Pregnancy diary for Coraline
Throughout the year of 2017 that I was pregnant we wrote to our future baby in a diary I had called “Every Day Matters 2017” in advance of her August due date. We told her what we were up to, recorded how I felt in pregnancy and what we were thinking.
On New Year’s Eve, here’s what I wrote to our future baby in the book:
“we took an excursion to see olde houses in Guildford on New Year’s Eve. Just pottered and absorbed. We wandered into a church and were enveloped by the warmth of the people who welcomed us in. I think you’ll like all the quotes in the leaflet they gave us*. We lit a candle each, listened to a five minute reflection and left our New Year’s Resolution on a slip of paper in a bottle; all beautiful activities they had set up for visitors to mark the New Year. The times we’ve had have been all I hoped these past few days. The lack of plans leading to magical experiences”.
*I stuck the leaflet in for her.
Here are some of the quotes in the leaflet the church (St Mary's, Guildford) handed to us entitled, “New Year’s Eve 2016, New Year, New Promise”;
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”. Theodore Roosevelt.
“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step” Martin Luther King Jr.
I like that. Lately, now that Coraline, our baby with Down’s syndrome, is four months old, I’ve perhaps been over-reading about what might be to come for us, and this brings me back to what’s important. The here and now. When I spoke to Kevin about my mind racing away he said it’s all about what is right here, and not imagining any more or less than that.
Last year in Guildford after the church we stopped in a traditional pub and wrote “Gratitudes”, “people to toast” and “visualisations” for 2017.
We stuck all of our gratitudes into the pregnancy diary and we stuck all our visualisations onto a piece of card and put it up at home. The card has faded in its place by the window but the dreams have not!
I love doing this kind of thing as it captures right where you are. Each year on Kevin’s birthday I write for him on a piece of paper what’s been happening that year, where we’ve been, habits we both have, plans we have and jokes we share, and put the paper in a jar, so that in years to come we can look back at what was at the fore then.
I also kept a notebook each time I went to see my niece and nephew in their first years which I will give them in the future. I wrote about what was happening in the news at the time and about what we did and words they were saying.
Our visit to the Church in 2016 showed us that it is about being open to what is in front of us, and being present with what life divines for us. We’ve decided to go back to the church today on New Year's Eve this year and see what it holds, and we will also write our little pieces of paper, this time with Kevin’s mother with us and Coraline, who has now arrived in the world, with us. We will return with our family.
