R.I.P Mookey - a boy's first pet

Last night we said goodbye to our dear Beta Fish Mookey. Jamie and I debated on whether or not we would turn his passing into a life lesson for Jack. He is after all 4 years old and would notice Mookey was gone as he resided on his dresser.

So in the most simple way we explained to Jack that Mookey was no longer with us and he had gone to Heaven. Now before one person says "but pets don't go to heaven" I will stop you right there. Jack has a concept of what happens when our bodies die and for the purpose of keeping things simple we explained it the same way.

At first he asked a lot of questions, and then as the night went on he was a little more quiet than normal. We explained to him it was OK to be sad and it was even OK to cry. And so he did. He cried out for Mookey, and said he missed him and wanted him back. My heart just broke. You want to protect your children from any pain, even if it is just a loss of a fish. 

Jack has now accepted Mookey's passing and things are back to "normal" He will occasionally go to his bedroom and look up at the dresser and I only hope he looks up with great memories of the little fishy who would wag his tail when we entered the room. R.I.P Mookey

Working mother, missing out.

Ever feel like you are missing out on your child's life? Being a working mother is the hardest thing in the world. Today I got a phone call from my husband informing me that our baby boy rolled over for the first time. As excited as I was I soon felt sad, guilty, mad that I was at work just hearing about it and not witnessing it myself. I am grateful Jamie was there to witness it and not a daycare provider but still my heart sank a little when I heard the good news.

So what is a working mother to do? I have heard stories of mothers up and quitting their jobs when getting news like this. Believe me I was tempted. But in all honesty that is not a possibility for us. I spend every minute I am at home with my children and yet I feel like they are growing up too fast and their first milestone moments are only witnessed by me after the fact.

With all of that being said, I am learning to cherish the moments I do have with them and use everyday to remind my children how much I love them and how proud I am to be their mommy. I am blessed.

Jack and Dylan

Dylan Dean Henry

In July of 2008, Jamie and I decided we wanted to give Jack a baby brother or sister. So we started "trying". Month after month, nothing was happening. We were sad and confused. Our first son Jack was conceived while I was on birth control, so how was it we were not able to conceive when timing everything out perfectly? After a year of trying we decided to go see the doctor.Turns out I had some sort of Ph imbalance and it was preventing us from getting pregnant. After the problem was corrected we continued to try.

On September 1, 2009 we were packing up for a weekend up north. On a hunch, I bought a pregnancy test and took it quickly before we left. I was in the bathroom looking at the stick and all of a sudden the little line that never showed up month after month was finally there!  I kept saying "oh my gosh, oh my gosh." I was shaking, I could not believe it! I went running out to the front yard with the stick to show Jamie! We were finally pregnant!

We went to the doctor a couple of weeks later and they gave us a due date of May 12, 2010.

My pregnancy was similar to Jack's in the beginning. No major complications. At 16 weeks, I had an ultrasound. Jamie and I had not yet decided if we were going to find out the sex of the baby. But I happen to look over at the right moment and said " is that a boy?"  The ultrasound tech said, "I wouldn't paint the room blue yet, but I would be shocked if you come back next month and it isn't a boy!" The 20 week appointment confirmed what we already knew, we were having another baby boy!

On March 20, 2010 at 32 weeks I lost my plug. Dr. told me it was nothing to worry about and checked me for pre-term labor but the test came back negative. So she put me on bed rest at home and wanted me to follow up at the end of the week.

On March 26. 2010 I woke up having contractions. I got in the shower and afterwards told Jamie we should probably go to the hospital. It was early in the morning so we packed up, grabbed Jack and called my parents to meet us at the hospital. While there they determined I was 3 cm, and in pre term labor. They admitted me to the hospital on bed rest.

On March 31, 2010 I woke up from having dreams of contractions, the nurse came in and confirmed the contractions were getting stronger and closer together. They had decided today was the day. Jamie arrived at the hospital around 9:00 a.m. and it was a wait and see game. I was only dilated to 6 cm and stayed there for a long time. This labor was much different from Jack's. This one was painful. Every contraction hurt. At 8:00 p.m. I was 8cm and they broke my water. Within a couple of minutes I was10 cm! It was go time again. I pushed and pushed, I was in so much pain. Again, I kept saying "this is not like Jack" but with 15 minutes of pushing at 8:36 p.m, he was here! Dylan Dean Henry was born prematurely at 34 weeks. He was 5 lbs 9 oz. A pretty good size for a preemie.

Dylan spent 3 weeks in the NICU. Because he was born so early he needed extra time to grow and learn how to do basic things like eat and maintain body temperature. Ironically, the same nurse that promised to watch over Jack while he was in the NICU was also Dylan's nurse. Her name was DeDe and I recognized her right away. She went on to tell us she has been thinking about us for 4 years! Apparently the night Jack had his seizure, she wanted to come wake us up but the nurse in charge said not to. DeDe said she has felt bad ever since that night. And because of us she will now do what is best for the patient even if she is told differently. On April 22, 2010 Jamie, Jack and I went to go pick up our new baby! We were now a happy little family of 4! And he completes our March Madness. Married, Jack, House, Dylan all in the month of March!

Jack James Henry

On March 10, 2006 I was admitted to the hospital to get induced with our first child. I arrived at the hospital at 10:00 a.m. Jamie was at work at the time so my dad met me at the hospital since he worked right up the road.

Jamie was just about the most adorable first time dad there has ever been. He was panic stricken when I called him. I think he thought when I said it was time,that meant the baby was going to be there any minute! I told him to breath, go home, shower and grab his bag. Jamie showed up around 11:30 a.m. I think he was relieved to see me sitting comfortably with no baby in my arms yet! We started going over the checklist, and realized he forgot to grab the camera! He looked at the nurse with fear and she said, "it's OK, you have plenty of time" so off he was to get the camera.

My labor progressed and the baby looked good on the monitor so they let me sit and relax. Our whole family was there and so was my best friend! It was so nice and helped the time pass. To this day I am so grateful for my family and friends who endured my long labor with me!

At about 3:00 p.m. a nurse came in to attach a monitor to the baby. While doing this something went wrong and before I knew it, it was like a scene out of ER. Lights where flashing, alarms were ringing and about a half dozen nurses came rushing into the room. Then I started to get light headed. My mom was holding my hand at the time and I asked her what was going on. I had felt a gush and thought my water had broke. It turns out I was loosing blood. I lost about a pint of blood in a short amount of time. Luckily they got that under control and the baby and I were OK. They decided it would be a good time to give me an epidural.

The night went on and our family were all still there! At about 10:00pm we had the room cleared out so Jamie and I could get some rest. We'll I rested, and Jamie watched the high school hockey tournament!

At 11:00 p.m. they came in and checked me, I was a 10! But my doctor was at another hospital so they had me continue relaxing and let the baby come down a little more.

The doctor arrived around 12:30 a.m. It was go time! I started to push with Jamie and my mom by my side. After about 30 minutes I started to get tired so I started to fake push but was quickly called out by my mother. So I started to push for real again and got nauseous. They turned me on my side but that was not helping either. At that point, I had decided I was the only one who was going to get this baby out so I pushed with all my might! At 1:34 a.m. on March 11, 2006, exactly 3 years after our first date, our first baby was born! ITS A BOY! Jamie's face was priceless. He looked at me and said "they said boy" He was so happy, so proud. Jack was born at 37 1/2 weeks and weighed 7 lbs 5 oz. A perfect baby boy

On March 12, 2006  I was in the nursury with Jack for his midnight feeding and felt that something was NOT RIGHT. Here I was only a mommy for two days and I just knew something was wrong. So I told the nurse about it and she promised to watch him all night and wake me up if something happened. The next morning we were woken up by the NICU doctor telling us our precious baby boy had a seizure.

Jack was transferred to the NICU at the U of M to be evaluated. They ran every test to find out why this had happened. In the end, they had come to the conclusion he had a low calcium level which cause him to have that seizure. We were so thankful it was nothing neurological. On March, 16, 2006 we took our baby boy home. We were a happy family of 3.

Jack is now 4 years old and full of more life than anyone I know. He has a kind heart like his daddy, the best personality and loves sports, cars, and action hero's!

March 2006

In the summer of 2005, Jamie and I were living in Bloomington doing what young people do. I think they have a song called "Everybody's working for the weekend" and that is what we were doing. Not a care in the world. BBQs, trips to the cabin, dancing, dinners anything we wanted, anytime we wanted.

On August 8, 2005 I felt that something was not right so I talked to my best friend and told her about it. I took her advice and found out the most shocking news I have ever had to deal with at that point in my life. I WAS PREGNANT! As I mentioned I was shocked, I was scared I was just about ever emotion in the book. When Jamie got home from work I was sitting in the living room. We were getting ready to go to his weekly softball game. He looked and me and said, "what is wrong?" I am sure my face had a look of terror. He immediately said "your pregnant" I was surprise to hear those words come out of his mouth because I did not even mention any suspicion to him. I replied with a "yes". We got in the truck and went to the softball game. After the game we bought a couple more pregnancy test just to confirm I really was with child. They all came up positive. I made a Dr. appointment and we were told we had a due date of March 26, 2006.

After the initial shock went away, excitement came. Jamie and I had been together for 2 1/2 years at this point. We knew we would get married and have babies together, so we just had to accept our plans were a little out of order.

My pregnancy was pretty smooth.I craved sour gummy worms and milk but thankfully not together! I had a minor complication through out, but the baby was fine so I was grateful. We decided not to find out the sex of the baby. Actually, Jamie didn't want to find out and I respected that. I knew I would not be able to keep a secret from him so I went along with it as well.

In February of 2006, Jamie asked me if I wanted to get married before the baby came. (he had asked me earlier but I told him we would do it after the baby).But this time I said YES! As a little girl you always dream about your wedding day. In the beginning, I wanted the big wedding all the guests all the planning. But when he asked me this time, all of that stuff didn't matter. All I wanted was to be married to him and have our baby. Jamie called my parents and asked their permission to marry me, and I called his parents and asked if they thought it would be alright if I became a Henry. Of course both parents said yes, and we set the wedding date March 3, 2006.

On March 2, 2006 I was sent to the hospital. I remember crying saying," NO I cant have the baby right now, I am getting married tomorrow!" After a couple of hours in triage, they sent me home.

On March 3, 2006 I spent the day relaxing at home. My mom picked up my dress, my sister had a professional make up artist come in and I got ready for my wedding. Jamie went to his parents for the day and got ready over there. Our wedding was beautiful. We had close family and friends in attendance. Just the way it was supposed to be. My mother had organized our wedding dinner at Amore Victoria in Uptown which just happened to be the old Georgio's wine bar, the same place where Jamie and I had our first date. She had no idea which made it even more special. The next day our whole family came over to our new house and helped us paint. It was a great weekend of family, friends and love.

On March 9, 2006 I was sent back to the hospital. Once again after a couple of hours in triage, they sent me home and told me to follow up with my doctor's office the next morning. On March 10, 2006 I went to the doctor for that check up, did a non stress test and everything was fine. But my doctor thought was up so she ordered an ultrasound. After that, they found that I had low amniotic fluid so they sent me to the hospital. I was going to be induced! There was no turning back now!

The Beginning

So many of my friends have blogs, and I love to read them. Helps me keep in touch with their daily lives even when we are not in contact on a regular basis. So I thought to myself, "self, you should do this" Even if  a single person does not reads this, I will at the very least have great documentation for my boys. So here I am, I hope you enjoy.

Since it is hard to know where to start, I thought I would start at the beginning. The beginning of the happy Henry household I now call my own.

My husband Jamie and I met in 2003 when I was going through a very difficult time in my life. My best friend has just moved out of state and I was very depressed. I truly believe God sent him to me in my greatest time of need. 

Our first date was March 11, 2003. He was 22 and I was 21. He took me to Georgio's Wine bar in Uptown (on a Wednesday night but that was back when we were young and could enjoy a night out during the week!) From that very day I was in love! We have been inseparable ever since. Our first apartment was right on Lake Calhoun. To this day we always think about out little 680 sq foot apartment with great memories of our young relationship. We moved into a townhouse in Bloomington after that. This was Jamie's favorite place. I think it was because he had an entire room to call his own! In 2005 my best friend and her husband moved back to Minnesota and we all moved into another townhouse complex together. This of course was my favorite because I got to be so close to her!

Then the summer of 2005 changed our lives forever! We got the most exciting, scary news of our life!