Things I wish I'd known my first pregnancy...
1) You really can gain the recommended 25-35 pounds in nine months without becoming a fatty. They were right.
2) Having a child does not mean the best days of your marriage are over. They were wrong.
3) Your body will change... but it's best not to stress about it because a) there's no way to predict in which ways and b) you can't know how worth it it will be until you meet your child
4) Don't try to hang on to the last season or stress about the next. Enjoy now and the blessings that can only be found today!
5) Don't base your standard of "good parenting" on the convictions of others. Pray to God for your own convictions, for everything from labor and doctors, to discipline and immunizations.
6) Stop trying to take on the responsibility of this little life on your own- it's health, safety, salvation, etc. It's a burden you were never intended to carry- its life is always in God's sovereign hands.
7) Focus on health, not the numbers on the scale
8) Embrace the bump. Even if it's not the perfectly petite bump you always pictured, stop comparing it with hers and remember that it's beautiful! When you remember what precious cargo it's carrying, you won't get offended each time someone tell you your belly's getting "HUUUUGE" :)
9) Don't accept the lie that becoming a mother means the rest of your days spent in chaos and worry. God is a God of order and of peace, so though there will be moments and even seasons of chaos, they will pass.
10) This child will be worth it. Worth whatever you're stressing about losing- your body, your social life, your sleep, your time, your energy, etc... Each child is a gift from God- and God always gives more than He takes.
Oh, and what I learned a b'zillion years ago:
ReplyDelete1) Send them to boarding school straight away..........
2) Your body is going to change anyway.....body of sin and death....
3) Don't base good parenting on the WHIMS of others, either....people can be very enthusiastic about their latest discovery, or lesson......the swelling tide of the information will pick them up and lift them to heights. Their overwhelming personality will pick others along with them....then over time, the wave recedes and the flotsam and jetsam are left, bedraggled on the shore....
4) Your belly IS getting huge....SUPER huge....babies are big....thus the pain in childbirth......
5) Someone once told me that having a child was like having a piece of your heart walking around outside your body.....true, but God does have that piece in His hands......good thing.....
Your are beautiful in your pregnancy, and all the time...keep up the good work.
Grannie Linda
Love yours! Wanted you to keep going:) haha #4 made me laugh out loud!
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