My name is Valerie. I am a mom of 5 by day, and a nurse by night. Our house of 7 is chaotic at times, but so full of love. My husband , James and I have been married for 15 years. We have definitely had our ups and downs, but he really is the best. Our oldest son, Nick, just turned 18 on May 13th. Madison, our only girl and the second mama around here, turned 13 on May 4th. Gabriel, the loud one, turned 5 on May 24th. Walker, the destructive one, turned 2 on May 11th. And Matthew, the lover of the bunch, will turn 1 in July. You read that right. 4 May babies. 4 May birthdays.

A little history: James and I met at a wedding. We were both members of the wedding party, and he absolutely annoyed me. He somehow conned me into going on one date, and 8 months later we were engaged. 8 months after that, we got married. He always wanted 1 child. I always wanted 3, so we compromised and had 5. After Madison was born, we discovered we had a condition called Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia. This basically means my body hates James’ babies and tries to get rid of them by destroying their platelets. Low platelets can equal brain bleeds, which can ultimately lead to death. It tends to get worse with each pregnancy. Madison was born with low platelets, which is how this journey began. They mentioned NAIT, and we decided it would be best to not have any more babies.  Lots of testing was done on both me and James, and all the results came back inconclusive for any incompatibilities, so a definite diagnosis wasn’t able to be made. When we decided to consider expanding our family 8 years later, we had further tests done, and again, nothing was found, so my doctor figured that it was a fluke and gave us the go ahead to try for baby number 3. A month later, we were pregnant. Since we had nothing to confirm NAIT, our doctors and we decided that we would just increase monitoring on the baby by doing ultrasounds every 2 weeks, watching for signs of a brain bleed. I also opted to have a C-section this time, to decrease the pressure on the baby’s head in the event of low platelets. When he was born, his platelets were much lower than Madison’s (hers were 16,000 and his was 8,000), and he was so bruised. He also got stuck, even with a C-section, and had to have a vacuum applied to his head. Luckily, he didn’t experience any bleeds that we know of, but I have my suspicions due to some of his behaviors and deficits that I am noticing as he gets older. When we got pregnant with Walker, we had a treatment plan in place. I had to get IVIG infusions twice a week for 12 hours each. Every Monday and Friday, I was stuck on the couch hooked to an IV, with a home nurse here monitoring me. I was also on high doses of steroids (James loved that!) and ended up with a central line. It was traumatic, but guess what? IT WORKED! Walker was born completely healthy, with his platelets a little low, but not near as low as his siblings. I was so relieved, and so DONE. I loved my family of 6, until 5 months later. Pink lines again. DEVASTATED. I cried, mostly because I was selfish and didn’t want to go through those horrible infusions again, but also fear. What if it didn’t work this time? I gave myself some time to get it together, and pulled up my big girl panties, and went back at it again. Monday and Friday on the couch. EVER. SINGLE. WEEK. Counting down to week 37, when my C-section was scheduled, and on July 10th, we welcomed our Matthew with a NORMAL platelet count and no NICU (A first for us!).

Anyways, if you are still reading, that is just a little about us. The days around here are always hectic, but James and I make a good team most of the time. We do have the kids on a schedule, which helps to somewhat mange the chaos. I love how each of these little people have their own personalities, and they are all so different. I love watching them develop and grow every day, and I am lucky to be able to work part time in order to be home with them during the day, even if this means missing sleep. My kids are funny. The type of funny that is seriously unintentional, which is the best kind of funny. I never know what will come out of their mouths, and sometimes, it takes everything I have to not laugh when laughing would be the inappropriate thing to do. I have tried to be the coveted Pinterest mom, with the creative snacks and the daily fun family activities, but I FAILED. I do like to make myself believe that I am ALMOST a Pinterest mom, and that’s ok. My kids may not get dinosaur shaped sandwiches for lunch, but they do eat. Their clothes may not match, but they aren’t naked (most of the time). My house doesn’t look like the cover of better homes and garden, but we live here.  I may not have one single picture with everyone looking the same direction and smiling, but in every picture, their REAL personalities show. You may come in to one kid peeing off the back porch while another is eating dog food out of the kitchen floor. You may see one kid coloring our vehicles with chalk, or step in slime and/or moon sand that may be laying in the floor in a disclosed location. I have finally convinced myself that these things are all ok.  Our kids are happy, so you know what?  We must be doing some things right.  I am stressed, but I am blessed. This is our family. Parks, party of 7.