Year in review...and hopes for '09

What a crazy year '08 has been.
January: We spent a lot of time at Disney and saw our wonderful cousins with our new annual passes.
February: Nelson turned 26.
March: We spent the first week in Seattle, WA. The girls were fabulous on the airplane...I suggest everyone fly at bedtime with toddlers :). On the 8th Alison got married to Bob, and my girls were their flowergirls. I was a bridesmaid and ended up walking down the aisle with my shy Brianna as Mikayla was so big and brave and walked in front of Alison :).
May: We moved to our new house, where we are going to stay forever and ever ;). We also found out our friends Sara and Dan were expecting a baby!
June: Nelson and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary in Vegas. We went with Sara and Dan who were celebrating their 1 year anniversary.
July: Tiffany turned 27.
August: The girls started pre-school!!! My babies are actually big enough to be in school.
September: We were so thrilled to find out we were pregnant again.
October: At the end of October we found out we lost our precious baby. On the 9th, the girls turned 3. We celebrated at Disney World for the weekend with our family. It was a weekend full of wonderful memories.
November: I found out the pregnancy had been a partial molar pregnancy. I had weekly blood tests for 5 weeks until I was finally negative. I will have a monthly draw in January. I'm hoping for the best and that we'll have a healthy pregnancy and baby in '09.
December: We had such wonderful Christmas memories and fun family times. We enjoyed seeing Santa bunches, and Disney with friends, and making cookies together. This month was just perfect.

As for '09....
I'm praying we get pregnant and stay pregnant, and that our baby is healthy. Please pray about this for us...we could use all the prayers we can get.

I'm hoping the girls can be potty trained at night pretty easily

I'm so looking forward to our trip in May to New York to meet baby Lucy and go to Niagra Falls.

I can NOT believe my babies will be turning FOUR. That is just too big. I'll definitely have tears that day (so hoping I'm preggo by then so I know there will be a baby on the way)...pray pray pray!

I'm praying the market gets better so my husband isn't so frustrated at work.

I hope my sister graduates college and doesn't stress so much over it.

I hope my parents living close is a blessing.

I need to figure out where I want the girls to go to kindergarten...public or fundamental???

I want to be more organized.

Great Christmas!

This was by far the best Christmas morning with the girls. They were so excited, and so thankful. It was so sweet. One of my favorite parts of the morning was when the girls opened a gift from each other and then went over and hugged each other and said thank you. I captured Brianna's thankful, excited expression...

They are just the best little people :). Today they pretended to be husband and wife. It was the funniest thing ever. I'm listening to my work out mix...looking forward to going tomorrow. Hoping I can be more consistant with it. I'm going when Nelson gets home from work because the girls got sick after starting the Y and being in the kidzone, and Mikayla always gets upset when I leave. SO, MWF I'm going when he gets home, and TR going when the girls are at school. I'm bound and determined to shed some lbs before we can ttc again :).

Hanukkah

We went over to Nelson's mom's to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah. She got the girls a power wheel barbie jeep...that they LOVE! The girls painted a menorah for their Nana, and then had so many questions on the way home.

M~Why does Nana have Hanukkah?

Daddy and Mommy~we explained different holidays and 3 year old understanding of why.

B~*thinking a lot* Mommy, is there a Christmas tree for Hanukkah?

Mommy~No

B~Nana has a Christmas tree...bewildered look...

Mommy~That's because they celebrate both.

Brianna and Mikayla~I want to celebrate both! (they just see more presents!) lol. I then explained again...we are Christians we celebrate Jesus' birth....so funny.

Negative

Got the call Friday...I'm at zero :). I go in in a month to get my levels checked again. If they are still at 0 we are good to go :). Had a great weekend in Orlando with our friends. I love this time of year. Can't believe it's almost 80 degrees and almost Christmas though!

My STARS!

The girls had their first Christmas show today! They were beautiful, sweet, angelic singers on stage. Since they are one of the younger classes they came out towards the end and did two songs. I took pictures, and Nelson recorded them :). I don't seem to have the patience for YouTube, always seems to take forever to upload for me, but if I do upload them singing I'll for sure post :).

Tomorrow we are going to Orlando with friends. I'm excited :). I hope I get a call tomorrow saying I'm FINALLY negative. We'll see. I had my blood drawn again today..I feel like a damn regular. HATE that. Dr. seems really certain we'll be fine next year...praying he's right. I'm just so sick of these weekly dr. trips to be surrounded by husband and wives excited to see their ultrasound. Today I walk in and the ultrasound tech who gave us our bad news got a huge smile on her face when she saw me and smiled and said hi...I quickly walked away and said hi...afraid she thought I was there because we were pregnant again. It's been SEVEN weeks so likely if it was a normal miscarriage that we could be pregnant again...BUT I had this horrible molar preg. attack me which is like a prison sentence. I hate that normal people get to decide when they ttc, and me I have to be told, don't try cancerous cells might still be in your uterus it's not safe. This dr. visit was a rough one for me...praying I hear ZERO tomorrow.

Looking Good!

Today I'm in my room listening to my girls at nap time on the monitor. They told me they weren't sleepy...so I told them to get a book and look at it quietly in bed. I could hear them "reading" and then it got really quiet (this can mean they are sleeping, or getting into trouble). I need to create a monitor that records what they say because I LOVE listening to their funny talks on the monitor :). As I'm listening I hear..."How do I look sister?" Then, Brianna said, "You look GOOD!" SO cute. So I went in, and they were in their closet. Brianna had three shirts on. Mikayla had completely changed her outfit. Oh goodness. CAN'T wait for their first Christmas program tomorrow!!!!
<3

Christmas Party

Mikayla has a stomach bug, and missed her first Christmas party at school :(. Brianna has been fine, and she went and Mommy went :). Uncle Ricky was awesome and stayed with Mikayla...Brianna packed a bag of goodies to bring home for her sister it was so sweet. Mikayla seems to be doing better, and has been able to hold some food down today. You can tell she's sick when she didn't want the cookie her sister brought home for her!

We are going to a neighborhood party tonight and Santa is coming on a firetruck! Then, the girls' first Christmas program is Thursday...hoping Brianna doesn't get sick and Mikayla is 100% by then!!!

Here are some cute pics from the party...

Brianna in circle

Eating her treats with her friends

Lacing and decorating the stockings Mommy made for the class craft.

Brianna

It seems my baby has her first crush ;).

Last Sunday at church when the priest says, "Now show each other a sign of peace" Brianna went back to Joseph (a boy in her class), and shook his hand. No one else's...just wanted to run to him :).

Then, today at a breakfast with Santa at church Brianna went up to say hi, and Joseph's mom said she thinks something is going on with these two...lol. Joseph had a baggy of acorns from outdoor play in his backpack Thursday with his name, and another with Brianna's name. Joseph had told his mom that they found them together, and that Brianna wanted Joseph to have hers.

So funny!

Fun with friends...

We went for the 2nd annual trip to see Santa with our friends. This is the girls' 4th year seeing this Santa! They have seen him every year since they were born! Here's a picture of all the kids (3 sets of twins) with Santa :)We are getting ready for a super busy weekend...
I go back to the dr. on Thursday. My levels were at 12 last week. Going down, but still not negative. After 6 flipping weeks still not negative. I truly don't know how I would get through this without my girls. Their teacher said today that they have been doing great. Brianna got to bring in the show and tell box today :). I can't wait to see them next week in their first Christmas program!!!

Santa

My girls are so excited about Christmas this year, and not at all scared of Santa :) :). Today we pull up to school and Santa was there welcoming the children!! This year they already have seen 4 Santas and we are going Thurs. night to see Santa, and breakfast with Santa on Saturday!! I only remember as a kid seeing him in the mall. Craziness!! They haven't wondered why the Santa's look different which surprises me. I just keep telling them he keeps coming to see if they are being naughty or nice ;). Gotta love November and December when you can use Santa to keep you kids in line :) :).

December

Brought the girls to a birthday party last night. It was so fun...and the family went all out. Towards the end of the birthday Santa himself made an appearance!! I always said I don't think I'd want to have a baby in December...but this made me reconcider. We are able to ttc again sometime in '09. If it happened for us in March we'd have a Dec. baby. At this point I don't care if the baby is born on Christmas Day as long as it's a healthy baby. I got a new excitement though about a fall/winter baby. I had been so sad that we were going to have a baby in "Our" perfect time and then it didn't happen...and maybe God got me at that party yesterday and got me excited to say that this could be His perfect time for us. Or maybe I overanalyze EVERYTHING;). Either way, I'm excited...and SO anxious for our time to be here. I hate that we have to wait. I hate that this is going on with my body and I have no control over it. In other news, we've had a wonderful weekend. Nelson is out putting lights on the house right now...our first year doing that!! It's starting to look a lot like Christmas....

YMCA

I joined the Y on Tuesday! I went on Tuesday only for 15ish minutes. We had to get home for dinner, and I didn't want to leave the girls in the Kids Zone for too long. I did the treadmill the whole time. Today I went for 40 min. I did the bike, treadmill and stairmaster. I felt too intimidated to try the ab machines. (Which is what I need to be doing). Nelson's going with me tomorrow and he's going to show me what to do. Tuesday and today Mikayla cried when I left...she has been so attached to my hip lately. Brianna was so excited to be there (it really is a fun place, tons of toys, games, big climbing area with slide). Hoping Mikayla does better tomorrow. Today when I came in to get her someone was holding her like she was an infant. Geez. Maybe it's because I keep telling them not to get any bigger? ;)

Girls Day!

I headed to Epcot today. Nelson had too much to do at work and couldn't come..blah. So, I thought about not going, but I really wanted to see Neil Patrick Harris do the Candlelight Processional. I'm so glad I went. The girls were SO good. We had so much fun! We saw Santa and Mrs. Clause, Aladdin and Jasmine, waved at Belle and the Beast (the girls didn't want to go near the beast), got stamps from every country, went on 2 rides (Mexico boat ride, and Figment ride), then saw Candlelight!! I also got through 2 meals, and many trips to the potty and at the end of the day had a smile on my face!

oh my goodness...

Mikayla: Mommy you know how I can see your privates when you go potty, but not Daddys because his are different?

Me: Um, yeah

Mikayla: I saw Daniel's privates today (at school)

Me: Where??

Mikayla: He came out of the bathroom for help

Me: Did you turn your head?

Mikayla: No (smiling)

Me: Ok, turn your head next time.

Mikayla: Ok, Mommy

There is a message board on babycenter.com just for partial and complete molar pregnancies. I am so thankful for this site. What did people do before the internet?? I have found a place where people know exactly what I'm feeling and are going through the same thing. There is a thread called Stories where people answer the questions below in bold and you can see what others "stories" are and are able to compare and relate to each other's experiences. Here's my "story" that I filled out for the thread.

Signs of mp during pregnancy? Some cramping (Dr. kept saying this was normal) I had a tiny bit of spotting at 10 weeks so we went in for an ultrasound and saw a perfect baby with a perfect heartbeat (171)...but the baby measured 8 weeks...after that...no signs...super tired, bloated.
How far were you when mp was diagnosed? I was 12 weeks along. The baby no longer had a heartbeat. My D&C was scheduled for the next day. I didn't find out it was a PMP until 2 weeks after my D&C when I had my follow up appt.
What language did the doctor use to diagnose you? I was shocked to find out they even tested my tissue because they said since it was my first loss they weren't going to. Dr. said baby had 3 times the amount of chromosomes, and it came back as a partial molar. That I would have to get my levels tested to make sure it goes down and that I should get my cycle 4-6 weeks after D&C and then can try to conceive again in 3 months. I also heard him mention cancer which completely freaked me out.
What is the track your hcg levels have taken?2 weeks after D&C:113 3 weeks: 45 4 weeks: 36
When did Aunt Flo come? Was it normal? Still waiting...(update started 12/4 WOO HOO)Dr. reccommendation for trying again?3 months
Previous Pregnancies? a high risk pregnancy that resulted in perfect identical twin girls...I sometimes secretly wonder if they did a number on my body and I won't be able to carry another baby. I pray that's not the case.
Outlook? Hopeful, and terrified. I hope it doesn't take us long to get pregnant once we are ready,but I know I'll be a nervous wreck. We pray God blesses us with a healthy baby to complete our family.
Worst thing someone's said to me: Well, you have your daughters so you'll be ok.. (I loved this baby too, yes, we are blessed to have our girls but that doesn't mean this baby wasn't important and so wanted and loved)
Best/Most helpful thing anyone has said to me: I have had 2 friends who consistently check in on me and make sure my levels are going down after each appt. It really means a lot that they care.
Hardest things to get through: Answering my girls' questions and them daily talking about our baby in Heaven.
Best moments: My relationship with my DH growing throughout this.
Final comments: So glad I found this message board!

In other news, we got our tree tonight. We were suppossed to get it yesterday, but it was raining all day! So, we waited...the girls were SO excited. It was so fun, and it was their first year to help decorate. I love Christmas time!