Pregnancy Update 16 weeks!

16 weeks

It has been a couple of years since I have done one of these bad boys, here we go!

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 16 Weeks

Size of baby: According to my new pregnancy app, baby is the size of an avocado, about 4.6 inches long

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I haven't stepped on a home scale in a long time but I am guessing roughly 7 ish pounds

Maternity Clothes: Yup! I busted those bad boys out a long time ago! I had a dr. appointment last week and I was 15 weeks but my uterus was 21 weeks! I guess when its your 5th,, your body wastes no time growing!
Gender: I think most of us think its a boy because we have so many already. As of now, we won't find out until baby is born.

Movement: Yes, I feel the baby stretching and moving and a few actual kicks/punches here or there. Annie is begging to feel baby move, hopefully soon she can.

What I miss: My back not hurting all the time!

Sleep:  I sleep so so so terrible but I blame it on the bad air flow to our room and the fact that Brandon snores SO loud, its terrible. 

Symptoms: I have had a few wicked cases of heartburn which is weird this early and of course my back is all kinds of messed up, but other then that not much

Cravings: Nothing really

Best Moment this week: making the ultra sound appointment! I switched Dr. offices and they do one much sooner then Altru, score!

What I am looking forward to: Turning our weird layout room back into two separate rooms and finishing up the nursery! I haven't put together a nursery since Elias was a baby so it is a fun new activity for me!

We Are Having Another Baby!!!!!!

If you haven't already heard, the crazy Eberhardt family is growing by one more! Baby E #5 is due to arrive sometime in December, roughly around the 15th.  

How I told Brandon: I bought an outfit for each gender and put it in a box with a bunch of positive pregnancy tests and this gem of a picture. He opened it, had a huge smile and laughed then said" How much money did you spend on pregnancy tests!" It was the perfect reaction for baby #5! Needless to say we are both pretty excited. Good thing Samuel isn't crabby anymore or this might not be such a happy celebration, thanks Samuel for being a real boy now:)

How We Told the Kids: We waited until we were ready for people to find out, since I know our kids have big mouths and would tell everyone they saw about the news( which they did ps by the way!) We sat them on the couch and told them we had an announcement. Elias asked if it was for real a few times while Annie sat with a shocked look her face. No one reacted while Elias determined if this was a joke or not and I was a little worried that they were not going to be happy about the news. Once Elias was sufficiently convinced, they all lept up in celebration and ran out the room cheering and talking about the baby. Phew, to say they were excited is a huge understatement!

 How We told everyone else:We called or texted family( hopefully, sorry if we missed a couple!) Once we were satisfied that we had forgotten no one, I posted this to Facebook. I think this picture well sums up our lives! I can't wait for it to get just a bit more crazy come December!

Breakfast with Friends

Over a month ago, Brandon headed to Sertoma park with the kids and Uncle Jordan to meet up with some friends for breakfast. I was dealing with being sick and decided to stay home so I wouldn't get the many kids that would be there sick. I wasn't there but here are some pictures of the big event. 

 Time to go walk down to the water! I knew they would be doing this and the entire time I was laying in bed( when I wasn't sleeping) I kept thinking, one of them in going to fall in! Thankfully, no one did

Fun time with friends

Make Up Mothers Day

About a month ago, Brandon decided to give me a make up mothers day! He let me sleep in, which meant he had to totally switch his schedule around so he could wake up with the kids. I had a wonderful time sleeping in while the kids had lots of fun hanging out with Daddy! They went to breakfast at iHop then to the park and finally to all seasons to check out the animals and flowers. They even bought some fruit to plant in the garden! While the day was thoughtful and relaxing for me, I think the best thing to come out of it was this gem of a picture

 It is really hard to appreciate the look of discomfort on Elias' face but if you zoom it you can see it, and its funny! I don't know how Brandon got him in or out, but I thought it was pretty darn funny!

Brandon is obsessed with his phone, so no outing with daddy is complete without some selfies.He is a silly guy!

They had a great time at all seasons looking at the fish and birds and other animals. Brandon said they were all very well behaved and only 1 kid tried to eat something not edible, so that is a success!

Thanks for my makeup mothers day! Does this means I get a makeup day for every holiday you work? A girl could get used to this kind of sleeping in!

Family Vacation-Day 3

The third and final day of our trip was spent at the Como Park Zoo and conservatory!!! I had wanted to get there right when they opened at 10. Packing up a car and a family of 6 in a timely matter doesn't always work out. In addition to getting off to a later then anticipated start, the kids ate a pokey breakfast, and we had to stop at an extremely sketchy gas station to fill up on the way to the zoo. So what you say, who cares, normally being 30 minuets behind schedule wouldn't be a big deal....unless you picked every school in a 100 mile radius go to the zoo day!!!! We pulled up and there were no less then 25 buses unloading their unruly, not enough chaperons students into the gates of the zoo. I had a mild panic attack until I realized how big the zoo area was. We parked and headed in. Samuel really never was feeling very well and its a good thing there were so many school kids there to convince us to make it a quick trip. We could have spent the day there otherwise and I think that would have been a bad call with poor Sammy.

The zoo was lovley, but seriously kids are rude rude rude, not necessarily with their mouths but their actions! We picked a path that seeed pretty school kid free after a bit, so other then then the highly unpleasant polar bear exhibit episode, it was relaxing and fun. Side note: The polar bear exhibit is in a smallish area that you walk down to. There is one way in, one way out and a room to view the polar bear in . IT WAS PACKED!!!! Brandon took the kids to get a closer look( its his favorite animal by the way) and I decided to stay back with Samuel in the stroller and began to make my way to the door. I kid you not I had upper elementary school boys CLIMB OVER MY STROLLER WITH MY BABY IN IT to get past people and closer to the bear. Before the 3rd kid did, I unleashed my bitch face and said " DON"T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT IT" I saw the fear on his face and he found another route. Where was his teacher/parent/chaperon? good question!!! Uffda!!! 

I was quickly over it,which is rather shocking for me since I tend to fester over things like that. We made our way to some of Elias' favorite animals and decided to go find some food. We hadn't been at the zoo that long but poor poor Samuel was really lethargic and we felt we better get on the road sooner then later. 

Brandon has a cell phone addiction, it was evident on this trip. He was searching for reasons to pull it out. I finally let him on a snack break at it was instant gratification. Do they make support groups for this?

We found a restaurant, ate and of course Benjamin had to go poop before the meal was over. The bathroom had a massive line as it was right by the entrance and many school kids seemed to be making their pit stops before lunch. Luckily when you have an adorable 3 year old saying rather loudly " Daddy, I have to POOP RIGHT NOW" you get shuffled to the front of the line pretty quick
(thanks everyone for that!) We had big plans to meet up with some friends and chat for a bit, give Samuel more medicine and head back to the ride area. We ended up chatting for a long long time and Samuel fell asleep so we called it good. I actually had a very nice time and would love to go back and experience it under a more normal setting( without the herds of buses and school kids running a muck!)
We headed out and the drive went great! We made it to Alexandria without stopping which I think is a miracle for 4 kids and a Brandon. As we got closer to home, we were still very concerned about Samuel. We visited the dr one more time before we finally were home and settled in.

"Samuel do you feel ok?" Samuel sticks out tongue.

We met up with some friends who have 8 kids!! Samuel wasn't in this picture but there were 12 kids hanging out, they had a great time.

When I finally walked in the door I was floored. Mim had spent hours and hours cleaning and organizing our house!!! It looked amazing!!!! She stuck around and helped with the kids long enough so that we could get unpacked and ready for the night. What a big help after a very fun and stressful vacation! I think we all had fun, especially the kids, but it was so stressful for Brandon and I being so worried about Samuel the whole time. I think its safe to say, we are not huge traveling fans and don't be surprised if we don't go on another one for a long long time. There is nothing wrong with loving home!

Family Vacation Day 2

Day 2! Elias Annie and I were up and ready for the day around 8:30. The other boys were snoozing away so we headed down to breakfast and ate. We brought the guys food to the room so they could eat when they woke up. By 9:15 none of those sleepy heads had woken and we were supposed to be leaving in 20 minuets, so I woke up Brandon and since is is completely incapable of being quiet,ever, he woke everyone else up which was a bonus for me! We gave Samuel medicine and made the boys eat, then we headed to the car and were off to the children s museum!

The museum is normally $10 a person but they give a homeschooling discount so we were able to attend for the bargain discount price of $23 for our entire family, it should have cost us $60.

We paid and ditched the stroller and  headed up stairs. I will say the museum was PACKED which I didn't expect being as Minnesota kids were still in school. Apparently the last week of school is field trip week, oops! We tried to stay away from the areas where they were but when there are kids EVERYWHERE, that is kinda hard to do. The first room I was less then impressed with. I didn't think it was very interactive and there were so many(rude) school kids running around that it wasn't very enjoyable. We stayed in this room for about 20 minuets then went to find something else. Brandon  noticed a room that the field trip kids weren't allowed to go into for another 30 minuets ( to give families a chance I guess?) so we went in there. It was a huge success and way more what I thought the museum would be like. We heard an announcement for a snake talk and Annie and Elias really wanted to go, so off we went! While at the talk( where Annie pet a snake!!) Brandon and I decided it was time for lunch. There was a subway in the skyway and if we left now, we would beat the lunch crowd. I took Samuel and headed down to order. Brandon met us there and after what seemed to be worlds longest subway order( in an otherwise empty place) we sat down to eat! We were not in Samuel's feeling good window. He was due medicine at 1 and it was 11 so we knew we only had an hour or so until he was a hot feverish mess. Both Brandon and I were very happy with how well Samuel ( and the rest of the kids) ate. With full bellies, we headed back to the museum. 

 Benjamin was talking to Madelyn on the phone, or so he thought

 My attempt at a picture

 The boys all really loved this construction thing. Samuel and Benjamin just played with the blocks forever!

 Poor sick baby, Samuel was ready for lunch and a rest

 Learning about colors!

 This is what waiting for lunch looks like

 We went into a really fun interactive area next that had turtles( real ones) and big fake ant hills with tunnels that Brandon said were really neat! There was a lot of nature stuff and the kids really really really enjoyed it. Samuel didn't want to get out of his stroller after lunch, so he was content just watching all the kids running around. We played and explored inside for about 30 minuets then headed to a really pretty outdoor area. Samuel was not to be left in his stroller this time! He got some fresh air and ran around and played a little. By this point the school kids were mostly heading to lunch so the place really began to empty out. Our plan was to head home at this point but the oh so important gift shop was closed and we had promised the kids a treat. We decided to explore one more area while we waited for it to reopen, besides, Samuel couldn't have his medicine for 45 more minuets and we wanted him to have it before the car ride. 

Can anyone spot Brandon?

This is our "waiting for Daddy to go to the bathroom" selfie

 I am so glad we decided to stop by the last area, it was so cool! Annie got to stop and paint her face. She had wanted to do it but every time we passed it by, it was overloaded with kids. With the school kids mostly gone, it was wide open and girl went to town! The next stop was the play grocery store, kitchen, post office, bus driving magical land. We just let the kids have a run of it( since there was literally 0 kid in the entire area at this point!) To say they had fun was an understatement. Benjamin was in  heaven in the grocery store. He took such careful time picking out his items for his cart and carefully checking them out. Samuel was happy cooking his daddy a meal and Annie and Elias were having a grand time bouncing back and forth. after 40 or so minuets Samuel hit a wall, not a really one, thankfully. He was burning up and we knew we needed to head out. We stopped and took some photo booth pictures( note to self 2 adults and 4 kids don't fit in one photobooth) and stopped by the now open gift shop. We got back to the car in time for Samuel's medicine and to head home. 

 Once we got back to the hotel, Benjamin, Samuel and I all took a really nice really long nap! Brandon took the older kids down to the pool and they had an amazing time! They met friends and played and played. I think they were down there for a little over 2 hours! They came back and got showered up just as the boys and I were waking up. 

We were staying in a hotel that was really close to an iHOP. Our original plan was to eat at MOA but with Samuel being so sick I suggested the close, not at all busy, iHOP. It was another mommy victory, guess what, on Monday's kids eat free!!!! I had the most delicious french toast and all the kids, including Samuel ate great!! We got out of there with a bill(including a  tip) under $40 which is impressive for a family of 6.

Our plan for the night was supposed to be shopping and rides but both Brandon and I were beat and we didn't think Samuel would tolerate it very well. We announced we would only be going to 2 stores and then heading home. We made it in and out in about 45 minuets! We hit up the LEGO store, where they were out of Ant man but they did give us a free shipping coupon so we could order it online! We hit up the Disney store where Samuel had the best time ever. He immediately saw his HULKY and had to get one, then near the check out he spotted a giant MICKEY!! Poor sick kid had the biggest smile leaving that store! We let the kids each pick out two toys because we were so far under budget for our trip. I guess that is one good thing that came out of Samuel being so sick, a lot less money was spent! We made our way back to the hotel for a quiet evening watching a movie and playing with new toys. We tried to pack up a little bit to get ready for our early morning the next day!

 After bath, Samuel was really feeling down, so we snuggled and Elias wanted in on the action. These two boys are so much alike!

Finding Nemo!