fetal weight loss during pregnancy | Its just another day

fetal weight loss during pregnancy

 

What a day.

What. A. Day.

So this morning the toddlers came in my room yelling, "Hot chocolate! Hot chocolate!" We have been having a cup of hot chocolate every morning since we decorated for Christmas, so that they wanted a hhot chocolate wasnt a problem. The timing of their wish most certainly was.

I had them wait. I got out of bed. I came to the kitchen for them to get into a fight over who gets which spoon. I warmed up breakfast. {Mommy tip: make huge batches of breakfast and heat it up over the next couple days. This week we had pancakes and oatmeal. This has made our mornings much smoother!} One of our toddlers had a stinky diaper that he did not want changed. He made it very clear he wanted to remain in his stinky diaper-- though no one wanted to be near him. In fact, he had to go to his room to calm down before I changed that diaper. When he finally emerged, his brothers were yelling, "HOT CHOCOLATE!" I told them if they keep yelling at me, there would be no hot chocolate. That we must be patient. (There was much confusion over the definition of this word, patient: perhaps it is an old wooden ship used during the Civil War era? No...) I changed the diaper. He joined his brothers at the breakfast table.

I finished making their breakfast plates. They continued dropping hints about hot chocolate. I continued telling them to wait. I glared at the Keurig to hurry up and heat up the water-- must have coffee now! Finally it all came together. Finally I made myself a plate. I sat down with my cup of coffee and my small plate of pancakes (you know, whatever was left) and started eating. Immediately, toddlers start exclaiming, "Sticky! All done! EW! STICKY!" I gave them baby wipes to clean their hands. They put their baby wipes in their hot chocolate and rang them out over their heads... I asked them to stop. Our oldest asked if he could watch a Christmas movie (also been letting them watch more movies earlier, due to the holiday season). I told him not yet. The toddlers demanded to get down. Our oldest wanted to know when we could watch one. I told them all that I would assist them after I ate my breakfast.

And so they asked me for the next five minutes if I was done.

When I cleaned all the hands and cleared all the plates, I discovered our dishwasher was ran before we went to bed last night, meaning I had a dishwasher full of clean dishes and about 5 plates, 4 mugs, 4 forks, and 1 knife filling the sink. Plus my husbands breakfast dishes (1 pan, 1 plate, 1 fork). The boys are now running free is syrup coated pajamas. I put the dishes in the sink, turned away from the dish mess, and went to deal with the boys. We changed clothes. They resisted taking off snowman jams. Our 5-year old insisted that he either wanted to wear his pajamas all day or nothing at all. I went to their rooms only to find no jeans in any of their drawers. I literally got them dressed sitting on the floor next to the dryer, pulling their freshly cleaned clothes right out of the dryer and tossing their pajamas in the washer as I undressed them. Our 5-year old approved, "We should get dressed like this everyday! Then I wont need a hamper anymore!" (For some reason all our boys dislike their hamper.)

The bad thing about getting them dressed in the laundry room is that I had to walk through the kitchen and see the kitchen mess again. Ugh. I tell them I want to take a shower now and they need to behave. I dont know what set him off, but one of our toddlers then started throwing a tantrum. Time out. I calm him down and tell them to behave. I told our oldest that there was no wrestling allowed while I was in the shower. He promises he understands. The other toddler follows behind me, "Hungry, hungry, huuuuuungryyyyyy...." No way is he hungry with 2 hearty bowls of oatmeal and 3 pancakes in that tummy, plus the glass of hot chocolate. I tell him he needs to go play. He throws himself face down in my bathroom. Time out.

I finally got in the shower. While I was rinsing the conditioner out of my hair from my super fast shower, two of my boys bust in the bathroom accusing the third boy of biting one of them. And sure thing, one of the toddlers has a huge bite mark on his shoulder. The other toddler-- the accused toddler-- is pointedly not  in the bathroom with his brothers. And so I rinse, get out and go sort this all out. Time out for the biter. Apologies, tears, hugs, lectures... An injured party. It was very dramatic. I cant believe he bit his brother while I was in the shower. Over a block tower.

I start thinking they need fresh air. I get ready. They wrestle. One of the toddlers falls off the couch. Our 5-year old feels his brothers are being too loud. The toddlers want to watch Frosty the Snowman. Our dog wants to go out. I felt like they just didnt want me to get anything accomplished. I wasnt entertaining them and I wasnt getting our stuff together so we could get outside and walk to the park. Nothing was coming together and they were all fighting, arguing, crying. I wanted a hug.

Lunches packed. Shoes on (why is it always the same child who cant ever find his shoes?). A debate ensued over whether or not they needed jackets (me saying it wasnt cold enough, our 5-year old saying his brothers needed their puffy coats). The toddlers fought over who could carry the lunch bag. All three fought over who could carry the picnic blanket. All three argued with me over whether or not they could bring toys (me: no; them: yes. I won). Keys forgotten. All go back inside. All go back outside. Finally on our way. Find the perfect spot. Realize we forgot waters. Do we walk back? No, we stay.

I settle us into our spot and the boys all fought to sit in my lap! What?! We get out of the house to go play-- at an empty playground, no other kids or adults to feel shy around-- and they want to quietly sit in my lap?! After wrestling on my couch all morning?! I insisted they go play.

So I listened to them fight over the swing. And over the random toys they found in the sandbox. And I wondered, "Why did I go through all this trouble to take them over to the park just to listen to them fight here? At home I have my book. My coffee. I dont have the problem that I forgot to pack water." I was just about to pack us up to go home when one of my girlfriends walked over and met us at the park. I chatted with her. The boys wandered away. They ran; they chased; they played. They went down the slides. The swung on the swings. And I relaxed. We ended up walking home feeling better, tummies full from our packed lunch.

They were happy until we got home and they realized it was naptime. I wrangled them into bed. It was one of those days that you look at the clock and think, "Is it seriously only 1:30 pm? There are so many hours left in the day!"

Im still not sure what Im going to do with all those hours.

Im just hoping the second half of our day is smoother than the first half of our day!

Do you find information about fetal weight loss during pregnancy are you looking for? If not, below may help you find more information about the fetal weight loss during pregnancy. Thank you for visiting, have a great day.

fat weight loss during pregnancy | Having friends with a busy family

fat weight loss during pregnancy

As luck would have it, the Navy brought an old friend back into our lives! I love that aspect on military life, the possibility of being stationed with friends again! Our neighbor from Hawaii just moved to South Carolina and now lives basically down the road from us. The last time I saw her, my oldest was about the age of her little 1-year old son. Now I have a 5-year old and 2-year old twins. She has a sweet, bubbly 1-year old who was content snacking on Plum Organic Puffs in a high chair while her and I caught up. As you can imagine, my boys were less than agreeable.

2 and a half is just a straight up hard to manage age. It is difficult to deal with when you have one child. It is even more difficult with two 2 and a half year olds. Even more difficult than that? When you also have an older sibling in the mix. The toddlers want everything their older brother touches. They take his toys, they try to climb in the chair hes sitting on. If hes playing on the floor, they want to climb on his back, wrestle with him. If hes outside, they want to go outside with him. And, of course, he can always get an argument going. They will be sitting at the table and hell walk over and say, "No." Out of the blue. No context. Nothing to do with what they are doing. Just, "No." Immediately their panties get in a knot, "Yes!" they scream. He counters, "No." And so a heated debate ensues, "Yes!" "No." "Yes!" "No." "Yesyesyesyesyesyes!" "Nononononono!"

To quote the Grinch, "Oh, the NOISE NOISE NOISE NOISE!"

I feel like the boys were so badly behaved during that whole playdate. Im definitely not saying that normally they are extremely well behaved, but things that normally arent such an issue were really difficult. Like, for some reason, our 5-year old started throwing his napkin in the air while sitting at the table eating lunch. He has literally never done that before. I was sitting with my girlfriend in the playroom, chatting, and we heard the loudest clanging coming from the family room. One of the toddlers had filled a bucket with blocks and dumped it upside down all over the floor. There were toys strewn everywhere. The toddlers screeched, "Noooo," when I told them to do something (honestly, so did our 5-year old). Our toddlers normally get tired and grouchy around 1 or 2, signaling naptime. They were behaving like they needed a nap at 12:30 pm! Omigosh, I think I apologized for interrupting our conversation to mediate arguing, screaming children like 10 times. When my husband came home that evening, I told him that it was just embarrassing.

My girlfriend, of course, was super sweet and didnt seem phased at all by our boys behavior. It is times like that that I wish I had a video of how things "normally" are around here, just so I can say, "It really isnt normally like this." Yes, things are normally busy. We normally have some degree of brotherly disagreements. We normally have a couple accidents, someone fell or something broke. We normally end up slightly off schedule or slightly late. We normally eat dinner a smidgen later than I wanted to. The toddlers are normally unpredictable at meal times-- will they eat today? Our 5-year old is normally extremely curious-- which has led to experiments gone awry. But normally it is just the right amount of chaos to keep each day exciting, keep me on my toes, keep things fun. Normally I dont need a referee whistle.

As a mom, it can be hard when your kids dont behave. In this instance, I really wanted them to put their best foot forward. I think I feel most self conscious of their behavior when hanging out with a mom who has younger kids than ours, when they havent "been there" yet. Now that our oldest is 5, some of the behaviors that I disagreed with in older children when he was an infant, I have found are just 5-year old behaviors. Some things I felt we would be strict on, we arent. Some things I thought we would be relaxed about, we arent. Some things I felt were signs of bad parenting, I dont anymore. Some things I felt were signs of good parenting, I dont anymore. It still can be hard when our kids arent being the sweet boys I know they can be, when they dont show the charming sides of themselves that we see. When the only glimpse given to a new (or new to them) friend isnt the glimpse I would have chosen.

This is why Im grateful for the friends in our life. Yeah, my girlfriend was probably a little overwhelmed yesterday. A 1-year old is seriously adorable, especially her sweet little boy. But she was understanding and actually wants to meet up with us again soon! :) Im not just grateful for our non-judgmental mommy friends. I mean all our good friends, our married friends without kids who truly enjoy hanging out with us and who always are exceedingly sweet to our boys (seriously, who wouldnt love people that not only say they love our boys, but who also play with them while I clean up dinner? Yeah. Fabulous). Our adult friends-- single, dating, engaged-- that find our busy family fun. My girlfriends that chat with our kids on the phone, that have special treats for them when we come to visit, that are available when we come to town for a girls night out (I love when my girlfriends love my kids and I love when my girlfriends take me out without my kids! Lol!). I love our friends who also have big families, like the friends I made in North Carolina with kids spaced like ours, twins and a singleton, or families with kids similar ages as ours, like a new friend made here in South Carolina. It is nice to be able to tell someone that the kids went nuts when company came over and they truly relate. Haha! :)

 

And, of course, friends like the gal I met up with yesterday who have littler kids than ours, who are accepting of our boys-- the good, the bad, and the downright toddler tantrums. I know from first hand experience how it feels to hold your sweet, well-behaved infant and watch a toddler have an epic meltdown over, say, a napkin. I know how it feels to think, "I will handle that much differently." I know how it feels to be absolutely surprised when my adorable toddler is face down and red-faced when company comes over or snatching toys at a playdate (or worse, snatching toys and then hitting his friends with those toys). I think that is part of the reason why I feel so self-conscious of the boys behavior in those situations, because I was that gal with the little guy before and I know what I thought on many occasions.

It really has been a humbling experience for me being on the other side of this scenario, the one with more kids, older kids. I hope that I can be the friend to these gals that my friends with more and older kids were to me back then.

What do you do when your kids misbehave?

Do you find information about fat weight loss during pregnancy are you looking for? If not, below may help you find more information about the fat weight loss during pregnancy. Thank you for visiting, have a great day.

quick weight loss during pregnancy | With a little help from my friends

quick weight loss during pregnancy

What do you do when your love is away?
Does it worry you to be alone?
How do you feel at the end of the day?
Are you sad because youre on your own?
No, I get by with a little help from my friends.
Mmm, I get high with a little help from my friends.

Mmm, gonna try with a little help from my friends.
-The Beatles

Ive spent a lot of time talking this week. Well, first I spent a lot of time reading, avoiding what I was thinking about. Then it built and built until I was lying on the floor of our sunroom crying during naptime. While I was lying there, sun shining in, I thought, "What am I doing? I need to talk about this." So I watched the clock until it was an appropriate time to call my girlfriend who is in a completely different time zone. As soon as I heard her voice, I started crying.

"Hello?"

Crying, "Is it the crack of dawn there?"
"Um, I think you have the wrong number...?"
"Its me! Kimber!"
"Girlfriend! Whats wrong? Are you okay?"
"I hate the Navy!"

I dont hate the Navy. I miss having these conversations with her face to face. I miss deciding that I dont want to eat dinner alone and driving over to her house for dinner. I miss my other friends. I miss them coming over for "movie night," where we end up splitting a bottle of wine and talking all night. I miss these Navy wives who are walking along the same road as I am, who have become family.

This is my husbands senior year in the STA-21 program. He has 16 credit hours this semester, plus being on staff at the ROTC. Next semester he will have 19 credit hours, plus being on staff at the ROTC and senior project. He signed up for classes this past week. Before that, I was telling myself, "Lets get through this semester. Lets make it to Thanksgiving, then finals, then Christmas break. Spring semester will be easier." Now I look at his credit hours-- 19! and hes working on getting approval for 22!-- and my heart sinks. It wont be easier. Which made think very negatively (I have said before that Im a deliberate optimist because Im a pessimist at heart). This semester sucks and next semester will suck and then moving will suck and going through power school and prototype will suck and then boat life sucks. I felt this huge weight on my chest. This sucks! What are we doing???

I dont know what we are doing. I do know a couple things. I am extremely proud of my husbands active duty status; he is serving our country. I am extremely proud of his naval career. He was a nuclear mechanic on fast-attack submarines and was picked up for the STA-21 program, service selected submarines again. I love the sub community. The people we have met are absolutely wonderful and instantly found places in our hearts. I love how handsome he is in uniform. I find myself speechless every Wednesday when he heads to school in his khakis. (Dont even get me started on the dress uniforms! Bow chicka wow wow!) I love this hard-working man. I love how he kisses me every time he comes home and kisses me every night before bed. I love how he eats whatever I serve him and thanks me when I heat up macaroni and cheese for dinner (seriously-- I love this man). I love how much he loves our children and how he always has time to go outside with them. He comes home from a long day and turns on the porch light to toss the football with our preschooler. I love that. I love that he goes in our toddlers bedroom to give them a kiss every night.

I spent hours on the phone the past couple days talking to my friends about my fears of career Navy life. My husband and I have been doing this together for six years (hes been in for a little over eight). Its not that I dont think we can do this. To use a Lord of the Rings analogy, I feel like Frodo after he volunteered to take the ring to Mordor. I know we have a long road ahead of us. We dont know what all of the challenges will be, but we know that it will be a long, hard journey. Next year we will leave the safety of Rivendell-- our quiet life here in North Carolina where he is home every night-- and embark on the next phase of our journey. I have as much trepidation about our first boat with three, possibly four, children as Aragorn did about passing through Moria (we only had one child on our last boat). What will happen? When people tell me take each day as it comes, I understand their intentions. But where was Frodos heart as he gazed at the pool of Mirrormere; did he truly enjoy that "bright spot" on his journey? He survived Moria, but at what cost? We will make many dear friends along the way-- we already have. We will be separated from good friends for awhile, as the Company was separated from Gandalf. Our roads will cross again and we will be glad to travel with them for a time. And when we finally throw the ring in Orodruin, I will enjoy our retirement. (I tried warning you that I am a pessimist.) But where would our Frodo be without the Company, the Nine? Where would he be without his Sam? Excerpt from The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien, page 929:

"I am glad you are here with me," said Frodo. "Here at the end of things, Sam."

"Yes, I am with you, Master," said Sam, laying Frodos wounded hand gently on his breast. "And youre with me. And the journeys finished. But after coming all that way I dont want to give up yet. Its not like me, somehow, if you understand."

"Maybe not, Sam," said Frodo; "but its like things are in the world. Hopes fail. An end comes. We have only a little time to wait now. We are lost in ruin and downfall, and there is no escape."

"Well, Master, we could at least go further from this dangerous place here, from this Crack of Doom, if thats its name. Now couldnt we? Come, Mr. Frodo, lets go down the path at any rate!"

"Very well, Sam. If you wish to go, Ill come," said Frodo; and they rose and went slowly down the winding road...

Thank you to my friends this week who pushed me onward when my hopes failed. Thank you to my friend who told me that I did not sound like myself, that the Kimber she knows can take a deep breath and press onward. Thank you. Thank you to my friend who told me I had my "sassy pants on" and reminded me how to pull myself up by my bootstraps. It is such a comfort to talk to someone who has been there. Thank you to my local friends who have listened to me vent at playdates for the past week. Thank you to my friends who continue to text me, even when I reply with "Debbie Downer" statements. I am so appreciative of the love of my friends and pray that I am as good of friend in return. Genuinely, thank you.

Time to take a long, hot bath, have a glass of wine, take a deep breath, and do what needs to get done.

Yes, I get by with a little help from my friends,

with a little help from my friends.

-The Beatles

Do you find information about quick weight loss during pregnancy are you looking for? If not, below may help you find more information about the quick weight loss during pregnancy. Thank you for visiting, have a great day.

weight loss during pregnancy with pcos | Identical brothers

weight loss during pregnancy with pcos

Our identical twin toddlers are 19-months now. A lot of things have changed. For one, our boys were truly identical for the first year. We could tell them apart by looking at their different birthmarks. Now we tell them apart because they look different to us and we know their personalities. Having identical twins has been an adventure. Some ages have been easier to manage than other ages. It took a lot of adjusting when they first came home-- feeding schedules, nap schedules-- and even more adjusting when they became toddlers-- two toddlers! Here are some of my thoughts thus far on having identical twins.

The identical twin factor has also lead to an interesting development: I hardly ever dress them in matching outfits. Now, I love matching outfits on siblings. I grew up wearing matching outfits and planned on dressing my children in matching outfits. Perhaps it is because the toddlers end up looking so much alike that I do not like the matching outfits. We (myself, the hubby, and our preschooler) have no problem telling them apart, even some of our regular playdates know who is who now. To us, they are people. I would be so frustrated if my friends and family couldnt tell who I was; it feels like such a core part of who you are as a person. And I know that often times, the "who is who" game cannot be avoided. It can be hard to remember all the kids names at mommy group playdates, let alone which identical twin is which, or if people are not familiar with the boys. I also remind myself that right now they are just toddlers. They dont understand when people interact with one of them and say, "I have no idea who you are! You both look so much alike! Is this C or O?" They dont get when people approach me and ask with a gleam in their eye, "Do you ever get them mixed up?" or "How do you tell them apart?" I know people are just trying to make conversation; Im polite. However, I want to return the question and ask how they tell their children apart. Do they only know their children because one may be a boy and the other a girl? Or they are born three years apart and so one is bigger than the other? Or do they know their children because they just know their children? One is slow to wake up in the morning and the other wants cuddles first thing. One likes to start breakfast with milk and the other dives right into the scrambled eggs. I am working on letting go of my internal cringing at the who is who game because I think they will have to deal with it all their lives. I really hope that my husband and I can teach our boys to treat everyone as people, with likes and interests, and get to know who people are inside without judging just the outside.

Sometimes we still say the wrong name, like if a toddler zips past and we barely get a look at him or-- how every mother does-- we just call them by the wrong name. For a long time, every living thing in our house was called the dogs name (this is when I was house training the dog). After that, they were called by our oldests name (this is when I was potty training our oldest). Now I just usually stumble through the roll call until I arrive on the correct name or give up and holler, "You!" My poor husband is even subject to this. I called him "bud" the other day. (Worse, when we drove through Sonic and he ordered a large vanilla shake, without thinking, I said, "A large vanilla shake, please." Very apologetic about that one!) I will never forget when we were going through airport security. The TSA agents watched as I held the two infants, our things scattered around my socked feet as my husband reassembled our stroller. We were trying to rush along and get out of the way. Once everything was back in its place, I handed an infant to my husband. We went to put our respective infants in their seats, only to realize that Os seat had been put in Cs spot (we have the Baby Jogger City Select and the seats can be put on a million different ways). I said, "We are putting them in the wrong seats," and so we swapped babies to put them in the right seat. The TSA agents started busting up, "They mixed up their twins! Oh, how do you tell them apart? You mixed them up!" I felt my cheeks start burning up. Do I try to explain that normally Os seat is in the front and that we put Cs seat there on accident? Or that I didnt really look at who I was holding and they are both infants (they werent even dressed the same)? I did the half smile and walked away.

I do not have a problem with people dressing their twins in matching outfits. I do not think that it limits who they are as people or stifles their own identities. I have just noticed that for our twins, people tend to treat them more as a unit when they are wearing the same outfits, often times focusing only on the toddlers and ignoring our oldest. "Oh, he only wants to do what his brother is doing!" "They do everything together, dont they?" "They look so much alike." We think of our boys as siblings. We have three precious boys that we love for many, many reasons: a four-year old, a 19-month old, and another 19-month old. They are all alike in so many ways and so different in many others. There are special things about each of them that are unique to their own individual personalities. I love that there is so much of my husband and I in all of them, from their features to personality traits (or flaws-- haha!). We hope that by treating them as brothers-- which they are-- that C and O will grow up as confident people, comfortable being identical twins, and that D wont feel the need to compete with their "twin status." I read an article about a woman who didnt tell her identical twins about their birth order, who was born first, in the hopes that they would focus on who they are as people and not who they are as twins (I cant find the article online, but Im going to keep looking). I dont think we need to do anything so drastic, but I do hope that we raise our boys so they find more meaning in who they are than how they were born.

So, in an answer to the many questions, our identical twins do not do everything the same. O likes tractors. C likes stacking blocks. Next month, O may like trains and C might like Elmo. Who knows with toddlers? Their interests are constantly changing. They tended to pop teeth at the same time, but we noticed some teeth came in at different times on each of them. They are not "night and day" twins. They are two people, with two different personalities. Some things are to be expected because they are identical and did not suffer from TTTS. They grow about the same. They put on weight about the same. Other things are to be expected because I have kept them on the same schedule to make my life easier, like they go to bed at the same time (same time as their older brother) and we eat our meals at the same time every day. One of them likes to sleep more; the other has given up naps. Some days neither nap; some days they both nap; some days one naps and the other doesnt. Toddlers can be predictable and wildly out of control at the same time. They knew their own names around four months old. Only recently would I say that they play with each other in a meaningful way outside of "oh, look, there is another baby in the house." They love to play peek-a-boo with each other and throw food off their high chairs with each other. They love racing back in forth in the kitchen with their older brother and, for some reason, every once in a while they get a bee in their bonnet and spend a fair amount of the evening harassing the dog. They have started giving everyone high fives, hugs, and kisses, even each other, which is beyond adorable. They really are just brothers, who happen to both be toddlers. Some days they love sharing with each other and their older brother. Some days they dont even want the dog to sniff the toy they are holding. They behave like 19-month olds do; dealing with two 19-month olds can be exceedingly exhausting and overwhelmingly rewarding. Those little moments that make it all worth while are doubled and the afternoons that go on forever are stretched times two.

We feel that we were blessed with our oldest. We feel that we were blessed with our toddlers. We feel especially blessed when we have those sweet moments when all three boys are playing with each other. We love watching the bonds of brotherhood grow, the deep love that will last for the rest of their lives. They are each others first friends, all three of them, and they will grow with each other into adulthood. Those are the bonds we want to nourish.

Do you find information about weight loss during pregnancy with pcos are you looking for? If not, below may help you find more information about the weight loss during pregnancy with pcos. Thank you for visiting, have a great day.

weight loss during first month pregnancy | Holiday worries

weight loss during first month pregnancy

Its Christmas Eve and Im loving it. Im cooking our Christmas Eve feast right now, where we celebrate Jesus birthday and spend time together as a family, eating cookies, watching holiday movies, eating more sweets, and playing games. I love this time of year and Im loving it this year, being home for Christmas and embarking on our own family traditions.

With all that said, Im feeling a little down. I keep getting these emails from baby sites (that I keep unsubscribed from!) about the progress of our 4-month old baby, the baby that was never born. Our baby would be 4 or 5-months now (since Ive never made it to full term). We would be getting past the constant feeding newborn stage and into the fun interaction stage. We would (most likely) be done having children. We would have a nursery set up in this house. We would be celebrating Babys first Christmas. Perhaps Im just looking on Facebook at my friends pictures of their babies first Christmases, but I know Im not the only one who feels this way (read Keep Calm and Have a Cosmos latest blog post "The Breathings of my Heart").

This past week at church we obviously talked about Jesus birth. The pastor incorporated this verse into his message, Philippians 4:6-7:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians is my absolute favorite book of the Bible. I could (and sometimes do) read that book everyday and feel just as encouraged as the first time I read it. This week, it was such a pleasant surprise to hear those verses discussed at a pre-Christmas service. I really felt like God was reaching out to me, inviting me to hand him those worries that have been pressing on my heart.

Worry #1: I worry that we will continue to have miscarriages. Two of my four pregnancies have ended in a miscarriage, one of them being a partial molar pregnancy. (Yikes!) How will my next pregnancy turn out? Could I handle another miscarriage?

Worry #2: I worry that there will be an even bigger age gap between our 2.5 year old toddlers and our next baby. Our oldest was 2.5 years old when our twins were born and I thought that was a big difference. I always wanted our kids close together in age... but I cant seem to control this at all.

Worry #3: I worry that the timing is all wrong for our next pregnancy. With our last pregnancy, we knew my husbands schedule. We knew where we would be living. Now... not so much. In about 6 months, his schedule is totally up in the air. He could be in Connecticut for 3 months unaccompanied. He could be in rotating shift work in South Carolina as he goes through prototype. We could all be moving to upstate New York for him to go through prototype there... There are so many possibilities, none of them even remotely solid. Who knows? (Read "STA-21 Officers Program.")

I need to hand all these over to God. I need to give all these things to him. The next verses in Philippians go on to tell us what we should think about, Philippians 4:8-9:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-- think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me-- put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

I find worry to be a hard state to be in. There isnt a clear adversary. You dont really have something tangible to be concerned about... You just have these thoughts in your head that keep you from fully being in the present. Thoughts that disrupt your peace and keep you from presenting your concerns to God. I hold onto these things and feel that if I keep them close, I might somehow be able to prevent them from happening or might somehow be able to change something. But I cant. I mean, my second worry, the age gap... What can I do about that? The time has come and passed. Nothing can change that. Why do I worry about it?

Whenever I think about worrying and handing my worries over to God, I think about the verses in Matthew. Matthew 6:25-27:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat and drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds in the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

To me the those verses speak of the futility of worrying. Why should I worry when I can hand these concerns to God, God who can answer these prayers?

Philippians 1:27a says, "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ." Paul says "whatever happens." Not "when good things happen" or "when bad things happen you get a pass" or any of that. Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. I know Ive talked about that verse before. I love that verse. I have it written in the front of my Bible and for a long time, hanging on my bathroom mirror. It comforts me. It gives me hope that I can, no matter what, bring glory to God no matter what my circumstances. Praising God is not contingent on my life circumstances or if things are going my way or if Im where I want to be or if I miss my family or my friends. Praising God is not contingent on whether Ive "moved on" from this last miscarriage.

I feel like I keep having to remind myself of this. I pray and pray about this. I give God this. And then something happens-- an unexpected bill from the hospital for the D&C, a question from a doctor on my pregnancy history, a major holiday we arent celebrating with our longed for newborn-- and Im back on my knees, full of heartache. Im so thankful that through this I have a personal God, a God who listens. A God who sent his son to earth to die for our sins and redeem me so that one day I can praise him in person, joining him in heaven.

Isaiah 9:6-7

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the greatness of his government and peace

there will be no end.

He will reign on Davids throne

and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it

with justice and righteousness

from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty

will accomplish this.?

Do you find information about weight loss during first month pregnancy are you looking for? If not, below may help you find more information about the weight loss during first month pregnancy. Thank you for visiting, have a great day.