Part Something or Other: A Wrap Up (for now)
So in the midst of being pregnant with baby number 4, Freya has turned into little miss diva pre-teen with more attitude than should fit into such a small body. In spite of that she does well in school so we agreed to give her a birthday party down at the cove.
She and all her other preteen diva friends sent looks at the nervous, preteen boys and mostly they all looked at each other despite the fact that I'd hired a few of the musicians I knew from the theater. The music was great but they're all a bunch of nervous kids - just don't let them hear you say that. Anyway, I was cleaning up the last of the party when I felt those all too familiar labor pains...yeah, on the beach. Just what I needed...
After completing his ritual freak out, Alex ran up to the house to get Spencer. He convinced Freya it was in her best interest to watch her siblings even if it WAS her birthday and then we were off to the hospital.
We had a little girl who we named Retha. Like the others, she came out with a head full of my red hair. Eventually Freya lost some of her preteen attitude and developed real teenage attitude. She also stopped being nervous around boys. Thankfully, the teenage boy most in her presence was non other than Julian Ice - Tessa's son who was born on the same night at Freya. They got close...
And then closer...
That started happening all over my house...and Tessa's....and the theater. I'm a romantic but I really don't need to see so much teen love happening....
One night, Freya stayed out with Julian past curfew and she was escorted home by Hank. As soon as they were in the house, she scooped up Retha who was up late with a cold. I think she hoped Retha would protect her after Hank left.
I merely took Retha from her and shook my head. "Unacceptable Freya. Now go to bed, we'll talk about this tomorrow." She ran to the stairs in relief and about half way up stopped and slumped a bit. It had hit her that I wasn't letting her off the hook - I was torturing her...okay not torture exactly....
Meanwhile Zisa and Tyr were becoming great little kids. They played better than brothers and sisters should and when they got frustrated with each other they played chess instead of yelling. It was awesome!
On the morning of out 17th wedding anniversary, I walked into a flooded bathroom. Yeah - fab. I'm not a morning person but a bathroom full of water with a spouting tub adding more every minute...that just made my morning. When Retha crawled into the water filled bathroom and started playing and splashing I could have laughed and cried at the same time - in fact I think I did.
With a lot of luck and persistence, I managed to clean it all up AND fix the tub with time to get ready for the evening. Spencer took me out to dinner first
Then a late movie
Then we went to a quieter cove and walked along the beach until the the sun came up
At the end of every day, I can't help but laugh - even if it's been a hard one - because I'm surrounded by love and family.
Baby Makes Three...and then some
Okay so at the end of my wonderful honeymoon, I was puking my guts out. I really did think it was a stomach bug! I swear I did. And when the stomach bug continued for weeks after that - I simply went into denial. How many people end up with a honeymoon baby? I went about life like normal; went back to work, had a few autograph sessions (which my friends obliged me and showed up). I participated in a charity concert in the park.
Where I was greatly amused to see Adam...you know, the ex - the MARRIED ex...hit on some woman and get rejected. I played an upbeat number after that.
My last song was a bit strained as I fought back the urge to throw up again. I didn't wait for any crowd response as I dashed for the bathroom.
That was the last straw, I went to the doctor the next morning. I came home with huge news for Spencer - my little stomach bug was actually a little baby....a baby, growing...inside me. Talk about a trip!
I called Tessa next and she rushed over thrilled. While we were playing some chess outside, she dropped her own little bomb - she was pregnant again too! We were pregnant together! We giggled and jumped up and down a bit.
Our pregnancies seem to speed by...until the last month when it came to a grinding halt. Time seemed to stop as we both grew more and more uncomfortable. Everything was ready, all the clothes were bought and washed, the nursery was painted. Tessa and I spent many days lounging on the back porch or down in the cove being absolutely bored. One day Tessa showed up and practically dragged Spence and I across town to the gym.
"What are we doing?" I asked as I climbed/was pushed into her SUV.
"Just come on! This will be so much fun. I read about it in the paper today" she said tossing a bright flyer into my lap.
"Belly Beats?" I asked looking at her. "We're eight and half months pregnant, do you think dancing is seriously the best idea?"
"You have a better idea?" Tessa asked looking from me to a chuckling Spencer. I just shrugged.
We really did have a great time. Jillian and Alexis (Tessa's twin girls) came along and danced even while shaking their heads at our apparently "uncool" dancing. I had just returned from changing room (Tessa had brought along extra clothes because we were going to go out to eat after) when I felt a slow trickle of water....and then the pain hit....
Tessa on one side of me, Spencer on the other and Alex with the girls - we made our way to the SUV. The walking just made the pain worse! Alex took over driving since Spencer was kind of in a state at that point.
As we were all head into the hospital, Tessa let out a loud groan and clutched her belly. We all turned to stare and sure enough - she was in labor too.
Spencer looked at Alex and Alex looked at Spencer. Then they looked at us and back at each other.
"Dude, our wives are gonna have babies...on the same day." Alex said
Spencer started to reply but I interrupted. "Dude, I attempting to birth a human being here...and so is she...can we move along now?"
I gave birth to a pretty little girl named Freya and Tessa gave birth to a handsome little boy named Julian.
Spencer was absolutely wonderful. He cooked for me and took care of Freya over night. He let me sleep in whenever possible and is all around the best husband and father.
And Freya was a very easy baby - or maybe Spencer doing so much of the work made her seem easy - but I was totally in love with her from the first moment I held her.
Having Freya didn't stop Spencer and I from...well you know. We were still newlyweds to a degree after all.
Alex and Tessa came over with the twins and baby Julian a lot.
It was long at all before my old familiar stomach flu was back. And this time I knew it had to be a stomach bug. I mean really?! Freya was still a baby....
"Ahn, you're pregnant, why don't you just go to the doctor and confirm it?" Spencer asked me one day.
"I'm not." I replied simply. "I don't need to go to the doctor because there's no way."
We got off the swings and he pulled me closer to him. Leaning close to my belly he made baby talk noises and had me laughing like crazy.
I felt the flutters not to long after. So much for stomach bug. Well maybe it is a "bug" of sorts.
While my pregnancy went along normally, little Freya kept growing and was soon a full fledged toddler.
I was feeling more miserable and uncomfortable during this pregnancy so the job of teaching Freya to walk and talk and such fell on Spencer but he didn't seem to mind and Freya was a daddy's girl from birth.
"Daddy." Spencer says pointing to himself...
"Truck" Spencer says pointing to a picture of truck.
"F...."
"Noooooo! No! Truck...Ta..Ta...Ta...TAAAAAA-Ruck"
After her first haircut
All too soon I started feeling those familiar labor pains. Except this time it was false labor, over and over again for weeks. Twice we called Tessa over to watch Freya and rushed to the hospital only to be sent home empty handed. So when I started having contractions again, I didn't think much of it and kept watching TV. Even as they continued I figured I was NOT going to the hospital until my water broke this time. I would NOT come home empty handed again.
As it got worse, I finally conceded to Spencer's "suggestion" that we go to the hospital. As we reached the stairs, I nearly passed out from pain. "I don't think we're gonna make it." I said looking down wide eyed.
Spencer got on the phone to call for paramedics. Before they arrived though I delivered two healthy babies - a boy and a girl.
We all went to the hospital to be checked over but since all was fine, we were home a few hours later.
After the twins were born, I was all for stopping the baby factory for a little while. Due to how close the kids were together, I'd never had a chance to lose any of the baby pounds from Freya, let alone the twins. We converted the extra bedroom into a small home gym until such time as Freya would need it as a bedroom.
We were both working out together when a small plant on the mantel of the fireplace caught fire! That's the second fire I've had in this house!
Thankfully Spencer got it out before the fire department even arrived.
Freya was still a youngster when the twins started becoming more active and were fledgling toddlers.
Thankfully her birthday was soon after and she started school. She loved school and I loved not having 3 toddlers in my hours 24/7.
Zisa, like Freya, was a Daddy's girl. Tyr - on the other hand - was my little prince.
They were very close to each other as well and Zisa showed early signs of being the leader.
Freya, meanwhile, was doing really well in school and showed a passion for art so we enrolled her in some extra art classes at her request.
We threw a big house party and grilled outside for the twins' birthday. All our couple friends showed up and the house was full but so much fun to spend time with them all again.
The night of the party I found out I was pregnant for the third time, this time no "stomach bug" showed up, I simply felt the flutters! I was already 3 months a long and had completely missed it.
When I told Spencer that night, we cuddled and talked about baby names....
