Because our lives weren't busy enough with the children we already have, God decided we needed to add a third baby to the mix. We had talked about having a third, but maybe not for another year or two. Especially when I took the new teaching position. Back in June we (ahem, I) decided to use the so called natural family planning method of birth control. That worked for about three and a half months until one Saturday night we went to dinner and I almost puked at the thought of eating calamari, then later while sitting in the recliner I got so dizzy that I asked Christiaan if the chair was moving.
So that night I woke up around 1 to Carter crying. For some reason he was on the couch, and was so upset by this point that he puked on the couch. Awesome. I'm up. Once I got him cleaned up and calmed down, I went to use the restroom and for some reason decided that 2 am was a great time to take a pregnancy test. You know, just for peace of mind.
Well, that obviously backfired, since a faint plus sign showed up on it, much to my surprise. Instead of waking up my sleeping husband to break the news, I went back to the couch with Carter and text Bri. Good friends talk you off the ledge in the middle of the night. She suggested I get a digital test when the store opened before talking to Christiaan about it. As bad as I wanted to go wake him up to freak out with me. So, as soon as he left for work and both kids woke up, we ran to Kroger where I bought 3 more tests.
Commence serious freaking out. And then I had to stew on this news all day long until he got off at 3, which gave me plenty of time to imagine every possible scenario of reaction he could have. I settled in on the one that included him being pissed, since you know, it would have been completely MY fault that I got pregnant when we weren't planning on it. I even managed to go to Mom's for a little while to help her do some stuff without losing my cool. My heart was racing at 3 that afternoon when he came in and I held up the tests to show him. Of course, his reaction was none of the scenarios I had imagined, in fact he said something to the effect of well that explains why you weren't feeling well last night!
So we were pregnant. Not quite a month by my calculations. We decided not to keep it a secret from our moms and told them later in the week. Thursday night we went to Mom's with the kids dressed in Big Brother and Big Sister shirts. When we got out of the car, Carter ran on in to moms like he always does ahead of us. She apparently commented on his new shirt, and he told her he wasn't supposed to talk about it. Haha. Way to play it cool, kid. But when Delaney came walking in her door and she read her shirt, the jig was up. She was totally shocked. Welcome to the club! The next night when we got to Waco, we had concocted a plan to tell Debra. A few weeks prior, she had given me like 5 boxes of tampons that she had bought for dirt cheap. In the midst of the usual craziness that ensues at her house, Christiaan secretly taped while I brought the unused boxes in and handed them all to her and told her that I wouldn't be needing them. She knew exactly what that meant!!
After all the stress of my pregnancy with Delaney, I knew without a doubt that I wasn't going to use my OB this time. I began researching birthing centers and narrowed it down to a couple of them. After touring Birth and Women's Center in downtown Dallas, I decided that was where we would go. As an added bonus, I found out that we would end up paying a fraction of what we did for the other two deliveries. We got to have a sonogram at around 7 weeks, and began monthly appointments around 10 weeks. I had to call the on call midwife pretty early on on a Sunday night because I was beyond sick at that point. I tried to use oils and natural remedies to combat the all day sickness, but to no avail. I gave in and began taking zofran, which took the edge off for short periods of the day. Ultimately, nothing really was a magic fix, so I spent many weeks feeling positively horrid, puking all throughout the school day, fighting tears most of the time, and losing about 15 pounds before it began to subside around Thanksgiving. This period of pregnancy solidified my feeling that this baby number 3 would be the last time I would be pregnant.
Mainly due to how sick I was, but also what the baby's heart rate was measuring, I had a serious gut feeling that it was a boy. Since I didn't fit into any high risk category that would qualify me to have the early bloodwork that would tell gender, we had to wait until a January 20th sonogram. We took Delaney with us and sent Carter on to school, with promises of a surprise when we picked him up. The appointment was early in the morning, so I didn't have to wait all day this time. As soon as the sono tech made it around to "that" area, I knew that my gut feeling was right! And thank goodness, because we had no girl names that we agreed on! On the way home we stopped at Babies R Us and got a baby gift to give Carter to let him know that he was having a baby brother. He was so excited! We decided to name him Elijah Christiaan and call him Eli.
For the most part, my pregnancy was uneventful. I had to take iron supplements due to low iron, but it wasn't extremely low. I didn't have ANY of the issues that had come up during my pregnancy with Delaney, including the stupid irritable uterus. At the January sonogram she also noted that my placenta was low lying, so I had another sono in March to make sure that it had moved out of the way and I would be safe to deliver there. Around 35 weeks I slipped on water in the hall at school and fell, but thankfully didn't hit my belly at all. Just a twisted ankle and a bruised ego. But its odd, because that is about the same time in my pregnancy with Carter that a (not mentally stable) student tripped me and made me fall. At 36 weeks, on the day of my shower at school, I started feeling dizzy and shaky after I got to school. I knew it wasn't my blood sugar since I had eaten already. I had the nurse take my blood pressure and sure enough, it was super low. Like, 95/70. Mine runs low anyways, but that is very low. Even after eating protein and resting, she didn't feel like I needed to be at school, and the midwife said to rest, so they sent me home. I had to call Christiaan to come follow me home. And then I tested positive for Group B Strep, which made me mad since it meant I had to have an IV of antibiotics during delivery. The first delivery I don't have to have an IV in place, and I have to have an IV.
I absolutely LOVED the experience with the birthing center! They have three midwives that you rotate seeing each visit, so that you are familiar with all of them. They were available to answer any questions at any time, and the office staff was more than accommodating and warm. We attended a class the first of May that went over everything we would need to know for the labor and delivery process. As far as our prepping for a baby at home?? Well, typical third child. We got the bassinet out, eventually....I found the box of newborn clothes the weekend before he ended up coming....you know, NOTHING like it had been with the first! But we pretty much already had everything we needed, with the exception of a car seat since I had sold our old one in a garage sale. Oops.
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| First sono |
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| How we went "Facebook" public, on Halloween |
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| My appointment card. This was updated at every visit with all of the stats from the appointment |
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| Since I lost so much weight at first it took a bit for me to start showing, but we still didn't manage to take a bump picture until 20 weeks. #thirdchildproblems |
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| Just your normal pregnancy craving...Nutella sandwiches using Tagalongs. |
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| Clearly he was making up for lost time by 27 weeks. |
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| Chelsea and I somehow managed to be pregnant together again. And found this nifty thing at the park! |
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| Almost 30 weeks |
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| Fun little comparison using the same shirt...32 weeks with Carter, almost 30 with Eli, proof that you do get bigger each time. |
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| Easter Sunday, Carter insisted on taking this picture of me looking awful |
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| I guess at 8 1/2 months its about time to get a bed set up in the corner of our room. Which was literally the only empty space left in our house. |
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| Baby shower given by my girlfriends |
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| The kids were really excited to help me open gifts for Eli |
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| Coming home outfit |
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| Adorable shower at school. Before I got sent home for the day! |
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| When the car seat came out, Delaney thought it was for her to play with |
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| Finally a little bit of decor |
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| 37 weeks, what would turn out to be the last bump picture |
