Wednesday, June 24, 2015

So Much to Report

Happy 18 weeks of gestation, little ones!! You're approximately 9 inches from head to toe and weigh 9 oz. Good job, babies!! Keep up the good work!!

So, I've been out of the house two times since the last time I posted, but the last week has actually flown by! We have been blown away by the kindness you all have shown to us and are so, SO overwhelmed and grateful. So many of you have donated to our YouCaring account (which is so very helpful and incredibly generous of you anyway, but especially now that the clock is officially ticking for my time of employment), sent care packages, brought meals, sent flowers and kind messages, have volunteered to take me to appointments, offered to take Jeremiah on play dates, etc. Truly. There are no words for our gratitude. 


Jeremiah's class made me this amazing "we're thinking of you" poster that he was so proud of and couldn't wait to hang in my room "so you can see it all the days, mommy." Seriously? I can't even.


A couple of other fun things that have made the time pass is a weekend visit from my mom, sister in law, and nieces as well as a beautiful in-home shower hosted by my other sister in law and mother in law for Nick's family. It was so fun to have so many aunts, cousins, etc. in our home, but being horizontal on the couch for the duration of it was so super weird. Do you know how hard it is to open presents from your back?! :) I did get to sit up to eat and take pictures, but other than that - flat on my back. But look at all these beautiful faces from the bed rest company I've been getting. Wouldn't you want to sit up too?!


Hallie and Jeremiah taking selfies like teenagers. Ah. I die a little.


Sweet baby Lydia. Nick's sister's baby girl who also came to help her
mommy and Gma throw such a lovely shower.


Bed rest is the best rest when you've got snuggle buddies like this.



While Sara (my SIL) and my mom were here, we got quite a bit done on the nursery. Nick's family showered us with so many wonderful gifts and important things that we needed that we were able to get a good jump on the babies' room while my incredibly talented seamstress sister in law was here to help. 


Sara made those wall hangings while she was here. Seriously. So talented, right?


She also placed all 36 dots on the wall while I laid on the floor and told her, "left a little. Up a little. No, maybe back down a little. Woah, perfect." 36 times. Basically she saved my marriage before it even got in trouble by not making this be a
 project Nick had to do for me. :)


Kristi and Debbie bought the paper lanterns and lights for the shower and then for us to use in the nursery. Perfect, right?!?


Nick's cousin, Allison, made these adorable clipboards that look perfect between 
the closet and the door.

My parents are bringing Hallie and Natalie's old changing table back with them when they come this weekend, and Sara also made valances for both of the windows that Papa Steve will hang while he's here, and then we'll be almost done. Just need to get a glider to put in that corner where the chair is now and then wait for some babies to snuggle in it. Seriously, babies. We'll wait. Don't you rush. Keep on cookin'. That nursery will be ready for you in the fall.

Speaking of the babies rushing to get out, we got some sad news again at the doctor this morning. The trap door (I just really can't bring myself to put the technical term on the internet, so if you don't know what I'm talking about, maybe ask a friend? Or your mom? Or just imagine it to mean whatever you want it to?) is getting shorter and is actually about 10mm shorter than it needs to be. They measure it over the course of a few minutes, and the longest it was today was shorter than the shortest it was two weeks ago when he put me on bed rest. And at that point it was contracting and relaxing, so it was 38mm at some points and 28mm at some points. Today it was consistently 28mm or shorter, which isn't good. Dr. Grant has increased the two medicines I'm taking at home and also added an injection that I'll get every week when I go see him (wohoo! A shot in the buns! My favorite!). He was very honest that this was the last line of defense and after this, there are no other drugs he could offer me. So, I'm upping my bed rest game. It's been really hard to stay flat when physically I'm feeling so good. But, the image of sweet Mavis pushing on and bumping up against the trap door for 5 minutes today is burned in my mind, and the reality that 28mm is all that's separating her from the safety of my uterus and the outside world where she cannot survive is scary enough to keep me planted. 

Bed rest has been a lesson in humility for sure, but it's obviously time to swallow my pride and not get up to greet everyone who brings a meal, drops by with lunch, or comes to say hello. Which is so counter-intuitive and goes against every ounce of hospitality in my bones, but these babies' lives very literally depend on it, so I will do it (and will ask that you remember that a fist bump is now the equivalent of a hug in this house, so please know how loved you are when you come over and receive one.). :)

As always, please know how very honored and humbled we are by the love we have received. Even knowing that you are reading this post, following along on our journey, and praying for us has meant the world to us and we often find ourselves saying, "how did we get so lucky? How do we even begin to properly thank the people who have gone out of their way to care for and bless us?!?" and the answer is that we can't. There is no possible way we can thank you enough, but please know that when these babies get here safely, you all will have played a HUGE part in being God's hands and feet to make it happen. We love you. We're grateful for you. And we praise God for the gift of your friendship.

Monday, June 15, 2015

They have names!!

I'm kind of nervous to make this post - what if you hate the names we chose?! What if WE hate the names we chose?! What if they come and we're like, "oh, no. You're definitely not a Frank. You're a Tom."?!? What if Jeremiah changes mind and decides that we're either naming them after the Turtles or he's moving out? This is a lot of pressure for someone who is on the emotional edge already. So, maybe just lie to us and tell us you love them?!? Thanks. You guys are the best. :)

Without further ado...please meet:


              Mavis Virginia              Amos Ward              Oliver Charles            Lena Diane  

Mavis - Songbird. 1 Chronicles 16:23 "Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Tell of His salvation from day to day." We pray Mavis will know and love Jesus and will sing of the His goodness all the days of her life. And also that she has a better voice than her mommy and daddy, because if we're going to have a family band (Nick's life-long dream!), then someone's going to have to carry a tune around these parts.

Virginia - My dad's precious aunt who taught him to value education and love baseball, and also Nick's maternal grandma who we both just love.


Amos - Carried by God. Amos 5:24 "Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." We hope this little man loves justice, fights for those less fortunate than him, and loves God with all his heart. And also, his daddy is a lawyer, so we like just things around here.

Ward - There are four generations of first-born Wilson men with Ward as a middle name, the last two being my dad and my brother, Cameron. Cameron has two precious daughters and didn't get the chance to pass down Ward, so we asked he and my dad's permission to use it for Amos. We hope Amos is as awesome as these two men. They are truly two of the greatest.


Oliver - Peaceful. Matthew 5:9 "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God." We pray Oliver is known for loving people well and seeking to bring peace wherever he goes. We also have five children now so someone's going to have to be the peacemaker in this family.

Charles - Nick's dad's favorite cousin, who was like another brother to him and an uncle to Nick. A sweet man who passed away early in our marriage but who left a mark on my husband for his kindness and integrity.


Lena (Lee-na) - Bright shining light. Matthew 5:16 "Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and praise your Father in heaven." We hope that Lena is a light in this world and that people would know God because they know her. Lena is also a derivative of "Helen" who is my maternal grandmother and one of my most favorite people on the planet.

Diane - This is my middle name, but more importantly, it's my amazing mama's name. To know my mom is to love her. She is truly one of the most incredible people I've ever known, and I pray I am half the mommy to my kiddos as she has been to me. Seriously, I could not have asked for a better example of selflessness, generosity, and kindness than I've been given in her.

And, just in case you don't know the full story on J-Man, his name is not without meaning and family significance too.

Jeremiah - God will lift up. Jeremiah 1:5 "I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb, before you were born I set you apart." Though we didn't get to choose this name for him, it's absolutely perfect, so we felt no need to change it at 2.5 when we adopted him. God knew the story he was writing for Jeremiah long before we even knew he existed and we are so, SO grateful that we get to be a part of that beautiful story. We know God set him apart to do amazing things and we can't wait to see what all that entails. He's already changed these two lives for the better and we are so thankful.

Scott - We did go ahead and change Jeremiah's middle name to Scott when we adopted him. Scott is both Papa Randy and Daddy's middle name, and there aren't two better men for this little boy to be named after. They are men of integrity and kindness, both known for their character and their faithfulness to their families, friends, and ultimately the Lord. If Jeremiah turns out anything like the Captain (the grandpa name Nick gave him since he retired as a captain from the highway patrol, which is pretty awesome and deserves to be celebrated!) and his Daddy, he'll be doing alright.



So there you have it. Five kiddos with five beautiful names - four of whom we are pleased to introduce you to today and can't wait to meet in September!

Friday, June 12, 2015

A better day.

So, already bed rest is not my favorite thing I've ever done. Things I like to do: Move. See people. Clean. Go to work. Run errands. Do crafts. Wrestle with my four year old ninja turtle. Things I don't like to do: Lay still. So, obviously, this is working out super great for me and I'm so excited for the next 14 weeks. :)

However, it's totally worth it. These babies are NOT allowed to come yet (did you hear that, babies?! YOU CAN'T COME YET!!!), and I went back to Dr. Grant this afternoon and the medicine is working! Yay, science!! I'm not having contractions today, which was the main concern, but all of the babies look great too. One of the two medicines he put me on to stop the contractions might affect the babies' fluid levels, in which case we would have to quit taking it. But for today they all looked great, and I'll go back again Tuesday to take another look. Which, I'm not complaining about. 1. It gets me out of the house (it's a 30 minute drive into Columbia, which means every time I go, I'm going to get at least two hours away from my bed...huzzah!), and 2. I don't think I'll ever get tired of looking at those sweet peas. They are just so cute!!! And totally alien-eque right now, but still. I love them. Wide-set eyes and all.

My mom is here this week (all of the parents came for the party on Wednesday and then Grandma Diane stayed to help for a while and GMa Debbie is coming to take over for a few days next week! We are SO blessed to have rock star parents!!) so she got to see the babies today. I'm not sure Annie was ready for both of us in that room at the same time. When Nick comes with me, he's calm and collected and says normal things and asks normal questions. I, on the other hand, talk to the babies, squeal with delight when they move, and ask ALL the questions. And well, the apple doesn't fall too far from the Wilson tree, so you can imagine what that 30 minutes might have been like today while Annie was doing her thing to get measurements. Ah, bless her. She humored us and laughed with us, but I'm pretty sure she has to think we're idiots. I'm excited for Debbie to get to come with me on Tuesday...she'll be super delighted to see them too, but will probably be less obnoxious about it than Grandma Diane and I.

In other news, Jeremiah is handling bed rest pretty well so far. Although, he's kind of a tiny drill sargent about it. Nick explained it to him that in order to keep the babies safe and healthy, mommy has to stay on her bottom until they come. Which will be a long time. So we have to be gentle with her and we can lay next to her, but we can't jump on her and she can't get up to play. He heard, "Mommy must be on her bottom at all times." He came to get in bed with us yesterday morning and I was laying on my side, facing away from him. And we had this conversation:

"Mommy, you have to stay on your bottom all the time now, don't you?"
"Yup, buddy. That's right."
"Then why is it sticking up in the air?!"

Valid question.

Then at dinner, I came to the table (Dr. Grant says I can eat with my family, so no judging, judgers), and before I could sit down he was standing right behind me, poking me in the buns and saying, "Oh! Mommy! Your bottom! It's up!! Get it down! Right now!" Between he and my mom, I assure you I'm not cheating. At all. :)

So, all in all, a much better day today. My mom went to get me yarn yesterday and I'm about to get started crocheting some baby blankets...now that I know I've got TWO daughters and TWO more sons on the way, I've got some work to do!!! :)

Thank you so much for your prayers, encouragement, and support. We are continually in awe of how good our people are to us!!

And finally, a few more pictures from the other night...


Look at these two best buddies. Ah. I just love them.


I was maybe irrationally excited for a girl.


And everyone else knew how much I wanted a girl.


And then I got another one. But seriously. Can you imagine being about as girly-girl as they come and living with SIX boys?!? I would have loved every single one of them, but I'm pretty jazzed to have two little princesses in the mix to put bows and tutus on. I can't lie. :)





Wednesday, June 10, 2015

What a day!

What an emotional roller coaster this day has been! I was so, so nervous all day...which, I always am on ultrasound day, but the pressure was on today because my dear, sweet friends from small group planned the most lovely gender reveal party for us. But of course, because I'm super impatient and couldn't wait any longer than we already have, I made them plan it for tonight. Three hours after our appointment. So what if something was wrong with one of the babies? What if they didn't cooperate? What if we couldn't tell for sure what they were? We would have less than three hours to either adjust to/deal with bad news or cancel the party because we had nothing to reveal. So, naturally, I was a nervous wreck.

But we got to the appointment, the babies were all healthy and (eventually!) cooperated, and we were able to have the party tonight!!

So, are you ready for this?

A - Girl.

B - Boy.

C - Boy.

D - Girl.

We are over the moon. We can't believe it. Two of each!! The best news ever.

Of course you probably want to know how it happened, and you totally should want to know, because we literally have the best friends in the whole world who put so much thought into how this party happened.

We got to our appointment at 3:00 and after Annie did all her measuring (and I breathed a sigh of relief that all of the babies were healthy and had heartbeats), she turned our screen off so we couldn't cheat and then found each baby's gender on her screen. We called my friend, Kali, and Annie stepped outside to tell her the genders so that she and the girls could go to work getting the reveal part of the party ready. They filled 8 black balloons with either pink, purple, blue, or green paint and then pinned the pink and purple ones to girl canvases and the blue and green ones to boy canvases. Then Jeremiah got to pop each balloon to show us, one canvas at a time, what each baby was.

Here's how the amazing thing went down:


Sheer joy that we at least had one of each.


Insane relief that they were an even split. And also much laughing that I had them exactly backwards (I was convinced A and D were boys and B and C were girls. This is going to take a while to get used to.)


Our family. Three boys. Two girls. This mama is beside herself.

So now, some bummer news. After Annie left, Dr. Grant came in to tell me that I'm already starting to have contractions and am now officially on bedrest. No work. No errands. No fixing up baby nurseries. No playing with my sweet preschooler who will have no concept of why this is necessary. Just laying on my back, trying to remember that this the best thing for the babies and that getting them here as healthy as possible is my first priority. I'll be honest. I bawled. Like, before we even left the office and then the whole way home from Columbia (have I mentioned that my husband is a saint?!?). I was just completely, totally, emotionally unprepared for that news. I just really thought I had another month in me. We knew this day was coming, but we've been so blessed to have so many good reports that I didn't see this being the day he would say I needed to get in my bed and stay there. I'm allowed to get up to eat, shower occasionally, and use the restroom. Other than that, Dr. Grant's instructions were that "your job is to be as lazy as possible. This will be the hardest work you've ever done." And from what I've heard from other mamas who've had to be on bedrest, it totally will be. But for now, at least I get to do it at home and can see my people. And if being as lazy as possible keeps me here and not in the hospital, I will do it. Don't get me wrong, I'm probably gonna pout about it. But I'll do it. For 14 weeks. Ugh. See? Pouting.

Ultimately, great news today. Healthy babies, two of each gender, and an amazing group of friends, co-workers, and family who rallied around us tonight to celebrate the good news and encourage us in the bad news. We are blessed.

I'm exhausted and probably incoherent at this point. I'll post more later (Lord knows I'm gonna have some time!), but for now, please just know how much we appreciate all of the love and support you all have shown us. And also, we're probably gonna start taking you up on offers of bringing us food and playing with our kid. :)

Sunday, June 7, 2015

And So It Begins...

Well, baby preparations are in full swing over here in Mid-MO, people. Gma and the Captain (Nick's parents) found two cribs in amazing shape at a garage sale, Aunt Sara (my sister in law) found two awesome bouncy seats at another garage sale, some friends brought over their exersaucer, and I've created a registry. Oh, and also this...



We did it. We bought a minivan. I desperately wanted to avoid being a minivan mom (I'll be honest, it's pure vanity. I really wanted an SUV, because they're cool. And I want to be cool.), but when you go from one to five children in a matter of months, some of these things get decided for you. So, there she is. And I'll admit it. We've had it for 24 hours, and I'm already in love. The doors open themselves, the captains' seats in the middle flip all the way forward for easy access to dropping infant seats into their bases in the back row, and there's a DVD player for big brother's sanity if babies are crying. Here we are bringing her home yesterday:


Obviously we feel and look pretty cool. Except not. We've just decided to embrace the weirdness. We were pretty weird to begin with, but now we will ALWAYS be the weird family with the quads, so, we're just embracing it. Starting with loving being a minivan family. And Jeremiah loves it because it has a "show watcher" - although, this is his face when he was counting the seats in it today and made the connection that we are going to fill every one of them once the babies get here:


Seriously. I die. This kid has us in stitches on a regular basis. He decided that his favorite baby was going to sit next to him and the rest will have to be in the back. When I asked him how he would decide, he said, "easy. The one we name Raphael. Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo will go in the back." I hope he's not crushed when we don't actually name the babies after the turtles. I guess that's a bridge we'll cross we when we get there.

In other news, this is a big week in our house! On Wednesday we will be 16 weeks along and get to find out genders!! We are pretty excited to know that important piece of the puzzle. I feel like I can't really get ready for them until I know how many of each gender we're having - I promise I know that we need more than cribs and bouncy seats! I'm also really excited to nail down names and be able to call them each by their little name instead of their letter.

BUT! Before June 10 was baby gender day, June 10 was already an incredibly important day in the Beydler house - it's our family birthday! The day Jeremiah got to come live with us forever. This Wednesday we not only celebrate knowing how many little brothers and sisters he will have, we also celebrate the good gift we've been given in having this amazing little human in our family for two years now.


When I look back at that picture and think about how far we've come, I'm amazed. Adopting a toddler and moving two hours away from all our friends and family just 14 days later was absolutely one of the hardest things I've ever done. But honestly, two years later, I can't imagine our life without him, and the hard parts are a distant memory that don't even seem real some days. In the moments when I am terrified about how we're going to love and raise and bond with four itty bitty babies, I am comforted in knowing that God knew exactly what he was doing in bringing Jeremiah into our family when he did, and he knows exactly what he is doing in bringing these tiny nuggets into our family too. Happy Gotcha Day, sweet baby. We are so thankful that you are the one who first made us "mommy and daddy" and praise God for the incredible gift of being your parents. We are totally smitten with you and can't believe He chose us to raise you. What a treasure you are.

Stay tuned...the next time I post we'll know how many boys and how many girls are joining our family this fall!!