Here I Go Again

It’s been ages! 3 years to be exact and I have been missing this creative outlet of mine. Life is VERY different than what it was when I first started this blog and now with more grace and perspective, I’m ready to get back up in the saddle, so to speak.

Where to begin? I’ve left you all for so long. Last you heard from me was when I had the twins and then poof…I was gone. Because let’s face it – TWINS ARE HARD! We are now in the “threenager” phase which frankly has me kicking my butt for not relishing in how easy the “terrible twos” were. I wish I could say I have a good handle on these kids but truth be told, I’m hanging on by the necks of their shirts. They are ridiculous and as the days go on I’ll be sure to let you in on all that is them and their twinado tyrants.

So do you want the good news or bad news first?

Bad news first? Well alright then.

This is bad news, actually, horrible and horrifically sad news…we had to say goodbye to our beloved Harley Noodle Jones Butt Butt. I’ll get into that in another post because he deserves his own space. But man. Losing my guy has left me utterly heartbroken and if it wasn’t for the fact that I have little humans who need me to function at full force each day, I would be on the ground in tears for eternity. He was my baby and the gaping hole in my life since he left is excruciating.

Yes, I know people lose their children and parents and that is also horrifically sad but he was my person. Furry and slobbery…my person. More on all that is Harley later though.

But we can’t just have bad news and not follow it up with good news. This is actually great news! My life clearly wasn’t hectic enough so we decided to add yet ANOTHER kid to the mix. And this time… ITS A GIRL!!! Praise baby Jesus and all the pink fluff and tulle he created!!! No, but seriously, this is my best work yet. I mean…LOOK at this face! Can you even deal?!

So I’ll be signing off for now but in a really small nutshell, that is life the last 3 years with a whole lot of other nonsense in between (which I’ll also get to.) Looking forward to getting back into the blogging world…I’ve missed it dearly! I’m hoping you all will take me back in with open arms!

Until next time, Readers!! xoxoxoxoxo

A Newborn Photo Shoot

As painful as it was to go through this after 10 days of being home with twin boys, I’m so glad we did. A photo shoot to remember all the itsy bitsy pieces of our precious boys! We arrived at 10:00am and didn’t leave until about 4:00pm!!! LONGGGGG Day!

Without further ado….take a look at some of the beautiful images captured! (I’m a little biased of course!)

I mean…how could I not?!?! 🙂

 

Hope you liked them! Until next time, Readers!!! xoxoxo

Spice Has TWO Babies

It’s true! The twins have arrived! Granted, they made their debut on February 24th, 2016 but as you can imagine I’ve been quite busy!

Here we were getting ready for the big moment! And yes…I was huge. I see that.

Their birthday was a whirlwind. I can barely remember any of it! (I was also drugged lol). We did a c-section for safety reasons and at 9:39am out came Baby A with a wail! The doctor said,”He’s got a full head of blonde hair!” Imagine my shock when I heard that! I thought for sure he couldn’t possibly be mine! A blonde?! 🙂 Lucky me!

Let me introduce you to Arjen (R-yen) Paul. Previously know as Baby A or Alpha. Weighing a cool 6lbs 15oz and 20.5 inches long.

As he was being weighed Baby B made his way into the world with eyes wide open and quietly taking it all in. Which I would soon learn is a stark contrast to his current personality. Read: drama queen. With a full head of brown hair this little guy took a while to cry it out but eventually got the hang of it.

Let me introduce you to Landon Thomas. Previously known as Baby B or Beta. Weighing in at 5lbs 9oz and 19.5 inches long.

Afterwards, we got to hang out in a recovery room where I got sick from all the meds (yay) and grandma and grandpa got to hold their new grand babies for the first time. And Toblerone was just attached to them both and so in love. I however was sicker than sick so I could care less what was happening around me! Or maybe that was the drugs?

I was sooooo out of it in the pictures but there is happy Daddy!

We got to ring the lullabye announcement twice which was pretty special. Once in our room where we would stay to recover from the hectic morning it became more insane! Babies everywhere, nurses barking out rules and information that I couldn’t comprehend. Our room was like an afternoon on Wall Street. Everyone talking, no room to move! At least from my perspective, that’s how it all felt.

This particular hospital is baby friendly which means no nursery and babies sleep in the room with you. I use that term “sleep” lightly. As you know…that isn’t what happens with newborns. Let’s just say the exhaustion hasn’t stopped since that morning. (They are now 11 weeks old!)

Harley meeting his baby brothers for the first time!

It’s been a crazy ride since then and although we are still trying to get to know each other I’m sure the fun will never end! I am officially a twin mom. That’s pretty special 🙂

Until next time, Readers! Xoxoxoxo

A Very BIG Announcement

All of you know that I was taking a few classes this summer that literally took every ounce of my spare time. But that’s not all I was up to… I was also….trying to nurse myself back to health. That’s right, I’ve been sick. All day, all night kind of sick. For WEEKS! No…MONTHS! Can’t eat, can’t sleep, can’t move, can’t function.

And the reason for this sickness???

 

That’s right…TWO onesies…means double the fun is on the way for Toblerone and I!

We’ve got a lot to plan for since our lives are completely going to change but we couldn’t be more excited to raise two babies! TWO, people!

Here goes nothing!

Until next time, Readers!!! xoxoxoxo

Throwback Thursday – A Babyrific Post!

Another Thursday yet again, only that much closer to the weekend! Woot woot! I’ve been having crazy dreams about babies and fertility drugs and all sorts of whacko stuff. And staying in theme with this week’s post about Germany’s way of announcing babies I decided to throw us all back to a cold December day in 2009 when my nephew was born! He was the first to give me the name “Aunt Kait” and I just fell TOTALLY in love with him when I saw him all wrapped up like a burrito.

Isn’t he adorbs?!? He’s all grown up now practically…talking, walking, saying “no” to everything because he can and because he’s a little manpants. Still totally in love with that sweet boy! This picture was also before I knew I had endometriosis and it was a time where the possibility of having my own child was still an easily reachable goal on the horizon.

For those of you who know that I wrote a story called “The Letter” for a great organization called CausePub, we need a certain amount of people to sign up to buy the electronic story. It’s only $10, and it would help us meet our goal to 1. Publish the book and 2. provide clean water to over 40,000 people in Africa. This is such a big deal to me.

I wrote the story a long time ago, not really sure that I would ever publish it in fear of showing my feelings and sounding too dramatic and spotlight hogging. But that’s not the case. I published it and people wrote to me, thanking me for my bravery. That they share the same feelings and problems and are feeling less alone. To have this story published in a book would be not only incredible for a writer like me but imagine the people it would influence!

If you would like to spend the $10 (come on, we all have it to spare!) then please go to CausePub – Buy the book and read more about what your money would do for others. Andddd of course, how it would make me kinda famous!

Until next time, Readers!!!! xoxoxoxo

A Stork Landing

It’s that time of year again…no…who am I kidding?! It’s ALWAYS that time of year! Babies are popping up (or out rather) everywhere! And it’s no exception here in Germany!

Standard families are two parents and two children here in good old Deutschland. If you are a family of 3 children then you are considered to have a large family. It’s odd since most people I know have more than just one other sibling back home in the US. Having two kids is considered small and four is normal!

There is a fun way in Germany that the people announce when they have a new member and this morning I took Harley for a walk just so we could stalk these new parents! Love me some babies! Back home in the US we use Facebook (ha!) and birth announcement by form of a letter or delivering owl. Here, they make sure you know and I have a feeling its more so that people be quiet in the neighborhood!

The wooden stork! This is put up right before baby comes and as you can see in the second picture, there is a baby in a blue blanket hanging from the mouth of the stork. This informs us that the baby is a boy!! Yay!!

I think this is kind of fun and exciting! And now is when they get overwhelmed with everyone coming to see them and bring presents. They don’t have baby showers here! Can you believe that?!?! No baby showers, so that means you have the essentials and then people bring you the rest as soon as the baby is born, making life more complicated and annoying when you just need sleep. But no, you must visit with people and organize all the gifts they bring you plus provide the standard coffee and cake. No resting for momma bears!! Let me tell you something, If I’m living here when I have a baby, I will ABSOLUTELY be throwing myself a baby shower and I won’t hold back on my gift requests!! No way, jose!

Until next time, Readers!!! xoxoxo

Doctors, Surgeries, and News

Yesterday was my first appointment at the Women’s Clinic here in Germany. I had been pretty nervous about this for a few days but was trying to mask it by keeping busy (hence the lack of a blog post! SORRY!) Now that my nerves are back together, I’m doing good and can tell you all about this stage of the journey!

So this place is known for it’s specialists in Endometriosis and even though I was nervous I was still hopeful that they wouldn’t get my hopes up right away. Unlike my regular doctor who flat out told me that babies and me weren’t meant to be. Bitch. After the hour long drive we arrive to this massive city and to this massive University Hospital with multiple buildings. I got right into my appointment with maybe a 4 minute wait time which was excellent considering how I couldn’t focus on anything anyways.

After the tests and what not (you’re not getting the details) they told me that they will need to do another laparoscopic surgery. It’s through the belly button which makes me want to barf just thinking about it. Did I ever tell you guys that I HATE belly buttons? They make me gag. Anywhooooo WAY off topic.  So another surgery – and if there is a lot of endometriosis they won’t touch anything. They will sew me back up and after the surgery will put me back through the miserable menopause injections called Lupron for 2-3 months to shrink up the large masses. After the 3 months is done, I will go back in for a second surgery where at this time it’s easier for them to zap all the crap out. That’s option number one. Number two is they go in for the surgery and where there isn’t a lot of tissue to remove, they will just zap it out of there and sew me up. Then the baby making process will start.

However, this baby making process is freaking me out a little bit. I’m not sure what is to come after the surgery. There is still the possibility that it will be too difficult for us to conceive naturally. There is the possibility that the fertility processes may not work. There is a possibility that after years of trying we still will come up empty handed.  I need to stop waiting for the “bad news” and focus on the positive but thats really hard when the one dream you have could be crushed in one appointment. Luckily, I like my doctor and she will not be harmed if in fact the news is bad. I promise!

So here’s to stage one of the process. Really wishing it wasn’t going to be such a long and winding road. (Queue: Beatles) I guess the part we are waiting to hear is whether or not I have stage I,II, III, or IV of this illness. One and two we can work with…three and four is much too difficult I think and we will consider our other options. Anyone up to be my surrogate?! Anyways, thanks for reading, listening, and following my babble of a journey. I’m super glad I have my Toblerone right by my side through all this, I know it hasn’t been easy for him either. (Thanks Bubs!)  It helps me for some reason to just get it out in the open. I’m gonna show this mean old Endo that I’m not scared of it and I will fight it to the death!

Until next time, Readers!!!!! xoxoxoxoxoxo