The Story of a Book

I belong to a book club.  And I am so grateful that I do.  First off, I get to meet with awesome women every month (well, we won't get into my attendance record, but the opportunity is there to go every month).  Also, I am always being introduced to new books that I never would have come across on my own.  I don't think I had ever read a memoir before book club and now that's one of my favorite genres.

One of the books that our club recently read is All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.  I've been trying to not buy books lately, so I checked out the availability from my library.  Apparently, other people have heard of this book, too.  I signed up for every possible version of the book (book, ebook, and audio CD).

After lots of waiting, the CDs became available from the library.  I eventually was hooked, but had to return the CDs since I was going on a long vacation (I do not recommend listening to an audio version of this book.  It was a bit confusing to keep track of characters and dates).

When I got back from vacation, my ebook was ready.  I fell even more in love with the story and the characters.  I got about 90% through the book and my loan ended (no renewals with ebooks). Boo.

At this point, I said, "Why didn't I just buy this book in the first place? I'll just get it now." My husband discouraged me from doing so in the interest of saving money.

More waiting.

The CDs became available again, so I resumed listening to the story.

When I was on the final chapter, a package arrived in the mail.  The book!! My own nice, hardback copy of All the Light We Cannot See. How did this happen?  Turns out that my awesome husband had ordered it for me way back when the eBook disappeared from my Kindle.  For some reason, it took forever to arrive.  Now it was here.  The thing that I had wanted all along.  And I only had pages left to read.  Even if I didn't get to read much of it, he still earned major husband points.  Plus, now I can lend it to other people or read it again.

The Horizontal Life (aka Bed Rest)

Last week, I had an ultrasound appointment to check the length of my cervix (something they check often when you're expecting multiples).  Turns out mine had shortened .  The nurse practitioner sat me down to inform me that I was not going back to work and I needed to head to the hospital right then. I don't think that this news really sunk in for quite a while.  I just obeyed orders and drove to the hospital.

Once I got checked in, things started to become a little more real.  These babies could be coming into the world at only twenty-four weeks!  That's too soon!! Thankfully, my OB/GYN and the hospital staff were able to get my contractions under control and after monitoring me for a few days, they sent me home, where I made myself comfy on the couch.  And stayed there.

I had my cervix measured again Monday.  And guess what-it's even shorter already!  Come on body! Keep it together!

The doctor sent me back to the hospital.  I'm at a different hospital this time.  This one has a whole area for women in danger of pre-term labor and is better equipped for premature babies.

I was a bit freaked out by everything when the doctor gave me the scoop on our current situation and how it could play out.  In fact, I almost passed out.  But as we made the decision to have him perform a cerlcage (cervical stitch) operation, Tim and I both felt like everything would work out.  And it has. It turns out that the doctor who is taking care of me is famous for his work with twins, triplets, and quads. People fly from all over the country to be under the care of Dr. John Elliott.  And I just ended up with him because my high-risk doctor is out of town.  He did an awesome job on my operation and has been taking excellent care of me.  Now, I am just waiting for him to tell me when I can leave this hospital bed for my own bed again.

These past few weeks have been filled with bummers (not getting to say bye to my class and cancelling our trip to Utah), but there have definitely been an abundance of blessings. So many people have been taking great care of me.  My amazing friends and family brought me non-hospital food and tons of games and books to keep me from going crazy. A bunch of awesome friends at my school worked together so that my third graders would be well taken care of (including handling a bunch of girls crying their eyes out).  My cute nephew even prayed that the babies and I would be strong enough to break the earth. Tim has been beyond amazing. I'm so lucky to have him as my husband.  During my first trip to the hospital, he brought me some awesome gifts:

 M&Ms: Convalescent Edition

A Comfort Duck

It's Guaranteed!

Even though nothing has worked out as planned this past week, I am still optimistic for the future.  I would much rather spend my last few months of pregnancy at school than in a horizontal position by myself most of the time, but I know that this is what's best for my two little girls.  I'm so excited to meet them, but I can definitely wait to meet them.

I should be well taken care of through the holidays, but if anyone wants to call or stop by anytime during the next few months, I'm all for interacting with other humans. :)

"There's someone upstairs."

Alternate title: How to Freak out your Wife in 5 Words or Less

The other night, Tim went over to the bottom of the stairs while we were watching Parks and Rec. He asked me if I heard a noise and I said it was probably just the washing machine. 

"That's not the mashing machine. There's someone up there. Come up with me."

Of course, I said no. Why would I go up if someone was there? Walk towards the danger? That's what they do in scary movies. 

Then, I heard it. Someone was definitely up there. My heart was racing and Tim kept insisting that I come with them. 

"Is this a joke? Because I'm freaking out now. You better tell me if this is a joke."

He finally admitted that he knew something I didn't know and I followed him upstairs, where we found his sister  cleaning the bathroom! What a relief! She had dropped something off earlier and then pretended to leave. Sneaky, sneaky. 

I have been so blessed in the in-law department. She and another sister had coordinated this so that I wouldn't have to worry about getting the house ready before Tim's parents arrive for Christmas. A pregnant woman's dream. No, any woman's dream.  

So, I got to go off to my book club and enjoy myself while Anna and Tim finished taking care of the rest of the house. What a treat! 

Dates to Remember

It took me a while to figure out why this Post-It note was stuck to my Relief Society newsletter. 

When we were dating, we rolled down a hill in my neighborhood. It turned out to be a lot more steep and a lot more fun than we had anticipated. It was definitely a "date to remember." :)

When the Husband Leaves

Even when Tim has to be gone for the entire night,* he makes sure that I have someone to take care of me/ keep me company while I am sleeping:

*Tim volunteered to sleep at the church one night to act as a night "guard" for all the nativities that are currently on display at our church building. 

Twins after a Miscarriage

At 23 weeks, the anxious feelings are finally starting to die down. Each time I go in for my monthly OB/GYN appointment and learn that everything is still normal, I am overwhelmed with relief.  Both of the babies are still in there with healthy heartbeats and one of them is moving around like crazy. 

About a year ago, I got pregnant.  I was devastated when that pregnancy ended early in a miscarriage. When I got pregnant this time around, I waited for a long time before telling anyone besides my husband.  I couldn't bear having to tell our family such sad news again after seeing how excited they were about the good news in the first place.

When I made it to twelve weeks, I was so excited.  I was out of the danger zone.  Then, I had my ultrasound and found out there were too babies in there.  I felt so excited and surprised and a million other things. Then, I learned that I wasn't out of the danger zone at all.  Twins means a "high risk" pregnancy. The chances of having a miscarriage are high until about twenty weeks. Thankfully, I'm past that point now and I am not nearly as worried as before. 

Well, I'm not worried about miscarriage anymore. I still have occasional worries, but I am doing much better than I was the week that I read about the NICU in the book When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads. 

We're Growing!

A few weeks ago,  Tim and I brought the game Tellestrations over to play with my family.  If you haven't played it, the basic idea is that everyone is drawing someone else's phrase and by the time it makes it around the group, you bust up laughing at how the phrase changes (like the game of Telephone).

I purposefully didn't draw what was written once we were almost to the end of the game.  Instead, I drew this:

Thanks, for the idea, Aunt Becky (click the link if you're not a Full House fan).  My mom guessed "Half Swiss Ink Baby." Close, but not quite, Mom.  :)  Everyone figured it out together and then freaked out together. 

We thought that was the end of our happy news.

We were wrong.

I went in for my first ultrasound at twelve weeks and was stunned to hear the technician say, "Bethany, there are two babies in there." What?! How did this happen?  TWINS!! I couldn't stop smiling. As she proceeded to take pictures of "Twin A" and "Twin B," all I could think about is how many times Tim wished twins upon his sisters.  Well, none of them have twins yet.  

Who knew that my pregnancy would be so similar to Aunt Becky's?  Family members have been asking us about names.  Maybe I should consider Nicky and Alex if they're both boys? Or Mary Kate and Ashley if they're girls? No matter what I name them, they'll have better hair than Aunt Becky's twins (I'm not serious about those names, just to be clear).

I can't stop thinking about all the things that are going to be different now that I know there will be two babies at once.  Two cribs. Two car seats. How am I going to take them to the grocery store? So many questions.  I'm up for any advice from those with twins experience.  

It's Time

I've been thinking about blogging again for quite some time now and I finally decided to bite the bullet.  My old blog started out as one that only featured my crazy dreams and then morphed into my life, my dreams, and some fun teaching stories.  I pretty much got worn out once I got engaged.  It's been over two years.  In the meantime, I've been recording things in a Google doc, which I share with my parents and in-laws.  It's just not as exciting to write for (even though my husband titled this year's document: "2015 Cox Family Sassy Pants Journal").

Here are some highlights from the last 2 years to get everyone up to speed:

-Tim started his master's program in English at ASU (still working on this)

-We got married!

-We went to San Francisco for our honeymoon

-I turned Tim's bachelor pad house into more of a home

-Tim got into gardening (sweet potatoes are his specialty)

-I was a Webelos den leader in the Cub Scout program

-We went to China!

-I spent the whole rest of the summer trying to recover from a crazy virus from China that attacked my liver

-I taught the five-year-old and three-year-old primary classes (not at the same time) at church. I'm now serving as the education counselor in the Relief Society

-I taught a bunch of third grade students

-We traveled to several places:California, Utah, Oregon, Mexico, New York, Canada (not all at once)

Well, there you have it. I guess I'm ready to get started now.