Post Partum; Post Six Weeks

In four days I will have my six week post partum appointment.


Yeah, they do that. They have follow up appointments for the mom.


I'm really excited about this appointment. Actually, not so much the appointment, itself. Who knows what kind of checking and prodding they'll do. 


What I'm excited about is after.


At this appointment I should get the go ahead for two things.


-to start exercising again
-to get my eyes tested


Last year on January 11th I started the Couch to 5K running program and completed it sometime in March/April. Shortly thereafter, for a couple of reasons, I stopped running. I plan to start it up again as soon as I get my doctor's permission. 


Doctors seem to have different opinions on this: eye changes (at least my OB and my eye doctor had differing opinions). My OB said that while I'm pregnant, my eyes may change temporarily so it's not a good time to get them checked. My eye doctor didn't seem as concerned. 


Unfortunately, while pregnant, I ran out of contacts and couldn't order more because my prescription was too old. And I went with my OB's opinion of not get tested until later.


For the last two months or so I've been wearing glasses and as the end draws near, I am very, very ready to be back in contacts.


And then I'll post pictures of what I look like. :)

15 days!

James is 15 days old today. He had his 2 week appointment today and he's perfect. Healthy, growing and perfect.

He was born at 7 pounds 3 ounces and now he's 7 pounds 14 ounces. Dr. Mark says that's fantastic.
He was born at 21 inches and now he's at 21 and a half inches. Dr. Mark says that's perfect. That's the 75th percentile. (Well, he does have tall parents)
His head circumferance is 36cm. That's the 25th percentile.

A friend from church drove me to the appointment. I LOVE this church.

They are providing some meals.
They're driving us to doctor's appointments.
They come over and hold James while he's awake so I can do other things.
They're giving us a baby shower in a couple weeks.
They're always interested in how we're doing.
They let us and welcome us to participate in the church--as soon as we came (we lead worship, we're on a committee, I'm involved in GEMS).
They unloaded our moving truck and brought it all up two flights of stairs. They hadn't even met us, yet!

Someone's knocking on my apartment door. Just a sec...

Eric just came home a day early and surprised me! I'm outta here!

Koinonia...

Last Saturday night we went to a new church.

Grace Church.

We like our church but were looking for something with another type of worship style. We're not looking to change churches, just for something 'in addition to'. I had heard people mention Grace church at work, so I asked around a bit and learned it's less than 10 minutes from our apartment.

Googling the church found that it believes the same things we do (except maybe in baptism) and that they have solid teaching, good music and lots of Bible studies and programs we could participate in if we wanted to. (Still looking for volleyball, though--they have singles volleyball and while we both camped out there for a while, we're not there anymore).

So last Saturday we gathered up ourselves and drove through Missouri's December rain to Grace Church.

Karissa: Do you think that's it? (I pointed to the huge building that was fronted by three huge, lit up crosses.

Eric dropped me off at a main door and parked the car.

We had just a few minutes to look around the atrium before heading into the auditorium. It seats about 3100.

The worship was great. The teaching was solid. The pews were comfortable.

We went to the Welcome Area afterwards and after learning more about the church, headed to Grace Cafe for a free soda. Yay for being first time visitors!

At the Welcome Area, we were given some materials to learn more about Grace Church. One was a booklet with pages and pages of groups, Bible studies and service opportunities. I found one particular group, Koinonia, which is described as a Bible study for moms of young children, primarily, but anyone is welcome.

This was in the 'ongoing groups' section.

So, since they weren't just meeting for a set amount of time, I figured I could probably just join the group.

So Friday morning, about 75 minutes before the Bible study started, I e-mailed the contact person to ask if they were meeting that day and if I could come.

Four, yes, four minutes later, she e-mailed me back with open arms and her cell phone number so I could call her once at the church so she could help me locate the room. A church with an atrium and a 3100 seating auditorium is a large building. She saw me in the atrium at the same time that I saw her. It was also the moment her cell phone started ringing as I was calling her. She figured it was me since I had described myself as 9-months pregnant.

Bible study started at 9:30. Doctor's appointment was at 10:40.

Koinonia Bible study schedule:

9:30-10am - Chat, eat yummy snacks
10-10:30 - Share prayer requests and pray.
10:30-11:30 - Bible study.

I had to leave before the praying part.

But the first almost hour was good. I'll try it again next week.

Next week is their Christmas party. It's ONLY food. Yeah, I'll go back.

The ladies were welcoming and fun. 

I said yesterday that I was late for my doctor's appointment. We've timed the drive from our house to Mercy Medical Center, our hospital. It's just over 10 minutes. That's good to know. But I was late for my doctor's appointment because...

I didn't really know how far Grace was from Mercy. 

*ba dum*