This morning the Lord granted me something I deeply needed. Perspective. Somewhere between begging God for sleep and "yelling" at my husband (he calls it yelling, but I think that is up for debate), I had divine clarity.
Henry is currently teething...and growing...and learning...and well, being a baby. He has made it abundantly clear that he does not need or want the amount of sleep that I so graciously bestow upon him. And while seemingly every child around me loves to sleep, I am left with the most wide-eyed baby known to man.
I will never forget the words of Henry's pediatrician, "this is the most tired you will ever be!", just three days after Henry was born. False. False, false, false. Newborn babies sleep so much better than older babies. Older babies are so aware of their surroundings. They have mastered the cognitive concept of "object permanence". What a beautiful thought that my baby knows I still exist after I leave the room. And what a horrible reality for sleep. They have come to realize that they are powerful, tiny humans with great say.
I was not prepared for the reality of night wakings in the later months. I had always assumed it would only get better. And though ultimately I know it will get better, I am still left feeling exhausted and frustrated. I am mainly frustrated with myself, wondering where I may have gone wrong in our sleep training (or lack thereof).
It is in these moments of frustration that the Lord tugs at my heart. When He whispered Isaiah 40:28-31, it reminded me of my utter need for strength from my savior. Not just in the sleepless nights, but in every aspect of motherhood. I know that there will be many more moments where I will question which direction I am to take and whether I have made the right decisions. Ultimately, I will face larger parenting hurdles that have greater consequences than lack of sleep. But what better time to practice relying on my Father than during these small hurdles. I know that I have a God who never grows tired and he has offered to pick up my burden and carry it for me.
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
One day I will look back at this tiny moment in my life and I will see beauty. Those nights of rocking my sweet boy will have vanished, but I know that I will still remember the way he felt in my arms. My sweet bundle of needy joy is such a picture of how I need my Father. He is teaching me daily to follow his lead and give grace and patience to Henry. I am thankful that even when I have a spirit of frustration, the Lord reminds me of the brevity of this season. He reminds me to draw on his strength. All of the sudden a sleepless night isn't so scary.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Body After Baby Part 1
Please bear with me. As I write, I have a 6.5 month old grabbing the computer. Therefore, I type quickly.My thoughts may sometimes be scrambled, and there may be spelling errors. No judgment please!
Believe it or not, the road to the recovery of my pre-Henry body actually happened before Henry was even born. Being the research fiend that I am, I spent a good amount of time reading about pregnancy and post-pregnancy fitness. I didn't want to have any "I wish I had known that!" moments.
I started the first few weeks of my first trimester like many pregnant women: afraid to move. I didn't want to jostle my new resident. My common sense and everything that I had read told me that this was silly; he was in there protected by my squishy womb bubble. At around 12 weeks, I let go and fully realized that my nugget was in the Lord's hands. He was knitting him together in my womb, after all. I then got moving.
Because my financial situation did not allow for a gym membership or paying for expensive classes, I really relied on at home exercise.
I started doing this video daily. I also did lots of walking. I can't stress enough how important walking is. Especially when you don't feel like moving, it really energizes you! I also loved Amira's belly dance and yoga video.
Being pregnant also inspired me to eat better than I ever had in the past. I certainly splurged from time to time, but I did not use the pregnant license "I can eat whatever I want".
It should be noted that I did NOT watch my weight gain during pregnancy. I truly believe that you can do everything right and gain a lot of weight. Your body is going to do what it is going to do. You need to trust that. Watching the scale is great in the beginning when you don't gain much weight, but after that it really goes downhill fast.
I ate when I was hungry and attempted to make healthy choices. Due to my serious aversion to meat, I relied on protein shakes and eggs to help fill me up while meeting mine and baby's protein needs.
My favorite pregnancy protein shake (rough measurements):
8 ice cubes
1.5 bananas
1/4 cup almonds
3 TBS peanut butter
1 TBS honey
1/2 cup almond milk or regular milk
1 scoop whey protein
As I neared the end of my pregnancy I continued to walk, do yoga videos and belly dance. I also did pregnancy appropriate ab workouts. This is really important for the success of ab rejuvenation after baby. I loved these videos.
Zoom ahead to Henry's birth, one week postpartum I started wearing The Bellybandit. There are many mixed reviews on the matter of belly binding, but I must say that for me, it worked. I wore it every day for 2 months. On days that I didn't wear it I noticed my belly slowly go back out over the course of a couple days. After weeks of wearing it I noticed my belly eventually didn't go out again and my waist was back to its pre-baby size. Would it have done that with out the binding? Maybe. But it did shrink awfully quickly! I believe that over time it would have done this on its own-but the binding certainly expedited the process.
7 Weeks postpartum:
In my next post (and I PROMISE it will not take so long this time!), I will share my postpartum secrets I used along with the belly binding in the first weeks after baby.
Believe it or not, the road to the recovery of my pre-Henry body actually happened before Henry was even born. Being the research fiend that I am, I spent a good amount of time reading about pregnancy and post-pregnancy fitness. I didn't want to have any "I wish I had known that!" moments.
I started the first few weeks of my first trimester like many pregnant women: afraid to move. I didn't want to jostle my new resident. My common sense and everything that I had read told me that this was silly; he was in there protected by my squishy womb bubble. At around 12 weeks, I let go and fully realized that my nugget was in the Lord's hands. He was knitting him together in my womb, after all. I then got moving.
Because my financial situation did not allow for a gym membership or paying for expensive classes, I really relied on at home exercise.
I started doing this video daily. I also did lots of walking. I can't stress enough how important walking is. Especially when you don't feel like moving, it really energizes you! I also loved Amira's belly dance and yoga video.
Being pregnant also inspired me to eat better than I ever had in the past. I certainly splurged from time to time, but I did not use the pregnant license "I can eat whatever I want".
It should be noted that I did NOT watch my weight gain during pregnancy. I truly believe that you can do everything right and gain a lot of weight. Your body is going to do what it is going to do. You need to trust that. Watching the scale is great in the beginning when you don't gain much weight, but after that it really goes downhill fast.
I ate when I was hungry and attempted to make healthy choices. Due to my serious aversion to meat, I relied on protein shakes and eggs to help fill me up while meeting mine and baby's protein needs.
My favorite pregnancy protein shake (rough measurements):
8 ice cubes
1.5 bananas
1/4 cup almonds
3 TBS peanut butter
1 TBS honey
1/2 cup almond milk or regular milk
1 scoop whey protein
As I neared the end of my pregnancy I continued to walk, do yoga videos and belly dance. I also did pregnancy appropriate ab workouts. This is really important for the success of ab rejuvenation after baby. I loved these videos.
Zoom ahead to Henry's birth, one week postpartum I started wearing The Bellybandit. There are many mixed reviews on the matter of belly binding, but I must say that for me, it worked. I wore it every day for 2 months. On days that I didn't wear it I noticed my belly slowly go back out over the course of a couple days. After weeks of wearing it I noticed my belly eventually didn't go out again and my waist was back to its pre-baby size. Would it have done that with out the binding? Maybe. But it did shrink awfully quickly! I believe that over time it would have done this on its own-but the binding certainly expedited the process.
7 Weeks postpartum:
In my next post (and I PROMISE it will not take so long this time!), I will share my postpartum secrets I used along with the belly binding in the first weeks after baby.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
