Mother Love

motherhood + home + family

PREGNANCY DIARIES // thirty six weeks

Time is such an odd thing, you know?


It feels like it goes so quickly and yet so slowly all at the same time. How does it do that? How does time have the ability to be both overwhelmingly quick and excruciatingly slow…? Somehow it just does. Somehow I both feel like the birth of our baby is so close and yet so far away yet. Some days I can hardly stand the wait any more, and then some moments I still question if we’re ready for this…

…and we are. We are so ready…as ready as any first-time parents can be who don’t fully know what their getting into. I know there are challenges…I know there are some big changes ahead for us in our home and relationship and family…but it’s all.so.very.good. If there’s one word I could use to describe this season of waiting is…ready.

So, thirty six weeks!

I clearly remember thinking ahead to these last weeks and feeling like they were so far away, and imagining how it would feel to be THIS close to the end…and now we’re here! Only a few weeks away from being full-term and HAVING OUR BABY. Unbelievable. But so believable! And wonderful!

I am still feeling really good in this pregnancy, although in the past week or so, I have some days when I am so.so.so tired. I’m not a big napper in general, but lately naps have been almost essential to make it through the day without falling asleep on my feet. I understand that’s pretty normal for this stage of pregnancy, so I just roll with it.  I’ve been sleeping a lot better at night too, which is so nice! Sometimes in the evening before bed, I get the restless leg thing, but so far it hasn’t been bad enough to keep me awake. 

My appetite is also a little strange too lately…because I have days where I feel like I could everything in sight and get hungry thirty minutes after eating a meal and just seem to eat.eat.eat all day long…and then the next day, I can barely finish a meal without feeling so overwhelmingly full and like I’m about to pop! I eat what I can, and then finish my plate an hour or so later when I feel like I have stomach space again. Still no cravings…and still eating a lot of yogurt and fruit and eggs and, um, chocolate. With the weather turning warmer (!!!), I’ve started making more smoothies in the afternoon to snack on and I usually throw in some spinach or cucumber or carrot to help get in more veggies. I tend to overdo the fruit part of the recommended daily produce intake, so if I can sneak my veggies into my fruit smoothies, that’s cool (i sound like a kid here). 

My belly continues to expand ever outward, which is good obviously! I feel like I’m quickly approaching the waddle stage, and I feel more pregnant than ever. I actually do kinda love it, and I find myself just laughing at myself when I go to heave myself out of bed or off the couch or out of the car…there’s a time to be graceful and there’s a time to just do what you have to do to get where you need to go, haha. I can rarely wear my regular jeans without having the top button undone and using the handy dandy rubber band/hair tie trick, and my one pair of maternity jeans get a lot of wear these days! I’ve threatened to keep wearing the maternity jeans even when I’m not pregnant because they are so comfy.

Our baby room is juuuuuuust about finished, and all the major stuff is all set up. I have two little things I want to put together yet to make it complete, but I need some tree branches for these projects and have been waiting for the snow to melt so I can go forage in the woods. Hopefully this weekend we’ll be able to get out and find what I’m looking for! All of my baby clothes are washed and folded, diapers and wipes ready to be used, and rocking chair and blankets just waiting for that little one.

I recently came across this verse in the Message version, and it speaks so well for this season: “Waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.” – Rom. 8:24, 25

So we wait and we enlarge, with the greatest of joyful expectancy.

What about you: what are your tips/ideas/suggestions for making it through the last few weeks of pregnancy?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

A MONTH OF NESTING // freezer meals

I can tell the thing they call “nesting” is hitting me.

I’m making lists and trying to knock out cleaning projects and empty closets and organize drawers and get rid of things we aren’t using or don’t need any longer. I’m a huuuuuuuge list-making-lover, and I always keep a composition notebook around with all my respective lists inside, which now has even more lists than normal inside. I have a phone app for lists too, but there’s just nothing quite like taking an actual pen to a page and crossing off something you accomplished. Don’t tell anyone…but sometimes I even put something on the list that’s already been done just so I can cross it off, haha.

Our countdown to baby is down to about five weeks, give or take however many. I’m actually not emotionally attaching myself to a due date because I know that babies come when they come, so mentally I just make myself think April. Maybe the beginning of April or maybe the end…and while of course I hope our baby decides to come sooner rather than later, I know it will hang out in there as long as it needs to in order to be ready to be born. And that’s ok.

One of the things I’m setting out to do before baby is stock our freezer with some ready-made meals…breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. We like to eat tasty and nutritious food as much as possible, and I know that my time will be limited in the kitchen in the weeks and months after our baby is born. The more I can prepare ahead of time the less we will need to rely on take-out or throw-together meals. We’ll want to have as much time as we can soaking up our little one’s first weeks and enjoying that short newborn stage, so the less we have to worry about making meals the better!

Some of the meal prep I have on my list include a lasagna or two, breakfast sandwiches, lentil hot pockets (crossed off yesterday!), white bean and sausage soup, batches of brown rice, lunch wraps, meatballs, and some chicken curries. I also want to do some snacky foods too, since I hear that keeping up with a hungry newborn can keep your appetite rolling and hungry as well! Nut and seed bars, granola bars, and oatmeal cookies are all on the list too. I’ve also cooked up a bunch of chicken to have on hand to throw on top of a salad or make chicken salad sandwiches or a quick chicken and hummus wrap. Quick and easy is where it’s at!

What about you: what are some of your favorite freezer meals to have on hand for those busy days? 

I’d love to hear your thoughts + suggestions!

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