Anticipating baby number 3

At 39 weeks we are nearly ready. I have a list of 10 or so things left to do at work, but at this point, I’m behaving as though we are functioning on borrowed time. I’ve said since about 30 weeks that I’d like her to give me up to the Friday before her due date to get things done. I wanted to round out getting the teams on “auto-pilot” at work for while I’m away and I have a few writing tasks (annual reports, etc.) that need my attention before I go, but they aren’t stressing me out too much, because even if she arrives tomorrow, I’m confident I’ll get them done. These two photos are in the last four weeks, as I rounded out the final stretch of waiting for our baby girl and the third one is right before we went to the hospital to meet our newest love.

At home we’re feeling pretty ready. In the last few weeks we’ve had a handful of unexpected events that pushed along our readiness in drill sergeant fashion.  First the Jeep finally died. The brakes went out and we really were not interested in putting a dime into it, so it was time to buy a new car. We knew this would happen sometime this summer, but didn’t exactly anticipate it at the end of my pregnancy, but whatever, we kept chugging along. So, we sold the Jeep on craigslist (hooray!) about 20 minutes after it posted (people love their Jeeps!) and then leased a Ford Flex for Drew. This also meant that another “honey do” task was moved up to the top of the list- cleaning out the garage. A new car meant we had to create the space for both vehicles in the garage, so we spent a weekend cleaning furiously.

At the same time we’ve been working on the mudroom (which is a post of all its own) and its coming along. We plan to finish before she arrives and are nearing the painting stage. This was a big project, so I’ll be glad when its off the list.

On top of these two fun things, we landscaped the front yard. Well, we half landscaped. When landscaping we figured out there was a foundation issue with the house, so we had to call the contractor who is taking his sweet time coming out to fix the issue, meaning half the front yard has new plants, and half looks like an excavation site. Ugh.

Outside of these three major tasks though we don’t have tons left at home to do. The nursery is ready, the car seat is installed, my hospital bag is packed, cameras are charged, back up care for the boys is secured. We’re on track to have a baby. We do need to finish planting the garden, but my hope is that can happen here there or anywhere J

But, even though we are ready and waiting in many ways, my body is seriously complaining. At 39 weeks I’m certainly not small. My body is really uncomfortable, and everything is a chore. The boys have taken to letting me “win” any race or competition: mom, come downstairs with me! Me: Okay, but I’m really slow, boys: its okay, we’ll stay behind you!

I can’t sleep well- it takes no less than four pillows strategically placed, and the heartburn is the worst I’ve ever had. Even with Prilosec every day, I can still feel the stomach acid in my throat. I’ve been on and off nauseous and feeling a little like the front end of pregnancy instead of at the tail end, which is no fun.

Life in general is much slower- this last bit I’ve found myself stuck in a few spots. Mostly between the car door and the garage wall, wondering how I’ll get in or out of the car. I can’t quite master a handful of regular tasks- tying my shoes; lifting the laundry off the floor into the washer; walking up and down stairs, and trying to stay on top of all the tasks the boys need. Its like a slow motion turtle took over. I’m trying though!

In these last few weeks I went on Collin’s zoo field trip, we traveled to LA for Erik’s wedding and I found out I was awarded three major awards- two IES grants for 1.4 million each and one SBIR grant, so work has been exciting. This feels a little bit like a “when pigs fly” scenario, and amazingly, it happened just all on top of anticipating one of the soon to be best days of our lives- baby Hollman #3’s birthday.

So, we’re taking the good with the bad, and hoping that we can balance out the things left to do with her due date to ease into a relaxing and anything-but-frantic approach to maternity leave. Wish us luck!