I have a question for all the Mamas out there: what do you do when you get that dreaded comment along the lines of “you should stop having kids.”

Since I’m asking, it’s safe to say that we got that nice little bombshell dropped on us recently. I’m still at a loss as to why that was dropped on us, since we only have two kids who are perfectly taken care of. And considering one isn’t even born yet, I’m even more confused. We may not have the same lifestyle as everyone else, but it works for our little family and we enjoy it.

In all reality, I thought that if we were to start having more than “the average” number of kids, that we would get the “stop having kids!” comments. Around the city where we live, “the average” is around three. I never thought I’d see the day where two became “too many”.

Obviously, prayers are definitely needed for this person; but how would you (charitably) respond to this situation?

1.
Proud Catholic Mama Moment: Elise absolutely HAS to say “good morning” and “good night” to Jesus every single day. Her greetings to Him include giving the picture we have of the Sacred Heart kisses (and a little desktop crucifix we have), as well as waving and saying “deeSUS” at every image she can. ♥

2.
I’m beginning to accumulate books to read when Little One arrives and Greg’s home on paternity leave (since I plan on doing NOTHING but laying in bed, nursing, and recovering in that time). So far, I have The Privilege of Being a Woman by Alice von Hildebrand, Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood by Sheila Kippley, God Help Me! These People are Driving Me Nuts! by Gregory Popcak, and the book on kindness by Fr. Lovasik that I mentioned back here. Books I have already to re-read are Danielle Bean’s book (see #3), Holiness for Housewives and Other Working Women by Fr. Hubert van Zeller, and The World’s First Love by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. I think that should tie me over quite nicely.

3.
I finished Danielle Bean’s book, Mom to Mom, Day to Day last night. I laughed (a lot), I cried, and I know that this book will be 1) recommended to friends and 2) read and re-read often. A lot of what she talks about I can relate to, and it’s a book that brings with it a sense of relief in knowing that there are other Mamas out there who have gone through the same thing.

4.
I’m really not enthused with the “new money saving” prescription plan we had to change to. The previous plan had no problems with my generic Zofran prescription – one month’s supply, check. The new plan has decided that my need for generic Zofran needs to be “pre-approved” and therefore I only can have 6 pills a month filled. 6. Per. Month. Even though Dr. M writes my prescriptions for one pill a day, they still require “pre-approval”. And honestly, by the time they approve; I’ll probably have given birth. Not to mention that at 33 weeks pregnant, I do NOT feel like battling The All Knowing Prescription Plan People, especially since it’s administered by the state government. ::sigh:: And with as hormonal as I am, I’d probably have a complete lapse in charity and really just rip someone apart, and I’d rather avoid that.

5.
I’m hoping extra B6 in my diet will help. This weekend I’ll be hoarding (rationing? saving?) my precious generic Zofran (5 left, took 1 this morning) and trying B6. If that doesn’t work, then I’ll call up Dr. M and figure out what else I can do that does not involve prescriptions. If the prescription plan is this wanky about generic Zofran, I highly doubt they’re going to like any other anti-nausea drug better. And if the B6 doesn’t work, then the prescription plan people will be hearing from me. Every. Single. Day. until they do something about it that doesn’t involve a metric ton of paperwork and weeks upon weeks of waiting.

6.
I’ve started with that delightful pregnant lady waddle. I never had that with Elise, so waddling is still kind of cute and novel to me. My belly also has a dedicated pillow in the bed with me, also something I never needed with Elise. I’m sure in about 2 weeks I’ll be sick of waddling, so be sure to ask me again how I feel about it!

7.
I’d like to use my last “quick take” to mention how amazingly awesome Greg is. In the throws of morning sickness, he never once has complained about changing a poopy diaper/emptying smelly trash cans/cleaning a toilet or doing other tasks that smell bad or are not visually appealing. Every morning for the last who knows how many months he wakes up at 6am, and brings me a glass of water for my Zofran. He gladly takes Elise in the evening so I can have a bath and relax, and rubs my back any time I ask him to. He is rock solid in his faith and we have many deep conversations about things in our faith lives, such as the darkness that I’ve been experiencing. He can explain things to me (usually about heresies and Latin, thanks to his college courses) as well as answering random questions about history. He would really clean up in Trivial Pursuit.

He really is an awesome husband and sometimes I feel like I take him for granted; so this is my reminder not to as well as my opportunity to brag about him.

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More Quick Takes are available for your perusal over at Conversion Diary.

1.
I realized I was getting sucked into Unneeded Drama and therefore was able to back out before things got really dramatic and wanky. Hurrah!

2.
Greg’s paycheck that just came in and his next one are budgeted out and the student loan payments are already mailed off. Little One’s Birth Fund is growing by leaps and bounds thanks to the budget, which is awesome.

3.
Despite today being one of those “let’s see how the morning sickness is!” days (still present), I have a load of washed laundry in the dryer. I think it will probably take me all day to fold it, but at least it’s (slowly) getting taken care of. I should be getting more  Zofran this evening. Thanks, Little One!

“Remember this: God does not call the equipped; he equips the called. In my experience, God sent the babies first and then followed up with the graces as necessary. God gives us “our daily bread”, the grace we need to live up to our responsibilities one day at at time. You don’t have to have it all figured out and feel ready to handle a gang of kids years ahead of time. If God calls you to have a large family, he will help you to do it … one child at at time.”

~ Danielle Bean, Mom to Mom, Day to Day: Advice & Support for Catholic Living

I’m finding Danielle’s book a giant exercise in “taking a deep breath and being real.” Amen, amen, amen.

With the realization that Elise is most likely moving from a two-nap schedule to a one-nap schedule, I know I need to rework my prayer routine. I’m kind of chappy behind the ears about this, because I basically have been soaking in the “I have the best prayer routine for my needs and my state in life right now” for a mere three weeks. It’s not too early, not too late, not too long or short, allows for what I need to feed me, relatively distraction free … ahhh, perfect.

I have to admit it, once I realized that it was going to have to change, I got a little owly. And whiny. “If God wants me to pray, to talk to Him, especially when He’s acting like He’s on vacation, WHY does He feel compelled to shake things up and basically ’steal’ my prayer time!” And other cute little whines.

After the day ended and ushered in probably the worst night of sleep I have ever had; I had more than enough time to muse on my anger about God ’stealing’ my prayer time. Having a regular prayer time has always been challenging for me, and just when I get on top of things – aka, I stop justifying doing everything BUT praying – WHAMO. It’s gone. The funny thing is that rather than just say “well, this is how motherhood rolls, do I want to wake up an hour before Elise does and pray then or trying praying at the end of the day?”, I immediately went back into Justification Mode.

I’ll skip writing out my list out my justifications as to why I absolutely HAVE TO have Elise’s morning nap as my prayer time, trust me when I say they’re really petty and kind of embarrassing, actually. Things like “but I don’t like waking up early” and “Vespers just isn’t my cup of tea” are on it.

Needless to say, I thought I had done Awesome Stuff by getting prayer time set up and preciously guarded, only to find out that I maybe had it TOO preciously guarded and need to just suck up and get out of Justification Mode. There are a plethora of other little time pockets that I can easily pray in. I just need to watch out for them and use them when they occur. It’s not rocket science.

And perhaps because the Good Lord just wanted me to realize that I need to be flexible with my prayer time and not immediately resort back to Justification Mode when things get all jumbled around; Elise took her normal morning nap. Just as if the last few days of “I hate my morning nap and will not take it” didn’t even exist.

Yesterday I wrote a little about Elise’s lack of napping. She’s never been what you would call “The World’s Best Sleeper”, but has been pretty decent about naps. We finally figured out a routine that works for her, found her good nap times (mid morning and early afternoon), and went about life. Over the weekend was when the nap drama began, and today was no exception.

Today I had one of those light bulb moments – what if she’s beginning to get ready to go to one nap per day instead of two? She’s 17 months, so right around “that age that is somehow set for when toddlers start dropping naps”. Currently she’s laying down in her crib with her lovey after starting to rub her eyes and yawn a lot. I know that if she is getting ready to drop a nap, it won’t be a smooth transition and therefore things around here will be pretty funky for a while.

I’ll have to keep an extra eye on her to try and circumvent the overtired induced meltdowns and also start figuring out when she wants to take that one nap (if that’s her aim). I’ll have to readjust my prayer routine, since I had it right on top of Elise’s morning nap. And then Little One will arrive and a whole new level of “readjusting” will occur.

Greg has been asking me for the last couple of days to put a picture up here. I put it up on Facebook, but alas; every day he asks me, “Did you put that picture up on your blog? You should really put that picture up on your blog.” And so on, and so on. So, because my beloved has asked me (repeatedly), here is the picture he wants me to put up:

When Fr. Groeschel came to give a conference/retreat type talk; Greg and I went. Apparently there were stealthy photographers, because we had no idea this picture even existed until our parish mailed it to us. Fr. Benedict is signing a book we bought of his. A truly gentle soul he has, I won’t be surprised if he ever becomes canonized.

Elise has decided that napping is for sissies, and I’m coping by taking copious amounts of pictures of her. She still does nap in the day, but it’s so variable about when and for how long. For added fun, she gets obviously overtired and then becomes Miss Crankybutt, so things really get exciting. Her temper tantrums have evolved into MASSIVE MELTDOWNS (lots of screaming and limb flailing), and her newest obsession is running with things like pens and pencils. And breaking crayons in half.

Her tantrums are pretty infrequent, and we spend most of our days exploring the apartment and particularly the bottle of holy water we have. And waving at every image of Jesus we have (pictures and crucifixes).

Tantrums and nap strikes aside, it’s awe-inspiring to watch her grow into being a little girl. I still have no clue how life will be like with two under two, but I’m up for the challenge. I know the Good Lord will give me the graces I need, even if they both decide they want to teeth together or have a nap strike.

“All of us can attain to Christian virtue and holiness, no matter in what condition of life we live and no matter what our life work may be.”

My aunt requested an updated belly picture, so I put this one up on Facebook for her. I didn’t realize how much larger I am with Little One until I saw this picture and compared it to Elise at 32 weeks. It also explains why I’ve been having PLENTY of issues, not limited to:

• clothing not fitting (I’ve had to dig out the GIANT maternity tops, although as you can see; yesterday’s top is anything but giant)
• coats not zipping up – my biggest winter coat can barely close
• being unable to bend over to tie shoes, put on socks, etc.

Nevertheless, we are in the single digits of weeks and about 54 days until the due date. Should Little One arrive a few days early like Elise; that puts us around 51 or so days. The last two things that have have have to be done are to wash the carseat interior and the snuggle nest interior. Then I’m done, that’s it, nothing more. Or so I say.

I’m looking at purchasing a couple of books with some saved up Amazon gift cards. I’m looking for input on two books in particular:

• Mom to Mom, Day to Day: Advice and Support for Catholic Living by Danielle Bean. I have yet to find someone who doesn’t like Danielle Bean, but has anyone read this particular book (or heard anything about it)? The Amazon reviews look promising, which is encouraging. I’m interested in this book from the whole “hi, I’m a Catholic mom and sometimes I need to just hang out and read what other Catholic moms have to say about stuff.” aspect.
• The Hidden Power of Kindness: A Practical Handbook for Souls Who Dare to Transform the World, One Deed at a Time by Fr. Lawrence Lovasik. I finished reading his book on Catholic family life, and LOVED it. I’m highly intrigued by the book’s concept, as well as the Amazon reviews. I don’t think that being kind has a finite limit here on Earth, and I’m highly interested in seeing what Fr. Lovasik has to say.

Technically I have enough to buy both books, but I figure I’d see if anyone I “know” has any input on these books.