Sunday, May 27, 2012

Our baby is here!

On Wednesday, May 23, our little baby was born at the birth center.

It's a BOY!

William (Will) was 7 lbs. 4 oz., 20 inches long (Apgars 9/9, my strong little peanut!). We are both head over heels in love with this little man!



Birth story to come! I am proud of myself - but more than anything, grateful to God for allowing us to have a natural birth with no complications. No matter how much you prepare, you can't control very much at all. I am just over the moon with joy!




-Maeg

Monday, May 14, 2012

Mother's Day, More Pics, and Miscellaneous

Yesterday was Mother's Day. Can I just say how grateful I am for my mom? There were so many times throughout high school that she and I would clash in a big way... angry words, hurt feelings, and me stomping off to my bedroom to stew and write moody "poems" in my notebook. I know this happens in a lot of houses with teenagers. My mom could have shrugged downstairs in the kitchen, said, "I can't wait to get through this stage," and kept on working, just waiting for it all to "blow over."

But she never did!

She always, always connected with me. She always came upstairs and made sure things were resolved. Sometimes she would sit beside me on my bed and rub my back when my heart was too hard to listen to her. When she did that, I softened right up. (I'm a sucker for ANYONE rubbing my back or playing with my hair.) She didn't give in and let me have my way, but she expressed that behind her momentary frustration with me was a bottomless well of love that wasn't going anywhere. She heard me out. She prayed with me.

When she left, I was often still angry that I couldn't have my way. But I wasn't bitterly angry toward HER anymore. The message had made it through my thick skull that I was loved and I was lucky to be loved.

Mamas, if your kids are at that stage, don't ever "shrug it off" and let your child go to bed angry at you. If my mom had not reached out to me, I would have certainly cultivated my rebellious anger into a thick wall of hatred toward her and my dad. I am SURE that our relationship would be different now, and that my life would be different, too. Don't let the hearts of your kids grow hard against you. They won't come to you to reconnect... go to them! Pray with them. Show them that behind the rules and the "no's" and the occasional anger is someone who loves them more than anyone else in the world possibly could. 

I'm so grateful to now consider my mom one of my best friends. I can't wait for her to come stay, to hopefully be there when I deliver my own little baby. When this child is laid on my chest and our eyes meet, I know I will feel - amidst the joy and wonder, of course - intimidation - what a responsibility, to raise a person. But I have been given such a tremendous gift by the Lord: a path, laid by my own mom... instructions and guidelines to follow. She didn't have that, but by the grace of God she broke the cycle of dysfunctional homes and became an exemplary mother to four kids. I am so thankful that I have her as a reference... a model... a map. Thank you, Lord, for my mom.


Oh, that my children will be able to say that about me someday.
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I'll be thirty-nine weeks tomorrow, and I'm still very much enjoying being pregnant. It's hard not to judge women that I see on my birth board forum who groan, "I can't do this for two more weeks." Aches and pains are part of pregnancy, but gee - what a reward is waiting at the end! I've known people suffering from terminal illness who have lived in tremendous pain. They don't have "a few weeks left" before the pain is over and they're holding a little baby. Pregnancy might be pretty tough for some - I'm not criticizing those whose complications are making them fearful for their baby's safety - but man, it CANNOT be the toughest thing in the world, so difficult that you simply "can't do it" another day. 

Yes, I'm being judgmental! Sorry.

(And yes, there's a time and a place for "venting" - ha ha, I guess I'm doing it now! - and maybe it's inevitable that a bunch of pregnant women are all going to gripe on a birth board, but I often think that if we had the right perspective, a vent would not be necessary. I know that for me, waiting for a baby was much harder than a few months of painful hips, a congested nose, swollen hands, or whatever else may plague me.)

Speaking of congested nose, I FINALLY bought some Breathe Right strips. Oh my word! Would that I had bought them MUCH earlier! They're kind of expensive, so I always just figured I'd rather breathe a little belaboredly at night instead of paying $10 a month for some nose tape. BUT at Walmart they had 8 strips for $2 and I threw them in the cart. (Heck, I might only have eight days left.) The past two nights have been a DREAM! I am breathing normally through my nose! Brian isn't waking up from my snoring (and subsequently waking me up to try to get me to stop) and I am not waking up with a blocked nose and a dry mouth. This has been one of the peskiest symptoms, and praise God, it's gone! If the Lord blesses us with more children... now I know. BUY THE STRIPS! And buy them early!

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It's so weird to me when people call or text to check in on me. I tell them, nope, no signs of labor, and then EVERY time I realize, but I guess it could be any day now! It's just that, in my head, it still feels so far away! One of the members of our church gave me a friendly hug and said, "Good luck to you this week!" I replied, confused, "For what?" He was talking about giving birth! I told him thank you, but in my head I was thinking, "Oh, I'm not having the baby until next week or the week after! Don't worry about me! I have time!" Haha! Maybe they know something I don't know. : )

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Nothing more to say for now, except here are the rest of the pictures from my session with Christina! She's a good friend and EXTREMELY talented. These were a gift from her and it's beyond generous. 
















-Maeg

Friday, May 11, 2012

I can't believe...

There's a stroller in my living room.
There's a packed 'birth center bag' in my closet.
There's a high chair at the end of the table.
There are eleven days to go until my due date.

Slowly but surely it's dawning on me that the baby will be HERE in a matter of weeks. During this pregnancy I've lived my life in weeks: Three weeks until the second trimester. Two weeks until earliest viability. One week until 30 weeks. Three weeks until 'term'. Every Tuesday morning, waking up rejoicing that I am one more week ahead. Yet my due date still feels like it's 'weeks' away... a nebulous event at the END of the month, and we're still at the beginning of the month, so it's really far away! My meticulous counting down has come to an end.

Right?

I feel so off guard when people say, "I've been wondering if you've had that baby yet!"

I feel like saying, "Of course not! I have WEEKS to go!"

I am very thankful to still be comfortable... for the most part, anyway. I LOVE feeling the baby move. After a single contraction, feelings of labor are nonexistent. And I still have a lot to accomplish. All those things conspire to make me feel as though I have lots of time! But ever-so-surely, I am crossing things off my list.

I am really curious to see if I am past term, twiddling my thumbs with nothing to do, or if I'm caught by surprise before these eleven days are even over. We will see!

Maternity photos at 38 weeks 2 days. Taken by the oh-so-talented Christina at Christina Marie Photography.








-Maeg