This is the 2nd part of a speech my sister said at my baby shower. If you didn’t read Part One, it would make more sense if you read it first.
The years passed and I fell pregnant with my second but still no joy of babies for my sister. I was so sure this baby would be another girl because my sister had always wanted a boy first and surely she would produce the first grandson/nephew. To my surprise our little boy was born and I beat my sister to producing the first grandson as well. Out of deference to my sister we did not use my Dad’s name, because we knew she wanted to use it as a 2nd name if she had a boy.
{Small side note from Caitlin: In the end, we didn’t use Dad’s first name, but rather his 2nd name for Toddler T’s middle name. And we didn’t use it for J Boy because we realised there was a tradition in the Accountant’s family of naming first born son’s after their father. So in the end, Katrina was able to use Dad’s name for the middle name of her fifth child.}
I remember crying my own tears over this terrible road of infertility my sister was experiencing. Suddenly people started to think I was the older sister as I had the kids and she was still childless. It just didn’t seem like a victory having people think I was the oldest anymore.
Eventually my sister and her husband gave up on their desire to fall pregnant and moved over to England to pursue travel and career. After 6 months over there I can still remember the phone call from my sister – she was pregnant at last! We were all so excited. A few months later I found out I was pregnant with my 3rd child and it was nice to experience pregnancy with my sister. Especially considering my other two pregnancy’s I couldn’t really share with her because of the emotions of pain and hurt that my pregnancy’s evoked on her
She had a boy – I had a girl – A cousin for my kids at last! Her little boy and my daughter are the best of friends (and foes) even now as two little 4 year olds going to kindy together.
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| Katrina with J Boy and his Pocket Rocket cousin as babies |
The years continued to pass and soon I was in hospital having my 4th child and on the very same day my sister was a few doors up in the hospital going through the IVF procedure in the hope to have a sibling for J Boy. 9 months later my second nephew arrived!
When I fell pregnant with my 5th child
People started to marvel…
“I don’t know how you do it!” they would say. I would always look them in the eye and tell them that being a mum was the best job in the world and I don’t have 5 babies. I have all different ages and really it is quite manageable! You see I have 9, 6, 4, 2 year olds and a baby,
They are all different ages and stages…
My sister and her husband started to tease us… They have never been keen on vans and they would giggle at us and say WE WILL NEVER BUY A VAN>
To tease them back I taught my nephews to love driving with us in the tarago and I even taught them to say Tarago amongst their first words dad, mum, bub, twargo!
We all seemed to settle in to life knowing that I would have the larger family full of kids and my sister would have the nice neat smaller family.
After another round of IVF in hope for their final child – hopefully even a little girl and some disappointments along the way February this year my sister finally had success – she was pregnant again! The big surprise was that this time there was not one but two babies! How exciting twins!
Another early scan brought the biggest surprise of all….
Not one, not two but 3 little babies inside. (2 identical and 1 fraternal!) My sister was having triplets.
Not one, not two but 3 little babies inside. (2 identical and 1 fraternal!) My sister was having triplets.
After all those years of teasing and vowing to never own a van, after all those years of me being the one with the most kids, after all those years of infertility and pain….
I can now say with a giggle and a grin….
How do you do it with 5 children – 5 years and under?
I did 5 one at a time and had a chance to adapt with each new addition…
I have one child for every age group….
After all those years of competing, teasing and bickering I can now most sincerely say….
You are a legend sister dear! I say it with a giggle and a good luck too….
Sister you have won!
{Another side note from Caitlin: The Accountant is still resistant to becoming a van owner. Despite the fact that we do not have room to put a pram inside our current 7 seater car that we had bought when we thought we were having twins!}
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| My sister and my best friend. |
4 Comments
What a great story! I do remember once hearing that in Biblical times, there were 5 arrows in a quiver! Not sure about that, but it sounds perfectly full to me!
What a beautiful speech on behalf of your sister. It brought tears to my eyes hearing of your miscarriages and some painful memories of my own but to think that you are on your way to completing your big happy family brings a smile to my face. I am looking forward to the inevitable purchase of the van! Good luck Caitlin, you have a very supportive and loving family behind you 🙂
Katrina (Waldron)
I’m blessed with not two but three lovely daughters. Oh Yeah and one son! Love you Happy Heart Girl!
Christmas times are going to be LOUD! How fantastic!