32 weeks

I feel like I've been neglecting this pregnancy. With all the other girls, I was pretty good about writing to my unborn child every few weeks or so in my journal. I think I've written maybe 3 times with this one :(  I also haven't taken hardly any pictures of my baby bump. On Sunday, I finally gave McKinley the camera & asked her to take a picture.
So - I wanted to do a quick post about this baby.

How am I feeling physically?  I am going to be positive here & say pretty good most of the time. Sure, I am tired. Sure - my sciatic nerves bug me by the end of the day & I walk around like and old person. Sure - I go to bed looking WAY hot in 2 wrist braces for my carpal tunnal, Jason's old T-shirt, and nose strips so I can breathe. And sure - my hips ache at night and I toss & turn & have to get up to pee at least a couple times.  Not to mention that my shirts and pants are already too tight and I have 2 more months to go...
Wait a minute!! Where did my positive-ness go? Hmm - I guess I'll have to work on that ;) No - really I am  blessed to have the opportunity to be pregnant. I am thankful that there are just a couple months left and that the heat of the summer is slowly going away.

How do I feel about having a boy? It's growing on me (and IN me :). I have definitely gotten used to using "him" "his" "he", "brother", which I think is a good start. However, after I read articles like THIS, I start to feel panicky and wonder if I am really cut out to be the mother of a boy. You mother of boys will have to read it & tell me if it's true!

Names? Sigh... wish we were one of those people that just knew from the start what this baby should be called & make our lives a whole lot easier. I am determined, however, NOT to be like we were with Kezia & wait until 3 days after the birth & realize we should really figure it out sometime. We are going for an "L" name because we have an H, I, J, K and an M in our family. I like the name Link Hamilton - because it Links our names together & he's a link to the generations. Jason likes Lincoln, but I feel like it's too common and Lincoln Hamilton sounds a bit to presidential to me. Yes, yes, we could name him Lincoln & call him Link, but it still would have a different meaning. The middle name is the real challenge, however, each of our girls have names that are a combination of family names from Jason's side & my side. If you can come up with a great way to combine the name "Daniel" (my dad) and "Billy" (his dad), you let me know, K? :-)

Sibling opinions? They are all really excited. McKinley especially loves to feel my tummy when he's active. Just last night he was moving all around & she just laughed as he kicked, moved, and squirmed around in my belly. Ireland & Kezia haven't really been patient enough to feel him move too much, but they talk about him a lot. I'm excited for McKinley to be old enough to really be a helper and I'm excited for Ireland because she really LOVES babies, and I'm excited for Kezia to be a big sister, though I'm afraid she's going to have the hardest time because she's been the baby for almost 3 years & I'm sure it's going to be a bit of a transition for her.

Feeling Ready? Not really. I have the crib and the mobile up - and the changing table/dresser. I have more blankets and gender neutral things than I realized that I did, but I still will need some more clothes & I need to find a cute boy nursery set and a boppy cover and a diaper bag. Also - need a new car seat. Of course I bought a gender-neutral car seat with McKinley & now it's expired & I need a new one. If I would have known, I would have bought a super-girly carseat to begin with! I also want to do the letters of his name once we can figure that out!

Worries/Fears? Of course, I have the fear of every mother - that something will go wrong with the pregnancy or birth. That something will be wrong with his little body. I also don't know about how the delivery will go. I still haven't decided if I'm going natural. I may just get induced & get the epidural this time. Not sure how that's going to go. I also worry about after he comes - with my other babies, I haven't really dealt with school, so I could just turn on cartoons in the morning if I needed to sleep. I won't have that kind of luxury this year. I need to continue to get my girls up & going in the morning so they can catch the bus. Just praying that this little guy is a good sleeper!!