With my upcoming surgery just a mere 36 hours away, I’ve begun to wonder…. what happens when the number of children outnumber the amount of arms/hands you have? Does a third arm grow from your midsection immediately after the birth of your third child?  My next door neighbor sure does a good job of hiding her extra 7 arms.    Right now I have just the perfect amount of room on my lap to read TWO children a bedtime story (well, there could be more room currently, but you get my point).  Where does the third one go? On my head?

On the flip side, Wyatt is extremely excited for the new baby to arrive. He continues to ask almost daily, When are you going to pop that baby out, mommy?  And like most four year olds, the baby is most definitely coming out of mom’s belly button.  It makes perfect sense, what else would that weird hole in the middle of your belly be for?  He has failed to ask the question of why boys have belly buttons then.  I really haven’t told him that the baby IS indeed coming out of my belly button, but I haven’t done anything to discourage him from thinking this either.  I do have this sneaking suspicion that Wyatt believes this baby is going to “pop out” a toddler. You know, ready to play Wii with him.

Brooklyn has a tiny obsession with lifting my shirt up and saying BABY! but I’m quite certain she doesn’t have a clue what is coming. I’m am very curious as to her reaction to the new addition to our family.  She has become a bit of a mamma’s girl, so we shall see….

For now, I am enjoying some quiet time with my family of four. Our weekend is consisting of nothing more than playing, movie watching, snacking and reading The 10 Piggies book one hundred and eighty five times in a row.  I will try to remember this time when I only had as many children as hands.

I do have a lovely weekend of scrapbooking planned for next weekend and I am so looking forward to just vegging out with my friend Laci. We eat, sleep, scrapbook and chat.  Maybe I’ll be too tired to chat – but I’m going to give it my best shot.  Maybe this is just what I need.

Recently, Mia took a flying leap off our giant king sized bed and injured some ligament in her leg.  Well, more than injured, she actually snapped it in half.  The ligament is NO MORE.  So that basically leaves her foot flopping in the wind – because there is no ligament to hold it in place.  Of course, surgery followed a few days later. This is our second dog to go through a major leg surgery. And it is less fun than it was the first time – mostly because we now have TWO small kids to chase after, and my large belly makes it hard enough to walk up the stairs on my own. Needless to say, carrying the 25 pound dog everywhere is not the ideal situation right now.  But what do you do? She is kind of our baby.

Mia looks ridiculous, if you didn’t feel so bad for her, you might be tempted to laugh at her…..

• This morning while driving to school from swimming lessons Wyatt said to me, MOM! You haven’t given me a hug yet today! This was true, and I was touched that he realized how much I DO hug and kiss him everyday. He must know how much I love him! He then proceeded to spill an entire box of Cheeze-Its on the floor of my one-month old Suburban.  He then blamed me for going over a bump and making the box jump out of his lap.

• Why do men even ask our opinion?  Chris asked me if I thought we should get a camper this summer. I told him it was not a great time due to me having a baby in two months. He proceeded to purchase an RV the next day.  He then asked if it was OK if he paid for a camp site for the entire summer to leave the RV on. I told him I didn’t think it was great timing – I was unsure if we’d really get our money’s worth since I’M HAVING A BABY IN AUGUST. He then proceeded to argue all the reasons it WAS a good idea.  We now have a camp site for the entire summer if anyone’s interested in using it.

• Brooklyn has a new word! NO!  Yes – that’s the word – NO!  I asked her the other day if she wanted a snack, to which she usually runs to her chair and tries to climb in. This time she looked me square in the eyes and said, Nooooooooo.  Since then, she answers Noooooooo to questions very appropriately.  Like, Brooklyn – do you need to go to bed? Noooooooooo.  Or Brooklyn, do you need a time out? Noooooooooooooooo.

• As I mentioned previously, Wyatt has started swimming lessons at the YMCA.  After his first lesson, the teacher asked Chris if these were his first lessons. She probably questioned this due to the fact that she almost loses her swimsuit every day because Wyatt is grasping at her so frantically. Yeah, he’s still a bit scared of the water.  But he is doing better every day. Even if all the other kids (girls) in his class are swimming circles around him.  Actually, they are swimming circles around him and the teacher. Since he won’t let go of her.

• I am one of those annoying people who has never experienced heartburn before.  Not even through three pregnancies. Until now.  I think the last two nights I may have had heartburn. I described my symptoms to Chris and he thought that’s what it is. Normally, Chris is the LAST person I would ask for medical advice, but he has suffered from GERD for like 7 years now.  I figured he might know this one.  If it is heartburn, I don’t like it.  I don’t like it one bit. Feels like my supper is going to come back up into my throat. Ish. Can you get heartburn from coffee? Because I think I might have had it this morning too.  I should probably know this, as a health care professional? And weird that this third baby is going to give me heartburn when the other two didn’t?

• Even though we have had a relatively cool summer this year, I continue to feel like I am dying of heat stroke.  I keep the house around 70 degrees and I feel like I’m going to melt into a puddle of pregnant sweat.  Wyatt wakes up with his teeth chattering and asking for more blankets while I sweat the night away. Holy hormones in over drive. I vaguely remember being warm during my third trimester with the other two, but it was 10 degrees outside – perfect.   It’s 68 degrees out today. I’m dying. I’m dying a hot, hot death.

• I continue to try to figure out a way to make a pharmacist salary by making  hair bows and hair clips.  It’s tough.  Chris told me this weekend that when I first started The SunshineShoppe he thought it would be a flop.  I continue to do everything in my power to prove him wrong. Because what’s important is that I am right and he is wrong.

I feel like I haven’t really recorded anything about this pregnancy. During my pregnancy with Wyatt I made an entire scrapbook devoted to my pregnancy for God’s sake. Brooklyn’s pregnancy didn’t get a whole album, but a few pages did make it into our family album that year, and I did keep a pregnancy journal. I’m six and a half months along with this baby and really not one peep has been said anywhere.  Poor child.  Being third must stink.  So, here’s some things I’d like to note about this third (and final) pregnancy….

• Finding out the sex of this baby was an interesting experience. I still don’t know exactly how I feel about “knowing”. During the first ultrasound, the technician announced it was a boy, but could not see his heart or spine. Hmmm. Reliable? Not so sure. The second ultrasound technician found his heart and spine just fine, but could not find his “boy parts” so easily. He was telling me that he thought it was a girl, until all of a sudden, last minute he announced OH! There it is! Yep, I think it a boy! So although I know in my heart it’s a boy (my child predicting instant has proven to be quite good), I still feel like we won’t really know until he makes his arrival.

• I am struggling (still) about what do do after this baby. Three children is definitely all I think I can handle at this point, but I really don’t like my options taken away from me. It’s like I told my doctor, “When the electricity was out for 5 hours one day, all I wanted was a frickin’ piece of toast and a hot chocolate. Because I couldn’t have them.” That’s just me. Take it or leave it. I’m not so fond of people telling me I can’t or I won’t.  So tubal ligation is a problem for me. It’s permanent. And while I am quite sure that this is enough children, I hate making decisions that are so permanent like that. Nor do I really think that my uterus would be so happy to go through four cesarean sections in one lifetime. But who knows? That’s the problem – I can’t see the future.

• The previous bullet may be a non-issue. At my last ultrasound, they found out that my placenta has attached to the anterior wall of my uterus. Apparently, they are supposed to attach to the back. We won’t know until after the baby is delivered if the placenta has attached over my previous scars (from prior c-sections). If it has, the likelihood of me undergoing a hysterectomy right then and there is quite good. I’m not so sure how to feel about this either. AGAIN, no more children = probably the best idea, but no more options = makes Lisa a crazy person. Plus now I have all sorts of questions swimming around in my head about what happens if I don’t have a uterus anymore. I refuse to go online and read about this because I did this about the whole anterior placenta thing and didn’t sleep for days. THE HORROR! Don’t Google this. You’ll only find BAD details. So I am saving all my questions for my next OB visit. Oh my lucky doctor next Tuesday!

• We still don’t know where this baby is going to reside. Chris and I can NOT agree on what to do about this. Wyatt wants to share a room with someone, Brooklyn, baby or us, doesn’t really matter – but I feel like the kids are all so young and since they didn’t start out sharing rooms, they will inevitably wake each other up all the time and that wakes me up, and NO. We have a six bedroom house, this should not be so difficult.

• When I first found out that this baby was a boy, my first thought was, Oh my gosh, I’m only going to have one daughter! Chris quickly pointed out, You should be thankful you have one beautiful ,healthy one already. Point taken. And I think if it would’ve been a girl, I would have thought, Oh my gosh, I’m only going to have one son! Again, this is me. Take it or leave it.

• Once again, as with my first pregnancy, I can not stomach seafood. I love seafood. Just not now. Must be a boy thing for my body. The hormone balance must be just so when I am pregnant with boys that the sight and smell of seafood makes my stomach turn. Does this mean we are going to have another picky eater like Wyatt? I sure hope not. I’m still not sure how Wyatt survives. Does 200 calories a day from fruit snacks make a diet good enough to live on? I guess. He could be a science experiment or something.

• I am sincerely looking forward to my upcoming maternity leave. When I was on leave with Brooklyn, it was so nice having some me and baby time. The daycare asked me the other day if I was going to bring the other two to daycare when I was home with the baby. I gave them a look like, Are you crazy? YES! Mamma needs some catch up time! And get to know new baby time! Theos three months can never be replaced.

• This baby is very active. I felt him kick very early, just like my first pregnancy. With Brooklyn, I did not feel her move until about 21 weeks, and this one was right on track with Wyatt’s pregnancy – about 16 weeks. Which is funny because one of the things I read many times about the anterior placenta is that it is harder to feel baby kick, especially in the earlier weeks because there is essentially a big cushion blocking thier little kicks from being felt on my tummy.

• My bladder gets worse and worse with each subsequent pregnancy. Reason number 579 to stop having babies. I might soon be in Depends.

The first time:

Doctor: It’s a beautiful baby BOY!

Me: I told you!

The second time:

Doctor: It’s a GIRL!

Me: Really? A girl? We had a girl!

So you can imagine my surprise when the morning of my ultrasound, Chris says “I had a dream last night that we found out the sex of the baby. And it wasn’t that bad!” I was like, “So you want to find out now? What’s going on?” He then proceeded to tell me that it was up to me. We could find out, or wait, whatever I wanted. Well, I was having NO part of this.  After all, decision making has never been my thing.  Knowing the sex might be fun.  I could plan a little bit, we could go to the hospital with a “going home outfit” that isn’t green or yellow – you know, all the important stuff.  On the other hand, the suspense and surprise is what has made the last two births so…. interesting.

So we get to the ultrasound and we still haven’t decided yet. As we are in the waiting room, Chris is still pestering me if we are going to find out or not. Well, now, Mr. I-never-want-to-find-out-the-sex-and-last-minute-I-am-going-to-throw-you-for-a-loop I STILL HAVEN’T DECIDED, OK?  We enter the exam room and the technician asks us THAT question and of course I am like, “um, oh, um…I think so?”

Well, since Wyatt was with, we ultimately decided that we WOULD find out the sex. For him of course. The boy wants to know if he is having a brother or a sister. All for him. Of course. Thanks for taking that decision out of my hands kiddo.

So as the tech gets to “the shot” she pauses the screen and says, “Now, are you sure you want to know?” Chris and I both look at the screen, and were like, “Well – it’s a boy!”  Pretty obvious.  So, now it has been confirmed what I already knew. IT’S A BOY.  My instant sure must be good, because I have known with each of the babies what their sex would be. Now this time, it is confirmed a bit earlier and I kind of feel weird, like I know a secret that I shouldn’t know.  But, it is fun telling everyone!

I do have to go get a recheck in a month because they were unable to get clear pictures of the baby’s (his) heart and spine. My doctor assured me that they didn’t think anything was wrong, but he was just laying funny and squirming around a lot so they couldn’t get a good look. Of course, I’m trying not to worry, but, if you know me AT ALL, you know this is not possible.  I’ll just try to keep it cool for the next MONTH. Are they crazy making me wait this long?

Anyway, for months we have been trying to get Wyatt to help us name the baby. I don’t think he really grasps the concept, because every time we would ask him what we should name the baby, he would respond, “What’s it’s name?” Considering that his closest friends are named Teddy, Puppy, Snakey, and Sock Monkey – naming a baby might be a bit beyond him at this point.  So now that we know it’s a boy, I have been trying to get Wyatt’s opinion on baby names again.  He seems to be convinced that we should name this one Boy Brooklyn.  I tried explaining to him that we need to pick out a BOY’s name, and Brooklyn is a girl’s name, and well, your sister is named that, so let’s pick something else out, OK?

Me: What are we going to name your brother, Wyatt?

Wyatt: Um, it’s like a Boy Brooklyn.

Me: No that’s Brooklyn’s name. And it’s for girls. What boy’s names do you like?

Wyatt: Hmmm….. Well, how about Steve?

With no further ado…. I present……Steve?

So of course I go in and I am nervous, so my blood pressure is on the high side of normal, which it never is – except for those first few appointments at the baby doctor. My anxiety kicks in and all the thoughts of what could be wrong start playing through my head, which is silly, I know – but you tell my anxiety to go away. I’ve been trying for years. Then she asks proceeds to tell me that it is a 50-50 chance that at 10 weeks we will hear the heartbeat. I know this, and I tell her that with the last baby, Brooklyn, we heard it right away, but with Wyatt, we could not find it at this appointment. I proceeded to cry and my wonderful doctor, who is now retired, took one look at me and sent me to ultrasound to find the baby. As I’m telling my new(er) doctor this story, I can see in her eyes what she is thinking. Oh Lord, we have a crier. So she searches and searches for the heartbeat, and all we can hear is my lunch digesting. The whole time, she is reassuring me, I’m really not worried about this, I think I’ve heard it a few times, but I can’t get it in strong enough. I’m really not worried, everything appears as it should. Of course her constant assurance is now making me paranoid. Hello anxiety – go away! So after a good 10 minutes with no luck she asks if I would like to have an ultrasound or wait and come back in two weeks. Being the people pleaser that I am I say, You’re the doctor! What do you think? She smartly responds, No, you are the patient and if you are not comfortable waiting for two weeks, I will order the ultrasound for you. I want to reach up and hug her.

So I go down to the ultrasound department, they get me right in and start the process. At first all we see is a bunch of goobily gook, black and white nonsense (good thing I never became an ultrasound technician or a radiologist), then I see it. A little blob inside a small bubble. As she zooms in closer, I notice that it is not moving much. I swear I remember from Wyatt’s 10 week ultrasound that he was moving and kicking all over the place. PANIC starts to set in. The tech zooms in a little closer, it now looks no more like a baby, but a bigger blob on the screen. A very still blob. I can feel the tears start prickling in my eyes when she announces There it is! See that little movement? That’s the heartbeat. Sure enough, I could see it too. Right in the middle of the blob. The blob, I could now see had two little arms. They seemed to wave at me, like Hi mom! Scared ya didn’t I? I was napping! You haven’t had your caffeine for the day yet! The tech then measured the heartbeat – 168 beats per minute. Exactly what Wyatt was at this same ultrasound. The tears that were, one second ago, sad tears, start running down my face and instantly they have changed to happy tears. I am once again, for the third time in my life, reminded how strange it is to love someone so much that you have never even met.