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| Baby has arrived. It took me a little while to post anything about it. Umbriel Xia Buist was born a little over a week ago on Friday October 16th at 4:43PM. She weighed 6 pounds and 14 and 3/4 ounces. We can't decide whether she looks more like me or Eric.
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| I haven't written a post in quite a while. Life has been incredibly busy and it's been hard to keep up with my blog buddies. We had a second baby shower a little over a week ago for family and it went really well. We now have basically everything we will need (as far as I can tell). I need to purchase some more bras at some point, which is making me cringe every time I think about it because I hate spending money and I am pretty sure I've technically outgrown the bras I've been wearing for the past however many months which is a terrifying thought. Everyone keeps saying "you'll grow more" and it a bit scary to think about because that's an area where I don't need any extra padding. I like to imagine them shrinking when my milk comes in, but I know that's not the kind of world we live in.
I have been sewing quite a bit lately. I made some all-in-one cloth diapers which turned out super cute and ordered a starter kit of gdiapers which we will probably use at church and wherever else we take Baby when we're out and about. They are really cute too and I'm excited to see how effective they are.
Last night we had a bonfire with the youth group at the home of a couple from church who are expecting a baby at around the same time as us. The wife was on bed rest for a short time (I mentioned bringing dinner to them in a past post) but is off now and back at work. We had a lot of fun at that but were exhausted on arriving back home that night. We'd been out all day... Church in the morning, a quick lunch at BK, then off to a methodist conference in Mackinac, dinner at big boy, a run to the grocery store for s'mores stuff and then off to youth group.
Tonight I'm going to my first MOPS meeting with a friend from my church who has a one year old. I'm excited to get to meet other moms of young kids and just do a "girls night" kind of activity this way.
Tomorrow I have a midwife appointment--the first since I've started majorly controlling my sugar and carb intake, so hopefully I will test better in that area. I'm a little nervous.
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| We are getting closer all the time and I am being continually reminded of just how soon this baby is due to arrive. Monday night baby dropped, just in time for our midwife appointment yesterday. I had heard mixed reviews about how it feels after Baby drops but most people said it was more uncomfortable. I've found that aside from peeing a lot more it's more comfortable now. I can breathe better, haven't been struggling with heartburn, and I even like the way Baby is resting on my lap now when I sit instead of sort of hovering just above it.
Chantel (our midwife) came to our house for the appointment this time (yesterday) and checked to make sure we had everything necessary for the birth. She went over some vital childbirth information and she got to meet my mom, who is going to be present for the birth. She thinks Baby is going to be a nice big one--her guess was he/she is about 6 1/2 pounds already and she's predicting an 8 or 9 pounder. I've been eating too much starchy stuff and not enough protein and veggies, so I'm working extra hard to incorporate those elements into my diet. My mom helped us make some hummus last night which we've almost finished eating already and we had a tasty stir-fry last night with enough leftovers for lunch today. I am hoping to make more meals ahead of time so that it's a little less crazy to try to eat healthy stuff.
This morning I went to the ladies quilting group at church and got some good progress done on my baby quilt. I got home from that and stuck some meat in the crock pot so that tonight we were able to bring dinner to a family we're trying to get to know at church. The mom is pregnant with baby #2 and was just put on bed rest. The have a 3 year old who's not able to understand what's happening very well because he's so little. I'm hoping to go over and hang out with her next week. We felt bad that we had to drop off the food and dash home to eat our own dinner, but Eric had a work meeting tonight and so it was sort of a crazy day.
This weekend is baby shower #2--a family shower downstate. My mom said last night that it was a good thing this wasn't scheduled any later because this is about as late in a pregnancy as I should be traveling. Just after she left I had 2.5 hours of practice labor, which left me very much agreeing with her statements. Hopefully I'll be feeling ok the whole time I'm down there. I'm a little nervous about the car ride and all the potty breaks I'll be needing.
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| I've discovered a great book (It was given to me by a woman from our last church) which is really encouraging and fun to read. I've posted it in my "currently reading section with this post. The author is a midwife (co-author is her husband) and she teaches childbirth classes on the side. The book is actually a manual for these classes but is a really great read as it focuses on a different aspect of pregnancy. Her whole point through the book is to teach woman (and dads as well) about birth, pregnancy, and parenting from their own perspective, rather than a very technical "the cervix dilates this much, the bones shift this way" sort of approach which is more commonly used in birth-related texts. She tries to show pregnant women, and their partners, how to enjoy the pregnancy and birth process and uses art to celebrate that time. Eric and I both love to draw, paint, write, and do other forms of artwork, so it's been fun to read a book with so many cool ideas for making art projects together--both with the daddy-to-be and with other women. She suggests everything from composing songs, creating special dances, quilting, making little books, and on and on. It's been just the encouragement I've needed and I feel a lot less anxious reading through the different ideas. The book's been a great tool to help me sort through the various emotions I've been feeling lately. The author talks about how fear and doubt are natural processes during pregnancy--especially a first pregnancy and she suggests the making of artwork as a way to sort those feelings out and process them more fully. She says these are healthy and normal responses to the changes that come with pregnancy and not something to be ashamed about. I really like that. Eric and I are planning to have an art night soon, just the two of us--which is something we did as a little date once when we were dating. We were talking about doing that again soon anyway just so we'd have some artwork to hang in our apartment. I suggested doing artwork related to this baby and our thoughts about the pregnancy or birth and he loved the idea, so I think that'll be a lot of fun. We can hang the pieces in Baby's room when they're finished.
Eric's family was up this weekend, camping just outside of town. We hung out with them every day and kept pretty busy that whole time, so by yesterday (which was the day they left--we didn't actually see them that day) we were wiped out. We slept in until 11 and then got dressed and walked down town for the mini-bridgewalk here in town where about 700 or so people walked across the little bridge over the river. There was a free lunch in the park afterwards and then we headed home and I took a nap. I couldn't believe how tuckered out I was. Eric was pretty tired too, but we took it pretty easy the rest of the day and today we're feeling like our same old selves.
Eric went for a bike ride last night and came back with a fist-full of wildflowers. It was the first time he's ever given me wildflowers and he was so excited to have picked the flowers himself. He was amazed at the beauty he was able to see on the bike trail a couple blocks back from our house (he hadn't been for a ride there yet). He said "there's apples and flowers everywhere. I saw old barns and a little stream. It was so pretty! I like living in Cheboygan." It's fun to have him see the things I've raved about for years about living up north.
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| I've definitely reached the emo part of pregnancy. Up until recently I'd had a very level emotional head, but now I feel unpredictable and seem to cry at the drop of a hat. The nice thing is that we've been keeping pretty busy lately, so that makes a big difference. The other night we had a young couple (who are due with their 2nd baby a couple weeks after me) and their 3-year-old over for dinner. It was fun to connect with them a little and good to get a little glimpse into our future by watching them with their toddler.
I've been struggling a lot with gaining weight lately. I remember talking to my older sisters not too long ago when they were pregnant and hearing them discuss the emotional struggle that goes along with gaining weight during pregnancy. At that time it seemed so silly to me that they would feel self-conscious or nervous let alone upset about gaining weight because they looked outstanding to me, but it makes a lot more sense to me now. I think part of the struggle comes just from having people point out things about my body all the time. I've realized that no one ever commented on my belly button before I was pregnant (except with I was a baby or little kid I guess) and I've definitely never had anyone describe just how much bigger I seemed than the last time they saw me until now. These little gestures which are meant to be thoughtful and sweet-natured sometimes leave me feeling scared. I fear that I'm gaining too quickly, or too much altogether. I worry that I'm turning generally chubby instead of just looking pregnant (It's amazing how much of my body I CAN'T see now) and I worry especially that all this weight I'm gaining now will never leave me and I'll be left to wallow in my baby weight for years to come. I was telling Eric the other day that the fear about my weight that I've been experiencing lately reminds me a little of some of the thoughts I had before the pregnancy about what in the world would happen to me when I was pregnant. At that time I had a lot of fears that I would get really big really fast and freak Eric out. And the idea of my husband not being attracted to me anymore really scared me at times. That same fear comes over me sometimes now about after Baby's born. I know it's silly and Eric has been super reassuring when I've shared these fears but it's hard to shake fearful thoughts sometimes. All of this hits me once in a while and I've been having little outbursts here and there over it all.
Like I said being busy helps though. We're trying to work hard at getting to know people, especially other young adults and young parents. I've been attending the quilting group at my church when I can and have been piecing together a quilt for Baby. We're also trying to get the baby room in order little by little and collecting the last few items needed for the birth, which are very few now.
I've always struggled with making friends and the effort that goes into that objective. Combined with moving and having to be suddenly so far from friends, it's been even tougher. But I'm getting to know people bit by bit and so is Eric. I just feel like it's hard to know what will happen after Baby's arrival as far as friendships go. I could imagine it strengthening whatever bonds we have but I can also imagine it scaring people away--at least for a while. My hope is that if we get to know people now as much as possible that we'll have a good support system when this little one arrives.
I've been realizing some silly little things about being the wife of a youth pastor too. Like, sometimes people want to talk to Eric but he's busy so they tell me important messages to pass on to him or stressful things happening with committees or other little tidbits, which I must then remember and notify Eric of. It leaves me sometimes thinking that I wish I had a voice recorder I carried with me or a small notebook for jotting down important bits of information. It's hard not to find myself feeling overwhelmed sometimes when things like that happen.
We're at a point now where a lot of the things being planned at church will be happening very close to my due date which is pretty strange too. Last night we attended a meeting about an event taking place only 6 days before my due date. I thought about volunteering to help make soup, but just as I was about to raise my hand realized that making soup will probably be the last thing on my mind at that time. I laughed a little out loud and then kept my had down. And then I didn't volunteer for anything the whole rest of the meeting. It felt odd--like I was being really selfish or something, but I know I have to think realistically.
On another note, things are going really well up here. Youth group has been really exciting and we've had a lot of kids coming to most of the events, so that's been encouraging.
We went on our first boat ride along the river last week too and really enjoyed that a lot. A couple from church picked us up downtown and took us all the way to their house on the south east end of town on their pontoon. They took a photo of the two of us and enlarged it and framed it for us.
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