third pregnancy, ya'll

so i haven't posted a blog post in roughly one million years.... and i feel a TINY bit bad about it. mostly because i stopped once i got pregnant with baby #3 here and i haven't documented ANY of my pregnancy. which i know i'll regret if i don't write SOMETHING down about it. It's fun to go back and read what it was like with grant and brecken and remember those little things i forgot about. so.... now that i am 35 weeks pregnant...i will write down how this pregnancy has gone so far! 

^^ our pregnancy announcement ^^

^^ 19 weeks ^^

^^ 21 week ultrasound ^^

^^ 28 weeks ^^

^^ 35 weeks ^^

this pregnancy has felt like quite the doozy for me. i mostly think it's because i have a 3 1/2 year old and a 1 1/2 year old to take care of.... makes me sweat just thinking about it. but i have had some symptoms this pregnancy that i didn't have with the other two that have been new. nothing crazy... just different. which makes it impossible to decipher whether i feel like it's a boy or a girl because parts of it feel like grants pregnancy and parts feel like breckens... (which, by the way, grant and brecken's pregnancies were very similar soooooo that's not saying too much).

i have had so much fun this pregnancy not finding out the gender. i really do love not knowing!!! i think on our next baby i'll probably do the same thing... if norman will let me. he's been more anxious about it than i have. in fact, i didn't let him go to my 20 week ultrasound with me because i knew he would peek and see what it was.

the beginning was pretty normal.... from about 6-18 ish weeks i was miserable. sick and tired and hating life. by the way, in case you didn't know... this baby was a bit of a surprise for us. not that we didn't want another one, in fact we want another one after THIS one...but he/she just came about 6 months before i planned to get pregnant with another one. so, i wasn't completely ready mentally and emotionally to be pregnant again. i will say i am so so so SO grateful for this little baby to be in our family and have felt extremely blessed to be able to get pregnant and carry healthy babies... i'm just saying it took me off guard and so that first little bit was a bit hard. just trying to wrap my head around having a THIRD child (which they say is the hardest transition) and prepping to be sick for months again.... etc. etc... you know what i mean. I will never not be grateful for being able to have a child, but that doesn't make it easy, either!

anyway.... this pregnancy i have had pretty similar aversions and "cravings" with food as my last two pregnancies...i haven't really noticed anything that i "crave" all the time with this one other than i have been diggin the doctor pepper... don't worry i try not to have too much but it does always sound so good to me. and i feel like i can never get enough water. i'm always sooo thirsty. i have had some heartburn now that i'm bigger but not near as much as i did with brecken. i feel huge this time around. which makes sense... third pregnancy and all. i started showing SOOOOO early with this one. like... OBVIOUSLY showing at around 12 ish-13 weeks...then it kind of slowed down to a normal pace, but, i still feel huge. sleeping has been a hit and miss. it's so uncomfortable always having to sleep on your sides.... i wake up and my hips and shoulders and hip flexers ache SOOOO bad. the good news is... i have been seeing a chiropractor this pregnancy and it has helped a TON with my back pain. in fact, since i started going, i don't think i've had any. which is extremely rare for me even when i'm NOT pregnant. so that has been such a blessing. my chiropractor also told me that he has heard that women who get adjusted through their pregnancies have easier labors because their body is all in line... makes it easier to do its job. so we shall see, jury is still out.....so i'll let you know.

so far i have gained 17 lbs which is actually significantly more than i did with my other two at this point. but i'm not worried about it. this baby definitely sits differently than the other two... i feel like i can NEVER breathe. i am constantly readjusting so that i can get some air in my lungs. baby is VERY active and moves a ton. which is always comforting. i have had TONS of braxton hicks contractions (and some real ones) this pregnancy. i think they started around 20 weeks which freaked me out but i had a friend whose pregnancy overlapped mine (she was ahead of me by 3 ish months) and hers started around then as well, so then i wasn't so worried. i was having some real contractions not too long ago but they didn't last very long.. my doc said it's just my body practicing. he said by third pregnancy your body definitely knows what's going on and is just getting ready for the baby to come. he thinks i will go early again like i did with brecken (she was a week early) or maybe even a little earlier (i'm not getting my hopes up, though). soooo we shall see!! I am due January 16th but at both of my ultrasounds baby was measuring a consistent 5 days big....so we are crossing our fingers over here for at least a FEW days early. 

anyway...i guess that's that in a nut shell! my next doctors appointment is in a week and its the group B test and then weekly appointments from then on! He said he could check me at the group B test appointment if i wanted to but i haven't decided if i'm going to yet. I'll be 36 weeks and i DO usually dilate early but i think i may wait til week 37 for him to check it out. i'm getting so excited to meet this little boy/girl!!! we are still struggling in the name department.. mostly for a girl name. we have a decent set of boy names to pick from, i think...but our girl names are always a struggle so...... again.. if you have any suggestions... send them our way! :)