Pregnancy

My mind flashed back to the images I’d seen in a darkened room days prior. Murky and blurred, those screenings are a total mystery to me even after having three children. It’s weird, though, how human nature wants to grasp at straws in an attempt put "abnormal" into some sort of "normal" framework that we can conceptualize.

I’m three pounds away! I got pregnant with Sidekick when I was 150 pounds (which was already a little heavier than my ideal 140-145…I had a few extra pounds still clinging to me from Some Boy’s birth nine months earlier). I gained 27 pounds with Sidekick and lost a good deal of that in the hospital after his 8 pound 10 oz hefty little self was out. Since then, I’ve been doing my best to moderate what I eat without being too restrictive.

As most of you know, we have a 5-month-old. What most of you don’t know: we’re already trying to have another baby. It’s always been part of our "plan" to have children close together. My sister and I are six years apart and while we’re the best of friends now, the age gap was apparent when we were growing up. Nate and his brother are – brace yourselves now – only 11 months apart! Nate feels like he was really lucky to have his playmate at such an early age, and he’s on the same page with me about trying to have another baby as soon as possible.

The boys have something they’d like to say. We’re calling it a big brother announcement.

This post is titled "5 Things To LOVE About Being Pregnant" however, an alternative title would be "5 Things I’ll Miss About Being Pregnant" too. You see, I just recently had my very last baby and although the postpartum hormones are raging (like an inferno) with everyday feelings of mourning like "aww this is the last time I’ll have a baby in newborn diapers" and "ooohhh this is the last time I’ll have a first baby bath" and so on and so on and so on (you get the idea) I wanted to take a moment and mourn being pregnant instead. Because let’s be honest besides the morning sickness, heart burn and bladder the size of a peanut – being pregnant kind of rocks.

We get emails frequently from young couples who have been following our blog but haven’t made the leap into parenthood…until now. "What to do when you’re pregnant" is a Google search term that, I kid you not, leads to our site. We’re totally used to dealing with overjoyed but completely overwhelmed, panic-stricken people staring down the barrel of a double lined pee-stick.

If you follow us over on Instagram, you probably saw this pregnancy announcement coming a mile away based on all the awkward stomach-hiding filters we’ve been adding and weird half-body shots we’ve been posting lately. If that didn’t tip you off, perhaps the fact that I’m constantly sleeping or have taken to wearing ridiculously oversized sweaters might have been a clue. I showed pretty much immediately with this, the third child in our epic line of world dominators.

Nate and I were together five years before getting pregnant with our first son. I’ve known plenty of people who didn’t have that kind of time before starting a family and it usually worked out fine for them. Personally, though, I was glad we were able to get our ducks in a row first because parenthood hit me like a freight train! Once the baby comes, priorities shift entirely and there is no more preparing, no more vacations, no more sleep.

I’ve finally gotten past the morning sickness, but I’ve entered a whole new world of pregnancy cravings. I want ALL the food. All of it. All the time. I remember attending a business conference when I was about 7 months pregnant with Sidekick and experiencing the same overwhelming hunger. Some poor lady was trying to network with me at lunch and I was like, "Less talky. More eaty!" before diving headfirst into her dessert.

I was holding Some Boy in my lap when my grandma abruptly changed the subject of conversation. "So, are you still pregnant?"

I had weird pregnancy food cravings all throughout my pregnancy with Some Boy, and this one’s no different. Common suspects include Oreos, waffles, jalapeño poppers and ice cream. My blood sugar levels were pretty high with Some Boy, to the point that the nurse inquired about my pregnancy food cravings. "You can have ice cream on occasion," she said, "Just not every single night. And maybe don’t eat an entire package of Oreos every day." Oreos were my weakness. Still are. I can’t seem to stomach much meat and I just want sweet stuff constantly.