Pregnancy Update: 3rd Trimester

(I love this one because it was Halloween weekend and Miller looks like he is scared of my belly). 

I just wanted to post a pregnancy update for this baby girl because I have done so few. Everything has been going fine. I have been so sore and it just keeps getting worse but that is normal. The only thing different this time around was that I barely failed the 1hour glucose test so I had to do the 3hour test and passed it with flying colors. I am still annoyed by the whole thing but oh well.

Here is my normal survey from 36 weeks.

How far along: 36 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: I did not gain any weight from my last appointment so my total is 25 lbs.   

Maternity clothes: It is now cool enough to wear my fall clothes which I am excited about, but I am finding that everything is so snug. My bump is outgrowing my maternity clothes. I have my sprinkle tonight and I am wearing the same dress that I wore to my last sprinkle and my shower for Miller. I am just wearing it differently.

Stretch marks: Just all the old ones.  

Sleep: I had some great nights of sleep this week. I still want more sleep but at least it was good quality sleep.   

Best moment this week: Miller’s party was a success and now it is just Halloween stuff and a few odds and ends to complete. I managed to get some all my crafts done this week so I am feeling mostly successful.

Movement: This darn child apparently has too much room in there. She has been head down for months and at my appointment this week she was transverse. I am so freaked out now and doing everything I can to get her to go down. I think she tends to go back to being head down but I still feel some spinning. I have been doing some exercises that are supposed to help get her in the right position but now I feel like so much is up in the air. I want her to move so that I know she is okay but not too much.  

Food cravings:  I have hit a mental wall with meal planning. Either, it doesn’t sound good to me, we cant get the kids to eat it, we already made it and have it in the freezer downstairs, or Ben is allergic to something in it. This is so painful! I just wish it were affordable to get take out every night.

Food aversions: Anything that I have to cook.  

Gender: Girly!

Labor Signs: BH come and go. At my doctors appointment this week, my cervix is closed but really soft.

Belly Button in or out: I wonder what it would feel like for it to poke out. I will never know.  

What I miss: I miss feeling that we are not on a deadline. I love Halloween and really want to enjoy it but I feel like I am so stressed out about the baby coming that I am rushing through and not enjoying it.

What  I am looking forward to: While I will miss being pregnant, I am looking forward to getting through delivery. I am so worried about her position and I wish I could just know that everything will work out with that.      

Weekly Wisdom: I remember this feeling before but I feel like I have an expiration date of November 13^th and I am just sitting around anxiously waiting for it. In reality, it is great after baby comes and I am no longer stuck in this pregnant body but I can not get over the anxiety of the unexpected and nostalgia about missing being pregnant. However, with issues about her position this week, it makes me more anxious to get to the delivery and know  that I can have another smooth vaginal delivery.

Milestones: I reached a month away from our due date. It is so weird to think that she will be here in a matter of weeks now. 

Update from my appointment: She flipped head down again the next week but some point in the following week, she flipped again and was breech. Last week was really stressful because we had to discuss doing a version to flip her and inducing. I started redoing my exercises and this week she was head down again. My doctor is pretty sure that she has dropped and can not move again so we are just letting nature take its course. I am still pretty anxious but just trying to stay calm and will her to stay put and come out soon.  

Kids Bathroom Update

After doing our powder room earlier in the year, we decided that we wanted to do board and batten in the kids bathroom too. It kept floating off and on our to-do list but finally we decided that we should tackle it now before we add another little one to our brood and get distracted. This is a reminder of what it looked like when we moved in.

  

I painted the upper half mint and the bottom white. We did the board and top ledge so we could establish the line to paint but held off on doing the batten. The battens are so time consuming unless you have a nail gun, which we as first time home owners do not. I told Ben though, that it is such an improvement as it is, that I do not care if we ever put up the battens.

We also framed in the mirror and added hooks instead of a towel rack. We figured that will be easier to encourage kids to hang up dirty towels this way.

Early Fall Happenings

This feels like a weird fall to me. I LOVE fall! It is my favorite season by far and I love packing it full of activities. I planned this whole pregnancy around getting all the house projects, baby projects and nesting done before October so that we could enjoy the month and a half until my due date. I researched every Halloween activity and put it on my calendar. Now that we are in this month, I have been so overwhelmed with all the things to do, but I do not want to miss out on anything.

The day after Miller's birthday party, we decided to go to a pumpkin patch. We normally go to one that is a 30 minute drive north and has a corn maze but I was not up for that. I can not imagine chasing both of the kids through the maze, being 8 months pregnant. I went the easy route and went to a pumpkin patch that was 15 minutes away with no corn maze.

She was quite pleased with herself for sitting on the pumpkin.

The following weekend, we went to the Halloween festival in our town. They had a touch a truck there which was great because we kept missing all the other ones around us and my boy loves trucks. 

My three little skeletons. According to the kids, a skeleton says,"dance, dance, dance".

The next day we went to Boo at the Zoo. It was really an excuse for the kids to wear their costumes and get to do a little trick or treating.

We ran from Boo at the Zoo to Miller's soccer game. Last game, Scarlett was clamoring to get out. This week she sat happily in her stroller, babbling away.

Kids Bedroom Updates

One of the biggest things this year for us was getting the house all settled before the baby comes. It was like unpacking and nesting times a hundred. The house is in no way all done, but we now have most rooms painted and pictures on the walls and closets organized. It really feels like home!

Both of the kids rooms kind of make me sad because their nurseries were designed for other houses. Whenever we moved, I tried to make it work but it was never the same. I feel like we are finally at a place where their rooms feel perfect for them in this house.

Miller's room evolved into a big boy room in this house. I kind of think of it as Lost Boys Camp from Peter Pan because of the trees on the curtains, the bunk bed (which is not bunked yet) and the banner over his bed from his party last year.

He got really into the solar system this year and I kept trying to think of a way to incorporate it into his room in a non cheesy way. This wall had embroidery hoops with different fabrics from his nursery. It occurred to me that I only had to buy new fabric and I could make the solar system. I was so excited to find a way to make things from his nursery work into a big boy room. It is just a perfect coincidence that this was on a navy wall and really looks like it glows. I surprised him with it and he loved it.

Scarlett's room was mostly done last year, except I wanted to make her curtains. When I was making some for the new baby's nursery, I decided to make the same ones for Scarlett's. I tried to keep things cohesive between their rooms in case they have to share one day.

Aren't those cute curtains?!?! They are little navy pom poms. So simple but so pretty. I ordered 75 yards to do both girls rooms and just sewed them on some ikea curtains.

I bought the M, S and & a few years ago and had always planned on putting them in the hallway between their rooms. Every day, Scarlett has to point to each one of them and say their names. It just marks that wing of our house as theirs. I also have a map of Neverland in the hall and some quotes from Peter Pan in their bathroom. Without thinking, I inadvertently created a whole Neverland theme with their rooms. I kind of love it!

Miller's Pizza Planet 4th Birthday Party

When I started planning the kids birthday parties, I gave Miller a bunch of options. Garbage truck, construction vehicles, firetrucks. What did he pick? Pizza Planet. Not Toy Story but Pizza Planet from Toy Story. I started to dismiss it but then I thought that it would be a fun challenge. It combined his love of Toy Story with space things and my need of an easy party to pull off.

Most of the crafts and prep work I did almost a month ahead of time so the week of, I was just busy cleaning  the house and setting up decorations. For most people that would take a day but for a gal lugging around a 35 week pregnant bump, it took all week and was exhausting. Thankfully for the day of, my mom and stepmom were here to help while Ben and my dad did some easy house projects.

The skirt, leggings and pigtails combo is my new favorite.

The kid got some seriously great presents and plays with all of them equally. A duplo train, a submarine, some Star Wars ships, an RC car. Scarlett plays with them all too.....when Miller lets her.

The kids started tearing down the alien balloons from the stairs and had a balloon party. All the parents were in the living room watching our football game so I think I was the only adult to catch this.

I remembered to get a family shot before the night was over.

We had a few tantrums and the house was so crowded that I had nowhere to sit but it was a great party. It was topped off by a miraculous comeback and our Vols beating Georgia.

Summer Vacations- Asheville and Memphis

We were back from Michigan for a week when we turned around and had to go back to Knoxville for Ben's work project. We came  home for another week and a half when we went back up to drop off the kids so we could go to a wedding in Asheville. It was a whole weekend away from the kids which was so weird for me. They are so much a constant in my everyday life that I admit, it was nice, but I felt a little lost. It was great to get a chance to get away before the new baby comes.

We went to the Sierra Nevada Brewery there, which seems so much fun to the pregnant girl that doesn't like beer but it actually was really fun. Ben and our friend Steve had a great  time trying different beers and the food was great. Plus, it was all really pretty.

The wedding was at a farm in the middle of a wildflower field. It was absolutely gorgeous and so much fun to just spend all afternoon in this beautiful location. It was like, we were in another world, far away from kids and whining. 

We had two more trips to Knoxville for Ben's project and then our last big trip was at the end of September for Ben's high school reunion in Memphis. We tried to do every family activity that we could.

A trip to the zoo. Miller was so excited to see an eel. He just sat here and stared at the thing. They freak me out but my kid thinks they are cool.

This is how I get myself in pictures since I am the one holding the camera most of the time.

There is a playground at the zoo that we wore the kids out on. She is normally really hesitant to go down the slides but she got brave this day and tackled that fear. We could not get her to stop.

Playing the piano at grandmommy and grandaddy's house.

The Botanical Gardens. They have a great kids section that they loved. They look like Jack and Jill here.

Feeding the fish.

The Pink Palace Museum. This dinosaur is animatronic and is activated when you get close. I did not know this last year and it scared the crap out of me. This year Miller was so excited to see dinosaurs so we thought we would surprise him. Yeah see how he is clinging to Ben. He would not let go of him the whole time we were at the museum. He was afraid that everything would come to life. It did not help that I let him watch "Night at the Museum" the day before.

We had free passes to the Imax theatre so we went to see a dinosaur movie. I thought for sure after the incident upstairs that they would not sit through it, especially Scarlett but they both did great. They sat and watched the whole 45 minute movie. Miller kept his 3D glasses on the whole time.

We went to our favorite park at Shelby Farms. This girl loves to swing.

Mud Island has this awesome model of the Mississippi River that we went to when Miller was little. It was so hot outside so this was a great activity for them. Scarlett kept falling on the topography and getting mad but refused to get out.

Ben's brother in law's parents have a farm with retired horses. Last year, Miller would only pet them and Scarlett sat on its back. This year, Miller was so excited to ride it and Scarlett was nervous.

We were there for 9 days and got to spend lots of time with Ben's parents. It makes me sad that we only get to go back once a year.