One Month Left...

I am sitting in my family room right now looking at the baby swing that my husband set up yesterday. To my right are boxes with a Pack and Play, a High Chair, a Bassinet, and a Bouncer. On the floor are boxes with bottles, breast pumps, bedding, etc...Yes, my friends, the baby is almost here!

This weekend, we were blessed to have our final shower. It was an amazing day in so many ways. There were too many blessings to count, too many awesome gifts, and I know our baby felt that love that was radiating in the room.

My cousins and aunts from out of town (all the way from Wisconsin) got up at 4:30 am to drive in for it! Can you believe that? The day was such a joy.

The night before, I was telling Aaron my biggest concerns were that we didn't have enough baby clothes and we didn't have enough books to read him when he was born. Well, trust me, those needs were taken care of. The day was so very very special...and once again, my husband surprised me and woo'd all the women in the room by being a total rock-star. I shall explain...

For the past week I could tell he was working on something. He told me I couldn't look at his emails (yes we are THAT couple that has each other's passwords and such), and that he was working on something. I wasn't sure what it was, but once again, decided I would just let myself be surprised. After I had opened all the presents, Aaron said there was one more. He gave me a card with very nice words (he writes very nice words occasionally) and as the room of people looked on, began to give me his shower present. Before I started opening, my aunt said, 'I have been to a TON and I mean a TON of showers, I have never seen a husband give his wife a present.'. He began to hand me a series of books, 'How to be a happy mother' and 'How to Raise Men of Character' for me; and 'Better fathers, better sons' and a book about fathers raising sons for him. He had ordered these books for us, so that we could read together about the important things. Not things like, 'how long should I breast feed', or 'How should I diaper my child'- but really important things...how to raise children to be GOOD. Needless to say, I started to get teary eye'd.

However, there was one more gift, he pulled out a tiny box and at first I didn't know what it was (an ipod to replace the one he bought me and I lost 3 months later???)- and once I knew I started to cry once again. He had got me a Sony Bloggie, otherwise known as a video camera. We are quite tight on money right now (Uncle Sam came calling for for over four thousand dollars)- but I kept telling him how we really needed to get a video camera, so we can capture all of our baby boy's moments. Once again, my rock star husband made it happen.

I completely started bawling at that point, because that is what he makes me do all the time. And, I'm not gonna lie, there was a tear or two in his eyes as we hugged. I think an advantage of the love that we found is that occasionally, we have these moments when we are SO very aware what a gift we are to each other, and what a gift God has given us through our soon-to-be-here child. We were in my mom's basement, surrounded by so much love for our child, and I was so very aware of the love I am blessed to have.

One thing I know for sure, my baby is so VERY lucky to have Aaron as his daddy. Dads are so very important to their sons, and I spend a LOT of time thinking about how blessed our baby is:)

YAY God!

This song is bringing me great joy at 4:46 am

If you want to smile...you should listen to this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tyee5d87c8

The ridiculousness of pregnancy

Before I start...I want to make this clear, being pregnant is really the most amazing thing ever.  There is not a single day that goes by that I am not FULLY aware that carrying this child is a gift, a gift that I don't deserve and a gift that  I do not take for granted.  I have been around enough pregnant women who complain constantly, that I have REALLY tried not to be that girl (though at times, I think I have been).  This is just a lighthearted entry that I can look back on that will remind me of the ridiculousness of pregnancy!

It is ridiculous that I have to use a step stool,  a REAL STEPSTOOL to get into my bed.  When we bought our super tall bed to make us feel special and important my pregnant sister Theresa said, 'oh you are going to regret that when you get pregnant'.  I thought she was crazy, turns out she was right.  However, the beauty of this ridiculousness is that I have never appreciated a step stool more.

It is ridiculous that shaving my legs now takes about twenty minutes.  Maybe TMI, but I haven't shaved in a few week...I only do it before doctor's appointments (my poor husband).  So yesterday, when shaving, I realized that my stomach has now made it almost impossible to even reach my shins.  I am SO lucky that I didn't end up soaked in blood, but I took my time and realized I would just be in the shower WAY longer than normal.  However, the beauty of this ridiculousness is that I have never appreciated a sharp razor that will not cut your skin :)

It is ridiculous how large my stomach is.  I was just telling Aaron that it is HILARIOUS to me now, that at 3-4 months I was trying so desperately to see a 'baby bump'.  I would kind of stick it out and try to make it seem larger than it was:)  At this point, my stomach is SO huge, I am not quite sure how we are gonna go another 5 week.  However, the beauty of this ridiculousness is that it is so much fun to know that a little dude is rolling around in there, preparing to meet his mom and dad:)

It is ridiculous that I get up literally every hour on the hour to use the bathroom at night time.  It is so funny, because I think sometimes people think this is exaggerated...but it is not!  Last night, I got up EVERY hour, as I do every night, but last night I happened to be checking the time.  It is ridiculous that you are begging the night to end because you are so sick of going back and forth to the bathroom.  It is TOTALLY ridiculous that  I cannot figure out where all the liquid is coming from:)  The beauty of this ridiculousness is...is...is...yeah, haven't found it yet.  OH  YEA!  When the baby is here, I will be up every hour on the hour, but snuggling a newborn has got to be better than falling asleep on the toilet.


Those are just some of the things I find ridiculous about pregnancy.  5 more weeks...I CAN DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blessings

33 weeks...lil' dude will be here before we know it.  Is it weird that I VERY often go stand in the nursery, look at the clothes, peek in his crib, etc...?  Okay, if that is not weird, is it weird that I have already packed his diaper bag because I couldn't wait?  I am very excited because he has finally got himself some really good Michigan Gear.  One of my graduated teens and her family got him a jersey (Robinson) and a bib that says, 'on my way to the Big House'.  I am not sure if everyone is aware, but my son will play football for Michigan!  I am already planning ways to mold him like Tiger Wood's daddy did, except football rather than golf.  I'll keep you updated.  We also got some awesome Michigan onesies that he can wear right away.  Go Blue baby boy!

In other news, some teens blew me away with their kindness at our annual lock-in.  There were several parishes there and one girl was really not connecting with anyone (she was from a different Church).  She started crying and insisting that she wanted to go home (lock-ins are REALLY hard to be at if you don't know anyone).  Several teens from my parish embraced her, encouraged her and then hung out with her all night.  I don't know why it moved me so much.  Maybe because we always hear reports about teen bullying, teens being unkind to each other, etc...my teens didn't even know this girl and changed her whole night by kindness.  It reminds me of something another one of my teens said last night, 'maybe during Lent, we can commit to just loving each other a bit more'.  Pretty impressive right?

I have tried to be less than psychotic to my husband the past week or so...to remember that he is a wonderful man/blessing to me.  Sometimes it is difficult because when you physically feel pretty miserable and emotionally feel like a seesaw, sometimes the people closest get it from you the worst.  Poor husband, hopefully post-baby, when I go down to part time and feel less sick all the time, I will return to the sweet, loving girl he married:)  Seven more weeks dear! :)

I am excited about Lent.  I know that a lot of people dread it, but that doesn't even make sense to me.  I always grow closer to God during this season.  Yes, giving up celebrity gossip will be a challenge (oh, how will I survive without constant updates of strangers I have never met), but I am excited to bring back the Liturgy of the Hours in my life.  It has been a long time and praying with them yesterday brought my soul much comfort.  It's good.  PLUS- I will be able to celebrate the Easter Season when it gets here  (it coincides with baby boy's birthday)...and bring back good ol' bud light and coffee!!!!  SO excited. 

Anyway, those were just some things for the day because I realized I had not updated in quite sometime. 

Happy Thursday, Almost Friday, Almost Saturday which is FINALLY PAJAMA DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blessings...

My back hurts!  I can barely sleep!  My stomach is VERY large and I still have 2 more months to go.  I woke up this morning with a stuffed nose AND a scratchy throat AND feeling achy all over.  I get home at the end of the day and I am generally so tired that my husband does most of the housework at this point.  Work is gonna keep me psychotically busy in the next month and a half- with a 150 + person lock-in and a WYD retreat hosted at my Parish for the Archdiocese of Detroit...life can seem a bit dreary as I finish up the third trimester, OR- I can focus on my blessings.


1.  I have a husband that makes me laugh...ALWAYS!  Sometimes, when I am mad at him, I actually have to put a book over my face so he doesn't see that I am really laughing at his antics.

2.  I have a husband that is incredibly patient with me.  A couple weeks ago, he said unkind words about an outfit I was wearing.  My response?  Naturally, to try to walk 3 miles to Church in 7 inches of snow.  So, picture the crazy pregnant woman walking down a major road, in snow, and her husband trailing her in his car asking her to get in.  We laugh about it now, I am thankful I have a husband who is patient enough to trail me and ask me to get into the car:)



3.  My husband and I got to celebrate our first married Valentine's Day.  I even got dressed up...curled hair, make up and all.  I figured he deserved to be spoiled for a night.  It was lovely.

4.  My LOVELY SJN girl's threw us our first shower.  Ashley and Lisa Hursin, 2 incredible girls organized it.  We were overwhelmed with the love shown.  We got so many great things, including almost 20 packages of diapers.  Can you imagine?  We are set for awhile! 

5.  Although we found out that we owe uncle Sam thousands of dollars, we decided to start a family budget (Dave Ramsey style) a couple of months ago.  Because of that, we didn't have to panic.  And we can still buy a mattress for our crib.

6.  After working a long-er day for a Sunday yesterday, I came home to my sweet husband doing the dishes.  Then, I noticed all the shower things that we had gotten were no longer in the family room.  I always get a bit nervous when the husband decides to take organizing on himself.  BUT, when I walked into the nursery, he had organized everything perfectly.  He cleaned out the storage closet, placed the diapers in there, hung up the clothes, and folded everything into their proper baskets.  As if that wasn't cute enough, behind our bathroom door he had hung sweet baby boy's brand new robe/slippers that a teen had gotten for us.  There might be nothing cuter than a 0-9 month robe hanging on the back of your bathroom door.

7.  The snow is a huge pain for lots of people (and I really do feel for them), however, this week is mid-winter break for me, so I get to take a few vacation days.  Although there is lots to do around the house, today I think I am just gonna stay underneath blankets with my teddy bear and bottle of water- nursing my cold away.  I am so blessed to have that luxury.

8.  We went to our birthing class on Saturday.  Complete with practicing of breathing and pushing (not gonna lie, so hard not to laugh at that part).  When the instructor talked about putting the baby on the mother's stomach right after birth, I got all teary eye'd.  I cannot wait to meet my little dude and cannot imagine the feeling of looking down and seeing him on me.  SO excited.

9.  4 of my favorites were in town this weekend.  I got to have a 'book club' meeting with my godson and dad, discussing the 'Hunger Games'.  It was awesome.  So great to see the godson all sorts of grown up.  I totally offended him when I asked him if he knew what propaganda meant.  DUH! 
 

10.  Last but not least, night time cuddles and back rubs that I get almost daily from the best.husband.ever.


I guess the choice is all in what you choose to focus on huh?
Happy Monday!

The grass is always greener on the other side

I have spent a lot of time the past few days reflection on the expression, 'the grass is always greener'.  As a child, I remember very often saying to my parents, 'but that's not fair' and their response always being, 'um, life is not fair, and the sooner you learn that, the better'.  I also distinctly remember having a moment in college when I realized that 'life really isn't fair' but it was because my life seemed showered with blessings, when others were never given the opportunity. 

I think we spend a great deal of our lives complaining about the way things are, wishing that they could somehow be different....'If only I had more money', 'If only I had a nicer house', 'If only I had a better job', 'If only my husband did this', 'If only my friends were like this'...if only, if only, if only...then, I could be completely happy.  But in the past couple days, I have been reflecting on how we are getting it wrong.  We waste so much time thinking, 'if only' that we don't see the blessings in front of us.  I remember one of the most powerful prayer experiences of my life.  I was at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Plymouth, Michigan after communion asking God why he hadn't shown me who my spouse was to be (this was probably 3 years ago).  And very clearly, a movement in my heart spoke and said, 'which one would you give up'.  Quickly, teens that I had worked with in the past flashed through my mind. I thought about how, had I been married with kids, I couldn't have done the ministry I was able to do in my early/mid twenties.  God was asking me which one I would have been willing to 'give up' in order to have been married earlier/had kids earlier.  And I started to cry (shocking) because the answer was, 'none'.  At that moment I realized that God's timing was a bit better than my own.  That his plan, was probably a little more important than what my sometimes shielded eyes could see.  It gave me a tremendous amount of peace to have a confirmation that God was working in my life, He did have a plan, and I was working within that plan.  The grass sure did look greener as a single person looking in on my married friend's lives...but turns out, God knew exactly what he was doing.

Every moment we spend thinking about what we 'should have' been given, questioning the blessings or crosses in our lives...is a moment that we turn away from seeing the beauty of right now.  We miss trusting that we have a God who loves us, who has a plan for our lives, and as long as we are working with His will and avoiding sin (to the best of our ability) we are being taken care of. I think the closer we get to understanding that, the more contentment we will feel in our lives.

God, please help me to accept the blessings you have put in my life, even the ones that I sometimes fail to recognize as blessings.  Give me eyes to see as you see, and a heart to love as you love.  AMEN!

My thoughts about parenting advice

DISCLAIMER- This is really not intended for moms with opinions, we all have opinions.  This is intended for moms that go too far, that are mean spirited and judgmental, that tear others down so they can feel superior about their choices....here goes...

This is me, frustrated, with moms:)

So, this morning I read an article on cloth diapers and it was so refreshing.  It was non-judgmental, lovely and gave both sides (pros and cons) of using cloth vs. disposable (thank you Ann Coakley).  If you know me, you know that as of late, my new favorite rant is crazy moms and crazy articles and crazy posts.  I have been SHOCKED at the amount of judgmental moms since finding out I was pregnant.  I always knew they were out there and it used to bother me, but since becoming pregnant, it has more than bothered me.  The other day, at retreat with teens (how appropriate) I started going off about it.  My husband kept asking me if he should go get a soap box for me to stand on.  This morning, I shall use my blog for my soapbox.  If you hate rants, such as this, I wouldn't read this post...

So lets talk about breast feeding, cloth diapers, drugs during labor, circumcision, co-sleeping and all that good stuff...(this will be laced with sarcasm, but remember, it is because I have been 'soap boxing it' for the past month or so)---

Breast Feeding:
Here is the thing, I am going to attempt to do it.  If it works out...GREAT!  I know for sure I will only be able to breast feed for six weeks, but during those six weeks, I will give it a shot.  I am excited to bond with my child in this way and I think it will be awesome to use my body to nourish my child.  So awesome that it is hard to comprehend.  BUT...guess what...if it doesn't work out, if it is too painful, the baby won't latch, etc...etc...I will stop and use formula.  AND, my child will not suffer because of it.  PRACTICALITY does not back up your statistics, crazy-breast-feeding-moms.  I have known plenty of children who are formula fed and they don't get sick every other week, they are not mentally slow, and they are happy babies.  SO...stop trying to make woman feel less than adequate because you have decided to breast feed your child until they are seventeen years old. OH, and if you are breast feeding, cover yourself, its called decency.  It isn't some conspiracy against you.  It is beautiful! You, and your husband should think it is beautiful, but MY husband has a right to feel uncomfortable about your breast hanging out. 


Cloth Diapers
I think you are a super mom if you do it!  One day, in the future, with future children, I might consider it.  BUT, for now, with everything happening for the first time, I am gonna give myself a break and use disposable.  And I am happy with that decision and wish you would stop trying to convince me otherwise in a mean/judgmental way and instead, be like the author of the nice article, trying to show both the positives and negatives.


Drugs during labor
I can't wait:)  I know all of the things that can happen.  I have heard all the horror stories.  I have talked to woman that have had babies without drugs and it seems to be the most enjoyable experience.  I have also talked to woman who have done it both ways and wouldn't even consider labor without drugs.  Regardless, I am not afraid of the 'man' making me take drugs as some conspiracy to strip me of my God-given right to feel labor pains.  If I end up doing it without drugs, awesome!  If I end up so hopped up I can barely recognize my child until two days later...AWESOME!  It's all good my friends.  AND, for those of you that somehow make this a theological argument (based on your OWN thoughts) deciding that labor pains are the price I must pay due to original sin...well, let me just say, you make Jesus sad.

Circumsision
This is where I REALLY got upset.  I am still so upset about this.  To say, write, post, affirm anything that would equate circumcision to mutilation is disgusting. As, I am sure all the nut jobs know, most men have been circumcised  and I know very few that are still feeling the effects of post-traumatic stress syndrome.  If I choose not to circumsize  my child (which would like, NEVER happen)- more power to me.  Lots of people have lots of reasons  to do things.  BUT, the minute you are so insulting as to refer to circumcision as mutilation...you have crossed a line and should really pray about your motivation for saying such things.  It is awful, just awful to use language like that.  And you should be ashamed of yourself.

Co-sleeping
This one is quite laughable, so I will just say this.  If you want your kid in bed with you until they are 42, more power to you.  I am sure we will co-sleep, or at least have a bassinet in our room while our baby breast feeds simply because it will be more convenient for us.   But shortly after that, he will learn to sleep in his crib.  And as we put him down, there are sure to be nights when he will cry, because he would rather be in bed with us...and we are going to let him cry it out.  And learn that there are times to go to sleep and times to be awake.  And, we are fairly certain he won't be permanently damaged because of crying it out...after all, most of us did just that, and I don't have an regressed memories of the experience.


WHEW- there is more, but for now, I feel better. Thanks blog!