December
2014
Season’s
Greetings!
This
has been a monumental year for the Williams family as we have doubled our size
and halved our amount of sleep. Let’s get straight to the headliner of this
year’s Christmas letter: Our handsome twin boys Luke and Sam were born October
12, 2014. We found out I was pregnant in
February, and I know I had teased Shad at least a couple times with, “What if
it’s twins?” of course not expecting that to be the case. However, our joking
turned to shocked silence when the ultrasound screen revealed two little
dancing baby blobs instead of just one.
My, how our lives have changed since our last Christmas letter!
Our year
started off normally enough. Shad’s parents visited in January, and we made our
annual Sundance Film Festival excursion to Park City to watch movies that
always turn out way weirder than the trailer would indicate. This was a breakout year for winter sports
with me skiing my first ever black diamonds at Alta, and Shad trying to go
snowboarding as many times as possible—a record 56 days. My family came to visit over spring break,
and we enjoyed exploring Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in Moab, Utah.
This
May, we had the opportunity to visit Kauai with some of our good friends from
residency. It was a wonderful week of beach napping, surfing, kayaking, and
exploring the island.
Then
in June, we took a road trip to Oregon to visit our old stomping grounds—our
final vacation as a family of two humans and two greyhounds. We spent the week hiking, camping, and visiting
all our favorite places. Henry was so excited to see the ocean again, run on
the beach, and sleep cuddled next to me in a tent all week. I had a greyhound
or two literally inside my sleeping bag on more than one occasion.
Shad
did his best to maximize his last summer before parental responsibilities,
going on a number of climbing outings and summiting Mt. Olympus and Mt. Adams
in Washington and Grand Teton in Wyoming. I traveled to Tennessee in August for
my sister Emily’s wedding to JD Henderson. I spent the week helping her and Mom
prepare, and the wedding was beautiful. They then moved to Morristown, TN,
where Emily is teaching high school Spanish and JD is in nursing school.
I
started my third and final year of residency this summer—in the midst of
morning sickness! Residency has been a long road, and I’m looking forward to
finishing. I’ve been hired as a general pediatrician at Hillcrest Pediatrics,
and I’ll start next fall. My clinic is in the outpatient building of the
hospital where Shad works, so it will be nice to be able to have lunch
together. I’m going to be working part time, and the majority of my patients
will be Spanish speaking, so it seems like the perfect fit for me. Shad is
still enjoying his job and is glad to have a few years experience under his
belt.
Through
my pregnancy, I learned that I was not one of those women who liked being
pregnant—I never found my inner maternal goddess. It probably didn’t help that
I gained 68 pounds by the end. Things were going well overall until 30 weeks
when my blood pressure was too high at a routine clinic visit. I ended up
admitted to the hospital three times before delivering the babies six weeks
early. On the fateful night (while Shad was out climbing and conveniently had a
dead cell phone battery), my blood pressure spiked to 180/120, I started seeing
spots, and then eight hours and a c-section later, Shad and I were parents
(yes, Shad made it to the hospital in time). Thankfully, everything went well,
and the boys were small but healthy. They spent ten days working on feeding and
gaining weight in the intermediate nursery, and then they came home where
they’ve been doing great. They passed their due date a few weeks ago and are
gaining weight like champions.
Life
has definitely been different these past eight weeks. I have twelve weeks off of
work (I go back mid-January), and Shad’s schedule has been generously light as
well. My mom has moved here for a year to help out with the boys as I finish
residency. Shad and I are so grateful for her help and cannot imagine how we’d
be surviving without her. She’s pretty thankful for the chance to hang out with
her first grandsons as well. The three of us have been splitting up the night
into shifts as these boys think nighttime is a great to party; hopefully, we’ll
soon convince them of the benefits of partying in the daytime instead. We’re all
a little bit sleep deprived but are happy with how well the boys are doing.
Both
sets of new grandparents were able to come visit soon after the boys were born,
again at Thanksgiving, and will be here for Christmas. I’m especially excited
for Christmas, when all my siblings will be here as well, which is an
occurrence that doesn’t happen often. Shad and I are grateful for everyone’s
willingness to travel, and we are looking forward to celebrating the boys’
first Christmas with the entire family!
We
hope this letter finds you and your family well. May your Christmas and New
Years be filled with grace and peace.
With
love from,
Shad,
Laura, Luke & Sam Williams
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