It's a.....baby!

So, in case you didn't figure it out, the "expecting" pictures from last week are:

• Baby #2: Stacy
• Baby #3: ME!
• Baby #4: Shelly
• Baby #?: Corey

Yep - all three of us are expecting in October. Crazy, huh?! We were all as shocked as everyone else to find we are all so close in our EDD's :)

So, I can't share what Stacy and Shelly are going through during their pregnancies, but I can tell you all about mine! (Maybe I can get them both to guest-post sometime and give us all an update)

Today I am officially 21 weeks - so I've got about 21 left (at least that's what I'm telling myself - my other two were definitely late, so I'm guessing I'll go over with this one too).

I can hardly believe that I'm already half done! It's really kinda crazy. If the second half goes half as quickly as the first half, I'll have my baby in approximately a couple weeks and I'll have completely missed the summer - ha! I feel like I have so friggin much to do! 

Now that I'm safely away from my first trimester I'm really feeling pretty good. For the most part. I feel like I've lost my pregnancy-brain-fog that I had (it seemed more severe with this one...older age perhaps?), and I really have pretty decent energy. At least I don't feel like I need to go to bed at 9 pm (plus an hour nap sometime during the day) anymore - I've always been a night-owl, and it's nice to stay up with hubby until much later again (once in awhile, anyway).

This baby is so different than the other two. The main difference is my knowledge of birth. Since my last baby I've studied and read tons of info, studies, etc on birth. I'm now a birth doula, birth advocate, breastfeeding advocate, and also a childbirth educator. I was NOT those things with either of my other two. So, it is kinda weird. I'm now needing to heed my own advice - not something I'm super good at, by the way. It's so funny when I think of different symptoms that I've had, different aches and pains, different weird food cravings/aversions, and how when I first get them I analyze them then have to remind myself that I know different ways to deal with them and that I actually have to take action to do so....it's such a weird personal-struggle dynamic. "What would I tell my clients?"

Anyway, so a couple days ago we went in for my anatomy scan ultrasound. The kids were SO excited - I admit I was too - and I think my husband was as well (though he doesn't show it like the rest of us - ha). It was so fun to see baby's sweet profile, tiny little hands and feet, and everything else...

Before going in, we were chatting at the dinner table about the upcoming ultrasound. I made a comment to my husband "you want to find out what it is again, don't you?". With the other two he definitely wanted to find out. He's a planner and doesn't like surprises much. I always thought it would be fun to wait and see but I was also cool with finding out. So we did, and I assumed he'd want to again with this one. Imagine my surprise when he said "actually, since we have one of each, I'm cool with waiting and having it be a surprise" SQUEEEEEE!!! I was so excited! The kids were totally on board with waiting, so we decided to not find out! It was fun during the ultrasound to be looking and see if I could tell, but since I'm most definitely not an ultrasound tech I don't really know how to read those things and had no idea what I was looking at most of the time unless our lovely tech pointed it out. 

Baby is definitely a mover (I could have told you that...he's been doing gymnastics in there), but she did catch him smacking his lips and then yawning - it was the SWEETEST thing!

Top: Profile pic, Middle: Yawn (aw!), Bottom: Thumbs up!

It was fun, though, and I'm super excited to announce that "It's a healthy baby!"

We are all over the moon excited about our sweet new arrival and I'm looking forward to sharing with you things that come up throughout pregnancy, and especially sharing our birth story after Jellybean arrives (we named baby Jellybean the night we told the kids we were expecting...it has stuck!). We also refer to baby as "he" even though we really don't know. We just don't want to call him an "it", know what I mean? :)

Do we have any other pregnant readers? I'm guessing so! Leave a comment and share how your pregnancy is going - we'd love to be a support for you throughout your journey as well! :)

Until next time...

~Evie