Hi Everyone...its super late so I'm not going to blog much (what's new about that?!)
Hugs to all! (Enjoy the video!)
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
ANIMAL HOUSE (G-Rated)
We have Halloween costumes (4) that we are not using this year. I've seen several of these animal costumes in the OldNavy and OneStepAhead catalogs. Three of them were given to us by The Sullivans and so I'd like to pass them along to another multiples family. No charge. I'm uncertain of the actual sizes (because three of them aren't marked..although they do say for up to 25lbs). Dana, Will, and Nick wore them at 16 months...the costumes were a little big but not by too much. Josh was only 4 months but since he was just being carried, we didn't care that the costume was way too big. The bear/dog costume is marked 6-12 months. I'm bringing these to the picnic on September 27th if they aren't gone before then.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
A conversation
Here is the my recollection of the conversation:
DR: “You’re having the babies TODAY!”
ME: “Are you sure?”
DR: Looking at me squarely in the eyes “You’re ready. You’re ready.”
ME: “Really? Wouldn’t it be better (and easier) for me to just keep them in there a while longer?”
DR: (blank stare) “Where’s Jeff?”
ME: “Really?”
DR: (blank stare) “Where’s Jeff?”
Side Note: Jeff and my doctor learned early on that I only partially listen. I would have to repeat what the doctor was saying (and spin it of course…my version) and then he would look at Jeff and smile and ask him what he heard (which was exactly what the doctor had said)
Anyway, here’s the rest of the conversation…
ME: “At a meeting. When? How much time do I have?”
DR: “Now!”
ME: “Seriously? Jeff’s at a meeting.”
DR: “Call Jeff. Get him here now or we’ll start without him.”
ME: “Really??”
The next few minutes, I had a ton of people in my room, someone was giving me something that tasted like liquid SweetTarts, someone was helping me get in another gown, someone was shaving me, someone was asking me questions…all of this craziness while I was trying to find Jeff!
When Jeff has a meeting, he’ll usually turn his cell phone on vibrate or set it to go directly to voicemail. Out of habit, even though I was in the hospital, Jeff’s phone went straight to voicemail. OMG…he wasn’t there “when it happened, when I first found out, and now he’s going to miss this too!” (OMG) I called his office to see if someone could find out who he was meeting with and if they had a phone number for that client. No go. Jeff was meeting the client on an empty site…no house meant no land-line either!! I called his cell phone again and left a message…something along the lines of “Having the babies NOW. Wish you were here!”
At some point during his meeting with his clients, Jeff remembered his phone going directly to voicemail. When he looked at it, he recalled my room number at the hospital and put two and two together. Amongst the poison ivy, Jeff stood there and informed his potential clients that we were expecting triplets that weekend and that was the hospital calling…which meant only that “things have changed.” I remember Jeff getting to my room just as they were wheeling me out and he asked the Dr. if he had time to take a shower. SHOWER??? Alright, in his defense, Jeff was only thinking about me and my extreme sensitivity to the PI, however, at first, I thought “Are you KIDDING me??” I'm sure my delivery doctor was also thinking "Are you KIDDING me?"
The delivery room was filled with many nurses, NICU nurses, doctors, specialists, the anesthesiologist, and of course, Dr. Brillhart and his delivery team. Outside of Jeff and myself, there were about 15 sets of trained staff to help us deliver our team of three incredibly beautiful babies!
DR: “You’re having the babies TODAY!”
ME: “Are you sure?”
DR: Looking at me squarely in the eyes “You’re ready. You’re ready.”
ME: “Really? Wouldn’t it be better (and easier) for me to just keep them in there a while longer?”
DR: (blank stare) “Where’s Jeff?”
ME: “Really?”
DR: (blank stare) “Where’s Jeff?”
Side Note: Jeff and my doctor learned early on that I only partially listen. I would have to repeat what the doctor was saying (and spin it of course…my version) and then he would look at Jeff and smile and ask him what he heard (which was exactly what the doctor had said)
Anyway, here’s the rest of the conversation…
ME: “At a meeting. When? How much time do I have?”
DR: “Now!”
ME: “Seriously? Jeff’s at a meeting.”
DR: “Call Jeff. Get him here now or we’ll start without him.”
ME: “Really??”
The next few minutes, I had a ton of people in my room, someone was giving me something that tasted like liquid SweetTarts, someone was helping me get in another gown, someone was shaving me, someone was asking me questions…all of this craziness while I was trying to find Jeff!
When Jeff has a meeting, he’ll usually turn his cell phone on vibrate or set it to go directly to voicemail. Out of habit, even though I was in the hospital, Jeff’s phone went straight to voicemail. OMG…he wasn’t there “when it happened, when I first found out, and now he’s going to miss this too!” (OMG) I called his office to see if someone could find out who he was meeting with and if they had a phone number for that client. No go. Jeff was meeting the client on an empty site…no house meant no land-line either!! I called his cell phone again and left a message…something along the lines of “Having the babies NOW. Wish you were here!”
At some point during his meeting with his clients, Jeff remembered his phone going directly to voicemail. When he looked at it, he recalled my room number at the hospital and put two and two together. Amongst the poison ivy, Jeff stood there and informed his potential clients that we were expecting triplets that weekend and that was the hospital calling…which meant only that “things have changed.” I remember Jeff getting to my room just as they were wheeling me out and he asked the Dr. if he had time to take a shower. SHOWER??? Alright, in his defense, Jeff was only thinking about me and my extreme sensitivity to the PI, however, at first, I thought “Are you KIDDING me??” I'm sure my delivery doctor was also thinking "Are you KIDDING me?"
The delivery room was filled with many nurses, NICU nurses, doctors, specialists, the anesthesiologist, and of course, Dr. Brillhart and his delivery team. Outside of Jeff and myself, there were about 15 sets of trained staff to help us deliver our team of three incredibly beautiful babies!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
(Part Two in a Series)
Two weeks later, I had another beer ready for Jeff when I proudly pronounced that the little one “caught up” in size and that we were definitely pregnant with three! It was a very easy pregnancy until I was placed on home bedrest at about 27 weeks. The next four weeks were incredibly hard as I’m not one for just laying around. I pushed the envelope as much as I could and the doctors knew it. Hindsight is always 20/20…I could have probably carried further if I were to have really stayed horizontal for 90% of my waking hours…no sitting up, just completely horizontal. In my defense, though, I must say that if a patient is placed on bedrest, then the doctors shouldn’t have you going to either the OB’s office or the high-risk doctor’s office every three-five days…oh yeah, then there are the trips to the hospital for those non-stress tests!
It was the morning of Friday, June 16th. I was at 31weeks and 4days. I told Jeff over breakfast that I had a rotten night’s sleep and that something just “feels off”. I had my 5th non-stress test (NST) scheduled at the hospital for later that morning so I decided to take off after breakfast and see if they could get me in a little sooner. By the end of my very first NST, I knew to bring my own pillow for subsequent NSTs. So there I was on June 16th, standing with my pillow in tow and I told the lady at the check-in that I was a little early and that I didn’t want to complain but that something felt “off.” Well, before they even hooked me up to the monitor, they took my blood pressure and it was sky high…198 /(something)…close to seizing, they said. I politely informed them that if they’d kindly turn the TV on, that the U.S. Open was on and that watching golf on TV always lowered my blood pressure. My OB and my high-risk specialist found my request very amusing.
After I got settled in a room, I called Jeff and told him that I’d be there a while so he came to the hospital and we ate Subway (pregnant with three…always eating!) and watched a bit of the U.S. Open. There was some question of whether or not I was having the babies that day or if it would be sometime before the weekend was over. They gave me MagSulfate and that still didn’t settle “the shakes” down. Anyway, when one of the nurses came back to say “its not going to be today,” Jeff and I discussed and agreed that he should keep a meeting that he had later that afternoon with a very important potential client. At some point when Jeff was gone, the HR Doctor came in and we visited. She looked at some numbers and asked me how I was doing. By that point, they found some medicine that was helping my blood pressure get back down to a normal count and I told her that I was fine and would like to hold off having these babies as long as I could (because I just knew I could carry longer!) I think I remember her saying “OK” but that decision was later overridden when she and my OB talked together on the phone. Dr. Brillhart came in my room and looked over some recent numbers and then we had a funny conversation. I'll share the conversation in my next blog.
It was the morning of Friday, June 16th. I was at 31weeks and 4days. I told Jeff over breakfast that I had a rotten night’s sleep and that something just “feels off”. I had my 5th non-stress test (NST) scheduled at the hospital for later that morning so I decided to take off after breakfast and see if they could get me in a little sooner. By the end of my very first NST, I knew to bring my own pillow for subsequent NSTs. So there I was on June 16th, standing with my pillow in tow and I told the lady at the check-in that I was a little early and that I didn’t want to complain but that something felt “off.” Well, before they even hooked me up to the monitor, they took my blood pressure and it was sky high…198 /(something)…close to seizing, they said. I politely informed them that if they’d kindly turn the TV on, that the U.S. Open was on and that watching golf on TV always lowered my blood pressure. My OB and my high-risk specialist found my request very amusing.
After I got settled in a room, I called Jeff and told him that I’d be there a while so he came to the hospital and we ate Subway (pregnant with three…always eating!) and watched a bit of the U.S. Open. There was some question of whether or not I was having the babies that day or if it would be sometime before the weekend was over. They gave me MagSulfate and that still didn’t settle “the shakes” down. Anyway, when one of the nurses came back to say “its not going to be today,” Jeff and I discussed and agreed that he should keep a meeting that he had later that afternoon with a very important potential client. At some point when Jeff was gone, the HR Doctor came in and we visited. She looked at some numbers and asked me how I was doing. By that point, they found some medicine that was helping my blood pressure get back down to a normal count and I told her that I was fine and would like to hold off having these babies as long as I could (because I just knew I could carry longer!) I think I remember her saying “OK” but that decision was later overridden when she and my OB talked together on the phone. Dr. Brillhart came in my room and looked over some recent numbers and then we had a funny conversation. I'll share the conversation in my next blog.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
One...two....or could there be three?
Blogging is a great way of writing down those little things that happen that are so funny and sweet at the time but that fade in the day to day living. Over the next few weeks I hope to write a post on each of our wonderful children (and the silly things they've done). They are all a blessing and (at times) I cannot get enough of them. This post is the first (in a series) about our incredible journey to parenthood.
I’m going to take you back farther then you probably want to go. For some reason, I always had this inner feeling that it was going to be hard to get pregnant. When Jeff and I made the decision to start trying to have a family, it wasn’t too long before my suspicions were confirmed. We tried for quite some time and then enlisted the help of several doctors. After many long years of heartbreaking ups and downs, good news finally came. The nurse just completed my umpteenth ultrasound and then she got up and said that she would be right back. I found myself sitting alone on the table in my paper gown when I heard someone down the hall shout “She’s having triplets!!” If I'm being honest, I will tell you that I remember sitting there in self pity wishing that the walls weren't so paper-thin so I couldn't hear that some other patient was having triplets...good for them, but what about ME?? Low and behold several seconds later in comes Dr. Cline with a huge smile on his face. ME?? REALLY???? (Oh boy, how do I explain this one to Jeff???) What came next was the doctor telling me not to get too excited. He explained that two embryos looked good (size wise) but that the third was only half the size of the other two and probably wouldn’t survive. I went to work later that morning and found myself avoiding Jeff's calls. I didn't want to tell him over the phone that we were pregnant and yet, I didn't know how I could steer the conversation away from the "How did the Doctor's appointment go?" question. When we finally did speak on the phone, I said that we needed to talk when I got home. Naturally, Jeff probably thought that it was bad news again and so he didn’t push for answers. I beat Jeff home that evening and when he arrived, I had a Heineken and the ultrasound pics ready for him. It didn’t take him long to see the three images nor did it take him long to finish that beer!
I’m going to take you back farther then you probably want to go. For some reason, I always had this inner feeling that it was going to be hard to get pregnant. When Jeff and I made the decision to start trying to have a family, it wasn’t too long before my suspicions were confirmed. We tried for quite some time and then enlisted the help of several doctors. After many long years of heartbreaking ups and downs, good news finally came. The nurse just completed my umpteenth ultrasound and then she got up and said that she would be right back. I found myself sitting alone on the table in my paper gown when I heard someone down the hall shout “She’s having triplets!!” If I'm being honest, I will tell you that I remember sitting there in self pity wishing that the walls weren't so paper-thin so I couldn't hear that some other patient was having triplets...good for them, but what about ME?? Low and behold several seconds later in comes Dr. Cline with a huge smile on his face. ME?? REALLY???? (Oh boy, how do I explain this one to Jeff???) What came next was the doctor telling me not to get too excited. He explained that two embryos looked good (size wise) but that the third was only half the size of the other two and probably wouldn’t survive. I went to work later that morning and found myself avoiding Jeff's calls. I didn't want to tell him over the phone that we were pregnant and yet, I didn't know how I could steer the conversation away from the "How did the Doctor's appointment go?" question. When we finally did speak on the phone, I said that we needed to talk when I got home. Naturally, Jeff probably thought that it was bad news again and so he didn’t push for answers. I beat Jeff home that evening and when he arrived, I had a Heineken and the ultrasound pics ready for him. It didn’t take him long to see the three images nor did it take him long to finish that beer!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Back from Texas
There were many parts of our trip to Texas that I thoroughly enjoyed! I'll refrain from detailing several items that I could have done without (i.e., our drive south, Will's illness, wasting money on a hotel, and a particular conversation with Jeff).
Things I loved:
Having many people to help unload the van
Getting to see Carson when I didn't expect to
Having family drive over to Dana's house to see Jeff, me, and all of our babies
Waking up every morning and having the sun shine in our room
Playing in the driveway every morning after breakfast
Watching the kids in awe over the horses, chickens, cat, and dog
Surprising Jeff on Father's Day with the kids dressed in their very own "Aspen" shirts
Having Dana and Nick cling to me in the pool
Hearing Kristen and Jeff teaching Will to "kick, kick, kick" in the pool
Seeing Josh and Dad in the water together
Hearing that Josh was playful with Robin when she went to get him out of the PeaPod
Watching little Dana play with Mom and her bracelets
Getting to see Candy, Kevin, and Tracy
Having family drive over to Kristen/Ken's house for a Birthday celebration for Dana, Will, and Nick
Having everyone sing "Happy Birthday To You"
Watching my babies play with their cousins
Having lunch at Life's a Beach and playing in the sand
Watching the kids take a fake picture of a duck
Having Mom and Dad watch all of our kids, Connor, Abbey, and Reagan so that Jeff and I could go out and have a nice dinner with Ktin, Ken, Dana, and Don
Seeing the look on Dana's face when Don or her boys are around
Spending time with Jeff by the pool in the moonlight
Having lunch outside of the Dallas World Aquarium
Watching our sweet children "taking it all in" at the Aquarium
Hearing the pitter patter of feet upstairs when they should have been napping in their PeaPods
Having the family help rush me out of the house when we decided to leave early and drive through the night to avoid the incessant
whining that occurred on the way down
Hearing a sweet "DING" from Nick in the back (as he was half asleep) and as we got "off route" to fill up with gas or to make a pitstop
Hearing our sweet babies sing "Ha, Ha, Happy to you!"
...thank you all so much for making our trip enjoyable! I appreciate you, Dana, for allowing us to camp out at your home and for all the love and attention you gave us...you are the perfect hostess! Connor, you're so good at playing with our little ones! Kristen and Ken, thank you so much for hosting a birthday party at your home. I'm sure it was expensive, all the gifts and the dinner for everyone...sorry to spring that on you at the last minute! I love you and your sweet family!
Mom and Dad...you are both invaluable. I'm so glad that our kids know you and love you both so much! Your love for Jeff, myself, and the kids is a wonderful gift and I cherish that. Thank you for the books, toothbrushes, and the wall art. Eric and Jeff, thank you so much for making it to almost every event. It was very special getting to spend time with you both. Thank you for monetary gift (aka, diapers). I'm glad you got to spend time with our kids. Robin and Chuck, thank you for driving and making it to Dana's party on Sunday. Sorry we couldn't spend more time together. Thank you for helping to keep our kids safe with those Caution signs for the street. I know you had one foot in the car when you learned that we were leaving early. As disappointing that it was that I didn't personally say goodbye to many of you (Ktin, Ken, Abbey, Reagan, Eric, Jeff, Robin, Chuck) we really did have to get on the road early... we needed to cover as much ground as we could while the kids were sleeping. I've tried to remember as many highlights that I can from our trip....sorry if you recall something that I cannot at this time. Its late and I just wanted to post something since its been a while. Just know that everyone is important to me and I love you all.
Things I loved:
Having many people to help unload the van
Getting to see Carson when I didn't expect to
Having family drive over to Dana's house to see Jeff, me, and all of our babies
Waking up every morning and having the sun shine in our room
Playing in the driveway every morning after breakfast
Watching the kids in awe over the horses, chickens, cat, and dog
Surprising Jeff on Father's Day with the kids dressed in their very own "Aspen" shirts
Having Dana and Nick cling to me in the pool
Hearing Kristen and Jeff teaching Will to "kick, kick, kick" in the pool
Seeing Josh and Dad in the water together
Hearing that Josh was playful with Robin when she went to get him out of the PeaPod
Watching little Dana play with Mom and her bracelets
Getting to see Candy, Kevin, and Tracy
Having family drive over to Kristen/Ken's house for a Birthday celebration for Dana, Will, and Nick
Having everyone sing "Happy Birthday To You"
Watching my babies play with their cousins
Having lunch at Life's a Beach and playing in the sand
Watching the kids take a fake picture of a duck
Having Mom and Dad watch all of our kids, Connor, Abbey, and Reagan so that Jeff and I could go out and have a nice dinner with Ktin, Ken, Dana, and Don
Seeing the look on Dana's face when Don or her boys are around
Spending time with Jeff by the pool in the moonlight
Having lunch outside of the Dallas World Aquarium
Watching our sweet children "taking it all in" at the Aquarium
Hearing the pitter patter of feet upstairs when they should have been napping in their PeaPods
Having the family help rush me out of the house when we decided to leave early and drive through the night to avoid the incessant
whining that occurred on the way downHearing a sweet "DING" from Nick in the back (as he was half asleep) and as we got "off route" to fill up with gas or to make a pitstop
Hearing our sweet babies sing "Ha, Ha, Happy to you!"
...thank you all so much for making our trip enjoyable! I appreciate you, Dana, for allowing us to camp out at your home and for all the love and attention you gave us...you are the perfect hostess! Connor, you're so good at playing with our little ones! Kristen and Ken, thank you so much for hosting a birthday party at your home. I'm sure it was expensive, all the gifts and the dinner for everyone...sorry to spring that on you at the last minute! I love you and your sweet family!
Mom and Dad...you are both invaluable. I'm so glad that our kids know you and love you both so much! Your love for Jeff, myself, and the kids is a wonderful gift and I cherish that. Thank you for the books, toothbrushes, and the wall art. Eric and Jeff, thank you so much for making it to almost every event. It was very special getting to spend time with you both. Thank you for monetary gift (aka, diapers). I'm glad you got to spend time with our kids. Robin and Chuck, thank you for driving and making it to Dana's party on Sunday. Sorry we couldn't spend more time together. Thank you for helping to keep our kids safe with those Caution signs for the street. I know you had one foot in the car when you learned that we were leaving early. As disappointing that it was that I didn't personally say goodbye to many of you (Ktin, Ken, Abbey, Reagan, Eric, Jeff, Robin, Chuck) we really did have to get on the road early... we needed to cover as much ground as we could while the kids were sleeping. I've tried to remember as many highlights that I can from our trip....sorry if you recall something that I cannot at this time. Its late and I just wanted to post something since its been a while. Just know that everyone is important to me and I love you all.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
There's more than one cookie fan in this bunch!
We had dinner outside not too long ago, after dinner and while the kids were still seated, I went back inside to get dessert (Vanilla Wafers...Yum!) The big kids got two. Josh got one. We saw a bunny rabbit in the corner of our yard and so we got the kids out of their chairs and made our way over to see Mr. Bunny. Mr. Bunny got scared when he saw us coming. "Bye Bye, Bunny!!" shouted our kids. Cleaning up dinner was going to take several trips inside the house. I left the closed box of Vanilla Wafers on a chair. Nick was headed over there...I thought we was going to grab the box and bring it inside. No sooner do I go inside put dishes in the sink and turn around to make my second trip, do I see Nick looking completely guilty, holding a now open box of Vanilla Wafers and chewing on however many he could put in his mouth. I exclaimed "NICK!" And what did he do? This sweet little toe-headed boy opened his mouth and start spitting the cookies back in the box!! The look on his face when he was caught was priceless! He certainly knows the good
cookies from the bad ones (like his Momma!)
Monday, June 2, 2008
Little Sweethearts...You're all my favorite!!
Jeff had to go back to the office for a while tonight so I sat with Dana, Will, Nick, and Josh while they ate. Tonight's dinner consisted of milk, dinner roll, green beans and beef ravioli. What promised to be a "messy" night turned out to be "really messy!" Oh SprayNWash, SprayNWash, how do you work so well?? Anyway, we were having a lot of fun and so dinner ran late. Even though I did my best to get the ravioli stains off our children's faces, legs, arms, bellies, it seems as those Chef BoyArdee won the battle! (These are older pictures of the big kids after ravioli. As you can imagine, I did not have time tonight to take pictures and post them.)
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Learning to Blog
Hi everyone! I just want to thank you in advance for your patience while I try to grasp this "blogging stuff" (in my spare time!) As you might know, Jeff and I had three beautiful babies on 6/16/06 (GBB). Just over a year later, on 6/29/07 we welcomed another beautiful child (B) into our family. It is my goal to use our blogspot as a way to keep family/friends caught up with current happenings in our lives. I will do my best to get you caught up pretty quickly on the first year of Josh's life and the first two years of Dana, Will, and Nick's world. From then on, I'll just try to stay current. Many friends of ours have baby books for each of their children. Well, when God blesses you with three and then one right after, you tend to focus on getting through day to day and frankly, there isn't much time to write. Now, things are slowing down a bit and so I see myself having a tiny bit of time after the kids go to bed and before I eat dinner, or go grocery shopping, or laundry or dust or moving kid clothes from one closet to another and moving bins and bins of clothes around, cleaning cups/bottles by hand, etc. to actually have time to blog. Was that a run-on sentence? Oh well, I'm sure it won't be the last time. So stay tuned and check our blog out every once in a while! Yours truly, Busy Momma
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