I seem to be..

An every 2-3 week blogger(sometimes more, eek!)...I apologize. Life is kind of crazy right now. Between trying my best to lay down as often as I can, homeschooling and caring for children, and everything else life entails, even my down time is busy...haha..

I'll be 32 weeks on Wednesday. Which means just over 4 weeks till we are in the safe to deliver zone...he may or may not come then, but at least I can be off meds and resume normal activity then which will improve my outlook quite a bit. Though, even with meds, I contract regularly(just not patterned and constant like before), so I'm thinking it may not take too long once I'm off the meds and up and moving for him to come..but we shall see. Either way, the end is in sight and that is something I am clinging to right now.

My gestational diabetes is going ok, I have only had 2 abnormal readings in the almost 4 weeks I've started eating properly...I consider that pretty successful. Both were because I ate something for breakfast I knew would probably send my numbers to the higher end..I'll be soo happy when I don't have to come up with a different way to make eggs every morning...I miss my morning cereal like mad crazy! In fact, I usually have some sort of soup right after delivery..and a bowl of cereal is what I want! haha..(along with a plethora of other higher carb/sweet goods)...:) Although I will say, its opened my eyes to how much food I can eat without tons of calories and will help me in the long run when I can eat higher calorie foods, to eat them in moderation...

Olivia is being quite helpful, she has taken on the task of unloading the dishwasher daily(occasionally loading it if I ask), moving laundry from washer to dryer and bringing me what was in the dryer so I can fold while on the couch, and making breakfast for the two younger ones(nothing cooking, frozen waffles and bowls of cereal..haha..). She may be mad high energy, but she's been a serious help to me. So thankful for such a big helper and for her willingness to serve and help..recognizing a need and meeting it.

Kate has been clingier then ever lately. I wonder if she knows it won't be long before her "baby" status will no longer be...guess its hard to explain to her at her age that she will always be my baby, and having a smaller baby will not "De-throne" her so to speak. I know it will just mean I will have to be extra careful when Baby Boy comes to give her extra lovins'...

Don't have much to report about my current middle child. He's kind of one of those fade into the background if allowed types. Though, I will say, he's been helpful too...but he's also going through a little not-a-big-fan-of-Kate phase which is challenging...handling it the best I know how..which isn't much! ;)

Till next time.

Eventful times..

Almost 2 weeks ago I had a really normal lazy day, but as night came around I realized that my normal braxton hicks were coming very close together...after timing them for an hour and having 20!, I tried every thing in the book I knew, my herbs, a bath, water, laying down, walking some..we finally decided that enough was enough and called a friend to come sit with the kids while we headed to the hospital. Upon arriving, I was tachycardic with a heartrate of 240...thankfully it came down pretty quick even though its stayed high..but contractions were showing up on the moniter of having one almost every minute. I was given a test called a Fetal Fibronecton test and it apparently picks up a chemical that you put off when you are heading towards labor..thankfully, mine came back neg! I was given a dose of Procardia and that didn't seem to help too much...they decided to keep me since I was contracting so often. I was moved from triage to a antepartum room and they decided to give me Mag sulfate which is kind of their go to med for labor stopping...well after being catheterized(NO fun, and I still don't quite understand why, but something to do with the meds) they started it but my blood pressure plummeted into unhealthy numbers, so they quickly shut that off..Luke said I looked dead, and after getting some oxygen he said I started looking better...

So that was off the table of a treatment method. Was given another med called Indocin which thankfully spaced them out a little bit. We were sent for an ultrasound to see how big Baby Boy was, had lots of blood work ran, and given an EKG because of my heart rate issues.. After the Indocin, they gave me a higher dose of Procardia and that helped to just about get rid of them all together with only one here and there. I was also given a gestational diabetes test while there and failed..boo. First time ever..

I was released on bedrest orders and on my meds which I am to take every 6 hours round the clock. I'm on a diabetic diet right now, and just careful to make sure my heart rate doesn't get too high. 

I am very thankful we were able to stop them mostly, and very thankful that I didn't have a 28 week old baby born..but I'm so fed up with being pregnant at this point. I'm 30 weeks in 2 days and then I just need to make it to 36 so I can have a normal birth like I want sans hospital....

So thankful for Church family who have taken my kids for afternoons, fed us and been so wonderfully supportive and for my real family..specially my mama, cause she's had to work out so much for me in terms of getting the help I need medically and watching kids so I can see those people.

Hoping the rest is pretty uneventful!

One more week!

 This post is just all over the place random. Sorry.

And I'm officially in my third trimester. So excited..I can't believe its so close..Baby Boy is quite active. He is always kicking and shoving, and gets hiccups quite often. Can't wait to start setting up a few things for him. We don't need much since he's our 4th, but we need a new crib and pack n play since our other ones have taken a beating through the first 3..Plus, every baby deserves a few new things that are just theirs and not hand me downs.

Olivia is progressing in school and we are looking forward to being done with this school year in mid May, though I am hoping to double up some so we can be done earlier hopefully.. 1st grade hasn't been a pleasant experience I don't think for either of us. She is so excited about getting to go to "real" school in the fall. Noah on the other hand is hesitant, but mostly cause he doesn't like the idea of not being able to be in the same classroom with Olivia. It will be so weird to just have Kate and Baby Boy at home for a good portion of the day. Though I am sure they will keep me busy..just a different kind then I'm used to. Its like reverting to a prior mothering state..haha..

We've got company at our house all week, we are enjoying having our friend around and thankful he didn't mind sleeping on the couch in our guest room..Poor guy. His time here has kept me busy though because I definitely feel like keeping things cleaner, more together then my average day might be. Staying on top of laundry, school, our personal appearance, and dishes, not to mention making fuller meals then I might make normally.

Isn't it weird that you can live so close to people and rarely see them? Our lives aren't crazy busy, but somehow we still barely manage to see my parents, Luke's parents, and my sister and her family and they are only an hour away. I'm blaming it on being pregnant right now, but honestly its just me being lazy and not making the effort to have people here, or drive there.

I gained a new niece last week..she's adorable and I can't wait to love on her and hold her.

Noah's birthday is coming up at the end of the month..we haven't decided what to do yet..guess we'll see.

I'm off..gotta fold clothes and prep all the ingredients for my quiche and fruit salad for tonight's dinner.  Then, I'm chilling. :)

Over it.

I had the best intentions of enjoying this pregnancy..since it will be our last, I thought, I'd savor every second of it. But just to be honest with you I'm not.

I know this is kind of horrible since I know many who cannot get pregnant, stay pregnant or have bigger issues then me, and I AM thankful to BE pregnant. It's just, I'm not enjoying it like I'd hoped. As I laid in bed last night, even Luke could tell..he said "you'll be happy when this is over won't you?"..I feel huge though people swear I'm not..I always seem to have all my complicated issues while pregnant..like kidney stones, and I'm pretty sure my hips and pelvic bone hate me.

I will miss the child bearing season of my life, but not so much this pregnancy part. ;)

Glad the pay off(being the baby!) is so stinkin worth it.

24 weeks on Wednesday..16 more to go..give or take. Hopefully the take. ;)

Its a boy!!

So, due to some complications we had our anatomy scan a little earlier then 20 weeks, and we were able to find out that our sweet bean is a little boy! We are stoked. We would have been happy either way, but its nice that Noah will have a brother and that we are rounding things out as our last. God worked it out so well..

He is perfectly healthy from what we saw and measuring just perfect, plus the complications we weren't sure about turned out to be nothing really at all..so it was a happy appointment. The kids were sooo happy when we told them, they REALLY wanted another boy.

Little man still doesn't have a name yet, but we are working on it. He is an active little booger and moves a lot. Hoping he'll be calmer when he comes out..haha..

My husband.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my husband?

I know there are TONS of hardworking wonderful men out there, but seriously, I feel so amazingly blessed to have this one. He works very long days, then has to come home to usually a very tired pregnant mama and most likely a rowdy bunch(there are exceptions to this sometimes..haha..I'm not always tired, and the kids aren't always running up the walls..) to which he immediately jumps in and helps out, often times taking them all on an errand or outside for a bit, just so I can have a minute to myself. I try and go out of my way to make things easier here while he's home, but I'm not super woman and some responsibilities I'd rather him not have to take on do indeed get passed on to him.

He is very patient with me(most of the time) and is very good at encouraging me spiritually and just verbally in terms of how I'm doing. He also puts up with my temper and isn't quick to jump in and argue...allowing me time to cool down. :)

I'm very blessed and I only wish that my 2 girls(and similarly the boys with woman) will find someone who is similar to their father's personality.

Where has the time gone?

Its December already! Geez!!

We were able to get the house that I blogged about in Oct..we were so stoked, because it looked like it wasn't going to work out, but God totally worked it out. We had a brother in the Lord bless us IMMENSELY and this season of moving, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and everything else has been so much easier then it was last year when we moved the week of Christmas. The house will be open to us as of tomorrow, so we can start moving things over..The owners went all out and painted, and fixed so many things after the prior renters moved out and we are thrilled that we are moving into a nearly pristine house. Though, I just hope I can keep it up with 3+ kids..haha..This weekend's project? Purging most of of garage..some of the stuff will be easy to get rid of , but we have some "I'll use this one day" and sentimental stuff in there too that will be harder to let go of, but the new house doesn't have a closed in garage, so if it doesn't fit in the house, we can't keep it!

We were able to get a new TV on Black Friday(online, cause I'm not crazy enough to shop at 3 in the morning!) and it was much needed cause our last flat screen broke and our entertainment center can't hold the weight of our old school tube tv that was in our room..but we've been using the smaller tv so long it feels weird to see a bigger one now..haha..

I'm 17 weeks and 1 day preggers. After much debate, Luke and I decided to go ahead and find out the gender this time around, so hopefully in about 2 weeks we will be able to know what we are having. We would obviously love a boy to round things out, but we certainly wouldn't mind another girl either...!!

Luke and I went down to T'ville to be part of a wedding of a long time friend last weekend(not this past one) and enjoyed some time to ourselves as my Mom and then Luke's sister's watched the kiddos..then we enjoyed a very short work week(only 2 days for Luke) and really got to enjoy seeing LOTS of family..(All of Luke's family, and all of mine except one nephew!) and eat lots of food. Pretty sure I put on a couple lbs. from all the eating I did..haha..