Here we are again...

Here we are again, and one more week has past.  It’s amazing how fast time goes by these days!  Way faster than those last days of pregnancy!  It feels like my whole life revolves around Adalyn these days, so this is what I have to talk about!  Sorry to anyone who maybe wants to hear about something else!  Haha  

Things have definitely settled down a lot since last week.  We are finally settling into life with a baby and though it still feels like I have almost no time to get anything that I want to get done, done, we are slowly getting used to a new normal.   I still haven’t fully prepared a meal since Adalyn was born.  It always seems she needs attention right around meal times.  Mark has been so good and hasn’t seemed bothered by it at all.  I think he is having a much easier time adjusting than I am.  

 I have been on a few outings this week.  I think I’ve gone out almost every day, which has been very good for me!  My mom went with me to Winnipeg to shop for an outfit for Bonnie and Tai’s wedding on Saturday.  It was very successful and I found something very quickly, which isn’t normal for me.  I’m so happy with my new outfit and I can’t wait to wear it!  Adalyn has a very cute little dress too.  She’s going to be the best looking baby around!  

I was nervous about feeding times while we were shopping.  I’m not sure why I’m so uptight about it, I know I just have to feed her when she’s hungry and she is getting much faster at nursing which makes it a lot better. 

Pictures of us in our outfits are yet to come... the wedding is on Saturday, YAY!  I'm so excited!

Adalyn had her first baby shower on Sunday.  There were a lot of people there.  Almost 40 I think!  I am quite overwhelmed by all the gifts we got.  I finished sorting through the clothes yesterday and her closet is a lot fuller than it was a few days ago.  She got a lot of stuff to wear for 6-9 months and 12 months.  Quite a few pairs of jeans and t-shirts.  It’s nice to know I won’t have to buy very many clothes in the coming months.

Cauntie Elishema (cousin aunty :) )

Cauntie Char

Mark's Grandma holding Adalyn

This week I also took Adalyn to her first Dr.’s appointment by myself and she did so well!  We had to wait at least 45 min to see the Dr and even so, she still let me go do some other things after the appointment was over!  The more I go out the more confident I get.

We gave Adalyn her first real bath (meaning not a sponge bath) this week as well.  This week is all about firsts!  She loved it which kind of surprised me.  She cried for the first 30 seconds, but then just lay there basking in the warmth.  She is so cute!!  

 I hope I’m not missing anything.  So much has happened in a week’s time.  Emotions aren’t running quite as wild anymore which I am grateful for!  I am also so thankful for God who never ceases to give us the grace to handle each day’s challenges and continually gives strength when I am weak.  This is one thing I am definitely learning… “One day at a time sweet Jesus”…

Adalyn is so beautiful and I love her immensely! 

   

One more thing!  I realized I hadn’t posted any pictures of the Saskatchewan Thiessen Aunts and Uncles holding Adalyn, and also my brother David didn’t have a picture with Adalyn so here are the updates!

Auntie Lorissa

Uncle J.J. and Uncle Matthew

Uncle David

Adalyn's first week

Well, finally a moment to sit down and write down some of my thoughts and feelings about the last week!  What a roller coaster!  Mothering is the most beautiful thing and also one of the hardest things I have done in my life up till now.  The last week has been a crazy whirlwind of visitors and trying to figure out my new schedule, or rather Adalyn’s schedule, amidst the exhaustion of not having slept for 2 nights straight and then very little the following nights.  I don’t think I was prepared for the amount of work it is to take care of a newborn. 

Adalyn Joy was born on Monday, June 27 at 4:00 in the morning.  My water broke after church on Sunday afternoon and then began the labour process.  It was worse than I expected, but when I think of it now a week later, the memory of the pain has faded.  Women always told me this is how it was and while I was going through it I wondered how anyone could ever forget the agony!  I understand now, though I'm still definitely not ready to do it again any time too soon!

It’s almost impossible to describe the awesome relief and joy when the baby slides out and is laid in your arms.  After everything I went through, I felt like laughing and I’m pretty sure no one could’ve wiped the huge smile off  my face! She was so perfect and beautiful!  I couldn’t stop saying to Mark and Adalyn, “We did it!”  We made it!” 

Monday afternoon we had visitors.  My mom and dad were the first ones to see her.  Later Tim and Angela came with Isabelle, Mark’s mom came for a while and later in the evening Meg and David came as well as Mark’s dad.  We were so proud and it was so much fun to show off our beautiful daughter! 

 

Grandpa

Granny

Auntie Angela, Uncle Tim and Cousin Isabelle

Grandma

Uncle David

Auntie Meaghan

Grandpa

The next day we had company from my mom and her friend and from Bonnie and Taunte Tina.  Later after we got home our neighbour lady stopped in with her 4 children, Josh and Cara came with Carter and my Aunt Norma came with cousins Anna Marie and Nancy. 

Bonnie

Uncle Paul

Great Auntie Margaret

I really wish I could share this with my sister though.  It's hard that she's so far away.  I'm so grateful for skype, that we can visit that way and that she can actually see Adalyn in real time.

  

I felt so unsure about everything the first couple of days.  Feeding was a whole new thing.  I was constantly worrying about whether or not she was getting enough and if she was eating too often and getting into a bad routine.  I still wonder and am still learning, though I feel much more confident about it now than I did 2 days ago.  I imagine it will only get better. 

Coming home from the hospital was the first time I shed tears.  We packed her up in her car seat and she looked so tiny in it.  I sat with her in the back seat of the car and half way home my tears started flowing.  I just couldn’t believe that such a sweet beautiful baby was ours and that we were actually taking her home to stay!  I think having her in our space made everything seem so much more real to me.  She was coming to invade our lives and our life would never be the same.  I remember one morning after only about 4 or 5 hours of sleep most of which were broken up, I said to Mark that I just wished our life could go back to normal, just for one day or night. Haha.  I would never trade Adalyn in though.  She’s amazing!   

I think I have cried every day since we took her home.  My emotions seem to be running wild and I will cry at the silliest things.  My mind goes wild and it’s hard to think logically. Sometimes I have no idea why I’m crying. haha Like I said, it’s been a roller coaster!  

 

I have had so much help from family the last couple of days.  I am overwhelmed by the support I’ve felt.  The house has almost never been empty with just Mark and myself.  Mark’s parents are living in their camper at our place for a week while they are moving.  They don’t have a home right now so Mark’s mom has been extremely helpful in making meals and cleaning up the kitchen and just caring for Adalyn so I can have some naps.  My mom was over for a day as well to help me do laundry and other household chores while Mark was away helping his parents pack up.   

Sometimes while I feed Adalyn I read the Bible out loud to her.  It is so precious and helps me to focus my attention on what really matters.  It also helps remind me that these present troubles and hardships are only for a time and my strength comes from God.  I feel so inadequate to raise Adalyn.  My deepest heart’s desire is that she will grow up right and trained in the ways of God.  I want her to know that God loves her unconditionally and be a person that brings glory to his name.

 

Mark is such an amazing daddy.  I love watching him with Adalyn.  The next couple of months are going to be pretty crazy with work for him and I am praying that we will all make it through that time. 

Friday was Adalyn’s first outing.  We went to a grad party for Mark’s cousin.  I was nervous about going out, but it all went very well.  I think the more I go out the more comfortable I will get with it. This morning we went to church and it was awesome.  I don’t know what I was so worried about. 

Well, perhaps I’ll stop my rambling.  Sorry to those who’ve made it to this point.  I think this post is almost more for myself  then for anyone else’s interest.  I don’t want to forget what these first couple of days were like.  

Adalyn's first bath.

I am BLESSED!

I am so blessed!  Yesterday I had a lovely visit from my good friend Jenny!  I’m so glad it worked out for her to come visit despite the up in the air, ‘baby or no baby plans!’  We had such a wonderful time, it’s so good to reconnect with friends you don’t get to see very often!

I am so blessed to have so many people anxiously waiting to hear about the arrival of our baby!  At first I was getting a little frustrated by all the comments and questions, but I realize now all these people really LOVE me and are excited for us!  And, they love our baby too, who they haven’t even met yet!  I will have to let our child know how much it was loved even before anyone knew who it was, what it looked like.  Even our house customers are waiting to hear the news and they don’t even know us!  Maybe they're more concerned about when their houses will get built,  haha, but they really do seem to be generally and sincerely excited for us too. 

Mark had to go to Brandon yesterday (3 hrs away) to meet with some customers and I was so scared the baby would come while he was gone.  It didn’t!  Yay for that!  They are from Saskatchewan and it would have been quite far for them to come all the way out here to sign a contract and talk about house plans so Mark met them half way at Brandon and got everything sorted out.  I’m so glad it worked out, and that it’s done now! 

 

 I must also mention, that I hope even through my groaning and waiting, that really I’ve had it pretty awesome.  I’ve had a great pregnancy despite some very minor discomfort and I have to apologize to anyone who heard me complaining about anything.  I walked 4 miles today, 4 days past my due date!  I just felt really awesome, the evening was BEAUTIFUL, my music was inspiring, uplifting and I just really relish my time alone thinking.  (Perhaps I also kind of wanted to test this idea that long walks bring on labour haha)  I think it’s safe to say I’m very blessed to be able to still do that!

I was inspired by a song I was listening to today while I was walking.  “Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord”  What a beautiful promise in the waiting!

My flowers are doing marvelous this year!  They make me happy!

I'm a blogger?!

I started a blog a while back, just in Microsoft Word because we didn't have high-speed internet at the time.  Since then we've upgraded to fast internet (Whoo hoo!) mainly because Mark uses internet so much for his work.  I thought it might be kind of fun to actually post this online for others to read my thoughts instead of just keeping them to myself.  It will be nothing profound that's for sure, but just something to keep those who are far included in my life. I have proven myself to be not very good with communicating with my friends when they live far away!  I figured now is also a good time as we are welcoming our first child into the world. They grow so fast and this will be a good outlet to keep a journal for myself as well.  So here's to my very first blog post!  I actually wrote something in my word blog just this morning so I'll share that with you first!

June 18, 2011

I really didn’t think I would still be waiting for our baby at this point.  I know my due date is tomorrow, but I had such high hopes it would be here on the 15^th.   It was the full moon and I was banking on that!  It was also the Stanley Cup final, so in a lot of ways I hoped it wouldn’t be then, just because I didn’t want Mark to have to be torn between watching the game and watching the birth of our first child!  

Boston won!!!  Mark is pretty excited.  It’s been 30 some years since they won the cup last and Mark has been cheering for the team for 25 years!  That’s an awful long time to be faithful to a hockey team so it was quite a happy day for him!  We watched the game at Mark’s Uncle Myron’s with Josh and Cara, Tim and Angela, Jon and Lois, Kim and Greg, Jerome, Ralph, and Mark’s dad came too.  Out of all those people, only Mark and I were happy that Boston won!  Haha.  Game 7 was in Vancouver and after wards there was a whole bunch of rioting in the streets.  People were turning over vehicles, setting them on fire, robbing stores, breaking windows and I think over 150 people ended up in the hospital!  Mark said he read on the news that it was a planned riot and that it was just an organized group of people who had nothing to do with the hockey game, they just wanted an excuse or a place to hide.

On other subjects, it’s strange how my anticipation of the baby’s arrival has been changing.  A week ago I was waking up every morning thinking ‘Is it going to be today?”  Now I wake up in the morning thinking ‘Oh it’s not going to be today.’ 

One thing God has been showing me in the last month is how the birth of a baby compares to His second coming.  At first the thought of it sounds weird, but I keep thinking of more and more things that paint a picture of what it's like to wait with anticipation and preparedness.  Jesus says we don’t know the day or the hour of his return, but we should be prepared.  I've always wondered what exactly that means.  A lot of people think it's a waste of time to study the end times in scriptures because it can be interpreted so many different ways, but I really think that studying is part what it means to be prepared.    It's the same way with a baby.  We spend so much time preparing for a baby.  Getting it’s room ready, buying stuff for it, thinking about it all the time, talking about it all the time, we read books and research all we can about labour and delivery and life with a newborn.  This doesn’t mean that we stop everything else in our lives just to focus on preparing for the baby, but it is always on the forefront of our minds.  This is how it should be with the 2^nd coming of Christ too.  We should always have eternity on our minds and always think of things in light of that.  The other thing I was amazed at was the signs.  Jesus himself says we won't know the exact date but he does give us a whole bunch of signs to watch for and tells us we will know the season, or around when it will happen.  This is exactly how it is with a child.  I know it's coming soon.  I feel all the signs; the false contractions, the lightening, the mild cramping; but all these things don't tell me exactly when the baby is coming, they tell me it will be soon, but it could still be a couple of weeks!     People tell me I will know for sure when I’m in labour, but there are so many times when I’ve wondered, “Is this what it feels like?”  “Is this it?”  I felt quite a few false contractions, especially in the last week and felt some mild cramping as well.  I don’t know how labour feels at the beginning stages; I’ve never felt it before, so how am I supposed to know?  I always thought it would be a sure thing.  I think this is a bit like Jesus coming back too.  Some of the signs are things that have happened before, but as we get closer to the day they get stronger.  We might wonder 'Is this it?' 'Well, this seems like what Jesus described.'  But maybe we won't actually KNOW until we feel the real thing!

I hope this all makes sense.  I'm not very good at writing down my thoughts and it may be a bit scattered, but hopefully you get the idea and it makes you think too.  

Well, I should perhaps go and do something useful.  It’s already 1:30 and I haven’t really done anything today yet.  I went for a walk, had a shower and that’s about it.  I’ve been trying to keep up my walking.  Today I went 2 1/2 miles.  Tomorrow’s my due date.  Man, I hope this baby comes soon!  This picture is at 39 weeks and 5 days.  One week after the last one!  I think it’s definitely grown!