The Third Prayer

Well, it looks like we are back at the name game.  Selecting Baby P’s names were easy and we knew right away what we wanted for a girl and knew pretty early on what we wanted for a boy.  Since Baby P became Mary Rene then our girl’s name has been taken.  We have decided already on a girl’s name and it actually was the second name choice for Baby P.  If Sweet Pea is a girl then we will be naming her, Gianna Rose.  Gianna after the beautiful patron saint, St. Gianna Beretta Molla.  If you have never heard of her, you must take a gander at the website referenced above.  She is a great example of how a woman should love Christ, her spouse, and her children.  Rose comes from my Confirmation name, Rose Philippine Duchesne.  We decided we would probably call her Gia Gia for short.  Or maybe just Rose.

Baby P’s boy name was Luke Francis.  My cousin just had a baby boy a few weeks ago and they named him Luke.  I really don’t want to “steal” their name but then again, we only see this particular cousin two or three times a year at family events, if they even show up, so it really wouldn’t matter.  So Luke Francis might still be in the running.  Although I’m not as in love with the name as I was before.

As for other boy names…

Andrew Francis

Tobias Francis

Isaac Francis

Isaiah Francis

I really like Tobias because we read from the Book of Tobias at our wedding and it is such a strong Catholic name.  But Frank doesn’t seem to like it anymore since one of his family members didn’t like it.  He likes Andrew Francis a lot but I don’t want my son to be called Andy instead of Andrew (no offense Jamie!)  Only because I dated this little weasel named Andy in high school and he was just a little rat and the name Andy makes me think of him.  Luckily we have six months before we need to figure out a name!

So, are we having a boy or a girl?  I’ll save this for another post.

Weight: 135 (surprising I didn’t gain any weight!  Which is crazy because I ate like a king this week.)

Baby Development:  Sweet Pea is almost three inches long, size of a shrimp, and weights nearly an ounce.  Sweet Pea has her/his own unique fingerprints! 

Concerns/Thoughts:  Here comes the second trimester!  It got here quick, don’t you think?  Sweet Pea kept me exhausted this week and I was in bed early nearly every night.  I looked back and I was really tired during my second trimester with Mary Rene.

We had an awesome coupon at Baby Depot and went ahead and bought Sweet Pea’s car seat.  We got an awesome Graco car seat, with base for $75.  And with the other coupon, I bought a pair of maternity jeans.  So now I can put away all my pre-pregnancy pants and start wearing maternity pants.

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I took a two week break from these 7 Quick Takes because I was just overwhelmed with work and life.  And well, I’ve had an exhausting week, thanks to pregnancy, and I really wasn’t planning on being here again this week.  So these will be…quick.

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God reads my blog and Mary Rene had an amazing three hour nap on Wednesday so we were able to attend the Ash Wednesday Mass.  Mary Rene usually only naps for an hour or an hour and a half.  Occasionally we’ll get a two hour or 2.5 hour nap but I have never had a three hour nap.  So that was my sign from God.  Unfortunately she was very high maintenance during Mass and would not sit still.  But we are very glad we went.

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Yesterday our church was on duty for the 40 Days for Life at the local abortion clinic.  On Valentine’s Day they had the rally to kick off the event and we planned on going but the snow held us back.  I was so bummed out because I was looking forward to it for weeks.  So I wanted to badly to make our church’s peaceful protest day.  But when I got home from work I was exhausted.  Frank called and I planned on telling him that we could go another day but he sweetly talked me into it, without even being pushy.  And I’m so glad we went.  We didn’t stay entirely too long because it started to get cold and we didn’t want Mary Rene to get sick.  But it was very nice to be there and support the cause.  Mary Rene was having fun standing against the fence and looking in the, thankfully, empty parking lot.  We met a lovely family, mother with her four young children.  They were all praying the rosary and standing so peacefully as a family that it just melted my heart.

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I am looking forward to Fish Fry Fridays again!  Are you?

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Awhile back I did a guest post on loyal reader Rae’s blog.  If you are interested check out her blog sometime.  She is a great reader and has very interesting things to say.  I love to read a post that really “gets you thinking” and that’s what she does a lot.

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I haven’t sewn in two weeks!  I’ve been so busy with work and life ya know.  So today I am going over my parent’s house so they can hang out with Mary Rene and I can sew.  I am in the middle of making a shopping cart cover for a baby shower in two weeks, three bibs and two baby slings.  I really need to get moving.

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Mary Rene adores her papa.  She likes for him to carry her around, maybe because he is so tall and she can see more, and she likes to sit on his lap.  On Wednesday, the two of them sat in front of the computer for a good 15-20 minutes listening to music and watching Barney short videos.  I love this picture because she is just so relaxed on his lap and clearly let’s him know that she owns the place.

Since our church decided not to have their Fat Tuesday celebration we decided to host our own.  My friend Emily, with her beautiful daughters, Ella and Beatrice, and Frank’s friend Jim came over to help celebrate. 

It was completely last minute and I found myself at the grocery store three hours before our guest arrived.  But hey, isn’t that part of the fun.  Frank sent me a text message with everything to consider buying at the store: king cake, dirty rice, jambalaya, oysters, creole chicken, red beans and rice, shrimp creole crawfish and hurricanes.  I looked for every item and was only able to find jambalaya, shrimp and red beans and rice.  So I decided I would also buy gumbo soup, mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers,

mini tacos and potato wedges.  Oh, and pudding for dessert. 

Yeah, a lot of good junk food.

As you can see, Mary Rene also took full advantage of the beads and had to wear every single pair that her friend Ella brought over. 

Even Beatrice got to play with some beads!

The girls were having fun playing while we enjoyed some much needed adult conversation.

Beatrice was happily handed off from person to person so Emily could enjoy her food in peace.  Oh I remember those days!

Isn’t she a sweetie?

At the end of the night I told Mary Rene to hug Ella good-bye and she clearly misunderstood me and started to mount her instead.

Mary Rene was bummed when her little friends left so Jim provided her entertainment and let her do flips on the couch.

He was a good sport tossing her around but I think she equally wore him out.

Overall, our private Fat Tuesday celebration was much better than the one we used to have at church.  I think we might be doing this again next year.

Last year we were able to make the 7 p.m. Ash Wednesday Mass because Mary Rene was still just a baby and she wasn’t going to sleep until around 9 p.m.  Now that she is in bed by 7:30-8 p.m. we won’t be able to make the Ash Wednesday celebration.  Unfortunately our church only offers morning Masses at 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. and the likelihood of Mary Rene being up and ready for either is doubtful.  I know I could wake her up really and get her moving so we could make it, but that is a lot of work. 

But isn’t that what Lent is all about?  Going the extra mile for Our Lord?  And the first day I am already struggling to do it.  I’ve been researching area churches that have a later morning Mass, say 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. but haven’t found anything. I know of two churches that have a noon Mass but again, that is during Mary Rene’s nap.  And messing with a nap, is not cool.  But, shouldn’t I be doing it for Our Lord?  I’m conflicted on my roles of being a mother and being a good Christian.  I feel my call to be at Mass on this day, even though it is not a Holy Day of Obligation but I feel my calling to be a mother as well.  Since I have to work on Thursdays I like for Mary Rene to be in bed earlier, 7:30-8 p.m. on Wednesdays.  If we go to 7 p.m. Mass, the earliest she would get to bed is 8:30 p.m., but really it would be closer to 9 p.m.  Which means she will only get 10-11 hours of sleep as opposed to a solid 12. 

Writing that out made me realize how silly I am being and it really only is about an hour difference.  I mean, seriously, 11 hours versus 12, really?  It is only one day, an important day, and she will be okay.  So she might be crabby during Mass because she is tired.  So she might be crabby the next day because she was up late and didn’t get to sleep in.  But isn’t that what Lent is about?  Sacrifice?

Okay.  I think I’ve talked myself into it.  Starting Lent off on the right foot.  Starting Lent where I really need to be.  I’ll just have to work extra hard on getting Mary Rene to take an awesome long nap today so we can make 7 p.m. Mass.  Sometimes you just got to talk it out to realize how unreasonable you are being.  Good try devil.

As for our Lenten journey, we decided to change it up a bit this year.  I usually give up a list of items but by the time Lent is over I am ready to greet those items back in my life.  Two years ago I was pregnant, last year I was nursing and this year I am pregnant again.  So giving up alcohol or caffeine, yeah, already did that.  Giving up sweets, seriously the baby needs it.  Giving up junk food, seriously the baby needs it.  TV?  I don’t really watch it.  Facebook?  I only get on it three or four times a week.  Limiting my internet usage?  Okay, I can do that.

So this year we are doing more than giving up.  I am going to give up talking on my cell phone while driving, which is very important, and I pray that this will continue after Lent.  But that’s really all I plan on giving up.  Two days ago we started reading The Love Dare Book, my Valentine’s Day gift for Frank, and it is going to last a year.  It is a prayerful book that focuses on our relationship with God and each other.  (I highly recommend all married couples to rent the movie “Fireproof” and watch it with your spouse.  The acting is very poor but  the message is beautiful.)  In addition, we are going to start praying a decade of the rosary every night after dinner, go to weekly Mass (our church will offer Mass on Thursday evenings), attend adoration more frequently and do our prayer chain.  I have some personal things I am working on as well but would rather not discuss in this forum.  I’m hoping this Lent I am able to draw closer to God and be more prayerful.  Because really, that is what Lent is all about.

Happy Fat Tuesday!  Our church cancelled their Fat Tuesday celebration so we plan on over indulging on junk food and booze at our house.  Bring on the beads!

Our little angel is 17 months today!  I can’t say this enough but time sure does fly!  In one month she will be a year and half!  Oh I just can’t believe it.  I want to invent that magic pill to make her stop growing already.  I love to hold and kiss her all day long.  These days are numbered so I am going to do it as much as I can while I can!

Mary Rene has been snorting like a pig when she laughs, trait she picked up from me, so I’ve been able to transfer her snort laugh to a pig noise.  Now when she snorts, I say, “what does a pig say?”  And she’ll snort again.  Now she isn’t snorting when she laughs anymore but only doing it when she makes her pig noise.  And this is what her face looks like when she makes the pig noise.

My brilliant friend Jamie (thanks Jamie!!!) gave me a suggestion for our crazy bedroom situation.  As a quick reminder on how much Mary Rene’s sleeping arrangements have changed since she has turned one:

She slept on her mattress on the floor but ended up waking up every night crying to come in our room.

We bought her a toddler bed but were too afraid she would fall out in the middle of the night since she rolls so much so she only naps in there.

For the past two months we have had a twin size mattress on the floor next to our bed.  The plan was for Mary Rene to sleep there so she would be close enough to us.  But Frank didn’t want Mary Rene on the floor so he has been sleeping there and she has been sleeping with me.

But now, we have a new arrangement and I must say it is not chaotic as the picture above.  Our room actually looks clean!

We put the twin mattress back downstairs and wheeled Mary Rene’s crib in our room.  We adjusted the height so it was the same level as our bed, which is still off the frame.  We put this together Sunday and Mary Rene was having so much fun playing in “her bed.” 

Genius!  Thanks Jamie!  Mary Rene was having so much fun playing in her crib.  She kept bringing all her covers and stuffed animals and playing in there like it was some big toy.  Sunday night when we tried to get her to sleep in her crib she refused.  So we let her fall asleep in our bed and a few hours later when we went to sleep we moved her over to her crib.  Somewhere in the middle of the night she found her way back in our bed and was snuggled against my knee caps.  Monday night she fell asleep in our bed and when we went to bed we moved her over again.  Within minutes she crawled back over to snuggle with me.  Frank and I were laughing so hard and nearly woke her up.  It was so darn adorable.  I let her snuggle with me but in the middle of the night I woke up and noticed she was back in her crib.  I woke up a few hours later and felt her snuggled in my arms again.  So she can’t decide where she wants to go yet but at least she has options.  The best part is both nights she just moved over herself without waking up crying or screaming for help.  So this is absolutely the most peaceful situation thus far.  We plan on keeping the arrangements like this until June.  Come June we need to start getting ready for Sweet Pea.

Sunday night we got snow so I thought it would be best if Mary Rene spent the day inside on Monday.  Even though Frank was a sweet angel and cleaned off my car and the walkway, we played it safe and stayed in.  Which makes for a very long day when you are cooped up in a matchbox all day.  So I made sure to only have my work email open, all other browsers closed, and we played all day.  What did we do? 

That was only fun for a bit so I decided to pull out the washable paint.  Mary Rene didn’t get the concept at first but after away she caught on. 

But then she decided to paint her hands instead.

And realized that the paintbrush was just an extra step in the process so she used her fingers instead.

But why paint your hands when you can paint your clothes?

And your face.

And your legs.

Yeah, that got a little mess.

Baby girl is still nursing away and I’m still able to get her to fall asleep for her nap.  She has dropped a random nursing session and is averaging only three times a day: morning, nap and night.  I heard my milk is going to start changing soon, second trimester, so I’m not sure what will happen then.  I plan on taking it day by day.

 (Mary Rene is trying to play with my belly button)

Weight: 135 (holy smokes! I gained four pounds in one week!)

Signs of pregnancy: The greatest sign was hearing Sweet Pea’s heartbeat on Tuesday.  Music to my ears.  I’ve also been having problems with my contacts and have basically been wearing my glasses all the times.  I remember having a little problem with my eyes when I was pregnant with Mary Rene but this time it is worse.  I’ll need to make an appointment for the eye doctor soon.  And the initial latch-on is starting to become noticeable again on the left side. 

Baby Development:Sweet Pea is approximately 2 inches long and weights half an ouce.  Sweet Pea is developing his/her reflexes and soon will be able to open and close his/her hands, curl the toes, and clinch his/her eyes. 

Concerns/Thoughts: That the latch-on pain will continue and only get worse.

Better than any dictionary can ever say it, the Bible has the most perfect definition of the word love.  Unfortunately, the definition is so perfect that only two people on earth have ever been able to follow it: Jesus and Mother Mary.  But starting this Valentine’s Day and for the remainder of my life, I am going to try my hardest to love my husband this way.

Love is Patient

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love is Kind

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it is not jealous

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it is not pompous

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it is not inflated

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it is not rude

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it does not seek its own interests

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it is not quick-tempered

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it does not brood over injury

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it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth

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it bears all things

sdf

believes all things

sdf

endures all things

sdf

Love never fails

sdf

sdf

sdf

1 Corinthians 13: 4-8

Frank thinks that when I read something I instantly jump on it and believe it is true.  Well, that is not true.  When I first read of the disturbing ingredients used to make some of the vaccines I couldn’t accept it.  There was no way that the source was accurate.  So I dug deeper, and deeper, and deeper, and unfortunately, every place I looked pointed in the same direction.  I am so disturbed to know that Mary Rene may have received up to six separate vaccines that included human tissues from an aborted baby.  Yes, from an aborted baby.  I really could not believe that when I first read it because it seemed too far out there.  I mean, really, a vaccine from an aborted baby?  If embryonic stem cell research caused such an uproar then how have vaccines slide under the rug?  I just couldn’t make sense of it.  But it is true.

Along with Stephanie Cave’s book, “What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Vaccinations,” there are many websites that have pointed out this fact.  I even found a list of all the vaccines that did contain the aborted baby online.  That is when I realized Mary Rene could have gotten six of the vaccines.  Ignorance is bliss.

So I dug even deeper to see what my church had to say about this.  I mean, if we are so against abortion and embryonic stem cell research then where do we stand with vaccinations?  The Vatican released a statement in June 2005 addressing this issue in Medicina e Morale by the Center fro Bioethics of Catholic University in Rome, titled: Moral Reflections on Vaccines Prepared From Cells Derived From Aborted Human Foetuses.  It is an eight page document regarding vaccinations using aborted babies and this is how they summarize it:

• There is a grave responsibility to use alternative vaccines and to make a conscientious objection with regard to those which have moral problems;
• As regards the vaccines without an alternative, the need to contest so that others may be prepared must be reaffirmed, as should be the lawfulness of using the former in the meantime insomuch as is necessary in order to avoid a serious risk not only for one’s own children but also, and perhaps more specifically, for the health conditions of the population as a whole-especially for pregnant women;
• The lawfulness of the use of these vaccines should not be misinterpreted as a declaration of the lawfulness of their production, marketing and use, but is to be understood as being a passive material cooperation and, in its mildest and remotest sense, also active, morally justified as an extrema ratio due to the necessity to provide for the good of one’s children and of the people who come in contact with the children (pregnant women);
• Such cooperation occurs in a context of moral coercion of the conscience of parents, who are forced to choose to act against their conscience or otherwise, to put the health of their children and of the population as a whole at risk.  This is an unjust alternative choice, which must be eliminated as soon as possible

I did some more research and it turns out that every vaccinations that Mary Rene received with aborted babies had an alternative option but the MMR.  Measles and Mumps separately are available without the aborted babies but Rubella is not.  Since the MMR is only offered as a trio, then we will not be giving this vaccinations to Sweet Pea.  As far as Polio, Chickenpox, and Hep. A are concerned, we will only be giving Sweet Pea these vaccinations if the alternative is available.  We feel that it is our moral duty to do this.

Interestingly, the CDC website does not list aborted baby on their website as an ingredients.  They actually only address a few ingredients and then vaguely mentioned that other combinations of ingredients are used.

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 Besides tissues from an aborted baby, there are more offensive ingredients in vaccinations.  You can go to this website and read the entire list of crazy ingredients or just scan the list below that I took from their website.

Formaldehyde. “Pungent gas: a colorless gas with a distinctive smell. Use: manufacture of resins and fertilizers, preservation of organic specimens.”

Mercury. “Liquid metallic element: a poisonous heavy silver-white metallic element that is liquid at room temperature.”

Antifreeze  “A liquid causing low freezing point: a substance added to a liquid to lower its freezing point.  An antifreeze such as ethylene glycol is added to or substituted for the water in a vehicle’s radiator to stop it from freezing in winter.”

Yuck.  And that’s all I have to say for now until I read the Dr. Sears book.

Yesterday I had my appointment with Dr. Gosser and…

I heard Sweet Pea’s heartbeat!  Oh that was such a relief.  With such an easy pregnancy I haven’t been feeling confident that I was still pregnant.  But there it was, loud and clear, Sweet Pea’s heart a beating.  Music to my ears.  If you have never had the honor of hearing your child’s heartbeat, I must say, it is the most awesome sound.  First you hear your slow heart rate and the doctor will move the little wand around your belly as he tries to find your baby.  And then, all of a sudden, the most perfect sound of a fast, fast heart rate.  Dr. Gosser always smiles when he hears the beat and leaves the wand over it for awhile so you can continue hearing it.  I meant to take a video with my camera so I could play the sound for Frank, and maybe upload on here, but I completely forgot.  Oh, but it was fantastic to hear that sweet precious sound.

I was obviously nervous and expressed my concerns to Dr. Gosser and a miscarriage didn’t seem to cross his mind at all.  He smiled and said, “well maybe that is because you are having a boy this time.”  And then he went on and on about, “he is being good inside but will cause you grief when he is born,” and “he is letting you have an easy pregnancy now but he will stir up things later.”  He, he, he.  I wanted to say, “or maybe she.”  But it was so cute to see him talking about Sweet Pea as a little boy and not once, worried about a miscarriage.

After I left my appointment I remembered that on several occasions Dr. Gosser referred to Baby P as a she and Baby P ended up being…Mary Rene.  Hmmm.  Which makes me wonder?

But overall, a great appointment and a healthy pregnancy.  Praise the Lord.