Growth Scans...

Yesterday was my first of what will be a few monthly growth scans to make sure baby is  growing well.  One of the first indications that there could be any trouble is if the baby is growing slower than he should be.  But they said he looks great!  Estimated weight at 22 weeks 5 days was 1lb3oz.  He was sleepy I guess because he kept yawning :)

Since finding out it's a boy, I've wondered who he will look like.  Oliver and Elliott have sibling similarities in their expressions etc, but they do look different. 

This is me and my three siblings... we look the same, but different.  So the boys look about as the same/different as my two brothers I think!  And with me and my sister. David and I being born more or less full term, and Andrew and Suzanne being born premature.

Yesterday I got to see a 4D of the baby... I've never had that with either of the other two.  It shows so much, it was awesome.  I still don't know what it will actually feel and look like to hold him when he gets here, but....

this is Elliott when he was almost two months old...

and I always wondered what he might have looked like naturally had he been born without the cleft lip. Well I think he would have looked something like this...

My first thought when she switched to this view was "oh my gosh he looks like Elliott!"  Those pudgy little lips on the side :) I always wondered if that was because of Elliott's cleft lip or that was a unique look to him, now I have my answer!! 

Oddly enough, seeing this view of him affirmed for me that I'm 100% happy with having another boy and knowing it.  I spent the last few weeks sort of regretting (not really, but just a nagging feeling) that we found out.  Not because it's a third boy, but because... well... now what?  With Oliver and Elliott there was so much anticipation and waiting and excitement.  Sure, it was a little tough having to tell every single doctor I saw that I didn't want to know the gender.  And I wasn't able to take advantage of any good deals on clothes, or know whether I should buy the whole bag of consigned girl cloth diapers at the consignment store.  But that "it's a..." moment at delivery was thrilling.  I still hold to that.  I just wanted to know what it was like to find out.  And now I think you're either a find out person or you're not.  I'm not!  If all you've ever done is find out, you might find waiting boring or stressful.  But if all you've ever done is wait, then you might find that knowing isn't really all that exciting or something like that.  Hard to describe really. I've heard and read many statements (not personally) of "well you've never done it so how would you know" to people who claim one way or the other is better.  Now that I have done both I can personally say that neither way is better, or write or wrong, it's all about what you personally find exciting etc!  Anyways, after the ultrasound yesterday, I was all good with our decision.  I think it also made a difference that it was the first time I saw proof ;) lol  I didn't look at the anatomy scan because I was waiting for Nate.  And the next one was just a quick one where he confirmed boy, but it was all arm and legs to me.  This time, she was just going along and I was like "oh hey, I'm guessing that's "it's a boy" parts right there?"  No doubt about it.  There will definitely be no possibility the tech was wrong if I was able to spot it on my own!!

This child still needs a name though.  Oliver and Elliott were easy.  We didn't do the two vowel thing on purpose though and likely don't intend to use another vowel.  So it's a little tough this time!  I feel like I'm aware of all the boys names out there really.  Girls names, we had the same one picked for 7 years, so it wasn't until this time that I thought I might want to change it that I started looking at all the other beautiful possibilities out there.  I kind of know what there is for a boy.  We don't want trendy or overused, but it likely has to be at least somewhat common sounding so as not to clash with the other names.  No E,O,T, J, or N  (I like some J names, but I'm not sure I'm willing to bend on my no repeating letters that already exist in the family rule.)  So he just remains baby for now :)

Halfway baby!

It's been a while!  We've been busy and I feel like I haven't had much to say.  But I am 22 weeks now which is over halfway through this pregnancy :)  I can't believe how fast (and slow) it's going.  It's starting to get real that it's time to actually start preparing for this to happen.  This picture is from 21 weeks, but I haven't had a chance to get  to this post until now.

First of all, I lost my camera.  I have a feeling it went into "Elliott put it somewhere, possibly like the trash can and it went out with the trash" land.  I have searched everywhere high and low, looking in all the spots I thought a child could possibly have put something or just been playing with it and dropped it.  It's nowhere to be found.  I have found the boy's water cups both in the trash can before.  So it's not unlikely, I didn't even notice I didn't know where it was for about a week though, which is why I think there's a better than average chance.  I don't really feel like finding a new one right now, so Nate is going to take the pictures with his phone.  Which is why this picture isn't "20 weeks" because I was in denial that the camera wasn't just going to show up at some point.  I'm not in denial anymore, but have moved on to some stage of grief, after which I will decide if I'm going to hunt down another ebay replacement!

Second, I broke my toe.  I broke it because about a week ago, I got a huge burst of energy!!! Yay for energy :)  I don't even think I realized just how much I didn't have until I did have it again!  I wanted to clean everything, stay on top of all that needed to be done.  For example, not leaving messy diapers to stack up and taking care of them pretty much right away.  That's what I was doing when I hurried around the corner and wedged my toes in between the corner of the couch.  I have spent the last week going back and forth between being able to walk just fine, and limping.  It's getting old.  My desire to have energy is still around so that's a good thing.  I just can't move as fast and evenly as I want to and that's starting to get frustrating.

But, in more positive news..... my appointments have been going well.  My blood pressure is at a beautiful record low.  Which is fantastic and a relief considering I admit to losing control of what I've been eating lately.  Between cold yucky weather off an on, being injured, and then the handbell festival last weekend... it's been more fast food than I want to fess up to and drinking less water than I should.  But I'm still trying to keep it healthy when I can.  I braved experimenting with tofu for the first time last night.  I made homemade general tso sauce, with rice and broccoli.  I didn't expect the boys to touch it.  But they both ate everything I offered them!  So things are still better than they ever were in either of my other pregnancies!

This baby is quiet.... except when he's not!  I don't feel too much most of the time.  I have to have been sitting still for quite some time before I feel anything.  The last two times, I pretty much was feeling this or that all day and mostly nothing in the night.  I learned I have an anterior placenta which means that it's attached in the front instead of typically in the back of the uterus.  It shouldn't be a problem at all considering it's already situated high.  If it were low and near they baby's way out that could be a problem, but it's kind of high in front.  So I feel a lot of movement down low and on the left side, only some higher up.  It's really funny watching when he migrates from one side to the other.  Starting off this pregnancy smaller, it's much more of a pronounced feeling and look when he does it!  No hiccups yet that I've noticed, whereas that was a frequent thing by now with both boys.

I was surprised at my last appointment to see I had gained a total of 13 pounds so far!  That's a good thing really.  With Oliver I only gained 11 and Elliott it was only 15.  While I try not to put too much weight into every single thing I read, I did read recently that it could be an indicator of a future problem if you start out at a healthy weight but don't gain at least 10 pounds by 20 weeks, which I definitely hadn't the other two times.  So to have gained 13 by 20 this time could be a good sign that things are moving along more normally! Fingers crossed!  I've been frustrated not to be getting any exercise in lately, but I hope to make it to a free prenatal yoga class at Babies R Us this weekend :)  Gotta start taking a little time to get this mamma ready to get this baby out!  And I walked a ton at the festival this past weekend so I like to tell myself that made up for some of it ;)

Well, that's about it for now I think!  Until next time... <3

p.s.  Special shout out to my mom who has been watching the boys for my appointments, which are kind of only going to become more frequent coming up!  Also, to Jeanne for hauling her car seats out of her van so we could test them in our care before committing to buy to make sure they would fit three across! They do, and we've already got them, Oliver thinks he's excited for a new car seat for "the brothers" and wants to know where the baby's is! And for buying baby his first "new to him" onesies (picture later, they are so cute!)  And lastly to my friend Kim who found out yesterday she is also having a baby boy only 5 weeks behind me (a girl and two boys for her!!)  Thanks for not leaving me alone in the third baby is a boy club lol ;) <3