Pregnancy, Exhaustion and Hunger, Oh My!

I am so tired, boy oh boy, there is nothing like pregnancy to let you know that you are a finite human who is bound by the need for sleep =)
Of course, today is the day I was planning on getting lots of work done, so yesterday I took it slow. Lesson learned: when you are feeling good, get the work done so that when you are exhausted and suffering from a headache you can rest.
Don't put off 'till tomorrow what you can do today.
But, by the same token, acknowledge that there are some seasons more restrictive then others and learn to work with them. As my darling reminded me last night, just being pregnant is work in itself. Caring for our growing baby and doing my part to protect his life by not overdoing it and risking miscarriage is important.
So, I will clean out the fridge tomorrow, for those of you who wanted to know =)

I have been thinking a lot about pregnancy and the importance of seeing it through biblical worldview glasses, if you will. Carrying a child is not a picnic to say the least. The adventure includes, though is not limited to: dealing with boughts of all day long nausea (forget "morning" sickness) for the first three months, finding that your bladder seems to be shrinking as you run to the bathroom for the third time this hour or getting up at 2 am for a bathroom break; you start wondering how your stomach became a bottomless pit that demands to be filled even when the very thought of food makes you sick; You may find yourself running from the kitchen, thinking that if you smell, let alone see food, you just might keel over and die, you can sleep for 12 hours straight and by 2 pm feel like you haven't slept in a week, and to top it all off your lower abdomen is sore from muscles being stretched as your uterus grows. Yep, the Lord wasn't kidding when He told Eve that in "sorrow thou shalt bring forth children". It can be easy to have a weak moment and cry about not wanting to feel this way for the next 20 years of your life.

We all need to take encouragement, the Creator and Sustainer of life sees a much bigger picture:

"And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God. . . blessed shall be the fruit of thy body. . . and the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body. . . " Deut. 28 :1, 4 & 11

"So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. . . he also had seven sons and three daughters" Job 42:12-13

"Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is His reward" Psalm 127:3

"The wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house. . . "Psalm 128:3

"And did He not make make one? Yet had He the residue to the spirit. And wherefore one? That He might seek a godly seed. There for take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth." Mal. 2:15

"That they may teach the younger women to . . . love their* children" Titus 2:4


Scripture teaches that children are a blessing, that they are to be raised to the glory of God and that God will never give us beyond what we can bear. So when pregnancy wears on my body I try to remember the blessing of this little life that God has intrusted to us, to realize the priviledge of having a child knit together in my womb- a priviledge that men don't have and the barren don't have-one that shouldn't be taken for granted.

*in the greek "their" is not in the text, it is literally to "love children"

Birthday and Baby

Today is my Darling's 22nd birthday!!! I made him breakfast in bed, a tradition I brought with me from the Hoffman family (my folks!). We had fun taking the morning slow and spending time together. Yesterday we had gone hunting with two of his brothers, Isaac and Phillip. The boys got up sometime between 4-5 am, I personally waited until the last minute and then jumped out of bed, ate and dressed. We were out there and in position by, I forget, 6:30 or so? Jon and Isaac both got deer; Jon got a 5 point buck and Isaac got an 8 point buck.

Since we didn't get home and in bed until 11pm we slept in today =)

Also, today marks the 12th week of pregnancy!!!

Jon and I have a little one due in June. The baby weighs approximately 1/2 oz and is the size of a large plum (about 2 1/2 inches!) Almost all of his systems are formed and just need time to mature. He already has teeth buds in his gums, a heartbeat, sexual organs, bones, cartilage, white blood cells, muscle, hair and finger nails! According to a site I was looking at, the baby can already move around: doing stretches, somersaults, and forward flips.

". . . Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise Thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are Thy works, that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from Thee when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy book all my members were written, in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there were none of them.

How precious are Thy thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them." Psalm 139:13-17

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