Tag / pregnancy

by Bethe

Look at us, we started the nursery!

Folks, we have a nursery! After a few months of putting it off, then brainstorming, then putting it off some more, we finally cleaned out Mr. Right’s office/guest room (what a great guy), taped everything off, and got the thing painted, all in 24 hours.

A special thanks to my awesome sister who came over and painted the nursery for us! Talk about a servant’s heart. She knew that my doctor said no painting for me, and Mr. Right is crazy swamped with finals (oh, how we’re all counting down the minutes until grad school is OVER), so she just decided to do it for us. It was such a blessing.

You should have seen Mr. Right and I prepping the night before she came to get the room ready. I was in my work dress (because dresses are so much more comfortable than anything else right now), on my hands and knees taping off the baseboards while Mr. Right was on a ladder caulking holes and removing blinds. I’m not very graceful under typical circumstances, but I’m like a clumsy beast at this point, so I’m sure the neighbors got an eye full through our blind-less windows at 9:30 at night. And I’m just pregnant enough to not really care.

nursery 1

The next morning Mr. Right assembled our crib, and suddenly the room felt like a nursery. He has since moved in other furniture (an armoire for storage and a dresser that we’ll use as a changing table – pics to come), and slowly but surely we’re moving closer to being baby-ready.

nursery 2

The nursery will be mostly neutrals – grays and whites – with pops of color in our accents. This fabric, which is part of the quilt I’m making for her, is the inspiration for those pops of color – lot’s of tangerine-oranges, turquoises, and a few other random colors here and there.

nursery 3

And here’s the rest of the fabric for her quilt. We’ll be using the leftovers for pillows, possibly a bedskirt, etc. You know, whatever I get inspired to sew. Don’t be surprised if you don’t find some leftovers in my Etsy shop in the form of baby quilts or pillows.

map

And, finally, we’re thinking about using this picture for above the crib. Mr. Right and I have a real love for internationals (especially our ESL students!), and we also love to travel, so we think this is the perfect picture to go above our tiny sleeping baby. Plus, it reminds me of a quilt.

Stay tuned for more pictures as we make progress on the nursery. I’m 29 weeks along, so not too much longer until she’s here with us napping in this very room!

by Bethe

Bump Diaries: Maternity pants, where have you been all my life?

Being pregnant is kind of like becoming a living science experiment on display for everybody else to enjoy. The other day a 60-year-old woman, who is typically pretty conservative, told me, “Oh my goodness, your boobies are HUGE!”

Yes ma’am, I agree – they’re one step away from getting their own zip code.

(10 Weeks)

And I get it. I’m in on the joke. It is really strange to watch your body expand and change shape by the day. Or the hour, depending on if I had Mexican food for lunch. I’m kind of intrigued about just how big I’m going to get. And how I’m going to keep from toppling over.

(13 Weeks)

But there are still those weird expectations I place on myself. I’m sure I’m not the only one. Like, most of what I read said a first-time mom won’t show until around 16 weeks. And so, for some reason, that number has been in my head as the ideal time to start a bump. Unfortunately, my body decided to start growing a bump around 10 weeks. So I got six weeks of “Wow, you’re showing EARLY!”

And now I’ve magically hit the 16 week mark and I feel like I can finally be proud of this round belly of mine.

(14 Weeks)

We girls and our arbitrary rules. For this reason, I’ve avoided buying maternity pants, instead surviving off a belly band (man, those things are wonderful), and each week my pants zip a little less.

Last week Mr. Right brought me home some maternity capri pants that are work appropriate, and I decided to give them a try on a warm January day. IT WAS LIFE CHANGING. Like, the greatest thing ever. So great, in fact, that I wore those capri pants when it turned bone-chillingly cold. It didn’t matter – you couldn’t rip those maternity capris off my cold, dead body.

(15 Weeks)

And so this weekend I finally broke down and went to the pregnant lady store (which is SO unfashionable – but that’s another post), and bought two pairs of maternity skinny jeans and one pair of dress pants. And I am in heaven. I haven’t been this comfortable in 10 years.

(16 Weeks)

I have a waistband that rises all the way to my arm pits, and I’m okay with it.

 

 

by Bethe

Be joyful in hope

About a week ago, during one of my many hormone-induced tearful meltdowns, Mr. Right kept asking me what was wrong, what I was upset about, and I couldn’t even verbalize it.

In our house, we call that fracturing from reality.

Does that mean I’ve officially punched my ticket to the crazy train? When you’re sobbing and you can’t even explain why you’re upset? How do you give words to that crazy cocktail of fear and nausea and exhaustion and frustration with not feeling like yourself for ten weeks in a row. And I think there may have been a discussion about childcare in there somewhere (which I can’t think about right now – it’s too hard).

And then, as Mr. Right did his best to talk me off of my cliff and bring me back to reality, he did that thing that drives me crazy in the moment (pitfalls of marrying a minister) but really gets me thinking later. My husband is incredibly wise.

He asked me to tell him one thing God has been teaching me through all this.

Which is totally the right question – how has He redeemed the past ten weeks of nausea and complications and sitting on my couch watching 13 seasons of Law & Order SVU while sipping on red Gatorade?

What made it worse was that I had no good answer. I don’t know. I can’t see it yet. After being so sick as a newlywed, I was able to look back and see so many things God taught me. But right now? Right now I just can’t see past right now.

It may take awhile to be able to answer that question. But in the meantime, I will choose to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.  And Baby Right, as tough as this is, you’re worth it.

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