A pregnancy to remember...

This has been a very unique pregnancy relative to my first two.  I KNOW I will forget the details, its inevitable; but I don't want to. So, I've decided to risk TMI'ing everyone with a list of "things I want to remember."  This will totally sound like an "I'm complaining...wah wah wahhh" post, but its not at all written in that light.  Its just the nature of the pregnancy being documented that might make things seem that way...

• I had a serious fried food fetish at the beginning of this pregnancy.  As in, onion rings ALWAYS sounded good; I couldn't let myself breathe near an In & Out because I just couldn't handle not being able to indulge in all of the fried "goodness."  This was a super weird craving because up until this pregnancy, I was grossed out by fried foods and had no trouble avoiding them.  Luckily, after overeating on a BJ's appetizer sampler one night, I was cured of my fetish and have been ever since.  Thank goodness!  
• I gained 10 pounds in the first 7 weeks of this pregnancy.  This could have been related to the fried food thing.  Maybe...:(
• This girl has been the most active baby I've ever carried, BY FAR.  As in, she probably moves as much as Charlie and Lucy did, combined. Times 5.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that there have been times I've felt a kinship with mother mountain goats.  Case in point:  at 24 weeks, we were in the car and I had my arms relaxed across my belly -  the girl kicked so hard, that my elbow actually flew up a few inches off of my stomach before landing back in the same spot -- at 24 WEEKS!  Can you even guess what she's like now?  15 weeks later? 
• This has also been my most uncomfortable pregnancy.  Some of the discomfort has been in direct relation to her activity level, but definitely not all.  Around 28 weeks she decided that she really liked my right hip socket.  So she would plant herself there, giving me an instant (and very painful) dead leg, whenever she felt like it...which was pretty much whenever she got tired of sitting on my sciatic nerve.  Yikes.  Thankfully, those two "cozy spots" were only favored for a month or so.  The braxton hicks contractions cured us of those 2 problems...
• Speaking of which, I had NEVER had a braxton hicks contraction until this pregnancy.  I feel pretty confident in saying, however, that I've now paid my dues in that department.  Some nights are worse than others, and have there have been several nights when I honestly thought I might actually be in labor.  But no such luck.  Regardless, braxton hicks are lame.  My heart goes out to all women who deal with them for each pregnancy.  Bless you, and your strength.
• For the past week, my braxton hicks have been shoving her into my hip sockets again.  I'm really looking forward to Wednesday.
• Around 30 weeks, I developed a strong craving for salads and produce -- I could not get enough!  I probably had that craving because of some unknown case of  fried food-induced scurvy, but who cared!  I was pregnant and I wanted a salad.  It was a proud moment for big ol' me.
• I feel like I am more excited to have this child come than any of my previous pregnancies -- and before you judge, please let me explain; I know that sounds bad.  With Charlie, we were obviously THRILLED, but I still had the "pre-labor, pre-motherhood, I hope I can really do this" anxiety that I like to think all first-time mothers have.  (Please just lie to me in agreement).  With Lucy, I was excited, but very nervous about having two little ones to take care of: I was confident in my abilities to love and care for one, but was unsure about what life with two could even look like.  (Of course, it has been wonderful -- challenging at times, but wonderful). With this one, I am just plain excited.  I feel like she's just going to come and join the party that we're already having, and its going to be great.  Let's hope she agrees with that idea...
• And names.  NAMES!  With our other two, we had lists of names that we agreed on and had a good idea, going into the hospital each time, what the name would be.  With this one, we have been too laid back about names.  As in, this baby is coming in 4 days and we still are without a solid list.  When we chose to find out the gender, we decided that we would leave the name a surprise for everyone (excluding us) up until the baby was here, just to keep things interesting.  Thank goodness we did, because even if we were telling, we wouldn't have much to tell.  I have a name I really like (and in my mind, think of her as such), but Brian isn't really sold on anything yet.  And middle names?  Don't even go there.  We have no idea.  And that is surprisingly frustrating for me because with the other two kiddos, we knew their middle names (mine and Brian's middle names) before we decided on their first names, so at least we had something to match first names with.  I guess we'll just have to see what happens with this one.  Tonight, we are just going to sit down and crank it out.  Brian is really excited:)

 I think that's about it.  If I remember more details, I'll add them later.  Until then, and until Wednesday, "here's lookin' at you, kid."

24 weeks

 32 weeks

 35 weeks

 

38 weeks