Growing Some More

Our family will be growing some more the end of August...  we are expecting baby #4!   We are all so very excited!

I am now officially out of my first trimester and I am glad about that.  Yuck!  I know God gives us amnesia for a reason when it comes to bearing children, otherwise you wouldn't be so quick to want to do it again.  My mom's presence has been one big blessing.  She has taken over daily duties, such as meal preparation, cleaning up and doing laundry, allowing me to rest and try to keep my food down.  Although the nausea is passing, I think I am missing my energy even more.  Where did it go??  Seriously, I could probably lay down on the floor and sleep all day long.  I have so many things around here that I want (and need) to do but can't muster the energy. 

We went to the doctor's office last week and heard the heartbeat for the first time; everything sounded healthy.  Right now I am seeing a midwife, but she does not deliver anymore so I will be passed along to a (highly recommended) doctor about the halfway point.  The midwife had encouraged me to bring my kids to the heartbeat appointment and the ultrasound, but I thought only Ava was really old enough at this point to understand.  So she went with Elliott and I to this last appointment and the midwife couldn't have been better with her!  She let Ava help with the equipment for listening to the heartbeat and again encouraged me to bring her to the ultrasound, which I will probably do.

Due in large part to my mom's role as short-order cook these days, I have only gained a couple of pounds so far, which is a huge deal for me, since I gained about 15 pounds the first trimester with the other pregnancies and they tell me my goal is to gain no more than 20 pounds altogether this time.  Having someone around to make something quick or who makes sure we always have food on hand has curbed my tendencies to make a fast food run more times than I can count.  (Of course I have given in to some fast food runs, Panda Express being my current favorite.)

Ava is thrilled with the news and sometimes places her hand on my tummy and asks when she will be able to see the baby or feel the baby.  She also alternates wanting a sister or a brother, "because we don't have one of those yet."  Elliott says he told Lily, but I don't talk about it with her.  There will be plenty of time for questions and "when is the baby coming?" and I don't feel like starting that before I can help it.

No cravings or abnormalities that I can think of yet, but I have noticed that my sense of smell is again heightened.  I bought some body spray at Victoria's Secret the other day because I can't get enough of the scent (I have two lotions in the same smell), I have been alternating body washed based on smell, and I am severely tempted to pop into Bath & Body Works to pick up some grapefruit handsoap after using it at Momma Kay's house (yum!).