31 Final Days of My 5th Pregnancy

***I have edited this post to include the links to each post in this 31 day series.***

31 Final Days of My 5th Pregnancy

Motherhood Taught Me How Selfish I Am (this post)

Miscarriage

A Little Bit of Humor

The Post-Due Pregnancy: Part 1

The Post-Due Pregnancy: Part 2

Appreciating Our Husbands

Pumpkin Shrimp Soup Recipe

Why I Chose Natural Childbirth

Freedom from Worry (About Money)

Autumn Art Project for Kids

My 1st Baby: Natural Labor and Delivery: Part 1

My 1st Baby: Natural Childbirth: Part 2

Honoring My Husband by Getting More Sleep

A Place to Listen, Talk, and Share Our Stories

To Acknowledge Infant and Pregnancy Loss

Pregnancy Brain

The Best Way to Bathe a Baby

Where’s My Nesting Instinct?

What Do You Really Need for a New Baby?

Why I Made My Book Free

Less Stuff

Lose That Baby Weight

That Kind of Friend

How to Make Me Jealous

I’m Never Having Kids

The Midwife Delivery

The Overdue Baby

Waiting and Waiting

She Finally Arrived!

. . .

I’ve been pregnant 6 times. The second pregnancy, back in 2006, ended in miscarriage.

So I will call this pregnancy my 5th pregnancy, my 5th baby. And I am due in the beginning of November. What better time to join a mentor blogger’s challenge to post for 31 days in a row than the final 31 days of my 5th pregnancy?…

As I write, my tiny daughter-to-be is jabbing my intestines with her legs and fists and hiccupping in my abdomen. I can hardly type because I am leaning back, waiting for her to stop.

“Stop it, dang–it! I’m trying to write!”

…One of the hardest lessons of motherhood is relinquishing my own needs and thinking of the baby’s needs before my own. I have found that, in childbearing, I have been saved from my own selfishness in so many ways. I have been forced to face my own reactions to extreme hardships, and how I handle the emotions that go along with physical discomfort, pain, exhaustion.

It starts, of course, with morning sickness, then advances to all kinds of other pregnancy-related challenges like back pain, rapid weight gain, and other ailments that I will talk about in future posts. It culminates with intense labor and delivery, and solidifies with sleepless nights and infected breasts, tears, and fights with my spouse.

Two things taught me how selfish I really am: marriage and motherhood. Both demand that I make choices every single day to be less selfish, more generous, more focused on the needs of others. It is so hard–but at the same time, it is so right.

So once I looked at myself and my actions and admitted how selfish I was (am), I was able to change. I was able to work hard toward being less selfish.

I can nurse the baby before I eat my meal. I can read a book to my child before I go to the bathroom. I can cook, do laundry, and wipe my kids’ butts when I have the flu. I can, and I will…with a smile and a good attitude. Because I can choose to live that way.

At the same time, my question is this: how do we balance taking care of ourselves while we take care of our families? How do we know when to say no? How do we refuel? How do we continue when we can’t take it anymore? These are some of the topics I’d love to get to this month. Because the lessons we learn when we are pregnant and nursing are important lessons to remember and share.

I am very excited to join Myquillyn Smith’s (the nester’s) 31-day writing challenge. Tonight I will be linked up with thousands of other bloggers who are committing to write and post all 31 days this October. Here is the button Andy helped me create for this link up.

Welcome to my first post of this series on pregnancy. I’m excited to see where this goes. I have wanted to get up early and set aside time for myself to write. These 31 final days of my 5th pregnancy will be the first days that I will work toward this goal. Wish me luck!

Feel free to come by chelsearotunno.com whenever you can during the month of October and leave your comments to join in the conversation. I know we all have a lot to say about our own experiences with pregnancy, and I would absolutely love to hear your story too!