Well, I had all intentions of blogging today, and while I guess this technically IS a blog post, it’s not what I had intended to write.  I have mucho to update on the boys & Harps – from 1st day of preschool, to new haircuts, to dentist visits, etc, etc.   But, once everyone left the house, my turbo nesting need kicked into high gear and I cleaned the kitchen, did laundry, hung Christmas lights in Harper’s room, ordered some stuff online, cleaned out the laundry room, organized all the kids’ DVDs and organized my sewing area.   And this is only just a tiny bit of what I’ve been doing.  It’s ridiculous. I’ve gone through every room in the house over the past month or so and cleaned it out/ organized it: under counters, in drawers, all the kids clothes, all of our clohes, the medicine cabinet, the entertainment center, the coat closet, Haven’s clothes, and on and on.  We had a yard sale last weekend to get rid of the junk I found.

Nesting this time around has been nesting on steroids.  I do not know if its because I am making up for the lost time that I needed to be off my feet when I was pregnant with the boys (so I couldn’t nest), or if its because I know this is the last time I will experience the beauty of nesting.  Or if it’s because we could easily be HOLDING a baby in our arms in less 3 weeks!  ( I will be full term in 3 weeks – not saying she’s going to come out then, but it is a very realy possibility – Harps was born at 37 weeks/4 days)  So, when I have a chance to work without being interrupted, I turbo charge through it.  Then, I totally pay for it in the afternoon/evening.  I had so many braxton hicks contractions this afternoon & evening.   Not good.  But, when I’m nesting I.CANT.STOP.  I’m making it a point to take it easy tomorrow with the boys and put my feet up in the BED on Thursday when everyone is at preschool.  My Mama will be back in town next week, and I can nest more then (with more frequent rest times added in)!

Dinner has been awesome the last two nights.  Thankful it isn’t that crazy every.single.night.  Everyone has eaten great & all/most of their dinner!  Oh and tonight I didn’t have to cook because we had Chick-fil-a!  Everyone was happy!!!
 
And just because I think they are funny, here are some pics Harper has taken with my camera.  The next Nancy Ray???   Whatcha think?

Kind of artistic/ dramatic

Nice angle

She had lots of pictures of the potty. Personally, not my fave.

Me & Baby Haven

Love it!

The trash – hope there’s nothing embarrassing in there. Lol

Artsy pic of Baby Carol (Harper’s main lovey doll)

Hey there!  Boy, I have been awful at blogging lately.  I’m hoping to have some time tomorrow while everyone is a preschool (pray they all stay healthy tonight! :-))  to get caught up on the blog. 

Last night I tweeted about our crazy dinner.  Chris had to be at church until 7pm, so I knew I had dinner on my own.  With each passing week of this pregnancy, any normal activity can quickly turn into what looks like a mountain of a task.  I’m so thankful that everything with this baby is healthy and I’m not on bedrest, but sometimes all I can think about is getting in bed.  Last night was one of those nights.  The kids rejected the dinner I served them – Maverick let me know by throwing a handful of it across the room.  Teaching & disciplining when you are tired is very hard, too.  I decided to retreat from the battle and tweet about it instead.

Warner ate some (yay!) but then started lining his potatoes up like little soldiers. 

Crews started throwing a fit when I put the plate in front of him (he’s the pickiest), but I’m also trying to work with him to know he doesn’t get a special order. – if he got one, they would all want one  (So far, we’ve conquered apples & grapes – they used to go flying across the room, but now, he eats them – yay!  So, I know there is hope…it’s just a tough battle sometimes.)  And then Maverick, well, you know what M did – oh, he also scootched his chair as far away as he could from the table.  Yes, that would be Crews throwing his fit on the floor below. 

 Harper, ate a teensy bit, but then decided to sing us a Veggie Tales song while Crews was throwing his fit (sooo loud in our house at times!).  Well, she got the words all mixed up and then got so very tickled at herself that she didn’t want to eat anymore. 

By the time Chris had gotten home, I had taken everyone out of their highchairs (I didn’t even try to get them to eat anything), and they were running circles around our living room. I was filing my nails.  Yes, I had lost all control & I chose to retreat.  I was exhausted and weepy.

We fed them sunbutter & bread and then had a fun evening of laughing at our gang.  Warner was just walking around talking to himself. He loves giving kisses, so he crawled up in Chris’ lap and kissed him over and over again.  Too cute & funny!

By the time we had gotten everyone in jammies & upstairs, we had noticed Mav carrying something. I thought it was a rock, but once Chris had pried his little chubby hand opened, we discovered it was a nice and sweaty lima bean!  We could not stop laughing. 

We have our crazy times when I think the house might fall down, but then they are usually followed by the sweetest times – laughter, kisses, hugs, & toddler sweetness. 

And like I said, pregnancy only exaggerates the craziness even more!  I know I’m in my final month when I get to the weepy stage.  The other day I just cried because I felt like – no other reason.  Come on baby! 

Hey Friends!

I have been missing from blog world for quite awhile!!  However, we are doing well!  Just busy busy busy.  Once I have time to blog (at night or during nap time), I just want to sleep or do something where I don’t have to think.  But, while I have a quiet moment, I did want to do a quick survey so that our sweet baby girl knows that this pregnancy has been on my heart and mind just as much as my other pregnancies.  It just may not be quite as documented as the other ones. Although, I do journal a lot, and that is some documentation.  I definitely think I’ve been holding this pregnancy a little closer to my heart as I know it will be the last one.

So, before I do the survey, I’m trying to think of any updates.  I went to the midwife to do my glucose screening for diabetes.  I love those drinks – I know…so weird!  The week & weekend before my appointment, I had been so tired that I would just cry at night. Not every night, but I was definitely so tired that my bones hurt and I was extra emotional. I was very discouraged in thinking how I would be able to keep this up another 10 weeks!  I figured it was from being a mom to 4 little ones during the day as well as being pregnant.  The Monday after my test the nurse called and said I passed my glucose test, but I was pretty anemic.   I told her ‘Oh Good!!’  I knew there had to be a reason I was sooo exhausted these past few weeks.  I’ve been on an iron prescription ever since & after about 5 days of taking it, I could tell such a differnece.  Am I still tired?  Yes, but not nearly as EXHAUSTED as I was.  So thankful for these tests and for supplements!!

We also had an ultrasound for baby girl done at 30 weeks.  It was so cool!  I had to have my placenta checked out as it was ‘low-lying’ at 20 weeks, but praise the Lord – it moved all the way up to the top of my uterus as baby has grown!!  I was sooo thankful as now I can proceed with my desire to have a VBAC.  I will post some pics soon when I can figure out how to get them off the disk!

Now, here is the classic survey

How far along? 31 weeks and 4 days

Total weight gain: I’ve stopped weighing myself.  I eat nutritious food and drink lots of water.  My body is just going to do what its going to do.  I will work to lose the weight after baby arrives.

Maternity clothes? yes yes yes!  My belly is large!!!

Stretch marks? Haven’t noticed any new ones after the boys stretched my tummy out.

Sleep:  Not great.  I am tired all the time & definitely nap during the day for *at least* 30 minutes while the kids are napping.  I’m up about every 3 hours to go potty at night & heartburn is now something fierce.  I love Pepcid, but even that seems to be losing the battle with my tummy.  Propping up with lots of pillow helps with the heart burn, but doesn’t give a great night’s sleep.  That’s okay, I know it’s just another way God designed my body to help adjust to waking with a newborn.

Best moment this week: Right now.  The boys have been sick with tummy issues this week, so they couldn’t go to preschool today.  Warner & Harper are better, so they went on in, but Maverick and Crews stayed home with me.  (Side note: I really like it when just one or two of the kids get to stay home. It allows me special time with them & they love not having to share mommy so much.  I realized that Maverick knows the entire alphabet today!  Way to go buddy!) Instead of me packing M & C up, shortening their naps & mine, Chris is leaving work early and bringing home H & W.  Such a blessing to me!!!!

Movement: She moves all the time – most active in the evening, but I can feel her rolling around all through the day.  She gets the hiccups a lot, too.

Food cravings: vanilla ice cream, Sonic Ice (hello anemia!!), and protein of any kind, but mostly red meat.

Gender: definitely a girl! We had it confirmed that she is definitely a girl at our last ultrasound.

Labor Signs: Quite a few Braxton Hicks & painful hips – my body is getting ready!!  After sitting or lying down, it takes me a few seconds to hobble around before my hips start working again. 

Belly Button in or out? It is definitely a outie and it kind of grosses me out.  haha!  It never popped out with Harper, and with the boys I don’t remember it popping out either – just being stretched flat.  It definitely pops out and you can see it through my clothes – yuck!

Wedding rings on or off? On!!!  They still fit!!!  I seriously can’t believe it.  They have never made it this far before! lol

What I miss: Really playing with the kids.  I’m always warning them – watch Mommy’s tummy or I can’t carry you right now.  I know it’s just for a little bit longer, but I can’t wait to run and play and tumble with them!

What I am looking forward to: My Mom coming next week.  Getting more stuff ready for baby’s arrival! 

Weekly Wisdom: I’m really trying to soak in being pregnant.  To enjoy the rolls, pokes, and jabs.  To not just want to pass out when I walk by a mirror and see my giant belly and double chins.  Pregnancy is such a miracle!  My body is only transformed this way for a brief amount of time.

Milestones:Getting Harper’s old clothes out, rearranging clothes & furniture to get ready for a new baby!  Crews patting and kissing my belly saying Be-Be.   Harper talking to baby every day & telling her she loves her so much and she can’t wait for her to be born so she can bathe her and watch Tinkerbelle with her and help change her diaper.    Precious sisters!

I also have realized that I’m almost 32 weeks!  I remember… with Harper, at this point I felt like I would be pregnant forever, and with the boys our big goal was 32 weeks, so I felt like anything over that was a really long time.  This time, I can’t believe I’m almost 32 weeks & I’ m not ready for it to be over yet!  It is going by so fast, and while I can’t wait to hold her in my arms, I have lots to do before she arrives!!! I’ve been nesting like crazy – cleaning the oven, the pantry, the fridge, cleaning out clothes, getting ready for a yard sale, etc etc etc.  I need to slllloooowwww this train down and enjoy my little ballerina in my tummy!

31 weeks

So, today was one of the craziest days we’ve had in a long time. Every day has a dash of craziness thrown in, but today was just insane.  If you follow me on Twitter, you read most of it.  But, I wanted to do a little recap for the blog.  I know one day I will look back on this and laugh. I actually laughed a lot today – mostly out of disbelief something else was happening. 

The morning started off weird b/c everyone slept in!  That was great!  Then it just went crazy from there.  Crews and Warner started fighting in the hallway while I was doing laundry. I hear Harper scream and say Oh No!!! She is quite dramatic. Crews had somehow busted Warner’s lip and he was bleeding everywhere.  I got him cleaned up. No big deal. 

Then, before lunch we were listening to Christmas music and coloring.  Everyone was doing so well.  I was fixing lunch while it was so peaceful.  When I go to deliver plates to everyone, Maverick is sitting there chomping away on a red crayon.  He had already eaten half of it!  Guess he didn’t want to wait for lunch!  Lol!  It was disgusting though, red wax all in his teeth and red drool all down his shirt.  Definitely looked like a vampire. 

The boys were constantly fighting today.  Crews wound up in time out more times then I could count!  He has always been passive with the other two, but boy oh boy, the last two weeks his little fighter has come out and he is quite aggressive. 

Once naptime arrived I thought I was going to catch a break.  Well, Harper went to the bathroom and called me to come help her.  Right as I got there, she told me she was going to spray some bathroom spray.  Before I knew it she was screaming like crazy.  She had sprayed it right in her eye!  The next 20 minutes were quite crazy as she was crying and crying.  i know that had to hurt!  I flushed her eye with water, much to her dismay, and that seemed to help some. 

She went down for her nap, and I finished some laundry and then got to lay down for about 15 minutes before she was screaming from a dream.  She slept for a total of about 45 minutes.  Oh well. 

Once the boys were up, we had snacks, and everyone was happy.  I started dinner, and Harper helped me make some oatmeal raisin cookies.  Some how between putting cookies in the over & managing dinner, Maverick finds the trash and helps himself to an egg shell!  Awesome!  I am praying praying praying that he does not get salmonella!  At this point Chris gets home!  Yay!  Back up!!

We eat dinner, then the boys go upstairs to play.  Chris was busy doing something & I hear an awful cry.  I run upstairs and Maverick is bleeding everywhere!  He had busted his lip!!!!  I laugh at this point – REALLY!?  

Finally it is bedtime for the boys and some relief is in sight! Chris takes Harper’s bedtime routine and I get in the bath!  Aaah!! And, for my children to know one day, I am not complaining when I write this!  I wouldn’t have wanted to spend today anywhere but here – even if I did feel like I was losing my mind! I just really want to record these details so I can tell them stories about the stuff they did when they were little!  hah! 

Here’s to an easier tomorrow!

PS… Baby girl just kicked so hard she made my tummy jump!  Chris, also, got to feel a good hard kick tonight! Grow little one, grow! 21 weeks