Yes, I know it has been a long, long time. Moving put me back 20 years in terms of technological advances. Suddenly I didn't have internet at home and then I didn't have a functioning computer.  I pondered life without ready access to the internet. Maybe it would be character building.  I did survive with minimal pain to not having a tv (again) so why not lose the computer/internet? Maybe (and this is a big maybe) it would entice me to make phone calls instead of sending emails to friends and family. But we'll never know because the new laptop arrives on Thursday.

The Goldilocks of Squishiness

I love holding and cuddling my girls. I remember several years back worrying about when Lorelei would outgrow my lap and wouldn't want to snuggle any more. How bizarre to think that at some point the little body that I knew better than anyone else, would be hidden away in modesty. Lorelei still likes hugs and kisses, but she doesn't seem to want to sit on my lap for too long and she is more interested in waking early in the mornings to watch tv (with the volume off so that I don't know about it!!!!!!) than in coming to give me kisses and a good morning. That said, she isn't as fun to cuddle as she once was either because now she is all angles; long legs and knees and elbows, feet and heels. Too hard.

Sabrina doesn't cuddle just yet. So far it is more like molding her body to mine. I think it will be more enjoyable once she develops her back muscles and uses her spine more! Too soft (oh, but so, so soft!).

Emma is such a rough and tumble bulldozer of a child that I worried she wouldn't want to be cuddled at all.  Thankfully I was wrong. She likes to sit on my lap and touch my face. She comes in to my room in the morning to cuddle until she is fully awake. I love folding her up into myself. Her skin is so soft and squishy. She still has the little dimples at her knuckles and honestly cheeks to make a squirrel jealous. Just right!

Losing Weight

As anyone who has ever tried to lost weight can attest, it never comes off the places one would most like it to. In the first 3 weeks after Sabrina's birth, I lost nearly 20 pounds. In the 5 weeks following that, I have lost 1 pound. That is right. One single pound. And case in point, I think that my nose got skinnier. My nose ring has been spinning around and poking itself out of my nose and being a general nuisance lately. That pound must have come from there. Well, I tweaked my jewelry this past weekend and all is well. Now if I could just lose the rest of the pregnancy weight, I'd be able to comfortably wear my clothes again and all would be well there too.

2 Months Old

Dr. Finer commented that Sabrina must have a sixth sense because our normally very easy going baby started crying in the car on the way to the doctor's office and didn't stop until we left the office. Nothing that we did calmed her down for long and her first vaccination shots certainly didn't do the trick either.

In the past month Sabrina has certainly been growing. I remind the other girls just how much growing Sabrina has to do and that growing only happens while the body sleeps so - please let the baby sleep! (Actually Sabrina seems completely impervious to the antics and noise level of her sisters even when she is sleeping right in the middle of it.) Andres won the contest for Master Estimator this month coming in with an exactly correct estimated weight of 11 pounds on the dot. She grew another inch this past month as well and is now stretching out to 22 and 3/4 inches. Her head is just under 15 inches. To summarize: Her weight is now at the 36th percentile a drop from 53rd a month ago, but nothing to worry about, her height is 44th percentile down from 48th (oh no - she's shrinking!) and her head remains right at the 16th percentile.

Sleeping Beauty

Sabrina is a good sleeper. She still spends most of her days sleeping away, but she is giving us a little more smile time in between the naps. The nights are consistent yet, but she does give me a 3 - 5 1/2 hour run of sleep. Sometimes that is all I get and sometimes I get some good napping in with her in the mornings.

A Linked Family

I have been struggling to figure out how to blog about life events in two different blogs. I still don't know what the smart way to merge them is, so for the meantime I have at least included a link on each of the two blogs so that viewers can toggle between them. (Look to the right.)

Mustard- Colored Mustache

I almost always have a camera within arms reach, but there are moments when I don't have the camera with me, or more often when it just wouldn't be prudent to leave my child spewing projectile vomit (for example) in order to take a photo of it. But seriously, some of this "gross" stuff is absolutely astonishing and should be documented.

Shortly after receiving a fresh diaper yesterday (or a fresh canvas as Sabrina seems to think of it) Sabrina had a blow out. She was seated in the bouncy seat waiting for me to gather our things to go and get the girls from school. She was fussing. I thought with surprise that she was still hungry so I started getting myself set up for a feeding. When I picked her up her entire backside was wet. I'm sure that my face reflected the confusion that I felt. It wasn't any particular color, just wet. Huh? I thought that perhaps the bigger diaper than she had on (already moving up from the newborn to size 1) and maybe user error had created a loose diaper that allowed her to pee all over her clothes. I put her face down on the changing table and started peeling back the layers. Yuck! Please keep in mind the mustard yellow color of breastfed baby poo. It was all over. Disgusting. I  attacked with a wipey in each hand. As carefully as possible I tried to roll her onesie in on itself to protect her body from the poo while removing it over her head. I did a miserable job. She had yellow streaks starting at her elbows, over her shoulders, down her back and shockingly when I flipped her over, across her face including a mustard colored mustache. I really wanted to take a photo, but my revulsion at her having poop smeared across her face won out in the end. Nothing that a few more wipes and a bath couldn't take care of.

Mama Karma

Some people are unbelievably lucky in life. They always win raffles, somehow get free tickets to events, and never get a parking ticket. And then there are the people that never catch a break. I'm am definitly NOT in the lucky category, but more specifically I would like to comment on what I think of as my "Mama Karma". I've talked to some other moms out there about this, so if you're a mom I think you'll understand what I'm talking about here. If I am alone with the kids, they will inevitably wake up early in the morning, have all kinds of immediate needs, not take naps and generally run me ragged. If dad is alone with the kids, they'll sleep late, get up quietly, feed themselves, wash the dishes and clean the bathroom and then go lie down for a nap - all without disturbing dad at all.

So today is no different than any other day lately. I'm exhausted. I want a nap. Do you think that I could convince Sabrina to take a nap? Not a chance. For 40 minutes I laid semi-comatose with her wishing with all my heart that she would sleep and allow me to do the same. Then the phone rings. It is my lovely husband. I anticipated his call because his "Husband Karma" is to ALWAYS call when I am napping or trying to (and he knows this too.) So we are talking and Sabrina is kicking away next to me. By the end of our conversation, she has passed out. Yeah! My deepest wish fulfilled. But now my head hurts so much that it is about to explode and I am now so stressed about life things and more than anything else I am no longer semi-comatose but fully (FULLY!) awake. So she sleeps peacefully while I fret and fume and try to sleep to no avail. And frankly I know not to devote too much time trying to sleep at this point. It won't happen so I might as well get up and do something off the To Do list.

Sabrina Lucia

Well the elevated feet and crossed legs didn't work. Sabrina was born the following morning just hours before the Lorelei's graduation ceremony and the school performance. We were fortunate to have the grandparents here to take them and Maria shot some video. Jenna took photos for us, too.

Lindsay, always my go to photographer, took some shots of Sabrina. So far I just have this teaser one, but it is a beaut.

It is now 2 weeks later and Sabrina is an easy baby so far. She just eats and sleeps with very little awake time. Of course she wakes doesn't sleep for long stretches at night yet, but it is mostly manageable. Compared to Emma's eating schedule as a newborn, this is luxurious. Sabrina had her 2 week appointment with Dr. Finer yesterday. She is growing just fine. She eats about 2 oz. at a sitting. I looked back through my journal and found that at this age, Emma was drinking 3 1/2 oz. at a sitting. No wonder Emma gained 2 pounds above her birth weight in the first two weeks! Sabrina now weighs 8 lbs. 6 oz. ( up from 7 - 10) and is 20 1/4 inches long. That puts her smack dab at the 50th percentile for both her height and weight. Her head on the other hand..... at 13 3/4 inches is somewhere in the teens. I guess she's got a tiny head like her mom.

Who does she look like, you might be wondering? At times I see shades of each of the girls at the newborn stage but so far it is hard to tell. At other times I think she looks like no one else. She has a head shaped like Emma (and me), a nose that is straight with no little ski slope to it like mine of the other girls, dark hair like Emma had as a newborn (but of course it fell out and was replaced with blonde hair), curl to her hair - like Lorelei? (hard to say because Lorelei was bald for so long!), slate blue eyes that will inevitably turn brown on me, long fingers, feet and toes and a svelte little body. Wait - I haven't mentioned her perfect ears. Seriously. Her ears are absolutely perfect. I think that they are small like mine, but on the head of a baby it is hard for me to tell what is big and what is small.

Contraction Action!

I may or may not have said this before, but this pregnancy has just been so different in some ways from the other two and that has left me confused at times. With Lorelei and Emma I started having some cramping a day or two before they were born. Contractions started at some point the day before and were in earnest by midnight. I think I went to the hospital with Lorelei at 3:30 in the morning and maybe 2:30 am with Emma. And then they were born around the noon hour that day.

Well this time is different. I started having contractions 10 days ago. I seriously thought that the baby was going to be born on Thursday. But no. Then things calmed down for a few days (thankfully because Andres' parents hadn't yet arrived to care for the girls!) Then the night before the grandparents arrived the contractions kicked up again. That was the start of what has been an entire week of having sleep depriving nights that convince me that the hospital trip is inevitable, followed by a day of sporadic contractions. Finally yesterday morning I called the doctor's office to see if they could see me or tell me something reassuring. They sent me to the hospital for evaluation. Of course I had NO contractions of note while hooked up to the machine, but I was relieved to hear that all was well with the baby and that I was dilated to 2 cm and 50% effaced. I was sent for an ultrasound. All seemed fine except for the fact that she was so low in my pelvis that the technician couldn't really get a measurement of her head. And then I went home. Well, actually then I tool Lorelei to an appointment. Oh, how I was suffering with contractions and back pain. By the time we made it home I didn't think I could walk up the stairs to the apartment. Being stubborn came in handy and I made it. Straight to lie down in bed. I went against the medical community and took 800 mg of ibuprofen (it just felt so much like the worst menstrual cramps ever!) and things calmed down. I felt so much better that I remember thinking that I actually felt "drugged". I slept a few hours last night before the incredible back pain and contractions kicked in again. But nothing regular or particularly close together.

This morning I wasn't sure that I would make it to my 10:45 appointment, but I did. I am now 3 cm and 80% effaced. The baby is coming for sure. My doctor assured me that this labor would be much faster than the other two. It couldn't be I rebutted. I have already been in labor for a week!

Tomorrow is Lorelei's preschool graduation and end of school show. Emma has a special starring role and I would really hate to miss the whole thing, so right now I'm hoping that for having already been a prolonged process, she will wait until at least tomorrow afternoon once the show is over. Keep your fingers crossed. I'll keep my feet elevated and my legs crossed.

False Labor Scare

Wednesday evening I started having true contractions that continued through the night. At a point they were coming about 6 minutes apart. I thought for sure that our little one was going to be born on Thursday. The first thing I said to Andres when he opened his eyes was that he needed to install the car seat in his car and pack his bag for the hospital. He nodded sleepily. "This morning," I emphasized. His eyes opened wide. He was ready to call in to work, but I was less convinced that it was going to be imminent. I was thinking in the afternoon at the earliest or maybe not until the wee hours of Friday morning, but it was only a scare. Once I was open and moving around getting the girls ready and off to school they became more sporadic and stopped entirely. I can only hope that it will mean a slightly easier or faster labor when the day does come.

In addition to the panic I was feeling at not having Andres' parents here yet to stay with the girls, or my bag packed for the hospital I was super stressed about not having had "belly photos" with my amazing photographer friend, Lindsay. So early Thursday morning I called her and asked for an emergency photo session just in case we didn't make it to our scheduled family session for Saturday (today as I write). She came and did just an amazing job. Way more then what I had in mind or could have expected. I'll post a few samples here, although Lindsay doesn't like that these are the completely untouched photos. They'll be even more spectacular once they take a turn through Photoshop.

Since it turned out to be a false alarm, we went ahead with our plan today and she met us bright and early for family photos. Again, a really spectacular experience. Just a taste for you.

So until Tuesday, when Andres' parents arrive, I am on light duty. No cleaning, stooping, lugging groceries or children or running marathons. Darn. But come Tuesday.....

Making Space for Baby

We spent time this past weekend digging out baby stuff from storage. We are very fortunate to also have a source for new infusions of baby clothes for little one #3. She may have so many options that she won't be able to repeat any outfits before she outgrows them!

We aren't really setting up in any kind of permanent way for baby girl because hopefully we'll only be here in the apartment until she is about 1 month old. Then we'll get to move into our newly renovated house and set up for "real". So in that vein, it feels weird to not be preparing as nicely for her arrival. We set up the pak n play in our bedroom for her sleeping delight and I put the changing pad on top of my dresser. I bought some cloth boxes to sort her clothes and that is about it.

At my last appointment I asked the doctor for an exam. I just wanted to make sure that everything was still sealed up nice and tight and that baby girl wasn't getting too anxious to make her entrance into the world. The doctor understood that I was being paranoid, but she obliged. Lorelei requested several appointments ago that she be allowed to come along to an appointment again to hear her baby sister's heartbeat, so tomorrow I am taking both of the girls with me for that purpose.

Baby girl is giving me all kinds of physical reminders that she is riding low now such as the teeny tiny bladder space, the more pronounced waddling, the sharp pelvic shots of pain and the low throbbing of inner thigh strain. She also has plenty of space for the kicking and elbowing that she likes to do. I feel like someone out of Alien with this thing writhing around within me.

All in all we are well and counting down the days.

Ultrasound Shot

Here is a profile of baby girl from the ultrasound two weeks ago.

One Month To Go and Counting

Today is exactly one month from our due date. I am surprised to find that I haven't shared any news or photos for over a month, so let me see if I can summarize. (I never know if I should put the photos in order or backwards. Here they are chronological from week 32 to week 35.) Weight gain has slowed down most likely due to 24 hour heart burn and a tiny squished up stomach. The day or so after my Week 31 appointment, I felt babygirl drop. When I say "felt" I mean that the shooting pains low in the groin began in earnest which is what I associate with dropping. Also there was a sudden increase in the violence with which I was being bumped from the inside out. In my mind that made sense that she had just given herself some additional workout space. Now I get elbows and knees constantly. There was no accompanying lessening of the squished stomach syndrome however so I was anxious for my week 33 appointment to see what the doctor thought. At that appointment, sure enough my stomach was measuring small. Not just small, but smaller than two weeks prior so just to be sure all was well I was sent to have an ultrasound. The ultrasound showed everything to be within normal ranges so we are operating on the assumption that she has dropped.I now have more maternity clothes that don't fit than ones that do. I am rapidly depleting my clothing options. I'm afraid that I'll be down to underwear and a t-shirt by the time we make it to the hospital!

Everything else progressing along just fine. I am now to the point where I get to go to the doctor's office every week. That means an hour wait followed by a seven minute appointment. Yippie! Lorelei has been disappointed that she hasn't been to an appointment with me in a long time to hear the heartbeat so when I make my next appointment, I will do so thinking to bring the girls along for a listen. Both of them seem very excited about the prospect of having their baby sister on the outside. Emma really enjoys the idea of being bigger than someone else in the family.

By the third daughter, we really don't need much of anything other than diapers. I did realize last week that the $10 messenger style bag that we bought to use as a secondary diaper bag (that then became the one and only diaper bag while the $50 bag that I had labored over choosing sat unused) finally fell to pieces. So I bought a new diaper bag. It is red. Lightweight. Lots of pockets. Can be worn messenger style and seems like it will wash well in the machine. Soon we will have to get into the storage unit to dig out the baby clothes, the bottles, the bibs, the pillows, you know the "baby stuff". Unfortunately it will all be coming home to the apartment, but hopefully not for too long before we will finally be able to move into the house.

This past weekend we celebrated Mother's Day on my favorite beach, Siesta Key. It was perfect. Absolutely perfect. Wide, fine, white-sand beach with shallow water for a long way into the ocean with only gentle waves. It was warm but not blazing and there was a bit of a breeze. There were also no jelly fish to contend with this time. I really didn't want to leave - ever.

3/4 ths of the Way Toward Goal

This week marks 30 weeks. In my mind that means the big mile marker of 3/4ths of the way to the end - or 75% of the way. That sounds impressive, right? Only 10 weeks to go! Of course when I think about it in terms of days (70) it doesn't seem quite so close. Today we spent some time at the beach. It was lovely after a fairly disappointing past couple of months - cold and rainy - to be at the beach. Unfortunately there were a million man-o-wars washed and continuing to wash up on the beach so we didn't get to actually enter the water, but we still had a great time as you can see.

Going for the Zen

Yesterday was my most recent check-up. The big event was the diabetes screening test - which I'll find out the results of next week. I did gain another 6 pounds in the past month despite all the gold stars on my calendar for exercising! I talked with Dr. Esserman about the non-typical weight gain (non-typical for me that is). He said that I am doing fine and that asked about eating starches and ice cream. I really did cut back on the carbs for several weeks after my last appointment - but seriously salads are seriously overrated. I tried to arrive at a zen-like acceptance of what will be will be and stop worrying about the weight gain. It hasn't actually worked out for me, but I also haven't eaten another salad in the past week. I told my doctor that I would rather gain 60 pounds than give up ice cream and that is what I'll do. I'll still be exercising and frankly there isn't that much in my diet - other than the ice cream obsession - to worry about.

So today I ate a protein bar, went to the gym, had an egg white omelet washed down with low sodium V-8 and ate a pint of ice cream. Does that count for a zen-like balance?

(Photos below weeks 26 and 25. Above is week 27.)

Triplets?

Lorelei and Emma are showing off their very pregnant bellies. Poor Emma's baby is already hanging half out! Clearly Emma is carrying low - must be a girl and Lorelei is carrying out front almost like a soccer ball - must be a boy.

Recent Belly Shots

 

 

Week 20

 

Week 21 - slimming horizontal stripes to dazzle the eyes.

Week 23

 

Medical Evidence

 

Week 24

Doctor Update

So I gained even more weight this past month - a whopping 7 pounds. The doctor was not at all concerned. He predicted that my weight gain will still put me squarely within the American average. Fantastic. I am a lot of things- but average American is not one of them (or so I thought). Seeing and hearing that I was clearly concerned he acknowledged that I may just be more conscientious than most. So what were his recommendations? Overhaul my diet. Forget that what seemed to work just fine for my first two pregnancies because it ain't working now. Instead focus on a low glycemic diet. (Read less cereal) So I am trying. It is really hard because I have never been a low carb eater. I am not a super fan of protein and most vegetables hate me. But I am trying. I will for sure keep everyone posted on how the month goes and what the result is. By 28 weeks I'll also have the glucose tolerance test completed and see if gestational diabetes is at play.

Gaining Momentum - and Weight

Today is week 24. Yeah. Three weeks away from the third and final trimester. Yippie do dah. I have an appointment this morning and I am anxious for the weigh in and also for a very serious conversation with my doctor about my weight gain. I don't expect that my concerns will be well received, but I have to try. Maybe once I know my weight gain for this past month it will support or debunk my argument that something is not quite right.

Quickening Began

A few weeks ago I started feeling babygirl move around. Now she is a frequent kicker. It is frustrating that Andres can't feel her the way that I can although the other night he did feel a little bit of movement. Here are the weeks 18 and 19 belly shots.

More Recent Budding Belly Shots

14 Weeks - Islamorada (Florida Keys)

15 Weeks

17 Weeks (New Year's Eve)

Ultrasound Photos

Baby Girl put on a good showing of herself for the technician showing both hands and feet, legs and arms. But we were most impressed with her interpretation of Munch's The Scream.

 

 

 

I am sure that this is what was happening in my mind as well once I started thinking about the expense of having three girls to dress for special occasions; Holidays, dances, photo shoots....... weddings. THREE WEDDINGS!!!!!!!!! Yikes. We need to rethink how many bathrooms are added to the house, too.      

It's a Girl!

We aren't surprising too many people here - at least not the ones that know that we had a 75% chance of the third child being a girl following two previous girls. Turns out that it is not quite the 50/50 that one would believe. Apparently there is something about our chemistry that is just right for girls. So we are waiting for our third daughter. E is happy to have her way and L is just happy - not withstanding that she had wanted a brother. But she still gets to be the bossiest kid.