22 week update

Last week I had my bimonthly cervix ultrasound and each time I've had one it's been with a different Dr, this week the Dr. did something the others had not and actually gave us an ultrasound of the baby first! We were so excited! We spent about 5 minutes just looking at her and checking out what she was doing and getting some ultrasound pictures :) Baby had her leg stretched out over her head and at one point had her toe in her mouth. That was only our second ultrasound to just take a peek at her. Her heart rate was 146 and everything looked perfect! Dr. said my cervix looked fabulous and was a mile long and holding up great! Such a relief to hear that news every time. God is good!

 cute profile :)

 Most pics we've gotten of her!

 22 weeks with the twins and with new baby. Fun to compare.

21 weeks

Feeling: Still perfectly great! I am one of those women that loves being pregnant. I truly enjoy the changes that happen, seeing my bump grow, feeling the baby move and get stronger as the weeks go by. I think it helps that with both pregnancies I was lucky enough to steer clear of any nausea or morning sickness. I am feeling extremely thankful that so far it's been a perfect pregnancy with no complications!

Sleep: Still sleeping well, still able to completely comfortably sleep on my stomach but I know that will be coming to an end soon and I am not looking forward to the crappy sleep I'll get from then on! I wake up average 4-6 times a night to use the rest room so that definitely interrupts my sleep. But can't complain thus far.

Weight gain: as of last week, 2 lbs. I know as the weeks go by and I enter the 3rd trimester I'll pack on the 20-25 I'm "supposed" to gain, also as baby gets bigger.
I thank my mom for her good genes though (us Trumbo's are bean poles)!

Cravings: Still nothing weird but still def need a fix of certain things once in a while, when something sounds good it just sticks in my head til I get it! I've had more of a sweet tooth than normal lately, craving cookies and doughnuts. Normally I am not a big sweets person.

Baby started kicking to where I could feel like from the outside at 18 weeks and had remained super active. She moves and kicks soooo much! I love it, one of my most favorite things ever. The twins and Daddy love to feel lit! She's even had the hiccups a few times which is cute. I remember the twins having them a lot :) I love to just watch my belly move when she's kicking and wiggling around in there. Trying to savor it all since she will be our last!

I started my progesterone shots at 19 weeks, they aren't too bad except for the fact that they leave my booty and entire surrounding area sore for 2-5 days. Feels like a massive charlie horse and I can't sleep on the side I got my shot it (rotate sides each week) for at least 2-3 days bc it hurts so much. I am thankful that there is modern medicine to help my uterus stay strong and also that thus far, it's all I've had to endure. I'll take it!

Feeling so blessed to have this one baby growing inside and that everything is going well so far. Prayer appreciated that things keep going smooth and that I have a complication free pregnancy this time!

20 weeks update!

October 28th marked 20 weeks, half way already!
I had my 20 week check up and detailed ultrasound on the 29th. I had been waiting for that day FOREVER and it felt like it would never come. It was our first real ultrasound and first time getting to see our baby and how she'd grown. I had two early ultrasounds, one at 6 and one at 7 weeks and of course the bay was only the size and shape of a gummy bear. I had had two cervix ultrasounds (which I have every 2 weeks) but never got to see her for more that 2 seconds. Once we saw the leg and toro flash up on the screen and the next cervix ultrasound was the day she wrote down the gender for us so she had us look away from the screen, so we didn't see her that day.

Every single thing regarding baby was perfectly on track, normal and looking good! I was nervous for it (as I was with the twins') because of course you don't want them to find anything wrong. But everything is perfect! My cervix and uterus are holding up perfectly as well and that continues to give me so much hope that I will indeed get to go full term and have a normal, complication free pregnancy. Words can not describe how excited I am to experience that and how grateful I am that so far everything is fine.

Of course it was amazing getting to see baby Craft, see just how big she is (she weighed 13 oz already), see all her fully formed limbs, fingers and toes, her sweet profile. She was very active and has so much room in there, something I am still getting used to...only carrying one! We even saw her cute little ankles crossed. As soon as the ultrasound tech put up her profile I immediately thought she looked like a mix of both Kaden and Kaleiah, she didn't look more like one or the other to me. She didn't have as tiny of a button nose as Kaleiah but she had her big cheeks. Her profile reminded me of Kaden's. I can't wait to see what she looks like! We are definitely going to do a 4D at some point :)

Love our new baby girl!

Mamma at 20 weeks

Gender Reveal

A little over a week ago, on Saturday October 19th we had a family get together to find out with the ones we love most, if we would be having another daughter or another son! SInce this is our last baby and also since these kind of parties weren't really around when we had the twins, we wanted to find out in a really fun way!

We came up with an adorable theme that I've never seen or heard of, Randy made a rad sign and we had minimal decorations and some lunch...kept it simple and to the point. It was a really special afternoon hanging out with family and knowing they all cared enough to find out with us to take a few hours out of their weekend to come! 

I wanted to find out by stuffing lanterns with tissue paper and when you pull the string, it would sprinkle down like snowfall. My awesome sister in law was kind enough to make them for me since she wouldn't be able to come to the party. We had two lanterns, one for Kaden and one for Kaleiah to pull because we wanted them to be involved in it! 

I hired a photographer to capture THE BIG MOMENT (and truth be told it killed me that I couldn't be in two places at once and capture it myself) but unfortunately only about 5 photos of the whole afternoon turned out and NONE from the actual reveal portion. So I don't have very many pictures of the day to share, the one of the confetti falling is from my sister's cell phone but I am thankful I at least have that!

The cool thing about our situation is since we already have a boy and a girl we had no preference for this one!  It was soooo fun and special to find out in the way we did and I am so glad we did it. 

Pearls!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

19 weeks

Today I am 19 weeks, almost half way! I can't beleive that!
Baby is the size of a mango, 6.0 inches long and about 8.5 ounces!

Still feeling great! A real, round bump is emerging which is exciting. Still sleeping fine and luckily can still sleep on my stomach most of the night, only about another of being able to do that though.
Cravings are all over the place still. They're random and sporadic but nothing weird.

I have been feeling the baby flutter and move since 11 weeks and it seemed like I would NEVER feel it from the outside. Then one day BAM! Since the first kick on 10/14 that I felt with my hand, baby has been doing it tons! 4 days after I felt the first kick, I SAW it! Since then I have felt so many kicks I lost count, baby is always moving...especially when I lie down or shortly after i eat. I love it! SInce it's still pretty random and not super strong, it's been hard to have Randy or the peas feel it. I'll feel a couple little kicks and then get one of them to put their hand there and then it stops! But tonight Randy finally got to feel a kick! So special!! The twins don't seem super interested in feeling the kicks, I know that it's probably a little weird and a little hard to comprehend. But I know eventually they'll love it :)

We also found out the gender on Saturday!!! I am saving that for another post, soon.

Me at 19 weeks with K&K on the left, and with Baby # 3 on the right 

Fall fun has begun

Our family LOVES Fall. I'm pretty sure I love it the most though. I love the colors, the wardrobe, the ps lattes, but mostly our traditions. We've already been to two patches :) I love these Holiday months!!

15 weeks

Morning sickness-none

Food aversions-any and all veggies for 3 solid months (couldn't even look at them)!

Sleep-still sleeping great and am able to still sleep comfortably on my tummy (yay)!

Maternity clothes-One pair of jeans, just to have the option to be super comfortable. Still able to button my regular ones. Still wearing regular tops.

Cravings-It changes by the day. One day it's crab legs, the next it's candy, bean burgers (a childhood staple growing up), but nothing too crazy or often. When something sounds good I tend to fixate on it until I get it though!

Weight gain-1 pound so far

This pregnancy has been easy so far. Like with the twins, I was blessed to not experience any morning sickness. I had my fair share of days where I just felt totally "blah" in the first trimester but really nothing to complain about. It's already much different just carrying one. I was absolutely and utterly exhausted the entire first trimester with the twins, I would fall asleep at my desk at work and sleep in my car on my break. I felt like I had been hit by a truck and every fiber in my body was exhausted. I expected that and waited and waited for that to hit this time and it never did. I was never exhausted or super tired, I just didn't have my usual energy. It's been such a blessing to be able to still feel so good because the twins still require so much work, I can't imagine how hard it would be if I was sick or tired as a dog. I am thankful.

I am also a lot smaller and finally just started "showing" even though I haven't truly "popped" yet. This last week, 14 to 15 weeks, I've definitely seen a change in my belly. With the twins, I was much bigger by now and in maternity pants by 12 weeks. 

One thing that's been hard for me in comparison is the lack of check up and mostly ultrasounds. With the twins, since I was high risk, I saw them every 2 weeks. I bonded right away and it felt real from the beginning (although the fact that I was having twins was always surreal). This time I am not considered high risk (thank the Lord), although they will be watching my cervix like a hawk, so I do not need ultrasounds as much as I did with the twins. 

The first ultrasound you get at my hospital is the 20 week, in depth one. You may get an initial one but usually not if you are a normal, non high risk pregnancy.

I had two early ultrasounds, due to my prior history, basically we wanted to rule out twins! So I have not seen the baby since I was 7 1/2 weeks, it looked like a gummy bear. I have been dying to see him or her, see what a real baby it looks like, see it move around. Since it's been over two months since I saw it as a gummy bear, I find myself worrying...if everything is ok. I have felt the little fluttering and movements for about 5 weeks now but it's not regular and obviously not super strong yet so it's just hard to really believe I am pregnant! I just want to SEE him/her. I know some of you mamma's can relate to how I am feeling. I know in my heart the baby is ok and developing, that God is good and everything is ok. I just wish I could see it and feel more bonded and have the whole thing feel more real :)

Speaking of the 20 week ultrasound, I have less than a month until I get it! That will also be the week we do our gender reveal. We can't wait to find out!!! The awesome thing is, we have one of each so we will be completely happy with whatever we get! I love that! We are going to find out in a fun way with our families there :) 

Tuesday I have my first cervix ultrasound, I will have one every two weeks for the remainder of my pregnancy. They will be monitoring my cervix highly due to my previous situation. I had these ultrasounds with the twins as well because I was high risk. And thank the Lord for that because that is how we found out that I was in pre term labor at 23 weeks. I went in for my routine cervix ultrasound and my cervix had shortened to a 0.75 (normal length is 3 or above) with regular contractions happening and that's when our entire world was turned upside down. God's Devine intervention was obvious, had I not had that appointment that day there is no doubt the twins would not be here today. 

I am a little nervous for the appointment just because it will bring back all those memories and emotions from that day. And of course I am terrified of receiving bad news. I am scared that my cervix may fail me again. But we have trusted God thus far and will continue to. We have faith He will answer all our prayers this pregnancy and the main one, besides praying for just one, is to go full term with no complications. 

Also starting on Tuesday I will begin my weekly progesterone shots which I'm not super nervous about. I have a high pain tolerance and also had a million shots and needles in me in the two months in the hospital that they really don't phase me anymore. I am a little nervous about the size of the needle though but I am just not going to look (Randy will be giving me the shots). I am so thankful for modern medicine. I did my own research back in Feb/March and came across this information about the hormone progesterone. And that is when I decided to contact the perinatologist that had checked on me often in the hospital. When we met with him back in April, he said I was a perfect candidate for the shots. 

http://www.marchofdimes.com/pregnancy/progesterone-treatment-to-prevent-preterm-birth.aspx

And Randy? No surprise he has been utterly amazing. He was so understanding of my food aversions and picky-ness with meals the first trimester, he gives me back and leg rubs on the regular, he gets me (or MAKES ME...hello crab legs) whatever it is that I might be craving and is over all so understanding of my lack of energy and therefor the lack of a clean house at times, my moodiness from hormones, etc. He is just the best. The best kind of partner to be pregnant with. Love that man.

Overall I am feeling so blessed to pregnant again, to get a chance to do this again and to hopefully experience it the way I can only dream about which is going full term, having a normal and healthy pregnancy without any complications. I am still in awe of God answering our prayer of a year (even though it was the prayer of our hearts for many years) of having just ONE baby. 

And just to clarify, the reason just having ONE was our biggest desire is not because we don't love having twins, it's because it gives us hope that I will be able to carry to full term and have a complication free pregnancy. With twins, I would be high risk again. I would probably be on bed rest no matter what at some point. I would have a pregnancy riddled with fear the entire time because I would just be waiting for things to go wrong again. With one, my Dr.'s say, there should be no reason I shouldn't have a healthy full term pregnancy and baby. 

I am also so excited to experience what it is like to take of of just one newborn! This pregnancy has been so much easier compared to the twins and I have a feeling it will be the same when the baby is born. If I survived newborn twins, nursing twins for 14 months exclusively, dealing with two babies teething, two babies sick, two babies up all night, you name it...I think one (FOR ME) will be a walk in the park. And I am SO excited to experience that. Excited for little things like just wearing one in a wrap as I clean or run errands. I always had two to worry about so I never really got much use of of baby wraps or carriers. I am excited to just nurse one. That is a huge one for me. If you know me personally and knew me back in my nursing days, you knew what a rough start the babies and I had with that and just the amount of work it took to nurse two babies for over a year. I barely slept. For a year. This time around I will probably just do it all in my sleep! And to be able to do it without the other hungry baby screaming for it's turn (the amount of stress that caused me was unbearable at times), I'm sure it will be pure bliss. SO many little things I am looking forward to with this new experience. God is Good!

15 weeks 3 days