33/34 week appointment

Not too much to report for this one. Normal blood pressure, no weight gain (BIG shock, especially after Thanksgiving), Miles sounded great, fondal height at 34 cm, and everything internally was normal as well. They normally wouldn't have done an internal, but last night I had a weird "gush" (sorry for TMI) so we wanted to make sure it wasn't amniotic fluid. I was 90% sure it wasn't going to be anything, but better to be safe since with both Jake and Rylan my water broke before I went into labor. They think it was just a build up that was released for whatever reason, but nothing to worry about. I also told them that I have thrown up a few times and had a terrible time with Acid Reflux and they recommended Zantac to see if that would help. Hopefully, it will because its no fun waking up in the middle of the night to throw up because of acid in the back of your throat! I have also had a lot of hip pain, but I didn't bother them with that since I know what they'll tell me - essentially, everything I already know. So its back in 2 weeks on 12/12/12 and one month from my due date!

Belly Pics

33w, 3d

Thankful

For the past few weeks my news feed on Facebook has been filled with one thing my friends are thankful for each day from the beginning of November up to, and sometimes through, Thanksgiving. Seeing all of this makes me reflect on all the things I am thankful for. The obvious being family, friends, health, and happiness. I expect most people are thankful for these things, but what's next? The material things: clothes, toys, etc. The "necessities": food, shelter, etc. Well, for me, what has consumed me is something that most people might not think of as quickly. I'm thankful for those people that have created conflict in my life.

Confused by that one? Let me explain a bit. A few years ago I had a confrontation with two of my closest friends that eventually led to the end of our friendships because at the end of the day they just didn't want to be friends anymore. For lack of a better term, I was dumped. Since that happened I have spent a LOT of time thinking about what it meant, what friendships meant, what I could have done differently, etc. Part of the reason I think this stayed on my mind so much was due to the fact that I never really got any closure. Until now. Not that they have come back and been willing to talk, or even accept an occasional well wish from me, but because I think I have finally made sense of it. These two "friends" have allowed me to see how strong I am, see just who does truly care about me, who I really can turn to when I'm down, and who wants to be a part of my life. And then I expanded on this idea I found that it was not only them, but EVERY ONE that has caused or been a source of conflict in my life - ex-boyfriends, opponents, rivals, people that simply didn't like me, etc. Each one of these people I am thankful for because while they have caused pain in my life they have also made me stronger with each challenge. Without these people would I have been able to get through such things as depression, miscarriage, and other life crisis? Don't get me wrong, my friends and family were a huge help through most of my struggles, but from these "other" people I have found inner strength, my husband, my TRUE friends, and people that I will always consider family even if we're not "related". Without these "other" people I would not be where I am today. Period.

So to all of you that kicked me when I was down, I say Thank You! For now I know I can pick myself up and I know who will be there waiting to help me put it all back together and I am truly THANKFUL for that!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I hope you all know - you know who you are - that I am THANKFUL for you!

 A few other people I'm thankful for :)

31/32 week appointment and Rylan update

I had my 31/32 week appointment this morning. I am officially 31w, 4d pregnant. The appointment went fine- bp 100/60, (another) 3 lbs gained, Miles 150 bpm, and 32 cm fondal height. So everything is right on track with where it should be. I went ahead and scheduled my next 3 appointments which will take me up to the week before Christmas and nearly 37 weeks so that might be it since Rylan was born at 37w, 2d which would be Christmas day..

I've stopped caring how much weight I gain because it is what it is and there's nothing I can really do about it now. I haven't been over indulging, granted I have my moments, but that has always been the case with me. It just seems that I gain a lot more weight with boys. And I'm trying my best to be positive and not complain about how I feel - which is completely wiped, for the record. I just keep reminding myself there are lots of women that never get to experience this and it is a small price to pay for a beautiful baby at the end. I was also reminded this morning of all I went through back in January to get to where I am now when Jake started asking questions about the baby we lost. It kind of puts it all in perspective when a 7 nearly 8 year old still is having a hard time letting go of a lost pregnancy from 10 months ago. So no matter the problem, I'm trying my best to keep positive and just focus on the end goal - Baby Miles in my arms.

In my nesting insanity I have already started getting the house ready for Christmas. I have put out some decorations and I went through all of  the ornaments so they would be ready for when we get our tree. I also have a very good start on Christmas shopping. For anyone that knows me well, this is all VERY weird for me.  I have never been the early decorator and I NEVER have my shopping even started until into December. I just feel so tired and spent that I just want everything ready so I don't have anything to do except wait. And for anyone with kids, you know that there is always SOMETHING that needs to get done so if I can have the decorating and shopping done early hopefully it will make the other stuff easier. Fingers crossed I can get it done AND that it works!

Rylan update:

A few weeks ago I had mentioned that we were trying to get Rylan toilet trained. Well, a few days in we were hit with a bit of a set back.....warning TMI coming.......She got diarrhea for 5 days. Fantastic. Luckily, it didn't set her back very much. She was ready to get back on board with going #1 immediately and #2 is slowly coming along. She is wearing underwear during the day, everyday now with no #1 accidents and a few #2 accidents. She has been VERY good about using the bathroom when we're away from home and she's been very happy to wear her underwear during the day. We're not all the way there yet, but I think the finish line is at least in sight. Time to cross those fingers again in hopes that she continues on this path and doesn't have any set backs when Miles arrives.

So that's it for us. We'll be staying home for all the holidays this year. We're not expecting any visitors, but if Miles arrives early that might change. We are hoping that Miles will make it before the new year and I'm personally hoping for before Christmas - his stocking got here a couple of days ago just in case :) And Chris is now predicting Miles will be the Apocalypse baby on 12/21/12 :)

Last, but not least - BELLY PICS! Ok, so its not that exciting, but I'm sure you can all at least get a kick out of just how lovely I'm looking these days ;)

31w, 4d - 59 days or less (I hope)

 Just for fun - 32 weeks with Rylan, the bump looks about the same, but the rest of me looks a lot better :)

29/30 Week Appointment

I had my 29/30 week appointment yesterday at 29w, 3d pregnant. Everything was just fine. Blood pressure 56/112, 5 lbs gained (YUCK), and 145 bpm for Miles. From my last appointment they had already told me that I passed the Gestational Diabetes test, but my count was low for Iron/Anemia so I would need to start Iron supplements (another YUCK). I wasn't surprised about the anemia since I was anemic with Brenden and Rylan as well.

The doctor asked how I was doing and I gave a VERY unconvincing fine. He asked if there was anything in particular, but its all the same crap that I know is just part of pregnancy. He assured me that everything looked good, but it really doesn't matter. The fact is: I'm just not the happy pregnant woman. I don't have the "Oh the joys of pregnancy....What a wonderful joy.....Blah, blah, blah, blah" attitude. I hurt constantly, I'm exhausted, and I have awful mood swings. I know this is par for the course for pregnancy, but I don't like it AT ALL. I like the end result, but if it were up to me pregnancy would last about one month. And I'm really hoping that Miles continues the trend of early births so I never have find out what the full 40 weeks (or more) is like. I've already told Chris that if I don't deliver by 38 weeks I'll likely go insane.....Hear that Miles? Momma needs another early baby! :) And now that the Holidays are truly upon us I know this is all going to get more stressful and exhausting.....Here's hoping for only 6-7 more weeks instead of 10! And don't forget to make your own guess for how much longer this misery is going to last ;)

And here are the lovely belly pictures - and its quite the belly! :)

 29w, 4d

Pumpkin Carving and Halloween

Happy Halloween! For those of you that don't know, this is not my favorite holiday, but its obviously a favorite of the kids so I put my smiley face on and do my best. Chris on the other hand loves Halloween so the kids get one truly enthusiastic parent :)

After getting pumpkins a little over a week earlier we had to hold off carving them until Sunday because of our crazy schedules. Finally, Sunday night we got the pumpkins out and went to town. For the past few years I have done the majority of the carving because the kids had too hard of a time with it so they would come up with the designs and I would carve. This year Jake was ready to join the party and I finally got a good kids carving knife - which quite frankly is the best grown up carving knife too! So after I cut open the pumpkin Jake cleaned it out and drew his design on it (cross-eyed vampire). When he thought he was ready to go I checked it over and helped smooth out a few spots and he got to carving with me only helping a little on the eyes. And the pumpkin turned out great! He was so proud of himself and I was happy to only have to do Brenden's and Rylan's pumpkins ;)

Brenden was VERY against cleaning out his pumpkin, but he wanted to draw his design on the pumpkin and help with the carving. And of course, Brenden's pumpkin was the hardest/grossest to clean out. Anyway, after we got it cleaned out he drew the EXACT same thing as Jake, little brothers do want to be just like their big brothers. Since it was exactly the same I asked Brenden if that's what he really wanted or if he just wanted to do a similar one with his own touches. So we talked about different shapes and such and came up with a similar design, but we would use more triangle shaped eyes, add a nose, and do 6 teeth instead of 5 so he would have his own unique pumpkin. He was very happy and I was glad he got to use his own imagination!

And Rylan is 2 and couldn't care less what her pumpkin looked like so I just came up with a quick and easy smiley, happy pumpkin face :)

And then came Halloween! They don't wear costumes to school here so the boys wanted to get dressed as soon as they could once Jake got home. Since the weather called for 40 and rainy we needed to do some layering before the costumes could go on. Jake and Brenden picked out new costumes this year, for the past few years they have been recycling old costumes so I was fine with buying new ones when we went to the store. Rylan is still too young to tell me if she wants to dress up and what she would want to dress up as, but she definitely knew she wanted to get candy! Jake picked out a Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle, Brenden found a Darth Maul costume, and we figured we'd dress Rylan up in some fancy clothes and put all of her jewelry on and she could be Fancy Nancy (one of her favorite books/characters). 

Before Trick or Treating we went to one of the neighbors houses for a Pre-Trick-or-Treating party and Chili cook off. It was really nice for the kids to all get together to see each others costumes, have some dinner, and just play and show off. We stayed for about an hour hoping we could make it until Chris got home from work, but we weren't able to last so we headed out in the rain for some candy.

It was awful out! Luckily I had my mom to help me and the kids didn't seem to mind the weather - at least in the beginning. And Chris was able to join us about 10-15 minutes into our trek. It was a rough start, but we plugged through and it all worked out well. Jake ran into one of his friends from his soccer team and they took off together with Brenden close behind. After 45 minutes Rylan, my mom, and I headed home to get warm. Brenden stayed out for another 30-40 minutes when I picked him and up and Chris and Jake lasted another 30 minutes on top of that. Despite the miserable weather, the kids had a great time. 

They were all VERY cold when they made it home, but not too cold to not have any candy :) The night was a success with lots of candy to show for it! Rylan ended up with 16 pieces, Brenden 87 pieces, and Jake scored 165 pieces of candy! Quite a successful Halloween if I do say so myself! :)