home and recovering

we had a doctor's appt on Wed afternoon which included an ultrasound. we discovered i had a very large (13cm) ectopic pregnancy in my left tube and we scheduled to have it removed thursday, but i couldn't wait that long. before we even made it home, we had to turn the car around and danny and my mom called my dr. to say i seemed to have taken a turn for the worse and they admitted me and did emergency surgery wed evening. they removed the egg and my left tube. because of the amount of blood i lost and some complications with my bladder after the surgery they kept me in the hospital until this afternoon, but i am home now with danny and the girls and am going to just take it easy for the next week - easier said than done for mommies, but danny is taking wonderful care of me and the girls right now! i cannot express my appreciation for the sweet words and prayers from all of you.

a prayer request

I have been contemplating for the last week whether or not I should share with everyone what has been going on in our lives and after today I thought I should, simply for pure selfish reasons to ask you all to please pray for me and our family!

Last Tuesday we found we were expecting Baby Brindisi #4 . . as always a little shocking, but non the less exciting! But on Wednesday things took a not so good turn and ever since then I've have been on a physical and emotional roller coaster. Wed AM I was seen by my doctor after experiencing severe cramping and bleeding - something that any woman knows is never a good sign. I've heard of women having this in early pregnancy (I was about 5 weeks along) but after having 3 very healthy pregnancies I knew this was not normal. We did blood work to check the HCG levels. It was explained that while pregnant these levels should double every 48 hours so I had to wait and come back on Friday to give more blood and see what was happening. If anyone had ever had to do this, it was some of the longest 48 hours I've experienced. My levels did rise but not like we would have hoped. I went from 3900 to only 5200, so technically I was still pregnant but no one could guarantee what was going to happen. Sooo, I had to go back again yesterday to have the blood work done all over again. We found that my levels were at 6900 - still rising, but in a "normal" pregnancy we would've expected to see them rise to atleast 10,000. So technically I am still pregnant (but still having not so normal side effects) but at this point it is most likely not a healthy pregnancy. I have to go back into the doctor on Wed for more blood work but now we are also going to have an ultrasound done because there is a concern it might be an ectopic pregnancy.
I know there is nothing we can do to prevent what is going to happen from happening. I have prepared myself for the worst and am now just praying for physical and emotional healing, and I'm selfishly asking for you to do the same. It is very surreal for me at the moment. I have been so blessed to have 3 wonderful, healthy, baby girls and even though I know this, I am still so saddened and confused by what is happening . . .

pix from the ATL

we traveled to the ATL over the weekend to see Ricky (he recently turned 2!!!!!!) and of course seeing Kathy and Ryan was also nice :) I could never get Ricky to actually look at my camera, but i think the fun comes across! he and the girls loved playing with each other - although he called both girls "ellwa" - and at one point he had layla on the ground giving her hugs and layla is screaming "i'm not ella! i'm not ella"! i got a kick out of it!

date night . . the happy couple!

pix from the day

out to lunch after storytime today. norah never tried to eat the fry, she just wanted to squish it!


ella told me today that when she grows up she wants to be a rocking horse! all i could do was laugh, what do you say to that really :)

i love when they all sit nicely together! BFF - for now :)

ella wanted to sleep with her dolls tonight.


one of the best things happened at storytime today. while the librarian was reading a story about animals, she mentioned the name of certain sea bird with the name booby bird. well, a little boy hopped off the floor and yelled, "you said booby!" and just began rolling on the floor with laughter. as you can imagine all the other kids followed suit and all the adults kind of had that nervous laughter! i loved it :)

Song for a Fifth Child

I don't know if any of you are familiar with this but it came by e-mail today and thought i'd pass it on:

A Poem written by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

So so true!! i am a mommy who has no problems holding my babies all day (and night if needed!) because i KNOW they will not want to stay in my arms forever! already my little 4 year old is doing it all "myself!"

princesses on their pirch

hula ballerina

every morning ella wakes up and gets dressed . . usually a variation on this outfit.

holla back girl!

my ham!

she's definitely coming out of her shell for the camera :)

well check ups and sick visits!

This week we had Norah's 6 month well check and Ella's 4 year well check. BUT since all 3 girls have been sick it doubled as sick visits for all of them! Layla's asthma has gone nuts but we seem to finally have found the meds that work well. She's now on a preventative inhaler twice a day along with her rescue inhaler which we've been using more than I'd like during the past couple weeks, but it's all been b/c of this crazy sickness we can't kick! Layla also has a double ear infection so yay for the "pink bubble gum medicine" as we call it! But she is so easy going that you'd never even know how sick she's been!
Ella checked out well! She is crazy tall, off the charts, at a whopping 44 1/2 inches! She's wearing size 6 clothes - thank goodness for hand-me-downs from cousins! She weighed in at 41lbs and all in all everything is well! I'm hoping to start her in a pre-school program this year just so she gets used to a new setting before she goes to Kindergarten a year from August . . ahhh!!!
Norah remains our little peanut but she's so darn cute who cares! She is only 14lbs (30%) but 26 1/2 inches long (75%). She's wearing 9 mos size clothes, i think more for the length than the weight. She is changing constantly, sometimes overnight!! I LOVE having a little baby :) don't worry - no more on the way!Her first little tooth finally cut through on the bottom AND, she is sitting up on her own now - yay!! She doesn't seem to have an interest in crawling, she'd rather be standing trying to take off! they really are ALL
different! She has found her very cute, very loud, not so little voice and her favorite people remain her sisters!






her new toy!

Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year!!

Better late than never with these I guess! I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season! We've stayed busy, and very sick for the past 2 1/2 weeks, but we are beginning to see signs that we are getting better! We had a wonderful Christmas morning with the girls and my parents and the following day we headed down to Dothan to visit with Danny's family for the weekend. My brother was able to fly down from New York for the week - which was wonderful!! - and then we had my dad's family all come up from Florida for 4 days - so we've kept a noisy house but I wouldn't have it any other way! 15 people in 1 house - very Griswald Christmas of us :) We spent New Years hanging at home with a bon fire and fire works . . very redneck of us :) Enjoy the many pix . . and most likely they are in random order! I've got some free time right now, but not that much free time :)

i hope all of you got our christmas card in the mail - i was pretty proud of that one! ALL 3 girls smiling and looking at me!!!! it was a momentos year!



nana, aunt di, me and my mom after our annual church choir christmas canata

danny giving ella her first taste of eggnog! after sipping it, she wiped her lips and said disgusting! classic!






these are the random pix while all the family was here . .
















i mainly videotaped christmas morning so if i get anymore time i'll try to upload a few of those videos . . they are priceless! . . to me, of course!