Baby Books, Baby Shower, Blood Test, and Birth... Oh, my!

I wish I had it with me so I could quote some of the lines and/or post pictures of it, but I found the greatest baby book this weekend!

My mom and I were shopping for baby shower decor and while walking through Borders, I mentioned that I was interested in getting a baby book. I have one pregnancy journal to record what I feel week-to-week, and I have one traditional baby book that my aunt got for free (she works at a publishing company) and I got from her. It's all about little bunnies, though, which doesn't exactly scream my personality. So, I wanted something more unique, more fitting.

We were directed to the area of the store where all of the pregnancy books and journals were, and I found this one. It's called "Love Letters to my Baby" by Vickey Banks.


It's VERY Christian-based, and beautifully written. Each section has an intro with a verse from the Bible and a short devotional written about it, related to your baby. The following pages start off with "Dearest ________________" (something that relates to the previous verse and devotional) and then provides several opportunities to write your feelings down in the form of a letter to your baby. For example, the first section has a verse about the angel coming to Mary and telling her that she was going to bear Jesus, the son of God. The devotional then goes on to describe how your little baby is no less a miracle. Then, the first line of the letter says, "Dearest Miracle of Mine, When I found out I was pregnant I..." and you fill in the rest of the blank. Then it says, "Knowing that God is forming you in my womb..." and there are more blanks to fill in. The sections go. One is about Sarah's laughter and if followed by "Dearest Cause for Laughter..." Another is about Elisabeth and Mary meeting together and the baby leaping inside Elisabeth's womb. The following letters allow you to describe the way your baby's movements make you feel and when he/she is most active. Another section uses the verse from Psalm 139 describing how God knit me together in my mother's womb. The devotional describes the imagery of God already feeling the brush of your baby's eyelashes, knowing every hair on their head, and being full aware of every ticklish spot.

The book also allows for room to describe the delivery of your baby, including how you first felt when you saw your son or daughter, what Daddy's first words were after the birth, and even what you dressed your baby in to come home. You can write about what kind of homecoming you had and what your baby likes or what "firsts" they experience. There's opportunities to write about your desires in motherhood and how you want to show your baby God's love. You can describe your own relationship with God and why it has affected your life, and then your hopes and prayers for your baby's future concerning the plans God has for him/her.

The whole thing left me in tears, capturing what truly is magnificent about this whole pregnancy experience. My infertility experience may have been easier than most, but I no less appreciate how wonderful this gift from God really is. I went through many months of hurt and fear and depression over one negative pregnancy test after another. I struggled, more than anything else, to understand what God's intentions were in this whole process. And, when I finally began to understand what He was doing in it and to see my infertility as a ministry for others going through the same thing, I found a peace and excitement in what He was going to do in my life- the testimony He was in the process of writing for me. I don't ever want to complain about the aches and pains or sicknesses I experience in this process. I write about them just as a form of documentation, but I appreciate every ounce of this pregnancy as it is an answer to MANY prayers. My heart still aches for those who still await the answers to their own prayers. God's still working on their testimonies and the stories they'll be able to share in the end are going to be so remarkable! And so, I thank God everyday for the life I feel growing inside of me. Even as I write this and he kicks all about, I praise God because He's the reason this miracle even exists. Words can barely express!!!

Oh, I do want to mention that I still plan on getting a baby book that allows you to have keepsakes of your baby's first haircut or to post pictures of their birth, etc., but when my awesome mom saw this book with me, she decided that she wanted to buy it for me right then. I love it!

Now, I mentioned that in the midst of this wonderful discovery, we were shopping for baby shower decor. My mom is the one from whom I got all of my creativity, so we are planning my baby shower together. I've expanded the theme of "frogs, snails, and puppy dog tails" to celebrating ALL things boys. My mom had the idea to have each centerpiece be a specific theme, all related to little boy things. We have 10 that we are doing: pirates, sports, contruction, race cars, police officers, dinosaurs, undersea life, books and coloring, bugs, and soldiers. We bought a lego pirate set, baseballs, mits, footballs, and soccer balls, a bulldozer with sand and little construction workers (it's actually "Handy Manny" if you know what that show is), hot wheels cars, a little people police station with officers, cars, and a dog, figurines of dinosaurs and sharks & whales, classic Disney books that I had as a kid, a bug catching kit along with little critters, and little G.I. Joe soldiers with accessories. We got scrapbooking paper and stickers and went to town. Can I just tell you how unbelievably proud I am of these centerpieces?!! I think they look so cool and are SO unique! I only took pictures of a few of them, since they'll look a lot better when they're all arranged on the tables at the party. So, I'll have more to show in 2 weeks when everything's ready. But here's a teaser:







And, as a final unrelated (to the previous mentioned things) note:

When I took my glucose challenge test last Thursday, I was just going off of memory as to what the prepping instructions were. I couldn't find the instructions anywhere, but I knew I was supposed to eat a well-balanced meal even though some people have to fast. I knew that there was an hour between eating and drinking the glucose drink, but I didn't know if I was supposed to wait an hour before drinking or drink within an after of eating. And then, I knew I was supposed to finish my drink an hour before I had my blood drawn. Since they didn't specify what I could or couldn't eat, I assumed that the meal was to have something on my stomach so that the drink didn't make me feel sick. So I ate and then had the drink within an hour from that point. It was actually much closer than I had planned since I got a late lunch and still needed to have the beverage finished an hour before my appointment. But I did what I could and went to my appointment and completed my test.

Two days later, I was cleaning out my purse and found the instructions tucked away there. They had been with me the whole time. Upon reading them, I discovered that I had done the test wrong by eating too closely to when I drank the beverage. I was supposed to wait at least an hour. So then I wasn't sure how it would affect my test. If I failed the test because of this, I wasn't sure if they would make me come back and do the 1-hour test again or to do the 3-hour test instead just to cover my bases. Honestly, though, even though the test wasn't horrible, I wasn't looking forward to having to do it again. This was Saturday, though, so the only way I could call the clinic was to leave a message for an on-call doctor, and this wasn't an emergency by any means.

So I waited until this morning and made the call to my doctor's office. It was a little more complicated than just one phone call, but in the end, they said that the only way my error would've affected the test is to make my sugar levels higher than normal, and since I passed the test with no problem at all, then eating didn't hurt it in the end. That was a huge relief. So no gestational diabetes for me. No restrictions on my diet. And no insulin shots! Woo-hoo!!!

And in follow-up to that last appointment, I discussed pediatrician options with a few close friends. I have heard that word-of-mouth is the best way to choose a doctor, and I was glad I did talk to these women. They were able to tell me why they picked their doctor and what they liked or didn't like. I still haven't picked a doctor yet, but have more direction than I did before.

I think I also mentioned in my last blog that I found out my OB will be out of the office the week I am due. I plan on discussing this with her at my next appointment to make a plan of how things may go down, but I knew right away that I may have the option to be induced before she leaves or to have an on-call doctor do the delivery instead. After discussing this with several people too, I found that there is a very likely possibility that being induced (especially in my first pregnancy) could cause very hard and intense labor. Because they are forcing me to go into labor, my contractions could be more painful than otherwise. In reading a few articles, I'm finding that most agree that elective induction is not recommended, and that the ideal candidate for someone who is going to do it is someone who has already had a birth before, whose cervix is already dilated, and who will be going into labor soon anyways. And, it goes on to say that a first-time mother who hasn't even dilated and is induced will likely end up having a c-section in the end. The only plus side to inducing, for us, would be for the sake of convenience. It'd be less time off work I'd be taking, less time without pay, it'd be scheduled out ahead of time so I wouldn't be worrying where I might be when labor occurs, and it'd be my OB who delivers the baby. But the above reasons along with knowing that babies born even a week early are more at risk in their development gives me greater reason to wait it out until Josiah is ready to come on his own. I still need to discuss it with my doctor to see what the plan is, but I think I'd feel fine with an on-call doctor delivering instead.

All of this is just more proof that we're in the home stretch! 78 days to go. Week 29 begins tomorrow...