As I’m sure you surmised from my very sudden absence, our THIRD baby boy arrived early last Tuesday, March 28. Aidan James joined us in the very early hours of the morning quite unexpectedly, but healthy and absolutely perfect in every way.
I have so many things to share about Aidan, and I can’t wait to do that once we get our feet under us as a family of five. I’ll see you all in a few weeks when things start to settle down at the Lane house. 🙂
I just wrapped up my Week 34 OB visit. By this point in pregnancy, it feels like I spend more time at the doctor’s office than I do working some weeks. And given that we’re only about six-ish, or less, weeks out and I’ve done virtually no documenting of this pregnancy, I thought we’d do a little update.
Baby is growing so well! Given the area of the baby that our high-risk pregnancy doctors are watching closely, we’ve had growth ultrasounds every four weeks. The baby is measuring each scan around the 60th percentile and a few days days ahead of my due date. While the area they are monitoring hasn’t changed to “totally normal and no need to monitor further,” we’ve done all that we can at this point to understand what the remaining risks are for the baby and what it could potentially look for the baby after delivery. We’ve been able to eliminate completely some of the potential issues through additional testing. But now we wait and see…
Nathan and I are, for the most part, at peace with that. Although it was a road for me to get to a place where I could let it go and just trust God and our doctors.
I’ve had people ask what we are having this time. Annnnd. While we know what we are having, we aren’t sharing this time around. We had to do something different for this very last baby!
As far as readying ourselves to welcome this third little one, I have to admit that I feel very behind. We have moved the boys’ playroom from the remainder upstairs unused bedroom down to the basement. And we’ll use the former playroom as this little one’s nursery. And aside from that, I’ve done nothing to the room. I’m anxiously awaiting the painter to come and paint for me so I can start final prep of the room!
Then there’s the old question of how do I feel. I feel like I’m ready to be done with pregnancy. While I can caveat this with disclaimers that I’m absolutely so thankful that my body allows me to be pregnant, and that we have been really blessed to not struggle with conceiving, etc. I am ready to move to the next phase of life of raising our kids. My body certainly feels every bit of this third pregnancy. The aches and pains, the insomnia, the heartburn, the general discomfort from having feet kicking my ribs, the baby hiccups that always seem to happen when I lay down to go to sleep at night. I am very ready to have my body back to myself for forever.
And now we wait, and hope that the scans of this little one continue to be good. And hopefully get a nursery pulled together before it arrives! I feel all of the excitement and nervousness that comes as the end nears.
I just wanted to quickly say a sincere ‘thank you’ for all of the well wishes and congratulations on my last post. I always feel a bit uncertain sharing such big life news for some reason. It’s such a vulnerable thing, even when it’s so exciting, and I just appreciate the kindness of you all.
Given that this pregnancy news is very new to the internet world, and we’re already almost halfway through this pregnancy, I wanted to answer for my blog friends certain questions that always seem to come up when I talk with girlfriends about family and having babies. And while I documented my second pregnancy with Jonathan on the blog, I don’t think I’ve ever talked about some basic family and pregnancy questions!
So, I thought it would be fun to have a chat between girlfriends, just like I do in real life about all things babies and pregnancy!
Did you always know you wanted to be a mom? No. I never really focused deeply on a life vision for myself. I didn’t as a little girl dream of a wedding, but assumed that someday I would meet someone I’d want to spend my life with and we’d build our lives together. Similarly, I never really envisioned myself as a mom when I was younger. The overthinker in me thought it sounded too hard and a whole heap of things out of your control. So even when I met Nathan, I wasn’t sure I wanted children, and he very much knew he wanted to be a dad.
My college roommate often marvels and jokes with me about how different I am than the person she knew so well in college. A girl who didn’t want any kids at all, felt so awkward being around little ones, and thought for sure that motherhood wasn’t for me.
That thought process changed over time. I can’t really point to one moment or set of circumstances that changed, but my heart eventually came around to the idea of wanting something more than just Nathan and myself.
What was the most surprising thing about pregnancy? I research everything. So truthfully, I wasn’t terribly surprised by much of the physical part of pregnancy. What did surprise me was the mental toll it takes on me. I don’t feel like myself and I struggle to find motivation to do things I generally enjoy when not pregnant. I definitely don’t feel my best self the entire time, and I don’t enjoy the process.
That being said, I’m really trying to enjoy this “last” one, and appreciate what my body does for me.
What does almost 38 year old to be mom wish you had known as a 33 year old new mom? Almost nothing works out the way you think it should. The birth, feeding, going home, new splitting of responsibilities with your partner. And it will all be ok. This too shall pass.
From a very practical standpoint, I had no idea that there were things you needed for breastfeeding and pumping aside from like…a pump. You guys, I was clueless. My sister came in clutch bringing me over a breastfeeding kit about a month before I had Harrison.
Biggest regret of pregnancy and post-partum? Aside from letting my post-partum depression after Harrison go undiagnosed and just suffering through it, which is honestly a HUGE, MASSIVE regret, I regret not doing newborn photos. So we are not making that mistake this time! I thought they were too much money and an unnecessary luxury after Harrison, Jonathan was born in the stinking middle of the COVID pandemic and I didn’t want any person that I wasn’t 100% sure didn’t have COVID around him, so here we are. I want newborn photos.
Are you staying in your house or planning on moving? We haven’t figured out where everyone is going to sleep yet, but we’re planning on staying where we are for now. We love our neighbors who have young kids and our location! I can’t decide whether I want the boys to share a room or if we take our upstairs playroom and turn it back into a bedroom so that all three kids can have their own rooms. What do you all think?
Have you thought about names? We’ve always had a girl name that we like, and still do. But we struggle with boy names. So if this is another boy, lord help us come up with the perfect name.
Are you finding out the gender? Yes. We’re going to find out the gender. We did early genetic testing, so we technically have the gender card from that.
Are you hoping it’s a girl? Woof. That’s a loaded question. Yes and no. I’d love a girl, but at this point, I’m also very happy being a boy mom. If I ended up with three boys, I’m sure there would be an initial sadness to not have a girl and the chance for a mother/daughter relationship, cute girl clothes, and maybe the chance to go pick out wedding dresses with her someday. But I know, similar to what happened after having Harrison, that a point would come that I couldn’t imagine life any other way.
There are so many mothers of three boys that I really admire, including having grown up next to a family of three boys who felt like brothers. I think there is something really special about being a mom of all boys. Our neighbor from growing up was truthfully one of the most impactful women in my childhood, just like a second mom and her love of her boys shaped how I saw how truly wonderful the mother/son relationship could be.
She passed away the year I had Harrison, and I’ll always remember one of her son’s eulogies at her funeral. He said, “Mom loved many things, but she loved being a mom the most of all. She loved being our mom.” More than anything else, I hope my kids can say that about me one day.
Are you sure this is it? Yes. I’m sure. I’m very confident that our family will feel complete after adding this little one. And that my body and mind can’t handle another pregnancy.
We’re adding baby #3 to the Lane crew this spring! This little one’s due date will be right around mid-April, which is also the same time as Harrison’s birthday. I’m well into my second trimester now, and our 20 week sonogram is just a few weeks away after the Thanksgiving holiday.
It’s taken us so much longer this time around to be able to tell friends and family. Life already feels so busy with just two little ones, and we wanted to be able to tell as many people as we could in person.
I wrote the below post when we first found out we were pregnant, and I thought this was would be the perfect opportunity to share it……
My final trimester of pregnancy is coming to a close. <Insert happy dance!> In all seriousness, I have made a very conscious effort to enjoy this pregnancy more. To embrace my body that is growing another human being, rather than get frustrated at the number of pounds gained or how I looked. I am unbelievably grateful for this body that is able to sustain life, and I know that is a privilege that so many would ache to have. But, I am ready to move to the next phase of meeting this new little man.
This popped up on my Instagram feed the other day, and it really hit home. This time three years ago waiting for Harrison, the fear and anxiety I had over the birth, how we would survive with a newborn, how Nathan and I would transition to parenthood were all-consumiing. And this time around, even though I know it won’t be the same, there’s confidence that we will be alright. And we will figure it out. And yes, it will be hard. And yes, there are going to be things that we didn’t experience with Harrison that we’ll experience this time, but it will all even out. And we’ll be ok. Better than ok. It will be hard to imagine our family without the newest little guy.
It seems like it’s been awhile since I’ve blogged just a random Friday Favorites! We’re one week into our potentially three week quarantine waiting for baby Lane #2. A lot of you have asked me over on Instagram why Harrison is home again. So, I thought I’d chat about that here as well.
We sent Harrison back to daycare at the end of May at the recommendation of primarily Harrison’s pediatrician, and my OB agreed that, while a risk, was a low risk to send him back to daycare. My OB also, though, at the same time recommended that Harrison come back out of daycare three weeks before my due date, and join Nathan and I in “quarantine” waiting for baby’s arrival. I think the three week recommendation is based on the guidance from the CDC, but don’t quote me on that!
So given that, and after talking to Harrison’s pediatrician, who also agreed that would be best to ensure that we are at the lowest risks as we can possibly be going into delivery for COVID, Harrison’s staying home with us again from now until some period after baby’s arrival. Initial suggestions from his pediatrician were to keep him at home for at least 4-6 weeks after baby’s arrival to allow the new baby time to build up their immune system. So here we all are again, one big happy, expectant family!
The good part about baby #2 is that generally, you don’t have to buy all of the STUFF that comes with having the first baby. The stuff alone is daunting: crib, bassinet, bottle warmers, how many contraptions to get for your home to put baby down in, swaddles, sling, wrap or carrier, car seat, stroller. The list goes on and on!
The bad news for us was that we borrowed almost ALL of the baby essentials from my sister when we had Harrison. And when we found out that baby #2 for each of us was going to arrive within a week of each other this summer, we turned to our friends to borrow a lot of the things that we absolutely needed. But there were a few things on my list that I didn’t have the first time around or wanted more of, that I’m buying for baby #2, and I wanted to share those with you!
We had a Baby Bjorn bouncer for Harrison, and it was my single most favorite thing to put him down in while I needed my hands free in a room. I’d pick it up and move it from one room to the next. Harrison loved it, particularly when he figured out he could bounce it himself, and we even took it to South Dakota us twice to my parents’ cabin. Aside from the pack and play, it was the only baby gear I brought with me that first year to visit them. That’s how much I loved it. And given that my sister also LOVED it, I knew I was going to be buying a second one for our new little guy.
Aw…Look at Baby Harrison in the bouncer.
The days of May seemed to move faster and faster. At the beginning of this pandemic, days seemed soooo slow. And now, maybe we’ve gotten used to it a bit more – our new routine, spending time outside, or the impending countdown to baby, but May seems to have flown by.
Here’s what our calendar has looked like this May…
It could most aptly be characterized as “didn’t even bother to fill it out.” 🙂
I’m linking up with Shay and Sheaffer to share with you what’s going on in our life lately!
1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK:
2: WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:
I feel like most of my reminiscing these days is thinking back to what was life was like at this time last year. The simplicity of being able to go and do everything that we wanted to do!
We’re missing our Splashin’ and Smokin’ Saturdays with Cousin Evie in particular.
Back in October, Nathan and I eagerly awaited the results of an at-home pregnancy test. Hoping there would be two pink lines, but fully expecting that it may take us months upon months to get pregnant again. And there they were. Two perfectly visible pink lines. We smiled, I teared up with joy that we were going to be blessed to do this whole parenting thing again. And so our journey began toward baby #2.
There were the usual stressors of the first trimester: the utter exhaustion, nausea, uneven hormones. The eagerness of wanting everyone to know this special little secret we were keeping to ourselves, and at the same time wanting to hold on to that little secret for as long as we could. It was an uneventful first trimester, punctuated by an anniversary trip to New York in November and the most perfect Christmas morning sharing this awesome news with our family.
I’m sharing a little bit about what my second trimester with baby number 2 has been like for me. For those of you who are new around here, I’m due at the end of July with our second little one. Harrison, our first baby, just turned 2 in April, and we found out in the winter that we were going to be adding a second little boy to the family!
I blogged about my first trimester HERE, and since I just finished up my second trimester of pregnancy, I wanted to share what the alleged “easiest” trimester has been like for me.