I found out we were pregnant October 2. Even though I was pretty excited, I was pretty nervous to tell Ben. He is not too thrilled about the prospect of having another newborn and going through the first 3 years all over again. I kept telling him, "We just need to have our third so we can get rid of all of our baby stuff and be DONE with the newborn stage forever!" to which he would reply, "I want to be done now." Nevertheless, pregnancy was on the schedule.
On Monday night, October 3rd, I made a special dinner:
Baby peas, baby salad mixed greens, baby hamburgers. Baby hamburgers, for the record, are the most disgusting things on the planet. I bought them from the freezer case and then you just put them in the oven: GROSS! I know it sounds gross when I say it, but it is way more gross than it even sounds.
Ben took it pretty well- he was mostly just in shock the rest of the night.
Then a couple of days later I found out that Ben had been losing sleep over this. Going from 2 to 3 is a big deal- the girls will have to share a room, we have to get a bigger car (which is turning into quite the battle around here), there will be A LOT more chaos.
I was able to calm his fears by telling him that really the timing is perfect. Audra will be starting school in the fall, and I already know I can handle 2 kids at home. When the baby is a year, Claire will be in pre-school- everything will be fine. That seems to have helped quite a bit. Like it or not, the baby is coming. Which does leave one really great piece of news: We can get rid of all of this baby stuff! The second the baby is out of the swing, the swing is gone! The second the baby is out of the exersaucer, it is out of here! We will get our storage room back! Wahoo!
Now we are at about 12 weeks. So far, everything is great. When I went in for the 8 week appointment (the first one), I actually saw the baby's hands and feet- I have never seen that so early in the pregnancy. It was a pretty special moment. Next Tuesday I go in for the 12 week appointment.
This pregnancy has been the hardest one (as if I needed more incentive for this to be our last one!). Don't get mad at me those of you who get really super super sick, but I have had pretty easy pregnancies outside of some very painful sciatica. Typically, I will only get nauseous if I am hungry at night, but I just eat a couple of crackers and the nausea goes away.
Not this time. For about 5-6 weeks I had really bad nausea, I ALWAYS had to be full, I would have a soda pop for dinner every night (that is absolutely NOT something I usually do), and after 5 PM I was completely worthless. There were some nights I couldn't even get off the couch. I only threw up once, but I felt like throwing up many more times than that. Thankfully, Ben was awesome through all of that- he would do almost all of the cleaning, take care of the kids, and really just be mom and dad. Through a friend I discovered the glory of protein bars and I went and bought a few dozen of those and carried those around with me everywhere I went. Those helped quite a bit. One night, Ben and I went out for Mexican and I ate a huge burrito and that helped a TON. I couldn't believe it- I actually felt well enough to come home and clean the toilets. It was the best I had felt in weeks- we decided we might need to order out there every night.
Thankfully, those days are past and have been for a couple of weeks. It was rough, but it's over and I am feeling really good now. Well, I'm tired. I take lots of naps. Thankfully, computer games and TV can keep Audra pretty occupied so I can take a little rest once in awhile. As a special bonus, on occasion I can get Audra to snuggle with me and we nap together- those are the best, but very rare. When I told her that I had a baby growing in my tummy she said, "Mommy- maybe that is why your tummy has been hurting!" That's my smartie pants. She also told me that she "doesn't want a baby- (she) already has a big baby!" I told her that now she can have a big baby and a little baby, and she was OK with that. If it's a girl. She doesn't want a boy.
So overall things are good. Ben is still pretty nervous, but I keep telling him we are due for a good baby. He tells me we don't know how to make good babies. I am excited that after this our family will be complete- no more babies! It feels right- everything feels good.
As I said before, we are due June 3rd. I am sure we will go a week early- especially since I want to have a C-section (I was so scared for it last time, and it turned out to be great- way better than the other way!) and so I can schedule it. Both Audra and Claire came a week early (even though it was a scheduled C-section a week before the due date, I went into full blown labor with Claire) so we'll probably schedule it at least 7 days early, hopefully 8 or 9 if they will let me. We have some time to think about it.
We haven't figured everything out yet- like the car or sleeping situations, but we will. For now, we are cautiously optimistic- we know the first few months will be hard (because they always are), but by now we kind-of have a routine and know how to handle these newborns, so I really think it will be good.
But, we have already started arguing over names- and we don't even know the sex yet! Not everything can be perfect, you know?
3 comments:
You'll be fine! I'm a little sad I'm not taking this "journey" with you like the last 2 times, but alas, it just doesn't work for us right now. :) All those stressors will work themselves out. Remember how panicked you probably were about the idea of managing two? And then you did it. I have to say, though, that I personally LOVE babies and the thought of ever being "done" with babies makes my heart hurt. But hurray for you!
Congratulations!
For me, the transition to three was WAY easier than it was to two. My first two were close in age and it felt like I had two babies. My not quite two year old wasn't used to entertaining herself.
When my third was born, the first two entertained each other so well, that they didn't require as much of my time and attention. It also helps that by then you are a pro with newborns, so they aren't as stressful either.
Plus, with a summer baby you won't have to be running to school the first couple of months and can just hunker down if you want to.
I'm sure you guys will transition to three just fine!
We're with you guys--we don't know how to make good babies either. But you never know, maybe you'll have a happy baby who sleeps all the time. Sorry about the nausea. Not fun. My 2nd pregnancy was definitely worse than my 1st so I'm dreading #3 (if we decide we're not too frightened to have #3). We'll have to talk soon!
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