Week 33

When I put my time and energy into something, sometimes I over obsess and that is the only thing I focus on for a certain duration of time in my life.  Nothing else has the possibility of making it's way in.  So when I got pregnant, naturally this little bit of my personality took over.  It's my daughter, and like many other new mommies I want everything to be perfect for her arrival.  When I first got pregnant, I knew immediately that if I didn't blog about being pregnant and preparing for a baby, I would annoy the heck out of friends and family with text messages, phone calls, and blow up my Facebook news feed with all of the over shares about what my body is going through and post only pregnant belly photos on my Instagram.  I know it is important to be multifaceted, and well rounded.  Being a mother is the most important thing I will ever do, it will take up most of my time, but I would be doing myself, my family, and friends a huge disservice if I didn't acknowledge that I am a diverse human being with loves and likes that are not necessarily all related to being a mommy.  The past few weeks, I unhealthily have been forgetting this.  I've been freaking out about all the things we were lacking and not acknowledging how prepared we actually were.  Sean thinks this is why I keep getting sick, that the stress is making my immune system a big wimp.  So I decided that this weekend, I wasn't going to stress about the baby stuff, I was going to give myself a pat on the back for all that we did have and how prepared we actually were.  I was going to  show some gratitude for all of our blessings and not worry about all that we were lacking in.  This was the kicker, I was going to stay off of our registry, I was going to stay off of google, I wasn't going to read any baby blogs, I wasn't going to open any baby apps or look for any good sales for baby related items, and I wasn't going to re read a chapter in What To Expect When You Are Expecting.  We were just going to focus on spending time together, resting, and maybe having some fun.  Let me just say that the research aspect of it has been so crazy hard for me!  I didn't realize how often I open a baby app in my day, today I went to go open " The Bump" or the "What to Expect" app probably 20 times, along with the temptation to read up on "How to Care for Your Newborn" on some random mommy blog.  It's been good, and rather healthy for me/us just to relax and put things on the back burner until Monday.  It was a good reminder that I actually have a great passion for dance, a good pair of high heels, jungle animals, and a good series on Netflix.  I once had a mother that I look up to dearly tell me that caring for your child is your greatest priority, but she also emphasized that it is important that you do things for yourself, that doing this for yourself will make you a better mommy.  I think this has been an important lesson I've learned before her arrival.  I can't loose who I am just because I'm becoming  a mother, I'm just gaining a little bit more than what I already was.

Sean and I went to the zoo this Saturday and it was an absolutely splendid.  We went the last two hours before closing so everyone was going home. It was sunny and warm.  We took advantage of another aspect of our zoo pass and watched one of the films at the IMAX about baby elephants and orangutans.  I know, I am a huge nerd, but I love baby elephants and I really enjoyed doing the most simple things together this weekend.  On Sunday we had the missionaries over for dinner, I have graduated to eating meals again since being sick, this one was pretty good!  I love it when Sean helps with dinner, he made dessert, which was home made peanut butter cups.   They were so yummy!  I got a skype call from some of my family in Chile.  We (may) have a name picked out for our daughter, and a big thing for me in picking a name was for my family in Chile to be able to understand it and have them be able to say it.  It was very satisfying for me to hear them say it, which is giving me reassurance that we picked a good one.  We also watched the movie Mountain of the Lord.  It is about the construction of the Salt Lake City LDS temple.  The history behind this temple is so overwhelming.  So much dedication, hard work, and sacrifice went into this temple by individuals who loved their Heavenly Father and had a testimony of eternal families.  It took 40 years to build, I'm so grateful Sean and I were able to become an eternal family in this temple.