Baby Update – 6th kid version

 

(Sorry for the bathroom selfie.)

1. I’m 24 weeks now.  I had to look that up to tell you guys.  I literally haven’t been keeping track on a week by week basis.  I don’t get email updates, and I don’t keep looking at what vegetable my child is the size of now.  I just don’t have time for that.  I’m having a baby.  That’s all I need to know this time.  It’ll come when it comes.

2. I wore a cute little maternity outfit this weekend, more fitted and less tent-like, and felt so proud of my rare fashion thought and 3 people asked me if I was due this month because I looked like I was about to pop.  Sigh.

3. I’ve been so energetic up until this last week.  I feel my body starting to ease into the 3rd trimester soon, and I keep saying “Not ready!  Not ready!”

4. I’ve been the standard of emotional stability for my family these last few months.  I’ve been so proud of how rational and patient I have been.  I feel my grasp on this is starting to slip too.  Pray for them.  There might be a rocky few months ahead.

5. I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, chug some water, and eat a light snack like 1 or 4 bagels now.  I’m so hungry. all. the. time.  But so far, only once a night, so we’re still doing good.  I think about food all day.  I think about it when I’m eating, when I’m not eating, when I’m full and have heartburn, and so on.  The main issue is all the other kids feel free to ask me for some of my food all day long because they see me with food so often.

6. I still can’t tolerate coffee, (even though I still crave it constantly) and I still have trouble with anything too sugary or junky (a first for my pregnancies, and also, I still crave it constantly).  My midwife keeps reminding me to eat protein when I’m craving sugar.  I’m eating hard boiled eggs and cheese sticks all day long, and I’m so sick of them, but they take my cravings away.

7. Baby moves all the time, and I can see his elbows and feet push out my belly now.  The kids love to sit next to me and feel my belly.  I’ve noted I haven’t felt this baby have the hiccups yet.  I distinctly remember all my other kids having hiccups in the womb all the time.  It’s on my list to talk about at my next prenatal, under the “stupid things to wonder about, but just making sure I shouldn’t be worried” category.  (EDITED TO NOTE that about 30 seconds after I published this, I felt the baby’s hiccups.  Cute.)  So now I have nothing to discuss with my midwife of concern.

8. Ingrid has finally accepted the fact that another baby is coming.  Up until 2 weeks ago, she has been in denial.  In fact, in church a few weeks ago, she kept trying to go under and lift up my dress so she could get the ball she thought I was hiding in my belly, and I kept making her stop and telling her there was no ball, that was actually her baby brother.  She was so angry with me that I wouldn’t give her the ball from under my dress that I had to take her out of the service because she was so disruptive.  She wanted the ball and couldn’t understand why I didn’t give it to her.

9. I can’t handle working out at the Y anymore on the elliptical, though my midwife has been helping me brainstorm some things I can do.  It’s just starting to hurt.  I miss the stress relief of it, and I can’t tell if that is triggering my recent emotions/annoyance at everyone or if the 3rd trimester hormones are starting to creep in early on me.

10. I’m already starting to feel Braxton-Hicks contractions, though nothing to worry about.  I usually feel them when I’m sitting and doing nothing.  Other times I think it’s a contraction, but then I realize the baby is just stretching really good, like he owns the place.

11. My house is the cleanest and most organized it has ever been.  Ever.  Nesting has been intense this go-round.  We’ve added a few storage units in the last few weeks, and I just can’t believe this is my home.  The kids and I do chores I assign after every meal as part of our daily routine.  I’ve been running out of chores to give them, so we’ve been shortening chore time, and when I have the time, I teach them a new one that we haven’t covered yet, like wiping down the bathroom mirrors and sinks.  The biggest perk: the kids actually notice when a room is dirty now.  They’re not like, “What do you mean messy?  It always looks like this?”

12. Surprising progress has been made in the name department.  We’ve traditionally had the worst time agreeing on a boy’s name.  We actually ave 4 or 5 on our list this time, with 1 in particular that we are both leaning towards.  That’s nothing short of miraculous for us.  And nope, we’re not telling.  Not even you, Mom.