22 weeks

not having access to my imac at all times, puts me weeks (ok, months) behind...

best birthday present to date, all 32 years of them, having baby 3's 20-week ultrasound on my special day.  it was only an hour of the day, and yet, it made me so happy.  you couldn't erase the smile off my face all day.  i've now had a handful of the 3D/4D ultrasounds, but this was my most "successful" one.

baby is measuring a week ahead and is looking a tad chubbier than i remember jb and dyl looking.  and this little guy (gal) was cracking us up!  see that bottom left picture, screaming, with his (her) tongue out?!  hilarious.  and, what a perfect little hand, waving to us.

how fun to have such movement and action... notice the bottom right picture, baby's foot up by his (her) head?  and the punching?!  don't get me started.  i can't help but smile looking at these weeks later now.  and, the profile shots are always heart-melting.  there's a real-life baby in there!

with all the hype around our california vacation with jack, birthday fun and just overall busy-ness, we missed the 20-week fruit/vegetable picture.  just so i have it in writing, at 20 weeks, baby was roughly the length of a banana, head to toe.  another a change - we now measure to toes, not just rump.  and, this is also about half the length of baby at birth!  10 more inches to go, and we'll have a baby here!  ...oh, if only it were that simple.

i'm feeling great.  my back/pelvic discomfort has subsided, and it's nothing that doesn't feel better after some minutes with a heating pad or taking a nice soak in our jetted tub.  it's mind-blowing to me how the discomforts & such that you feel in month 9 (or 10), i'm already experiencing.  that's #3 for ya!

the other adjustment that i've had to make: taking time to REST.  not necessarily sleeping, but realizing that i can't go all day, every day - run countless errands, have a play date, exercise the kids, etc.  taking one task a day is plenty.  i think before, i was carrying on like "normal" and that just wasn't working for me.  the day following a busy day, i'd be laid up in pain, unable to move.  i have to remind myself that i'm older, this is baby 3, and it's ok to take care of me!  mama's aren't used to that selfish-type of thinking, am i right?!

a few days after our return from california, i dragged out all our Christmas boxes.  disneyland and california adventure park were littered in Christmas decor.  so, it seemed appropriate that we continue with the celebration, even if thanksgiving was still a week and a half away.  the kids were so excited to decorate the tree and see all the fun ornaments.  dylan liked to place 5-7 ornaments on one branch, but jack preferred to space them out along the very bottom branches.  the obsessive-complusive in me had to really restrain myself from "fixing" how they decorated.  i merely was avoiding broken ornaments, spreading the love all over the tree...  as a parent, you try sooo hard to not curb their creative tendencies.

so with that, here's a glimpse of our tree, the size in length of the baby (according to dylan's spaghetti squash) and my ever-growing bump.  i was 23 weeks last thursday, but who's counting...