Pregnancy This Time Around

Let me start out by saying that I truly do love being pregnant.

I love love love seeing that positive on the pregnancy test.

I have loved telling Will each and every time that he was going to be a Daddy. (Although when I told him about Liam I was more nervous than the other two times!)

I have loved keeping our pregnancies a secret for so many weeks.

I love knowing that there is a little life that God created growing inside of me.

I love feeling the baby move. It is something I will forever remember. Just seeing my belly dancing around and knowing that my little one is ok in there is amazing.

But...

My pregnancy this time around has been different than the other two times I was pregnant.

When I was pregnant with Taylor I was a little bit more sick than I was when I was pregnant with Liam and this little one. I got very nauseous every evening from about 8 weeks to 12 weeks. But because I didn't have any other children, I could go to bed at 8 or 8:30 and not think twice about it. I was able to manage being extremely tired in the 3rd trimester because I could sleep in on my days off and nap whenever I wanted to. And nap I did. I was able to just lay around and be lazy on my days off and was able to get all the baby stuff together without anyone bothering me. It was wonderful.

When I was pregnant with Liam, during the 1st trimester, I had Taylor to take care of. But I was only working PRN and probably only worked 1 day a week and the rest of the time I was a stay-at-home mommy. Taylor was not quite a year old yet and still took really good naps in the afternoon and so I of course took really long naps with her in the afternoons. Will was working from home at the time so none of us had to get up extremely early in the mornings which meant we really didn't have to go to bed that early. Taylor usually slept really late in the mornings and so did I if I didn't have to go to work. During the 3rd trimester this time around I was still napping with Taylor and getting to sleep late and it wasn't too bad.

This time around...I am just tired! I will admit that the 1st trimester wasn't so bad because I was still staying home with Liam and I would sneak catnaps in while he was watching tv. But now that I am working 5 days a week and have 2 little preschoolers to tend to every single day I am just exhausted. I get up every morning as late as possible at around 6-6:15. I take a quick shower and get myself dressed all while just wishing I could still be in bed!

Just so I will forever remember this period of my life (and laugh at it when I realize how busy I am with 3 little kids!) I am going to go through a typical morning in our house.

7am - I wake the kids up and beg them to get themselves dressed. I start packing lunches.

7:05 - Listen to kids whine because they wanted macaroni and cheese in their lunch and not spaghetti, or that I put the wrong kind of fruit in there, or that life is not fair because Taylor gets to take chocolate milk in her lunchbox but Liam doesn't.

7:10 - remind kids that I was serious when I said it was time to get dressed.

7:12 - Get Taylor dressed myself because she isn't listening...Liam is still on the couch covered up by a blanket watching cartoons, ignoring every word that I have said to him.

7:15 - Begin tackling "the hair" - Poor Taylor, some days she wants me to do all kinds of cute things to her hair, but I just can't do it in the mornings. So she either gets hair down, ponytail, or sideways bun looking thing. Occasionally, on a good morning, she will get braided pigtails.

7:20 - Tell Taylor to go potty (I should not have to remind her to go potty in the morning, but the girl just will not go on her own). Wrestle Liam and tell him he HAS to change his underwear and get dressed.

7:21 - Give up on changing the underwear and just put his clothes on him, all while listening to him whine because he can't see the tv. Remind him that his bottom will be dirty all day and he will be the stinky kid at school. 

7:23 - Beg Liam to go potty. He never ever does.

7:24-7:30 - Remind Taylor to pick out a doll/toy for naptime, Tell Liam to turn off the tv, Gather backpacks, blankets, baby dolls, lunchboxes, kids, etc and rush out to van. Run back in the house because I remember that I am hungry and didn't get breakfast yet. Grab a pack of poptarts (I am beginning to hate poptarts), grab water bottles to attempt to keep myself hydrated. Listen to Taylor cry because Liam yelled at her for opening the garage door while listeing to Liam whine because he didn't get to open the garage door. Buckle Liam (who is in the way back of the van and doesn't care that I am too big to get back there and buckle him). Run back in the house one more time because I forgot something.

This is where I used to drive like a mad-woman to Oakdale school to drop Taylor off, but in the last week our kind neighbor offered to start taking Taylor to school with her girls. Bless you Maude Townsend, bless you. So now I drive 2 houses down and drop Taylor off.

7:35 - begin listening to Liam cry because it isn't fair that Sarah and Rebecca (Maude's high school daughters) get to take Taylor to school. Listen to Liam whine because he doesn't want to go to school. Answer no less than 100 questions between our house and daycare about why the trees are green and why do birds fly and why is there a train over there and why do I have to go to work and why did God make Heaven and why is the sun following us and when is church and why does Grandma get to pick Taylor up but not Liam.

7:45 - Beg Liam to just get out of the van and put his shoes and socks on (which should have been put on in the house, but he refused because he likes to cover up with a blanket in the van and feel the blanket on his toes..sigh).

7:50 - Take Liam to the potty at daycare because he wouldn't go at home and I am afraid he will pee on himself if I don't take him right when we get there. Wait for Liam to take his precious time peeing and washing his hands.

7:55 - Finally sign Liam in, give 5000 hugs and 2000 kisses, let Liam kiss the baby and hug the baby, peel Liam off of me and give him to his teacher, walk away while listening to my little boy scream "Don't leave me Mommy, Please don't leave me!"

8:00 - Begin my hour long drive to work. Hopefully this will only be for another few weeks. But after that I am supposed to be at work at 8am. I see a lot of late mornings in my future.

Is anyone else tired yet? Because at this point in time, every single morning, all I want to do is go home and go back to bed. And I get to do this EVERY morning, Monday through Friday. (Except for those glorious Friday mornings when Will doesn't have to work and he can help me! But those are getting fewer and fewer)

By the time I get home in the evenings, after picking Liam up from daycare and Taylor up from Grandma...I just want to go to bed. But I feel obligated to feed my family something, so I usually start working on supper when I get home at 5-5:15.

After supper I feel so guilty because I am literally about to drop at this point and don't want to move, but feel like I should spend time with the kids. And every now and then they need baths. Luckily, Will is amazing and will either play with the kids or wash them or clean up the kitchen while I do one of the other things. Then finally, at about 8:30 - 9 we convince the kids to get in bed. They won't actually go to sleep until 9:30 - 10, but at least they are in bed. After I have given both kids 3000 kisses and 4000 hugs and gotten them water and let them kiss the baby and hug the baby and I get my face washed and contacts out...I finally get to lay in bed at around 9. Again, thankfully Will lets me go to sleep and he takes a shower and gets the kids lamps turned off and doors shut after they go to sleep. Which means I know he doesn't get as much sleep as I do. He truly is amazing.

So while this has been a very easy pregnancy as far as baby is concerned, it is exhausting trying to keep up with the other two and work and the house.

But there is nothing quite like seeing my little babies be excited about their new little sister coming along. They love to feel my belly, and the few times they have felt their sister move have been really exciting for them. I didn't get that experience when I was pregnant with Liam because Taylor was still so little and didn't really understand. But Taylor and Liam definitely understand this time. They remind me daily that my belly is getting HUGE!

So my advice to all those out there pregnant with their first...take a nap, go to bed early, and sleep in late when you can. Please, just do it for me!