I know, I'm behind....

First of all, MERRY MERRY Christmas to all of blogland! I must say, we at the Beaver Dam feel a whole new kind of "merry" this year. I pray you all have a great season with family and friends, worshipping our Savior. I will have fun Christmas pictures soon, but now I have to update on the homecoming of our Brooklyn. I am behind for all those "newborn" reasons... no sleep, takes 2 hours to eat, pump after, try to sleep, have to wake up and start all over again... yeah, fun. :) But it is better at home than the hospital!!!!

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Here is our Reagan "building a bear" to take to the hospital to Brooklyn.

She and Adley both have bunnies from when they were born, so B gets one too.
"Ta-da!"
First time for B to snuggle with her Aunt Mary.

And first with Grandmommy. First of millions of kisses from her I'm sure!

R really does love her. Makes my heart hurt!

Turbo's first time to hold her too. We loved NICU 2!!

Little snuggle time with Mommy too.

Love these lips!

We got the call on the 19th that she was going home that day! We had asked for days when it would be, and they just kept saying "soon." But we had no idea! So, that day was beyond hectic getting all her consults and everything cleared. We were there forever and didn't come home until after 8:00pm. But it was worth it! Here she is passing her car seat test. :) With a look that tells how much she loved it.

Putting on our own clothes for the first time!

This monkey is from Granddaddy. He said it was so she would be a climber like her sister.

All dressed, ready to go, getting one last feeding in before the ride home.

Seeya, NICU!!!

First car ride. She doesn't even remember it.

Proud Daddy carrying her inside!

Welcome home, Baby Sister!!!

"Here, Dad. Let me help you!"

Granddaddy's first time to hold her. He left for a day, then came back just in time for her to come home!

M&D have this exact picture with all 4 grandkids.

Sometimes R just has to check on her. It is so sweet. :)

This is one of my favorite pics of all time.

Adam, Missy, and the kids got here the next day. First time snugglin' with Uncle A-moo. (Reagan's name for him has kinda stuck.)

Lots of hand sanitizer in use at our house. That way the kids got to hold her too. I love Adley's bedhead in this one!

Sweet Corbin can't get enough of her!

B got LOTS of lovin' from Aunt Missy. She took some night shifts for me so I could sleep. God bless her.

See?? I can't sleep while touching anyone, even a baby. Missy can. Greatness.

Grandmommy gave R her first bath at home too. We have to still sponge bathe her until we get stitches out next week... we hope. But she did great!

Cutie!!!

All clean and zonked out.

She is a great eater and sleeper... once she decides to eat. Nursing a kid who is used to being bottled fed in the NICU is proving to be quite a challenge, but we're hanging in there. We did have to learn to do catheters on her, 3 times a day. But we're pros now! Hopefully that will be short lived, but it is no big deal. Having her here is just so great... hope I can sing the same tune when I am by myself and David goes back to work in a week or two!!! But for now, we are just so thankful she is doing so great. Thank you all for your continued support and prayers... I will try to update more often!!! Love to all, and again, Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously?!?!?!

Ok, to answer Amber's question... yes I will be blogging some coming home pics soon. It is great to have her home! Except... Reagan now has the pukes and I think I may be getting her bug too. So please pray for us! We have enough going on and can NOT have Brooklyn sick! Ugh.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHOOOOOOOOOO!

She's coming home today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Best Birthday Present Ever

I am exhausted. So this has to be short so I can go to bed. But I couldn't sleep without letting everyone know about our fabulous day. I have been telling God "thank you" all day, and I can't say it to Him enough for our great great day.

First of all, official results on Brooklyn's echo came today, and they were "within normal limits." So, looks like no heart murmur issue. Fabulous news. Fabulous news. Then... the opthomology doctor came by for a consult that we didn't know was going to happen. He said he had been informed of the possibility of optic nerve dysplacia in Brooklyn, and that he could check that out now for us and tell us yes or no on it. The test did not show functionality, how great eyesight could be, just if the nerves were present and in the right place. The early MRI had shown that she was either at risk for the nerves actually not being there or being displaced. Blah blah blah.... anyways. We have all been praying for months now about this, and got our fabulous answer today. I can't even type this without crying! The doctor said everything was perfect. Our girl can see. Poor baby had to go through a horrible exam... they pried open her eye sockets and moved her eyeball all around while shining big lights and magnifying glass in her eyes. But, it didn't last long, and now we get our answer that yes, her nerves and eyes are perfect. I can't thank God enough for this news, but I will spend my entire life thanking Him for it.

More updates tomorrow. She is tube free... just has wires for the monitors now. Her feedings are going great, her incisions are healing great, they've already started talking about scheduling our car seat "training" so we can take her home. Seriously, best birthday ever. :) Please join me in praising our Lord for His wonderful gifts!!!!!

MOVING DAY... and other fun Reagan stuff

These are from yesterday... sweet girl was doing lots of peeking! Just fyi, the straps you see across her are to keep her on her side without putting any pressure on her dressing on her back. The docs say it is healing on schedule. :) You can see her bump that is her shunt. It'll take some getting used to for me to see it there and not worry! But the sweet nurses saved her hair that they shaved for it so I could have it in her baby book.

Big eyes, yummy paci, and obscene gesture.
David and I got there this morning, and were greeted with great news. The director of the spina bifida clinic saw her this morning and said she looked awesome! She said from what she can see with all the movements in her legs (she is still quite the kicker, even out of my belly!), that she is probably only gonna need some braces on her ankles to walk someday! Her ankles are always flexed... they seemed to have stayed that way while I was pregnant up til now. PT will come and help us with exercises to help her relax them, but other than that, she said she seems REALLY strong... better than they would normally expect at this point. Here is Mommy happy to be snugglin' her sweet girl.

Doc also told us that they do not anticipate us having to cath her when she goes home. Seems like she is doing a good enough job in the diaper business on her own for now! They will continue to re-assess her as she grows and her bladder develops... and over the next few years we'll figure out what her body is going to decide to do in that dept. But for now, we seem good to go, and I will take it. We don't have official word on her echo of her heart today, but the tech who did the test said he didn't see anything! Yay! I'll update when we have official results, but that news was good in the meantime. Her surgeon came today as well (she saw lots of folks today!), and he said that she was looking good. He wondered why we weren't going home today! Guess he figured that since his deal was done that she should be on her way! I wish! Anyways, her incision seems to be doing great, and they turned up the flow on her shunt some to drain it at a little faster rate. It was low to get her used to it for awhile, and they used the magnet (yes, you read that right) on her head to turn the dial up to a slightly higher setting. Her fluid looked ok today, and should look even better tomorrow because of this. So, with all of that news from the doctors, her nurses said she was keeping her body temp regulated all by herself, so she got a new bed AND got to move to NICU Level 2!! That is the first and last step to going home!! She is in a regular crib with no warmer, and now just needs to heal and eat! YAY!!!! Such a great day. And can I just say... I know I am the Mommy and every Mommy says this, but isn't she just gorgeous?!?!?!

Daddy got to feed her a bottle for the first time, and she sucked it dry! Yay Brooklyn, and yay Daddy!!! :)

With a full, content tummy... thinking "Hmmmm.... wonder when I can get outta here and go home?"

And Mommy thinking "Hmmmm... wonder when I can get her outta here and take her home?" One doctor said if she eats well, maybe the end of the week!!

Here is her new bed in her new room. Her pink gorilla was from her Granddaddy, and the bear came from Santa today making the rounds. :)

I just love even watching her sleep!

So, I'll update more on what we find out tomorrow. Hopefully more great news!!

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Ok, I am playing catch up on some Reagan pics from the last 2 weeks til now. We went a couple days before birthday to see Santa at the mall. For all you weirdos who wanted to see my huge belly, here you go. I am sure that it only looks that big because the camera wasn't totally in focus.... Anyways, R was BESIDE herself excited, and I can't blame her because I think this really is the real Santa. Here, she stopped the excitement to give me a hug. :)

Flashback 2 years ago... if we ever move, we decided we'll have to make the trip down here just to see St Nick! He is TOTALLY the real Santa!

Last year's hilarious fiasco!! Her face was so chubby!

And this year... such the big girl!!! This is her "say cheese" smile, so it is a bit unnatural, but she did so great!!! It was hilarious... she told Santa what she wanted, and did NOT understand why she wasn't going home with it! He was passing out coloring books to each kid, and she handed it back and said "no thank you, I want 2 babies and a clock." It took some convincing after she looked in his bag full of coloring books that she had to wait until Christmas for Santa to come to our house and give her her presents. Hard concept when you are two!!! We laughed so hard!

R got to help with our tree in the living room AND decorate her own tree in her room. She picked out Dora ornaments and these balls with purple lights. She was so dedicated and did all the ornaments herself....

She would look and look and look... then put it in the same spot as the last one. Her tree is covered in clusters.

But she loves it. This is the next morning after we put it up... she hugged her tree first thing.

I asked to take her picture with her tree... this was my result. :)

Tonight when we got home from the hospital, she and Grandmommy made me a birthday cake. Big day isn't until tomorrow, but she couldn't wait until then! She got to decorate this herself as well... excellent.

And it is great when Grandmommy is around because you can do no wrong, and get to lick chocolate icing off the butter knife.

Putting on the candles.... then she sang to me all by herself. So stinkin' sweet.

Someone really liked her cake. My present was given to me early so I could have my new iTouch (yay!!!!) in the hospital. Thanks again to the whole fam for that!!! R really likes it too.

And to end this eternal post... here is Reagan getting milk for her babies just like Mommy does with the pump.
Good thing she is using the bottle with the orange juice. Nice. :)
Thanks for keeping up with us! Reagan has been an absolute angel so far through all of this, and Brooklyn is on the mend more and more each day, so things are bless-ed at the Beaver household. I'll keep everyone update as much as I can. Thank you for your prayers!!!!!!!!!!!