First, I would like to apologize for not blogging more often. If you remember correctly, this blog was my husband’s big idea. When was the last time HE blogged? Exactly my point. Second, I would like to add this disclaimer that my blogging has absolutely nothing to do with my mom’s friend, Linda Smith, giving me smack about it. As evidenced by my history, I will blog all on my own”¦eventually. (Don’t start with me, I’m a busy person. Keep in mind that it takes a lot longer to write this stuff than it does to read it”¦yeah, it’s a painful process to be this amusing.)

When Johnathan and I were planning to get married, we talked about the number of kids we wanted. He said, “12”. I said, “Find someone else to marry.” Eventually, using negotiation skills that would put Congress to shame, we landed on 2. Really, we arrived at that number based on the desire to maintain a man-to-man defense. Of course, we did not anticipate having Kylie, but she doesn’t really fit that equation. She pretty much takes care of herself. Actually, she helps.
We also wanted our two children fairly close together, maybe about 2 years. So when Mallory turned 1, we decided to start “trying”. Mallory only took about 5 months so I figured it would take about the same amount of time. (If you’re calculating, and you know that Mallory’s birthday is in May, that was about 10 months ago.) Apparently, God didn’t get my two-years-apart requirement, or He did and just ignored it. It’s like He has His own agenda or something. If you know me at all, you know that I was consumed for months”¦especially when I realized that it wasn’t going to happen just like that. At some point, a friend of mine pointed out that Kylie is graduating in May and going to college in August. Being very pregnant or having a newborn at those points in time would be difficult. Yeah, but I had a plan. Johnathan and I went round and round, and we finally decided to just take it easy. I kept charting to be armed with the knowledge, but I stopped the predictor kits and stuff like that. However, a lax attitude didn’t help us reach our goal.

My doctor that delivered Mallory is no longer delivering babies. She advised me to pick a new one since we were trying to get pregnant. Most women will understand this; I put that off for a couple of months. I just hate picking a new doctor”¦more specifically THAT doctor. After much investigation, indecisiveness, obsessing (it is me after all) and canceling at least one appointment, I went to see my new doctor at the end of January. Because I am over 35 (nearly geriatric in fertility-world), and we have been trying for over 6 months, it was time to help the process. She said, “If it doesn’t happen this month, we will try Clomid.” Yep, the “C” word. I know what you’re thinking, because I did too. That word conjures up all kinds of fears. “Am I going to have 6 babies…7 babies…8 babies”¦a whole stinking litter???!!! God! Please, I beg you! I think Johnathan was really kidding when he said 12!” My doctor assured me that the low dosage we would try would only bring 5% chance of multiples, and only 5% of that 5% (bringing the total to .25%) would have more than two babies at once. Whew. I was able to refrain from depositing my breakfast on her shoes.
I called Johnathan as I left her office. After a long pause at the mention of the “C”-word, I told him, “Twins wouldn’t kill us”¦triplets might.” To which he retorted, “Six and your doctor is contributing to the fund.” So we resolved to give it our best effort this month. I think he called it “the old college try”. (I tried to conjure up a witty quip here, but nothing that came to mind seemed even remotely appropriate so I’ll just leave it alone.) I will also spare you the gory details.

Now, if you know anything about charting while you’re TTC ( that’s Trying To Conceive for those of you who have never spent hours on end surfing and reading all of the websites for the brave many who attempt this journey), you know than in the middle of the month, there should be a temperature rise. If not, you don’t have a chance of getting pregnant because there was no egg released. Then, at the end of the month, more often than not, there is a temperature dip, and you get additional proof that you indeed are not pregnant. This month, I got the temperature rise. I also got a positive on the ovulation predictor kit. And, thanks to the “old college try”, things seemed to be timed perfectly. But even with all of that, there is really only about a 20% chance that a pregnancy will occur. For late bloomers like me, the chances are even lower. The point between the temperature rise and the end of the month is called the “two-week wait”. There are websites where women form support groups for this time period. You’ve done all you can. Now, all you can do is wait. It’s agonizing. It’s even worse than the wait I’m putting you through to get to the end of this story. ;)

I expected the temperature dip Tuesday morning. The night before, I had talked to Johnathan about testing on Tuesday. He asked me if there was a chance of a negative. Yes, there was. It was quite possible that, even if I was pregnant, I wasn’t producing enough hCG (pregnancy hormone) to register on a test. But we decided to give it a shot, provided I had evidence that it was possible. My typical routine is ““ hit the snooze, stick the thermometer in my mouth, prop my hand on it in some way to keep it from falling out of my mouth and go back to sleep until it beeps. Of course, that three minutes felt longer than the two-week wait”¦my temperature was still up. I jumped out of bed and went into the bathroom. I don’t think I have ever been so anxious to pee in a cup. I went with a digital test, partly because there is no ambiguity (“pregnant” versus “not pregnant”) and partly because that is all I had in my drawer. Then, that three minutes took forever. It said, “Pregnant” ;) Right about that time, the snooze period was over and the alarm started screaming like a banshee. Johnathan rolled over, cracked an eye open and asked what I was doing. I said, “Why don’t you see for yourself?” And I showed him the test and he just smiled. I had to wait until later when he was actually out of bed to get the “man dance”, but I could tell that he was excited.

As I am sure this one will be quite different from the last one for many reasons, we will try our best to keep you all informed.

Quick update on the girls. Kylie just took the ACT for the third time. All she needs is one more point to get the Hope Scholarship so cross your fingers. Oh, and she wrecked another car. I don’t know if it’s an indication of how bad a driver she is or how cheap our cars are because this one was totaled too. It really wasn’t a bad wreck. And it wasn’t her fault at all. A guy cut in front of her. But the airbags deployed and the front end was smashed pretty good. However, this was actually a blessing in disguise. Her car has been broken down since before Thanksgiving. There was never really a big push to get it fixed because we had an extra car that she could drive. The idea was to get hers fixed and sell the one she was driving temporarily. The insurance company gave us more for the car than we would have listed it for, so Johnathan got to upgrade the size of the new TV he was purchasing at the time (I’ll let him tell you about that). For the time being, she is driving Johnathan’s car, and he is driving a friend’s car until he and this friend can find the time to work on Kylie’s car.

What can I say about Mallory? There’s so much, I really don’t know where to start. She is the cutest thing ever. Prissy beyond belief. She has tons of words. She hands me broken crayons (aka “cowors”) and says “bwoke”. She loves shoes. ;) And books. Something that has been really fun, for me at least, is her starting to put words together. I was so excited when she said, “Hi, Daddy” for the first time. She says, “Bye Cole” every morning after giving him his “cheet” (treat). The other day, I told her Kylie was leaving and she said, “Bye, Kai” even though she couldn’t see Kylie, who was already in her car and pulling out of the garage. But just like any other child her age, she has picked up the all time favorite toddler word. A while back, she was “reading” to me as I changed her diaper. When I was done, I tickled her ribs with my nose. She laughed hysterically, went back to her book, then looked at me, pointed her finger and said, “no”. Ah, yes. Attitude.