1/09/2004
30wk
I can't believe I'm come this far, and I am grateful for every day that I spend with baby tucked inside! Somehow, along with everyone telling me so, I know life as I know it will change. It is exciting, even if it does sound like a cliche.
For now, I am enjoying my bohemian lifestyle with this free time I've been given between "career" work and caring for a child. Christmas has come and gone, but my 32" fiber optic tree still lives on in my bay window. I just haven't had the pressing desire to take it down. I have the lights set up to come on every night on a timer and it is so lovely to look at.
The original plan was to take down the tree after January 6th, Three Kings Day, or the Day of Epiphany, which celebrates when the Three Wise Men came to honor and worship the baby Jesus. However, it's just too soon to end the Christmas spirit. Celine Dion sings a song about this, called "Don't Save It All for Christmas Day". Avalon, a contemporary Christian music group, also have a compelling version of the song. The funny thing is that the song speaks about sharing the spirit of Christmas all year long, but is only played during the holidays! D'Oh! Anyway, after you check out the lyrics, you'll see that it's an important message. So the Christmas tree is staying a little longer.
After all, the meaning of Christmas is diluted during those crazy days in December. How many people realize that the baby that was born came so that we could have a connection to God? How many people know that the little baby born to Joseph and Mary came to accomplish a great mission, to die and pay for our sins?
The God that created this world wants to know his people, and Jesus was sent to us as a way to relate and know God. Because humans are willful and want to do their own thing, God had to find a way to reconnect with us. Doing your own thing may not be bad, but trust me, when you have a world of people just wanting to do their own thing, it gets chaotic.
God wants to give us eternal life and blessings, but can't do it with the sin we all have in our hearts. Even if we are "good people", can you figure out a way to create eternal life and blessings? I can't! How can we earn the splendor of everlasting life, abundance and the ability to know our Creator personally? The truth is, we can't. We are just not good enough on our own. So Jesus came to bridge the gap! The real Christmas story is encapsulated in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life".
The baby was just the beginning! And as I carry my little boy, I realize that this roller-coaster ride of life is just beginning. I'm going up the incline, eagerly waiting to get to the good part, and enjoying the way up.
I can't believe I'm come this far, and I am grateful for every day that I spend with baby tucked inside! Somehow, along with everyone telling me so, I know life as I know it will change. It is exciting, even if it does sound like a cliche.
For now, I am enjoying my bohemian lifestyle with this free time I've been given between "career" work and caring for a child. Christmas has come and gone, but my 32" fiber optic tree still lives on in my bay window. I just haven't had the pressing desire to take it down. I have the lights set up to come on every night on a timer and it is so lovely to look at.
The original plan was to take down the tree after January 6th, Three Kings Day, or the Day of Epiphany, which celebrates when the Three Wise Men came to honor and worship the baby Jesus. However, it's just too soon to end the Christmas spirit. Celine Dion sings a song about this, called "Don't Save It All for Christmas Day". Avalon, a contemporary Christian music group, also have a compelling version of the song. The funny thing is that the song speaks about sharing the spirit of Christmas all year long, but is only played during the holidays! D'Oh! Anyway, after you check out the lyrics, you'll see that it's an important message. So the Christmas tree is staying a little longer.
After all, the meaning of Christmas is diluted during those crazy days in December. How many people realize that the baby that was born came so that we could have a connection to God? How many people know that the little baby born to Joseph and Mary came to accomplish a great mission, to die and pay for our sins?
The God that created this world wants to know his people, and Jesus was sent to us as a way to relate and know God. Because humans are willful and want to do their own thing, God had to find a way to reconnect with us. Doing your own thing may not be bad, but trust me, when you have a world of people just wanting to do their own thing, it gets chaotic.
God wants to give us eternal life and blessings, but can't do it with the sin we all have in our hearts. Even if we are "good people", can you figure out a way to create eternal life and blessings? I can't! How can we earn the splendor of everlasting life, abundance and the ability to know our Creator personally? The truth is, we can't. We are just not good enough on our own. So Jesus came to bridge the gap! The real Christmas story is encapsulated in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life".
The baby was just the beginning! And as I carry my little boy, I realize that this roller-coaster ride of life is just beginning. I'm going up the incline, eagerly waiting to get to the good part, and enjoying the way up.
1/07/2004
29wk
Happy New Year everyone!!
I'm up again at my usual pre-dawn time to go to the bathroom, so I figured I'd post. It's been a while. I guess it's about time I started having some pregnancy symptoms, since I am 7 months along. On Sunday, while rehearsing with the Praise Band, I just felt kinda hot and flustered. While singing, I felt like I just needed to sit down or something. It was weird, like I was going to faint or something. I had to pull up a chair and take a rest! One of my bandmates pulled out a stool, so I was able to sing (sans guitar) Joan Baez style for the rest of rehearsal and for the service. I felt better after a while, but it was just weird how it hit me.
Then, it happened again on Monday morning! I got that overheated, flustery feeling again while on a library tour. I've started volunteering at the Library (first official day is Thursday, 1/8/04, Wooo Hooo!), so the Library Administrator was giving me and another new volunteer the lay of the land. Anyway, while she was talking, I just kinda started placed my hand on a shelf for balance and noticed my forehead beading with sweat. The symptoms passed after a few minutes. I didn't want to let on that anything was wrong, because I didn't want to freak anybody out. In both cases, the rooms I was in were hot. The church heater had sorta gone on overdrive, but it was 15 degrees above normal outside. I was wearing a turtleneck and a shirt, so I went to the bathroom and took off my turtleneck. In the library, the section I was in was a bit hotter than the rest. For those of you that know me, this sensation of hot is very strange. I'm always cold!!!
Anyway, I can't figure out if I was "too hot" because of baby, whether the room temperature really affected me, or whether is was a case of overexertion. I had walked to the library from home, which is a nice 10 minute walk. In the case of church, sometimes belting out a few songs can be tiring. In fact, after church and after my library tour, I treated myself to a couple of nice naps. This made up for staying up late on Saturday and Sunday nights. So far, so good, no flustery symptoms, but I was never overheated and I didn't exert myself as much. We'll have to keep tabs on that one.
I took it very easy on Tuesday (yesterday) because a) I had not gotten a lot of regular sleep the last 2 days, and b) my lower back felt kinda stiff. I have to get back to my Pilates stretching to stretch out my back. I've been reading about how pregnant women can alleviate back pain with better posture, reduce strain on the back by stretching, and correctly finding the center of gravity. With belly getting bigger, my center of gravity is shifting. Most pregnant women overcompensate (unawares) by arching their backs. The classic sign is when they place their hands on lower backside for more support. I've been doing a good job of finding my center of gravity as baby grew, but I must be straining something now. After 6 months, it's time to pull out the Pilates mat again....
One thing I forgot to mention about my baby shower was that in all the excitement and commotion, we never even cut the cake!!! Blame it on my youngest sister. She made 2 of her famous cheesecakes, so I guess a lot of people had their sweet cravings satisfied. Not to fear though, we "partied" some more at my oldest sister's house, with the tons of food left over, and the Christmas food, and that wonderful cake! The cake was delicious! It was a yellow cake with buttercream frosting (my fave) and a nice thick layer of chocolate pudding inside. Actually, the other half was a banana filling. Yum..... pudding and cake at the same time... Now you can understand why I'm 6 pounds over my weight gain plan!!! LOL!
I've been setting up the nursery (sooner, rather than later, because of all the many wonderful gifts I received at the shower) and am making slow progress. I emptied out the closet, which had boxes of stuff that I literally just stuffed in the closet when the room was a guest room. I found a dustbuster, a lighted mirror, a C&P (before Verizon) phonebook from 1994, a nice huge MagLite (DH was wondering where that went!) and old ticket stubs to events (for my "one-day-it's-going-in-my-scrapbook" routine). Unbelievable! It felt good to purge. Still kept half the ticket stubs to the really important events, though!
Anyway, now that the closet is free, I've started loading the baby gifts in the room and cross checking my thank you list. I'm about 80% done and hope to zip out the thank you's before the weekend. In case any of the gift givers are reading, thank you so much for the gifts! It has been so cool unpacking/unwrapping them and imagining baby boy using or wearing them! I've received so many wonderful and thoughtful gifts! We've been truly blessed!
It's still early, so now that I've posted, I'm going back to bed!
Happy New Year everyone!!
I'm up again at my usual pre-dawn time to go to the bathroom, so I figured I'd post. It's been a while. I guess it's about time I started having some pregnancy symptoms, since I am 7 months along. On Sunday, while rehearsing with the Praise Band, I just felt kinda hot and flustered. While singing, I felt like I just needed to sit down or something. It was weird, like I was going to faint or something. I had to pull up a chair and take a rest! One of my bandmates pulled out a stool, so I was able to sing (sans guitar) Joan Baez style for the rest of rehearsal and for the service. I felt better after a while, but it was just weird how it hit me.
Then, it happened again on Monday morning! I got that overheated, flustery feeling again while on a library tour. I've started volunteering at the Library (first official day is Thursday, 1/8/04, Wooo Hooo!), so the Library Administrator was giving me and another new volunteer the lay of the land. Anyway, while she was talking, I just kinda started placed my hand on a shelf for balance and noticed my forehead beading with sweat. The symptoms passed after a few minutes. I didn't want to let on that anything was wrong, because I didn't want to freak anybody out. In both cases, the rooms I was in were hot. The church heater had sorta gone on overdrive, but it was 15 degrees above normal outside. I was wearing a turtleneck and a shirt, so I went to the bathroom and took off my turtleneck. In the library, the section I was in was a bit hotter than the rest. For those of you that know me, this sensation of hot is very strange. I'm always cold!!!
Anyway, I can't figure out if I was "too hot" because of baby, whether the room temperature really affected me, or whether is was a case of overexertion. I had walked to the library from home, which is a nice 10 minute walk. In the case of church, sometimes belting out a few songs can be tiring. In fact, after church and after my library tour, I treated myself to a couple of nice naps. This made up for staying up late on Saturday and Sunday nights. So far, so good, no flustery symptoms, but I was never overheated and I didn't exert myself as much. We'll have to keep tabs on that one.
I took it very easy on Tuesday (yesterday) because a) I had not gotten a lot of regular sleep the last 2 days, and b) my lower back felt kinda stiff. I have to get back to my Pilates stretching to stretch out my back. I've been reading about how pregnant women can alleviate back pain with better posture, reduce strain on the back by stretching, and correctly finding the center of gravity. With belly getting bigger, my center of gravity is shifting. Most pregnant women overcompensate (unawares) by arching their backs. The classic sign is when they place their hands on lower backside for more support. I've been doing a good job of finding my center of gravity as baby grew, but I must be straining something now. After 6 months, it's time to pull out the Pilates mat again....
One thing I forgot to mention about my baby shower was that in all the excitement and commotion, we never even cut the cake!!! Blame it on my youngest sister. She made 2 of her famous cheesecakes, so I guess a lot of people had their sweet cravings satisfied. Not to fear though, we "partied" some more at my oldest sister's house, with the tons of food left over, and the Christmas food, and that wonderful cake! The cake was delicious! It was a yellow cake with buttercream frosting (my fave) and a nice thick layer of chocolate pudding inside. Actually, the other half was a banana filling. Yum..... pudding and cake at the same time... Now you can understand why I'm 6 pounds over my weight gain plan!!! LOL!
I've been setting up the nursery (sooner, rather than later, because of all the many wonderful gifts I received at the shower) and am making slow progress. I emptied out the closet, which had boxes of stuff that I literally just stuffed in the closet when the room was a guest room. I found a dustbuster, a lighted mirror, a C&P (before Verizon) phonebook from 1994, a nice huge MagLite (DH was wondering where that went!) and old ticket stubs to events (for my "one-day-it's-going-in-my-scrapbook" routine). Unbelievable! It felt good to purge. Still kept half the ticket stubs to the really important events, though!
Anyway, now that the closet is free, I've started loading the baby gifts in the room and cross checking my thank you list. I'm about 80% done and hope to zip out the thank you's before the weekend. In case any of the gift givers are reading, thank you so much for the gifts! It has been so cool unpacking/unwrapping them and imagining baby boy using or wearing them! I've received so many wonderful and thoughtful gifts! We've been truly blessed!
It's still early, so now that I've posted, I'm going back to bed!
