My Fourth Pregnancy Thus Far

Get ready for maternity pics! The purpose of this post is to document my current pregnancy up until now. As I said in my last post, I'm 35 weeks with my 4th baby currently.

This pregnancy started off rough. It was winter and I was taking on 16 credits, while caring for my little 3 kids, hoping to graduate in May. I was late on my period but I've never been super regular. I only tested when I woke up one wintry morning to a gut-punch of nausea. I felt like I was going to puke but not in a flu way... please God no.... I thought as I stumbled to the bathroom for a pregnancy test. Positive. No way. 3 more were positive.

I bundled the kids and drove straight to target for more tests. I took many tests for two days and they were all positive. I kept on testing because I was in desperate denial. The shock was huge also just from the fact that we completely prevented this baby. We also prevented the last one, so one or both of us is just super fertile apparently.

This was the end of January and I had just taken on more credits than I should have (with no family around and all these little ones).  ***I'm being super vulnerable in admitting that I cried nearly every night for three weeks when I found out. I understand that babies are a gift from above and that many people struggle for years to conceive and would love to be in my shoes. But you don't actually know what those shoes are like until you've walked a mile in them.***

It was frustrating because I've physically and mentally needed a break....

I am pregnant every 20 months or less, and not on purpose. 

My stomach is always sticking out with a new baby by the youngest child's second birthday, haha.  At that point I'm making a beeline past a toddler birthday cake to go puke somewhere appropriate.  This isn't my first surprise/prevented pregnancy.  Read about the last one who blindsighted me here.  She is now my two year old daughter who is my absolute pride and joy and has stollen my heart!

So if my kids are so great... why did I prevent the last two? My pregnancies are hard, and it really takes away from the youngest child.  Since I'm always high-risk with complications.  And I was absolutely terrified because my last pregnancy was a total nightmare in which I almost died - no joke! I suffered from both Hyperemesis Gravidarim (extreme non-stop puking, even water) and then I had Choleostasis (think torturously itching bloody sores). You can read about that pregnancy here.

Belly shot in the very beginning of this pregnancy. I pop early.

My body still hadn't recovered from the last baby. I mean yes I had lost the weight but there were a few other issues still unresolved that needed to heal.  Diastasis recti for one - super weak core that I was trying to heal - it was a 4-finger split in my stomach muscles.  (Also some things I care not to mention that I was seeing a physical therapist for).

It's not that I never wanted another baby again, I just needed to wait for 4 or 5 years.  I'm well aware that many women choose to have baby after baby - some women in my church do this, and hey my own grandma had nine! But I do not know how they do it... my body def cant take it and I've only had 3 kids (but in 4 years).  It's just not really me.  So there I was 8 months ago, just terrified.

However, as I'll soon tell later in this post, God really came through for me.

I was honestly pretty angry about the pregnancy for a good three months.  I needed to grieve my plans and get over what I thought the future would look like. To take my mind off things, my sweet husband took me on a baby-moon to Mexico. Isn't he amazing? This is seriously the world's sweetest man.  The vacay was my first time out of the country! It was sooooo beautiful.

During this time, we posted our announcement to social media. I was 12 weeks along and my tummy pops very early so we knew there would be no hiding the news.

Here is our cute beachy announcement of our soon-to-be four kids:

These are some belly shots from during our vacay:

My husband and I made a few changes to things as I struggled with the idea of another pregnancy. One night back in February, while I was in bed depressed for the evening and nauseous, my husband came in and said "we should move to Florida".  The idea was uplifting... we live in freezing Minnesota.  He works long hours often and winter is a big challenge with stir-crazy kids.  We don't know a soul down there. So I'll still have no help - but hey - it wont take an hour just to bundle and get all the kids out to the van. Also they can play outside year round; no more cooped up kids in frigid weather!

We talked more and more about it for a few months, and decided for sure we were definitely moving. We are not huge fans of Miami (been there) or of Inland Florida.  We are choosing to go somewhere on the east coast - Jacksonville, Fernandina beach, or near by there.

Below, here is my bump at 13 and 16 weeks:

Here I am at 19 and 22 weeks. (Yep, that's a dirty mirror, not stuff in my hair, haha).  This is around the time we discovered she was a girl! Around this time was when the morning sickness lifted.  It's funny, with both girls now my cravings and aversions are the same. Upon getting pregnant, I immediatly loathe coffee, and I became super sensitive to anything sweet. I can taste the sugar in tomato sauce in a pizza.  Since I needed the energy to chase my 20 month old and do my homework, I plugged my nose and downed a cup of joe every morning despite.  What got me through morning sickness was my chicken's eggs. They had never tasted so good!

This is around the time when most women who are going to get choloestasis start to get hit with the itching. If you've already had it, you are statistically very likely to get it again. I am happy to say that I was truly seriously blessed - I never did get it this pregnancy! 

Below is 25 weeks on a date with my man. And then 26 weeks: I had been having serious debilitating migraines since around 18 weeks. They would sometimes last 3 or 4 days, often with me puking from the pain. Still a better pregnancy than the last though! :)

Here is 27 weeks, as you can see I like to continue my workouts. I didn't so much with the Hadassah pregnancy since I was deathly ill. But I had done so with my second pregnancy (cardio and weight-lifting) and it gave me loads of great energy!  

I had to have a few brain scans around this time to figure out why I have such severe migraines.  The results came back looking good though, there is nothing wrong with me.  Some pregnancies just do this I guess - (especially with girls I hear - something about the excess estrogen. My OB is managing it with a medication though, so it's really not the end of the world. 

Here I am (below) with my brood at 28 weeks. This was in June, the day before my husband took my oldest son to Florida for a week to scope out which area we wanted to live in. I had just entered my third trimester.  Such an exciting time for our family. 

These pics below are 30 and 31 weeks. At this point, a sweet bond had been brewing for the past weeks with my little unborn. I really felt connected to her, and was getting excited to meet our girl. 

I need to take more pregnancy pics, lol. My baby is apparently breech.  Hopefully the doctors can turn her at my appointment for a version next week. I am 36 weeks in two days and so ready to be done. It's flying by!