Personal Update: Pagan Nesting

With just a few days until my due date, nesting is in full swing!

I am enjoying the last weeks of my pregnancy, which haven’t been nearly as rocky or uncomfortable as I expected them to be.  It is exciting to fully embrace the experience of motherhood.  I don’t want to miss out on anything!

Earlier in the month, I got a special treat from a talented local body painter/Henna artist.  I’ve avoided manicures/pedicures/hair color just because I’m paranoid about chemicals, so this was the closest I’ve had to a beauty treatment in about 8 months.  Getting my belly painted was so soothing and relaxing, and the baby really seemed to enjoy it!!

DSC_0010alt3smaller

Even though the artist is not pagan herself, the body paint and henna treatment felt like a nice substitute for a belly blessing.  I love the moon design she did.  My West African OBGYN was so confused by the henna tattoo.  “It’s going to come off, yes?”

IMG_9583

My bestie planned an amazing, beautiful, mustache-themed shower last month.   Whenever I plan a big party (or in this case, when one is planned for me) I am always nervous no one will show up, but so many people came, we ran out of favors.  Oops!

IMG_9526

I was blown away by all the people that where there to express their love and support at this time in our lives.

Instead of planning games, we just sort of sat around in a circle while they told me their parenting/birthing/kid stories.  It was my favorite part.  Even my friends without children had stories about being caregivers to nieces and nephews that cracked me up.

Of course, the overwhelming generosity was definitely a bonus!  One big advantage to having so many creative, artistic friends is that they’re always happy to share their talents.

To start, this kid is never going to be cold or wet.

We got so many blankets and baby towels, many of them handmade.

IMG_9746

One of mother’s good friends made our wedding quilt, so her hand-quilted baby blanket is particularly special.

IMG_9771

My friend Emily, who has been on my pagan journey from the beginning, and who was in my original coven, appropriately brought me a beautiful bottle of blessing herbs for the baby blessing, which she will be conducting as priestess.  I am super excited about this!

IMG_9754

On the other end of the spectrum, the latest addition to my circle, a lovely lady named Kristina, kindly handcrafted a basket full of homemade baby bath products.  A self-described “crunchy” mother of four, she is inspiring me to make more of my own body care and home cleaning products.  Plus, she raises her own chickens, is a talented canner during the harvest season and an accomplished dancer, making her super awesome all the way around.   More on her in future posts.

IMG_9759

My aunt really wanted to get the rocking chair.  I had fun decorating this cozy little nook.  I really, really want to breastfeed even though everyone says it’s hard, so I thought the least I could do for us was make a comfortable, quiet space to learn together.

nursery breastfeeding nook

One of my friends wrapped her gift in this gorgeous chevron with gold-flecked tissue paper.  I liked the wrapping so much, I couldn’t throw it away, so I threw together this little sun altar for the bedroom and used the paper from the bag to make a frame tray.

IMG_9589

IMG_9598

Of course, everyone knows I am an avid reader, so there’s been no shortage of people passing along books about breastfeeding, natural parenting and pregnancy.  But I was especially pleased by the gift of this gorgeous edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales by my friend Sandra (who is totally the grandmother type and could be a character in one of these stories herself!)  Most of you probably know that these stories have a lot of references to European pagan folklore.

IMG_9768

Everyone is getting super excited.  We’re almost there!

3 Comments

  1. Your henna tattoo is gorgeous! Kinda sad that it will come off. 😉 And of course you love that gift bag. It matches your rocking chair perfectly.

    Happy nesting!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *