I read in my baby book that Week 33 involves some sort of growth spurt for my little pumpkin. If you look back on Week 31, you’ll see I went from pregnant! to PREGNANT! I will say that while I am getting lots of comments about looking “really ready” this week has brought some good things. I am finally starting to feel like my heart is ready for baby Elijah. I have had tons of dreams about him and I can’t wait to see what he looks like. Also, given my history of big babies and my current size, if Eli isn’t at least an 8 or 9 pounder…I got a lot of explaining to do (involving entire containers of ice cream).

The nesting has begun and I have been organizing and cooking. To be sure, I have yet to purchase a single baby item or put any of the borrowed/donated baby items I have received into any sort of organized form – but the rest of the house is getting ready for baby. I will get started on that part after my shower next week.

Note to you ladies who swear you are “done” having babies. Unless you have done something surgical to ensure that…don’t give away all of your baby stuff. The minute you do, two pink lines are going to show up on a home pregnancy test…guaranteed.

This picture is over a week old, as I am 32 plus weeks now – I am even bigger this week and will post an update tomorrow. For the time being, please note that my belly is quickly dropping….dear goodness I have a feeling I will have it resting on my thighs in no time. Pregnancy is b-ea-utiful and oh so sexy!

 When our first son was born, I was worried how the two rowdy beagles we had at the time would adjust. I actually spent real emotional energy thinking about this in the months before I delivered. I did research on introducing the baby to the dogs and I spent more minutes than I would like to admit thinking about how I could possibly have room in my heart for both the baby and the dogs. The dogs went on vacation with us, they slept with us, we had framed pictures of them around the house and on our computer screensavers. When other people told stories about what cute things their kids did, I threw in anecdotes about my beagles. Yes, I was that person. Needless to say, about 10 seconds in to holding Isaac for the first time, those dogs moved to a different corner of my heart. I still loved them but it wasn’t the same.

The night before our second son was born, I went in to his sweetly prepared nursery and cried my eyes out. I couldn’t imagine how I could love a baby as much as or more than I loved our firstborn. I couldn’t fathom how my heart would have room for this next child. I spent an incredible amount of my pregnancy with Joshua researching the addition of a sibling to the family dynamic. I read stories to Isaac in preparation for Joshua’s homecoming. I thought I was prepared, until the night before when it hit me that everything was about to change. I just broke down. Memories of my introduction to motherhood and how it felt to hold my first baby were flooding into my brain. How could a second child compare? How could I feel as attached to this baby as I did to the precious child sleeping in the next room over that taught me how to be a mother?

The very next evening, as Joshua came into this world and my heart did not split in half but instead grew exponentially, I understood.  When Isaac came to the hospital to meet his brother, he immediately began referring to him as “my Joshie.” Nothing could have been sweeter.

Here I am, 8 weeks or so from adding a third son to our family. You would think by now I would understand that worrying about how it is all going to work out is for not. Yet, that is just what I am doing. Once again, I cannot wrap my brain around having enough love for another child. I can’t picture him yet or feel his chubby hand in mine. I can’t see a clear picture of what it will be like to have three sons and love them all so intensely.  However, I know that it is going to happen. Sometime in the very near future, my heart will once again grow exponentially and make room for Elijah Harris. I am sure I will sit in that hospital room, staring into his eyes and wondering how our family would ever have been complete without him.

PS – read something today about having children that just blew me away, once again Amber nailed it. Go see for yourself.

Well the first day of school was exactly 3 weeks ago but I am finally getting around to posting about it. Isaac loves kindergarten so far, his BFF from pre-school is at the same school so he is a happy camper. Logan, is her name by the way, she is a spunky and adorable little 5 year old girl that can climb a tree as good as any boy I know. Isaac informed me recently that he was going to marry her. Upon inquiring why he felt she was “the one” he said: “Because she is funny, she can run really fast and she has cute headbands.” Perfect reasoning – don’t you think?

Anyway, here is the little man out front of his school on the first day:

 
Here he is posing at home before we left…couldn’t resist his like model-like pose:

Finally, as usual, Joshie needed in on the action:

Overall, the transition to “real school” has been great and once again, my fears and worries about transitions and schedules and such, were for not. I don’t know why I work myself into a frenzy over change because it usually ends up being less of a momentous thing than I imagined. Isaac loves being at school, Joshie loves having the run of the pre-school without a big brother to cramp his style. Life is good. Now let’s add another….

So late last week I shot 3 different pictures on 3 different days of my 29 week belly. Once I finally downloaded them I was shocked at how different they all look:

Version 1

Version 2

Version 3

Not sure if it is the clothes, the food I ate that day or what but what a difference a day makes!