Adventures in Mommyhood: Baby #3: 16 Weeks

When I found out I was pregnant with #3, I did a lot of unnecessary research. Not the kind of research that you do when you're pregnant with #1 though. When you are pregnant with #1 you want to know how big your little nugget is, when their finger prints are formed, when you will start showing (is it 8 weeks? because I would love for it to be 8 weeks *says a first timer*), what the "necessities" are going to be, what breastfeeding will look/feel like, how on EARTH you are going to shove a human through your hoo-ha, and (the worst) what the recovery from that is going to be like. No, I know all that stuff. He's tiny. He will have finger prints when he's born, I'm sure of it. I don't know when I'll start showing, but I hope it takes longer this time. It's fine if my baby boy uses all pink things, right? Breastfeeding - eh, it hurts, but I forgot....it must not be too bad. Recovery is worse than breastfeeding....but by this time, surely he can just walk out of my lady parts. Want to know what I was researching? I searched blogs written by moms of 3. I want to know how it's done. I have joked for years (YEARS) about how moms of 3+ children are super heroes.....BATSH*T crazy super heroes. I mean, I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but there are days (very few days) where I manage to get the kids out the door without so much as a tantrum (I said few), go to work and feel like I've accomplished something, workout during my lunch hour, pick my kids up and come home and manage to make it through the rest of the night with a smile on my face and happy babies in their beds. I make a homemade meal for my husband for dinner and prep lunch for the next day before I hop in bed at a reasonable hour. Those days, I feel like I've got this mom thing figured out. But then.....there are only two of them. And there are SO FEW of those days! Now, here I sit on the brink of baby #3 and I am, quite frankly, freaking out. I am ping-ponging back and forth between my desire to stay home and my equally strong desire to go back to work. And aside from those "few" days, at the end of the day, I pat myself on the back for just making it. So, I researched. A lot.

You know what I was a little surprised to find? These women are just like me (well "me" in the sense that I'm a mom that feels overwhelmed and inadequate). The key is planning and staying positive. When it comes down to it, they love their kids and they are just making the most of their time. I think I'm trying to get too detailed too soon. At this point, I don't really need to know what I'll be doing on a Tuesday at 10:45AM if I were to be at home with 3 kids.....I'll cross that bridge when I get there. What I need to do is find some balance. Balance between planning it all and rolling with the punches. Now....all I need is a plan for how exactly to do that ;) haha!

So for the real juice, how is pregnancy #3 going? I have to tell you....it's going as good as pregnancies can go I think. I don't really feel pregnant, and my extreme first trimester exhaustion is starting to subside....I think. It's really hard to tell if my tiredness is from the two kids outside my body or the one inside it. Between my kids and the fact that either myself or one of them has been sick a huge majority of this so far, I would say that I don't feel any more or less tired than I have any other month since November 2013 (when we became a family of 4).

I'm 16 weeks 2 days pregnant today. Seriously....only 4 weeks from the half way mark. I can do this. I think. To date, I have not put on any weight, which is weird for me, but I think fairly common among other women. I can attribute this mostly to eating right and exercising and also my lack of "down time" to sit around with my hands on my stomach day dreaming of what baby boy will be like. Weird how I don't have that this go round. Despite the no weight gain, my stomach is noticeably pregnant. Well, noticeable to me and those that know me at least. I probably look fluffy to strangers. I think I started really showing around 17-19 weeks with Bella, so this next month should be a game changer. I'll get another sono next time too! I'm actually really excited about this because even though we know it's a boy, we didn't really get to see that much detail last time since it was so early. Yes "detail" is code for - we didn't see his bits and pieces. This is my first boy.....I want to experience it all. This is a WHOLE new ball game for me!

I did a little shopping for our boy this week too. I felt terrible that even though we've known he was a HE for just shy of a month, I had yet to buy anything to celebrate the news! We can consider that remedied. And you better believe if there is a shirt with a bow tie (or any kind of tie, really), or an outfit with a sweater vest, he shall have it. I am not opposed to adorable and highly unnecessary hats as well. I am loving me some baby boy shopping! What a fun new experience.

I had my 16 week doctors appointment yesterday. It was your pretty standard pee in a cup, listen for heart beat ( and ask any questions. Everything went well! I have actually lost 1 lbs since the start of this. I know that it's due to eating right and working out, but my doc had some concerns. I believe that not gaining weight is probably pretty common for some women, but I generally have put on 8-10 lbs by now. See what I mean? All or nothing. She told me to up my calories (by that I'm sure she meant "eat more donuts") and that I need to gain 4 lbs by 20 weeks. That should not be a problem. While I will continue to work out and eat well, baby boy is growing fast! I may or may not have busted out the crotch in my favorite pair of jeans doing my just-out-of-the-dryer-squat thrusts trying to get them on. So sad. They were all broken in and perfect fitting :( I'm going to try and order some more online....although unless someone wears them for me for 3 years prior to sending them, the size I have will likely not fit. Oh well....we are now in the 'hurry up and wear your clothes while they still fit' portion of the pregnancy, but to be honest, I'm just thankful there is still plenty I can fit into. We'll see how long that lasts ;)

Here's a pic of our boy from the inside....and the outside: