HAPPY ONE-YEAR BIRTHDAY GIRLS!

Holy Cow! 9 Months ago, I never would have believed that this day would come. But here we are... tomorrow, my babies are one-year old. Jeremy wants to wake them up at the time they were born (6:01 a.m.) and sing "Happy Birthday to you." I'm gonna be honest, that is probably not going to happen - but it is a cute idea.

I remember one of the many times I was hospitalized for going into premature labor, and a social worker came into the room to ask me, "On a scale from 1 to 10, how planned were these children, and how do you feel about having children?" Obviously, she was screening me to see if there was any reason I had resentment/did not want/was not ready for the girls. I had to laugh, "Oh, they were very planned - and EXTREMELY wanted."For those of you that don't know the story (and because I am using my blog as a journal), I will tell a quick recap of how these little embryos in a petri dish came to be. *I will not be offended if you do not wish to read all this jazz.*

Rewind to Jeremy and my second date (no we were not trying to make babies back then, if you think that is where this is going). He sat me down and wanted to have a talk. It was then, that I learned something vague about not having children, jacked up sperm, etc, etc..... O.K. Thank you. I was just looking for a free dinner and a good night, but thanks for sharing. Fast forward to one night when Jeremy and I were playing a dating game, and he was asked "What is Britni's biggest fear." He guessed something silly like cockroaches when my true love, Stacia, pipped up and said, "No, it's not being able to have kids." Jeremy went silent the rest of the night, and I couldn't place what had turned his mood around. We had a talk that night where I learned more. He carried a genetic disorder. In brief, this "balanced translocation" messes with chromosomes 7 and 20 resulting in multiple birth defects and death. Our little nephew Hunter, passed away from it two years after we were married. After seeing the pain that my brother and sister-in-law had to go through, and the hurt from losing such a perfect little guy, we knew there had to be more options. We learned that one could do in vitro with PGD (Preimplantaion genetic diagnosis.) Which basically means that you would do all the shots to stimulate your eggs, take out the eggs, fertilize them with "the sperm", and then biopsy one cell from the embryo and ship that back east where a lab can use fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to tell us what embryos we should transfer. Whew! I know that is a lot, and that is the condensed version! We knew the odds were against us, but went for it anyways! So, you can now see the humor when the worker asked me if they were planned!

Here is a little picture tribute to the babies formally known as Twin "A" (Kennedy) and Twin "B" (Bailey) ....

Kennedy Jaine Nelson
4/13/2007
6:01 a.m.
(Named Kennedy after her Grandma Kristy's maiden name)

Kennedy the "tummy time expert." I remember going to church when she was this little and she would lay on a blankie on her tummy. People would come up to me and ask me how I got her to do it. Apparently no one else has kids that like "tummy time." She loved it, especially when she got the hang of holding her head up and looking at the bright colors on her blanket and toys.





Kennedy the "food lover." O.K., so the first time we fed her rice cereal, she screamed bloody murder like we were trying to poison her. But once she realized that it was food, and food is good, she became a big fan. In fact, she now gets so excited for meal time that I can hear her legs kicking and her screaming while I am trying to get it ready. Obviously, I am just not fast enough.


Kennedy the "happy hygienist." She LOVES to brush her teeth. Awesome.

Bailey Graice Nelson
4/13/2007
6:01 a.m.
(Named Bailey after her Grandma Sally's maiden name)

Bailey the "sleeping angel." Yes, she was an angel... when she slept! Boy, what an awakening experience into motherhood, not only did I have two babies, but Bailey had acid reflux. That made for a very unhappy, needy awake baby. As tired as and frustrated as I ever got, all I had to do was look at the little sweet face, and it seemed to be worth it.




Bailey the "happy model." From a very young age, this little girl sure could smile. And as she got a little older it seemed as though she was posing for the camera. Every time I got the camera out, she would grin and resume her "ta-da" position!







Bailey "the ponderer." She is always in thought (and sometimes dazing out). She is growing into a very independent girl who loves to explore the house and use all of her 5 senses to get to know her world better.

We can't believe they have been here a year.

We love you girls - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Love, Mom and Dad