First Movements

 Jeremy is away at Indian Creek Youth Camp this week and I am with Ava. It is neat to be here at home with her and know that I am responsible for EVERYTHING this week! It has given me a fresh sense of responsibility. Although I miss my husband terribly, I am really enjoying this one-on-one bonding time with my daughter. She amazes me so much every day! I love to watch her "talk" to her toys. She yells at them and then brings her voice down to a whisper. I always stop what I am doing to just watch her. She is so precious. It is so hard for me to get anything accomplished because I want to memorize everything that she does. I know that I will never have this day with her again.

The purpose of this post is to reminisce about my life a year ago. I was in my 19th week of  pregnancy with Ava and the appointment to find out the gender of our baby was a week away. I just KNEW that we were having a boy! I would have been happy either way, but something in my heart told me that we were destined to have a little boy first. I had dreams about holding a little boy in the delivery room and everyone at church told me that they thought we were having a boy. We were all wrong!!

I decided to go to camp last summer because my pregnancy was progressing so well. Jeremy really did not want me to go, but I promised him that I would rest when I needed it and drink plenty of water. He was only going to be across the camp, so I figured it would be fine (and it was) It was during that week of camp that I felt Ava kick for the first time. I will never forget that moment. I was a counselor in the Golden Pine girls cabin along with two other women. We had settled the girls down at about 11 pm and had all fallen asleep. At 3 am, I woke up because I felt three small kicks on the lower left side of my abdomen. I looked at my alarm because I wanted to memorize the time that I felt her first movements. It was the neatest feeling. I knew that Jeremy would not answer his phone at 3 am, but I sent a text to let him know.

The next morning, I woke up and went to breakfast. I didn't tell anyone because I wanted Jeremy to be the first person to know. I told him over breakfast and he grinned from ear to ear. I didn't feel her move again until a few days later, but from that point on it was consistent (and it was almost always on the left side - her favorite!) This particular week of camp will always be special because of that memory.