Balance

Balance y'all...I'm not finding it!

I have been so blessed this pregnancy. Save a little scare early on with a short stint on bed rest, this pregnancy has been great. I've felt wonderful, been able to eat whatever I want, (and more) and genuinely my only pregnancy symptom minus the shrinking wasteline is that I'm tired.

Life has finally started to slow down after the roller coaster that was summer! We feel settled into the house, most of the unpacking is done, we're calling a hiatus on all things house until after the new year when we plan to tackle the nursery and a few organizational things we'd like done before baby.

We're figuring out (slowly) a new house schedule (wood floors need to be cleaned A LOT), gifting the girls' swiffer dusters has been major help and letting the dogs enjoy the huge back yard! Homeschooling is going well. I've loved tutoring Addiston's Kindergarten class this semester and we're doing well with staying on track at home. Addiston is starting to read which for me is a double edged sword. The girl is a bookworm and would happily sit and let me read to her for HOURS every single day, which I love. So I'm thrilled that she is picking up some more on her own especially after we had a small stint of stubbornness and she decided she didn't want to read, but now that it's clicking I'm a little sad to see her grow up just a little more.

Jared's new job schedule still has us all confused. He works mostly 9:30-6:30 which is hard on the girls. By the time he gets home we have dinner and then start getting ready for bed. We do get to eat breakfast and dinner everyday as a family and I'm really enjoying this season of sitting and just chatting with the girls over meals before the new one arrives and we're distracted by crying and nursing schedules and lack of sleep. The girls miss having more play time with their dad, so we're trying to be intentional about carving out more weekend time as opposed to doing chores and running errands.

For the most part thats it in life right now. I'm in bed shortly after the girls every night, so Jared's getting in some reading, video games, and helping with dishes or laundry that I have left over from the day. But we're lucky to get in a run down of the day, much less a long talk. Luckily we have 2 date nights scheduled this month so we should get to catch up there, and we're taking a birthing class on saturdays, so long drives are anticipated!  I've text a few friends here and there but pretty much unless I see people at church or our homeschool community day I've been MIA to just about every relationship I have :(

Last Month our college friends came to stay for a long weekend and oh my word the sweetness of 5 little girls playing!

(Praise the Lord for having someone who REALLY gets it!)

Jared and Jesse were college roommates, Amber and I hit it off first semester of Freshman year. We were married within months of each other and had our first 2 (4?) children in the same seasons, we are now embarking on homeschooling together and are all food hippies. A decade of friendship in and we laugh at how much life we've done together and how in a few short months we will have 6 daughters between us!


Last week we went to dinner with dear friends to find out that they are having a girl less than 1 month after we are. I'm so glad for a friend to do pregnancy with and a built in friend for our little girl!

I know there are seasons in life and I'm glad things are running smoothly for our family and household but being an pregnancy-exhausted extrovert is hard. When you yearn to go to dinner with friends, or sit and catch up over coffee but really all you want to do is sleep, your mind and body are at odds with each other! I'm hoping I get a small spurt of energy before this third little girl arrives to catch up with some friends and family over the holidays. In the mean time I'm clinging to forced outings and pop-in visitors!

Halfway (20 weeks)

The Thursday I was 19 weeks and 6 days, a friend watched the girls so Jared could come to the doctor with me. We scheduled our appointment for the first one of the day so that he wouldn't be late to work. We had an anatomy scan first then a normal doctors appointment.

We both sat and tried to read our books while waiting to be called back. I'm not sure about Jared but I'm pretty sure I re-read the same 2 paragraphs 3 times because I couldn't focus through the excitement.

We had the super calm, quiet, unexcitable ultrasound tech. She without inflection or expression measured the little one growing inside me. snapped pictures, of things I didn't recognize. (at least a dozen ultrasounds into this motherhood journey and I'm lucky to spot a profile and the spine maybe a heartbeat) I was able to see a four-chamber heart beating. But other than that Jared and I spent 20 minutes giving each other questioning looks as my nerves went nuts. Eventually she asked if we wanted to know the sex-we did!

We got an all clear from the doctor who said the little one was perfectly healthy and that things were progressing just as they should. Little one is measuring about a day behind where she should but as far as we're concerned thats perfect.

20 weeks

The following Saturday we threw a combined house warming/gender reveal party to let our friends see the new house and let our girls discover along with our friends the gender of our newest little one.

I had saved one of our larger moving boxes and filled it with colored balloons, the girls spent all week saying blue balloons means it's a brother, pink means a sister. For the most part they were ok with either except one threat to not love a brother as much as a sister.

IT'S A GIRL!!

They are thrilled and so are we!!

16 weeks

Life has been settling down recently.

We're getting established in the new house. The kitchen, girls room, our room and toys are done. So ya know the high priorities.

I'm enjoying being back in the swing of things, off bed rest and SLOWLY building back up to normal activity.

I've started feeling regular movement. Jared and Isabella have felt the baby move too. Addiston claims that she has but I'm pretty sure she just felt my stomach growl. No worries, it'll happen.

I got to take the girls with me to the doctor for the first time this week. I go so frequently that I wanted them to see where I was and not be curious or frustrated that they don't get to go with me frequently. This was my 5th appointment (Most women have only been once or twice at this point) and the first time I wasn't getting internal monitoring or giving copious amounts of blood so I figured it was now or never to bring the girls.

As expected they thought it was boring. Lots of stuff they aren't suppose to touch, waiting, being quiet, waiting, being patient. They thought it was cool for half a second that they got to hear the babies heart beat but that was the highlight of their hour with me and thankfully I don't think they'll be begging to come back anytime soon. 

14 Weeks & Vegas

The day I was officially 14 weeks, we were a day past when we were suppose to close on our house, and taking a weekend trip to vegas with Jared's new company.

Being freshly sprung from bedrest and still recovering from, new car, new job and house in Limbo referring to us as stressed was a HUGE understatement. The trip was probably the worst timing possible but oh so necessary. Having a reason to put on make up and wearing something besides yoga pants was just an added bonus!

Small talk about fantasy football isn't my forte, (and thank the lord neither is it Jared's) but we love to travel, see new sights and eat! All of which Vegas provided.

The highlights of the trip included, eating brunch at the top of the stratosphere:

The food and the views were spectacular. 

Getting to go to Vladimir Kush and Chihuly (two of my favorite artists) galleries on the same day! 

Reading an entire book (Go set a watchman) Poolside

Eating Gordon Ramsay's famous Beef Wellington! 

YES! Worth the hype!!

And the appearance of the bump! (earlier than any of my other pregnancies)

14 weeks 3 days Baby the size of a Lemon

We spent most of our time in work functions and trying not to stress about the house closing still being in limbo! We played 0.17 on penny slots (just to say we gambled in vegas) and took more pictures of things we thought the girls would find interesting than things we were actually interested in.

"dancing fountain" which the girls want to see! 

Ours and the girls' souvenirs

We came home to no news on when we would close on the house, but happy girls and a positive outlook from a much needed break!

12 weeks

After 4 agonizingly long weeks of bed rest I ventured back to the doctor. I had spent too much time googling. Asked everyone who knew about the pregnancy to be in prayer for the SCH to heal, and lost too much sleep stressing about it. All while attempting to talk Jared through getting the house ready for us to move.

First thing I had my early glucose test.
I had gestational diabetes with Addiston and for each subsequent pregnancy they like to test me at 12 weeks that way if I do test positive for Gestational Diabetes I can start a special diet early and insulin if needed. It was 8 am I had been too nervous to eat breakfast and that sugary orange drink tasted nothing like the coffee I wanted. I completed my task and settled into reading the new Harper Lee novel. Finished my bloodwork and was passed off to Ultrasound.

I was able to spot the heartbeat myself, it was strong at 167. (old wives tales predict thats a girl)
Little one was bouncing around all over the place. Probably from that pure sugar drink I had just chugged.

After a thorough search and a few tears of joy the nurse practitioner (my OB had been called in to deliver a baby) confirmed that the SCH was nowhere to be found. I was released from bed rest and told as all pregnant women are "take it easy"

The next day we traveled to Cincinnati for my sweet grandmothers 93rd Birthday, at which we announced to my side of the family that we were going to round out the grandkids and make it an even dozen.


(Oh, and I passed my glucose test. No finger pricking for me this time!)