Third Trimester with Baby #3

 The home stretch!! I can't believe how close we are to meeting our next girl! These two pictures were taken right at the start of the third trimester, at 27 weeks. I'm hoping to get out with Dustan and take some (very quick) maternity pictures closer to the end as well :)

At 28 weeks, I had a second ultrasound to check on my placenta previa and see if it had moved, or what was going on. First of all though, it was soooo fun getting to see baby girl again, I'm not used to getting to see my babies after the 20 week anatomy scan! She was snuggled and curled up and it was so cute. And the news was so good, the placenta previa was completely gone! I was shocked. My OB made it sound like that would be very unlikely. So hopefully we won't have anything else abnormal to worry about for the rest of this pregnancy!

I'm just updating this blog every once in a while with how things are changing. Today I'm 34 weeks and in general, feeling pretty well physically most days! I have started to have some more back and hip pain, but I feel like it's not too bad for how far along I am. The heart burn has been really bad the last couple weeks though, and I'm taking many TUMS each evening. Sometimes I feel like they have almost no effect at night, but maybe I need to be taking more haha. I haven't ever had heart burn this bad, even with my other pregnancies. I also got blood work done about a month or so ago, and have also been on supplemental iron since then, like I was with Finley. My legs/lower body have been bothering me a lot in the evening, very crampy and restless, almost like growing pains. I have been so busy with our photography the last couple months that I haven't even had the chance to prepare for baby girl. I'm starting to feel a bit stressed about getting everything ready for her. Hopefully I'll have enough energy to do this next month!

These maternity pictures were taken at 36 weeks! I'm grateful that Dustan is a great photographer and took these pictures of me with the girls :)

It's the end of March and I'm now 37 weeks! I'm really hoping to have this sweet baby girl sometime next week, around 38 weeks when Eloise and Finley came. We'll see what happens though! Just in the last week or two though, I feel like my body is really starting to fall apart a bit. I was feeling so good just a few weeks ago, but each day has gotten a little harder since then. My feet and hands swell really easily (especially with the warmer weather), and my back and hips and legs are often sore and aching. It is getting surprisingly difficult to maneuver and get up. Though I did successfully paint my toenails last week, which is an accomplishment in my opinion! The hardest part so far has been sleeping at night though, mainly due to acid reflux. I've never had it this bad before. TUMS aren't even touching it, and I'm up multiple times each hour of the night because my throat is burning or because acidic barf is coming up my throat into my mouth (sorry if that's TMI). I finally asked my OB for an alternative and she prescribed pepcid, so hopefully that helps! I felt almost silly asking when I could be having baby girl any day, but is she still waits a couple more weeks, I desperately needed some help. Even on days where I am careful to not eat late at night and avoid acidic foods, I'm still waking up regularly with acid reflux issues. And on top of that, I'm also waking up often to pee, slowly roll over (ouch), or help with a toddler. But other than these rough nights, things are going well! Eloise and Finley actually seem excited about the baby and talk about her often. Dustan and I spent the last week really preparing for the baby, and we feel a lot better about her potentially coming soon (we set up the bassinet and rocker, packed hospital bags, washed newborn clothes, installed the carseat, ordered newborn/postpartum supplies, etc.). And Dustan and I were finally able to agree on a few name ideas!

We're now almost at 39 weeks! This is officially the longest I've ever been pregnant. I was able to get on some prescription pepcid type medicine that has helped sooo much with the acid reflux, I seriously regret not getting on it earlier. I'm finally sleeping decently well, only waking up a few times each night for other reasons. At my last appointment at 38 weeks and 2 days, I was dilated to 2 cm (the previous week I was at a 1), my OB stripped my membranes (which didn't seem to do anything) and scheduled an induction date for 39 weeks. I was initially hesitant about getting induced, but both my other girls needed help to come out after my water broke anyway, so it really wouldn't be much different. I'm still hoping I go naturally before that though! I've had near constant Braxton Hicks the last week, at least every 20 minutes for most of the day, sometimes more frequently and sometimes fairly uncomfortable. No contractions or real labor signs yet though! Just ridiculously uncomfortable, very swollen, and on and off nauseous. I'm definitely very done being pregnant and we're excited to meet our baby girl :)

Second Trimester with Baby Girl #3

 We're having a THIRD GIRL and we're so excited!! I can't wait to meet our next girl and see what she is like! Though I shared a couple of these photos in my first trimester post here, they were actually taken closer to 18 weeks. So I'm sharing again for bump belly updates!

My first second trimester update is that the runny nose is still around, unfortunately. But it has gotten so much better! It's mostly just a problem the first few hours I'm awake each morning, then doesn't really bother me the rest of the day. I'm so thankful for this! And except for some random circumstances (like when I forget to eat or I get really warm), the nausea is gone as well! As usual, it seems like the second trimester will be my favorite! 

Right around 18 weeks, I started to feel baby girl kick just a little bit. I was so excited, this was the earliest I've ever felt kicks! Both Eloise and Finley were well after 20 weeks. And towards the end of this trimester, baby girl seems very strong and active. 

At about 21 weeks, we had our anatomy scan, where we found out baby is a girl :) I had honestly been expecting baby to be a boy because my symptoms in the first trimester (less nausea and the runny nose) were so different than my first two pregnancies. But we are seriously so ecstatic to be adding another sister! Other than finding out the gender, we also learned that baby is totally healthy and growing right on track, which is always a relief to hear! Unfortunately, we also learned that I have a complete placenta previa, which means that currently my placenta is covering my cervix, which can lead to bleeding and ultimately a c-section upon delivery. So this makes my pregnancy slightly higher risk. So in the meantime, I need to be be careful with any activity. I will only be doing super lightweight exercises such as walking, yoga, etc. Since resting more often, I haven't had any bleeding, which is good. If all goes perfectly, my placenta will move completely out of the way as my uterus grows and we won't have any other issues! We'll have another ultrasound to check on this at the start of the third trimester.

We visited my family in Washington for Christmastime, and it was funny to realize that I own very few warm clothes that are cold snowy weather friendly, and absolutely no coats that fit over a bump at all! Thankfully I have an awesome friend that loaned me a maternity winter jacket (this was taken about 24 weeks, though you can't see any bump in all those layers!).

And here is a bump picture (taken only a week or two after the snow one), but this time in sunny Tucson! The belly is already starting to feel heavy on walks and hikes, but hopefully I can keep going until closer to the end! We're so excited to meet our girl!

 

Though we have little to no "needs" for our third baby girl, here is our baby registry for anyone that is interested. It's mostly for us though, so we can get a 15% off coupon when baby comes!

First Trimester with Baby #3

ANOTHER BABY!! We're so excited to add another cute babe to our family :) These were the pictures we used to announce our pregnancy to the world, though they were taken in the second trimester.

Our baby's current due date is April 13th, 2022. This will be the first time I'll be pregnant through the winter time! I absolutely refused to have another baby in November or anywhere near there haha. Here is the picture we used earlier in the pregnancy to announce it to our families and siblings :)

As with our girls, Dustan and I found out I was pregnant very early one, when I was only about 4 ish weeks pregnant. It was the morning before I flew off to visit my family with the girls, and I actually kept it a secret from them too. I prefer to wait to tell family until 8+ weeks, and it was fun to have it between just Dustan and I for a little bit :)

I felt pretty good for most of our trip, until the last few days. The very first symptom I had was that I become short of breath, almost immediately after finding out I was pregnant. It would be hard to even sing a song to my girls because I would run out of breath. I had previously been doing intermittent fasting and didn't normally eat until 1 pm or later each day. But my last couple days there (around 5-6 weeks), I had to eat a little breakfast to fight off slight nausea. On one of my last days on the trip, I threw up on a hike (though I think this was also because of smokey weather and high elevation, not just because of pregnancy). I was also exhausted. I would fall asleep while playing with the girls and during shows/movies, which are both abnormal for me. It didn't help that I was staying up later to hang out with my family.

About a week after getting home, around 6 to 7 weeks pregnant, I started feeling a little more nauseous every day. I started throwing up a couples times a week, though it was never as bad as it was with my other girls. I was also able to eat slightly more normally than I usually was able to in the past. I knew better this time around to just snack all day, to prevent the sick feeling that came with an empty stomach. 

At about 8 weeks, we had an ultrasound and got to hear baby's heartbeat :)

Also at about 8 weeks, I got a terrible runny nose. It was running all day long. I was going through a minimum of 30-50 tissues each day, it was so bad. I would wake up in the middle of the night every single night, not being able to breath because it was stuffy, then not being able to sleep for over an hour because it wouldn't stop running. This lasted for nearly a month! It wasn't a cold or any real sickness because I had no other symptoms at all. Finally, after about a month of having a permanently runny nose, carrying a box of tissues everywhere, my nose being bright red and dry, it finally slowed down and was mostly just running overnight and in the morning. Hopefully in the second trimester it will stop! But apparently a runny nose is a pregnancy symptom that I've never had before. I would take it over the intense nausea, but not by much!

The nausea really started to calm down right at the end of the first trimester, which was quicker than normal. What a blessing to not have that so long this time!

Hopefully my second trimester (especially weeks 20-30) are as good as they usually are for me! We can't wait to find out the gender and talk to our girls about baby more! This picture, taken in Moab, was right towards the end of the first trimester. The cooler weather in Utah really made me feel better than normal, so I was able to do a lot of hiking! The baby belly definitely popped out a lot faster and bigger this time around!

Finley at 18 Months

LOVES:

 - Whole milk

 - Water activities (pool, bath, water table, etc.)

 - Animals

 - Hikes

 - Pushing strollers, carts, etc.

 - Trampoline

 - Oatmeal and most breakfast foods (but not toast and eggs right now)

 - Playgrounds

 - Drinking water

 - Hugs and kisses

 - All desserts

 - Playing in dirt and sand

 - Pat-a-Cake and other songs with motions

 - Her Sloth (sleep lovey)

 - Giving head bonks

DISLIKES:

 - Being hungry

 - Most vegetables and meats and a lot of food she used to love, haha

 - Lou taking toys from her

 - Getting her diaper changed right when she wakes up

 - Being told "no"

FIRSTS/SKILLS:

 - Signs ("more", "milk"), "all done", "cold", "hot", "book"

 - Says (hi, mama, dada, uh oh, no, banana, shh), hot, dog, yes/yeah, nose, ear, eyes, hair, toes, good job, Lou/Lou Lou, and a few others that I'm sure I forgot!

 - Knows a few animal sounds when asked

 - Plays Pat-A-Cake

 - Can locate multiple body parts when asked, and constantly pokes your own face to point them out - nose (her favorite), mouth, teeth, ear, hair, eyes, toes, belly button, elbow

 - Folds her arms to pray

 - Climbs onto chairs, couches, tables, etc.

 - Walks backwards 

 - Gives high fives, then knuckles, then "doodle doodle doo" (finger wiggles)

RANDOM NOTES:

 - Weight:

 - Height:

 - Wears size 3 diapers, and is mostly in 12 months clothes, with a few larger things.

 - Has 14 teeth, with four of them being molars. Just missing a couple canines!

 - Throws hilarious little tantrums where she shouts "no", stomps away, and pouts and ignored you. Thankfully they usually only last about one minute before she's loving on you again.

 - Pulls her bangs out of her face occasionally, and it is so cute to see

Newest schedule with some big changes! At 16 months, we completely dropped nursing. It was just a tiny bit sad, but not much. To be honest, though I sometimes enjoyed the quiet time with Finn, I was never a mom who just adored nursing. But we dropped it very slowly over the course of a few months, and it went really well! No tears or tantrums from either of us ;) Then at 17 months, after a lot of back and forth, we officially just went cold turkey and switched to one nap from two. And though she still often starts rubbing her eyes by 11 am ish, she is happy and goes down for a nap quickly and happily at 1. Her naps are still only about an hour and half, but I'm hoping they'll lengthen soon to at least two hours.

8:00 am - Wake up

8:30 am - Breakfast with whole milk

12:15 pm - Lunch with whole milk
1:00 pm - Nap
4:00 pm - Snack 
6:00 pm - Dinner with whole milk
7:15 pm - Bedtime routine
7:30 pm - Bed

This age is honestly one of my favorites. Finley is learning new things every single day and I love it! She is soaking in so much new information, trying new things, and showing my how much she learns without any intervention from me at all. She is learning new works and skills regularly, I know this time will go by so fast! I know that by the time Finley turns two in just some short months, she will be so different!

Finley at 15 Months

Finn is a little younger than 15 months here, but I just love this picture of her *heart eyes*

LOVES:

 - Peek-a-boo

 - Her stuffed sloth (sleep lovey)

 - Being chased

 - Milk

 - Fruit, especially berries

 - Playing musical instruments, especially the kazoo

 - German pancakes

 - Following Lou everywhere

 - Playing in water (bath, water table, etc.)

 - Ice cream

 - Giving toys snuggles and kisses (and saying "aww" everytime)

 - When Dustan or I get home after a time away (a couple hours or more)

 - Playing outside

 - Dancing with us

 - Brushing her own hair

 - Going on hikes

 - Baby dolls

 - Playing on beds

 - Musical instruments, especially the kazoo

DISLIKES:

 - Being hungry

 - Most vegetables and meats

 - Getting boogers sucked

 - Getting her diaper changed right when she wakes up

FIRSTS/SKILLS:

 - Walking! (right at 14 months)

 - Blowing kisses

 - Signing "more" and "milk" consistently

 - Waves

 - Says hi, mama, dada, uh oh, no, banana, and shh (while putting a finger to her lips)

 - Knows a couple animal sounds when asked

 - Plays peek-a-boo by covering her face with her hands

 - Can locate a couple body parts when asked (belly button and nose)

RANDOM NOTES:

 - Wears size 3 diapers, and is mostly in 12 months clothes, with a few smaller things.

 - Finley still seems on the fence about whether or not she likes books, haha. We'll get there eventually!

 - Not too interested in watching any TV yet, even "Little Baby Bum" (maybe this is a blessing?)

 - Still nursing, but only twice a day: first thing in the morning, and right before bed at night. I think it's likely she'll be done altogether within a month. I doubt she is getting much any more.

 - I've tried to teach Finley some animal sounds, but she has literally no interest, though sometimes she'll bark back at dogs and other animals haha.

Finley's schedule is the same as it has been for months, though I think she'll switch to one nap here in the next month or so. She still takes two naps, and they're usually an hour to an hour and a half each. She still sleeps about 12 hours overnight. Just a couple weeks after turning one, I dropped the late afternoon nursing session, and only nursed three times a day. At about 14 months, I dropped another nursing session and now only nurse morning and night. Here is the schedule: 

7:30 am - Wake up and nurse

8:30 am - Breakfast with whole milk

10:00 am - Nap

12:30 pm - Lunch with whole milk
2:30 pm - Nap
4:00 pm - Snack 
6:00 pm - Dinner with whole milk
7:15 pm - Nurse, bedtime routine
7:30 pm - Bed

It is so fun to watch this girl walk around! Finley took her first steps on Christmas (at about 13 months) and inconsistently took steps on and off for the next month. She started walking in earnest and trying consistently right at about 14 months old. A month later now, she never crawls anymore (unless she is mimicking Eloise) and is pretty fast and steady now. She is also getting better at climbing up things, like onto Lou's bed or up the ladder of our little slide. And more importantly to me, she is pretty good at getting back down!

Finley has started to get more feisty this month, and will swat at you and say "no" when you offer her something she doesn't want or when you are doing something she doesn't like. But she is also more snuggly this month, which I just LOVE. She will give me quick hugs and kisses regularly throughout the day, and will snuggle me for more extended times when she is tired. Finn almost always lays her head on my shoulder when I sing to her for naps and bedtime, and will sometimes follow it up with a kiss.

Finn loves to follow Eloise around all day, and they actually play together without my supervision sometimes! What a blessing. I love watching them play together. Most often, the girls are crawling behind the couch underneath our sofa table or jumping on Lou's bed or looking out the windows. One morning just recently, they played together in Lou's room for 45 minutes without me! It was amazing.

Finley is definitely starting to talk more, and can often mimic word sounds semi well. She has about half a dozen words she knows, and others she will repeat. I can tell that she is really starting to understand a lot of what I say though. I can ask her to do things--such as "Go to your high chair for breakfast", or "Give your animal a snuggle" or even just "Sit down please"--and she will often follow the command! 

I can't believe we have a 15 month old! Finley's personality is definitely starting to come out and it is so fun! I love seeing my girls together.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY GIRLS!!

 We can't believe our girls are now three and one! This last year went by so fast. We had a small party the weekend before Thanksgiving (in between Eloise's and Finley's birthdays) while my family was in town and with the Tudors as well. It was low-key and delicious celebration with cake, ice cream, and some gifts. 

We started the party with a small cake smash for Finley! She desperately wanted to touch the fire on the candle, and had no idea how to blow it out haha. After the candle was removed, it took some coaxing to get her to try and eat some of the cake. She refused to go all in, but she enjoyed scooping off small fingerfuls of frosting and eating them :) She also tried to stand using the cake for leverage, which was hilarious haha. Finn may have enjoyed spreading cake on the ground more than eating it.

After focusing on Finley for a few minutes, we brought out a second chocolate cake for Eloise! She loved being sung too and giggled and grinned the whole time, and loved blowing her candles out! We shared her chocolate bundt cake with everyone, though she preferred the side of ice cream over the cake and asked for multiple helpings, haha. 

After cake and ice cream, we opened some presents. Thank you so everyone who spoiled my girls!! Finley still didn't really get what was going on, but she was excited about what she saw under the wrapping paper. Lou was ecstatic about all her new princesses and didn't even want to continue opening more gifts, she just wanted to play with what she had! We got Finley a music set and Eloise her first pedal bike :)

We're so grateful to call these beautiful girls ours. They make our lives so fun and meaningful, and we can't imagine our lives without them.

Happy birthday Eloise and Finley!! We love you both so <3