Our baby is 1 in 10,000

Hmmmmm...

Where to start? I've tried to write this a few times, but I like the way Chris wrote it to his team at work. So I tweaked it just a little...

As some of you may know, the week has been challenging. Last Thursday morning, I had an ultrasound which my sister and Chris were able to attend with me! Everything looked normal (to us) until the doctor came in later and told me that she was concerned about fluid/cyst on the back of the baby. I tried to collect myself and stay calm as I called Chris to come back to the hospital (they had left because we all thought things were fine and thought I just had my normal mtg with the doc afterwards).

We went to a specialist for an appt about an hour later (great that they get you in so fast with all these specialists!!) Basically we learned that our baby (14 weeks along) had some very serious markers for chromosomal abnormalities...like Down Syndrome or some others. Our baby's measurements were on the bad side of bad, and I went in for a procedure on Friday to do some more specific testing, with the results coming back on Monday sometime. After watching me go through this, Chris told me we were leaving in an hour to go to the beach...and we did. We headed down to Sandestin Friday afternoon, leaving the kids with his parents, and tried to keep our minds off of everything. That was a great move.

On our way home Monday afternoon, the doctor called to tell us our baby has Trisomy 13. This was devastating news, as Trisomy 13 is a somewhat rare diagnosis that means that if our baby makes it to childbirth, it will only live hours, days, weeks, or in rare cases...months. 1 in 10,000 live births are Trisomy 13. I can tell you on this side of things...the anxiety of not knowing is worse (or at least different) than knowing. Yesterday, we met with a genetic counselor (who knew they even existed?!?), and got even more information on things. It helped us prepare a lot. Where do we go from here? We just wait. We have a team of doctors watching our case closely, and making sure the baby and I are as comfortable as possible. The doctors have been incredible to us.

We have our fair share of tears, but I can honestly and confidently say...we're ok. A week in... and we're not GREAT and acting like nothing is the matter. But we know God has a plan to prosper our faith, no matter how tough this process is going to be on us. In a weird way, we're honored to experience this trial, as we know that we will grow deeper and stronger in our faith in God. It's also created an immense appreciation for our two little girls, Bella and Farrah. And each other.

We never really understood what the "roller coaster" of emotions was like...until now. We are learning that there is a lot we have never understood - and will have to go through during this life change. The multitude of things that "could" happen can absorb every thought. But, this moment in our lives is also a good reminder to look over and see the two beautiful girls we have, and know that our God is faithful, no matter what.

We are doing good, overall. But we would love to have your prayers. This is not something I would choose to go through (duh), but if we are going to go through it, we're giving it our all.

Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

When the squealing gets too high pitched...

... we ask for the "silent scream"

LOVE THESE!

Farrah Doing her Flex Pose from Chris Green on Vimeo.

Farrah and Bella Dancing from Chris Green on Vimeo.

Gone Fishin'

About two weeks ago, Bella & Farrah's GG and Poppy took them to a family birthday party. The house was on Lake Sinclair. On the way down, Poppy stopped and bought the girls Barbie fishing poles. It has a fish on the end to weigh the line down and Bella is pretty darn good at casting the line!

While they were there, her line got tangled and Poppy gave her his fishing pole to reel in. On the way in, she caught this!


The girls like to "fish" in the front yard. These pictures were at like 8:30 one morning last week. Fishing in our PJ's. I'm sure we were a cute sight to drive by and see... :)



I love these two! I mean, are these not the days of making memories or what? Drinking coffee watching my kids fake fish in the yard in their PJ's. Ha! Thanks GG and Poppy for the fun toys!

Farrah in Timeout

Still working with Farrah on timeout. She loves to push Bella and pull her hair. We feel like she knows it's bad at this point. She feeds off the reaction of Bella which is usually "MOMMY" being screamed. Bella tries to be patient but she's starting to fight back. I'm trying to remind Bella that she needs to remove herself from the situation (instead of just sitting there taking pulls and pushes over and over while screaming my name). This is really our biggest battle right now.

So Farrah thinks it's cute, and timeout is almost fun for her. I'm trying to just be consistent and hope she doesn't like going there soon. I'm also started using words like, "that's bad" instead of "NO!" all the time (because I feel like I'll start sounding like white noise because I say it so much!) I also know that she's going through the stage of testing limits and also just likes the reaction of Bella rather than actually hurting her.

Anyhow, this is a cute video of her walking to her most used timeout corner. This is about day #2 on timeout. We're getting better... haha. It's also hard to not smile and her cute face... but gotta get her to stop this. She's not doing it at school, so she knows better! She keeps us busy!!

Farrah Going to Timeout - 19 Months from Chris Green on Vimeo.

Letters

Bella has been VERY into letters lately. In two ways. She loves to make people letters/cards and put them in envelopes. I have a huge box of them left over from Christmas cards. She'll write a letter, fold it up and loves to lick and stick down the flap.

She also has been writing bunches. She asks me all day how to spell things and she writes them out. From "Happy Fathers Day" to "Happy Birthday Josie" and she now knows how to spell her and Farrah's full name by herself.


So we have been practicing letters.

Friday morning the girls woke up EARLY and Chris let me sleep in while he worked with her on D's, P's, S's and X's. And of course took some great shots. :)


And I love this one of Farrah's hand on Bella:

There are papers all over the house. They all have "BELLAFARRAHMOMMYDADDY" written on them. :)

Pregnancy Update - 13 weeks

Baby is the size of: a medium shrimp

Symptoms: still get tired, but better than the first trimester.

Baby-related purchases? diapers for my baby, Farrah :)

Maternity clothes? not yet. getting closer. I am eating so bad. I know I shouldn't but it hasn't stopped me. Somebody stop me!!!!

Sleep: Still love naps. But I'm not dying if I don't get one now. I'm trying to reach deep for my inner superwoman powers and get stuff done around here! We are still trying to get down the road of getting our house listed... so I need some of those powers :)

Fun moment(s) this past week: I got to tag along with Chris as he was working at our Married Life Live conference at church Friday night. Ted Cunningham and Gary Smalley spoke. It was fun to get away and focus on marriage. We sat at a fun table with Sherri & John and Jill & Andy. AND - Sunday we were able to celebrate how good of a Daddy Chris is! I made one of his favorite meals - mashed potatoes, okra and cubed steak with some chocolate cupcakes. His parents are the best at this meal! I'm learning and man i love fried okra!! :)

Movement: not yet. i feel my tummy stretching every once in a while.

Food cravings: Anything. See above. :)

Gender: Talking about not finding out more & more. Had a fun realization that the baby will probably be here the week before Christmas (my doc will probably let me get induced a week early again if baby is big and lookin' good because it was perfect last time doing that!) And that will give people time to get baby #3 a Christmas present (boy clothes if it's a boy! :) ) Or we'll be set if it's a girl!! :)

Belly Button in or out? In. It better be. haha!

What I miss: Nothing really. Just in that weird stage of starting to poke out and having a muffin top. Well, I kinda always feel like I have a muffin top, haha, but now it's harder to suck in. :)

Milestones: Into my second trimester!

Stretch marks: i hope not yet! haha

Weight gained: I don't have a scale. (We left it at my parents and I think I'll leave it there as long as possible.) Or maybe I should get it to help with the said eating problem...

What I am looking forward to: my ultrasound this week!

Weekly Wisdom: At the marriage conference - keeping "Value" as high as possible on each family member and "Anger" always as low as possible.

Grandy Dresses

My Grandmother, the girls Great-Grandmother aka "Grandy", bought these dresses for the girls around Easter. I just put them in the dresses this past weekend, and OH MY GOSH. i think this is my favorite dress ever on Farrah. Just so adorable.

Grandparents are so great. :)

My secondborn

Your beautiful blue eyes get me every time.



Your deep laugh is contagious. You don't let the fact that you are second child overshadow your big personality!



You catch on to new things so fast. And then, you want to do it independently.



You are at a fun & cute age- even your timeouts are adorable. You are goofy and love making us laugh with your funny behavior.



Your sweet hair is growing fast now, with little curls in the back that curl up more in the sweaty sun.



Your favorite sayings right now are: "Yo Yo" (yougurt), "Why?" and "What's that?"



You bring so much joy to my heart and this family. I love you!

My firstborn

You are so loving and concerned about others.



You are beautiful inside and out.



You are amazingly smart & whitty beyond your age.



You are curious and have a wonderful imagination.



You are goofy and fun to be around.



I love you so much, and you'll always be my baby.

Pregnancy Highlights: 12 weeks

Baby is the size of: a lime!

Symptoms: just tired! blessed i don't get sick.

Baby-related purchases? nope!

Maternity clothes? not yet. got the box out of the attic to do inventory. I like to stay in regular clothes as long as possible because I feel by the end I've worn those clothes so much!

Sleep: Napping everyday in the middle of the day when I can. On a bad routine of going to bed too late, napping... repeat. But I love the naps.

Fun moment this past week: My friend Gilly came to visit!

Movement: not yet. i get some stretch pains every once in a while.

Food cravings: Sugar. Anything. I feel like my appetite is pretty big.

Gender: ?? Thinking of not finding out this time!!! Can I do it?? I think I can! And can I talk Chris into it?

Belly Button in or out? In. It better be. haha!

What I miss: Taqueria Del Sol Margarita

Milestones: Almost through my first trimester!

Stretch marks: i hope not yet! haha

Weight gained: I don't have a scale. Guess I'll find out on the 23rd at my next appt & ultrasound.

What I am looking forward to: my next ultrasound & the beach at some point this summer.

Weekly Wisdom: Great message at church Sunday. SOOO many things I could quote on the message about fear & anxiety. "We fear because we are fighting for control of our lives." "Fear usually doesn’t make you stop believing IN God. It simply makes you stop believing God." We're in a great series of "Amazing Stories" and looking back at "kid stories" like David & Goliath and how truly amazing they are.

Bikes and Daredevil

These were taken about a month ago. We just found them on the camera.
We walked down to the end of our street where there is an old fountain (and possibly an old entrance to the zoo?) It's sort of abandoned and cool looking. It has a little turn around, perfect for little bike riding :) We went after dinner one night to get some energy out of two little girls...


Have I said before that Farrah is our little daredevil?


I LOVE this pic! This is an often used expression of hers...





pretty one of Bella... secret... Chris was stick fighting with Bella to get her close and lots of fun shots



Seeing these pictures reminds me that we need to use this after dinner activity more! :)

Summer Time = pool

It's HOT! In case you didn't know.

Going to the pool is quite the adventure (especially by myself - not sure if I'll do that again) with 2 kids. Farrah has NO FEAR as usual and it's funny that the lifeguards think that blowing their whistle is going to keep her from running. Straight to the deep end. So I chase her and Bella worries that I'm leaving her half the time. If the whistle worked, you better believe I'd be wearing one around my neck 24/7.

That also happened to be the Memorial Day Opening for our pool. I probably should have reconsidered going when I had to park at Kristy's and looked down to see this:

But how do you turn around in 100 degrees with two kids with their suits on? You can't. And, I was dying to get in, too.

The next time we went, we went as a family at night. Dad picked up a pizza and we ate at the pool and then swam around. It was wonderful!

Bella and I started swim lessons for her last week. I gotta get her comfortable going under.

Then TODAY, I tried out a new splash park around us. It's a whole new park, actually. It was great! The girls would get a little wet, then run to a playground, get hot, and run back to the water. Farrah didn't love the water splashing in her face, and she really just likes the thrill of running and me chasing her. But overall, it was a great new find for us for something to do (and super close to the house), not crowded at all, and just nice. I hope it stays nice! :)


And, we've been playing in the sprinkler a lot too :)


What have you been doing to stay cool? :)

News in our world...

And Bella will be a proud sister again :)


Dad and his girls


And our future little one. Due DEC 26th!!! Will probably induce a week early again, doctor says. Yippee!


For those of ya keeping track, that's an October, November and December baby. I left the doctor of course being overjoyed, but a huge feeling of just being blessed.

Garden progress

Since I know you are just dying to see how my garden and Chris' grass are going :)....

I have a Bell Pepper!! And a few more about to pop! I have no idea when to pick it. It grows more and more every day!


I could be wrong, but I think I'm going to have an abundance of cherry tomatoes. I can't wait! It has grown so tall and has buds all over it.


So my container garden is going well. Except for the bird or squirrel that keeps eating my ripe strawberries. And for one of the herbs that fell over in a storm. My other ones are doing great :)

And I think my Big Boy Tomatoes in the ground will do well, too. I cannot wait for some tomato sandwiches on white bread!!!

Chris' grass is AWESOME. Soft. We got a "reel" mower. So no gasoline. It makes no noise and isn't smelly! For some reason I am fascinated by it. Farrah, on the other hand, will lay down and the grass and scream if it's anywhere near her. It does require a lot more cutting with this grass, but Chris is enjoying it!