36 WEEKS PREGNANT: HOPING THAT BABY COOKS UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE

I am 36 weeks and that means I have ONE month to go (give or take) before our precious baby girl makes her grand entrance! I seriously will have to say this pregnancy has went by so fast! I felt like I was pregnant forever with Palace! I definitely think it has to do with how much we’ve had going on lately! Also, I have a 2 year old that keeps me on my toes..always! I took so many more naps when I was pregnant with Palace too! One of the biggest mistakes I made during my first pregnancy was being convinced that I was going to come early. I lost my mucus plug and was dilated 3 centimeters from 37 weeks on. Palace didn’t make her appearance until exactly 41 weeks! Those last few weeks were pure torture. I remember sitting in the living room in agony, waiting to go into labor. I also had a lot of false labor, which made it even worse! I tried finding things to do but I had already sewn 5 blankets and a ton of baby headbands, made 10 freezer meals, deep-cleaned the house ( countless times) and organized all the baby things. This time I’m praying that baby girl stays in there until my due date because, I have things I need to get done up until the last second and FREEZER MEALS?!?! What the heck are those?! Dont get me wrong I am super big and super uncomfortable, but I’m willing to take the hit.

CRAVINGS:

I have done a lot better with my weight gain and exercising during this pregnancy than with my last. I gained 43 lbs with Pal and worked my BOOTAY off to lose it all. I’ve tried to make wiser choices this pregnancy because I know I’ll thank myself during those first few postpartum months. I have gained about 35 lbs. I haven’t been as hungry during this pregnancy as I remember being with Pal. However, last week it finally hit me and I literally can’t drink or eat enough!! I’ve been craving all the oranges and ALLL the sweets! Also, hot coffee is grossing me out and iced coffee is my jam again. I HATED iced coffee at the beginning of my pregnancy. I’m planning to start keto after the baby arrives to kick my sugar addiction!

BABY SIZE:

Baby is the size of a PAPAYA! In case you were wondering why there are papayas in all of the photos, that’s why! Hopefully baby girl isn’t as big as her sister was at this point! Palace came out at 9 lbs and 1 oz! They say your babies get bigger as you go and I sure hope thats not true, but BIG BABIES run in my family!!!

LOOKING FOWARD TO: 

Watching Palace react to Story, my 37 week appointment (to see if I’m dilated at all this time), Breastfeeding, this summer and all the crazy, new adventures God has in store for us!

CONCERNS:

I’ll definitely have to watch Palace around Story. Palace LOVES here baby dolls right now. She carries them around and puts them to sleep and feeds them and pushes them in her toy shopping cart. It’s so cute watching her. She’ll cover the baby up with a dish towel she stole from the kitchen and say, “shhhh baby seepin.” She is going to love helping me with Story. I know she will do great, I’m just going to have to closely supervise her “help” at first.

Now for my biggest concern…

WHERE WILL WE LIVE?!

Mason and I bought a fixer upper in October. The house we bought was something that we had known about and prayed about for over 6 months before the deal was closed. We bought the house for an insanely low price. It was a long process and God tested our faith over and over through it. Our original plan was to fix the house up and live in it. It’s in a nice, established neighborhood and it’s a two minute walk from the lake. We began the project hoping to have it livable by this spring. Fast forward and its already March and we still don’t even have it cleaned out. We are renting a SECOND dumpster this weekend and hoping it will be the last. It’s an awesome house with a lot of potential, but we are about to have our second child. A couple weeks ago, after chatting with Mason’s parents and feeling like we were in over our heads we decided to turn our fixer upper into our FLIP HOUSE! We are going into this with lots of PRAYER and completely putting our trust in Jesus. We are hoping to be able to make a decent profit to put down on a house that doesn’t need so much work. Our hope is to have the house listed on the market by the end of MARCH. I honestly don’t know what our future holds at this point. What I do know? JESUS IS AMAZING! The fact that we have been given this opportunity is all becuase of HIM. His path is definitely not for the faint of heart. We feel like lots of things are up in the air right now! We will basically be VAGABONDS this summer. My grandparents are snowbirds, right now we are staying in their vacant house. This summer we’re planning to stay with our parents until we find a place of our own (we’re super thankful and blessed that we have that as an option.) There have been moments lately where I’ve felt doubt and fear and anxiety trying to creep in and steal my joy. I’ve wondered if Mason and I are a little bit CRAZY! I’ve wondered things like, “Will we ever make it out of LIMBO?” “Are we making the right choices for our family?” “How are we going to survive these next few months with a two year old and an infant?” Then, I remember all the prayers that have been answered, all the lessons that have been learned, all the times we’ve stood firm in our faith in Jesus and all the times His unfair favor (UNFAIR, because we definitely don’t deserve it) has been on us and I’m like, “THIS IS GONNA BE AN AWESOME TESTIMONY and an AWESOME NEW ADVENTURE.” We are so excited to see the fruit of our labor. We are so excited to watch God’s plan unfold before our eyes. We are so excited to look back and say, “Life in limbo was the launchpad to achieving our goals and following our dreams. GOD IS GOOD!” Remember that whatever season you may find yourself in, there is a purpose and a lesson to be learned before you are ready for the next season!

Thanks for reading! Be encouraged! I totally understand that these years in our 20’s and young adulthood can be filled with questions and mistakes and unknowns, but GOD KNOWS! If you stand firm in His promises and His Word, He is going to BLOW YOUR MIND! Trust me!