Waiting for Baby...

So I am just over 32 weeks pregnant and so incredibly excited to meet baby J.T. (for Joseph Taylor, NOT Justin Timberlake) !!! I have been blessed with a very complications-free pregnancy, (morning sickness now a thing of the past, praise Jesus!!) and have really enjoyed watching my body undergo this incredible transformation. It is amazing to feel a life growing inside you!! J.T. is getting so strong, I can feel it by the intensity of his jabs and punches. I am just so excited to see him for the first time and finally hold him in my arms. I can't imagine what an overwhelming experience that is going to be, but I can't wait.

I must be honest, I also can't wait to have my body all to myself again :). My digestive system just isn't the same, and I look forward to enjoying food again some day soon. I also miss taking deep breaths now that the baby is crowding in on my lungs. I miss being active, which has been redefined since becoming pregnant. I actually can't wait to go for a run, and that might be the first time in my life that that's the case. And I really can't wait to lay on my stomach again, or my back even. I think as soon as I'm recovered I'm gonna find a little hill and do barrel rolls down it. Still I'm trying to really soak in this time because inevitably it will be over and I will never get the experience of my first pregnancy back again.

I have been taking childbirth education classes with my mom, who will hopefully be coaching me through a natural delivery. With all the preparations I've been going through to get ready for labor and delivery, the most significant one is really praying and asking God for His strength, and particularly that He would prepare me for the delivery He knows is going to take place. I'm looking forward to the experience of giving birth, regardless of the circumstances that will ultimately define it. What an amazing privilege I have as a woman to join in the toil and struggle of bringing life into this world! There are so many lessons to be learned from this experience, both natural and spiritual, and God is slowly walking me through them. Maybe by around the sixth kid I'll have it somewhat figured out!! :)

I miss that Joe and I can't be together during this time, but we have been enjoying it nonetheless even while we're apart. Though it stinks not being together, we know it could be worse, we could have no communication and so we're grateful to still be able to talk for hours each day. I can't believe that soon I'll be making the phone call to tell him, "I'm in labor, get down here NOW!!" How quickly our lives will change in just a matter of hours!

Though Joe and I have to be apart, I'm so blessed to be here with my family during this time. Their support is invaluable, and I know it will continue to be when it comes time to bring J.T. home and Joe and I learn exactly what we're supposed to do with a newborn. God's blessings truly are abundant on us.

So obviously I only have baby on the mind these days, and that pretty much does sum it up. I'm going to try to keep blogging in the next coming weeks to keep track of the experience of anticipating the birth of our first precious child. I hope that once he's here this blog will also serve to keep everyone updated on how we're doing!!