I heart Birthing Classes!

Yesterday was the last session of our birthing classes and I am so sad!  I really wanted them to last forever.  I really enjoyed the classes and especially the people, a lot more than I anticipated I would.  I learned so much in those classes.  Our instructor was Brenda Minica.  She is a birthing class instructor/educator and a doula.  You can find her website here, along with all her information.  She lives near Floresville off of Hwy 181.  I HIGHLY recommend everyone to take her birthing classes.  Especially if you are a first time parent-to-be. 

Brenda is a Christian for one.  So, all of our study and discussions were Christ-centered.  This is something that Noah and I were looking for and God has definitely blessed her with this as a ministry.  I know we felt ministered to as well as educated on pregnancy, labor, and baby care. 

We went through why we fear labor.  The fact that there is no need to fear anything, just trust in God.  We discussed where these fears could have come from, in order to tackle the real problem.  We talked about how Satan is the father of lies and fear, so we know any fear is a lie and is not of God.  As a christian we all know these Truths, but it is important to REALLY KNOW these Truths.  Do you understand what I'm saying?  We need to repeat the Truths of God to ourselves, write them on our hearts, live like we believe them!  This is something that I definitely needed to hear in order to truly give my fears to God.  I needed to let go!

It is not just fear we talked about.  But we learned so much information on the labor process and what to expect.  She even talked about the physiological side of it.  Which of course I love being a Biology major.  I always understand better and feel more confident when I know what is physiologically going on in my body.  It really helps me to relax more and let my body do what it needs to do to in order to get the job done.  Just her explaining the three different layers of the uterus and what they each do in labor helped me so much, I can't even explain.  I know that sounds weird for those of you who aren't science nerds like me.  But this helped me A LOT!

Our confidence going into labor has sky-rocketed and our fears have decreased significantly.  I know I wrote a blog about all the things I was fearful of, so y'all know what I was struggling with.  And through discussions, prayer, and scripture reading I feel that my fears have all but erased.  I feel God's peace about it all.  I have always had God's peace with having our baby at home, but now I have God's peace for the actually labor.  Which were to different things for me.  And there is no peace like God's peace!  Those of you who have experienced God's "perfect peace" (Isaiah 26:3) know what I mean when I say that.

I can't even tell you how much we learned through this whole process.  To me knowledge is power.  And I have gained so much knowledge about labor, my body, baby, and so on.  I definitely feel equipped to have this baby!  We feel like God has given us a huge toolbox of tools to use.  Like, so many tools we actually have options of tools to use.  I am so thankful for Him for bringing us to Brenda and for her obedience to God to do these classes.  This is a wonderful ministry that is sure to bless whoever attend.

One of the things Brenda said is that with everyone of her pregnancies/labor God has given her a scripture that has given her peace and trust in Him.  I had not found my scripture for this labor until last night.  When I read it, I just knew that God was speaking directly to me about this labor.  Here is the verse:

"There was also Benaniah son of Jehoiada, a valiant warrior from Kabzeel.  He did many heroic deeds, which included killing two of Moab's mightiest warriors.  Another time he chases a lion down into a pit.  Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and killed it.  Another time, armed only with a club, he killed a great Egyptian warrior who was armed with a spear.  Benaniah wrenched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with it."  2 Samuel 23:20-21

Some, of you may be really confused how this is suppose to help me.  But I will explain all of that in the next blog!!  Stay tuned!

Baby Shower and Registry

A lot of people have been asking me about the baby shower so here is the info so far.  I am only going to have one baby shower.  It is going to be May 1st in Stockdale, TX.  It is going to be at Stockdale First Assembly of God Church in the Fellowship Hall.  Time TBA. 

Direction to Church:  If you are coming from Hwy 87 you will make a left turn onto Main St.  If you are coming from Hwy 123 you will make a right turn onto Main St.  The church is at the corner of 2nd St. and Main St.  It is made of brown bricks and there is a sign at that corner.

We are sending out invitations, but we haven't got that far yet.  If you want to be invited, send me a message on this blog or on facebook.  It's not that I don't want you there, but sometimes I just forget people.  We have a lot of family and friends and sometimes people get overlooked.  Sorry if that was you!!!

Also, I do have baby registries.  Some peeps have been saying that they don't know what to buy, because we are keeping the babies sex a mystery.  Well, we have 4 registries, so no one should have a problem. But I don't want to sound ungreatfull.  We are very appreciative of everyone's gifts, help, and especially prayers.  Being first time parents, we REALLY need some prayer!

Here are the baby registires all under Allison Tillman-Young:  (click on the name to go to the online registry)

1.  Target.com

2.  Giggle.com

3.  Babyearth.com

4.  Amazon.com  (there is a wish list and a baby registry under my name here, but the baby registry is the one you are looking for.)

If you are having any problems viewing the baby registries, please contact me and let me know.  Thank you!

Garter Stitch Blankets

This is probably the easiest blanket to make EVER!  All you do is garter stitch the whole way around, changing colors when you want or not.  I've made two blankets this way.  One is for me and the other for the baby.

The purple and green blanket is mine and the black and white blanket is for baby.

 On my blanket, the "purple" is an eggplant purple and the "green" is a slightly dark olive green.  My blanket is big enough to cover most of my body.  The baby's blanket is about half that size.  So needles to say, my blanket took a lot longer to make.



Left:  P&g blanket showing no right/wrong side with funky color row

Right: B&w blanket showing right side with NO funky color row.

Also, something different I did between the two.  Is on the purple and green blanket there was no right/wrong side like there is with most color-change garter stitching.  As, seen in the picture above there is an odd number of rows in the p&g blanket and an even amount in the b&w.   I did this, because there is always a row of stitching in the row that the yarn colors are changed that looks a bit funky.  So on the p&g blanket that funky row is on both sides.  You can't even tell, because the width of the color bands are large and the color contrast isn't that great.  But on the b&w blanket the colors had such a strong contrast and the color bands were so small, that I felt there needed to be a wrong side to where all the funky color rows would be (see picture below).  Leaving the right side with no funky color bands (see picture above).

Wrong side of b&w blanket.

So, you really just need to think about what you want on your blanket, keeping in mind color band width and color contrast.  I really like the cool colors on my blanket.  They make me happy!  But I'm glad I made the baby's blanket such a strong color contrast of b&w, because I learned that babies basically see in strong contrasts only when they are newborn.  The yarn is super soft as well, so hopefully the baby will love this blanket!

Mommy-Baby Mittens

The pattern writer's baby.

This is a pattern I found that just made me laugh! They are mittens that actually do serve as mittens, but are just funny looking.  In all honesty, I made these more for myself than the baby. So hopefully, the baby will like them, too. 

The mittens I made!

The mittens I made are kinda gender-neutral colors.  I am so excited about these, yau'll......It is a bit sad.

If you are a nerd like me and love these, you can find the pattern here.



Booties Galore!

For the past few months, I have been on a baby knitting kick.  It all started with the baby blanket that I still haven't finished....ARGG!  And continued with fun things like booties.  These booties are a really easy pattern that I got here.

3-6 month size

All of my colors are neutral, because we don't know if we are having a boy or girl.  But if you know then you can have lots of fun with them.  I'll probably make more after the baby is born with fun colors for a boy or girl.

Outside booties are 3-6 months and inside grey booties are 6-12 months.

My Fears

I am on assignment to list my fears of the labor to come.  And then pray and give it all to God. So, I'm scared that.....

• the pains of labor will be too much or more than I anticipate
• I won't be able to relax my body for pain relief and for an easier labor
• I will be fearful in general (I'm afraid of being afraid)
• all the attention on me will bother me and hinder my labor process
• I may have to have a C-section or go to the hospital (this scares me the most)
• that I will be too worried or concerned about other people's comforts and feeling present than focusing on the labor process
• that I will hit a wall where I feel like I can't go on any further
• I will stress out if the baby doesn't come by the due date

And even now, I cry while writing this.  I don't know if its fear that I cry or shame for the fears that I have.  I know they are perfectly normal, but I guess I can't be strong Wonder Woman all the time.  And that's the part that bugs me the most, I think.  I've always thought of myself as a strong woman and going through all of this makes me realize how vulnerable I really am.  This is altogether not a bad thing, because it has really created a deep dependence in me for God and his strength and peace and comfort.  I have prayed more about fear and comfort now then in my whole life. 

So, God give me peace and comfort.  Teach me to meditate on your word that I might draw strength from it.  Help me to trust myself and this labor in your extremelly capable hands.  I know that you have a perfect time for this labor and I pray that I may surrener to it.  Thank you for giving me Noah! He has been a pillar of strength for me and I can't imagine going through this without him.  Thank you that he is a great man of God and I can always count on him for the Truth.  Thank you for both of our families being Christians and praying us through all of this. Their support has created a strong foundation for the success of this birth and child.  Thank you for all of your blessings now and to come.

In the Home Stretch

Woah, its been a while since I'v blogged, ok....

So I am 29 weeks this week and I have grown big time, like exponentially.  In about a month's time I became "you have a cute bump" to "big mama!".  The baby is kicking, punching, and moving around A LOT!  And my feet hurt when I've been walking around too much.  But I love every minute of it!!!  I told Noah that I could totally be an elephant and have a 2-year gestation period.   I love being pregnant!  Our midwife, Janet, says we are in the short time.  That is what she calls it when we go to once-a-month visits to visits every two weeks.

25 weeks

We moved last week from our first apartment as a married couple to our first house as a married couple.  Although I was happy to move to a bigger place with hardwood floors (yeah!), I was sad to see the little apt go.  We have a lot of memories from there and it was really good to us.  But I am NOT having a baby in an apartment! And I don't mean raise a baby in an apartment, because I see nothing wrong with that.  I just don't feel comfortable actually having our home birth there.  I need open space, and the new house definantly has that.  Thank you everyone who were praying for/with us about the new house.  I wanted to step into a house and feel comfortable and have God's peace about it.  And God has given us both that!  He has provided a wonderful place that we love and can see ourselves raising our family at for as long as God has us in San Antonio.

We started our birthing classes with a doula named Brenda Minica.  And we love it!  She is a super sweet lady and her classes are so informative.  But best of all it is Christ-centered teaching.  We talk about everything through God's eyes and dealing with fear, doubt, and emotions with scripture and prayer.  Our midwife suggested her and I am so glad she did.  We are learning so much! 

It is amazing the people God has brought to us during this pregnancy to teach us and to encourage us.  I am so thankful and feel super blessed! I don't know how people do life without God.  I would be a mess! Not that I am not anyway, but I have God to keep me on track.  And I need Him!