13 Weeks

It's true!  We are expecting our third child sometime around September.  Our boys are ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED it is a girl.  I hope it is a girl; but, I know we will all love and adore whomever comes.

We are so grateful we ALL got to hear her/his heartbeat at our first prenatal appointment last week.  The next morning, my 4yo said to me, "mom, when I heard that heartbeat, it sounded like a girl".  He's probably right, you know.  My boys are crazy-intuitive.  But, like I said, totally OK either way!

We had been trying for many months.  This wasn't normal for us.  We were fortunate before.

When things weren't "working", we tried not to worry.  We made some changes.  I was worried my health was affecting our probability.  My husband was worried about his health!  Some red flags went off.  My dad moved out at the end of August 2013.  Then, some space in my head cleared a bit.

I realized that we had always had our Culligan water filtration system working for our other pregnancies (it broke 3 or 4 years ago...was fixed and broke again).  Soooo, I bought a special shower filter and a "bath ball" filter to make sure we weren't getting harmful chlorine in our bodies (which, especially after flooding last year, smelled worrisome strong).  We have always filtered our drinking water and I don't know why I did not think of the shower filter sooner...(btw, I am looking for a new drinking water filter and would prefer a portable one...any suggestions?)

After my vitamin debacle (who knew vitamins could be so...harmful!), I decided to follow the FODMAP diet very closely and not eat ANYTHING that might cause problems for me...and, something worked.  Last November, I had a really good month!  I need a "repeat" button, however.

Also, my husband and I were trying to make sure everyone got a good night's sleep (and weren't thinking about our hormones aligning); so, my husband was sleeping in our son's room and would move our younger son to sleep in our bed with me.  We talked to our boys about it; and, it took a lot of ups and downs and adjustments before we were all sleeping well again.  But, we did it! 

And, lo and behold, we conceived after making these changes (and, we will never know if any of them made a difference; but, we are grateful everything aligned).  27 weeks to go!  We are so EXCITED!