Well I need to start this story with one detail, it is absolutely my sister's fault I even wanted children. My sister has the most fantastic children, Tyler who is 7 and Hoken who is 2. It is all fun and games being the aunt and getting to spoil your nephews rotten, then it hits you, you want kids too.
I have made sure to spoil my nephews to the best of my ability because yes they are that great. SO for the story, Lindsay and Sam and Hoken arrived in Lincoln a few hours after I did. I had already told mom and now it's time for Lindsay to know...I had my cute t shirt all prepared and I knew I could talk Hoken into putting on an awesome Hawkeye shirt. We snuck in the bathroom, he let me change his t shirt and I sent him into the kitchen, with mom poised with her camera and me holding my camera.
Lindsay said, "what do you have on, assuming I was just pushing the Hawks on poor Hoken again, thank heavens Lindsay is a University of Iowa graduate or I would have an even more uphill battle. she read the shirt and went, yep Darci is having a baby. I guess mom had told her just that day our sister Darci was having her 4th child. Mom didn't know at the time that we would be having 2 other bundles of joy at the same time, so Lindsay just figured it was for Darci.
Then mom said, "no, not Darci...Lori" so we exchanged the look of shock and of course I was crying in the kitchen and I'm sure all the men were like what is going on? So we get through the story, yes Lindsay your sister is pregnant and you will get to be an aunt in June. Then the kicker, I love telling the kicker, on the bottom of his shirt it says, Coming June 2009 TWICE, WAHOOOOO.
So my sister decides to remind me how huge I will be very soon, yep that's what sister's do :). My favorite part of the story comes the next day, our aunt brought some books for Lindsay to read to Hoken before bed. One of the books is Mommy is Having a Baby. Lindsay read that story to my nephew the night before and of course before nap time on the day of his birthday. We are sitting in the dining room and Lindsay asks her son.."where are aunt Lori's babies?" (keep in mind he is going to be all Big Ten AND a Rhodes Scholar). He goes into the living room, picks up the book and then proceeds to lift my shirt so he can see my belly...this is why I am blessed and why I am having children, he showed me the joy children bring into your life.
I hope I can be half the mother she is.
Monday, November 24, 2008
FIRST GIFT from GRANDMA!!!!
Okay so my mom is just wonderful and she sent this wonderful bassinette last week. Isn't it just the very best!!
I LOVE it and looking at it makes me so excited to meet my babies!!!
I of course had to take the picture next to my tree, I just love holiday lights and wish I could keep mine up all year long. I of course take the tree down on Christmas Day, but for some reason could put it up in September...my poor kids :).
A gIft from my HUBBY!!!
Okay so this is fitting to write about first after the amazing win Saturday, don't worry I have tons of happy news after this weekend, we told our family and I couldn't be MORE THRILLED.
This is the adorable gift Adam brought home yesterday, the color showed up all funky on the second picture, but how cute is the football on the bootie!!!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
11 weeks and feeling better?
Okay so I am feeling better lately, you wouldn't know it after yesterday, but that's over too :). My plan is to stay happy and focused and hug the toilet with a big fat smile. I want these babies to be happy and healthy and I need to do whatever I can to make sure that happens.
Mothers have done this before, mothers have done more than this before, mothers have done this an finished their college educations so they can go on to run their own million dollar clinics before...
I ma so lucky, I think that's the part that is hard. Honestly who waits to spend extra time with her husband, decides at 33 she wants children and then is blessed with TWO, yep me. I believe in free will, yet I know my Grandpa Brady and Adam's Grandpa Stephenson and Grandpa Ward had a huge say in this blessing.
I have decided to attach a portion of a paper I wrote about my mother to this posting, it's incredible really and it's all true....
Somewhere between high school and the railroad, my mother got married and had two daughters. She worked extremely hard for the railroad and eventually was promoted to Payroll Supervisor. I can remember her telling me about a colleague, Craig Wentworth. It was 1976 and she started within the same month as Craig. Both only had a high school diploma. The interesting thing to me now is the fact that it didn’t seem to bother my mom to work her 50+ hours a week and see him working less hours and getting more promotions. She didn’t say to herself or her daughters, “Craig just happens to be in the right place at the right time,” or “he knows all the right people, “my mom just kept working.
I can remember numerous weekends spent with my Uncle David while my mom worked, I can remember waiting for 6 o’clock to get here so mom would be there to pick up my sister and I at the daycare. At one point in her career, the railroad was being bought out in Iowa and most people were losing their jobs. The interesting thing to note is Craig was a high level manager by then and he was asked to move his wife and two young children to Chicago, he went. My mom was faced with the same incredible decision. She was single, in her mid to late 20’s and she had two very young daughters. Here she had worked her way up in a company who wanted to move her family to Chicago. I can remember the day she told my sister and me about the opportunity and the simple fact that she was not going to move us to Chicago. She was going to leave her security, paycheck, benefits and seniority for something new.
In the following years I was in middle school, my mom decided instead of living paycheck to paycheck, she would go to school. She had to start at a community college and her first few classes did not even earn her college credit. She took a math class and an English composition class. I look back at the times the three of us would work on homework at the table together, the amazing thing was I was already taking math at the levels she was just now learning. She didn’t blame anyone for her lack of schooling, she didn’t ever mention that she had bad breaks in life and that is why she had to work so hard. She just did the work. .
The people who say there aren’t enough hours in the day should take a page from my mom’s life. There were programs at school my mom missed of both my and my sister’s; the funny thing is I wouldn’t change my childhood for anything. After acquiring her community college degree my mom was accepted at Iowa State University. She drove 50+ miles to and from class everyday. She always took at least 16 hours a semester, including during the summer. I was in high school at the time and I was taking Anatomy, Calculus and Physics, once again I was in classes very similar to my mom’s classes. She stressed education to my sister and I, she always told us “no one can ever take away your education.”
My grandpa Brady was an amazing man who did not ever mince words. He did not say things to say them, he had a purpose and he was always brutally honest. He talked to my mom about becoming a doctor. He told a woman who had no formal education until two years beforehand, to follow her dreams and become the woman she wanted to. Growing up education was not a priority for my mom, getting out of her house and living on her own was a priority. This was one of the first times someone had told her she could actually do it. I look back on my childhood and think about the thousands of times my mom taught us we could be anything, accomplish anything and do whatever we wanted when we grew up. If I would have come in the house and said, “I want to be the CEO for the largest bank in New York,” my mom would have said, “start studying.” If I would have come home and said I want to help children starving in Uganda, my mom would have told me to get all my immunizations in order.
She was proud, passionate, loving and also very loud for a woman of her size. She continued attending Iowa Sate University throughout my high school years, I can remember she graduated with her undergraduate degree, the same year I earned my high school diploma. Then came the remarkable decision, after 7 years of undergraduate school, my mom went to medical school.
My mom went on to excel in medical school and have her two daughters earn their bachelor degrees as well. Keep in mind, her daughters both had college degrees before the age of 25. She has gone from being the first child in her family to have a college degree, to raising two successful daughters and the entire time she was attending college and medical school. My mother’s cause was making sure her daughters had a better life than she did. Fast forward eight years through medical school and residency and finding a job. Her first job out of medical school was for a major medical group in Lincoln, Nebraska.
She spent that first year listening to her patients and helping them, more importantly the leaders of the clinic told her to see more patients per hour. She told us about the conversation, a partner had told her she didn’t need to spend that much time in the exam room and the patients didn’t expect that from doctors. Well this didn’t sit well with her after the blood sweat and tears involved in getting her this far. My mom has always felt that everyone’s time is valuable, sick people spend time waiting for a doctor to even exam them. She didn’t think it was right to have patients wait over 40 minutes to get 5 minutes with the doctor.
Earlier I talked about how mom always said, "no one could take away your education." She completed her contract and when her year was up, she again controlled her fate by opening up her own practice. She was a doctor and she studied too many hours and stayed awake on too many occasions helping people get better for someone to continue to tell her how to do her job. One small detail I will include is, all of her patients switched to her new clinic with her after only knowing her a year, pretty remarkable. The doctors must have been a little wrong about how patients appreciate a doctor who listens to them. I can remember a few years back and my mom was telling me a story about one of the physician's who told her to spend less time with your patients. I guess he had made the comment about her "happy little niche" she had going on in Lincoln. I laughed out loud, I said, "Mom next time he says something like that to you, a woman who turned quality patient care into 10,000 patients and a million dollar building, make sure he gets his story straight. You do not have a little niche, you have a DYNASTY."
In the mean time, my sister went on to medical school as well. My sister has always wanted to be a doctor, in kindergarten she told her teacher she was going to be a pediatrician. Unlike my mom who started later in life, my sister finished undergraduate in four years and is already practicing medicine. My sister’s own Family Medicine Clinic is open, growing and she is not even 30 years old, but she will be soon :).
The first three years of Northrup Internal Medicine, the name of my mom’s clinic, she spent an amazing number of hours working at her clinic and at the hospital. We all pitched in on everything from cleaning, painting and rearranging the furniture. I have never met another human being who could work like her and I know I never will. We have a running joke in our family because my mom is always saying next year will be better, we know better. She can work a 90 hour week and still make time to drive the four hours one way to visit my 2 year old nephew.
She is a force to be reckoned with and she has more drive and determination than any other person on the planet. I figure if she can do all that, I surely can raise two babies with the help of my fantastic family and wonderful friends. I am a very lucky woman, I've had it easy.
Mothers have done this before, mothers have done more than this before, mothers have done this an finished their college educations so they can go on to run their own million dollar clinics before...
I ma so lucky, I think that's the part that is hard. Honestly who waits to spend extra time with her husband, decides at 33 she wants children and then is blessed with TWO, yep me. I believe in free will, yet I know my Grandpa Brady and Adam's Grandpa Stephenson and Grandpa Ward had a huge say in this blessing.
I have decided to attach a portion of a paper I wrote about my mother to this posting, it's incredible really and it's all true....
Somewhere between high school and the railroad, my mother got married and had two daughters. She worked extremely hard for the railroad and eventually was promoted to Payroll Supervisor. I can remember her telling me about a colleague, Craig Wentworth. It was 1976 and she started within the same month as Craig. Both only had a high school diploma. The interesting thing to me now is the fact that it didn’t seem to bother my mom to work her 50+ hours a week and see him working less hours and getting more promotions. She didn’t say to herself or her daughters, “Craig just happens to be in the right place at the right time,” or “he knows all the right people, “my mom just kept working.
I can remember numerous weekends spent with my Uncle David while my mom worked, I can remember waiting for 6 o’clock to get here so mom would be there to pick up my sister and I at the daycare. At one point in her career, the railroad was being bought out in Iowa and most people were losing their jobs. The interesting thing to note is Craig was a high level manager by then and he was asked to move his wife and two young children to Chicago, he went. My mom was faced with the same incredible decision. She was single, in her mid to late 20’s and she had two very young daughters. Here she had worked her way up in a company who wanted to move her family to Chicago. I can remember the day she told my sister and me about the opportunity and the simple fact that she was not going to move us to Chicago. She was going to leave her security, paycheck, benefits and seniority for something new.
In the following years I was in middle school, my mom decided instead of living paycheck to paycheck, she would go to school. She had to start at a community college and her first few classes did not even earn her college credit. She took a math class and an English composition class. I look back at the times the three of us would work on homework at the table together, the amazing thing was I was already taking math at the levels she was just now learning. She didn’t blame anyone for her lack of schooling, she didn’t ever mention that she had bad breaks in life and that is why she had to work so hard. She just did the work. .
The people who say there aren’t enough hours in the day should take a page from my mom’s life. There were programs at school my mom missed of both my and my sister’s; the funny thing is I wouldn’t change my childhood for anything. After acquiring her community college degree my mom was accepted at Iowa State University. She drove 50+ miles to and from class everyday. She always took at least 16 hours a semester, including during the summer. I was in high school at the time and I was taking Anatomy, Calculus and Physics, once again I was in classes very similar to my mom’s classes. She stressed education to my sister and I, she always told us “no one can ever take away your education.”
My grandpa Brady was an amazing man who did not ever mince words. He did not say things to say them, he had a purpose and he was always brutally honest. He talked to my mom about becoming a doctor. He told a woman who had no formal education until two years beforehand, to follow her dreams and become the woman she wanted to. Growing up education was not a priority for my mom, getting out of her house and living on her own was a priority. This was one of the first times someone had told her she could actually do it. I look back on my childhood and think about the thousands of times my mom taught us we could be anything, accomplish anything and do whatever we wanted when we grew up. If I would have come in the house and said, “I want to be the CEO for the largest bank in New York,” my mom would have said, “start studying.” If I would have come home and said I want to help children starving in Uganda, my mom would have told me to get all my immunizations in order.
She was proud, passionate, loving and also very loud for a woman of her size. She continued attending Iowa Sate University throughout my high school years, I can remember she graduated with her undergraduate degree, the same year I earned my high school diploma. Then came the remarkable decision, after 7 years of undergraduate school, my mom went to medical school.
My mom went on to excel in medical school and have her two daughters earn their bachelor degrees as well. Keep in mind, her daughters both had college degrees before the age of 25. She has gone from being the first child in her family to have a college degree, to raising two successful daughters and the entire time she was attending college and medical school. My mother’s cause was making sure her daughters had a better life than she did. Fast forward eight years through medical school and residency and finding a job. Her first job out of medical school was for a major medical group in Lincoln, Nebraska.
She spent that first year listening to her patients and helping them, more importantly the leaders of the clinic told her to see more patients per hour. She told us about the conversation, a partner had told her she didn’t need to spend that much time in the exam room and the patients didn’t expect that from doctors. Well this didn’t sit well with her after the blood sweat and tears involved in getting her this far. My mom has always felt that everyone’s time is valuable, sick people spend time waiting for a doctor to even exam them. She didn’t think it was right to have patients wait over 40 minutes to get 5 minutes with the doctor.
Earlier I talked about how mom always said, "no one could take away your education." She completed her contract and when her year was up, she again controlled her fate by opening up her own practice. She was a doctor and she studied too many hours and stayed awake on too many occasions helping people get better for someone to continue to tell her how to do her job. One small detail I will include is, all of her patients switched to her new clinic with her after only knowing her a year, pretty remarkable. The doctors must have been a little wrong about how patients appreciate a doctor who listens to them. I can remember a few years back and my mom was telling me a story about one of the physician's who told her to spend less time with your patients. I guess he had made the comment about her "happy little niche" she had going on in Lincoln. I laughed out loud, I said, "Mom next time he says something like that to you, a woman who turned quality patient care into 10,000 patients and a million dollar building, make sure he gets his story straight. You do not have a little niche, you have a DYNASTY."
In the mean time, my sister went on to medical school as well. My sister has always wanted to be a doctor, in kindergarten she told her teacher she was going to be a pediatrician. Unlike my mom who started later in life, my sister finished undergraduate in four years and is already practicing medicine. My sister’s own Family Medicine Clinic is open, growing and she is not even 30 years old, but she will be soon :).
The first three years of Northrup Internal Medicine, the name of my mom’s clinic, she spent an amazing number of hours working at her clinic and at the hospital. We all pitched in on everything from cleaning, painting and rearranging the furniture. I have never met another human being who could work like her and I know I never will. We have a running joke in our family because my mom is always saying next year will be better, we know better. She can work a 90 hour week and still make time to drive the four hours one way to visit my 2 year old nephew.
She is a force to be reckoned with and she has more drive and determination than any other person on the planet. I figure if she can do all that, I surely can raise two babies with the help of my fantastic family and wonderful friends. I am a very lucky woman, I've had it easy.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Today I feel fantastic, well sort of...
My very best friend and the Godmother to my babies sent me the link to this adorable shirt, see why I love her so very much. I know she will be the best godmother, she is loving, protective, smart, caring and she always knows just what to say. I would die for her, but then she would have to raise twins so I guess I'll stick around and be the needy friend I've always been. She is a newlywed yet she is ALWAYS there for me :). I'm selfish and I miss her, but I know Drew needs his wife too...Okay so Friday was just plain awful, another vomit-tastic day for me!! I am so excited about being pregnant, yet I am really tired of being so tired and the vomiting can leave any time now...
On a weird note, I have been feeling better for 3 days now, so good I swear my belly is smaller, my face is still chunky but that's because I'm eating for 7 :).
So this is my first pregnancy, do all women go through this panic when they are still early and in between ultrasounds and worried the thing they have all prayed for, then finally received, for some of us double what we wished for, could actually be taken away? Oh my goodness, I'm telling you progesterone is not your friend. It does a number on your hormones and makes your face resemble your junior high school pictures and the things it can do to your mental state, UNREAL.
I am going to stay calm and try and not think about all these crazy thoughts, but boy it's hard some days you know? I have this new fun habit of peeing 4 times every night and waking up at 5 am every morning worried about the future...I know all mom's do that, right?
Okay so instead I will end this post on a happy note, I feel FANTASTIC, scared because I haven't felt this great since August, but wonderful anyway. Just think, most women LOVE being pregnant because they feel this amazing the whole time, yes I officially hate them :)
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Mandy JUST FOR YOU
Mandy,
here it is and I want to tell you so bad!!! I can't I have promised Adam that he would be the one to decide when to tell his family, I'm guessing it will be next Saturday, but what do I know.
I'm writing this today because I have wanted to tell you so many times already that we are sisters and we are YES going through this TOGETHER!!! You find out if Kinnick is a boy or a girl tomorrow and I find out in two weeks what the tiny olives in my belly look like again...
I want you to know, we are going through this together and I wish I could have told you sooner, but I made a promise to my husband and we all know how hard it is to keep the good secrets from each other and not them!! Please know that I would have told you the second I peed on a stick, but we decided to have this special secret between the two of us.
The great news, Kinnick is going to have 2 cousins to play with in June, even though everyone is saying it will probably be May because it's TWINS?!?!?!?!? Of course we would go through this together, who else could be as close as we are and live thousands of miles APART.
here it is and I want to tell you so bad!!! I can't I have promised Adam that he would be the one to decide when to tell his family, I'm guessing it will be next Saturday, but what do I know.
I'm writing this today because I have wanted to tell you so many times already that we are sisters and we are YES going through this TOGETHER!!! You find out if Kinnick is a boy or a girl tomorrow and I find out in two weeks what the tiny olives in my belly look like again...
I want you to know, we are going through this together and I wish I could have told you sooner, but I made a promise to my husband and we all know how hard it is to keep the good secrets from each other and not them!! Please know that I would have told you the second I peed on a stick, but we decided to have this special secret between the two of us.
The great news, Kinnick is going to have 2 cousins to play with in June, even though everyone is saying it will probably be May because it's TWINS?!?!?!?!? Of course we would go through this together, who else could be as close as we are and live thousands of miles APART.
Telling my mom....
Okay so this past weekend I got to tell my family and I'm telling you, that is the hardest secret to keep from your mom and your sister especially when you are vomiting daily. I was on my way to Lincoln, my nephew's shirt safely tucked in my bag and my nerves of steal causing me to pop TUMS like they are candy.
I am getting off the Waverly Nebraska exit and all of the sudden floods of tears come streaming down my face, I'm about to tell my mother she's going to be a grandmother, again. Boy does my mom LOVE being a grandmother, she was born to do it I tell you. For a woman who spent her young adult life raising two daughters, she's got the grandma thing down.
I can remember numerous road trips the three of us took and mom spent her time telling my sister and I about all the sexually transmitted diseases and all the garbage that happens once you start having sex. She used to say, "herpes is for life, just remember that and BE SAFE." She also put the fertile fear of God in my head, I was sure I would have 7 kids because I deserved punishment for breaking her heart so many times. Don't get me wrong, my mom knew we would find amazing husbands she just wanted us to find them at 25 instead of 15.
Here it is 2008 both of her daughters have college educations and husband's that love them unconditionally. I am going to take this minute to say I love my husband with all my heart. He is my best friend, he makes me laugh and he doesn't let me get away with any of the crap I like to pull. He is patient and calm and I have no idea how he puts up with me daily. Again, back to the trip...
So I get to my mom's house and it's her and I. I figure this is my chance, so she says, "Oh let me get in the shower I have been working on charts all morning." I tell her, "wait I want to show you the gift I made for Hoken..." so I go and get it. My mom reads the shirt and says, oh it's cute Lori. I tell her to read it one more time, then I see the look...
You? She says, me I tell her. Then I point out the VERY BEST PART, twice it says :)She is speechless and we are crying and this is everything I imagined it would be. Oh geez now we have to go to Target, the store and find baby things before Lindsay and the boys get there...
Here is the best part, my mom was randomly telling strangers in Lincoln, NE she is about to be the grandmother to twins. We are standing in line at Target getting ready to pay for our things, including my very first maternity tops and she tells the poor woman standing behind us in line. The woman smiles so big and says, "well I am a mother to twins a boy and a girl. Just so you know everyone says it's the hardest thing to do have two newborns at once. What they don't know, it's magical and you are one of the luckiest women on earth. I wouldn't do it any other way, my twins are 7 now and I thank heaven for them everyday." she was fantastic and I think you could see my smile all the way the way in Iowa that night.
We run to our first Hy Vee visit and the sweet girls are scanning our groceries and putting them in the eco-friendly green bags that are just fantastic. The checkout girl looks at the two of us and says,"are you guys sisters?" I have to tell you, it's a much bigger compliment to me than to my mother who is STUNNING without even trying. So I have to say someone can ask me that every day of my life and I would be perfectly okay with it, especially being nauseous and having excess progesterone flowing through my body....
We continue on to Hy-Vee and my mom again is telling the poor teenager scanning our groceries...I'm going to be a grandmother to twins!!! The poor guy says, "well hope for two boys or two girls, I'm a twin and I have a sister and it stinks!!" He was adorable, I'm guessing he wanted a brother, but he was so cute anyway. Either way, two people we talked to both had twins and both had a boy and a girl, hmm? I don't care either way, I get TWO BABIES!!!
Okay I will write about telling my sister in a bit, that one will get me all emotional and I can't have that right now :)
I am getting off the Waverly Nebraska exit and all of the sudden floods of tears come streaming down my face, I'm about to tell my mother she's going to be a grandmother, again. Boy does my mom LOVE being a grandmother, she was born to do it I tell you. For a woman who spent her young adult life raising two daughters, she's got the grandma thing down.
I can remember numerous road trips the three of us took and mom spent her time telling my sister and I about all the sexually transmitted diseases and all the garbage that happens once you start having sex. She used to say, "herpes is for life, just remember that and BE SAFE." She also put the fertile fear of God in my head, I was sure I would have 7 kids because I deserved punishment for breaking her heart so many times. Don't get me wrong, my mom knew we would find amazing husbands she just wanted us to find them at 25 instead of 15.
Here it is 2008 both of her daughters have college educations and husband's that love them unconditionally. I am going to take this minute to say I love my husband with all my heart. He is my best friend, he makes me laugh and he doesn't let me get away with any of the crap I like to pull. He is patient and calm and I have no idea how he puts up with me daily. Again, back to the trip...
So I get to my mom's house and it's her and I. I figure this is my chance, so she says, "Oh let me get in the shower I have been working on charts all morning." I tell her, "wait I want to show you the gift I made for Hoken..." so I go and get it. My mom reads the shirt and says, oh it's cute Lori. I tell her to read it one more time, then I see the look...
You? She says, me I tell her. Then I point out the VERY BEST PART, twice it says :)She is speechless and we are crying and this is everything I imagined it would be. Oh geez now we have to go to Target, the store and find baby things before Lindsay and the boys get there...
Here is the best part, my mom was randomly telling strangers in Lincoln, NE she is about to be the grandmother to twins. We are standing in line at Target getting ready to pay for our things, including my very first maternity tops and she tells the poor woman standing behind us in line. The woman smiles so big and says, "well I am a mother to twins a boy and a girl. Just so you know everyone says it's the hardest thing to do have two newborns at once. What they don't know, it's magical and you are one of the luckiest women on earth. I wouldn't do it any other way, my twins are 7 now and I thank heaven for them everyday." she was fantastic and I think you could see my smile all the way the way in Iowa that night.
We run to our first Hy Vee visit and the sweet girls are scanning our groceries and putting them in the eco-friendly green bags that are just fantastic. The checkout girl looks at the two of us and says,"are you guys sisters?" I have to tell you, it's a much bigger compliment to me than to my mother who is STUNNING without even trying. So I have to say someone can ask me that every day of my life and I would be perfectly okay with it, especially being nauseous and having excess progesterone flowing through my body....
We continue on to Hy-Vee and my mom again is telling the poor teenager scanning our groceries...I'm going to be a grandmother to twins!!! The poor guy says, "well hope for two boys or two girls, I'm a twin and I have a sister and it stinks!!" He was adorable, I'm guessing he wanted a brother, but he was so cute anyway. Either way, two people we talked to both had twins and both had a boy and a girl, hmm? I don't care either way, I get TWO BABIES!!!
Okay I will write about telling my sister in a bit, that one will get me all emotional and I can't have that right now :)
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
October 30, 2008 Ultrasound
Okay so the morning of October 28th and 29th I woke up having the strangest dreams imaginable, I dreamt I was having twins...Not too worry my godmother to be sent me an email explaining the dream.
Twins If your dream entails giving birth to twins, or if you are dreaming about baby twins, please see " birth ". Twins in astrology represent opposites, and we may use this symbolism to explain our dream. The twins could suggest a duality in thoughts, ideas, feelings, or states of consciousness. The details of the dream will give you a clue to whether or not these varying aspects are in harmony or in conflict with each other. The twins could also represent the balance that is extremely important to our emotional and psychological health. Old dream interpretation books say that dreaming about adult twins foretells of "double trouble followed by double joy."
So not too fear, I go on with my day and get excited about my 2:00 appointment. I need to leave work early and make sure and fill out all the paperwork before the appointment. I arrive at the clinic ahead of schedule and check in. The desk has this electronic sign in deal. Seriously gone are the days of sheets of paper and photocopying your insurance card. Now we get to play with what I can only compare to a PSP, a gaming device I am lousy with. I still call Xbox Nintendo and I loved Frogger, Dig Dug and Pole Position when I was growing up. I'm lousy with the gaming these days although Guitar Hero does look like a BLAST!!!
Back to my story, so I get through the Jetson-esque sign in and wait. Keep in mind I have read that I'm supposed to have a full bladder so they can do a urine test and the ultrasound is clearer if you are full of water. I think it's more effective when you are are farther along in your pregnancy but I'm not taking any chances.
We finally get in the room and the nurse gives me a gown the size of a paper towel, yes next time I will be asking for the bounty select a size gown so I can cover my growing ba dunk a dunk. She also says I can keep my socks on, well yea. SO I am sitting on the exam table and my very adorable husband says, "honey why don't you put your feet in the stirrups now so you are comfortable?" Really honey? Men have no idea the amount of anxiety stirrups cause...he's cute though he honestly thought I would feel better with my feet apart and all my glory hanging out with us.
When you are sitting with your husband about to see your first child time takes forever...I try and make a joke, "Honey what if he tells us we are having twins..." Adam tells me to relax and enjoy the idea of having one baby and being thrilled about the entire experience... The doctor and nurse finally come in and start the exam, enough about that. Let's get to the ultrasound and the AMAZING effect of seeing your baby for the first time. I am sitting on the bed so I get a tiny screen that seems to be showing a baby going black for a second and showing the baby again.
After what seemed like forever the doctor begins explaining what we are seeing. He talks about the baby and how everything is growing just as it should be, he takes the necessary measurements so we have a more exact date for our baby's birth and then he keeps talking...
"Notice this growing baby, then I'm going to move to this side and show you your other growing baby..." HOLY CRAP.
We do not have a history of twins, we do not know very many twins, we are having twins. It's an absolute miracle and I still don't think I understand the magnitude of being blessed with TWO BABIES at one time. I am the luckiest woman on the planet.
Twins If your dream entails giving birth to twins, or if you are dreaming about baby twins, please see " birth ". Twins in astrology represent opposites, and we may use this symbolism to explain our dream. The twins could suggest a duality in thoughts, ideas, feelings, or states of consciousness. The details of the dream will give you a clue to whether or not these varying aspects are in harmony or in conflict with each other. The twins could also represent the balance that is extremely important to our emotional and psychological health. Old dream interpretation books say that dreaming about adult twins foretells of "double trouble followed by double joy."
So not too fear, I go on with my day and get excited about my 2:00 appointment. I need to leave work early and make sure and fill out all the paperwork before the appointment. I arrive at the clinic ahead of schedule and check in. The desk has this electronic sign in deal. Seriously gone are the days of sheets of paper and photocopying your insurance card. Now we get to play with what I can only compare to a PSP, a gaming device I am lousy with. I still call Xbox Nintendo and I loved Frogger, Dig Dug and Pole Position when I was growing up. I'm lousy with the gaming these days although Guitar Hero does look like a BLAST!!!
Back to my story, so I get through the Jetson-esque sign in and wait. Keep in mind I have read that I'm supposed to have a full bladder so they can do a urine test and the ultrasound is clearer if you are full of water. I think it's more effective when you are are farther along in your pregnancy but I'm not taking any chances.
We finally get in the room and the nurse gives me a gown the size of a paper towel, yes next time I will be asking for the bounty select a size gown so I can cover my growing ba dunk a dunk. She also says I can keep my socks on, well yea. SO I am sitting on the exam table and my very adorable husband says, "honey why don't you put your feet in the stirrups now so you are comfortable?" Really honey? Men have no idea the amount of anxiety stirrups cause...he's cute though he honestly thought I would feel better with my feet apart and all my glory hanging out with us.
When you are sitting with your husband about to see your first child time takes forever...I try and make a joke, "Honey what if he tells us we are having twins..." Adam tells me to relax and enjoy the idea of having one baby and being thrilled about the entire experience... The doctor and nurse finally come in and start the exam, enough about that. Let's get to the ultrasound and the AMAZING effect of seeing your baby for the first time. I am sitting on the bed so I get a tiny screen that seems to be showing a baby going black for a second and showing the baby again.
After what seemed like forever the doctor begins explaining what we are seeing. He talks about the baby and how everything is growing just as it should be, he takes the necessary measurements so we have a more exact date for our baby's birth and then he keeps talking...
"Notice this growing baby, then I'm going to move to this side and show you your other growing baby..." HOLY CRAP.
We do not have a history of twins, we do not know very many twins, we are having twins. It's an absolute miracle and I still don't think I understand the magnitude of being blessed with TWO BABIES at one time. I am the luckiest woman on the planet.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The WEEK of October 14th
So here it was, I was going to check to see if we finally made a BABY. I came home from work and Adam was headed to Monday Night Football, I made him wait of course.
I peed on the dreaded stick, which before now I had done twice before years earlier when my period was late and Adam and I weren't planning a baby but I figured I would check even though they were both false alarms.
Back to the story, you see I didn't want to risk any chance of harming a possible baby by continuing with my bad habits so I figured I would pee on the stick and see what happened. Well this time the stick had two blue lines almost immediately!!! I showed my husband and he said, "go to the doctor and make sure." I set up an appointment that very next morning for 11:30 a.m. with my family practice doctor. Well you go to the doctor, you wait in the waiting room, you wait in the exam room and you pee in a cup.
Trust me, waiting to find out if your pregnant is a hundred times worse than waiting for your antibiotics. Okay it totally isn't but it certainly felt like hours to find out. I even asked the nurse to see if she could find out before the doctor came in the room, she was so sweet she went directly to the lab for me.
Long story short, yep I'm pregnant now what??????????????????
I peed on the dreaded stick, which before now I had done twice before years earlier when my period was late and Adam and I weren't planning a baby but I figured I would check even though they were both false alarms.
Back to the story, you see I didn't want to risk any chance of harming a possible baby by continuing with my bad habits so I figured I would pee on the stick and see what happened. Well this time the stick had two blue lines almost immediately!!! I showed my husband and he said, "go to the doctor and make sure." I set up an appointment that very next morning for 11:30 a.m. with my family practice doctor. Well you go to the doctor, you wait in the waiting room, you wait in the exam room and you pee in a cup.
Trust me, waiting to find out if your pregnant is a hundred times worse than waiting for your antibiotics. Okay it totally isn't but it certainly felt like hours to find out. I even asked the nurse to see if she could find out before the doctor came in the room, she was so sweet she went directly to the lab for me.
Long story short, yep I'm pregnant now what??????????????????
What am I going to do?
So this past weekend I told my side of the family, they were thrilled and shocked. My sister Darcy is also expecting so the shirt I put on my nephew didn't work quite as well as I had planned...
The more we talked about the excitement of having twins, the more panicked I became. I thought of double feedings, double diapers, double college and double love I forgot about double cribs, double strollers, and double nursery in our small apartment. As my brother in law asked me if I would chose a double stroller with one baby in front and one baby always behind or a side by side stroller I realized, I have no idea....
Seriously you spend 32 years of your life wanting a career and a good marriage and then BAM your nephew comes along and you realize, everyone was right, I want a child...so you talk with your husband who for 11 years has heard no honey we don't want to have children, we want to be the aunt and uncle, yes honey I want children. He is a caring and understanding man and after some thought and months of discussions, finally, you both decide to try and have a baby.
Then comes the months of not getting pregnant. Is it me, is it him, what am I doing wrong. I wasn't going to be that wife who schedules when the couple has "playtime" and I wasn't going to be the wife who takes my temperature every day. I figured I would be a good wife and have sex every day or every other day, okay that was for me too :). Then I get frustrated every time it doesn't happen and I don't really want to cry on my husband's shoulder because he is going to get enough tears when the baby does get here, you know?
So I call on my number one, my best friend, my queen of the world, sports goddess who by the way is planning her wedding at the time and still makes time to listen to me cry because my cramps are so bad I am pretty sure God is pulling my uterus out Himself. She tells me I'm not old, she tells me it takes time to make a baby, she keeps me happy with "last hurrahs" and thoughts of another football game including beers :). She is my rock and this whole time she is planning her wedding!
Oh and don't forget, she is the only person on the planet who knows all of this. My husband knows, but let's face it, he's a man and does he really care, nope :). So then I am at my very best friend's wedding and I am watching her marry her best friend. I get to thinking as she hugs her family and friend's I am feeling very tired and very emotional, I don't remember being that overwhelmed at my own wedding, but all her family is now my family and all her friends are of course my friends. Maybe I just need a day to rest.
The next day I rest, okay I sleep the entire day away. I haven't slept an entire day away in forever, I figure it was all the excitement of the wedding and the rehearsal, right? WRONG. So I spend the next week as tired as I was that Sunday, now something isn't right. I start researching the internet because that's what we all do when things aren't quite how they should be. I read about something called implantation bleeding and wonder, could it be?
The more we talked about the excitement of having twins, the more panicked I became. I thought of double feedings, double diapers, double college and double love I forgot about double cribs, double strollers, and double nursery in our small apartment. As my brother in law asked me if I would chose a double stroller with one baby in front and one baby always behind or a side by side stroller I realized, I have no idea....
Seriously you spend 32 years of your life wanting a career and a good marriage and then BAM your nephew comes along and you realize, everyone was right, I want a child...so you talk with your husband who for 11 years has heard no honey we don't want to have children, we want to be the aunt and uncle, yes honey I want children. He is a caring and understanding man and after some thought and months of discussions, finally, you both decide to try and have a baby.
Then comes the months of not getting pregnant. Is it me, is it him, what am I doing wrong. I wasn't going to be that wife who schedules when the couple has "playtime" and I wasn't going to be the wife who takes my temperature every day. I figured I would be a good wife and have sex every day or every other day, okay that was for me too :). Then I get frustrated every time it doesn't happen and I don't really want to cry on my husband's shoulder because he is going to get enough tears when the baby does get here, you know?
So I call on my number one, my best friend, my queen of the world, sports goddess who by the way is planning her wedding at the time and still makes time to listen to me cry because my cramps are so bad I am pretty sure God is pulling my uterus out Himself. She tells me I'm not old, she tells me it takes time to make a baby, she keeps me happy with "last hurrahs" and thoughts of another football game including beers :). She is my rock and this whole time she is planning her wedding!
Oh and don't forget, she is the only person on the planet who knows all of this. My husband knows, but let's face it, he's a man and does he really care, nope :). So then I am at my very best friend's wedding and I am watching her marry her best friend. I get to thinking as she hugs her family and friend's I am feeling very tired and very emotional, I don't remember being that overwhelmed at my own wedding, but all her family is now my family and all her friends are of course my friends. Maybe I just need a day to rest.
The next day I rest, okay I sleep the entire day away. I haven't slept an entire day away in forever, I figure it was all the excitement of the wedding and the rehearsal, right? WRONG. So I spend the next week as tired as I was that Sunday, now something isn't right. I start researching the internet because that's what we all do when things aren't quite how they should be. I read about something called implantation bleeding and wonder, could it be?
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