It's all good until you start eating hamburgers every day

I normally gain about 40 lbs during pregnancy. I have been quite lucky to get rid of it rather quickly. Though, I am worried about losing the weight this time. I am older, not ancient or anything, but I will be 32 and my metabolism isn't quite so awesome these days. Plus, my belly got a lot bigger a lot faster, so what if I gain even more weight?! This is truly a concern of mine. I work very hard at staying in shape and being healthy, and minus the coke and pizza addiction I have, I am an overall healthy person. Except, in pregnancy. I don't give in and just eat for two or think that since I am going to gain weight anyway I may as well eat whatever I want because that isn't the case, but the foods I want during pregnancy are overly processed or fatty. I will want to eat Doritos or Cheetos, I will want a huge brownie with snicker bar crumbles on top, I will want to eat the whole pizza by myself plus add breadsticks, and the big thing--hamburgers. Oh how I love to eat big fat thick juicy hamburgers when I am pregnant. I normally enjoy hamburgers just fine but I don't go out of my way to eat one. While I am pregnant I would knock you and your mom out of my way to get a burger from 5 Guys and then I would want to do it again 5 more times that week.

In an effort to try and not eat so poorly this pregnancy I started off doing quite well. In the first trimester, my craving for burgers and nasty chips, doesn't normally hit me right away. I am busy just trying to stay awake and eat really bland things like pretzels, saltines, cereal, and popcorn. This time I had a plan. I would work out. That failed miserably right away. I attempted twice in my first trimester and the first time I thought I had it because I made it half way through class kicking butt and feeling great, but then I got dizzy, very dizzy and my stomach began to cramp so I had to stop. I did try again but I didn't even make it halfway this time. I will try again to be sure, but probably not near as often as before and not so hard. Oh but food, I can control food. I ate apples, saltines, pretzels with hummus, carrots (plain and with hummus), watermelon, cereal, and eggs. I was so proud of myself. I was even able, for a week, to eat things that always make me gag during pregnancy-deli meat and chicken. Then one day it happened before I realized it. Chicken and deli meat never crossed my mind for food, yogurt made me gag, so did raspberries(that one was new), but still I carried on with my bland foods that were on the pretty good to good range of healthiness. I was proud of myself. I could do it. I hadn't gained any weight even though my stomach was huge for this stage of pregnancy. I wasn't starving myself either because I ate every hour. One day though I was still hungry. I tried all sorts of things but my gag reflex was preventing me from eating almost everything in our house- the turkey and cheese, the yogurt, the left over chicken broccoli alfredo, and alas we were out of cereal. I was hungry, I wanted to cry, I wanted to yell too because apparently being pregnant and hungry makes me angry. I called my husband and asked for a McDonald's hamburger from the dollar menu. I just had to have something. At first I didn't noticed my transition into nasty food. I just wanted to be able to eat something and fill full vs extremely shaky and moody. We took a couple car trips during this time and my husband would ask where I wanted to eat and I would answer with Steak N Shake. This is a fine place really and their food is good but I would never normally ask for it. He laughed a bit and said he thought it was funny how every time I am pregnant I want hamburgers. I was offended, no way, I have been fighting this, I have been winning, I haven't been eating hamburgers a lot, but then sadly I had to admit he was right. Anytime I was allowed to pick I asked for a big old hamburger. I guess there are somethings you just can't fight when you are pregnant-I will go to the bathroom all the time, I will get a huge puffy face, I will end up wishing at some point the baby would just miraculously be born without having to go into labor, and I will eat a lot of hamburgers.

My three sons no more

I had been feeling tired for a few days, but I am a mom of three boys so this is to be expected. Plus, I had been washing benedryl down with my nightly beer, so that probably hadn't been helping. When I laid down on the bed at 3pm one afternoon and promptly fell asleep my husband began to ask what was going on with me. Being a good Catholic mom I have lots of pregnancy tests stored in my cabinets, but as it wasn't that time of the month, I was sure it would be negative. I had been toying with the idea of getting pregnant since around Christmas and so far we hadn't, so I was starting to put my energy elsewhere. I had just agreed to start learning and coming up with playlists and routines for the aerobics/zumba class I attend. I decided before I became too invested in this endeavor I may as well fish out one of those tests and see what it had to say. Before I could even lay it down on the counter there were clearly two lines.

My first response was, oh shit. While I had been thinking about getting pregnant and not actively stopping it from happening, I didn't really think it would happen. Yes, I know how babies are made, but I at least thought it would take a long time-a really long time. We aren't rolling in the dough, we are moving next year, and we already have three kids and a dog. I had to tell Pete and that worried me some because he wasn't completely on board with the 4th kid idea. He is a fabulous dad and completely in love with and devoted to his kids, and that is what had him worried. As a father to three he felt like he wasn't able to give all the attention, time, love, and focus to his kids that he wanted, so with one more it would be harder and almost impossible. Oh, and the money thing. It took him a day or two but once it has happened what are you gonna do? Plus, a man so great with his kids is exactly the kind of man that should have more kids, right?

I then remembered a conversation Pete and I had a few days prior. Tigran, our dog, had started sleeping upstairs a lot more often, almost every night. I would come up and so would he. Pete laughingly said, maybe you are pregnant and he is protecting you. I guess he was right. Tigran now sleeps with me every night. Also, Thomas, our youngest, had started loving on me a lot more, calling himself baby, and demanding that I hold him more often. It seems that not only dogs but also small children can sense pregnancy. Almost immediately after taking the test, and not telling anyone, Luke and Jack became extremely loving and lovey toward me. Jack started giving me random hugs once a day and telling me he loved me, Luke would crawl on my lap, give me a hug and kiss, and tell me he loved me. Pete says this is because they can tell and they don't want me to forget about them or love them less.

I hadn't felt as sick/nauseous as before so I was a bit worried, but then I realized if I didn't eat every two hours (ok every hour) I was overcome with a desire to cry. I felt like I just wanted to sob. I never did, but the feeling was very strong. The sickness came though and feeling sick with three kids in the house isn't the best combination. Plus, this time I actually threw up. I never throw up during my pregnancies, it didn't happen often only once or twice, but it was a new thing for me.  My lovely husband was here to help out as often as he could-that is one perk of being married to a student, their flexible schedules. If I have a craving at this point, it is water and peppermint tea. I am constantly drinking bottles of water, and I do mean bottles. I am continually refilling them and sticking them back in the fridge only to realize that in the last few hours I have gone through them all again. Yes, I am always using the bathroom too. 

I haven't been able to nap like I could before. This is the downside of being in your first trimester during summer break and while you have three kids. I can sometimes rest for 30 minutes but never sleep. It threw me into some insomnia at night that made me a bear, but it has worked itself out. Without the naps though I usually end up hiding away from the world around 3pm. I am typing this while the boys are watching Rio. So far no one is screaming and crying so I count that as a success.

I also happened to notice another side effect- my stomach got bigger fast.

The day I found out I was pregnant- 4 weeks

Two weeks later at 6 weeks.

Can you believe at this point nobody was asking me yet? Did they think I just quit caring? I guess they were being nice. I hadn't expected it to get so big so fast. It was almost like I took the test and the next day my body just gave in and said, 'ok we've been here before and  know what to do.' This was only reinforced by the Nurse Practitioner who saw me at 10 weeks. She felt the outside of my uterus and got quite a surprised look on her face then pulled out the measuring tape. She then wanted to confirm this by feeling it. Then she looked at me and asked if I was sure about my due date. Well, no not completely sure, I mean everything was off by a couple weeks. She said I needed an early ultrasound right away because my uterus was measuring 14 weeks, and with the whole cerclage thing I get done at 13 weeks they needed to make sure. So I was ushered into the ultrasound room where talk of twins began to be had while they pulled up my information. I had to stop them right there. I was fearful of this myself because I had been sicker and my clothes stopped fitting at 6 weeks but my husband would not stand for twins so this talk must stop.As it turns out no twins and my due date was correct. My poor NP was so confused, she looked at the ultrasound tech and said, ' but look here is her uterus,' and she pushed down on it to show her. So I left feeling like perhaps I would be huge this pregnancy and then promptly went to McDonalds where the drive thru girl told me I looked like Gwyneth Paltrow. So now I have mixed emotions about how I look. 

The boys are taking the news well. They have noticed that mommy is tired and grumpy most of the time. :(  They are excited because now they get to watch more tv and sneak food like chips and fruit snacks and extra glasses of lemonade because I am either resting or just too tired to mess with it. I know this is not a glowing report of me but the boys don't seem scarred by it in any way and just say the baby ate my brain.I think this may also have something to do with the fact that Pete is playing a lot of  Plants Vs.Zombies with the boys.

So here is to #4, may he/she be able to handle all the craziness that is the Weigel Family.

A coke kinda night

Ok, so I feel totally overwhelmed with the day and am just chilling in bed drinking coke out of a straw. Aw, the life. * A note to say that I wrote this on Saturday night but got delayed in posting it.* The day started off with Pete announcing, at 8:30am, that we should go to the Indy Zoo(we have a pass so why not use it). We load up the car and drive to Indy. The weather was rainy and in the 60s but we had a fun time. Jack, Thomas, and Pete loved the raining moments while Luke and I chose to use the umbrella for them. We were looking at the Kudus and talking about how cute they were when Pete said they were so cute that even mommy would like one in her bed excepting the horns (an If I Ran the Zoo reference) I mentioned that I didn't think the females had horns so sure why not. Then we walk around to the other side of the exhibit, and I am off with Thomas a little bit away from the rest of the gang when Jack and Pete start talking about kudus again. Jack decides he wants to ask me a question so he yells quite loudly (you know because I am not standing right there) Mom, are you going to sleep with a girl? At that moment quite a lot of eyes turned and looked at me. I said, oh you mean a female kudu? The eyes went back to what they were doing.

I was making Mac-N-Cheese for dinner, you know the Kraft box kind, super easy and my kids will eat it. Last night I made chicken gumbo and cornbread and none of it got eaten so skip it, too much work for kids to complain they are hungry after I already fed them. Anyway, as you may know it takes about 12-15 minutes total to make this delicious meal but in that amount of time my two youngest children still managed to get into all sorts of trouble. Normally making dinner involves Thomas standing in between my legs just screaming and crying and annoying the daylights out of me. Tonight when he and Luke go upstairs (to play?) I have no problem letting them go. Dinner is ready and I call to the boys to come downstairs. Thomas strolls in drinking beer. Yes, my darling 1-year-old was drinking daddy's left over last night beer. See last night Pete and I went to bed around 9pm, we were so tired, and Pete had brought his beer upstairs to bed thinking he was going to be awake long enough to enjoy it. Nope he promptly fell asleep and since we left early for the zoo we didn't clean up our messes this morning and then well I had forgotten about it. Now no worries out there people who think I am letting him get drunk there was still the same amount as last night but when I went for it he did take one more sip before I could grab it. Next is Luke who does not prefer beer as his method of rebellion instead he got into my makeup.Pete says I should not keep it under our sink because the kids can easily reach it as they have done before, but I have no where else to put it. I did hide the makeup bag in another bag which worked for a bit, but I suppose it isn't the answer to this problem. I was able to clean most of it up but pink lipstick does not come out of carpets-just saying. I worked on it for a very long time. It is lighter but still there and still noticeable.

Let's not forget about Jack. Now if you let Jack play iPad or watch tv he is a very agreeable boy, but tell him it is time to work his brain and you have another child entirely. First I had him do one of his summer math worksheets, he is very good at math and he knew how to do the whole worksheet- this wasn't the problem. The problem is that he hates writing; he isn't very good at it, it is difficult for him, and it takes him a long time to express what he knows. I was met with quite a lot of- why am I so bad, why am I the worst kid ever, and etc. Next we move on the reading. I told him he had to read me a book and he could pick whatever book he wanted. He picks a super hero book and we start in. At first he knows most of the words so he isn't pulling normal Jack moves to make reading unbearable for all involved. Oh but then it happens. There are a few words in a row he can't quite get and his first move is always to just skip it and pretend like it isn't there. Well, I don't allow that so he gets mad at me. Then he stops trying to sound them out or use context to figure out the word and he just stops and asks me. This I also don't allow. He has to try and if he genuinely tries and still can't get it I will tell him. He then moves on to fake trying to guess the word. Trust me you can tell it is fake and not a real attempt. When this doesn't work his frustration rises. He then moves in for fidgeting, opening and closing the book, staring into space, and finally the thing that just gets me so upset-- he starts saying (every 5 seconds ) my throat is really dry, it is really really dry. I can't read with a dry throat. My eyes hurt I can't see the words my eyes hurt. My throat hurts. Now, we know he doesn't need glasses so this is not true and once he starts quickly and correctly reading the words again all these maladies magically go away. Until then, it is HELL! No water Jack you are stalling. Well, if you want water you better finish the book so you can get some. Sorry your eyes hurt there is nothing I can do for that. Just read the book!!!! It takes an hour to read a small book. Sometimes I think, so what if I don't make him practice math, writing, reading, or chess? At least then there wouldn't be these power struggles in our house every day.

Oh the joys of parenting. Especially when Pete walks in and magically they are transformed into wonderful and happy kids who just want to crawl all over him to be near him.