there aren't really words that i have for how i'm feeling tonight. it is 12:23 am. we have to be at the hospital at 8:00, with my c-section scheduled for 10:00. i will be 39 weeks, 4 days.
there are times when this pregnancy has flown by and others where i feel like it's gone on forever. i honestly still think i'm in denial. i'm clearly pregnant. the "i didn't know i was pregnant" concept still blows my mind. my cervix screams everytime this giant child moves, and unlike his big brother and sister, he makes my belly move in the most unreal ways. tonight we thought for sure he'd punch a hole through my right side and come jumping out.
noah and emily are very excited. i know noah remembers when emily was born, and i'm fairly certain that emily is only somewhat aware of what is actually happening. in recent weeks, i do think it has started to make a little more sense to her. she asked me a few days ago "baby brother is coming out soon?" clearly we talk about it regularly, and tonight prepped them for how their day and week will go with mommy away. noah is fine with it. emily follows his lead.
when i stop to think about the gravity of how life is going to change...... i just paused for about 15 seconds, because i don't really know how to finish that. infertility was always such a huge part of our story, and i feel like it always will be. noah asked tonight (for like the 2nd or 3rd time recently) how the baby got in my belly, but quickly shifted to how did he get in my belly and did the doctor put him there. that is a much easier one to answer, because yes my child, the doctor did put you in there....
i still have friends struggling with infertility and it breaks my heart all over again when someone shares another failed cycle. but i am reminded that i have paid my dues, four years and four IVF cycles worth, to be exact, and i know that i would do it all again to wind up here, ten hours from having my miracle "freebie" that i never really dreamed possible.
i was so mad after emily was born that my body made the decision that we were done having kids. did i want three because i really wanted three, or did i want three because i knew i couldn't have three? but then when three became our new reality, the initial excited "oh shit!", quickly became a terrified "oh shit..." and i feel like i've waivered back and forth between the two in recent days, as i did in those first weeks of my pregnancy.
we've figured out a lot of the logistics- minivan, big kids sharing a bedroom, me going to part time in the spring (20 hours a week - working monday and thursday, and a half day on wednesday), and ben changing his schedule to acconmodate mine and eliminate the need for child care.... money is still going to be tight, and that's something ben and i will have to actively work on and adjust to. we have the stuff- i kept everything for the big kids and feel so fortunate for that.
it's the physically, mentally and emotionally juggling parenting three kids under five that i'm most nervous about. i hope my fuse grows longer over the next several months and that noah's recent bratiness and emily's recent two-year-old-ness improve. i hope i am physically able to keep up with all of them and still have something left at the end of the day. i hope my RA stays quiet. i don't want to have to worry about that on top of everything else, especially since last time i saw the rheumatologist was AGES ago, and she encouraged me to wean emily from nursing by 12 months so i could go on some stronger meds. (for the record, i got pregnant whilst breastfeeding when emily was 15 months old, and didn't wean until she was 20 months and i was 20 weeks pregnant...)
i hope that my emotional state and mine and ben's ability to co-parent, outnumbered, on our new schedule will be strong and healthy and that we won't want to kill each other (and the kids) at the end of each day.
three kids is scary to me in so many ways, but i remind myself that they won't be little forever and then i step back and try to take it all in.
noah's such a kind boy and he really is a good kid. he is loving and funny and so smart and creative. lately his thing is telling the story of "noah's great day" movie.
emily is a fiesty little firecracker who says and does things to get a rise out of you, but then quickly turns on her cute face and pouty kissy lips. she takes it all in and constantly surprises us with what she knows. tonight, eating her crescent roll at dinner, she looks at me and say "mmm... licious!" (delicious)
baby brother - you don't have a name just yet, but i know we'll figure it out in the next few hour or so help me - you aren't even here yet and you have already changed out lives so much. i never ever dreamed we could have another baby, and even though i have had my fears, i know that you are meant to be a part of our family. i have always said things happen for a reason, and we have the children we are meant to have. i cannot wait to meet you and know you and fall even more in love with you than i already am. you are currently torturing me from the inside - seriously, between the sciatica, the hemmorhoids, and the baby movement slash contractions, this has been my most painful pregnancy of the three. you move into my right ribcage and i feel like my skin might rip open, and then you burrow down into my cervix and i fear like you're stabbing me with a knife. i promise not to hold these things against you. tomorrow, i will complain of the post c-section discomfort, and after that of the booby pain, and after that something else, because it's always something.
but inspite of all of that, you are truly a miracle, in a new sense of the word to me. i am so grateful for the opportunity to have you in my life and to be your mom. i'm scared that i won't be great, but i know i will do my best. we will have good days and bad days, but at the end of each of them, you and your brother and sister will know that i love you all tremendously. i want you to know that i love you all with my whole heart and that i would do anything for you. i know you will be amazing and beautiful and smart and strong.
and now, after one last breakfast, one last nap, one last dinnertime, and one last bedtime cuddles as a family of four, it's time for one last sleep before we meet our baby brother. my youngest child. my new son.
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