Hey y’all! There’s a baby in there! He’s a-moving and shaking all the time these days. I think it’s the most-fun-thing-ever to watch my belly move! Pregnancy is a really cool and really weird phenomenon (all at the same time). A little human being growing in my belly? So strange. So amazing. So ridiculously awesome.

So I’ll give a little update for the friends & family… we’re finally back at home and it’s wonderful. I have officially launched into “baby preparation” mode. While I still don’t own a scrap of baby clothing (yet), we’ve been gifted with an amazing stroller and car seat so we’re pretty much ready, right? :D Hehe. We did have a fun little interlude of mall walking over the weekend. It was too hot/muggy to walk outside, so we window-shopped by looking at cute little baby clothes. And shoes. Which are adorable, but about .0001% practical (from what I’ve heard) and considering the $25 price tag, I think my children are going barefoot forever. I will be raising pioneer children --- of the hardy variety. :P

Baby Nursery.  I like that my Narnian baby nursery vision is coming together in my head—though not yet in the room. Also, I saw some top-secret baby shower decoration ideas that someone is working on and they just thrilled my soul… not to mention, made everything start to feel so real! I went home and started getting busy with my own list of nursery décor purchases. But first --- we paint the room. Sometime.

Pregnancy Symptoms. Current symptoms include general roundness, heartburn and the inability to get off of my very-low-couch. Poor little thing is a very old secondhand couch, and it can’t help that it is defective and a bit bowed where I usually sit. So I have officially moved my normal reading & laptop writing seat to the living room glider. If only to keep myself from being irritated by the necessity of rolling, turning and grunting to stand up…. In general, my pregnancy is going very well. Measuring right on, keeping the weight in a good range and feeling GREAT. I really cannot complain in the least. :) At least, now that I’ve finished the cleaning extravaganza, I can’t complain. :D

Cravings & Other Deliciousness. You could say that I craved whoopie pies? But really, we were gonna buy them at the farmer’s market last weekend and the absence of a baking vendor distressed me so much that I walked into a pole with my head. It hurt.. but made a funny story for later. I redeemed myself this week by finding, buying and eating whoopie pies (well, one was for Brandon) and therefore mostly forgetting about my walking-into-poles moment… The newest food-related pregnancy phenomenon is the very-small-state of my stomach. I am hungry A LOT, but full very quickly and then frustrated when I can’t finish my delicious food. I know, I know. #firstworldproblems

Thoughts on Times of Transition. I have had a lot more thinking time these days, and more moments to consider the changes going on in my life. This is truly one of my biggest life transitions to date. Going from single to married was huuuuuge, of course, and because of who I married and our joint devotion to the ministry of the home, our marriage is the foundation for the decision for me to be a full-time homemaker. In the three years of our marriage thus far, we were making preparations --- relational, financial, educational, etc. for this season. And so I feel like going from working-full-time to staying home with babies + becoming a full-time homemaker is almost the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me. And quite honestly, one of the best things ever! Side note: Knowing that something will be difficult doesn’t have to diminish the enthusiasm that I have for it. :)

The process of transition is unsettling. People don’t like change. They don’t like it for how weird it feels and how it changes the status quo and how it makes waves in the peaceful pond of their existence. Perhaps I’m feeling a bit more like I’m rowing this boat of change in our lives and I’m having fun feeling the movements and the waves that precipitate the arrival of our wee babe…. so I don’t feel “drowned” (to go along with my metaphor) by the dramatic changes in my lifestyle --- from not working outside the home, to stepping back any church/ministry obligations, to taking over the day-to-day management of our finances, to not really seeing a lot of people because I’m not going to a job, etc. I am stepping into the blessing that someone once eloquently called “the hidden season of motherhood.” It’s something like a great disappearance (though not quite so dramatic as prior to the Internet age --- where I still have a bloggy/facebook/social media presence), and sometimes these kinds of transition can be difficult.

How am I preparing for this hidden season? Lots of reading. Lots of thinking. Lots of meditating about what the Bible says about motherhood/parenting/*gasp* gender roles. I just finished rereading “Dare to Discipline” by Dr. James Dobson. I’m a big fan of that book --- for the balanced approach that he has to discipline. There’s a way to discipline children right and there’s a way to discipline children wrong, and I think children’s souls are far too valuable to get it wrong. (at this moment, my windows are open and the nice breeze is blowing in… but also the sounds of loud-and-obnoxious yelling. The only good thing is that the neighbor folks are yelling at their dogs – not children – but still, it’s no fun to listen to).

I will say that I am feeling profoundly grateful for God’s provision through a hard-working and genius husband who puts priority on this new season of my life. Without his encouragement, protection and complete support, I know that life would be rough. This is why you should a) talk about gender roles before marriage, and b) marry someone who thinks like you do. (that’s for all the single lady readers!! Talking about EVERYTHING during the dating/engagement season is absolutely paramount! The best way to not have conflict about the important stuff is to agree beforehand!).

Because I mean, wow. If I thought marriage was good before… being married and pregnant with the love of my life, it’s pretty darn spectacular.

One thing I’ve really liked about central Arkansas is all the flowering trees and plants. I have favorite spots that I walk by in my neighborhood --- just hoping that the neighbors won’t be outside gardening, so I can get suuuuuper-close to the flowers and no one will think it’s weird. The sights and the smells of summertime bring a sense of calm to my heart. Also, a sense of sadness that I can’t have my own flowers right now… temporary apartments aren’t friendly to that sort of thing and the gardens of our own little Sunnyside Cottage back in Pennsylvania are mostly known for the ability to grow VERY LARGE hedges that obscure mailboxes and hide poison plants. But I digress.

Speaking of digressing, I hate to be an art critic, but this mural. is. weird.

We went for Saturday night stroll in downtown Conway, and were thrilled to find this train car in the local park. I mean, IT’S JUST LIKE HOME!
We had to go see the train, of course…. and this is my 24-week baby bump!! I had Brandon take a more official picture later, but it happened to be by a brick wall and then like ten people walked by us and stared at me, so I ended up having the WEIRDEST, MOST UNCOMFORTABLE look on my face… so there’s all the bump photo you’re getting. I gotta say, I make Brandon look skinny. ;) He’s been working out… looking good!

So we’re strolling along, hand-in-hand, chatting, walking (I always walk on Brandon’s right side. I’m not sure why), talking about all the little shops that are mostly closed --- because it’s Saturday evening – and smelling some delicious pizza smells…. trying not to give in…. and then we found this:
It was an entire little shop filled with CANDY and old-fashioned glass bottle soda. This is the stuff that my dreams are made of! I was absolutely thrilled. We wandered around in circles, staring at the various candies, allowing our mouths to salivate all over the place. I mean, I didn’t know I wanted candy until that moment (the exact reason that one should not scroll through Pinterest late at night: it’s the power of suggestion!).


Did I ever tell you how much I love Mallo Cups?
Still thinking about home? I have really good Hershey Chocolate Factory/HersheyPark memories throughout the years… well, except for that one time during our friendship years that I went there at the same time Brandon was there and he wasn’t allowed to speak to me. But hey, we ended up married several years later… so guess who won? ;)

And now we get to have married dates!

We made our candy and soda choices and headed back to the cute little park to eat, drink and be married (I do love puns and plays-on-words. Like the time during the drama at church on Sunday where the teenagers made a pun about sheep and ewes, and I’m pretty sure I laughed first and loudest. I blame my daddy for loving pun-ny jokes).

Awwwwww. Here we are.
YUM YUM YUM! Candy choices (which happened to be my favorites, but Brandon likes them A LOT, too, so it worked out perfectly!) + soda choices. I like lime soda, and Brandon loves ginger soda so spicy that it clears out the sinuses… I had one sip of his and couldn’t stop coughing. My goodness! It says “Australian” but the strong ginger flavor always reminds him of his time in Africa.
Here’s a better mural from the downtown area. Toad Suck is a place (I think) and this town has a big ol’ festival named Toad Suck Days (Daze?) that they are famous for. I was sad that we came here too late… because I heard that the festival has really great fried food--- that’s what I go to festivals for….It was a calm and quiet date night in downtown Conway. I adored it, because I adore sweet things…. and it was little unexpected – why is it that the best dates are the unplanned ones?

The secret is out! It’s a BOY!

We are so excited! Though I gotta say, we would have been just as ecstatic with a girl. We had several conversations about wondering whether the baby would be a boy or girl. One of my midwives had a theory that it was a boy because of the heartbeat. Brandon thought we might have a boy first because his twin brother’s wife had a boy first. I thought that if we were doing it that way, my sis had a girl first so we had a 50-50 chance!

We did a silly list of pros and cons to having a boy or girl on the night before our ultrasound. It was fun, and hilarious, and the end result was that… we love both boy babies and girl babies, and we had no preference. I mean, boys are rough-and-tumble and great big brothers, but like Brandon said, “girls are just so darn CUTE!”

Ya know what they say? Never say never. I always thought, “I don’t understand bump photos. They’re weird. Why do people post them?” And then, I had a happy little baby bump and a large collection of friends who happen to be miles and miles away from me. I know what will happen – I’ll go home in August and everyone will be all like, “OHMYGOSH, NAOMI, YOU’RE HUGE.” (actually, let’s really hope that doesn’t happen). Hehe. The point is, I must keep said friends updated with the progress of my pregnancy…. since you can’t see it in person. *waves to PA friends!*

So there ya go! I’m officially 17 weeks along. To translate: it’s the second trimester, yay! Random people have begun asking me if we’re expecting… so I guess that’s a good thing. I have officially moved beyond the looking-like-I-ate-too-many-Twinkies stage. Good. ‘Cause I don’t even like Twinkies.

I met with my Arkansas midwife last week and that was fun. Travelling for the summer is kinda annoying because I have a Pennsylvania midwife and now an Arkansas midwife…. and in three months I’ll go back to my PA midwife. I’d prefer to have just one. But life throws ya curveballs and one just has to roll with the punches. It is what it is. :D

The really fun part is that I heard our baby’s heartbeat again!! Which is awesome. Brandon and I have begun referring to the baby as Squish-Squish… because that’s the sound of the heartbeat. ;) And it’s waaaaay better than calling the baby “it” until we know whether it is a boy or a girl. Also, it’s pretty great that this has turned into calling random babies “squish-squish.” Like “aaaah, did you see those parents that took their little squish-squish up for prayer at church today? I hope everything’s all right.” And “look! a squish-squish!” (Yes, talking about babies is great and funny!). :D



Other fun updates:

Books. I’ve been keeping busy doing pregnancy reading. Honestly, I did so much baby reading prior to pregnancy, I kinda ran outta good books. At my midwife appointment last week, I was excited to see a few titles that I hadn’t been able to find at my library at home. Pregnancy books are an odd genre because a) everybody’s got different opinions about everything, so it takes some mental sorting, and b) birth by nature is an ‘earthy’ kind of experience, so the details are a little icky to read. I mean, seriously, it’s all like, BLOOD! LABOR! TMI! Ya know? It’s like a recall of every baby shower and women’s retreat I’ve ever been to in my life (what? you weren’t inundated with countless birth stories as a teenager?). ;) But I gotta say --- pregnancy books are still about 100x better than online pregnancy forums. That’s where the real crazies come out. Also, it amazes me how many people ask questions to the random internet that should be directed to people that actually KNOW STUFF --- like medical professionals or even older women that have been mothers!

Food Cravings & Aversions. I like food. The highly-sensitive-food-aversions of the first trimester have passed, which is nice. I still hate the smell of Subway… but I don’t think that will ever change. :D I finally enjoy coffee again! Not enough to drink it every day – which is better anyways. But since this is hot Arkansas, I’ve been doing cold-brew decaf iced coffee a few times a week and it’s a nice treat! Every time I make it, I’m like, why even go to Starbucks? This stuff is amazing --- and it didn’t cost me $4 for a cup!

In answer to the “have you had pregnancy cravings?” question – no, not really. There’s some food that I prefer over others --- like the fact that I’d rather have ice cream for dessert, rather than just some dark chocolate. I’m loving the fact that I have more time to cook better, i.e. healthier. Time to prep fresh vegetables, visit the farmer’s market, try my hand at baking homemade wheat bread, throw together morning smoothies and simmer beans on the stove. I really love cooking, and it’s great to be able to do more of it, and it’s very helpful to finally be cooking our meals right before we eat them --- rather than the crazy spring/fall semester schedule that had been me packing 90% of our food in lunchboxes to be eaten throughout our workdays! (I am definitely in the insanely-grateful-to-be-staying-home category of homemaker).

I’m trying really hard to be mindful of what I’m eating and how often. Always trying to get more greens into my diet by throwing some kale in my broccoli-cheddar soup (Brandon raved about that soup), or throwing some spinach in a strawberry smoothie or finding new dinner recipes. Sometimes I feel a little whiney, like “why are vegetables sooo booooring?” And then I remember that adults are not supposed to whine. :P And I remember that ALL the food groups are necessary… so I go drink some milk and I feel better. :D

Heart Thoughts. It’s difficult to put words to the swirling thoughts in my head about pregnancy. The inner turmoil of the first trimester was relentless. Having seen many close friends and family go through miscarriages in recent years, you could say that I was fighting hard against anxiety. But God is good and God is big and He carries my heart in His hands. As I continue to walk this journey, I’m falling into more trust of my God.

The news is out! It’s true. We are expecting a baby come November. It’s super-awesome and super-exciting and all those ridiculous adjectives. And now for the answers to the questions!

How do you feel?  I feel great. There were a couple weeks of feeling icky early on, but I’m pretty sure that my problem was that I wasn’t eating enough calories. Laugh if you will, but prior to pregnancy, I was still trying to lose a few pounds and get in better shape. So I had a little adjusting to do as far as the calorie intake. Also, I’m becoming even more vigilant on the eating/snacking at regular intervals throughout the day and that keeps me pretty happy.

Any weird pregnancy quirks? Well, strangely enough, I currently hate the smell of coffee. I know! It’s crazy! And almost any other strong smell just really bugs me.

I love your baby announcement. Did you get the idea from Pinterest? Haha. NO. I was sitting in bed one morning thinking about how to announce our pregnancy, and that popped into my head and I LOVED IT. Told it to Brandon and he loved it. Then I went to six different stores to find tiny espresso cups that I liked, and finally ended up finding them on clearance at Walmart for $5. Yeaaaah. I have been wanting those little espresso cups for yeeears, so it was the perfect excuse. So I essentially created my own meme by setting up the photo, editing it and adding text. Oh yes, and the background material? It was leftover table runner material from our wedding day. So cute, right? 

Are you going to find out the gender? Yes. I waffled on this for a short time, but honestly, I don’t like color yellow very much and that’s what gender-neutral clothes/nurseries/etc. tend to be. So we’re gonna find out the gender so I can plaster everything in pink or blue (slight overkill maybe/ maybe not).

What do you want? Boy or girl? We want a healthy baby. No gender preference whatsoever. Fo’ real.

Are you gonna tell the baby names? Nope. We’re secretive like that because a) naming our babies only includes two opinions: mine and Brandon’s. And we like to be without everyone else’s opinion until they can’t do anything about it (*insertevillaughhere*), b) our name list is long and want to have the option to change our minds if we want prior to birth, and c) if we’re not waiting to reveal the gender, we want to wait on the name… because surprises are nice sometimes!

Can I touch your belly? NO. Just no. Respect the personal bubble.

Onward to other interesting things….
So that’s the most wonderful-and-delightful news in our world. We are barreling full-speed-ahead towards the end of the semester and into our summer adventure in Arkansas (WOOHOOO!). These are days are full of times of transition. I’m just days away from the end of my full-time-working-outside-the-home career. I’m making jokes about “retirement” and “career changes,” but in all seriousness, this transition has been a long time coming. In one of our first conversations as friends, I remember Brandon asking me about what I wanted to be in life. My honest answer (and no, I wasn’t fishing for a husband---though honesty worked well for me!) was that I wanted to be a wife and mother. I’ve worked full-time since I was 17 years old, graduating from high school early and starting full-time work even before I graduated. I did Bible college on the side, worship and youth ministry on the side and a photography business on the side. I bought a house and went on missions trips and all while keeping my full-time job in accounting. It’s been good, but it has always been temporary. I knew God was eventually gonna take me to home. Not heaven-home. But that the home would be my focus, my ministry, my calling.

Things are getting real around here, and I am so excited that I can hardly contain myself. Though I am also so tired that I can hardly be excited (it’s a difficult paradox). Packing up necessary items for a summer spent in temporary housing and in a far-off place is mind-boggling. I’m contemplating questions like, “can I pack my cast-iron skillet? What about a teapot?”  I am a chronic over-packer and trying to get our life (even only for the summer) in a Toyota Corolla is making my brain hurt. Not like I’ve actually packed anything yet… it’s the thinking/planning/writing out the list part that’s most difficult.

I am a little nostalgic about going away from here, but not sad in the least. Since the door opened to this opportunity, we have both felt a sense of perfect peace. I am thrilled to be living out one of the things that has been on my heart since the beginning of our marriage --- the concept of “I will go where you go.” (Yes, I know that’s a verse from Ruth and it’s not about marriage and I wasn’t using it like that). I’m using it more of a “leave and cleave” concept. Marriage is a lot about leaving. Departing from the familiar, the family, the comfortable, the childhood things… and cleaving to your husband. It’s about leaving one team and making your own team. God designed the covenant of marriage to bring two lives together into one, not meld it into your current existence. Sometimes this means going away. Sometimes it doesn’t. In our case, we’ve spent a wonderful first two and a half years of marriage here, close to my family, entrenched in a life that is familiar to me--- places, people, things… it was all apart of my life before Brandon. In going away---even just for 3 1/2 months---it feels like the newlywed season again, learning to live life with only each other and the Lord to hang onto.
And that’s pretty awesome.