-Day In, Day Out-: Us

The 3rd Trimester

Pretty early in this last trimester I started to reach a point where I felt pretty bad again. I really don't like the fact that I fall into this category of pregnant women, but honestly I do not love being pregnant. Both times now there was a window during the second trimester where I felt much better and more like myself, but with that exception I'm usually pretty miserable. I do love the fact that my body was made to do this and I am extremely grateful that I am capable of this, because I definitely know there are plenty of women out there who would hands down love to switch places with me and go through everything I am in order to be pregnant. I am very grateful and honored I've been able to go through these pregnancies and carry our babies, and at no points have I ever wished I wasn't pregnant. I just do not like actually being pregnant. It makes me think of that scene in What to Expect When You're Expecting when the lady is speaking at a baby expo and has a meltdown about how she says pregnancy has sucked. That's how I generally feel. It honestly sort of blows my mind how some women love being pregnant and have almost 'nice' pregnancy symptoms. Definitely not me. I'm not the one running around looking cute in fashionable maternity clothes with a nice pregnancy glow; I'm the one without pants on who is just laying on the couch moaning with a rice bag pressed up against me. (Yes that's really the visual that is found in our home right now... and for most of this last trimester.

So this third trimester has not been my friend. It has been full of Braxton Hicks -which at times are annoying and uncomfortable but not really a problem, but at other time I have had a ton of them with intense back spasms and pain and pain in my legs as well. Even not during the Braxton Hicks this trimester brought on an incredible amount of lower back pain. The second half of this trimester my difficulty sleeping really kicked in - with in general being so uncomfortable, plus getting up to pee 3-5 times a night and then I've had several spurts of insomnia on top of that, where after I get up to pee I just can't go back to sleep and have been tossing and turning in bed. And I basically eat Tums consistently after every snack or meal no matter what I have due to really bad acid reflux around the clock. It doesn't matter if I barely eat or eat a lot, or if I try to eat healthier items or eat fast food or whatever else. I don't know how many bottles of Tums I've gone through in these last months - but it's a lot!

I have continued to have the weird pregnancy dreams, not as consistently as during the second trimester, but fairly often. They're still the same type of just a really vivid and totally random dream, usually with people from my past. Also the second half of this trimester I've developed stretch marks. I started to think I'd avoided them like I did with Owen. With Owen I got a really noticeable line, the linea nigra, but really not many stretch marks except a few minor ones on my thighs. This time I barely have a noticeable line nigra but after week 35 have gotten super huge and distinct shiny purplish stretch marks. They are just large thick lines all around my belly button kind of like a star burst radiating out from my protruding belly button. I couldn't have gotten lucky twice, right? Oh well.

Last pictures of Owen's nursery before it was redone for Nora!

I definitely had a hard time taking all of Owen's things down and moving them into his big boy room.

During this trimester we did most of our preparations for Nora's arrival and all that would entail. We moved Owen out of the nursery and into this big boy room and bed. He still hasn't adjusted to the bed and Cody and I think he probably wasn't ready to move out of the crib. Honestly he was sleeping amazingly in the crib, and if we weren't having Nora we wouldn't have moved him any time soon. But we did and we don't want to go backwards now. Once Owen was out of the nursery that freed it up so we could reorganize and reset everything for a newborn again and decorate it for Nora.

Big boy room!

Big boy bed!

He totally tricked us. The very first couple nights he did great falling asleep and staying asleep in his bed... not any more.

I enjoyed washing and organizing all of Nora's clothes and hanging up all of her newborn outfits. It's amazing how you do forget how little they start out though! Owen is just almost two; it hasn't been THAT long, but when I was handling all of the newborn onesies, it was so surprising to see how tiny they all are! It's crazy to think Owen was that little two years ago and Nora will be too when she arrives any day now.

Washing and preparing Nora's clothes!

The nursery closet is all set with her newborn clothes! Yes that's ONLY newborn!

There were tons of errands and appointments and different things that I finally got done and checked off my loooong "To-Do Before Baby" list. I stocked us up on basic household items, which Cody thinks is silly, but I think can only be helpful to not need to worry about running out of basic things. Towards the end of the trimester I got our hospital bag packed and ready to go, minus all the last minute things we'll need to throw in, and also a bag ready for Owen who will be with Cody's parents while we are in the hospital.

He will always still be my baby. I just love this tiny guy so much.

At this point there are only a handful of things left on my to-do list, and it's nice to be at a place where yes I'd like to get them done, and I'll keep doing things slowly for as long as Nora stays put. However, none of them are crucial to get done so if she comes before I check anything else off, that's perfectly okay with me. For example there are some decoration items I'd still like to do for her room - but that can definitely be done after we have her as well. She won't even be in the nursery for the first few months anyway. There are a couple more blog posts (this one and one about Owen's birthday) that I'd like to complete but I'm okay if they don't get done before hand either. (If you missed the last ones I caught up on you can catch them here: Port A Family Trip and Maternity Photos.) I had a goal of preparing ten freezer meals (each with two dinners worth) and right now I've got five done. I'm okay with that if I only finish half. If I'm able and up to it I will keep doing a couple more and just add to what I already have. Really the only item left on the list that really can't be done in the same way after we have Nora is a date night. Sad that's still left on the list right? I have just been feeling so awful, especially in the evenings, that I usually don't feel up to going out or doing much of anything, and the last couple weekends just haven't worked out anyway. So if we haven't had Nora by this weekend that's a goal! A date night or maybe a date Saturday afternoon would be easier for me to do. Either way, if Nora doesn't arrive first, I would love a little time with just Cody before our lives transition again.

I love watching Cody with Owen at bedtime : )

This was during our Port A family trip we did towards the end of March.

Owen still loves books! We read all the time and always before bed.

Currently as I type this we are at 39 weeks (as of yesterday). Weeks 32 and 33 were when my back pain really started to get bad. Week 34 we went on our Port A family beach trip and thankfully I did pretty well during the trip. Weeks 35-36 were really rough when I started getting the intense Braxton Hicks. With Owen I didn't get any that I was aware of. My doctor has said I probably did have some, but they were mild enough that I didn't recognize what they were. Well there is no question this time and they are far from mild. Like I said at the beginning, some of them are just annoying and uncomfortable, but more and more of them are getting really intense with a crazy spasm in my back and pain down my legs. I had a ton of those during weeks 35 and 36. When I went in for my first weekly appointment and 'check' at 36 weeks I was 2cm dilated and 60% effaced, and I remember thinking thank goodness those hadn't been for nothing! If those intense BH had been for nothing I might have lost my mind. Then I had a nice break where they eased up and I still had a lot of BH but not the intense bad ones. So when I went for my weeks 37 and 38 appointments, I didn't necessarily expect progress and I was mostly right. At week 37 I had progressed to 3cm but otherwise the same, and week 38 had no progress. Yesterday was 39 weeks but my doctor appointment isn't until this Friday which will be 39 and 1/2. But this week I've gone back to the awful intense BH with crazy bad back pain again and oh my gosh so much low pressure! It feels sometimes like she just wants to drop out and I basically sit on the toilet forever convinced I'm going to pee as soon as I get up because I constantly feel like I'm about to pee myself, even though there's usually not much there. So when I go in on Friday, I'm again going to seriously hope to have made some more progress and that these aren't just all for nothing.

2cm dilated and 60% effaced.

3cm dilated.

Cody has been awesome though as I've been getting worse here towards the end. He's gone to the store for me, made dinners, and often takes over with Owen once he gets home. Poor Cody though because by the time he does get home from work I am at my worst place for the day and just so uncomfortable and often in real pain and worn out and emotionally done. Cody's probably the biggest trooper in all of this. He surprised me with a birthing/yoga ball that helps to sit and bounce on, and he always warm up and bring me my rice heating bag for my back whenever I need it. I definitely appreciate all that he does and how he's so understanding.

Blurry but cute! Owen loves to help vacuum.

Vacuuming behind the crib before painting the nursery accent wall.

Thank you so, so much to Sue and Cody for painting the wall for Nora!

So this is how Owen sleeps now. He prefers the hallway over his bed. What a turkey!

I guess I'll wrap this up with a funny story that just happened the other day. So while pregnant with Owen I had two big hormonal emotional meltdowns that I can specifically remember - one was about buying prenatal vitamins at HEB and the other was about craving frozen yogurt. Cody might argue this but so far during this pregnancy I would say I haven't had anything super big and out there yet, up until this past weekend. Our church small group went out bowling to celebrate one of the guy's birthdays. It was sort of a nicer bowling place that had some real food and we were planning to eat dinner there. We looked it up online first and it's Yelp page showed sandwiches and chicken burgers and some things like that. Well I always love sandwiches, but while pregnant I realllllly love sandwiches. So we get there and our waitress comes over and I ask what sandwiches they have, and she looks at me and says she's so sorry, they don't serve sandwiches. And I start crying. Yes, crying. I really wanted a sandwich and I saw a delicious looking sandwich on their Yelp page. This poor waitress! She starts going through their menu offering me other items. One of the items they served was mini-hot dogs. I asked if she meant mini corn dogs (because call me odd whatever, I love mini corn dogs), and she said no they're regular hot dogs just miniature. I get upset again that they aren't mini corn dogs and at that point Cody pulls me away to help me calm down. It is SO RIDICULOUS. I can recognize in my head that it is ridiculous that I am so upset about this, and yet I CANNOT help how I am reacting with the crying and being so upset and emotional. Crazy hormones I tell you; they are real. Cody calms me down and is probably trying not to bust out laughing. Anyway. All I can say is I felt so bad for that waitress, and she was so sweet and apologetic and she definitely was super careful and extra helpful to me the rest of the night. And in case you're wondering, I ordered the mini hot dogs and they were not very good, but I ended up eating some of them and then one or two of Cody's mini burgers which in fact were delicious. Sorry Loves that I took over your dinner.

The nursery finally making progress! The wall is painted, curtains replaced, and the crib is reset to the highest setting and changed to Nora's girly sheets.

I am more than ready to be done being pregnant. I pray she decides to come tonight, or this afternoon, or within the hour even. But I know there is still a decent chance that she doesn't come for another week or so. While we do keep waiting I am trying to enjoy and soak up all this time with just my Owen as I can. I do still get fairly emotional thinking about how we're about to have a new baby, but Owen still is my baby, and how I've loved this time with just him so much and while we are so excited for Nora, change can be a little scary and I am worried about how this adjustment will go for him.

No additional progress this week.

He sure is cute! He enjoys going with me to the dr to "check Nora". I think he'll be an awesome big brother!

So now we're playing the waiting game for Nora to be ready to arrive. Owen was due April 29 and arrived May 2nd. So I keep hoping that since Nora is due May 3rd, that she'll arrive sometime in April. If we do go into May then on one hand I don't care I just want her to come whenever, but a small silly part of me really doesn't want her to be born on Owen's birthday (the 2nd), or also on May 4th or 5th because Cody is already joking about those days (he keeps saying May the 4th be with you as a Star Wars joke, and then May 5th is Cinco de Mayo). So anyway, Nora, just come on any time now! We're so excited and ready to meet you.

Nora's name is finally (almost) done! I'm debating adding ribbon on top but I'm not sure I'll use it yet. So they may stay like this, which I like a lot, or they may get ribbon added. We will see.