yellowbug says:

The nieces always lift up my shirt trying to find Jack. At the beginning of pregnancy, I find that there is a lot of excitement and anticipation about this new phase of life. Then, as most things, you kinda get used to it. Let me rephrase that, you accept it. There's really no getting used to being pregnant. Then, towards the 6-month mark, you wonder if you'll ever NOT be pregnant. That's where I'm at right now. I had an unusually uncomfortable night Tuesday night (which happened to be our anniversary), and I cried to Matt about having to be pregnant for another three months. Most of the time, three months seems like a very SHORT amount of time left, but that night I wasn't sure I could make it. And then I'm faced with the reality of it, once again. There's absolutely nothing I can do about it. I remember back when I came back from YWAM, and I had gained more weight than ever before in my life. I remember looking in the mir...

While I've felt better physically over the last few weeks, I find myself wondering what normal used to feel like. Did I sit on the couch all evening after work? No. Did laundry sit in the laundry room just waiting to be put away week after week? No Did I go to bed between 8-9 every night? No Will I ever go back to that productivity and energy again? I've heard several new Mommies advise me to be gracious with myself after giving birth. Your body's not going to look the same. You may stay home from work, but you won't necessarily get all the dished done or finish the laundry. Plus, I'm terrified of postpartum depression. Nobody really talks about it. Ever. We're supposed to be overjoyed when our little bundle finally arrives, right?! We're supposed to want to cuddle with them all day and sleep next to them and hear them breathing. There's the fear of not bonding with my baby. I had a minor breakdown last night over...

I saw this online months ago and fell in love with it. I finally found it at KK's on Monday, and of course, got it for the nursery! First of all, I want you all to open up Youtube in a seperate window, and type in "Multiplied" by NEEDTOBREATHE. I am blaring that song on repeat as I'm writing this, so I want you all to experience the same thing! :) And this is where I start crying. I am so overwhelmed with thankfulness and excitement and nervousness all at once. I don't express these feelings very much b/c I so often hear the negative side of parenting. About how hard it is and overwhelming and there's sleepless nights and teething babies and diaper rashes. And I know that's in store for us, and believe me, I fear that side of it, but there's also an amazingly exciting part of parenting that creeps in every once in a while. In 4 short months, I'm going to get to hold my son!!! I'm going to kiss his sweet toes and sme...

So sorry for the gap in updates over the last few weeks! When I write, I always want to make sure I'm in a good frame of mind and am not stressed or overwhelmed or hurting b/c then it will just be  a really depressing post! My sweet friend, Erin gave Jack a onesie made from bamboo!! It is the softest thing ever! And I caved 2 days after we found out it was a boy and bought the other two. Honestly, there have been a lot of rough days over the last 3 weeks. Boo! It never ceases to amaze me how very different everyone's pregnancies are. If you were to go by the cookie-cutter pregnancy, I would think you would have some morning sickness in the first trimester,  feel this huge surge of energy in the second trimester, and then hit the wall of "get this baby out of me" in the third. My first trimester was full of energy and butterflies and roses, and now my second has been hit with a big lack of energy. It's so hard to explain how it feels, b...

Well, there is a LOT of excitement in the Fraley-Nowacek household this week! If you haven't seen on Facebook, we are having a BOY!!!! There is a fine line Matt & I traversed for the first 17 weeks of pregnancy. We love the idea of our firstborn being a boy. Leader of the siblings; that kind of thing. Matt is also the last boy on both the Fraley & Nowacek side to carry on his name. He does have one other male cousin. He's a neurosurgeon. I don't think neurosurgeons have kids. At least they don't on The Black Box. Grey's Anatomy proves me wrong... Anyway! We talked to each other about how much we wanted a boy, and when people would ask, we would say, "We just really need some boys in the family with 7 nieces and only 2 nephews." When we did the sonogram 2 weeks ago, we saw the baby's features for the first time. It was amazing! To see this human being stretching and kicking inside of you. Their little heart bea...

I had a pretty uneventful couple weeks in the realm of people saying weird things to me. Until yesterday. A cranky, old neighbor of ours came into the office yesterday. He has come in SEVERAL times lately because,  in his own words, "he's developed a crush on me." He's 86, mind you, married, with children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Whatever. So, he comes in yesterday and comments on how I still look pretty good. OK, we're doing OK. "You only gained about 3 lbs. in the last 2 weeks." Getting weirder. "Can I be honest with you?" By all means. "Your abdomen is getting bigger, but your boobs are getting smaller." Of course, at this point I'm just flabbergasted. Several thoughts run through my head. One being what I blurted out, "That's not even true!" The second being: An 86-year-old man has noticed the size of my boobs. The third being, once again, how very untrue tha...

I've been lathering a generous spread of coconut oil on my belly & boobs for the last few weeks. It's supposed to prevent and/or cut back on stretch marks. I know some women get stretch marks and it just happens and there's nothing they could do about it. I've never had stretch marks, and I'm terrified of them!! Apparently, it's genetic too and my Mom never got them with four kids, so my chances look pretty good. Either way, I was pretty sure I had found a stretch mark last night in the middle of my belly. I "ran" into the living room (my run is becoming more of a wog at this point), and pointed it out to Matt. Let's keep in mind I'm shirtless in this story. He lovingly looks at my imaginary stretch mark, and says it's not a stretch mark. Plus, it was in the middle of my belly. Not a normal starting point for a stretch mark. He then "lovingly" looks at my shirtlessness in front of him and s...

When I re-started my blog, I thought it would be filled with witty anecdotes and jokes about the joys of pregnancy and the wacky things people tell you. But what I have discovered is that pregnancy is heavy. Of course, literally, but emotionally too. I'm tearing up as I write this b/c every emotion is on the surface during pregnancy. Everything brings that sting to your eyes, and this is the one time in life where it's OK "because you're pregnant." I cried during worship a week ago. And then the offering song came on, "Great I Am", and Matt & I looked at each other knowingly b/c we LOVE that song, and I cried all over again. And then our speaker was a severely wounded Vietnam vet whose grenade he was holding  6" from his face was shot by a sniper and exploded all over his body. And I cried for the next half hour. And then we went up to pray with people, and for some reason, that ALWAYS makes me cry. Even before I...

I have previously written about peoples' funny comments to me which I thought were endearing and quirky so far. This last week, some of those comments crossed into the "that's none of your business" category. Pre-pregnancy I never posted one picture or video of what I do at CrossFit. Frankly, it's awkward to me to ask my coach, "Can you video me making funny faces and grunting while lifting this man wight? Thanks." But since I'm still lifting and doing CF during my pregnancy, I am proud of myself and wanted to show "the world" (i.e. Facebook) what it looks like for a pregnant woman to do CF. (b/c it's becoming more and more comical) With my first video, I had all positive comments. Lots of women my age really wish they would've continued working out during their pregnancy and vow to do so the next time around. Lots of women were so sick, they couldn't even think of working out. Since I've had s...

One thing I have become acutely aware of since finding out I was pregnant is a little thing called  PROTECTIVENESS. Now, we can be protective of our family and spouses, but ultimately, if they are adults, they can take care of themselves and we often just have to give any worry we have for them over to the Lord so we don't go crazy. Now, protectiveness for one's child, I have found, is completely different and no doubt it will only amplify over time. When I first found out I was pregnant, I was around 5 weeks along and Matt & I were driving back from the lake. We hit the eye of a vicious thunderstorm just outside of Lubbock. Now, I'm used to thunderstorms and driving in them. This was different. It caused us to pull to the side of the highway, narrowly missing the ditch to our right, and hoping we weren't hitting the car in front of us who had also pulled over. The rain was torrential to where we couldn't see a thing, and then th...

I heard stories, before I was pregnant, about how people would go up to pregnant women and feel their stomach or make comments like, "You know what causes that, right?" (To a mother of 3) or "It's a girl. I'm always right." (How exactly do you follow up with that?) I've had a few questions that I ponder afterwards like, "What do you a want?" I know this is a common question, and while my first instinct is always to answer with the cliche, "We just want a healthy baby" (b/c ultimately that's all you really want), I often answer with, "We need some boys in our family." I feel like if I say,"I want a boy" and I have a girl growing inside of me that she'll feel neglected. I know that sounds silly, but I want her to know from conception that she is wanted and loved no matter what she is. If it IS a boy, then that's great too, b/c we really are outnumbered in our Neufeld clan wi...

Well, it has been one year almost exactly since I have last posted. Wowza!  I seem to post during especially exciting times in life. Since I live a very normal life consisting of work, church and family, I don't often have a lot of interesting stories to share. I shared about my journey through engagement and early marriage. And then I shared a bit during a rough patch in marriage. And now I'm going to share during a very FUN time in marriage! PREGNANCY!!! Now, if you are one of those women who were or are very sick during your pregnancies, you're not gonna want to read my updates. I have had THE most pleasant pregnancy EVER! Like, seriously, the most dramatic symptom I've had is hormonal swings coupled with exhaustion and only wanting orange juice. On that particular evening, I cried to Matt that I didn't think I'd be able to do this for another 7 months. HA! That evening I realized I really was an adult now. That I was in a...