3rd Trimester, the 3rd Time Around

It’s hard to believe I am 36 weeks already, so with a little less than a month to go, it’s time for a third trimester update for those who are interested!

Here’s a look at my third trimester with Nathan (our first) and with Emma (our second). I’m amazed to realize that I’m in my third trimester for a third time! There were days (and years) when I doubted this would ever happen once. Yet, God answered our prayers with a yes, and we are incredibly thankful for the blessing of all three of our children. 

As I shared in my second trimester update, the smell of pork still makes me queasy. Actually, any strong smells…onions, garlic, bacon grease, strong perfume. It really is true what they say about a heightened sense of smell in pregnancy and mine has not gone away this time. Other than that, no particular cravings. My appetite is somewhat smaller now as baby grows bigger. I just don’t have room for much as quickly as she is growing. And yes, I still have a month to go, even though I already look like I’m hiding a basketball under my shirt! 🙂

We are hoping this baby girl decides to wait for her due date, which is two days past her sister’s birthday. Yes, all three of our children will (most likely) have birthdays within 2 weeks of each other. This third baby is due to arrive between her big sister and brother. My babies always seem very content to stay cozy inside me so I don’t anticipate any early arrivals, but I also know that every baby is different! I am hoping to be at home to celebrate Emma’s birthday before heading to the hospital, but am making plans for both kid’s birthdays (and their homemade cakes) already.

I’m feeling good – big and tired, but good. This baby might be the most active of my three yet! She loves to turn and kick, and the kids (especially Nathan) love feeling her kick when they talk to her. “Hi, baby! This is your big brother!” Nathan will say as he pats my tummy, and then Emma wants to take her turn. “Hi, baby! This is your big sister!” It’s hard to believe that next month we will have a 4 year old, a 2 year old and a new baby!

The hospitals up North are all under strict visitor restrictions due to the flu so we hope they are lifted in the next month, otherwise no children under age 18 (even siblings) will be allowed to visit.

Our whole family has been fighting colds so the kids and I have been doing a lot of playing at home to stay away from other germs and work on getting better. No one has been sleeping great, so I just tell myself that the kids are helping me get ready to nurse a newborn again…and then I nap when they do!

We are slowing checking things off our pre-baby to-do list. 

We had our annual tax appointment this past week. It is worth the fee to our accountant to have someone who specializes in church work file our taxes. I am so glad our taxes are done – and it’s nice to get a refund again this year! We do get a refund most years, and quickly apply it to a house project. This year, I think the refund money will be for new downstairs carpet, once Andy’s parents (and their dog) move out.

I washed and organized all the baby clothes this past week. Baby clothes are so cute and small! I suddenly had the motivation so tackled it while the kids played. I also packed away all of Emma’s clothes that were too small and unpacked all her 2T clothes. The girls will be sharing a room, a dresser and a closet so it took some figuring. The dresser is small but thankfully, the closet has plenty of space. (Note: All the Target diaper boxes hold hand-me-downs of clothes for the new baby and some for Emma.) 

We are planning that the baby will sleep in our room in a basinet for the first couple months since Emma is still in the crib. Our kids have always been good crib sleepers so I’m in no hurry to move Emma to a big bed. We’ll probably do that once Andy is home for the summer. We do already have a twin bed in the girls room with the crib. This is the first time we’ve had a baby share a room with a big sibling. Have any of you done that? Any tips for those first months when baby still wakes in the middle of the night, and your older one generally doesn’t?

Once again, I stockpiled quite a few diapers to get ready for baby. Not as many as I had with Nathan but I have plenty of diapers for the first couple of months – both for baby and for Emma, who is still in diapers. Emma loves to sit on the potty but no real interest in potty training yet. It will happen when it does.

One of the big things left on our to-do list is appliance shopping. It seems we were doing this before Emma, too! We left our washer and dryer when we sold our house this summer and have been using Andy’s parents. Now, we need to buy our own before they move. I had been researching appliances and brands when I realized it doesn’t really matter for us. We have some custom built spaces for the washer and dryer and almost no brands are made that size anymore. I finally found one set that would work (a Speed Queen set) although it is much more than I planned on spending for a washer and dryer. Still, that is our only option unless we want to tear out cabinets and do some remodeling which would add up anyway. We are hoping to go buy the set this weekend and it should be a set that lasts us a long, long time. The reviews are excellent but frugal as I am, it’s still hard to spend a lot of money at once, even on appliances! We had been setting money aside for these appliance purchases that we knew were coming so we just had to transfer the money to our checking account, which is one less thing to worry about.

We ran into the same size glitch with a new freezer. The kitchen appliances are staying with the house, which is good because we left all ours when we sold our house. Hopefully those sizes don’t change before we need to replace those! We did want to get a new upright extra freezer (since ours broke right before Emma was born), but once again, the space is narrow and it’s very hard to find an upright freezer that will fit there. I think I finally found one or two that will just squeeze in. They are slightly smaller than what I was looking at, but an extra freezer is an extra freezer – and I want to utilize that space in our laundry room too.

Once we get our new freezer, I want to stock it for when the baby arrives. Actually, I want to stock our freezer more for when the baby arrives and my in-laws move out. It looks like they will still be here for another month or two. My mother-in-law has cleared her work schedule for the week after the baby is due so she will be taking care of the kids – and the meals at first – and we are incredibly thankful for that! Then, we have a week of school before Andy’s home on Spring Break again. That is the nice part of our March babies. Daddy is always home to help at the beginning! My plan is try and get some things in the freezer, although that is tricky since we are using my in-laws freezer which they are trying to empty out before moving. That’s why buying a new freezer is a priority so I can make a couple freezer meals, at least.

Thanks to the amazing Shutterfly Presidents Day Sale, I just ordered our 2017 family photo album and saved a lot of money! It’s so exciting to have that done. Now to try and get my pregnancy album caught up for this baby.

I’ve been slowing making sure we are stocked up on most everything we need at home so I don’t have to venture out much with the baby. I have a couple more things on my shopping list and will share that will you soon, as this update is already quite long!

Thanks to all of you who have encouraged us and prayed for us this pregnancy! My plan is to post weekly as usual until the baby is born, and then take off for 6 weeks or so as we adjust to our new normal.

Speaking of, what do I need to know as we transition from 2 kids to 3? Any tips or advice for me? I love hearing from all you experienced moms out there!

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8 Comments

  1. You look great Kristen! I can’t believe baby number three! I remember your journey to Nathan and am so happy for you guys! Prayers for a smooth transition and congrats on your beautiful growing family! Blessings!

    1. Awww, thanks, Christina! It’s nice to have some readers who have been loyally reading for so many years. And thank you for the prayers! We certainly appreciate those!

  2. Our 2 girls (ages 3.5 and 15 months) technically share a room. Our youngest isn’t a great sleeper, so she slept exclusively in our room until about 8 months. Then we had/have her nap in our room (since our oldest doesn’t actually sleep during quiet time) and put her to bed in our room. We move her into her crib in the girls’ room after her first nightly wake up (yes, she doesn’t STTN). Our oldest is a heavy sleeper once she falls asleep, so she sleeps through most of our youngest’s nighttime wakings unless there’s prolonged crying. I never imagined our sleep setup would look like this when I was pregnant with our youngest–no way would I have thought that we would still have a pack-and-play in our room at this point–but this is the way everyone gets the most sleep! 🙂

    1. Haha. I never really thought about the sleep setup either. I like the idea of moving her to the crib after the first night time feeding. Hopefully, by the time we’re ready to move the girls into a shared room, the baby won’t be waking much. But like you said, we just cross those hurdles when we come to them…and adjust. Tis life as a mom! 🙂

  3. Sounds like you are just about ready! I understand about fitting in the appliances…we had the same issue with where our refrigerator goes…fortunately that was solved when we remodeled the kitchen and got rid of the cabinets that were so low over the fridge.
    Prayers for a good last few weeks as you get ready for your new little one!

  4. We also had #3 sleep in our room the first couple of months and then transitioned to all 3 in the same bedroom. After the first couple of months we put baby to bed in a different room in a pack n play about the same time as the others went to sleep in their room. Then before I went to sleep I would nurse baby again and then put baby to bed in his crib. If/when baby woke again the others would sleep right through that as they were sound asleep by that point. We did this until baby was weaned and then put all 3 to bed at the same time. They would often talk for a long time, but then all would fall asleep and all often sleep until 7 or 8 am. I allowed them to talk as long as they stayed in their bed. I would think it would be easier for you because #1 is on his own, but think about how you think it would work for your family. No matter what advice you are given, do what works for you!
    For me going from 1 to 2 was much more difficult than going from 2 to 3. I hope it is the same for you. One part that became necessary for me was quiet time once a day, they either nap or read books or watch an educational video or listen to an audio book, and even if I didn’t nap, I at least rested during that time. Do not try to get housework or work done during this time! There was just no way I could “do it all” if I didn’t rest during this time. Usually quiet time was when #2 and #3 napped and #1 did something quiet by himself. Firstborns are usually pretty well behaved so you can do that! It really won’t be long until all 3 can play together and you really will be able to tackle some of that to do list that hasn’t gotten done since #1 was born!

    1. Love the idea to put the baby in the same room later at night! I will have to give that a try. As for the quiet / nap time…a resounding yes! Those 2 hours are pivotal to helping me make it through the day. Thanks for the reminder to rest and not worry about the house during that time. My firstborn is a typical firstborn who plays well on his own, so we’ve already settled into that routine. Now, just to get the new baby on that schedule with her siblings! 🙂

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