Britt's Room

Before

After (This one is a little dark)

When planning what I wanted to do with the house, in the couple of months before it official became ours.  I talked with the kids about what kind of rooms they wanted.  We even took an afternoon, me with each kid (one on one) and set them up a pinterest board, and we saved all sorts of pictures for ideas of what we wanted to do with their rooms.  Britt perhaps was most difficult in this respect because he wanted everything.  He wanted a superhero room (Marvel and DC comics), he wanted a Transformer room, and he wanted a Mario room.  He loves Texas and the American flag so he wanted some of that stuff.  He wanted angry birds and somewhere to keep his Auburn stuff and collectibles.  Even the room color was heavily debated.  First he wanted orange, which we were willing to discuss, but I pointed out that he couldn't have alot of orange stuff with orange walls.  Next he settled on dark blue.  After painting it he said, maybe red like his Pennsylvania room would have been better.  I told him it wasn't going to be repainted but we'd have lots of red in the room.  I feel like even though the room is pretty eclectic with all the stuff he has going on in there, we've managed to pull it together in a way that won't drive me batty.  He has superheros over his bed and on his door.  He has a Transformer bedspread that he got for Christmas to go with his Angry Bird sheets.  We've got his Texas and American flag stuff hung up. And I think all the colors work well together.  The only thing he doesn't have that he really wanted was a vinyl wall poster thing (like those Fat Heads) of the Transformers.  He doesn't know it yet, but I think I found one the right size to fit his closet door, and it's wrapped up in my closet for his birthday.  We told him that we couldn't hang them on his walls because of how heavily textured they are.

After

Before

The paint does a world of good for this room.  Even though dark colors usually make a room look smaller, before the walls were dingy and dirty looking.  Part of that was the amount of cat fur stuck to them, but alot was the color.  We went with glossy white trim all through the house, over the off white, which also helped alot.  Additionally, the fan in Britt's room didn't work, so there was no overhead light.  Mister replaced that which gives an extraordinary amount of light in there now.  Britt's room is also shaded on the Northside by the screened in porch, but I feel like he still gets alot of light through that window in the day time.  I think the change in window coverings helps alot too.  I decided I wanted to go with Roman shades in the bedrooms, because unlike blinds they can completely knock the light out of a room.  We want to encourage these kids to sleep in.  But in the day when they are up, I think not only do they look really nice, but they let so much light in, and give you such a clear view out into the yard.  (I imagine whenever I finally get around to cleaning the windows, that will be even better.)

Got Superman on the door, and his Spider-man pinata hanging by the closet doors.

In his closet we have his clothes all on one side, and the dress up clothes for all the kids on the other.  Gary installed shelves on both sides to give him some extra storage.  Of course all of that was after I painted his closet too.  It's really functional, but clean and looks nice.  Ultimately, Britt and I are both super happy with how his room turned out.

Despite the fact that we just bought a house and were busy moving in the Elves managed to show up.  They were even a big help, here with me and Gary, while the kids were still at the Grandparents.  Infact the first several photos, the elves took and loaded to facebook with messages for the kids.  The kids got a kick out of watching their antics on line, and then were surprised when they traveled up to Alabama to see them there, and accompany them home.  This was our fourth year with the elves.  You can see more pictures in our public facebook album, and feel free to go back and view what the elves were up to in 2013, 2014, and 2015.

Dec. 1, 2016 Hey, are you there? Is this thing working right? - Mistletoe Give me that you can't work a phone. -Jingle He can work a phone just not the internet. -Twinkle OK, Britt, Ruth, and Rebecca, here's the deal. It's December 1st again, and we had plans to come and play at Grumps and Anna's house with you, but we got to looking around here and thought there was no way that you could come home before Christmas if your Momma didn't get some help. We will try to share pictures of everything we are doing till you get back. Can't wait to see you! Mistletoe, Jingle, and Twinkle

Dec. 1, 2016 - So the first thing we did last night while everyone was asleep was to set up the Christmas decorations, that's way more important than unpacking food and clothes and stuff. We even brought along a little box this year and picked out some ribbon for your tree, and some new ornaments, and most important the candy canes. We even put one in everyone's stocking, to be sure that you don't eat them all off the tree before Christmas gets here. Did we do a good job? Do you like our surprise? Can you see where we are hiding?

Dec. 2, 2016 - Last night we unpacked some of your boxes of books, and we found all the Christmas books. I'm sure Momma will read some when you get home, but do you think you could read some to us Britt and Ruth. We like it when kids read to us, it's more fun than when grown ups read. Can you guess which one of us was reading?

Dec. 2, 2016 - This is one of my favorite books, "The Night Before Christmas." - Twinkle

Dec. 3, 2016, Boost me higher! There has gotta be toys in one of these boxes!

Dec. 4, 2016 - Hey, last night we talked with Santa and since you haven't been able to hang out with us, he gave us special permission to give you his phone number. He said that you know he is super busy this month, that you might get his answering machine, and have to leave a message. Anyway, here's the number 1-951-262-3062.

Dec. 5, 2016, Today Mistletoe thought he could help Daddy tear out the old pantry to be able to paint and put in better shelving.

Dec. 6, 2016 - Today we decided to help with cutting in green in the guest room. It's the last room left to paint you know, and it needs to be done before y'all get home!

Dec. 7, 2016 - It was hot outside today, and no one wanted to go outside, no one but Jingle. She said we had to finish spray painting Ruth's bookcase so that we could put it in her room.

Dec. 8, 2016 - Let's hang this light, Jingle!  But, Twinkle, have you even read the instructions? No, let's just wing it. I don't think we are going to be able to do this. We need to get some help, some bigger, human help. Well, let's just try, I heard Ruth really wanted to have it up when she gets home, and they are coming back early now!

Dec 9, 2016 - After having no luck with the light yesterday, the elves decided to surprise the elves by coming to Ahna and Grumps today. After check facebook several times for updates, Ruth decided they needed to check and see if they were at Grumps and Anna's house.

Dec 9, 2016 - And Ruth was the first to spot them hanging out around the clock on the mantle.  Later that day Britt kept talking about wanting to play Nintendo 64 one more time with Uncle Benji before we left. Mistletoe must have liked the idea, since this is how we found him after supper. He graciously managed to toss down the controller before we started.

Dec 10, 2016 - Road trip! Apparently the elves have never taken a trip with the kids, because what idiot would take a 12+ hour car ride when they could use their magic and fly?

Dec. 10, 2016 - Last night Ruth graciously shared the last of her fruit cup with the elves. When we arrived at Memaw and Mister's house they had eaten it all!

Dec. 11, 2016 - Mistletoe was in the window by Britt's tree when they arrived home today. And Jingle and Twinkle were with the girls' pink tree when they got home.

Dec 12, 2016 - Today the elves took it easy and hung out on the back porch where they could all keep an eye on the kids while they played. Not sure if they had a good report today since a few kids kept wanting to climb on boxes.

Dec. 13, 2016 - The elves doing what they love best hanging around, swinging off of light fixtures and turning furniture into a playground.

Dec. 14, 2016 - This morning the elves were watching the baby Jesus. We decided they too were in wonder that God would come to the earth as a lowly human in order to die for sinners.

Dec. 21, 2016 - The kids looked all over for the elves this morning, and I told them I hadn't seen them. They found the girls near the flowers I bought myself (I figured if I wrapped all my own presents I could pick out some flowers too), but they couldn't figure out where Mistletoe was. Then they found him in my flowers!

Dec 23, 2016 - The elves left a note 3 more days, but then today they didn't move. We tried to decide if the kids were too loud, or too bad yesterday to play. But we didn't figure out what happened.

Dec. 24, 2016 - The elves left one final surprise over night - a special door they installed so that they can visit during the year if they need to and a note. It explains that they saved up all their magic last night to be able to pull this off. The note also includes the surprise that they have special permission to take the elves to church on Sunday.

Dec. 25, 2016 - Last day with the elves. They are warming up by Memaw's fireplace. And it turns out, Santa had just enough time when he stopped by tonight to repair Rebecca's taggie owl.

12-23-2016, Katherine Hope

12-21-2016, Profile and face shot

12-23, Another profile shot

On Friday we had a detailed ultrasound and consult with the Maternal Fetal Specialist.  They were incredibly detailed, and ruled out tons of stuff. Maggie was my ultrasound technician, and she was the best I have ever had. She told me what she was looking for in every shot, what I was looking at, and what problem we were ruling out in every picture. I can't tell you how much it made me feel better about this pregnancy to have her explaining everything. She told us that with the high thyroid antibodies in Hashimoto's disease, that the first thing they want to rule out is anemia, and she was able to do that in all three ways. She then pretty much ruled out a number of genetic issues - checking kidneys, heart, brain, skull thickness, hands that opened and closed. The doctor then came in and said that everything is looking very positive no red flags so far. They will want to see me a few more times to insure that baby doesn't develop a goiter on it's thyroid, or have issues from my antibodies crossing over and attacking it's thyroid. She is also having me run thyroid labs again next week and every 4-6 weeks. Everyone was incredibly polite and took time to answer questions and give lots of details which I appreciated even if we ended up being there a little more than 3 hours. If we can get to the point where I start feeling regular movement I think I'll feel even better, but we got a very good report which has done alot to settle my mind, and decrease my worrying.

12-23-2016, Kate with her feet folded up over her face.  Hurts just looking at her.

The thing that was the most fun to see, though was when we were getting pictures of her ears.  She had her left arm stretched straight up behind her head and the other one bent so that her hand was under her head.  She looked so much like Britt does when he's sleeping.  Toward the end we asked the tech and the doctor to verify it was a girl and they did.  Britt is still hoping they all made a mistake, but he did like hearing that she sleeps like him.

Apparently Rebecca is our accident prone child these days.  About a year ago, she was climbing on boxes and fell and chipped her tooth.  If someone can fall and get her it'll be her.  Just this year at the beach she fell every day we were there at some point, somewhere.  She skint up a knee, took all the skin of of one arm, is constantly cut or bruised somewhere.  Today someone turned on the ceiling fan that we haven't yet replaced in the girls' room, and she climbed into it and cut her forehead. It was bound to happen, we have got to get that light changed out soon.  At least she's happy now, and we got some extra cuddle time out of the bargain.

It's official after 9+ years of marriage we are finally home owners!  I've been a little nervous about the prospect, but today I'm nothing but excited.  I can finally do what I want with my home and yard without asking permission.  And for once I can imagine living one place for a long, long time.  I told Gary he'd better retire from Duda, because I'm not moving again.  The house needs some work, and lots of love, it's been neglected over the last few years, but I can see it being really great.   It's so nice to have a home that is OURS!

Ultrasounds are just hard now.  This time baby was completely still.  Once he put his chin to his chest then picked it up again, but that was it.  At first he was so still, and at an angle that the heartbeat didn't show up, and my stomach just bottomed out.  It was the most sickening deja vu moment.  After some fiddling, the flickering showed up and I could breathe.  The heart rate was 160.  Raji, the ultrasound specialist, was a little concerned about the measurements for the NT Scan given the gestational age, but said he wouldn't be able to tell me anything till they had the blood test to compare with.  The doctors office called this afternoon, and said they didn't have everything in, but it all looked to be in normal ranges so far, which made me feel better after yesterday.  The main reason for the scan is it gave them an early chance to look at heart and kidneys which can be affected by hypothyroidism.  It was mostly to make me feel better that everything is going as it should and not looking like things did with Abigail.

We have been talking about baby names.  I had a girl's name picked out before we found out we were pregnant.  Katherine Hope.  We had two people that were especially vital in helping me through the last year - Kathy and Kate.  I have long loved the name Katherine, Rebecca was almost named Katherine, Gary and I can agree on Kate as a nickname. ( Thought I'm secretly hoping she'd be like Rebecca and insist on her full name. Rebecca corrects you if you say Becky or Becca.)  This baby has brought a lot of hope back to our lives too.  I no longer feel certain about the outcome of a healthy baby, but I still hope for one I get to keep.  Gary says he'd still like to think about other middle names, but he'd have to make a pretty convincing argument, my minds pretty made up.

We are still working on two boy names.  We still like William David and call him Will.  It's been on the list since Ruth.  I still love it for the same reasons.  I won't rehash them since I listed them with Rebecca too.  I still would like to name a baby after my Daddy.  I'd like to use Lynn as a middle name, and just pick a Biblical name to go with it.  I am pretty sure that I've talked about why we want all the kids to have a Biblical name, but I can't find that post.  I just feel like that are really pretty names, and that even if something were to happen to us, they would know that we chose their name with great care, to be an example for their lives.  The problem though is with our great plan to chose a Biblical name.  You might recall if you've been around that long, just how hard it was to agree on a name to go with Britt, we were so desperate we considered all sorts of awful and obscure names.  Let's just say it's gone alot like this:

Me:  Ok, my top favorites are Jonathan, Nathanael, and Ethan.
Gary:  I hate Ethan.  Don't really like Jonathan or Nathanael.
Me:  Why?  I might could live with Jon or Nate.
Gary:  Just don't like them.
Me:  Ok, What about Michael, Timothy, Samuel, Marcus or Lucus.
Gary:  Can't use Michael Lynn, that's Uncle Michael's name.  How about Tim, Sam, Mark, or Luke.
Me:  You know I hate chopped off names.  What about Caleb?  I might could like Caleb.
Gary: No... not really.
Me:  Ok you suggest a name then.
Gary:  Jacob, and we'll call him Jake.
Me:  You know what I hear when you say, Jake?
Gary:  Yep.  The song  "If I die before I wake feed Jake."
Me:  Exactly.  No, if you want to call him Jake.  That's awful.  We are not naming him after a dog.

 We of course can't use Matthew, Nicholas, Benjamin, or James, as those are the names of our brothers.  Another of Gary's rules.  Sometimes I could strangle the man.  Feel free to leave me some suggestions to try out on him.  Of course if Bro. Randy is to be believed, we are having another girl, so this argument doesn't matter.  But I really am convinced we are having a boy.  He's only been wrong once in the last 20 years, but I think he's about to get another strike.  And on that note, you can go to the side to vote for boy or girl, before we find out in 6 weeks.

My favorite baby picture so far!

I haven't written much yet about this new pregnancy.  I'm not sure where to start, and to be honest I'm finding it a little unnerving to talk about.  So many women after a loss have talked about not sharing till they couldn't hide it anymore, that to talk about the baby would some how jinx it and then they would lose it.  I get that and I don't.  I mean I wanted to share, as soon as we were sure it was an actual pregnancy, simply because I couldn't have gotten through the last loss without support.  How in the world could I get through another loss, while pretending everything was fine and nothing had happened?

On the other hand, it's hard to talk about.  People expect you to be excited (even when they are thinking what nut job has 5 kids on purpose), and it's a little hard to be excited.  It's also hard to know how to answer questions.  Let me give you a brief list of some of the things I've said or done, and then either gotten weird looks, or thought to myself "idiot."

• Lady asks when we are due. My response, "We are cautiously optimistic for May 2017." (stupid, Danielle)
• Aunt asks if I'm having much morning sickness.  My response, "No, but I feel better when I do."  Weird look, so I make it even worse by trying to explain, "We didn't have much with Abigail, but I had lots with the other three, so I don't worry as much when I do."
• Nurse asks how I'm feeling, probably meant morning sickness.  My response, "Stressed out.  This pregnancy is more like the last one than the first three."
• People notice I'm not as excited, and ask was this planned.  Luckily I saved myself from saying, "Yes for 13 months and 11 cycles."
• The icing on the cake, the doctor saying he noticed I was nervous and wanted to encourage me not to worry, because elevated cortisol levels aren't good for the baby either.  My response, "I know worrying doesn't help, but it's a little easier said than done."  Go home, and now worry about worrying. (Really, stop it, Danielle.)

All that said, I do want to talk about this baby, I do want to record things, and believe me I want everything to go well.  I don't want to stress and worry.  It's just hard.  Abigail was gone for weeks, and we didn't have a clue, I have no way to know if this one is still alive.  I find nights are the most difficult.  I'm busy during the day, but at night, with Gary snoring away, I am laying awake for an hour or more.

7 wks, 1 inch long, head to tail

7 wks, heart rate at 146

10 wk, 3 days, between this picture and the next we caught baby waving.

Britt and Ruth immediately knew this was a picture of the baby when I showed them.  But when I asked Rebecca what it was a picture of she said, "Ummm, an elephant?"

10 wks, 3 days, the tech pointed out the beginnings of facial features in the 3D ultrasound

10 wks 3 days, waving his arms, 3D ultrasound