Take 7 – Its been a long time…

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So I think my blog issues may finally be fixed.  Thanks to whoever left that lovely comment yesterday to make me get on that.  I even sacrificed today’s nap to try to figure it out, not that I ever did figure out the bug in my old posts but at least I found a new template (that was free) that it doesn’t seem to be an issue with.

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This is what I was also dealing with yesterday.  On my street.  Attending to a house three doors down.

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I had just left the house to literally pick up milk and flour with a fussy baby and was coming back when I ran into my street blocked off with police and the bomb squad pulling up.

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Yeah, pretty nutty.  Or rather, the guy who lives in that house was nutty.  And on lots of drugs.  I talked to his brother who was standing outside and apparently the brother had all types of homeless people squatting there before he was arrested.  We had noticed increasing weird activity and tons of trash outside the house but I never thought to call the police, we just avoided him.  The arrest was a good thing since it allowed his brother to come in and clean the place up, only to find a pipe bomb.  He had found several a few years ago also. (???)  Apparently this was one of his brother’s many hobbies.  So it was actually the brother who called the bomb squad to come detonate the bomb.

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I was a little disturbed but fortunately a friend had literally just texted me asking if she could come over to meet Samuel.  She’s been trying to ever since he was born but for whatever reason it hadn’t worked out.  Talk about divine intervention! I probably freaked her out a little with my “Can I come over instead? I’ll explain when I get there.”  So not only did I have a safe place to go for the afternoon but Samuel finally met a friend in California!  Yay!  He does exist!

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They detonated the bomb while I actually tried to run into the house to change Sam and grab his diaper bag (I literally had just taken a quick trip to the store).  It sounded like a cannon.  I heard they covered it with sandbags and shot it.  Crazy.

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All that to say, there is a house going to be up for sale in our neighborhood soon.  Anyone want to move in? :)

Thank you, Planned Parenthood

That’s a sincere title.  I’ll give credit where credit is due.  Today we taught a couple NFP that was referred to us by none other than Planned Parenthood. 

Well, not exactly.

This local couple called PP and wanted to get get off hormonal contraception.  They had heard about natural methods of spacing children and were hoping to learn one of these methods from Planned Parenthood.  Of course, PP doesn’t actually teach these methods but when the couple asked where they could learn they actually told them that they could probably contact the archdiocese and find a teacher. 

So they did! 

And they were given our number! 

How amazing is that! 

This totally secular couple called up the archdiocese to learn NFP and got our name.  I’m still so thrilled to have met them and that they found us!  Its moments like this that reinforces why I do this.  And why its important to keep the NFP classes cheap and affordable, so that they are accessible to all people.  

Anyway, one thing I did want to ask the internets is if its actually possible to advertise through PP?  This couple said that they weren’t given our exact name but only that they should call the archdiocese, which brought us to the point of discussing why PP wouldn’t help us advertise.  The obvious elephant in the room is the fact that we are affiliated with a religious institution and they wouldn’t want to advertise that, but its interesting that they admitted that effective NFP methods are taught by the Catholic church and suggested they call us.  It seems like we could make it a lot easier and cut out work for the client by just giving PP our class schedule or something…but I was curious if anyone has had any success with that? 

So yeah, even if you don’t actually teach the method of true family planning, as your name infers, Planned Parenthood, thank you for referring and telling the truth to this one couple.  There is hope in this world!

Six weeks out

Today Sam and I went in for our 6 week checkup.  My little chunker was up 3 lbs since the 2 week appointment!  That’s 11 lbs 4 oz, and somewhere around 23-23.5 inches.  Which means he doesn’t actually look that chunky.  Apparently I am “healed”, everything looks good, and that was our last appointment with the midwife, until next time.  Until next time?  That’s a thought that’s been going through my head that solicits conflicting responses.

Will there be a next time?

I know, 6 weeks out and its ridiculous that I’m even thinking about this already.  But several people have asked if I’m “fixed” now, in the truest sense of the word (as opposed to how its commonly used).  Other people (ahem, my mom and MIL) both apparently think that I’ll be pregnant again ASAP.  I’m sure other people due too.  Who knows what will happen?  I guess to someone who had trouble getting pregnant, people fail to realize that there are worse things than having two kids close together, if God were to grant that to me.  Granted, now that I realize the work associated with 1 child, I also realize the gravity associated with bringing a child into this world and want to make sure I’m healthy as possible to handle such a situation, but I also know that, should I be granted another child fairly quickly, there could be worse things.  Like never having children at all.  It reminds me of these two posts, both written about a similar topic.

Its amazing how quickly people seem to forget your struggle once you have a kid, which includes people who struggled to have a kid in the first place.  A relative asked if now that we got pregnant, did we decrease the number of children we wanted?  Like, now we only wanted two, right?  Well, not exactly, we just decided to give up on being worried about a number.

And who knows if I’m “fixed”.  I was “fixed” enough to get pregnant once, I guess it could happen again, I don’t see why not.  We have proof of concept, I can have a healthy child to term, that’s huge.  But I also have no idea what’s in the future for us.

I do know that I have a healthy baby boy to our surprise yesterday did a little moonwalk:

and then, while I was trying to capture it, did this, which may look like falling over, but to us was HUGE:

Six weeks suddenly feels like a lifetime.

What a difference a year makes

Exactly one year ago I was waking up from surgery crying when I heard them say endometriosis in the recovery room.  I was still hoping that maybe nothing was wrong.  I wish I could lie and say I handled it well and had peace in the room and yada yada yada but I didn’t.  I went in afraid and I woke up afraid.  What was I doing, all the way in Omaha to get surgery by this doctor that seemed unimpressed by our case?  I had to continuously remind myself that I wasn’t crazy, that this was the next step, that this is what we had prepared for and was what we said we’d do the previous May when I started learning Creighton.  I knit socks to mark the journey.

Now here I am a year later.  With my Samuel in my arms and a linea negra on my stomach that for the time being overshadows the scars from last year and I am continuously reminded why I am so glad we took those steps last year, as scary as it was.  Because not knowing was scarier.  I didn’t know it would help, I didn’t know it would do anything other than put me at peace that we had “done what we could.”

I just wanted to mark this day…it was such a big deal for me last year.  This year is obviously much different, but its been a “big” day nonetheless…Samuel got his first bottle from Mike.  It was sad for me but I’m proud I didn’t cry.  It was recommended to us that if we eventually plan on giving him a bottle then its best to introduce it between 4-6 weeks, and he was 5 weeks yesterday.  He took it like a champ so well that it made me almost feel a little outdated.  But I came home and cuddled and nursed him again so he wouldn’t forget me that quickly :)

Luckily he didn’t.  And he may have given us his first smiles.  Its hard to tell since they are so fleeting but I think they are coming soon and I am so. excited.

 

**edited to add, I just looked at my blog for the first time in a while and it seems messed up to me but I’m too tired to try to fix it right now.  Is it messed up to anyone else?  Thanks!**