I am sure many of my readers out there think my life is one big running analogy! Maybe it is? But for me, for sure no question, being pregnant, has felt very similar to training for and running a marathon. Its been an incredible experience, but has taken a lot of time and mental and physical energy to prepare for. Also there are WAY too many books on the topic!
However, I have found 3 worth recommending (if there are any others worth knowing about I am up for suggestions)
I eased into the book reading because I was in the middle of a school year, it was too much information tooo quickly, and it turned into information overload. I began with the classic
1)
What to Expect when you are Expecting. Just enough information to get to started in the right direction, confirm to you that you in reality are not crazy, but it doesn't go in depth on any one topic or concern. Then a month or so ago I eased into another book, (courtesy of Shelley Adams) entitled
2)
Spiritual Midwifery a fantastic read published sometime in the 1970s, Aaron and I got lots of laughs while I shared bits and pieces of this book because of the old fashion language, but also lots of great take home stuff/ comfort/ etc. However, my new favorite and the book I really want aaron to read (much to his chagrin) is
3)
Hyponobirthing. This book has been empowering to me and something I think I would like to give all my pregnant friends, though I am sure many of them wouldn't resonate with this book at all. It talks about the history of labor through time and culturally. It also talks about the "curse" of labor supposedly given to Eve, was not actually being a curse at all but a beautiful gift from God. It encourages meditation and relaxation techniques to be used through the process of pregnancy to avoid the "pains" of labor.
When I am not reading pregnancy books you can also find me reading a few others (hooray for summer!) the classic Lord of the Rings trilogy is currently being devoured as well as a daily devotional Whiter than Snow. And because of a mix of being pregnant and this book the last few weeks I have really been hung up on the idea of
enough.
And what a strange looking word! This week I had
enough of school (we graduated our seniors a week ago!) but not
enough energy for anything else, just ask Aaron. And I hope I feel that one semester off is
enough time with baby, who is now 3 pounds and measures in the 60th percentile in size. I hope I feel like I have
enough of what it takes to be a rockin mom! I hope that each day I have the right amount of
enough and know what to do and how to handle what I don't.
Here is a quote from a book I was reading that spurred on my mediation on enough:
"Enough is the persistent problem this side of eternity. Enough is what we seldom seem to get right. Enough is what trips us up, again and again. Enough is one of our deepest sources of trouble. Enough is what we find such difficulty in being satisfied with. Although the definition is different for each of us, the struggle with our enough is that it tends to keep expanding. And when it does, we never seem to have enough."
Okay that is
enough!
And here is a picture of me at 29 weeks (not 30, but close enough!) I'll try to remember to take another one today to document mile 20, oops I mean the 3 quarters of the way to babydom mark! :)
