Monday, April 20, 2015

A Life I Never Expected

We had some beautiful weather at the beginning of last week, so my little family spent a lot of afternoons and early evenings, outside in our backyard.  I believe it was Tuesday, Stephen was home from work and we had just finished supper and decided to head out back so Patrick could play.  I was sitting in the hammock, enjoying the pokes and jabs from baby girl.  Greta was prancing through the yard like a deer.  Stephen was hitting birdie balls, and Patrick was pretending to drive to Granny's in his little toy truck.  It hit me ... I am the luckiest, most blessed, richest woman in the world! It was complete perfection and tears came to my eyes as I just sat there, basking in the beautiful life God has given me.

Later that evening, I was journaling about the evening and how thankful I was.  Then I started remembering my life prior to kids, prior to marriage....I had always planned on being some sort of career woman, I would maybe marry (once my career was set) but not have children.  Or, if I did have children, they would be adopted (and not for the right reasons...for selfish ones that I won't go into now).  I started remembering the pain, anxiety, and disappointment of my college years as I realized I wasn't going to graduate and have a career.  I had NO IDEA what I wanted to do with my life and I was really upset about it.  I had planned on having some kind of career, preferably one that made lots of money and allowed me to travel the world and have expensive things. I giggle at myself when I think back on these memories now.  How immature and naive...

I'm a wife and stay at home mom now and I LOVE it!  It was not the life I had planned for myself when I was younger nor was it a life I ever thought I would have and enjoy.  When I graduated college with a degree but no career options I was a little sad but had come to terms with the fact that my priorities had changed.  I wanted to get married and maybe even have children some day.  And now I thank God that I had no career because it would have been hard to give that up to stay home with children.  The funny thing is, I spent so much time in college stressing over not knowing what to do with my life and being so upset that I wouldn't have a career.  Now I thank God for that and the life He had planned for me.  It's so much richer than I could have ever dreamed! And being a wife and stay at home mommy has made me feel more useful and happy than any career I thought I wanted.

A life I never expected has become my perfect life, the one I was meant to have and now embrace and am so thankful for! Don't get me wrong, some days are hard and frustrating but the "career" I have now is just what I wanted (I didn't know it before) and more importantly, it's what I needed. Even on the rough days, I thank God for giving me what I needed and what He had planned and not what I had asked for.

Friday, April 3, 2015

Update

Well, I'm not exactly sure what happened that kept me from blogging for almost 6 months.....oh wait...yes I do.  We are expecting baby #2 in July!!!  So, this post is mainly just a pregnancy update for my own records.

Much like my first pregnancy, the first 18 weeks were ROUGH! In fact, I was even more sick this time around and since I have a toddler to care for, I was even more exhausted.  Luckily, my mom was a HUGE help and came over and watched Patrick for me a lot so I could rest.  I have also had 3 colds, which is unusual for me.  I usually get one cold or sinus infection a year.  Since I was pregnant and not able to take a lot of medication and unwilling to take some that is considered safe I was miserable and it took much longer to get over a little cold than it normally would.  Luckily, winter is over and hopefully all the sickness with it.  My "morning sickness" (which for me is all day sickness) has left and I'm feeling good! This is the part of pregnancy I really enjoy...my belly is growing and although I'm still exhausted most days, I feel good and I'm able to do my normal activities (care for Patrick, laundry, go to the grocery, etc).  Stephen was also a HUGE help and really stepped up to taking care of Patrick during the evenings and weekends which I know wasn't easy since his job is tiring and he also had to entertain and exercise Greta.  I am one blessed lady, that's for sure!

I wish I had been better at documenting this pregnancy like I did with Patrick in my journal but I was just too sick and tired.  Also, said journal is missing currently and I can't believe how much I have already forgotten as far as the details are concerned.  But at least I have this post for an overview. Most days I could hardly make it until Stephen got home from work at 5:30 or 6:00 PM before waving my white flag and retiring to the bed.  I've not taken weekly pictures this time around either, but I have taken some so I will share those below.




I'm currently 25 weeks (due July 15th) and although I feel much bigger than the last time, or at least I started showing much earlier I haven't actually gained any weight.  I was so sick from weeks 5-18 that I lost 12 pounds and I've gained 10 of it back. So, I'm not sure if you would count that as gaining 10 pounds or not? Also, when I lost those 10 pounds I was back down to my pre-pregnancy weight (from having Patrick)...sad but true.  I just never could get the last 10 pounds off and to stay off!  I've also been trying to go regularly to my chiropractor in hopes of avoiding the hip issues I had last time.  So far it's helping and my hips haven't been hurting as much.

Baby #2 is a girl and we are so excited! I was honestly a little terrified to have a girl (my mind keeps flashing to the future teenage years) but I've just been focusing on all the fun things: ribbons, bows, PINK, ruffles, tea parties, etc.  I'll just deal with the attitude and melt downs as they come, and hope that it doesn't come or at least not for years! HAHA.

I'm going to try to do better about updating through the rest of my pregnancy and after baby girl is here, but no promises.  In case you want to check out any of my old post from my previous blog, here is the link Because Forgetting is Easy.