Pregnancy Symptoms that Never End

My mom got pregnancy nose BAD when she was pregnant with me.  You know, the super smeller?  And it NEVER left her.  My entire life, my mother had an extremely sensitive nose.

I got pregnancy nose with each of my kids, though worse with Curly Girl.  Mr. Curly says it didn't seem as bad with the subsequent pregnancies because it never really left.

But you know what symptom is hanging on for dear life now that Curly Baby is NINE MONTHS OLD? (How did that happen?!)

Cravings.  Food cravings of all sorts at all times.
Sunday night I was craving cinna-stix from Pizza Hut.  Since we made homemade pizza, I attempted cinna-stix.  Good, but not great.
Shopping Monday was REALLY hard not to buy all the cinnamon rolls and coffee cakes HyVee had on sale.

Monday night, the cinnamon and icing cravings came back.  So I made cinnamon & sugar popovers.
Yep, popovers.

Using Alton Brown's recipe and my new giant muffin tin from Mr. Curly's Sister (THANK YOU) I added a cinnamon sugar mix to the popover batter and baked away.  Made some powdered sugar icing.

Oh my goodness.  They were SO good!  My popovers never really pop, there isn't ever really a great hole in the middle to be filled - but for a quick bread that you can use with soups, pie filling, pb&J, roast beef, or yes, even powdered sugar icing.  They just can't be beat.

Considering the fact that Curly Baby will be switching to whole milk soon, I have to get these cravings under control.  I can't be eating like I'm pregnant/nursing when my last baby is a year old!

So, how's it going?

I've decided to skip the birth story because my view of events are WAY different than what actually happened (example - I was sure I pushed for at least an hour, turns out it was more like 3 minutes).

Anyway, everyone's big question now is how things are going. And my answer is "So far, so good."

My amazing mom came and spent the week and did all my cleaning and most of the cooking. My wonderful dad came with her and entertained Curly Boy and Girl, plus hung up shelves, put on a closet door and bought ice cream for us all 3 different nights!

Curly Baby is, I suppose, normal. He's pooped on me once, peed on my bed, soaked through a diaper and blew out another. All in one week! Curly Girl peed on me the first night I had her home, but since then, I've never had that problem.

I can't complain though. He's a ridiculously quiet baby. And after his last feeding of the night (which is sometimes 8:30, sometimes 11:30), he will sleep for almost 5 hours. After that early morning feeding, he sleeps another 5! He never cries (except for at bath time), and is extremely tolerant of Curly Girl and Boy being in his face.

Curly Girl is madly in love with him and wants to hold him all the time. Curly Boy likes him, but we are dealing with some jealousy issues. Nothing we can't handle.

So, that's how it's going. I'm hoping to get back to regularly scheduled blogging soon - but tomorrow is my first day as full-time mommy of three with no help. We'll see who cries first....

Curly Baby is here!

Curly Baby Boy was born at 5:59 pm on April 16, 2011. He was 8 lbs 1 oz and 21 inches - my biggest baby yet!

I'm debating a birth story - I like to hear them as a mother myself, especially if I'm not anxiously awaiting my own labor and delivery, but maybe not everybody else does?

Mr. Curly is fantastic as always - sleeping in recliners, giving Curly Baby his first bath, waking me up when Curly Baby is hungry (because he doesn't cry!), shuttling the other Curly Kids around and arranging baby sitters.

Curly Girl is madly in love with him and Curly Boy thinks he's pretty cool too, but prefers me not to be holding him.

Baby Update

39 Weeks



Hopefully soon. Due date is April 17 and the doctor assures me Curly Baby will be here before Easter. I sure hope so! I'm very eager to meet this new little Curly Kid!

Confession....

I am terrified.

My official "guess date" (as one of my friends calls it) is April 17. So we're 12 days away. Curly Boy was 12 days early. We're in range. Any day now, we'll be the parents of three!

And last night, as Mr. Curly and I talked it over, we suddenly realized - we are going to be the parents of THREE!!! What were we thinking? TWO BOYS?! Curly Boy was 2 shelves off the ground in a store the other day before I could grab him. Curly Girl has started making shopping lists which she wants to fulfill every time we're at the store.

I am terrified.

I'm terrified of labor. I was scared with Curly Girl - I had never had a baby before. But 8 hours of labor (3 after the water broke), 30 minutes of pushing (sorry if it's TMI for some of you) and I was a momma. Not just any momma, but the momma to the most beautiful girl I have ever yet to meet.

And Curly Boy? 3 hours labor, 9 minutes of pushing and I had a son. The smartest, most handsome son anyone could ask for. He has the best grin.

But this baby? I have no idea what the delivery process will be like. Fast or slow? I hope fast - as fast or faster than Curly Boy. I'm terrified it will be slow. Slow, like 12 hours or more, complications and IVs and all sorts of things I don't want.

I didn't even have an IV with Curly Boy - no time. And no pain meds with either kid. I want to do that again. This is the last one for us - so I really want to be strong and make it through.

But will I? No idea.

So, yeah, my TMI confession of the day.

Pregnant S'mores

Wednesday night I created the most perfect s'more ever. Everyone knows how to make the typical s'more. My best friend's mom made hers with reese's peanut butter cups once, and I didn't think it could get much better than that. But it can. Ingredients: 2 honey graham crackers 1/2 hershey chocolate bar (3 squares per s'more) 6 strawberry flavored heart-shaped marshmallows Sweetened coconut flakes (the baking kind) On half a cracker, place 3 marshmallows. Microwave for 10 seconds (marshmallows will be fully puffed) Remove, quickly top with chocolate, coconut and remaining half of cracker. Enjoy! I suppose you could substitute the strawberry marshmallows for regular ones (1 large marshmallow, or 6-7 of the mini-kind), but all I had were heart ones left over from valentine's day! Anyway, my coconut craving is getting rather out of hand (I want it on EVERYTHING and will even eat it plain, something I used to shudder at), but this was a marvelous snack! You should try it!

We pay for this advice?

So, one of the blogs I follow (On the Banks of Squaw Creek) had a great post about stuff her doctor says. Read it here. It's hilarious.

And I thought for sure that it would never happen to me.

Except yesterday at my doctor's appointment, my doctor told me to always pick up a jar of pickles first thing when I went grocery shopping from now on. That way if my water breaks, I can break the jar of pickles, give my cart to some employee and run.
I laughed and said "yeah, because saying 'Hey my kids just broke this jar and are going crazy' will just explain everything."

It made me laugh.

For those who like official updates - I've lost a pound, baby's heart rate is good, and we're not looking at any early births.

Are you a doctor?

Answer: I am today.

Actually, I'm not a doctor. But I did get to meet my new doctor!
Last Monday I had my 34 week check up. I took the whole family to meet our new doctor here in IA. He is wonderful! He let Curly Girl hold the speaker to the heartbeat monitor when we listened to Curly Baby's heartbeat, and was very understanding about Curly Boy's fussiness (it had been a long morning). He even said his wife could watch our kids while we were in the hospital with Curly Baby if we needed it!

The only slightly scary thing was according to all dating, I'm 34 weeks along, and he measured my stomach at a 36! I was right on with Curly Girl measurements, and per the early ultrasound with Curly Boy I measured a 38 weeks along the night he was born. So am I just bigger because I eat ice cream every night (seriously, every night), or am I farther along than I thought (because I thought I should be farther behind in the beginning!)?

Yesterday morning we had a tour of the OB unit of our new hospital and met the OB coordinator. She is very nice as well and helped us pre-register so we don't have to worry when labor begins. She also asked if we had anybody to watch the kids, and said if things progressed as quickly with this baby as they did with Curly Boy (I only labored 2 hours), that the nurses could probably watch Curly Girl and Boy in the hall for a bit while the labor was happening.

I love small town hospitals!

Hopefully, as we've had several people in our church volunteer, and we're hoping to talk to some friends of ours in the area, we won't have to drag the Curly Kids to the hospital with us, though I did love that Curly Girl got to meet Curly Boy before he was 30 minutes old. I think it would be nice to do that with Curly Baby as well, but to take advantage of the nurses just for that? I don't know yet. I guess it depends on what time of day Curly Baby decides to show up!

Mr. Curly is still as nervous as ever, but finding the closest parking spot and door to the OB unit helped make him feel a little better.

The boys' room is already to go and yesterday I cleaned/organized what is unpacked so that we could see what is actually left to unpack.

Today, we're in SD again, trying to get everything back once and for all. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Post title from the old TV series "The Pretender."

Baby Update!

This is me at almost 23 weeks in my all-time favorite maternity shirt. Mr. Curly now lovingly refers to my stomach as "bulbous" and thinks it is really cute. Honest.

I've gained 13.3 pounds so far. I am ok with this, as long as I don't continue to gain 4-5 pounds each month for the next 4 months. This will probably mean a teensy bit more self control from me when it comes to the strawberry ice cream covered in caramel sauce (it is sooooo good).

Curly Baby is NOT a fan of having my stomach measured as he pushed and kicked hard during that part of this weeks OB appointment.

However, we did finally get a clear heartbeat (he is usually hiding so mine always interferes). Low 140s as it has been.

Hip pain is normal. Indigestion has started to kick in, but only on nights where supper is later than usual and the Curly Kids take baths. I think it's all the up and down disrupting where my food should be.

So there we have it!

A dream within a dream.....

I've had some interesting nights lately. While my children are actually sleeping all night long, and I myself don't wake up (much), my brain never shuts off.

I go to bed and wake up, muscles relaxed and ready, but my brain is still just as tired. The other morning, I'm not sure I washed my hair in the shower, but I'm pretty sure I conditioned twice. I just couldn't think!

And I'm not going to bed late. And I've cut back on the evening caffeine.

It's the dreams. Tons of them! Good dreams, bad dreams, realistic dreams, fantastical dreams..... I dream all night long, my brain constantly racing, never shutting off.

I remember having nightmares with my Curly Girl pregnancy, and just whacko dreams with Curly Boy, but this is absolutely ridiculous.

I have always had a suspicion that it is hard to sleep while pregnant in order to prepare you for when baby arrives. Now, I'm certain of it.

So while my friends and family look more gorgeous in every photo, I continue to look more haggard, more run down, and more like a mom every day.

But I still wouldn't trade my kids for anything.

Boy were you wrong!

We hang our heads in shame. Our gender guessing days are over. When asked what we thought, we confidently answered "Girl."

BOY were we wrong!

Curly Baby is a boy, most definitely no doubt - he's not shy to show it all!

So, Curly Girl will now be the big sister to TWO boys, one 18 months younger than her, and one 3.5 years younger than her.

Two boys. This should be fun.

And don't give Mr. Curly too hard of a time - he used the same process he always has that has been correct through at least 6 other babies. 6-1, that is not a record to be ashamed of.

We'll see what happens with his other guess - my brother and sister-in-law's baby.

And me, well, this pregnancy is perfectly following Curly Girl's, right down to cravings, what I can and can't eat, level of sleep - everything! How could I think anything else?

We're ridiculously blessed with just what we've always dreamed about (one girl, two boys) and April can't come fast enough.

We're ready to welcome you, Little Brother!

I have a baby in my tummy too!

Every time I tell Curly Girl I have a baby in my tummy, she insists she has one too. She even told me she has TWO babies! My response is always "Oh how fun! We'll be mama's together. And wow, 2? You're going to be busy!"

Yesterday she heard the baby's heartbeat, and since I couldn't see her face, I wasn't really sure if she got it.

Last night I had yet another sinus headache (they happen regularly when I'm pregnant, though these seem worse than usual) and told Curly Girl that. She said "No, no tummy ache, it's a baby." I laughed a little. "No, Sweet Pea, my tummy is fine. My head hurts."

She seemed to accept this, though she was upset I wouldn't play chase, we moved on. A couple of minutes later she put a ball in her shirt and said "Look, I have a baby in my tummy!"

I almost died laughing. It was just too cute. She pulled the ball out (a clear one with a plastic dinosaur inside) and said "Oh, what a cute baby." And then proceeded to throw it across the room.

I hoping she threw it because pretend time was over and it was time to play ball.

I'm looking forward to taking her to an ultrasound.

Baby Update, as promised

The appointment went well. I had Mr. Curly and both Curly kids with me. Since Curly Girl had always cried at all of Curly Boy's pre-natal appointments, we were a little nervous, but all went well.

I am 19 weeks and 2 days along according to the doctor. The baby is at my belly button and I've gained 8 pounds. Which seems like a lot to me, but the doctor said 25-35 is a healthy weight to gain. I gained 20 with Curly Girl and 30 with Curly Boy, but had a harder time getting it off (never really lost the last 10 lbs) so I'm very aware of weight gain this time around.

We skipped the quad screening, due to insurance and money, but also because we have no history of those issues on either side of the family and have two completely healthy children. It doesn't mean something won't happen, but it doesn't change how we feel about the baby. And even though we're in a small hospital (both here and in Iowa), life flights can get us to a bigger hospital in 20 minutes or less.

The baby's heart rate was in the 140s.

I know many people who don't go by heart rates to guess gender, but Mr. Curly always has, and so far, with all our friends and family, has never been wrong. I think my sister-in-law is trying her hardest to prove us wrong, but we don't know her baby's gender yet! So we'll see how that turns out!

Anyway, based on that heart rate - Mr. Curly says girl.

I say girl based on the following, I had all of these issues with Curly Girl, but none of these with Curly Boy: facial breakouts, fruit cravings, heartburn/stomach pain with certain foods (I always had heartburn with Curly Boy, he had hair!), short-temper, inability to cope with other people's problems, and a few other personal things I don't feel like posting to the world.

We'll have a sonogram next week and announce it then! Until that time - what's your guess?

Curly Baby Update!

Check back this evening to see the new Curly Baby Stats (if you're interested.) :)

Who started this silly game anyway?

This is me at 18 weeks pregnant.

When I was roughly 8 months pregnant with Curly Boy, and Curly Girl was finally walking, we began a little game of "don't touch Mama with the X" (whatever was in her hand).

In the beginning, it was a striped fish finger puppet. I would tickle Curly Girl with it, and then she would "chase" me as I pretended to be terrified of this fish. The chasing was easy, take 3 steps away, watch as she toddled closer, jump away, she'd giggle and try to run. Super cute, super easy to do, even pregnant.

The game has continued and evolved as Curly Girl's skill has. Now there is real running, now she wants to be chased too. And now Curly Boy has joined in the game.

Monday night, for 30 minutes, we played "don't touch mama with the snake." The 'snake' being a broken necklace chain (a thick one) Curly Girl found in the dirt this past summer. Making hissing noises, Curly Girl began chasing me around in circles in the family room.

It soon became running from the family room to the living room, catching Curly Boy so he wouldn't hit the hardwood too hard when his stocking feet slipped out from underneath him.

But then, the Curly kids wanted to be chased. So there we were, Mr. Curly firmly planted in his recliner in the middle of the action, working on the laptop, while I chased the two kids from the couch in the living room, across the room, into and across the family room, through the dining room to the far corner of the kitchen. There, hissing for all I was worth, I would tickle as they screamed with laughter.
And then we ran back to the couch, where the children would jump up for safety, but of course, the snake followed them there.

I have no idea how many trips we made back and forth across that house. We had to end the game however, when Curly Boy fell off the couch, missed the area rug and fell flat on his back on the hardwood. After that, we played "26 card pickup" with Curly Girl's alphabet cards: Counting to 3, throwing the cards in the air as we all screamed "Woooahhh!!!!"

It was so much fun, and the children even helped pick up all their toys before bed. But, as I wearily climbed the stairs to take them to baths, I looked at Mr. Curly and said "Who started that silly chasing game anyway?"
Completely laughing at me, he simply answered, "You."

Ooohhh yeeaaahh. Hm.

Remember those nice juicy cuts of steak... leftover baby food.

Yesterday for lunch I ate a BowlAppetite! Garlic Parmesan Pasta dish. I burnt my tongue and felt that it was too heavy on the garlic and the sauce wasn't thick enough. However, about 15 minutes after eating, Curly Baby 3 started jumping! Little kicks is really all I felt, I believe the baby might still be too small to feel when he/she slides a hand around his/her world, or turns over.


I'm still amazed I'm feeling a baby move this early (well, early for me anyway)!

It made me chuckle a bit though - Curly Baby obviously appreciated the garlic pasta.


On a seemingly unrelated note....

Sunday night, on our way back up to our weekday home, we stopped at Taco Bell. Curly Boy ate half a tub of their nacho cheese plain. No chips, no "fiesta potatoes" just his fingers and nacho cheese. When we gave him a chip, he sucked the cheese off of it and handed it back for more. He ate one potato bite, and then proceeded to just scrap off the cheese and put them on his napkin.


This is typical toddler food behavior, at least for my children. The funny thing about it is, I wildly craved ballpark nacho cheese when I was pregnant with Curly Boy. Cheese of any sort really, and I'm usually not a cheese fan. Several times, my marvelous in-laws, that live just blocks from Wisconsin, sent me huge blocks of the BEST mild cheddar cheese I've ever had. I actually requested more for Christmas this year.

But what I really wanted was nacho cheese. I bought cans of it.


And now, 19 months later, Curly Boy is eating nacho cheese straight out of a tub.


It makes me wonder how much Curly Baby will adore garlic bread....


Post title roughly taken from "Lady and the Tramp"

We interupt this special announcement for another special announcement

So, wow, Sunday.

Mr. Curly sits with us each Sunday morning during the music part of worship. We set in the very last row against the wall. I would like to sit up closer, maybe not second row where I grew up, but closer. But right now, the last row gives Curly Girl room to dance during the singing, they can sit under the pew against the wall, throw the offering envelopes everywhere, or lay down and color without being cramped.

Anyway, at the last song, Mr. Curly goes up front to pray before the special music.

Yesterday, Curly Girl desperately wanted to go with him. He told her she had to stay with me, and she started to cry, no scratch that, make it, SCREAM. I pulled her on to my lap and tried to get her to calm down as Mr. Curly made his way up front.

"I'm thinking I should've let her come up with me." He laughed, and then began to make an announcement about the World Evangelism Fund offering we will be taking in a couple of weeks.

And suddenly, Curly Boy was gone. Walking up the middle aisle, grinning at each person he passed as he made his way to daddy. I put Curly Girl down and went after him. He made it to the platform before me. Mr. Curly picked him up with a grin, looked at me and said "Should we just tell them?"
I sighed. "Sure." And joined him on the platform, then called for Curly Girl.

She came running, accusing me of leaving her. I explained that I had to come get her brother, that I hadn't left her.

And Mr. Curly told the church we were pregnant. He ended it with "So on top of selling our home, if you could pray for the pregnancy too, we'd appreciate it." He then handed me Curly Boy, who promptly hit his head on Curly Girl's cheek, setting them both off screaming, and I marched down the center isle, down the stairs to the nursery.

After church everyone was very gracious and understanding of the screaming, rambunctious children we had that day. I don't know what was in their cereal but they did everything 150%!!

Still, they were good kids, just wanted their Daddy during church. We're still working on that. Maybe if I set closer and they could see him.... but then who knows how many people we would distract??

Project Saturday!

Project-wise I had a completely successful weekend.

I completed 1/3 of my niece's Christmas gift (pictures after Christmas!).

I made a mini duffel bag for my children's car books out of an old night shirt.

The duffle bag instructions I found here. My pictures aren't so great, but it turned out OK. My finishing is never good, and I didn't have velcro for the closure. Still, once it was all full, it worked and looked decent. I should've taken a picture of it then!

AND, I turned a pair of pants that fit everywhere but the waist (before pregnancy) into maternity pants.

The maternity pants tutorial I found here. I followed the idea more than the instructions, but I'm very pleased with the outcome.

Where were my children during this? Well, Curly Girl helped with a few things, and then spent the day coloring or watching TV (she has a horrible head cold and was just feeling blah). Curly Boy spent most of the day wandering the house, snacking on pop tarts (so healthy, I know) and pushing cars around, quite content to be on his own (for once).

And a lot of my work was done during nap time and after they went to bed, late into the night. :)

It was a rare day, and I doubt it will be repeated, but it was nice all the same.

You'll look ravishing in this one!

I don't know many pregnant women who say they feel "ravishing" (unless maybe it's Heidi Klum) but new clothes are always nice.

You would think, this being my third pregnancy, that I have plenty of maternity clothes by now. And I do, so far as covering the top or wearing dresses or skirts go. But in the pants department, I'm sadly lacking.

Curly Girl was a summer baby, which meant dresses, shorts, capris.

Curly Boy was a winter baby, but I worked at a job where you could wear sweats and no one would care. I also only worked 4 days a week, so I got by on 2 pairs of jeans and one pair of dress pants. At home, well, I wore my pajama pants a lot while doing laundry.

I also stretched out some of my t-shirts.

But, with this baby, with this job, I can only wear jeans one day a week, and sweats are most definitely out (which I'm ok with because I look awful in sweats anyway). So I took a trip to Goodwill.



I'll admit, I'm a bit of a snob about clothes. I'll wear Walmart brand clothes, no problem, but I don't like buying second hand. Once in awhile I'll visit a consignment shop for the kids, or if I'm desperate for a new top, but Goodwill never even hits my radar. Until I'm cleaning out my own closet that is.


I broke down last week though. I'm losing pants to wear one by one, and going to looser shirts instead of tailored button-ups. So, a lunch break trip to Goodwill was in order.

After 15 minutes, I walked out with 2 pairs of pants and a long-sleeved polo. I'm such a sucker for long-sleeved polo shirts, but I never seem to find them when I have money! The pants: a black pair of corduroys with button-adjustable sides (I'm not a belly panel fan) that are a tall, so they'll need hemmed, and a pair of underbelly beige pants.



I now have 3 pairs of dress pants and 2 pairs of jeans I can wear. And, if I don't care too much that the fashion is about 4 years old, I can wear my maternity capris with my knee high boots through the winter and call it good. I can also wear the knee high boots with my skirts, but I'll need to find some good maternity tights or leggings. That may take an internet shopping trip.



Post title from Beauty and the Beast.