7 Quick Takes

-1-

I've really been digging The Band Perry.  Jimmy mumbles along to this one too

-2-

For Jimmy, potty training is a b****.  Right now we have to wait til it's just about an emergency because he's afraid to go.  My thinking is once he does this enough then he'll be able to relax and control his functions more.  Unfortunately we haven't been consistant because when I run errands or when we travel on the weekend I leave him in the diaper.  We have to get this down as he starts preschool in exactly one month but yet we have a weeks vacation, followed by the rodeo coming up.  Any suggestions for traveling and potty training?  HELP!

-3-

I'm pretty sure I felt a little flutter when I went to bed last night. How easy it is to forget that feeling of a baby moving in your womb. Even though you have a connection with that child you don't yet know who they will be.  It's so wonderful to be reminded when your previous children were in the womb and imagine them as the ones doing summersaults. 

-4-

Adam and I think we'll skip the state fair this year because of money and heat.  However, with the activity going on right now on the fairgrounds (jr horse show and people setting up) Vose's corndog stand is open.  Yes, I already went.  Yes, I'll probably go back.  It makes me feel like I went to the fair.

-5-

A while ago I said I wanted to go to a concert and I'd pick Miranda Lambert.  Well she's playing at the state fair but we're spending our money on a vacation so no Miranda, no Pistol Annies.  So sad.

-6-

Our trip entails Oklahoma, Texas, Arakansas, and Branson MO.  I'm most looking forward to the histroic stockyards in Fort Worth

-7-

I've been hanging on to a spa gift card for way too long.  I can't make up my mind what I'd like to do with it: facial, massage, mani/pedi.  Perhaps this weekend will be my chance!

 

Here Comes the Three-peat

So awhile back I thought I had a brilliant topic for a blog post.  You can read it here!  It's about the emotional experience a couple who practices natural family planning goes through when they think they might be pregnant then are not.

I wrote it in the third person although it is clearly about us. 

I'll wait for you to go ahead and read it....go on...


Right...so...The thing about early detection pregnancy tests are they only promise a certain amount of accuracy depending how far away from the missed period you are.  NFP couples have a hard time waiting until the missed period to take a pregnancy test because they have the tools to know if they should be pregnant. 

I was one of those people.

So now we're happy to announce we are expecting January 15, 2013. 

We can't wait for another beauty like these two...

Tide of Emotions

A couple who practices natural family planning (NFP) may experience a tide of emotions with regard to a pregnancy test.

Let's say a couple is practicing NFP to avoid pregnancy. In a moment, a very specific point in time, their interaction with each other is more deep and meaningful than any other: real sacramental supernatural stuff.

But the chart shows a white baby sticker after day 3 green baby sticker.  Hmmm..."That peak day came way earlier than any other...perhaps this is a double peak situation." For readers not familiar with the Creighton Method of NFP that day is interpreted as a day of fertility. The couple took a chance to achieve pregnancy.  Yet the days leading up to it were signs of ovulation come and gone.

From NaPro Instruction Manual depicting different fertility situations

As beings made to live in the present their hearts are open to where the Holy Spirit leads them.  And in that moment it was to each other.  They have a sense of peace about their time spent together as opposed to feeling unsettled about abstaining for the sake of avoiding pregnancy.  (As a side note here:  NFP couples should not feel unsettled for abstaining but I only say that to emphasize the clarity of their experience.  And let's be honest, they're not all created equal.)  They reflect on what the possible outcome may be.  Yet, beyond that moment, this couple talks about how confident they are that God is still not calling them to try co-creating during these months of their lives.

Many couples do not realize the possibility a woman is pregnant until she misses her period.  Oppositely, NFP couples have to wait until they know they are at a point that finally the early pregnancy tests could detect pregnancy hormones.  During that wait there may be conversations of what an additional family member would mean for them, baby names, and the like.  One or the other may get distracted envisioning a child and the new family dynamic.   



And then...

  
..."OH. Um...whew...I guess. We really dodged a bullet??"

The result above elicits a mixed reaction.  The couple doesn't celebrate with relief.  The ideas they had about the future are dismissed.  They are not necessarily disappointed.  They weren't trying to get pregnant in the first place.  An outcome they did experience is a strengthening and growth of their relationship by having trust in each other and in God.  This is the beauty of Natural Family Planning.