11 September 2009

Halfway Pregnancy Update

CJ (15 years) and I (20 weeks pregnant) - My oldest and youngest

I am over the halfway mark in my pregnancy!

Oh, what a joy this pregnancy is. This pregnancy reminds me of my first and second pregnancies! What a miracle!

To understand the miracle, I have to give you some background on my last two pregnancies. My last two pregnancies were so hard and so stressfull, physically, emotionally and spiritually, that the only verse that kept me going was Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Every day from week five up to week forty felt like a living sacrifice. But keeping in mind it was my reasonable service to the King of the Universe kept going. It was also this same verse that gave me the courage for another pregnancy. I had no illusions that I could expect a better pregnancy than my last two pregnancies. After all, what were the chances of an easy pregnancy at the age of forty?

But looking back now at twenty weeks pregnant and feeling so good, having had almost no nausea in the first 12 weeks, minimal low blood pressure and much less fatigue, I knew God had done a miracle. How did God perform this miracle? He did it spiritually as well as physically!

At the beginning of this year, when I discovered that my body was ready for the next pregnancy, I sought a lot of encouragement from my husband. One night, being very discouraged on the prospect of illness and tiredness during my next pregnancy, Christo calmly told me that He and God had spoken. He had asked God to please release me from the terrible nausea, low blood pressure and fatigue and he believed that God had granted him his request - I would not be ill again! It wasn’t that I didn’t have the faith, but I’d accepted my destiny of being ill during pregnancies and I believed that was my way of giving God glory through my pregnancies, so I didn’t give it much thought.

About a month later, the founder of Seven-Point-Five, Garth Kent, came to Durbanville to give his testimony of surviving and recovering completely from Lupus after 8years. Garth found a way to Cleanse, Nourish and Balance his body to overcome this incurable disease. Christo was the host (Seven-Point-Five is our health shop’s main line of products) and I decided to go along and be of some moral support to my husband. Garth’s testimony was shocking and amazing! In modern medical circles Lupus is incurable. He used 15mg Cycimorph, 9 injections, plus 18 Lentogesics daily! He was experiencing severe headaches, his entire body would go into spasm and a morphine injection would be the only way to get it under control. He became exceptionally light and heat sensitive, often not even able to leave his bedroom. He also experienced thromboses, one even around his eye. Garth's joints were damaged so badly, he was unable to walk or even wash himself. He had to use an electric wheelchair to get around. The conventional treatment of Lupus he received during that stage, triggered lesions on his body and septic arthritis, even necessitating an operation to relieve abscesses of all their contents.

Then one day, while he was waiting to die, he was introduced to the concept of the pH of the body and how it could be regulated with Coral Calcium - Calcium extracted from dead coral reefs. It was explained to him that while the body’s pH is acidic, below 7.5 (the optimum pH at cellular level is 7.5) NO nutrition could be absorbed at cellular level and the body is dying because the cells are dying. Healthy cells produce healthy tissue, produce healthy organs, produce healthy systems and produce a healthy body! Thus you can eat as healthily as possible, eat organic food and take the best supplements, but if your body’s pH is acidic (less than 7.5) your cells are dying of hunger.

Just then, I could sense the Lord speaking to my heart. He asked me if I, myself, would take responsibility for my body’s health. To my shame I must admit, I had never, up till then, taken responsibility for my own health. I was a very healthy child and adolescent, never experienced any allergies or sinus or digestive problems. I could eat whatever I wanted and never had a weight problem. After we’d transformed to natural medicine, fifteen years ago, when CJ was very ill and I had suffered two miscarriages, I just let myself be led by Christo’s good judgment from his knowledge attained by studying and lots and lots of reading and drank whatever he gave me in supplements. But sometimes I would be in rebel against all the supplements he gave me and the gentleman my husband is, would then just leave it to me to decide what I would like to drink. Since I didn’t really care, I would go for days without drinking supplements, get more miserable (especially during the last two pregnancies) and then again I would ask Christo to give me everything he thought is necessary. This was a downward spiral.

Now the Lord was asking me if I would take responsibility for my own health, my body’s pH. I didn’t need to think twice. For sure I would! I decided there and then that I would immediately take care of my body’s pH. During the evening at Garth’s testimony we all tested our pH. Mine was about 6.8. I already had a 2L water bottle and immediately started to put 2 Coral Calcium-sachets in my water and made sure I finished the bottle every day. Every week I tested my pH and slowly it increased to almost 7.5. Three weeks later I discovered that I was pregnant. This was now a serious challenge to me. I would make sure that my pH is as near to 7.5 as possible and would wait to see what the effect on my health is during this pregnancy. For the first time I thought back about Christo and the Lord’s ‘talk’ and that I would not be ill with this pregnancy. I was starting to believe that it was possible to have a different pregnancy, through God’s intervention. What a God ordained moment with God’s intervention - when I got convicted by the Holy Spirit to take care of my own health the previous month at Garth Kent’s testimony evening.

As my pregnancy progressed, I was sometimes in doubt if I WAS actually pregnant. At seven weeks I still hadn’t experienced any pregnancy symptoms. During the first two months I did three pregnancy tests – just to make sure that I was pregnant!! I noticed it was more difficult to obtain a pH of 7.5 and started cutting out any form of sugar (honey too), any form of tea and my regular cappuccino twice a day. That balanced the pH again at near 7.5. This was hard, since I have a very sweet tooth. I had never had any reason to avoid sugar and my evening cappuccino was a very special time between Christo and me, relaxing in each others company and asking about each others day. It just wasn’t the same with only Christo having his espresso, but I knew what was at stake!

Between eight and twelve weeks I was occasionally nauseous and then embraced it, since that reminded me I was really pregnant!! The only ‘symptoms’ I clearly had, was falling asleep with Daniel with almost every feeding. I just couldn’t keep myself awake. I also noticed my milk hadn’t disappeared within 8 weeks of pregnancy, like before. I was still breastfeeding Danika when I fell pregnant with Andrew and my milk disappeared at 8 weeks of pregnancy. The same happened when I got pregnant with David and then Daniel. Now my milk was still flowing to the delight of Daniel and myself! I could only attribute this to the 2-4 liters of water I drank per day.
With the previous pregnancies I was so nauseous, I couldn’t stand a glass of water.

During the last 6-8 weeks, I could enjoy the ‘honeymoon-period’ as I call it, of my pregnancy. I’m not nauseous, have no low blood pressure, any fatigue or discomfort and I haven’t suffered with heartburn. I even sleep very well. The last two weeks I could even drink an occasional cappuccino when Christo had his espresso at night, what a treat! I could also start using some honey in the preparation of food and put St. Dalfour’s jam on my toast with breakfast.

What more could I ask! God granted Christo his request – I have a blessed pregnancy!

Thank you God, You are so good!!

9 comments:

Sonja said...

Ek het hierdie artikel nou so baie geniet! Ek bly wonder wat is die Here se wil vir my in die verband,ek glo dat as Hy dit so wil he dan sal Hy niks in Sy pad laat staan nie.

Linnie said...

Hallo Sonja
Ek is bly jy het dit geniet!
Moet net nie te lank wag met daardie ommekeer nie, veral as die Here aan jou hart kom klop. Hoe langer mens wag hoe groter word die kans van anti-liggame teen eie sperms.
Liefdegroete

Petra said...

Praise the Lord! So encouraging to hear that you stuck with it and can now enjoy some of the "forbidden fruit"!

Merinda said...

Ai dis wonderlik! Dankie dat jy met ons gedeel het Linnie! Ek is so bly dit gaan so goed hierdie keer - Die Here is waarlik goed.
Ek dink dis tyd dat ek ook my pH toets, dinge maak nou baie sin vir my.
Ek gaan Dinsdag(15/9) in vir n Laparoskopie (gewas, melatoom, op my eierstok). Bid asb vir my...
'n Vreugdevolle naweek vir jou en baie liefde vir julle almal!

Linnie said...

Liewe Merinda
Dankie vir die inloer! Ek dink so baie aan jou en gaan beslis vir jou in gebed intree. Baie sterkte, Maatjie.
Liefdegroete

AutumnVine said...

Ek's so bly dit gaan so goed met jou /julle. Sterkte met die ander helfte en my gebed is dat God Vader julle sal dra.

Linnie said...

Liewe Esther
Baie dankie vir jou seënwense! Ek is baie bewus daarvan dat ek, elke dag wat nog oor is van hierdie swangerskap, erg afhanklik is van die Here en almal om my se gebede.
Seën vir jou week! Mag die Vader jou hoogste verwagting vir hierdie week oortref!
Liefdegroete

Huisvrou said...

Wat 'n wonderlike voorreg om so geseën te word. Ekself is 'n bedorwe brok, Vader het al vier my swangerskappe (tot dusver) geseën met gemak. Dit was vir my die vreugdevolste tye - geen naarheid, ongemak of niks. Wat 'n stuk genade uit Sy hand.

Geniet elke oomblik, veral daardie ligte fladdering en bewegings... Oe, skoon jaloers.
Liefde daar.

Linnie said...

Hallo Marelize, altyd lekker as jy vir my 'n briefie los.
Ja, ek geniet hierdie ligte fladderings sooo! Natuurlik wil Pa en kinders nou al net so graag 'voel', maar dit was nog net een keer vir Pa beskore. Die kinders sal nog 'n rukkie moet wag vir sterker bewegings.
Hoop jul het 'n sonskyn lente dag daar aan die bokant van SA, hier kry ons nog reën en koud.
Liefdegroete

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