Sweet baby boy, I know your big sister gets most of the attention at the moment because she is on the outside, and learning all sorts of new things every day. But you know what? You are so close to my heart, with me wherever I go, and your presence is so precious to me whether it's obvious to others or not. Today we have been together for 37 weeks, which means you could really decide to be born at any time now! And my sweet, we are so ready for you! My arms are longing for your tiny form, to hold you close, and I look forward to the long hours of nourishing and soothing and diapering you around the clock.
You seem like a mellow baby so far. You kick and roll and exercise your little muscles, but I don't think you have quite the vigor that your big sister did in my belly. I wonder if this will carry over in your personality after you are born, whether you will seem quiet and peaceful, or whether you have just been fooling me so far. I've also noticed that you hardly ever get hiccups, which is another marked difference between Mikayla and you! You are lower at this point than she was, though, and constantly remind me of your position with pressure on, well, everything. My hips feel as though they are spreading open with every step, and you squish my bladder especially when I stand up, as you settle down into place. Rolling over at night is quite the challenge too, as you are growing and gaining weight every day.
At my midwife appointment last week (36 weeks), Nancy said that you are moving lower, head down, and that my body is starting to prepare for your birth. I was 1.5 cm dilated and effacing nicely. I've had a burst of nesting energy lately that makes me wonder how soon you will be here, too. Sweet boy, have I mentioned how very excited we are to meet you?? I am so eager for that first labor pang that tells me you are on your way!
So don't wait too much longer, ok?
All my love,
Momma
A "Big Picture" Sort of Morning
I know, where is all this prolific blogging activity coming from, right?
1) No need to spend hours studying each morning anymore.
2) Still no energy to get up and do anything much different.
3) This seems more productive than honing my Mahjongg skills.
This is just a quick post to let you know that I will not be meeting any of my goals for the morning. These included, but were not limited to, getting over to Target for diapers, wipes, and toilet paper (nothing truly necessary, right?), and pushing through a whole heap of paperwork that would allow me to leave my client files in tip-top shape during my maternity leave. Oh and perhaps that load of socks and underwear that will become important tomorrow morning.
However. Achievement of said goals would have required me to do one of three things immediately following breakfast: 1) quick shower and get ready; 2) start on some of the paperwork; or 3) at least throw the laundry into the washer.
Go ahead, ask me how that went. Better yet, ask me how breakfast went. Because I was too lazy to even get myself something to eat while feeding Mikayla, so I was yet further behind than usual (and hungry to boot!).
Breakfast wasn't what derailed my morning, though. In fact, I am eating a bowl of cereal while I blog, so clearly I am capable of the multitask when it comes to food. No, the real "problem" was that my sweet, beautiful daughter wanted to read books with momma all morning until her nap. Have you seen my daughter? Have you ever witnessed her sheer exuberance when she wants to read "The Jolly Barnyard", or "Chicka Chicka Boom! Boom!"? This girl toddled around the living room picking up her favorite books and then bringing them back to me with giggles and squeals of glee, and politely asked, "Please?" by tapping her chest repeatedly with a huge grin on her face.
I am powerless in the face of such cuteness and good manners.
So we read books, and practiced the alphabet song and animal sounds, for about an hour and a half. We took short breaks so that she could switch books by tossing one on the floor, mourning its disappearance briefly by saying "Uh oh!", and then picking up a different book to read. She also gave frequent hugs and kisses, and adjusted her location atop her baby brother as he kicked her in the hiney. All in all, it was a lovely morning.
Not a morning that will help me to meet any of my productivity goals, but one that has a far greater purpose than that. It was a "big picture" sort of morning, wherein I let my daughter know how very precious she is to me; that she is more important than the laptop (and more important than toilet paper, this kid really rates!). I'm grateful to God for the grace to recognize this in the moment, that goals are sometimes meant to be forgotten or delayed. Or better yet, that sometimes goals fade in importance next to calling. Sure, it's my goal as a momma to keep my daughter in diapers and be stocked up on wipes. But it's my calling and purpose to respond to her need for love (and even some education...we are working on the horsey sound), and sometimes that might require some flexibility and rearranging on my part.
Or maybe this has been just a neurotic response to the guilt that has been building over the last few weeks as I've spent my mornings studying and basically ignoring her.
Either way, it was SO worth it.
SDG!
1) No need to spend hours studying each morning anymore.
2) Still no energy to get up and do anything much different.
3) This seems more productive than honing my Mahjongg skills.
This is just a quick post to let you know that I will not be meeting any of my goals for the morning. These included, but were not limited to, getting over to Target for diapers, wipes, and toilet paper (nothing truly necessary, right?), and pushing through a whole heap of paperwork that would allow me to leave my client files in tip-top shape during my maternity leave. Oh and perhaps that load of socks and underwear that will become important tomorrow morning.
However. Achievement of said goals would have required me to do one of three things immediately following breakfast: 1) quick shower and get ready; 2) start on some of the paperwork; or 3) at least throw the laundry into the washer.
Go ahead, ask me how that went. Better yet, ask me how breakfast went. Because I was too lazy to even get myself something to eat while feeding Mikayla, so I was yet further behind than usual (and hungry to boot!).
Breakfast wasn't what derailed my morning, though. In fact, I am eating a bowl of cereal while I blog, so clearly I am capable of the multitask when it comes to food. No, the real "problem" was that my sweet, beautiful daughter wanted to read books with momma all morning until her nap. Have you seen my daughter? Have you ever witnessed her sheer exuberance when she wants to read "The Jolly Barnyard", or "Chicka Chicka Boom! Boom!"? This girl toddled around the living room picking up her favorite books and then bringing them back to me with giggles and squeals of glee, and politely asked, "Please?" by tapping her chest repeatedly with a huge grin on her face.
I am powerless in the face of such cuteness and good manners.
So we read books, and practiced the alphabet song and animal sounds, for about an hour and a half. We took short breaks so that she could switch books by tossing one on the floor, mourning its disappearance briefly by saying "Uh oh!", and then picking up a different book to read. She also gave frequent hugs and kisses, and adjusted her location atop her baby brother as he kicked her in the hiney. All in all, it was a lovely morning.
Not a morning that will help me to meet any of my productivity goals, but one that has a far greater purpose than that. It was a "big picture" sort of morning, wherein I let my daughter know how very precious she is to me; that she is more important than the laptop (and more important than toilet paper, this kid really rates!). I'm grateful to God for the grace to recognize this in the moment, that goals are sometimes meant to be forgotten or delayed. Or better yet, that sometimes goals fade in importance next to calling. Sure, it's my goal as a momma to keep my daughter in diapers and be stocked up on wipes. But it's my calling and purpose to respond to her need for love (and even some education...we are working on the horsey sound), and sometimes that might require some flexibility and rearranging on my part.
Or maybe this has been just a neurotic response to the guilt that has been building over the last few weeks as I've spent my mornings studying and basically ignoring her.
Either way, it was SO worth it.
SDG!
37 Weeks Tomorrow, and READY!
The post was dated January 1, 2011, but the events described took place on New Year's Eve. I had cleaned the kitchen and rearranged the utensil drawers. Mikayla was born about two weeks later. I wish I had noted when I reorganized the entire basement.
Fast forward a little over a year, and we find ourselves in a similar predicament, hoping for a similar outcome.
It has really only been the last few weeks that I have felt Really. Stinkin. Pregnant. As in, tossing toys onto the floor from the couch in hope that it will keep Mikayla amused. And then asking her to bring them back so we can do it again. Repeat. Thankfully, she is turning into one helpful, obedient little girl! (Today she brought her snack container over to me from the diaper bag, asking "please! please!" with her hand motions. So I am placing small handfuls of Cheerios, raisins, and walnut pieces on the couch next to me. We are golden for the next 15-20 minutes.)
This morning, I was sitting on the couch just praying to keep my eyes open until her nap. When she went down a little before 10, what did I do? Did I flop onto my own bed, thankful for an opportunity to nab a bit more sleep? Did I engage in a peaceful, sitting-down activity such as the several that are on my to-do list? (i.e. make a client list with phone numbers in case of early labor, fill out PPLE scheduling form, etc.) Of course not. I grabbed a can of Pledge and a rag, and went to freaking TOWN in our bedroom.
(Full disclosure: I first typed "a can of furniture duster stuff", but then realized that it has an actual name that sounds slightly less idiotic.)
Everything up there is dusted. Dressers, nightstands, top shelves, bottom shelves, hall tables. Also. There are items in garbage bags that we have been holding onto for, if not our full 5.5 years of marriage, then darn close. (As an aside, I hope Joel approves the blond mullet wig for departure, but that is neither here nor there in my story.) Once everything was dusted and gone through, I also organized every drawer that opened, as well as under our bed, a space I haven't dared look at since Christmas. My stars. I don't know how I kept getting up and down and around the whole room, but it certainly seemed worth it at the time. Wore me plumb out, and then of course Mikayla woke up.
So here we sit doing the lazy snack thing and hoping lunch time just maybe passes us by today (ha ha) because, FINDING food and GETTING it ready and HEATING something up and POURING drinks and CLEANING up afterward. It can just be too much for a girl sometimes, you know?
So anyway, all that to say, I hope that Saturday's shopping trip and closet weed-out combined with the ridiculousness of this morning means that this is the two-week warning, as it was for Mikayla. How about you? Did you have a flurry of nesting activity a certain time before your baby arrived?
Fast forward a little over a year, and we find ourselves in a similar predicament, hoping for a similar outcome.
It has really only been the last few weeks that I have felt Really. Stinkin. Pregnant. As in, tossing toys onto the floor from the couch in hope that it will keep Mikayla amused. And then asking her to bring them back so we can do it again. Repeat. Thankfully, she is turning into one helpful, obedient little girl! (Today she brought her snack container over to me from the diaper bag, asking "please! please!" with her hand motions. So I am placing small handfuls of Cheerios, raisins, and walnut pieces on the couch next to me. We are golden for the next 15-20 minutes.)
This morning, I was sitting on the couch just praying to keep my eyes open until her nap. When she went down a little before 10, what did I do? Did I flop onto my own bed, thankful for an opportunity to nab a bit more sleep? Did I engage in a peaceful, sitting-down activity such as the several that are on my to-do list? (i.e. make a client list with phone numbers in case of early labor, fill out PPLE scheduling form, etc.) Of course not. I grabbed a can of Pledge and a rag, and went to freaking TOWN in our bedroom.
(Full disclosure: I first typed "a can of furniture duster stuff", but then realized that it has an actual name that sounds slightly less idiotic.)
Everything up there is dusted. Dressers, nightstands, top shelves, bottom shelves, hall tables. Also. There are items in garbage bags that we have been holding onto for, if not our full 5.5 years of marriage, then darn close. (As an aside, I hope Joel approves the blond mullet wig for departure, but that is neither here nor there in my story.) Once everything was dusted and gone through, I also organized every drawer that opened, as well as under our bed, a space I haven't dared look at since Christmas. My stars. I don't know how I kept getting up and down and around the whole room, but it certainly seemed worth it at the time. Wore me plumb out, and then of course Mikayla woke up.
So here we sit doing the lazy snack thing and hoping lunch time just maybe passes us by today (ha ha) because, FINDING food and GETTING it ready and HEATING something up and POURING drinks and CLEANING up afterward. It can just be too much for a girl sometimes, you know?
So anyway, all that to say, I hope that Saturday's shopping trip and closet weed-out combined with the ridiculousness of this morning means that this is the two-week warning, as it was for Mikayla. How about you? Did you have a flurry of nesting activity a certain time before your baby arrived?
Am I The Only Round Momma-To-Be?
Consider this a plug for our local thrift store, the Goodwill that is just around the corner from our house.
Having just finished my EPPP (Exam for the Professional Practice of Psychology, or, Question Your Career Choice for Four Hours In a Small Room) yesterday, I decided to spend today doing things that I just, you know, felt like doing. Well that and ironing all the shirts Joel has been hanging on the closet door for the past three weeks and that I have been ignoring "because I have to study". Please don't feel devalued, fair readers, but once the ironing was finished, shopping for a few new (to me) things fell juuuuust above "finally blogging again" on my to-do list.
And seriously? There are some women in the Akron/Ephrata area who have seriously cleaned out their closets lately, and who know how to shop. I scored eight tops, one hippie skirt, and one pair of Caribbean Joe comfy pants for me, and two skirts, one dress, and a top that goes with both skirts for Mikayla. All for $45. I don't mean to brag, but I brought home brands like Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, The Limited, and Old Navy. My new pants went straight into the birth center bag; nothing like a little something new to make you feel pretty after giving birth, right?
Also, you might get a kick out of my criteria for today's purchases. Comfy and modest, good for wearing to church or work when I need to nurse/pump. I operationalized these criteria by asking myself the following questions: 1) Can I get this on (mostly) over my pregnant belly? 2) Is there any way Mikayla could stuff something down inside the front of this when I'm not looking?
If the answers to those questions weren't Yes and No, respectively, then on the hanger it stayed. And yes, Mikayla was there to dutifully help me decide.
I can only imagine what was running through the other shoppers' minds as they watched me waddling through the non-maternity section, and heading into the fitting rooms with all my items. Most of it was probably along the lines of "Oh honey...I don't think so."
This leads me to the second part of the post, which is a rant against current maternity styles.
The (longer, stretchy) tops I found in the regular women's section fit better than anything I tried on from the maternity rack. Seriously, I'm not sure who they think they are designing clothing for. What is the point of material that stretches (barely) around your girth if it stops 3/4 of the way down? Pregnant women are supposed to have large bellies, right? The problem is compounded by the fact that I work in an upstairs office, so my clients get a potential view of my underbelly as I waddle down the stairs to fetch them every hour. Gotta cover that business. You'd think the maternity clothing designers would be all over that. But they are not. Just thought you should know.
In conclusion, I brought home my purchases and proceeded to weed all the no-longer-fitting maternity clothing from my closet, replacing them with new, non-maternity but, in some cases, more accommodating items (makes perfect sense in month 9 of pregnancy, right?). I remember doing this when I was pregnant with Mikayla...toward the very end, bagging up all my maternity stuff to return or put away, feeling so D-U-N with this long growth process and eager to reverse it. Not to mention so. ready. to meet this little one who spends all his time tirelessly kneading my insides!
That about sums up my day. It's terribly mundane, I know, but there's nobody else around to tell, and nobody twisted your arm to read this far, did they? And if a trip to the Goodwill was blog-worthy, how uneventful has my life been lately? Study study study, with short breaks for food and bathroom. Sigh. I'm even cranky when I have a chance to edit. Must be time for bed!
God is good...next post: a recap of His recent faithfulness (to debunk the whole "uneventful" notion I just set forth; set aside some time, it might get lengthy!). SDG!
Having just finished my EPPP (Exam for the Professional Practice of Psychology, or, Question Your Career Choice for Four Hours In a Small Room) yesterday, I decided to spend today doing things that I just, you know, felt like doing. Well that and ironing all the shirts Joel has been hanging on the closet door for the past three weeks and that I have been ignoring "because I have to study". Please don't feel devalued, fair readers, but once the ironing was finished, shopping for a few new (to me) things fell juuuuust above "finally blogging again" on my to-do list.
And seriously? There are some women in the Akron/Ephrata area who have seriously cleaned out their closets lately, and who know how to shop. I scored eight tops, one hippie skirt, and one pair of Caribbean Joe comfy pants for me, and two skirts, one dress, and a top that goes with both skirts for Mikayla. All for $45. I don't mean to brag, but I brought home brands like Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, The Limited, and Old Navy. My new pants went straight into the birth center bag; nothing like a little something new to make you feel pretty after giving birth, right?
Also, you might get a kick out of my criteria for today's purchases. Comfy and modest, good for wearing to church or work when I need to nurse/pump. I operationalized these criteria by asking myself the following questions: 1) Can I get this on (mostly) over my pregnant belly? 2) Is there any way Mikayla could stuff something down inside the front of this when I'm not looking?
If the answers to those questions weren't Yes and No, respectively, then on the hanger it stayed. And yes, Mikayla was there to dutifully help me decide.
I can only imagine what was running through the other shoppers' minds as they watched me waddling through the non-maternity section, and heading into the fitting rooms with all my items. Most of it was probably along the lines of "Oh honey...I don't think so."
This leads me to the second part of the post, which is a rant against current maternity styles.
The (longer, stretchy) tops I found in the regular women's section fit better than anything I tried on from the maternity rack. Seriously, I'm not sure who they think they are designing clothing for. What is the point of material that stretches (barely) around your girth if it stops 3/4 of the way down? Pregnant women are supposed to have large bellies, right? The problem is compounded by the fact that I work in an upstairs office, so my clients get a potential view of my underbelly as I waddle down the stairs to fetch them every hour. Gotta cover that business. You'd think the maternity clothing designers would be all over that. But they are not. Just thought you should know.
In conclusion, I brought home my purchases and proceeded to weed all the no-longer-fitting maternity clothing from my closet, replacing them with new, non-maternity but, in some cases, more accommodating items (makes perfect sense in month 9 of pregnancy, right?). I remember doing this when I was pregnant with Mikayla...toward the very end, bagging up all my maternity stuff to return or put away, feeling so D-U-N with this long growth process and eager to reverse it. Not to mention so. ready. to meet this little one who spends all his time tirelessly kneading my insides!
That about sums up my day. It's terribly mundane, I know, but there's nobody else around to tell, and nobody twisted your arm to read this far, did they? And if a trip to the Goodwill was blog-worthy, how uneventful has my life been lately? Study study study, with short breaks for food and bathroom. Sigh. I'm even cranky when I have a chance to edit. Must be time for bed!
God is good...next post: a recap of His recent faithfulness (to debunk the whole "uneventful" notion I just set forth; set aside some time, it might get lengthy!). SDG!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)