Baby Clayton: 24 Week Update

Today marks the beginning of week 24 of my pregnancy with precious Baby Clayton.  Things have remained relatively uneventful.  He moves all.the.time!  It's amazing! I LOVE feeling him kick and wiggle around.  It's one of those thing, when I'm not pregnant I try to remember what it feels like-but I can't exactly!  I want to be able to remember this forever!  Clayton is head down and legs up, so most of his kicks can be felt up high which is great because all the kids-and John too, of course, have gotten to feel him move as much as they want!  The other night I was sleeping, and John said he could feel Clayton kicking around REALLY hard while I was sleeping and John was amazed at how strong all the kicks were.  Clayton does wake me up, but at this point I have no problems going right back to sleep which is great!
Speaking of sleep, pregnancy dreams...why are they always so weird!?  There are a few particularly odd dreams I've had this pregnancy that still make me laugh to think back on.  The first was pretty early on in the pregnancy-John and I were traveling and staying in a condo somewhere.  We walked in and everything was nice but there were sharks (yes, sharks) swimming through the carpet.  John was very upset about this and demanded the condo rental people call pest control immediately.  Is this not the craziest thing?!!  It still makes me laugh when I think of it!  Also early on in the pregnancy when the smell of John's coffee did NOT smell good to me at all, I dreamed that I made myself a cup of coffee.  When I drank the whole cup, there was a wasp at the bottom! UGH!  Where does this stuff come from!?  Then just last night my dream was slightly less absurd but still very random.  I dreamed that one of our friends from Alabama cooked us some of her delicious Cuban food, and brought it (all the way) to our house to eat with us.
I am still feeling great!!  I can't remember if I mentioned this in previous posts, but I started having Braxton Hicks contractions way earlier and more frequently and stronger in this pregnancy than with any of the others.  This is apparently very common with the more pregnancies you have.  The doctor explained it as, "Your body just already knows what to do, so they start earlier."
I had a doctor's appointment yesterday.  We got to hear Clayton's heartbeat on the Doppler which I always enjoy.  I took Carter and Nora Kate to the appointment with me (and they did amazing), but Carter listened to the heartbeat and said to the nurse, "It sounds like a choo choo train in there...or something!" Haha! He had the doctor and nurses laughing.  The appointment was relatively uneventful.  I mentioned to the doctor that Clayton seemed SO much lower to me than the other kids ever were which the doctor confirmed that yes he is lower that this is another thing that happens with more pregnancies, but that it is totally fine!  BUT that this is also park of the reason my tailbone has been hurting just because Clayton is so low and that this is also not terribly uncommon.  Yesterday's appointment was also the dreaded glucose screening, which I should know the results of soon.  The kids were interested in seeing Mommy be brave for her "shot" (aka bloodwork).  Haha! 
Overall, Clayton is doing great growing right along ask he should! He was measuring about 2 weeks ahead, but this was the case with all the other kids for a while then they hit a plateau somewhere in week 30-something and it all evened out.  I don't go back to the doctor for another 4 weeks, but after that I will be on every 2 week appointments...isn't that crazy?!  Why is this pregnancy going by so fast!? I really just want to slow it down!! 
We are thankful for baby Clayton and that everything checked out to be healthy at the appointment yesterday.  As I mentioned today marks the beginning of week 24.  One of those comparison charts compares a baby at week 24 to the size of an ear of corn.  So we are just loving our little ear of corn! :) 
Since today's just the beginning of week 24 I haven't had a chance to get the 24 week picture yet, but here's the 23 week picture from last week (taken by Carter, again!).

23 weeks pregnant with Clayton

 

(also in this picture you can see we *finally* got our French doors installed to our master bath!!!  They aren't painted and they don't have doorknobs on them yet, but we have bathroom doors! I'm beyond excited!...hopefully before too too long we will have the bathroom finished and I can post all the pictures...with paint and door knobs hah!)

Baby Clayton 22 Week Update

My pregnancy with Baby Clayton is FLYING by!  It's going by so quickly that it makes me sad to thing we are OVER half way there!  I LOVE feeling him kick around ALL.THE.TIME!  I'm feeling great-seriously, no complaints other than the pregnancy is passing too quickly.  We are only 18 weeks from his due date, although I'm planning that he will be late like Carter and Nora Kate were.
To answer questions I want to remember and that people always ask...
--Name...We chose the name Clayton Michael for Baby 4 because we have always loved the name Clayton.  We always make one part of the kids names a family name.  Dawson's middle name is Andrew (John's middle name).  Carter's middle name is Wade (my maiden name).  Nora Kate is named after Nora (her great grandmother-my Mamaw) and Katherine (John's grandmother).  So for Clayton's middle name we chose Michael after John's dad.
--Cravings...People love to ask what I'm craving...I've had a few weeks where I've really wanted raw carrots and ranch dip-yum!  Also, while that sounds healthy my other cravings haven't been as healthy-chips, cheese sticks (yes, like the breaded fried unhealthy cheese sticks that come from Sonic-those sound SO good, haha!), occasionally a smoothie, and when cooking I've been wanting to make my food a little spicier than usual (but we of course don't cook very spicy because the kids don't like spicy!). 
--Birth...We plan for Clayton to be born at St. Mary's Hospital like Carter and Nora Kate (and I) were, delivered by Dr. Brabson.  Clayton's due date is March 16.  This is the week of Spring Break for Dawson, so I'm really excited about this since I'm expecting Clayton to be late I feel like this will give me extra time RIGHT BEFORE Clayton is born to enjoy just having three kids.  Then Dawson will go back to school but will be out for summer break by the time Clayton's about 2 months old and hopefully we have somewhat gotten in the swing of things and are ready to have a fun summer!  (This is the plan I have in my mind at least!) :)
--Preparations....hahaha! People love to ask us if we have Clayton's nursery ready.  The answer is no.  We are in the middle of renovating our master bathroom (knocking out a wall, removing the popcorn ceiling, tiling the floor, painting the vanity, etc.) This is very time consuming, so we are really trying to focus on finishing the bathroom THEN we will prepare for Clayton.  Our plans are to move Nora Kate to a "big girl bed" (twin bed) and take the crib (that's currently converted to a toddler bed) and changing table from her room and put it in Clayton's room.  So really we will 1-finish the bathroom renovations, 2-make Nora Kate a big girl room, and 3-set up Clayton's nursery.  We really have all the necessities for Clayton's room, so as soon as we get the crib and changing table freed up, setting up Clayton's nursery will be easy!  We did do step 1 of prepping his nursery last week though when we moved the computer and desk from Clayton's room downstairs to the sunroom.  (This explains why I have suddenly gotten (almost) caught up on my blogging, because I can use the computer downstairs during naptime without disrupting the kids!)
--The big brothers and sister...They are SO excited!  Carter and Nora Kate the most!  Dawson talks about Clayton very practically (but I can tell he's excited), because he will say things like, "When Clayton's born, we can all 4 have a spot to hang our artwork."  Carter says things like, "He's going to be soooo cute!!"  And Carter constantly comes up and kisses my tummy says that it was a kiss for Clayton.  Nora Kate talks about Clayton super sweet too (and semi-roughly pats my tummy saying, "Clayton's in there!")  She says Clayton so sweet with the emphasis on "ton"--cute!  John and Dawson have both gotten to feel Clayton kick...a lot.  Dawson thought this was pretty cool!  Nora Kate repeatedly asked for days, "How he gonna get outta there?" pointing to my tummy.  So we started telling her every time, "The doctor will get him out in March."  Now she has been walking around saying, "Clayton's in Mommy's tummy.  Doctor gonna get him out.  In March."  So funny! She has been WAY more inquisitive about how he is going to get out than the boys every were. 
--How am I feeling?...Great!!  I have no complaints, and I'm really enjoying this pregnancy (I enjoyed the others too though!).  I feel like I'm carrying Clayton really low, but I don't mind.  I always felt like I carried Dawson high, and I had a ton of horrible back aches with his pregnancy, so I'll take carrying low with no back pain!
--Doctor's Appointments...I am still in the period of time where I go every four weeks.  These visits are relatively uneventful because I  haven't had any real questions or problems.  I had an ultrasound at 16 weeks and at 20 weeks, so those appointments were more exciting!  Otherwise, they are just routine checks.  At the 20 week ultrasound they told me that Baby Clayton was head down.  I could see he had his sweet little ankles crossed.  He also had his hands clasped right in front of his face.  It was so sweet...especially how his little legs looked crossed at the ankles.  He moves all the time and he moved a ton during the ultrasound too!  We got a great view of the heart which looks perfectly healthy.  Even on my 4th pregnancy, I am still amazed when looking at the ultrasound.  It's amazing to see such a tiny little person inside of me.  AND I'm amazed at what all the ultrasound technicians can see, measure, and point out to me. 

it's a boy!

Side view...you can't really see his arms here but the spot in front of his face is his hands where he has them clasped.

This view is odd, but it's looking straight on at his face

Sweet clasped hands

Look at those tiny finger bones where his hands are clasped

Sweet boy with his ankles crossed

This always amazes me how they can even show blood flow!

Foot

These next few pictures are of Clayton's spine.

So neat!

and one more of his foot!

See why these ultrasounds amaze me every time?!

 

And now for the 22 week Baby Bump photo!  Clayton Michael is definitely growing!

(Photo courtesy of Carter...he's getting pretty good at taking these pictures for me!  Sweet boy!)

 

Making Our Home: THE PLAYROOM

Our house actually has a living room, den, and sunroom.  With three different living spaces that were really all used for similar things, we knew we needed to pick one to use as a playroom.  We chose to use the living room as the playroom and then the "den" is our living room.  This is working out perfectly for our family.  The playroom is on the front of the house and near the front door-perfect for playdates.  It's also on the main level so the kids can easily play while I'm in the kitchen or laundry room without feeling too secluded and without waking any siblings who are in their room napping. 

The playroom was one of the few rooms with no wallpaper or border to deal with-thank goodness!  Even so there was plenty to do in there!

 

So here are the "before" pictures...

 

View looking into the playroom from the foyer!

The playroom before.

This is a perfect picture to point out how awful the baseboards looked in the house.  I've mentioned that we have painted every square inch of trim in this house, but it was completely necessary.  Look in the left corner of the room in the picture above...see how one piece of baseboard completely has the wood grain showing through?!  It was so odd.  But painting it made such a difference!

We painted the walls a Benjamin Moore color-Shaker Beige using Behr Premimum Paint plus primer. 

Finished painting the walls (they were still drying in this picture), now time to paint the trim.  All the trim needed to be repainted in this room like I mentioned above.  We used our same trim paint Benjamin Moore's White Dove. 

Next we had blinds hung on the windows. 

Then I cleaned the carpets with the industrial carpet cleaner we rented. 

It was looking good.  Then we really made it our playroom when we moved in all the toys...what's a playroom without some bright colors, toys, and rowdy kids?!

The view looking into the playroom is so much better!

The couch is actually a sleeper sofa in case we ever need it for overnight guests. 

The art hanging over the sofa was made by Dawson and his friends at his 6th birthday party!!  Remember when we filled 60 egg shells with paint and threw them at a canvas...the finished project was so fun and bring it was perfect for the playroom wall.  The kids also love to look at it and talk about how they made it!

 

Blinds were installed on the windows.

view into the foyer

The four frames on either side of the door are easily interchangeable.  Clothes pins hold the kids' artwork, and we can change them out easily whenever they have new artwork they want to display. 

We are very happy with the changes we made to turn this into our playroom.  We have spent countless hours in there!  Down the road we have discussed a few other changes the possibility of having the room wired for overhead lighting (currently the light switch controls the lamps), eventually replacing the flooring, and potentially installing French doors...for now it's perfect for us!

 

Baby Clayton Bump Weeks 5-20

Baby Clayton is growing!  This has been confirmed by a couple of ultrasounds (one at 16 weeks and one at 20 weeks), but is also evident by my growing baby bump!

 

5 Weeks Pregnant with Baby Zorio 4

8 Weeks Pregnant with Baby Zorio 4

10 Weeks Pregnant with Baby Zorio 4

12 Weeks Pregnant with Baby Zorio 4

13 Weeks Pregnant with Baby Zorio 4

15 Weeks Pregnant with Baby Zorio 4

 

 

16 Weeks Pregnant with Baby Zorio 4

17 Weeks Pregnant with Baby Zorio 4

18 Weeks Pregnant with Baby Zorio 4

(Dawson has been my helper and been taking a lot of these pictures for me, for week 18 Carter REALLY wanted to try a turn.  So, he took the above 18 week picture of me and Baby!)

20 Weeks Pregnant with Baby Zorio 4