I don’t normally post pictures of myself, or crappy bathroom mirror ones at that, but I thought being 10 days overdue with baby number three might call for an exception to my rule. Enjoy my hugeness – hopefully it’s almost over!
Oct 232012
Sep 302012
I’m officially 38 weeks pregnant, two weeks away from my due date, and my blood pressure had to go and spike itself up. My midwife decided bed rest was best to see if we can keep my blood pressure down and let this baby come when it’s ready. Good plan. Except I’m horrible at bed rest. I’m sure I’m not alone in this. Take a very pregnant woman who has a strong urge to nest, clean, and organize and then tell her she can’t do any of it. Nothing at all. Granted, the extra rest is nice… for maybe a few hours, maybe a day. And then there are just things that you need or want to get done. And you can’t. If you are someone like me you feel bad asking other people to do those things and some things you just want to do yourself, because you are a huge detail oriented perfectionist. Ahh!
I’m so thankful for Nick who’s been putting up with my bipolar pregnancy mood swings and overall discontentment about my current predicament. I’ve admittedly been super cranky about this whole thing. However, I do realize it’s really for the best, for myself and the baby. If I could just tell my brain to let go of the control and the need to do things. I’m hoping that either this baby will decide to make its appearance sooner than later or by some miracle my blood pressure will normalize itself and allow me to get back to business. Hopefully not too much longer… In the mean time, at least I have some cute bed rest buddies to keep me company.
Sep 182012
As I’m nearing the end of my third pregnancy, each one has been a little different but I’ve pretty much had the same goal each time. Make it through and come out in the end with a healthy baby. Sometimes trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle during pregnancy is easier said than done when you are faced with morning (aka all-day) sickness, exhaustion, body aches, and the other myriad of pregnancy symptoms. Despite the challenges I think it’s important to do your best to eat well, get a little exercise, rest (a lot) and take your vitamins.
Pregnancy is known for bringing out food cravings and aversions which can make getting all of your nutrients in a challenge. With my first pregnancy I ate really well, I craved fresh fruit, veggies and milk. (Yeah, ice cream too but overall I think I did great.) My second pregnancy the only thing I really remember wanting horribly bad was cheese popcorn. You know, the bright orange totally bad stuff. At least it had fiber from the popcorn, right? And now with the third pregnancy there’s not been anything I’ve just had to have. I am however counting down until October 1st when I can get my hands on a Pumpkin Pie Blizzard, but that’s about it. However, with every single one my appetite has shrunk down pretty much the instant I got pregnant. The first trimester is especially hard when I hardly want to eat anything at all but I know there’s a baby working hard on growing and needs a balanced diet.
I think one of the most important things I’ve done with each pregnancy is making sure to take prenatal vitamins to balance out what I’m not taking in food wise. Even to give 
myself an extra boost. When you have a baby depending on you solely to provide all of it’s essential nutrients to support it’s growth and development it makes it so important to get it all in whether it’s through food or vitamins. With close to 70% of energy supply being devoted solely to brain development while the baby is growing, finding a prenatal vitamin that has an adequate amount of folic acid and DHA, such as BrainStrong Prenatal, to support healthy brain, eye, and nervous system growth is key. BrainStrong Prenatal vitamins have the highest level of folic acid and DHA you can get without a prescription and they happen to cost less than most copays. Also, something that’s important when you are taking a DHA supplement is to make sure you are getting it from a clean source without potential contaminants, which is hard to do when going with a fish source. BrainStrong DHA comes from a vegetarian source so there’s no worries there.
As far as exercise goes, just taking a 15 minute walk every day can actually help boost your energy when you are feeling sluggish and possibly give you the energy to walk a little longer. It doesn’t take much at all to get a little pick-me-up. Through most of my first and second trimester I was walking to school to pick up Hanna every afternoon and we would stop at a local playground on the way home. It was good for the kids and good for me to get some sunshine and get a little blood flowing in the afternoon.
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle, even with pregnancy challenges can be pretty simple if you let it. Eat a well balanced diet, supplement with prenatal vitamins, get in a little exercise and rest as much as you can. Once the baby is here make sure to keep taking your prenatal vitamins too, especially if you are breast feeding! It’s easy to forget once your little one is here but it’s still so important and helps give you that much-needed extra energy too.
What have you done during pregnancy to make sure your baby is growing healthy and strong? What tips would you give other moms trying to do the same?
Disclosure: I was compensated for this post. However, as always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Aug 242012
Life has gotten crazy in the last few weeks. Summer is on it’s way out; not the heat, but summer break from school. I told myself at the end of the school year last year that we would start potty training Oliver once school was out. It would be perfect timing because we wouldn’t have anywhere to be on a daily basis and he would be all set by the time school started again and then the baby was here. Well, I kept putting it off and putting it off and putting it off some more. Honestly, I was mostly scared of a walking sprinkler and the fact that we have carpet pretty much everywhere here. (Which I hate, but we don’t have a choice.) Then there was the fact that I’m pregnant and tired and Oliver is a busy handful without adding in the potty training. Somehow I kept telling myself we could do it next weekend all summer long. Then last Friday I realized there were only 10 days until school started and oops, we hadn’t even started. My only choice was to suck it up and just do it already or possibly wait and then deal with a school schedule, a newborn and a potty training toddler. I decided sucking it up was the way to go. Say a prayer that he doesn’t regress once the baby gets here.
The good thing is that I think Ollie was really ready. He had actually been asking to go on the potty and would tell me pretty much as soon as his diaper was dirty. He doesn’t wake up in the morning or from his nap dry though. I figure one step at a time. He was so excited to try and still is. The first day was long and exhausting and the score of pee on the floor vs. pee in the potty was a lot to a little. Which I completely expected. One huge plus – no poop on the floor. That made me happy. I was SO done by the time he went to bed though. It’s hard to stay encouraging and positive when you just don’t want to clean up any more pee, especially out of carpet. Ick.
Day two went a million times better! We made it to nap time without any accidents and then all afternoon too. I decided to try putting a pair of training pants on him and then we had the first accident. The first day and the majority of the second day we just did the run-around-commando method. It works well. Day three was pretty successful too. Then, the last few days he’s done great pretty much all day and then in the afternoon when it normally gets crazy anyway (moms, you know, that magical end of day time where everything just goes downhill until dinner) he’s started having accidents. More specifically, he lands himself in a timeout for one thing or another and then pees his underwear. It’s a two minute timeout and he’s usually just gone to the potty. I think he’s gotten wise because the first few times it happened I got him out of timeout and had him run to the potty. Now, I make him sit there until the timeout is up. I think he’s doing it on purpose. He’s a sneaky one.
It’s been a week now since we started #OperationPottyTraining and it’s been up and down. Some things have been easier, some harder and some just different than it was when we potty trained Hanna. Girls and boys are different and in general each child is different. I’m hoping I can keep the momentum and excitement going for him and that we really get into a routine with the potty.
It’s Friday night, on Monday Hanna is starting first grade and I’m feeling a little sad that summer is over and a little panicky that it means there’s just about six weeks until the baby’s due date. Then a little paranoid that I’m feeling panicky means that the baby might come early and I’m so not prepared at all. I will say though, I have this feeling that this time around I’m going to have the baby and life will just keep on flowing. It felt much more momentous when the first two were born. I don’t feel like I have the same kind of time to really relish the moment. I can only imagine that it gets harder to do the more kids you have.
Jun 012012
Did you guess that I’m pregnant? Yeah, I probably made that too easy, huh. I’m 20 1/2 weeks and baby number 3 is due October 13! (No, it’s not a Friday, it’s a Saturday.) I’m pretty much past the nausea stage now but I’d rank this one somewhere between where I was with Hanna (only a little bit in the evenings) and Oliver (alllllll day long, never ending.) As for the tiredness, this baby has completely wiped me out. The fact that I have two other kids, one being a crazy get-into-everything toddler probably doesn’t help though. I thought for sure by this point I’d get an energy boost but I still pretty much depend on taking a nap when Oliver does every day. So, so tired! In fact, I’ve had a few cute and crafty ideas for making this announcement but the tiredness has won me over. So you’ll have to settle for some blurry ultrasound pics and one adorable video.
I’m guessing that probably only parents that have had a baby or two already can even tell what’s in the pics. That’s okay, just tell me they’re cute anyway. (You DO at least see the one foot in the second picture, right? Hint – look in the middle of the black and you’ll see a little “footprint.” The first one is the baby’s profile.) And for your viewing enjoyment, a little clip of the baby swallowing! You can see the little heart beating in there too. ♥
Oh, and just to save you some time, I know what you’re going to ask… And the answer is, it’s a… HUMAN! *wink*