Leo.

Well this little space is certainly desolate and depressingly forgotten, now isn't it?

The truth is, when life kicks up, blogs tend to die down, and that is precisely what has happened. Someone (my husband, who I think might actually have a death wish) MAY have convinced me that I should try and cram in as much school as possible before the baby arrives. So this is me. 24 weeks pregnant and only just at the beginning of an 11 credit semester. Fun, fun. Okay so here is what has happened during our little hiatus: 

First, THIS. 

Holy. Freaking. Crap. This baby is a boy! Leocadio Orlando, or "Leo", will be joining the ranks of our little family before we know it. And we are SO excited! The morning we found out Scarlett was lamenting, "I think it's a girl... But I really WISH it was a boy...". 

It's strange. I've always just FELT like a mama to all girls, because that's all I've ever been. I was fiercely protective of our all daughter home and would find myself getting mildly offended when people would insist that we "needed" a boy. Like I legitimately wanted to tell them "Girls can do anything a boy can do!" and then stick my tongue out at them. 

But here is the thing:

We actually TRIED for a boy (more on how we went about that in future post). Maybe that's why I assumed it definitely wouldn't happen. We were both skeptics, but we figured this is our last baby, why NOT try for a boy? And holy crap we got it. We are having a son! I am so excited to watch the mother of a boy bloom from inside of me. Motherhood is such a bizarrely intuitive thing. The truth is... I know very little about boys. I have no brothers (save a couple of step brothers I acquired just a year before I got married myself), no sons, nada. But this magical thing happens when you have a child where things just work out. Your body tells you whether that cry is a hungry cry or a "I just need to be held" cry. You obtain this amazing capability to read their emotions, to attend to their deepest most urgent needs. I'm excited to watch that happen with a son. And his needs will be different, I'm sure, just as my girls needs are different from each other's. I'm excited to navigate "boyhood" together with this little mister. 

In other news, I've begun getting my weekly progesterone shots. With the girls I had preterm labor both times (25 weeks with Miss Scarlett and off and on starting at 17 weeks with Miss Cecilia). In 2011 the FDA released progesterone shots for the use of preventing pre-term labor and have had promising results. My midwife warned me that they hurt a lot because it's an intrasmuscular injection and the medication is in an oil based solution which makes it thick and syrupy and painful to inject. I was a smidgen terrified after that description, but it's been 8 shots now and they honestly aren't bad at all. Best of all? They are WORKING! As long as they continue to do their thing, I'm a happy camper.

My last final is on May 18 and I will be 37 weeks on May 20. We have to make it that far! After that, our little mister may arrive whenever he sees fit! I can't wait to hug and kiss his squishy little body :)

Until next time... 

-T

We Finally Saw Baby Smoochie!

This week has been an exciting one for our little family of (almost) 5!


It started when Cecilia, my 5-year-old, had a brilliant, wonderfully organic "ah-ha!" moment. She was blowing raspberries on my belly to try and "tickle the baby" when her eyes lit up and she said, "Mom! I got a great idea! We can call the baby little baby Smoochie!"

I melted. YES! YES!! YES!!! I have been wanting to call this baby SOMETHING other than "the baby" while we wait to find out if we are having a bundle of pink or blue. But everything seemed either too cliche (ei: peanut, bean, etc...), I already used (dear daughter number two was called "nugget" for quite some time). So yeah. Baby smoochie. Chosen by the kid's big sis. It's perfect :)
 
Thing Two: WE PICKED FIRST NAMES!

I am almost terrified to admit this out loud because I notoriously outgrow names. But there are two names. One for a boy. One for a girl. We ALL like them. Scot gets overwhelmed by the name game so this time he asked me to hand my list over to the girls and only keep the names they both liked and then pass the finalists on to him. That's exactly what happened. The girls cut my list from 20 to 10 and Scot trimmed it down to 3. Among those three was my favorite from the original lot. To have a name all FOUR of us love is super exciting. I wouldn't say the names are a secret, per se, especially since I've already told a handful of people, but I want to give them a few more weeks so I know they'll stick before I make any big to-do about it. But seriously. WE PICKED FIRST NAMES!

Lastly: We finally got a glimpse of baby smoochie. I've never had an ultrasound so early before (I was 11 or 12 weeks with our first and 10 or 11 weeks with our second). This time was 8 weeks and 6 days. I have to admit, the difference was definitely noticeable! Besides being smaller, the baby was a lot less active than I remembered them being (but the ultrasound tech assured me that this early on that is perfectly normal). And hey, if this kid wants to be mellow, that is a-okay with me!

Here he (she?) is!

The heart rate was 173bpm (which, according to the old wives tale means GIRL)! And baby measured in at 2.75 centimeters.

Today marks 9 fabulous weeks! Rather than barrage you with all the pictures this week (and maybe because I forgot to take TWO pictures in ONE week... oops!) I figured I'll just leave you with today's baby bump picture:

And there you have it folks!

In other news... We are starting to get excited for Christmas around these parts. Much to my neighbors' dismay, I'm sure, we went ahead and hung our lights a little early this year:

 

These two love bugs are sooooo exciteable anymore between the baby and upcoming holidays (or maybe just because of their surplus of halloween candy). They can't contain it and I love that! They've been especially awesome the past week or so. They are both such well-behaved, happy, bright, beautiful souls. They make me even more excited to have this baby. I want to do this all over again :)

And with that big ol' pile of mush, I'm signing off.

Peace love and happy things,
T

The Symptoms...

Week 8! Our baby is now the size of a raspberry :)

While I have always been fortunate with mild morning sickness in all of my pregnancies (and this one is following in suit) - that doesn't mean I don't have symptoms.

Here are some of my symptoms and how I've been managing them:

Morning Sickness: It's here. I just don't find myself hugging the porcelain throne like many pregnant women do. Instead it's a tight-rope walk. One step toward being too hungry sends me spiraling into a world of nausea where I don't feel hungry, I just feel ill. One step towards being too full and I feel like a bloated, beached whale who is about to puke up Jonah himself. It's not pretty. However,  the antidote: I've been able to keep this mostly at bay by eating frequent, small snacks. Some of my favorite on-the-go snacks this pregnancy are: buttered cookies from the tin, greek yogurt (muller, the kind where you can dump caramelized almonds or berries in), and bagels with butter.

Itchy, dry legs: I typically get itchy, dry legs in the winter. But I've reached a whole different level of frenzied scratching lately. It's just my damn shins! It feel ssoooooo amazing to scratch, but when I look down I've nearly scrapped my skin raw.  The Antidote: Aquaphor! I discovered this stuff when Scarlett had eczema as a toddler and a friend recommended it. It's similar to Vaseline in consistency, although slightly thicker.  It's helping, although it hasn't solved the problem. I also remember my sister gifted me a Burt's Bees peppermint leg cream during on of my previous pregnancies that had a wonderful cooling effect. Might need to invest in more of that!

Bizarre Dreams: Like... REALLY vivid, REALLY strange dreams out of nowhere. The other night I had a dream that I pulled a maggot out of my eye lid. Yeah. No fucking thank you. The Antidote:  I really wish I knew!

Exhaustion: Extreme, spontaneous, unwarranted exhaustion. The kind that physically hurts. The kind that makes you momentarily contemplate death because at least you'd be laying down. It comes on randomly (sometimes just a few hours after I wake up), even after I full night sleep (I slept 9 hours last night... I was still tired for about 80 percent of my day). The Antidote: Naps. Lots of them. Also, they say you are allowed roughly 1-2 cups of coffee a day. I've been measuring out 10 ounces when I am really feeling the exhaustion, and I savor each and every drop. It's liquid gold.

Bloat: The moment food touches my lips, I look 5 months pregnant. I've been taking my daily bump pictures in the morning before I have anything to eat. If I took a picture in the evenings you would swear those photos were taken months apart, not hours apart. The Antidote: Suck it in, don't stuff yourself, and blame it on the baby belly. That's all I've got!

Acid Reflux: Nothing makes an already nauseous pregnant lady feel more nauseous than hot bile creeping up her throat. Gross. Thankfully this hasn't been too terrible yet, but it has caught me off guard a few times and I do remember it got progressively worse with my previous pregnancies. The Antidote: Tums. And avoid acidic food.

Cravings: So far my cravings have consisted of: lobster bisque, burritos, crab rangoons, tacos, 7 layer dip, WaWa's mac and cheese, rice and beans. Fair warning: This kid might pop out wearing a sombrero. The Antidote: Chipotle, Taco Bell, Tijuana Tacos, and of course, your local grocery store. This symptom really isn't so bad ;)

And finally...

Euphoria: Because life is seriously the coolest fucking thing. Everywhere I go I feel like I'm harboring this amazing secret. This precious, extraordinary cargo that is full of hope and the terrifying. wonderful unknown. And the best part is, this time, I get to do everything with my little sidekicks. As if the miracle of life wasn't incredible enough to the average adult, holy crap, you should see kids react to it. The girls are completely enamored. I've always felt we have a strong family unit and that my husband, the girls and I all work together beautifully and compliment one another so well. This experience is letting us all see that in action. I feel like we are all in this together. I cannot wait to see my babies hold our baby for the first time. The pride on their faces. The excitement in their eyes. The way they will be little cheerleaders for this little one's first steps, words, laughs. There is so much good happening.

I am a lucky lady. :)

And with that... I bid you aduei. Until next time.

xo,
T

It's Happening!!

Hey folks!

Despite what you may have thought, I did not forget about you! I did however realize that I shared this link with a couple of close friends and to suddenly stop updating it right around when I was supposed to find out if I was pregnant would be a dead-give away and I wanted the husband to be the first to know. 

Well, looky here:




First time was the charm, apparently! We got a positive OPK on September 14th and wasted no time! 9 days later I took a test that looked negative, but when I came back (after the alotted time frame) I thought I saw a veeery faint line. I took another test and the same thing happened. I was too impatient to wait for a truly conclusive test and told Scot that night. I tested with a first response the following day and got a faint positive, and the next day I took this digital. No denying that!

Because this will likely be our last pregnancy, I want to remember everything, and you, lucky little blog, get to be the beneficiary of my wealth of pregnancy information. 

One of the first things I vowed to do this time was to take belly pictures. TONS of them. One a day, in fact. And so far I have only missed one day. Not too shabby, considering it's been over a month! Now, this early on, you can see that the belly has been fluctuating. Which leads me to blame bloat not baby on the little belly in some of these photos. However, I am feeling a little thicker around the waist line, and this is baby number 3, so perhaps the baby bump is just around the corner.

In the future, I will share my baby bump pictures for the week on Wednesdays, when baby graduates to the next week of gestation. But here is what we have so far: 

Wow! My apologies for the lack of symmetry in those photographs. The photo adjustment tools are a little wonky on this thing. I'll get the hang of it eventually!

That will be all for now, but I will be reporting back again soon! 

xo, 
T

And We Have Lift Off!

I'm pretty sure my ovaries heard me whining yesterday and decided to get off their lazy butts and DO SOMETHING! Today's OPK definitely shows that I'm getting close to the big "O"! I almost didn't test today because yesterday's was so discouraging. I'm happy that I did! Perhaps I will be ovulating tomorrow: My BIRTHDAY! That'd be cool. Anyway, here she is:

I'll be back tomorrow with an update! 

My Lazy Ovaries

So, after much deliberation, I have decided that ovaries really have it made. First of all, there are two of them, so they have someone to share the work load with. Secondly, did you know you only actually ovulate for no more than a 24 hour period? It's true. That means the other 27 days of your cycle, your ovaries are just acting as two really ugly purses, just cradling your potential offspring's genetic code. The proof is in the pudding folks. Most of the times your ovaries are doing a whole lot of nothing!

Summoning my inner Chandler Bing here: Could these tests BE any more negative?

They sure as hell aren't changing much. That's okay. Ovia (my fertility tracker app) tells me that my fertile window begins tomorrow and peaks from August 21-23. Let's cross our fingers for some positive OPK's soon!

An Inconvenient Truth

Guys. I have for you today... An inconvenient truth. Can you guess what it is? It isn't about hail the size of golf balls. It isn't about monstrous tsunami's. It's not about climate change at all. In fact... Shit is about to get real here.

It's about...

Pee.

Any good TTCer (trying-to-concieve-er) knows the acronym FMU. It's not a weird(er) cousin to the bird called EMU. It's not a typo for "FU". It's First. Morning. Urine.

Early on in my pregnancy with my oldest daughter I was informed that when you take a pregnancy test with anything other than your first morning urine (the first time you pee after waking up), a thousand angel babies cry. No, not really. But supposedly it isn't as accurate to take a urine test mid-day as it is in the morning. The theory is that because you haven't been drinking all night, your urine is less diluted and will be more likely to pick up any baby-hormones lurking in your pee. Yum. I warned you it was getting real.

Well because I am an EXPERT at trying to get pregnant (which, you know, I still haven't actually tried to do. Ever.) I know better. FMU ShmeFMU. I can pee on any old stick whenever I want and it will be fiiiiine. I say this because I am a night shift worker and last night, I happened to work. Last night I also happened to drink copious portions of coffee in order to not become comatose. I figure, eh, how big of a difference can it make? It's better to take the test the same time every day than to wait until my urine is all dehydrated and whatnot.

However, by the looks of these tests, I am getting farther away from ovulation, not closer to it. So there you have it folks. Inconvenient? Yep. True? You betcha. The proof:

See you lovely folks tomorrow!