John David

This is the first time I have been 8 months pregnant with three children, and let me tell ya…..it’s exhausting.  Sometimes people ask me if I have trouble sleeping at night, being this far along.  I can honestly say that just doing my job is so exhausting that sleep is something that comes super easily!

 The GREAT news is that I am finally WELL!  Hallelujah!  No sinus infections, no pulled muscles, all is well.

 It was a busy weekend as usual.   I was giant pregnant lady at the baseball game, corralling Daniel and Caleb while Joshua played.  I was pregnant party guest at the Ladies’ Game Night.  (We have this one game, a dice game,  where you have to stand up around a table for a good 30 minutes.  Someone brought me a chair!!  Genius!)  Then today I was the Sunday school teacher in the chair, the napping mommy after church, and the mom at the pool that didn’t even bother to put on a swimsuit.

The signs that the time is near are all beginning to line up.  This week I got heart burn for the first time (that never happens until a couple of times the last month for me).  The last few days my ankles have developed beautiful egg-shaped pockets of water on the sides, which we call “swollen ankles”.

Then there’s my whole attitude.  A month ago, if I tried on an outfit that made me look TOO big, I just would take it off and put on something else.  At this point, I wear what’s comfortable, and being huge, yeah, I’ve just decided to go ahead and own that look b/c at 8 months I feel like I can officially just be unapologetically BIG now.

 Alan came home from the gas station and the grocery store this evening, looked at me, sitting at the kitchen table, with my feet propped up in another chair, and said, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you look way more calm than usual.”  “Usually when I come in, you’ve got a few little boys hanging on you, and you’re kind of stressed out, trying to do something.”

 I just said, “Yeah, I’ve kind of just given up.”

 There really is something incredibly freeing about being 8 months pregnant.  At this point, no one really expects anything of me other than the most basic taking care of my family and preparing for giving birth!  It’s fantastic.

 I went to one fitness class at the park last week and Michelle said, “You know, April, that turkey’s cooked now.  You could really just take it easy.”  I rather liked that line.

 Don’t get me wrong.  There’s still a lot of work to be done.  I am going to do a little birthday party at the pool for Caleb.  I had him write down a list of his closest friends, and I reserved a pavilion by our local pool.  Caleb says he wants a Woody Toy Story 3 cake.  How sweet is that?  I couldn’t help but wonder if he’ll want something completely different by tomorrow.  He’s funny like that.

 I have a baby shower coming up June 2nd, given to me by the ladies in my neighborhood.  That’s so sweet of them to do.  They know this is the 4th baby, and I already have lots of baby boy things, but they’re just doing this to be a blessing and of course I’m excited about this–my very last shower!

Oh!  Little John David got his very first gift today– a jumbo pack of Pampers and a big travel pack of wipes.  How exciting!  I need to buy some baby thank you notes!  Oh, I just remembered, it’s really his 2nd gift, because Jennings knitted him a hat and gave him a Thing #4 cup.  Thank you, Jennings!

 And another great surprise!  I drove into the carport after the baseball game Saturday, and as I got out of the car, I noticed Alan walking up with several hispanic women that I’d never seen before.  I was thinking “Whaaa?”  Alan said, “I brought you these women, to give you an estimate on housecleaning.”  Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather!  (knocked me forward anyway, I’m pretty front-heavy)

This is our current pick for naming the baby.  Caleb really badly still wants to call him David, while Joshua and Alan seem to like J.D.  I actually like John David or David…..but NOT John.  Nothing wrong with the name John, but that’s just not what I want to call him.  So he’s sort of named.  We just aren’t sure what we will actually call him yet!

The name has multiple significance.  “David” fits our Old Testament Bible theme.  Plus, our very first house together as a married couple was on a street named John David, so we’ve always kind of thought of that as a name but had never gotten around to using it.  Yes, we realized this is the 2nd time we’ve used David as a middle name.  We feel like when you have this many boys, you can get away with whatever you want.  ; )
 Would you all like to make guesses at when he will arrive and how big he will be??  We’ve done this a few times, so we have something to base our guesses off of:
Joshua:  8 lb 8 oz  39 weeks
Caleb:   9 lb 9 oz, induced @38 weeks, due to large size
Daniel:  9 lb 4 oz, induced @38 weeks, due to large size
John David:………..whattya think?

Here’s my official guess:  8 lb 6 oz  arrives June 18, one day before scheduled c-section (b/c that would just so be the way of it–that I would have to carry him that close to due date, and still have to experience labor!  Oy!)