Post-Surgery

Madeline is a trooper.  She is an unbelievably strong, courageous little girl. This morning she had her surgical procedure done and yes, it was much, much harder on me than it ever was on her.  We all 4 went together -- well, all 5 actually (we even had Bailey in the car waiting in his cozy little bed --we had no choice).  It started off on a high  note with a fantastic children's area in the waiting room that the girls quickly destroyed.

Then, it was time to prepare.  My tough little Madeline was just such a trooper.  She snuggled with me, took her medicine, and was sent into a "happy world!'' that cracked Chris and I up as she willingly went with the nurse and was escorted by the team of nurses to the OR, waving bye bye to us the whole way.  It was really pretty funny!

She was so mad I was taking her picture (discretely with my phone by the way)...ha!

Savannah kept wondering where sissy went, so we kept her occupied with graham crackers from the break room and I kept myself occupied with hot chocolate.  

Savannah running around the room, acting silly and chomping down on her graham cracker with one in the other hand for "sissy" when she came back to us.

The emotions you feel when watching your little girl get whisked off to be put to sleep is something you really can't prepare yourself for, but thankfully, my other strong, courageous little girl was right there with me to keep me preoccupied during the procedure.  Only mere moments later, the doctor was coming to tell us everything went great, no IV was needed, and she would be waking up in recovery very soon.  

As I headed to the recovery room, I was prepared for the worst. They had warned me much earlier that she would be fussy...they had warned me that she would only want to drink out of "her" cup (so I brought one with me), they had warned me that she would want to nap and that I should let her, they had also warned us that it may be an hour before we left the recovery room.

But what awaited me in the recovery room was a little girl, fidgeting and turning one way and the other.  A little girl that had pulled off every one of her wires, but not angry about it.  A little girl that was drinking all of her juice out of the sippy cup they had given her.  A very groggy little girl who mumbled "night night" as I walked up to the bed, looked up at me, and said "Sissy.....sissy......sissy?" through her groggy voice.  She wanted sissy.

In the meantime, Chris was out in the waiting room with Savannah who kept asking through a worried tone "sissy?  sissy?"  The nurses in both rooms were in awe at the bond they could clearly see between the two girls.  They did not want to be separated.  They needed each other. 

Anesthesia stopped by recovery and said there was clearly no reason to keep her there, so he signed the papers and let me take her away.  She was so happy...so tired, but so happy!  When we found Savannah, a kind nurse brought Savannah 2 cups of apple juice.  Savannah came running up to Madeline, reached up to my arms where I was holding her and handed her the other cup of juice "sissy!  sissy!" and that was that.  The two were reunited, Madeline was doing great, and we headed out the door and home.  

All of this took just under 2 hours.  Praise the Lord!  I am so thankful to Him for keeping my baby girl safe while she was asleep, and keeping the four of us together during the entire procedure so that we could only learn more to lean on each other, and on Him to get us through anything...even the "small" stuff.

Thank you for the sweet prayers out there for her behalf - and for ours.  God is good!

Our First Getaway

Chris and I were married four years ago last Friday.  It blows my mind to think that four years have gone by since that amazingly special, perfect day.  And now, here we are, four years later, with two beautiful daughters that have added so much happiness to our lives than we could have ever imagined. 

To celebrate, we spent the weekend together - just the two of us - up in the mountains.  I am such a mountain girl, and being back in the Smokies for a few days made me appreciate (miss) them even more!  That is, when I was not feeling the momma guilt for leaving my girls behind. Talk about a strange feeling...I noticed every single baby that we passed.  I got angry at the family that had their sweet bald little baby out in the cold  late at night with no hat! Broke my heart.  I was annoyed at the woman who had a baby boy out way past his bedtime - just watching that poor baby scream and squirm in the loudest restaurant with the sleepiest eyes....broke my heart!! I am a momma through and through.  Amazing how much can change in your life in four "simple" years.

My only comfort for the weekend came in knowing the girls were having a big time with their Aunt Robin, Papaw, Mimi and Aunt Lynsey.  How blessed we are to have such a supportive family through and through. I was a little bit concerned that they didn't even miss us, but what an awesome feeling when we walked in the door and they lit up when they saw it was us and immediately smothered us with hugs!  Amazing.  There was no better anniversary gift than that!

Here's a few pics of our weekend - without the girls! It truly felt strange to take pics of just us!

 

 

Happy Anniversary Chris...thanks for a perfect weekend away!  And thank you Robin, Dad, Patti, and Lynsey for making it happen...and taking such good care of our girls.  And thank you, my sweet, sweet girls, for making our lives together so much happier and full of more love than we could have ever imagined!

Birthday Weekend

Saturday was my birthday....my 35th birthday.  Wow.  For the first time in my entire life, I'm actually hesitant to put my age in writing.  But, my husband, and now my sweet girls, have a way of making me feel like the most special woman in the world.  This is my second birthday now as a mother, and it was even more amazing than the first! Even with the "expected" snow problems foiling yet more birthday plans....it's all a part of having the winter birthday! And just like the girls' birthday last month, we didn't get the snow, but others (Grammy and Papa Bob) who were a part of the b-day plans did! However, it truly did turn out to be a perfect weekend. I was looking through the b-day pics and this one made me laugh.  We all three seem to have the exact same expression....I love being their mother.  And I will try my best to love being 35.

Here's a moment that definitely brought another smile to my face on my birthday.  My sweet husband got the girls dressed and ready for our dinner plans Saturday night.  He did this while I was getting myself ready.  We went to the restaurant, had a great time, came home, and while the girls were playing, I stopped and noticed this:

Oh yes, those would definitely be on backwards.  Hysterically precious all at the same time!!  

Love these girls and love their daddy too!!

Dreaming Daddy

My husband is a huge sports fan. Huge. He loves football, baseball, basketball, you name it Every night that the girls wake up (when they're NOT sick and we don't have a clue what's wrong), Chris and I have a middle of the night discussion about whether or not we should let them cry it out. Is it more than a sleepy wake up that they just need to self-soothe themselves back to sleep? Will it be worse if we go in because if they see us, they will scream even louder? It's been 2 very loooong minutes, should we go in now? We have these discussions often when one of the girls wakes up in the middle of the night for whatever reason, but we've never really called it a discussion. We just do it. So, one night last week, (before they were sick), the baby monitor goes off at 4 a.m. Chris, clearly still asleep, rolls over and says "Time for another Dream Team decision."

He had no idea he said that....he was totally out of it. But it cracked me up. We both are clearly deliriously tired at that time of the night and it has basically been decisions made in a dreamy state...but to call us the Dream Team...whether he meant to or not...well, it just goes without saying that my basketball fan of a husband makes me laugh!!

Father's Day

"I Love Dad" and "Mommy and I agree: Daddy's Charming"

From the moment I met Chris, I knew he would be an incredible dad. In fact, I still remember it very clearly.....he was at the pulpit preaching and talked about how he knew that it would be an amazing feeling one day to hold his newborn baby in his arms. Actually, I had not even officially met Chris because I still lived in Nashville and was just visiting my dad and Patti that weekend. I just remembered thinking "aw, how sweet." I was, of course, equating his sermon to the love my dad has for me and his children. At the time, there was no other man I could ever really imagine as being a great a father as my very own dad. I had no, absolutely no idea that the newborn baby Chris was talking about would one day be ours, and not be just one newborn baby, but two....at the same time. I also had no idea that I would one day find myself blessed by marrying a man who made me as proud at seeing someone be a father as my very own dad makes me.

Being married now to that man I saw at the pulpit so long ago, watching him hold each of his newborn babies in his arms for the very first time, and then watching him grow into his new role as a father is sometimes more than I can handle. God has blessed our two daughters with Chris as their dad. To see him interact with them and play with them and love on them reminds me over and over why I fell in love with him in the first place. For Father's Day, the girls and I gave him a picture that says "The righteous man walks in his integrity. His children are blessed after him. Proverbs 20:7." Madeline and Savannah are so blessed to have a daddy like Chris, a Papaw like my dad, a Pa Pa like Chris' dad, and a Papa Bob like my step-dad. We are so very, very blessed by the special men in our lives.

Happy Father's Day, Chris. The girls and I hope we made your day as special as you have made our lives.

"King of the Grill"

The Beach

The Tent

Um...ok...so maybe Daddy needs to be the one to get the sleep tonight.... :-)

This is Daddy trying out the new beach tent we got the girls for their first vacation to the beach in 2 weeks....it passed the test. Very cool and breezy inside...and shaded! Perfect.

Progressing Sleep

Last night Chris every so sweetly agreed to wake up with the girls because they have been waking up at crazy odd hours of the night. They are just now reaching 11 pounds, so I am sure that they are still needing the food if they wake up early, so I've been up for night after night feeding these sweet baby girls. They had been consistently sleeping 8-9 hours, but for the last few weeks, they stopped that trend most likely due to growth spurts. With them growing like they are, they LOVE to play in the daytime, often on different schedules, so they aren't giving Mom the chance to sleep when they sleep right now. When they are on different schedules, I call it a "Mommy Time Day". This means I get good, quality one on one time with each of them when one goes to sleep and the other wakes up. There truly is beauty and blessings in the craziness!

However, this has resulted in a deliriously, losing it, can't-think-clear mommy! Yesterday, we had a couple of youth over from Georgia-Cumberland Academy and they must have thought for sure I had lost it. I would forget things, in mid-sentence, and I looked like a walking zombie. It had been a rough week. Okay, a rough few weeks. I needed to pluralize that.

So, last night, Chris took over. We were ready with him armed with bottles for the middle of the night wake-up feeds. At 6:45 AM I woke up to Savannah crying. I got up and there was Daddy, changing her diaper. It was so very sweet. I assumed he had just had a very, very long night. But much to my surprise, he informed me that Madeline had not woken up at all! Savannah woke up at 4 AM, but only because of serious gas, not from hunger. After he changed her diaper, I fed her, put her back down, and Madeline stayed asleep. She ended up sleeping until 8:30 AM! It was a true 12 hour night for her! By the time I finished feeding her, Savannah was ready to eat again, so I got them both on the same schedule after all...the rest of the day has been amazing so far. Both Madeline and I got a great night's rest, and Savannah and Daddy did pretty good too...we've just got to work on that gas. (Savannah's gas....not Daddy's...haha!) Also, I read about the "45 Minute Intruder" of naptime....and after a rough crying it out for a few minutes, the girls have been falling right back to sleep and taking longer naps. I'm thankful to just know that they are capable of a 12 hour night....and longer naps too..and pray that they keep it up! Not only for their own well-being and happiness, but for....wait...I have no idea what I was going to say.

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day this year has taken on a whole new meaning. Chris and I are so incredibly blessed with these two precious loves in our lives...he now has gone from having only one Valentine, to now having three!! There is so much love in this house....I truly cannot believe how much more I love these girls with each passing day!! I couldn't have imagined how much I love motherhood, and how much these girls mean to us both. So, Happy Valentine's Day to all of you out there who read up on our little angels and care so much about these two!!! They are truly the loves of our life!!!

Daddy helping Madeline open her card

Savannah with her card and cuddly bear from Mommy and Daddy

Madeline with her card and cuddly bear from Mommy and Daddy

The girls with our family Valentine's Day spread

Chris Finishes School!

I am so proud of Chris! Exactly 96 master level credit hours later (and another 11 prerequisite hours), he finished his requirements for the Master in Divinity program at Andrews TODAY! After arriving on campus in May 2007, he successfully pulled off all A's in his classes while taking on huge, full class loads. (And only 1 B and 1 B+ with the rest A's in total. He deserves to be bragged on for this incredible accomplishment!!) After finding out we were expecting twins, he took this final semester to another level....going over the maximum amount of hours allowed per semester so that there would be no class left to complete after December. Even then, he still finished with such high marks. Tomorrow he makes the final trip out of Berrien Springs to come meet me in Tennessee where we prepare for our next big (but much more fun!) challenge in life...becoming parents! I am so grateful to God for giving him the wisdom to accomplish all that he accomplished, and so proud for the blessing he is to my life and the lives of his soon-to-arrive twin daughters!! Congratulations, Chris on completing your Master's Degree!!

32 Weeks!

I never knew my belly would stir up such controversy amongst family and friends! I will put a stop to the madness and post a pic taken today in honor of reaching the beginning of my 32nd week of this twin pregnancy. :-)

Beginning of 32 Weeks - 11/13/08

After all the fear talks I received from my doctor regarding twin pregnancies being high risk for preterm labor, I feel so blessed that these babies have made it this far! At 32 weeks, I know the babies have an excellent chance of survival should labor hit. This makes breathing easier. Well...not literally, as the bigger the babies get, the more crowded they are getting on my lungs and the less I can literally breathe!

Two days ago I experienced contractions for the first time. Freaked me out a little, but neither the doc, nor my friends who have carried twins, seemed too concerned. They were 40-50 mins apart, and were gone by the morning. Still, it made me wake up and realize that show time really could happen any day.

Daddy getting ready for pushing the double stroller - 8/18/08


Chris taking on the massive leaves by himself after finding a break between school, work and studies - I hate I can't help him! He won't let me if I try. He's doing amazing picking up so much of the slack for us right now.