ZOOM.
3 months have gone by already?
Sorry about that...
A lot has gone on in the Fragoso household in 3 months, I can tell you that. Oliver is growing, learning, crawling (sort of), and getting cuter by the minute. The more his personality matures and shows, the more I love him. In a nutshell, he is a high-energy kid who is as happy as can be. He loves a crowd and won't sleep if he thinks there is anything he could possibly miss. (Joaquim and I have mastered his sleep techniques for now, but he tends to change his game frequently, so I'm not holding my breath.) He has two teeth that he shows off with lots of smiles and laughs, and it's anybody's guess as to when he will get more teeth!
Joaquim and I are pretty busy with Mr. Oliver, especially now as he army-crawls after cords in the corners, remote controls, and any shoe or sandal he can spot. But in addition, we managed to take a trip to Memphis in March, and we get out every once in a while on our own. :) We are trying to phase in some more activities, like small group and choir, and more intentional time with family and friends.
You know, I am finding that since Oliver was born, we have been taking small steps in adjusting to our new life as a bigger family. For instance, right after he was born, it was an accomplishment for me to be able to do my makeup. I remember wondering if I would ever be able to have a morning routine ever again where I could shower and get ready and have my coffee the way I always had. Little did I know the answer was yes...though my routine starts at 5:30am. It's not so bad now that the sun rises with me! Those winter months are painful, though. I now get to read my Bible every morning, dry my hair, I'm back to wearing (most of) my "normal", pre-Oliver, clothes. We find time to keep the house (fairly) clean, I cook, even bake sometimes, we grab time to exercise, I write in my journal more often, and we enjoy fueling our netflix watch instantly addictions.
This summer I am looking forward to a summer where I feel good, not swollen-footed and whaleish. Oh yes, we will go to the zoo, to the pool (often!), to Millennium Park and other cheap attractions downtown, walk for ice cream in downtown AH, you name it, we'll do it, and it will be grand.
As things fall into place and as I slowly add them to our routines, I continually see what is missing and what I need to improve at. Maybe I'll get those figured out in a few months and then there will be more. The point is, it's so fun to grow as a family and it really grows you as a person. Maybe eventually our housing will grow...we need more than one bedroom!
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Time FLIES...and is better managed when you're a mom!
Joaquim's alarm goes off at 5:15am every morning. He's out of bed by 5:30 and I sluggishly follow him by 5:45. Then I hop in the shower as he makes coffee and enjoy some quiet time after he leaves for work, then hit the books myself. If you told me last year that our routine would look like that, I probably would have cried! But now I see the benefit of using every minute to the fullest.
When Oliver is awake he is the object of my full attention! He is a smiley smiley smiley boy, even when he is getting tired and reaching his limit. I can still make him smile and giggle even then, though it may be quickly followed by a "heeeeey pick me up" face and impatient whimper. When he wakes up in the morning or after a nap and starts fussing in his crib, I go into his room and cheerfully say "hey snuggle bug!" in my mommy sing songy voice that I am recently perfecting. Even as he rubs his eyes and struggles to roll over, he manages a smile at hearing that, and then any annoyance I may have at the fact that he only slept for 45 minutes or that I had JUST sat down evaporates.
Oliver is legitimately teething these past few days. He's been a drool-fountain for 3 months, I swear, but only now can I feel a little bump on his gum. We'll see when that thing cuts through and how much wailing and gnashing of...tooth...there will be in the process! I'm preparing myself to wake up some morning and see a little tooth and I'm already finding myself thinking, "how did he get so BIG?" and "he's just growing up too fast." I look at pictures of him when he was a little sleepy baby and already miss it, even though he's cuter and so fun these days.
He's so responsive to his mommy and daddy and turns in our direction whenever we suddenly talk. He will respond to his name, if not too engrossed in a toy, and smiles alllll the time, especially for his dad. Joaquim can make him laugh like no one else can! We just love that giggle.
For now he's still nursing exclusively, but in a week or two we will be starting to introduce some solid foods and I am excited but also a little apprehensive. Will he like it? Will I miss nursing him as much? (I think so!) And I hope those sweet potatoes, avocados, apples, bananas, and that yummy rice cereal I am planning on bringing to the table soon don't wreak havoc with his digestive system! Oh, the worries of new moms...
Yes, we can't believe time is passing so quickly. He will be 6 months old on February 9th and he is already wearing some 9 month clothing. Crawling is probably in our near future (as may be an area rug!) and bibs will be mom's new best friend. In all of our loving attention and care for Oliver, I am learning how to take time for myself and to spend time in God's word as well. It's so much more gratifying to read a chapter or two of a book or bake some yummy cookies when I know that I only have an hour or two to myself. I rarely lose myself in dumb facebook statuses or watching tv anymore, and often wonder what in the world we did with our time before Oliver was born. My mom told me the best thing anyone told her when she was expecting me was that kids make our lives richer and fuller. And I am now seeing that is 100% true. Sometimes I feel frazzled, though not that often, thankfully, but mostly I feel productive and alive. I catch myself often and remember that my two biggest desires were to be a wife and a mother and...I am both of those things. When did that happen??
And p.s. it's WONDERFUL!
When Oliver is awake he is the object of my full attention! He is a smiley smiley smiley boy, even when he is getting tired and reaching his limit. I can still make him smile and giggle even then, though it may be quickly followed by a "heeeeey pick me up" face and impatient whimper. When he wakes up in the morning or after a nap and starts fussing in his crib, I go into his room and cheerfully say "hey snuggle bug!" in my mommy sing songy voice that I am recently perfecting. Even as he rubs his eyes and struggles to roll over, he manages a smile at hearing that, and then any annoyance I may have at the fact that he only slept for 45 minutes or that I had JUST sat down evaporates.
Oliver is legitimately teething these past few days. He's been a drool-fountain for 3 months, I swear, but only now can I feel a little bump on his gum. We'll see when that thing cuts through and how much wailing and gnashing of...tooth...there will be in the process! I'm preparing myself to wake up some morning and see a little tooth and I'm already finding myself thinking, "how did he get so BIG?" and "he's just growing up too fast." I look at pictures of him when he was a little sleepy baby and already miss it, even though he's cuter and so fun these days.
He's so responsive to his mommy and daddy and turns in our direction whenever we suddenly talk. He will respond to his name, if not too engrossed in a toy, and smiles alllll the time, especially for his dad. Joaquim can make him laugh like no one else can! We just love that giggle.
For now he's still nursing exclusively, but in a week or two we will be starting to introduce some solid foods and I am excited but also a little apprehensive. Will he like it? Will I miss nursing him as much? (I think so!) And I hope those sweet potatoes, avocados, apples, bananas, and that yummy rice cereal I am planning on bringing to the table soon don't wreak havoc with his digestive system! Oh, the worries of new moms...
Yes, we can't believe time is passing so quickly. He will be 6 months old on February 9th and he is already wearing some 9 month clothing. Crawling is probably in our near future (as may be an area rug!) and bibs will be mom's new best friend. In all of our loving attention and care for Oliver, I am learning how to take time for myself and to spend time in God's word as well. It's so much more gratifying to read a chapter or two of a book or bake some yummy cookies when I know that I only have an hour or two to myself. I rarely lose myself in dumb facebook statuses or watching tv anymore, and often wonder what in the world we did with our time before Oliver was born. My mom told me the best thing anyone told her when she was expecting me was that kids make our lives richer and fuller. And I am now seeing that is 100% true. Sometimes I feel frazzled, though not that often, thankfully, but mostly I feel productive and alive. I catch myself often and remember that my two biggest desires were to be a wife and a mother and...I am both of those things. When did that happen??
And p.s. it's WONDERFUL!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
2010 - God's Tangible Blessings
One of my goals this year is to better document our life. Journals are such a treasure in counting our blessings, as I saw in part this past year, and I want to share it with you all who are reading! This year as I have been examining and remembering all that God did for us in 2010, I just can't even believe it. He is AMAZING, and seriously took care of us in very real ways last year. You may have seen bits and pieces of it, but it's a pretty impressive spread when all together, so allow me to recount...
We started off the new year knowing that there would be a LOT of challenges and unknowns. We discovered that I was pregnant on December 19th of 2009, and as I may have mentioned before, I was totally freaked out. I, in my worried little way, didn't think we were prepared to have a baby. I thought we would have a plan, be more financially stable, have a bigger home, have two cars and two jobs. You know, like "everyone else". We had talked about when we wanted to have kids and we decided to be open to that any time after our one year anniversary. (We ended up celebrating one year of marriage with a 4 week old baby!) So, discovering that I was pregnant after only 3 months of marriage was a shock to my planning, prepared mentality. I thought that we would be seen as irresponsible, that people would silently say, "shame on them for having a baby when they can barely take care of themselves." This was a large part of why I wanted to wait a few weeks to tell friends and family. To be honest, I was ashamed, though I now see how Oliver is NOTHING but a joy and has brought showers of blessings to us.
Anyway, I digress. Joaquim's job search was only just beginning as he received his green card within a few days of our seeing those two pink lines on a little strip telling us that there was a tiny life inside of me. He didn't end up getting a job until June, so we had six months of some real penny pinching. Every month we would carefully plan our budget, and when we got down to all of our bills and necessities and then looked at our income, we consistently saw that we'd go in the negative. Quite simply, we were consistently making less than we NEEDED to spend. Miracle number 1 is that we never went into ANY debt or had to use money from our meager savings during those months. Sure, we were frugal, but month after month we spent a few hundred dollars more than we made, and yet always had enough in our checking account. It can't be explained except by God's miraculous provision. We have proof in spreadsheets if you want to see!
God also provided little jobs for Joaquim for the first 6 months of the year. He preached twice at a small church just west of Rockford, and that was a cool story of little connections. They paid very little, but it was something. In April, through another connection, he got a little job translating a cell phone operating system and manual. Anyone out there who is using a Dell windows phone, Joaquim edited the Portuguese version! That paid more than we were expecting, which was a fun surprise and ended up covering our first doctor payment, which was something that Joaquim was really pleased to be able to do.
Then there was the question of maternity clothes. Pregnant women need a whole new wardrobe! Not cheap. Well, it was cheap for me because I bought maybe 5 items of clothing throughout my whole pregnancy and spent MAYBE $100 total. WONDERFUL friends and family just kept giving me cute clothes, left and right. That burden was totally lifted from our shoulders. One day, I was getting to the point where I needed to go out and get some clothes but I remembered the story of George Mueller, who never asked anyone for anything, just prayed for God to touch someone's heart to provide it. (My job is to ask people to make gifts to a non-profit, so I don't subscribe to this practice all the time! It just touched my heart for my personal life at that moment...) I prayed that God would provide me with some clothes, and the next day a friend emailed me saying that she and her husband felt they should buy me some maternity clothes. Wow! 2 others passed on some maternity jeans, and my mom gave me lots and lots of cute outfits for mothers day. Throughout my whole pregnancy, my best friend Janell pampered and spoiled me horribly, taking me out to eat a lot (boy, could I eat!) and giving me a gift certificate for a massage, giving me a big basket of morning sickness cures - ginger ale, saltines, etc. - and of course was my biggest clothing provider. She now spoils Oliver just as well. We love her!
Ok, I got a little stuck on clothes there. That was just too fun! Moving on...Joaquim's job has been SUCH a blessing. Not only does he bring in a paycheck, which is great, but he also now has insurance for his whole family, which was costing us a ton through my job...up to 25% of my paycheck. That's a fun story. He wrote on a satisfaction survey that he really would like to be hired full time as a permanent employee so that he could have benefits. HR felt bad for him, basically, and offered him the job. Nothing like asking directly, right? That was in mid-November, and I had until November 20th to go off of my insurance at work. PERFECT timing. When I told my HR that I wanted to drop off, she said "oh good, because I didn't have the heart to tell you that your rates were about to nearly double!" Wow. God's timing is perfect and He doesn't ever give us more than we can handle! Joaquim works in a warehouse, so he equips his ipod with lots of podcasts, audiobooks, and sermon series, and has been soaking up so much good teaching on God's word. I can see him growing in leaps and bounds! He hasn't yet had the opportunity to do any formal training or go to seminary, but He is taking every opportunity at church to take free classes and download every teaching he can get his hands on, listening to each one multiple times and gleaning more and more each time.
We started off the new year knowing that there would be a LOT of challenges and unknowns. We discovered that I was pregnant on December 19th of 2009, and as I may have mentioned before, I was totally freaked out. I, in my worried little way, didn't think we were prepared to have a baby. I thought we would have a plan, be more financially stable, have a bigger home, have two cars and two jobs. You know, like "everyone else". We had talked about when we wanted to have kids and we decided to be open to that any time after our one year anniversary. (We ended up celebrating one year of marriage with a 4 week old baby!) So, discovering that I was pregnant after only 3 months of marriage was a shock to my planning, prepared mentality. I thought that we would be seen as irresponsible, that people would silently say, "shame on them for having a baby when they can barely take care of themselves." This was a large part of why I wanted to wait a few weeks to tell friends and family. To be honest, I was ashamed, though I now see how Oliver is NOTHING but a joy and has brought showers of blessings to us.
Anyway, I digress. Joaquim's job search was only just beginning as he received his green card within a few days of our seeing those two pink lines on a little strip telling us that there was a tiny life inside of me. He didn't end up getting a job until June, so we had six months of some real penny pinching. Every month we would carefully plan our budget, and when we got down to all of our bills and necessities and then looked at our income, we consistently saw that we'd go in the negative. Quite simply, we were consistently making less than we NEEDED to spend. Miracle number 1 is that we never went into ANY debt or had to use money from our meager savings during those months. Sure, we were frugal, but month after month we spent a few hundred dollars more than we made, and yet always had enough in our checking account. It can't be explained except by God's miraculous provision. We have proof in spreadsheets if you want to see!
God also provided little jobs for Joaquim for the first 6 months of the year. He preached twice at a small church just west of Rockford, and that was a cool story of little connections. They paid very little, but it was something. In April, through another connection, he got a little job translating a cell phone operating system and manual. Anyone out there who is using a Dell windows phone, Joaquim edited the Portuguese version! That paid more than we were expecting, which was a fun surprise and ended up covering our first doctor payment, which was something that Joaquim was really pleased to be able to do.
Then there was the question of maternity clothes. Pregnant women need a whole new wardrobe! Not cheap. Well, it was cheap for me because I bought maybe 5 items of clothing throughout my whole pregnancy and spent MAYBE $100 total. WONDERFUL friends and family just kept giving me cute clothes, left and right. That burden was totally lifted from our shoulders. One day, I was getting to the point where I needed to go out and get some clothes but I remembered the story of George Mueller, who never asked anyone for anything, just prayed for God to touch someone's heart to provide it. (My job is to ask people to make gifts to a non-profit, so I don't subscribe to this practice all the time! It just touched my heart for my personal life at that moment...) I prayed that God would provide me with some clothes, and the next day a friend emailed me saying that she and her husband felt they should buy me some maternity clothes. Wow! 2 others passed on some maternity jeans, and my mom gave me lots and lots of cute outfits for mothers day. Throughout my whole pregnancy, my best friend Janell pampered and spoiled me horribly, taking me out to eat a lot (boy, could I eat!) and giving me a gift certificate for a massage, giving me a big basket of morning sickness cures - ginger ale, saltines, etc. - and of course was my biggest clothing provider. She now spoils Oliver just as well. We love her!
Ok, I got a little stuck on clothes there. That was just too fun! Moving on...Joaquim's job has been SUCH a blessing. Not only does he bring in a paycheck, which is great, but he also now has insurance for his whole family, which was costing us a ton through my job...up to 25% of my paycheck. That's a fun story. He wrote on a satisfaction survey that he really would like to be hired full time as a permanent employee so that he could have benefits. HR felt bad for him, basically, and offered him the job. Nothing like asking directly, right? That was in mid-November, and I had until November 20th to go off of my insurance at work. PERFECT timing. When I told my HR that I wanted to drop off, she said "oh good, because I didn't have the heart to tell you that your rates were about to nearly double!" Wow. God's timing is perfect and He doesn't ever give us more than we can handle! Joaquim works in a warehouse, so he equips his ipod with lots of podcasts, audiobooks, and sermon series, and has been soaking up so much good teaching on God's word. I can see him growing in leaps and bounds! He hasn't yet had the opportunity to do any formal training or go to seminary, but He is taking every opportunity at church to take free classes and download every teaching he can get his hands on, listening to each one multiple times and gleaning more and more each time.
Now, a sad but redeemed story: our car situation. We knew starting out in 2010 that we needed a second car. But we didn't have the money for a down payment or monthly payments or to just pay cash for a good used car. That basically left us with no options. We borrowed my parents minivan for a few weeks when Joaquim first started working a temporary painting job, and we were hot on the search for a very used, but ok car that we could drive for a year or two. You can probably find the whole story in older posts, but...it was bad. We spent a couple thousand on a total piece of junk and we have not been able to resurrect it since. We exhausted all our chances and connections, and there were many, and just couldn't get it fixed up. Now it sits in our parking lot with a dead battery, whoops. Well...God wasn't done with that situation (and perhaps still isnt'!) and on NEW YEARS EVE, He provided. My mom called and said that my grandpa mentioned that we could have their minivan since they were trying to sell it and didn't realize we really could use it. So, BAM, we suddenly own a minivan in good condition, no strings attached, just had to pay for the title transfer. Wow. Blessed our socks off. Anyone want our "junker"? We're going to try and sell it for a REASONABLE price considering the repairs needed and if we're not successful we'll just give it away to get it off our hands. It's kind of a sore spot...
By far, the biggest blessing of the year BY FAR was our precious baby boy. He is healthy, happy, energetic, and such a stinker who totally keeps us on our toes. He is an endless source of joy, constantly making us smile and laugh, and seems to pull us back to reality with his toothless grins. We love him more than we could have ever imagined. And I see now that being in a difficult situation when we first found out we were expecting him was the opportunity of a lifetime to see God's provision and miracles. We probably would have had a very easy and stress free year without our precious Oliver. Looking back, I say that would have been pretty boring and just no fun at all.
That brings us to 2011. We have no idea what is to come! Big things...and God is GOOD and hasn't failed us yet!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
We have a baby, it's true
Holy blogging, Batman. I have fallen down on the job! Maybe because we are constantly taking care of an infant...that could be.
Oliver is here! As I'm sure you all know. He was born at 5:51am on August 9, 2010. 8 pounds, 14 ounces, and 22 inches...though at the pediatrician they measured him at 20.5 inches. Who knows. I still think he's a tall little man. He has big hands and feet with long fingers and toes, blue eyes for now, a nice head of fluffy brown hair and is cute as a button! When he cries sometimes he sounds like a teapot...really, last night after we put him down I heard the sound of a teapot on tv and thought he was crying in his crib.
The labor and delivery went very smoothly. It was a little slow since he was the first baby, so I got pumped with pitocin and therefore opted for a blissful epidural. Man, that was a good decision. After about 15 hours of active labor, Oliver was born!
He has been doing great ever since...eating well and gaining weight. He's starting to get heavy so it's tiring to hold him as much as he would like! He is a total snuggle bug and just loves to be held. He had some trouble sleeping in his crib and his pack and play for a few weeks. I think they were just too big for him, because he liked sleeping in his car seat. He would just sprawl out and his arm and legs would flail everywhere, waking himself up if he'd fallen asleep in our arms. For a few weeks we would sleep with him in the recliner, on the couch, laying on our chests. It was the only way to get some shut-eye in this house! Now he's too big to curl up the same way on our chests (they grow up so fast!) and he has more control over his flaily arms and legs so he is comfortable in his bed. Praise the Lord.
Oliver is a very active little guy and he can be louuuuuud when he wants to! I swear I will have hearing damage by the time he is out of infancy. ;-) He also has just the cutest smile, which he graced us with for the first time a couple weeks ago. It's amazing how one day all of a sudden they just...do it! Yesterday he melted my heart when I got home from work. Joaquim opened the door for me and was holding Oliver, who was content and awake. I said hi to Joaquim and gave him a kiss and then looked at Oliver and said hi to him and asked him how his day was, gave him a kiss on the forehead, and then...got a BIG smile for mommy. What a way to be welcomed home. :)
He loves to look at pictures frames on our walls. His tia Acacia made him a cross-stitched picture with some bears and a stork and a baby and he just loooooves to look at that hanging about his changing table while we change his diaper. He will just smile and coo at "his friends the bears". So adorable.
Mr. Oliver really keeps us on our toes and I often think that when he starts crawling we will be on 24/7 watch to make sure he doesn't terrorize the house and/or himself! He is a rascal for sure. And we love him!
Friday, June 18, 2010
Two Young Geezers
Joaquim and I have been a thrill a minute these days. Yes, every day we both crawl home from work and collapse and then get into bed at night and melt into the mattress, so grateful to finally be sleeping. And we don't even have an infant yet!
My energy is waning and by the end of the day I am totally sapped. Joaquim's job is much more physically demanding than mine, minus the 20-pound weight on his belly, so he is just as tired! With commitments nearly every night, we have been realizing that we need to cut them sometimes just to keep our sanity. And so we skipped our second time trying out a new small group last night.
What followed instead was marvelous! It was great to come home knowing I didn't have anything else to do. We relaxed and chatted, took a walk, scrounged for some dinner (it is really time to do some grocery shopping but we're trying to hold out until Saturday, mainly because we are creatures of habit...) and then watched a movie. When it was over around 9:30, it was already bedtime. When I woke up this morning before my alarm, I actually felt rested! So I got up and had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with Joaquim before he left for work. Of course those minutes were spent watching a World Cup soccer game. :)
So maybe we're lame with our 10 o'clock bedtimes and sitting on our couch watching silly movies, but it sure made us happy yesterday. Tonight we're using a gift certificate and going out to dinner because...well, we still are waiting until Saturday for grocery shopping! It should be a fun weekend.
My energy is waning and by the end of the day I am totally sapped. Joaquim's job is much more physically demanding than mine, minus the 20-pound weight on his belly, so he is just as tired! With commitments nearly every night, we have been realizing that we need to cut them sometimes just to keep our sanity. And so we skipped our second time trying out a new small group last night.
What followed instead was marvelous! It was great to come home knowing I didn't have anything else to do. We relaxed and chatted, took a walk, scrounged for some dinner (it is really time to do some grocery shopping but we're trying to hold out until Saturday, mainly because we are creatures of habit...) and then watched a movie. When it was over around 9:30, it was already bedtime. When I woke up this morning before my alarm, I actually felt rested! So I got up and had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with Joaquim before he left for work. Of course those minutes were spent watching a World Cup soccer game. :)
So maybe we're lame with our 10 o'clock bedtimes and sitting on our couch watching silly movies, but it sure made us happy yesterday. Tonight we're using a gift certificate and going out to dinner because...well, we still are waiting until Saturday for grocery shopping! It should be a fun weekend.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
This is how it feels to be pregnant
First of all, thank you all for your prayers, concern, and shared disgust regarding our car situation! We are surrounded by a great community and the body of Christ is coming together to help us out. We'll keep you posted on how it all shakes out! But hopelessness is definitely not in our vocabulary.
Secondly, I just thought I would write a more lighthearted post today about the wonders of pregnancy. I know every woman experiences it differently and many tend to forget how daily life with a soccer ball for a stomach is like, so here may be some reminders...
I woke up this morning to Oliver doing somersaults in my stomach. Or at least that's how it felt. Kicks and wiggles are all over the place these days, but this was much more dramatic - it almost made ME dizzy! I think we have a very active little boy on our hands.
I used to force down breakfast because blah blah blah it's the most important meal of the day. Then morning sickness struck and I was even more literally choking down bland food like toast or my ever faithful cheerios. But for the past few months, ever since morning sickness passed, breakfast is now perhaps my favorite meal of the day. I wake up HUNGRY and thoroughly enjoy whatever I eat!
I have also become crazy for any sort of fizzy, slightly sour, fruity beverage. With lots of ice. I could go for one right now, actually...
At some point in the day I will notice that one of my fingernails is suddenly 8 feet long and needs to be filed, even though I just filed my nails the day before. They are growing like crazy.
Sometimes I can't bend my toes on my left foot because of the wonders of edema. I wouldn't be surprised if I get a stretch mark on my foot because they are really going through a rough time! I wish I had a good picture of my feet before pregnancy. Their natural state is extremely narrow and bony. Now they look like water balloons. They probably resemble the physical properties as well.
I have just been instructed by my doctor that I need to add a daily iron supplement to my routine. That's going to be great!
I love any sort of activity for pregnant women. We went to our first childbirth class at the hospital on Monday and while I was terrified at first (I think those videos in health class really scarred me...) I soon warmed up to our nice little instructor when she began the class explaining where the bathrooms and water coolers are, encouraging us to bring in our own food or beverages if we need to, asking if anyone would like a chair to put their feet up on, etc. She ended the class with a relaxation session that is making me sleepy just thinking about it. Of course it was for the purpose of learning how to stay focused and relaxed through a contraction, but it involved laying on the floor while our "coaches" gave us a light massage. I'm sure a real contraction won't make me doze off...
Abdominal muscles completely disappear during pregnancy. The sight of 10 pregnant women getting up off the floor as their husbands (or whatever) fought the urge to say "heave hoe!" was pretty priceless. Joaquim and I often laugh as I need an extra push to get up from the couch if I'm sitting too far back.
Every time I drop something I just sigh.
The other day I hit my stomach with the car door as I closed it. I was calculating using pre-baby-body information.
I am NEVER caught without Tums. Never.
My new best friend is the third pillow in bed at night. Who knew putting a pillow under my stomach would be so wonderful?
I look at pictures of myself pre-pregnancy and long for the return of a non-giant shape. Soccer balls are for the world cup, not my belly!
Well, at 29 1/2 weeks I am 75% of the way done! I am ready to not be pregnant anymore, but we are not quite ready for Oliver to arrive yet. July will be the month of preparation in our apartment! Bottles, diapers, and wipes, oh my!
Secondly, I just thought I would write a more lighthearted post today about the wonders of pregnancy. I know every woman experiences it differently and many tend to forget how daily life with a soccer ball for a stomach is like, so here may be some reminders...
I woke up this morning to Oliver doing somersaults in my stomach. Or at least that's how it felt. Kicks and wiggles are all over the place these days, but this was much more dramatic - it almost made ME dizzy! I think we have a very active little boy on our hands.
I used to force down breakfast because blah blah blah it's the most important meal of the day. Then morning sickness struck and I was even more literally choking down bland food like toast or my ever faithful cheerios. But for the past few months, ever since morning sickness passed, breakfast is now perhaps my favorite meal of the day. I wake up HUNGRY and thoroughly enjoy whatever I eat!
I have also become crazy for any sort of fizzy, slightly sour, fruity beverage. With lots of ice. I could go for one right now, actually...
At some point in the day I will notice that one of my fingernails is suddenly 8 feet long and needs to be filed, even though I just filed my nails the day before. They are growing like crazy.
Sometimes I can't bend my toes on my left foot because of the wonders of edema. I wouldn't be surprised if I get a stretch mark on my foot because they are really going through a rough time! I wish I had a good picture of my feet before pregnancy. Their natural state is extremely narrow and bony. Now they look like water balloons. They probably resemble the physical properties as well.
I have just been instructed by my doctor that I need to add a daily iron supplement to my routine. That's going to be great!
I love any sort of activity for pregnant women. We went to our first childbirth class at the hospital on Monday and while I was terrified at first (I think those videos in health class really scarred me...) I soon warmed up to our nice little instructor when she began the class explaining where the bathrooms and water coolers are, encouraging us to bring in our own food or beverages if we need to, asking if anyone would like a chair to put their feet up on, etc. She ended the class with a relaxation session that is making me sleepy just thinking about it. Of course it was for the purpose of learning how to stay focused and relaxed through a contraction, but it involved laying on the floor while our "coaches" gave us a light massage. I'm sure a real contraction won't make me doze off...
Abdominal muscles completely disappear during pregnancy. The sight of 10 pregnant women getting up off the floor as their husbands (or whatever) fought the urge to say "heave hoe!" was pretty priceless. Joaquim and I often laugh as I need an extra push to get up from the couch if I'm sitting too far back.
Every time I drop something I just sigh.
The other day I hit my stomach with the car door as I closed it. I was calculating using pre-baby-body information.
I am NEVER caught without Tums. Never.
My new best friend is the third pillow in bed at night. Who knew putting a pillow under my stomach would be so wonderful?
I look at pictures of myself pre-pregnancy and long for the return of a non-giant shape. Soccer balls are for the world cup, not my belly!
Well, at 29 1/2 weeks I am 75% of the way done! I am ready to not be pregnant anymore, but we are not quite ready for Oliver to arrive yet. July will be the month of preparation in our apartment! Bottles, diapers, and wipes, oh my!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Not so fast!! Version 2
Two weeks ago at Harvest we heard a great sermon series about forgiveness. Yes, it was challenging and moving and the tricky part was that when I forgive someone, I am not just erasing a debt or getting rid of the pain. No, when we forgive, we are absorbing the debt or pain that someone has caused us. I thought that was very interesting intellectually, because I didn't really have much to forgive. Sure a couple fights here and there and some people who have bugged me or bad-mouthed me or whatever, but...not much, in the grand scheme of things. It appears that this week God has thrown something at us that will require us to really know how it feels to take on the debt that another person owes and absolve them of it.
I got a phone call from my dad this afternoon with the damage. My usually cool and composed father was clearly unglued and could barely find where he should begin to list the problems with the car. Very bad sign number 100.
It turns out the "well-maintained" car we purchased had had routine oil changes and perhaps nothing else. The axel and rod on the front right wheel are about to fall apart (can you say, safety hazard?) and oil is leaking in about 5 or 6 places, one of which causes it to drip on top of the engine and burn while in use, making for some smoke and that telling burning smell. On top of that, the power steering column needs to be replaced and it is leaking power steering fluid as well. All of this will amount to close to $2,000 in repairs. That would total our cost for the car at over $4,000 and that is waaaaaay more than it's worth.
Now, let's remember what our buddy "Mark" (put in quotations because I am no longer sure that is his real name) told us when he sold us the car.
- It was his father-in-law's, and he was just helping him sell it. Conveniently, he wasn't willing to negotiate much on the price because his father-in-law was the one who had the say and he wasn't going to budge. He said his father-in-law had kept the car in great shape and it had just recently had the timing belt replaced and that the engine and transmission ran great. The transmission fluid was brown, but we all just thought that was an easy fix and not a big deal. Turns out that was perhaps the only thing that was a quick fix, but it was a red flag and a sign of a bigger problem.
- He said it was a '96 camry but when he came back with the bill of sale he said oops he made a mistake, it's a '95. Hmm.
- He put his wife's name on the bill of sale but she had a different last name than his and he wasn't wearing a wedding ring.
- He had another guy looking at the car who pulled up MOMENTS after we did and who was asked to wait until we checked it over because we had contacted him first. Now we wonder if he was a set-up just meant to put a little pressure on us. "Mark" never actually talked to him or even referred to him in order to pressure us directly, but it was in the back of our minds that if we didn't take the car, this guy would.
- He had steam-cleaned under the hood so that we couldn't see any of the oil drips that soon appeared when we arrived home.
- He asked us to please do our best to get the title turned over to our name in a day or two, as soon as possible. Why? Unfortunately we did because we didn't want to drive around with no plates. Now I'm wondering if this was even his wife's or father-in-law's car and if we didn't just put a stolen title in our name.
- When we called him after seeing the leaking oil he said "the car has NEVER leaked oil" which was an incredible lie due to the fact that it was leaking in multiple places and there is NO way he hadn't noticed that.
Now we have seemingly thrown a couple thousand dollars out the window. I kind of wish we had literally done that because it would have at least been a bit more fun and maybe would have made some decent people's day a bit brighter. Instead, "Mark" walked off with a good portion of the savings of a newly married couple who is 7 months pregnant and is struggling to make ends meet and definitely needed that money for hospital bills and maternity leave if it were not going to go towards a fairly decent car. Now I have to forgive "Mark" and wipe away the obligation he has in my mind towards us regarding those couple thousand dollars. I wish I could inflict some consequences on him but he has disconnected his cell phone and he never gave us his home address. He has, for all our intents and purposes, evaporated with our dough and we will never hear from him again.
Twice in the last two days I have had a random song pop into my head whenever I have been praying and/or worrying (kind of don't go together, I know) about the car.
Psalm 20:7 "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God."
Yesterday I thought, huh, that's funny...but today I got it.
Chariots and horses were symbols of power and wealth. Only the king, highly ranked government officials, or great armies had them. They were the most efficient forms of transportation in that day. We have been trusting in our small nest egg and the hope of an OK car to drive for our security. Now they are both gone, and one has not even replaced the other as we had hoped, and we are bare and vulnerable. But the name of the Lord our God is a strong and mighty tower. All those who run to it will be saved. Lord willing, even "Mark".
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