Month: July 2024

I am still rather ill. I am much improved from where I was a couple weeks ago. However, it was so bad then that “better” is an ironically relative word. I am still sick.

That being said, my brother and sister-in-law insisted on staying elsewhere tonight. They still have no power, but didn’t want to become a nuisance. So, they’re staying at his dad’s house, which, I believe, had power restored either last night or this morning. Since they were going to be gone, I said it was okay when the maids asked about coming tomorrow.

However, there is a lot of preparation required at the moment for the maids to come. And I really can’t do most of it. And my husband is just so exhausted, he fell asleep in a chair as soon as he finished eating, then moved to the sofa after I woke him a couple hours later, and he became horizontal and passed right back out.

The maids never gave a time, though they said they would do so, nor fully confirmed that they are actually coming tomorrow. So, I’m going to bed with a rather unprepared house, not knowing if maids are coming tomorrow or not, let alone what time, if they are coming. Given that I don’t really fall asleep until all my food has digested down from the stomach, so I don’t really get up until around ten most mornings right now, tomorrow morning could be very interesting… and stressful.

Whatever the case, I’m going to let it be. If it is wild, I’ll just be straight with her about our situation and hope they all can roll with it.

God, guide us, please. Heal me of this nausea. Make our baby and me and my husband well and safe, please. Keep us safe. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

We had a lot of people at our house today. Some brought us food. Most were here because they had no electricity at their homes, and they wanted to save their food. It was a very busy day, tiring. But it was still good.

Nonetheless, I look forward to a more restful day tomorrow. I hope it is low clouds in the morning, so my husband has to cancel his flight and can get some much-needed sleep. Then he can catch up on everything after a good rest.

God, help us all to sleep well tonight, please. Heal me of the nausea. Make the baby grow well, please. Keep us both safe. Keep my husband safe. Thank you for the electricity that keeps us cool. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

The storm was standard. Nerves were on high alert and it was a bit scary at times, but all seemed to settle rather well for such a big storm. I am grateful.

I am especially grateful that we have electricity. By God’s grace, it is so, and I am incredibly grateful.

My brother and sister-in-law are staying with us tonight.

God, thank you for this electricity. Please, maintain it for us, so that I can continue to heal and find ease in my illness. Heal me of this nausea and bloating, and help our baby to grow strong and to grow beautifully. Keep my husband safe, please, and my mom and grandma, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

Hurricane prep today and tonight.

God, keep us safe, please. Keep our home safe and cool, please. Help me to be well while growing this baby. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

Yesterday, a friend brought me helpful items for my pregnancy. She also told me that she and one of her best friends, also a friend of mine, put together a list for first-time parents that she would send me. And she said she would mark on it the things that she has already that she will be giving me. What’s more, when I showed her our guest room that had been reconfigured to become a baby room, and I mentioned that the bed in it, of course, would be relaxed at some point by a crib, she said that she has a crib we can have. She apparently has two, but only one child is still using one. So, we can basically pick which we want and have it. We just need to get a mattress for it, as she only has one of those.

Today, another friend very kindly gave me backup medical supplies, should we need them on another day like yesterday turned out to be, and then made food for me to have this afternoon. They were random requests, but she was totally game and did them for me. Unfortunately, she used smoked meat for the green beans, and smoke is a smell I can not tolerate right now. So, the green beans didn’t work out. But the French toast did and was very helpful.

I am just very grateful for the help and obvious love of friends.

Thank you, God, for friends. Thank you for the love you have shared with me through them. Help release me from this nausea, please, that I grow and nourish this baby while also preparing our beautiful home for its arrival. Help me to rest appropriately while also being productive with our home while I am home this summer, please. Grant me freedom from this nausea, that I may grow this baby with joy and gratitude, along with my humbleness. Because I have been humbled. Thank you for this all. And heal me from the nausea and bloating, please. Keep my husband safe, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

Yesterday was surprisingly better by a lot. And then we have today, which has been worse than it’s been in over a week. I felt miserable most of the day, despite the morning hurl. I struggled to eat, and got even worse by evening. Had a total breakdown trying to find food at dinner time in a local shopping and restaurant area, and ended up with some bread slices that I kind of hated and cost me far too much money for what they were. But they were 890 calories, so I went ahead and ate them. By the time I got home and tried eating more cereal, one of the only things I’ve been able to stomach lately, but couldn’t seem to shake the nausea, I hurled up everything anyway. Fortunately, the horrible bread sauce taste was gone. Sadly, so were all the calories.

My husband said my butt looked cute while I was hurling, though, so that was an unexpected positive of a terrible situation.

I ended up eating a bit of mint ice cream, as it has helped lately with both nausea and calories. However, after an hour or so, I started feeling quite nauseous again, and am not sure I won’t throw it up in the next hour, though I’m getting into bed now.

So, dreadful day for sickness.

But a friend brought me a Mary picture, some nausea bracelet-bands, and a bunch of maternity clothes. That was awesomely helpful, both mentally and financially. But it was also great to have someone spending time with me. She even said we can have one of her cribs, as it isn’t being used anymore, and she will come back in a few months, when I’m feeling way better and up to it, and she’ll help me baby-proof the house. So, that was great.

But the nausea was dreadful…. still is…

God, help me, please… heal me of this nausea, and keep this baby growing well, please. Please…. And keep my husband safe, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

I ate food today. We went to my grandma’s to sit in the pool a bit before having a barbecue dinner at her place. I was worried the smell would be an immediate no for me, but it wasn’t. And I couldn’t eat the majority of what was on the meal plate, but I was able to trade for the pieces I could eat from my grandma, and I have the rest of my plate to my mom and my husband. And the wait staff even managed to bring me an extra piece of one item that had been particularly satisfying for me.

So, in the end, I ate a lot. A full meal. Not just a meal – a full meal. I even had a few of the dessert bites in the lounge afterward, and discovered that I was actually kind of stuffed after having eaten them. I hadn’t realized just how much I had eaten. And I couldn’t dwell on it. I just hoped it would stay down and digest fully and nourish us well.

So far, it seems to have done so. We are six hours after the fact, and I feel relatively okay. A positive sign, though only more time will tell for sure.

Okay, anyway, aiming to sleep now.

God, bless this night that we sleep well and effectively. Nourish us with the food I have eaten today, please. Keep this baby and me safe and well, please. Keep my husband safe. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

Now, I’ve also got a headache. Because the nausea and bloating weren’t enough on their own today.

This is not easy and I do not particularly like it or want to have to do it ever again.

God, help me to grow this child well and to be a good mother and wife. Keep my husband safe, please, and heal me of this nausea. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

When my cousins – well, two of them, and they’re siblings – were in town recently, our grandma kicked us out early, so she could get ready for bed in silence. This was even though my cousins were staying with her that night. Actually, only one was, I think. I guess the other was staying with her in-laws down the road or something, though I really don’t remember. I just know she wasn’t staying with us.

Anyway, moving on.

My grandma sent us out, so we went to the community room on her floor that has a pool table. Since we were there, we went ahead and played a bit while we hung out. At one point, the male cousin asks me what the number time biggest difference is being married. (They last saw me the week of my wedding a few months beforehand.) I considered the question briefly, then responded, “The sex.”

I looked to the other cousin, who is also married and is quite Catholic, and she made a face and nodded vigorously in honest agreement. It was the same for her when she got married all those years ago. Her brother, however, seemed a bit stunned for a few moments. After a brief consideration, he accepted the situation for what is was, laughed, and agreed that, ‘Yes, that would be a really big difference.’

We all had a good chuckle over it. His question might be differently answered – well, it certainly would be so – by most couples these days after they marry. But our answer was the comically obvious one, given that our relationship was uncommonly Christ-centered for these modern times. I don’t know many couples who operated so on their relationship with one another before marriage, and it never surprised me when people assumed we were having sex all along, since it is so common. But it was a touch surprising that this one cousin didn’t know, because everyone else in the family certainly did. So, it was just really silly to have that question, given our rather known circumstances.

Anyway, I’m rambling… I’m just so sick to my stomach right now from the hormones, I can barely focus. Ugh…. It was supposed to be a little funny story, though I’m not so sure it panned out in the telling this time.

Oh, my stomach….. uuuhhhhhhhh(!!!!!!!!!!!!!)…

God, heal me of the nausea while making the baby healthy, please. Keep my husband safe. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

My husband passed his stage check for flying. Great news. And a bit of a big deal. He stopped at a public pool afterward to have a cool down and some time to relax before driving the four-ish hours home. He informed me via a cute little video of him in the actual pool and the message, “Celebratory dip, then heading home to my beautiful, pregnant, wife 😎”.

Initially, I responded that I wanted to swim with him, because I did. But then, after rereading his message, I found myself saying aloud, “I’m someone’s beautiful, pregnant wife,” as I totally broke down into sobs. They were of joy, of course. But the whole pregnancy thing makes emotions all the stronger, and the fact of my being pregnant – and successfully this time – combing with being beautiful to someone and with being that someone’s wife just threw me into an intense, sob-filled joy for a while. Totally ugly cry, not pretty cry on that one. And then I missed my husband. And I wished I could be in that pool with him. And I wished I weren’t so sick and could have just gone with him in the first place. AKA lots of emotion in those few minutes there. But it was great.

On the other hand, lots of emotion tonight, when I hurled for a solid five minutes, losing all the food I had been able to eat for dinner etc. And it burned, too, which makes it all the worse. So, dreadful experience there that also had me in ugly tears and sobs.

And then I found out that my husband had to take a rest – which I fully support, by the way, because tired driving is not okay, not at all, but it still made me sad that it would be longer before I got to see him again – and so wouldn’t be home in half an hour, as originally predicted.

So, I’m in bed now, feeling ill, throat still tingling a bit, back of my mouth totally weird-feeling and warm, hoping I’ll be able to sleep for a while. And also that I forget about the silverfish that was crawling on the foot of the bed after my shower tonight. Our home is cleaner than ever, and yet we have more bugs than ever. I am so over this pest control company. Clearly, they are not effective. It was both cheaper and loads more effective when my husband just did it all on his own. But we have to go through their July treatment in order not to have to back-pay the discount we got when we signed up last year. So, one more month with them, then never again with them. Yippee.

Oh, golly…

God, keep my husband safe, please. Make this baby well and healthy and all we have longed to have for our family, please. Help me to sleep well at night, tonight includes. Heal me of this nausea and bloating, please… please. Help my grandma to find comfort and joy, despite the loss of her friend. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024