Grateful For Steven

Steven has been the biggest blessing in my life. Especially the last couple of months. Well lets say the last year. I was so sick during my pregnancy that I pretty much laid on the couch for the first three months. Then I went on bed rest and then I had twins that I needed to give my attention to. Steven has stepped up and taken on the roll of both mom and dad and has pulled it off so gracefully. He cooks, cleans, and even does Presley's hair. Because the babies dropped below five lbs in their first 4 days of life I stayed at home with them and did not take them out. Steven took the kids to museums, playgrounds, cousin's houses to play, out to eat, etc. Steven, Britton and Presley all have a new stronger relationship and I love it! The Sunday after the twins were born Steven woke up and got Britton and Presley ready for church and they have never looked cuter! Thank you Steven for everything that you do for our family. You are our rock. I love you.

At home with 4 kids! Oh my!

I knew this was not going to be easy and that's for dang sure. But at least it is really cute!

So Blessed

The babies were so healthy and strong that they were able to come home after our two day stay in the hospital. We are still trying to figure everything out with two new babies and I am sure we will never completely "figure" it out but we are doing great. Here are some more pictures from the hospital.

The Fruits of my Labor

Wednesday May 20, 2009

Steven and I went to lunch today. I cheated. I was so sick of bed rest. I had to get out for a little while. I had been gone all of about 5 minutes before I started having contractions. They were weak and were not coming consistently so I ignored them while we had lunch. As I drove back to my parents house to pick up the kids they started to get stronger. I picked up the kids and let my Mom take over driving and we went to the doctor. For some reason I got embarrassed when Dr. McIntyre said that I was not in "active labor" and that I should go home and wait. I have never gone into labor on my own so I was disappointed with this news. For some strange reason I really wanted to go into labor on my own at least once. The contractions stayed all day but never grew stronger. at 2 am May 21st I woke up in pain. I was having strong contractions. I began timing them and they started growing stronger and very consistent. I decided that it was time to wake Steven up. I walked to go to the bathroom really quick before waking him up but didn't make it before my water broke. I yelled out to Steven what had happened. He jumped out of bed and acted like he was going to start getting ready but when I walked back into our room he was sound asleep again. Obviously he wasn't really awake when I had told him that I was in labor and that we needed to go! Since I had never gone into labor on my own I didn't realize how quickly you need to get to a hospital once your water breaks. So I took my sweet little time getting ready and waking up Steven. I called my parents to come get the kids, etc. Well two hours later we were finally driving to the hospital. What was I thinking? The pain had gotten so bad I could no longer talk during a contraction. I was already scheduled to have a c-section on June 1st due to Kennedy being breach. But they were not expecting me. I called and found out that my doctor was not on call and would not be at the hospital. I was so upset. It took an hour for them to check us in and get the O.R. ready for me. By this time I was already dialted to 7-8. I was dying. Why had I ever wished this upon myself? It was so much better being induced and having medicine from the get-go! I had tears streaming down my face from the pain and from the fear. My doctor had gotten a phone call that I had gone into labor and came in. I was so thankful. I did not want anyone else to perform this c-section than him. Finally it was time. I was wheeled into the O.R. and was given a spinal. It only took about 2 minutes before I could no longer feel the pain. Hooray! They invited Steven into the room and I calmed down so much. He held my hand as the began. I continued to cry. I was so scared. Within about 20 minutes I was able to meet my girls for the very first time. Brooklyn Hinckley was born at 6:54am May 21, 2009 and Kennedy Snow came just 2 minutes later. They were perfect. Weighing in at 5lbs 4ounces and 5lbs 8ounces. There were no complications. We are so blessed. Steven was able to hold them as they walked the girls down to the nursery. I had to wait until the doctors finished up with me and I had almost finished in the recovery room before I was able to hold the girls for the first time. (about an hour total) They first brought in Kennedy. She was so tiny! I fell in love immediately. Later Steven came in holding Brooklyn. He had spent the last hour with them and had been able to look at them closely and notice all their differences. They are not identical and look completely different. Brooklyn has more olive skin and dark hair and dark blue eyes. She looks a little more like a "Wright." Kennedy has blonde hair and blue eyes and looks exactly like her big brother! Brooklyn looked bigger but actually weighs less. She was on bottom and was very swollen, poor thing. I am so blessed with the most beautiful little girls who arrived to earth healthy and safe.

Bed Rest

March 9, 2009

The doctor had warned me that most "twin" pregnancies end up on bed rest. Starting March 9th until the day I gave birth on May 21st I was hanging out at my house, sitting in a recliner, while everyone else had to do everything for me. You may think that it doesn't sound like a bad gig...this bed rest thing. It really isn't fun at all........I promise! At first it wasn't bad because I was in desperate need of rest. But after about a week watching everyone else get to pick up my kids and cuddle with them, watching others clean my house while I sat feeling guilty about it, watching Steven work all day then come home to cook, give the kids baths, put them to bed then have to come entertain me.........it got old real quick. I set all kinds of goals of things that I would accomplish with so much time on my hands. None of those goals were accomplished. I was too tired to do anything! I took about 3 naps per day and still went to sleep on time each night. I am so grateful for my parents who sacrificed their own personal lives for me for over 3 months. I am so grateful to Steven's parents who left their own home in Gilmer to come help me and the kids. Nana played everyday with Britt & Pres and they loved every second of it! Thank you to my friends who cleaned my house, made us dinner and came to visit me! Bed rest paid off. I made it to 36 weeks before going into labor! Thanks to all who helped during this time.

The Big News

Like I said.......since I am using this as my journal...I will be going back in time and telling all the fun times of this year. So back to January we go.

January 28th, 2009

I had been waiting for this day for the past 4 months. I was finally going to find out what in the world was making me so dang sick......a boy or a girl. Steven met me at the doctor's office, both excited to find out what we were having. I laid on the table ready for my ultrasound. In the back of my mind I had been thinking that there was just no way I was having just one baby. I looked like I was 3 months pregnant the day I found out I was pregnant. Then later on as we were car shopping I kept telling Steven "I don't know if we can get this one......what if it ends up being twins." He would laugh it off, hoping and praying that it wouldn't be! So here I was laying on this table while Steven talked to the ultrasound tech who had recently moved here from China. I could barely understand most of what she was saying but whatever...all I cared about was hearing "boy or girl" and "healthy." She put the camera thing up on my belly but continued talking to Steven. The moment she put the camera on my belly I said "OH MY GOODNESS!" The very first image was two little heads. Neither Steven or the Tech was looking at the screen and when I burst out "Oh my goodness" they both looked but she moved the camera so the image was no longer showing. I thought "what if that wasn't two heads and I'm going to make a fool of myself?" So when they asked what I was so excited about, instead of telling them what I saw I just said "I just love ultrasounds!" She did the whole ultrasound and had told us it was a girl. I just laid there the whole time not saying anything. I knew I had seen two heads but for some reason she had only found one baby so I thought I was the crazy one. As she was about to walk out she remembered that she had not gotten the measurements of the baby's legs. So she sat back down and started again. As she was looking at the legs she looked up at as very confused and with a very strong Chinese accent she said "Why your baby have so many legs?" I thought Steven was going to die! He stood up and just said "What?!!!!" She slowly moved the camera down which revealed another little baby! She said "ah..you not know you have twins?" I started laughing and was very relieved that I wasn't crazy! I knew I saw two heads! At that point she had to go get a doctor to start the ultrasound all over. In all it took over 2 hours as they had to try to get measurements for each baby as they moved from up to down to left to right, etc. Those little girls would not stay still for anything! Steven and I were in complete shock yet at the same time it was if I had known all along. I cried (of course) and I think that Steven may have shed a few tears out of pure fear! Just kidding he didn't actually cry. He did go completely silent though! Then he stood up and paced the room for a while. Then he sat back down. Then he stood to pace again! I wish I could have had Steven's reaction on film! It was like something you would have seen in a movie! We waited to find out if baby number 2 was a little boy or girl. We were so excited to here that baby number 2 was also a girl. We both left the office in complete shock! Both very excited & scared all wrapped into one! We each went to our own cars and drove away. I think it took about 3 seconds before Steven had called me saying "twins!?! really?" I first called my mom. I had originally told myself that I wouldn't tell her until I saw her in person 15 minutes later. But the moment she answered I got all choked up and said "I'm having twin girls!" I called my Dad and he answered obviously in a big hurry and said "Was I right?" (he had guesses it would be a girl) I said "nope." He said "really, its a boy?" I said "nope." COnfussed he said "Well what is it then?" When I told him "twin girls" it took me about 5 minutes to convince him that I was not lying! Finally convinced he said "oh my word I am so excited!" Next call was to Naomi who also did not believe me but once convinced started crying and said "Nat, that is what you have always wanted!" I have wanted twin girls since I was about 13 when I started babysitting for newborn twins across the street. The calls continued all day long. I went back and forth from being excited to absolutely scared out of my mind. I had already been really scared about having my third child. I just didn't see how I was going to be able to handle it. Then to find out I was not just having my third but also my fourth was a bit overwhelming! It was a very exciting and exhausting day. For the next couple of days all I did was daydream of these sweet little girls that would soon be joining our family. I am so blessed by these girls and love them more than I could have possibly imagined.