26 Weeks

How far along:  26 weeks

Size of baby:  So now you're back up to the size of a head of lettuce.  I don't get it... cantaloupe, down to cauliflower, and back up to a head of lettuce.  I must have poor vegetable size estimation skills!  

Clothes:  Maternity jeans, workout pants (not because I've been busy working out), regular and some maternity shirts

Gender/Names:  Boy - Knox Haddon (names from John Knox and Charles Haddon Spurgeon)

Sleep:  I'm still sleeping well.  I've been pretty tired this week (pretty sure that's evident from the above picture) but we've been pretty busy so pregnant or not I'm pretty sure I would have been tired.  

Movement:  Loving feeling you move!  I feel you still all around my bladder.  My placenta must be extra thick this time or something because I rarely feel you any higher.  Last night was the first time in a few days that I felt you any higher.  I have no idea if that's just the position you're in or where you're comfy.  

Cravings:  I'm hoping as all the fresh fruit comes back into season those cravings will take over but as of right now it's just more of the same, pizza, coke, chocolate, nothing good!  I am trying to keep good stuff in my diet for you Knox but as you'll soon learn, I fail A LOT!  

I have some fears this week that you might be growing fast enough.  I'm sure this is in my head and probably based soley on me not looking pregnant but it's a fear nonetheless.  I have my last monthly appointment tomorrow so I'm sure Dr. Fenoughty will put my mind at ease.  After that I go to the doctor every two weeks.  I can't believe we're already that far along!  You are going to be here so soon!  I'm working like crazy to get your room ready and your brothers settled into their room.  I sort of feel like I'm standing still though even after I finish things.  I'm hoping it will all come together soon!  

Update:  I had my appointment yesterday, my LAST monthly appointment as I'm not on every two week appointments now (WOW).  Everything was good with the baby.  According to her measurement he's measuring ahead, still not real sure how she can measure accurately given all the "extras" I come with.  My blood pressure was an issue though.  It has consistently gone up with each appointment minus one where it was normal about 2 months ago.  Now blood pressure is tricky with me because look at those arms... pretty sure there's no need to scroll to the top as it is obviously the first thing you notice on me.  I have serious bat wings.  There I said it.  You no longer have to wonder if I know how bad they really are.  I do.  I hate them but I got what I deserved after the many times I jiggled my grandmother's arms and called her Chubby Bubby.  I'm pretty sure I took the fall for all the grand kids on this one.  Anyways, my arms are huge and the blood pressure cuffs sometimes feel like they might actually rip the bottom half of my arm off.  I guess along with LOTS of extra armage (yes I just made that a word), I got lots of extra nerve endings on them.  It hurts and I anticipate it and have worried about it possibly going up again at this appointment so I don't know if it could still be situational.  Long story short, my blood pressure this time was 150/94.  It's high.  I've never had high blood pressure until this pregnancy.  I don't have much weight gain so she isn't concerned with me retaining a lot of water and I feel fine but it needs to come down or at least not go any higher.  If it goes higher I could end up on bed rest.  That would be bad.  Real bad.  Just ask all the people that would have to step in and cover for me.  I'm trying really hard to watch my sodium intake.  This is harder than I expected.  Everything is high in salt!  I'm going to keep on trying though.  Hopefully in two weeks it will have come down and not gone up.  In the meantime, hello bland food.  The only good news is that chocolate doesn't seem to have much sodium.  Now if I fail my glucose test in two weeks and my blood pressure continues to be a problem, I'm really going to be screwed.  

Knox                         Ty                            Case

Ty                                           Knox

25 Weeks

I'm going to need to include a few pictures this week.  I taught your brothers how to use my "big" camera and they wanted to take care of this week's picture for me so here's a look at what we got...

Case was first and a picture of his velociraptor switch n' go
dino was MUCH more important than that of Mommy's belly!

And Ty's turn, apparently Case felt there wasn't enough
"feeling" in my modeling.  

 

Finally, Daddy's turn :-)  

How far along:  25 weeks

Size of baby:  cauliflower - I'm starting to question this whole baby size to vegetable thing.  I'm pretty sure a cantaloupe tends to be bigger than a cauliflower or at least the ones I've seen.  And what are we comparing you to here... the width of the vegetable or the weight.  I need better accuracy than this!  There has to be a better size comparison out there.  Like this one that I just found, it compares you to junk food and says that last week  you should have been the size of a banana split.  Now they're speaking my language!  Plus, I'm pretty sure that any page with a "fart chart" listed in the side column because it is important enough to be seen at all times when visiting this page, HAS to be reliable!  I guess I'll stick with vegetables for now so that maybe I can squeak by with you thinking I'm a good mom until closer to your teenage years when you find out that I will never let you leave the house because you are too pure for the scary world out there.  

 

Clothes:  Maternity jeans, workout pants (not because I've been busy working out), regular and some maternity shirts

Gender/Names:  Boy - Knox Haddon (names from John Knox and Charles Haddon Spurgeon)

Sleep:  I'm still sleeping well.  I've been pretty tired this week (pretty sure that's evident from the above picture) but we've been pretty busy so pregnant or not I'm pretty sure I would have been tired.  

Movement:  I am still loving feeling you move!  I've only felt a few solid kicks and the rest just you squirming around in there I guess and of course you attending the trampoline park that is my bladder.  I can only imagine how much fun that bad boy is because you have all gravitated to it!  

Cravings:  I would love for this to say something different but I can't even tell you how strong my craving for Coke is.  Pizza has maybe subsided a little but I'm probably just trying to make myself feel better here.  I'm still crunching away on ice as long as I don't have somewhere to be because I have to pee about 15 times after each cup of ice water and dragging your brothers to every public bathroom we encounter and begging them not to touch anything for fear that I will need to give them a hazmat bath is just not much fun.  

Knox,

I kind of wish that time would slow down.  I LOVE being pregnant and feeling you moving around inside of me.  It is just a feeling that leaves me in awe of God's awesomeness.  Lots of mommas look forward to being done with the pregnant part but unfortunately yours tends to fall apart once the pregnant part is over.  I'll go ahead and apologize for that now.  I'm praying each day for you to be healthy and for me to stay sane after your arrival!  

I love you my little squirmy worm!  

Always,

Mommy

24 Weeks

How far along:  24 weeks

Size of baby:  a cantaloupe

 

Clothes:  Maternity jeans, workout pants (not because I've been busy working out), regular and some maternity shirts

Gender/Names:  Boy - Knox Haddon (names from John Knox and Charles Haddon Spurgeon).  I bought the letters for your name and ordered some of the parts to make your name plate so I hope we're sticking with this name!  

Sleep:  I'm sleeping pretty well as long as I don't end up on my back for too long.  Dr. Fenoughty gave me a z-pack and it worked wonders on what I'm assuming was a sinus infection.  The congestion went away and I'm back to smooth sailing!  

Movement:  Well, Knox, you have taken all doubt away.  Thank you!  I now KNOW that I am feeling you move very frequently.  When Daddy FINALLY got home on Friday he got to feel you kick too!  There is just NOTHING that compares to the extremely awesome feeling of a baby moving inside of you.  I feel SO blessed to get to be the momma that provides the place for you to grow before it's time to join the outside world.  I think you are more active than all the other boys at this stage in the pregnancy.  You seem to be pretty still after I fall asleep so in my head I am attributing this to the fact that you have already figured out night from day and you're going to come out an amazing sleeper.  If you could make sure all that holds true, it would be great!  

Cravings:  Yep, still pizza and coke and chocolate.  I'm ready to admit that I might be using this pregnancy as an excuse.  

Knox, we had a rough week last week.  Daddy was traveling for work and your brother, Ty, got the stomach bug.  I'm sure by now you know how I feel about the stomach bug.  It pretty much feels like the end of the world when it hits and to have it hit without Daddy here just about put me over the edge.  We are blessed though!  You have an AMAZING grandma that GIVES and GIVES and GIVES and clearly doesn't have the same phobia of puke as your mommy does because nothing stopped her from being right here in the middle of it to make sure I didn't lose my mind.  God protected the rest of us from catching the bug too.  I'm telling you, we're blessed!  So when you are looking back and see that I didn't post anything for 23 weeks it's just because week 23 was kind of a nightmare and I just couldn't make it happen.  Sorry about that!  

I've definitely started preparing for you long before I did with Case and Ty.  I lived in fear of losing Case and Ty and having all this stuff done and then not having them.  I'm not worrying as much with you.  Not because I don't get scared sometimes, I guess I just know time is limited and my faith in God's plan has grown over time.  I know that time isn't going to slow down the closer I get to your arrival so I'm trying to make it all happen now so I can just enjoy being pregnant in the end (yes I know that's an oxymoron).  It turns out I didn't keep as much equipment as I thought I did so I've been hitting the garage sale sites pretty hard.  Sorry buddy, you're the third kid and new stuff just isn't in the cards for you.  Doesn't mean I love you less it just means we're about to be broke times three so I'm trying to make it work :-)  So far I've gotten you a rock 'n play ($30), which by the way your brothers never even had, a highchair ($20), some newborn diapers ($4), a bouncy seat ($10), and a lot of bottles perfect for breastfeeding (because apparently I will never learn that lesson and am going to try again) ($20).  I've got my eye out for several more things that we still need too but I feel pretty good about that start.  

During week 22 and 23 I started working on your new room.  Right now it is Case's room but you are slowly taking it over.  Case is going to move into Ty's room and they are going to be bunk mates soon.  Then you are going to have your own room. Yes, Case, I know that doesn't seem fair but once this baby starts crying and we can shut his door you'll thank me!  Promise! So far I've accomplished (with Grandma's help of course) the painting of the walls in your room.  We left the main color alone but changed the stripes that were in there.  Here's a look at what we've done so far...

Case helping Grandma paint

And I've even started on your name so again, I hope we're sticking with it!  

Next up, curtains and finishing your name sign.  Thanks for all the kicks and squirms to remind me that you are there and doing just fine.  Love you, my little cantaloupe!  

 Love,

Mommy