A Magical Ten Years: Happy Birthday Maddie

I can’t believe Maddie is 10 today! Oh how fast these years have flown!!

Happy Birthday Mad :)

Maddie has changed our lives in such a wonderful way; I can’t begin to describe how special she is. But today, on her birthday, I’ll tell you our story.

It was the summer of 1999 and Doug and I had moved from Texas to North Carolina to serve a church. As a teacher, I was off and we got settled into our new home. Of course, what follows next, the desire to have a baby. I had been on medicine for ovarian cysts for years and wasn’t sure how long it would take me to get pregnant, so we decided to go for it!!

Amazingly, I got pregnant the first month! Wow!! I even knew before the test came back positive. I was sick from implantation! As soon as I got the confirmed test, I called the doctor and scheduled my first visit. With a confirmed pregnancy test the doctor’s office didn’t do the first visit until 8 weeks. Eagerly we waited for the first visit and welcomed every morning with vomiting!

When I scheduled my first visit, the receptionist said that they would do blood work and basics, but nothing fun (like an ultrasound) or anything so I didn’t need to bring Doug. So on the day of the appointment off I went, so excited. I got checked in, did my insurance paperwork and low and behold I was taken down the hall for a sonogram. Poor Doug had to miss being a part of this precious experience.

So the technician doing the sonogram was telling me all about what she was doing and labeling all the parts of my body for me all was great until she got quiet and then said that she would be right back. A few minutes later she comes back in with the doctor. They take a look and the doctor tells me that one of my twins is not going to make it. WHAT??!?!!?! First, what twins? And second.. you just point blank told me that one was not going to make it and my husband isn’t even here!!

The doctor explained that one of the yolk sacs was closing in on itself and was not going to be “viable”. The other sac looked good and thankfully they were not identical so they had their own sacs. The “good” one would absorb the “bad” one and all would be okay. They gave me pictures and gently told me to come back in two weeks and they would see if I was carrying one or two.

As I left the office to go get blood work, I didn’t know what to think. The excitement of seeing my tiny baby growing tinged with the heartbreak of also seeing a tiny one “not thriving.” Tears of joy and sorrow.

Two weeks later we returned to the doctor. Doug obviously would miss no more appointments. The two sacs were now just one. A strong heartbeat could be seen and heard and the doctor gave us all assurance that the surviving twin would be fine.

The rest of my pregnancy was fun filled with lots of throwing up and planning for baby. My body tried repeatedly to kick Maddie out starting at about 32 weeks, but finally the day before she was due my water broke and we got to welcome our sweet baby girl, Madalyn Grace McLemore, into the world at 5:48am on May 4, 2000.

How blessed we are. Life has continued to be an adventure with Maddie. Nothing has been easy, but given that she was our first, we didn’t know any differently  From a rare reaction to penicillin at 6 months, to four sinus surgeries, to chronic pain, everyday Maddie teaches us about true strength, determination and joy. Maddie is the light of our life and I am so thankful that God brought her into our lives.

Technique Tuesday: Oh Baby Box

As we prepare for baby #3, I am determined to get as many memories preserved as possible before her arrival. Given that I have yet to scrapbook or even print out pictures from my pregnancy with Lexi and she is closing in on five years old, I know that if I wait to work on this baby’s memorabilia, she could easily be 20 before it happens! So, to that end, I have worked to make my life easier and to preserve memories at the same time!

Here is what I came up with.  A few months ago, I created this box and file pockets and am doing my best to keep up!  Some of the weeks were easy and some I haven’t printed pictures yet (oh shock..)  However, on the whole, I am thrilled with what I have so far!

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My goal is that over the next week or so to get the box completed.  I have the appointment reminder cards and things like that I will add to the box.  I am not putting a lot on the pocket itself about my showers as I will scrapbook those events, but for now, the memorabilia can be stored in the box.  Then, if it takes me 20 years to get to scrapping the showers, I will have all of my memories together!

I am also going to make a few pocket pages for welcome cards and a visitor page to go in the box.  Looking back, I wish I had done something like this for Lexi, daughter #2..

Thankful Thursday: The gift of clothes and a good Doctor visit for Maddie

Coming into the home stretch of this pregnancy has me psycho in a bit of a tizzy.  You forget from one baby to the next how much stuff they need!  Well, you do when they are 5 years apart each time.

On Tuesday I was worried about the fact that we only had a couple of receiving blankets, 4 pairs of socks, a few sleepers and one t-shirt.  I just kept thinking of how often I was going to have to wash if that’s all the clothes we had.

Yesterday, this is what my sister Melody brought over!! 
No those aren’t diapers, they are ALL 0-6 months clothes!! Can you believe it??? We had tons of fun sorting them out and looking at everything.

Mel’s baby is a year old, so we have the benefit of her stuff.. at least until my baby outgrows hers.. :)

It was so amazing once we got everything into piles by size and type. You can not believe the gift it is to be given beyond measure!

If that wasn’t enough a friend of mine provided us with a pack and play complete with baby changer and a couple of very fancy toys!!

And last but not least, Maddie had her yearly well child visit yesterday and looks great!  She is right on target for all of her milestones and her blood pressure (what we have to watch most carefully due to kidney disease) was great! As her doctor said, she looks wonderful!  I am so thankful that we have learned how to manage her disease so much more effectively over this last year. We look forward to her continued good health in the midst of a chronic disease and are so thankful to have doctors who truly care about Maddie!

Moaning Monday.. are pregnant people really supposed to remodel houses?

So for the last week or so I have spent every waking moment outside of the workday working on our house. It is begining to look incredible, I must say. But the cost is my feet, my back, my hands and my exhaustion.

It's all my fault, I am very aware. Doug (my husband) would have never dreamt up finishing off our to do list on this house and trying to sell it and buy a new one before baby comes in August. But me, yeah.. we bought a new house while I was pregnant and Doug practically gutted the thing and made it a show place before Maddie was born. That was almost 9 years ago. I still remember the aches and pains from removing staple after staple from carpet so that our hardwood floors could be refinished.

Move foward about 5 years and we moved to a new town and bought a house. We only did the painting then.. for I was pregnant with Lexi. Over the last few years we have just almost completely remodeled this house. But here we are with baby #3 coming in just a few short months and something in me says MOVE!!! So, that's what we are working on.

Tonight I am posting between cleanings of the brand new tile floor in the den. My dad spent a good bit of the last few days over here installing the new tile floors with Doug and now I am doing the clean up, buffing and final mopping. Man, this is hard work :) But the result is so worth it!!

Thanks for letting me moan and I can't wait to post pictures of our house!