Third Pregnancy!!!

I am driving by myself for a little while, so thought I would try to get some record of my third pregnancy so far, before I forget and get too busy. It definitely is different on your third pregnancy! Not that I will love this child any less at all – I know I will Love him fiercely! So I am about 23 weeks now. I got pregnant at the beginning of January. Some of this post is going to be too much information, probably especially for my future son! But I want to have it down somewhere so I might edit it later to be not so much TMI.! So Jeanae got pregnant unexpectedly in November, and both of us really wanted a third child, and it was our dream to be pregnant together. But when she got pregnant earlier than we had thought that we were going to try to start convincing our husbands to get on board, which was around January 2016 or sometime in the spring, it came as quite a shock to us! Janae and I were both really excited for her but also very sad because I was not pregnant with her, and George really was not on board at all to have a third, especially because we were in the process of starting to build a house, and all the stress and financial strain that comes with that. So the timing really was not good for us, and I don't know that I would've ever really convinced him to have a third for sure if Jeanae hadn't gotten pregnant so soon. So in December we were having sex one night, and it was the night of the MOPS Christmas party, and George just randomly didn't pull out because he just said he felt like he shouldn't. I was shocked and astonished! I looked at my ovulation calendar, and supposedly I had ovulated that very day! I wasn't tracking my ovulation at that time because we weren't trying to get pregnant, but I did track my periods regularly. So I thought for sure with our track record that we would get pregnant that day. I held off on telling Janae about the possiblity, Because I knew that I would find out if I was pregnant right around Christmas time, and I thought it would be a fun Christmas gift to surprise her. I knew that she would be so completely elated and completely shocked, as I was! So I kept it in secret and waited those long two weeks to see if we were pregnant. But I did remember that I had felt like I had ovulated a couple days before my calendar said that I did, so I wasn't entirely sure if we would get pregnant because it seemed I ovulated early randomly that month. So sure enough my period came right on Christmas Eve, and it was a hard and sad Christmas eve, but I still couldn't tell Jeanae, because I knew that we might possibly try again the next month, and I still wanted to surprise her. Since George and I thought that we might be pregnant for those whole two weeks, it made him come around to the idea, and it definitely got my hopes up a lot! I think George knew at that point that it would be hard to go back and tell me that he decided he doesn't want a third, especially after we had thought maybe we were pregnant for two weeks and I was so excited! So in January, when we were in Phoenix, around my next ovulation time, I was definitely more aware of my ovulation schedule, and he knew my thoughts and my heart and my desire to have a third. But he was still not convinced that he wanted this, especially with the fact that we had so much going on around the time the baby would be due, including building our house, moving, and Georgie starting kindergarten. And I totally understood that, and so even though I was sad, and prayed about it a lot, I submitted to him as my husband, as I knew was the godly thing to do, and I just prayed about it and didn't pressure him at all either way. I completely understood his point of view and where he was coming from. But we did have sex a few times around the time I ovulated, and sometimes he pulled out and sometimes he didn't. He was just so on The fence about it, and especially the timing. And I actually purposely didn't analyze my ovulation day, because I really wanted to be surprised on the gender and not be influenced in my thoughts about what I thought it might be based on our timing. So there was about two times that he didn't pull out around the time I ovulated and so I was pretty darn sure that there was no way we were not going to get pregnant this time. I am so fertile! And this next two weeks, while we were in Arizona, went very slowly also, and I definitely felt different than I had in December. I could just tell that I was pregnant, even though I don't really have any symptoms normally. I could feel slight cramping which I knew was implantation, and I was going to be very very surprised if I wasn't pregnant. I bought and took some pregnancy tests a couple times, that were supposed to be early detection pregnancy tests, and they actually came up negative. I was really really sad, but I still really thought I was pregnant even though those tests came up negative. So I really tried to be patient and wait until the day I was actually supposed to start my period, and took another test. And finally there was a line – although it was very very faint, unlike my other two pregnancies, so I was a little bit worried that it wasn't a super viable pregnancy by the fact that the line wasn't very dark, even on the first day I missed my period. So I waited a couple more days, even though Jeanae and Kevin and their family had gotten to Arizona to join us, literally I think the first day of my missed period. It was a hard day or two to not say anything to her, but I wanted to get a darker line before I surprised her. So I took another test on the third day of my missed period. And it was definitely darker, but still not super dark but I want to head and decided I would tell her. So we were at a vacation rental house, and I was trying to think of a creative way to tell her, but I was just SOOOOO excited, so I decided I'd have Gretta tell her that she was going to be a big sister. 😃😃😃😃😃😃 My phone didn't have any photo or video storage left on it, and I wanted to make sure I got it all on video, so I used George's iPad to video it (which I've never done before, and later when I played it, for some reason there is no sound, which was frustrating, but atleast I got the video and her reaction and facial expression!) it's absolutely hilarious when Gretta told her - she was completely shocked and almost angry - she paced out of the room and kept saying "No!" "Whaaaat?!" (Like she just couldn't believe it!!!) She wasn't unhappy in any way, just completely in shock!!! It was sooooo fun and funny!!! And Kevin was just cracking up laughing. And all the kids just look afraid and like "What's happening?!" Anyway, for the rest of the trip we had so much fun basking in the excitement of getting to be pregnant together, our DREAM!! But that wasn't our only reason for wanting a third child - regardless of Janae or her plans, I really wanted a big family (even 4 if George would've let me!) But I was thrilled to be blessed with a third child, and couldn't be happier! And I honestly didn't care about the gender - I already had one of each! And same with Janae, on all accounts. We talked about doing our baby shower together, since we are only seven weeks apart, as well as possibly finding out the gender together, because I knew that I could get a blood test since I'm considered high-risk after 35, that would tell me the gender. And I just had to be 10 weeks along to get my blood test. We thought our insurance would cover it because usually when you're considered high-risk which I was by age, they do cover it. But it turned out our insurance didn't cover it, but we decided to get it anyway because it could count towards our deductible and would be a wash by the end of the year. So a little after 10 weeks I got the blood test and Jeanae found out the gender in her anatomy scan. We knew we wanted to do something fun to reveal the gender together, so she had the ultrasound tech put the gender in an envelope and seal it. And she had to wait for me for about a week before I got my results back, and I had them put the results in an envelope as well. Then I took the two envelopes to our friend Heidi Williams who makes delicious cakes, and we add her make two cakes, one for each of us. Jeanae wanted a white cake, so for her cake Heidi would either put pink or blue food coloring in it. And I wanted chocolate cake, so for my cake she would either put pink or blue candies on the inside of the cake. So that following Sunday, April 10th (?), we had our gender reveal party. We decided to just keep it small, because it was hard to draw the line of who to invite. So we just had our immediate family – Mom And Ted, and George and Janet, and our two families. We could hardly wait to cut those cakes open, so we did it right at the beginning of the party before we ate or anything. We have a few videos of it, and it was so fun, even though I had so much anxiety right before that! It was such a life-changing piece of information to find out, and I knew I would be overjoyed and kind of sad and no matter what The outcome. I totally called it though! I guessed that we were having a boy and Jeanae was having a girl – just based on a few things. Janae's ultrasound tech double checked the gender at the end of her appointment, and so I sort of thought it could be a girl because they are not always so obvious. And also, Heidi made sure that janae and I knew who's cake was whose, so I had a feeling that we were having different genders. It was really fun to find out with our close family around, and we were excited to find out that the number of boys and girls would stay even among the cousins. George's whole family was thinking that we would probably have a girl since George comes from a boy and two girls and his dad does as well. But God had different plans for us, and I have to say I am so so so excited to have another boy. Greta will definitely be protected with a big and little brother, we just need to make sure she's not spoiled too much! It's also really cool the gender order of siblings, for both Janae and I because our oldest boy will always be the oldest and our youngest boy will always be the baby, and our middle child always be the only girl. And the same holds true with the opposite gender, with Jeanae's kids and birth order. So we really could not be happier :-) as far as symptoms with this pregnancy, I did feel just very slightly nauseous between weeks six and eight, but after that it pretty much subsided and I didn't really have any symptoms, just like my other pregnancies. Jeanae and I have been very blessed to not have hardly any side effects from pregnancy. It did catch me offguard a little bit to have slightly more nausea than I had with the other two kids. For those couple weeks though, it definitely made me have more sympathy for women who have any morning sickness, and especially severe sickness during pregnancy. I never threw up or anything – just definitely did feel fairly nauseous, and the thing that seems to help was eating food. So when the nausea stopped around eight weeks, it gave me a little reason to worry about the health of the baby and the pregnancy, but I had my first doctors appointment right around that time, and everything looked normal. And they confirmed that there was only one baby in there, which I had slightly wondered if there was more just because of the nausea I had had. And also because of my older age. But I'm pretty sure George would've had a heart attack if they told us we were having twins! But something that did bother me slightly was the fact that they couldn't pick up the heartbeat with the normal Doppler instrument they use in the midwife office, and I'm pretty sure they were able to pick up the heartbeat with my other two kids, even that early on. So that worried me a little, but she could see the heartbeat in the ultrasound, so I didn't worry too much. Of course, as always, I was relieved to make it through my first trimester, and then I had my anatomy ultrasound around 21 weeks, which was slightly anticlimactic since we already knew the gender, but it was really comforting to find out that the baby looked very very healthy and normal, and even was in the 79th percentile! I was thrilled, as my other two kids have been pretty small. Something different about this pregnancy too, was the fact that I actually lost weight for the two appointments after my first appointment, and then I had only gained a few pounds at this last appointment. They did say that that can be normal if you have a lot of sickness and are vomiting a lot, but I didn't, so it was a little bit worrying, but I've been very consistent with working out during this pregnancy, and also my theory is that at my first appointment, I had just gotten back from Arizona, where I had eaten quite a bit and unhealthily, and also I have been eating more at the beginning of the pregnancy because that's what helped me with the nausea. So I think that once that leveled out, and I was back home and eating normal, I just naturally lost some weight. Another different thing in this pregnancy but I found out at the ultrasound, was that my placenta was anterior, which means it was in front of my belly, like right behind my bellybutton. This is fairly unusual, though not at all unheard of. I asked my midwife if that would explain why I didn't feel a lot of movement on the baby earlier on, and she said that yes totally that would explain that. That made me feel a lot better, because Jeanae felt movement very early this time, being her third pregnancy, at around 14 or 15 weeks I think. And I didn't start feeling movement until right around 18 weeks, and that was just very faint movement. I didn't really substantial movement tell around 20 or 21 weeks, and she said that that is very common in women with anterior placenta because they have a cushion. So that gave me a lot of relief because I was slightly worried about the health and vitality of the baby. So right now we are in California on a trip that we all took to San Diego and Anaheim, where we went to Legoland, the zoo, and Disneyland. It has been a super super fun trip so far, but ever since the drive here, I started getting a little bit worried about A couple symptoms I've been having. I wasn't super worried about it until I started doing more reading on our drive, and it has left me feeling terribly worried the whole time. I am so excited to go to the doctor as soon as we get home. The first symptom I've had that is weird is probably about a month ago I was driving in town, and I had less sharp, excruciating pain that sort of felt like a really bad stitch on my upper right-hand side of my stomach, and it just put me out. I actually couldn't drive for a few minutes and had to have Janet drive my car home so that I could stretch out on my back, because it felt better if I stood up or if I stretched out on my back. I literally thought I was dying, and it really really scared me, even though it only lasted severely for about two minutes. When I got home I tried to go on a walk with the kids but it was flaring up again, though not quite as excruciating so I finally just lay down on my back for a while and then after a while I got down on all fours, and after that it pretty suddenly went away as fast as it came. Since then, I've had that same pain, so probably not as excruciating as that very first time, a few times. But now I know that if I lay down on my back and or get on all fours, it usually makes it go away pretty quickly. When I researched it at that time I kind of concluded that it was probably gas, with appendicitis and all stones being a slight possibility, but probably not. So I just kind of let it go. But then another symptom I have been having for a couple months was this the holing feeling in my stomach right behind my bellybutton that I would randomly get when doing different kinds of physical activity. I have had it in my workout classes a couple times, as well as when I picked up the kids and held them a couple times. It is just this very sudden fairly sharp calling feeling that only lasts a split second and then it's gone. I never really associated to two symptoms with each other, but when I started reading on the strife, I of course I resorted to thinking it was the worst possible scenario, and I learned about a thing called placental abruption, and I was convinced that I have it. I have been on the fence the whole trip about calling the doctor, as I did feel like the babies movement had slowed down a little bit for a few days, but I still have been feeling him move a fair bit in the last couple days, so I keep putting off calling the doctor. I'm just really trying to hold out until we get home, and as long as I'm feeling him move, I just have to pray and trust everything is OK. So I don't really know if there's anything wrong, but I will update when I go to the doctor next week. From what I've gathered, you can have a partial placental abruption, that is monitored is OK as long as the baby is still getting enough nutrients and being nursed. The worst case scenario is if it were to detach completely from my uterine wall, which would definitely kill The baby, and can actually kill the mother too. But I'm trying not to think about that. I'm really hoping everything is OK, because I really haven't had any of the symptoms that come along with placental abruption. Although sometimes, and rare cases there is not very many symptoms. But as long as I am feeling him move, I feel better. It's definitely making me not want to work out as hard anymore, and I probably won't work out until The doctor confirms that there's nothing abnormal happening. I am now 25 weeks pregnant tomorrow, on my birthday, and I am so relieved that the baby is viable, as of 24 weeks. This pregnancy is, of course, going so so fast, especially with having two kids already, and building our house. In some ways I wish I could slow down time, because I would love for our house to be done before the baby comes, but it's really not looking that way. But that's OK – it's all in gods timing and I know will get to move when we are supposed to. So this baby will probably be born in our current house, but will probably only lived there for a month or two. I felt movement of the baby from the outside, around 21 weeks I think. And it totally caught me off guard because it was kind of an accident. For some reason I was thinking that since I haven't found him move very much for very long inside, and it would still be a while before anyone could feel him moving from the outside. But once I did feel him I would try to let George feel it, with no success. The first person to actually feel the movement from the outside was Audrey sorrow. But then George felt it a few days later. And Jeanae has felt a sense and two. It's pretty fun! I am trying to savor every minute of it, because it's probably my last pregnancy, and I just want to remember this feeling forever. It's been a little hard being on this trip with Jeanae, because I find myself comparing my pregnancy to hers, and she's feeling so so much movement from her baby right now, so it sometimes makes me worry a little bit. Then I just have to remind myself that I'm still seven whole weeks behind her, and that is a big difference. As far as how we told our parents that we were expecting, as soon as we got home from Arizona, we planned a dinner at dos hombres with Mom And Ted and George and Janet and Jeanae's family. I decided to take a picture of my mom and Georgie, and instead of saying "say cheese!", I said "say Tara's pregnant!" It took a minute for my mom to absorb what I said, and I think George and Janet didn't really get it at first. I think everyone was pretty shocked and felt it came out of the blue! (Which it kind of did – we weren't even expecting to be trying again that soon, if at all.) They were all pretty shocked! They almost seem shocked in a negative way, but I'm trying not to read into it too much, and now they are all very happy for us and excited for us. I tried to only tell my close friends for a while, and I think I was around 12 weeks when I announced at the mops meeting, and that was super fun because I had kept it a secret from a lot of my acquaintances there. I waited to announce it on Facebook, because I wanted to announce the pregnancy and the gender at the same time. So as my Facebook announcement, I posted the video of our gender reveal party. It was super fun to get all surprising and excited reactions. Especially because Janae and I were pregnant together. That's all I can think of regarding this pregnancy so far, right now. If I think of other things I will try to block more later. And I will definitely talk about my birth story once that happens. Tara Gatseos