38 Weeks and 2 Minutes

Here's a little update on this pregnancy:

This baby moves all the time. Seriously. He's definitely the most active baby I have had so far. It makes if fun though. Even though I can't sleep well and it's often uncomfortable, it's still my most favorite part of pregnancy.

Back pain + mega pelvic pain: So I have had tailbone issues each pregnancy and they only seem to get worse with each pregnancy. It makes it very difficult to sit and sleep and do normal things. On top of that, I woke up a couple weeks ago with an unwelcome pressure on my pubic bone and I assumed maybe he had just dropped. It drastically worsened and is now at the point where I sometimes can barely walk, roll over in bed or stand up. Climbing into the car is excruciating and a stroll through the store has me in tears. I have never had this with the first two. My bones grind and crack as I walk and it just plain hurts. I haven't had that "ready to be done" feeling and I rather hate that feeling, but this pain makes me consider doing everything I can to get the baby to come soon. Thankfully it started at the tail end of my pregnancy, so I am doing my best to fight through it and avoid bed rest. My midwife offered some prescription drugs to help with the pain, but I declined and am sticking to heating pads and rest which does alleviate the intensity.

Tressler Boy #3: He still does not have a name. It drives me crazy. We don't seem to be any closer to a decision. I think up until a few days ago James didn't realize how pressing it is that we decide on one soon. Sometimes I wish babies came with a name already. I have a name that I have liked throughout the pregnancy, but it doesn't have a great meaning, so James hates it. I think that will be my back-up if nothing better comes up before baby comes out.

Moving: We are moving on the 22nd and I am due on the 28th. I was hoping to have the baby before Christmas for his birthday's sake, but that would make the timeline for events this year a little difficult. I'm not too worried since I don't plan on moving any boxes by myself anyways, but I am going to be eager to unpack them and to also get Christmas stuff set up at our place asap. Thankfully my mom will be here to help me, so it'll all be fine.

My bleeding disorder: Still waiting to hear the results of my latest blood work to see if my clotting factors are in a normal range which would allow me to deliver in the birthing center. Otherwise I'll be in the hospital.. not the end of the world, but not my first choice.

Few random notes: I crave salt all the time. I have taken to chewing the salt off of pretzels before I eat the pretzel. I realize it's gross and not super healthy, but I crave it. I still crave smells, but not as badly as I did. I do take breaks in my day to occasionally take a big whiff of laundry detergent. I also crave crushed ice almost all day long. My poor teeth.
I have crazy dreams and I often wake up around 5 and can't get back to sleep ( I am so not a morning person). I get the "you look like you're ready to pop" comments on a daily basis now. They make me laugh, but if I think about it they make me feel so embarrassed too. Several weeks ago I had an elderly man ask me how much longer I had. I told him 7 weeks to which he replied, "7 weeks?! Looks more like 7 minutes!" I just laughed. I know they don't mean to be offensive, but it still doesn't feel good to have people reminding you how large you are when you already feel large and disgusting.

38 week check-up: I came through the door and the first midwife I saw said, "You're still pregnant?" Then I waddled my way to the bathroom (the pelvic issue makes it impossible not to waddle and it is a very exaggerated waddle) and the receptionist said, "You're walking kind of funny there girl!" I just shouted back, "I know, I'm in pain!" She later told me I'm the cutest pregnant lady, so that made up for it :) Everything is looking good. He has been head down since at least 33 weeks now and my last ultrasound proved that. Things are moving along and my body is getting prepared, but no major signs yet. Won't be too much longer though. AHHH!

It is so weird that I am 2 weeks away. The last month is always bitter-sweet for me because you get the beautiful baby you've been waiting for, but you also lose a part of you. Pregnancy isn't easy or really fun, but I still love it and I miss it after each delivery.

This was the ultrasound pic taken at 33.4 weeks. He wasn't very cooperative. I have several pics of his hand and arm covering his face, so this was the best we got. He is definitely a boy and growth is normal. He looks like Makai to me here. 

We're so excited to meet him. Ezra told me my belly is big enough so the baby can come now. lol. If it weren't for my sweet young women who told me the other day that I am a skinny pregnant lady and the cutest they've ever seen, I might have a complex. Love those girls :)

Happy, healthy baby thoughts.... oh, and any last minute names?

Ezra's Last Soccer Game

The season has officially come to an end. I have loved watching little Ez grow and become more comfortable through practices and games. What a difference there was from his very first game to his last.

Daddy was only able to make it to two of his games this season and they were the only two games Ezra scored in. We've decided Daddy is his good luck charm :)

He scored 3 goals in his last game!!! It was awesome. He ran to me during a water break and said with pride, "I'm not sharing at all!" That's right, I have taught my child not to share in soccer (at least in this stage). He was so happy to have daddy there and ran to him for high fives and confirmation that he saw the goals after each one.

Me: Wait a minute... how many goals did you score?!

Getting his medal. It even has his name on it. 

He was so so proud. I love when he feels proud of himself.

Makai keeps asking to go to "Shoccer game, Za Za." With which he'll always follow with, "Shoccer all done." He's a little sad we can't go watch Za Za any more, but he seems content to know there will be more games to come when it's warmer out.

If he has to get older, at least there are fun things like watching him play soccer  to help me cope!

Trick or Treating

After James was called into work on both of his days off during the week and was not even allowed to come home at night, his boss decided to be nice and let him off early on Halloween to take his boys trick or treating :) We went to the mall to start our trick or treating. It was lame, lame, LAME. It was supposed to go from 5-7, but more than 3/4 of the stores either weren't participating or ran out of candy the first 30 minutes and the "treats" were weird. We left disappointed and cranky.

We went to find some dinner and then found ourselves right near a fancy neighborhood that we had jokingly discussed trick or treating at earlier. Well, we went there. We drove into the secluded neighborhood, parked right in front of a strangers house and knocked on their door for some candy.

It was an AWESOME neighborhood. Even though it was cold, people were sitting on their porches or at the end of their driveway greeting us with candy and free beer. That's right... awkward. It seemed like every other house had a cooler filled with beer. Never seen that tradition before, but I guess it's big in their neighborhood.

The residents, aka "our neighbors" were very friendly and gave the boys handfuls of candy. There were fun decorations, crowded (but not too crowded) sidewalks and streets. It was the perfect place to go trick or treating.

Ezra dressed as a pirate and Makai wanted to be a monster. I promised to take pictures, but then forgot my camera in the car, so James snagged a couple with his phone.

Mr. Mak could not wait long to tear into his candy. He was content chewing through wrappers and stuffing his  face. He would go to the houses and say, "Treeeeat!!" Major sweet tooth. Totally my fault. You can usually find him hiding in the corner somewhere with sugar drool dripping to his chin and an "it wasn't me" look on his face. Trouble trouble!

Pirate Ezra and mommy trick or treating. This year I am happy to say that I resisted the urge to tell Ezra which candy to pick and I let him choose whatever one he wanted even though it was the 40th lollipop he put in his bucket..

We came home stocked up on goodies and sooo tired. Wish I could say I'm one of those mom's that sells back her kids candy or throws half or all of it away, but I have to admit that I am one of those mom's who steals more than half of her kids candy for herself and then bribes them with treats on a daily basis until it's gone. Sorry to disappoint you.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Disney On Ice

A couple of weeks ago Ezra and I went on a wonderful mommy-son date. We went to Disney on Ice!! I felt guilty leaving Makai with a babysitter, but there isn't enough room on my lap for that wiggly bum and I wanted to really enjoy the show with Ezra. It turned out to be a great date for us, so it was perfect. It was the Disney on Ice: Rockin' Ever After show which features Ariel, Rapunzel, Merida (from Brave), and Belle. So glad he doesn't mind the princesses :)

He was so excited and so adorable before, during and after the show. On the drive home he kept me alert by asking me my favorite part of every 5 minutes of the show. For example, "When Ariel was spinning, what was your favorite part?" or "When Brave (that's what he calls her :) shot the arrow, what was your favorite part?"

Then he told me that he can't wait to go on another date with me because he loves me. Melted. I need to do this more often with my boys! The only bummer of the night is that my camera died before any of the princesses came out. A+ for being prepared.

I hate that this picture is blurry, but I had to post it because I adore that face!! We were marching to find our seats. 

I wonder if his cheeks were hurting by the end of the night.

We got there early enough to snuggle lots. 

I know... this would be way cooler if he had actually been looking at me, but this is the best I could get of Mr. Mickey.

(And to top it off... my babysitter wouldn't let me pay her! She makes me feel like I'm doing her a favor by asking her to watch one or both of my boys. She's awesome :)

Halloween Carnival/Trunk or Treat

Busy busy busy. Life has been a little crazy for us. Part of that reason is because me and one of our youth were in charge of the Trunk or Treat for our church. It was really fun. I have discovered that I love to plan parties. It's hard to plan a party for SO many people especially when they don't all like your ideas, but it was still loads of fun.

We had a Halloween Carnival before the Trunk-or-Treat where we had games set up all over the church gym for the kids to win some treats and prizes.

This picture doesn't even do justice to the crowd we had. It was crazy, but fun.

We also had a separate room for kids 6 and under that we called our Junior Spook Room. We had a couple of games (pin the spider on the web, toss the bats in the buckets) and a coloring table, make a ghost craft with lolli's and tissues, and one of the other wards did a touch and feel table.

One of the stations I was most excited for was our Haunted Hallway. It was really just an obstacle course (jump of witch legs, crawl under the spider webs, dodge the ghosts, etc.) Don't know what the reactions were, but I know Ezra at least LOVED it and went through many times.

Our young woman Katharine helping out :) This took us a couple of hours to set up, but it looked pretty cool after all was said and done. 

The games we were in charge of (other than the Hallway and the Junior Spook room) were face painting, Feed the Monster (adorable little game I think I came up with, but chances are is out there somewhere. We had one of our artistic young women draw a monster on a box and cut out a mouth. The kids had to get down and blow a balloon into his mouth. We let the little ones kick it in. It was really cute.) and Pumpkin Pop:

Our young women Brooke and Erica helping out. We filled the balloons with candy and pinned them all over that board. We gave the kids a very dangerous balloon popper pin thingy and let them go nuts :) There was always a long line and this was the first game to run out of prizes/materials. 

I stole those above pictures from my friend Teresa because I was so busy before and even during that I forgot to take pics. I didn't even get a picture of my kids. Ezra decided to be Spider-man because he had gotten his face painted as Spider-man earlier that morning at Story time and I never got a chance to wash it. Makai was a pirate again because that was what I grabbed when I ran out the door earlier that afternoon to go set up. Here's Ezzy's face paint from earlier that day at least:

The Trunk or Treat portion after the carnival was fun too. Since we were so busy decorating and preparing inside we never did get a chance to decorate our trunk which was a real bummer to James (who happened to be home that night!) He loves to decorate for Halloween, so he was really looking forward to it, but I monopolized his time inside. Sorry Tressler! We had a great time. I'm so glad our church does fun things like this for the kids and I was so glad to be able to plan it this year :)

AND... When I went back inside after Trunk or Treating I was planning on staying about an hour to clean up, but found that everything was already cleaned and my decorations were already in piles for me! Thank you to all who helped with that!!!

Halloween at Six Flags

Recently the boys and I decided to take a trip to Six Flags to participate in their Halloween festivities. We had a great time. The boys were so cute and excited.

Ezra got to go on many rides and he was so brave to do most of them alone :) He even rode a roller coaster all by himself. Nothing says "they grow up too fast" like watching your oldest throw his arms in the air and scream with joy as he is whipped around another turn on a roller coaster.

Little Mak enjoyed watching "Za Za" on the bigger kid rides.

This is a spider web maze that Makai ran through maybe 20 times at least. 

I can just hear his laughter and it makes me smile. He really liked this 'bouncy up and down' one.

Once I discovered that Makai could go on most of the kid rides as long as he had a "responsible companion" he enjoyed himself much more. Ezra took to the "responsible companion" role quite well. He made sure to buckle him, put his arm around him or in front of him to protect him and either held his hand or gently guided his head to help him know where to go. It was adorable. 

They had a trick or treating trail, so I convinced Makai to keep his costume on long enough to get candy (and no longer). Love my pirates.

After trick or treating they went on a little hayride and had a blast. 

These boys sure are good at having fun and that's all it takes for me to have fun!

(Poor daddy had to work, like always, but Ezra couldn't stop talking about how proud daddy would be of him and how much daddy would like to go on certain rides or see certain shows during the day. Out of sight, but never out of mind or heart, daddy!)

30 Weeks

No pictures, but there is quite a baby bump. I'll just leave it at that.

I'm feeling pretty good. It seems like the beginning of the 3rd trimester is the best for me. I of course have growing pains and back pains and extra great pregnancy stuff, but I don't feel nauseas right now and my headaches aren't as frequent. I have also had less heartburn with this pregnancy which is great.

I am at a point in my pregnancy where I don't feel the nagging urge to be done being pregnant, but I have been feeling anxious to hold and smooch on my 3rd baby boy. I am FINALLY feeling connected to this pregnancy and it makes me so excited. I have not only accepted the fact that it's a boy, but I feel so happy about it. I love my boys and I can't wait to have another!

I talked with a good friend of mine recently who has 3 boys. She said she has told herself that she will not get pregnant again unless she can be content with the idea of having another boy. Good advice. I have thought this over and over again and I think it is what has really helped me to be so excited to have another boy.

This baby is still a wiggle worm. He doesn't really stop. Sometimes it hurts, but I have to admit that I absolutely love the movement. That's what I have a hard time letting go of after I have the baby. I just miss feeling the kicks and squirms inside of me.

I have a really weird craving for certain smells. Fall/Christmas scents are definitely among that list. I tend to pick up candles often and just take a big long sniff until it makes me smile and then I am satisfied for a little while. I also like to sniff our laundry detergent. In fact I'm craving it right now. I love the smell of my mother-in-laws really strong markers too. Sometimes I open them up just to smell them. Don't worry, it's not often and it's not for a long period of time, but it is still bad. Our young women tell me that I am totally weird and am clearly losing brain cells.

Things are going great with my midwifes. Still no decision about whether they'll allow me to birth in the birthing center, but I'm hopeful. I just hope they don't say no and that I don't get stuck in a hospital on Christmas. My thyroid levels are good. I took the glucose test over a week ago and still haven't heard back, so I'm hoping that's good news. It was, of course, miserable and they make it even worse here than my last doc in Idaho.

We still don't have a name. It kind of stresses me out because I don't feel like we're even getting close. People keep giving me suggestions but nothing seems to feel right or appeal to both of us. I'm still open to suggestions, but really only because I'm hoping I hear a name that I either haven't heard before or I don't hear very often.

I have been having many sleepless nights. I wake up like a million times to go to the bathroom and it seems like lately I have a hard time going back to sleep after. I'll lay awake for about 2+ hours until I finally doze off and shortly after get jerked awake by James' alarm or one of the kids. It makes for long days sometimes. So I'm tired, but I'm getting by.

I don't have a lot of time to focus on being pregnant, so I guess this is the sum of the 30 week update this time around. Basically I feel like this part of my pregnancy is quite textbook which I feel blessed about.

Here's to another 10 weeks and then a baby!!

Fun in a Box

Sometimes you just need to forget the toy and stick with the box. James got me a ton of boxes from work and I couldn't resist giving one to the boys to play with. They colored it, climbed in it, on it and screamed a lot. We poked Halloween lights through it and had a blast. It seriously kept these boys occupied for days and hours at a time. They colored almost every inch of the inside by the time I "set it free". If you're looking for a cheap, indoor activity... get a box.

My Amazing Baby Shower

A couple of weeks ago a very good friend of mine (Becky) threw me the most fantastic baby shower ever. When she first mentioned that she wanted to throw me one I just thought, "but I don't need anything." She insisted that didn't matter and that we needed to celebrate anyways. I happily obliged. 

It was a glorified girls night. What could be better than that? Becky planned it all and surprised me that night. She's kind of amazing. She's the kind of friend everyone needs.

 She picked me up and we drove to The Melting Pot! YUM! 

There was a great turn out, great food, great conversation and I felt so very blessed to look around the table and see so many faces of people who care about me and wanted to participate in celebrating our 3rd baby.

Becky, Kenyatta, Teresa

Kim, Amber, Linda

Donna, Jaime, Elissa, Brooke

Mary, me 

Teresa, Aurora, Mya, Haley

 Look at all those beautiful faces!
 (My friend Felicia had to leave pre-pictures, so just imagine another pretty face mixed in there.)

Miss Becky and me. Have I mentioned how much I love this girl?

I came home raving about it to James and he suggested that every woman have a baby shower for every baby. I tend to side with him. He also mentioned how wonderful it is that I have such great friends. I tend to side with him on that one too. I really can't thank Becky and everyone enough for making it such a special night for me.

I am getting so so excited to have this baby!!

Halloween Decorating

I LOVE decorating for the holidays. There is something so exciting about opening up the box full of decorations and remembering all the fun stuff you have to make the holiday's more festive. This year was especially fun opening the boys' costumes from last year and seeing how stinking adorable they are. We have since added them to our dress up clothes. They are cleaned up every night and wind up back on the floor ever morning.

They are monsters, but still so cute. It's the perfect costume for these boys.

My new favorite Halloween Decoration/Souvenir from our Disney trip this year! Thanks Dad!!

I love Halloween. I love pumpkins, lights, candy, cutesy monsters and costumes. (I hate the gore and greatly wish that wasn't such a tradition for our culture.) But this holiday is filled with fun and imagination for children and I love it!