The Challenge: Celebrate Baby Being Outside Longer Than Inside!
The Friday before my 37th week of pregnancy, Eric left for work, and said to my stomach, “Son, would you mind coming out sometime this weekend?” Lo and behold, at 4:00 AM that night, I woke up to my water breaking. I couldn’t believe it, we weren’t even fully packed for the hospital! 15 hours later, my early-bird baby arrived. Thus, instead of completing Rookie Mom Challenge #40, Throw an Inside-Out Party at week 40, we celebrated it at week 37. I was more than happy to deliver early, as I had a not-so-fun bout with gestational diabetes (GD), which made the end of my pregnancy incredibly stressful. Having GD prevented me from doing even more activities/eating more foods than “normal” pregnant women, so on this day of jubilation, I celebrated both Weston being on the outside longer than he was in, and the fact that I don’t have gestational diabetes any more (mine actually went away the second he was delivered).
Grateful All Day Long!
I began my day with lying in bed. When I had GD, I had to get up every single day at 7:00AM to test my blood sugar. I quietly lay in bed, with my little guy sleeping soundly next to me, and thought about how grateful I was to be able to simply lie there and not have to prick my finger. Of course, I started breakfast with two cups of strong coffee; I didn’t have coffee during my pregnancy, because the one time I did try some, Weston went wild inside of me. I also treated myself to some delicious runny eggs, and reveled in how gorgeous the yellow yolks are when not fully cooked.
I’m the type of woman who loves rearranging furniture, this was obviously something I couldn’t do while pregnant, as I was afraid of falling or breaking a bone. On our 37 week celebration day, we had to move a bunch of our old furniture to the garage to sell, and when Eric offered to do it, I said, “No, I want to!” I lifted those chairs high over my head, strutted outside, and plopped them down in the garage. It made me feel so strong and capable to do those sorts of activities again!
But, the part of the day I enjoyed the most was our trip to Target. While there, I picked up containers of pre-cut fruit. While pregnant I had a wicked fear of pre-cut fruits or vegetables. I was constantly afraid of listeria, so I refused to eat any vegetable that I didn’t cut up myself. Fruit was completely off the table due to the diabetes. Do you know what’s it like to go a whole summer without watermelon? Exactly. I devoured my pre-cut fruit, pineapple, blackberries, and watermelon, with utter gratefulness.
Looking back, it is silly how nervous I was when pregnant, but, the expert at anything was once a beginner. I enjoyed my day of celebrating Weston’s 37th week of life; it was special to not only celebrate his birth, but be grateful that I learned so much and made it through the experience a stronger woman.
[Photo Credit: Olivia Howell, all rights reserved]
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