I'm a little late in posting this year in review of 2015. Rightfully so. I've had an insane year. This time last year, I was newly pregnant with Lucas trying to figure out when and how to tell everyone. Crazy! Christmas kept giving in 2014 when we found out we were pregnant. I did decide I would tell our family at Valentine's Day. That basically put mostly my 1st trimester keeping the pregnancy a secret. It was so fun! I'm so glad we did it that way too. It actually made the pregnancy go by so much faster (more on that later). So January we celebrated Trevor's 4th Birthday with a Train party. It was cute. We had a fruit train as part of the food. Surrounded by family and friends, it was a great hit. I started feeling like I had a preschooler. Trevor & Abigail started at the new babysitter as well, Miss Monique. She was amazing. We just didn't know it yet. Trevor brought a kingcake to share to her house. Everyone was happy for this! In preparation for the baby coming, we moved Trevor & Abigail in the same room so the baby could have his own room. That was a very interesting change. So at the end of January, I took a big step... I registered Trevor for Pre K at Woodlawn Elementary. I felt like he really needed the structure and he was getting to where he didn't want to be told or taught anything secular from his parents. This broke my heart for several reasons, but I knew it would be the best thing for him. He was tested and winded up getting in!
February was THE month. The month we were to tell our families we were pregnant. Well I had a photo shoot planned late January in preparation for our big announcement. The pictures were amazing. I had Valentine cards made for our close family and friends. I was excited, but nervous to send them out. In a few cases, I hand-delivered them to my in-laws, mom, and co-workers. I made a photo book for my MIL & FIL. All of us hand-delivered that one. It was funny, because Winston was the only one who "got" it at first. Ha! I went to my mom's work at the Honda Dealership to deliver her card and framed family picture from the photo shoot. I told her it was time we upgraded our car and I needed to take the Honda Pilot on a test drive. She read the card carefully and was overjoyed. It was cute to see her so happy to have another grandbaby. I was getting more and more pumped. I gave my co-workers an eviction notice (my boss has a lot of rental properties) and announced it that way. That was super fun. As if there wasn't already a lot going on, I signed Trevor up for T-ball at the YMCA for spring.
March started his spring T-ball league. He had a great coach and Trevor was so excited to play with other kids his age. He was great a swinging the bat. Otherwise, he spent a lot of time in the dirt, playing on the field. It was priceless to watch. Truly hilarious! Abigail had a big time watching him too. Mimi came to a lot of the games and Trevor loved having her there and his Aetti and Uncle Winston and Aunt DD a couple times too. I was feeling like I could get into this sports mom thing. LOL.
April was the month we splurged and got the bigger 3 row SUV family car. Markus and I refused to drive a minivan. Yeah I know, go ahead. Sing the song, "You're so vain". Cause it's true. I'm not that mom, cause if I was, I'd be staying at home! So hush! We absolutely love the used Honda Pilot we bought. Trevor was so cute to tell everyone he possibly could that his NEW car has a TV in it! He was so excited. The little things.....April was also the month that we could find out what the gender of the baby was. I always told Markus, if we had Baby #3 we wouldn't find out. AND we didn't! That was interesting hearing others opinions on not finding out. I would tell people I have a boy and a girl and there's so few surprises in life (like finding out you are pregnant the day after Christmas) that, WHY NOT! So we had to make sure we told the tech we didn't want to know. We invited our mothers and Trevor came along too. We opted not to bring Abigail. It would have been too much. I always love the 20 week ultrasound. The most amazing thing to me is seeing that little heart work so hard to pump the blood through the body. What a miracle. But this ultrasound was.... different. We found out the ventricles in the brain were measuring large. We also found out the femurs were measuring short. Hmph. My conservative Dr. Cheree tried her best to calm my worries as she walked me through the part where she was referring me to Maternal Fetal medicine for further evaluation. I was scared to death. I thought I'm not high risk, why do I have to go there?!! After that phone call, I stepped out of work and called Markus to ball my eyes out. I cried so incredibly hard it was crazy. I had a hard time accepting this fate. I got my appt with the high risk Dr. moved up. I invited my MIL to come with me and my husband so she could translate all the medical jargon. It was a very confusing appt. Some of which was a blur. I remember the ultrasound tech being amazing and caring. There was so much back and forth and unknowns. So I scheduled my appt to come back in 4 weeks.
May is here. So I went on to my high risk dr appt. The dr mostly just dismissed the large ventricles and short femurs. Everything was measuring mostly normal. I hadn't heard that word mentioned in reference to the ventricles and femurs, I was overwhelmed with joy. It overcame my whole body and a sense of relief immediately filled me up with happiness. It was like, OK my baby is going to be ok. So I went about my business. Shortly after, my Abigail turned 2! We had a tea party. OMG it was probably one of my most favorite parties ever. Want to see the VIDEO Hayley made? It pretty much shows everything this little party was and more. Abigail is obsessed with Minnie Mouse!
June we celebrated Sarah, Hudson and Mimi's birthdays! Big to do for the Wilson family. I also had the dreaded Glucose test this month, or should I say tests. My body is getting older and fighting with sugar. Apparently. I failed the 1 hr test. Just barely passed the 3 hr test. It was miserable. But after all that I did a little better with sugar for a while. I think it scared me more than anything. I think I will be getting a GP to kind of monitor it and keep track of me. Cause I don't want to be unhealthy. We also took the plunge and enrolled Trevor into Summer T-ball. It was fun, but a lot of the games got rained out. I don't think we will be doing the summer thing again. I much preferred the spring, for multiple reasons. I think we will try swim lessons for next summer.
July July July... the month of my 10 year Anniversary. The one where I would get my bigger diamond. The one where I would go on a trip. Yeah none of that happened in real life. Ha! A girl can dream. And dream on. That is what I thought would be happening. Little did I know how my life would stand a little stiller this month. Little did I know I would give birth EARLY to a baby boy who would need his mommy's love more than ever! Little did I know I would have 3 kids, 3 days BEFORE my 10 year anniversary. This month was a life changer. In more ways than one. Not in a bad way, persa. And I'll remember it always. I was busy. Busy Busy Busy. Working on the nursery/playroom. Getting it painted and ready for baby. Not picking up essentials like diapers or anything. But washing both boy and girl baby clothes. Cause it could go either way 50/50. Decided on a name for my baby boy this month, Lucas! But undecided for a girl. Good thing. Anyway, it was crazy. Then one Saturday night, yeah and yeah. Then I was calling my mom frantic cause I believed my water had broke and I needed her to come sit at my house with the kids. Let the scary begin. Like for real. I was dying inside knowing I was really in labor and fate would have it that a baby would be born almost 6 weeks early. We all know how this story goes. LUCAS was born. I was so happy. Yes the happy came. Thank goodness. This happy would get me through what lied ahead. It's a BOY!!!!! I remember thanking God it was a boy. Like seriously because that was the only name I had picked out. And it was a beautiful one! The rest of the month got blurry when we found out from the MD that our baby boy was born with Down Syndrome. Suddenly my life stood still. So many emotions, I didn't know what to think or feel. So we will move on. Our anniversary was spent together, which was good. A visit to the NICU, haircut (priorities, it was scheduled before I had the baby and well I couldn't break the appt), lunch (after much persuasion by Nicole) with the "news" confirmed that our little boy officially had Down Syndrome (Happy Anniversary!), NICU then yeah all the regular day stuff. Bye Bye July.
August was a hard month. Amongst the obvious, I had spent the last week of July shuffling family and friends in and out of the NICU and personally I didn't want that to be the way I spent my maternity leave. It mostly sucked. As selfish as it sounds it did. It never stopped. Everyone was so happy to see our baby (the nerve, right?) and I pretty much didn't stop. Brought Abigail and Trevor to the babysitter and go go go. So the first week of August was spent back at work. Yeah what a drag. Like how boring can this be? I only had 2 weeks of paid time off. That's it! I had just spent 1 of those weeks birthing a baby and being superwoman. So naturally my common sense of knowing we still had to pay our bills and do all that boring adult stuff came flooding into my body. Call me crazy but I went back to work and my child was only a week old, sitting under a billrubin light in the NICU (amongst other things) all in the name of paying bills! I worked back full time for 3 full weeks until my little man was released. Hard hard. Woke up at the crack of dawn, IDK like 4 something. would get to the hospital for 5 something. Stay until 6 something. Come back home and start the day to day without our little blessing from Heaven. I basically hated the 3 weeks of hell. But you do what you gotta do. For some reason, a lot didn't understand this. Did I mention during that 3 week period Trevor started Pre K? Yeah my baby was going to big boy school! I was a hot hormonal mess!!! At 1 month old, Lucas was discharged from the NICU. I was so incredibly happy for this day. I left work early to run through all the craziness of classes, procedures, tests, etc. And I was happy that day I didn't leave solo, but with my little man in hand. Graciously, my babysitter when Lucas was released told me she would allow 6 weeks off with no pay AND hold the spot for Abigail AND Lucas. I told you she was amazing! What a blessing from above.
September, included "part-time maternity leave" 6 weeks allowed me to get to know my little Lucas and his special feeding needs and only work half days. Markus thankfully had just taken on a new AM early AM schedule at Frito Lay that allowed for him and I to both be home with Lucas at any given point during that 6 weeks! How awesome is that!?! We were blessed. I hated going to work. But again, just one of those things. I kept telling myself, suck it up. You are doing this for your kiddos. We met with a lady to get signed up for Early Steps which is the early intervention program for children with special needs and/or developmental delays. We knew going into it that Lucas would automatically qualify with his Down Syndrome, but surprisingly he didn't have enough of a delay to qualify him just on that. That was a happy thing. All at once it seemed we were learning about the program and choosing the therapists we wanted to work with our kiddo. It was a lot all at once. I was watching obsessively at my health insurance and what Woman's Hospital billed $91,965.61 for Lucas' NICU stay. Talk about wanting to vomit. OMG. I was sick to my stomach and curious what my responsibility would be after my health insurance payment kicked in. Any guesses? It was only $1,017.94. I. Was. In. Shock.
October is when we found out we got into the Early Steps program and because we apparently make no money for having a family of 5 people, we EVEN qualified for no pay therapy sessions. I felt like this was an answer to a prayer. I was so worried about how much this would cost us. We also found out that the Occupational Therapist we chose from her working with Lucas in the hospital, she had one slot open and would be reserving it for Lucas. Another answer to a prayer. The highly recommended special instructor we chose was also available to work with Lucas. We were feeling like we hit the jackpot! Everything fell into place. I also had my 1st parent teacher conference with Trevor's teacher Mrs. Milton. That was interesting. I felt like a complete failure as a mommy. Trevor only recognized by sight 9/26 letters in the alphabet. On the flip side I surely smiled when she told me his strong areas. It was all the things we work on. So I had my homework cut out for me after that appt. Amongst everything else like going back to work full time (those 6 weeks flew by) and trying to balance my life with 3 kids at home. I did really enjoy taking Trevor to school in the carpool lane. I could almost get used to being a SAHM just for that :)
November to remember. This was the month that the fruits of our labors blossomed into FRUIT! Markus and I had been applying to jobs for 11 months at this point. He had recently been on multiple interviews. Lost a really great job he wanted so bad and was told he would get, until it fell through. It was a series of let downs, empty promises, low salary, crappy benefits, etc. He turned down 3 job offers. I felt so stupid writing the "thanks but no thanks" type of letters. We had only been looking for this long and here I was turning down a job offer! Then the light at the end of the long A** tunnel blinded us. Blind-sided us really. LSU of all places called, interviewed, then offered Markus the job. There were a series of things that happened in between obviously. But the offer came. We had to sleep on it and talk about it and pray about it for what seemed like eternity, but after a day of that, Markus accepted it. Same salary as the other jobs he turned down because it was too low amongst other things. But this one, this one was the one he was supposed it have. This one was the one the Lord was saving for him. Now I know why. It's the perfect fit for Markus. I didn't know it would be at the time, but it is. I'm very grateful for this. (more to come about this). Markus was so happy to turn in his resignation at Frito Lay. His 6+ year career with them had finally drawn to a close and he opened a new door. It was the best birthday present this girl could ask for. Blah I'm 33 now. Gross, but whatever. We found a house in Central we fell in love with. We fell hard. It was the perfect house for us. If there even is such a thing. We finally put in an offer after the sellers had already accepted an offer, but they didn't accept our back up offer. We were depressed for weeks about this. It was so sad. We could see our family there. But the search continues. And so does the fixing up of our house.
December was quite the stress ball. Just after Thanksgiving we found out Markus gets paid from LSU once a month. Yea, Merry Christmas! And that once a month happened at the end of the month. With Markus only starting at the end of the month in November, we were in for a big adjustment from getting paid weekly. We celebrated Markus' 35th Birthday. That dude is just a hot as ever. I wish I didn't age like he doesn't! Love that dude. We got rather thrifty in preparation for being "Santa". I was looking forward to this. Trevor was so incredibly excited every time he saw Santa. Abigail didn't know what to think, but if her big brother was excited about it you better believe she would be right there with him. It's cute how attached they are. They fight like typical brother and sister. Christmas morning was a hoot. The kids really loved opening gifts. We explained to them that Christmas was when we celebrate the birth of Jesus. We have a little way to go with this.
Overall, this year was probably one of the hardest of my adult life. For many reasons listed here, but others that haven't been mentioned until now. I got some of my faith back. I began to trust more fully in my Heavenly Father and His plan for my life. All of this in preparation for my little Lucas. If it wasn't for this, I would not have been able to handle it. I began to see this beautiful picture of my life unfold. It was miraculous. Like the artist who slowly unveils his handy work, I felt the same of Heavenly Father and my life on canvas and in real life. It was making more sense. I'm married to the best man I know. He's a different person since he got his LSU job. I call him "Tiger boy". Love it! He has really stepped up and helped me and I'm so grateful for this. For years I've exhausted my everything to keep this household going. And finally I have someone to share this state of exhaustion with. We get to see each other in the mornings and evenings. It's been 6+ years since I've had a somewhat normal life. Which was before we had kids. My children get to have the daddy they have always deserved. Life is coming together. Like a beautifully wrapped package and the bow is just getting finished knotting. We are tied together in the most miraculous way now. I don't even know where to start and begin to describe it, but I am happy. I am done having children. I can work on getting my body back. Ditch my maternity clothes. Focus on my growing children and their ever demanding needs and personalities. We are looking for a bigger house to be a little more comfortable in. I'm praying it doesn't take as long as the LSU job did to come into our lives, but we will see. And wait. I have continuously had to learn the patience lesson at every corner it seems. I keep telling myself I am not the only one. Hahaha! We have a little piece of heaven to focus on in Lucas and build an awareness in those around us. He has really brought my family and extended family and friends together in a perfect way. He is amazing. And I am lucky to be called his mommy. Perhaps I could do better documenting his greatness and everything I am learning as I bee bop along.
May 2016 be all that and more to you and yours. Happy New year. If you stuck it out this long, I'm impressed. Cause I was tired of writing, but know I may want to remember this craziness one day. Maybe. Or forget it. LOL. NOT!
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