Pregnancy #3 thoughts

I wasn't very good about recording the little details about my pregnancy with baby girl #3 - so here are some things about these past nine months that I don't want to forget:

- I told Jordan I was pregnant while we were eating dinner at a Chinese restaurant with my Dad - while my Dad was in the restroom I wrote on the back of Jordan's fortune from his fortune cookie, "You will be a father again in 9 months" - this was the first pregnancy where Jordan wasn't waiting outside the bathroom door while I took a pregnancy test - and the look on his face was priceless! He was so happy.

- Hands down, this was the hardest pregnancy yet - from nausea to excessive fatigue (I'm talking flue-like fatigue) for the entire first trimester and just plain fatigue during the 3rd. I had to continually remind myself that I would rather be pregnant and uncomfortable than not pregnant, because despite being miserable and feeling like I was a horrible mother for 9 months, I would do it all again to have this sweet baby girl. 

- I was stoked when I found out we were having another girl.

- Common Pregnancy cravings - tater tots, red meat, nectarines, chocolate shakes. Jordan wasn't sure I was really his wife with how much I really just wanted a steak or hamburger. Of course, I had low iron levels, so that probably contributed. Jordan was wonderful and if I would just mention that I was craving french fries, the next thing I knew he would be out the door and on his way to the nearest Culvers or McDonalds. 

- Where Lily and Lucy measured big the entire second and third trimester, this baby girl measured spot on the entire time.

- With Lily and Lucy I was dilated to a 3 and 75% effaced by 37 weeks, this girl didn't want to leave the comfort of her womb - at 39.5 weeks along I was still dilated to a 1 and only 25% effaced, meaning that I would have to wait until I was 41 weeks to be induced! Luckily she didn't make me wait until the full 41 weeks. 

- There were times she was so quite and still that I had to pull out our fetal Doppler  to hear her heart beat to make sure she was okay. Sometimes, it was just her having the hiccups that told me she was alive. She was a chill, snugly little fetus.  

- Lily loved to put her mouth right on my belly and sing her songs, tell her stories and say, "come out baby sister!" 

- Jordan and I dubbed it the pregnancy of "Psych" because that was the show we watched during this pregnancy. Lucy's was the pregnancy of season 1 &2 of Chuck.

Big Girl Bed

Look who finally graduated from the crib to a bed?! At almost 3 years old, we decided it was time to move her. A mattress on the floor to start her off. She was so excited that she didn't even want stories that first night, all she wanted to do was go straight into her new big girl bed! Of course once the lights were out, she didn't stay there. From that night on we've been having difficulty getting these girls to go to sleep. They often played at night, but Lily was good about staying in her bed and of course Lucy had to stay in her crib. Now, however, it's free reign and we often have to go in, hours after the lights have been turn off, and tell them no more playing. One night I woke up to Lucy crying and found her half asleep by the doll house. Other times I'll find her crying in the middle of the night, walking around the kitchen saying, "I looking for my bed Everywhere!" Hopefully their baby sister is a great sleeper because all 3 of them will be sharing a room until we hopefully get a house next year!

Pictures from Jordan's phone (February-June 2014)

Daddy Daughter Date to the place of her choice - McDonalds

A Saturday trip to the Children's Museum

Morning trip to the park

Another trip to the museum - this time a little 15 minute show in the lobby with a T-Rex- this is one of the few times I've genuinely seen Lucy afraid. Lily straight up hid behind me while Lucy was shaking in my lap until they saw that the T-Rex was friendly. 

Lily loves Baby Elise - she makes her multiple cards a day, makes up songs to sing to her, and always says things such as, "I hope our baby is as cute as Elise!"

Columbus has a great tradition of Family First Friday's during the Winter months. They bring in professional family friendly entertainers from Cincinnati, Louisville or Indianapolis and put them on for free at the local Commons area. Professional magicians, musicians, dancers, ect. This month was the Cincinnati Children's Theater and they did Sleeping Beauty. Lily and Lucy were in heaven. 

Lily with Prince Charming and Brier Rose

Jordan's usual "I'm on a trip and saying Hi" picture. 

Lily's ballet class

Jordan's current calling is with the Young Men's, he's over the Teachers - one Saturday activity was hanging out at a boat house.

At the Indy's Zoo butterfly garden - Lily's happy place.

We've been letting Lily choose her own outfits for about a year now. As long as it's modest and weather and occasion appropriate, we let her put together whatever combo she wants. We figure it's a good independent outlet. Usually she actually does really well, but some days we get outfits such as this. One day she went to preschool wearing two different boots, on purpose. It's actually really nice to just tell Lily to go get dressed and she comes out fully dressed with her teeth brushed. 

A robin has built her nest on our balcony - which means we are trying to stay away and give her some privacy. Lily has named the mama bird Flower. There are now 4 eggs in the nest. I wonder if Flower and I have the same due date. 

Strawberry Fields - Our Day As Farm Hands

And by day, I mean 30-45 minutes. And by farm hands, I mean that we paid to go out and pick strawberries, at our leisure. And by we, I mean that Jordan and Lucy did most of the work. I picked a few strawberries, took a lot of pictures and Lily soon realized that picking strawberries is hard work. Especially in the hot sun. She soon moved to picking flowers. 

Our good friends, The Mijangos came with us. We were excited to see them since Debora and Nikki had just returned from a 6 week trip to take care of her mother in Rhode Island.

On the tractor ride out to the strawberry fields. You can't tell by the picture but Niki is one of Lucy's favorite friends. Niki is sitting by Lily so Lily can help hold onto her during the bumpy ride and Lucy is next to her dad. 

Every morning Jordan tells me sweet little lies, like, "you're a hot." and "Looking good today." I adore him for this. Pregnancy face, nobody can get away from it. And let's be honest, my belly is outrageous. Last week when I went to Labor and Delivery to have my Birthing Prep meeting (getting paperwork out of the way) even the L&D nurses were commenting on my belly. And they see full term pregnant woman all day every day! "Wow, your baby is just all out there, isn't she?" is the gist of the comments I get from people.   Here I am 38 weeks + 1 day pregnant. The countdown begins. 

Field hands at work

It took Lucy a little bit to learn which strawberries to pick, but she soon was a busy little bee collecting all the "shiny" ones she could find. Of course, they would then hand them to me and I would put them in the box for them. 

Like I said before, Jordan did most of the work today. There is some good farming genes in him. However, this did make us appreciate our education. 

Towards the end Lily got back into the strawberry picking game and found us some great ones. 

I have been horrible at taking pregnancy pictures - so here are a few, even though they are taken on the same day. Side note, I have about 3 different outfits to choose from at this stage of pregnancy. I normally don't get to wear short skirts due to having to wear compression stockings, but today I decidedly to live dangerously. Mostly, I just wanted to be cool and comfortable. Compression stockings mean maxi skirts or pants, and ballet flats or tennis shoes. Plus the stockings themselves are thick and add to my hot flashes. Normally I don't mind them since they keep the pain from my superficial blood clot away, but today, I went without them and it felt great. 

13 pounds of fresh, delicious berries! They are going to make some great smoothies this month!

Anniversary #6

This year we decided to keep our anniversary low key - although our friends the Mijango's did babysit for us (thank you!). We went out to our favorite local Mexican restaurant El Nopal - they have a decent gluten free dish that I get every time we go, and it's fairly inexpensive (we're on a spending freeze to save up for a house down payment). Afterwords, we went on a quest for good cheese in Columbus, Indiana. I have to admit that it's fairly difficult - there isn't much of a selection at the grocery store besides the basic Havarti, fresh mozzarella, ect. And we like to try new cheeses every year. After 3 different grocery stores we came up with, the Limburger cheese, double cream Camembert, smoked Gouda (not new, but always a favorite), chipotle Havarti, and extra sharp white cheddar. It wasn't the same this year on gluten free crackers. There are decent substitutes for brownies, pizza crust, even rolls, but they just can't make a decent GF cracker. At least the cheeses were good enough to eat by themselves. Chocolate milk and cherries have also become apart of the tradition.

This cheese STINKS! Neither of us had the guts to try it after smelling it. We had to double wash our hands to get rid of the smell! 

The rest of the cheeses were fabulous. Jordan's favorite was the smoked Gouda, I preferred the chipotle Havarti. What romantic movie did we watch while devouring our delicious goodies? Psych, the musical.

I absolutely adore my man and I am glad I get to spend eternity with him!

Lucy's Creation

Crafts are a big part of our day, probably because we don't have a backyard to send them to play. When I want some time to work on dinner or what-not, I get out some new craft supplies from target's dollar section, construction paper,ect and it usually keeps them occupied for a while, especially Lily. This was the longest Lucy worked on a craft. It's a butterfly.