Home Stretch and Halloween Type Stuff

At this point in pregnancy, when I am a few days past 37 weeks, I am in denial. Do not try to tell me I will have a baby soon. I will disagree with you, and arguing with a pregnant woman is both stupid and dangerous. Am I ready? Yes and no. I'm sort of ready. I have all the stuff I need. I'm feeling quite pregnant and bending over would be nice. But do I think having a baby is easier than being pregnant? NO. First, there's labor, which is tiring. Then you have to actually keep the baby alive, which is tiring. And I have 3 other kids to keep alive, which is tiring. These kids expect me to feed them like at least 3 times a day and stuff. Talk about spoiled. 

In other life related news, Halloween when you're this pregnant means you can eat all of the Reese's peanut butter cups and it doesn't really matter. And you can wear a jack-o-lantern shirt because its "cute" and the pumpkin face on it is supposed to be round. If you wear this type of shirt any other time and the face is especially round, it is not quite as cute.

 Does anyone else look at pictures of themselves pregnant and wonder if their face is actually that fat? It can't just be me. And don't tell me its cute or something. I know my face is not usually that fat, I have pictures of myself not pregnant. I blame being pregnant with a boy. I gained less weight and didn't have a fat face with the girls, but both boys made me eat more chocolate and potato chips this pregnancy and I gained like 5 extra pounds in my face with both of them.

My kids girls were pretty excited about Halloween this year because Frozen. I had my own set of Anna and Elsa to parade around, and one little stubborn boy who didn't want to "be a costume" which left me with a different sort of challenge. The girls would wear a costume or princess dress every day of the year, but come within five feet of Witten with a Spiderman outfit and he will adamantly refuse to wear it. So, he was a lumberjack. I use that term loosely. I drew on a beard that he managed to smudge off within 30 minutes and I put jeans and a red plaid shirt on him. The only part of Halloween he was in favor of was the candy. Once he realized people would give him candy if he said "trick or treat" he was on board. As long as I didn't try to take anymore pictures of him against his will. 

We carved pumpkins this year on the day before Halloween, and my kids were surprisingly useful. Witten say "Ew, cheese!" when I cut open the first pumpkin so he wasn't going to touch anything, but the girls cleaned out the pumpkins with very little help while I made dinner. All I did was scrape the insides clean and they scooped everything out. Children can be useful, who knew. 

 On actual Halloween the girls had Bobcat Rally (its like a pep rally they have every month) so they had a hard time deciding whether to wear red and blue or wear Halloween stuff. They can't wear actual costumes to school, but they can accessorize. They never quite decided, so they went with both. Red clothes, Halloween earrings and headbands, and a pumpkin shirt for Alana. Decisions are hard.

The next big holiday is Thanksgiving and I will have a baby by then. Don't remind me though, I'm well aware of it. I got induced because of low platelets with both Ava and Witten, but I haven't had as big of an issue this pregnancy. I still wanted to get induced though, because its convenient and you get an epidural way before you're actually in pain and you can schedule it and don't have to stay up all night, so I asked my doctor about it. He told me I could elect to get induced anytime after 39 weeks and I was like "sign me up!" I don't know exactly what day that will be, but I know that my pregnancy has an expiration date, which strengthens my resolve to deny that I will be holding a baby in about 2 weeks. He can stay in there if he wants for now though, I'm not eager to get him out any sooner and start that awkward postpartum phase where I have to wear maternity pants for two weeks and cannot possibly eat enough food to fill me up. That crazy hunger will be okay on Thanksgiving, but the rest of the time its just annoying. 

Who knows if I will actually bother writing anything else this pregnancy. I have not documented it as much as with Witten, but in reality its been about the same so it seems redundant to write the same stuff again. This has probably been my most uncomfortable pregnancy, but I will never go around complaining about that because that would be pointless. I didn't take weekly belly shots or anything, but I took plenty with Witten and I look the same, chubby face and all. I'm almost done and while I feel a little bit nostalgic, I also just feel finished. I don't want to be pregnant again, and as sad as I will be that the newborn stage I love so much is so short, I will be mostly okay with it. I can close this chapter and be fine about it, as long as I can bend over again soon I will try to look at the bright side of never being pregnant again. I will miss the tiny babies, but I also miss seeing my feet. I will miss that smell of a freshly bathed baby, but I won't miss maternity clothes and sleep deprivation. Its a trade-off for sure, and I am okay with quitting at 4 kids. I don't think my sanity would survive any more, I'm barely hanging on to the last of it as it is.