7 Quick Takes Friday

I'm doing my first link up today! You can learn more about Jennifer here (http://www.conversiondiary.com/jen) - I just found her blog today and I think I already love her. She's a Catholic mama to six, living in Texas and I can't wait to read more!

1. The reason I am so excited about this link up is because I had nearly given up on blogging! I originally thought it would be a great creative outlet and way to share my life with family, friends, and strangers (hopefully only the awesome, normal, not serial-killer strangers) but then after just a few weeks, I realized that I have no time or energy to blog. I don't know how people manage posting daily. I hesitate to say that this it would just be impossible for me because I have a career (note that I did not say "job"...career has an entirely different meaning in my book) because I fully understand that being a stay-at-home/work-at-home mama is a full time job that keeps you VERY BUSY, but at this point I just don't feel like there are enough hours in the day to write a grocery list, let alone a blog post! My days are so full and the brain power that I have left after working all day goes into helping John with dinner (and the goal there is to cook very quickly, so of course I can't photograph and post our healthy creations), packing Jack's bag for daycare, and...washing my hair. I'm a busy lady! (Ha! I'm joking about the washing my hair part, I just got 10 inches cut off and it is SUPER EASY now!) Anyway, then I realized that I just needed a bit of inspiration and structure. I really do love structure! Enter 7 Quick Takes Friday Template, i.e., solution!

2. 4th of July was great - super relaxing as we spent the day with dear friends here in Modesto and then  in the evening I went to see a movie with my mom, which I haven't done in years! We had such a blast and it took me back to the last time we saw a movie just the two of us, which was when she dropped me off at college in Dallas, TX after helping me unpack & set up my dorm room (of course I didn't think I needed help, since I was "all grown up," but as she folded that last shirt and lovingly placed it in the drawer, I started crying and said "YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME HERE ALL ALONE!" and she wisely suggested that we go get a snack and see a movie before she headed to the airport.) Movies with my mom are always so great and I'm glad we picked up this little tradition again.

3. I'm realizing that I'm not very good at 7 Quick Takes. I think my Quick Takes are more like paragraphs, which may defeat the purpose. Oops. I guess I'll stop here and then this one at least will only be 3 sentences, which definitely seems like a Quick Take. :)

4. I am getting very excited but also very anxious in regard to the arrival of baby #2. Time is flying by (I remember my sister saying that with your first pregnancy each week crawls by, but once you have a little one, the days and weeks zoom!) and right now I've got a little bell pepper sized baby growing quite nicely. Interestingly enough, my baby bump is quite a bit larger than a bell pepper but such is life! My "morning sickness" (I need to find a better term since it was never morning sickness, and "constant nausea no matter what I eat or don't eat, all day, every day, even as I sleep" doesn't really work) has finally gone away! At 17 weeks (I am still resentful that I am not one of the lucky pregnant women who feel better after the first trimester :(, or one of the miracle women who never experience morning sickness at all!) it reduced significantly and now at 18 weeks, I've had enough energy to work out TWICE and I've stayed up past my bedtime (8:30 pm) a few times without become a very crazy/mean version of myself. Wahooo!

5. Since I'm feeling better and perhaps even nearing the very short window of time where I might enjoy pregnancy (end of 2nd trimester through first few weeks of 3rd trimester, before the horrible back pain/leg cramps set in and before I feel VERY, VERY BIG) I've been able to take my prenatal vitamins, which makes me feel like a really good mama. Sure, seems like a small thing but since I know they are incredibly necessary but wasn't able to consume them...this is a big deal. Like I announce to John (& sometimes text my good friend Colleen), "I just took my prenatals! Isn't that great?!"

6. In other baby/family news, we are trying to talk to Jack about baby #2. We even thought it would be nice to teach him how to rub the baby bump and say hello. Unfortunately he is a wild little rascal and is in a "head butting" phase (oh boy does he think it is hilarious too!) so instead of the sweet, gentle sibling encounter I envisioned, the baby bump received a headbutt. Maybe in a few more months we'll try again.

7.  If you want to read a great birth story, check out http://www.pepperdesignblog.com/ and at some point, find Taylor Rose: A Birth Story (believe me, you'll get distracted reading all her other amazing posts). What I love about it is that Morgan shares her labor experience with medical intervention (namely, epidural) but she has a complete perspective since she also experienced natural childbirth with her first baby! I think it's so important to share both sides of the story, because a lot of what you hear as a pregnant mama is one isolated experience from someone who, for example, did it naturally but had a 3 1/2 hour labor (and the whole time you are remembering your own 18 hour, very painful experience!). Or you hear a horror story about someone who labored for 42 hours and then ended up with an emergency c-section (yowsa!). At then as a pregnant mama, you don't know what to do! Because you are worried that intervention (namely, an epidural) will slow things down, and who the heck would want to slow labor down? Or, you labor at home for 8 hours and by the time you get to the hospital, all you can think/say outloud is "I want an epidural now!!!!" to anyone who will listen, but you feel guilty because you've heard about these beautiful, joy-filled natural experiences. Ugh! It's a headache. So anyway, I really appreciate Morgan's perspective and although it always made me very anxious for a few hours afterwards, advise you to continue to read birth stories as you can to get lots of different perspectives! Unless of course you are a middle-aged man and don't plan on giving birth any time soon...in that case, don't waste your time. But if you currently have a little baby growing inside of you...start with Morgan's and continue reading whatever crazy stories you encounter on the world wide web until you give yourself bad dreams (and then give yourself a break).

Whew! That's the end of my 7 Quick Takes!