End of Week 38

Here I am approaching the end of week 38! How exciting. Doctor said his estimate is that the baby will still be the 6 lb range! We will see. I spent the whole morning contracting and lost my mucus plug (I know gross, to much info) but then I took a nap and everything stopped. So I had Matt snap a picture of my belly in case we make a midnight dash to the hospital. Thought I would share it with the world. ( oh and I am pretty sure Matt will manage to keep everyone informed of any progress via face book so if you are not his friend or you have him hidden you might change that for the next few days!!)

36 Weeks

This baby is coming ready or not! Luckily between my last pregnancy post and this one I feel slightly more prepared. We have a pack of diapers and the car seat. What more do you need?!? I have yet to pack my bag for the hospital (or preregister) so if we have any sudden dashes off in the next week or just know I will be at the mercy of what others decide to throw in a bag for me!!

Today the doctor took a look at little man. A very in depth one. He wanted to make measure all his little body parts to make sure is growth was on track and that there was plenty of fluid. He said I am measure much smaller then any of my previous pregnancy, which can be normal, but he just wanted to double check. Well his measurements showed that he is growing nicely and proportionate which is awesome! He gave me an estimated weight at he is looking at around 5.5 lbs right now so his estimated birth weight is about 6.5 lbs which is smaller then my others but I am not complaining I hope the estimates are right!!

My next appointment is Thursday April 22nd and at that time he will check me, hopefully that will get labor going?!? We can hope right!! And last but not least the belly pic (don't ask me about the facial expression I am just not a photogenic person).



Also, I have not forgot about Easter I will be posting as soon as I sort through the pictures!

Baby Blues

I am 35 wk and ready for this baby

I am pretty sure AJ doesn't like the fetal position.

He is head down and there is so much movement down below I can barely walk.

AND at the same time there is so much action under my ribs I can't get a breath.

This is not the Ritz AJ...please curl up like a good little baby and hug thy knees.

30 Weeks

Time goes by so fast. It seems like just a few weeks ago I announced I was pregnant, then that is was a boy and now here I am at 30 weeks. Down to count weeks on my hands. We haven't done anything to get ready for this baby yet. We still need to get an infant car seat, I sold our last one after Matteo was done with it because I assumed it would be out of commission before the next baby (accord to "the people" you are supposed to throw out a car seat after 6yr we had ours for 5yr). We need to dig out the baby boys clothes and the cradle but the good thing is we still have 10wks, well 8-9wks if he comes when I am telling him to!

Had an appointment with my OB and everything looks great. Baby looks good he is head down at the moment. I am pretty sure he flips daily so who knows now. I have to do a shout out to my trainer in Texas, Alma, thanks to her wonderful help and teaching me how to workout and be healthy I am proud to say that I am currently 20lbs lighter then I was Matteo at 30wk and 25-30lbs lighter then I was with Serafina!! YEAH, YEAH, less to lose on the other side. I might get back in my skinny jeans!

There you have it my pregnancy to date poured out for you all to read. And since I am feeling good about my overall health and look you all get a 30wk tummy picture, enjoy.

AJ

We have arrived at a name for our little man. I have been putting off saying anything because in the past we had been so definite on baby names it seemed weird that we really had to sit down and discuss this little guys name. The family has been using since before Chirstmas so I decide that it is safe to publish (chance of change are slim). His name will be....

Antonio James Regusci
Or
AJ (for short)

My mom came up with Anthony, which I loved and was a nod to our Nono. Matt like Antonio, and I agreed because it went along with our Italian theme we have going. James is after my daddy, William James Foster.

Now the only suprises left is when he will come and all his sats (hieght, wieght, etc.). We did have an OB appointment today and everything looks great. Not much to report. Mommy ate a little to much over the holiday's so I need to kick it up in the gym (still weighing less then I did at this point in my other pregancies) However it is close!! HAHA. I guess that means I should stop typing and get moving.

20 weeks

So...I am not really one to enjoy pictures of myself when I am pregnant. The funniest thing about that is I love to be pregnant and I love my belly sticking out full of baby and I feel beautiful, honestly, I feel so beautiful when I am pregnant.....however I don't care to see pictures of myself. Yes I am weird. But with that all said lots of people have been bugging me about my belly and wanting to see a picture. 20wks seemed like a good milestone to let my weirdness go and snap a picture for the blog (and I guess the little guy too, for when he is bigger!)


It is hard to believe we are half way through. I love that as am typing this I can feel little man kicking around (he knows I am typing about him). This last week I started noticing my belly when I try to bend or move in certain positions but I kind of love it because I really know he is there.

Serafina loves the baby and my belly she has to hug and kiss it ALL THE TIME, no matter where we are. Then she tells him "I love you baby", as she is hugging/rubbing my tummy. It really is the cutest thing (except when you are in the grocery store line with Sam talking a mile a minute, Matteo grabbing candy off the shelf or screaming and the checker would just like me to hit OK on the pad!) Sam is just excited it's another boy and Matteo is mad my lap size is changing, he tends to pick Nana's lap over mine!

That wraps it for now. Hope you all enjoyed the picture..might be the last one until I am 40wk! HAHA

90% Sure

It's a BOY!!!!


Can you believe it. I can.

Try as hard as I might I was trying to hide the fact that I was breaking out like a mad women (which I did with Matteo and didn't with Serafina), peeing every five minutes weather I drank any liquid or not (which I did with Matteo and didn't with Serafina), and the fact that every time I insisted it was a girl something inside of me said no its a boy.

My OB would only give a 90% answer because I am still on the early side for determining gender (16wk) and the baby is in a breech position which can make it a little difficult. However with Serafina he gave us a 75% girl call at 16wks and well he was right. He does check one more time to make sure there are not surprises. But his accuracy right is pretty high.

So there you have it, intelligender was wrong. That is now 2 people (myself and a friend) who have had false results (her said boy and it was a girl). So sad.

I am very excited. I think Matteo will be an awesome big brother to a boy. And well it gives us a good excuse to try for one more!!

Oh and the baby is doing great also. Everything looks great. After the appointment I went and did the huge 2nd trimester blood draw (filling 5 vials of blood) to check all mine and babies levels and stuff. Everything is just moving right along.

As for names we are now saying anything right now because we really haven't talked much about boys name. Wehave one in mind but not officially decided, so you might find out before he is born or you might not just depends on if we keep thinking or not. Once we make a decision we are normally not good at keeping it a secret.

(Oh and for those who are wondering my mother-in-law is still invited to Thanksgiving)

Four

Has it sunk into to anyone else out there that I am going to have four children. Three seemed normal, it seems like the average family at our church has three, no one looks at you funny for having three. I thought four was still pretty normal also, you know like on a bell curve you are approaching abnormal but are still with in range. Once you got up to five or more that's when people start looking at you asking if you are done but the more I think about and tell people this is number four it seems to be a pretty big leap. I mean lets really think about this:

1. We will no longer fit in a four door sedan car or smaller. We are destine to drive an SUV, minivan, full size van or bus. And don't think about leaving that 3rd row of seats at home because you actually have to use it, no huge trunk space for you.

2. Can someone explain school drop off to me? How do you, in a timely manner (under 30min) get your 2nd grader to class and picked up when you have to unbuckle (from car seats) your 4yr and 2yr old and now infant and then walk on to campus? Do you stop carrying the 2yr now so he will walk when the baby comes. If so that will be a long walk?!? I am starting to see why many large families home school.

3. Laundry - lets not talk about that one....I think it has been 2wk or more since I washed the kids sheets and we are going to add a fourth bed?!?

4. What if it is a boy, that is 3 boys. Did you hear that 3 boys. My mother-in-law bless her heart believes it is a boy, if she is right, we might dis-invite her to thanksgiving. We only want positive girl vibes and she is messing up the feng shway(sp?) of it all. Three boys, heart be still.

5. Can you imagine flying somewhere? SIX plane tickets. You are talking a small loan to fly somewhere. Not to mention flying with 2 adults and 4 children, that is a 2:1 ratio, 3:1 if someone has to go to the bathroom. Sorry to any relatives that live further then a car drive, it might be awhile until we come and visit.

6. Do people still invite you over for dinner when they find out you have 4 children?

7. What do you pay your babysitter? A small house payment?

Just some food for thought. Four. To be honest I am really so excited. I can't wait to have a tiny baby around the house again. And all my thoughts will be for nothing as soon as little nut is here because I know God has a plan and it all works out.

By the way the countdown has started: t-minus 7 days until we find out what sex little nut is. And please don't get me wrong, we will love it boy or girl. But 3 boys?!?!

10 1/2 Weeks

Today I had another OB visit, and yes he about died when I told him about my intelligender test. He definitely thought it was pretty funny and can not wait to see if it is true or not!! The world is waiting with baited breath. My mom and my mother-in-law went along with me. We had a great time and got a long look at the little nut. She (he) was swimming around quite active but my OB manged to get one good picture to print (which is pretty good considering how small the little guy is). He also tried to take a peek at the gender but it is to early, at one point he pointed to a white line on the screen and said that could be a boy part or just the umbilical cord, ha!

My next appointment is in 6wk and he promised to try and get a good look at the gender then! It cracks me up, I really thought with this one I would wait and find on the gender at birth but no. Now it is all we talk about. Promise the next post will be about something other than the little nut.

Looking at the picture the head is on the left and can make out the profile of the baby (pretty big nose huh?!?)

Predictions

Around our house we are into predicting the babies sex. With Serafina, I knew it was a boy because I wanted a boy (but secretly I suspected it was a girl). Every time I went to the OB I would ask him the heart (which was always in the 140 range) suggesting a girl. Which of course everyone was predicting a girl. (at which my OB just rolled his eyes)

With Matteo we decide to take it a step further and do the wedding ring on a string above your belly. I cant remember now but if it spun in a circle it meant one sex and if it swayed back and forth it was the other. Well my wedding ring did both at the same time so I thought for sure that meant fraternal twins...duh. Enter in the world Matteo; one boy!


So with this baby I though what experiment could we do this time. At the first ultrasound the heart beat was 140, Girl. (OB rolled his eye) But that didn't seem good enough that is when I found this:The Intelligender test!! For mere $29 at amazon.com you can find out your babies sex as early as 10wks. The accuracy is claimed to be 82% in really world testing and 90% in lab testing. OH baby who could pass up this fun way of predicting the babies sex before the 16wk (or so) ultrasound...Not me. So this morning I peed in cup, swirled around 10 minutes later discovered...

IT'S A GIRL!!!

To be honest it was not as easy to read as I thought because of the murky green color at the bottom so I went to the web site and compared sample results that they have up and it definitely is a girl prediction.

Needles to say I am hoping that I am not part of the 18% that get a false result (yes Jeanette we know you would probably fall in that category). I would love another girl. (Don't worry I will be happy with a boy too, a healthy baby is what we pray for) We are going to find out the babies sex, hopefully my OB will get a good look in about 5-6wk. I cant wait to tell him about my inteligender test, he is going to think I have truly gone off the deep end.

So there you have it. I will leave you now with my favorite FAQ from their web site:

Can I paint the baby’s room after the test results?
IntelliGender does not recommend test users to make any financial, emotional or family planning decisions based on the test results. This includes painting a nursery!

Little Nut

Well today I had my first OB appointment and it was very interesting. Our little nut is 2wk younger then we excepted!!! Which just throws off all my planning. My doctor said most likely because of the cyst a few months ago my cycle was longer then normal and therefor the normal calculations from the day of your last period doesn't work in my case. The little guy or girl is measuring 6wk and 3days (which at this age is a far more accurate way of determining fetal age then the day of your last cycle.) Now my April 20th due date is really May 2nd. I went ahead and gave her a little pep talk that mommy wanted an April birthday so she will just have to be a few days early. ( I guess I should be excited since I am one of those people that enjoys pregnancy, I was just given 2wks I thought were gone!!)

When I got home I looked back at when I took that first pregnancy test and realized that I got a positive test at 3 1/2 wks, that just seems totally unbelievable. So everything looks great her little heart is beating 140 times a minute, which goes right along with my dreams for a little girl. My OB just laughs at me, he said the wedding ring test is more positive then heart beat!! LOL

Oh and if baby cooperates we should be able to find out the sex sometime need of Nov. early Dec. That will be the next exciting adventure with Little Nut!

Hope you all are having a great week!

Differences

Well I thought that since I had a girl and then a boy that I had these pregnancy symptoms down, I knew what to expect for each one (and correct me if I am wrong but it can only go one of two ways -boy or girl). Now I am very worried as to what exactly I am carrying, the symptoms are new and totally different:

The girl: no signs or symptoms the first trimester, well that is not totally true I was super tired, pretty much slept through the holidays that year. My complexion was flawless all 9months, and never in my 3 trimesters did I experience the need to pee every five minutes. I started showing and wearing maternity clothes at about 15weeks or so. It was wonderful.

The boy: I knew it was a boy from the moment of implantation because I peed ever 5 minutes and that never stopped. I was totally exhausted the first trimester. And to top it off my complexion was horrible all through the pregnancy, I broke out like I was in high school again. I started showing at about 10 weeks and wearing maternity clothes about 12weeks.

This baby (or the moose): From my calculations I am about 6 weeks. I have been nauseous since about 4 1/2 weeks (that is why I took a test) The nausea comes and goes all day with no rhythm or reason. I haven't noticed a huge increasing in peeing but did I mention that I am experiencing nausea(never once with the other two). And if you look at me sideways, there is a small bump!!!! Yes small but it is there. I refuse to go retrieve the maternity clothing boxes from under the house. Six weeks and there is a bump, I am really afraid that this child might just be a moose.

So there you have it. I have my first appointment on Thursday the 10th, then I will have the doctors official due date. My own personal predicted due date is April 20th, 2010. Serafina's due date was July 20th and Matteo's was November 20th. So personally I like my due date for poetic reasons.

Just so you can all see what I mean:

Just over a month ago, washboard abs (OK not washboard but flat)

Tonight
(a bump..and no I am not pushing my stomach out)

Hidden Message

5+1=6