The pregnancy

Pregnancy is always a miracle. I feel so blessed to have this little baby kicking around inside of me and I love thinking about the wonder of our bodies and how they prepare for pregnancy, labor, delivery, and motherhood.

I've had a few random thoughts about this pregnancy that I want to journal:

* 1st trimester I only wanted to sleep and eat salty foods. Cheetos were my favorite--baked, of course, so I wouldn't feel too indulgent.

* 2nd trimester I got a burst of energy that felt great. I was able to keep up with my exercise routine and felt like I could go on pretty much as normally as I had before I was pregnant.

* 3rd trimester was full of traveling, (Oregon, camping, road trips to UT & CO...) and I felt so lucky that I was able to take trips so far along into my pregnancy. The only thing that hit me was a bad cough that started up after Oregon and eventually turned into (what Tyler's dad, our literal family physician, thinks was) pneumonia. It was the most annoying thing to shake! That last week I was in Utah, I really thought my rib was cracked or something from all the hacking I had been doing. Thankfully my rib is 100% healed now, and my cough is about 97% gone. Hallelujah! After 2 months of coughing, I've never been so thankful for good health.

* These last few weeks I have been craving a southern California restaurant called Islands. My dad used to take me there when I'd visit him when I was in high school. I don't think I've been there in 10 or so years, and who knows if the place is still good or not. But just the memory of that place has me salivating. Mmmm.

* This time around I've been measuring "small" for how many weeks along I've been. So my doctor scheduled me for an ultrasound around 34.5 weeks to make sure that the baby was growing properly and my dates were correct. Thankfully all is in order, and the baby was measuring right on for my Sept 25th due date. A month ago, the ultrasound said that the baby was measuring 5 lbs, 13 oz -- with a margin of error of +/- 15 oz. Nice and accurate, right? I also loved getting an extra peek at the baby just to triple check that she really IS a girl... because we got rid of 4 boxes of boy clothes that we don't want to move with next summer.

* I realized this pregnancy that I have never had that "kicking your ribs" feeling with any of my pregnancies. I've heard from friends about how their ribs are sore from their kicking babies and how they are so grateful when the baby finally "drops" and stops kicking their ribs. During my recent ultrasound, the tech mentioned to me that I was probably measuring small b/c I had a long torso. It was then that I realized NO WONDER I don't feel my babies in my ribs! Duh!

* Tyler and I have narrowed down a list of our top 5 baby names. This is major progress considering we showed up at the hospital with Annie with easily 10+ names on our "list." The other day I showed Whitney and Cole our final list of names and had them vote on how much they liked each name on a scale of 1-5. I asked them to put their hands under the table and when I said a name, they were to hold up that many fingers of how much they liked the name. Then on the count of 3, we all would raise up our hands from hiding and show our "score" for that name. It was a fun little thing to do, and we have a good feel for what our kids like... but we're not making any decisions till we meet the baby. Tyler and I work best under pressure. ;)

* The baby is getting tighter in my tummy every day. I used to be able to lie on my side and watch her go psycho with the kicking. It used to look like 2 pigs were wrestling under my skin, but now it's looking more like one alien is snaking along the inside of my belly. Nice.

* Annie loves tickling my tummy hourly. She also enjoys singing "Twinkle, Twinkle" and "Rock-A-Bye Baby" to my belly every day. 

* Cole has been talking more and more about what a great big brother he is going to be. I'm excited to see how he reacts to this baby this time around because like I've said before, he truly didn't even notice Annie that first year of her life. 

*Whitney is beyond excited for this baby to "come out." Every day we talk about how many more days till baby sister will be here. She rubs my tummy like I'm Buddha while I'm cooking, cleaning, and disciplining. Really, her hands are constantly on my belly. She asks to hear stories of when she, Cole, and Annie were babies. She looks at her baby book and talks about what our sister will look like. Her excitement is contagious.

* Tyler has been assigned the month of October off of work. We found out that this would be his month off before anyone at Tyler's work knew that we were pregnant. So from Oct 1st-31st, I am picturing all of us sitting around gazing into the new baby's eyes, talking in hushed tones, and tiptoeing around the house. Tyler will do all the laundry, cooking, and chauffeuring for me while I eat up this newborn, right? ha ha. Who am I kidding? We'll still have to get Whitney and Cole to school, get lunches ready, and go through the motions of our busy lives, but I'm so excited to have Tyler around so he can have a break from residency and soak up the newborn phase with me.

* Final predictions of when the baby will come and how big she'll be:
Natalie: 10/02, 8 lbs 8 oz
Tyler: 9/25, 7 lbs 1 oz
Whitney: 9/27, 8 lbs

Any other guesses?

Come on, baby! Please come soon!!