Bonnie and Her Babies

Welcome to Bonnie's pregnancy and baby blog! This blog will be maintained by Bonnie and Natalie, her oldest sister (that's who's writing right now) since, as you can imagine, growing three babies and raising them is busy business and blogging might not always be a first priority!



Bonnie will be blogging as well, but this project was my idea so I'm doing what I can to get it off the ground.



So, let me tell you the story of my sister making me an aunt, and giving my parents their first grandchildren...



I was shopping with my boyfriend's sister, Alicia, when my sister called me. She said she wanted to share some news, that she was engaged. Engaged! I was surprised, it was big news. But I knew that she and Ben had been discussing marriage for a little while , so I wasn't in shock about it. Then she said that she had another piece of news for me (now, I know that YOU know where this is going, but at the time I figured she was going to tell me something about wedding plans or ask me to be her Maid of Honor). She announced that in February, I would be an aunt. NOW I was floored.



Her pregnancy has started of with a lot of morning sickness. It's been about three times as intense as the morning sickness of most women in our family. She's had a lot of back pain, and has definitely had her share of mood swings. That aside, her hair is growing in thicker, her skin is glowing, and she's been developing the breasts of a goddess. All in all, I'd say she's about as gorgeous as a pregnant woman could get.

Unfortuntately, even pretty pregnant women don't always have it easy. Bonnie had to leave her job at the bakery because her boss could not compromise on having Bonnie deal with commercial cleaning chemicals, or not being able to lift heavy loads of flour, sugar, and chemicals up and down stairs. She was hired with an insurance company, but her morning sickness was giving her difficulties with work performance.

At about week 13, doctors said the thought she was a little further along and scheduled an ultrasound for week 14 to check. Though she was still losing weight from morning sickness, the baby's heart beat and the swelling of her abdomen seemed unusually advanced for 13 weeks. I was going to go, but had plans to pick up my boyfriend's other sister, Madeline, from the airport and spend the day with her.

While Madeline and I were having coffee and, speak of the devil, talking about my sister and her babies, Bonnie called me. "Are you sitting down?" Immediately my heart sank, and I was worried.

"Yeah, I'm just sitting in Fort Collins right now with Madeline. We're having coffee. What's wrong? Is everything ok?" I asked.

"Yes, just...promise you're sitting down...and not driving either. You're not driving?" She sounded very serious, and I knew she wouldn't spill the news until she was sure I was seated.

"Ok, I'm sitting. I'm not driving. Is everything ok? What's going on?"

"I'm having triplets."

(Long pause. Feeling of shock)

"Seriously? You're lying to me. Are you lying to me?"

"No. I'm really having triplets."

After several accusations of her pulling my chain, I believed her. Then proceeded to beg her to name one after me for a few minutes. Then told Madeline, who got so excited she called her entire family. It was a very happy moment.

Since then things have had their ups and their downs. She has to file for medicaid to cover insurance costs, and has to have a quick wedding to file properly. She is a high-risk pregnancy right now, and the doctors she is seeing where she lives in Nebraska can only do so much. They are sending her to a specialist in Denver each month, which is also where she will be having a C-Section.

Unfortunately, the way medicaid works is that it covers you for treatment only in the state that you live in. So, when she does her check-ups in Nebraska, she will be covered. However, every time she has to cross a state line to get the appropriate medical attention her pregnancy requires, she will not be covered by insurance.

At week 16, she has only gained 2 pounds since the very beginning of her pregnancy. This, the doctors say, is probably closely tied with her stress level. Our family, is, of course, trying to do everything we can to help her. Although my dad's work benefits contract strictly states that my sister is not eligible to be covered under his insurance, he is hoping that upon talking with them, they can come up with a compromise to help her through the end of this year. That leaves two months of pregnancy with no coverage every time she is in Denver.

We have started this blog to keep family informed, and to build a network of support for Bonnie and her children as early on as we could think to do so. We ask for your prayers, your positive and uplifting thoughts, your encouragement, and any creative support you can offer. We would love to hear back from this network through the e-mail we have created that is also directly linked to this blog. To e-mail my sister or the family, please e-mail bonnie.triplets@gmail.com

Great thanks and much love,

Natalie