Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Dependancy

One of the hardest things that people have to learn is how to properly depend on others.

I've been reading Jeremiah lately for my devotions and it keeps popping up over and over again, about how Israel and Judah decided to turn from God and to turn back to the ways of Egypt and the worship of false gods. They did not choose to depend on God for everything, they chose to depend on themselves and idols of their own making. This of course, caused God to turn from them in anger, he indeed poured out his wrath upon them. BUT>>>> he only did so after he called and called for the people to return to him.

I see this tendency in my own life as well. Having a baby by c-section really made me aware of it. I so much like doing things for my ownself, in my own way and time, and having a wee one dependant upon you for everything, and being unable to do my own thing in my own time, and having to ask my parents for assistance in just getting meals and laundry done.... it's been a struggle. And then when I struggled with baby blues....having to say God help me with this, I can't get through these thoughts on my own.... IT"S HARD. BUT I must also say, it is worth it. Worth it from my parents joy in being able to spend LOTS of time with their new grandson. Worth it from knowing that by turning to God in my need brings him joy as well. So despite the challenges of needing to be humble enough to ask for help, comes good things.

I look at the larger world today, the Canadian government legalizing same-sex marriage because it's a "human rights issue", people fighting for jobs, people hurting each other, people saying the God isn't real,..... these are all symptons of individuals saying....let me do it my way. Let me make the choices. Let me stand on my own. Where is the dependancy? It seems like no one wants to be dependant on others in proper ways....

Where is this people's need for God? Have we all gone off to do our own thing? My prayer is that we learn how to depend on God as a people, as a nation. That we will indeed turn from our wickedness and heed the word of our Lord.

Friday, July 22, 2005

A Learning Process

Boy oh boy is being a new mom ever a huge learning curve. Makes me wonder how people do it! :) But, they do. And I too will survive this learning curve.

Veronica the lactation consultant has called a couple of times just to see how I am doing, and to offer encouragement and advice. Nice of her to do that...and yes, I know it's her job, but it is still nice to hear words of encouragement over the phone.

Susan, our mid-wife, was planning on coming over tonight to check up on us, but.....there was an accident within the family so she won't be able to come today. She'll come tomorrow instead. She thinks that yesterday when Justin was crying all day that it was a growth spurt that he was going through. All I know is I kept feeding him, he couldn't settle and I'd feed him some more...and it was a never ending merry-go-round. Sleep didn't come easily last night. Today, on the other hand, our little boy is sleeping all day long. :) Such a change.

My hubbie Jim is trying hard to be a good dad and supportive husband as we go through learning process. Makes me love him even more. Go figure that eh.... one wouldn't think that such a change in life could cause a person to love another person, more....but somehow it does. Not that I'm complaining. It's good to have a firm love for one's life partner.

Anyways, time to go to bed so....i'll write more another time.

Annette

Monday, July 11, 2005

New Life

Well, what can I say? Our baby has been born!
Labour was nasty, it, if our baby had been a bit smaller, would have been doable, but he was just a tad bit too big, and took just a tad bit too long in coming into the world. Having a C-section was doable, just not the option we wanted.

Interesting though, I did a search on-line last night for information on recovering from having a c-section and there is surprisingly not a lot of information out there! Most people experience what Jim and I did. Go home and take it easy. I find that horribly shocking! It took some searching to find out how I should care for myself over these next few weeks.

From what I could tell from people out in computer land, what I should do is the following
1. I should have help in the house for at least 2 weeks following release from the hospital.
2. I should go up and down the stairs as infrequently as possible.
3. I should rest. Sleep whenever I can, use pillows, chairs whatever to get myself comfortable.
4. I should not bend over and pick things up.
5. I should not carry anything heavier than our baby.
6. I should avoid anything that could add to abdominal stress - avoid constipation, gas, etc. It means eating healthy,taking stool softeners, and so forth.
7. It means walking in order to keep the body's systems active.

So why don't doctors tell their patients these things? Like seriously, I am sure that I could have avoided adding to my pain levels IF I had been told these things. So why wasn't I? Why do most women not know these things and have to rely on other women to fill them in? That makes for a lot of misinformation being passed around and greater chances for women to actually find themselves damaging themselves and needing more recuperating time.

It just seems like doctors don't really care about their patients if they don't give them good post-operative care and kinda just willy-nilly send them home when perhaps they shouldn't because the patient might have a better recoup time if they stayed in hospital even one more day, or it gave them more time to learn about what they should do when they are at home and so forth.

I have found that it has just been rather interesting learning about people's experiences in this. I was blown away too by the numbers of women who choose to have a c-section because they don't want to go through the bother of labour. The prevailing attitude among such choice makers is that they want to avoid the bother of labour, and they like the idea of having to do nothing for at least 6 weeks after the baby is born. One lady was even rather bummed that (after choosing to do c-section for four children) that her doctor said....Okay, no more children are you allowed to have.! And she was SO mad at her doctor. Why didn't he tell me this might limit the amount of children I could have? What's his problem, I should be able to have more children, all they need to do is c-section it, even if it's a bit a early! I just find that type of attitude so ... not sure of the word to use....shocking, frustrating, mind-boggling. Definitely NOT one that I would agree with.