First up, potty training! This is actually round #2 with Norah. Round #1 was halted, not due to toddler, she was doing pretty good but the day I got the BFP, I called it quits. I just knew I couldn't be running at any second to help her when she needed it during my first trimester. And I was actually planning on waiting until it was a bit warmer to try again but she got a rash and needed some diaper free time and when I told her that one morning, she was so excited and ran to get her little potty yelling "I wear undies again!"...so it I guess it was time. It's been almost three weeks now and she's doing great. Earlier this week we drove 45 minutes to the midwife, had an hour long appointment, drove back to Costco and shopped, then stopped at Culvers for some ice cream. And all in the same pair of pants! So it looks like I'm going to have a full 20 weeks or so of the daytime diaper free life before we start up again. Woo Hoo!
And yes, I am 20 weeks now (Actually, 21 tomorrow - it's taken my 4 days to write this post :-). I keep meaning to do another belly shot but life seems to happen. Maybe on Sunday (because I'm actually dressed decently then due to church) I'll make Craig snap one. Poor 4th baby. But we did go to the midwife and baby is doing well. I, however, am quite anemic again. I've been quite tired and out of breath the last few weeks so I knew it was coming and actually asked her to check. But I've ordered some supplements and we'll see. Hopefully catching it early this time means I won't be so panicked trying to get it up at the last minute (by which I mean spending the the last two months of N's pregnancy on 3-4 different iron supplements with vary little success until the last minute :-)
when my body finally figured out what it needed to do.
And I'm starting to think about the baby actually coming. Norah reminds me a lot that there is a little tiny baby in my belly and that it will have a belly button when it comes out (she might be disappointed at how gross that belly button is at first but no use trying to explain that now). I'm checking all our car seats and alas, many are expired. (Not the ones currently in use, the random assortment of extra ones we've somehow accumulated over the years.) So despite starting this month having 8 car seats for going on 4 children, it looks like I might have to start researching those again. I hate car seat decisions. Too many variables to consider!
The baby is not the only one growing. So is the puppy. Look at the change in her face already!
A few days ago, again trying to be a lap dog which is hard considering I don't have much of a lap these days. She's only allowed on the couch after the kids are in bed when I explicitly invite her up and she knows this and takes full advantage of that fact!
On our way home from the breeder back at the end of January. So little!
I actually love it because I think she's going to be a very pretty grown-up and I'm looking forward to her being a little bit more past the mouthy stage. She's already less work than those first few weeks so I can't complain too much. They said at our last appointment that we could double that weight of 23 lbs to get an approximate full grown weight but I'm pretty sure she's gonna be bigger than 46 lbs full grown. She's a pretty skinny pup so that guesstimating device might be assuming a little more puppy chub that she has. I'm not trying to keep her skinny, she just self regulates her food at the low end of the spectrum although she is a better eater now that we've switched foods to better quality grain free mix. The vets not worried though, I guess she and J just like to stick together in the lower percentile club.
And to round our P's theme of the day - prayers. I'll take all I can get. I try not to whine too much in my posts but it's been a hard week but I also don't want this to be insincere. Life is busy and good. But rough too, especially this week. I've had a lot of nausea and vomiting, so out of breath I can't read aloud more than 5 minutes and back to depending on Craig for a lot of help which is hard for him too. Physically, I'm actually ok-ish. I am well enough that I'm not losing weight, baby is doing good, I'm okay enough during the mornings that we can get school and housework done and groceries ordered for Craig to pick up and I get enough breaks in the nausea that I don't feel as dead anymore.
But my attitude is slipping. I definitely feel like I'm in a season where I'm Moses and the prayers of friends are holding up my arms to keep going. I'm praying too but my prayers are pretty succinct and desperate sounding - but sincere! Yesterday I was thinking about how long I've actually been sick and I realized it was exactly 16 weeks from yesterday that I started taking Zofran. That's a lot of nausea and vomiting and one can only be nausea 50%+ of a day for so many months before starting to get worn down. I'm extremely thankful I did not know how long it would last because back at 7-8 weeks so I could just being thankful I wasn't as sick as I was with Norah. I would have panicked. But through that God is teaching me that I don't need all the patience and longsuffering to last this whole pregnancy. I just need enough to finish this day, and repeat the next. And those days when I do stop and pray and ask others to help me, things go smoother and sometimes, we have sweet moments when life feels a bit normal. Like yesterday afternoon. Wednesday afternoon had been really bad and I laid down on the couch at nap time and never really got up. I was worried Thursday would be similar and the kids know Thursday afternoon is tea time and they LOVE tea time and I didn't want to, once again, have to bail on them. I normally make a special treat for us to eat but this time it was just hot chocolate and orange slices but no one complained. We studied David and had some great kid speak moments that I have to write down or I'll regret not remembering *, we learned about hot and cold countries and found the country where our new pastor and his family just returned from being, missionaries on our map, we worked together to write our solfa song in shaped notes and practices it together and everything about our afternoon together just felt picture perfect. Now today we went on a good nature hike before the rainy weekend weather began but then tried to do some nature journaling with watercolor that ended with 2 out of 3 kids crying. So regular life. But it's my life and I do love it so.
*I'll let y'all use your imagination for now but I will say we studied David which was not only our first nude but also Norah's favorite Bible story that has replaced the three little pigs as the twice daily bedtime/naptime story request so some little people had a lot to say about those things.
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