Baby #3

A few posts back a friend commented I needed to update my blog header to include Clara. Looks like I'll just be waiting until April to do any updating! Yes I'm that lazy/tired/pregnant. This post is really for personal journaling purposes but I thought I'd put it here for those interested in our story of how we decided to be crazy enough to try for a #3 at the end of dental school here goes-

After I had Clara, like just weeks after, I asked my friend Brittany who already had 2 kiddos if she ever had the feeling she was missing a child to take care of. I was in such overwhelmed mommy care taking mode that I found myself constantly getting both girls content then looking around for the other child to care for. It was happening multiple times a day and I  blamed it on lack of sleep. She told me she'd never experienced that but her mom did and soon after she would find herself pregnant again. It spooked me a little but I moved on with life and continued to have occasional panic attacks in which I would look for the other child I did not have that I was convinced needed my attention. After the initial 3 months of normal baby fussiness/sleepless nights, Clara revealed herself to be an amazingly easygoing baby. My adjustment to two was honestly wonderful and I found my body healing so much quicker than it did with Mackenzie. I think it was January that I started feeling like God was just prepping me to have another one soon. It made me anxious that everything was going so smoothly and that I knew I was going to get a shot at feeling well enough to have another baby before we left Kentucky.

Keith and I would discuss our options occasionally. When I was pregnant with Clara, I didn't want to be pregnant ever again. I'm so grateful to be able to get pregnant but I am one of those women who is sick and uncomfortable 95% of the pregnancy. There is no honeymoon second trimester it's just one long blur of nausea, back pain, sleepless nights, cramping, headaches, mood swings, rapid weight gain, joint pain, acid reflux, ect.

So with that pregnancy, Keith and I agreed fully that I shouldn't get pregnant again for awhile. Another 3 year gap between kids sounded great to us. Well Clara's birth went better than I could have ever anticipated. Recovery was much faster and even though I had gained almost as much weight as I did with Kenz, I shed it in a quarter of the time. We did the math and realized we would have to get pregnant before Clara was 10 months old if we wanted another Kentucky baby. Keith graduates in May and I knew an April baby would be the latest I could handle. I also didn't want to move pregnant so we ruled that option out.

We found ourselves at a point where we were both ready for me to be pregnant again (trust me it's just about as hard on Keith as it is on me) and were in total agreement. The day I found out I was pregnant (July 27th), I woke up with the slightest twinge of morning sickness.

I tend to not feel very well when I'm nursing, plenty of fluctuating hormones going on there and daily bouts of nausea but this was different. So I got up right as Keith left (he usually wakes me before he leaves) around 6:45 and took a pregnancy test. Nothing showed up right away and I was kind of thinking I wasn't so I left it there and kind of forgot about it. An hour later I went to check and found the smallest positive glimmer. I was honestly a little shocked. I took another one shortly after to be sure and it came out more positive than the first. My brain was in overdrive trying to process the idea of having 3 kids with these last two just 19 months apart. I didn't call Keith because he usually doesn't answer his phone during the day but I also wanted to surprise him.

I took one more test about an hour before he came home that came out darker than the previous two and lined them up on the bathroom counter. Above them on the mirror I wrote in lip gloss "Hey Dad of 3, what will it be?" with an arrow pointing to the tests. When he got home, it took me forever to lure him into the bathroom and of course he didn't notice the big message smeared across the mirror. After some chit chat I finally said, "Keith, look!" 

He was definitely surprised and so excited. His excitement eased my mind a bit. He's really close in age with his siblings so he was excited to have two so close. I waited the weekend through to call the doctors to set up an appointment and they couldn't get me in until I was 9 weeks along. It was a long 5 week wait as I actually kept my mouth shut and told no one about the pregnancy. I had to lie to the friend who watched my kids for my appointment so she wouldn't know where I was really going.

One of the reasons I kept my lips sealed was because I felt so much better than I did with the previous 2 pregnancies. I didn't get sick immediately, the morning sickness kicked in about 7 weeks and even then, I usually only spent two miserable hours on the couch and some sleepless nights up with stomach pain. The worst of it only lasted about 3 weeks. I had no real food aversions and my only big complaint was how tired I was. It was so much easier to hide because I wasn't  feeling so dang sick all of the time like I had with Kenz and Clara.

I was also really paranoid about having a miscarriage. My previous miscarriage I hadn't experienced many symptoms either and I was due the last day of March with that baby and April 5th with this baby. I was fully prepared for bad news when I went to the OB and so I was definitely relieved when I saw that little baby on the ultrasound with a strong heartbeat and due date that matched the date I had.

I'm really happy to be able to go back to Dr. Nett. I loved her so much last time and feel I'm in good hands. I had another appointment at 13 weeks and will have one this Friday at 18 weeks. I'm feeling ok. This pregnancy is flying! We have an ultrasound scheduled for the 20th of November but we're not sure we'll find out the gender. I really want to experience a surprise in the delivery room, Keith is warming up to the idea.

I have two decent belly pics. This one at 4 weeks as a before pic:

 

 This one at 17 weeks: