Moping Monday

Normally I love Mondays, weird I know, but usually they are the one full day off I have "alone" with my husband. Not today, he's filling in for someone at work tonight so I'm alone and realizing how spoiled I am to be able to have a complete day with him normally. Plus I'm tired and feeling emotional so I really just miss him and want to cry about it. Instead I'll get ready for bed and be thankful I get him to myself tomorrow evening. Well myself and the whole Metrodome. Yep, we're finally making it to another Twins game. Gotta say farewell to the Dome as the commercials say. Plus it's Caribou Coffee night at the Dome tomorrow so we got cheap tickets and will hopefully have a great time. The dog (Dexter) is going to the baby-sitters for the night, where he's sure to be spoiled a plenty. It'll be a late night with the drive back, but will be fun to have my hubby to myself in the car for the 4-hour round trip. Cancel that, I'll probably sleep the whole time... :-)

I'm Joining the Ranks

I think I've officially joined the ranks of parenthood. Not that being pregnant didn't get me there, it's just now I'm starting to accumulate all sorts of baby paraphenalia and wondering "how much stuff can we possibly need, and where do we put it all?". I don't think there's a good answer for that, because I don't even know where to put all our junk as it is, let alone the baby's.
What brings this on is we purchased our first "big" baby item today. We got a great baby swing at a garage sale for only $20! It's very clean, no scratches on the metal, has two speeds, and even has the infant headrest thing that comes off later. The lady had it marked at $35 but she said she would take less as it was getting later in the day and I was going to offer her $25 but decided to ask what she'd take for it, thinking if she said $30 I'd say $25 then. Instead, she said $20 and I said "sold!" 'cause that's how excited I was. I should post a picture of it but right now it's sitting in the corner of the "baby's room" that is also holding our guns. Yes, real live ammo shooting guns. And yes, they will be moved before the baby is born, so relax.
Anyway, I'm super excited to be finding some of the bigger baby items we'll need, but wary over the way they'll take over. Not that the baby isn't going to take over our lives for a while either...yeah so never mind.
I also think the baby is going to apparently take over my blog, as that's what's constantly on my mind these days, but I will try to think a little deeper than that for another post some other time.

P.S.

An additional thought from the last post, I am so, So, SO thankful that this baby is due in the middle of winter and that I live in a cold state.
Several reasons: 1. I hate sleeveless shirts, and therefore am so thankful I don't have to be 8 months pregnant in the middle of the summer. 2. I would much rather have to bundle up than wear more summer clothes. 3. Sweatshirts really do accentuate and make a pregnant belly even cuter. 4. Winter clothes, so much more forgiving than summer lack of clothes.
That's all, purely selfish, fleshly, and shallow reasons, but I like it nonetheless. And it's certainly not hurting my feelings any that it's going to barely break 60 degrees tomorrow so I can already break out the sweatshirts that make me feel cute and pregnant. So for all you summer lovers, sorry, this is Minnesota, I was born and raised here, and yes, some of us actually love the cold. Not the 40 below nonsense, but 0-70 degrees doesn't hurt my feelings any.

Bakin' up a Baby

So my first title for this post was Cookin' up Baby, which sounds like I'm actually cooking a baby, while this one isn't much better, it's supposed to be a play on the words having "one in the oven". Anyway, I digress. People kept telling me from the moment I announced I was pregnant (which was like 2 seconds after I found out) that I had to take weekly/monthly belly pictures to show how the baby and I were growing. The problem with this being, and I never actually understood it until I was pregnant, because I always just thought pregnant women were so cute, but for the first 3 months, you really do just feel fat. It's not a hatred to the baby, it's not a bad self-image, you just lose all control over your stomache muscles, you don't feel the baby moving, the "hard baby stomache" hasn't taken over yet, you don't usually look pregnant (unless you're a size 0-2 to start with, in which case, don't even talk to me) so really, you just feel and possibly look fat. All this to say is that I either thought I just looked fat or I felt fat. I didn't want people looking at pictures of my "baby-belly" and go, really, she just looks like she's gained weight. Now that I feel the baby moving, can do nothing about my projecting belly, and it's getting harder to the touch, I'm all about my baby-belly picture. So the other night my husband finally took this one of me at about 17 1/2 weeks pregnant.

Afterwards, and I do mean AFTERWARDS, because I sure didn't make it a fun experience for him, I was feeling sort of chagrined. First of all, I realized how judgemental I must be of peoples pregnancy pictures, because I'm sure self-conscious of my own. Secondly, who the heck cares? Seriously, who cares what I look like?! We're so excited to have this baby, after a lot of prayer and tears and I rejoice daily over God's incredibly undeserved blessing of being pregnant, so why shouldn't I rejoice in my "fat/baby-belly"? And why let what anyone else may think rob me of the joy of showing of the baby in the oven? Thirdly, now that I realize this, I'm a little sad that I didn't take pictures before now. Because in reality, I'm only 2 weeks from being halfway through this pregnancy. I missed that opportunity because of my denying God's blessing.
So that's my chastisement to myself, and ever since then, I'm sincerely hoping some brave stranger out there asks me when I'm due. Because it's a dangerous question, but I'm open to it now. And I'll keep "Bakin' up our baby" and thankful that there's a reason I'm so tired, forgetful, and "chubby". :-)

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails...

There's a poem that begins like this... "Snip and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails, that's what little boys are made of." I never understood that totally, especially the Snip part, but little boys are definitely on my mind lately. We were told about 4 weeks ago by our doctor that she was 80% sure our baby was a boy. Last week, she made it 100%, and looking at the ultrasound, there's no denying it.
Whenever we talked about having a baby or even right after we got pregnant, I always just pictured a little girl. But somewhere in my heart and head I knew that would be dissappointing to my husband, and somewhere in my gut, I knew we'd have a boy. Call it Mother's intuition, I don't know, but I knew. So I wasn't really surprised when she said it was a boy. A little in shock over how I'm going to raise him, but not surprised. I look at my nephew, who's a nonstop bundle of energy and creativity and mischief, and wonder how we're going to do it. It sure seems that our boy is as active as my nephew, so it'll be interesting that's for sure.
Don't get me wrong, I love little boys, I'm just scared to death to raise one. Everytime Mary Lisa brings her son into Caribou, I about die, I love him, he's so precious! I love my nephew to death, I love the little boys in our church, I just never knew I'd have to do what they do. I figured I'd get practice on a girl first. Boys are easier in the sense of in the future probably less drama and emotions, but the energy bit, boy I'll be busy. Pun intended of course.
The thought that makes my heart swell whenever I think it is how amazing my husband is going to be. He is an amazing husband and is going to be an even more amazing father. He will be every little boys dream of a daddy. He's smart, handy, busy, active, and fun! What more could a boy want?! He loves to go, go, go. Bike, Fish, Walk, Boat, Canoe, etc... he does it. And he'll have our boy right by his side, or behind him in a trailer on the bike trail. And he knows so much! He's super smart and will have our son swinging a hammer before he can walk I'm sure. :-)
Overall, I'm so excited to have a little man to give my big man, and really, after buying lots of blue and green at a rummage sale last week, I can't wait to hold my little man in my arms...only 5 months to go!!

A little discipline please!

So being disciplined isn't exactly my best quality. I was finally getting the hang of being disciplined about going to the gym almost every day when I got pregnant, which means being exhausted beyond explanation, which means working out is a joke. When we first got married I was pretty good about being disciplined in having a menu and a plan for supper every night. Now at 5:30pm I find myself going..."uh oh...what are we eating tonight?" I also used to make the bed every day, and put away the laundry as soon as it was clean, and wash dishes every night, etc., etc., etc...
Then it's this blog, when I started it, I must have either had a lot to say or lots of time to say it, because I was pretty good about blogging regularly. Now, not so much. I'm not sure if it's because I have less time, less to say, or simply less big changes in our lives. Well, with the coming baby boy in our lives, I feel the need to not forget how I'm feeling and what I'm thinking these days. So I'm trying again. Maybe not every day, but hopefully at least once a week.
Maybe start out with just a little bit of discipline. With some of the complications that have ensued with this pregnancy, I'm no longer working on Thursdays for the most part, so maybe that will be my day to blog. Whatever happens, I feel purposed to be more disciplined. I am making the bed more regularly now, and hopefully doing dishes more often, so maybe the other stuff will follow. The Bible seems to have a lot to say about being orderly and disciplined in different areas of our lives. Somehow, I've never seemed to think it was important enough I guess. My prayer is now I will.