it’s designed to do.
I’m definitely more tired these days and have been dealing with dry eyes from time to time. I probably look like I’m mad but I’m just squinting through the dryness! I also blame the weather on that last part… nuts. One day it’s 70 degrees and the next they are talking about another POLAR VORTEX hitting us. Anyone else ready for spring and summer weather?
I’m still sleeping about the same; up at least once to use the bathroom and lots of adjusting throughout the night but overall finding it easy to drift back to sleep. It has become more of a process actually getting OUT of the bed since lifting my big ol’ belly requires a sideways push up. What little abs I have in there are no match for the weight of baby boy!
It’s also getting harder to hold K for long lengths of time… which makes it SUPER convenient that she’s been more whiney and clingy lately. It’s as if she knows she needs to get her 1-on-1 time in now so she’s always asking to be held, especially when I’m making dinner. It’s not that she’s too heavy but just heavy enough {and tall enough} to be sitting uncomfortably on her brother.
As far as cravings go, I blame Valentine’s Day for my obsession with conversation hearts. Not the yucky chalky ones that taste like Comet but the good “Sweethearts” kind that actually have flavors. Shame on Kroger for offering 3 boxes for $1. It’s been my guilty pleasure! That and I could probably eat tacos for every meal. It’s not a mexican food craving, just tacos. Good thing the hubs likes them too because they’ve graced our dinner table a number of times in the last month!
One thing I’ve actually been struggling with this month has been successfully managing stress. I lost my grandmother at the end of January and had a really hard time dealing with everything surrounding her death. Not just dealing with the grief, which was quite painful, but the stress of traveling for the funeral {sadly without Z}, family dynamics, patience in parenting, etc. I broke down in tears a few times like when I was looking up airfare and the very unfriendly United Airlines woman told me it would be $841 for a bereavement plane ticket from Atlanta to Norfolk with a 5 hour layover in DC and K would have to have her own ticket {also at $841} because she was 1 month past the 24 month limit. Yea. Never flying United. Delta offered $480 round trip bereavement tickets {and had excellent, sympathetic customer service} but I still would have had to get K her own seat. Needless to say we did not fly. Being that I tend to be a crier even when I’m not pregnant, I was surprised that with the exception of a few more ugly cries, mostly I was just mad. My stress morphed with my hormones and turned into pure frustration and anger. I try to be as relaxed, happy, and calm as possible when I’m pregnant but I just could’t manage it. Thankfully when I was back home and into the normal routine with Z things got better. He really is my rock and I’m so thankful to have him.
That’s about all the pregnancy updates for month 7. I just can’t believe I’m already in the home stretch! Every time someone asks me when I’m due their reaction is always “WOW THAT’S SO SOON!” As I look at my to do list I’m realizing that more and more. Lots to get done but I’ve also gotten a lot accomplished, INCLUDING making some great headway on the nursery transition {pictures to come} and pulling all of K’s baby things to a more easily accessible section of the our lame excuse for an attic {overexerted myself a bit with that one}. I’ll keep all the updates coming!
Until next time…
Another month, another bump photo, another update on pumpkin thus far!
Oh lordy I need a haircut… let’s focus on that growing bump, eh?
Month 6 was filled with a lot of new developments! Looking back at my last few updates I realize that I have a tendency to ramble about life in general over baby-specific talk. Maybe that’s why it always takes me to long to get these updates shared…. maybe… so to make sure I get this posted in time and don’t keep you reading for an hour I’ll try to keep it pregnancy centered!
One of the newer developments in month six was the arrival of sciatic nerve and hip pain. The sciatic pain isn’t all the time, not that painful – more annoying, and it’s fairly easy to get rid of in the moment so I can’t complain but so much. It’s generally on my right side {my go-to side when I hold K} and if I can lay down on my left side I’m able to relieve the pressure and reduce or remove the pain. It’s something new from my pregnancy with K so worth noting in the end I suppose. As for the hip pain, I’m not sure where it’s coming from. Also not frequent and not unbearable, but obnoxious and more difficult to relieve.
I was really excited when I watched my tummy ‘jump’ for the first time! Kicks have been getting stronger and stronger and as we grow together I get to see his little dance parties happen first hand. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It’s really fun to set things like my phone on my belly and see how long it takes him to knock it off. “He’s gonna be a little socca playa”
During our trip to Va for Christmas/New Years I did have a few bouts of morning sickness. The first day seemed really random after day 2 I realized that it was caused by me drinking orange juice first thing in the morning. I thought I felt a cold coming on so I was trying to boost my vitamin C but baby boy has been used to hot chocolate first thing and was clearly thrown off by the acid of the orange juice. Lesson learned. Hot chocolate before OJ always. Pumpkin knows what’s really good for him 😉
I am slowly watching my belly button pop which I’m not too pumped about. I’m really shocked at how fast it’s happening this time considering it NEVER popped with K. I guess it’s how low he’s riding that’s putting more focus on that part of my tummy.
I also had my glucose test this week and I have to tell you people, I’m officially one of those weirdos who doesn’t mind and, dare I say, likes, the glucola drink they have you chug. I liked the orange last time and I liked the red this time. I actually had a better overall experience with the blood drawing and jittery feeling. Most likely because I didn’t have a 2 year old to help distract me from it all last time. While I was trying to tell myself not to feel lightheaded when they took my blood last time, I was focused on K not seeing them draw it this time. End result… no lightheadedness! I did accompany K during her nap today when the sugar crash hit me but I was expecting that and, quite frankly, benefited from catching a few extra z’s.
All in all I’m feeling pretty great at this point in the pregnancy. My midwife says I’m measuring a little small {I don’t see how that’s possible} but I measured small with K the entire time and she credits it to how low he is. I have a ton of energy and am nesting big time! I got the nursery painted with the help of my dear friend Andrea… she helped me paint K’s room too… and was on such a kick that I also painted our master bathroom. Now I want to paint ALL THE ROOMS. Here’s to three more happy and healthy months!
Until next time…
Pierce Family Circus 