2 Days Until Christmas!

I had a rough night last night.  It’s actually been a rough couple weeks.  I go to the midwife today for my 34 week appointment.  I cannot believe that my due date is only 6 weeks away!  I have developed carpal tunnel, heartburn, and general soreness.  The baby likes to play in my ribs, and I get up around four times a night.  I am ready for this baby to come!  In terms of discomfort I know that I don’t really have it that bad.  I know it could be worse.  And all together I am really enjoying being pregnant.  I’m just so excited to see our baby!  I am pretty worn out and while I am thankful to not have the stress of traveling for the holidays, I kinda wish we were.  This is going to be our first Christmas without seeing our families.  They have sent gifts for us to put under our little Christmas tree, but it’s not the same.  And knowing they’re all together makes me sad

because I just want to be part of that party.  I’m really going to focus on relaxing and enjoying the holidays with Adam.  We are pretty busy these next couple nights with responsibilities at church, and the house is a wreck and needs to be cleaned but after that, I just want to rest.  I am going to take the rest of the year off from blogging.  Just so I can focus on spending time with my husband and friends in the area.  I will start writing again in January for the home stretch!  I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Family Traditions

Every family has some sort of tradition during the holidays.  Even if your tradition is to not have traditions, that’s a tradition.  Depending on which side of the family we are with determines what our Christmas will look like.  Thinking about the holidays and our families I wonder what our family traditions will be.  Will we open gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?  Will we have a certain menu for Christmas that we have every year?  Will we have a tree decorating tradition?  As I think about all the traditions that are out there it makes me excited to think about what I want to do with our children.  My sister and I always take a picture in front of the tree, which is fun to look back on. 

 Another one of my favorite traditions was to make and decorate cookies with my mom and sister.  One of Adam’s favorite traditions is on Christmas Eve he would exchange gifts with his other brothers.  I remember one year we made a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas.  I think traditions are good, but also adding in new traditions can also be fun.  This will be Adam and I’s last Christmas “just the two of us.”  And since our families are so far and I am so pregnant, we will be staying home and celebrating in our own home.  Maybe we’ll even imagine what our future Christmases will look like.

What is your favorite Christmas tradition?

Blessed

I am so incredibly blessed.  This pregnancy has taught me to wait patiently for God because he has a plan and he is taking care of us.  I had been having a lot of stress and anxiety about all the things that the baby was going to need right away.  Whenever I saw a sale on something we needed, I wanted to run right out and get it so I could be sure we got a good deal on it, even though it was something on our registry and I hadn't had a shower yet.

Adam one day just looked at me and said, you are not allowed to buy anything for the baby until after the shower.  Good advice, but stressful for me.  What if we didn't get something we really needed and then there were no good deals on it and we had to pay an arm and a leg for it.  I should have just taken a deep breath and waited on God.  He had a plan to provide and I just didn't see it.

In the last few weeks, gifts from family and friends started showing up at our door, and then last weekend one of my best friends threw me an amazing shower.  (You can see photos from the shower here on her blog).  It was an amazing event and I was so incredibly blessed by all the ladies who came from church and gave me such generous gifts.  I was overwhelmed by their love, affection, and advice.  God provided a loving and giving church family to shower me with gifts and support.  I am so blessed that we moved here to be a part of the CrossWay family.  It has been such a blessing already and God is providing a loving family for us to be a part of right here in Nashua.  How amazing!

After the shower, I got in super planning mode.  God provided someone who had a crib, almost brand new, that they were giving away!  He also provided a cheap changing table on craigslist.  I was just in awe as I saw God take care of everything.  We were able to get lots of things the baby would need with the gift cards that we were given and we only have one thing to purchase.  We are so blessed.  Sometimes it is hard to wait on God, but when you do, he will show you his amazing provisions.

Advent should be another season of sitting and waiting.  Adam and I have been doing an advent devotional (by Ann Voskamp) and these ideas of advent really stood out to me.

•  Advent comes from the Latin which means "coming".  Throughout the month of advent we are waiting for God to come. 
• An infinite God becomes infant.
• The Giver becomes the Gift.
• Wait for the coming of the God in the manger who makes Himself bread for us near starved.

We should be actively waiting for God to show up during advent.  Oftentimes my waiting becomes saturated in the gifts and the flash of Christmas.  But Christ coming to Earth was a simple, beautiful gift. 

During this month I have been thinking a lot about Christmas and how to focus on the gift that it is.  I'm taking a deep breath, and I am waiting to see what God is going to do.  I am being intentional in waiting for the baby in the manger.  And I know that in my waiting I will see God show up in amazing ways and with beautiful blessings.

Here is a link to a song that has been on my mind during this season.  I hope you enjoy it.

DIY Alphabet Wall

If you do a Google or Pinterest search for a nursery alphabet wall, you will find so many cute ideas.

In my search for ways to decorate the nursery, I stumbled across this and was inspired.  I just loved all the cute ideas for an alphabet wall.  I did not realize however, until a few days ago, how expensive it would be to do.

The problem is not finding the wooden letters.  Many craft stores sell a variety of unfinished wooden letters in various fonts that are perfect for this, but they're just so expensive.  Going into it I thought I could just buy an alphabet pack of letters and go from there.  It was nearly impossible to find anything like that.  Almost everywhere I looked, in stores, and online, made you buy the letters individually.  Then, depending on the size you wanted for each letter, they could range from $1.50 to $5 each.  That shocked me.  I never thought they would be so expensive! 

After realizing I would not be able to do the project as I originally had intended I decided to try and figure out a different way to achieve the same outcome.  So here for you, is my DIY version of an alphabet wall.  And all I spent was $4.

Supplies
Cardboard
Scissors
Sharpie
Pencil
Paper
Crayons
Paint
Paint brushes

Luckily I have been getting lots of baby goodies so I had tons of cardboard boxes piled up.  The first thing that I did was cut up 26 cardboard squares.  I chose to make mine different sizes, but you could just as easily make them all the same size.

 

Next, I brainstormed what I wanted my letters to look like.  You can make just plain letters in various fonts, but I decided it would be fun to make the letters look like something that started with that letter (for example: A for Alligator).

 

Next, I sketched the letters out on the cardboard in pencil, and then outlined in sharpie. 

 

Then I painted all of the letters.  This was time consuming and space consuming because I did it one color at a time.  I didn't worry too much about staying inside the lines because after the painting was finished, I went back over the letters with a sharpie getting all the edges and details to stand out.

The last, and hardest part of the project was cutting the letters out.  Especially if there were a lot of little details to cut out.  These Octopus legs were a challenge.  Luckily, my wonderful husband offered to help.  So I cut out the big chunks with scissors and he did the more challenging parts with an exacto knife.  We finally got it finished, even though by the end our hands were very sore.  Then, I got to have the joy of hanging them on the wall and seeing the finished product.  I just used 3M to hang them. 

 

 

Things I Need to Remember

This is a list of things that I am learning about being pregnant that I need to remember for the remainder of my pregnancy.

1. I'm pregnant.  I can't do things the way that my non-pregnant 24 year old self would do things.

2. I am slower than I want to realize.  Yesterday I decided to run errands in the afternoon before picking up Adam.  I went 6 places and it took me three and a half hours.  Non-pregnant 24 year old me could have done it in 2.  But now I'm slower and have to find the bathrooms more frequently.

3. I need to go to the bathroom when a bathroom is available, not when I have to go.  It can be hard to find a bathroom when you are running errands.

4. I can't sit on the ground crafting all evening.  Well, I can, but the next day I will feel it (like today).

5. I can't trust my brain.  I need to write things down.

6. I can't be the sleeper I once was.  I used to never have any trouble sleeping unless something was wrong.  Now when I lay down, I never know what I am going to get, except for multiple trips to the bathroom.

7. I can't bend and lift as I once did.  I need to ask for help.

8. I can take a deep breath and not get everything done.

9. I can just sit and enjoy the baby moving.

10. I can cherish these days because there aren't many left.

11. I can eat whatever I want.

12. I can wait excitedly for a little baby to arrive.

Sleepless night for new reasons

I've talked about sleepless nights before, but now I have new things plaguing me that are keeping me from sleeping.  Fatigue has come back at me full force, but now I cannot get a good night's sleep.  And this time, it's not because I'm uncomfortable.

I had been sleeping great ever since getting that awesome pillow, but now, even though I am comfortable I cannot sleep! I'm so tired and yet I wake up every few hours in the night to roll over, go to the bathroom, rub my hands (because of carpal tunnel), or just lay there wide awake.  Is my body just preparing me for sleepless nights?

I'm always so tired when I wake up.  The only time I can get some good sleep is with the return of my afternoon nap.  I think I'm going to have to start scheduling 2 naps a day into my routine just to try and get me back to a good amount of sleep.

Do you have any tricks for sleeping at night during these last few weeks?