Baby posts for the last 11 weeks!

I've been writing pregnancy posts every week, but I didn't add them here because the news wasn't out. But now that the news is out, I'll put them all in this one big post for you if you feel the need to read through!

4 weeks

8/21/16

It’s official, Pullen baby #3 is on it’s way! We just found out on Thursday with a very dark positive line. I was so surprised and excited that I had this silly grin on my face.

My estimated due date is April 30, 2017, so right in between my and Reid’s birthdays! We were going for late March, but I think I may have had a chemical pregnancy last month. I got a very faint positive line on 9 days past ovulation, but then it faded. :( But hopefully this one will stick!

I’m feeling good so far, a tiny bit of nausea maybe. The line on the test was so dark I’m wondering if it may be twins… Oh boy… I’ve been pretty tired the last few days too. And clumsy! But that’s pretty normal. Haha.

We’re so excited to complete our family with this baby (as far as we have planned at least!). He or she will be a fun addition, and we can’t wait to meet him/her.

5 weeks

8/28/16

We just got back from a really fun vacation, but I have been soooo tired! This baby is sucking the energy out of me. We are so excited though, and can’t wait to meet him or her. I feel like 8 more months is going to be so long though. I’m not a huge fan of pregnancy.

The things I am looking forward to, though, are feeling the baby move, our kids finding out they’re getting a sibling, and having a more fit pregnancy this time around.

I think it’s a girl, but we’ll have to wait and see, of course. I think we’re not going to find out again, as usual.

I am going to make an appointment at Andaluz Midwifery, which is a birthing center here in Portland. I’m pretty bummed that I have to find a new midwife and everything since we moved. But my friend had her baby there and is about to have baby #2 there soon, and she loves it. They do birth center and home births. If we stay in our current house, we’ll need to do it at the birth center. There just isn’t enough room here for all of those people to be here. But we’d like to find a three bedroom place soonish, or at least start looking at the beginning of the year. That way we can have a home birth and have an extra room for the baby, which would be really nice.

Changes this week: Exhaustion is hitting me hard. I’ve had a few little bouts of nausea, but nothing much. I’m feeling pretty good, not really feeling pregnant other than being so tired!

Cravings this week: Sweets! I just wanted ice cream on our way home from San Francisco, so we stopped at the Olive Pit. It hit the spot. :)

6 weeks

9/4/16

We told our families today! I took a pic of my pregnancy test and posted it to my family’s text thread. I had to give a few other hints, but they eventually got it. :) For Andy’s family, we made  little video of the kids. Everyone’s excited, including us. We’ll wait a few more weeks before we make it public or tell too many people though. I want to hear the heartbeat first.

I have been SO exhausted it’s not even funny. I can barely function when it gets to the late afternoon/evening. Today was better because I got to take a nap. But usually it’s really tough. I’ve been nauseous as well on and off, especially when I’m hungry. And my insomnia was back last night. It had disappeared for a few nights, but I was awake for about an hour in the night. That definitely doesn’t help being so tired! The things we go through for babies.

This week our little one is the size of a lentil. That’s so tiny, but it will grow so fast. It seems like this pregnancy will be forever, I have about 34 weeks left. Wow.

Changes this week: I’m soooo tired. My body is starting to feel more pregnant. Tender breasts, peeing a lot, nausea, the works.

Cravings this week: I’ve really been wanting fatty things like butter and whole milk, so I just let myself indulge. If I’m craving it, I probably need more of it in my diet. We eat so much healthier this time around, which is good. I do eat a lot of avocado and coconut/olive oil for cooking, so that helps too. At least I don’t want all of the sugar or chips!

7 weeks

9/11/16

(Ruby...)

We are at 7 weeks today! The baby is the size of a blueberry now. We are so excited to have our consult scheduled at Andaluz birth center this Wednesday. I’m excited to see their facility. I think it might be pretty expensive though, but we will just have to save up.

Can’t wait to meet this little one. I’m pretty sure it’s a girl. I was right with my other two, but I may be way off with this one! We’ll just have to wait and see. 

I felt the top of my uterus the other day, which is exciting! And I swear, I’ve felt movement, but it can’t be the baby yet. Probably just gas bubbles moving around. Haha

Ruby starts preschool tomorrow, so that will be a big change. Also, we are done watching Penelope. It was getting to be too much, but we will really miss her for sure. I am looking forward to time with just Reid three days a week (and the baby, of course).

Changes this week: I’ve been feeling super tired still. I can get a decent night’s sleep, and I even took a 15 minute nap today, but I was still exhausted! This first trimester stuff is no joke. I haven’t been feeling too sick though, which is nice. Just every now and again. Sometimes I feel super hungry, but nothing sounds good.

Cravings this week: I’ve been enjoying salty things, like pickles and kalamata olives. And the kids and I went through an entire box of multi-grain crackers from Trader Joe’s in two days…

8 weeks

9/18/16

The baby is the size of a kidney bean today, and starting to grow arms and legs. It’s so fun to see the updates every week on what he/she looks like. The kids like it too. I’m still nervous until we hear a heartbeat. That will be really exciting.

We toured Andaluz birthing center on Wednesday, and we loved it! The midwife we met was really nice. We’ll have a team of 3 midwives, in case one or more can’t be there at our birth. That way we’ll get comfortable with all of them. They really know what they’re doing, and the birthing suites are all gorgeous.

The only thing I’m nervous about is driving in the car, or going into labor while Andy’s at work. Then he’ll have to come all the way home to get me/the kids, then head back into down town. But we’ll get it figured out. I’m hoping I’ll go into labor in the evening like last time, and a 12 hour birth again sounds perfect.

Our first real midwife appointment will be at about 10 1/2 weeks, so hopefully we’ll hear the heartbeat then! I can’t wait. Then we’ll tell more people and make it public.

I’m seriously already starting to show with this one. I can suck it in if I try really hard, but my diastasis makes it stick out really bad. Oh well! I haven’t had anyone ask yet…

I’ve still been really exhausted, especially when it gets to 3pm or so. If I can get a little nap in (even 10 minutes helps), it is way better and I can make it to bed time (9pm haha).

Changes this week: I’ve been a little less nauseous, until today. Sometimes I’ll be super hungry/nauseous, but nothing sounds good! It’s the worst. I’ve been having crazy weird dreams too! They’re fun though. Last night I dreamt I was a doula, and I was helping two different women in labor at the same time. Hahaha

Cravings this week: Still salty things, like chips, crackers, popcorn… and also chocolate occasionally. But when do I not crave that??!!

9 weeks

9/25/16

Oh man, we’ve all been sick this week! I got it bad on Friday, the kids started on Wednesday. It’s a nasty cold. On Weds and Thurs, I was super nauseous all day, but thankfully it let up on Friday and yesterday while I was really sick. I’m feeling better from the cold today (thanks to a really good night of sleep), but my nausea is back.

I notice that if I don’t eat regularly, I get pretty nauseous. Nothing sounds good sometimes, but I know that if I eat I will feel better.

The baby is about the size of a grape now. The kids like seeing the pictures on Baby Center every week. I think it makes it more real to them. It’s actually starting to look like a baby now! My uterus is about an inch below my belly button, which is really high for how far I am. It was the same with Reid at least though. I’m still a little nervous that it’s twins, but probably not.

I actually had someone ask if there’s a third baby in the works this week… I told her we’ll see. Haha. I know I’m totally showing already, but I don’t want people to notice yet because I’m not ready to share publicly yet! Oh well.

Changes this week: I’ve been so exhausted from being sick, and not sleeping well until last night. And nausea is still hitting hard.

Cravings this week: Sourdough toast with butter! I’ve been wanting it for a while, so I let myself get a loaf at the store. It’s delicious. Also, Asian food sounds soooo good.

10 weeks

10/2/16

I’m totally showing so much now that people have been wondering if I’m pregnant. But we still haven’t heard the heartbeat, so I’m really not ready to make it public yet… Oh well, I’ve been telling people slowly.

We do have our midwife appointment on Wednesday, so we should hear it then! I’m very excited. That always makes it feel so much more real. I can swear that I’ve been feeling the baby move every now and again though. I have no idea if it’s really the baby, but it definitely feels like it! It’s mostly when I’m sitting and my pants are a little bit too tight. It’s like the baby is saying, “I need more room, mom!” It’s only the size of a kumquat at this point. Reid saw the little picture of it today from Babycenter, and it’s yolk sac looked like a little balloon, so he was excited.

I’ve still been nauseous on and off. And today I took about an hour and a half nap. I must have been tired! I’m getting excited for this trimester to be over. I always say the first trimester is the worst, until I get to the third trimester. Haha!

We found out that we might possibly qualify for the Oregon Health Plan which would cover 100% of our maternity expenses. WOW!!! The only (huge) problem is that they don’t cover a birth center or home birth. We really want the birth that we choose, but money is money. It will cost probably $5k to go to the birth center with the generous OHP discount they give. I’m also looking into changing to have better insurance so that it will cost even less than that. Our other option is to go to OHSU, they do water birth there and have nurse midwives attend the birth. I’m pretty sure our kids couldn’t be there for the birth, and there’s a whole lot of other things that I would want that probably isn’t routine. We would have to fight for the birth we want a lot more. So we don’t know what we’ll do from here. We’ll go to our Naturopath/midwife at Andaluz this week, and pray a lot about it before making a final decision.

Changes this week: My belly is popping out. Other than that, not much has changed.

Cravings this week: Everything carbs and fat. Mmmmmm.

11 weeks

10/6/16

<3

We heard the heartbeat this week at our midwife appointment! It was very exciting. We went in yesterday at 5pm, Andy met us there. Reid hadn’t napped, so he fell asleep in the car. We asked if we could find the heartbeat right away so Andy and the kids could head home for dinner.

The appointments all take place in the birthing rooms, which is nice. There’s a big comfy bed, chairs/couches, etc. I have a team of three midwives, Oni, Marilyn and Megan. I have only met Oni so far, she’s also a Naturopath, which is cool. My next month’s appointment will be with Marilyn I think. It took her a while to find the heartbeat, I was almost about to start getting nervous. But then she found it way over on the side, and it was nice and strong! So exciting. :)

We decided together to change my due date to April 27th (hence being 11 weeks today instead of on Sunday). My cycle was weird and I wasn’t sure when I ovulated. This makes the most sense. With my other two I was certain of the day, so this one is being different already! Haha. I don’t mind skipping ahead 3 days in the first trimester for sure.

Everything looks good at this point. The baby is about the size of a fig. I love figs. We told my extended family last night, and we’re telling other people now as well. I’ll put these all up on my blog this week. Not sure when we’re going to really make it public yet though.

I’m totally showing, we went to a marriage seminar on Saturday, and I said we were having our third baby, and the people at our table said they thought so. I couldn’t really hide it at this point with Reid either. I’m really starting to feel my uterus in there, Reid likes to lay on my tummy and I’ve been having to move him over. He doesn’t love that, poor guy.

Changes this week: Different due date, but also, I think I’ve had a bit less morning sickness. It was there for a little bit this morning, but it’s not all the time anymore. I’ve had a little bit more energy too (ver little bit!). At least I don’t absolutely crash at 4pm like I was.

Cravings this week: Salty carbs as usual.