After Having 2 All Natural Births, I am Still a Huge Advocate....Even More So Now....Here is Why

So, as many of you readers now, I have had two natural births and am planning on having a third one Lord willing. I wanted to write a post explaining first how we came to be believers in natural birth. Second, why we became believers in natural birth. And finally, how you can avoid many of the routine processors that normally cause you to end up having to have a c-section (baby's position, low fluid, inductions, etc.).

How Exercising During Pregnancy Effects You Post-Partum

Trying to exercise while you are pregnancy can be discouraging. The fact that no matter what you do, you watch the scale go up and your belly grow. That is a good thing ladies! You want to gain weight (obviously not too much because that isn't healthy for you and especially not for the baby; remember, eating for two is a lie!). There are many benefits to exercising while pregnant. Here are just a few:

-Helps increase energy
-Helps relieve swelling
-Helps with insomnia
-Helps prepare your body for the labor ahead
-Helps make labor faster (especially the second stage if you have a good set of abs)
-Is said to helps with morning sickness

BUT, the biggest thing for me is that the harder, consistently, and better you workout WHILE you are pregnant, the easier the weight sheds off when baby is born and the faster your muscle tone comes back. Muscles have a memory and as long as you continue to work them, they will snap back to where they were before pretty quick. I said in another post about how I gained a bit (not much but enough) more weight with Jahs than I did with Levi, but with Jahs, I lost the weight so much faster AND more importantly got my BF% down and my muscle tone back fast especially in my stomach. I am only 6 months post-partum as I write this and I am in better shape now than I was before I was married and had kids. I wished I had taken more pictures post-partum for you guys to see and for myself. But, trust me, I was thrilled at how quickly my stomach came back especially because I literally got depressed over my weight gain and cried after an appointment where a nurse who was a bit crass stated that I had gained too much between appointments. I didn't understand why since I was working out so hard. Jahs was only bigger by 1 lb, but I guess that made a difference.

Either way, my whole point in this blog post is that trust me, it feels hopeless and pointless to workout while pregnant. You figure you will just workout AFTER the baby is born. Ladies, please don't do this. Start now! You have 9 months where you are impatiently waiting anyways, so why not keep busy and workout. Make it your goal to look better than before. Pregnancy does NOT have to be an excuse to gain unnecessary weight. You can be fit again after baby even if you weren't before you got pregnant. It is so possible. As long as you put your mind to it and you want it enough, you can do it. And, just because you have had more than one kid doesn't mean that you have to just give up and let your body go. If you want to get your body back, fight for it! Your body is a temple and God blessed you with it. We are to be good stewards of everything and that includes the body God blessed us with. We should strive to be healthy and to be good examples to our kids.

Now this post isn't to bash anyone who gains more weight or who doesn't or can't exercise. That is not it. This is just to encourage you. If you feel hopeless and don't want to exercise because you feel like there is not point, know that there is. It makes EVERYTHING so much easier afterwards. I also recovered super fast this time around as well and account working out to that quite a bit.

Check out this young ladies blog. It is an inspiration to me. ETA: This pregnancy I ended up barely exercising at all. I gained the most amount of weight this time around too, but the baby ended up being the same size as Jahs. So far at 2 days postpartum I've lost 15 of my 50 lbs. So not bad. We'll see how easy it comes off since I didn't exercise. I'm not worried even if it is more work, but this does go to show that exercise DOES help! My body normally puts on a lot of weight during pregnancy even when I DO exercise, so when I don't, it really packs it on!

"Give Them Grace" Book Review

I have just finished reading Give Them Grace:Dazzling Your Kids with The Love of Jesus. Boy, I know that I rave about a lot of books but this one was basically like a huge relief to me. The reiterated that God is sovereign and in control. You WILL fail as a parent. You are not perfect. You are human. We need to strive to glorify God through obeidience, but even when something happens and you have a bad day, realize that God can and will use that failure as well. It is a great reminder that He is sovereign and that no matter how good or bad we do, He is in control. Here is the description of the book:

"All of us want to raise good kids. And we want to be good parents. But what exactly do we mean by “good?” And is “being good” really the point?

Mother-daughter team Elyse Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson contend that every way we try to make our kids “good” is simply an extension of Old Testament Law—a set of standards that is not only unable to save our children, but also powerless to change them.

No, rules are not the answer. What they need is GRACE.

We must tell our kids of the grace-giving God who freely adopts rebels and transforms them into loving sons and daughters. If this is not the message your children hear, if you are just telling them to “be good,” then the gospel needs to transform your parenting too.

Give Them Grace is a revolutionary perspective on parenting that shows us how to receive the gospel afresh and give grace in abundance, helping our children know the dazzling love of Jesus and respond with heartfelt obedience." 

This book has just been such a huge sigh of relief for me. Knowing that I don't have to be the perfect parent. I can't be. Whew! If I don't pray often enough with my child, we don't memorize enough Bible verses, etc. no matter how we think we are failing as a parent, that isn't the point. We need to look to God. I think that sometimes God allows us to feel like bad parents to remind us that we need Him and can't do it without Him. There are so many examples in the Bible of amazing parents in the Bible that ended up having really bad and even considered evil kids. Then, there were some really awful parents who ended up having amazingly godly kids. How? Because God was ultimately in control. 

Anyways, this book was so amazing for me. She continually brought me back to the cross and the gospel. 

After Having 2 All Natural Births, I am Still a Huge Advocate....Even More So Now....Here is Why

So, as many of you readers now, I have had two natural births and am planning on having a third one Lord willing. I wanted to write a post explaining first how we came to be believers in natural birth. Second, why we became believers in natural birth. And finally, how you can avoid many of the routine processors that normally cause you to end up having to have a c-section (baby's position, low fluid, inductions, etc.).

Is Celebrating Sin Really the New Norm?

First, I need to write a few disclaimers. This post isn't meant to purposely offend anyone. I am not writing this to specifically hurt anyone or any one particular sin. This is about sin in general--any sin. Also--and I know this is a bit of a tough statement, but please understand I am speaking to myself just as much as to my readers--if you are offended by it, exam why. Whenever we get offended or defensive, it is almost always because we are being prideful and are offended at the truth. Otherwise, if what we are offended about is not true in the least, then why bother spending the energy being offended because you know you are right. If you are reading this just to pick a fight, please stop reading. If you are honestly reading this to be open-minded and humble and really want to know what I am talking about when I say that we celebrate sin as a culture today, then I welcome you to continue to read and share this post.

Mundane Monday

I have not written a "Mundane Monday" post in a while and today is definitely a day that it is needed. Yesterday at church, the youth pastor reiterated what my husband always talks to me about, especially when I have a poor attitude. That is how we need to be thankful and how that will change our attitudes drastically. It isn't an "instant fix" of course, but it does help so much.

Thoughts on Breastfeeding

I had someone recently ask me if I was breastfeeding and it then lead to a short conversation about women breastfeeding and how some think they are unable to. It sparked a ton of thoughts and it was such a brief conversation that I didn't have the time to explain some thoughts I have on the topic, so I thought why not write a whole post on it?! lol First, these are my opinions. I am not a doctor--though I have done a TON of research online and read a lot of books from medical professionals on the subject. But again, just my opinions and there are definitely different cases where someone truly just could not breastfeed.