The Many Adventures of: Pregnancy

I named this blog “The Many Adventures of Mandi and Tyler.” And in November, we discovered that we are about to embark on a new glorious adventure: Parenthood.



20 weeks and 5 days today. We are halfway there. July 24th- Here we come!

To recap the last 4 months since that test showed the infamous “+” sign would be quite the task. Here are some highlights, and a few things I never knew about pregnancy:

• I knew I was pregnant when I suddenly had to sit down in the middle of blow-drying my hair to catch my breath.
• Telling your family you are expecting is one of the best feelings in the world, especially at Christmas time. My favorite is when people scream like they have seen a giant spider or throw items across the room.
• Morning Sickness should be called all-day sickness. That lasted until about mid-January.
• Maternity pants should be mandatory every day wear for all humans. Whoever invented buttons and zippers is an idiot.
• Queen size beds are not made for a pregnant woman and her poor husband, who is constantly pushed, kicked, and woken up by a woman’s need to use the bathroom at 3am.
• A growing belly can be beautiful when a baby is in there.
• My husband is one of the most giving, compassionate people on the planet. He is going to be an amazing dad.
• I felt the first popcorn motions of a baby moving about two weeks ago. And I sat on the bathroom floor and cried as my iPod played “How Great Thou Art.”

 

Tomorrow we find out if this little one inside of me is a boy or a girl. Since the end of October, this baby has grown each day and stretched my body and as I've placed my hand on my belly I have wondered… "Who are you in there?"
 
Today is the last day I will fall asleep without knowing. And I don’t want it to be over. Sure, I am rejoicing in the thrill of knowing and starting a baby registry and thinking in pink or blue. But I realize how quickly time is passing and how much I love being pregnant. They are subtle motions right now, but I love the flutters and kicks I feel as I meet with students at school. It is all I can do to keep from squealing in the middle of an emotional teenage breakdown. I love how my husband and I are growing closer each day, even through the occasional mood swings and sudden needs for pizza rolls or ice cream sundaes.

I am certain that with each stage of motherhood there will be new joys and new trials. But for right now, I want to embrace today and these moments and try to etch them in my mind forever.

Oh little one, I can’t wait to know who you are, who God is knitting you together to be. 

 

"For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

If I would count them, they are more than the sand."

 

Psalm 139: 13-18