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Mondays*~In The Past, your childhood, where you grew up, your friends, college, just everything you'd want to share about your PRE-MOMMY life!! Would love to see photo's!

Tuesdays*~*A Love Story, how you met your SO/DH, how did he propose, what was your wedding like? Where did you meet? How long have you been together? Please share photos!!!!

Wednesdays*~*Then Comes A Baby In A Baby Carriage, Tells us all about your babies, every one of them! Share photos!

Thursdays & Fridays*~*Ask Away!*These are the days we all get to ask you random questions! So be ready.

[Vincent'sMommy]

Alright! Here's Monday's post! I had typed up some of this stuff a while back and I feel like I'm leaving a bunch of stuff out but I guess that's what the question day is for. I'm glad I had it done because we got back from vacation last night and I have so much crap to do today it's not funny. I will try to post some pictures when I get a chance!

I was born in Olney MD on 3/12/1985. I am the youngest child and was a surprise. I have a sister who is 10 years older and a brother who is 18 months older. My parents met in the Navy in 1971 and have been married for 38 years.

My parents moved several times for my dad's work before landing in Owensboro, KY when I was 2 years old. My brother had actually been born in Owensboro and then they moved back to Maryland when he was a couple weeks old and I was born there.

Anyway, I had a pretty boring childhood, I think. I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic schools from Kindergarten through my first 2 years of college. When I was preschool age my mom ran a daycare out of our home so I didn't go to preschool per se. I don't remember when she closed that but she was a SAHM for a while until I was in high school. My dad was a workaholic - he works with data systems and computers (I still really don't know exactly what he does) and he worked for an aluminum company for a really long time.

I always did well in school and had a few good friends. I was shy and supersensitive and remember crying a lot at school. I don't remember being made fun of much for being the "fat kid" which I always was. In middle school I started band and played the clarinet and I did drama, model state assembly and United Nations and newspaper. In high school I mainly just stuck with marching band and drama. I did honors bands and all district bands and most of my friends were in band. I took honors classes and a few AP classes but definitely wasn't the smartest or most overachieving kid. I was sort of lazy but school always came easy to me. I was an alter server at church starting in the fourth grade and a reader at school masses. My senior year (when I could drive) I finally stopped going to church (although I would tell my parents I went. A lot of times I would just be hanging out at the movie theater where I worked. I got hired there at 16 and worked there off and on over the next 5 years. I'll always have mostly fond memories of that place.

I didn't get into too much trouble as a teenager. I drank a little. The cops had to take me home from a party I was at that got busted when I was 16 - that was about the worst thing I did. No drugs, even though my BFF's parents were total potheads and involved in other stuff too so I definitely had some opportunities. I did smoke in high school (and a while afterwards) and got caught for that once too (well, my brother ratted me out.)

When I graduated high school I didn't know where I was going to go to college. I had wanted to go to Towson University in MD and study communications but I had missed the financial aid deadline and we couldn't afford the tuition. I ended up going to a small Catholic college in Owensboro the first two years where I basically had a free ride. I started out as an English major then changed to psychology. After my sophomore year I transferred to Western Kentucky University, which was an hour away, and majored in Family Studies and minored in Sexuality Studies. I graduated Summa cum Laude with a 4.0 GPA in the spring of 2007.

I had planned on becoming a Sex Therapist eventually and took the first job I was offered. I worked at a psychiatric residential treatment facility for boys age 11-17 who were diagnosed MR and had some other psychiatric diagnosis as well. I worked there for about 10 months on 3rd shift makinng $11/hr. with crappy benefits. I was injured two days before my wedding while trying to keep one kid from attacking another. I had started grad school but before the end of my first semester I definitely decided I no longer wanted to be in the mental health field and dropped out.

I got into banking and started as a teller at Chase. I took a pay cut but had much better benefits and hours. I loved the cash handling and the people I worked with but I hated the sales aspect of the job. I worked there almost a year and a half until we moved to Louisville in 2009.

[starrsgirl]

Your major sounds super interesting!!! Honestly, that's my fantasy major! I'm obsessed with the Kinsey report.

Do you keep up with your friends from high school? Or have close college friends? Did you live in the dorms in college or off campus?

What sort of sales did you have to do at the bank? (I'm clueless).

[Jule'sMomInOR]

Originally Posted by starrsgirl

What sort of sales did you have to do at the bank? (I'm clueless).

Since she worked for Chase I'm guessing for every person who came into the bank she would have to try to sell them a CD, and mortgage refi, a savings account, or a credit card. I used to bank with Chase and I got so annoyed because every time I'd bring in a fairly large check they'd innocently ask me "What are you going to do with that?" like it was any of their business. LOL.

I'm wondering about what kinds of things you did as a sex therapist. Did you sit down with the teenage boys and talk to them about their feelings on sex? I'm guessing maybe most of them had been molested? What's MR?

I am amazed about your parent being married for so long too! It's so nice to hear those stores after daily seeing things about people divorcing.

School sounds interesting to you, and Im sorry that you went through so much schooling to find out you dont like working in that field.

[Vincent'sMommy]

Liz - most of my close friends are from high school. I didn't really make any good friends in college. We're actually really good friends now with our high school band directors (husband and wife) and we have several other close friends from band too.

I met my BFF, Kristi, on the first day of 7th grade and we've been so close ever since. During our junior year of high school she got pregnant and her family moved away (lots of drama) and I didn't even know how to get in touch with her until months after her baby was born and finally visited them when he was 6 months old. He was born with CF and he had a hole in his intestines and had multiple surgeries and had to wear an ostomy bag for his first couple years. She was separated months after her son was born and divorced her ********* husband later. She's had a rough time but she's so strong and we have such a great friendship and I don't know anyone who really understands me as well as she does, besides DH. I can't believe her son is going to be 9 years old on July 16th!

I started out college in a tiny apartment that my parents paid for but had a freaky thing happen to me with a stranger standing outside my window who obviously had no business being there and moved back home before the end of my first semester. Between sophomore and junior year I transferred to WKU and had to move to Bowling Green and mom and dad paid for my apartment there too. So I never got to live on campus.

At the bank I basically had to use scripts to get people in front of a banker and if they made a sale we got a credit (sometimes $) for it. I HATED it with a passion. I'm not pushy at all and always felt bad inconveniencing people and bugging them about stuff.

Mariah - I never actually was a sex therapist, that was just my goal when I started grad school. MR stands for mental retardation and so the boys who were in our residential facility had to have below a certain IQ and then some other psychiatric diagnosis as well. I never did any therapy or anything with them though. I worked 3rd shift there and I was a Mental Health Associate which was basically a babysitter with a Bachelor's degree. I made $11/hr and it was pretty awful. I mean, it was the easiest shift since most of them were asleep most of the time and my main responsibilities were charting, passing out meds, cleaning and making breakfast, getting the kids ready for school, etc. I worked with a crazy old lady who did NOT need to be working there, though, and it was terrible. I'm surprised I lasted as long as I did and I really respect people who do that work and are good at it and enjoy it.

Shannon - I'm glad my parents stayed together that long too. When I was really young they almost got divorced, then they went to a Retrouvaille program weekend, which is a program for troubled marriages. It really helped them and they became really involved in the ministry and were the coordinating couple for our area for a long time and they still do weekends and talks but not as much as they used to.

[Vincent'sMommy]

Tuesday



My DH is Bobby. He is two months younger than me and was born and raised in Owensboro. We went to the same schools from K-12 and kind of always knew who each other was but we didn't really start talking until the summer before senior year. He was a percussionist in the band and during band camp we were placed next to each other quite a bit in the show and started talking during rehearsals. We started hanging out before and after band practices and after contests we would go to Steak n Shake a lot and hang out with friends until really late. We just hit it off. He was my first real boyfriend and he was so sweet - I couldn't believe anyone could like me that much (I still can't). He asked me out officially on 10/15/02 after practice in the band room and we've been together ever since. We went to our Senior Snowball dance but skipped the prom. After our graduation we skipped the afterparty and spent the night at my new apartment. When we were in high school I said I never wanted kids but before our senior year was over I knew I wanted to have kids with Bobby someday.

He's been with me through college and moved to Bowling Green with me when I went to WKU and then back to Owensboro. He proposed to me December 15, 2005 (I think?) in our apartment in Bowling Green and then we were married on Janury 12, 2008 in Owensboro. Our wedding was pretty awesome despite my sprained foot! It was unseasonably warm that day and we had a great party and went to Denny's that night with few close friends (including our high school band directors, who drove us since I coudn't drive). We couldn't afford a honeymoon but I did get some extra time off work afterwards due to my injury so it sort of worked out better.

Bobby is legally blind. He can see but he has congenital nystagmus (an eye muscle disorder) and the best he can see with glasses is maybe 20/60, I think? He hasn't had an exam in a while. So he's always been very dependent on his mom and then when we got together I started doing a lot for him and still do since he can't drive. I think his disability has made him pretty self conscious his whole life and I think he's developed some social anxiety because of it. So he's never had a real job. After high school he started writing music and since then that is all he's ever wanted to do. He went to school at WKU for a bit and then at our community college and then we moved to Louisville so he could study Music Composition at U of L. After Vincent came along he met with his professor and decided to forgo the Music degree and write on his own and try to get published. He really is a talented composer (he writes mainly band music) and I have no doubt he will get something published soon.

[AmandaEliz]

I that you and Bobby were high school sweethearts & that you have stuck together even during trying times. What a wonderful love story.

[sethsmum]

Omg another musician, yay!! Its so sweet that you and Bobby have been together since high school.

[Ally-Mac]

I think the sex therapy thing would have been so cool!
So nice that you and hubby have been together and known each other for so long. It's such a great story to tell Vincent.

My father used to work extensively with the blind. Is his blindness getting worse? Or has it always been the same vision? Does he read braille?

Yay for the being high school sweethearts (So are DH and I). What was your wedding like? I remember seeing pics a long time ago but was it big or small? Lots of planning? Or just something simple?

That is awesome he is into writing music! I hope he's able to get some published soon.

[Vincent'sMommy]

Ally - I think since we've been together his vision has pretty much been about the same. I don't think it's supposed to get progressively worse but I'm not sure. I'm not sure what it will be like when we're a lot older.

Shannon - we had a relatively small wedding, I think. Maybe about 85-90 people. I really don't remember. We had the ceremony in a small theater that was supposedly haunted. It's the oldest gothic architecture in western KY and it used to be a church and supposedly the pastor and his daughter had committed suicide there back in the late 1800's. They call one of the ghosts George which is Bobby's real first name.

Anyway, we had 4 bridesmaids and 4 groomsmen and it was a wintry theme and our colors were deep purple and silver and white. I wrote the ceremony and picked out the vows and the readings and Bobby wrote the processional music and played it on a keyboard and we were married by a judge. Since I was injured and on crutches until that morning I didn't walk down the aisle but my MOH (Kristi) and the best man pulled back the curtains and I walked out on stage and everyone gasped. Our recessional song was the instrumental Muppet Show theme song which I loved.

We just had our reception at a really nice rental space in the homebuilders association building. Our first dance was to Ben Folds' "The Luckiest" and we had heavy hors d'oeuvres and finger foods, a champagne fountain, and the best white wedding cake and chocolate grooms cake. They were soooo delicious. Everyone kept telling us it was one of the most fun weddings they had been to even though we didn't really do anything crazy spectacular or unusual. The highlight of the night was after some people started leaving and everyone who was left joined in a sing-along of Bohemian Rhapsody.

[Vincent'sMommy]

Picture time!

I really don't have any pics from my childhood on my computer and don't have the time or patience to find them and scan them, so here's what I could scare up.

Baby Me:


Bobby and I at our Senior Snowball dance - 3 months after we started dating:


Bobby and I when we went to visit Kristi and we took her son to the zoo - Maybe 2004-2005?


Bobby and our dog Lucy. She was 7 when we got her in January 2007:


My BFF Kristi and her son Michael:


My Graduation - I was named Scholar of the College of Health and Human Services (along with a few other people):


And here are the links to my wedding picture albums on Facebook:
Family and Ceremony Pictures | Facebook

Facebook]

Wedding Pictures | Facebook

[jessanddane]

Loved the wedding pictures! Vincent looks so much like you as a baby

[Vincent'sMommy]

Wednesday

I got my very first BFP on October 30, 2009. I wasn't shocked since we were TTC but I was surprised that we were successful the first time! I guess technically it was the second try because we tried for just one cycle in 2008. Anyway, I was thrilled but really paranoid that something would happen, just knowing how common losses are. My pregnancy was fairly easy and for the most part uneventful. I had just lost 120 pounds when I got pregnant and I really used the pregnancy as an excuse to let go and enjoy myself and I ended up gaining 60 pounds (I'm definitely not doing this next time). Fortunately it didn't really cause any complications for me. No GD or high blood pressure (except just slightly elevated toward teh end) and no bad symptoms or anything.

I had a strong feeling that it was a boy but I wondered if that was just wishful thinking since Bobby and I both really wanted a boy. But at 18 weeks my intuition was confirmed! After the u/s we were happily waiting to see the doctor for a really long time. When she finally came in she told us there were a couple of questionable things on the u/s. They said he had a two vessel umbilical cord, which is not necessarily problematic by itself, but that there also appeared to be a small amout of fluid in the kidneys, which is also not necessarily bad news. But since they found both things they said there was a chance there could be some sort of chromosomal abnormality. Plus they weren't able to get all the measurements they needed that day. So we had to wait to go back for an u/s at the perinatologist the next week.

I had expected everything to be perfect but as soon as they told me all that my mind immediately imagined the worst. That was a tough couple of days but I tried staying positive. At the next u/s they confirmed the 2VC and fluid in kidneys but found nothing else wrong. They also told me the results of the first trimester screening we had were excellent and that it showed very little chance that anything was wrong. I felt better after that. They monitored his kidneys periodically and at 30 weeks they said there was no fluid but the left kidney looked kind of small and they would just wait and do an u/s after birth to check them again. Since the 2VC put him at a greater chance of IUGR I had weekly BPP u/s starting at 32 weeks, I think.

Everything went great for the rest of the pregnancy and I went into labor on my EDD, July 11. I had the natural hospital birth I had been planning on and Vincent was born at 3:01 AM on July 12. I could write pages more about those first few days and months. There were so many challenges: he had a little trouble keeping his temp up the first day, his u/s revealed a completely absent left kidney, he had a bad skin reaction to the eye ointment, in the nursery they noticed he had a low heart rate and he had to wear a heart monitor on day 2 and then once more after we went home (his heart turned out to be fine!), he was on antibiotics for the first month, we had so many problems with BF and didn't get the help we needed and gave up after a few weeks, once he was given a bottle his EBM or formula would shoot out his nose and he would choke badly (later we figured it was reflux and treated with AR formula), and I was so overwhelmed and borderline depressed. I'm sure some of you remember my posts those first couple of months.

Even though we had several issues in the beginning, thankfully none of them were really major and he's generally a very healthy, happy little boy. I remember after 2 months things seemed to start getting a little easier as his reflux issues started to get better. Then around 4 months and again at 6 months it seemed to keep getting a little less stressful snd a little more fun and these last 5 months have been a blast! Vincent is just so amazing to me and he's an even more wonderful baby than I could have ever imagined and I just feel so blessed to be his mom.

[mommytokem]

I love that you and Bobby are high school sweet hearts. It's so good to hear that Vincent is doing so well after so many uncertainties.

[sfarrow3]

Awwww! I loved your story!!! Your hubby is so very lucky to have you in his life. Vincent is the cutest thing and despite the challenges during pregnancy everything turned out great! I don't remember you saying this but how was the natural birth?

Your wedding pics are so pretty. We found out we were pregnant the same day!!!

Im so glad Vincent is a happy healthy little boy. You still have to take him for checkups because of the kidney issue right?

[Vincent'sMommy]

Shantel - Vincent's birth was great. I'd say intense but I don't really have any other births to compare it too so probably not more than most births. Nothing dramatic or scary really happened, although I was so exhausted by the end and sleeping between contractions that I'm not really sure I was aware of everything going on. I had my frist contraction at 4 AM on my due date (didn't know it was labor for a while), was admitted to the hospital about 9 PM at 5 cm and Vincent was born 6 hours later at 3 AM. I wasn't pressured to get an epi and even when I asked about it at one point I talked myself down. My DH and my friend Karen were there and were a big help. I'm so glad that I had a drug-free birth in the hospital but there are still a bunch of things I hope to do differently with the birth of baby #2. Even so I think I did a great job the first time and I can't wait to do it again! I can't believe that was almost a year ago!

Shannon - Vincent does see a pedi nephrologist and getting ultrasounds on his kidney but I'm not sure how long we'll have to do that. I assume it will get less frequent as he gets older and if everything stays fine. He will be seeing a pedi urologist in August for a possible seminal vesicle cyst and an undescended testicle too. In late July he'll go back to the cardiologist that he saw right after he was born, but I'm assuming that's just to make sure everything is still fine as well. I don't have any reason to think they'll find anything wrong now but I'm praying that nothing comes up out of the blue.

Michele, love reading about your childhood and Bobby. You know my story with Caleb so I can understand the stressful pregnancy. Good for you for having a drug free delivery. Also want to say, I <3 little Vincent.