Introducing Camille Joy Robertson

NOTE... I realize this post is very delayed, as you can imagine getting used to our new normal has taken some work for all of us!  

Camille Joy Robertson made her grand entrance in this world on November 17th at 8:02am.  She was born at Mercy Medical Center.  She weighed 6 pounds 12 ounces and was 17 1/2 inches long.  She was perfect in every way.  It was a completely different birth experience for Nick and I than with the twins.  He was able to stay by my side the entire time and it was an amazing moment to hear her sweet cry after she was born.  Milly did find her way to the NICU the day after she was born for low blood sugar issues.  We were never dangerously low but she was still struggling to keep it where it needed to be.  While I was NOT pleased to be returning it ended up being a blessing in disquise.  We were able to see so many familiar faces and reconnect with people who were our family day after day when the twins were born.  It was a hard time for Birk and Addy who could not come into the NICU to visit their new sister.  They were beyond thrilled (as were Mom and Dad) when Milly was able to come home with us on the 20th.  It was so nice to be a family of 5 in our home that night!

Milly is a pretty darn good baby (she is breaking us in very nicely).  She loves her big brother and sister (and they love her too... A LOT).  We are all so in love with her and can't imagine our lives without her.  It's amazing how God knows exactly what you need... even when you don't know it yet.

Stay tuned for our stories as a Party of 5 now!

Upside down

We are under a month until baby girl arrives.  AND I feel like I'm both prepared and not prepared for how our lives will turn upside down (in a good way).  In some cases I am so excited to meet her, snuggle her and jump right back into having a baby.  Then there are days that the thought of this terrifies me to my very core.  Am I ready to be up all night with a crying baby?  Am I ready to change diapers all day/night?  Am I ready to have a baby attached to my side pretty much non stop?

What I do know for sure is that I feel blessed.  Blessed that I've been given the opportunity to get pregnant on my own, carry this baby the past 33 weeks ... and hope to last 4+ more weeks.  I am blessed that my kids are so beyond excited to have a sister and can't wait to help out.  I'm so beyond thrilled that Nick can't wait to jump in and do this again.  Having a Daddy like he is to the kids changes everything!

I also know my mood swings are in full swing.

I can't find a comfortable position at night.

Baby girl LOVES to kick her mommy at all hours of the night.

I have little to no lap left to snuggle my 8 year olds anymore (I can't tell if this is because they are huge or I'm huge).

I get full almost instantly when eating... and I'm hungry again in an hour.

My fingers and feet can blow up if I don't make time to sit and rest.

My part time job is going to the bathroom.

This man....

Party of 5

28 weeks

28 weeks have been both good to me, and a bit more challenging.  :-)

The bad

• My back hurts more
• My feet are swollen when I've been on them too long
• I'm still sweaty all the time
• My face is puffy
• I get full fast and I'm hungry often

The GOOD

• Feeling baby girl kick and move quite often
• Thinking of seeing her sweet face in November
• Watching the excitement her older brother and sister feel when we talk about how life will change once she arrives

What's next

We schedule the c-section at our appointment tomorrow morning.  We're hoping for 11/17.  It would be the Friday before Thanksgiving.  It would give us all extra time with her since the twins have time off school.  Holiday season 2017 is going to be epic!!  

Saying no to screens

Is one of the hardest things as a parent.  Our kids LOVE to play games on their tablets, watch their favorite shows on Netflix and just be engaged looking at a screen.  Heck, so do I!  However, our family is working to limit this time and find other ways to engage our time.

This morning Birk asked Nick if he could play Township this morning.  Nick responded with 'maybe let's find something other than a screen to do first thing in the morning.'  Without saying anything Birk went downstairs and we didn't hear much from him.  Nick went downstairs about 15 minutes later to start some work and sent me this picture.

If your Dad won't let you be on a screen the next best thing is to pick up a cozy blanket and read your Bible!  

I love this kid!  

27+ weeks

I am 27 weeks pregnant.  That seems weird to say.  At this point in 2004 the twins were 3 weeks old.  Wow.  Crazy.

These days, sleep is a bit more of a thing of the past.  I can't seem to find a comfortable position.  I also can't seem to eat an entire meal.  I eat a few bites and then feel full... I guess I'm running out of room.  Then I'm hungry again in an hour.  It's a vicious cycle!

However, every time this sweet little girl kicks or moves I get more and more anxious to meet her.  The room is ready, the kids are beyond anxious for her to arrive and her Daddy can hardly stand it either and tries to sing/play for her as often as he can.

We can't wait sweet baby girl...

25+ weeks

I have officially been pregnant longer with this little girl than I was with the twins.  Those two sweet babies arrived at 24 weeks 6 days which was last Thursday for this pregnancy.  It was a strange day.  I felt excited to have made it that far, but also very nervous and anxious that I might go into labor.  Thankfully I had my 24 week doctors appointment that day so hearing that everything was going very well from my doctor helped ease my worries.

Baby girl had a heartbeat of 140, I measured 25 weeks and have been feeling great.

While I want her to cook as long as we can (hoping to make it to 37 weeks) I am starting to get overly anxious to meet her.  I can't wait to see what her face looks like.  Will she look like Birk or Addy?  For now, I'm trying my hardest to enjoy this pregnancy.  Being pregnant isn't the most fun, but does have some amazing moments that I want to make sure I savor and take in while they are happening.

P.S. Bring on the fall weather... this Mama is DONE with heat!  :-)

Bedtime routine

Every night since I can remember each and every night we are with the kids we follow the same bedtime routine.  It doesn't even have to be the same time of night... its just the same routine.  We get our jammies on (if we haven't been in them all day or we didn't put them on earlier), we brush our teeth, read a book or two if we have time and then get in to bed and start snuggling.  Nick will usually start with Birk and I start with Addy, then we switch.  When we have enough snuggles we get up and Nick and I both tell the kids...

'I love you, God Bless you, Goodnight!' 

Both reply to us saying 'I love you, God Bless you, Goodnight!'

Then it's lights out, close the door and we head to our room or downstairs.  What we've discovered if we stay around their room for a bit longer after closing the door is that we will hear sweet voices saying to each.....

Birk:  'Goodnight Addy.  I love you!  Sleep good.' 

Addy:  'Goodnight Birk.  I love you too!  You sleep good too!'

This happens every night and each night I feel a giant lump in my throat.  I hope that their bond lasts a lifetime.

Finding out #2

This round was VERY different than how we planned and found out we were expecting the twins.  With every day, doctors appointment, medication, procedure... we knew that we were working towards something.  This little one, however, came as a total surprise.  Read on to find out how we found out we were pregnant AGAIN!

It was sometime late March and I started feeling off.  I noticed I had less energy on my daily runs (I was logging some serious mileage and feeling great about myself).  I noticed I felt like I could go to bed at 7pm and most all food sounded horrible.  Nick had jokingly asked me to take a test, but I blew it off and went about my business.  I guess I just attributed it to the change of seasons.  Fast forward to April.  Still felt very crummy.. I even made it to Easter Sunday without even giving why I felt like this another thought.  I, however, must have spoken of it complained often enough that finally the night of Easter Nick put some serious pressure on the idea of taking a home pregnancy test.  I didn't agree, but also didn't disagree.  That Monday following was a tough one for me.  I had extreme nausea and just couldn't figure out what was wrong.  So that evening when Addy and I were at
Hy-Vee I decided I'd sneak over to the pharmacy and get the cheapest test that they had to offer (Hy-Vee brand which comes with 2 tests for a whopping $5.99).  The boys were at baseball practice and since I KNEW what the result would be I decided to go ahead and just take the test.  You see, I had taken many of these tests in my life, often with EXTREME HOPE, that it would be positive, but never saw a positive result.  This time the blue line INSTANTLY came through.  I stood there looking at it dumbfounded.  I texted Nick and asked him to call me right away.  A few minutes later my phone rang and I answered saying 'it's positive!'  On the other end Nick goes... 'what's positive?'  So I came clean.  I told him I bought a test, took it because I knew it would be negative and clearly I must be reading it wrong because I think it says positive.  I told him I'd take a picture and send it to him for him to read.  He would obviously know better! 

So the picture was sent.  And I waited.  Poor Nick was helping coach at baseball practice.  So he was feeling anxious about seeing the test... and having to wait until a good time.  I finally received a response back that said 'it seems pretty obvious to me!'  Well, I wasn't convinced yet.  I clearly had purchased a faulty test.  So when the boys got home I dragged Nick upstairs to witness the reading of the 2nd test.  SAME RESULT... and JUST AS QUICK.  So now, I knew that Hy-Vee tests weren't good quality and I needed to drop a little more money on a more quality test.  I ran to Walgreens that night, but decided to wait until the morning to take it.  I woke up nice and early and took the test... and you guessed it... POSITIVE!! 

It took some time to adjust to the idea that we were pregnant.  And we got pregnant ON OUR OWN!  No medication, NO doctors, no tearful nights spent wondering if it would happen.  It just happened.  God works in funny ways sometimes.  You see this time we were now faced with emotions of shock, disbelief and even worry... the twins are 8.  We found ourselves asking if we could do this?  Can we go back to the baby stages?  The answer is yes.  We are thrilled to experience another miracle. 

God is GOOD.  All.  The. Time. 

Attached pictures
The first picture is the one I sent to Nick asking him to read it, and the second is all the tests!!! 

 

Finding out #1

I realized the other day that I am not sure I have ever blogged about finding out how we were pregnant with this sweet little girl... then it got me thinking, have I ever told how we found out with the twins?  I haven't... and I have a good excuse.  In some ways maybe I felt embarrassed at the adventure that we had with the twins.  So, here goes...

Nick and I had been married for 3 years or so.  We knew we always wanted kids, but also knew that we might run into some issues.  We started 'trying' knowing it might take us a while.  About a year into trying, we knew that we weren't having much luck and quite frankly were becoming very discouraged.  So we began to seek help.  We worked with my general doctor, then my OBGYN... both of which had things we could try, but nothing worked.  Finally, we knew if I was going to carry a child that we would have to go further.  We began seeing Dr. Cooper at Mid Iowa Fertility.  Dr. Cooper had a few quick things to try, but ultimately laid out the plan for us... which would include IVF.  We started with oral drugs, some small procedures to help stimulate our bodies to work together.  Nothing worked.

So we moved to more advanced drugs... and then we got the call.  The call that forced us to make one of the toughest decisions... and quickest decisions of our lives.  The drugs worked.  I had ovulated... and ovulated a lot.  Dr. Cooper said we had one of two options.  Either do nothing and stay away from each other for a while... or we could convert to IVF.  Essentially he would take all the eggs I produced, find the best most viable ones and fertilize those with the strongest of Nick's little swimmers.  We didn't know what to do.  Where would we get the money?  Were we ready for IVF?  I mean I had ovulated... we had success... did we want to go this far this soon?  We called my parents who we knew would help us make this decision.  As I was telling my mom the story and frantically telling her we had one hour to decide (because anyone who has ever done any sort of fertility treatment knows that time is of the essence) my Dad yelled over to her and said the words that I will never forget.  'You convert it.  Those are your babies!'  So we called Dr. Cooper and within an hour we were back in the office and we had begun the process (also, it was a Sunday night.. that is how dedicated these doctors/nurses are at Mid Iowa Fertility).

To make a very long story short... here is how the next month or so played out....

• Wait 5 days to let the eggs become fertilized
• Get a call with the # of eggs that were viable.. (We had 5, 2 of which were STRONG, 3 not so strong)
• Implant the 2 strong eggs (with the hopes that at least one will take)
• Wait TWO WEEKS (longest 14 days of my life) to see if I was even pregnant
• Go to the office on a Saturday morning for a pregnant test
• Wait a couple hours for the results
• Receive a call (while your packing your husband up to go tailgate in Ames) where the nurse tells you that you are pregnant and your numbers are strong.  

Receiving that call was the most exciting thing I had ever experienced.  We wanted this SO BAD.  We didn't plan for it to be this path, but it made sense and about month later we would again have good news telling us that we were pregnant with twins.  BOTH EGGS TOOK!  

So there it is.  It was a battle we fought together with many tears, many moments of not knowing what we were going to do.  However, God works his miracles through the doctors who supported us along this journey.  The times we cried together thinking we'd never get pregnant.  The moment we heard those words 'you're pregnant.'  

God is good.  All the time. 

Stay tuned for my next post on how we found #2....  

Robertson Family weekend.... 2017

Who wouldn't want to be part of this family?!?!?!

Robertson Annual weekend #2 in the books.

We started this year with some fun at the ball fields which are RIGHT ACROSS the street from Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Then we even got to see the 'big boys' or high school team play their final season game before tournaments.  We had a lovely day full of of obstacle course fun, running on the track and grilling out and then spent one day in Dubuque exploring and enjoying some of the beauty that is right here in Iowa.

We know a possible move is in the future for G'ma and G'pa to Ankeny (Yeah), but we sure hope these weekend adventures continue to happen so we can keep building these amazing memories!

Here are some pictures of the fun!

What a year this is going to be....

I realize the last time I blogged was in January of this year.  I'm off to a great start of keeping up here.    Yikes. I do, however, have some good excuses reasons!

So here you go...

1.  Birk and Addy are 8 years old.  They finished 2nd grade at Rock Creek with a bang.  They are reading, doing math, telling time, counting money and really just loving everything about their 2nd grade experience.

2. I STILL have the luxury of being a 'Work at Home Mommy'.  Wells Fargo has been so very good to me and for the last 4 years I've been able to maintain my career, help contribute to our families income AND be around for my precious babies.

3.  Nick has been 'gigging' a whole lot more with his band Oreo Meatwagon.  While it does take him away from the family quite a bit, the extra income is nice AND the fact that he is doing something he loves does make it worth while.

4. Speaking of extra income.  We started our basement finishing project in March of this year.  We are almost ready to hang dry wall and have started looking at flooring.  Lots of people had told us to prepare for how long it would take, I'm not sure why we didn't believe them.  (Good thing, we have extra income with the band... we've hit a few 'extra' expenses along this lovely ride).

5.  Birk finished a banner year with MidWest Pride baseball.  This was his first time playing on a Club Ball team and it was an amazing experience.  We spent most weekends from April to July 1st at the ball fields, but it was pretty incredible.  Watching him grow in his talent to play this sport and watching his love for his team, and the game made this Mama pretty darn proud.

6.  Addy finished up her 2nd year dancing with a killer dance recital in mid June.  We were so proud of our sweet little shy girl who got up on stage THREE times and performed her little heart out with a huge smile on her face.  Being a dance Mom can be tough but she made it worth it.

7. However, the BIGGEST reason I am behind the blogging world and likely why you will be hearing from me on this site more often is that we found out on April 17th, 2017 that we are expecting Robertson baby #3.  It was the biggest shock that we never would have imagined and never knew we wanted.  Nick and I have gone through every emotion in the book to define this pregnancy and have landed on the fact that God is GOOD... we are BLESSED beyond measure and we CANNOT wait for this sweet little baby GIRL to join our family.  (yes, you read that right.. it's a GIRL).  Our time has been spent watching my belly grow, following how big she is getting in comparison to fruits/vegetables and discussing all our favorite name options.  It's so fun to experience this with Birk and Addy and we know that they are going to make amazing older siblings and this little lady will be LOVED.

So... now you know.  We are busy people.  Our lives are changing in one of the greatest miraculous ways and we hope to use this blog to capture this journey!

Until next time,
Jenny

Dance, baseball, basketball and so much more....

The life of a Robertson is very busy and hectic these days.... for all 4 of us.  It seems like we always have something going on, and the thing is we don't even know what to cut out.  We love it all. 

Nick is playing in 2 cover bands still.  His main cover band Oreo Meatwagon plays more often and they are so fun to watch.  His other band BS and the Liars plays a few times a year, but also so fun to watch.  I can't deny the fact this guy is GOOD.  He is just so so good!  He is modest and quiet about his playing abilities, but man I beam with pride every time I get to watch him rock out.  He got a new acoustic guitar for his birthday this year from his family and me and he has been picking it up each night and playing.  I'm so happy for him!

I'm not in any cover bands, but do enjoy being part of the Worship team (with Nick) at our church.  We sing and play together (me on keys, him on guitar) a couple times a month.  It's so fun to look over and see him on stage with me.  I'm hoping he feels the same way.  ha.

Birk is in basketball and also started baseball.  It's a big year for baseball for him.  He tried out last August for Midwest Pride.  A club ball team in Ankeny.  And guess what?  He MADE IT!  This kid is a good ball player.  He loves to tell people he is 'a lefty' batter!  I'm assuming his love of all things sports and mostly baseball comes from his father who picked up a ball and played catch with this kid from the minute he knew what one was.  I know I may regret saying this, but I'm so excited to watch him play at this level... and as often as he gets too. 

Addy is a dancing/singing fool.  She is in her 2nd year of dance and loving it.  She shakes her groove thing anytime I turn on the music.  We tried to add a Hip-Hop class this year, but she wasn't having it.  The girls in the class were all much older than her and so we decided to bow out and try again next year. 

It's so strange to say that its 2017.  How could we have gone through another whole year?  7th birthday, end of 1st grade, beginning of 2nd grade, a trip to Cabo with great friends and family, Christmas and New Years.  We're excited to see what 2017 brings us.  On deck so far is; a week in the Dells for Spring Break, lots and lots of baseball, dance parties, neighborhood bon fires, races for me with my favorite running partner and hopefully a Thanksgiving trip to Disney! 

Stay tuned.....