My Favorite Ornaments, 2009 Edition

The other day BFF Chrissy said she was making a list of her favorite ornaments and I thought, "Hmmmm, that sounds like a great idea and I've got the perfect place to share what mine are." So today's post is all about my 8 most favorite ornaments on the tree. Some are obvious, others weird, some may make you say huh?, but these are the ornaments I love to put out every year (or in the future, since 1 is new this year). Anyway, enjoy my ornaments tour of 2009...

1-
I, along with the help of BFF's Michelle and Chrissy, made these ornaments back in 2007 to remember Jackson. It was our gift to everyone that year. They each come in a nice little box with a card that says as you place the ornament on your tree please take a minute to remember Jackson and his battle with SMA. The ribbon says Jackson Cole Hedgepeth on one side and Forever in our Hearts on the other. Believe it or not, I still have about 20 left, so if you would like one please let me know.

2-
This ornament is new this year, but it goes all the way up to spot number 2. This was given to me from BFF Chrissy (gosh, three credits already?!) for my birthday this year. It's absolutely perfect. I cried when I saw that Jackson was the star. It is just perfect!


3-
This isn't an "ornament" really, but he does go in/on the tree, so he counts. This is a Christmas Memory Bear that a coworker gave to me. He wears a locket and I had it engraved with Jackson's name, birthday and the day he passed away. It also came with a precious poem. I think it is another great way to remember our Angel Boy!


4-
An ornament not about Jackson...but very special to me. This is mine and Joseph's "Our First Christmas" ornament. It's just so cute. Who would have ever thought when we got married over 6 years ago we would begin such a journey?! I could not imagine having anyone else by my side!


5-
This ornaments goes way back to my childhood. I know I bought this ornament when I was in elementary school. It's some kind of animal that squeaks. You can't really tell what it is because some animal (probably Barkley, vicious dog) attacked him. This was one ornament that I had to take with me from my Mom's...


6-
Two words sum up this next ornament...GROUP CRUISE! In 2005 we took a week long cruise with 14 of our friends and had the time of our life. For Christmas that year I gave everyone these ornaments, including myself! They say "Carolina Cruisers" which was our name in challenges, trivia, whatever game we happened to find on board. Since this trip Joseph and I have not been able to go on another "group" vacation, but this one will always be on the list of greatest memories EVER!


7-
What favorite ornament list is not complete with supporting the home team?! This is my Carolina Panthers ornament, Santa included. I have several Panther ornaments, but this is my favorite.
Go Panthers!



8-
And rounding out the list is an ornament that represents two of my favorite things in life...South Carolina and flip flops! I know I was born in upstate NY, but my life is now in SC, I've got the tattoo to prove it (but don't tell anyone). And any true Carolina girl is a fan of the flip flops, though you must have a fresh pedicure, which I don't have at the moment. Flip flops will be making their way back into my life rather soon because they are so comfy and much easier then any other shoe...

And that is it for my "Favorite Ornaments 2009" tour. I bet next year will include some new ornaments, think of all the super cute "Baby's First Christmas" ornaments there are, times 3! I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my favs, do you have any favorite ornaments? I hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas and a very safe, Happy New Year. 2010 is going to be an unforgettable year, I hope you join us. As always, please Remember Jackson!

My Mother's Worst Fear...

Quick post (promise)...

Went downstairs to get my last glass of water for the night and this is what I found...

Yes, that is a cat in one of the baby seats. Thank goodness we are having 3 babies so that the cats will never have to fight over baby seats!! And if this completely freaks you out, well sorry, we do vacuum our stuff so calm down. And no babies were hurt in the taking of this picture! Anyway...that's all. Check back tomorrow for another post I'm working on, and it's actually not related to the babies...shocking! As always, please Remember Jackson!


, Abby, Claire and Brayden

Week 15 and Maybe Some Baby Names...

Welcome to week 15...which arrived rather fast thanks to the busy schedule. I hope each of you had a wonderful Christmas, I know Joseph and I did. We are so blessed with great family and friends to share the holidays with. We just hope after next year we get invited back to all the dinners and lunches. We are also so very thankful for the gift we've been given this year of 3 healthy babies!

What is going on with those babies this week you ask?! Well, according to my book they are about 4-4.5 inches long, weight about 1.75 ounces and are close to the size of a softball. That seems rather big to me, and if you look at my belly, which I know I have not put pictures of on here, you can tell there is a lot of something growing in there.

This past week found me going to back to the nutritionist, which did not go great. Remember she gave me the 36 pounds before 24 weeks article, so Joseph gave me Muscle Milk. Anyway...after two weeks of keeping track of what I ate and Muscle Milk I managed to gain 0 pounds, and actually lost about 1/2 a pound. She was shocked too, so now I'm on a new plan. Now my plan is to get 2,000 calories a day by eating throughout the day. That's a big adjustment for me because I'm not a big eater, so for the times when I don't feel like eating I'm to drink a Boost or Slimfast since they are liquid and can "fill in the cracks" so to speak. Don't freak out over Slimfast either...it's got exactly the same components of Boost or Ensure, it's just marketed differently, so no I'm not trying to lose weight drinking Slimfast, it's just something that taste good to me, so that's what we go for. Oh, and one of the great recommendations was at the end of the day if I had not met my calories to get a bowl of chocolate ice cream with some chocolate syrup and enjoy...darn, that's going to be pretty tough! She also wants to me to start doing pregnancy yoga to try to make more room for babies. And if possible, I am suppose to find a way to get taller, which is not to my advantage at all this pregnancy. Let me know if you have any ideas on that one! The last thing we talked about was my thyroid (oh how I love that stupid thing!). I need to have my levels checked because if you remember back to the hives incident, the treatment for that was over medicating me, which can lead to weight lose and stuff like that, so we are going to see if that is keeping me from gaining weight. At the end of the day though the babies continue to grow right on track and that is all that matters. In a few weeks weight will probably start piling on and I'll be here complaining, so for now, I'll just eat my ice cream!!!

Did someone say something about baby names?! I got side tracked thinking about ice cream!! After weeks of discussion and going back and forth and even some voting amongst family and friends, we have finally decided on names. It may seem early for names to you, but if I'm at week 15 and the babies can come anytime after week 28, well, we are closer to the end then we think, though the babies are staying put until 34 weeks for Dr. Hilton. That's still almost halfway through.

Anyway, names were tough...we actually had solid names picked out for 2 boys and 1 girl, so when it became 2 girls it got a little tricky. Then there were family names we wanted to include, names that one liked more then the other, names that would be on, then off, then on the table again. The list got pretty short rather quickly and after practicing for a week or so we decided we had the right names.

So, now it's time. Introducing...........

Abby Love
Abby was the name we had chosen the first go around if we had a girl. I've always loved the name and so has Joseph. We actually went back and forth on this one and tried out a few others, but in the end she was Abby. Love is a family name. My middle name is actually Love, so we know we would always use it if we had a girl.

Claire Elizabeth
Joseph fell in love with the name Claire so fast it blew my mind. We had originally planned to use it as a middle name, but then decided if we could find a middle name to go with it we would use it. Clair was also my grandfather's name, actually he was Clair Love, so these girls are pretty much after him. Elizabeth was the only name that really flowed with Claire. We found out later that it is actually my grandmother's middle name, so there is family history there too.

Brayden Jae
It was hard for use to decide on a name for baby boy. There were 3 names that we went back and forth between (Collin and Cooper were the other two). Joseph again fell in love with the name Brayden, and I too have always loved the name. We knew the middle name would be Jae after Joseph's grandfather, who passed away a little after Jackson. After trying Jae with other names, Brayden was the most loved and sounded the best!

So, those are the names of the babies. A huge weight has been lifted. So go crazy with monograms people! Oh...I did forget to say that all the babies will have the last name Hedgepeth...we decided on that pretty quickly! Thanks as always for sharing in our journey. As always, please Remember Jackson! Also, please continue to keep us in your prayers...

and babies

Week 14

GOOD-BYE 1st Trimester, HELLO 2nd Trimester...thank goodness! So what's going on with babies in week 14 you ask?! Well, according to my little handy book they are about 3.25-4 inches long, weight almost 1 whole ounce and are the size of "my" fist. My fist seems small compared to last week's comparison of a peach...but whatever. I know they aren't the size of Hulk's fist that's for sure. My belly seems to be growing at a horrifically fast speed, but I guess when you put three babies in there things are going to go fast!

As I said in my last post I don't go back to the doctors until Jan. 6th, and I am going through seeing the babies on ultrasound withdrawal. I want to so badly call and ask them just to check them out, but that doesn't seem like the right thing to do! I'll just try to be patient. I do have a follow up appointment with the nutritionist sometime this week. They called yesterday and said I missed my appointment, I thought it was Wednesday, so I may try to get in there today to see how the weight gain is going. According to my Wii Fit, not stellar, but I'll just wait and see how I do on her scale. If I am doing good then I'm probably going to stop going to the nutritionist because it's not covered by insurance and she's already gave me a diet plan...

Other then that things have actually been pretty quiet. I'm on Christmas Vacation...thank you!! So the next two weeks are for relaxing and spending time with family and friends. The only complainant I have about this week is a wicked stuffy nose that sometimes likes to bleed...but hey, I got three healthy babies so bring it on! So, that is that. Really nothing too exciting this week...well, we did decide on names, I dream about the babies all the time, and we did finally agree on a stroller and car seat pattern for the girls, but other then that, pretty calm week. A belly picture is missing, we've been busy, but I hope to get one up soon. And hopefully after we share with are families our names I'll be able to share them with you. We've changed 1 name back and forth, so we are going to see how it sticks this week, but I'm pretty sure we are solid on 3 first and middle (and last too!) names. Thanks for checking in on us! Until next time please keep us in your prayers and always REMEMBER JACKSON!

and babies

13 Weeks and Counting

Well, technically half way through week 13, but it's been crazy and I haven't had a chance to really blog. We've been busy ya know...adjusting to the concept of triplets and everything. According to my "Your Pregnancy Week by Week" book the babies are about 2.5-3 inches long, weigh about 1/2-3/4 of an ounce and are about the size of a peach. I've got three peaches in my belly...

Anyway...week 13 is flying by (thank goodness b/c come week 14 I'm on Christmas Vacation...woohoo!). Last week I had not 1, not 2 but 3 different appointments. First, I had to meet with the prenatal nurse (again, nothings change lady) and have all my blood drawn. Nothing too bad. Thursday I had to meet with the nutritionist, which didn't go great or horrible. The one thing I learned from that appointment...Mom's of normal weight and BMI (that's me) who are expecting triplets should gain 36 pounds before week 24. 36 freaking pounds?! Well, I'm down about 2 as of this morning so I need to somehow find a way to gain 38 pounds in the next 11 weeks...ummmm, the healthy way for me and babies, no junk food. So, nice nutrition lady put me on a plan and we'll see how it goes. Dr. Hilton told me not to worry because all babies are growing perfectly and the weight is going to come and before too long I'll be complaining about it. Joseph's solution to me packing on the pounds...

MUSCLE MILK! Watch out Hulkster, I'm going to be huge in no time! So, actually, this is just a protein shake, a Boost (and Slim Fast actually) on steroids. It has 32g of protein per serving, but I'm actually just taking half a serving, so hopefully the extra protein will help me in my goal of freaking 38 pounds...crazy!

So, after my nutritionist appointment I got to see Dr. Hilton who was so excited and happy and supportive of Joseph and I. I did learn that if I can hold these babies in until 32-34 weeks she'll get to deliver them locally and that Piedmont has recently upgraded some and can handle babies for at this time. So...that's my new goal so that Dr. Hilton can bring these babies into the world for us! Oh...and a little plus or two about being pregnant with triplets, EVERYONE knows who I am at the doctor's office so I have tons of people to talk too and it's impossible to determine if you are hearing three different heartbeats...so they just do a quick (FREE!) ultrasound to look for those precious little beating hearts! And then when the ultrasound tech lady is having fun, she measures them, and really takes her time...so nice, only problem, no pictures. But all babies had perfect heart beats and measured exactly on...go babies go!

Surprisingly my next appointment isn't until Jan. 6th, and that's with the specialist, and it's a big one. It'll be a 16 week anatomy scan which they've blocked off A LOT of time (2-3 hours). They will measure each baby and look at all organs and everything. After that scan it's back every two weeks. Pictures to come soon I'm sure.

Anyway...so, that's week 13 in a nutshell. Things are going great here. I'm not horribly tired, a little sick now and then, but overall OVER THE MOON! Oh, and rather large, example below. I'm not sure how I'm gonna grow these babies another 20+ weeks, but I'll do whatever I have to! Thanks for sharing in our journey...it's starting to get extra good. As always, please REMEMBER JACKSON!



and babies

Are you Ready?!!!

So...the time is almost here to learn what the babies are. Thanks 4 friends for leaving a comment. Are you ready?! Well...the time has come...we are having:





3 Babies...
have you heard? Ok, ok, ok...we are having...





Either boys, or girls or both, did you know that?
Ok, ok, ok...we are having...





Babies called A, B and C!
Ok, ok, ok...we are having...





TRIPLETS!
Ok, ok, ok...we are having...














AND WE HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE EXCITED!




and Joseph and Babies too!

Get Your Votes In...

I'm to excited to keep to quiet the sexes of the babies...which are all perfect. No SMA, no downs, no trisomy 13 or 18, nothing wrong...just 3 healthy babies who I'm excited to share about. So...you have something like 10 hours to vote (and me 10 hours to think of some crafty way to tell y'all) what the babies are. Good luck...not that you win anything or anything, but still...

Nichole and Babies

PS-Any chance you'll leave me a comment telling me how you voted? Just wondering who voted what. Again, like a dork I voted on my own blog, several times-hehe. I voted for 2 boys and 1 girl (home computer), 3 boys (school laptop) and 2 girls and 1 boy (computer lab). I'd just love to hear how everyone voted...

The Most Asked Questions...Answered!

So...the number one question, well questions, I get is where will the babies be born, who will deliver them and what about bed rest. Great questions...no answer, ok just kidding. So, at one of my many appointments I did ask Dr. S (specialist) if she would deliver and she said no my regular OB would deliver, Dr. H. Well, Dr. H only has delivering privileges at Piedmont in Rock Hill and they are not equipped to care for 3 babies, they have a NICU, but it's only to get the baby stable and transferred somewhere else, which they normally send to Richland in Columbia (remember, Jackson was born at Piedmont and transferred that same night). I did ask Dr. S if she could deliver if I was downtown and she said she has privileges at CMC Main, but I would have to switch practices, which doesn't sound very appealing since I've been at Rock Hill for so long! So...right now my thinking (and hoping) is that I can keep these babies in me as long as possible and deliver downtown at CMC Main. Whoever their on-call Dr. is will deliver, but it's not like he'll be alone since they'll be at least 3 neonatologist (NICU docs), NICU nurses, probably some NICU RT's, me, Joseph, delivery nurses, my parents, Joseph's parents, who knows...maybe even a freaking TV crew-HA! And, the great thing about the babies going to the NICU at CMC is the wonderful nursing staff I've already got lined up (that's you Allison, Laurie and Carol, in case you didn't know!). I'm very comfortable with the NICU there and have no worries about the babies going there.

As for bed rest...well that's a tricky question. Many books suggest going on bed rest at 24 weeks...ummmm, not a reality for Joseph and I. My job does not pay for maternity leave, though I will be covered under FMLA for 12 weeks, and I'm looking into short term disability (but that only goes into effect after I've used all my sick days and I've been unpaid for 10 days, and I may have to be in the hospital). So, there are lots of things to worry about, think about, plan for, pray for, hope for...bring on the keep the babies in my belly as long as possible prayers! I did ask Dr. S (she gets a lot of questions, we're good friends, I'll be seeing her every two weeks starting at 20 weeks) if she thought I'd have to go on bed rest and she said every case is different. Here's a big shocker now...not to my advantage, my height (I know, shocking). However, to my advantage is/was carrying Jackson full term and getting VERY LARGE, so my short body can grow like you wouldn't believe! Now...a little bit bothersome is the fact that I've already had to go on a mini bed rest last week when I had some bleeding. But it has since stopped and I need to learn not to push myself too hard.

Alright...that's all for this time around. Oh...well maybe a little bit of a teaser to end with. Yesterday we got back chromosome results for Baby C (all by his/herself) and Baby C is perfect...no Downs, no trisomy 13 or 18, no Turners-NOTHING! And we do know if it's a boy or a girl, but we're not telling, well, not quite yet anyway. Thanks for the love, support and prayers...keep them coming! As always, please Remember Jackson!

Nichole and Babies

Triplets?! How'd That Happen?

So, I know there are lots of questions out there about how in the world Joseph and I ended up pregnant with triplets. So, that is where we will begin. I was once again on Clomid, 100 mg (lowest does is 50, so I wasn't on that much). The chances of having multiples does increase when on Clomid, for example, your chances of having twins is 1 in 10, or 10% (that's an important bit of information for later). So, no, we did not go back to REACH for fertility treatments, no alien abduction (though I feel as though I'm still having an out of body experience)...we did it the good ol' fashion way with a little help from Clomid.

So, here's bit more of how it all went down. I found out I was pregnant on October 7th, which was pretty early. From the beginning I had a hunch it was twins for several reasons...1-I ovulated hard (felt it really bad in other words), 2-I got a positive test so early (26th day of cycle) and 3-I broke out in hives, which is a sign of a multiples (now you see why the hives was such a big incident too, but thankfully they are gone!). I immediately called my genetic lady Jean, who is the best and scheduled the CVS test. Dr. Hilton wanted me to see a specific doctor this time, Dr. Stephenson, who just happened to specialize in twins (that would be hint number 4). Got the test scheduled no problem for the week of Thanksgiving when I'd be 10 weeks. Before going in for my test I had to go in to my regular dr. for a "viability scan." Doesn't that sound nice? All they were checking for was a heartbeat and how far along I was.

So...the scan was scheduled for Oct. 23rd because I was furloughed that day and so off I went to my appointment, alone. Joseph had to work, my mom was sick, but I was fine...I have had a lot of ultrasounds in my day! Go in and we start the scan and the sweet lady says to me, yup there is definitely two heart beats, at which time I clap and say I knew it! She continues looking around and then says "oh goodness". Now, this wasn't an excited oh goodness, this was a concerned oh goodness and I thought something was wrong. I asked her and she told me to just hold on one second, and then she said look here, there is a third heartbeat. So...that's how I found out about triplets, with a shocked little ultrasound tech all by myself. How do you call your husband and tell him it's triplets? Well me, I just cut to the chase...the nice nurse handed me my phone, went to get Dr. Hilton and I called Joseph who may have screamed, cried, yelled and who knows what else.

So, now for the logistics of how in the world it happened, beside by the grace of God of course. If you look at the picture from the post below you can see that there are two babies in one area (these are identical, known as A and B) and then there is C all by their self. Back to the numbers...chances of having twins, fraternal (not identical), on Clomid is 1 in 10, or 10%, which is what I had originally with A and C. However, A got a little funky on us and split into two, or identicals, A and B. The chances of that happening (one egg splitting) is 1 in 250 or 0.4%. So, I "dropped" two eggs, both were fertilized, and then one split, leaving us with triplets, two identicals and a fraternal. Any questions?!


Now for a few more pictures, one of each baby, from the test last week. Which, by the way took 3 hours and 10 minutes. Those little triplets are feisty and it took awhile to figure out the best way to get the samples. Anyway, enjoy these pictures. My next post will be who knows what, but I'd be more then happy to answer any and all questions you have, just leave a comment or email me. Triplets...wow!

Nichole, A, B and C


Baby A


Baby B


Baby C


Here's the latest, and probably last picture of all three together. They are getting too big for one shot. In this picture poor little baby C just gave us a butt shot, but it sure is a cute butt. They do focus more on the identicals because they are more "high risk" with some things that could happen, but we aren't going to think about that. Anyway...

Babies A, B and C

Speechless...Almost

Many have heard, many have not, but Joseph and I are expecting...triplets, sma free, healthy triplets! More to come, very soon, but for now, we are just enjoying the moment. To hold you over until my next post here's a picture of A, B and C (that's orginal right?!) who are all SMA FREE! This picture is from 7 weeks, they are already much bigger. Enjoy, and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of your love, support and prayers. GOD IS GOOD!



Nichole, Joseph, Babies A, B and C and our angel boy, who's always watching, Jackson Cole