I can’t wait to hold him in my arms

To love on him

And to teach him about life.

8 more weeks to go and we finally get to meet our special little guy!!!!!!

I can’t believe that I am only 10 weeks away from meeting my precious little man.  Right now I am feeling quite plump.  I feel like my belly is growing bigger by the day and it is harder for me to reach down to put my shoes on.  I also need to buy some bigger maternity shirts because many of my shirts are definitely beginning to look like midriffs.

I am looking forward to finally finishing my sub plans and getting the nursery ready.  

As these next couple of months quickly fly by, I keep wondering what he will look like.  Will he have my eyes? Will he have dark hair like me or blonde like his daddy?  Who will he look more alike?  Soon we will finally see and I can’t wait!

(picture taken by alealovely.com)

(Source: alealovely.com )

I’m sitting here at his grandparents’s house enjoying time with family. We are not here to celebrate any birthdays or holidays like we usually do; we are all here because it’s time to say our goodbyes to our beloved grandma. Many are looking at photo albums of the wonderful memories that his grandparents have built over the years: their wedding day to pictures of their family growing into the big family it is today. As I look at these albums and learn more about their lives, I am amazed to see what a legacy both of them will be leaving here. I am inspired.

When it’s my time to leave this earth I want to have lived a life that has impacted as many people as they have. I want to be surrounded by my family with the love that his grandma is surrounded by now. I want to leave a legacy that makes this world a better place.

Tonight I am witnessing a beautiful picture of love before my eyes and it makes me thankful that I married into such a wonderful family and have gotten the chance to know two amazing grandparents.

Excited for what 2013 has in store for us and the adventure we are about to embark on as first-time parents in April! 

Happy New Year to you all!

Before I started to think about starting a family of my own I had always thought when I gave birth I want all the drugs they can give me so I don’t have to feel that horrible pain! You know that awful, excruciating pain that’s always shown in the movies and TV.  The picture of a woman lying on her back with her legs spread eagle in the stir-ups screaming and swearing at her husband.  Yea, who wouldn’t want all the drugs in the world to knock out whatever pain that woman is feeling in labor!  

When I found out I was pregnant, I started to look at all my options and not just assume the only way I could enjoy birth is by being shot with drugs to numb me from the pain.  I was fortunate because one of my best friends gave birth naturally and told me of her wonderful experience giving birth to her little girl.  Her story helped me to believe that I, too, can give birth naturally and not have to depend on the drugs.  Thanks to her I really started reading about midwives and doulas.  I didn’t have a lot of background knowledge on the difference between the two and like some of my family members when most people hear the word “midwife” they assume they just do home births.  

What are midwifes?  Why did I choose a midwife?  

A midwife specializes more in natural births.  

I chose to go with a midwife instead of an obstetrician because I knew that my midwife would help me to accomplish the goal of giving birth to my son naturally without any interventions unless absolutely necessary for the health of my baby and myself.  Also, I know that when I am in the hospital in the midst of my contractions, I will not be pressured to use drugs to hurry up the birth but I will be encouraged to go through labor naturally.  

What is a doula?  Why did I choose a doula?

A doula acts as a support person in the hospital room besides the husband and doctor.  They are trained to provide education and support to the women and their families before, during and after birth.

Since I only wanted it just to be my husband and I in the hospital room as I gave birth, I wanted to choose a doula to not only help and encourage me during the most painful moments of labor but to help my husband too.  My doula will act as our advocate to make sure we follow through with the birth plan we wanted.  It also gives both my husband and I peace that I have two health care professionals that specialize in natural birth, which gives me more peace and confidence that I can do this with lower risks of complications.

So after we chose our midwife and our doula, I started reading “Mind Over Labor” by Carl Jones.  After reading the first couple of chapters, my fears of childbirth and the pain of it started to melt away.  Jones spoke very differently about labor.  There were no pictures of a woman screaming and swearing at her husband.  Instead he talked about choosing the labor you want.  He says:

Labor can be a nightmare of agony and confusion.  Or it can be a fulfilling experience - potentially one of the most fulfilling life has to offer. 

The choice is yours.

What I learned is that you can choose what type of labor you want completely based on the attitude and beliefs you have about childbirth.  It is all about your mind.  Your mind and thoughts can influence so much.  By having a positive attitude and beliefs about labor, you can experience a positive labor.  Jones says:

…thoughts and emotions influence the experience of birth as surely does the mother’s health.

He talks about how fear can actually increase a woman’s pain and their length of birth!  As I am reading more, it makes complete sense.  When I fear something I tense up.  If I have that fear during birth and tense up, well of course this would increase my pain and make childbirth longer.  There are so many amazing quotes from this book and I would recommend this book to anyone who is even considering natural birth.  

I will leave you with this.  

Your beliefs about yourself, your body, your baby, your life, your power, will influence  your birth.  If you see your body as a well-functioning trusted partner in birth, your experience will be different than that of someone who is confused, self-conscious, and insecure about her body. Your mind will influence your body…

I choose to trust my body and believe that this is what my body was meant to do.  I choose to let go of the fears our society has ingrained in my head and believe that childbirth can be an amazing and fulfilling experience.

I can’t believe I am 23 weeks along and starting my sixth month of pregnancy!  It’s been such an amazing and surreal experience for me.  Within the past two weeks or so we have able to feel our little guy kick and move inside my belly and what an incredible experience it was to see my husband’s first reaction to his son’s little kick for the first time.  I loved it!

It has been crazy to see how much my body has changed and how it continues to change now week to week.  I remember in the beginning of my pregnancy wanting to show already.  I felt like I was in this in-between stage where my pants were a little tighter and I looked more like I was getting chubby than pregnant for the longest time! I was so happy that at 19 weeks I finally started to show a little baby bump and people were finally starting to notice.  

Not only has my body changed but what I think about on a daily basis is definitely changing.  Our conversations are slowly evolving to imagining what our lives will be like when our little guy is here.  We talk about what type of parents we want to be, how we plan and hope to raise him and the values we want to instill in our young boy.  Little things that use to bother me before now don’t really matter because I now have a bigger role that I will be taking on in just a few months.

As my pregnancy gets closer to the end I want to cherish every moment.  I will enjoy every moment that I can spend alone with my amazing husband.  I will enjoy the lazy weekends we can have where we stay in our pjs all day long lounging on the couch.  I will enjoy the times we sleep in late with no one there to wake us up early.  I will enjoy how we can do what we want when we want without worrying about a babysitter.  Lastly, I will enjoy these moments where I can spend alone in my house in silence or with my favorite tunes playing in the background while I reflect, dream and have the time to write about what is on my heart.  

I’ve been reading some new books these days.  Here’s a quote from one of them that I really enjoyed and wanted to share with you.  I will definitely remember this once our little guy is born this Spring.

“Babies are great levelers. Like a drill sergeant who tears down his weak new recruits so he can rebuild them into soldiers, babies break us down and rebuild us into parents. They flatten everything in sight, and then make us better, stronger, and hopefully, wiser than we were before. ” - Babyproofing your Marriage