Third Time's a {Lucky} Charm

Our third sweet baby boy is now over a week old and I'm just now making time to put pictures on the blog!

I'm sleep deprived and really don't think I can put together more than a few sentences that make much sense, so I'll stick to the basics & then I'll just give yall what you want: pictures!



Let me introduce you to the sweetest baby on earth, Duncan McKendree Clark. Born in the wee hours of the morning on St. Patrick's Day, 3:25 AM. 7 pounds, 8 ounces. 20.5 inches long. A head full of hair (surprise, surprise!). Sometimes he looks like Mason, sometimes he looks like Roper, mostly he just looks like Duncan!



Graem gets him dressed in his St. Patrick's Day shirt...


His big brothers were so excited to meet him!










As were his grandparents...they saw him right after he was born but didn't get to hold him until the next day! More on that later...











Uncle Rob & Aunt Kelli...




Cousins Sydney and Kate...




Along with lots of friends!!

I went in to labor on Friday night so by Monday morning we were itching to get home! Thankfully Roper was on hand to assist with paci duty and safety patrol...






More details to come...

The Waiting Game

Could this pregnancy possibly be any different than my first 2??

As of Sunday, I'm 38 weeks...I've never made it this far before!

With my first two, there were no signs indicating I would be going into labor, it just happened!

This time, my doctors have been telling me for weeks that the baby could be here any day now! Way back in week 35 they had me all worked up by saying, "He could be here in a matter of days." Really?? Which explains why yesterday during my appointment my doctor said, "I cannot believe you are here at 38 weeks and still haven't had that baby!" Ummm...me either!

I can't complain, I still feel really good...I'm just ready to meet my baby boy! Obviously my prediction of 3/11 did not happen...Graem's prediction (based on his hunting calendar) of baby D coming on the night of the full moon did not happen...so maybe he will follow in both of his big brother's footsteps and make his appearance on the 16th (M&R were both born on the 16th of their birth months). Or maybe he will be like my cousin David and come on St. Patty's Day...which would be quite appropriate for a boy with a very Irish name like Duncan McKendree!

If he continues to show his stubborn side, at the latest he will be born next Monday. Yesterday my doctor scheduled me to be induced on Monday morning.

Since M&R came early, an induction was never something that needed to be considered...but now with my third it will be so convenient. Convenience is an odd word choice for having a baby, but I can't think of any other way to describe it. I can make sure to have childcare for my older two...I won't have to worry about who to call/what to do with M&R if my water breaks at 3:00 AM...I won't have anxiety about not making it to the hospital in time for the baby to be born...and best of all I won't have to deliver a baby in the wee hours of the morning like I did the first 2 times. Mason was born shortly after 3:00 AM and Roper was born shortly after 2:00 AM...which means we didn't get moved out of the delivery room and into a hospital room until the sun was coming up. As everyone knows, life with a newborn doesn't allow for much sleep, but when you start off with a deficit after being up for well over 24 hours straight, it makes for a hard adjustment!

I have heard horror stories about inductions...but I am not the least bit concerned. I'm confident that as soon as the doctor breaks my water things will get moving and the baby will be here shortly thereafter! And in less than a week from now at the most!!

Giving Myself Some Credit...

My brother and sister-in-law found out on Friday that they are expecting their second BOY!! This makes FIVE grandsons for my parents! Can you believe it??

All this time I have been blaming Graem giving Graem all the credit for our three boys...but maybe I should give myself some credit?? Could it be that the Roper genes can't produce little girls? :)

Another boy for Rob & Kelli is a good thing...Rob had a lot of pressure to have at least one boy because out of all my cousins he is the last one that can pass on the family name. So now both the Roper and Clark names should be good to go. :)

Update on Baby Duncan...
I am now in week 37 -- woo hoo! Two weeks ago my doctor told me, "It could be any day now or still a couple of weeks...we would really like to see you make it to 37 weeks." Done! I go to the doctor this afternoon so I'm curious to see if there has been any change since last week. According to Graem there is a full moon on Thursday so maybe he will make his appearance then! I'm sticking to my prediction of March 11...we shall see! This baby clearly has a mind of his own. And now that I've bought matching St. Patty's Day/Biggest Brother-Big Brother-Little Brother t-shirts for the boys I'm starting to wonder if he'll show his stubborn side and wait until after St. Patrick's Day to make his arrival. Oh the waiting game...

We're Ready!

I had my 35-week ultrasound on Monday afternoon. I have been feeling great, so it was a bit of a shock when the doctor told me that I'm 50% effaced and 1 cm dilated. She said that there is no telling when the baby will come, it could be days or it could be weeks, and that ideally the baby will wait until 37 weeks, which is considered full term. She said she seriously doubts I will make it much past that, especially since M&R were both born at 37 weeks, and third babies come faster. If I go into labor before 37 weeks they won't try to stop it since the baby is fully developed at this point and is just growing. So we are hoping and praying that he will stay put a little longer, but if he doesn't, we are ready for him...

He has a place to ride. The car seat has been disassembled, washed and reassembled.


He has clothes to wear. The "going home" outfit that both of his big brothers wore home from the hospital has been washed and pressed.


He has a place to sleep. The crib is ready!

Strike a Nerve

I really enjoy most aspects of being pregnant. One thing that I particularly enjoy is the way perfect strangers are so nice and make a point to ask about me and the baby. Most of these interactions with strangers are pleasant, but I've also gotten some really annoying comments with this third pregnancy.

1. "Oh, you're having your third baby, you know you could just keep going like that Dugger family did." Seriously?? I'm having baby #3, not #13 or #23. I think when people make this comment it is their sad attempt at humor. Not funny, people.

2. "Oh, you're having your third boy, that's great because boys are SO MUCH easier than girls." (For the record, this is not a majority statement...there are plenty of people who have responded, "third boy? Oh God bless you.") I know I'm pregnant & irritable & that people are just trying to share words of encouragement...but it annoys me because there is nothing easy about being a parent. And there is certainly nothing easy about having a 4-year-old & a 2-year-old and being pregnant. I'm pretty sure that it won't get any easier when the baby is born. Parenting is H-A-R-D, no matter if you have boys or girls, regardless of whether or not you work, and regardless of whether you have 1 child or 23. I can't think of a single instance when someone has said, "Wow, this parenting thing is so much easier than I ever expected!"

So I just have to remind myself that people are crazy and at times can say the most ridiculous things!

Changing My Prediction

I have kept a pregnancy journal with all three of my pregnancies...and just last night when reading back through my journals I discovered something really interesting.

Mason's due date, based on his measurements during the 8-week ultrasound, was October 5. He was born on September 16, which was 19 days early.

I had completely forgotten that Roper's original due date, based on his measurements during the 8-week ultrasound, was August 4. My doctor adjusted that date to July 27 based on my cycle and his measurements at a later ultrasound. But...he was born on July 16, also 19 days before that original due date estimate of 8/4!

My due date this time around is 3/25...but at my appointment this morning I asked the nurse if she could look in my chart and tell me the due date that was indicated by my 8-week ultrasound...it was March 30. Subtract 19 days and you get March 11.

I have been saying all along that this baby would be born on 3/16, since my first two were born on the 16ths of their birth months...but now I'm thinking he might be born on 3/11!!

Time will tell...who knows, he might end up being one of those babies that decides to stay put until his due date!

On the subject of baby, we spent some time this weekend working on the nursery. The closet was full of my clothes, so I cleaned it out. And then I got distracted and cleaned out our upstairs linen closet (it needed it!).

Speaking of linens...the lady from that etsy baby bedding site never sent me the fabric swatches that I requested. I followed up by e-mail and she hasn't written me back. I got impatient and started looking around more. My friend Sally e-mailed me a link to this bedding from Serena & Lily.



I love it...I'm a sucker for seersucker...and it's the "Graham" collection (haha). The picture makes me think of my Graem...with the nautical inspired decor (oars & ropes on the shades), not to mention the seersucker. Although S&L's description of their Graham doesn't really match up with the description of my Graem. The first line, "Graham is hip," really cracks me up! And if you know my Graem you will understand this.



The coordinating pillow on the S&L site has a "d" on it...how appropriate!



I found the whole set, including lots of extras (roman shades, changing pad cover, pillow, blanket) on eBay!! I'm working on getting everything together & I'll post pictures of the nursery when its all done! Sometime between now and March 11. :)

Update on Baby

Time has been ticking right along and much to my amazement I am now in my third trimester! It really hit home this morning...I had an OB check-up...the one with the dreaded glucola test...and afterwards they wanted to book all the rest of my appointments through my due date, starting with an appointment in two weeks. I can't believe I'm already at the point where I have appointments every other week. For so long, March seemed forever away...and now it is just around the corner! This third baby boy is going to be here before we know it!

We settled on a name...if you know us it won't surprise you that it's another family name. Some people say that family names are traditional...some say that they are unoriginal. Both arguments may be true, but the reason we prefer family names is because they mean something. And our families have pretty good names. :) We are using both of our mother's maiden names...Duncan McKendree. McKendree was also my middle name...which I hated for most of my life...until I got married and dropped it, and all of a sudden it made me sad to get rid of it. So I'm glad to pass it down, and hopefully baby Duncan won't hate it like I did!

I haven't even started on the nursery yet. The first step will be to get Roper out of the crib and into his big bed so that we can move the crib back to the nursery. My mother is coming down one day next week to help me with that. A few weeks ago Mason told Roper that baby Duncan was going to take his crib, and Roper started bawling! Hopefully once he realizes he has a big boy bed to sleep in he won't be so upset about it. I have a set of twin beds for the {big} boys' room, and I'm anxious to get it all set up!

I have shopped a little for nursery bedding...I've looked at catalogs and checked out some local shops. Back in 2009 I ordered the bedding for Mason & Roper's room from Javis Davis & was beyond pleased with how it turned out, but sadly, they have gone out of business. I found a shop on Etsy that carries some nice bedding. Quite honestly, I've been disappointed with what's out there. I was expecting to find more of a selection on Etsy. Maybe I'm missing something? I'm over the "cutesy" stuff...I don't want a theme or motif...I just want something different and a little modern without looking too bold or harsh. Please send me ideas if you have any!

Here are some of the fabrics I like in the one Etsy shop that I found...I should be receiving swatches of these and a few more any day now. I didn't search out a gray & yellow color scheme, I just really like this one fabric with the animals on it & then tried to pick others that I thought would complement it. What do y'all think?



















I tried to put these all together in a collage for better viewing, but I couldn't figure out how to do that on Flickr {sorry}.

Here is an example using different fabrics, just to help you visualize how she puts the coordinating fabrics together into bedding...


Here is the link to the Etsy site.

Our Third Sweet Baby Boy

I feel like everyone in the world was holding their breath on Wednesday to find out the gender of baby Clark #3! And thanks to text messaging and Facebook, and now my blog, now the whole world knows!



Yes, we are having a third boy. Last night Graem and I joined the Smyths to see "Rain," the musical tribute to the Beatles, and all day today I've been singing "one and one and one is three...come together..."

I have to admit that this pregnancy is so different from the first two that I really thought it must be a girl...of course this is only the third time that I've been wrong in predicting the gender of my children...so much for a mother's intuition! But I learned a long time ago that God knows best and I know He is giving us this baby boy for a reason. I know God has big plans for this little fella's life and it is an honor for me to get to be his Mama. And there is definitely something special about three boys...there aren't many Mamas that can say they had three boys ages four and under!

Now that I've had a couple of days for the news to sink in, I thought I would share some random thoughts I've had and/or suggestions from others about raising 3 boys.
1. The southern gentleman is an endangered species; I'm glad to do my part to increase the population.
2. Since I'm only capable of producing heirs, I must have been meant for royalty.
3. We need to increase the coverage of our homeowner's insurance.
4. I plan to pick the wives of all 3 of my sons.
5. Graem thinks a third boy justifies the need his wish to buy a camper.
6. Boys love their mamas best.
7. It's a good thing I like to cook.
8. We will always have female pets in our home.
9. I believe that boys can be well-mannered, kind, considerate, and respectful and still be "all boy."
10. My boys are fortunate that they'll have brothers as playmates and friends for life.

It's November!

November 2nd, to be perfectly accurate...which means my big ultrasound is today! (11/2/11 at 2 -- yall know I like numbers!) I'm so excited!! I'm praying for a good appointment, with news of a healthy baby who has his or her legs spread wide open! :-)

I have some catching up to do with pictures from all of our Halloween festivities. Well, not all of our Halloween festivities. I'm ashamed to admit that I don't have any pictures of our trick-or-treating experience. Roper ended up with pink eye on Halloween so he was quarantined at the house.

Most of you know that I grew up on a farm, so on Halloween we always went to the fall festival at our church and then went trick-or-treating in my grandparents' neighborhood. Most days of the year I do not love having neighbors on all four sides of me...I miss the privacy of living in the country...but Halloween is one exception. I love our neighborhood on Halloween! We get lots of trick-or-treaters...I feel like all the children from Lexington County that don't live in proper trick-or-treating neighborhoods end up in our neighborhood and I love it!

So even though I don't have pictures from the actual night of Halloween, I do have some of our little firemen, aka Sam and Elvis. (You might recall that Mason went through a prolonged phase of referring to himself as Fireman Sam, and he referred to Roper as Elvis...Fireman Sam is still around, but thankfully the obsession has tapered somewhat).

My plan was to dress Mason as a fireman and Roper as a dalmation, but Roper insisted that he be a fireman too. Here the boys are before the Browns pumpkin carving party...



On the way to the party I needed to run in the grocery store to pick up some chips to go with the dip I made...and lo and behold there was a fire truck in the Piggly Wiggly parking lot! The firemen were so nice and let the boys climb all over the truck.



Here are our pumpkins...Graem's emoticon pumpkin came in second place in the contest. I was pretty proud of my bat too, but I heard at least one trick-or-treater refer to it as a moose...



Our next Halloween outing was to Boo at the Zoo with the Smyth family. It was Jr. Gamecock Club night so we got to visit with Cocky and the cheerleaders. Roper loves Cocky...from afar...he refused to get in the picture.



The Smyths...










A hot dog dinner was included with the Jr. Gamecock Club thing, and they also had a d.j. The children were cracking us up with their dance moves!



Ro-ro loves baby Frances...


A sweaty fireman and a goat...


All 5 of the children...