Building Up My Marriage

Yesterday marked my 37th week of pregnancy and the Man of My Dreams and I realized that I have been pregnant for over half of our marriage and either pregnant or breastfeeding for all but 3 months! This got me thinking about all of the warnings we were given about how children (especially infants and toddlers) add so much stress to a marriage.
"Oh just wait...once this baby comes you won't have any time for intimacy."
"Even if you do have time for intimacy, you won't have the energy!"
"Ha! Forget the home-cooked meals when you're wife's chasing after kids!"
"Once you have kids, your freedom is out the window."
"Why are you having kids so soon? Aren't there things you want to do?"
...and this doesn't even include the You're-crazy looks we get when we mention that our view of marriage includes my husband being the leader of the family and me being under submission to him, raising our children to hold these same views.
But the wonderful thing is, by God's grace, I really feel that our marriage is flourishing. I can honestly say that I see something new to love in my husband almost every day, whether it's something he says, or does, or even something he doesn't say. And I think that many times, the Lord uses our children to draw my attention to these details of my husband. While there are definitely tough days when I seem to forget that self-control is a fruit of the Spirit, and rough nights when in a sleepless fog patience is scarce, we grow in our love for one another constantly. Amazingly, we do still have time (and usually energy) for consistent intimacy. We still have home-cooked meals most days. Nothing can take away the most important freedom we have: freedom that is rooted in Christ, freedom from the punishment for our sin. We have a whole list of things we want to experience and our children can be included in nearly all of these. And having children has given my husband new opportunities to exercise leadership and me new opportunities to submit myself to him, further reflecting the church's relationship to Christ.
As the delivery of our second child nears, I want to keep record of many biblical practices within my marriage that help me to build up my house as the wise woman of Proverbs 14:1. It is not that I am an expert of any sort, but rather I want to keep record of the the principals the Lord is teaching me through His word, so I may look back on them, even on the most difficult of days, and be reminded of the many ways He has blessed my marriage and sanctified me. I pray that these principals may be an encouragement to your marriage, as well.