Bump Update: 27 Weeks

We've gone under the 100 day mark!  Baby is due in 91 days (well, 91 days tomorrow, technically).  It's funny how with both of my other pregnancies when I hit this milestone it seemed like it was so close but with this one it still seems so far away.  

How many weeks: 26.6

Weight gain?  13 lbs.  

Morning Sickness?  It only strikes once and a while, anymore.  The zofran I was so reluctant to ask for has saved me from more than one night of being sick this week.

Cravings:  No big cravings.  I don't kill for anything.  Things I'm always up for having: Mexican, pizza, tomatoes.  Things I don't really want: chicken breasts (unless really tender and grilled).

Sleeping well?  Better the last two nights, only up once each night as opposed to the 3-4 times a night I had been doing.

Labor signs?  Lots of Braxton Hicks.  It happens mostly at night after the kids have gone to bed (particularly if they have an up and down night).  They're pretty painful, which I'm not used to.  The Dr. thinks he may be posterior (turned toward my spine) and said that could account for painful BH contractions.

Things I miss:  Feeling healthy and/or normal.  There have been so many random "complications" this go around, it's left me feeling worn out and ready to have this one done.  While my other two pregnancies weren't complete walks in the park, I was able to take time to really enjoy the pregnancies, this one has left me feeling worn out.  But, I know in the end this will all be over and we'll have a wonderful little blessing in our arms--it's not all in vain!  

Things I'm looking forward to:  Thanks to Mike's travel rewards, we're going to take a trip to Charlotte at the end of this week.  Just a nice time to get away as a family.  We'll also hopefully be able to pick up a couple of things for the nursery while we're there.  :)

Surprise! Disney Day 2.

Day 2 was so much fun and so much less stress than day 1 was!  I knew what I was getting into before we left, we had a good plan for what we really wanted to get done (since Logan already knew we were going back, she had a checklist of things she didn't want to miss) and we were only hitting one park and planned to spend the entire day there.

Here are the kiddos getting ready to go:

I'm going to do my best to recap the day, I didn't get as many pictures because I wanted to really enjoy the kids enjoying the park.  We stopped soon after we arrived for a photo op with Cinderella's castle!

We didn't arrive at the park until about 10:45am and knew that we wanted to have lunch at the new Be Our Guest restaurant in fantasyland, so we went right away to get in line.  We waited about 45 minutes to get in the restaurant, but it was so worth it!!

Here's Logan waiting in line:

 After lunch we headed to ride some rides.  We also got several fast passes for rides we wanted to do later.  Brody fell asleep while we were in the Philharmagic and, sadly, we walked out to realize that our stroller had been poured on.  So we laid some tarps down and tried our best to keep him comfy and asleep in the stroller.  While B slept Logan and Rachael rode Dumbo and got ice cream.  Logan has been asking to ride Dumbo since the LAST time we were at Disney, so it was a b-i-g deal for her to finally get to do it.  Here was her reaction when the ride got going (apparently she repeated, "now that's what I'm talking about!!!" over and over and over.)

Both kiddos wanted to ride the Barnstormer, a kid's roller coaster, but since I couldn't ride because of my pregnancy they had to take turns riding with Rachael.  So, while one rode the other played at the splash pad outside of the ride.  Logan was all over the place so I didn't catch any of her playing, but Brody, thankfully contained himself to one area of the water.

 It was a great way for them to cool off in the 96+ degree weather we had that day!

After we left fantasyland we hit the afternoon dancing in the street parade that Brody had been begging to see.  It was, hands down, his favorite part of the trip.  He still talks about going back to see the parade with Buzz, Woody and Jessie.  Here he is at the beginning (before they invited everyone to dance with them).  He was SO INTO it all!!  

And here's one of Logan after they invited everyone to come out in the street and dance:

We had one more meet and greet we couldn't go without, so we headed over to meet the Fairies before dinner!

Logan was so excited and had been talking about meeting her favorite fairy, Rosetta, the whole time we were in line.  I think some other parent in line even mentioned to her that he was sure it was Rosetta that was back there....she wasn't.  But Vidia was!  :)  Logan quickly asked Vidia where Rosetta was and seemed satisfied that she was out taking care of the flowers, albeit a bit disappointed.  Vidia took it in stride and talked about how much she loved Rosetta, too.  

Then Logan went and met Tink!  At this point, my inquisitive and perceptive child couldn't stop asking why the fairies were our size since everyone knows fairies are tiny.  Tinkerbell answered that since we had stepped into their world, we had become small, too.  I'm not entirely sure this satisfied Logan's curiosity, but she stopped asking about it until we were alone.  

We headed off to dinner and then went and took our seats for the night parade.  I was able to take each kiddo individually to pick out souvenirs while we waited.  Brody picked out a soccer ball full of toy story characters and a light sword to use during the parade and Logan picked out a light up dancing Minnie Mouse to use during the parade, as well.  

We took one more opportunity to get a picture in front of the castle before it got dark:

Then we settled in for the parade, which they loved.  Afterwards we drove home in a quiet car with two exhausted kids.......who perked up as soon as we got back to Rachael's house, because their last surprise of the trip was that Daddy had come a night early and was there to pick us up!!!

Surprise! Disney Day 1.

When I realized we'd be in Florida for several weeks over the summer, I asked my college roommate, Rachael if she'd be interested in hanging out with us at Disney for a couple of days to surprise the kids. We were thrilled when she agreed!  It gave us a place to stay that was close to the parks and a fantastic extra set of hands to have fun in the park with.  

I had told Logan we were going to Orlando, but she didn't put together that Disney was in Orlando.  To get them to calm down and go to bed the night before (because they had been in the car for about 5 hours) I told them we needed good sleep so we could go shopping in the morning.  Logan automatically assumed this meant we were going to the mall.  Here's the video of her finding out what we were actually up to as we pulled through the gates!  I wish I had caught more of her excitement, but I think she didn't *truly* get what was going on until we had tickets in hand and were walking into the park.  That's when we got the giddy squeals and jumping that we were looking for in the car.  :)

Day 1 we hit Hollywood Studios and a little bit of EPCOT.  First stop was to meet Woody and Buzz!

Brody was a bit hesitant...

But eventually gave in.

He wasn't thrilled that Buzz touched his back, though.  He asked every subsequent character he met to "please not touch my back."

Next we met Sully and Mike from Monsters Inc.

Logan was WAY into making scary monster faces with them, but Brody wanted to figure out how they got out of the movie screen and into real life.

After meeting with a few characters, we hurried over to EPCOT (in the rain) to have our princess lunch!  Logan was so excited to see all of her favorites in ONE place!!

She got to meet with and have conversations with all of the princesses and she got to participate in a princess parade.

We made our way back to Hollywood Studios to finish the day.  We rode several rides, and met with a few more characters.  Here we are with Princess Vanellope and Wreck it Ralph.

Handy Manny peeked around the corner while we were meeting with the other characters, but Logan didn't let him escape back into his dressing room without a picture!

And then we met with Mickey, they had waited all day to see him.  He was the first character Brody felt no need to have Mommy for.

We finished off the evening by meeting Fro Zone and Mr. Incredible.

Brody got into this meet and greet and showed everyone his muscles:

We left the parks exhausted and wondering how we'd ever do day 2....

Bump Update

I've done a lot worse with keeping updated about this pregnancy.  Part of it is having two other kids and a busy summer, part of it is that this pregnancy has been so tough, I don't want to just write and complain!  But here's a little update:

How far along?  25.5 weeks


Maternity clothes, yet?  Yup.

Sleep?  I sleep pretty decent.  If I wake in the middle of the night it's typically because of one of the older two having a nightmare or needing to use the potty.  

Best moment of the week?  Seeing the kids get more and more excited at the realization that they're going to have a new baby sibling!  We went and visited a new small group this week and the couple who leads it had a 9 week old baby there and both of our kids were smitten with the idea of a new little one.

Any movement?  Much more than before!  It took until about 23 weeks before I felt anything consistently.  He still moves a lot less than both of his siblings, but his timing is pretty predictable.

Cravings?  I'm not craving any one food in particular.  I could have Mexican food every night, though.

Gender?  BOY!  We are so excited for a little more rough and tumble in the house!

Labor signs?  No.  Lots of Braxton Hicks contractions, but that's nothing new to me.

What I miss?  Feeling normal.  Over the last two weeks I've experienced horrible ligament cramping and found out I've got pregnancy  induced TMJ and a condition called dyspnea that's caused by the pregnancy.  Pretty much I'm short of breath 100% of the time.  60% of all pregnant women will experience some form of this condition and 20% experience it all of the time.  It has nothing to do with what # pregnancy this is, it just happens.  Thankfully after I learned what it was causing this, I was able to calm the anxiety and so it doesn't feel quite as horrible as it did at first.

What I am looking forward to:  Meeting this little boy!!  So many people say this pregnancy is FLYING, but it has been, by far, my longest pregnancy (as far as how the timing has felt).  I'm keeping busy, but it seems like the next 15 weeks will just drag.  Also, getting started on his nursery.

22.5 Weeks

25.5 weeks:

Train Museum

We were so excited that Mimi was able to take a weekend off from studying and take us to the train museum while we were in Miami!  I think that, along with the restaurant overlooking the airport, were Brody's favorite parts of Miami.  

We took a ride on an old commuter train that came from Chicago. 

Brody was thrilled to see all of these HUGE trains!!  He would run from one to the other with a huge smile on his little face.

You can see the glint in his eye as he spots another train he wants to look at in this next picture!

The big "claim to fame" of this train museum is that they have the old President's train (the Air Force 1 of trains, if you will) on display.  President Roosevelt designed it.  (again, you can see Brody's star struck look as he spots another train to look at while we take pictures)

We actually were only able to cover about half of the museum as it's only open until 4pm and we arrived at 2:30.  It'll be fun to go back and see the rest, one day.