It's March! Ding, ding, ding!

Right now our boys are spending the weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Southworth's house, and Will is downstairs working on finishing the bathroom.  I've not been feeling super great, but I thought it would be a great opportunity to catch our blog up on what we've been up to lately.

And great news - it's MARCH!!  Only 2 more weeks until this baby gets here.

Preston and his "car" that he made out of a big box, complete with crash helmet (since he was taking it down the stairs and crashing at the bottom. Yes for reals).

I have been using a silverware box to store my jewelry in for the last 10 years and it was just not doing the job.  I might not be a shoe collector like a lot of women, but I am a jewelry lover and have a lot of it.  So I needed something where I could hang my necklaces so they wouldn't get all tangled up.

So I ordered this off of Amazon, and now I thoroughly enjoy being able to see all my choices and having it all organized.

After church selfie. Need to take a photo on the days I at least make the effort to put make up on. :)

The other night Will had a huge long list of things to do after work, but all the boys wanted to do was play with him. They seriously ask me for hours all afternoon "When is Papa going to be home?".  So the other night he decided to forget his list and just played with Preston and Taylor. They LOVED it.

Church continues to be a challenge with this little guy - since changing to 1pm church. I'm afraid he might just miss the entire year of Sunbeams. 

He is a kid that still takes daily 3 hours naps...and without those naps, he is, well, he is not the easiest kid. :)  So we would rather let him sleep during church than have him be the most unbehaved kid in Primary.

Not sure what got into Will, but he spent over an hour one night making this culinary delight - haha :

Some more cute photos....

36 weeks pregnant, sitting with little Taylor who just wanted to snuggle....

I had my LAST gym workout last Tuesday at 36 and 1/2 weeks pregnant.  I posted this picture on Facebook with the following caption with it:

"After not being able to get to the gym for the last 2 weeks, I finally went back today. I think it was more of a determination to finish what I started. I am the type of person where if I say I will do something - I WILL do it. 

I originally made a goal to keep working out until Valentine's Day, but then we all got sick and so I didn't get to meet my original goal. Not thinking I would get to the gym after 34 weeks, out of sheer determination to FINISH my goal I went today at 36 and 1/2 weeks pregnant. For ME this is a big deal.

However, it was pretty evident to me today that it would also be my LAST gym workout until after the baby. It is kind of hard to workout when you feel like the baby's head is grinding on your pelvis, and your right leg keeps going numb.

SO with that said, it was with a heavy heart that I froze my gym membership today, said goodbye to the daycare mom (who is very excited to see me back with a newborn in 8 weeks from now), gave the gym owner hugs and did one last totally wimpy workout of 20 min stairclimber and 20 min weights. It's been a great 9 months worth of goals and trying to make this pregnancy healthier than my previous two.

I encourage anyone out there to defy expectations and boundaries and believe in the things your body can do even when you might not think you can do it."

Maternity Photo Shoot

So even though I've always been fairly good at taking "selfies" of myself during my pregnancies, I have never actually had a professional maternity photo shoot done.

I've seen plenty of friends get these done, and of course they always turn out looking really cute and amazing.  But I never really had any desire to have my own photos taken - because honestly pregnancy is not my favorite thing and it would be like "Hey let's document this time so you can remember it forever."

Don't get me wrong - it's a special time only because my boys have come from it. But the whole "pregnancy experience" has not been loved by moi. 

However, since this is our last baby, we thought we should get some photos taken.  Who knows, there might be a day come when I will be glad I did it.

Usually maternity photos are taken around 6 or 7 months when the belly is cute :) But since we waited until I was 36 weeks (9 months) along, well, the belly is GIGANTIC - haha.

It was even a stretch at 36 weeks to get it done. We kept talking about it, but before church on that day I told Will "I'm going to make an effort to do my makeup and hair really cute today so I will be ready for photos later tonight if you still want to do them."

By the way, here is a comparison of me pregnancy with Taylor at 36 weeks, and pregnant with baby #3 at 36 weeks.

So anyway, without further adieu, here are some of the photos from our maternity shoot. Will took the photos on his Panasonic Lumix GH3 camera in our bedroom, with photography backdrops and 2 softbox lamps (with umbrella).

We did take some "bare belly" type shots, but I don't really want to share those publicly but at least we'll have them for ourselves. I think Will did a really fantastic job on them!

Hitting the Wall

I only have 2 weeks left before this baby is scheduled to come (March 16th), that is if I last that long.  The last several days I feel like I hit a wall. Will and I keep comparing pregnancy to a marathon, and usually runners hit a wall around mile 18 in a marathon. He says I've hit my wall at mile 25.  Just 1 more mile to go!  Of course he had to add "At least you can see the light at the end of the tunnel - too bad yours ends with major surgery!" LOL.  

I feel like I've been blessed this pregnancy to workout for much longer than my others (which has kept me stronger and more able), and I haven't dealt with any dislocated ribs this time, or all the other crud I dealt with before (knock on wood).  But this time it has been harder in other ways.  It has definitely been an emotional battle for me.

But this past week it's like all the physical, emotional, mental EVERYTHING of it just hit a wall and I couldn't handle it.  I was crying and just wondering how I was going to be able to carry on for 2 more weeks. 2 more weeks is it! But it has felt like even too much.

Whereas I've felt very physically strong this pregnancy (relatively), this past week it's like all that was taken away and even climbing stairs felt like an Olympic event - haha.  ALL of my muscles over my entire body hurt like I ran 10 miles (that lactic acid burn all over everywhere), I would get winded so easily, my hips have been cracking/popping a lot. Standing for any length of time has been very hard. And the baby's head is very low and pushing "down there", sometimes pushing on nerves and things that quite often make my right leg go numb, or just causing extreme pain.  My stomach has felt stretched to the max and every day I feel like new muscles are being pulled further than they can possibly go - which make me not want to stand or do anything but just lay down to take any weight off of my stomach.  I've also lost all appetite. I'm nauseous like the 1st trimester all over again and nothing sounds good.  And yet I'm so stinkin' hungry.  Headaches, body aches, nausea, diahrea, nerve pains, numbness, hips popping, back aching, hardly sleeping at all....and then on top of it just not keeping my emotions in check!  

I swear my boys probably think I am one whacked out mama!  

I've been feeling a sense of overwhelmed-ness and guilt. I want to be the best mom to our boys, but lately I feel like I have SO little to give, but they ask for a LOT more.  I find myself snapping at them for the littlest things, and then apologizing saying "Mama just doesn't feel very good, it doesn't means she doesn't love you."

The other morning Taylor just kept following me around and asking for so many things and I was NOT feeling well and feeling very stressed, and so I went to the bathroom and shut the door. He followed me in and said "Mama, why you sad?  Are you hungry? I get you some food?"  

Awee I gave him a hug.  That is all I had to give.

I can't wait until I get back to feeling like my normal self again and can show my children that I CAN be a good mom, I CAN smile, I CAN be nice again and patient and kind.  But WHEW lately it has been very hard.

So this weekend my parents took the boys and it has helped so much.  Last night I got a blessing from Will that helped me so much, and actually got the first decent night's sleep in several days. My stomach is still not feeling great, but I do have more energy and I was able to do the dishes today.  

(Grandma and Preston playing Legos together)

Will has been the most awesomest husband and partner ever and has been busy working on finishing our downstairs bathroom before my Csection - so that I won't have to climb stairs everytime I need to tinkle. :)  This is a big deal.

Our downstairs bathroom is one project that has been left undone for 2 years.  We finally ordered the rest of the materials a couple of weeks ago and now Will is doing the work himself and doing a stellar job to get it done. 

Here is the bathroom when we first bought the house:

Will took out the sink, toilet, and pretty much everything. We painted the walls blue, and Will put in the rest of the wood flooring...

Will is now installing the millwork....

This will be our sink:

Our mirror:

Wall cabinet behind the toilet (minus the base, we're just installing the cabinet portion directly to
the wall):

The door:

Towel Racks:

Faucet:

Some of the nautical decor:

I just need to find some cute red/white/blue towels to go in the bathroom and then it's done.  I want to find some with wide stripes, but so far online I haven't found any that I like.

Anyway, I shall leave you with some of the pictures from Will's morning adventures recently...