Goodbye 2008, Welcome 2009!

Happy New Year's Eve! As I sit here thinking about what to blog about, I began reflecting on the past year.

Sean put in a full year at Main Gate, Inc. I am so thankful he has a job that he seems to enjoy and has not near as much travel as he did with his previous position. It's so nice to know he's home most every evening...which means I have to cook more, but even though I complain about cooking, I don't mind it! (As long as he doesn't complain about what comes to the table...except for those mystery meat pork chops that were just NASTY!)

Caeleigh has made a great transition from 1st to 2nd grade and even handled the transition to a new school this year. We started her at St. Malachy Catholic school (same church I belong to) this year. She seems to really enjoy it....uniform and all!

Caeleigh also mastered swimming underwater!! Her strokes still need some help, but she'll go under and swim the width of my pal, Angie's, pool! Caeleigh also played her first organized team sport...softball. She was a little timid, but earned Most Improved Player award from her coaches. That made Daddy beam!! She continued to do dance lessons and basic gymnastic lessons. She keeps me busy! I just can't believe how much she has grown up! She's about 4 feet tall and wears a size 7/8. Not just grown physically, but mentally as well. She's turned into quite a reader and loves to draw. For Christmas she got tons of drawing/sketching stuff and some fashion designer pads (she loves to design clothes!!) I wanted to post some Christmas pics, but am having some trouble downloading from my camera (grrr!) So stay tuned for those!

And, of course, expecting our second child was a surprise! That is something to look forward to in the next few months. Speaking of un-named baby girl Reaves, I had another check-up on Monday. I am 26 weeks along (will be 27 tomorrow!) and had a great appt. My blood pressure was 120/76; baby's heartrate was 156; and did the glucose tolerance test...icky! The nurse practitioner said "No news is Good News!"....so I am assuming I passed and have not developed gestational diabetes. I've gained 13 pounds....which shocks me....I think with Caeleigh by this point I had gained a good 20-25 pounds! I also had to have my Rho Gam shot (because my blood type is negative, and Sean is positive....so could have clotting difficulties after baby is born without the shot...it was a breeze with Caeleigh!) So I go back in two weeks and will continue two week appts through February. The beginning of March, I will start to go weekly.

Good wishes on 2009 to all my readers....Sean and I may go get a bite to eat or get some take-out. I rented movies, we plan to stay in and relax. Caeleigh gets to go to a hotel with Grandma Shirley and Grandma Bonnie...she is very excited about that! Stay safe tonight!

Sarah

We've Been Busy!!

The past week has been event-filled. Caeleigh had her Christmas program at St. Malachy. We went to the Indiana Pacers/Golden State Nuggets basketball game. And our week wrapped up with Caeleigh's Christmas Dance Recital. Enjoy the pics!!

Caeleigh and her teacher, Mrs. Strahle (before the Christmas program!)

Caeleigh and her classmates singing in the program. (She is near center with the green, red, and gold ribbon in her hair)

Here are some pics from the Pacer game!

And finally our little sugarplum fairy in her dance recital. (Notice the little dance skirts...I made all 9 for the girls!!)

Have a Merry Christmas if I don't blog again. Caeleigh and I are going to make a gingerbread house this afternoon, bake some cookies and make treats this week, and finish wrapping presents in the next 3 days!! Even though we are on break from school, I think we're going to be VERY busy!!

Picture Tag

Okay, so I have seen this tag going around on emails and in blogs. I'm usually a person who doesn't respond to this stuff, but I caught the tag on a blog I read by Suzanne Steece (a quad mama in Texas, that I found on my friend Jen's blog...another quad mama down the street!)

So I still haven't figured out what picture I have to post yet, so I just HAVE to look out of curiosity! The object of the picture tag is to:

1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer

2) Select the 4th picture in the folder

3) Explain the picture

4) Tag 4 people to do the same NO CHEATING! (cropping, editing, etc!)

Here is mine!

So this picture was taken at our good friend's wedding... Lauren and Danny Davison. The wedding was August 2, 2008 (my birthday and now that I think about it....our last "date" before we found out we were expecting again!)

I had fun doing this....and the best part, was I did not look at the pic until I found it to post! I'm still a little amazed it actually had to relate to the pregnancy....but I'm trying to forget the 5 glasses of wine I drank that night and didn't realize I was pregnant!! My OB says that I'm okay! :)

Have a great week!

Sarah

Santa Breakfast

Just wanted to share a few pics of Caeleigh at the Brownsburg Band Booster Annual Breakfast with Santa. We've gone every year since she was two. My mom comes to town to enjoy this activity with Caeleigh. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful family.


Caeleigh and Nana (my mom)





It's a busy week this week. Caeleigh gets to see some girlfriends from her old school on Monday night for a pizza playdate (and I get to socialize with the moms!) Caeleigh's Christmas program at school is on Thursday night too. Hopefully this week will go fast! Only 10 more days of school before Christmas break.

Have a great week! Oh, and if you don't follow my husbands blog...you need to check it out. He has a poll going for girl baby names. I really like McKenna...and Scout is catching up! Click here for Sean's blog

'Tis the Season

Well, not much is going on in the Reaves' household. We celebrated Thanksgiving twice last week. We got most of the Christmas decorations out this past weekend and put up. I doubt we get the lights on the house this year...it already snowed the past two days! Sean only likes to put up lights when it's warm outside!

Had another checkup today. Everything is going as expected. I can wait until the 29th for my next check-up! Yay!!! At my next appt. I will have to do the glucose test and get a Rho-Gam shot. Details: my blood pressure was fine, a little high in the normal, but it was at the end of the day and Baby Girl's heartrate was 164.

We're still thinking of names for baby girl. Caeleigh often thinks of names of kids in her current class. Sean is thinking more original like "Sundance." (Which I have put my foot down on!)Hopefully we'll find a nice happy medium. I did find a note in Caeleigh's backpack from a friend:

"Der Caeleigh,
You shuld ask your mom and daid to name the baby Aimy. That is such a prutty name."

How sweet was that? It excites me to know that she is talking about the baby at school with her friends. It is her first year at St. Malachy, so I'm glad this will be a memorable year for her.

Nana comes to town for our yearly "Breakfast with Santa" this weekend. We'll have breakfast and make crafts on Saturday. I'll post some pictures hopefully this weekend of the event. And yes, Caeleigh is still a believer. I'm going to enjoy her gullible belief for as long as I can. Though I have to admit, I've almost let it slip a couple of times.

Have a great week!
Sarah

Drumroll Please....

…..well, can you tell?

Yeah….me neither! Luckily the ultrasound tech can find all the necessary parts! We are going to be blessed with another little girl. I am so thrilled! Caeleigh even more so. On the way to the Dr. Office, she was sitting in the back seat of the car with fingers crossed (on both hands), eyes closed, repeating her mantra, “please be a girl, please be a girl, please be a girl.” I, of course, was so worried that if this ended up to be a boy, she was going to cry or be extremely disappointed. Thankfully, she got her wish.

So, I do think Sean was hoping for a boy. His reaction was pretty mild. I did notice a slight twinge of disappointment. But, he IS such a good daddy to Caeleigh, I know he’ll love having two “daddy girls.”

This baby girl (yet to be named) was quite the pill during the ultrasound. She would not cooperate fully for about 30 minutes, then she finally did. I hope that is not a sign of what is to come! Here is a profile pic of our baby girl!

After the tech said it was a girl, Caeleigh immediately turned to her Daddy, pointed her fingers at him and said, “Ha! 3 to 1! You’re outnumbered.”

The rest of my doctor appt. was uneventful. I still need to continue with biweekly appointments. My blood pressure was a little bit higher, but still in the normal range. Baby’s heart rate was 166. Everything looked good for the ultrasound as well. I’m measuring a week ahead of time. So I’m thinking we’ll meet this baby at the end of March.

So with the stock market crashing let me know of any good investment ideas to pay for TWO weddings!!

Week 18

Had a checkup today. Blood pressure was 100/76 and the baby's heartbeat was 166 (last appt. was 156).

I checked the Chinese Conception Calendar and it is predicting a baby girl. So in two weeks, we have the 20 week routine ultrasound and hopefully will find out. I need to plan....if you know me, you know how I like things predictable and not surprises!

Don't forget to vote tomorrow!

Was that flutter a gas bubble or baby moving?

Well, over the past week I have really started to feel this baby growing inside of me move. At first, I wasn't sure...Sean says I'm pretty gassy lately, so I passed it off as gas. But then the movement persisted and my lower stomach just felt "twitchy." I'm 18 1/2 weeks along and should start to feel movement, so I'm hopeful that it was!

My bloodwork for syndromes and various defects all came back negative so that is a good thing! I have another check-up tomorrow. The progesterone shots have been going well, no real side effects (Thank goodness! Internet postings had me petrified! I really should follow my own advice and not believe what I read on the net, but I was so anxious about these shots.)

Halloween with Caeleigh was so much fun. Nana made her mermaid costume and I found her a wig to complete the Ariel look. Sean took her trick-or-treating in the neighborhood and I handed out the goodies to the kiddos. Usually I'm pretty strict about the middle schoolers who don't even bother to dress up and don't give them candy, but this year I only saw one! My new pet peeve is a doozy though! This year though, many kiddos don't even bother saying "Trick or Treat." They just open their bags after I open the door. Geez! What is the deal with that? Finally with the older kids I would stand there holding back the candy until they said those magic words...boy! Did I get some eye-rolls, but they said "Trick or Treat!" (And luckily no one smashed our pumpkins later!)

Well, the Colts are coming on soon! Gotta get ready...I'll keep you posted on tomorrow's appointment!

First Entry

Well, I have entered the blogging world. The driving force...well, if Sean can do it, so can I??? No, probably the fact that I realized when I was pregnant with Caeleigh (8 years ago!) I diligently kept a journal for her about my pregnancy and her birth. Can you believe it was...dare I say...handwritten???? So now finally coming to terms with being 17 1/2 weeks pregnant with baby number 2 on the way, I am feeling guilty that I have not kept a journal for this baby. What a horrible mother I am!!

So to catch you up on the past 17 1/2 weeks...it all began with a fantastic sushi dinner, couple of glasses of wine and some key lime pie martinis....and after a fantastic trip to Disney World, a "+" pregnancy test. Needless to say, I was in a state of denial, and did not want to tell Sean. But sucked it up, cried through the whole thing, and then got used to the idea of potty breaks shortly after drinking anything, sore ta-tas, and the constant worrying about every twitch, cramp, or drink that I consumed after conception!

We told my family about the pregnancy on a weekend trip home to celebrate my Grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary in September. Caeleigh was so excited to share our "secret." We waited to tell her until the night before we left b/c she CANNOT keep a secret. She was so excited, cried ("happy tears, b/c she was no longer going to be an only child"...feeling that twinge of guilt!). All the fam was very excited. Sean had his mom come over during the week the next week after work to tell her. She was so worried we were ill, getting a divorce, or something else tragic (even though a co-worker told her "Hey, they're probably pregnant!") She was overjoyed with the news!

So at my 12 week appt. the doctor was concerned about my bloodwork coming back positive for exposure to a parvovirus (Fifth Disease...you mommie's know this as "slap-face")...so those lovely once/month appts. became biweekly appts. Everything is checking out A-okay...did get to have an ultrasound at 14 weeks (and as soon as I figure out how to scan it and post it in a blog, I will!) Yes, we want to know the sex of the baby, but could not tell yet. My 16 week appt. was last week and was uneventful. I did have to start weekly progesterone injections b/c Caeleigh was a pre-term baby. Apparently, having these shots weekly from 16-32 weeks will help this bun bake a little longer!

I go back again on the 3rd and then will have my 20 week ultrasound on the 17th of November. Stay posted for updates!