Pregnancy #5

In 2009, After 4 busy girls, a long 9 months apart from Scott, being a pregnant single mom,building a house and selling a house, moving with a 3 week old infant and so much more, we took a little break from babies. But then in the fall of 2011,something started telling me it was time for another one. We had booked a cruise in January to celebrate 10 years of marriage, and having kids old enough to leave with grandma for week. Pregnancy + a boat is not a good combo for me, as we had discovered on a whale watching trip, after eating clam chowder when I was pregnant with Abby.So we waited a bit. After that we would see what happened. It ended up taking longer than we had thought, and my perfect plan for a family-completing set of twin boys born in the fall of 2012 did not happen.  Weird.
However, after a crazy busy summer, and a bunch of wasted pregnancy tests, finally we got a positive in August! I was very excited and happy after so many months. I began my pregnancy feeling fine, which the progressed to my usual not actually throwing up but feeling like it constantly. We had many visitors during that time, but we wanted to wait to tell anyone. Scott was VERY busy with work and I was home alone a lot. Some days I did want to shout "I'm pregnant, that's why our yard is so weedy!" and why I was not functioning at 100%.  However, we did not tell anyone. Because of our problem with Whitney at 14 weeks, and because the girls were older and wiser now, we wanted to be sure everything was ok before telling them.And not make the wait crazy long for them.  Then I thought it would be fun to wait until 20 weeks when we knew the gender of the baby. I was sure there was a chance we would have a boy. Scott was sure it would be a girl. He was right. The doctor confirmed that.
Cravings:not too many, but ginger ale, Ruby Red Squirt, egg sandwich (2 pieces toast, 2 eggs, cheese and ham) coffee? as a good Mormon girl who has never had coffee and actually hated the smell of it, this was an interesting one, which I did not give in to.  Aversions: definitely the smell of the dog food, ick
When we found out we were pregnant again, we decided it was a good time to head to Disneyland, with all of Scott's work over the summer, we did not get to see him much, but he did earn some good overtime. A family trip sounded perfect. So we went in early October, and it was great. I was not showing, so I rode pretty much everything, except Splash Mountain and the big Roller Coaster.
 My mom was coming to visit around Halloween, and we had an appointment scheduled so she was able to come and see the baby on ultrasound. I was grateful I made it that long, squishing into my jeans and not saying anything about being pregnant.  We were excited to add another girl, we kindof have it down my now, and bins full of pink clothes in the basement. I started to wonder why I even bother getting unisex colors for carseats, bouncy chairs, and for decorating the nursery.  That night we told the girls we had a present for them. I wrote a note that said "A new baby sister" and put it in an envelope. We gave it to them to open. Abby said she thought it was a trip to Disneyland (which we had just come back from). She opened it and read the note out loud. The look on her face was absolutely priceless! I wish I had a picture of it, she was so excited and so were the other girls once they caught on. We were so happy to finally share the news with them and everyone else.
The pregnancy progressed well, with tiredness being my worst symptom. I felt slightly older and more worn out than I had when I was 21 and pregnant.  But I cannot complain, I did have slightly high blood pressure compared to my normal levels, but nothing we worried about. I also gained more weight than I would have liked, but I blamed it on the ginger ale I drank to attempt to settle my stomach ( I normally don't drink any soda), the icy winter which made going for walks difficult, and being pregnant over the holidays.
The baby was not much of a kicker, she seemed very mellow, except for bursts of movement every once in a while. She was also breech for a time, but turned when she needed to.
Time passed, we went through the holidays, and then Isabel and Sara's birthdays. Isabel was baptized and that went well even though it was a lot of work, I felt good. After all of that craziness, I finally felt like I could spend the last few weeks of the pregnancy focussing on the baby, and getting ready. My mom planned to be here to help and got plane tickets. I started organizing the house. I was ruthless with toys, closets, dressers, cupboards, anything that was getting overwhelming I needed to just get rid of it, so that when I had 5 kids I could handle it. I was stressed about how everything was going to go, and how our lives were going to change. We were going back to nursing and diapers and not being able to just jump in the car and go places. None of my girls have been good sleepers and I was worried I would be a tired and cranky mom. We found our crib was past the point of safety. we had bought it used in Califoria from an Army family that had 3 kids and many moves, then we had put 4 kids and many moves on it as well.  I ordered a cute crib online and put it together myself when it arrived. it looks so pretty in the nursery. I searched and searched for a diaper bag I liked, and finally found one. Scott's mom offered to buy it for me, and I loved it! One night I couldn't sleep, was having Braxton-Hicks contractions and finally got around to pulling out the baby clothes and washing them. We talked to the girls about the baby, even had a Family Home Evening to talk about how we treat a baby, showed them the tiny diapers and baby wash and practiced holding a baby with dolls. We had gotten Whitney her own little doll and set with a crib, stroller and high chair so she would be ready to be a little mommy,too. She had 9 babies in her tummy. She always had us feel them kick. The girls loved the belly, the kicks, and talking to baby sister.
When my mom arrived we stayed busy. we sewed a denim quilt for Scott from saved up jeans, I built an organizational wall for the countless papers that come into the house and always end up on the desk. We worked on a blanket for the baby, which my mom had started. I cleaned out the baby closet, and things were finally ready to go. As I got bigger, I was definitely getting more uncomfortable, with many night time trips to the bathroom and painful stretching tendons. The baby also liked to kick the nerves in my legs. Scott had a trip to Vegas early in March, we hoped he would not miss the baby arriving! He got back safely and then we really were getting serious.We were ready to meet this baby, although I have always been overdue, and induced 3 times, I was planning on going late, but wanted to wait it out, do labor at home and run to the hospital just in time to have the baby. That was the plan.