pregnancy Update - 32 weeks (8 months!)

Baby is the size of: She should be about the weight of a small cabbage. :) Crazy - babycenter.com says she now has fingernails, toenails and a respectable amount of hair or peach fuzz. For some reason, I haven't looked at these growth things weekly like I used to with Bella & Farrah. So to read that, I was somewhat surprised and it reminded me that we don't have too much longer to go...

Also, I don't think I've mentioned before, but I have a two-vessel umbilical cord (normal is 3), so really this just means babies usually are smaller because of this. It can happen in any pregnancy, but is common with Trisomy 13.

Symptoms: Walking around like I'm 80 years old, sore hips when I wake up or sit down for a while, heartburn (but goes away so fast with Tums!)

Maternity clothes? Yes. Every once in a while, I can throw in a non-maternity shirt to break up the rotation of maternity clothes.

Sleep: Sleeping well at night. I try to rest and sometimes nap during the day. It helps so much!

Fun moment(s) this past week: No big events this past week. I enjoyed a hair appt & a date night with my hubby, though!

Movement: She is a MOVER! I can't wait to kiss those little feet that kick me all day.

Food cravings:  Glad today is Halloween and this candy is leaving!!

Gender & Name: Hallie

Weight gained: I should gain about 1 lb a week now, with half of that going to Hallie. I have a doctor appt Wednesday to see where I am. yahoo.

Belly Button in or out? still in, barely. :)

What I am looking forward to: A 3D ultrasound on Saturday!

Reflections on the past week: Up and down. And I don't mean that when I'm down I'm crying. It could just manifest in being in a mood and usually comes with being frustrated with having a strong willed & energetic 2 & 4 year old. This would happen without the stress of this pregnancy, but it takes me longer to get out of the funk maybe? I don't know... I've never had a 2 & 4 year old before :) All I know is I get in a rut when my body feels like it's 80 years old & I can't get all accomplished that I want. But as soon as the girls go down at night or when they spend the night at one of the grandparents, I miss the heck out of them!! I swear I have the sweetest girls. They are at such fun ages, I just have to remember that and not be so short with them on my bad moments...

Prayer requests: Again, that we can meet Hallie and spend as much time with her as possible - and that all of those moments would just be as blessed and precious as I hear they are. We have NO idea what our outcome will be. The spectrum is so large and we really won't know until she gets here how she will do. Her body works well in utero, we just have to wait and see how she does when she gets here. Doesn't that sound crazy? Not to have any control over it? That is hard for me, as a woman - I like control! Many days, there is actually freedom in not having control. Who am I kidding, anyway? I've never "really" had control of anything. It's all in God's hands. That is a cool thing and slightly terrifying at the same time. So we just have to plan as best we can with all sorts of possible outcomes.
So we just pray for clarity for decisions when we do actually go into labor. I am not good at making decisions (indecisive should be my middle name), so I just want to feel at the end of the day, we made all the BEST decisions for Hallie that we could. We feel like we are in great hands after meeting with the neonatologist and palliative care team last week and that is a huge relief.

Bella & Farrah's Birthday PARTY!

This year we combined the girls birthday parties. Many of the same friends would be invited, and I have to say it was much easier to plan one rather than two parties! :) It was a Halloween costume party and my awesome aunt let us have it at her place, The Social Goat Bed & Breakfast. I swear, it's always the best weather every year there! October is such a great time of year anyway. And my aunt Kristy's place is just cool anyway - I hardly have to decorate at all.

We had pizza, made my first cake pops (with Mom & Chelsie's much-needed help), and a jumpy house. This along with the costumes and great weather made for a wonderful time. I think the kids were all successfully worn out, too! :) Thank you all who came and made such a great memory with us.

Here's most of the kids:


My little ghosts: (we used the flower girl dresses from Ryan & Melissa's wedding!) I learned at the party that adhesive felt doesn't stick great. It was a good warm up for Halloween!




The cake pops:


Kids made their own treat bags.





This is as we were singing Happy Birthday to the girls. Bella shouted, "No, it's my birthday!!" She didn't understand they were sharing. ha!


Farrah with GG. Two things to note: her Oso bear (She's obsessed with Special Agent Oso) and her smile lately:

Bella's 4th birthday

I'm a little behind on some picture posts.

Bella turned 4 on Oct 11th.

She woke up to 4 balloons that Tuesday morning.


For breakfast, the traditional birthday pancake was in order!






And a "happy birthday" video text from her friend, Josie :) How sweet?


And for dessert that night, she wanted a strawberry cake with sprinkles.



Picture of the night: Sisters enjoying cake and laughing. Actually, Farrah is fake laughing and making Bella giggle. They are such a duo!


I love you, sweet Bella Reese! I can't believe you're four, but I'm so proud to be your mama! You have the sweetest little spirit and bring such a joy to our family!

Pregnancy Update - 31 weeks & ultrasound

Hallie!

Look at this sweet little foot :)

Baby is the size of: Hallie is measuring 2.5 lbs right now (per our ultrasound Monday). This is still about 2 weeks behind, which was about the same length of time as the last ultrasound. So that is good she's still keeping on her own curve. 

Symptoms: fatigue, varicose veins! Hallie, at every ultrasound, is all on my right side. Which explains why I've had such a hard time with the varicose veins this time. She's on my main vein that is on the right side...

Maternity clothes? Yep! 

Sleep: I love sleep and glad I'm sleeping well. Getting comfy is hard at first, but I fall asleep relatively fast. 

Fun moment(s) this past week: The girls' birthday party was a blast!! The weather was perfect and it was so great to see everyone. I just love my aunt's place - it's just the perfect party place and she is so so so generous in letting us always use it. 

Yesterday was fun. It was mine & Chris' 14 year dating anniversary! We had a Waffle House breakfast together, went to our 2 appts, then had lunch and yogurt together. Just he & I. My love tank was full!!!

Movement: Oh my goodness! This week went to a whole new level!! I think I actually felt her flip from breech to head down last Tuesday. I was in the middle of drinking chocolate milk and had my head tilted back. All of a sudden, I felt like she was about to reach up out of me! It was crazy. I didn't think about the fact that it was probably her flipping until at the ultrasound we learned that she had moved to that position. Now, I get all kinds of kicks on my right side and under my ribs. She is strong! 

Food cravings: Halloween candy :) 

Gender & Name: Hallie 

Weight gained: no comment. It's my blog and I'll cry if I want to. ha! or not tell my weight... 

Belly Button in or out? Still an innie

What I am looking forward to: We've had a friend give us a 3D/4D ultrasound. I think we may do that next week! This will be very cool to share with the girls. 

Reflections on the past week: I feel like I could write forever on this one. Tears can come at a drop of a dime - out of no where - and then be gone again 10 min later. But overall, I have felt a huge feeling of just being loved, loved on, and grateful this week. I don't feel alone at all, although I have to go through this, I know that so many of you are going through in with us. You have no idea how much that means. I would love time and the ability to write more on all kinds of feelings I've had this week - I just don't know how to get it all out there! Words don't do my thoughts justice!

Prayer requests: We would love to meet Hallie. Would you pray for that specifically? 

The Rock Ranch

We went to The Rock Ranch a couple of weeks ago. It was a beautiful day! 

I love this man. He is just my favorite person on the planet, in so many ways. 

We played in a teepee, fed some goats and rabbits, ground up some corn (random - ha!), took a hay ride - but the favorites were playing in the "Tiny Town" and the jumpy pillow. Enjoy the pics!

Pregnancy Update - 30 weeks!

Baby is the size of: a head of cabbage

Symptoms: heartburn, fatigue

Maternity clothes? I am over jeans already. I have some leggings but not many things to go with them. Such a first world problem. Ha!

Sleep: sleeping pretty good. I even go many nights without waking for a potty break. I still like naps, but I also go some days with going to bed a little earlier and then getting stuff done during the day. Naps are hard to say no to, though.

Fun moment(s) this past week: Celebrating my sweet Bella's 4th birthday.

Movement: Still a lot of movements. I'm pretty sure I can feel her doing total flips in there. And, she likes to kick my bladder.

Food cravings: Arnold Palmer, still. Yum!

Gender & Name: Hallie

Weight gained: Next appt tomorrow. If it's over what I want it to be, I'll blame it on the fact that I switched doctor offices and it must be the new scales. It could not be the early bags of Halloween candy :)

Belly Button in or out? Still in.

What I am looking forward to: We are having a combined birthday party for the girls this weekend. Crossing my fingers for good weather!! :)

Reflections on the past week: Doing well. It's amazing how many times a day I get asked by strangers now about Hallie. "When is #3 due?" "What are you having this time?" "Wow, a Christmas baby." And it's just as amazing that by God's grace I can just answer the questions easily without going into details. Not that everyone needs to know anyway, I guess I just expected it to upset me a lot more. It pings my heart - but that's not hard to do because I'm wearing it on my sleeve right now. But overall, I'm ok with it. I mean, people are going to ask. And I am having a third daughter, and she is already apart of our family.


It's funny... as a mom and a not-so-good planner, I go to the grocery store wayyyyyy too much. Most times, I have two kids in tow. And 95% of the time there is screaming from Farrah and crys from Bella of getting her hair pulled. And when people look at me... pregnant... I feel like they feel sorry for me. I probably would. ha! But I just am on edge about it, because I for some reason expect someone to eventually say... "And you are having another one?!?" and for me to unload on them and tell them I wish I were going to have 3 perfectly healthy babies to tote around - screams and all! I don't know why this scenario goes on in my head all the time at Kroger, but it does. Maybe because I really do look like a crazy mom.
Besides being concerned about looking like a frazzled mom with screaming kids (for real... why do my kids go nuts in the grocery store?) I am doing well.

Today... I read an article through a Babycenter Group I am in. (Side note: Who would have known there is a whole group for "Carrying to Term Despite Poor or Fatal Diagnosis") It has been a good resource to just read other ladies going thru similar things. I haven't written on there yet, but I have been stalking :)
Anyways... there is a really good article called "Notes from a Dragon Mom" - you can read if you want. I thought it was pretty insightful. Chris and I were talking today about how our parenting style just with Bella and Farrah will or has already changed. We agreed that, for sure - things that used to seem "serious" in parenting just aren't as serious anymore. I was already one to probably "enjoy every second with your kids because they grow so fast"... but now I'm also not stressing as much about the future.

More Tybee Island Pictures!

A few more cute pics that I can't miss posting...















At the wedding... Farrah watched "Special Agent Oso" on silent. This is her favorite thing to watch, ever. We don't have cable, so she's seen the 3 episodes on YouTube and disneyjunior.com about 50000 times. And it still kept her quiet, even to watch on silent! :)



Reception = Party Time!



Uncle Ryan








Sunday, we drove to Savannah after breakfast to walk around, have lunch, etc. before coming home. Oh my goodness... by then, kiddos were sleep deprived and as we ate lunch outside on a patio... we even ran someone off with their screams. You can't tell by this smile... but just believe me.



Belly!





And we toured a ship.



It was a great trip and the girls slept almost the whole way home!