35 Weeks Pregnant with Schrodinger's Cat

When you're 34 and pregnant with your fifth kid you get to document it however you want.  I'm pretty proud of what this body has accomplished and I've never bothered to take maternity photos because who cares what I look like, I only care what the baby looks like.  But this time I hit my friend Jessica up to snap a few shots because I want to contrast what I feel (gigantic, in skeletal pain) with what pregnant actually looks like on me.  I carry about the same for girls and boys, as far as I can tell.  I think girls make me a little more thick in the upper body in the third trimester, just generally more swollen.  

28 weeks - beginning of 8 months pregnant with Tiger Uppercut

Of course I never got down to my "normal" weight between these two babies.  One reason is because I miscarried between the two (around February) and the other reason is BL didn't become a good sleeper until she hit about 1.  Sleep is key for me to regulate the rest of my body functions.  

May rolled around and we got this fun little welcome surprise:

The day we discovered Baby 5.  BL was 8 months.

Later on that day when Hush started to actually process what was comin down the pike.

It's Gone By So Fast!
No it hasn't.  All pregnancies take forever.  But that's kind of what I like about them.  I like having a nine (ten) month project and the pace of an imminent arrival of something wonderful.  It's like inventing your own personal Christmas and looking forward to it for nine (ten) months.
I've taken to thinking about this baby as Schrodinger's Cat, though slightly less morbid.  As far as the sex of the kid is involved I have both right now because either option exists.  So I wake up one day and think about my coming son and then the next day I'm obsessing over girl names.  It's really fun.  I get nine (ten) months to picture what my family will be like with three daughters or three sons. And then at the end I actually get a baby!  Babies are delightsome.

But that's not all I like about pregnancy.  I like the eating.  I like feeling like I'm being productive no matter what I'm doing.  I like being the second party in control of my body because the baby is in charge and my body does what it needs to do to make that little person.  I like the appointments because I feel like I am rewarded for growing bigger and responsibly taking good care of my body.  I love the ultrasounds because it feels like spying.  I love how excited the children are because they know what it's like to have a tiny baby.  I loving knowing generally what to expect of the physical changes because I've done this four times before.  I like being prepared for the inevitable pre-term labor that always drives me crazy but never results in a baby.
I guess you could say that I feel like I'm pretty good at this.  It's become my thing.  I've been pregnant for a total of 192 weeks of my life, 3.7 years.  That's rad!
But having babies in my thirties is slightly different than having them in my twenties.  Or maybe it's the different husbands or the location that cause the variance.  For babies 1, 2, 3 I had the easiest pregnancies known to man.  I hardly felt nauseated and I had a ton of energy the whole time.  I had such good pregnancies I looked into becoming a surrogate.  They aren't paid well enough.  But I would have done it for my family had the need arose.

7 Months pregnant with Jude.  Hair looks brown.  It's dark purple.

Mimi at Betty Lou's current age, about 14 months.  Me 8 months preg with Jude.

Babies 4 and 5 have been more typical as far as pregnancies are concerned.  I am super barfy in the first 16 weeks and I crave vinegar.  I also have never been so tired in my life as I was in the first trimester of this pregnancy.  I couldn't keep my eyes open!  Then right as that part finishes my skeleton starts to object and I get a super fun inflamed angry joint condition called PSD which makes it nearly impossible to lift one leg at a time and roll over in bed.  It's so painful I have had to crawl up the stairs and finally get a Physical Therapist.  My theory is that my relaxin doesn't kick in fast enough.  I think that's the hormone that makes pregnant people all loose and unstable.  So for a good 10 weeks I really suffered and finally had to hire a nanny to force myself to not chase babies and do chores all afternoon.  Being down (essentially on bedrest) is my idea of a nightmare.  You sit there and watch miserably as people destroy your home and make their own food.  I can't do it.  I have to get up and help.  Thankfully I have three very helpful big kids who are obedient and sympathetic.  But still, it's not a great situation so the nanny was imperative.

I finally designed and ordered this shirt.  Cuts down significantly on questions at the store.

Now I can move again, which means I am a task wizard and I tend to overdo it.  Keeping my house together relieves stress for me, especially when my little baby whirlwind is unloading laundry baskets as I load them and preventing me from loading the dishwasher by licking all of the dirty dishes while I gag.  I don't know if you know this but it takes a considerable amount of work keeping a household of 6 functioning.  Take, for example, the seasons shifting.  I had to sort through every item of clothing for four little people whose sizes have changed since the last winter and whose sizes I need to anticipate for the following summer.  Plus my entire wardrobe needs rearranging depending on what fits per each stage of pregnancy, a pregnancy which is opposite in seasons from my previous summer pregnancy.  I am literally up to my armpits in bins.  Thankfully I don't have to buy anything because I have everything handed down or saved from previous pregnancies (2 bins).  All of my normal clothes and shoes are in storage (4 bins) Imagine at least two boxes per age, one summer one winter.  I don't have all the boy clothes because we passed them down to our cousins up until age three, but I have all of the girl bins through age 2T (10 big bins) and size 6-8 girls (5 bins) and size 5-9 boys (6 bins, I think).  My 26+ bins are a masterpiece only I enjoy.  I have bin pride.

Wearing a creepy hydrating face mask.  About 32 weeks pregnant.

And so we press on.  Baby's kicking and very strong.  S/he kicks in different places than my other kids.  S/he's often kicking low which means upside down for now.  But sometimes the kicks are in my ribs.  We have bought exactly nothing in preparation for this baby.  Should probably buy a crib at some point.  As far as food this baby really likes bagels from Einsteins.  The good kind.  This baby doesn't like sweets too much (except anything with those bright red cherries that go on top of ice cream sundaes).  That's an unsual craving.  Baby is unconcerned about Coke which is very weird for me.  Baby LOVES Mexican food, specifically Costa Vida sweet pork enchiladas with green sauce.  I need a membership there. Also, what I wouldn't give for beef carpaccio.