Thoughts after the dust settles

Before I start, I should say that Brad and I prayed for this baby. We have felt our lives grow in richness and depth and beauty since Ford entered the picture. Brad started scheming about us raising up “a baseball team” within days of Ford’s birth. True story, he decided when Ford was three days old that he would love approximately eight children (me, I think half of that number sounds a little more reasonable). In any case, we took the pregnancy news as very good news, and we humbly thank God for blessing us by allowing us to grow our family in this way.

That said, this is COMPLETELY different the second time around. For one thing, while I was pregnant with Ford, I could. not. stop. thinking about my pregnancy. It seems like almost every brain cell was devoted to planning a nursery, making a registry, researching the best baby gear, pondering what kind of mother I wanted to be, reading up on breastfeeding, taking pictures of my belly… and the list goes on. This time around, I’m doing really good if I remember to take my prenatal vitamin at the end of the day. And that’s my daily reminder that, “Oh yeah, I’m pregnant!” Yes, my belly is growing – and at a more rapid pace than it did with Ford – but I have so much to keep me wholly occupied during the day (FORD, my work, our church, playdates/friends, having our house on the market – more on that later), and I’m not stressing or obsessing about what to buy and how babies “work.”

Ford put us through the ringer as a newbie. He was totally healthy, praise God (although wicked baby acne, cradle cap and a blocked tear duct became minor inconveniences), but he started up with colic after only three days out of the womb. Some days, if he wasn’t sleeping, he was crying. And it didn’t stop until he was about 4.5 months old. He nursed every 1 – 2 hours, around the clock. He was a champion eater, which was an answer to prayer, but oh boy if I didn’t just feel like a milk factory some days. Then right around Christmas 2011, he became the happiest baby anyone has ever met! He never met a stranger, had smiles and giggles for days, would sing and talk to himself in just the cutest ways… I think we both just had to learn together those first few months. Which bonded us. But it also made me realize that I can handle a whole lot more than I thought I could.

This is a really roundabout way to say that I’m not too worried about the tiny baby phase the second time around. My big prayer requests for the birth and those first months remain the same as they did last time: 1) no C-section and 2) an easy, healthy feeding relationship. But overall, Brad and I both get to the end of the week and we turn to each other and say, “Wow, where did that week go?” The days, weeks, months are flying, whereas the first time around, they were dragging.

I still want to be mindful, though, about enjoying this pregnancy as much as I enjoyed the first one. The Baby G Blog should be a good way to keep me on top of things, so thanks for following along!