LOTS of CHANGES!!!!!

This will probably be an extremely long post…one that will probably bore the daylights out of a lot of people.  BUT, I have to remember the details of this time of our life!

First, lets start back in May 20th, I believe…before I go any further, this maybe entirely too much information for you but I want to remember most of the details.  I put these kinds of things on my blog for me and my family so you can choose if you want to read or move on :).  Okay, so because of my blood clotting disorders, I have to take pregnancy tests every 28-30 days to make sure I’m not pregnant.  I HAVE to know right away IF I were to become pregnant so I can start my shots.  In May, I took a test on Monday, May 16th and it was negative…like every month because we have been told “you will NEVER get pregnant on your own”.  At the time, I was still breastfeeding Campbell full time (5 times a day…plus pumping morning and night).  So by Friday, I up and decide to take another test.  I waste so many tests!  I went into the toilet area of our bathroom and take the test while Trigger played in our bathroom…it was about 930 because Campbell was taking a nap.  I put the test on the back of the toilet and go wash my hands…went back to get the test and move it to the counter like I do EVERY month.  When I reached for the test, I noticed that there were already words…I look and it says “PREGNANT”…

WHAT?!?!?!  HOW?!?!?!  So I panic…what do I do?  Do I call Matt?  No, he’s at work…I can’t just give him this sort of news over the phone.  Do I call Liz?  No, she’ll die…scream…tell me that my body doesn’t need to be pregnant again (mainly because it stresses her out).  I really don’t know what to do.  I get dressed for the day.  Our cleaning lady was coming at noon and I had to get the house ready before Campbell woke up.  I quickly pick up toys, get out sheets, etc…and the whole time thinking WHAT IN THE WORLD!!?!!  I called Dr. Harper and he was gone to surgery and Mrs. Flo wasn’t sure if he was coming back to the office.  I panic again because I knew I needed to be on the shots immediately so I call my fertility dr…the same one that toldus that we “could never get pregnant on our own” and left a message. I couldn’t hold it in any longer…I call my friend, Amy.  I start by saying, “Amy, you have to promise me you will not tell a single person”. She responded that she wouldn’t and “you pregnant, aren’t you?”  So we talk for awhile while I’m still processing…at some point she asked me when I would be due…hmmm…I had not even thought about that yet.  We figured it up and it would be in January.  Amy helped me figure out how I was going to tell Matt…yep, Amy knew before Matt knew!  Oops!  The boys and I were already planning on going to Liz’s for the afternoon while our house was cleaned.  I called Liz and asked her to keep the boys while I went to eat lunch with Matt by myself.  I wrapped the pregnancy test in a box.  I dropped the boys off and headed to Matt’s office…I swear that I have never been so nervous to tell him anything…EVER!  This was such a different position to be in…we have always sat nervously in a fertility office for hours at many, many appts to get pregnant with each of our boys…we jumped for joy with both positive pregnancy tests…this time though, I felt completely different.  After all,  we had an 11.5 month old and a 2 year old (almost 3)…how in the world could we handle this.  So, I arrived at Matt’s office…he knew we were eating but had no idea that it would just be us.  I sent him a text saying I had two surprises for him..the first was  that we would be alone…the second?  I handed him the present and he opened it and I swear, I was about to pass out.  His eyes got WIDE…and he said “your kidding me?” or something like that…its really a blur now.  Nope, honey, I’m not kidding you!  I think I heard some “wow" and “I can’t believe its” and “how” (HAHA).  Anyway, then, what I was relieved to hear “well, this baby is obviously a baby that God wanted us to have!” Poor Matthew, I don’t give him enough credit.  So, we went to lunch and started discussing the details such as: due date, the little space between each child (get to that in a minute), our house (get to that in a minute), etc…etc.  Oh and I heard back from the fertility dr  (he’s also a reproductive endocrinologist…that deals with blood clotting issues related to pregnancy).  He said he would definitely follow me to make sure everything was okay.  We made an appointment for the next day to check levels. 

I left our lunch and went to Liz’s and told her.  She said, “It’s gonna be your little girl”…On a side note: I’m sure people think that’s why we are pregnant….we didn’t try to get pregnant and were happy with our two boys.  I have mixed feelings on which gender I would prefer…girl would be a fun change but I LOVE boys….so, let’s just say that I am glad that I don’t get to decide and that God decides for me. 

We told our parents and that was it.  We havent really let it out to the public until just recently.  I am currently 16 weeks and we have been very thankful to make it to this point.  I am always a little apprehensive to get too excited (at any point) for fear that something can happen.  We have been soooooo blessed with pretty good (for us) pregnancies with Trigger and Campbell.  I just pray this one is just as good…The blood pressure issues that I have had can be managed (somewhat)…I just don’t want something serious to be wrong. 

For a fun story that I want to remember, when we were on one of our trips to the beach, Trigger woke up during the middle of the night and said he needed to go to the bathroom.  I took him…I was so tired because the boys hadn’t been sleeping.  Trigger was trying to talk nonstop and I just wanted him to go to the bathroom and go to bed.  He looked at me and said, “mama, you gonna have a girl.” me: “what” Trigger:  “in your tummy…you have a girl in your tummy…a baby girl”….we all thought it was so weird because he didn’t really know that I was pregnant.  We had asked him several times if he wanted mommy to have a baby but hadn’t told him I was having a baby and didn’t really talk about a baby being in my tummy.  So weird.  Now, he knows that I’m having a baby.  For a long time he said it was a girl and we were going to name her “mawory” (mallory) but now he says its going to be a boy…and we are going to name him “neighbor”…which we are NOT.  Campbell of course has NO clue!  And, boy, is he going to be in for a SHOCK!!!  His life has already been turned upside down. 

Let’s discuss how this has affected poor little Campbell…

I found out on that Friday…STILL nursing him FULL TIME…I went to see fertility dr for tests on Saturday.  And, I nursed Campbell for the LAST time on Saturday night.  I cried and cried and videoed him and took picture…I know that is so weird but it was our special time.  The whole problem with this (other than the fact that I was an emotional basket case) was that Campbell would NOT take a bottle and I still had not gotten him to take a sippy cup.  I had plenty of breastmilk (2 freezers full) frozen so that wasn’t a problem…I just couldn’t get it in him.  It was a rough, rough, rough several weeks.  We fed him with syringes a lot in those first few days…I tried juice and whole milk.  It was just awful.  I had to count every single wet diaper (which were very, very few) to watch for dehydration.  We would go days with only 9 ounces of fluid a day…I shoved watermelon down him.  AWFUL!!!!  He still will not take a sippy cup.  After several weeks, the only thing we could get him to take a drink out of was a cup with a straw…which is weird because that usually comes later on after a sippy cup.  We had to give him lots of chocolate milk because Dr. Slusher told us to because its that important that he get the fat from milk until he is 2.  So, we have slowly weaned him off the chocolate and he just gets white whole milk now. 

In the process, he refused baby food too…I guess he was showing his anger!  and having a total boycott.  Since that week, he has eaten (or been offered) everything that we eat. 

AND, one more change…almost immediately, we decided that we would have to add on to our house.  We briefly discussed putting Trigger and Campbell in the same room but that really isn’t a feasible option because both of them are such high maintenance (light) sleepers.  We got the process started right away.  Mike Walpole was kind enough to come out and help us think things through and gave us some great ideas…after that, Matt bought a program and has made our plans himself.  He is so handy! :)  For those of you that have been here, we are making Campbell’s room into a hallway/laundry room.  We are adding two new bedrooms (for Trigger and Campbell), a jack and jill bathroom (for the big boys), and a safe room (with concrete walls, steel door and ceiling for bad weather and storage).  The more we thought about adding on, the more we decided to just go ahead fix some other things that we don’t like about the house…LIKE, we will be adding on a new master closet because ours in TOO small…it will also have a built in desk so matt can work from home at night without disturbing anyone.  There are a few other things we are doing too…They are starting construction right after labor day.  It will finished November 30th-ISH….and I could NOT BE HAPPIER…however, it is going to be quite stressful to have two little ones running around, pregnant, house in a complete chaos, two major holidays, etc…etc.. and Campbell will have to be temporarily moved to the playroom which is going to be interesting.  BUT, it’s only temporary.

So, life has been hectic around here….lots of changes…We are VERY blessed! 

BTW, we don’t have an official due date…BECAUSE each dr. says something different.  We are planning for a delivery around the middle of January!!