a way belated Levi pregnancy post

Throughout my pregnancy with Levi I had a blog post in "draft" state that I would come to and add a tidbit to here and there. Somehow I never got around to publishing it. For Reagan's first year I have three-plus scrapbooks filled to the brim. For Shepherd, I took a decent amount of pictures and did a couple check ins on the blog. Levi? Um... I wrote his birth story down didn't I? My memory is also crap. I don't trust myself to remember all these sweet eccentricities of the kids if I don't write them down. I'm sure Levi's future wife will thank me when there is record of how horrible my varicose veins were when he was in le womb (not.) So here were some jumbled thoughts from yesteryear.

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"There's no way for me to say this without it sounding mean... but, you look kind of weird pregnant."

-Reagan Williams, age 6

points to mine "Belly?" leans forward and bites it.

-Shepherd Williams, age 1

20 weeks

left: splash pad shadow right: at 36 weeks nesting set in and I couldn't think of anything else but painting the front door.

This was the summer of bikes. We rode them everywhere but usually to get ice cream. I declared the ride above to be my last the week before Levi was born. 

What Shepherd will miss most is his own personal shelf-seat...

Each pregnancy has gotten easier from the one before it in the morning sickness department. Now towards the end, I am more sore/tired than I have been at this stage in previous ones.

This has been the first time I've noticed changing trimesters. Especially transitioning from the 2nd to 3rd trimesters my hormones were crazy and my nausea returned for a good week.

I actually really like being pregnant in the summer! I feel free as a bird at the pool, the one time you are supposed to be all belly in a swimsuit.

I just plain do not sleep when I'm pregnant.... I toss and turn a lot. But really I comfort myself by saying it's just practice for those few months of sleepless nights with a newborn. Right? Sounds good enough.

This child is a good mover/shaker and doesn't discriminate against kicking or punching. It equally occupies all sections of my torso.

I am definitely a cook dinner every night, bake twice a week kind of person. Not because I feel like I have to but because I really like to. Feeding these mouths is definitely my way of showing love to them. But late into this pregnancy I just totally fell off my groove with cooking. Picture many situations along the line of Zach getting home from work, asking what was for dinner and me only serving mashed potatoes (????) I'm really hoping this quality will return once I get this baby on the other side of me.

I've heard of this happening but this was the first pregnancy where I experienced a phantom stuffy nose/cold in the third trimester. Nothing to cry about but definitely annoying.

This is the section of the post I'm going to entitle, "Ashley's Beauty Secrets."

The varicose veins really hit the ground running this time around. Ouch! Only really on the back of my left leg but they are not pretty. I wish I could word this more eloquently, but they seriously look like worms crawling under my skin.

Some people get darker skin spots when they're pregnant. This is the first time I've noticed getting some but they are probably in the worst spot imaginable. My upper lip. Two darker pigmented areas underneath my nose insinuating a mustache.

I think I've gained a little more weight with this one than I did with Shep but not as much as with Reagan. After I heard "keep up that pretty smile mama" as I reached for my late night Wendy's frosty from the drive-thru attendant, I thought to myself "ahhh, this explains a lot." I have paid zero attention to my diet this go around, thankfully the little ones that I have to chase around give me my fair share of exercise.

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Also I'm going to add this. I knew Levi was a boy. Zach didn't. Here's how we've played it so far:
Reagan: both knew.
Shepherd: Zach found out and I didn't.
Levi: I found out and Zach didn't.
IF we have another we both won't find out just so that it will a different experience each time. I know we are weird. To answer the questions most people have when they find this out: It wasn't hard to keep it a secret from one another. Dare I say it was kind of fun? (Does that flag us for needing some type of marital counseling?) Plus if you slip up one time then just purposely slip the other way (gender) the next time. And I have no idea how we came to doing things this way, but if I were to guess I would pin it all on Zach because it sounds like something he would come up with ;)