It's a picture of the picture, but you get the idea....little girl is getting all grown up (at least according to her!)
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Big girl now
Carrie couldn't be happier that last night was her pre-k "graduation." I, on the other hand, couldn't hide anything from this little girl. On the way to dinner with some of her classmates to celebrate, she yells at me from the back seat "hey mommy! were you crying during the performance? Cause I saw you rubbing your eyes!?'
It's a picture of the picture, but you get the idea....little girl is getting all grown up (at least according to her!)
It's a picture of the picture, but you get the idea....little girl is getting all grown up (at least according to her!)
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Feeling blessed
I know that's a phrase that people like to throw around a lot these days, but it's truly how I am feeling lately. I don't know if it's because Carrie just turned five or what, but I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about the family that Jerry and I have created, and just how perfect it really is. Goodness knows I wasn't planning on having a third baby, but I cannot fathom life without my little boy. God knew I needed to have Jacob in my life, and I am so very thankful for that. That's not to say it hasn't be hard, because it has. VERY hard! There were a lot of days immediately following when he was born and while I was on maternity leave that I felt so utterly overwhelmed I didn't know which end was up. There are still days of course that I feel like that (seems to be when Jerry travels!), but for whatever reason (and I do think it has a lot to do with Carrie turning five - I don't know why but that just seems like such a big milestone) I've been trying to be better about slowing down and not being so worried about having all the laundry done or the house just so and just enjoying my kids at this age. This is HUGE for me. I'm sure when Jerry reads this he'll be thinking "Really? You feel that way? Cause I'm pretty sure you stayed up too late the other night folding clothes/washing bottles/picking up tiny pieces of toys scattered about/fill in the blank."
I am finally realizing that they aren't going to be little forever. One day they will pack up and move away to go to college, and the days of them depending completely on me and Jerry will be over. Jerry and I always joke about what we'd be doing if we didn't have three little ones to take care of. The running joke right now is that instead of getting a trip to Italy for our 10 year anniversary this year, we got Jacob :) And while I'd obviously love to go spend a couple of weeks drowning myself in Italian wine, I'm good with what will hopefully be a nice dinner out and coming home to the munchkins. Besides, Carrie keeps begging us to take her to Paris, so who knows? ;) That would be quite appropriate for our 10 year celebration since that's where we had our first date....but somehow I don't think taking a 5 year old, a 3 year old, and an almost 1 year old to France sounds relaxing.
I don't think it was luck that brought Jerry and I together and resulted in this amazing group of people that is our family. Someone had a hand in getting us together so we could go through life together and bring into the world one very precocious girl, one very high spirited girl and one very happy little boy. I thank God every day that this is my life. Now, if someone could remind me of this when I next start to flip out a little when Jerry's traveling or the pile of laundry rivals Mt. Everest, that would be great :)
I am finally realizing that they aren't going to be little forever. One day they will pack up and move away to go to college, and the days of them depending completely on me and Jerry will be over. Jerry and I always joke about what we'd be doing if we didn't have three little ones to take care of. The running joke right now is that instead of getting a trip to Italy for our 10 year anniversary this year, we got Jacob :) And while I'd obviously love to go spend a couple of weeks drowning myself in Italian wine, I'm good with what will hopefully be a nice dinner out and coming home to the munchkins. Besides, Carrie keeps begging us to take her to Paris, so who knows? ;) That would be quite appropriate for our 10 year celebration since that's where we had our first date....but somehow I don't think taking a 5 year old, a 3 year old, and an almost 1 year old to France sounds relaxing.
I don't think it was luck that brought Jerry and I together and resulted in this amazing group of people that is our family. Someone had a hand in getting us together so we could go through life together and bring into the world one very precocious girl, one very high spirited girl and one very happy little boy. I thank God every day that this is my life. Now, if someone could remind me of this when I next start to flip out a little when Jerry's traveling or the pile of laundry rivals Mt. Everest, that would be great :)
The entire family and godparents at Jacob & Isla's Baptism, 4/29/12
Carrie, Ashton, & Anna
Monday, February 6, 2012
One month in....
Yes, it's been awhile, but it has been a bit hectic here in the lowcountry. I absolutely cannot believe we are already one month in to being a family of FIVE. Here's the newest member of the Reeves family just a few hours after he was born exactly one month ago:
Jacob Thomas Reeves joined our family at 9:44am on 1/6/12 weighing 7 lbs 14 oz and measuring in at 19.75 inches long. This kid has been through a lot so far in his short 4 weeks with us....we spent only two days in the hospital as we were eager to get home and get at least some rest. He met his sisters in the hospital and they were absolutely in love with him from the very first time they met. Of course, he's not mobile yet so they are still in love with him...just wait till he starts screwing around with their toys.
Starting around 6 days old, he started sleeping at night. And not just short little bursts. Like 7-8 hours at a time. It was HEAVEN. As my mom said, it was making my transition to having another infant in the house much easier. I was honestly afraid to tell anyone how he was sleeping for fear that it would stop. He kept it up until last Friday, at which point he started getting snotty. I expected this would happen, but it just kept getting worse and worse. I took him in to the doctor on Monday afternoon, at which point the pediatrician told me he had RSV. I vaguely knew what this was, then did what you shouldn't do and googled it and within minutes was convinced my child was going to get pneumonia and die. I kept having horrible flashbacks of watching Anna get a spinal tap at his age when she got sick as a baby. I spent the next 48 hours a complete basketcase, which wasn't made any better when I had to take him back on Tuesday and was sent home with a nebulizer and two different medicines we had to give him every 2-3 hours. Jerry and I took him back to the pediatrician Wednesday morning, where it was determined Jacob had improved, but not as much as they would have liked, so we were told we needed to take him to the children's hospital in Savannah and we'd be spending 2-3 days there. I packed a bag for the both of us and we headed in. When we arrived one of the first things they did was the actually RSV test...which came back negative. Really?!? And we didn't do this at the pediatrician's office WHY? Moral of the story - if the pediatrician wants to have your child admitted to a hospital because of some virus or something, ask if there's a test that they need to run first to determine whether or not your child actually has that virus. It will save you a lot of stress.
So here's the little man on his one month birthday:
He had his first real smile on Saturday while playing with Anna. She kept holding up a Winnie the Pooh to him and talking to him about it and he smiled. At first I thought it was him having gas :) But then she did it again and he smiled again, and I thought I was going to melt.
Like I said, I still have a hard time believing we are a family of five. It's no secret that Jacob wasn't exactly a planned baby. Now I think of him as the baby I never realized I wanted until I had him. I cannot imagine life without him. I am convinced that there is a larger reason as to why I had this little man brought into my life. We thought we were done after Anna, but we ended up with a surprise. He fought through adversity while he was in the womb to make it out healthy, and he keeps fighting. Before I thought our family was complete; now I know we are complete. It's freaking hard with three kids, there's no doubt about that. And I get totally frustrated sometimes when I think about how close we were to being out of diapers and the girls being a tad more self-sufficient. But having Jacob in our lives makes all of us better I think, and I can't wait to see what life has in store for him.
Starting around 6 days old, he started sleeping at night. And not just short little bursts. Like 7-8 hours at a time. It was HEAVEN. As my mom said, it was making my transition to having another infant in the house much easier. I was honestly afraid to tell anyone how he was sleeping for fear that it would stop. He kept it up until last Friday, at which point he started getting snotty. I expected this would happen, but it just kept getting worse and worse. I took him in to the doctor on Monday afternoon, at which point the pediatrician told me he had RSV. I vaguely knew what this was, then did what you shouldn't do and googled it and within minutes was convinced my child was going to get pneumonia and die. I kept having horrible flashbacks of watching Anna get a spinal tap at his age when she got sick as a baby. I spent the next 48 hours a complete basketcase, which wasn't made any better when I had to take him back on Tuesday and was sent home with a nebulizer and two different medicines we had to give him every 2-3 hours. Jerry and I took him back to the pediatrician Wednesday morning, where it was determined Jacob had improved, but not as much as they would have liked, so we were told we needed to take him to the children's hospital in Savannah and we'd be spending 2-3 days there. I packed a bag for the both of us and we headed in. When we arrived one of the first things they did was the actually RSV test...which came back negative. Really?!? And we didn't do this at the pediatrician's office WHY? Moral of the story - if the pediatrician wants to have your child admitted to a hospital because of some virus or something, ask if there's a test that they need to run first to determine whether or not your child actually has that virus. It will save you a lot of stress.
So here's the little man on his one month birthday:
Like I said, I still have a hard time believing we are a family of five. It's no secret that Jacob wasn't exactly a planned baby. Now I think of him as the baby I never realized I wanted until I had him. I cannot imagine life without him. I am convinced that there is a larger reason as to why I had this little man brought into my life. We thought we were done after Anna, but we ended up with a surprise. He fought through adversity while he was in the womb to make it out healthy, and he keeps fighting. Before I thought our family was complete; now I know we are complete. It's freaking hard with three kids, there's no doubt about that. And I get totally frustrated sometimes when I think about how close we were to being out of diapers and the girls being a tad more self-sufficient. But having Jacob in our lives makes all of us better I think, and I can't wait to see what life has in store for him.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Nine Years (and four weeks)
I can hardly believe it's been nine years since Jerry and I got married. We had a funny start to our relationship as many of you know. I mean, who has to go to the other side of the world to meet their significant other, even though we'd been on the exact same college campus for 3 years and had never run into each other (well, maybe we had, but we never knew it). Whenever anyone asks us how we met, Jerry LOVES to tell the story of how he saw me in Hartsfield Atlanta Airport (at least, that's what it was named back when we did study abroad), then started asking my sorority sisters that I was traveling with about me until he finally worked up the courage to come say something to me. He called me by name and since I knew I had never talked to him in my life, and me being the cynic that I am, immediately responded "How in the hell do you know my name?" Good way to start off a relationship, right?
Thankfully he continued talking to me, we hung out in Berlin, then I saved a seat on the bus for him when we were riding from Berlin to Dresden. That's right - I was almost a senior in college, and here I am saving a freaking seat on a bus for him. Whatever, it obviously worked, right?
Our first date was in Paris and the rest is, as they say, history. I've always told him it was a mistake to have our first date in Paris because, really, how do you top that?? But he has...he's been the most amazing husband and father I could have ever asked for. We've been through so much in the past 13 years we've been together.....
So Whizzy & Pop Pop, thanks for raising an incredible son for me to get to marry :) He still does some things that drive me over the edge (is it REALLY so hard to call and let me know if you are going to be late, cause that goes over much better than saying you are leaving at a certain time, then when it's well past the time you should have already been home and I have dinner waiting, then you call to say you are just now leaving....not that that particular scenario happens EVER or anything!), but I know just how lucky I am to have snagged him :)
And today marks, at max, four more weeks before we are a family of FIVE. I started washing Jack-Jack's clothes last night, and it suddenly hit me how real this is all becoming. Not that it hasn't been real with all of the ridiculous pregnancy issues I've had this time around, but organizing and washing up the tiny 0-3 month clothes again for the third time around hit me like a ton of bricks last night!
Thankfully he continued talking to me, we hung out in Berlin, then I saved a seat on the bus for him when we were riding from Berlin to Dresden. That's right - I was almost a senior in college, and here I am saving a freaking seat on a bus for him. Whatever, it obviously worked, right?
Our first date was in Paris and the rest is, as they say, history. I've always told him it was a mistake to have our first date in Paris because, really, how do you top that?? But he has...he's been the most amazing husband and father I could have ever asked for. We've been through so much in the past 13 years we've been together.....
- 5 moves (dear Lord, really?!?)
- 2 little girls
- 1 little boy on the way
- a Crohn's diagnosis
- two bad Crohn's surgeries
- two long distance years
- a dog (who is currently on my bad list for developing a taste for eating gross stuff out of the garbage....I think he's got an attitude about the impending baby too).
- Two jobs for him, four for me (I hope that doesn't sound as bad for me as it looks)
So Whizzy & Pop Pop, thanks for raising an incredible son for me to get to marry :) He still does some things that drive me over the edge (is it REALLY so hard to call and let me know if you are going to be late, cause that goes over much better than saying you are leaving at a certain time, then when it's well past the time you should have already been home and I have dinner waiting, then you call to say you are just now leaving....not that that particular scenario happens EVER or anything!), but I know just how lucky I am to have snagged him :)
And today marks, at max, four more weeks before we are a family of FIVE. I started washing Jack-Jack's clothes last night, and it suddenly hit me how real this is all becoming. Not that it hasn't been real with all of the ridiculous pregnancy issues I've had this time around, but organizing and washing up the tiny 0-3 month clothes again for the third time around hit me like a ton of bricks last night!
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Five weeks and counting
So if Jack-Jack stays put until his predetermined arrival date, then I have exactly 5 weeks from this Friday to get ready for the little guy. (No, his name is not going to be Jack, or even Jack-Jack....it's the name the girls have come up with based on the movie The Incredibles, where the baby boy in that movie is named Jack-Jack. I've said throughout this whole pregnancy that it's not going to matter what we name this poor child, he will always be Jack-Jack to the girls....and probably me too!) And that's a big if too - we all know Anna decided she needed to arrive three weeks early, which would make Jack-Jack a Christmas baby (well, close to Christmas, at least).
I've never had a panic attack, or at least I don't think I have, but I sure feel like having one right now. There's a lot to do....get the nursery ready, wash clothes, pack my bag, get the house in order since it probably will never be in order again for the next 18 years, and then there are the holidays in the midst of all of this. The girls are acting like wild Indians, and I know it's because of Jack-Jack's impending arrival, even if they can't verbalize that's why they have lost their minds. I have to come up with a contingency plan in case this kid does come early and we're in the hospital for Christmas eve/Christmas (Lady & Whizzy - be expecting an email from Santa soon on where he'll be hiding the gifts in our house in case Jerry and I aren't there!!)
And this whole being pregnant while 35 thing? It's for the birds. I can't imagine being any older and doing this, cause I already feel like I'm falling apart. I mean, I usually am having some sort of health issue anyways, but this is topping the cake. Between the original issue of the SCH, sciatica, horrible carpal tunnel in my right hand, and a sinus infection that's been hanging around for SEVEN weeks, I'm done.
I know I am just anxious about life with three little ones, how to make the finances work, and all that entails.....but I really wish I had enough vacation and sick time to just take off work for the next three weeks and have time to get ready and relax for 5 minutes before this baby arrives.
I've never had a panic attack, or at least I don't think I have, but I sure feel like having one right now. There's a lot to do....get the nursery ready, wash clothes, pack my bag, get the house in order since it probably will never be in order again for the next 18 years, and then there are the holidays in the midst of all of this. The girls are acting like wild Indians, and I know it's because of Jack-Jack's impending arrival, even if they can't verbalize that's why they have lost their minds. I have to come up with a contingency plan in case this kid does come early and we're in the hospital for Christmas eve/Christmas (Lady & Whizzy - be expecting an email from Santa soon on where he'll be hiding the gifts in our house in case Jerry and I aren't there!!)
And this whole being pregnant while 35 thing? It's for the birds. I can't imagine being any older and doing this, cause I already feel like I'm falling apart. I mean, I usually am having some sort of health issue anyways, but this is topping the cake. Between the original issue of the SCH, sciatica, horrible carpal tunnel in my right hand, and a sinus infection that's been hanging around for SEVEN weeks, I'm done.
I know I am just anxious about life with three little ones, how to make the finances work, and all that entails.....but I really wish I had enough vacation and sick time to just take off work for the next three weeks and have time to get ready and relax for 5 minutes before this baby arrives.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
I guess I'm "that" mom
But at least I know there's one other mom out there just like me in this case....
Carrie got a permission slip sent home with her a few weeks ago to go on a field trip to a pumpkin patch. It sounded like lots of fun and I was ready to sign her up, until I read how they were going to be traveling to the pumpkin patch. It was by the little school bus they have for their school....which meant only lap belts and not car seats. This immediately made my mommy radar go up and I was like "do they really think I'm going to let my tiny little kid, who at her rate of growth will probably still be in a car seat at 16, get on a school bus with nothing but lap belts?" I hemmed and hawed about this for a few days, and then was talking with one of my friends, Kathy, who's daughter is also in Carrie's class and is Carrie's current BFF. Before I even said anything she echoed my sentiments and felt the same way I did about letting the girls ride in a school bus with only lap belts. Thankfully she has a work schedule that's much more flexible than mine and was able to volunteer to drive two children (mine and hers!) to the field trip. Crisis averted - Carrie got to go on the field trip and I didn't have to be the mean mommy and not let her go because I didn't feel comfortable letting her ride in the bus.
I know thousands of kids do the school bus thing every single day going to and from school, including kids not much bigger than mine. Maybe I'm just a giant worry wart, but I'm okay with that :) I only have one Carrie!! I guess that's another bonus to having her and Anna (and eventually baby boy) going to the school that they do - no school bus service since it's private, so her only option is to ride in a car seat in our car :)
Carrie got a permission slip sent home with her a few weeks ago to go on a field trip to a pumpkin patch. It sounded like lots of fun and I was ready to sign her up, until I read how they were going to be traveling to the pumpkin patch. It was by the little school bus they have for their school....which meant only lap belts and not car seats. This immediately made my mommy radar go up and I was like "do they really think I'm going to let my tiny little kid, who at her rate of growth will probably still be in a car seat at 16, get on a school bus with nothing but lap belts?" I hemmed and hawed about this for a few days, and then was talking with one of my friends, Kathy, who's daughter is also in Carrie's class and is Carrie's current BFF. Before I even said anything she echoed my sentiments and felt the same way I did about letting the girls ride in a school bus with only lap belts. Thankfully she has a work schedule that's much more flexible than mine and was able to volunteer to drive two children (mine and hers!) to the field trip. Crisis averted - Carrie got to go on the field trip and I didn't have to be the mean mommy and not let her go because I didn't feel comfortable letting her ride in the bus.
I know thousands of kids do the school bus thing every single day going to and from school, including kids not much bigger than mine. Maybe I'm just a giant worry wart, but I'm okay with that :) I only have one Carrie!! I guess that's another bonus to having her and Anna (and eventually baby boy) going to the school that they do - no school bus service since it's private, so her only option is to ride in a car seat in our car :)
Monday, October 10, 2011
So....
I'm sure many of you have heard that old saying "Make plans and God laughs"??? Well, that seems pretty indicative of my life thus far this year.
I "planned" to get back into running and do a half-marathon this coming November at the inaugural Savannah Rock n' Roll marathon event. Instead, I ended up having surgery on my knee, promptly bringing any and all thoughts of getting back into running out of my mind for good.
I "planned" on getting Anna potty trained and out of diapers this year, never to buy another package of diapers ever again in my life, unless it was for someone else.
WRONG.
Instead, I sit here writing this at 26.5 weeks pregnant. Wha??? This was not in my life plan, having a third child. We were getting so close to no diapers, getting out of the terrible twos (although from Carrie's recent behavior it seems that the age of 4 is more terrifying), and fully moving on from the baby stage of raising kids.
To say I was surprised to find out we were having a third is the understatement of the century. I mean, the irony here is undeniable: I had to go through hell and high water with fertility treatments to get pregnant with Carrie (thankfully not having to go all the way to IVF, but we were certainly researching it), to managing to be apparently one of the 1% of the population that manages to get pregnant while on the pill (word to the wise, ladies - it DOES happen!). Seriously?
When I went to my first prenatal appointment I met with the nurse practitioner, standard procedure for the first appt in a pregnancy (at least at my practice). She came in at about 28 weeks pregnant herself, with the exact same story as me - was perfectly fine with her two little girls, not planning on having another, and then BAM! Guess what?!? She and I both could hear God laughing at both of us at that point. It didn't ease all of my apprehensions about adding a third little person to our family, but it certainly helped. I remember her saying to me "it'll all work out somehow! and just maybe this will be a boy for you like it is for me!"
About the time I started getting somewhat more comfortable with the idea of having another munchkin running around I started having some problems. Guess that comes with the territory of being of "advanced maternal age." As it turns out I had a subchorionic hematoma. Let me save you some time - DON'T GOOGLE IT; you will come away from it, as you do if you google pretty much any medical condition, convinced that everyone involved was going to DIE. That's not to minimize it, cause it was disconcerting and upsetting, but it managed to resolve itself by the time I was about 21 weeks along (hence why I have not, up to this point, mentioned anything about this pregnancy on my blog!) Thankfully, as of my last ultrasound scan, there was no sign of the stupid hematoma, and that's after literally about an hour of both the ultrasound tech and the high risk doc looking in every nook and cranny to make sure it wasn't hiding anywhere.
So now I feel like I've really settled into the idea of having three kids. I am under no pretense that it's gonna be easy or anything like that. I know that our lives are going to be thrown upside down yet again. I know that it's going to, yet again, be a giant pain in the butt trying to figure out do we do nanny vs. daycare for this kid. I'm not looking forward to having to get up multiple times in the middle of the night to nurse, or get up at the crack of dawn before going to work so I can pump enough for the baby to have each day. But I also know that once I get to hold that little baby in my arms in about 12 short weeks (as long as he stays in there until he's supposed to come out, on or about 1/6/12!!), that it will all be worth it and somehow, someway, in the immortal words of Tim Gunn, we'll "make it work."
Oh, and the crazy part? This time we elected to find out the gender of the baby. And when I say "we" I actually mean "I" and I convinced Jerry that for my own mental health I needed to know if it was going to be a girl or a boy.
As it turns out, the nurse practitioner was right - it is a boy this time around. :)
I "planned" to get back into running and do a half-marathon this coming November at the inaugural Savannah Rock n' Roll marathon event. Instead, I ended up having surgery on my knee, promptly bringing any and all thoughts of getting back into running out of my mind for good.
I "planned" on getting Anna potty trained and out of diapers this year, never to buy another package of diapers ever again in my life, unless it was for someone else.
WRONG.
Instead, I sit here writing this at 26.5 weeks pregnant. Wha??? This was not in my life plan, having a third child. We were getting so close to no diapers, getting out of the terrible twos (although from Carrie's recent behavior it seems that the age of 4 is more terrifying), and fully moving on from the baby stage of raising kids.
To say I was surprised to find out we were having a third is the understatement of the century. I mean, the irony here is undeniable: I had to go through hell and high water with fertility treatments to get pregnant with Carrie (thankfully not having to go all the way to IVF, but we were certainly researching it), to managing to be apparently one of the 1% of the population that manages to get pregnant while on the pill (word to the wise, ladies - it DOES happen!). Seriously?
When I went to my first prenatal appointment I met with the nurse practitioner, standard procedure for the first appt in a pregnancy (at least at my practice). She came in at about 28 weeks pregnant herself, with the exact same story as me - was perfectly fine with her two little girls, not planning on having another, and then BAM! Guess what?!? She and I both could hear God laughing at both of us at that point. It didn't ease all of my apprehensions about adding a third little person to our family, but it certainly helped. I remember her saying to me "it'll all work out somehow! and just maybe this will be a boy for you like it is for me!"
About the time I started getting somewhat more comfortable with the idea of having another munchkin running around I started having some problems. Guess that comes with the territory of being of "advanced maternal age." As it turns out I had a subchorionic hematoma. Let me save you some time - DON'T GOOGLE IT; you will come away from it, as you do if you google pretty much any medical condition, convinced that everyone involved was going to DIE. That's not to minimize it, cause it was disconcerting and upsetting, but it managed to resolve itself by the time I was about 21 weeks along (hence why I have not, up to this point, mentioned anything about this pregnancy on my blog!) Thankfully, as of my last ultrasound scan, there was no sign of the stupid hematoma, and that's after literally about an hour of both the ultrasound tech and the high risk doc looking in every nook and cranny to make sure it wasn't hiding anywhere.
So now I feel like I've really settled into the idea of having three kids. I am under no pretense that it's gonna be easy or anything like that. I know that our lives are going to be thrown upside down yet again. I know that it's going to, yet again, be a giant pain in the butt trying to figure out do we do nanny vs. daycare for this kid. I'm not looking forward to having to get up multiple times in the middle of the night to nurse, or get up at the crack of dawn before going to work so I can pump enough for the baby to have each day. But I also know that once I get to hold that little baby in my arms in about 12 short weeks (as long as he stays in there until he's supposed to come out, on or about 1/6/12!!), that it will all be worth it and somehow, someway, in the immortal words of Tim Gunn, we'll "make it work."
Oh, and the crazy part? This time we elected to find out the gender of the baby. And when I say "we" I actually mean "I" and I convinced Jerry that for my own mental health I needed to know if it was going to be a girl or a boy.
As it turns out, the nurse practitioner was right - it is a boy this time around. :)
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