Yes, it's true... Baby #5 is on the way and I have just over 2 weeks until his due date! 

Tomorrow my oldest little boy is turning 4 years old! I can't believe it.. Not that it didn't seem like a lifetime ago that I gave birth to him... Because it really does feel like more than 4 years have passed by. I just can't believe that he's that old! Only 1 and a half more years til he starts Kindergarten. Four years ago it was really hard to imagine him at this age.

He and I have been through a lot in his short little life. I gave birth to him while my (ex) husband was deployed to Iraq. We had to figure out everything on our own for the first couple months of his life. (With the help of my mom of course!) Once my (ex) husband returned from Iraq it was still mostly just Camron and I on our own. He was gone most of the time... And I'm not talking about deployments... He worked all day and stayed out all night.

When my ex decided to leave us I was pregnant with Camron's little brother Brady. My baby boy and I started an all new chapter of our lives together. He wasn't even 2 yet. His little brother was born just 2 short weeks after his second birthday. Together we adjusted to a new home (my mom's) and a new baby in our lives.

Four short months later is when I met and fell in love with my (now) husband, Josh. He loved my boys and my boys loved him. We got married that year when Camron was almost 3 and Brady was 9 months old. So once again Camron and I (and now Brady) had to adjust to a new life, new home and new family.

As you can imagine it's been a looooooong four years for us!

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Now that it's towards the end of December we're almost through 2 of 4 birthdays. We celebrated Josh's last week and we'll celebrate Camron's tomorrow. Time is FLYING by! As I imagined it would at this time. Next up will be Christmas Eve at my mom's house. Christmas day with Josh's parents and my grandparents.

On Sunday we'll be taking down all the Christmas decorations... because on Monday I'll be bringing in all the baby stuff in preparation for Josiah's arrival! I'm so anxious to get started. (I'll be 35 weeks along next week! In the picture to the left I'm 34 weeks exactly.) I'm already trying so hard to suppress my nesting urge to rearrange the living room and the boys room and scrub every surface in sight! I can't wait to go through all the baby stuff and set things up the way I need them for J's homecoming.

Speaking of his homecoming, there's still a few things that we need to go buy for him. Kinda stressing about it because I realized that we weren't going to have as much money as I thought we would next month. Unfortunately it's only the expensive stuff we're needing. (Besides a few billion diapers of course!)

- A crib - Not only did Josh just break ours on accident, but it's being recalled along with all the other drop side cribs. It's only good as a toddler bed now. Luckily it's not something that we need right away since J will be sleeping in the bassinet that a friend gave me.

- A stroller/car seat combo - Ok, so it doesn't have to be a combo, but it would be nice. Main concern is a car seat that will fit along with the other 2 car seats in the back.

- A swing - Again, it's not something that I need, but they're nice to have around when you need to place baby some where safe while you take care of other things... Or other kids. ;)

- Bunk Beds - Ok so this one isn't specifically for the baby, but when we get the crib we're going to need to get bunk beds for the older boys. Otherwise there's no way that 3 normal beds will fit in their small bedroom.

Obviously my main concern is a car seat. That will be the first thing we buy... even if it's not a stroller combo. I just hope we can buy it soon so I can stop stressing about it!

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Besides birthdays, holidays and baby J's arrival I'm also counting down the days to when my Bestie comes to visit! She's coming here just 2 days before my due date... So I'm not sure if I'll already have a baby in arms or if I'll go into labor right after she gets here. Either way will be fine with me! I just want to hang out and gossip like we used to. Her guess is that she'll be a week late in getting here in time for the birth. Josh's guess is the 27th and my guess is (or at least what I'm hoping for) is a Feb 1st baby. That way we have time before the birth to hang out. She'll be able to be there for the birth AND I'll probably be out of the hospital before she has to leave again back to St. Louis. Win Win all around. :) (But do I really want to still be pregnant that long?! Not that I have a choice, but I'm pretty much already done with this pregnancy. I'm ready to meet my little boy!)

The other day when I was browsing blogs I came across this pregnancy survey that a fellow mommy-to-be had on her blog. I thought it was a cute idea to help me document my 3rd pregnancy. Now that I'm out of the "danger zone" aka the first trimester I'm feeling better about this pregnancy. So here we go....


How far along?
13 weeks


(Baby 3 at 12 wk 6 day ultrasound.)




Baby is the size of a:
Peach! Average size: 2.9 inches, .81 oz.




Total weight gain:
-1 lbs (Lost 3 lbs in the first trimester and have only gained 2 back so far.)

Maternity clothes?
I can still manage to fit in my regular jeans and all of my regular shirts... however, anything with a stretchy waist is my best friend right now. Having anything tight around my waist just makes me nauseous.
Stretch marks?
Unfortunately yes, but not due to baby #3. No new ones so far! I know they're coming though...

Sleep:
I'd probably be sleeping all night if both of my boys would sleep all night. No getting up to pee in the middle of the night yet. 
Best moment this week:
Knowing that I've started my second trimester. 
Movement?
Still too early to feel any movement. Josh and I did get to see the baby squirming around on the ultrasound screen last week, so that was fun.

Food cravings?
Sweets, sweets and more sweets. This baby has made me have the worst sweet tooth ever! Mostly for chocolate. Also craving lots of fruit, but unfortunately fruit doesn't agree with me at ALL right now.

Showing?
Yes. :( I'm only 13 weeks! Why does it look like I'm going to have twins? I saw the ultrasound... there's definitely only ONE in there! This morning my stomach was feeling twingy and a lil crampy... I told Josh I thought my uterus was stretching again.. He said, "Yup, for the past 2 days you've been looking REALLY pregnant." Thanks Josh, you make me feel so good. Haha.

When you find out that you're going to have your first baby you do like most women do and get prepared.... by reading books, magazines, internet articles. By taking parenting classes. By talking to your mom or your friends who have already had kids....

Then your baby arrives.

Everything you read about, talked about and learned about goes out the window. It becomes a learn as you go type of process. Sure, some of the things you learned about during your pregnancy might apply to you and your baby, but you also learn that your baby might not go by the book.

I know my first baby didn't.

My oldest always seemed to take his time with everything that he did. He arrived 2 weeks after my due date... (he had to be evicted because he was just so warm and snug that he didn't want to come out.) He didn't sit up til he was 8 months old. Started crawling at 10 months. Walked at 14. He didn't start talking well until he was almost 3. He didn't understand the potty training concept until just a few weeks ago... and he's almost 3 and a half.

That's just him... He's like his mama and takes his time with things. I think he wants to be sure that he gets it right before he actually does it.

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When you find out that you're pregnant with baby number two you might think to yourself that this is going to be a piece of cake. (I know I did.) You think to yourself that you've done all this before.... baby #1 was almost like your "practice" baby. Now you're a professional. You've been through it all and now you're totally prepared for another baby.

Then baby number two arrives.

Everything you thought you knew has now gone out the window. Baby number two is nothing like baby number one! Where did this child come from?! He's the complete opposite of his brother!

There must have been some sort of mix up at the hospital.... 


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I quickly learned that, yes it's true... every baby IS different. Even if they're related. I thought I knew everything I needed to know when I got pregnant with Brady. I thought surely another boy of mine wouldn't be that different than his older brother. I was wrong.

I was thinking about all of this earlier today when I was watching my 2 boys fighting playing together in the living room. Where did this 16 month old child come from?! He's screaming, talking, running, fighting, playing, jumping, singing.... He's doing everything that my 3 year old is doing. I don't remember Camron being like this at 16 months old. But I guess that's just it. Brady has an older brother. Camron just had me. Makes me wonder what Brady would be like if he were an only child.

From the time he was born Brady seemed like he couldn't wait to do things! Rolling over at a few weeks old. Sitting up at 4-5 months. Crawling at 6 months and walking by 9 months. He's been playing side by side with his brother ever since. Was he just trying to keep up with his brother... or is that just him? I'll never know.

What I do know is that this has been a huge test of my patience learning experience for me. I love learning about their personalities, seeing them grow and learn new ideas and concepts. They constantly amaze me when they learn new things.

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Now baby number three is in the works. :) We're in the "talking about it"/"considering the possibilities" phase of it right now. We haven't officially told anyone yet, but I think a few people are suspecting. Well, if anyone in our families is reading this... consider yourself in-the-know... but no talking about it! (:::cough::cough:::Annie!:cough:::) When it happens it happens.... :)

I'm sure that baby number 3 will be no different than my first two... (Read: I will have no idea what I'm doing when the baby arrives.)

I'm excited, nervous, happy and scared all at the same time about the possibility of a new baby... a new baby with the man of my dreams. One thing will be for sure. This experience will be completely different than the previous two. I can't wait to share about this new chapter coming up in our lives.

This is going to get interesting....