Baby Boy #3 Updates

I feel like I have not adequately blogged enough about Baby #3. :( I don't want for him to look back at blog books in 20 years and to feel like the neglected 3rd child. I just can't have that! So, I thought that I would do a little run down of my pregnancy up until now, in an effort to properly document this baby's history. :)

* We found out that we were pregnant on Saturday, September 4th. I was just as excited (if not more so!) at that moment as I was with our previous positive tests. It is crazy how just that one second of time changes your whole life! One minute I was the mother of two, and in an instant I realized that I was the mother of three. I was screaming and giddy with excitement! I couldn't wait to come up with some cutesy way to tell Wade. I just woke him up out of a dead sleep to show him the test and announce that we were expecting. Once he got over the initial shock of being woken up, he was thrilled too! :)

* I saw my OB for my first prenatal appointment on September 27th. The baby's heart was beating at 152 bpm and that tiny little flashing heartbeat was just as reassuring as I remembered it to be.
* We told Clayton about the baby on October 1st. He had been begging for a wallet (wanting to be as much like his Daddy as possible). We gave him a wallet and inside we put 2 pictures. One of the pictures was of him with Drew and the other was our sonogram picture. His reaction was priceless! We have it all on video, and I will treasure that forever. He loved his wallet and the picture of him with Drew. When we asked him about the sonogram picture, he was really confused. He said, "That's a picture of Drew when he was in your tummy, right?" I was shocked that he remembered my sonograms with Drew! When we told him the picture was actually of our new baby, he was super excited! He started laughing with this nervous laughter that he couldn't control. It was super cute. :)

* I saw my OB again on October 25th. That appointment was probably my favorite memory of this pregnancy thus far. My OB does a sonogram at every appointment for all of his patients, and that is such a blessing! I was overwhelmed with emotion during my sono at that appointment. At my 7 week appointment, there was just a small white ovalish figure with a flashing light of a heart. But, by this appointment (11 weeks) I could see a formed baby! There was a definite head and chest and 4 limbs. I remember telling Dr. N., "You would think that since this is my 3rd baby, that I would remember how much they change in such a short amount of time, but I can't get over it!" His reply was so sweet and tender (I love my OB!). He said, "Sarah, I do sonograms everyday, and I am still amazed by the whole process. Every baby truly is a miracle!" It was at that moment that I felt like this baby was a real person. :) His heart rate was 168 and he was moving all over the place! It was so fun to watch!

* At my appointment on November 22nd, we found out that we are expecting Boy #3. I blogged all about that HERE. His heart rate was 167.

* I had my 19 week appointment on December 20th. The baby's heart rate was 163. We could see the brain, bladder, stomach, spine, and most of his other bones. Everything looked "perfect" according to Dr. N. That was music to my ears... :) He wanted to wait until my next sono in January to further examine the heart. He said that he waits until the heart is bigger, so that he can get a true picture of what is going on. There are definitely 4 chambers, but we will have to wait until my next appointment to get more details. Once his heart all checks out okay, I will feel a sense of relief. The nurse in me just can't rest until I know that all of the anatomy is functioning just as it should be. :)

* I have been blessed with very easy (if there is such a thing, I guess!) pregnancies, and this time is no exception. In fact, I would say that this has been the easiest so far. I felt nauseous literally twice during my first trimester and never actually got sick. (I got sick a handful of times with both of the other boys.) I am just starting to experience that pesky heartburn (my most annoying symptom both of the other times), but it is totally manageable. Zantac is my new best friend!

* I just started wearing my first maternity clothes this week (week #20), which is later than either of the other boys (19 weeks with Clayton and 17 weeks with Drew). Hopefully, that means that this baby will be smaller than Drew was???

* I felt this baby moving while we were in France and I was 16 weeks pregnant. I thought that I felt flutters at 15 weeks, but told myself that it was too early for that. But, at 16 weeks, I was laying on my stomach trying to fall asleep and I felt a for sure kick. I didn't feel Clayton's first kicks until 19 weeks and Drew's at 17 weeks. So, it has gotten earlier each time. I guess maybe I have just gotten better at knowing what it feels like. :)

* So far, this baby moves a ton, just like Drew did. (Clayton wasn't as active as either of his brothers in utero.) This baby has been super active during all of my sonograms (making getting measurements difficult) and I feel him moving all of the time! I'm hoping that maybe he will follow in Drew's footsteps and get all of his craziness out in the womb and enter the world as a laid back baby. That sure would be nice!

* The biggest dilemma that we are facing right now is what we are going to name this baby. We cannot seem to agree on a name! Wade shoots down every name that I come up with and I am not crazy about his choices either. The main problem that we have run into this time is that our friends and family all have really good taste in boy names. :) Most of the names that we agree on are already taken. We both love Jackson, William/Will, Luke, Caleb, Grayson, Eli, Collin, Grant, and several others that our friends and family have used.

We have come up with a few good options, but nothing for sure yet. Both Clayton and Drew have family names as their middle names. We would love to continue that trend for this baby. So far, the family names that are in the running are William, Thomas, Paul, and James. All are great options, so that is nice! We are just going to have to pick a first name and then decide which middle name sounds best. :)

I am hoping that we can come up with a name soon! I am anxious to start monogramming everything in sight. ;)

* I have already noticed one fun perk of having 3 children that are all the same gender. We already have everything that we "need," so I can buy things that are "wants." We already have lots of clothes, equipment, and toys. We aren't going to redo the nursery, so that is already done. Since all of those bases are covered, I don't feel guilty spending a little more money on the fun stuff. :) I have already bought Baby #3 several outfits that I wouldn't have splurged on the first 2 times around. (By "splurge", I mean that I have paid $30 for a couple of nice outfits that aren't from Target or Old Navy. I'm not going crazy paying boutique prices or anything. :) ) I also feel less guilty about using a really great photographer and getting the pictures that I will cherish forever. I find myself justifying the things that we didn't buy for Clayton & Drew because Baby Boy 3# is so cost efficient. Ha! I guess that there are perks to being the 3rd boy!

Alright, now I feel like everything is caught up as far as documenting this sweet babe. Hopefully, we will have a name announcement to make soon!