baby #4

We are so excited about our 4th child joining our family April 7th 2015 via C-Section! We found out we were expecting in August of 2014 I started feeling sick pretty quickly, about a week after I found out I was pregnant. I spent most of the fall in bed in the afternoons. My mornings were pretty good and I could get to the gym and get chores, make dinner and get errands done, I would put off having lunch as late in the afternoon as I could because as soon as I ate, no matter what I ate or how much I was nauseous the rest of the day into the night. I never threw up, but gagged constantly and felt awful. Cora and Oliver watched a lot of TV in the afternoons until Kreg was home to play and take care of them. I am so grateful for him and for Oli and CC for helping out with Cora and around the house so much!

   I felt like the baby was a girl and hard a hard time imagining anything else, whenever I thought about baby names I always thought about girl names, when we would go to the store I was always going over to look at the girl clothes, but in the November we had our ultrasound and found out we were having a BOY! I was shocked and have had a hard time believing it. We are so excited about having 2 of each gender and think its so neat Oliver will get a brother! Oli prayed for a brother and at first said he would cry if he got another sister, which I thought was funny because he loves and gets a long with his sisters so much. CC really wanted a little sister and was disappointed for about a day that she was getting a brother, only because she wanted the girls to keep being the majority in our family! Even though we are 2 weeks away form having the baby and the nursery is all set up with everything boy, I still find myself feeling shocked that we will be adding another little man into our family. Maybe because I only have one son so Im not sure what it will be like to have 2 or why I feel that way, I am excited to experience a relationship with another son, my relationship with Oliver is so special and I know I will have one just as great with this little guy! It will be nice to meet him and see that for sure he is a boy!

    During all this time we were under contract on a home we were hoping to purchase, there was some back and forth due to it being a short sale which was hard on my emotions, but I feel like I got through it and delt with disappointment pretty well considering it was hard being pregnant on top of everything. in December we purchased the home and were so excited! I am not much of a procrastinator and since I was in my 2nd trimester at this point I felt really good, had my energy back and could still bend over so I went through everything we owned, cleaned things out and packed up the house in about a weeks time. The end of January we took possession of the house so we replaced the carpet and then I immediately started cleaning and taking a few loads of boxes over and unpacked them right away, taking it in small spurts each day made moving and unpacking so much easier and more manageable for me to organize without getting burnt out right away. once we had the big moving day for furniture it was fast and pretty simple for the friends and family that came to help. I have taken my time with decorating and finding new furniture to fit the space mostly because I can't decide how I want things to look, but it has been fun looking for inspiration and I know it will come together in time.

  The last couple of months have been so uncomfortable, I have experienced a lot of back pain a long with the usual rib pain that comes with the end of a pregnancy. I ask myself everyday how in the world I can get bigger and how I will continue to be pregnant, but sure enough I keep on growing and keep on being pregnant. I have had more fears of the C-section this time due to my experience with the drugs from Cora's birth, I just keep reminding myself it only lasted about a day and then I felt great. I am just praying for an experience similar to the ease of Oliver's birth. This baby is active, but I only notice it when I sit down and really pay attention, since I am so busy all the time I get worried if I haven't felt him and think that maybe he is more still, but then I take a minute to relax and sure enough he is kicking and wiggling like crazy! I can't wait to see what his personality will be like and what he will add to our mix!

  The kids are so excited for the baby to get here, CC says she is going to feed him and change his diaper for me, Oliver said he can't wait for the baby to be bigger so they can share a room and cuddle in his bed, Cora is going to love this baby so much, maybe a little to much sometimes! She of course doesn't understand fully what is about to happen to her world, but she knows where baby is and where he will sleep and she likes to talk about him! I get emotional at times when I think about the change, I always do right before we add another child to the family, I mourn the loss of how things are and that my youngest will no longer be my youngest, but then every time the new baby is born I fall in love so fast that I forget what life was like before they arrived! All in all this pregnancy feels like it has been harder in so many ways whether that is because we moved in the middle of it, or because I am older and my body is different, i have 3 other kids to take care of and a much bigger home, or I just plain forgot how hard the  former pregnancies were or maybe it was all of the above. I am so happy and excited to be done being pregnant and to get my body back in shape and most of all cuddle and love on our sweet new addition!