Tuesday, February 20, 2007
finding love
Today was my due date for what would have been our first little one. Today also marks 12 weeks of pregnancy for our new little one. My mind finds it hard to wrap around the idea that so quickly this date approached and how quickly I'm already a third of the way closer to seeing my new baby. Amazing. I'm completely grateful... God is so good to us.On the 5th R.Jay and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. Due to the excessive vomiting, a weekend away was replaced with a fun dinner at a favorite restaurant and a restful evening at home. We laughed like kids and remembered how much love and laughter has surrounded the last two years.
Maybe because it's February and our minds go to Valentines (and an anniversary for me) but I can't escape thinking about love. More importantly His love. I often dismiss simple moments of feeling Christ's love for bigger moments of discipline and glory. Yet lately I'm often reminded of such sweet love.... finding life in His word this morning, finding strength in fellowship, finding bills paid and food in the kitchen, finding my jeans snug on my belly, or finding a unexpected moment to still my heart and hear His voice. I'm loved.
Heather Dowling at 2:58 PM
4 Comments
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at 4:02 PM
said... Feeling any better these days???ht
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at 10:02 PM
Kat said... So glad for the blessings!!!
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at 11:29 PM
said...
Heather,
Hope the yuckiness subsides as you enter the next trimester!
Allison and delivery: she is whatever you want her to be when you're in labor. She made that very clear at the beginning -- she can be hardly there, or she can be your coach all the way through. (I know couples from church who did it both ways!) For me, my mom was the primary coach, with Ryan attending, too... and then, when it all went down, I was only in the hospital for an hour anyway! Allison didn't have to help me with laboring at all!
Of course I have nothing to compare her to, but I was so confident that she would take care of me -- that she knew exactly what my hopes were, and that she would get as involved as she needed in order to make those hopes happen. I know Ryan really liked her, too; she was his hero(ine) for quite awhile!
A book that you NEED to get to prepare for labor is Special Delivery, by Rahima Baldwin. Mrs. Daniels lent it to me a couple of weeks before Jameson was born, and I wished I'd had it to study for months and months instead! It's definitely very "hippie" -- basically, it's a guide to homebirths back when alternatives to hospitals were just beginning to be explored. The introduction is the story of having these homebirths in a commune setting somewhere in Mexico, and there are "vibes" and "energy" all over the place. Oh brother!
BUT, the rest of the book is the most informative book I've seen. It tells you how to eat, how to exercise, and how your body and baby are developing. It then tells you all about what happens during labor and delivery so that you can work with your body instead of against it. It has relaxation exercises you and R.Jay can practice together. It tells all about the different complicating factors that can arise so that you can be ready to deal with them.
It's awesome.
So yeah. Get that book. :)
And whatever you do, stay active. Keep stretching every morning, walk lots (summer time is perfect!), eat well, and did I say stretch? My mom swears that makes the biggest difference with being able to endure labor.-
at 1:19 PM
said...
are you back online now?