6 months! Wow!
Chrissie
Hard to believe, but Caleb is 6 months old now! And all about the same time he has started sitting up, rolling over, eating solids, holding his own bottle, and is very close to crawling. Today, he even tried to pull himself up on the sofa and his crib!! My sense of urgency to childproof the house was reinforced when I saw him reaching up. Haha! His 6 month well-baby checkup was last week. He weighed 21.6 pounds!!! He is a BIG boy! He also is the proud owner of a new tooth. I can't wait to get a toothy baby picture. :o)

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. Reagan helped me bake all day long and Mike was able to make it home for dinner. Although Caleb was asleep, it was nice to have a Thanksgiving Dinner, just the three of us, since Mike usually is working the majority of the day.

We just got home from a 4 day trip to Washington to visit Mike's family. We had an excellent time. No one was ready to come home. I'm hoping to have some photos to post of the weekend soon. We took the kids to Zoolights on Friday night and it was spectacular. We made homemade Italian Sausage on Saturday and that was quite the event! And mmmmmmm, it was yummy!! Reagan had a blast with her 3 cousins and was sad to leave. We came home to about 3 inches of snow on the ground. Supposed to get more in the morning. Reagan had so much fun making snow angels when she got off the bus today. We had a snowball fight which was pretty fun too (I won). ;o)

A week from tomorrow, however, we will be heading to GA for a Christmas visit. I'm super excited to see everyone and get some Gulf Shores time in. Caleb will surely be crawling all over the place by then. It will be hard to keep up with him!

I just finished watching Charlie Brown's Christmas Special (one of my favorite things about the Christmas season) and am now decorating our Martha Stewart tabletop Christmas tree as it looks like a "real" tree is once again not in the cards. Here is to hoping that next Christmas we will live somewhere we want to call "home".

I hope each and every one of you reading this has a magical Christmas season and gets to be "home for Christmas"! :o)


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And another month..or two..
Chrissie
I haven't been doing a very good job keeping this updated lately. Busy is an understatement. But it's also a very good thing.

Reagan started Kindergarten on September 8. It was a bittersweet day for me but she is having a great time and learning so much. She has reading homework every night and family projects to work on every month. She seems to like it it really well and has a crush already. His name is Hayden.

Caleb is getting huge. Our little chunky man will be 4 months old soon. He started "talking" last week when Mom and Dad were visiting from GA. Still not rolling, but he has started scooting.

Mom and Dad came up last week for an eight day visit. Over the weekend we all drove up to New Hampshire for a weekend trip. It was a great weekend! I had so much fun. The leaf peeping left some to be desired since we were a little early for that, probably only by a week, unfortunately. The weather was beautiful. We stayed in Littleton, NH a few miles from Franconia Notch State Park in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It was really beautiful there in the mountains. We had an excellent dinner at a really cool little Mexican restaurant in Littleton, called Alburritos. The live music was wonderful and completed the atmosphere. It was so much fun.

Saturday, we got up early and headed to the park. We did some hiking in the park along the Pemigewasset River that was spectacular. Sunday, we rode the aerial tram up Cannon Mountain. The views were beautiful!

It was a really great weekend and I was sad for it to be over. Here are some photos from Reagan's first day of school, our New Hampshire trip, and others from the past month or so. I'll try to update more often.


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A month later...
Chrissie


I know this is long overdue. Life has gotten busy to say the least. Caleb is now a month old! Doesn't seem possible. Funny how much you forget about that first month after a baby is born. Needless to say, I believe they are repressed memories. Haha! It has been rough, it has been fun, it has been exhausting, and it has been exhilarating. Now, at the one month mark we finally get the rewarding smiles and coos. My heart melts several times a day now and flutters every time I see his adorable chunky face.

Updates: At his two week appointment he weighed 8lb 8oz, a pound and two ounces above his discharge weight! We are exclusively nursing so that was affirmation that we were doing very well. He was diagnosed with a little bit of baby reflux and given some Zantac, which now, almost 2 weeks later, seems to be helping a lot.

Yesterday was his one month appointment. My little chunky man now weighs 10lb 8oz!! He gained two whole pounds in two weeks. Knowing that he's doing so well and gaining well renews my determination to overcome difficulties with nursing (of which there have been many). I don't think I ever knew how difficult nursing could be or what kind of obstacles there would be to overcome. Kudos to anyone who has stuck it out! My original nursing goal was 4 weeks. It was a proud and happy day last week when I met my goal. Ideally, I would love for my new goal to be 4 months but realistically I am taking it one week at a time. However, keeping the 4 month goal in mind, I am likely to reach it. I'm a pretty determined individual. :)

Mike's parents came to visit last week and spend some time with Caleb. Reagan loved all the attention. On the Thursday they were here we took a road trip up into New Hampshire to a town of Meredith and Centre Harbor on Lake Winnipesaukee. It was absolutely gorgeous and I wish I had been able to take pictures. It wasn't a bad drive though and I can't wait to go back on a more beautiful and sunny day. We have had a long stretch of yucky weather.

This weekend we will be enjoying the company of Rachel and Jason. We're hoping the weather will be a little nicer for them. It is Tall Ships week in Boston so I'm also hoping to get down to the city and see some of the beautiful ships.

At the end of the month we are all (Mike included!) going to Georgia for a visit. We will be there the 31st - 3rd. I'm very excited to go home and show off Caleb and introduce him to PaPa, Uncle Casey, Uncle Mark, and Aunt Lisa. I'm also looking forward to a very relaxing and non-hectic long weekend.

Here are some of our latest photos. Enjoy!





And my favorites!!




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Caleb Michael is finally here!!
Chrissie

Understandably, this has taken awhile to post. My last post left off with our Sunday NST. Mom flew into MA on Wednesday, June 3 (to help with the baby we didn't have yet). So, Reagan and I woke up and rode into work with Mike. We had a delicious breakfast at the hotel and got to meet several people that Mike works with. The ladies in HR were amazed that I was "dressed and walking around"! Hahaha! Even being a week late, I didn't feel too terribly bad, just overdue. After Chef kicked Mike out of work and told him not to come back that day, we went to the airport to pick up Mom. We spent some time walking around Target and picking up a few items for the house and then went to Friendly's for lunch. We had a nice afternoon and then decided to have chinese food for supper. We ordered the General Tso's a little spicier than we normally do. It was so good!

At 4:57am, I woke up to my first contraction. Convinced it was probably nothing but unable to go back to sleep, I decided to take a bath. No more contractions during that time. But once I got out and went into the bedroom they picked up again and slightly more intense. Mike woke up and saw me leaning over the side of the bed and asked me what was going on. I told him I thought I was in labor finally and he jumped into the shower 'lickety split'! I got dressed and went into the living room. I was going to try and have some water and just "labor at home" for as long as possible. Reagan woke up and wanted some chocolate milk and cartoons. That's when the contractions became almost unbearable. I felt very ill and went into Reagan's bathroom and made her go wake Mom up. Reagan kept telling me that I couldn't get sick in her bathroom. Haha! Mom came in and got me a washcloth and called the Birthing Center for me. At that time, my contractions were anywhere from 3 - 5 minutes apart and extremely intense.

I did very well on the way to the hospital, listening to my Hypnobabies, and breathing through my contractions. When we got to the hospital and made our way up to L&D, they put me right into a room and skipped triage completely when they saw me have a contraction. When my midwife finally made it in to check me, I was 5cm. A couple hours later, I was still at a 5 and in complete agony. According to my midwife and nurse, the way my pelvic bones and hipbones are rotated, the baby's head was resting on my bone and every contraction was pushing him into the bone. I opted for the epidural at that point, which turned out to be a good idea. I had them put it on the lowest dosage so that I could still feel my contractions but was able to relax during them as I had been taught in my Hypnobabies. At that point, I began to make progress again. 1 centimeter an hour.

At one point, the nurse decided to have me flip to my other side to see if it would help me progress. When they did this, Caleb's heartbeat dipped significantly. The room filled with nurses and they had me flip back over and they had to place the internal monitor on Caleb's head. I began crying because the same exact thing happened with Reagan 5 years earlier. Once they got him and me stable again, things were better for a little while. The next time they checked me, I was at 9cm and I asked them to turn off the epidural so that I could push. The nurse wanted to flip me again. The same thing happened again except much worse because the next thing we knew, there were about 7 nurses and doctors in the room with us and everyone was in a panic. They gave me a shot of something to stop my contractions because they thought it was distressing the baby. The shot made me feel terrible and they got me back on the side that Caleb seemed to prefer and eventually things settled down and we were both stable again.

When the nurse came back in, I asked her for some water and she told me that they weren't going to give me anything until the doctor had been in to see me. She indicated that everyone thought the baby wouldn't tolerate me pushing since he didn't tolerate the contractions and that they would probably be prepping me for a c-section. When she left the room, I began to cry uncontrollably. I was very scared and upset that she had brought it up to me before the doctor had even been in. (Mike snuck me some sips of water, too. He was my hero!)

The shot began to wear off and my contractions returned and were intense and regular again. The nurse came in and thought they should turn my epidural back on since I was having to breathe through contractions again. My midwife, Lisa, came in and checked me before turning my epidural back on and determined I was a 10. She got my other midwife, Susan, and we decided to do a "test push" to see how well Caleb would tolerate it and also to see if he would descend since he was pretty high up still. Blessedly, he tolerated me pushing VERY well and came down beautifully!! 25 minutes later, I had my beautiful son on my chest and in my arms!! It was the most amazing experience of my whole life. I have never been so happy to see anyone.

Then things got scary. My placenta wouldn't detach and they were having to do some really horrible and painful massage to try to deliver it. When an hour had passed and they had made no progress, they made Mike leave the room and took the baby to the nursery. There were nurses and doctors everywhere again. My epidural got turned back on at a very high dosage and the anesthetist put some medicine into my IV and I was OUT. They had to manually remove my placenta. When I spoke with my midwife later, she said that a 'retained placenta' was a very rare occurence but once someone has it happen, it is very likely that it will happen again. With Reagan, I had a very small chunk that was retained. This time it was the whole placenta. I, apparently, lost tons of blood, and they were monitoring me to determine if I would need a transfusion.

They finally allowed Mom and Reagan to come in and see me and they brought Caleb back in as well. I began feeling better pretty quickly and they said I stabilized very nicely. Saturday morning, my midwife said that they wouldn't be doing the transfusion and Mike and I were allowed to take Caleb home on Saturday. I am supposed to be taking it very easy for another week due to the blood loss I had but I feel good most days and am doing very well.

Mom extended her stay and went back home on Monday. We were sad to see her go and wish we could have spent more time with her while she was here. We're so grateful that she was able to come and stay to help us out with Reagan and be here for such a big event. It was a blessing that she was able to be here for it.

So far things are going very well at home. I still haven't been able to sleep in my own bed but I'm hoping for soon! Overall, he's such a good, easy baby. A few rough nights are par for the course, I suppose. We have been out with him a few times and he does so well. Last night, Mike took us to Salem Beer Works, a very cool microbrewery in Salem, MA. It was a beautiful day and we took backroads all the way and saw some gorgeous scenery. Caleb slept through our entire meal, which was delicious. I got to have my first beer since becoming pregnant and enjoyed some really great hot wings as well. We have been wanting to find a good Brewery since we left the island and I think we found it. (It still doesn't totally compare to Kona Brewery though. C'mon, it's Kona!)

It's time to go put some lunch together for all of us. Today is Mike's last day at home as he will be returning to work tomorrow. I'm a little anxious about being alone with a newborn and a 5 year old, especially for the hours the Mike has to work, but I'm sure we will be fine. Amazing how much more confidence you have the second time around. Also amazing is the amount of love that I feel for both of my kids now. I was worried during the pregnancy how I would be able to share my love or have enough for two but I found out immediately that my heart is just overflowing with more love for both of them.

Here are some photos that we have of our little Caleb Michael so far. I will try to update as often as I can, though I'm anticipating not having as much time as I did before his arrival. :o)


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Not a May Baby
Chrissie
Mike took the day off yesterday and went with us to the hospital for our post-dates Non- Stress Test. At 10 am they hooked me up to the monitors and recorded Caleb's heartrate for almost an hour. They said he responded well and sounded beautiful. My midwife checked me and I was still at 2.5cm and 50% just like Thursday, so no progress. She may have gotten things going though, so we will see what happens. She said that everything seems ready, I just need to get some good contractions going. As of now, I still have 3 more appointments for this coming Thursday. Another NST, an ultrasound, and my 41 week check.

Things are picking up some this morning so I'm crossing my fingers and trying to be hopeful. I sent Mike to work anyway even though he hung around a little longer than usual to try and be sure. We're all so tired of the 'waiting and seeing' game. Funny how I knew from the very beginning of this journey that I would most likely be having a June baby but I was still holding out for a May baby. It took until right up to the end of the night for me to accept that my May baby would be a June baby. We will keep everyone updated as the week goes on.

Here are some photos from the weekend. First one is of Reagan riding her scooter. We had some beautiful weather this weekend.


This picture is from last night. We made brownies with Reese's peanut butter cups pressed into the brownie mix!  Mmmm!!! This is the result of Reagan licking the wisk.  :o)


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40 weeks....and counting?
Chrissie
Well, I made it to my 40 week appointment today. After the events of the week I was expecting to have made progress but it wasn't as much as I was expecting. I am 2.5cm dilated and 50% effaced. He did drop another cm lower so was still measuring 37 cm like the week before. She said he seemed nice and comfy in there so she ordered a Non Stress Test (NST) for this Sunday, although she believes that everything is fine with him. In addition to our NST on Sunday we get to go back next Thursday, June 4, for another NST, and ultrasound, and a 41 week check. In keeping with sounding completely redundant and ridiculous....we're really hoping we don't make it to that appointment as Mom is due to arrive on Wednesday, June 3, to help us with the baby. It would be helpful to have a baby when she gets here.

All that said, I am trying very hard to keep my spirits up and have faith that my body actually does work properly and knows what to do. It is very easy to get discouraged and weary. If I thought it was hard last time, it has to be harder this time to be telling my 5 year old day in and day out that "Mommy can't do that", "Mommy can't bend down to wash your hair", "You can't sit in my lap", "Mommy is so tired", or "Mommy is really much too big right now to spend too much time waddling around outside". I am so tired of telling her that "when the baby gets here" (complete the sentence). We're all tired of waiting for Caleb to get here. So he needs to come on.
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Lots and lots of photos!
Chrissie
Mike had Saturday and Sunday off this past weekend! It was the first time since we moved here that he had two days off in a row other than the weekend we went to Washington for Easter. It was so nice having him with us for two whole days. Saturday we worked hard to get everything ready for the baby's arrival. We cleaned the Pack n Play, aka Caleb's bed, and the swing and got the house all cleaned and set up. We installed the car seat and got caught up on laundry. We are officially ready in every way for him to finally get here. We were really hoping it would happen over the weekend but to no avail. Today is looking hopeful but we still know it could be another week or so.

Yesterday, Mike uploaded all of the photos from his camera to our computer. There were a lot of them and they go back to our honeymoon. So, I put some slideshows together to show off our pictures. I will put a wedding slideshow together as well for those who didn't get to come to the wedding and would like to see those photos. The first slideshow here is from the week of the wedding while Mom and Dad were visiting the island. We took Reagan to the park up in Waimea.




I added some photos to the slideshow from our Easter trip, which you can see by clicking on this link. Mike was able to get a photo of each of the kids looking like a deer in headlights. Pretty funny.

These photos are from our Honeymoon, Day 1 & 2.




These are from Honeymoon Day 3.




These are from Honeymoon Day 4.



Not much else to report right now. We are hoping that Caleb will grace us with his presence this week as we're all anxious to meet him. We will keep everyone updated in the coming days.


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39 week appointment...
Chrissie
Well, I really have nothing new to report. Reagan and I went to my 39 week appointment yesterday and Caleb measured 37cm which means he is still dropped 2cm and continuing to grow. His heartbeat had slowed a little bit more from the previous two weeks to 130-131. The midwife said that was a great sign of maturity and that he could be ready to come any day now. That was the extent of the appointment. She told me that if I was still pregnant by my 40 week appointment they would threaten Caleb with eviction and order a Non-Stress Test (NST) to evaluate his living conditions. I really hope he comes before then because I really don't want to go through any of that. I think it's unnecessary. It would be extremely nice for him to come on out this weekend, though, since Mike is taking Saturday and Sunday off of work. It is the first time since we moved to Massachusetts that he has taken two days off in a row!

After the doctor's appointment, Reagan said she wanted to go to the McDonald's with a playground. So, we drove over there and had lunch and she got to play outside. She had her first-ever ice cream cone and never even tasted the cone. It got up to 91 degrees here yestersday and her ice cream was melting all over the place!  Haha! She said she didn't want it anymore and threw it away. I think she thought it was more trouble than it was worth. Mine, however, was absolutely wonderful and I ate every single bite of it. I'd kinda like to have another one right now!

We did some shopping after that over in Methuen. I got some new jar candles from Bath & Body Works; their Slatkin candles are the most wonderful candles I've ever had. Reagan got some sandals and two pairs of flip flops for summer. They are very pretty and she loves them. She is my girly-girl! She'd rather have clothes or shoes than toys just about any day.

My next appointment is Wednesday, the 27th. I hope I get to cancel that one! I'd love the next update on this page to be full of pictures of Caleb's little face. We shall see.  Here are some photos from yesterday.



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38 Week Appointment
Chrissie
It has been another week.  Reagan and I drove to Newburyport this morning for my 38 week appointment.  Everything is still going great.  The midwife seemed surprised that Caleb had already dropped, he is measuring 2cm behind which means that he is still growing but has dropped 2cm.   His heartbeat has slowed slightly which she said was a sign that he is maturing. Along with other signs and symptoms, she said he could make his appearance any day now, which also means that he could hang around for another 3 weeks so I'm not getting my hopes up.  Ha! 39 week appointment is next Tuesday.  

I put a poll on the right side of the page under the Caleb section, so go vote.  Here is my huge 37.4 week belly!

After the appointment, Reagan and I went back to the park at Georgetown to play on their wonderful playground.  It was such a beautiful day and since we had the car we hated to waste it. Reagan learned how to swing all by herself today!  I am so proud of her!  I will try to post the video. 

Here are some photos from our family day out yesterday, as well as Reagan by the pond at the park today. Mike treated me to a pedicure yesterday afternoon (probably my last one before the baby comes) and then we went out for supper at Friendly's (one of our favorite places to go because the ice cream is so good!). Reagan had hot fudge on her face, hands, and even her shoulders! Haha!!









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37 Week Appointment
Chrissie
Things seem to be moving right along.  Caleb was measuring one cm less than last week because he has dropped 2cm, according to the midwife.  That's good news!  She also said that, as of now, he's "sunny side up" but not to be concerned because he still has time to turn.  It was a pretty uneventful appointment; we mostly discussed protocol for when birth begins as I'm now considered to be "full term".

Reagan loves going to the appointments.  The midwives let her measure my belly and use the doppler to find Caleb's heartbeat.  They say she's a "pro" and she has so much fun.  Last week she told us that she wants to be a midwife when she grows up.  :o)  I think it's a great idea!!

After the appointment we went to Cracker Barrel for lunch/breakfast.  It was SO yummy!!! Best meal I've had in awhile.  Reagan made a friend at the table next to us.  His name was Hunter and he was also 5 years old.  They had a big time and I think Hunter developed a little crush on Reagan.  He told her how pretty she was and she giggled.  Very cute.  When he was leaving, they said bye to each other and he said, "Bye, Reagan, I love you."  Hahahaha!!!  It was very funny.  Reagan came over and whispered to me that she didn't love him but that she would when she married him someday.  OH MY!!!  Mike and I agreed that we shouldn't tell PaPa about it because Hunter might become the Hunted.  LOL!!

We did some shopping after lunch.  We went to our mall in Nashua for the first time and it's a very nice one.  Reagan wanted to go to the Disney store, so we agreed to go back one day (just us girls) and spend as much time as we want. 

So, today is back to the norm.  We will be getting all the final preparations made for Caleb's arrival and then we just wait.  I think Reagan and I will be going to Target tomorrow to purchase any final items we need for the baby. Next appointment is Tuesday, so will update after that.


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Baby Shower
Chrissie
We had a virtual baby shower today for Caleb.  Thank you to my incredible Hostess, Chrissy.  It was a lot of fun even if it didn't turn out the way we had hoped.  We all got in a group chat and Mom watched me open gifts via live webcam and typed commentary for everyone else.  We got a lot of really nice things for the baby and Reagan even made out pretty well!  I won the baby shower game The Price Is Right: Baby Shower Edition.  Woohoo!!  Go me! Virtual cocktails and toasts were enjoyed by all!

Tomorrow, Reagan and I are hoping to meet up with our Mommies group for an afternoon of play after baby shopping with our 10% off registry coupon!  Fun!  Tuesday we go back to the doctor for my 37 week appointment.  I will post updates after the appointment.

By request, here are some photos of me on "baby shower day".  I am 36.4 weeks today.  I'm not sure there's much room left for him, he might have to come early.  (PLEASE!!!!)


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36 weeks....
Chrissie
We had our 36 week appointment yesterday and all is well.  Caleb's still measuring right on target (36 weeks) even though my weight gain was up 6 pounds from 2 weeks before (officially more weight than I've gained throughout the entire pregnancy up to this point).  I am feeling every one of those 6 pounds too!!  I've made 1cm of progress so far and I probably won't let her check me again until closer to 39 weeks.  We go back on Tuesday for our 37 week appointment.

After we left the doctor's office we drove down to Stoughton to the IKEA store.  We got two shelving units for the living room which should make several more of our boxes disappear! Woohoo!  The "nesting" bug seems to have settled in a bit.  I got some of our photos and artwork hung up a couple of days ago and clothes put into Space Bags (they really work!).  I pulled out the carseat, baby swing, and stroller and, with Reagan's help, have been cleaning them and washing the pads on them.  We are getting things done!  Hopefully, we will be totally done in a week or so and, after a hefty donation to the Salvation Army, we will be ready for Caleb Michael to make his appearance.  Mother's Day would be nice!  :) Wishful thinking, I know.  Ha!

Here is a photo of Reagan on the way to IKEA yesterday.  Kids can get comfortable anywhere.


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Spring finally arrived!
Chrissie
Hooray! Reagan and I were beginning to believe that Spring would never happen in Massachusetts. Saturday morning we drove to Georgetown to meet a Mommies and Kiddies group. The park had a fabulous playground right next to Pentucket Pond. There were khayakers and people fishing and Reagan decided that she wants to go khayaking too. The weather was absolutely beautiful and temps were in the 70s. Reagan had a wonderful time and we got to meet a lot of really nice people.

Mike got to leave work early and we picked him up from the train station around lunch time and went to Target to do some shopping. We are busy making preparations for baby Caleb and got the majority of things we will need for my hospital bag. It feels so real now that I have a pack of diapers in the bedroom at the changing table. Ha!

Yesterday, Reagan and I went outside and enjoyed the weather once again. She rode her scooter for about an hour and we scoped out the pool area which is now uncovered and getting cleaned and prepared for swimming season. We were both very excited about that. Today we will be doing some more organizing, unpacking, and rearranging. We still have quite a bit to do to get our home ready for baby. And we are coming down to the end!

We are hoping to have another playdate with our new Mommies and Kiddies friends tomorrow afternoon and then our big 36 week appointment is Thursday. Hopefully, Mike will be able to come with us to this one. We will let everyone know how that one goes. Fingers crossed that the good news keeps coming! Here are some pictures from our fun weekend!



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34 Week Checkup
Chrissie
We had our 34 week appointment today and Caleb is measuring right at 34 weeks. Growing perfectly. The midwife said that he is still head down and engaged. We go back on the 30th at 36 weeks and then every week after that until he makes his appearance. Almost there!

Here is a photo of me at 34 weeks.


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Our Easter trip
Chrissie
We are finally back home from our trip to Washington and have had a day to rest up. Well, all of us except for Mike. The trip out on Friday was mostly uneventful. We arrived in the early evening just in time to enjoy dinner with the family and do a little bit of catching up. Saturday morning, we took the kids to an Easter Egg hunt at the country club. They had a great time. There was a table set up for decorating masks and Easter cookies. The kids got their pictures made with the Easter bunny and I'm hoping to get a copy of that soon. Reagan wasn't scared of the Easter bunny at all but wanted to know why he couldn't talk and why his mouth wouldn't move. Ha! After pictures, the kids got to go outside and hunt for Easter eggs. Reagan found quite a few eggs and even hit some others up for some of theirs. (Geez!)

After that, Mike took me to get a pedicure and then we headed downtown to get ready for the wedding that we were attending that evening. We checked in at the lovely Fairmont Olympic hotel and went upstairs to get ready. Such a beautiful hotel! It was nice to be there again as we stayed there exactly two years ago this month. The wedding was very nice and Courtney looked beautiful. Mike got to see a lot of friends that he had not seen in a very long time and I got to meet a lot of them for the first time. I enjoyed two very teeny tiny sips of champagne during the toasts and we believe Caleb to be a fan of the bubbly!! He began kicking and squirming wildly and then had the hiccups for half an hour! Hahaha!!

Easter morning we checked out of the hotel and met the family at the country club for a yummy brunch! The rest of the day was lazy and enjoyable. Aunts, Uncles, and cousins came for Easter dinner. It was so nice to see everyone and spend time with the family.

Our flight back home on Monday was a completely different story. We got stuck in San Francisco for about 5 hours and did not make it home until 2:30 in the morning. It was a very rough day but we're all glad to be home now. Kai was super happy to see all of us. Reagan has been playing and watching movies and I've been resting up. We go for my 34 week checkup tomorrow and am hoping it's all still good news. We will keep everyone updated.

Here are some photos from the trip. I will have more to add to this once I get the photos from Mike's camera uploaded. He got way better pictures of the Easter Egg hunt than I did.

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!!

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Easter eggs!
Chrissie
Reagan and I have been busy trying to get all of our clothes washed and suitcases packed for our trip to Washington tomorrow. In between, we managed to dye some Easter Eggs. It was fun until she decided to hide the eggs herself and find them. She can't find one and now we have a stray egg somewhere in the apartment. Oh, the joy!!!

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32 week checkup
Chrissie
Reagan and I went in to see the midwife yesterday for my 32 week appointment. Reagan was the big helper and got to measure me and check Caleb's heartbeat. All was great news. Caleb is still measuring exactly perfect and has a great heartbeat. He gained 2 pounds over the last 2 weeks (which I'm sure is why his mother can no longer sleep and has a constant backache) and finally put his head down. The results from my bloodwork all came back perfect and my blood pressure is still perfect. All in all, a great visit. We got the "go ahead" for travel this upcoming weekend, so will be traveling to Washington for a wedding and to visit family for Easter. Reagan is very excited about this!

Reagan and I worked hard on Thursday to get some more of the apartment unpacked and set up. She and I assembled, cleaned, and set up our dining room table and have enjoyed eating at it together. We still have some work to do but are definitely making progress.
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New Belly Shots
Chrissie
Here are the latest photos in the belly shot collection. I also added them to the slideshow from the 15th with all of the other belly shots! More to come as the belly becomes a rather large source of entertainment around here. Yesterday, Caleb was throwing a party and Reagan and I were watching him. She got to feel him wiggling around and kicking up a storm and watch my belly wobble back and forth. She rubbed the belly, bent down, and said, "Caleb, stop wobbling all over Mommy's ladder." HAHAHAHA!!!! Too cute.

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Monsters vs. Aliens!
Chrissie
Mike had the day off today, so we loaded up in the car and went to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D. The movie was very cute and funny. The 3D is such a fun experience! Milkshakes, popcorn, and fun were had by all.

Mike had to take the picture so he made me put his glasses on Caleb. :o)

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Single Digits
Chrissie
Halfway through the 31st week and I'm both excited and anxious that the countdown has entered the single digits. 8.5 weeks to go!! We still have quite a bit of unpacking to do in the cardboard jungle that Mike calls our "Fire Hazard". We don't have the first thing set up or purchased for baby's arrival and at times it makes me panic. But I know that it will all come together.

We go next Friday for our 32 week appointment and are hoping to get the "OK" to travel west for a wedding and to visit family. Looks like Mike will be heading out without us if I'm not ok'd to travel; so everyone keep their fingers crossed for me!

Well, not much to report. We're just waiting for the arrival of spring up here in New England. Poor Reagan stands at the backdoor and asks, "Mommy, is Spring ever going to get here?" We have noticed a slight warming trend (meaning a couple of days in a row with temps reaching the 50s). Ha! Last night the crickets came out and Reagan loved it until it was time to go to sleep. :o)

I will post updates in the upcoming week after our 32 week appointment. Maybe some new belly shots are in order.


In Memory of Ty Cobb, very loved and very missed.

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Day at the Museum
Chrissie
We had a very enjoyable family day yesterday. We all got to sleep in which was fantastic! Mike made bacon and eggs for breakfast before we loaded up and went to the Museum of Science. We had a great time. All of the exhibits were interactive (Reagan got to push a lot of buttons) and interesting. I was hoping there would be more dinosaurs and weather exhibits for Reagan to enjoy but she still had fun. There is a frog exhibit there until the 25th that was the main purpose of our visit and it was awesome! It was by far my favorite part of the trip. I think Reagan's favorite part was the Mythic Creatures exhibit. She got to see how dolphins jumping through the water can look like a sea serpent. We read about all kinds of legends of dragons, mermaids, griffins, giant squids, and other wild things. Her favorite was the giant statue of a unicorn.

After the museum we went to pick up Mike's car which is now as good as new. We had a fun dinner together and then went to Costco for churros!

All in all, it was a great day; the kind that you wish you could have together every day. Reagan and I were wishing that Mike could stay with us again today. But it's back to the day to day. We dropped Mike off at the train station this morning and will be cleaning and unpacking boxes for the remainder of the day. Only 10 more weeks to get things in order! Come on 'nesting'!

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30 weeks today!
Chrissie
Hooray for the homestretch! We met one of our midwives yesterday at our 30 week appointment. I am measuring right on for 30 weeks so the midwife is not concerned at all about my weight gain at this point. I passed my glucose screen with flying colors; 105 and they like to see it under 140. Great news!

Reagan thinks that 5 years old is so grown up. She has a new sense of independence and wanted to do a lot of things yesterday on her own. And she acted very grown up for what she had to endure on her 5th birthday. After leaving the doctor's office yesterday we experienced car troubles which found us at the Subaru service dept. for an hour or so. To my delight, they had a Keurig and a fine selection of coffee for me. And for Reagan, an arts and crafts area with all kinds of activities along with free popcorn. She had a great time and was so good while we had to wait. In the midst of our misfortune we found several things for which we were very lucky on St. Patrick's Day. 1. We were fortunate that Mike was with us and the one driving when the car had issues. 2. We were fortunate that the car made it all the way to the dealership so we avoided having to call a tow truck. 3. We were fortunate that all of the car rental companies didn't have cars and the dealership loaned us a courtesy car to drive until the repairs are made to the car. The whole experience changed the way I feel about Subarus. They were so kind to us and made what could have been a very negative experience into more of a positive one.

So, in the 2009 Subaru Forester, we were able to complete our plans for the day. I got my stolen cell phone replaced and we took Reagan to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate her birthday. She had a blast! She ran from game to game in wild excitement. We got some tokens and showed her how to play some of the games. Mike got to fly an airplane and Mommy got to play skee ball. After pizza, we let Reagan play until all the tokens were gone. She ended up with over 100 tickets and was able to pick out her prize. It ended up being pretty enjoyable fun for everyone and didn't cost very much. Reagan was upset that we couldn't go back this morning after dropping Mike off at the train station. Ha!
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Reagan's turning 5!!
Chrissie
Nothing too exciting for today. Had my first appointment with our new doctor's office and did the glucose screen. My first appointment with the midwife is tomorrow and we should know the results from the screening then. :::Fingers crossed::: Fortunately, Mike has the day off tomorrow and is going with us. 30 weeks this week, so we're in the homestretch now!

And speaking of tomorrow, it is also Reagan's 5th birthday!! It doesn't seem possible that it's been five years already. To celebrate, Mike and I are taking her to Chuck E. Cheese's. She's never been before and is pretty excited. Mike also took Thursday off and is taking us girls to the Children's Museum in Boston!! Should be some good times; we'll try to get plenty of pictures.

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Getting started
Chrissie

Well, I'm making progress at least and progress is good. I'm sure I'll get better at this as I go.

Since this was originally supposed to be a website for the pregnancy and the baby, I will start there. As I've been constructing the blog, however, I hope for it to be more and will continue to work on it. Not sure how much I will get up on the site today as it is my turn in the family to have some kind of cold virus. Ick....

I put together some slideshows that I hope will work, and if they don't, I will figure something else out. The first one is a collection of photos from throughout my pregnancy so far. I noticed when putting the slideshow together that almost all of the belly pictures I have were taken by myself. Ha! I will have to tell Mike to get on the ball.



pregnant



Here is a slideshow of all of the photos from our 24 week 3D ultrasound.



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