Soon a Family of Six

8 weeks

In five days from now, we'll be a family of six.

SIX!

12 weeks

Becoming a family of six (which sounds SO big!) comes with many mixed emotions for me.  As I sit back and think about the waiting (and begging!) I did for this baby, the pregnancy, a fourth c-section, bringing home another baby, and completing our family, I am filled with joy, thanksgiving, anticipation, and lots of warm fuzzies, but I'm also filled with hesitancy, fear, worry, and doubt.

I have no doubt that a fourth baby is what I have prayed for, what our family desires to be complete, and I trust God's timing.  But I'm sad to be all done with my last pregnancy and I'm hesitant to introduce another sibling to the mix.  I worry about each of the other kids' feelings and emotions surrounding this big life change.  I want to be there and be the best mommy for all four of the kids and I worry about being able to meet all of their needs and demands, especially in the next couple weeks with the new baby coming, the kids' school starting, Erik's surgery, and many other things we have filling our plate.

18 weeks

I know, however, that I'm not the only mom to have four kids and that it will be a learning and growing experience for all of us.  It will all work out!  There are so many positives and so many things to look forward to - I just hope the time doesn't pass us by too quickly and that Erik and I are able to embrace the miracle of birth and count our blessings as life might get a little more stressful in the coming weeks.

36 weeks

Our c-section is scheduled for 10:30am on August 30th.  The process will all start on the 29th when I have to go in for a bunch of blood work (oh, yikes!).  Then they'll cut me off from all food and drink at midnight that night (which is almost as bad as the blood work!) and we'll check into the hospital at 8:30 on Thursday morning.  After checking in, there will be a lot of prep work to get me and baby ready for the big slice, and hopefully the surgery will be on time with no complications.  

I'm already anticipating the happy moment that we confirm that it's a boy and the pleasure of getting to see those sweet baby eyes for the first time!  I'm looking forward to comparing him to his siblings and trying to figure out who he looks like and I'm very excited to find out how much he weighs!  Just for fun, I put a poll over to the left where you can vote on how much you think #4 will weigh!  To help you make a good guess, and for a little history...

37 weeks

*  I went two days over my due date with Maida, I gained 23 pounds during the pregnancy, and she weighed 8 pounds 1 ounce at birth.

*  Skogen was born two weeks early, I gained 42 pounds during the pregnancy, and he weighed 9 pounds 5.5 ounces at birth.

*  Klaas the Haas was born right on his due date, I gained 55 pounds during the pregancy, and he weighed 9 pounds 6.5 ounces at birth.
*  #4 will be born four days early and I have gained 30 pounds so far this pregnancy.

 A few pictures of baby's nursery....

He will be sharing a room with big sister Maida. This is his half of the room.

The baskets above the changing table are holding all of our cloth diapers!  I can't wait to use them again.

This is a framed poem that was my father-in-law's (who is an arborist).  I thought it tied in well with our tree themed room.  I also thought it was neat that before I hung it up, I looked at the back and saw a sticker from where it was bought.  It was originally purchased at an old art gallery that used to be in my home town.

The kids and I made baby a quilt a few months ago!  It was super easy and fun to do with the kids.

I'm so excited to use the same crib we've used for all of our kids!

The kids and I also made a mobile for above the changing table.  It was so fun for the kids to help cut out the circles and string them on the wire.

38 weeks

 I haven't talked about the pregnancy much on the blog at all.  At first it was because I didn't want to hear all the negative comments like, "Number four?!  You are CRAZY!" or "How are you ever going to handle four kids?!"  Then life became busy and passed by so quickly - and now here we are five days before delivery.  The pregnancy has been pretty easy going, though.  I have loved and cherished it just as much as the past three.  I still think pregnancy is one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had and I'm so thankful to have been able to do it four times.  This pregnancy was a little different than my other three.  I puked for 21 straight weeks (thank goodness for Zofran!) and then at week 36, I felt abnormally uncomfortable and found out that baby was breech!  Since I already had a c-section scheduled, they didn't worry about baby's position so much, but I can tell you that breech babies are way more uncomfortable... more heartburn, more baby hiccups, more contractions, and over all a more uncomfortable positioning.  Around week 38, much to my disbelief that it would happen, baby flipped!  The past week has thankfully been a lot more comfortable.

I took a quick video the other day (while baby was still breech) of some baby hiccups.  If you look closely, you can see the rhythmic bumps of the hiccups.  I also caught some big baby movements on camera (the biggest happen around 30 seconds into the video) that I'm convinced is the baby beginning to turn because the next day, it was confirmed by ultrasound that he had flipped.