Sunday, March 24, 2013

Saved by the Grandson

Well, I caught a cold.  That means that I can't be around the brand new babies.  I will survive.  I am a mature responsible adult and can handle waiting.

But it did mean that I also could not do the annual Quilt Show the way I wanted:  which was all day, every day, for three days and everyone at home survives without me.  Thursday, which was set up day, I turned in my quilt, confirmed that no one wanted to work with a sickie (especially the day before the show opened!) and left.

Friday I picked up my grandson (Lindsey) for preschool, dropped him off, and helped open the show.  But I kept away from everybody.  After 1 1/2 hours I left, picked up the grandson, brought him home, and went home myself and took a nap.  Returned to the quilt show, got fabric for the twins' quilts...which was the whole point of the show this year.  So all was not lost.

Friday night my daughter informs me that I have given my cold to the grandson and he is coming over to my house on Saturday so he won't give it to 2 week old babies.

Saturday morning I drop the money box off at the quilt show, and cough all the way home in the car.   It is a sunny day, so Lindsey and I go for the UV radiation cure and play outside.  He grabs a 3 foot long branch, declares it to be an elephant gun, and so we went on a Lion Hunt all around the backyard.  For those who don't know it, it is a chant that is repeated:

    Going on a Lion Hunt (going on a lion hunt)
    I'm not scared (I'm not scared)
    I've got my gun by my side  (I've  got my gun by my side)
    And my bullets too.  (And my bullets too)

And then there are obstacles that you can't go around and have to go through:  grass, rivers (which was actually a hose), mountains, trees...and we added a woodpile, the slide, whatever.  Then we came to a cave (the garden shed)

   Coming to a cave (coming to a cave)...can't go over it...can't go around it...gotta go in it.
   It's a Lion!  Run! 

At this point, Lindsey makes gun noises and says "Don't worry, grandma, I shot it!"


Monday, March 11, 2013

They are here!


 
 
My daughter Laurie does not have easy pregnancies.  With Lindsey, she had morning sickenss and high blood pressure problems.  With Mika it was morning sickness and gestational diabetes.  And she always has morning sickness, I don't think I mentioned that yet.  My daughter has always had a queasy stomach, so when she gets pregnant morning sickness is a given.   And it doesn't end at 3 months or 5 months or when the doctor says it is going to end.  For that matter, it doesn't  confine itself to morning either!

So, last summer when she got pregnant again, I thought "Oh no, here we go again!"

And then we found out there were twins.  (Most ultrasounds look like snow to me, this one looked like a pair of eyeballs.  Even the uninitiated could determine the number of babies!)  She is now in a high risk category.  Oh.  Good.

Everytime she went to the doctor, she came back with something new that could go wrong.  For a whole month she was paranoid about spina bifida and drank lots of orange juice, some of which she did not throw up.  One time she actually came back relieved, because they were the same weight (ultrasounds can now determine the weight of the babies!!!), and now I found out that twins should be the same weight or one hogs all the nutrition and the other fails to thrive.

She called me at 3 in the morning in December wanting to go to the emergency room.  That is a 45 minute drive.  I refused to stay with her, instead I went back to bed.  She called me back at 7, saying everything is OK.  I drove her home, then went to preschool where a parent (one is pregnant and one has a "job," so that means me) gets to help once a month and guess what day it was and guess who was sick and wasn't even there!!!  (That was the day we had a really big windstorm and power outages and half the class wasn't there, but I still had to stay.  But I complain too much.  I enjoy it, mostly because I don't have kids that age at home all the time.)

High blood pressure was also a problem, but it was strange.  The babies would cut off blood flow to the legs and affect the readings.  I think that was two more trips to the hospital.

So, when she called Monday March 4th (happy birthday to my brother and sister, who are twins) at 9 in the evening and said she had contractions and severe backpain, I planned to drop her off, get some sleep and drive her home at oh dark thirty.

At eleven she texted me one word:  overnight.  OK, I get to sleep!

To make a long story short (or at least shorter), by Thursday they had decided to keep her until the babies were born.  They finally did decide she had Pregnancy Induced Hypertension (high blood pressure).  Friday night, Chris moved into her room and Lindsey to our house.  Saturday night at 8:30 we talked to Laurie and nothing was happening.  We put Lindsey to sleep.

Laurie called at 11:15 (or 12:15 if you already moved the clocks forward) and announced the arrival of two healthy boys.  She actually sounded perky, probably because she could now breathe!

The rest is in Lindsey's words, as he ran into preschool with the above pictures:

"These are my babies!  This is Lachlann, with the glasses.  And the other is Olif.  He is eating his fingers.  Mommy had a 'pointment and the doctor opened the door and let them out!"