Today marks pregnancy week 25 with my 3rd biological child, 4th child, and 4th pregnancy.  Clear as mud right?  In a nutshell, I currently have 2 children with my husband, 1 stepdaughter, and 1 on the way.  2+1+1=4.  I’ve been pregnant 3 times before now, with two successful pregnancies and births.  3-1=2.  Get it now?  I will get in to the full story of the unsuccessful pregnancy in another post, but for now, let’s talk about happier things.

As you can see in the picture above, I am currently a giant pregnant lady.  Or, at least I feel like a giant pregnant lady.  When I had my first baby, I feel like I did not show until around 22 weeks.  I was cute and fit and worked out until the day I delivered her (which was 10 days early).  Then, I got pregnant with my second baby 10 months later (there was a miscarriage in between the two).  I noticed that  I started to show a little earlier…probably at about 16 weeks.  The motivation in my head to work out was there, but my body and heart were not in it.  Balancing a child, an infant, a full time job, a husband, a house, etc. was not very conducive to then getting off my ass to workout.  I had lost all of my baby weight from the first baby, so I wasn’t too stressed about it, and as I always say, I’d rather be happy than perfect.

The second baby was different.  I was measuring normal and felt great until about 30 weeks.  That’s when I knew for sure that this baby was going to be early.  My hips hurt, my back hurt, I had these weird shooting pains in my groin.  It felt like things were already moving in the direction of an early delivery, and I was totally fine with that!  Well, I was wrong.  My water broke on my due date (I felt like I was 2 weeks overdue!), and my beautiful baby boy was born 13 hours later at 9.6 lbs and 22 inches.  I am a freaking pregnancy warrior though because I only had to push for 7 minutes and only needed 1 stitch!  ROCK STAR.

Now I am 25 weeks pregnant with baby number 3, child number 4.  I AM HUGE!  I think I started showing the day we conceived.  It’s nuts. Of course all of my friends tell me that I’m so cute and I don’t look that big….and my husband is still trying to have sex with me twice a day (he is successful most of the time because he’s pretty irresistible), but I have proof that I am giant.  At my 24 week appointment, I was measuring 29 centimeters.  My stomach is 5 centimeters bigger than what it should be.  See?  Scientific proof that it’s not all in my head!  Yes, I’ve only gained about (gulp) 12 lbs thus far, and I think it’s all in my belly, but my belly is huge.

I feel like since I started showing earlier (not really the day I conceived, but more like 14 weeks), people are going to think this is the longest pregnancy in the history of all pregnancies!  When people ask me when I’m due, I sometimes want to lie and shave off a month because I’m embarrassed to tell them that i still have three and a half months to go!

Besides measuring big, I am feeling great!  I am feeling lots of baby movement, and my hubby and daughters have been able to feel it, too!  The only annoying things that are starting to happen are a little insomnia and heartburn at night, but I just go with the flow and do what I can.  We’re excited to meet this little guy in a few months!  Adding another boy to the family is going to be fun!  We’ll have two boys and two girls!  I’m slightly worried as I imagine there will be a lot of wrestling matches between the two boys who will be about 21 months apart, but who needs nice things anyway?