What's been going on in my life: Church + Summer of Love

Chris and I were attending New Song Church in Irvine for about 2 years prior to NUMA church. We really loved Pastor Dave Gibbons sermon's but we both felt we were lacking a community. So, we wanted to look for smaller church we can build a strong relationship with.  At the time our friends Jeff and Anne was attending NUMA church and told us great things about it. So, we decided to check it out a few times. After getting to know a lot of the members of the church we knew this was a community we wanted to grow in. Everyone made us feel welcome and I loved how we were all growing together. I'm looking foward to our journey at NUMA.

We've been going through a series called Summer of Love at our covenant group and it couldn't have came at a better time. I've been struggling to love certain people in my life. Although Chris and I missed this weeks CG I got a chance to read through the material and I really wanted to share it with you guys because it's great stuff.

Week 1: Love is Patient
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

What a beautiful image of love. If only my love looked like this too.

I think my love looks more like this:
"Love is sometimes patient, sometimes kind (depending on who it is). It does not envy, it does not boast (unless they do it first), and it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered (unless they push my buttons), it keeps no record of wrongs (except if they do this, this, or that). Love does not delight in evil (but they got what they deserved) but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts (unless I catch them lying), always hopes, always perserveres (until I'm fed up).

I notice that I pick and chose to love people a certain way depending on the situation but God loved us all equally no matter what we did. That blows me away.

We're going to pick apart 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 to discuss what it's saying to us and how we can live out love. If you're having a hard to being patient with people in your life or on a daily basis like me I would like to encourage you to start digesting these words and find a way to have a patient love with me. It's a learning process but it's doable. We can start by spending more time with a patient person which is God.
I want to know more about a love like that and be a person that can show that kind of love to others and I hope you guys do too.

This week is 1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is Patient.

Somethings to think about + my thoughts (don't judge =P)
1) Are you a patient person? Sometimes. What would others say about you?
2) How can you be more patient? I need to spend more time with people with patience. First would be to spend quality time with God.
3) In what circumstances do you need patience? When people treat me wrong, when people nag, when I meet people with no desires or aspirations, etc.
4) To whom do you need patience with? People at my work, my family...


How about you guys?

Pregnancy week 20: My monthly check up + Morning sickness remedies



Week 18: You can see my tiny bump



Our baby is the size of a cantaloupe now! Our baby is getting big. Also he or she have been kicking non-stop which feels incredible.

I've been following my pregnancy update day to day on a iphone app called Babybump. It's indredibly informational. Today's say that our baby can start recognizing my voice starting week 20. So, i'm going to start singing away to my baby. You know you all do that in your car anyways. 

I had my monthly check up yesterday. I have a routine when I go in for my check-up. I provide the nurse a sample of my urine for her to check my body’s ph level.  Then she weigh’s me and checks my blood pressure. The most exciting part is when she checks the baby’s heartbeat to make sure it sounds great. My check up’s usually takes about 15 minutes.
The doctor said the baby’s heartbeat sounded great and I looked great so we’re on the right track.  I’m currently 101 lbs. I gained about 4 lbs since last month. The doctor said the gradual weight gain was very healthy. My pregnancy has been fairly good except for all the drowsiness and morning sickness.  It sucks that I’m still having morning sickness even during my second trimester. It’s a little difficult when I get tired during the day as well.  I try to take naps for about an hour if I have time but if I don’t a cold drink usually help. I like to drink orange juice or my mango citrus Fruits & Vegetable Twist Tube. I only buy Orange juice that’s not from concentrate with no added sugars or preservatives. It tastes fresher. I didn’t like orange juice before I got pregnant but now it tastes amazing. It’s incredibly refreshing. The other drink I’m in love with is the mango citrus twist tube. It tastes amazing as well. I love that it doesn’t have a sweet after taste so it doesn’t make me feel thirstier. It’s made from organic fruits and vegetables which is awesome. Also, I get two servings of fruits and vegetable per drink which is much needed for me and my baby.  

Morning Sickness:

I wanted to share a little bit about my morning sickness experience. I started feeling morning sickness around week 7. The first week was bearable but it started getting really bad into my week 8. I was throwing up everything I ate. Also my senses were heightened so I was able to smell anything from miles away. Chris had to immediately brush his teeth after he ate something or I would smell it the minute he came home. I specifically hated the smell of fast food. It made me really nauseous. Luckily I wasn’t gagging at the sight of food but just throwing up once it entered my body.  I couldn't swollow my vitamins during my first trimaster so Chris grinded them for me and we added it into my food. I couldn't leave out my vitamins.

A few things that helped my nausea:

1)  Ondansetron: Ondansetron is used to prevent nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery. Doctors prescribe it for pregnant women with severe morning sickness. This made my morning sickness diminish about 90%. Please contact your doctor for more information.

You can read more about it here- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000157/

2)  Baked Potato Chips: Potato chips helped my nausea a lot. I usually get the Gluten Free/ Cholesterol Free/ All Natural Baked Potato Chips from Trader Joes. You’ll find it in the chips aisle.

3) Plenty of rest: Especially during your first Trimester make sure you get plenty of rest. I felt more nausea when I was tired. If you’re still working like me try to take 30 min naps during your lunch time.

4) Still try to eat even if you throw up. I know it’ incredibly hard but I kept trying to eat anything I can think of because having an empty stomach makes the nausea worse. I ate even if I would throw it back up hoping at least 1% of it would stay in my stomach.
5) Udon Noodle Soup: I almost lived off of udon noodles and the soup for couple of weeks. The warm soup helped soothe my stomach tremendously. I get the brand Pulmone. You can get buy them at any Korean markets. It has no MSG or preservatives.  

**There's alot of websites such as http://www.babycenter.com/morning-sickness with great remedies for improving morning sickness.

A few things that made my morning sickess worse:

1) When I ate fruits on an empty stomach it made my nausea worse. The acid in the fruits was too harsh for my body. I usually eat it after a meal.

2) Spicy food: It was hard for my digestive system to digest spicy food so I would get heart burns.

That’s all that I remember for now. If I remember more I’ll definitely share it with you guys. I hope this was informational.

Love,

Sandy

Pregnancy week 19: Our baby kicked!! + Nutrition during pregnancy

Hi Everyone,

Chris and I came back from our babymoon yesterday. It was very relaxing and we had a lot of fun eating great food in Vancouver. I’ll share a little bit more about our trip later this week with pictures.

I'm in week 19 and I’m noticing that my belly has been growing rapidly. Now I can't fit into my jeans because it's really tight around the belly.  I also hate wearing my bras because the wire is so uncomfortable. Chris get's upset because I keep complaining but not buying a new bra. I really need to go buy one soon. I've been wearing a lot of dresses since it's comfortable especially in the CA heat. I haven't gained too much weight except for around my arms and my thighs. The extra weight gain has been stressing me out a little so I'm continuing to remind myself that I'm pregnant.

I have some exciting news to share. Our baby kicked for the first time in Vancouver. It was so exciting. I kept wondering when our baby was going to kick then finally our baby did. It feels like little air bubbles popping inside my tummy. Some people say it feels like tiny butterflies. When I first felt the baby I thought it was my stomach growling but the movements started getting bigger. Then, that's when I realized it was our baby kicking. I immediately told Chris and he jumped up with a huge smile and placed his hand on my tummy. He seemed more excited then I was.  He looked incredibly happy when he felt the baby kick for the first time. I've always pictured what it was going to be like when I was pregnant. I pictured how my husband was going to react when our baby kicked for the first time and It was exactly the way I pictured it. That moment was priceless.

Chris and I at the airport on our way to Vancouver. I was 18 weeks in this picture.

Nurtiriton:
Today I wanted to share a little about the importance of nutrition during pregnancy. After reading several books and articles I learned what “eating for two” really means.  Doctors say that most women think eating for two means eat twice as much as you use too and eating whatever you want.  What it really means is for us to consume twice the amount of vitamins and minerals for us and our developing baby.

I read in a book called “Dead Doctors Don’t Lie” by Dr. Joel Wallach that baby calves were born with birth defects due to lack of minerals and vitamins. They traced it back to the mother and realized that the mother wasn’t consuming enough vitamins and minerals which created imprints in their DNA. That imprinted DNA was passed onto their babies which caused birth defects. Nowadays we hear a lot about kids with eczema, allergies, and many other things we didn’t have to deal with while growing up. Thank God if your kid doesn't deal with this now but I believe we can prevent them from occuring in the future through better nutrition.

Although it's important to eat healthy it's also important not to deprive ourselves of some treats occasionally. I'm not the most healthy eater but I do control my cravings. I also take organically made vitamins to make sure I get my daily servings of vitamins and minerals for me and my baby.

I personally take a really high quality organically made vitamin. Nothing can be 100% organic but  through some research I found that the one I consume takes the best of nature and the best of science to make the supplements.  Synthetic vitamins are chemical based and made by duplicating the vitamin structure. Due to this reason it's hard for our liver to process synthetic vitamins so it can be more harmful then helpful in the future. Organically made vitamins should be made from certified organically grown fruits and vegetables. They  extract the vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients straight from the plants and compress it into a pill form.

I’ve also read that we should be consuming about 300-400 calories more than our average intake (based on our body) during our pregnancy. My regular caloric intake is about 1300 calories per day (if I’m not active) based on my height and body size. Then that means I should consume about 1600 calories a day during my pregnancy.  If you work out your calorie intake will increase. I'll talk about prenatal work out's in the future.

Hope this helps you all mother to be's~