Thankful Thursday

Today this mom is thankful for...

• My son who makes me smile and reminds me what is important in life.


• Chocolate (yes, a recurring theme in my "Thankful Thursday" posts)


• My amazing friends


• The feel of Fall in the air


• Memories, clear as day...

Some things I can't give up

While it seems like so much time has gone by there are some things I can not give up. I still leave the kitchen light on. I left it on every night you were born in case I had to make a bottle for you in the middle of the night. I still leave it on. Maybe I do it so you know if you need me I am still here. I know you need nothing and you are happy but I can't give it up. The things in your drawer no longer smell like you . They smell like the drawer but it doesn't matter sometimes I still need them. I can no longer hold you but I can hold the clothes you last wore. I still can't let the nightmare that haunts my night time go. I still see you being carried into my room and I hear the words that were spoken. I know you are happy but I can't let go of my own selfish desires to have you here. There are times even now that I still can't believe all of this has happened. I wonder what you would look like if you were here. Would you have those big brown eyes still? Would you have said mama or daddy first? I know that as time goes on my heart will heal but my heart will also never let you go. I will always hold you in my heart. I remember as a tears streamed down my cheeks and I whispered my last words. I wonder what my actual last words were to you alive. Did I kiss you goodnight? Did I tell you I loved you? Do you know how much I love you? These questions still haunt me. There is one thing I never stop wishing for and that is to hold you again. I know that would only leaving me wishing for more.

The baby news

Well I went for another sonogram at a different place. This time they found the baby but no heartbeat this time. The baby has died. It it a very strange feeling knowing there is a baby in me that I'll never see. I guess it was better that it happened early. Then have a baby with a lot of problems. Like I keep telling myself thank God I have 2 healthy beautiful children. It doesn't make it any easier but I love the family I do have.

good and bad

I'll start out with the bad news I found out I was prego then saw the baby on the sono. Then the next week had another sono then nothing no baby. It just never developed.
Then there's the good news my dh is opening up a gallery/retail store downtown on Elmwood. He is starting to get it ready. Wish us the best.
You know I am thankful for what I have now 2 beautiful healthy children.

Still missing you

I never have a day where I don't think of you and tell you I love you. I am your mother and will always think of you. Not a day goes by that I don't wish I woke up to the sound of your cry and there you were. I was at the store today and I was standing right next to the little girls section and there was this pretty pink and brown dress. I dunno why but I picked it up. It immediatly brought tears to my eyes. I wish I had two girls to buy clothes for. I wish I could see you in that dress and know what you would look like. Although I am sure there would be days I would loose my mind because I was shopping with both of you, I only wish that were my life. What I wouldn't give to be shopping for something and be annoyed cause my girls were acting up. What I wouldn't give to just use the term, my girls. I know that we all miss you. I will always feel like my family is not complete. I miss you baby girl!

As the sun sets think about your day!

As the sun goes down think about the day you had. Was it extraordinary? Was it the same ol thing just another day? Think about if when you child went to sleep tonight it would be the last time you would ever see them alive. Would you remember every detail of your day? Would you tell them over and over you loved them? What would you change about your day? Would you try to stop it? I think about the day I last spent with Addie. It was a Thursday. I got up fed her and took and we took Gabby to school. It was a warm day and we didn't need jackets. I took her to the gym with me and she slept almost all morning which was unusual but I thought wow time to myself. If I had known I would have held her while she slept. I would have held her all day and told her over and over I loved her. I would have savored every moment. She woke up and I fed her then soon after we went to pick up Gabby. I got everyone in the car when I discovered Gabby had left her blankie in the school. So I picked the baby up outta her car seat and angrily dragged the kids back in the school. I remember some girls say aww at Addie. I think she was awake I am not sure. Then I probably made dinner and I wasn't feeling well. I remember most of all the last few minutes I last spent with her. We were on the couch and my mom came over cause I didn't feel great and jack wasn't home. I was reading books to them then my mom was reading some. We were doing so big with Addie. She was happy. Then jack called and he came home and I went up to bed with Gabby. I am not sure I kissed her goodnight. I just know I was relieved when he got there. I remember laying in bed watching greys. Then about halfway through I turned it off. Jack had brought the baby upstairs to rock her and she was crying and I remember being annoyed. Then he came back down to make her a bottle and I still heard her cry but I fell a sleep. Then I was awoke by the most horrible words I ever heard. Jack was screaming my name and saying she wasn't breathing. I remember the rest all too well. It's not something I am ready to write in words yet. It's not something I want to read over and over. It already plays out in my head far to many times than I care to admit. Almost a year later and I still over analyze it over and over. It's probably not healthy but I wonder what could have been missed. Will I always wonder? probably. I wonder when this will stop consuming my thoughts? I wonder when it will not be in the back of my mind every second of the day? I wonder so many things some have answers and some there will never be an answer.

Almost a year without you!

I am told not to mark this day. Don't go to the cemetery, don't grieve, don't make it more difficult than it already is. Treat this day as any other. Once I have decided to do this I feel relieved. I feel a sense of yeah its coming up and yeah it doesn't change anything. Some good things have happened as a result of your death. I will not let your passing just fade away. I will not let your memory fade and I certainly won't forget or let anyone else forget. We were all robbed of knowing you but we will not be robbed of you. Every time I feel you have left me I am reminded you have not. I have learned so much about myself this last year. I have learned my faith is strong but I am still angry. No matter what good comes from your death I still don't see your life as collateral for these great things that have happened. I know that some things in life we don't get an answer because it is not one we can understand. I have learned the kindness of other people and that when you need it most they do come through. I have learned to pull strength from God's comfort even though I am mad at him and wonder where he was? Some say he was there. I prefer to think maybe he was taking a nap. I fear that if I don't my anger will grow. I look at pictures of you often and remember how it was to hold you. I leave the kitchen light on because I always did in case you needed a bottle at night. I can't bring myself to turn it off. I sleep with your pink bunny you got for Easter in hopes you will visit me in my sleep. As I go to sleep I am reminded every night how you are not here. I look into the empty crib the only reminder of your recent presence and I turn out the light as if it were symbolic. Night time still seems to be the worst time. It is the time of day that my thoughts are left to myself. I lay still trying to shut my thoughts off. Then I remember how long ago it seems that you slept next to me. I remember rocking you in the chair as I am wearing the same jammies I wore then. I feel the need to touch the spot where you head lay as if it was just there. The last time I held you always works its way into my mind and then the other horrible burned in memories flood my mind. The warm tears slide down my cheeks and onto my pillow. I lay awake in silence soaking my pillow. I finally give in to something to help and slip into a restless night of sleep only hoping that one of my dreams is of you. Goodnight my sweet baby!

How did this happen?

So what do you do when you put your life on hold for your family and then you wake up one day and want it back? For the last six plus years I have been a mom and wife. There have been ups and downs but everyday when I woke up I knew it was what I wanted to do. I had the support of my husband. He would work and I would stay home with the children and be a mom and a wife. Take care of the house, take care of our lives and be happy.

Well, I woke up today and wouldn't get out of bed. I looked at my house with clothes everywhere and piles of debris that are remnants of my past few years. Where did I lose control? How did my house end up like this, how did my life end up in similar piles of debris? Why did this happen to me again? I swore after I moved out of my parents house no one would have that kind of control over my life again. I wouldn't be another victim. No one would make me feel worthless on a daily basis again.

It took me a long time to let down my shields to let someone into my life that closely and I did. I fell in love, got married, had my family. I was what I always wanted to be a wife and mommy. Sue it would have been nice for me to work, to get the extra money but my hubby and I agreed I would stay home save on the daycare cost and I tried to do it all.

I always put the kids before cleaning. I never let it get this bad before though. I don't know how to start organizing or cleaning my house and the same goes for my life. So I sit on my bed and look at the piles of everything all over. How did it get so bad? How did I let my husband push me into the wall in front of my son and spit in my face? Why didn't I just walk away then?

I am afraid to walk away. I said for better or worse. Do I even remember the better? Why can't I take that last step? I am afraid I'll lose the kids. I am afraid of leaving him alone with the kids. Will he hurt them? I don't think so physically, but he can be so mean when he talks to them, or rather yells at them. Then I see the man I married playing with the kids with a smile on his face and I want to believe he can stay that way.

My therapist and I agree that there is something else there, be it Asperger's like my son or something similar. He was never treated and he won't seek help now. He refuses to work with me to fix our marriage because he believes it will either work out or it won't, There is no effort from him to keep me. He makes to effort to bring me back.

So I sit on my bed watching the spare TV, typing on my laptop and crying. I think I don't want to fix up. I think I give up. I feel wrong for giving up. I feel like I failed. I feel like I am about to lose everything.

My house is a wreck, my life is a wreck and I want to fix it, Why can't I?

so many questions lately?

Did that hat they put on you at the hospital get buried with you? That one has really been bothering me. I guess I didn't take it off cause I was in such shock! For some reason I thought it might make you warmer to the touch. It never occurred to me that it would get buried. Sometimes I wish I had seen you one last time besides in the hospital. Then I think it would not have been a good idea since your dead face is stuck enough in my head. Just like the last moments I had with you that dreadful morning. The moment I realized you would never be 4 months, 5 months or even a year. You are forever a baby in my mind.

I can't help but wonder if you do live on in another baby/child. Did your life save another? I some ways I feel like if it did not only does that baby get a piece of your heart but a piece if mine. I don't believe that your purpose in life was to save other babies. I don't know I just think there has to be another reason. Another really good reason for putting a family through such pain. For breaking a mother's heart. For leaving a father feeling guilty for the rest of his life, even though he is faultless. For leaving a sister lonely. Such a huge sacrifice for another. If that is the purpose then you truly are an angel.

More than anything I wish the impossible. I wish that you never left us. I wish I knew what it was like to be a mother of a one year old and a 5 year old. I wish I didn't know what it was like to loose a child. I wish that my worst fear didn't happen. I wish for more time with you. I wish I could kiss your head and hold you. I wish....

Missing you so deeply

It is almost your angel day and everyday I spend I realize how short of a time we had with you. I miss you even more. Next week will be the anniversary of your first smile. We were just about to leave for Gabby's birthday party and you looked at me and smiled. No one else saw it but me. It was so sweet! I spent the next few days trying to make you smile again. Most of the time you just starred into my face studying it. I loved looking into those big brown eyes. Sometimes I feel bad because you often cried nightly. I know you were loved but you spent most of your short time here unhappy. They say we only have a mcuh time here on earth and every life is predetermined. They also say that every life has a purpose. What was your purpose? Why did you only get so little time? I know these are questions I will never get answered till I meet you in heaven. 10 months since I last felt you in my arms and yet we are all still so very much broken hearted. I miss you sweet girl!

Happy Birthday, Addilynn Rose. I love you today, tomorrow, and always.

Tiny Angels
Tiny Angels rest your wings
sit with me for awhile.
How I long to hold your hand,
And see your tender smile.
Tiny Angel, look at me,
I want this image clear....
That I will forget your precious face
Is my biggest fear.
Tiny Angel can you tell me,
Why you have gone away?
You weren't here for very long....
Why is it, you couldn't stay?
Tiny Angel shook his head,
"These things I do not know....
But I do know that you love me,
And that I love you so"

.Author Unknown

Jan 15th

Thursday, January 15th, 2009 is supposed to be Addilynn's first birthday. I don't know what to do. I am completely torn. I should be having a party and she should be eating her first cake all by herself. Instead none of that will ever happen. She will never get to celebrate one or any birthdays. We will never buy her presents. It's not just another day but its not like we knew her so well we can go out and do her favorite thing or eat her favorite foods. I will never know any of those things about my daughter. I feel like her birthday is just a big fat reminder of the things I will never do and of the joy I used to have. My mom wants to release happy birthday balloons into the sky. My husband wants to drop flowers off at her grave. Part of me wants to just hibernate and wake up the 16th. I can't think about it without tearing up. I also think that now I have to go through another new phase. Now I have to relive the days Addilynn did live but with out her. Even though it is only January I am dreading her death date. Just like I never wanted that day to happen I more than anything wish it would forever be gone. As if I don't relive that day over and over enough. I think about it so often I start to second guess everything. I wonder why I wasn't allowed an answer as to how or why. I wonder why it had to be SIDS. I will definitely visit her that day but still it doesn't actually help. I just know I should because I am her mommy. It just reminds me that is has been that long already. Sure I am living and sure I still have fun and enjoy things in life because I don't want to waste it but I always have sadness. A great big gaping hole of sadness. I know she is in a better place and will never experience heartache but she will also never experience the great things life has to offer. It's not always a bowl of sunshine but there are many good things. I miss you so much Addilynn, we all do.

Its a new year

It is a new year and I have mixed feelings. Not that I can control how slow or fast the days pass. I can't control too many aspects of my life. It is not in my hands. I wonder if your heart valves have yet saved a life or when they will. I wonder when you will live on in the heart of another baby and save their parents from the heartache we feel everyday. That was an easy question...I knew I had to let you live on and prevent this kind of heartache from others. I feel sad that you will never live in 2009 I will never hold you in 2009. Part of me feels like I have left 2008 behind and I have to leave you behind. I never will as your mother. I know I see you around me. You are the white rose that sticks out of the snow on Christmas day. You are the warm sun on my face that wakes me up in the morning. You are the warmth I feel on a cold winter night. You are forever with me in my heart just not in my arms. I will never again get to kiss your sweet soft cheek. 2008 brings mixed feelings because it was the year we said hello and goodbye to you all at once. It was the year that started out to be the best year I had yet to have once to blow up and crash and burn in the spring. The year I am forever changed and the year that made me a different person. A year that made one single event define who I am .