May the 4th be with you (in July)

Title is purely for my star wars nerd of a husband.

An obvious sign of how hectic my life as a mom of three littles 5 and under, working casual as an RN, and currently playschool VP is that I haven't written a single post about this pregnancy, and I'm due in 6 weeks.

So I figured I might as well write one big all encompassing post, since I don't think things will get too much more exciting before this little girl makes another appearance.

We knew there was another baby waiting to join our family, and unlike with Scarlett, I didn't fight it the impression. Once we both felt the nudge we just said "okay let's do this". And voila, another positive pregnancy test under the belt.

This being the 4th, I knew I better start stocking up on ready to eat and frozen items, for the inevitable time when all I wanted to do was hibernate for 6 weeks and wish I didn't need to eat to keep myself alive. At least my kids and husband would be fed then.

Like every baby before this one, 6 weeks brought on nausea that grew and grew until I was counting every day completed as a major lifetime achievement, and one step closer to feeling normal again. I'm not sure if the nausea was worse with this baby or it was just the fact that I have more littles at home who need my attention, plus working (which I couldn't do a lot of), plus being chauffeur extraordinaire every single day. Gone were the mornings where netflix and dry cereal could raise my children, while I was curled up in a ball on the couch. I had kids to get to and from school, snacks to prepare, and errands to run while there was only one baby with me.

I had only taken diclectin with Scarlett, but it was pretty clear Scooby Doo and the mystery gang were going to be a better mother than I was, unless I started taking it with this baby. I didn't have to take as much as with Scarlett, but it allowed me to get through the morning with all my kids where they needed to be. The drowsiness it causes, on top of the regular first trimester exhaustion, meant I was a walking zombie by lunch. As soon as Scarlett's nap time hit, the big kids knew they got free rein of the screens and snacks while I had a nap. For the most part they were both really good about letting me rest, or the netflix and goldfish crackers were, and the nap helped me make it through the evening.

For the first few weeks it was just incessant nausea that plagued me. And then the unwanted emptying of my stomach contents came. Pretty much every day for a month, sometimes several times. There were times when I would be driving home from dropping Isaac off at school, and it was all I could do to get in the door throw my coat off as I ran into the bathroom to greet my porcelain friend, rather than pull over on the side of the road. With the girls the vomiting was minimal, compared to the nausea. That fact alone, along with my teenage skin made me think this was another boy.

Unfortunately the nausea really didn't start going away until 13-14 weeks, usually by 10-11 things really improve for me. So I was a little exhausted by it dragging out. Plus I couldn't manage much chocolate, so I felt like some of my Christmastime pleasure was taken from me haha.

We told my parents on my mom's birthday, by making her a multi photo frame with our most recent family portraits in it. In one of the frames, there was a picture of a family with 4 kids in a van and I captioned it "Our family in July 2018".

We managed to keep it a secret from Gordon's family a month longer until Christmas when we pulled out a baby stocking to hang along with our other ones. Hilariously no one except my sister in law seemed to notice what was going on. We just waited and waited until she finally (and loudly) got their attention to point out the obvious. We also didn't tell the kids until this point, although Isaac had a good idea, just because we wanted to keep it a secret from our families.

Beginning of second trimester

After two weeks away with our families, we were back home and with mountains of laundry to do, I trekked down the stairs, slipped and fell down 5 or 6. Unfortunately tailbones don't bounce too well so I could barely move for the next few days without a lot of pain. All my regular movements like bending down to pick up toys, put on shoes, and buckle kids in car seats was agonizing. I would walk around on my knees at the end of the day with a basket to put toys in so I wouldn't have to keep bending over. Driving for more than 10 minutes would have me leaning forward over the steering wheel to take the pressure off, and getting out of the van was a very ginger process that I repeated 4-6 times at least every morning. I had just started being able to exercise again, and then that was out of the question as well.Thankfully time has mended it but I don't ever just wear socks down the stairs anymore.

Second trimester was largely uneventful. I just felt like I was packing on the pounds faster than small whale, and my belly was growing exponentially fast. It also brought the return of my varicose and spider veins (thanks grandma for those genetics). They only really popped up late in my pregnancy with Scarlett, but came back at lightning speed with this baby right down into my ankles. My right leg is really the only one affected, and some days if I was standing for a long time it would just be a constant dull throbbing. The discomfort has actually eased up quite a bit surprisingly, and just as well since it's WAY TOO HOT for compression stockings right now.

We decided to find out the gender this time. I didn't like not having all the right clothes out with Scarlett when we brought her home. Plus I wanted to know how accessible I needed to keep the girl stuff. We gave an envelope to my sister with the gender, and she hid a jar of appropriately coloured smarties for the kids to find. I was sure we were having a boy. When Isaac found the jar and told me they looked pink, I briefly wondered whether she had put red smarties in (instead of blue for boy) that he was mistaking for pink. And then he said "I think there's purple in there too". At this point I looked at my sister to confirm that this was indeed another girl, and that for the first time my intuition had been completely wrong when it came to the gender of our baby. We will just say that what ensued was America's Funniest Home Video worthy. Isaac said "What?! Another girl?!" or something of that nature, and started to cry, Mia was already crying because she wasn't the one who found the smarties. And Scarlett just started crying because well...she likes to copy her big brother and sister.

 I think I was the only one with tears of joy haha! Although I was in a little state of shock. The three girls will have 4.5 years between them, which is the same spread between my and my two younger sisters. So I'm really excited this is another girl. Although it does confirm what Gordon and I had been on the fence about if this happened to be a boy-whether we would be finished growing our family or not. We felt like maybe we'd be done at 4, but maybe we would have one more. As this was not a boy, and we feel like there may still be another boy for us, number 5 is a likely scenario. But I am tentatively saying fifth and final if I get my way haha.

Halfway!

I was able to get back to working my two shifts a week, exercising, and running my house again. I don't think the kids were as thrilled that their little hiatus from chores, eating whatever they wanted for supper, and screen time limits was over though.

Start of third trimester-we were away from Gordon for a week so I sent him an update in case he forgot what I looked like hah!

Nothing too major has changed since entering third trimester except for the obvious size of the basketball glued to my abdomen. This is the time when I start to get ligament pain in my belly whenever I do anything too vigorous-mostly cardio or walking my 20 minutes from where I park my car to work. So I just do a lot of strength training for my exercise, and waddle a little slower. Over the last week or two though I've really noticed the effects of my bump size (and the heat!) on my mobility. This baby sits fairly low like #1 and #3, so a lot of bladder punches and hip karate chops have taken place. Isaac has had his baby sister kick him in the face and likes to watch my "belly gymnastics", where it takes on a mind of its own as its little occupant does some ninja moves.

Scarlett will often run up to me and say in her most concerned voice "Be careful! Baby sister!" And pat my belly or "Be gentle, baby sister!" or "I love baby sister". I think she might love her a little less when she makes her appearance haha. She still does love her fair share of mama's attention.

Every day I am torn between a tornado of emotions. I am overwhelmed by the prospect of turning four little humans into kind, resilient, and confident adults. I am humbled by the blessing of having them call me mother, and question every day whether I am equal to the task. I am terrified that there will be twice as many kids as adults, the oldest of whom won't even be six years old. Mostly I am excited to meet this new little treasure and kiss her sweet face.

3/4 way done (a month ago)!

Isaac: 5.5

I find the older my kids get (and the more I have), the less I need to update about them. They don't change at that lightning fast pace they do when they're first born. I also find that my post titles get less and less original haha!

Isaac is still my spitfire kid. He is stubborn and quick tempered, but can also be very loving and kind. He likes to push boundaries, challenge limits, and test the waters. He has a sharp wit, which he frequently employs against us.

Example- I asked him to stop jumping off the back of the couch and "hop down" so he jumped off the back of the couch onto the seat part. I said "I just asked you not to jump off that." And he replied "But mum you said to 'hop down'. That's basically the same thing as jumping off."

He lost his first tooth a few months ago.

He has a knack for French, and has really picked up quite the vocabulary and comprehension abilities since starting kindergarten. He really enjoys practicing speaking to me and throwing in random phrases and words in French.

He still loves sharks, Batman, and Star Wars. But his interests are definitely expanding. He has rekindled his curiosity about dinosaurs, likes other superheroes besides Batman, and even expanded his Sci Fi interests to Harry Potter (which we read together for the the first time this fall).

He is fascinated by science and natural phenomenons like the weather, space, and how things work. The books he brings back from school are often about exploration and discovery of new things. I probably have learned just as much about random things like volcanoes, space travel, and arctic expeditions as he has from our time spent reading together.

Isaac is a little obsessed with lego, although he doesn't spend quite as much time building as he used to, now that it's nice enough to be outside for longer periods. He can come up with a design for anything and build some pretty complex pieces with moving parts. Every component serves a purpose when he makes something (which all gets laid out in detail by him when he's showing me something he's building). He spent several hours outside building a house out of rocks and bricks Grandpa dug out of our flower bed. He even got a hold of a bit of copper pipe and some odds and ends to turn it into a drain.

The outdoors are his favourite.

He is very generous, and the first time he spent part of his allowance, he also bought something for Mia with it. He is always trying to give things away to friends.

He hates being told what to do, and always tries to argue his way out or twist my words around so he won't have to do it. To quote him "You seem like a good mum, and act like a good mum. But you are annoying." I think that's as close as I'm going to get to a compliment haha. He also told his aunt's wedding photographer she was "so bossy" while she was arranging everyone for photos.

He also had mad persuasion skills, and tries really hard to be the one who makes all the decisions. One day he and Mia were having a discussion about their hypothetical bunk bed they're going to share. Of course both of them wanted to have the hypothetical top bunk. Isaac told Mia "the bottom bunk is the greatest thing because when we have races to our bed you will always win." I'm not sure who ended up sleeping on the hypothetical top bunk in the end, but he is often using some smooth talking to get the upper hand.

His reading skills are coming along and Gordon and I find that we can't use spelling to communicate secretly in front of the kids anymore, or even speak French for that matter. We've decided we need to learn Spanish instead haha.

We are so looking forward to spending the summer with him before he heads to grade one!