Baby Joey's story is really the story of 2012. I have thought about how to describe the last year and the only thing I can come up with is the most difficult, "good" year of my life. The year even started off mixed. Ed and I decided that our Christmas present to each other would be a trip to the Cotton Bowl when we found out that K-State was playing and Ed could get tickets through his FOX station. They were playing Arkansas and our great friends Dom and Amanda are huge Arkansas fans and we were hoping they would be able to come to Texas for the game since we hadn't seen them in WAY too long. They weren't able to come but we did get to go to the game with great friends (miss you Morgan!) and we had a blast! K-State lost but played well and we were excited that Arkansas fans seemed really great and we agreed that we may have to look into being Razorback fans in the future (foreshadowing!). About a month later, we found out we were going to have our third baby. We should have known then that the year would be crazy, but I'm getting ahead of myself... I couldn't wait to tell my friends and almost all of them responded the same way...(laughing) "Have you lost your minds?!" :) Why yes, yes we have. They were really happy for us--and really excited to have another source for all these crazy stories! There is a very good possibility, I would even say PROBability, that this child would grow up to be just like the other two. Absolutely insane. But three is the magic number!
We had always wanted three babies. We had talked about three kids even before we got engaged. But we had purposely put off the third child for several years because we couldn't afford it and it was looking like we were going to have to give up on the idea of three kids. Ed had just turned 40 and I was going to be 35 in March and we just didn't see it happening anytime soon. As Michaela and Jake were getting older, we also wondered if it was really a good idea to have another one of these little creatures. As with Michaela, God made the decision for us. We were super excited and scared out of our minds at the same time. Ed had never gotten the promotion we had been hoping for and our financial situation was not looking to change anytime soon...and that's when we boarded the roller coaster.
We had a nice little routine in Texas...all week was crazy, crazy, crazy, and busy, busy, busy, but on Wednesday evenings we would drop Michaela and Jake off at church for AWANA and Ed and I would go sit down and have dinner together. It was May 2nd and we had just found out that morning that our new baby was going to be a boy. We had already decided that his name would be Joseph Thomas after Ed's grandfathers and we were really glad to find out it was a boy because we didn't thing a girl would appreciate the name as she got older. (We had nothin' for girl names!) Anyway, we were eating dinner sans children, and Ed's corporate boss called. He reluctantly answered--he had been waiting for a call to find out when and where his next business trip would be and he did not want to go this time. He told his boss we were eating and could he call him back in 20 minutes. So we finished eating in a bad mood and left to pick up the kids at church. He called his boss back while he went in to pick them up and I called my good friend Stacey to talk about summer swimming lessons for the kids. Ed came back out and told me to hang up because we needed to talk. Now he knows when I'm talking to Stacey or Becky it is about IMPORTANT stuff. So for him to insist on interrupting like that I knew something was up. I was scared to ask. But I hung up and he looked at me and asked, "How do you feel about Little Rock?" It was the call we had been waiting for for two years. Ed had been going on "trips" fixing other stations and working hard for the company and he wanted to move up. His boss had called to let him know that the next day the General Manager from the Little Rock station would be calling him to talk about a job. It was unbelieveable. This was basically why we had been waiting to get pregnant. So it happened in the wrong order but he got his promotion that would put us in a better position to have another baby! He got the phone call on Thursday and the next Tuesday they offered him the job. He had to be in Little Rock to start work on June 4th. I wouldn't even be out of school until the 1st.
Now I said earlier that we should have known the year would be crazy... I am a math and science person and I like to find patterns in things. First of all, we moved both times I was pregnant before. In fact we moved twice while I was pregnant with Michaela! And second, all of us had been born in different states. Ed is from New York, I am from Kansas, Michaela is from North Carolina, and Jake is from Texas. We thought that both boys were going to be born in Texas...same town, same hospital, same doctor...no it was too simple for us, we have to make things more difficult than that. So we should have known, or at least suspected that we would be moving and that it would most likely be out of state. I have to admit I had thought about it but just laughed it off because it seemed like we were destined to stay in Beaumont. But here we were, I was five months pregnant and we would be moving to Arkansas over the summer. Remember when Ed and I had decided we may start following the Razorbacks...yeah. So I went to work on Wednesday and started telling my boss, coworkers, and AMAZING friends that I would be leaving at the end of the school year four weeks away. Jake was scheduled for swimming lessons the first two weeks of June so we decided that Ed would go ahead of us and stay in a hotel while I would keep the kids in Beaumont until the 15th when Jake's swimming was over. We put the house on the market and started packing.
In January I had made plans to take a trip over the summer. One of my best friends was getting married in Las Vegas at the end of June and I was going to be there. They were already teasing me because my first trip to Vegas and I was going to be six months pregnant. Of course the flight was booked out of Houston...and now I would be living in Arkansas. So two weeks after I took the kids to Little Rock, my mom drove down from Kansas and rode with me and the kids BACK to Beaumont so I could go to Vegas with the girls. In the two weeks we were in Little Rock, Ed and I had found an apartment and put down a deposit to move in on July 6th. So it worked like this...me, my mom, and the kids would go back to Beaumont on Wednesday. She would keep them there with all of their toys and familiar surroundings while I spent the weekend in Vegas. My step dad would drive to Little Rock from Kansas when he got off work on Friday and he and Ed would drive to Beaumont on Saturday. I would get home on Monday and we would all load the truck on Tuesday and Wednesday and drive our stuff back to Little Rock on Thursday and unload on Friday. Nice plan right? Well it worked out ok but Holy Cow! There was no food in the house when we got back to Beaumont so at 10:30 at night I went to the grocery store to get milk, cereal, and a few things to last the weekend. Michaela got sick Wednesday night and I was up with her coughing every hour all night. I got up to leave at 6am and left instructions and money with my mom to take her to the doctor as soon as the clinic opened Thursday morning and I went to pick up my friends and head to the airport. I had a GREAT time in Las Vegas...aside from a couple minor meltdowns because I felt guilty that my daughter was sick, we had no buyer for the house, I didn't have a job in Arkansas, and I was having fun and spending money. I think it was mostly hormones. Friday afternoon Stacey, Tiffany, and I walked all the way from Harrah's to the M&M store on the strip. (For those of you who are not familiar with Vegas imagine hiking from a hotel in Vegas to Arizona.) And it was 112 degrees that day. In the shade. Since Joey was with me in Vegas, I had to get him a souvenir so he got an M&M baby blanket. I got back to the hotel and I was exhausted! The stress and guilt of the aforementioned situation started to get to me and I called Ed and just started bawling. I couldn't even get out a full sentence. I cried on the phone to Ed for about 15 minutes but I had to hang up and splash some water on my face because I had to be at the bachlorette party downstairs in 10 minutes. (Don't worry Becky, I pulled it together and had a great time! Sometimes it's handy to have crazy hormones.) We had so much fun that weekend, I even got to see Celine Dion at Ceasar's Palace with my good friend Lois, it was AWESOME! The wedding was great and I got home Monday tired but glad for the weekend away. Then Ed mentioned the truck. He had reserved a 24ft truck for a three bedroom house. "Sweetie, you realize we have a LOT of crap packed into a FOUR bedroom house with a garage, right?" So he had to scramble around Tuesday morning trying to find a larger truck and Wednesday was July 4th and everything was closed. We were finally able to get one at 4pm. We had hired two guys to help us load the truck on Wednesday because I had thoughtfully planned it so I could not lift anything for these moves :) and my parents helped us get everything on the truck. Except that even though we got the biggest truck available, all of our stuff didn't fit. So as we got down to the last of the rooms and realized that we were going to have to leave some stuff, we had to decide what was really necessary and what we could live without...possibly for months. We left Thursday with a few boxes left in one room and a full garage. These things didn't make it to Arkansas until the end of October. Thank goodness we packed all of the baby stuff the first trip!
Once we got the majority of our stuff to Arkansas, I had the task of finding a new doctor, hospital, and pediatrician; getting the kids enrolled in school; finding a job for August; unpacking the boxes; and trying to get the kids involved in soccer, gymnastics, karate, Brownies, or some combination of these. Oh yeah, and remember I'm seven months pregnant, don't know anyone, and my husband has just been sent on another out-of-town business trip over the next weekend. Ed was leaving on Friday morning and Jake woke up with a 105 degree fever. Thank goodness I had asked a lady at the pool the day before for the number of a pediatrician. I called and they said to bring him in. Ed had to leave and I called him a couple of hours later to tell him Jake had pneumonia (again, he had it once when he was two...another story!). They gave him antibiotics and I sat with him all weekend. He started to get a little better Saturday morning but by Sunday afternoon he was laying listless on the couch. He wouldn't even sit up to eat. I was so worried about him! I felt like I was watching my baby slowly drowned and I couldn't do anything for him. I held him and cried Sunday evening and Monday I called the doctor back to find out what to do. His fever wouldn't stay down and he had been on the antibiotics all weekend. The doctor wanted to see him again. I took him back in Monday morning and his pulse oxygen level was only 90. They put him on any oxygen tank and called an ambulance to take him to the Children's Hospital downtown. He was admitted and I called Ed who was on his way home to tell him to come straight to the hospital. They were finally able to get him to respond to medicine and he got to go home on Wednesday. He told me "Mommy, I really like the nurse! I got to play video games and they brought me toys. I want to go back to the nurse!" He meant the hospital. I have tried to tell him he stayed at the "hospital" and the "nurse" took care of him. He still wants to stay at the nurse. I'm just glad we got to bring him home with us. Welcome to Arkansas!
Over the next month we enrolled them in school (where they were too full in Kindergarten and said we wouldn't know if Jake would get to stay there until after school started!), signed up for soccer, I got a job teaching Physical Science and Chemistry, and I found an OB doctor. The baby was doing great and was due in mid-September. Now we just had to wait for him to arrive. I expected him a little early since Jake had been but Joey had other ideas.
I went back to work August 9th with our first meetings. I had found a daycare that would take the big kids for an afterschool program if needed and we put Joey on the waiting list. Ed's mom was coming to stay with us from mid-August til after Christmas to help us get started with the new baby. She arrived and school started and we were getting ready for the new addition. Jake got to stay at the school where they enrolled and they were settling in great! I had a doctor's appointment every week after school started and we finally made it to my last day of work before baby time. I got off Friday and we were going to induce Monday morning, the 17th. So Monday came and mom and I went to the hospital while Ed took the big kids to school. Ed got to the hospital and we got all checked in and they started the prep work. It was about 8:30 when they started trying to put in the IV. Now I have mentioned before that I HATE needles. At that point I had already had two kids without epidurals because of my feelings about needles. The nurse is trying to put in the IV and she is digging around in my hand and can't get the needle in right. Apparently she hit a valve in the vein. Meanwhile I am starting to sweat and turn white, my stomach is rolling and I seriously think I am about to either get sick or pass out right there. I can have natural childbirth but I almost pass out when they try to put in an IV...go figure. So they get me some ice and she moves to the other hand. Great. Finally, the IV is in and they start the pitocin drip at 8:45. I asked for stadol at 9:30 and they gave me a half dose so I could get more later if needed but when I asked for more at 10:00 they said it was too late, it was time to get the doctor in there because the baby was coming. Nobody had expected it to go so fast! The doctor came in and checked on me then he left. I was a little alarmed because I was in intense pain, this baby needed the doctor here now! Me: "Where is the doctor?!" Ed: "He stepped out for a minute." Me: "Well he better get back here quick cuz I'm ready to get this over with!" Fortunately, he came back in about that time and Joey was born at 10:15. He was so sweet and the big kids were so excited to meet and hold him that afternoon!
The next day, the doctor asked me how I was feeling. "A little tired." He asked if I was ready to go home or if I wanted to spend another night in the hospital. Hmmm. Go home to my own bed where I have THREE crying kids, my husband, my mother-in-law, and have to help make decisions and take care of all of them...or stay in the hospital where they take the baby all night except when it's feeding time and they bring me good hot meals on a tray that I get to eat in bed while mom and Ed take care of the big kids without me. "I really don't feel so good doctor." He smiled and I stayed another night. Don't get me wrong though, mom and Ed were a HUGE help after we got home. He gets the big kids ready and off to school every morning and helps make sure they have all of their stuff the night before. And mom took care of the baby all day and even while I was home for eight weeks, she did all the cleaning and laundry and cooking. It was so amazing. I really got spoiled having her here. I really dreaded going back to work. I had a great time spending my days with mom and Joey. But I reminded myself that I go to work so we can keep the kids in soccer, and take them to special events, and so I don't start drawing crayon pictures directly on the walls depicting adults having conversations with other adults. It makes it easier.
Then we had a great holiday season. Thanksgiving was nice and most of our family was here for Christmas! My mom and step dad drove down on Christmas eve and we had a GREAT Christmas day. We opened presents and had lasagna...that's our tradition that started with Ed, Dom and I back in North Carolina...and then it snowed! It was the first time since 1926 that it snowed on Christmas in Little Rock. That was my grandpa saying hello from Heaven. When Ed and I had moved to North Carolina my grandpa was concerned about us being 2 hours apart and how we would deal with snowy weather when we had to travel. Ed assured him that it doesn't snow in North Carolina that much. Grandpa thought it was hilarious when two months later Raleigh had two inches of snow and the entire city shut down. Even Walmart was closed!! He bought us a snow shovel as a wedding gift. He wrapped it but then grandma had to give it to us at our wedding in August because grandpa passed away in May. We still have the shovel. Still wrapped in our bedroom. We are having a battle of wills with grandpa. We refuse to open the shovel because "we don't need it" and he keeps making sure it snows everywhere we go that it "doesn't snow". In Beamont it snowed two years in a row while we were there. They were the only two times my high school students ever saw snow. My teacher friends were calling and texting me in the middle of the night to show me the pictures of them and their miniature snowmen. Ok grandpa, I get it. It snows here. But so far we are winning, we still haven't HAD to open it! (Love you grandpa but keep trying!) Anyway, mom's flight got cancelled and she stayed two extra days during which Ed's dad, step mom, and one of his sisters came to visit also. They all left on the same day, my parents left five days later, and we were left to start our REAL lives with three kids.
2012 was a GREAT year, I will never regret any of it. We had amazing friends and family support, job changes/promotions, and a precious new family member all of which has forever changed (and improved!) our lives. We have strengthened bonds with friends and family that were completely unexpected and I think we realized how very, very important our friends and family are to us. We moved away from what was comfortable but in the process we learned how really special all of our relationships are. Even though we are far away, I want to make sure that we keep all of these special people in our lives, including the ones that were already miles from our home but close in our heart. So I want to take this opportunity to say to ALL of our friends and family, I love you. Kansas, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, Idaho, California, Arkansas and anywhere else you or we may travel...you are truly a blessing in our lives and the miles will not keep you from our hearts and our lives. It has been a hard year with challenges and triumphs but ultimately, here we are in 2013--all FIVE of us!--going strong and ready for more. And it's because of our faith in God, the support of our friends and family, and the love that we share for each other. So Joey, welcome to the family and family, welcome to next year!
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