Joy Project

220)  "Miss you momma!"

This has been Carson's latest phrase.  He uses it at comical times - when I am going upstairs without him, going on a walk, etc.  He says it with such sincerity that I have to give that sweet baby an extra hug every time.   I think he probably picked this up from me, because I often tell the kids I missed them after being gone for work. 

221) A quiet Sunday after a crazy, busy week involving work, trip to DC, multiple basement projects, swimming lessons, nature "camp" (4 hours 3x this week), and Victor being out of town for 6 days. 

28 weeks! Baby #4

28 weeks with my little helper watching closely

For Comparison:

21 weeks

How am I doing?

Overall, very well.

I had an OB appointment this week.

CBC and one hour glucose test went well - not anemic or diabetic.

I was up 12 pounds at 27.5 weeks.

The belly measured 27.5 cm at 27.5 weeks.

This might be the first time I've actually measured as big as I'm supposed to be. Ha!

We'll see how I measure at the next appointment.

I wonder if this will be our biggest baby?

I have been running 20-24 miles a week still without much trouble (4 runs a week).

I also take 1-2 weight lifting classes a week.

Baby boy goes fairly unnoticed during the busy days but moves around a lot when I lay down.

Lainey can hardly contain her excitement about having a new baby in the house.

Erik watched him move all over my belly the other day which seemed to amuse him more than the other kids. 

It's been 90+ degrees and humid out this week.

Summer is here. Yuck!

Oh well!

The past 2.5 weeks have been exhausting.

We went to WI for 5 days which was fun but tiring.

We were home for a few days after getting back on a normal schedule.

Then Victor left for a week of Navy duty.

The week went well (aside from one day when I was exhausted and the kids were chaotic) but I can tell you managing 3 kids, a part-time job, swim lessons, nature classes, 5 major building projects that all were pressing this week, a trip to DC for my appointment, keeping up with cooking, cleaning, and exercise in addition to being quite pregnant left this girl tired.  Very, very tired.

Victor has another similar trip coming up later this month. 

I can hardly wait. Ha!

Overall, I still think this pregnancy has been my easiest and for that I am so grateful!

Hoping the next 10-12 weeks continue to go well.

We can't wait to me this little guy and see what he looks like.

Carson's Imagination

Carson is such a big kid now! He has quite the imagination and spends quite a big part of the day telling me stories. Often, he tells me some story about his siblings that isn't true. Today he told me, "Erik bite me right here mommy!" and "Lainey, pull my shirt and hurt my neck." He had hurt his neck, Lainey wasn't involved. Haha! He also fights off imaginary bad guys throughout the day. I love to see his little mind and personality develop.

Joy Project

216) Spontaneous hugs from Lainey -- Lainey's never been a kid who likes to cuddle much. But recently she has been throwing her whole little body on mine and giving me the biggest hugs ever. This is often followed by an enthusiastic "i love you Mom!" I can think of nothing better.

 217) Sleep -- last night I slept for 11.5 hours. This was the first time I have slept well (more than 2 hours in a row- 7 hours total) for two weeks. Sleep in WI was sketchy for me and the 2.5 pound baby sitting on my bladder doesn't go unnoticed at night. So I've been walking around in a bit of a cloud. When I got up this morning I was just hoping it was at least 7:30, possibly 8:00. It was 11:00 AM and Victor had somehow managed to get himself and the kids up dressed, fed, and out of the house for church without waking me up. That's impressive! (I was very, very tired!) He's going to be out of town all week so this night of sleep was especially appreciated.

 218) Low temps and low humidity this summer so far. I've made it to the third trimester without being uncomfortable due to heat. Yay!

 219) 24 hours to myself. On a quest for sleep and trying to feel rejuvenated before a very busy month with quite a bit of travel for Victor I went up to DC for a night and played tourist. I visited the supreme court and Library of Congress. I've been in both buildings before but it's been quite a while. I ate a quite dinner by myself, watched TV, and read a book. I did not sleep well which was disappointing but the quiet time was still appreciated.

Quick Trip Home

As mentioned previously, we went to WI for 5 days recently. It was a fun, busy trip. We managed to get to mom's retirement party (minus Victor and Erik). I was also able to visit my friends Katie, Pat (and Hannah, Cailin, and Jim), Nicki, Jill, and Kristi, Mary (briefly). My cousin Anne and her husband Mike spent an afternoon with us as well.

 We took the kids to Bookworm Garden which is a pretty amazing place. For my WI readers - you should try to visit it if you are in the Sheboygan area for any reason, it's free and very beautiful. We squeezed in daily runs and walks and lots of good eating.

 Mom, Dad, and Victor flew with Kevin on his first day ever of paid flying. Yikes! They had fun and made it back safely. This was at the Sheboygan airport which was hosting a Father's Day brunch and offering scenic flights (Kevin was one of the pilots).

 Uncle Colin was there for the first day, and then took off to Kansas for a friends wedding.  
              The only thing lacking this trip was sleep. Erik was up almost all night the first night which was the only night Lainey and Carson slept "well". After the first night Erik slept better, although I discovered that he seems to talk (actually yell) in his sleep quite often, but Carson got up every night. Ahh the joys of parenting. Victor, once again shone by dealing with Carson in the middle of the night (even dad got in on the action one night). On the way home Erik was SO tired that he almost fell asleep at the table when we stopped for dinner. He was too tired to eat and fell asleep immediately upon getting back in the van (5:45 PM central time) and didn't wake up until 7:00 AM CST. Pretty funny! We had a nice trip and I'm glad we made it but it was a reminded as to how much work traveling is with kids. One funny quote from Erik the day after getting back, "I guess now we are back to having 2 parents instead of 4." Haha!

Colin's Traveling Flu

Erik finished pre-k a week ago. The next morning we got up at 3:00 AM, finished last minute packing, and headed to the airport by 3:40. We were on our way to Wisconsin to surprise my mom at her retirement party. I had let my Dad know we were coming, just in case mom wanted to schedule a trip out of town that weekend or something but no one else in the family knew. The plan was to hang out at my friend Katie's house that morning (our flight left DC at 6:30!! and landed in Milwaukee at 7:30) and then just show up at my mom's party at 2:00 PM. Well, flexibility when parenting is key right? About 35 minutes into our drive Erik vomited all over. Victor cleaned it all up (he's a good guy) while I tended to Erik. For a second I thought maybe it was motion sickness (although he'd taken dramamine) but my gut said he was actually not feeling well (he refused most of breakfast-very unlike him) which was proven true when I took his temp and saw he had a 101 degree fever. So now it's about 4:45 in the morning and we are 45 minutes from the airport with a febrile, vomiting child who at this point seems to have the stomach flu. We discussed turning around and taking Erik and Victor home but then we'd all miss the flight so instead we decided to keep going and figure out what to do on the way. I called the airlines and learned that of course for a fee of $75 plus any difference in the cost of flight we could hold his flight for 24 hours or cancel it (and rebook within 12 months). If we were all to cancel it would cost us $400 which didn't seem like a good idea. So we decided, if mom and dad wanted a puking febrile child in their house we would try to make it on the flight (hoping and praying Erik didn't get sick at the gate or worse, on the plane). So ruining the surprise (or just changing it a bit) I called my parents home phone at 4:00 AM their time. My Dad answered and suddenly I broke into tears explaining the situation. Apparently he wouldn't let my mom pick up the other line trying to preserve our surprise but that didn't really go over well once mom figured out it was me crying on the phone at 4:00 AM. Hahaha! So she picked up and I explained the situation to her, giving her just a slightly different surprise then we intended. We did make it to Wisconsin without anymore vomiting. There were also huge storms all the way from Chicago to Maryland that day but our flight was surprisingly smooth. Erik had high fevers for 48 hours (up to 104.1)but only threw up one more time (30 hours later). No one else caught and I am fairly confident this is a reappearance of "Colin's traveling flu". We traveled quite a bit as kids (always by car even though Colin had terrible motion sickness and terrible body awareness regarding when he might be sick). I'm only slightly traumatized. In addition to the motion sickness Colin frequently would have fevers and an upset stomach the first 2-3 days of our trip. No one else ever caught it and so eventually it seemed as though it was just stress related. Odd that you can get a high fever from stress but if Erik continues to have travel associated illness I'm going to guess it's stress related more than anything else. (This is the 3rd or 4th trip when Erik has had something just like this while traveling.) Colin is a great guy and Erik resembles him in many, many ways. Quiet, laid back, smart, stubborn (quietly), independent, kind. Victor also holds these same traits. In fact, I'm quite sure I have an idea as to what it is like to live with Colin, only a 15 year older version. Victor however, has a stomach of steel, while Colin has the opposite. I love many of the traits Erik has inherited from Colin (and of course Victor) although I'd be certainly happy to go without the puke gene. Ugh! Sure hope baby #4 doesn't get that one too!

Joy Project

We've been busy!  Victor was out of town for a few days  but all went well.  Soccer is now over and this is the last week of school.  Wonder how many days it will take post-school until I hear, "I'm bored!"

Here's some things I'm thankful for this week...

207) Dandelion bouquets

208) Lainey sitting next to me and rubbing my back which is what I often do to her

209) Sweet Carson always saying, " Mommy, lay down with me!" before his naps.  He is so busy but likes to be snuggled.

210)  The pool opening

211)  Cool weather still!  Yay! (Well, 80 degrees which is fairly cool for this time of year here.)

212) Erik getting brave and jumping in the pool on his own (private swim lessons start for E and L tomorrow)

213) A fun run and birthday celebration with friends Saturday morning

214)  My friend Julie taking Erik to a birthday party yesterday afternoon (her daughter was going too).  It happened to be during nap time and BOTH littles were napping (and Victor was gone) so I got 1.5 hours of complete silence which hasn't happened in forever.  

215)  Erik reading to me.  His reading ability continues to impress me.  So fun!

Joy Project - Notable Quotes Carson style

204) Spending one on one time with Lainey yesterday

205) Erik's family tree photo he drew at church this morning.  This cracks me up because he forgot Carson and had a super unique spelling for Byron (my dad).  Kay is my mom's name (although in WI she goes by Anita, the kids refer to her as grandma Kay). Kids are funny!

206) Carson's enthusiasm for life.  He approaches most of life with great excitement and exuberance.  I love it!

He was blowing down the towers prior to taking a video, still cute though

 At the pool he loves to jump in (baby #3 = fearless).  Tonight he was telling Victor emphatically, "No HANDS Daddy! I jump myself."  Meaning he didn't want to be caught.  Sorry buddy.  When you are two, you are going to be caught!

He loves to water the bushes and plants.  He also loves to squirt anyone who happens to be out side with him with the hose. Ha!  He loves our garden and has excitedly picked off many green tomatoes and strawberries.  Oh well.

He is funny!  Yesterday, we were all in the car and about park.  I pointed out a parking spot to Victor (just with a gesture).  Carson shouted all the way from the back row, " Park RIGHT THERE Daddy!" Hahaha!

Lainey (and all my kids) likes medicine.  She is a little mad that she doesn't get to take allergy medicine like Erik does and often will summon up a fake cough hoping to earn a dose of drugs.  I find this a little amusing and a little annoying (After 6 weeks) and have more more than once asked her to please "stop faking a cough".  Well, today Lainey coughed once in the van and Carson shouted out, "Lainey, YOU faking!"  Hahaha!

Baby #4 - 24 weeks

24 weeks down, 14 to go (I hope)!  

All 3 of his siblings arrived at 38 weeks so I'm hoping, praying, expecting him to too! 

We'll see!

That being said, this pregnancy is still quite easy.

I'm more tired than normal but I also think we've been really busy so I 'm

not sure the pregnancy is entirely to blame.

(For example, yesterday we had an 8:30 soccer game,  afterwards we stopped at a design center to pick out a fixture for the basement bathroom. Then I took two kids to the gym and ran 6 miles while Victor went home and did some cleaning, raced home and took a quick shower, ate a quick lunch then Lainey and I went to the farmer's market and grocery shopping.  Raced home again and laid on the couch for 45 minutes while Victor unloaded the groceries.  We then all went to a birthday party and then headed to the pool for an hour of swimming before coming home for showers, dinner, and bedtime.  Phew! So it might not be the pregnancy making me tired. Ha!)

I have some annoying varicose veins on my right thigh although they aren't super visible, which is good  because they are HUGE (hopefully they stay hidden).  

I've still been running fine, 20-22 miles a week usually. 

My goal now is to keep that up until the third trimester which is only 3 weeks away so it should

be fine, assuming nothing big changes between now and then.

I have some heartburn and take meds about 3-4 days a week for that.

Baby is pretty active although admittedly when I am up and busy I don't notice him that much.

He is always busy flopping around when I lay down.

I continue to crave crab cakes which has actually expanded onto other sea food.

This is so odd because I have pretty much hated all seafood for 33 years. Ha!

I also really crave salad and vegetables and have eaten a lot of them since the start

of this pregnancy.  

I've gained 7-8 pounds and am growing slowly.

The heat is kicking in and has been about 90 degrees for the past 4-5 days.

Thankfully it just comes in waves and will be in the 70's all next week.

We are finishing our basement and won't really be able to re-organize the kids rooms

or get anything ready for the baby until that's done (all our stuff is crammed in the garage currently).  So hopefully by July we will start figuring out sleeping arrangements for all 4 kids. Ha!

I'm so thankful that this pregnancy has been the easiest one since it would be 

very difficult to be super sick or uncomfortable with three tiny tots running around.

Normal shirt (above)

Shirt pulled tight (below) 

For comparison:
25 weeks pregnant with Carson - baby #3
I only have 21 and 27 weeks with Lainey and
don't have easy access to pregnancy photos from Erik