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- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: pregnancy
I am 28 weeks pregnant today, and it seems that I have lost all of my puking skills from first trimester (particularly seeing it coming and not making a mess).
Generally I've been feeling good - a healthy appetite, no nausea for months - so I missed the key signs that my body was NOT happy with my breakfast today. I did finally clue in that I shouldn't eat everything on my plate, that each bite I felt progressively grosser, and I kept sneezing (a really weird way that my body has coped with nausea while I'm pregnant). I took my dishes to the kitchen and felt a wave of nausea that I knew wouldn't end in a sneeze.
I more or less destroyed my kitchen and then my bathroom. Once all the yuckiness had passed I cleaned up and hopped online to share (it helps, really). Now I think I will take a little nap. Thanks for your support :)
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Life
Last week Matt and I celebrated the 6th anniversary of our first date. It's a little tradition we have to remember November 8, although year to year we haven't been very consistent in what exactly we do - sometimes one or both of us comes up with a gift, or we make a nice dinner at home or we go on a fabulous date. This year we talked about going to the restaurant where our first date took place, but the more we thought about it.... the more we both really wanted sushi, lol. Also it turns out that restaurant is now closed. RIP Sierra Grill. Thanks for a good dinner back in 2006 <3
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Life
It has been an interesting week so far, marked by lower back pain, eeeaarly mornings, and anticipating Remembrance Day by playing the trumpet and intermittently being stabbed by my poppy.
I am very excited to be playing the Last Post for the church’s Remembrance Day service this year. I sold my trumpet in the Spring because I never played it and it needed a professional cleaning, but I didn’t want to spend the money on that knowing that it probably wouldn’t be played anyways. I haven’t regretted selling it, and I only occasionally miss playing it (which I also did when I still owned it in its not-playable condition), but I am having a lot of fun this week on a borrowed trumpet getting my face back into shape to play for this Sunday. Rumour has it the borrowed trumpet may actually be donated to the church, in which case I could play it for future special events and also have access to it at the church for those random trumpet hankerings I get sometimes.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: pregnancy
I am 26 weeks along, and now that November is here I can start saying I'm 6 months pregnant! I'm not counting months every four weeks because then if I make it to my due date I'll get to 10, and who wants to be 10 months pregnant on their due date? Not me! November is an exciting month because Matt and I will finish our prenatal class, and since I am beginning the third trimester we'll have two midwife appointments instead of just one.
In our prenatal class last week we started talking about when the baby actually arrives - breastfeeding and bathing and not sleeping and generally letting your life get turned upside down because fighting it only makes it harder and it's not forever. I'm not wishing this pregnancy away by any means, but I am getting so excited for the Truck to be on the outside where it will be so much easier to tickle and squeeze its feet!
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Life
Matt and I are undertaking a challenge this month to quit using our credit and debit cards cold turkey.
A lot of financial advice people suggest using only cash, and when we first started budgeting we tried doing cash only in separate envelopes or jars for different categories. It was too complicated to keep track of though, and too easy to end up stuck somewhere without the cash we needed. As we’ve tweaked our approach to budgeting over the last few years, I think we’ve found a pretty good middle ground in using plastic for convenience but not to overspend.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
I'm still in the process of figuring out how to deal with the rubber of my faith meeting the road of my life right now. It is weird to be a lifelong Christian and feel so at a loss. It's good because all of the cliches that are failing me will hopefully be things I remember not to offer other people, but it is also disconcerting to face so many classic Christian truths with a blank stare and a HOW?
I couldn't sleep the other night (thank you acid reflux) and started reading through old journal entries. I was re-struck by John 14:4-6a, which I copied into my journal back in April. It says,
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Life
This past week I had a huge crisis that basically put me in a downward spiral to the lowest point I can remember since January. The short version of the story is that the church where Matt works is a hot mess, and circumstances around that have left me hurt, frustrated, disillusioned and spent. I've been blessed since January to be attending another church in our community where God shows up for me in so many ways and has brought a lot of healing and comfort over the past many months. As part of that process, I began to experience a renewal of hope for Matt's church and its future, and our potential future there, and then last weekend those small green shoots of hope in my soul were basically torn up, set on fire and crapped on.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: pregnancy
We had an ultrasound done this week to follow up on some things from the first ultrasound back in September. Nothing was really out of the ordinary, but there were a few things they wanted to monitor and make sure they stayed proper. One issue was a tiny cyst in the baby's brain, which is not uncommon or dangerous but they wanted to make sure that it "resolved" - aka went away on its own as normal. The other issue was that the size of the brain ventricles were at the high end of normal range, and they wanted to make sure they stayed in a healthy range or else there could have been risk for brain damage.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
A letter:
To the baby growing inside me, who has a heartbeat but no legal rights,
Whose kicks I feel daily, but who won’t count as a person
until you squirm right out of my womb
(be gentle, okay?),
You count to me.
I love you already.
When I think about you, I suck in my stomach a little bit
Because I can’t wait to hold you,
And sandwiching you between my abs and my intestines will have to do for now.
I take a deep breath so my lungs can hold you too
And exhale, wonder if you’re dreaming,
Wonder if you can read my mind,
Wonder who you will be.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Uncategorized
I have yet to decide when I will begin my maternity leave, but I have been thinking about it a lot. First of all, what a fantastic blessing that I can collect money for a whole year for doing nothing except having been employed while I was pregnant. And how great that after this year off I can waltz right back to my job like I never left – I do not take it for granted that I have a whole lot of job security compared to pregnant women in different times and places.