9 Months (Weeks 36 - 40)

 

Compare/Contrast: Funnily enough this month I've started to get hangry. I've never been a hangry person (I may get a little whiney when hungry, but not angry). I've been trying to get used to my post-partum eating plans, but apparently that's just not enough right now and I get hungry quickly and then very upset at myself for starving myself haha. 

I thought my nausea was coming back around 36 weeks, but luckily it just turned out to be a bug and was over within a couple days. Not the funnest, but it was quick.

The kitties love the bump haha

I'm actually not dilating as quickly as I usually do. At my 36 and 37 week appointments they said I was maybe at .5 cm, normally I'm at least at a 1 or 2. So that's been a bit discouraging. Luckily by 38 weeks I was up to a 3!

I'm in a lot more physical pain this time. I've been feeling more overwhelmed with getting everything cleaned like I'd like too. We're just re-using everything we already have, but this time it's just like "why is there SO much that needs to be cleaned??" Probably because I waited so long to actually get started on cleaning it that I just want to give up haha.  

My favorite maternity shirt...I'll miss having
An excuse to wear it

Best Moments This Month: Getting the last of the house/baby stuff done before my induction. I mean, sure I was in a lot of pain from so much work, but it was nice to have a clean house and have things set up all good before bringing a new baby home.

Getting an induction set for my actual due date, that was pretty exciting! I went from a .5 cm one week to a 3 and 80% effaced the next week so I was progressing pretty well. I didn't have them check my cervix at my last appointment because I was too nervous about being too progressed and it would make me not want to get house stuff done (plus they didn't offer...haha).

One last family day out of the house

We got a lot of nice, warm weather too so we got to spend more time outside with the girls. It felt great to spend some good time as a family together. We even got to have a final, final family date day. Going to the Scales and Tails and getting a 1-hour private interactive tour and then going to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. We had a ton of fun doing that and going to playgrounds.

What I'm Looking Forward To: Baby snuggles and baby snuggles and all the baby snuggles. I've gotten so caught up on other things that that's all I plan to do for a few weeks after he/she is born. Oh and of course I'm so excited to find out if we're having another girlie or a little boy. Everyone keeps asking if I'm hoping for a boy and I keep telling them I really am okay with either. Yes, I'd love a boy to experience that, but at the same time that'd be such a change for us and I'm so used to girls that it would be easier with a girl haha. We'd sure have a LOT of new shopping to do if this one is a boy!

Gender Predictions

I thought it would be fun to go through all the old wive's gender predictions online and see what they say about this baby. Not because I believe in them, but I thought it would be fun. So here goes:

Cravings: I still don't really get cravings during pregnancy. If I had to say I had one this time it would be more Ramen Noodles. Normally I like ice cream and this time I am just like "eh" about ice cream. I also liked crackers and chips a lot. This says boy

Sickness: I've had a TON of sickness this time and it's lasted longer than other pregnancies. However, I will say I had a lot of sickness with Cara and Lucy, but not so much with Gwen so it's not super consistent for me. But I'll say this one says girl

Skin: my skin has been good this pregnancy, no breakouts no issues. Although, I have been doing more masks and taking care of my skin so that's probably helped. And honestly, I've never had a bit problem with acne anyways. This one says boy

Mood: I've actually been a lot LOT less moody this pregnancy. Granted, I have been working from home the entire time and I feel like being around people makes me more easily irritated so that might be a huge contributing factor. But this one says boy.

High/Low Belly: So this one has been a lot more droopy. I feel like I normally look like I'm defying gravity with my big belly, but this one points way more down. The only caveat is that my ab muscles are hardly working anymore so I doubt there's anything to carry it high anymore anyways. This one says boy.

Heart Rate: Baby's heartrate has actually been pretty low compared to my others. My girls were always above 150 (almost always in the 170s). This one has been more 130s. I don't have an alternative answer for this one though. This one says boy

Chinese Gender Chart: When I did this it says girl, BUT all my girls said boy so maybe I do this opposite? Either way, this says girl.

Pregnancy Brain: I have been forgetful, but I don't feel like it's been anymore than usual. Granted, I haven't really fully been paying attention. This one says boy

Other things about this pregnancy:

My blood pressure has been considerably lower than it was with other pregnancies. This isn't on any predictor things, but I thought it was interesting. 

I've gotten a lot more sicknesses, not nausea, but like colds and congestion. However, Cara did start school like a month after I found out I was pregnant so it's likely due to new germs being introduced to our house. 

My body odor! Oh man do I feel like I'm more stinky than usual or I get stinkier quicker. Larry says he can't smell anything, but I feel like it's way worse. I joke with him that has to be a sign of a boy haha.

Also, this is the first pregnancy I've had SO much congestion (normally I have a lot of mucus to get out in the morning, but this time I'm more stuffed up). And my ear still doesn't hear so well. 

If I went off of feelings, I'd say I'm like 60% feeling boy and 40% feeling girl. HOWEVER, I felt that way during a good chunk of my other pregnancies so I don't feel that's consistent enough to go off of. I think it's going to be so much fun to find out, just a few more weeks now!!

Family Date Days

One of my favorite things is that one weekend a month we have a "Family Date Day". We switch off (between Larry and me) who gets to choose an activity and dinner place. We've obviously skipped quite a few for a bit (between Covid shutting things down and then my pregnancy sickness kicking my butt it just hasn't been a priority). We started it again this year...or rather I sprung it on Larry last minute in January haha. He originally wanted to try and find a hike (which I had to nix due to my big belly and the cold weather). After talking about it he decided going to Fat Cats to go bowling would be fun and cheap enough and then to Red 8 for dinner (which is our favorite Asian restaurant and it's close by, which was nice because we had the Packer's game to watch by 6:15 that night). Unfortunately, the girls  didn't LOVE bowling for very long and kept saying they'd rather eat dinner at Fat Cats, but we made the most of it. We went to dinner and got home just in time for the game. 

Last month (February) I found a Groupon for a little petting zoo that I thought the girls would love. It was small and kind of sad, but we still had fun. I was a little stressed out because I wanted to go to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner and it was a ways away from the petting zoo, but I figured we'd just have to figure out a different dinner place and it would be fine. Luckily, since the place was so small it didn't take long to get our fill of it and still head over to dinner so it worked out. Dinner at Spaghetti Factory was just as yummy as I remembered too...although dinner out with 3 kids isn't the easiest haha.

This month was Larry's choice and he was a bit undecided on what to do until nap time today. So while we put the girls down we went to look at our options, We knew we wanted to go to Leatherby's for dinner so we figured we'd look around that area. We found this place called Kidstopia...oh man was this place amazing! It's like a jungle gym for kids with lots of climbing, lots of slides, a fun ball pit with a projector that kids could throw the balls at the video to score points for fun. Lots of fun for kids of every age. We paid for 2 hours of fun, but after about an hour and a half the girls were losing it so we decided they were done and ready for dinner. I, for some reason, had told the girls that we were going to a place that has ice cream (which had Cara asking "who passed off their learning?" haha) so when we got our food the girls were just focused on when ice cream was coming and hardly touched the real food. Luckily, we got take home containers for the ice cream and what food was left so we would finish them at some point. But either way, it was fun and yum food!

So while we will probably be taking another mini break from these for the next few months (with a newborn it's not always easy), I'm so glad to have these fun weekends with our girls and hope they remember doing these fun things with us. This is another reason I'm glad this is our last baby so we can really pick up on these traditions and keeping up with them. I look forward to many more of these in our future. 

8 Months (weeks 32 - 35)

 

Compare/Contrast: The foot and leg cramps have been starting up. I forget how easily I get those when pregnant. Normally, I feel so vulnerable when pregnant, like if someone were to attack us, I would be limited in my ability to protect my family, but I noticed this time I haven't let this last part of pregnancy hold me as back as it normally does. I'm almost deluded enough to think I could do this one more time haha.

On a related (pain) note, the PGP is back...and hard! I've tripped a couple times and been in so much pain I have to sit for a bit to recoup. And rolling over at night is pretty painful. I have to actually sit up to roll over. 

For a first for me, I had my TDAP shot at my 32 week appointment, and for some reason after that I got VERY emotional. Not cry, emotional, but I got really irritated really easily that day. And then for almost 2 weeks I felt very non-motivated. I had no energy to do anything, I had no inspiration to do anything. I felt so off and couldn't figure out how to feel better. Normally doing masks, making lists, or feeling productive helps me, but I didn't even have that. It was my least favorite feeling and wondered if I was experiencing some sort of pregnancy depression. I was planning on asking about it at my 34 week appointment, but by that point I was actually feeling better and getting to be more productive.

The discomfort is REALLY setting in this month too. My belly feels so big all the time. I'm always hungry, but eating gives me heartburn/acid reflux, I get breathless going to the bathroom (which I do constantly!), and the pain of getting off the couch or out of bed is constant! I am always worrying how I'm going to make it 5-6 more weeks, it's definitely not going to be easy haha.

One of our last family date days

Best Moments This Month: I liked once I finally felt productive and could do stuff. Larry took the week of Valentine's Day off (not for any specific reason, but just needed to use some PTO). He was taking a test on the Friday for a certification so I decided to take that Friday off. We had a HUGE pile of dishes to clean and I was feeling overwhelmed, but then I thought it would be great to have him come home to them being done and I had time to kill between lunch and nap time so I just started doing them. Once they were all done (and I'm not just talking simple put dishes in the dishwasher type of thing - there were dishes in the dishwasher that needed to be put away, dishes that needed to be put in the dishwasher, and about 2 rounds of hand wash dishes that needed to be cleaned). Luckily, I got it all done and between that and getting this blog updated I was feeling SO much better and got the kick in the pants I needed.

Speaking of which, getting this blog caught up, officially, has been a GREAT feeling. We now just need to have to work on a show we're almost caught up on, the Walking Dead game we've been working on for quite a few month that should be finished soon, and I have a couple books I should be able to get read by the due date. I'm VERY excited about all that. The only unofficial thing on my "get done before baby" list is to get rid of as many of my winter foam soaps as possible haha.

Gotta do some pretty nails on the girls one day

Luckily, my dr appointments have been going smoothly. They are usually really quick, I'm always measuring on track (even though I feel HUGE!!) and the HR is usually in the 130s. 

Someone felt pretty like a princess

What I'm Looking Forward To: I'm really looking forward to new baby snuggles. I don't do a lot of talking to the baby and I feel bad about that, but when I think of having a new baby I just get so excited to snuggle and cuddle and soak in all the baby stuff. I'm also kind of really looking forward to giving birth. I'm still a bit nervous that I'll have another c-section because you just never know if it'll go that way, but I hope I don't have to (the PGP always makes me nervous my body won't be able to do what it needs to). I'm also looking VERY much forward to finding out if we're having our first boy or another cute girlie. 

I also think I'm going to take the older two girls to a special tea party at this tea house semi-nearby before I'm due as a last fun thing to do before a baby takes over my life. I think I might plan another at home one before the end of my maternity leave as a nice re-connection before I go back to work. I found some fun recipe ideas online to try.