19 Weeks and Counting...

Pregnancy Highlights 

How Far Along: 19 weeks. 147 days to go!

Total Weight Gain: I still have not gotten back on the scale... I will report this when I have doctors appointments. I know I have gained though because my scrubs have started to fit a little tight. (UGH!) I know weight gain is essential during pregnancy its just so hard after I worked to hard to lose the weight before I found out I was having a baby.  

Maternity Clothes:I have to get some new clothes. Pants and shorts are what I need really. All my pants from previous pregnancy are pants with the low belly band and this little one sits VERY low causing so much pressure from the belly band. It literally hurts. I need the full belly pants and shorts this time around.

Best Moment of the Week: Watching this little one kick in my belly. I tried to show the boys but they were too impatient to sit and watch and he would never kick when they were looking. 

Gender: Its a BOY!

What is going on with the Baby: A lot of brain development. Hair is starting to sprout on his little head. 

Baby is size of: A large heirloom tomato. 6 inches and about 8.5 ounces. 

Movement:I feel him move, but this little one must like to stay in a little ball. He moves but not often enough to feel him very much. He just stays really low in my uterus and usually I can somewhat tell where he is but can't get him to really kick yet. 

Food Craving: This week I really wanted meat. Pork Chops, steak etc. I was not craving it, it just really sounded good. Pineapple is still a staple for me and I have purchased a lot of it.

What I Miss: When I didn't feel my sciatic nerve with every step. This baby must be jumping on my nerve  on the left side because I feel it with every step. Benjamin did this to me but not until I was much further along. 

What I am looking forward to:My 20 week ultrasound just to confirm that this is for sure a boy and also to make sure that he is growing well and healthy. I am almost half way there as well which is nice to know. I am not looking forward to the heat of the summer as I already feel like it is too hot outside. 

Symptoms: Headaches seem to be the worst thing going on right now. I am still getting the headaches but I am also still getting waves of nausea. Not too bad, but I still get them. I did not have nausea with either of the other boys at this point. 

Dare to Discipline..

Out of frustration one afternoon (I think I posted about) the day Caleb spent half the day in time out (so it felt) I decided I needed to do some reading/get advice outside of my own little realm of knowledge on how to discipline and handle my boys.  I feel like a lost cause in public and that I am the mother people look at and think "she is a terrible mother, with out of control children." So on Monday Brad and I had our date night without the kids and went to Barnes and Noble so I could look at some books. I had asked around a little and talked to a friend who gave me some suggestions.

So here is where I ended up. I didn't want to purchase all these books, I am sure the $100.00 or so would be well spent, but I decided I would see if the library had them. They did have them and I have been reading and taking notes. I just need some new avenues to be able to handle my boys in a positive and constructive way. I am just easily frustrated and quick to anger for silly things and want to be able to know how to discipline without that coming out in myself. Kids learn from what they are taught and I dont want my boys to be easily frustrated and get angry quickly. So I have started with Dare to Discipline and I am very pleased with it thus far. I feel like I will be able to get some things under control before #3 arrives. 

Potty Talk...

If I wanted to make this blog seem like everything in our lives was perfect I would only post the best pictures and share the good stories. A lot of the blog is just that, but it is our memories together as a family. There are some days though where I feel like I have been completely dragged down by a 3 and 4 year old from the moment they get up in the morning. I used to be such a morning person... get up get my coffee, have some alone time and enjoy my morning. I would get things done etc. Ever since I have had children this does not seem to be the case. As soon as I get up I feel like the kids are demanding things of me, mommy I need warm milk, mommy turn cartoons on, mommy make me breakfast, mommy don't go to work, mommy mommy mommy.... Now I feel like I need about an hour to wake up to where I can just get going. I never used to be like this. Recently as soon as I get up it's like the boys have this need to start using potty words on top of all the morning demands and then they continue the entire day. It gets our day off to the wrong start and it makes me start my day putting them in time out of using these words. I get so tired of hearing potty words. I finally asked moms on facebook for their advice and got some good advice.. soap and using the verse about clean talk from our mouths, potty words being allowed to be said only in the bathroom, vinegar in their mouth each time they say a potty word. I just feel like my boys are spending way too much time in time out for things, but I can't seem to get them corrected. It is really frustrating! I am determined to start some new tactics for behavior, but I need to get it under control before this new baby comes in 5 months. I have a lot to do! Of course while I am writing this my children are being so nice to each other, talking kindly, and playing together like best friends. I wish it was this way all day every day! I have a lot to learn.

Mommy we saw a fox in the yard!

When the boys are outside playing I hear all kinds of things that they "find" in the yard. Dragons, Eagles, Boas, Dinosaurs etc... So on Saturday Brad was mowing the front yard and the boys come running in "mommy we saw a fox in the yard! A baby fox just went through the yard." So I was thinking a cat ran through the yard and they thought it was a fox, or they just made it up. They were a bit frantic though so I went outside and looked but didn't see anything so I just said well I don't see anything it ran away. They would not go back outside to play though so they stayed in the playroom. Later in the afternoon Brad went out the back door and I heard "Lauren.. there's a fox in our yard" so I ran out and the fox had gone to the front yard so I ran around the front and sure enough there was a little red fox in our yard. It started to "run" from me and I could see it was obviously injured and running pretty slow. It went across the street into some bushes. I told Brad something was wrong with it and that it was so skinny!! About 10 minutes later I saw the fox coming back across the road. Caleb was looking with me and could see the fox was hurt as well and he started crying. "Mommy that poor baby fox is hurt" "What if he can't find his family" At first we were going to call animal control, but we were afraid they would just kill the fox. We watched the fox go under our shed and Brad confirmed it was laying down under there and drinking some water. I called the national wildlife rescue organization and after a lot of automated messages got in touch with the right person. They were going to come to our house and get the fox and try to help it. They did come and we were able to catch the poor little fox. They think that the fox was abandoned by its mother after its leg was caught in a trap (thats what it looked like to them). The baby would not have been able to keep up with its injury. They were sure that if the fox could be saved, the foot/leg would have to be amputated. They were going to do what they could to save it. The fox didn't even put up much of a fight because it was so exhausted and dehydrated. They had antibiotics and pain medication to give it until they could get it to the vet on Monday. I feel so much better that we helped the little fox and if they are not able to save it due to infection or something like that, at least it won't suffer to the end. Here are some pictures of the cute little fox. Needless to say I will probably believe my boys next time they come running in telling me what they found. 

I'll take it!

I have started stocking up on diapers. I am still undecided on the G-diapers, but won't do those until the baby is older anyway, if I decide to do them. So I have started stocking up to size 3 diapers. Bi-Lo was having a 3 day sale on diapers and I just happened to have a lot of coupons for them. I got these 10 packs of diapers (totaling over $104.00) and I paid $67.69. I went back and got two more packs because I still had some coupons left over. I thought it was a great deal. It came out to about 20 cents per diaper. 

How does your Garden Grow?

This is what my garden looked like on Friday... UGH! Grass and weeds everywhere. I was in no way wanting to take on this project, but I did.. 

The boys "helped" me 

 And finally later that day I got the plants in the ground. I got our entire garden done for $21.00. I went a lot more simple this year. Squash, Zucchini, Butternut Squash, Sweet potatoes, green, red and yellow peppers, and tomatoes. Hopefully it will all turn out well.

Mother's Day 2012

 For Mother's Day this year my brother and his wife were in town from California so we all decided to go to the Lakehouse for the weekend. Brad had family in town from Florida as well so we were trying to make sure we saw everyone while they were in town. Saturday we took the kids over to Brad's mom's house early so that we could go and look at a car that we had seen earlier that week. Before we left we got all packed up for the lake and Brad and the boys gave me the mother's day stuff they had worked on earlier in the week. The boys made me spotlights with what they love about me.

 Then they made me a poster with craft sticks and around it they told Brad all their favorite things about me.

 Then unexpectedly we ended up buying the car that we went to see. I am so excited about my new car. This car was in amazing condition, had under 50,000 miles, DVD systems, navigation etc.. and enough storage space that we were thinking we needed to buy more stuff. We got it from Carmax and were very very impressed with our experience there. We were not pressured at all to buy the car but we LOVED it. At Carmax they run rates for you etc and the lowest rate they could give us was 7.75% over 72 months. We were given 3 days to find a better rate. On Tuesday I spent the entire morning calling and going to different banks etc to find a better loan rate for the car. We ended up with an awesome deal from SCB&T (south carolina bank and trust) where Brad has had an account since high school. They gave us a 2.99% over 60 months. So we will have it paid off a year earlier. We were very pleased with it.

 We went that night to the lake and mothers day was a rainy mess of a day, but it was great and relaxing. We sat on the porch and it was chilly enough to do a fire, we played apples to apples and honestly we were lazy. I really enjoyed it. We came home on Monday and took a long nap. Even the boys were asking to take a nap. It was a wonderful Mother's day weekend.

The Thursday before mother's day the boys had a mother's day brunch at school. It is such a cute little thing they do for the moms. Here are the things the boys made for me.

18 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights 

How Far Along:18 weeks. 154 days to go!

Total Weight Gain: I still have not gotten back on the scale... I will report this when I have doctors appointments. 

Maternity Clothes: I actually wore pants the other day that were not maternity pants. It made me feel good. I am still in my normal scrub pants at work as well. For the most part I am in maternity clothes though. I need to buy some new ones... most of mine were for winter when I was pregnant with the other two boys. 

Best Moment of the Week: Announcing that the baby is a boy! Getting my new van so we have space for all three boys to be in carseats. I got it for mothers day. 

Gender: Its a BOY!

What is going on with the Baby: An explosion of growth (it will be interesting to see if I start getting sick again) hair is starting to grow, sensory development in the brain. Ability to hear is also increasing.

 

Baby is size of: An Bell Pepper. 5 1/2 inches and about 7 ounces. 

Movement: I feel small movements, no big kicks yet, the baby gets hiccups often. I feel more pressure when he is in a certain area. He still likes to be very low in my abdomen and it hurts with the maternity pants that I have. 

Food Craving: This week I really needed coffee ice cream. Key word is "needed"

What I Miss: This week was a good week, not too uncomfortable so I don't feel like I miss anything. 

What I am looking forward to: I have another ultrasound for my 20 Week appointment. My doctors office keeps changing it though which I am not very happy about. I want to have this appointment so I know everything is fine with the baby. I also want them to just confirm that it is for sure a boy as I did have my ultrasound pretty early. 

Symptoms: Headaches seem to be the worst thing going on right now. I get them almost daily but some days are worse than others. The way I sit at work has made my back ache some almost like the baby is sitting on my nerve in my lower back. 

Baby #3 is a....

On May 4th I went to a place called Baby Impressions where you can pay to have an ultrasound done where you can find out the gender of the baby. I called and they were booked through June except for one appointment at 3:00 that afternoon. So I called Brad and talked to him about it. Due to his work schedule right now he was not able to go that day. I actually went without him but we had the lady put the gender in an envelope so when Brad got home we opened it together. We did not tell the boys for a week and a half after that as we knew they would spill the news to our families before we got the chance to do it. Here are some pictures from my ultrasound of "cowboy round-up" at 16 weeks. 

This is a side profile of his face and tummy.

 A side profile with his spine. Right above his chest is his hand. 

 At this point he still has that alien look as he has not started putting on weight at this point. Everyone has said he looks like an angel with the way the womb is behind him, making it look like wings. My dad was concerned (being the worry wort that he is) that something was wrong with his wrist, but it is just the way the 3D makes the picture come across. 

 I already see a lot of Caleb in him. His bone structure looks more like Caleb. Maybe you have to be their mother to notice this. 

 During the ultrasound he kept putting his hands up to his face and mouth. On the video he is sucking his thumb and then he starts licking his hand as well. It was pretty amazing. I will be surprised if he is not a thumb sucker. During my very first ultrasound at 10 weeks we watched him put his hands up to his face as well. 

 Here you can really see him with his thumb at his mouth. 

 A semi side profile in 3D

 Hands up to his face again. He did this a lot during the ultrasound. 

 Here is the gender picture... I closed my eyes during this part so that I could not tell before Brad also knew. 

On my soapbox for a moment: I can't see how our government/people etc. can't see this beautiful child as a baby! Apparently this is just tissue... However it is perfectly formed by the hands of God, I watched him move and suck his thumb. It is beyond infuriating that sea turtle eggs are protected by law, yet living, beautiful children are not. It makes me sad beyond words! 

Thank you God for this amazing and perfect child growing inside me! 

He's Cute

Isn't he cute? I think so!