Remembering

Remembering tonight the sweet, simple, full-of-rest season that my pregnancy with Annabel was. A season of grace and beauty, just like the meaning her name carries. 

We were living with Mom and Dad and Grandma Elkjer, being provided for and nurtured in every possible way by them, and only doing what we needed to do to prepare for her arrival. 

I read so much during those four and a half months. Everything I know about natural birth, breastfeeding, cloth diapering, and all of those mama-related topics, I learned during those months (that is, except for the wealth of things I learned through experience later on).

 It was an utterly non-crafty season. All of my creative energies were devoted to thinking about how I wanted to give birth, parent, and diaper my baby. I was just reading, sleeping, sitting in my mom’s garden, and taking leisurely walks when I felt like it.

Nate and I were relaxing together, musing about being parents, and getting in some last adventures as just the two of us. (My feet never were so swollen as after dancing the night away at Ali & Mitch’s wedding, about 32 weeks or so at that point.) Nate was there for every prenatal appointment. Every.single.one.

Jenni came to visit right around Annabel's due date (little did we know, I still had two weeks to go). Bestfriend was there for the whole summer, just for me. The Lundquist and Ernster sisters were my most devoted cheerleaders. I felt so loved.

I’m thinking about the simplicity and rest most of all. It was such a beautiful time of recovering from a difficult year and preparing for another different-kind-of-difficult season (as in, not sleeping for more than 2 hours at a time for many many many months). 

Like a little oasis in between two storms. 

And I loved it.