Our friend Val married her Australian sweetheart on Saturday. It was an awesome wedding and Val looked beautiful!
Greg getting ready to enter the beer drinking contest.
Monday, May 28, 2007
We've Become Those People We Swore We'd Never Be...
I always swore that I would never be a van driver. On Saturday morning, that promise to myself went out the window when we picked up our new van. I do have to admit that I really like it though! We have so much more room and I sit much higher and can see the road much easier. It's also awesome to be able to get Emily in and out without wrenching my back every time or hitting her head on the roof of the car! So all in all, it was a great purchase! Here are some pictures of it.
Our friend Val married her Australian sweetheart on Saturday. It was an awesome wedding and Val looked beautiful!
Greg getting ready to enter the beer drinking contest.
Our friend Val married her Australian sweetheart on Saturday. It was an awesome wedding and Val looked beautiful!
Greg getting ready to enter the beer drinking contest.
Friday, May 25, 2007
We've Been Busy
We've had quite a busy few weeks here at the van Leeuwen household. We've attended a surprise 60th birthday party (complete with a barbequed whole hog) for my aunt and uncle, we celebrated my nephew's first birthday, Emily discovered a new love for swings and we bought a van. Greg's car died on us last Saturday and since then we've been borrowing Greg's sister's car but on Thursday night we made the plunge and bought a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan. We pick it up tomorrow morning after we sign all the paperwork. After that we are attending a wedding for one of Greg's friends so tomorrow should be busy.
Emily swinging with her cousins at my Auntie Cathy and Uncle Dave's surprise party.
Emily's new passion - swinging (although she calls the swings "whee").
Emily got a new toy at her Grandmy and Grandpy's house - a bouncy horse which she loves to play on.
Happy birthday Noah!
Emily "playing" with another little boy at Noah's party. He kept trying to undress her and she was not too happy about it!
Me at 22 weeks along - baby is doing very well!
Emily swinging with her cousins at my Auntie Cathy and Uncle Dave's surprise party.
Emily's new passion - swinging (although she calls the swings "whee").
Emily got a new toy at her Grandmy and Grandpy's house - a bouncy horse which she loves to play on.
Happy birthday Noah!
Emily "playing" with another little boy at Noah's party. He kept trying to undress her and she was not too happy about it!
Emily not happy to be on the back of a firetruck with Alexandre and Lachlan Brakel.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Update
Things have been going reasonably well for us as of late. I was off of work for about 5 days after our ultrasound and then felt like getting back into the grove of things again so I returned on Wednesday. I headed off to an audit which was a blessing because it kept me busy and made the time pass. On Thursday (May 10) I started bleeding and we went to the hospital to get checked out. This time I was far enough along in my pregnancy that we could skip emergency all together and head straight up to the ob ward and were seen immediately. They checked on the baby's heartbeat (solid 145) and checked my temperature and blood pressure which were both normal. They did an ultrasound and the baby looked great and then they did a few other checks to make sure that I wasn't dilating and going into labour. I'm supposed to not get stressed out and to get more rest (right - running after a toddler). I was off of work again for the rest of the week and returned this past Monday (May 21). The bleeding started again on Tuesday but stopped after a day and they told me not to worry about it unless it changed and got worse. The baby has been moving a lot lately and I have to monitor how much the baby is moving too.
This weekend we are spending part of the weekend looking for a new vehicle, starting the demolition on Emily's new room, doing some yard work and going to a wedding social for a friend of mine. It will be nice to have an extra day off on Monday and then have a short work week next week. Summer is finally here!
This weekend we are spending part of the weekend looking for a new vehicle, starting the demolition on Emily's new room, doing some yard work and going to a wedding social for a friend of mine. It will be nice to have an extra day off on Monday and then have a short work week next week. Summer is finally here!
Monday, May 7, 2007
Some Sad News
Greg and I had an ultrasound this past Thursday afternoon. We found out that we had lost one of the twins.
For those of you finding out by reading our blog, we do apologize that we were not able to tell you ourselves. It has been a difficult few days for us and we tried to contact as many people as possible and then left the rest up to the rumor mill and the Internet.
There are almost no words to express how we are feeling right now. Its a mess of emotions. There is great sadness for the loss of one baby. I'll speak for myself here and not for Greg, but I feel cheated out of the "specialness" of having twins. I feel such sadness and loss that I will never get to hold my second baby, and that our family will miss out on that third child.
Then there is great joy in finding out that the other baby is healthy at this point (although my worry about this one is much greater now). We give thanks and praise to God for the gift of one healthy baby.
The hardest part is that nobody can really understand what it is like to lose one and yet still have the other. I've gotten comments like "well at least you still have one" and even one "you'll get over it". I know that these comments come from the place of trying to help but having one healthy baby does not mean that I shouldn't grieve the loss of the second. This was still my child and we were so excited to be expecting two.
I have an appointment with my OB tomorrow but from what the ultrasound doctor told us, what happened was called vanishing twin phenomenon. You can read up a bit more about this at http://www.babycenter.ca/pregnancy/antenatalhealth/scans/twoembryosonebabyexpert/. Basically, the likelihood is that one of the babies was not healthy but at six weeks, it had a heartbeat and at that point, was considered a viable pregnancy. At some point, the baby stopped developing normally and died. However, my hormone levels remained high enough to prevent a miscarriage and the second babies' sac grew and absorbed the other baby's sac.
Although this has been a challenging time for us, I can say that I have felt God's presence strongly these past few days. I have not felt alone and He has provided great comfort in the flowers, cards, phone calls, e-mails, blogger posts and visits from family, friends and co-workers. We truly appreciate everyone's support over the past few days.
I was debating even going to church on Sunday because I wasn't sure that I could handle the questions and what not, but I felt this need to go. The sermon was on finding thanksgiving in all times and spoke to my heart and it was very much needed. The passage that was preached was Philippians 4 (see the top of our blog) and it was good to hear that message again.
I'll leave this post with one final verse that has helped a great deal through the past few days. Its from the book of Proverbs, chapter 3 verse 5 - "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight".
For those of you finding out by reading our blog, we do apologize that we were not able to tell you ourselves. It has been a difficult few days for us and we tried to contact as many people as possible and then left the rest up to the rumor mill and the Internet.
There are almost no words to express how we are feeling right now. Its a mess of emotions. There is great sadness for the loss of one baby. I'll speak for myself here and not for Greg, but I feel cheated out of the "specialness" of having twins. I feel such sadness and loss that I will never get to hold my second baby, and that our family will miss out on that third child.
Then there is great joy in finding out that the other baby is healthy at this point (although my worry about this one is much greater now). We give thanks and praise to God for the gift of one healthy baby.
The hardest part is that nobody can really understand what it is like to lose one and yet still have the other. I've gotten comments like "well at least you still have one" and even one "you'll get over it". I know that these comments come from the place of trying to help but having one healthy baby does not mean that I shouldn't grieve the loss of the second. This was still my child and we were so excited to be expecting two.
I have an appointment with my OB tomorrow but from what the ultrasound doctor told us, what happened was called vanishing twin phenomenon. You can read up a bit more about this at http://www.babycenter.ca/pregnancy/antenatalhealth/scans/twoembryosonebabyexpert/. Basically, the likelihood is that one of the babies was not healthy but at six weeks, it had a heartbeat and at that point, was considered a viable pregnancy. At some point, the baby stopped developing normally and died. However, my hormone levels remained high enough to prevent a miscarriage and the second babies' sac grew and absorbed the other baby's sac.
Although this has been a challenging time for us, I can say that I have felt God's presence strongly these past few days. I have not felt alone and He has provided great comfort in the flowers, cards, phone calls, e-mails, blogger posts and visits from family, friends and co-workers. We truly appreciate everyone's support over the past few days.
I was debating even going to church on Sunday because I wasn't sure that I could handle the questions and what not, but I felt this need to go. The sermon was on finding thanksgiving in all times and spoke to my heart and it was very much needed. The passage that was preached was Philippians 4 (see the top of our blog) and it was good to hear that message again.
I'll leave this post with one final verse that has helped a great deal through the past few days. Its from the book of Proverbs, chapter 3 verse 5 - "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight".
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