Jeannie Ewing

Overcoming Worry and Relinquishing the Need to Know

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By Guest Blogger Jeannie Ewing

It could be any day now, I tell myself as I huff and puff my way to the midwife’s exam room. Everything seems different, new, and I can’t seem to determine whether or not all of these changes are good. I pat my expanding belly and offer our daughter in utero a wry smile. “I can’t wait to meet you, Veronica,” I tenderly whisper to her, even as the fear sweeps over my heart.

The what ifs aren’t just nervous jitters. Well, maybe some of them are. My what ifs involve reliving the very dramatic and in some ways traumatic birthing experience I had with our soon-to-be middle daughter, Sarah. I went from a joyful anticipation in early labor to complete, drop-dead terror as my doctor announced a necessary c-section was in order.

Photo by Olsztyn Poland, unsplash.com

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Seeing the Fruit of Grace In Parenting

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by Guest Blogger Jeannie Ewing

My oldest daughter, Felicity, is newly fascinated with how babies grow in their mother’s wombs. Shortly after she turned five, she would muse aloud, “Tell me about when I was in your tummy, Mommy.” Without thinking, I shared the story of when my husband and I first saw her on the early ultrasound, when she was about eight weeks old. I was considered “high risk” for pregnancy, so my husband and I were relieved when we saw our “little bean” and heard her heartbeat on the Doppler.

Felicity’s eyes widened as I demonstrated how small she was at the time – “about the size of my thumb nail,” I told her. “Is that how small I was to begin with?” she inquired. “No, sweetheart,” I lovingly replied, “you were so small when you began that we wouldn’t be able to see you, almost like a period at the end of a sentence.” Continue reading →