Bobby and I met early in 1997. On Easter Sunday he came into the restaraunt I was working in and sat there for three hours until I noticed him. Cut me some slack people, I was busy! In my defense, he was reading the newspaper so I couldnt see his face anyway... only his arm. I gave him my number (oooh, Im sooooo easy!) and he paged me later that day. LMAO yep, I said paged.. anywho, we've been together since that day. March 30, 1997.
Crazy things have happened since that day. In December of that same year, we found out that I was pregnant. Yikes! We're not married! HELP, Im only 19! It was one of the scariest times in my life, but one of the happiest... I never knew I wanted something so much until I had that baby girl. Hannah Grace was born on August 5, 1998.
We were married on September 25, 1999 at the Calvary Assembly of God Church. The Preacher very seriously asked me if I took Bobby to be my wife, LOL. I gave him a minute to correct himself but he didnt so I just agreed.
Now get in the kitchen and make me some pancakes, woman!I went to the Community College in 2000, just as all of my high school friends were graduating college. Its hard for me to believe today that some people I went to school with are doctors or have their own law practices... its blows my mind. I still feel like a kid! Anyway, I had awesome grades back in the day and kept a 3.9. I dont think I could do that anymore... my brain is full. If I have to learn something new, something old has to go! Id love to finish one day, but I dont know what Id like to be! My original goal was to be done by the time I turned 30, but um, thats kinda come and gone, and yeah well, you know the rest. (Im not done!)
The time came and we decided that Hannah needed a sibling. Then to our surprise, I didnt get pregnant. In fact, I didnt get pregnant for 14 months. We thought maybe Hannah was a fluke and that we weren't meant to have more than one child. I was devastated each month when my friendly visitor came to me. Everyone else seemed to be pregnant too... everywhere we went, everyone I knew, everyone but me. It was hard. I remember one day in particular Id been to the OBGYN office for this problem and was running late for Biology. I walked into the auditorium about 5 minutes late as the professor began the movie... AND it was all about conception and pregnancy. My bum barely brushed the seat before I was up and out the door! I couldnt believe it, it all seemed like a cruel joke. Then one day, my visitor didnt show. The next day either. Or the day after that. And what do you know? I was pregnant! We got the sweetest boy in the world and he was totally worth the wait. Ethan Chase came into the world on July 28, 2001 weighing a whopping 9 lbs 14 oz! He was humungous and I couldnt beleive I squeezed that thing out of my body!
While I was finishing up at the Community College, we bought a house. I never really wanted it, but went through with it anyway. I was giving thought to where Id like to go to school. I considered the University of Virginia and Virginia Wesleyan before deciding on Virginia Commonwealth. I was all set to go, we went and visited and everything, I was so happy, but alas, it wasnt meant to be... Not going really threw me into a funk that took years to climb out of. I still dont really talk about it because Ill cry! Hard! For three days! But guess what? I was pregnant again!
That third pregnancy was even more of a shock than the first one was. I could NOT believe it. There is no way it should have happened. It did somehow, so instead of VCU I got Savannah Elizabeth, one of *THEE* funniest little girls youll ever meet. Savannah was born on December 29, 2003. She was 12 days overdue and would NOT come out. Finally I was induced and sat in the hospital all day with nothing happening. I was so mad, I wanted to go home so badly and then it hit me like a semi! The very first contraction was so strong, I knew for sure I was a total wimp, I had no idea how I was going to handle the labor this time if the first contraction hurt like THAT! It was crazy and all happened so fast, my labor only lasted 40 minutes. Savannah shot out of my body like a bullet and I dont even think I pushed. All I know is that I went from grumpy with a high, tight and closed cervix to stunned, holding a new baby in a very short amount of time. I really didnt think it had actually happened. I thought Id had one of those crazy dreams that you have on the very edge of sleep. You know, the ones where something stupid happens and you jump a mile? It was real though and Im glad it happened that way!
My life since then has been much like a blur... Depression and Anxiety gripped me... I started failing classes that I should have easily aced... I was put on academic suspension! ME! The nerdy one. Eventually I took a couple of years off just to try and get myself straight. Its been a long hard process, but I think Im almost there. We had more babies too!
On May 2, 2006 Ella Claire was born. Again I was induced and sat around all day with nothing happening. What a pain! Late in the afternoon I started to have mild contractions then some horrible ones and Ella was born quickly as well. Not as fast as Savannah, but nearly! She is our only blue eyed girl and is the sweetest, most snuggly girl ever. We used to call her E-Claire, but she is much more like a lil cream puff!
In February of 2008, we found that I was pregnant yet again, BUT, there is always a but, a day or two later it was apparent that I was miscarrying. We were just about to leave for a three day weekend, so I called the OB and was able to get in before we left. There was a sack, but it was too small to detect a heartbeat. The NP urged me to go on the trip anyway and to come back and see her the day we came back. Then she asked me if I wanted an ultrasound picture "just incase" and said something like no one else would remember me having a miscarriage in time, but that Id never forget. Noice. But I did take that picture and I still have it today.
I didnt miscarry on that trip, but couldnt really enjoy it either. I bled the whole time. When we got home, we went back to the OB and had another ultrasound... what did we see? The most beautiful tiny little heartbeat EVER! We were elated, but its wasnt long before my troubles started.
It wasnt long before I developed a nasty cough that I couldnt get rid of! While seeing my PCP for another reason, she decided to swab my throat on a whim... it was negative for strep in the office but she sent the culture out anyway. A few days later she called me back to say that I did indeed have strep and gave me some antibiotics. SWEET I thought, this cough will be gone! It didnt go away. Blast!
A few weeks later I started to have horrible hip pain on the right side. I had to use a walker for crying out loud. My 80 year old Grandma was calling to check on MY hip! Thats not right! I ended up getting a cortizone shot when I was about 12 weeks along and that worked for a while. When the pain came back, I seriously thought about sawing my leg off, I have never felt anything like that before in my life! I had some lidocaine (something or another) patches to put on it, which only helped if I got it in the exact right place BEFORE it started to hurt. Generally, it only hurt at night and as the sun came up in the morning, the pain went away. About halfway through the pregnancy the Dr gave me an anti inflammatory to take for two weeks and that did the trick.
Later, I broke a tooth and needed it pulled. Dental experiences are NEVER pleasant. Nuff said.
My cough got worse and worse and would NOT let up. I coughed until I threw up all day long, everyday. I couldnt eat anything and was losing weight. We tried many different things... all kinds of medicene and even an inhaler. Didnt work. The Dr decided it must be pregnancy induced allergies, and I did cough alot during another pregnancy, but not nearly this bad. I could not WAIT to have this baby so I could stop coughing!
In August we went to North Carolina for a week and had a good time, except for me coughing and yakking the entire time. When we got home I noticed a HUGE lump in my armpit. I was alarmed that it was so big and I hadnt noticed it before. The next day I had an appointment and pointed it out to the OB. He said it was a milk duct... NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. So, I didnt. Two weeks before the baby was due my blood pressure was up a tad so the midwife and Dr decided to hold me hostage at the hospital. Caleb Lee was born on September 26, 2008, a Friday.. 15 or 16 days early. He was the teeny-ist little thing Ive ever seen. All of our other babies were ox's compared to him! He only weight 7 lbs 5.5 ounces. Little teeny man! On Saturday we went home. On Sunday I found a lump in my neck. Hhmmm.... that begins a new chapter that requires a blog all its own.
Until next time.....
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