I really do loathe migraines. Although, I don’t really know anyone who enjoys them. I haven’t had a really REALLY severe migraine since my first trimester. And I can count on my hands the truly horrible ones. Most of my headaches are irritating and last about 12-15 hours but I wouldn’t consider them horrible. But every once in awhile a horrible one hits. I dread the horrible migraines.
Thursday morning I woke up with a headache. It didn’t seem too bad and I downed my standard dose of Advil and hoped for the best. It was a strange headache on the right side that would increase and decrease with intensity throughout my day. By late afternoon it was only getting worse and I asked mom to help me with bedtime routine. The boys were down at 7pm like normal and mom left and I climbed into bed. I hoped that an hour or so of sleep would finally get rid of the headache.
I was so wrong. Over the next 3 hours my headache went from irritating to excruciating. When Nathan got home he brought me my hot/cold pack and some water and I took some Tylenol PM and hoped I would be able to sleep it off.
Friday morning I woke up without a headache but I was extremely dizzy. This happens sometimes. I call it my headache hangover. It only happens after the most severe migraines. I feel dizzy and usually my neck and head feel bruised on the side where my migraine was. Even today the right side of my neck and head is tender and still feeling bruised. That is how I know Thursday’s headache was a bad one.
Another irritating part about my migraines is that for the time I have them I have trouble recalling things. When I think back over Thursday I remember very few details. Mostly I remember pain and the memories I do have are fuzzy. Even yesterday feels fuzzy. I am glad that I don’t get these severe migraines often. I would like to never have them…I am working on that…
Wednesday night we had a family function to attend. (More about that later.) So, for the first time EVER the boys had someone else put them to bed and go through the evening routine.
The boys have stayed for brief periods with my parents or Nathan’s mom and step-dad before. But those times were limited to a couple of hours at most and were typically during their awake times between naps. They also didn’t require anything other than a bottle and a diaper change. But Wednesday night was different. It was going to span the night time routine. And that is something the boys have only ever experienced with mommy and daddy. I was a little apprehensive about the whole thing. I just didn’t know what to expect.
But I had nothing to worry about!
My parents were the babysitters for the evening. They are very comfortable with Gigi and Pop, as they see them every day. I think that helped the first time go a little more smoothly. I wrote an outline for the evening, including details about what to expect and tips for making things run smoothly. Before I left I laid out diapers and covers and all the things needed for after bath. I had already placed dinner on the table and my mom knows how to make bottles. The outline included approximate times that events take place. (Like that dinner should start between 5:30 and 5:45 and bath should start between 6:15 and 6:30.) It also contained useful information like Dean’s toothbrush is blue and Emory’s is green.
Mom and Pop were so efficient that the boys were actually in bed about 20 minutes before 7pm! Which is good since they didn’t have an afternoon nap that day. Mom says that I have them trained well. When it was time to take a bath I told her to announce that it was time to brush teeth and walk to the bathroom and they would follow. She did and they did! The evening went smoothly and there were no tears. I was most worried about actually putting them to bed. I am always here at bedtime and I wasn’t sure how they would react to being put in their cribs without me here. Mom and Pop said it went great. They kissed them and said goodnight and there was only a minute or so of fussing. EXCELLENT!
I am convinced that routine is the answer. The boys know what to expect and as long as we stick to the routine they feel comfortable.
I have several things I need to post about. But it will have to wait until nap time because Dean likes to close my lap top or push the caps button while I am typing. That makes it very hard to write it a post.
This morning started with a message from WordPress that I had questionable content and would not be able to post anything new without contacting them. I was a little surprised and followed the instructions and this afternoon received a message that it was a mistake and all is well.
Later in the morning before nap time the boys were playing. Then things changed and I looked over and was surprised and happy to see them actually playing together. This is a first. Dean was laying on the floor and laughing as Emory handed him a container of some sort. Emory only pretends to give you something and he was doing the same with Dean. He would hand it to Dean only to pull it away. They were actually interacting in a positive way! Usually they just push each other over or take each other’s toys but today they were playing and laughing together. It is so exciting!
The day ended on a crazy note. At some point during lunch both hard drives on the server at the office crashed. Nothing works. We can’t ship or receive into the system and everything has to be done by hand and set aside to be entered when the system is back up. And everyone say a little prayer or send a good thought out into the universe that the backup is good. If not we have lost everything since JUNE! Holy crap that makes my stomach hurt. But I am hopeful. Our IT guy is amazing and so I am sure that everything will be okay.
Now the boys are asleep. Nathan is at junior high football. And I am about to cook dinner and start some laundry and work on some photo books in iPhoto that I need to do and order.
Tonight Nathan wanted Wing Stop so he placed the order and I picked it up when I left the grocery store (it is in the same shopping center). It was packed with high school kids and I had to wait to pick up the order.
When they gave me the bag I looked at the name on the bag. It was mine but the spelling of my name was a little off.
Maybe I should give up the traditional spelling of Ginger and go with something a little different. Maybe I should take up something a little different and exciting….like how the Wing Stop people spelled my name…
Jinjjerr
Or maybe not.
There are multiples kinds of laughter in our lives right now. We have giggles. We have deep, belly laughter. We have tickle laughs.
But two of my favorites right now are the fake laugh and the brother laugh.
Emory is perfecting his fake laugh right now. He will look at you and smile and then give a cross between a laugh and a cough. You can tell he is totally forcing and faking the laugh. He knows he is doing it too because after his fake laugh he waits for you to laugh or smile and then really laughs. He also fakes laughs when he is wanting you to tickle him. It is so funny the ways babies communicate before they learn words.
I am also loving the brother laugh. It is happening with more frequency. As the boys become more aware of each other and acknowledge the existance of each other they are beginning to find each other funny. It happens at random times and it is usually Dean laughing at Emory. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like anything particularly funny is happening yet they laugh all the same. I love seeing them discover each other and begin to build a relationship and bond. That relationship is starting with giggles and laughs and I think that is a perfect way for a friendshipt to begin. I hope their brotherly relationship is always filled with laughing and love!
As I am sitting here typing this I am watching Dean crawl backwards and Emory fake laugh at him. It made me remember another newer laugh we have. Dean gets so excited sometimes and he does this huge smiling excited laugh. I have to capture it on camera because it is something that I always want to remember. Plus it is really hard to explain and will be easier to show you.
I am so glad that our lives are filled with laughter! I hope that your life is too!
In January of 2008 I found out I was pregnant with twins. It has been roughly 21 months since that point and sometimes I am still a little surprised to look up and see two babies toddling around the house.
Yesterday I was in the bathroom getting ready to go to Sunday lunch at my parent’s house. The boys were coming in and out, exploring and playing and being their cute little selves. At one point they were both standing in the door. I looked over at them and there they were, all grins and happy goodness. I was taken aback at the sight.
It was hard to conceptualize two babies growing inside me. But they have been living, growing, and sometimes crying (like Emory is doing right now as I write this post) little beings outside of me for over a year.
I wonder when I will stop being surprised that I have twins. I wonder when it will stop being surreal.
Every day the boys’ personalities grow. They are developing a senses of humor and they love to do silly things to make us laugh.
Tonight at dinner I was feeding Dean and I sneezed. He thought it was very funny.
A few bites later he closed his eyes, stuck out his tongue and did a lovely blowing spraying thing. He is notorious for finding creative ways to spit out his food so I didn’t think much of it. Until he kept doing it and looking at my expectantly with a grin. Finally I realized what he was doing.
He was fake sneezing. It sounded exactly like my sneeze. Funny boy.
We retook our family pictures today and I think they are going to turn out great. Before Shannon arrived we were outside on the patio with the boys so I grabbed my dad’s super awesome camera and took more pictures of the boys. There are some good ones but I have two that I want to share tonight.
The first one pretty much sums up our life right now. The boys still want to put EVERYTHING in their mouths. We lick, taste, and chew on anything that comes across our path. Here is was exploring the outdoor furniture. I guess he needed to see what the black metal tasted like.
The second one is of Dean. Dean has been walking more and more. This morning he woke up and decided that he would walk more than crawl today. Most of the time on the patio this afternoon was spent walking around. Last Sunday when we took all of the pumpkin pictures he wouldn’t walk at all. 6 days later and he was walking every where. He certainly isn’t going to let Emory get too far ahead of him. (And just for the record, last Sunday Emory needed a prop of some sort to stand up and about mid-week he figured out how to push up off the ground. I really need to get some video of it!) The boys really loved the tiny pumpkins my mom had sitting on a table outside. Of course they licked them. And Dean rolled his around on the ground a little. But when Emory decided to bite his the tiny pumpkins were taken away. Mommy is just sooooo mean.
This morning didn’t start on the best note. Emory didn’t sleep well last night. He was awake several times but we never went in to him. This morning Nathan got up with them. Emory had a fever. He was miserable and crying and I felt so bad that he was most likely feeling bad all night.
After some Tylenol and cuddling he was much better and has been his normal self all morning. I am guessing he had what ever Dean had earlier in the week. They both took a nap, although it was much shorter than normal.
Nathan should be home from morning treatments soon. Then it will be time for some Texas/OU football. The big Red River Rivalry game that happens this time every year. Nathan insists that it is the OU/Texas game while I insist that it is the Texas/Ou game. Nathan is from Oklahoma and I am from Texas. I told him he lives in Texas and didn’t even go to OU (he went to OSU) so it is the Texas/OU game and that he is out voted because there are three Texans in this house! LOL. Gotta love some college football Saturday!
At 1pm we are going to my parent’s house to retake our family photos. I hope the boys are in a good mood since they didn’t take a very long nap.
After that I am sure we will come back home for afternoon naps and Nathan will watch some football. I have so many things that I need to do around here. I am not quite sure what I want to do first but I need to get something accomplished today! Maybe I will work on tidying up the bedroom. It is feeling cluttered and overwhelming right now. It doesn’t feel restful when I am in there and that needs to change! Plus I am still needing to finish priming the bathroom so that we can paint the bedroom and bathroom. Yes, I think that our bedroom will be today’s project.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!
