Preparation-H

No, this post is not about Hemorrhoids... the H stands for the Housecleaning of a pregnant women which is also commonly referred to as "nesting". That is my new full time gig these days. I am at home preparing to have a baby. Yet this extends far behind the setting up of a nursery. To prepare to have a natural childbirth (no medication or medical intervention) a housecleaning of the mind is also required. The Hypnobirthing class that I longed to take is just not going to work out... but it's ok, I figure women have been having babies for thousands of years without pain medication and the human race has still managed to thrive. Somewhere within me is the power and ability to have a baby I just have to find it. I have been trying to prepare my entire pregnancy but we have entered the home stretch... the third trimester and serious focus and training are critical. So here is a little about my training regiment which I have delightfully named preparation-H

The journey to becoming a parent is fun and exciting but it also leaves me asking a lot of questions. I truly believe what other mothers have told me, that I will look into those big baby eyes... fall madly in love and experience greater joys than I have ever known. Somewhere in the midst of it all the mother inside of me will emerge and instinct will kick in. It's the journey there that at times seems a little challenging and confusing. I mean this human growing inside of me needs to come out at some point, a thought I have at least once a day.

I also, like millions of women who have gone before me wonder about labor and delivery. I have opted to prepare for "Natural" childbirth (I put it in quotations because I am not trying to imply that receiving necessary medical intervention is somehow unnatural... because a lot of times it saves lives). My hope is no drugs, and no medical procedures. Just me and my body and my baby.

It can kind of be a lot to take in. I have been reflecting often on my experience of running a marathon as I prepare. Running a marathon is hard work and it takes a lot of preparation. I had to run six days a week, watch my diet to make sure I was getting enough calories and lots of water, and think positively because often it is a strong mind and not necessarily strong legs that get you across the finish line. You see during training 20 miles is usually the farthest you ever go... yet the race is 26.2 miles. I asked a fellow runner once why you don't train the full 26.2. He said, "Because the last 6.2 miles you are running on sheer guts and determination." He was right.

After about 18 miles I wondered if my body could make it... yet my mind was strong. I had spent hours upon hours in practice runs visualizing myself finishing, thinking about the thrill of crossing the line and seeing my family there who had supported me all along. At the start of the race I asked others who had run marathons before what their advice for me was... and a common answer was in essence to "Enjoy the journey."

So when it hurt I would reflect on what an amazing experience it was... I would think about the beautiful surrounding of Duluth Minnesota and Lake Superior, I would feel overwhelmingly joyful at the water crews filled with happy volunteers dancing and playing music. I would savor each sip of water, run under every sprinkler and water hose, talk to and smile at each person I saw because I knew this was the experience of a lifetime (because you only get one first time).

I am trying to apply my marathon training to my baby preparation. I know it will be hard work... stretching my body to the limit (literally and figuratively). I know I have not experienced anything like it before and especially not the last "6.2 miles". But I am trying to enjoy the journey and keep a positive attitude.

Preparation-H

I have finished reading the Hypnobirthing manual... despite my not taking the actual class I am able to apply the things I learned in it on my own. Plus I have an excellent resource to use, my sister in Law Julia used this method and had a great experience...

The author Marie Mongan encourages women to set aside all fear as they approach birth. Fear increases the feelings of pain by tensing important muscles that need to relax. The main focus consequently is relaxation and breathing techniques.

I practice these each day along with positive birth affirmations... which in essence are saying very positive things about how I want my experience to be and thinking about my baby.

I love it, I relax on the couch and listen to the soothing music and voice prompts that put me into deep relaxation.

The CD is called "Rainbow Relaxation"

And guides you through a visualization of walking through a rainbow and absorbing all of the colors. It encourages you to pick one color from the rainbow...
Now this is the point of my explanation where people might brand me a hippie for my love of holistic medicine and the acknowledgement that other things provide calming and healing besides pills and pain meds.

But I am not ashamed for I am not alone.

I have chosen Purple as my pregnancy color. It is the color of confidence, spiritual fulfillment, peace of mind, strength, wisdom and relaxation. It is a combination of red and blue... red being a color of focus and blue is calm and cooling. I figure a good combination of the two will be a needed balance to keep in the midst of birth.

I chose a theme color, if you will, when I ran the marathon too... only I choose the color pink and adorned my self in pink clothes, pink socks, and of course I painted my toe nails pink.

So part of the birth preparation occurred yesterday when I began sporting my new purple toe nails (sorry to people who hate feet for my posting a picture of me feet on my blog... Sarah Ware just close your eyes and scroll down). And trust me... this was quite an event. Painting your toe nails as a very pregnancy women is definitely not the easiest thing I have ever done. Trying to touch my toes at times seems impossible...

because I have to reach around or over THIS. (Note that I went from having the deepest cavern of a belly button to an outie!)

As small of a thing as painting my toenails may seem I know that during birth in my exposed state I will be able to see my toe nails and remember what they stand for.

I have also started reading this book written by Pam England who runs a birthing center in New Mexico (Yea for New Mexico!). It is incredible and I will be telling you more about it as I get deeper into it.

I have started a Birthing From Within journal where I answer questions she poses... write down my fears and worries, draw pictures and share stories and experiences.

It has been really helpful in allowing me to dig deep into my concerns and addressing them.

Plus there are fun activities which help me to anticipate and get excited for the birthing experience.

And what training program would be complete without some actual exercise. This is my daily yoga station. I have created my own preparation-H exercise routine with the help of YOUTUBE I found a few different pregnancy workout videos I like and do them each day. The diced tomato cans are my weights I use during squats and to work my biceps (I am going to need strong arms to carry around my little bundle of joy).

Other than that I am just trying to eat a balanced diet, and not give in to my every craving (although Chuck and I make sure to indulge in a few of my pregnant desires from time to time). I drink lots of water, try to stay active but also get lots of rest.

To all you moms out there...

What helped you most as you prepared for birth?

Color, Space, Warmth, Peace

How LONG has it been!!!! Oh how I have missed you all... and the Internet for that matter. It has taken us a little while to get everything set up in our new home and even longer to post because I spent so much time catching up on everyone Else's blogs first. Sorry to keep you all waiting so long, here is a little bit about what Chuck and I have been up to these last few weeks.
We packed it up. The whole Kit and Caboodle. I wondered how I would do moving being pregnant and all... but Chuck and worked out a nice system, I put most of it in the boxes and using his brute strength he hauled and shipped load after load. Go team Call!

Somewhere in the shuffle of it all, I got a little emotional. And I thought to myself, "WHY am I crying, I don't like this cold, stinky, cramped, moldy apartment!" Yet it had nothing to do with my surroundings, I was just thinking about all of the wonderful memories we had there. It will forever be our little honeymoon home... and for that I love it.

PLUS

As my mom pointed out, living here first will help us to appreciate other places we will live that much more.

Strangely enough I like moving, because it allows me to re asses my stuff/junk, get rid of things and reorganize. It also helps me find all of my bobby pins... which I will discover in the randomest of corners and crevices.

And clean off the fridge. Which was one of Chuck's only moving requests... "Tacy, in our new place can we only have like one thing on the fridge door?"

(I am still working on scaling back... What can I say I like magnets and pictures. )

So I said good-bye to the kitchen with absolutely no counter space.

The weird ethnic smells in the hallways (Indian + Chinese + American Cooking in a closed hallway with no ventilation = Stanky Stankness).

The Mold that grows in the floorboards.

The little tiny ants that would seem to appear out of thin air.

The cement floor.

The cold air which never got much above 69 degrees F.
The water on the window sills.

The bathroom fan that sounded like a rocket ship was launching.

And the complete and utter lack of closet space, or any space for that matter.

And just like that we were gone, and into our New Home!

We first decided that it needed a little bit of COLOR.

So we decided to paint the dining room Turquoise. And I LOVE it! I have been living in apartments for so long, and have never gotten up the nerve to paint, I always just think it will be such a hassle to paint it back before moving. Yet Chuck and I know we will be here for a couple of years while we start our family, so we felt it was well worth it to make the space our own.

I still have some sweet pictures to hang up. My friend Kristy B gave me a great idea to buy a cookbook and frame the pictures in it.

If you will notice the view into the kitchen you will see my new knight in shinning armor... the dishwasher.

I feel so much more excited to cook, especially knowing that clean up will be a breeze.

This is a stuffed pepper dinner I made the other night with enchilada sauce... Mmmmmm.

I have also been making bread with my new Kitchen Aid that we got at Christmas... what an incredible piece of machinery.

Oh just look at all this SPACE! All the counter top I could ever need, and more cupboards than I have food to fill.

Our new palace is also filled with WARMTH... we can adjust the heat ourselves, and we are never cold.

The bathroom is huge and so is the mirror in it... along with my belly, which I gave you a little 31 week belly side shot bonus in this photo.

We have an extra bedroom, which will one day soon become our baby girl's nook... yet for now it has been designated the massage room. Have I ever told you how thankful I am that my husband went to massage therapy school.

Lots of closet space.

We are still looking for some furniture for our large living room space.

This week we are getting a piano to put in here next to Chuck's guitars... we decided there will be lots of beautiful music in our home.

We are in heaven here. We feel at PEACE in our new place and look forward to spending the next few years here as our family grows.

Thanks for letting me show and tell. Come over and visit us sometime soon!

Christmas Hangover

Christmas was really great this year, 4 straight days of family and feasting. I have been spending the last couple of days trying to recover from all of the commotion. All of that excitement can sure wear a person out.... plus you can only eat so many cookies before you start to feel like butter and sugar are coursing through your veins.

Here are a few of the highlights...

The 23rd was my Birthday... 27 years young. I was treated to breakfast, got a foot rub and new knitting and crocheting tools from my hubby (there is a baby blanket already in the works). That evening we went to mom and dad Call's for the famous candle light dinner.

I say famous because this is where Chuck and I started our magical life together last year. So it is really special to us. Plus the food my mother in law makes is always incredible. Prime rib, shrimp, green beans, potatoes, crescent rolls, and delicious salads... I felt like royalty.

Plus my in-laws have this great tradition that when it is someones birthday everyone in the family tells that person why they like them. So everyone went around the table and gave me a compliment... so nice to be loved, and I always feel like having family around is all one could really ask for on their Birthday.

But as if that wasn't enough... I got a Pampered Chef garlic press (There is no substitute!)

Then we were all treated to Chuck and his brother Dan's annual wrestling match. I believe Chuck has kicked Dan's trash countless years in a row.

Yet it appeared this year Dan would triumph when he put Chuck in this little maneuver.
(don't you love the matching PJ bottom's mom Call made for them!?)

However Chuck unleashed the beast, got his head out from between Dans thighs and tackled him to the ground. I really wish I had audio to go with this picture because Chuck was screaming and grunting something but I was laughing too hard to remember what it was.

So for another year Chuck remains triumphant.

Jason and Chuck played Christmas songs for all of us to sing along to... and we made some beautiful harmonies together.

I learned how to finish a quilt.

And I got to see Toni! My also very pregnant sister in law. Her and Dan live in Idaho and we haven't seen them since our wedding in May. We are due only a few weeks apart, and are looking forward to our babies being really close in age, and hopefully great friends.

We spent Christmas day with my side of the family... but I was busy in the kitchen and didn't take any pictures (bummer). My sister came into town and it was great to see her. We celebrated her 29th birthday on December 26th by playing Rock band at my brother's house. Good times.

Hope all of you in Blogger land had a Merry Christmas!

Christmas is almost here...

I hope you were good this year!

This is my brother in law Parker... Chuck and I went to the Macy's display on the 8th floor of Macy's downtown with him last week. It was an anamatronic presentation of "The Day in the Life of an Elf." It was cute and Santa Claus was at the end along with the gift shop and a bunch of ther treats that you could buy.

I remembered going when I was little and thinking it was so amazing, I still thought it was cool but more enjoyed the 8 floor escalator ride and trying out all the matresses on the 5th floor on the way back down.

This will probably be my last post for a couple of weeks... I have familiy in town and I plan on soaking up all the time with them that I can.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

We ate the Cake

That is the little topper of our wedding cake. It has been chillin in my parents meat locker freezer out in the garage since May. I know there is this tradition where you wait until your one year anniversary to eat it. But... when I checked on it the other day it was starting to get the freezer crystals on the side. In fear of freezer burn flavor ruining our precious treat... and due to my sweet tooth we thawed it out and went to town. Mmmmm it was good. Neither of us really got to eat any at our reception... My mom sure did a good job of picking it out. Surprisingly Chuck ate more than me (which can often be hard to do).

SO happy almost 7 month anniversary cake eating day to us!

A lot has happend in 7 short months... and just to prove it here is a pic of the belly for all of the pregnant belly stalkers out there.

25 weeks down

What a GRAND day.

The job interview went great! We got the property management position and a 2 bedroom apartment that is huge! Baby girl is going to have quite the crawl space. It is on Grand Ave, which is such a great part of the city.

The man who interviewed us asked about the missionary service that we had put on our resumes. It turns out he has done a lot of missionary work in his life for various churches. When he told us that we got the job, he said, "The mission got me." I remember people telling me that serving a full time mission would bless my life countless ways and I already feel that it has, yet I never imagined it would catch the eye of an employer looking for a couple to manage his apartment complex...

There are a lot of little things that all fell into place to help this work out. We feel like God has pointed us is a new direction and we are excited to move forward.

We get to move in a little at a time throughout this month (without having to pay double rent). SO the move will be completely stress free. I am excited to finally get to use all of our wedding gifts that have been packed away in my parents shed because we had no room for them here. I kind of want to wrap them all again and put them under the Christmas tree!!! This just feels like a Christmas miracle... plus it's snowing outside today :)

One and a half to go

Only one and a half weeks left of the semester (before finals that is)... and it's a good thing because I literally only have one and a half inches left between my baby belly and the desks at school.

Good news

Chuck and I have a job interview on Tuesday.

We have been interviewing together for apartment management/caretaking positions

I like having job interviews with my husband (go team!)

If we get this job (oh please oh please of pretty please)

We will get to live in a

2 BEDROOM apartment

with

CARPET

and

5 CLOSETS

and... oh could it even be true?!?!?!?!?!?

A DISHWASHER!!!!!!!!!!

I feel like this opportunity came straight from heaven. I have been praying really hard that we would find somewhere that we could afford (first and foremost), and kept us in the area, and was a wonderful place to bring home a new baby. We will see how it goes on Tuesday, but I have a feeling this is going to be the best Christmas present I ever could have hoped for.