So a bit of a life update since it's been a long time since last anyone here heard from me... This year has been a roller coaster of emotions.
It all started off simple enough. I got to enjoy half the year uneventfully.
Then in June, something terrible happened. My aunt left this earth at the young age of 47. It broke my family to pieces, but there was a silver lining for me... I got pregnant also in June. I thought it was wonderful and scary both, but it helped me a little to imagine he was sent to me by my Aunt. My Aunt loved babies.
Well, after finding out, one of the members of my family has remarked to me that if she, my Aunt, had known about baby she wouldn't have died... but at that point I wasn't even pregnant so now I have to think about that while my hormones are out of whack and wonder if they are really blaming me for something like that.
So anyway I requested a week off from work for planning and attending the funeral since my Aunt did not have kids of her own. In the time I was off, my workplace hired someone to replace my hours and ended up not putting me on the schedule until it got to the point that I quit. I have been looking for work since, but jobs are scarce due to this being a college area full of kids willing to accept low wages... and the bigger my bump grows, the less happy interviewers look.
So anyway: jobless, grieving, and pregnant we roll into July. I begin to worry that I will never be married - or at least married while I don't look pregnant. My fiancé and I had been engaged for most of our 5 years together and it didn't look like things were going to change enough financially for us to have the wedding I had pinterested to death for years. So I began reaching out to family to see if anyone had anywhere for a wedding to be held. I've had my dress for 3 years, so really it was just a matter of when and where.
Long story short, in the span of 45 days I found a free museum venue which really shouldn't have been free but my dad worked there and pulled a few strings, booked a caterer with help from his parents, set up a spotify playlist, came up with some games, made our own decorations, and got married in late September.
The planning was wild. Someone hacked my facebook account and deactivated it which I am still trying to rectify to this day in order to see my messages with my Aunt and all the memories we had together. It was very difficult to coordinate without messenger for half of it.
So that was one of this year's highs, but not to be outdone the lows stepped in again. My uncle who had been fighting an aggressive cancer for about three years passed away in October just before his pregnant daughter's 30th birthday and the arrival of his granddaughter. The funeral was a fireman's funeral, and although it was a beautiful service, it was gut-wrenching to hear his end of service on the scanner fill the parlor.
His cousin and my cousin both had their baby girls in October just days later and they are cute as buttons!
For my cousin's birthday I made her a stylized family portrait with she, her mom, her husband, new baby girl, and her dad so her baby girl would have a picture with grandpa.
The beginning of November rolled around and I had hoped that would be the end of this year's trouble, but alas we purchased a house in 2021 which is much older than it was listed. Turns out that was just the earliest record of the home. So of course here comes trouble... the well pump quit out. So here I am halfway through my pregnancy making trips back and forth to the lake for buckets of water so I can flush the toilet when I go potty. We, being young and naiive, got shammed $700 for what my dad said would be a max $400 job and they put in not a new well pump, but a very old one. We are currently still paying that off.
I was planning to order baby things soon. My family lives across state and doesn't travel much, which leaves me to drive Michigan roads in February if I were to have a shower. Which first of all would drain me financially as it’s a six hour round trip and gas is nuts. I can't fit a whole lot of stuff in my car which would require me to make multiple trips since he has to work. I don't have any baby items except the swaddle I crocheted, and there are only 2 people we know locally. It has also been suggested multiple times that we forego a shower and deal with it ourselves since we already had a wedding this year and everyone is probably "gifted out".
But of course the year is not over yet, and what in December but our fridge quitting? All of our groceries perished after we just went shopping (there was snow outside but we were visiting family for the weekend)! So now I'm living off of Ramen Noodles, Applesauce, Buttered Spaghetti, and homemade bread. I haven't yet made a coop since we're low on funds, so no chicken eggs, either. So now there's that other big purchase to be made once the well is paid off which pushes baby stuff back a bit, and the thought of a shower stresses me out right now.
We're both very happy about our baby boy coming into our lives. My pregnancy has been very smooth... but still, I can't help but be overwhelmed by the thought of bringing a baby home to no crib, no diapers, no bottles... I don't know how I'm going to wash him being that our shower is unfinished and basically just waterproofed; we have no bath. I don't know how we will sleep him either. I don't want him in the bed with us. We both roll in our sleep.
At this point I'm wondering what I do and don't need off of my baby's registry, that way I can just get the absolute essentials on credit along with the fridge and hope it's good enough. I can't wait to meet him and I just hope he will be happy, healthy, and safe with all the essentials when the time comes.
I'm watching Facebook Marketplace like a hawk, but until we've paid off the pump and get a fridge, I'm not getting any baby things.
Please pray for us as we work toward March.
It all started off simple enough. I got to enjoy half the year uneventfully.
Then in June, something terrible happened. My aunt left this earth at the young age of 47. It broke my family to pieces, but there was a silver lining for me... I got pregnant also in June. I thought it was wonderful and scary both, but it helped me a little to imagine he was sent to me by my Aunt. My Aunt loved babies.
Well, after finding out, one of the members of my family has remarked to me that if she, my Aunt, had known about baby she wouldn't have died... but at that point I wasn't even pregnant so now I have to think about that while my hormones are out of whack and wonder if they are really blaming me for something like that.
So anyway I requested a week off from work for planning and attending the funeral since my Aunt did not have kids of her own. In the time I was off, my workplace hired someone to replace my hours and ended up not putting me on the schedule until it got to the point that I quit. I have been looking for work since, but jobs are scarce due to this being a college area full of kids willing to accept low wages... and the bigger my bump grows, the less happy interviewers look.
So anyway: jobless, grieving, and pregnant we roll into July. I begin to worry that I will never be married - or at least married while I don't look pregnant. My fiancé and I had been engaged for most of our 5 years together and it didn't look like things were going to change enough financially for us to have the wedding I had pinterested to death for years. So I began reaching out to family to see if anyone had anywhere for a wedding to be held. I've had my dress for 3 years, so really it was just a matter of when and where.
Long story short, in the span of 45 days I found a free museum venue which really shouldn't have been free but my dad worked there and pulled a few strings, booked a caterer with help from his parents, set up a spotify playlist, came up with some games, made our own decorations, and got married in late September.
The planning was wild. Someone hacked my facebook account and deactivated it which I am still trying to rectify to this day in order to see my messages with my Aunt and all the memories we had together. It was very difficult to coordinate without messenger for half of it.
So that was one of this year's highs, but not to be outdone the lows stepped in again. My uncle who had been fighting an aggressive cancer for about three years passed away in October just before his pregnant daughter's 30th birthday and the arrival of his granddaughter. The funeral was a fireman's funeral, and although it was a beautiful service, it was gut-wrenching to hear his end of service on the scanner fill the parlor.
His cousin and my cousin both had their baby girls in October just days later and they are cute as buttons!
For my cousin's birthday I made her a stylized family portrait with she, her mom, her husband, new baby girl, and her dad so her baby girl would have a picture with grandpa.
The beginning of November rolled around and I had hoped that would be the end of this year's trouble, but alas we purchased a house in 2021 which is much older than it was listed. Turns out that was just the earliest record of the home. So of course here comes trouble... the well pump quit out. So here I am halfway through my pregnancy making trips back and forth to the lake for buckets of water so I can flush the toilet when I go potty. We, being young and naiive, got shammed $700 for what my dad said would be a max $400 job and they put in not a new well pump, but a very old one. We are currently still paying that off.
I was planning to order baby things soon. My family lives across state and doesn't travel much, which leaves me to drive Michigan roads in February if I were to have a shower. Which first of all would drain me financially as it’s a six hour round trip and gas is nuts. I can't fit a whole lot of stuff in my car which would require me to make multiple trips since he has to work. I don't have any baby items except the swaddle I crocheted, and there are only 2 people we know locally. It has also been suggested multiple times that we forego a shower and deal with it ourselves since we already had a wedding this year and everyone is probably "gifted out".
But of course the year is not over yet, and what in December but our fridge quitting? All of our groceries perished after we just went shopping (there was snow outside but we were visiting family for the weekend)! So now I'm living off of Ramen Noodles, Applesauce, Buttered Spaghetti, and homemade bread. I haven't yet made a coop since we're low on funds, so no chicken eggs, either. So now there's that other big purchase to be made once the well is paid off which pushes baby stuff back a bit, and the thought of a shower stresses me out right now.
We're both very happy about our baby boy coming into our lives. My pregnancy has been very smooth... but still, I can't help but be overwhelmed by the thought of bringing a baby home to no crib, no diapers, no bottles... I don't know how I'm going to wash him being that our shower is unfinished and basically just waterproofed; we have no bath. I don't know how we will sleep him either. I don't want him in the bed with us. We both roll in our sleep.
At this point I'm wondering what I do and don't need off of my baby's registry, that way I can just get the absolute essentials on credit along with the fridge and hope it's good enough. I can't wait to meet him and I just hope he will be happy, healthy, and safe with all the essentials when the time comes.
I'm watching Facebook Marketplace like a hawk, but until we've paid off the pump and get a fridge, I'm not getting any baby things.
Please pray for us as we work toward March.
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