Alanis Morrisette said it best....

Hello friends and family! (our fans, as Brian likes to think). It's Saturday, December 20 and wow, what a day it has turned out to be! This blog turned out to be much longer than I had anticipated, but PLEASE READ TO THE END! IT WILL BE WORTH IT, I PROMISE!!!

So I am officially a "stay-at-home mom" now. And frankly, I don't know if I like it! Teaching is all I have known for the past 8 years...I do kindergarten! That's what I do! Now what?? Clean? Bake? (Yeah right...) Ah yes, find a job I can do from home and work on hatching my three little babies! Thursday was my last day of school with my funny little kindergarten friends and when they left, I felt somewhat lost...but also relieved that I would finally have the opportunity to stay home and be off my feet all day, because let me tell ya, this belly isn't gettin' any smaller! To say my back has been aching at the end of the day would be a vast understatement. I felt better about the decision when I went to visit my favorite funny man doctor at UMC later that day and he confirmed the absolute need for me to have ceased working for a while...so for now, I will live out my kindergarten life vicariously through Mary, Michele and Anabelle...I even promised to all their busy work from my couch!

But ahh, I digress. Remember the title of this blog? About Alanis Morissette? And how she said it best? Yes, well, let's get to that. I'm thinking specifically of one song, that I don't hear as often any more, but often enough that it immediately came to mind at about 2:00 in the afternoon yesterday....let's all sing along.

The title is "Ironic"...here are the lyrics...

An old man turned ninety-eight, He won the lottery and died the next day
Its a black fly in your chardonnay
Its a death row pardon two minutes too late
Isnt it ironic... dont you think?
Chorus:
Its like rain on your wedding day
Its a free ride when you've already paid
Its the good advice that you just didnt take
Who wouldve thought... it figures
Mr. play it safe was afraid to fly.
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye.
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought
Well isnt this nice...And isnt it ironic... dont you think?
Repeat chorus
Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
When you think everythings okay and everythings going right
And life has a funny way of helping you out when
You think everythings gone wrong and everything blows upIn your face
A traffic jam when youre already late
A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break
Its like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
Its meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful wife
And isnt it ironic... dont you think? A little too ironic... and yeah I really do think...
Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you

So I'm sure you're now asking, "Ok Ami, how exactly does this song apply to you?" Ahh, let me tell you. And if you happen to be standing up right now, please, I'll give you a minute to go ahead and find your seat.....Ok, good. Let's continue. This Wednesday, at school I was absolutely blessed by my 2 kindergarten classes and the Cottonwood Staff with three separate BABY SHOWERS! So adorably decorated with BLUE, BLUE and more BLUE! We received over 2,700 diapers to get Brian and I started on our stinky journey with the 3 Bunch Boys. The generosity people showed was just overwhelming! People making handmade, personalized gifts for little Colton, Ethan and Hunter.... blankets, t-shirts, picture frames, necklaces, etc.) I was just so moved....(The 4th picture down shows the personalized gifts....)

And then we went to another formal ultrasound yesterday at 1:30...(formal meaning they measure every body part, find the weight, etc.) And my goodness, those are 3 very busy boys I've got in there! Let's just say they lost their hard earned title as being "very cooperative little boys!" When you want to see a face, they show you a butt, when you need an arm bone, they give you a leg! Ahh, boys.

And then we received some momentarily scary news...you know that feeling when the sonographer leaves the room abruptly and comes back with the doctor and they both peer at the screen? Yes, that's what happened. My heart immediately sank...what was wrong? What are we looking at? Turns out, Baby A (Colton) likely has a bilateral cleft lip and palate. (Bilateral meaning both sides of the nose...Whew! Ok, that I can handle! Apparently all babies start out with cleft palates and lips and they eventually fuse, but in Colton's case, they have not yet. But that is a problem that is easily fixed with surgery and one which can be done early on. It will no doubt make my heart skip a beat when we see it for the first time, but that's ok. He's our baby boy and we love him more than we knew we could already. So please include Colton specifically in your prayers. Thankfully, other than that, everything looks just fine with all three babies!

They weigh 10 oz., 11 oz., and 11oz. ("Big heads and big bellies", she said!) Hmm....my finger is pointing at Brian right now! (I took the credit for the ears we saw on one of the babies...he owned up to the big head and belly part.)

So anyway, we thought we were wrapping things up at our ultrasound, when the sonographer asked us, "So do you have names picked out yet?" "Of course we do!" I say..."Colton, Ethan and Hunter!" She liked our choices! And then, she made another quick look at each baby and as she got to Baby C, and did that same kind of "paused.." look at the screen, my heart started beating quickly again. "Oh God...more bad news." I thought.

And then she says calmly, I think Baby C is a Girl."........

WHAT?? WHAT DO YOU MEAN C IS A GIRL?? He can't be a girl! I just had 3 baby showers 2 days ago and got so much stuff for three BOYS!!" (Now do you see where Alanis Morrisette's 'Ironic' comes in???) Just for confirmation, we called Dr. Funny Man back in and yes, all 4 of agreed that C's parts do NOT look like A and B's parts. As Dr. M. put it, "Well, either she's a girl, or a very disappointing boy." hee hee...Now I'm gonna be honest, this WAS the original "Perfect Scenario" for us....2 boys and a girl. But when you get your heart set on 3 boys and you plan everything for 3 boys, (and you HOT GLUE letters to your babies' nursery saying "BABY BOYS") , it takes a moment to re-adjust. I looked at Brian, and said "Am I happy about this?" And the obvious answer from him was "YOU BET!" OMG! A girl!!

To everyone who gave us baby boy stuff, I want you to know that not one bit of it will go to waste! We'll obviously be making some "readjustments" to the nursery, etc. and the name thing is a topic that keeps coming up....Originally, we were going to call a baby girl Berklea or Olivia...but we have so many cute things already made for Hunter....(and it would feel kind of strange to have Hunter sort of disappear....SOOoo...

Though I cannot confirm with 100% certainty just yet, (and I would not recommend having anything embroidered just yet) I believe, we will call our new Baby Girl

Hunter Olivia Bunch

We realize it's more of a boy name, but in the time span of 1 day, we have recalled the famous supermodel Hunter Tylo, as well as about 6 separate friends who each have female friends named Hunter. Hmm? It is kind of cute, we think. And frankly, as she grows up, if she decides she hates being called Hunter, she can go by Olivia instead :) But for now, I think we've just introduced the world to our baby girl Hunter. :) (Much like Baby Girl Chandler for all my F*R*I*E*N*D*S watching friends!)

So go ahead, take a day to absorb that, and tomorrow I'll put up some ultrasound photos! Take care!