Beautiful Children...God's Children

Since I have been sick the past few days, I have not had much energy to do much besides sleep and sit. While I was sitting yesterday in front of the TV, I happened upon a show on TLC called "Toddlers and Tiaras". Yikes. It made me hope very much that I would not have a little girl if those are the sort of pressures that raising a little girl entails. What if her classmates compete in stuff like that and criticize her for not being pretty enough? Teaching a child to compete to be the prettiest from the time they can walk is almost sickening to me. Now, granted, the thought has crossed my mind, "What if I have an ugly child?" Then I always feel bad. Of course, I would love it if my child is moderately adorable, but I don't understand why parents push their children to look "the best", which is usually fake in those beauty pageants. Watching a bit of that show motivated me to begin praying now that our little child, boy or girl, would grow to believe that they are beautiful because they are a child of God, and saved by Jesus. No other beauty matters than the beauty of redemption and adoption in Christ. I pray that I can teach that truth to them very early on to spare them the heartaches of trying to live up to the world's standards of beauty.

Shifting Focus

I only have two more days of teaching left! It is hard to believe, but at the same time very welcome. My second year went by quickly, but not without a lot of events and stress to make me ready for summer. And not only is it the last day with my students for this year, but for awhile. After this, my focus will be shifting from teacher and director to mother and caretaker of a family. This is a huge shift, but one I am looking forward to. Now that I can actually see it when baby moves, and my skin is stretching more and more, and I am feeling more full and pregnant, I am ready to "NEST". I want to organize, clean, plan, and decorate the house so that it is in the best shape possible for baby's arrival. And summer, along with not going back to teaching, gives me time to shift my focus and get used to the new career of mothering. I will miss many things about teaching, but I am looking forward to many blessings of parenting, even though I have NO IDEA what to expect. I just have to keep praying that God will guide us and will get me through this transition, and as long as my focus of my whole life remains in the gospel, I will get through whatever other transitions are ahead.

New Furniture for Baby (and me)

We have begun our purchasing adventure for the nursery!
Last weekend we hit up a garage sale down the street and were pleased to find a crib and a glider/rocker for very cheap, but in good, solid condition. We will probably refinish the crib, which will be a good summer project for Garry, and for me to help out, as long as no toxic chemicals are involved. Just a few more pieces of furniture to get, and I can start decorating the baby's room!
We also bought a piano! Craigslist is quickly becoming something that I am less wary of as the experiences we've had so far have been great. We bought a little spinet piano and it fits wonderfully into our living room. It is in definite need of tuning, but that gives me another hobby for this summer. I am excited to play again, and also looking forward to having it around for baby to hear and eventually learn to play. A goal is to be able to help out on worship team with the piano as we have a limited number of pianists, but that goal will probably take a good year to accomplish.
Here are some pictures of our new furniture!

Lots of Movement for Baby

This is my first official Mother's Day! Hooray!
The past week has been incredible in that I can really feel baby move around now. Sometimes the movements are so strong they surprise me and I can't help but say, "Oh!" or "Woah!". Baby definitely has long periods of sleeping though, and seems to wake up right when I want to go to bed. Last night baby kept me awake for a little while as I was trying to fall asleep. I'm sure this is only the beginning of that happening! At least the movements are still gentle enough that they don't hurt or make me uncomfortable. I'll cherish these moments of movement while I can because before I know it, baby will have movements that are pushing on ribs and other sensitive parts.
Oh! And we bought a crib and a glider/rocking chair for the baby's room! We got them used at a garage sale, but they are in decent shape. The crib will be a project for Garry this summer to refinish and hopefully stain a nice color. Exciting times!
And this morning I could tell that baby can hear now. I played congas in church for worship today, and as soon as I would start playing, baby would wiggle around in surprise of the noise. Hopefully baby will grow up with a good sense of rhythm from listening to conga beats twice a week!

Help with deciphering

Here are a couple helpful hints if you watch the videos.

The circle on the right side is always the baby's abdomen/chest and sometimes you can see the spine along the top of it.

The circle that changes sometimes on the left side is the baby's face coming in and out of focus. Sometimes you can see the shadows under the eye sockets and the line of the chin.

Seeing baby for the first time!

Garry and I got to see our baby today! Technology is truly amazing and I am so thankful for ultrasounds. Baby is still small, only 11 oz, but God has already formed our little baby almost completely. We could count fingers and toes and see all the tiny bones that make up the spine. One of the best parts was getting a video of baby moving around. Baby had hiccups today, so it was cute to see the movement of the hiccups. Here are a couple clips of our baby moving! The video is a top view of the face and baby is playing peek-a-boo already with the camera. Sometimes you can see the little hand and arm coming around too. The heart was beating steadily the whole time, and it was fascinating to see the valves hard at work pumping blood for baby.


Oh, and our due date was pushed back a few days based on the size of the baby. The new date is September 25th.

Lots of growth for baby and me!

Baby is definitely growing and it is definitely showing. A lot of my students commented today that I actually look pregnant now. Also, I am starting to feel a little more movement from baby, but still not too much. Baby only seems to want to be active when I am ready to try and sleep. I was going to post a picture of my side shot last week, but I was not too happy with the way that my face looked in those pictures. I looked just old and tired...which I suppose is true. At least the tired part. So I'm hoping I don't look quite as tired in this picture, but oh well if I do because that is just part of a growing baby.