Thursday, May 19, 2011

Something About May

I can not believe that this time two whole years ago we were knee deep in the PICU dealing with the surgery to correct Bailey's airway.  But we were!  I think by this date in time, May 19th, we might have been either about to come home or home.  You can go back and read about it here.  I tried to link to a picture of our sweet girl from that time but for some reason I couldn't.  I am thankful everyday that we were able to get to the bottom of that problem, deal with it, and have it behind us.  Remember, in February she was released from her surgeon/ENT for good unless other problems come about.  So far so good!  It just seems like two years has flown by.

This time one year ago, we were dealing with death of Sid's grandfather.  I know it has been a long, hard year for that side of the Whitehead family, but just like always, they truck on!  Bailey got that bad eye infection the day of the funeral and I had food poisoning.  Again, I cannot believe that was 12 whole months ago.  It feels like just yesterday.

And now, this May, what could we possibly be in to?  Well, like I said yesterday, Bailey has been a bit under the weather.  After 48 hours of an antibiotic and resting, she seemed to be getting worse instead of better.  So Sid took her back to the doctor this morning and after some blood work (in which she informed me they pinched her), an xray, a shot (in which she informs me is her bo-bo), and a new antibiotic, we came home with the diagnosis of pneumonia.  Bless her little heart! I have no idea how she gets this stuff.  But it makes me even more so thankful for this time two years ago when we were correcting her small airway.  If we had not been able to fix that problem, times like these would be near tragic. 

Although we only have 5 more days of school left this school year, I will be home with her tomorrow and was home with her on Tuesday.  Sid has been home with her today and yesterday.  We both got a trip to the doctor out of the deal!  I just can't imagine what is going to happen when we mix two more to this formula. 

And as  I think ahead to next May, I just can't imagine what I will be reporting to ya'll!  This is a crazy ride, ya'll, and we are holding on tight!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Sweet Feet-Doctor's Visit

I went for my monthly visit today and we have two growing, perfectly healthy girls on our hands.  Both had heart rates of about 132, are measuring about 22 weeks and 1 day, and we for sure know we have 4 feet and 20 toes?  Does that sound like alot to ya'll?  It sure does to me!  I'm trying to upload the video, but all four feet are right at my belly button and the girls like to play footsie.  It was the cutest thing I've ever seen for 2 unborn babies.  Baby B is a little bit more rowdy than Baby A and she likes to kick her sister - A LOT!  Baby A just sort of takes it, but she is also on the bottom.  Ya'll please pray that all 3 of  my girls aren't little cut-ups.  I told the tech that whatever Baby B has learned, she has learned from her big sister, Bailey. 

Speaking of Bailey, she has been a bit under the weather this week.  She just randomly started running a high temp in the middle of the night Monday night. I stayed home with her Tuesday and took her to the doctor.  All tests were negative, but she's on an antibiotic.  I don't really understand that, but then again, I'm not the doctor.  She was SUCH a big girl at the doctor.  We talked about it before we went, but she even let the nurse swab her throat with a mouth wide open.  It was a rather pleasant visit as far as sick doctor visits go.  Yesterday, all she wanted was to be held and rocked and sleep.  Sid stayed home with her today and I believe she's felt better.  No fever, so she's headed back to daycare tomorrow.  We only have 6 more days of mandatory school/daycare and the we are home free for the summer. 

Anyway, I don't go back to the doctor until the end of June and at that time will be 26 weeks, which is just 10 weeks away from when Dr. North wants to take them.  I bet I have to start going every 2 weeks then, but maybe not.  He did tell me to make sure that I get plenty of rest on my left side and to take it easy, which Sid will tell you I don't have a problem doing.  He said that lots of women carrying twins have made it to bed rest by this point and since I haven't, I just need to prevent.  He said to listen to my body and when it says to stop, STOP!  I have some swelling, but my blood pressure is perfect so the left side laying should help that.  I will have to do the blood sugar test with in the next 2 visits and get a shot because I'm rh negative.  Fun times, ya'll!  I'm anemic and I need to take an OTC iron tablet, BLAH!!!  The bone down low in a very odd place that hurts is hurting because the bone has more than likely been moved out of place due to pressure and will more than likely only get worse.  GREAT!  (As odd as that sounds, it's normal.)  Each baby weighs a pound and I only gained 4 since the last visit, for a total of ONLY 6 pounds! I can not believe that little fact!  The doctor said that even though I'm only 22 weeks, that pregnancy size wise and symptoms, I am compared to a woman carrying only 1 baby at about 34 weeks.  Scary stuff!  What happens when I get to 30 weeks, I'll be like someone carrying one baby at like 45 weeks.  Again, scary stuff!

But for now, we are thankful that all is looking well.  No problems noted at all on the sono today and I feel good about that.  I've only had one little episode where I had convinced myself that one baby had something wrong with it.  I know that's only in my head, and even if it wasn't, it would be ok!  But everything is looking just great and honestly, I couldn't have asked for a better pregnancy so far!  I better go knock on some wood!

Elissa and Ellie Jane are liable to show out and prove me wrong!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Nothing To Do With The Price of Tea in China

It's nap time on this lazy Saturday afternoon!  Bailey has her ipod and we're piled up in the bed together.  She'll nap! I won't!  She spent the night with her Mammaw.  We spent the night with no interruptions and slept in past the rise of the sun!  Sometimes the Good Lord sends us rescue just when he knows we need it the most.  And for that we are very very thankful. 

I'm stressed ya'll.  MCT 2 testing is over.  The kids are ready for summer and the teachers are more than ready for summer.  The drive to work and back is getting longer each day.  But in 8 1/2 more work days, I really have no idea what the start of a new school year will bring.  I hope I'm able to start back to school, but what if I'm not.  And what if I can't?  It's not going to be as easy to me and Sid as is it to some on the outside to just say "send em to daycare."  Life still has to carry on when daycare isn't open.  Teaching school and dealing with kids in general is very tiresome and stressful, not to even mention the kids I deal with are special needs kids.  I just cannot wrap my mind around how I will deal with a full time job and a toddler and two infants to begin with.  This is going to be very different than it was with Bailey and going right back to work 6 or so weeks after she was born.  But, the good Lord sends us rescue just when he knows we need it doesn't he?  And for that we are very very thankful!

I should be cleaning out our other two rooms rather than being piled up in the bed for a nap with Bailey.  (Bailey and I have always taken naps together.  That's something else that I don't think will ever look the same in about 15 more weeks.  Something else that will change and makes me sad for me and Bay.)  Anyway, there is much work to be done in getting this house ready for two more living, breathing souls.  I've GOT to get it done and hopefully when school gets out in one and half more weeks, I'll focus some time and energy on that.  It's stressful and overwhelming to thing about but we are thankful for the rescue that the Good Lord sends us just when we need it the most!

I have been wanting to post this song for some time now and thought this would be a good time and place for it.  Those of you that know me well, you know what I think of when I hear these words.  Rescue, that the Good Lord sent me just when I needed it the most!!



And because this whole post has nothing to do with anything, here's one more that I'm loving right now!!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

More About Ellie's Name

My Pappaw called me today and left me a message that not only was my Mammaw's middle name Jane, but her mother's name was Jane.  So Ellie Jane will have two name-sakes after all, her great grandmother and great great grandmother. I  only remember my Great Grandmother as Grandmother Stewart because that is what we called her. 

We still have to decide which baby gets which name.  Guess we'll do that sometime in the next 3 months.  If you missed the baby name announcement, visit yesterday's post!

For now, let me just tell you that if potty training every girl we have is anything like potty training our very strong willed first born, I'm not the least bit interested in it!  haha!  I'd love any kids of ideas anyone has on potty training.  She's not in to the whole "treat" thing and she is interested in going.  It's just not consistent no matter what we try to do.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Baby A & Baby B Have Names!!!

So, I've decided that naming your children is a very difficult process in the whole having babies saga.  I personally think that names are important.  Some people name their children strictly from names that they like.  That's fine!  Some people name their children names that having meaning, such as "warrior" or "gift from God" or "pretty flower".  That's also fine.  I happen to think that family names are important and I really don't know why. I know that I remember hearing my Mom talk about naming my brother, Will, and my sister, Maggie.  I remember hearing her talk about finding out family names and all 4 of us have some type of family name.  I happen to have all family names and I think Will does, too!    I asked Sid's mom about his name and she was one of those that used names she just liked.  Nothing in the world wrong with that at all! 

It was soo very hard for us to come up with Bailey's name.  We had about decided on Anne Marie, with Anne being my middle name and my Granny Wilson's middle name; Marie being my Mom's middle name.  But then my dad mentioned that his Great Great Great Great Grandfather's name was John Bailey and he wished he had thought about that with one of us.  Bailey just sort of stuck with both of us and it is the PERFECT name for her.  It just fits her little personality so much.

When we found out it was twins, I immediately started trying to come up with twin names.  We always knew our boy name would be John Thomas.  Sid's grandfather's name was John Roy and Thomas would be after my dad, grandfather, and brother.  Then we decided we like boy names with Ben in them, like Benton, Bentley, Bennett, which would be after Sid's other grandfather, Bennie.  When we found out it was two girls, I thought for sure we'd never come up with two girl names.  It just seemed like we could always agree more on boy names than girl names.  Sid didn't like "ben" names for girls.  I liked Sidney and Anne as middle names for the girls after us, but he didn't.  We still liked Anne Marie, but Maggie had sort of claimed that name after we didn't use it, plus we couldn't come up with another girl name that sort of matched it.

Having two girls names that matched but weren't the same was also important to me.  I didn't want them to have two totally different, unrelated names, but I also didn't want them to be something that sounded almost exactly alike. We kept kicking names around, and wrote down all the family names we could think of that we would like to use.  But we still couldn't come up with anything that we both liked. 

One day, I got an email from Dad telling me about some research he had done on car seats and double strollers.  (By the way Poppy T, we never got those! haha!)  In the email, he referred to the girls by names, names that he had come up with.  And from those two names, the names of our Baby A and Baby B were born. 

One name was Eliza.  Sid's grandmother's name is Elizabeth and I had blogged about this so I'm assuming that's where he came up with it.  The other name was not spelled this way and I don't really remember how he spelled it in the email, I just remember it taking a few back and forth conversations before I got it right based on how he had spelled it. 

So, what are they????

I just realized that we haven't discussed which baby will get which name.  So I can't tell you exactly what Baby A's name is and exactly what Baby B's name is.  But I can tell you the two names.  We have decided to go with

Elissa Marie

and

Ellie Jane.

Sid's grandmother's names are Elizabeth and Odessa.  Elissa is a combo of the first part of the Elizabeth and the last part of Odessa.  Marie is my mother's middle name.  Ellie, pronounced L E, is just a name we liked that Dad came up with.  Jane is my Mammaw's middle name.  The only two names that we were not able to use were my Granny Wilson's name, which is Margaret Anne, and Sid's mom's name, which is Wanniese.  She only has one name.  Maggie has Granny Wilson's first name and I have her middle name.  Maggie will also use Anne if she keeps the name Anne Marie.  And we justified not using Wanniese because the girl's will share a last name with her!

There you have it!  Elissa Marie and Ellie Jane! I was in the car passing Sid's grandmother's house and thinking of the names that Dad had emailed.  Elissa just hit me and I called Sid and he agreed to Elissa and Ellie.  After we hung up, I sort of teared up and I knew that we had settled on the right names.  I hope when they are old enough to appreciate their names that they don't ask we named them what we named them.  haha! 

In case you don't know, here are the names of all three girl's:
Bailey Ellen
Elissa Marie
Ellie Jane 

Can you picture our Christmas card signature for next year?  I can't!  It is unbelievable to think that we are growing from a family of 3 to a family of 5.  And it is very scary.  But we are excited with what the future holds with our sweet princesses!!!!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Mother's Day 2011

I can't believe I've let a whole week go by with an update to the ole blog.  But I guess I should believe it, because it happened.  I seem to be struggling again for energy past the 10 hour mark of being awake.  When I get up at 5 or 5:30, get ready, leave the house at 6:20, stop to get breakfast, drive to work, work, then drive home and it's 4:00 or later, I'm done for the day.  I really really struggle at work between the hours of 11 and 1.  I seem to be ok until then, and catch a second wind after then, but by the time 5 at night rolls around, I'm really struggling.  I feel ok, thank goodness, and I have a feeling that the energy thing is only going to get worse as time goes on.  Can you believe that we are already well past the half way mark of this pregnancy?  I cannot and it's so scary to think that in 12-15 weeks, which sounds alot longer than it really is, these baby girls will be here. 

Because of this thought, this Mother's Day was a bit emotional for me during the one and only time I allowed myself to think about it.  Otherwise, I'm still in denial.  We went to church with Sid's mom and dad, my mom and dad were out of the country, and although I usually don't enjoy their church, I thought that some of the scripture was fitting based on my thoughts of this pregnancy.  I know that we are supposed to look at all babies in this manner, but given the circumstances of our lives, our desires, what we thought our future looked like, etc., there is no doubt in my mind that these babies are a true testimony that God is in control and that He does indeed give us such miracles and blessings.  Children are, indeed, a heritage from the Lord, and that's what my stance on these two babies has been from the beginning.  I never wanted more children, much less two at one time, and this was such a shock, that I just found myself saying "Ok Lord!  Never in a million dreams or desires would I have thought this up. This is all of your doing, and for that we are blessed and will continue to be blessed beyond measure".  I have told the good Lord from day 1 that he gave us these babies not of our own desires, but of His, and they are His.  I know that all parents feel that way, and I know when we dedicated Bailey that is what pledged.  And I'm in no way saying we don't want this babies.  I'm just saying that one more baby wasn't something we were even considering, much less two, so for the good Lord to see fit to bless us in this way, to choose us to be the Mom and Dad of not one sweet girl, but THREE, that surely He has a plan and I hope we are sensitive all the years of these girls' lives to make sure we are raising them according to that plan.  I hope that makes sense! 

This was also an emotional day for me in thinking of my own mother.  A mother who has stood beside me through 34 years of, well, years of just stuff.  And just like tonight, when Bailey threw a cup of water out of the bathtub and got water all over the floor, I told her stop.  She did it again, so I got her out. This made her madder than MAD and she went into tantrum mode.  At one point, she reached up and scratched my face, she was sooo mad at me.  Of course I try to discipline her in a way that doesn't make her anger worse, but at the same time let her know that she is out of line.  She actually asked to go to time out on that one.  But anyway, the point is, I know my Mom and Dad have raised me right and that during my screw ups, it wasn't because she wasn't a good mom (or dad), but rather because I just forgot my raising and forgot who I was and did what I wanted to.  Now that I know I am about to be the Mom to 3 girls, all I can say is, Mom - I'm paying dearly for the hell I put you through as a teen ager and young adult.  haha!  I love you dearly and I hope that I am able to be half the mom that you have been to us!

So, with that, I will share with you the pictures I was able to halfway capture of my sweet Bailey before church on Sunday.  Now, keep in mind, she was count to 2 and then on 3, jump up and run off.  So I was lucky to get what I got, and they aren't the best, but they are real! 












I am so incredibly blessed to be the mother of this rock star!  She loves me so unconditionally!  She has changed my views on life and changed my priorities for the better!  I love her so much and have no idea what I did in the days and years before she was mine!  I so hope and pray that the addition of her two baby sisters will not be too hard on her. 

I love you Bailey Ellen!



Stay tuned this week for the announcement of names for Baby A and Baby B.  They aren't known by that around here anymore!!!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Bailey, Babies, and Storms

So, I can't believe I let a whole week go by without posting, but it was an odd week. 

Monday, I was a little under the weather, not feeling too great.  Tuesday, I don't really remember anything great and wonderful about Tuesday.  But on Wednesday, our county, along with just about every other county in Mississippi and every county between here and Blount County, was hit by an F3/F4 tornado.  Fortunatly, in town, where we live, there was no damage.  There was no damage out where Nene and Jerry and Mammie and Kyle and Ben live.  But on the other side of the county, it looked like a bomb had been set off.  I've never seen destruction like that up close and personal, and hope I don't ever have to again.  It was little much for this double hormonal girl to take.  One family in our county lost every single one of their chicken houses, which was their sole income.  We heard over the weekend that the President did not declare our county a disaster area, so they can't seek federal assistance, and insurance will only pay to build back less than half of what they lost.  Unreal!

Anyway, we lost power during the storm.  So we went to get something to eat in town and then Sid rode us all around the county.  We were gone for about 2 hours.  When we got home, I gave Bailey a bath by the light coming through the window.  And then it started to get dark, and hot, and we decided to load up and go spend the night at Jerry and Nene's.  I thought that was just a huge inconvience to have to spend the night somewhere other than home on a school night and have to pack up a change of clothes and go somewhere else to spend the night. I quickly was reminded that #1 I had a place to go, but not only that, I had a place, a home, to come back to.  Many people don't after these tornadoes.  I had my family, all of them, and after the storm that hit our area, we know that one family is minus 3 memebers now.  I had clothes to gather up and some people have nothing after the storm.  Our power was back on the next morning, and there are still people in Mississippi and Alabama with not only no power, but home to get power back to.  And lastly, I remembered that I had family who we could go to and some families had lost everything and were all displaced in unknown places.  So when I laid my head down on the cool, clean pillow, next to my husband, with the power and air running, with my daughter down the hall with her beloved grandmother, I was thankful and felt like the most blessed girl in the world.  I am saddened at what these storms have done.  Sid had three funerals Saturday, all victims of the storm, all from the same family.  How sad would that be?  Our hearts and thoughts and prayers are surely with everyone we know and don't know in these two states who will one day come out on top again.  I saw someone posted on facebook today that there might be families still without power, but if they had Jesus, they had real power.  The power of the blood!  I say AMEN to that!!!

We've been thinking for a few months now as to what we will do with Bailey's room and what we will do with the babies' room.  Bailey will move to the other bedroom and the babies will take her room (that she never used) and share a room.  These babies hae to sleep in their own beds.  We have no choice.  We can't all 5 fit in one bed, nor do we want to.  So, thanks to Maggie, I was introduced to the idea of buying furniture cheap from like yard sales or craigslist and then re-doing them to make them into what you want them to be.  So I've been on the lookout for pieces for Bailey's new room.  Friday, on the way home from school, I noticed a cabinet type piece of furniture at a re-sale place and stopped to look at it.  It was the perfect piece for something at our house.  I think we will either add more shelves to it and us it as toy storage (it has doors and is meant for a TV, but it's not a huge piece of furniture.) or we will hang a rod and use it to hang clothes.  We might add another shelf and put baskets in it along with the rod.  And it has a drawer at the botthem.  I'll try to remember to get a picture of it.  So I ended up calling Sid and he came and liked it too, so we go that and a 3 drawer night stand that we will re-do for Bailey.  We have a bed we will be getting from mother that will be perfect for what I envision Bailey's room to look like. 

Anyway, we were late getting home Friday evening and I guess Bailey had played outside for the better part of 8 hours at school.  She was nasty when I got her home.  I tried to clean her up, but she was still a little dirty, so after supper, we departed from our regular routine and got a Friday night bath.  She let me snap some pictures of her as she was eating her mac and cheese (which is all she has wanted to eat this weekend).  I promise I had wiped her hands and mouth, she was just extra dirty.



We do have forks and spoons around here.  She just prefers to eat with her hands sometimes.  I say it's a survival technique.  She probably doesn't get any help at school and probably doesn't get a whole lot of time.  So she just shoves it all in the best she can!  She does use a fork and spoon rather well!

Her condition of her outfit is why we have school clothes and nice clothes.  This dress has already been washed and it came sparkling clean, but you just never know what she's going to get in to at school.



While I had the camera out, I wanted to take some pictures of the new babies' clothes that we've gathered so far.  It's an odd feeling to know that when you find something you like, you really need two of them.  We do not intend on dressing the girls alike very much.  But some of these little outfits were so cute, I couldn't resist. 

We got these cute little strawberries "in a pod" from Aunt Amy and Cotton.  She went by the Carter's outlet Monday and brought the baby girls these adorable outfits, which will probably be all they have to wear for a while when they get here based on the size.  They are premie size and SO small.  But that'll be about right, size wise, even though they hopefully won't be premies. I thought they were so cute.  She also bought Bailey a big sister shirt!  Thanks Amy and Cotton!

We got these cute matching bibs from Aunt Maggie and Uncle Bo two days after we found out the babies were girls.  Aren't they sweet?  This was the first thing the girls recieved!  I love them and can't wait to add their first initial to them!



Someone didn't like me taking pictures of the girls' stuff!


These are the polos onesies we got at the outlet Easter weekend. I thought they were so cute!  They are the softest thing I've ever felt.  Technically, this was the second clothing purchase we bought after we found out the babies were girls.
 These matching smocked bubbles I bought from a place on line, on facebook actually, from a boutique place that sells boutique stuff for cheap. I got these in a newborn size but when they got here, they were HUGE.  I had at first bought them as their coming home outfits, but unless I have two 10 pound babies, that won't be happening.  This was the first purchase I made and I might have done it the night we found out!


We have decided on names, but I'm going to save that for the blog until I tell one more person. We did not decide until yesterday and it's a cute story, so you'll want to stay tuned for that for sure!

I've spend the better part of the weekend trying to come up with some bedding ideas for the babies nursery.  Since there will be two babies and we WILL spend time in their room, I wanted it to be just perfect. I  know I have had pictured in my head and wanted something soft and calm and not loud and shocking. I love the zebra/pink/black look but two beds in one small room looking like that was just too much in my mind. I about didn't find anything I liked for Bailey's room and in the end it didn't matter becasue she never used the room, so I decided I wanted to look at custom bedding so I could pick out the fabric.  Well, let me tell you, some of these people are extra proud of their work.  On ebay, you can get a custom set of bedding for like $300, which would be times 2 for me.  Bedding is expensive, custom or not, don't get me wrong, I know it'll cost money to do two beds.  But I just can't see spending that kind of money on crib bedding.  So I checked Esty.  And even there, prices were what I considered to be outrages.  I finally came across a link for a set of twin custom bedding at a wonderful price, but it was for boys.  I messaged the lady and asked if she any twin girl listings.  She messaged me back and said she only did orders as they came in, so they were truely custom, she didn't just make up some bedding and post it to be sold.  All I really wanted was a bumper, crib skirt, and blanket to match, along with a curtain for one window. I don't really need a ton of coordinating throw pillows becasue they can't sleep with all those pillows anyway, and I don't need custom sheets because I'll have too many sets to justify custom.  So, the lady messaged me back and price for 2 of what I wanted and the deal can not be passed up.  I've sent her tons of pictures of styles and fabrics that I like and she put together a few options for me to choose from, which I thought were perfect. I'm very excited about getting this part out of the way.   Here are the choices she put together based on my ideas of what I wanted.


A1 was a fure sure pick and then I have to pick two or more coordinating fabrics.  When we get it finalized, I'll be sure to share of a picture of that too!

Ok friends, it's been a long day with no nap, but a much needed one on all our parts.  We hope you have a great week, wherever you may be!

Much Love, Barbie