Still pregnant....

I'm pregnant....still. 

I think I might be the first documented case of a woman being pregnant forever. We're definitely starting to think she's never coming out of there. I've been reminded this week that girls are never ready on time. And how true that is! She may not have to primp with her hair or find just the right shoe to match her outfit, but what would it say for the female reputation to show up and make your grand debut when everyone was expecting it? 

My prenatal appt last Friday was encouraging. My doctor seemed to strongly believe we'd be meeting our sweet little darling before her due date (the 11th). She has 3 days. {I hope you're listening, Kira. THREE DAYS!}. I've been showing lots of signs of labor for nearly 2 weeks now. Any day now we're expecting that will turn into something real. *fingers crossed*

Now a look back {for you, Aunt Linda!}.....

39 weeks pregnant with Kira
(and she's still not here!)
14 pounds gained

39 weeks pregnant with Titus
taken the morning he was induced
28 pounds gained

38 weeks, 6 days pregnant with Max
he was born 2 days later
21 pounds gained

36 weeks, 5 days pregnant with David
He was born 19 days later
35 pounds gained 

Looking back, I realize I get very belly-ish. No wonder people stare. 

36 weeks

36 weeks. 

I had a prenatal appointment today. I've gained 12 pounds, my vitals are solid, Kira is growing well and is healthy. Good news all around. I got the results of last week's group b strep test - negative! I'm in the clear and won't need IV antibiotics during labor. My belly is measuring a week too big, which is better than the last 6 weeks when I've been measuring 2 weeks too big {and no, they don't have my due date wrong!}. 

My OB ordered an ultrasound for 2 weeks from now {38 weeks, Sept 27th} to see how big Kira is. We'll talk about inducing labor then, if needed. She seemed confident that induction wouldn't be necessary and I won't be pregnant to see my due date, Oct 11th. She encouraged me to get my bags packed and the car seat installed just in case. I see no real point since I've never gone into labor naturally before, but I made a packing list for our bags anyway. I'm in no rush to get it done, but it would be a big pain if I were wrong and ended up needing them. 

33 weeks!

Meet Titus

Finally! A post about Titus. I was beginning to think I'd never have time. Juggling 3 wee ones is a challenge. I don't think I'm quite there yet, but we are adjusting well. Things just have to get smoother from here on out, right? Right.

The first 8 hours of labor were laughably painless. I was talking, joking, watching TV and hanging out on facebook through contractions like they were nothing. And really, it was nothing. It didn't feel any worse than the Braxton Hicks contractions I'd been feeling for months. It wasn't until an hour after the pitocin had been turned up all the way and my water had been broken that things picked up to an uncomfortable level. The next hour after that progressed quickly and painfully and had me asking for an epidural. My oh my! How I love that epidural! Thirty minutes after the anesthesiologist left, I was blissfully numb from my belly down and David and I were settling in for some rest. I got about an hour of sleep until the nurse starting bugging me too much to sleep anymore. Epidurals require that they check on you often - mostly for vitals and baby's heartbeat and such. David slept nearly an hour and a half. We woke up at 6:30, started feeling an urge to push at 6:45 which was undeniable by 7pm and I was holding my baby boy at 7:06pm.

Best.Labor.Ever.

Minutes after birth

10lbs 5oz of PERFECTION! :)

......And then. Then I had trouble. Everything from labor shakes to nausea, fevers to excessive bleeding, low blood pressure to nearly passing out in front of my visiting big boys hit me over the next 4 hours. It took the next several hours to get everything under control. I pretty much felt like I got hit by a truck. I sort felt like I looked here:

In the midst of it all, I was too sick to nurse Titus at his second feeding so we got some donor milk from the milk bank at the hospital. Titus and Daddy got lots of snuggle time while I recovered.  

Many of my problems were behind me by the next day and the rest of our hospital stay was relatively uneventful. Signing paperwork, yummy meconium diapers, baby blood work, pictures, pediatricians, vitals every four hours, blah, blah, blah.

We were very happy to be released last Wednesday afternoon and get home to our big boys. They had missed us terribly and were very anxious for us to get back to them. In all honesty, while it was nice to be away for a while, we missed them too. :) Monga took them shopping before we got home and let them pick out flowers for Mama. David told me he picked the big red ones and Max picked the smaller pink ones.

Now, 10 days later, we are pretty well adjusted to the idea of three kids. We're still learning how to juggle everything, but it's going well. I'm back on my feet now and feeling MUCH better than when we arrived home a week ago. Titus is settling into the family quite nicely and the boys are learning to love him. David took to him right away, but Max needed some convincing.

After having our little peanut for a week and a half, we are learning SO much about him! First, he has to be warm. If he's cold, his world falls apart. He gets fussy and squeaky. He refuses to eat, sleep or be comforted. He just needs to be wrapped up tight with a hat on his head and get cuddles. That's more than ok with me. ;)

All snuggled in for the night.

I've learned the hard (and painful!) way that Titus is a lazy latcher and has a very powerful suck when it comes to nursing. It made the first 9 days or so kinda frustrating, but yesterday he turned a corner and now seems to "get" it. We've corrected his latch issues and things are going much better now.

Over the last week, he's lengthened his nights from waking every 2 hours to nurse to waking every 6 hours. I had nearly forgotten how blissful sleep can be! I feed him now before I go to bed then just once during the night. He's usually up again to eat around the time the bigs are waking up for the day. He'll nurse really well then settle in for another big nap giving me the chance to make breakfast, have coffee and start the day with the other boys.  

A couple of days ago he started have awake periods during the day. I LOVE IT! It gives me the chance to get all sorts of goofy faced pictures like these...  Hehe.

I don't know about this picture...it doesn't really look like him.

I'm in love. *sigh*

38 weeks!

38 weeks today! I was sort of hoping I wouldn't see this day, but here we are. Titus has yet to make his grand entrance into this world so it's time for another super professional-looking bathroom picture of me. Yay!

See? Still very much pregnant. I had a prenatal appointment today. I've gained 30 pounds up to this point. But it looks good on me, right? Right?? (a good friend would lie right now) I have an ultrasound set for Friday morning to determine Titus's weight and size. We may have to induce at the beginning of next week if he looks as large as his brothers were.

37 weeks

I'm just over 37 weeks now and waaaaaay beyond ready to have this baby. Just for kicks and giggles I pulled out my 37 week pictures from both other boys' pregnancies.

With Titus:

With David:

With Max:

36 weeks!

Only 4 more weeks to go! Whooo!

Long time, no blog

Following doctor's (and hubby's) orders, I have been trying to take it easy lately. Do less, rest more. That's my motto. You'd think that would be sorta nice, but really it's kind of a bummer. I am feeling better, but now just about every afternoon is spent taking a nap snuggled up with my boys instead of wasting time on all the silly things I was doing just for fun - like blogging. :( Sad.

A little picture recap of our last couple of weeks:

I've capitalized on the boys' desires to be big boys and put them to work with laundry and such... 

Filling the washer

Emptying the dryer

We've made lots of cookies (my latest craving!)

Sneaking some bites

Yeah, I saw that!

He's sorta sad because I took the cookie
dough away

And we've had lots of cookie and milk bedtime snacks. :)

 

The boys have spent a good deal of time just being cute...

And we've made lots of silly faces...

The boys decided they LOVE toast sandwiches. Cheese topped scrambled eggs sandwiched between toast slices are MUCH tastier than the cheese topped scrambled eggs with toast slices on the side that I was giving them. :)

Once again, David is being an awesome helper. He loves using his little broom to clean up crumbs after a meal.

David got a sweet Kung Fu Panda tattoo. He likes to call it a "tattoon" because it's a tattoo and a cartoon. He's silly like that.

We've tried to come up with creative ways to occupy our time while Dave's away at class in the evening. One night we made a tree craft...

Then we set up a forest near our farm and drove our tractors all around the toy room making tractor noises and feeding animals.

My absolute favorite part of the last couple of week though has been all the naps. Hands down. The naps win.

Preggo pics

34 weeks

34 weeks

35 weeks

35 weeks

33 weeks

I had a prenatal appointment today. Titus and I both look healthy, but the doctor did issue a warning and a little lecture about adequate amounts of sleep. I have been over-doing it during the day and not getting enough restful sleep at night resulting in headaches, muscle spasms and cramps, nausea, dizziness and too many contractions. There is no indication that it's anything more than lack of sleep. If I can't get the proper amount of sleep at night in the next week or two I need to call someone to come and help out with the boys and/or housecleaning during the day so I can rest and sleep.

Between Dave's busy schedule and keeping up with my two active boys it seems impossible to catch a break, but I guess I have to try. I wouldn't want to start any complications for poor little Titus now would I?