Accomplishment

It's amazing how accomplished I feel just getting three little boys dressed and out the door in time to bring Colin and Owen to school. It takes more prep-work than I could have possibly imagined, but it hasn't been as stressful as I thought it would be. It's actually really nice being back to running the boys to preschool. It's much nicer than doing it when hugely pregnant. The infant carseat is heavy, but at least I can put it down for a second.

Trial By Fire

Chris and I have had an interesting first week as the parents to three boys under five. You would think that the exhaustion of childbirth, the demands of a preschooler, toddler and infant and sleepless nights would be enough for us. But no...not enough. Life decided to add into the mix a stomach flu. So wrong.

Fortunately it seems like we're on the other side of it. I have pictures to take and stories to tell about life with three little boys, hopefully I'll get them together in the next few days.

Welcome Thomas Christopher!

Baby Tommy was born Tuesday night at 9:16 pm. It was a very fast, eventful labor. I will write out the details later. But first a few pictures of our new little man.

Just born...



First diaper and hat...



Leaving the hospital (not thrilled with the process):



Meeting his brothers:





Hello!

Get Out of My Belly!

I'm officially overdue! Baby #3 was due yesterday. So today I am 40 weeks 1 day pregnant. I saw the doctor this morning. Not much change with dilation and the baby's head still isn't completely engaged (which isn't suprising for a third baby apparently). The OB doesn't see any reason not to wait until my body does it's thing, so there was no induction talk...which is actually nice because I agree with him. Why mess with nature?

So we continue to wait. I actually think I'll go into labor within the next 24 hours. We'll see if I'm right... If not I have another appointment on Thursday and they'll talk induction after I'm 41 weeks.

Waiting...Waiting...

And waiting some more. So while I wait I'm cleaning off the camera of pictures so I have plenty of room for snapping pictures of the new baby.

Here are a few...

Some more snow last week. It wasn't very much, but it was good snowman and snowball snow.









Just like daddy...



Can you imagine how much fun boy #3 is going to have in this chaos? He's one lucky little baby.

Ultrasound

This morning we had an ultrasound done of the baby. I'm currently 38 weeks 4 days pregnant. My OB wanted to make sure the baby wasn't GIGANTIC since Owen was on the bigger side at 8 lbs 11 oz. But it seems like the baby is pretty average (for me). He's approximately 8 lbs right now, so he shouldn't gain more than a .5 a week. And hopefully there's only another week of pregnancy left.

We tried to get a good picture of him, but he was very shy and had his little fist in front of his hand the whole time. He's pretty squished in there and had no interest in moving his hand no matter how much the ultrasound tech tried to coax him.

So this is the last picture of the baby in utero (hopefully). He's making us wait until birth to get a good picture of his littel face.

Because I'm Brave

And because this might be the last chance, here are two pictures of baby #3 in the womb. At 38 weeks 2 days.





Yikes, that is one big belly.

38 Weeks

I am fully into the bitter end of pregnancy. Where nature actually makes existence so miserable that having a baby waking up every 45 minutes ALL NIGHT LONG sounds like the better option. And so we've all been working on getting our house and minds ready for the new addition. We can't be in denial anymore because he's going to be here really really really soon.

So all the clothes are clean and are hanging in the closet. We have diapers and wipes, baby creams and infant Tylenol. The hospital bag is almost packed and I plan on finishing that today. Even the "going home outfit" is in the diaper bag ready for the day when we take the little guy home.

BUT, and it's a BIG BUT, there are two huge things we have left to do.

1. We have no name. That's a problem.

2. We have no hospital. This is the thing that has been causing me the most stress over the last month. And if there was ever any sliver of doubt in my mind that health insurance companies SUCK, this experience has erased it. Our insurance company (ahem, CIGNA) is fighting with our hospital. And so they told me as of Thursday that I can not go to the hospital we chose. And it's not like it's not a big deal. I chose my OB because he delivered at this hospital. It has the atmosphere I want at a reasonable distance from our house.

The other alternative (or the only alternative according to CIGNA) is to drive twenty miles further up a busy highway to go to the other hospital my OB uses. Which I'm mentally starting to prepare for. But Mr. Cigna doesn't have to drive in labor on the highway for twenty extra miles.

Regardless, the end is almost here. I'm putting faith in the fact that it will all work out and that things will unfold how they should. The illusion of preparing for a baby is that you can plan everything and the truth is that you really can plan nothing. But sometime over the next two weeks I know we'll have a little boy at some sort of hospital and that he'll have a name. And the worries won't matter anymore.