Here it comes... the pre-baby overwhelms.
I am almost 18 weeks now and about ready to hit that halfway mark. It's funny how quickly the first half of my pregnancy has gone. I'm not nearly as sick as I have been. My doctor put me on Zofran for the vomiting and nausea. It's definitely helped. With the exception of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I have been vomit-free for 2 weeks!
So, now that I am not spending all of my time hovering over the toilet, I actually have time to think.
Just a few of the things that are consuming my thoughts....
-What type of birth do I want to have?
-Do I want an epidural? And if I decide on one, how do I get over my fear of that procedure?
-Should we look into Doulas? Does the hospital even allow Doulas?
-Now that Highway 40 is closing, what route will we take to the hospital?
-I wonder what those birthing balls are like.
-What is the Bradley method and how does it differ from Lamaze?
-Would a water birth really be better for me and the baby?
-Is there any way I could work part time after the baby or not at all?
-If I do work, where should we even begin to look for daycares?
So, those are a few of my questions...
Other thoughts include.....
-I hope I can breastfeed.
-I hope that I can have a vaginal delivery.
-I hope that my husband doesn't kill me before June 3. (or want to divorce me!)
-I hope that I don't have to have an epiesiotmy.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
I'm exhausted just typing about it.......
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Christmas Fun
We always play games at my Grandma's on the holidays. My family had never played Cranium, so I brought that game for us to enjoy this Christmas.
For those of you who have played, you will understand what I am talking about....
It was a Club Cranium card, which means that all teams play. There were only two teams in this game and my husband and I were the players chosen. We had to act out an "action", like in charades, and get our teammates to guess the action before the other team.
You'll never guess what we had to act out.....
REPRODUCE!
Of all things. I was like "oh my, I don't know if I can do this"! I know my face was red before I even started. So, in front of my Grandma, Mom, Aunts, Uncle, cousins, I laid on the floor and tried to act out reproduce. My husband was standing up trying to act out reproduce and the entire room was laughing their heads off.
Needless to say, no one guessed the correct answer.
I have a feeling we won't live that one down for a long time.
For those of you who have played, you will understand what I am talking about....
It was a Club Cranium card, which means that all teams play. There were only two teams in this game and my husband and I were the players chosen. We had to act out an "action", like in charades, and get our teammates to guess the action before the other team.
You'll never guess what we had to act out.....
REPRODUCE!
Of all things. I was like "oh my, I don't know if I can do this"! I know my face was red before I even started. So, in front of my Grandma, Mom, Aunts, Uncle, cousins, I laid on the floor and tried to act out reproduce. My husband was standing up trying to act out reproduce and the entire room was laughing their heads off.
Needless to say, no one guessed the correct answer.
I have a feeling we won't live that one down for a long time.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
The One Thing I Wish Would Grow.....
I miss my long hair. Why, oh, why did I ever cut it?
All other parts of my body are growing and getting bigger.
Why won't my hair hurry up?
All other parts of my body are growing and getting bigger.
Why won't my hair hurry up?
Friday, December 14, 2007
Baby Talk
I was watching Oprah yesterday. Well, I watched Oprah until the show was interrupted for live coverage of the Mitchell Report. (Which made me very angry, by the way).
I was so thankful that I was home to catch this show. Did any of you get a chance to tune in?
Oprah had a guest, Priscilla Dunstan, who claims to have discovered a "baby language". Of course, at first I was skeptical. She says that this language is universal, regardless of race or culture. The language consists of 5 "pre-cries"- the sounds the baby makes right before the crying becomes hysterical.
So, Dunstan is suggesting that there are 5 sounds that babies use to communicate with us.
"Neh"-I'm hungry
"Owh"-I'm sleepy
"Heh"-I'm having discomfort
"Eairh"-I have lower gas/upset stomach
"Eh"-I need to burp
They taped numerous babies making the different sounds, so you could hear the difference. After awhile, you could hear and understand the difference between the 5 sounds. It is really interesting.
She sat with a room of new moms and listened to their children cry. She would hear which of the 5 sounds the baby was making and let the mom know what their child may be saying. The mom would take appropriate action and the child would calm down.
If this is indeed true, can you imagine how helpful this will be?!?!
Dunstan said that children will try to use this language until 3 months. If the language has been ignored, they will not continue to use it. If the language has been acknowledged and responded to, they will continue to use their language after 3 months.
I just thought this was really intriguing.....
What about you moms out there? Have you heard of this? What are your thoughts or opinions on the subject?
I was so thankful that I was home to catch this show. Did any of you get a chance to tune in?
Oprah had a guest, Priscilla Dunstan, who claims to have discovered a "baby language". Of course, at first I was skeptical. She says that this language is universal, regardless of race or culture. The language consists of 5 "pre-cries"- the sounds the baby makes right before the crying becomes hysterical.
So, Dunstan is suggesting that there are 5 sounds that babies use to communicate with us.
"Neh"-I'm hungry
"Owh"-I'm sleepy
"Heh"-I'm having discomfort
"Eairh"-I have lower gas/upset stomach
"Eh"-I need to burp
They taped numerous babies making the different sounds, so you could hear the difference. After awhile, you could hear and understand the difference between the 5 sounds. It is really interesting.
She sat with a room of new moms and listened to their children cry. She would hear which of the 5 sounds the baby was making and let the mom know what their child may be saying. The mom would take appropriate action and the child would calm down.
If this is indeed true, can you imagine how helpful this will be?!?!
Dunstan said that children will try to use this language until 3 months. If the language has been ignored, they will not continue to use it. If the language has been acknowledged and responded to, they will continue to use their language after 3 months.
I just thought this was really intriguing.....
What about you moms out there? Have you heard of this? What are your thoughts or opinions on the subject?
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Inspiring....
My mom sent me this email, an interview with Rick Warren. I hope that you have time to read it, even though it is a bit long.
I needed to read this today. I needed to be reminded that I should always praise God and trust that He will bring me through any situation. My pregnany has me so sick. I thought that I would be feeling better, since I am 15 weeks and into my second trimester. I have been feeling sorry for myself and letting the nauseau and throwing up control my life. I need to take this time and somehow turn it into something good. Even hovering over the toilet, I should be thanking God for the baby growing inside me. Even as I run to the bathroom, be thankful that my ankles are not so swollen and I am able to make it. I need to realize that God is more interested in my character than my comfort. So, I am going to try to pray my way through the bad times and ask that I learn what God wants to teach me through all of this.
I hope that this interview inspires you, as it did me. I hope that it brings light to a difficult situation that you may be experiencing.
____________________________________________________________________________________
This is an absolutely incredible interview with Rick Warren, author of
'Purpose Driven Life' His wife now has cancer, and he now has 'wealth'
from the book sales. In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren,
Rick said:
'People ask me, 'What is the purpose of life?' And I respond: In a
nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever,
and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body--but
not the end of me.
I may live to 100 years on earth, but I am going to
spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress
rehearsal.
God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We
were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't
going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just
coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than
your comfort
God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your
life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life.
The goal is to grow in character, in Christ's likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest,
with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark
time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't b elieve that
anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like
two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and
something bad in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad
that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something
good you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you
focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, 'which is my
problem, my issues, my pain.'
But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off
yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers from hundreds of
thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.
It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her
character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a
testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For
instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million
copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with
before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or
for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety
and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide
what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our
lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I st opped taking a salary from the
church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The
Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the
sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I
started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able
to serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or
am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if
I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You
better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list.
He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called
human beings, not human doings.
In Happy moments, PRAISE GOD. Difficult moments, SEEK GOD. Quiet moments,
WORSHIP GOD. Painful moments, TRUST GOD.Every moment, THANK GOD.
I needed to read this today. I needed to be reminded that I should always praise God and trust that He will bring me through any situation. My pregnany has me so sick. I thought that I would be feeling better, since I am 15 weeks and into my second trimester. I have been feeling sorry for myself and letting the nauseau and throwing up control my life. I need to take this time and somehow turn it into something good. Even hovering over the toilet, I should be thanking God for the baby growing inside me. Even as I run to the bathroom, be thankful that my ankles are not so swollen and I am able to make it. I need to realize that God is more interested in my character than my comfort. So, I am going to try to pray my way through the bad times and ask that I learn what God wants to teach me through all of this.
I hope that this interview inspires you, as it did me. I hope that it brings light to a difficult situation that you may be experiencing.
____________________________________________________________________________________
This is an absolutely incredible interview with Rick Warren, author of
'Purpose Driven Life' His wife now has cancer, and he now has 'wealth'
from the book sales. In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren,
Rick said:
'People ask me, 'What is the purpose of life?' And I respond: In a
nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever,
and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body--but
not the end of me.
I may live to 100 years on earth, but I am going to
spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress
rehearsal.
God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We
were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't
going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just
coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than
your comfort
God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your
life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life.
The goal is to grow in character, in Christ's likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest,
with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark
time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't b elieve that
anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like
two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and
something bad in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad
that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something
good you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you
focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, 'which is my
problem, my issues, my pain.'
But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off
yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers from hundreds of
thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.
It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her
character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a
testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For
instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million
copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with
before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or
for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety
and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide
what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our
lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I st opped taking a salary from the
church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The
Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the
sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I
started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able
to serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or
am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if
I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You
better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list.
He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called
human beings, not human doings.
In Happy moments, PRAISE GOD. Difficult moments, SEEK GOD. Quiet moments,
WORSHIP GOD. Painful moments, TRUST GOD.Every moment, THANK GOD.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Update on Abby
I just wanted to let you know that Baby Abby is at home!
She was able to come home on Tuesday night. I know that Bart, Tracy, and Emma are so excited to have her home with them!!!
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers- I know the family appreciated each and every one of them.
She was able to come home on Tuesday night. I know that Bart, Tracy, and Emma are so excited to have her home with them!!!
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers- I know the family appreciated each and every one of them.
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