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I'm almost in the third trimester. WHAT. I am going to start it at 27 weeks (some say 28) which is a few days away! That's insane. The baby is finally kicking up a storm, at least that I can feel. I have an anterior placenta for the first time, which means the placenta is basically in front of the baby cushioning the movement so it's harder for the mom to feel. It's pretty common but everyone claims you feel the baby earlier with each pregnancy which has not been true for me and made me nervous. But I'm now at the sweet spot. I'm not big enough yet to be super uncomfortable but big enough to have a cute bump. I'm out of the gross constant sickness and exhaustion of the first trimester. And I can finally enjoy feeling the baby moving all around in there, which I'm trying to savor knowing how much I will miss it when it's gone.
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| I think this is from 24 weeks! Remember when I was pregnant with Dalton and took weekly pics with an actual camera? Lol. |
The kids still DGAF about the baby. Dalton will occasionally ask to look it on my app but I think that's just an excuse to get my phone. They already have each other and are just not into babies at all. My mom visited recently and after Royce went to bed she asked Dalton "where's the baby?", expecting some sort of cute answer like "in my mommy's tummy!". He just gave her a look and replied "he's a tobbler, and he's sleeping". We just had a trial run switching to zone defense watching Dalton's BFF for the day, and the verdict is that if the baby comes out 3 years old, potty trained, and extremely well behaved, having 3 kids will be doable.
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| Story of Royce's life - me too! |
I'm starting to get pretty nervous about c-section recovery. We are a family that's big into rough housing. The other day Royce was playing his favorite game which is getting me to tackle him to the ground and then Dalton jumped on top of my back as one does and Eric came in and I was like I'm going to hemorrhage and end up in the ER when they are playing with me like this after surgery. Dalton is old enough to understand not to but he's also 3 and 3 year olds are not known for their impulse control or ability to change life long habits. Royce just does whatever Dalton does in a constant "monkey see monkey do" loop although at least he's smaller.
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My current survival plan is just to hide in our bedroom for the first two weeks with the baby and watch Netflix topless. I'm even bringing my classroom fridge home to put upstairs filled with cold brew coffee and snacks, so, I'm pretty serious about this. I thought it sounded awesome but then I got the flu and had to do a trial run where I hid in the bedroom for a week (success - no one else got it! Now watch them get it from licking the cart at Target or whatever.) and by the end I was SO sad and missed the boys so much. I am sure it will be different with a baby and obviously they can come up and cuddle with me but still. Luckily it will be June so they will probably be so excited to play outside they won't even notice me or the new baby. Side note, yes, I did get the flu shot.
I love how people are STILL horrified we aren't finding out the sex "but how will you prepare??". Lol by dusting off the car seat and putting new batteries in the bouncer. There's not a lot to do to prepare for a third baby when you have a not even two year old in your household already. I washed a couple of our newborn sleepers and brought them upstairs. I grabbed two packs of newborn diapers when we had coupons and got 3 more cloth diapers to add to our stash since we will have two in diapers again. I plan to use disposable for the first month or so when the baby is tiny and pooping a ton and I don't have it in me to move much less wash extra diapers. The one thing I got on Black Friday was reusable nipple pads (Bamboobies, highly recommend, I had some from when Royce was tiny but wanted enough to go longer in between washes). I scheduled a car seat check and signed Dalton up for a big brother class. Obviously he's already the world's greatest big brother but he has no memory of Royce as a baby so I'm hoping it will help him adjust to that, and it was only $10. Royce is the one who probably needs it, or at least that's what my mom guilt over turning my baby into a middle child says, but he's too young so Dalton will have to do some peer education.
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| Basically a professor. |
I have about 50 contingency plans in my mind for various times/days/situations of going in to labor. Yes, I have a scheduled c-section, so my doctor has a spot for me on her calendar for the day we picked, but so far none of my babies had much interest in how I wanted to birth them. I'm under no illusions that this one will be any different. I've been about 99.5% positive that the baby will come before the scheduled date (June 4) since we picked it at my first OB appointment. I have a feeling it's a girl, but not nearly as strong a feeling as I do about it coming early. But I've had 2 vivid delivery dreams where it's a girl and one vivid dream of nursing a newborn baby girl. No boy dreams. I was completely sure Dalton was a boy from 8 weeks on and had two vivid boy dreams with him. For Royce, I was completely clueless even when my doctor asked me what I predicted right before they wheeled me in to the OR. Eric says girl....just like he has with every pregnancy, so based on his track record I think we can ignore him.
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| Eric with his "girls". |
However, if it is a boy, not only will he have a wardrobe, he will be named! A huge advantage in starting out life. We've had a boy name since the early days when I first found out I was pregnant. Girl...not so much. It seems we just naturally see eye to eye on boy names and picking them has come really easily to us. Girl names we have quite differing opinions on. I think I just have to accept that I'm not going to love a girl name that we agree on the way I love my boys names. I absolutely LOVE Dalton and Royce's names, as well as the new baby boy name, and I never had even a moment of hesitation on them. In fact, I first heard the name Dalton when I was 19 and in college and said right away "that's my future son's name" (my college roomie can verify). I never wavered and luckily for me Eric was into it. If he hadn't been, it would have been a tough call over going with a new name or a new baby daddy. So it's been a tough pill to swallow that whatever girl name we end up with I might just be like 75% on. I was getting stressed out about it a few weeks ago but I've completely switched to "oh well 50% chance it won't be an issue" and my doctor told me I just have to have a name by the time we leave the hospital so that gives us four days to decide if need be. I've asked Dalton for help so many times but he is useless and just says he doesn't know. I don't actually think he knows any girls names.
In and Out randomness because at this rate the baby could be here before I post again so we need list format.
IN:
Naps
I take one every single day I'm not at work. Mainly weekends obviously, but for example school unexpectedly closed and my very first thought was I CAN NAP TODAY. I had just woken up but I was already excited. You may be think "That doesn't sound very productive. She can't possibly be getting much done around the house with a 1 year old and 3 year old while they are up." Correct. I do not.
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| Way cuter than how I look sleeping and no clue what's going on with his hair there. |
Pop socket
If you don't spend your days with pre-teens, you may not know what these are so allow me to demonstrate with a picture. It makes your phone much more comfortable to hold and doubles as a toddler toy.
Les Mis
I haven't been that in to music since Christmas ended and I'm more of a podcast/audiobook type anyway. But you can only listen to the Paw Patrol soundtrack in your head so many times so I've been obsessed with the Les Mis soundtrack. Random but amazing.
Books
I read 3 just during the week I was down for the count with the flu, particularly during the times I was too stuffed up/coughing too much to sleep. The library/kindle app is life. Recent favorite: The Alice Network. 10/10 would recommend.
Girls weekends
I just had not one, but two girl's weekends in a row. It wasn't planned that way, but it was too separate friend groups and just worked out that way. President's Day weekend we had a beach getaway, because February is prime beach time, clearly. My friend Liz's parents have a beach house in this adorable little oceanside town about two hours away, so four of us spent a night there. We all have 3 year olds, so essentially it was just an excuse to have uninterrupted conversation, meals we didn't have to share, and a full night of sleep. Side note, why don't they tell you in the baby prep classes that 3 year olds are almost as bad as newborns? I actually have quite a few things I believe should be added to the curriculum.
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The following weekend, my friend Nicole visited from NC. We moved to Baltimore together from upstate NY 13, closer to 14 years ago. WOW. I just had to actually do the math on that. Apparently the theme to this post is that I'm old (turning 35 ten days after my due date!). She stayed with us Friday night and then we hung out with our other two former roomies all day on Saturday, celebrating Carolyn's new baby girl and Casi's recent engagement! Naturally, just like the previous weekend, it was a lot of wild partying with one prego and one mom of a newborn. The four of us only get to hang out a couple times a year and there's just nothing like hanging with lifelong friends (Carolyn and Nicole and I have been friends since college, in my opinion, and Casi and I have been BFF since sixth grade!).
We forgot to take a group pic so here's a picture of our feet.
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| Big weekend accomplishment - baby's first bar! |
OUT:
Exercise
I've all but stopped doing it. No real reason other than I'm tired. I was getting in to a decent routine, then I had the flu, and I'm just not great at starting up again. I already get up at 5/5:30 for work, so getting up even earlier than that is not happening. Trust me, I set my alarm quite a few times for failed attempts. I have a few coworkers who do workouts with me after school so I've done a couple Body Combats recently with them. Basically the only possibly chance is with someone else and even then it's unlikely. Case in point: ditched my friend for Body Pump just the other day because I was in bed eating pretzels and just...no. I'll get into shape once the baby is here, or just stay fat.
Shopping with Toddlers
I do actually have a lot fun taking them to Wegmans because we get a car cart and always have a little lunch date after we get our groceries. But I can be hard to read the fine print so I accidentally got these prenatals that were giant horse pills and the serving size is FOUR. PER. DAY. On the average day I gagged and spit out all the water everywhere with at least one pill, usually at work while I had a class. I finally finished the jar and can return to normal vitamins and I'm never buying those when I have even one child with me again.
Winter
Over it. I just want to be able to play outside in shorts and sandals. I'm sick of being cooped up inside or wearing all the layers.
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| Royce feels the same. |
So that's that. My scheduled c section is 3 months from today! I can't believe it. Before that, in May, Royce will be turning two. I still truly believe he's my little baby so turning two is such a shocker. One is a big one, of course, but they are still babies at one. Two is firmly in toddler/little boy territory.
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| Like, when did he become a teenager? |
