Tag: pregnancy

Elizabeth

Overdue Week

Keeping House, Kids

Going overdue with my recent pregnancy gave me time to…keep up the family tradition! My mom, sister, and I are now ten for ten on overdue babies. Cheers to consistency!

During the 39th week of pregnancy, I was so optimistic that “the baby could come any minute now!” When I got to the week before the due date, however, realism set in and I resigned myself to going overdue again. Surprisingly, this mental shift actually gave me more energy and will to do other things besides wait for labor. I opened up my Nesting List…

Elizabeth

Birth Story, #3

Kids

Pregnancy is over! My baby is here! I got more than five hours of sleep last night! Hurray! Here’s a picture of my now two week old precious darling baby girl, Cecily Germaine: At risk of oversharing, here is the birth story. If you’re not into body function details, maybe skip it. If you love birth stories, have a listen. Background: With Miryam, I was induced one week overdue. Luke came on his own two days overdue. I had the epidural with both of them. I almost didn’t get the epidural with Luke, because I felt I was managing

Elizabeth

The Post about Miscarriage

Self-Care

(Not to worry anyone…current pregnancy is still healthy!)

Last week, while talking with a friend, the weird taboo around miscarriage came up. People just don’t talk about it, even though it’s so common. I was once in a room with ten women when the subject came up. Nine of us were still in the midst of toddlers/babies/more pregnancies. Someone asked, “How many of us have had at least one miscarriage?” Eight of us raised our hands. What?!

My first miscarriage was quite recent when the show of hands happened. I was shocked by our percentage…

Elizabeth

Texas. Summer. Third Trimester.

Kids

Nuff said.

I hesitated to even write this post, because its content is in direct conflict with the title of the blog. Other than kicks reminding me my little babe is alive and quite well, there is almost nothing felicitous about the third trimester, especially if it’s above 65 degrees in my immediate vicinity. So, as of Tuesday night:

Right now, I’ve been “too hot” for hours. If I turn the thermostat down any further, I’ll probably freeze my children out of their beds. By the way, Miryam still isn’t asleep yet at a quarter past nine. She went to bed…

Elizabeth

Frozen is the New Dumbo

Kids

…for me. In the tears department.

Let me begin with an illustration. Justin is putting a new door handle on the front door, the kids are running in circles “trying to catch Elsa,” and I’m on the couch trying to read Jane Eyre but being distracted by the movie on screen. Half an hour earlier, I tried to sing “Let it Go” along with Elsa and Miryam, but tears were rising to my eyes and I couldn’t get the lyrics out. And now, I have a lump in my throat again watching the reprise of “First Time in Forever;” it’s over…

Elizabeth

What’s a Homemaker?

Self-Care

When I was pregnant with my first baby, my husband set up a prenatal massage for me as a birthday gift. In the lobby before the massage, I was asked to fill out a questionnaire about my pains and stresses, so that my massage therapist could best help me relax. On the line for “occupation,” I wrote, “homemaker.”

A gal probably a little younger than I went over the sheet of paper with me when I finished. She double checked my answers related to the prenatal nature of my massage, for safety, and then she asked, “What’s a homemaker?”