Easter 2013

Our Easter celebration lasted for the better part of a week this year!  We started things off with Emmy's school celebration, complete with an Easter egg hunt!  Sissy lucked out and got to participate with the one year old class while I was off galavanting at my doctor's appointment.  Both girls had a blast.  Once we arrived home, before I had finished unloading the car, Emmy had already unwrapped the majority of her loot, sorted it and proceeded to "count" it, sneak a piece and then re-count.  Nick and I learned the hard way that there is no sneaking candy from Emmy, she notices every open wrapper fragment and is very quick to call out whomever indulged.  Accountability isn't necessarily a bad thing...

On the Saturday before Easter, we connected up with one of Nick's buddies' families at Cheekwood Gardens in Nashville for an incredible festival.  There were ongoing egg hunts along with a whole slew of vendors, food trucks, crafts and children's music.  Emmy and her new friend Ashley came away with a whole bunch of eggs, and I once again marveled at how quickly children can "clean up" with candy as an incentive; if only cleaning the playroom could be done so quickly...Hannah was far more interested in her snack, but did manage to score a couple of eggs with a little assistance.  

The big day finally arrived and so did the Easter Bunny!  Emmy woke up just a "hare" after 630 and had found her basket and dozens of candy-filled eggs within about 15 minutes.  Hannah, again, was more focused on her bottle (that Nick and I must wean her from soon, although it will be with reluctance as our precious snuggle time will probably end with it. :()  The Easter Bunny so kindly "hid" Hannah's basket right in front of the fireplace, but she still required some coaxing to go to it.  Of course, once she realized the plethora of new musical instruments contained inside of a drum, she was hooked! While Nick and Emmy fired up the DVD player to watch Emmy's new gift, "Tangled," I got going making our early morning "brunch." True to Hannah form, she was most excited about the Italian Easter bread.  I was glad for her reaction, because my Italian ancestry lesson for Emmy fell on deaf ears. :-P

We went to an incredible Easter service at church and came home for naps and food prep for our Easter party with our church family.  In keeping with our tradition, we gathered at our friends' Kim and Clint's beautiful home for a giant egg hunt and delicious Easter dinner.  We couldn't have asked for a more wonderful day/week!

Emmy's egg hunt at school!

 Emmy's classmates: Lauren, Marissa, Ross, Nolan, Preston, Gabe, Ben and Eli

Emmy & Ashley waiting for the hunt to start.  All of the eggs were cleared in under 5 minutes, you have to act quickly!

Hannah searching for fallen goldfishies.

The musical petting zoo conducted by the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Emmy found Sissy's Easter Basket (truly, it was impossible to miss for anyone but Sissy.)

Darla was wide awake at an unprecedented hour.  Pretty certain it had everything to do with the candy inside the eggs.  She is solely motivated by food.

Sissy: "WHOOOAAA"

Luring Sissy to her basket.

Church ready!

All the kiddos ready to find eggs!

After the eggs hunt, the kids put on a "show."  It's a little unclear what the plot-line was, but Emmy made her stage-debut as a princess!  She stood exactly where she was placed, and remained standing there, with a smile on her face, until someone moved her elsewhere.  So proud! ;)

Sissy is infatuated with "Baboo."  I'm starting to think that she calls all stuffed animals "Baboo," but she particularly cares for three stuffed dogs.  She carries them with her most places, and when they are out of sight she frantically calls for them.  When found, she squeezes them tightly, rubs her face all over them and covers them with kisses.  It is precious. ;)

12 & 13 weeks

12 weeks!

13 weeks and counting!

I totally ate my words after my last post saying that the nausea was subsiding.  I was throwing up the potato chips I devoured about 2 hours after hitting "publish."  I guess the universe was punishing me for eating crappy food.  Lesson learned.  The nausea comes and goes throughout the day in different intensities, but I know it could be so much worse.  I am chronically tired, and maximize my short spurts of energy to get the necessities done, but my house would never in a million years pass a white glove inspection.  I am totally ok with that, considering everyone in my family is fed and healthy, that's really all that matters to me.

I am increasingly bloated by the day and there is no sucking in my belly anymore.  I have yet to switch to maternity clothes, although I fully admit that I mostly wear yoga pants and warm up suits, which are both completely forgiving.

Emotionally, I would say I'm doing pretty well (Nick might argue this) considering the surplus of hormones pulsing through my system.  We are trying to get organized and prioritize what is needed.  I have definitely been feeling overwhelmed at times.  Everywhere I go, I can't help but strategize how I will manage with the four kiddos.  I have just accepted that I won't be going many places for quite awhile, and that I will need to maximize Emmy (and Hannah's!) school time to take the babies out to grocery shop and such.  I feel so blessed that Nick won't be deploying for 6 months or so starting in September as his company will be upgrading their aircraft and therefore undergoing the necessary training.  They will have domestic training trips, but I pray that I might have the babies on a solid schedule and sleeping through the night before any extended separations take place.  Having Nick around to help with dinner/bath/bedtime crazies is something I am so grateful for.  Once again, I am reminded how God has prepared us for this blessing.  

My next appointment is on the 18th, and we are praying that in addition to strong heartbeats, Dr. Anderson might be able to see the gender.  If not, we plan to schedule an appointment at a private 3D ultrasound place that week.  We are chomping at the bit to know who these new little additions will be and then we can begin full-blown preparations with naming and nursery plans.  Nick is pretty terrified that we'll have two more girls, I think he's going to need all the time he can get to process that information if that is the case!

In other important news, Hannah is walking!  Last week, she took it on herself to start walking more and more!  She's about up to half of the time and is almost as proud of herself as we are of her!  So exciting!

11 weeks

Feeling the bloat

I had my first official appointment with Dr. Anderson this week and everything looked great!  Much to my joy, they wheeled the ultrasound machine in once I got settled in the exam room.  I later learned that I will likely have ultrasounds at every appointment because it's significantly easier to find each of the babies' heartbeats that way than with the doppler.  Fantastic!  I am grateful for any chance I can get to see our peanuts! One of the babies was moving his/her extremities around like a little maniac and the other baby was sleeping (at first.)  Both heart rates were 170 beats per minute. :)  Both of their growth is consistent with our October 7th due date.

I have been feeling pretty well this week, my food aversion is subsiding a bit and the nausea is very tolerable.  I am tired most of the time, and sleep, unfortunately, has been broken.  I definitely have multiple bathroom trips throughout the night, as I did with the girls, but I've had a much harder time just going back to sleep.  It might have something to do with the rodent in the ceiling above our bed who has successfully evaded our pest control technician, or it might just be God's way of weaning me from sleep over the next several months.  I'm sure I will appreciate the my sleepless stamina when the babies are here, but for now, I am dependent on a nap while the girls nap in the afternoon.

Nick and I were able to sneak out on Saturday night for a date at the Maroon 5 concert at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.  It was AWESOME!  We had such a great time...We realized that after the babies come (and are old enough to be left with a sitter,) we will probably need to hire two sitters so that we can have date nights...For now, we are going to pack them in as best we can. :)

Camera purge

We finally had some snow a few weeks back!  It didn't last nearly long enough, but we cherished it as best we could.

Emmy's food truck.  Her menu is limited to pancakes, chicken and fries and lemonade.

We stuffed Sissy into a size 3-month snow suit...She didn't complain once!

Daddy surprised Molly with a snow ball.

Sissy sneaks up the stairs whenever the gate is inadvertently left open. :-/

And then she claps for herself for a job well-done.

These two can't get enough of each other.  Their shared language is laughter.  They truly just look at each other and laugh.

Emmy is notorious for prolonging bedtime for as long as humanly possible.  One night she had to go potty, neither Nick or I had any energy to fight a battle so we let her sit on her potty as long as she claimed to need to.  It took so long, that she got tired of being by herself and hopped on her potty out to where she could see us lounging in our room.  She still didn't go after half an hour, but she did have a very prominent ring on her tush.

10 weeks

Our reality has set in and we are getting really excited and organized!  I am still anxious to get to a further along gestation so that these little ones are more robust and kicking (to give me confirmation that they are thriving,) but God has answered some prayers because I've been feeling little flutters in the last couple of days.  It's been incredibly reassuring. :)

I've usually thought that bathroom mirror-phone-camera-baby-bump-photos were cliche.  However, I am intrigued by how much my body is going to change over the next several months, and I want to be able to see the progression, and by the time Nick comes home every day I look like I've fought a war and lost.  So the bathroom mirror pictures are my best bet.  I have been feeling somewhat bloated, but interestingly, nothing like I did when I was pregnant with Emmy and less than I did at this point in Hannah's pregnancy.  It might have something to do with the food aversion.  I had the opposite problem with Emmy,  I was eating constantly to keep the nausea at bay...Anyways, I invited Emmy along for the photo, because I can't stand taking pictures by myself.  She's way more fun to look at anyways...

 Ever since we found out we were expecting again, we have been spending our weekends looking into minivans.  We had focused our search on pre-owned vans, but got lucky with a sale at the Toyota dealership in Nashville last weekend.  My master negotiator of a husband managed to get us a brand-new Sienna for just slightly more than a pre-owned van of the same model.  My Highlander is going up for sale in the lemon lot on post next week...I'm so sad to see it go, but after a week with the awesome features the minivan boasts, I don't really know what I ever did without it. :-p

We didn't really think out our whole car buying experience before heading down to Nashville.  In fairness, we didn't know that we were actually going to get a car at the price we were willing to pay, and, quite honestly, it has been so long since either of us bought a car that we forgot how long it takes.  Anyways, we brought the kids with us, and it became clear about 5 minutes in that their stamina isn't up to snuff quite yet.  So, we decided to divide and conquer: Nick bought the car and I took the kids.  I did everything I could think of to keep them occupied for four hours that spanned the time that should have been designated for naps.  Unfortunately, we trashed Nick's car in the process.  Thank goodness for baby wipes and Purell:

Of course, they zonked out as soon as I tapped out and drove them home.

 

My new G-ride! :)  HUGE check off the to-do list! So thankful!!

Tomorrow is Saint Patrick's Day!  With Nick out-of-town, the girls and I celebrated a day early since we have church group tomorrow night...Emmy, much to my surprise, proclaimed corned beef and cabbage to be her favorite dinner!  I asked Emmy if she'd like to go get some ice cream for dessert and she said "YES! But after I finished my dinner first!" I still can't believe that I heard those words come out of her mouth...

Sissy got more of her dinner on her face and clothes than she did in her belly.

I've been really sensitive to temperature lately, which poses a problem as I bathe in scalding hot water.  Lately, I have been feeling queasy while I'm in the shower and therefore needing to lay down for a time after my shower.  My Emmy has been such an angel as I remedy my self-inflicted malady.  Usually, she will lay with me and tell me that she hopes I feel better soon.  Today, she brought my laptop into my room, fired up I-tunes, and held a ball for her prince and princess Barbies.  I couldn't help but grin when I sat up and found her mid-dance. :)

So excited!! Emmy tells me that she has a baby in her belly, too, and that her belly is going to get big like mine.  Sissy is completely oblivious to anything beyond snacks, balls, ducks, books, bouncing, Dada, Darla and poo-poo.

Just Three Words....

SHOCK AND AWE

The back story:

So, Dr. Anderson told me that he didn't advise us to get pregnant for at least three months after the miscarriage.  I am usually a rule-follower, but Nick and I decided that we'd leave the timing up to God. Having been extremely anxious about the prospect of losing another baby, even though I suspected I might be pregnant, I waited a couple of extra weeks to take a test.  In my bizarre way of thinking, I rationalized that if I didn't "know" I was pregnant and lost the baby it wouldn't be so difficult.  On February 9th, I finally shared my suspicions with Nick, who promptly encouraged me to take a test.  It revealed a very bold positive in no time at all.  Even though the test was positive, and I felt carsick most of the time, I still had trouble feeling peaceful without a heartbeat for confirmation.  I put off calling the doctor as long as possible (also weird, I know) somehow thinking that it would be easier to deal with a loss if I hadn't taken that step yet.  I finally scheduled the appointment for today.

Nick, thankfully, went into work late so that he could watch the girls for me.  I woke up feeling uneasy and my nerves just grew as I got closer to my appointment.  As per protocol, I completed the urine test as soon as I was called back, which the nurse uses to test a  number of things, including to confirm the pregnancy.  Emily, Dr. Anderson's nurse, walked into the room with a concerned look on her face, and said that the "positive" line was very faint; she then said it may just be that I am really early in my pregnancy, but she wanted to have my blood drawn to verify my hormone levels.  I can't remember much else that was said in the appointment, because all I could think was that I was losing another baby.

With my racing heartbeat booming in my ears, I hurried over to the lab to sacrifice half my body weight in blood.  The phlebotomist assured me that my Hcg levels would be run ASAP and I would get the results before the day was over.  Crying, I met Nick in the car, both of us were worried that the outcome wasn't going to be a good one.  The girls and I headed home, as Nick finally drove in to work.    I did everything I could to keep my mind off the blood work...We baked cookies, played, ate lunch...Then came naptime, where my laptop came out and I started researching every conceivable scenario.  Crazy-making, I tell you!  

At 230, Emily must have knows I needed to be pulled away from the inter-webs, because she called to tell me that my levels were, in fact, extremely high.  Dr. Anderson wanted me to come in as soon as possible for an ultrasound.  I could sense a little unease in her voice, so asked her for some reassurance whether or not I should worry.  She said there was no need to worry but to come in before 430.

So, I called my super-man of a husband, who, after an already abbreviated day, left work as early as he possibly could.  We met in the parking lot of my OB's office so that he could take the girls and I could have the ultrasound.  They whisked me back to the exam room, and all I could do as I waited for Dr. Anderson is pray over and over again that everything be ok.  Seriously, I thought my heart was going to explode, it was beating so fast.

Barely thirty seconds into my ultrasound, Dr. Anderson asked me if I saw two perfectly formed little sacs with two perfectly formed little babies inside.  At this point, we're all laughing and Emily and I are simultaneously sharing a box of tissues.  Come to find out, my hormone level was 340,000, when the very highest value I could find in my internet-research is 288,000.  Both Dr. Anderson and Emily were terrified that I was having a molar pregnancy (which is a tumor instead of a baby), and were tremendously relieved (and thrilled!) to see the twins.  

I am 9 weeks pregnant and both babies are measuring exactly what they should.  They are fraternal, in their own placentas, which, apparently, is the lowest risk scenario when it comes to twins.  God is so good!

I have felt substantially more nauseous than I ever did with Emmy and Hannah.  I'm pretty adverse to most foods right now, and tired most all of the time.  Otherwise, I feel as well as can possibly be.  We are walking around dumbfounded right now, with silly grins on our faces.  We are focusing on the here and now and feeling really joyful.  The moments I stop to think about the chaos that will come with four babies under the age of four, I start feeling scared.  But then those thoughts are countered with thoughts of how truly honored I feel so play a role in such a miracle as twins.  Such a gift.

If I may enlist any and all prayer warriors out there to please include our babies in your prayers, I would be so grateful.  Thank you so incredibly much.

Now back to staring at the wall, contemplating our future...

6th Anniversary!