Expanding

I had my 7 month check-up today. I can't believe I'm in the 3rd trimester already. It was the regular glucose testing with a bonus ultra-sound to check my placenta. Good news is that my placenta has moved up and out of the way, and I got to sneak another peak at my precious girl. I've said this before, but Mary Ellen is MUCH MORE active in the womb than Hattie ever was. The tech even made the comment that she is quite the active babe. She predicted that I'm having a tomboy. That would be quite the change from the Miss Priss we have right now :).

The neatest part of the ultra-sound was that we peaked in on her while she was practicing her sucking reflex. How precious it was to see those little lips hard at work! She's gearing up for our upcoming nursing sessions together. And, according to the tech, she's weighing in at a beefy 2 lbs. 13 ounces.

The dates that the ultra-sound machine is giving are still about a week and a half ahead of the doc's dates. They more closely match my own dates, so I definitely still think Mary Ellen will be arriving more towards the beginning of August than her original due date of Aug. 21st-23rd, but we'll see. Hattie was 2 weeks early, and I was already 4-5 cm when I went into the hospital, so I'm sure that's affecting my judgement.

The best part of the whole appointment was that my ob suggested we do another ultra-sound at 36 weeks just to make sure everything with the baby and the placenta look good before the delivery. YAY!

Then by the time I got home, Hattie was already down for her nap, but when she awoke, it was like she KNEW that I had been away, focused on her sister all morning. She was so clingy and whiney and demanded so much of my attention this afternoon, more than usual.



People ask me all the time if Hattie "knows" she's about to get a sister. We've told her countless times that there is a baby in Mama's belly. She'll kiss my belly and even point to it when I ask her where "Sissy" is. All that being said, I am 100% sure that she doesn't have a clue what's about to happen. We've had a good trial run with me watching Gracen, but I don't think it's helped prepare Hattie much for Mommy and Daddy having and loving a new baby just as much as we love her, a baby that doesn't leave the house at 4 pm every day, a baby that's going to be close and nursing on HER mama for much of the time.

I hope she adjusts better than I think she will, but I have a feeling that we have quite a few clingy, whiney days ahead of us. Hattie's adjustment to her new sister is by far one of my biggest worries about Mary Ellen's arrival that I have. Well, that and the lack of sleep, which has already started to rear it's ugly head in my life since I am going to the bathroom every 2-3 hours a night now. I just wanna tell my body, "Look, you don't have to get me ready for what's to come. I just wanna sleep while I still can!!!" I had the realization while having lunch with my mother-in-law today that I probably am not gonna get a good night sleep for quite some time.....like 6 months probably, and that's being optimistic.

Still, I can't help but think about those little lips that were sucking so sweetly today, and I definitely think this one has her daddy's profile. I compared the girls' ultra-sounds, and they look so different to me. We'll see. Easy or not, though, we will make the transition of being a family of 3 to a fam of 4 eventually.......