Sundays...

Sundays are always the hardest. Even before Juhee was born, Sundays were always the most stressful and busiest day of the week 'cause there was just always too much to do, too many people to talk to while at church. But now, I just feel so bad for Juhee...

My last Sunday at church before giving birth was on 16 Dec 2007. That day too we were there early to get everything ready for the 9:00 and 10:30 services. I'd notified the department responsible for the sermon interpretation a couple of weeks previous to that Sunday that I felt like I needed to stop as the baby was kicking so much I was losing concentration and sitting up straight so that I could get my mouth close enough to the microphone was starting to get very uncomfortable. After doing a bit of work for the Youth department I went in to the Youth service for the first time in a long time. It was pretty funny 'cause Pastor Jason used the fact that I was very close to giving birth "in fact, she could even give birth today!" as an illustration for his sermon. Also, the fact that he and his girlfriend (now fiance) had gone shopping for a present for Juhee and how strange it was that all babies clothes sizes were by age "can you imagine going to shop and buying clothes size 31-years-old?" :) I was going to sit with my parents-in-law during the 10:30 service but I couldn't find them so I asked if there was an interpreter that day, found out that there wasn't one, so ended up going up to the media room to interpret our head pastor's sermon in real-time to the non-Koreans who attend our all-Korean service. After that, back to do more Youth work! :)

Less than a week after giving birth to Juhee, I was back sitting in front of my laptop doing Youth work, but the next time I went to church was on Friday, 15 Feb for a Pastors' Wives Fellowship meeting in the evening. I had a fab time! It was so nice to get out and see everyone again! Juhee didn't do too badly and mum loved showing her off while I was with the Pastors' wives.

The service times had changed from 9:00 and 10:30 to 8:30, 9:45 and 11:15, there was a big sign on our Main Sanctuary building with our church name on it, certain rooms looked different, youth kids had grown up / changed...

Juhee's first Sunday appearance though didn't happen till 2 Mar because the weather became colder and there was a flu epidemic. We definitely didn't want her to contract RSV pneumonia again so we played it safe and stayed at home. 2 Mar was our bi-annual PTA Sunday so I was busy helping Peter out with the Jr. High PTA meetings. Juhee was with mum most of the time. That evening, we had our first experience of what over-stimulation does to babies... Oh dear... She screamed, she cried, she wouldn't eat properly, she wouldn't sleep... I think it was too much of a shock for her having to spend so much time away from me for the 1st time ever, being exposed to a new environment with lots of new people, new sights and sounds. Her sleeping and eating patterns changed and it took a few days to get her back on track.

9 March (her 11th week) she was formally introduced to our church congregation during our 11:15 3rd service. Again, she had a hard morning / early afternoon followed by a hard evening.

16 March we were on annual leave so went to a different church - Abundant Life, a very diverse, multicultural church nearby. She slept through the whole sermon so we were able to enjoy service in the main chapel. :)

23 March was Easter Sunday and mum drove me & Juhee home early while Peter stayed at church so not as bad, but she still wasn't a happy bunny.

30 March I decided to take her to the baby room as she was now over three months (minimum age requirement). She was the only one so I stayed with her. She liked being in there alone with me and sat in the swing most of the time, had some breastmilk, and then fell asleep so I left her with mum & her Bible study group and went to eat in peace. :) Again, hard evening.

Same on 6 April (I'm sure sth happened but can't remember).

On 13 April I took her to the 2-3 yr old class during 2nd service and helped them out while taking care of Juhee. I stayed in the same class during 3rd service as it was my turn to volunteer for the English Ministry side of our church so I left Juhee with the volunteers in the 3-12 mth room. It was physically exhausting as I was constantly lifting / chasing after / seating / helping very active 2-3 yr olds but it was lots of fun too! I loved it! :) Juhee was doing ok but then kept on crying towards the end so they brought her to me. It was past her feeding time so I tried to feed her but she was so distracted she wouldn't feed. I tried feeding her again later once most of the children had left and thankfully she had a bit.

20 April she fell asleep in the car on the way to church and as previous Sundays had been so traumatic for her (and hard work for me!) we decided to let her continue to sleep. She slept for more than 2 hours! When she woke up I played with her in the car a bit and then tried feeding her in the car. Thankfully she had a good feed - phew! By then, 3rd service was nearly over too so I just ended up joining mum's Bible study group for lunch in the church cafeteria.

27 April she fell asleep again on the way to church but this time I didn't let her sleep for 2 reasons: it was absolutely baking in the car even with the windows open so I was about to pass out and she was sweating + I wanted to go into service! So I woke her up gently by making soft noises, played with her a bit, fed her and then took her to the baby room. I stayed for a while to make sure she was doing ok and surprisingly, she was happy as could be staying in her car seat, looking at the toys the volunteers were shaking in front of her face and placing on her lap! Another one of the babies decided to latch on to me though so I ended up staying a bit longer and then going to 3rd service a bit late. The pastor had already started his sermon but it was still nice to be there and be able to worship. When I went to pick-up Juhee she wasn't there and no one knew where she was! A couple of the volunteers said that her grandmother took her and I assumed they meant my mother-in-law because they didn't specify maternal grandmother which usually indicates in Korean that they're speaking of the paternal grandmother and I'd just seen my mother-in-law enter the Education Building without Juhee so I started to get a bit worried. But then someone mentioned my mum's title so I gathered Juhee's stuff together and went to look for my mum - phew! My mum had to go into the Youth Parent Seminar so she gave Juhee back to me, I had lunch, fed her and then joined the parents. So that day, we arrived at church at around 09:20 and left around 16:50. It'd been Juhee's longest day at church so far but she didn't do too badly while we were there so we were very happy. However, once we arrived home...

At some point, Juhee stopped going back to her lovely schedule of sleeping through the night for about 8-10 hours and just continued waking up every 4-5 hours while still only taking 30 minute naps during the day. It made life much harder as I'd become accustomed to getting some sleep during the night and had to re-adjust, so my sleep deprivation became more acute.

For 2 nights in a row now she's slept for 6-8 hours but we were at church for a few hours today (Sat, 3 May) and we'll be at church for a good few hours tomorrow so we'll see what happens...

Every Sunday has been the same in terms of it being an adventure and never knowing what to expect but every Sunday has also been the same in terms of Juhee suffering from over-stimulation. Hopefully she'll get used to it soon. She does seem to be... The sooner the better as she'll be spending many hours at church every week of her life!

Pray for us tomorrow... :)

Good night!
Jenny xxx