Catching up with Reagan

I put earlier how R is now sleeping in her big girl bed! We have yet to get her "baby" stuff out of her room (changing table, crib, etc) because I still don't know where to put that yet, but she is in her big bed and loving it. It is actually my day bed from growing up! Here she is on the first night, playing on her Dora sheets. Those were a hit for sure.

SIL Missy would accurately say that it looks like Dora threw up on her bed. But the sheets were a big reason she was excited about her new sleeping arrangement!
Giving Dora and Boots pillow "big hugs."
Night night kisses. It was way way way too easy for this transistion. She just did it, and that was that. I was so proud. Now if only potty training would go this way...
That first night, she actually had to move back to her crib about 4:30am. Which was fine, and that was the only time. This pic is from the next day at naptime. I told her she would get a big girl prize if she went night night and stayed in her big girl bed. That did the trick. She IMMEDIATELY asked for her prize when she woke up. (Notice it took no time at all for MANY friends to need to be in her bed with her. She now sleeps with 12 friends I think. Thank goodness the bed is big!)
She specifically asked for her prize to be a "big pickle prize." So we went to the "Bob and Larry store" (Christian book store) and she picked this out. It is a GREAT toy, and even with this being about 2 weeks ago, she is still obsessed with it.
It is Larry in the form of a Mr Potato Head. The eyes, hat, jacket, etc all mix and match.
Next morning, first thing, playing with her prize.
Kisses for Big Pickle.
Another recent morning, she wanted to go swing. Not much fun outside these days in the heat, but early in the morning I didn't mind. So we went out in our pjs to play for a bit, and had to take friends from the bed with us.
Pure happiness on this face!
Yes, we still wear Christmas pjs. :) Here, Dora is enjoying R's slide!
More happiness!

Later that same morning, obviously before we got dressed for the day, R and I had a little sticker fun. She has been quite artsy lately, and this morning it was Diego stickers...
... on the eyelids...
...
... until they were both almost stuck shut.
She thought this was REALLY fun...

... so much so that Mommy couldn't be left out.
The ultrasound morning last week, I pulled out the camera to take some pics. I'm glad I did, because it reminds me of how happy we were to be going that morning.... these were all taken before all you-know-what broke loose. It's funny, but I have to remind myself to be happy about being pregnant still. I can't really explain that yet, and it makes me feel a bit guilty, but part of the rollercoaster I guess. Anyways, here are Daddy and R waiting to see the baby!
R was worried they were going to hurt me, but I kept telling her I was great!
Hugs for Mommy.
Sweet big sister!

Here is part of that artsy phase I was talking about. Mommy is now in LOVE with paint-with-water books. She loves to paint, and I love the little mess.
Brandon got her this GREAT art easel for her birthday. It will be in her room eventually once I get the other baby junk outta there. But she LOVES it and we are really into coloring.
She was concentrating so hard, with her tongue out. But of course it disappeared as soon as I got out the camera. I tried to fake the pic by asking her to stick her tongue out again...
... and this was what I got.
Of course I laughed, which spurred her to keep going. Um, yeah, so enjoy. :)

Brooklyn update: not much to report. We go back to my OB on Friday to discuss where to go from here. We are currently looking into different possibilities of surgery for her... there is actually a clinical trial out of state where they do her surgery in utero. Craziness. We don't know yet if she (really, I) am candidate or not, so we'll see. But please be praying for wisdom for us to make the best decision for our family. It is so scary to try and decide these things. And once the decisions are made, then pray for our peace that we have done the right thing for our daughter and for peace through the "waiting game" we'll be playing. But most of all, pray for complete healing. That is definitely what we want, and I believe God wants me to be honest in what we want. So there you go. Thanks again for loving BOTH of our girls enough to be catching up with what's going on! Much love- J

Update

I will have some fun R pictures soon, but I wanted to give an update for everyone. Seriously, we are humbled and overwhelmed with all the prayers, supports, kind words, cards, calls, etc from the last few days. It is SO obvious for me personally that I am prayed over by many because I am doing so much better than I would have ever dreamed! Totally a God thing. Of course, this whole thing may never really sink in fully, but we're getting through this first phase thanks to God's grace and the graciousness of our friends and family. Thanks so much!!!

We did get a call LATE Friday saying that the amnio test results came back fine... with no signs of chromosomal issues to worry about at this point. So, THANK YOU GOD FOR GOOD NEWS! First hurdle down! I'm glad to have that news behind us so I can focus on going forward. It seems like we have lots of research to do and lots to think about in a pretty short time coming up, so thanks in advance for following us through this journey. More later... thanks again everybody!

So, Here Goes....

I am going to attempt to put into words what our rollercoaster for the last 24 hours or so has been... so bear with me. I know many of you have already gotten the "word", so THANK YOU for walking this faith journey with us already. For those who are just reading this, well, here goes... and I'm sorry it'll take awhile.
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First of all, we are JOYFUL beyond belief to announce the upcoming arrival of our new DAUGHTER... Brooklyn Hope Beaver. It makes me smile just to see her new name, so I colored it! :) Reagan got to see her on screen with us yesterday, and it was fun to hear her start to talk about her new baby sister. The alarming news came after, although the second-girl news might be called "alarming" to some degree in David's world. :)
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We could tell by the faces of the tech and the radiologist at the ultrasound that something was up, but he wouldn't tell us. Literally, didn't speak a WORD to us other than that he was making at appt with my OB for the same day (yesterday). So they send us straight to my OB with no news at all, but we did go ahead and make arrangements for Reagan for the day. (Thank you SO much to James, Mary, and our awesome family to coming to our rescue!) We sit and wait at my OB's office for awhile so they could squeeze us in, and she finally comes in to break the news... she had spoken with the radiologist and he saw multiple abnomalities with the baby. From what he told her, she said the pregnancy may not be viable, and it was evident that Brooklyn would not survive her issues. She made us an appt with the perinatologist for 4pm yesterday (it was about 11am at the time) and said we would love him and he would explain in more details what we were looking at. I love my OB, and at this time I am crying, she is crying and hugging me, David is crying. We've been given the worst news ever and have to wait 5 hours for it to all be hashed out again. So for that span of time, we made some hard phone calls, and then sat and hugged and prayed and cried and hugged and prayed and cried until it was time to go back.
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By the time we saw the specialist, it was 4:45 and I was dreading it. Seriously, I am very pregnant and emotional anyway! But, our prayers of those yucky hours were instantly answered... her issues were not nearly showing as bad as the radiologist had seen. Was he wrong that morning? I don't know of course, but I am saying God changed it by his grace. Period. Anyways, to the details... Brooklyn does have spina bifida. Our new doctor is certain she will survive this, but she will have a rough road ahead with this condition. Bless her heart. Ok, so. Lord willing, I will be able to carry her to term, then she will immediately have surgery on her spine to repair the issue after the csection. She also is showing fluid on her brain, and they will need to put in a shunt for that. But he is also confident that the shunt will be no problem for her at all, and she will have perfectly normal brain function, IQ, etc. There is no way to predict what kind of physical impairments will be a result of the spinal issue, if any. BUT, he kept telling us he was "cautiously optimistic" for her outcome... that it was about 50/50 that she could come out of this a perfectly healthy, normal kid (her particular spinal "thing" that I don't know the medical term for was one of the best kind to have... I mean, if you gotta have it). The other 50% would mean she has some sort of physical issues that could be a broad spectrum of things. And we can deal with that if/when it comes, but we are praying for the first!!! In the word of sweet Linda F... "we'll take that 50% and add God to it and then see what happens!!!" :) Heck yeah!
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So, by the time it was all said and done, spina bifida and all that entails was good news! Much better than the first news. We were given Hope in those hours of prayers yesterday afternoon, so Hope was added to her name yesterday. :) We have a long road ahead of us before and after she is brought to our family, but I am thrilled to know that God has gone before us on this road. My emotions are beyond nuts right now, but we're ok. We ask (beg) for your prayers for Brooklyn over the next few months. I believe with ALL my heart that God can heal our girl. He. Can. So that is our prayer. However, we also know His Will is beyond us, so if that is not His perfect plan for Brooklyn, then I look forward to knowing all He will do through our girl and her challenges. David and I ask for your prayers as well... this was obviously not our ideal plan, but we ask for courage and wisdom and strength and peace to take the place of our fears.

Thank you ahead of time for your prayers. There are things short and long term to pray for specifically:
1) that God heals this baby!!!
2) the amnio test results from yesterday come back perfectly, and there are no more complications than what we already know
3) for our doctors, my OB Dr. Wynne, specialist Dr. Kirshon, and Brooklyn's surgeon we haven't met yet
4) for Reagan, that normalcy will continue to surround her as much as possible
5) for continued peace and comfort for all of us

I will update of course as much as we find out along the way, but will also continue to blog as much of normal life too. I mean, Big Sister Reagan will still have some great stuff to document!! Again, we are so blessed to have so many prayers for our family. It has made me ask so many times "how does someone without Jesus do it?!" We are thankful for our Great Physician and for our fabulous Christian community... may you all be blessed by our sweet Brooklyn Hope!! :)
Love- D, J, & R

Just have to put really quick that my "not so much a baby anymore" baby girl is presently sleeping in her big girl bed for the first time ever!! Can't believe it! More about that later...

Long Overdue Post: Fort Worth Trip

About 3 weeks ago (yes, I'm behind), we spent a week of great family time in Ft Worth. And great family

time = many many great pics to choose from! I narrowed it down, really I did, and got to 72. I only expect the most dedicated of Reagan-fans to make it through the whole thing.... aka the grandparents. :) But the more the merrier of course! So, here ya go. This face sums up our time there:

R had the time of her life with her cousins. Adley and Corbin are SO sweet and so great with her, and they had a blast! She asks for them constantly still. Here is some peekaboo game she and Corbin played continuously.
Cousin Coloring-time
We frequented the waterpark (man, wish we had something similar to Hurst here!!), and Cassidee and Kendra got to come too one day!
Evidently it is REALLY fun to run into the water and sit down together over and over.
Sweet BFFs! :) How cute are they?!?!
More cuteness with Adley...
...and Corbin. Lots of hugs.
Everyone swimming in the pool.
Of course the tongue is sticking out!
Fun with Granddaddy: One... Two...
...THREE!!! She LOVED it!
Adley and David always have fun together in the pool.
Break for some yummies and a CapriSun.
Picnic!!!
We all went to eat at the RainforestCafe, and it was way fun... for everyone but R. She HATED all the jungle noises and lightning. It'll be awhile before we go back.
What can be better than this?!?
The balloon guy was really cool to the kids.
Adley's flower hat.
R just got a flower, not a hat. We were still recovering from the monkeys...
Each day was a different day o' fun. Next day, we hit the all time fave ChuckECheese. R still cheats in skeeball.
But she did this one for real and loved it!
Taking a ride with Corbin...
...and one with Adley.
Not sure what it's about, but I love Adley's pose here!
Mom sets up the kids' table at her house each time they are there, and this was the first time R graduated to it! Such the big girl with her cousins!
They brought R an early birthday present, and Adley read her the card.
The kids helped her open her Dora presents. Punching out the Memory cards was almost as fun as the actual game!

The party was actually for Corbin turning 5! While patiently waiting for cake, Adley read one of Reagan's new Dora books out loud. I love this pic.
"Happy Birthday dear Corbin!"
David and I took the kids to story time at the library. Here they are singing and doing the chicken dance!
(Thank you to Janet for these pics! I didn't have my camera... dumb!)

Janet and Joe had lots of us over to their house for "swimming pool-time!" Always such fun!
Corbin....

Adley....

and Reagan at the pool....

Ok, there were way more cute pics of more people, but this post was already long enough! So, here is just one cute one of the little kids' table.
What is better after a good swim and supper than some sidewalk chalk?! Check out both of their blue eyes in this one.... love it.
David and I rarely have a "just the 2 of us pic" anymore, so even though this one is TERRIBLE, I'm putting it anyways.
Post-bathtime, Pre-bedtime with Granddaddy and Grandmommy. LOVE this pic too.
After all those fun filled days, R got to also spend time at Grammy and Poppy's house for MORE fun! Awesome! Started with some Mexican food for Poppy's birthday.

Grammy's family has a tradition that "The Chipmunk" comes to visit when you stay at their house. The Chipmunk knows when you're there, and leaves presents at the front door in the mornings. The first morning, it was Play Doh!!
Here, she is showing you one of her PlayDoh animals.
PlayDoh also can make snakes/necklaces!
Only eat yummies, not PlayDoh!

One of her favorite spots at Grammy and Poppy's house!
We got to go to Cole and Tiffany's wedding Sat night, and of course when R saw Cass, they had to sit together!! And it was a bonus for R that it meant she ALSO got to sit with Jeremy! She loves her "Mer-mee." :)
Cutie friends just chatting it up before the ceremony. R made it through the slide show, but when the "big tv" was turned off, she got the boot to the nursery with Daddy.
This is one reason she and Granddaddy are such great friends! She loooooved the strawberries!
Roselyn was there too for some good BFF times.

And evidently R thought Cass's look in that last pic was so great that she decided to copy it! I would put other pics, but these were the only ones I got... but it is a sweet hug!
Speaking of sweet... this is about the sweetest thing I have EVER seen! It is the best candid shot we've ever gotten! LOVE IT!
The next morning...
... R got some serious snuggle and goofy time...
... with her Poppy. Love it.

R discovered Grammy's fan, and decided to do her model-thing with her hair blowing in the wind.


Poppy built (and I mean with his bare hands) a waterfall and fish pond in their backyard. It is AMAZING. Placed every rock, every plant, everything himself.
Here she is feeding Poppy's new fishies for the first time. We all know how fun THAT is! :)

(he built their patio too by the way... talent.) Taking a little stroll around the pond with Poppy.
And of course you gotta sit and put your feet in the river.
She liked finding pretty pebbles in the river-part.
Awwww.... love it.
Gazing at the pretty waterfall... can you tell where this is going??

And there it is!
Soggy diaper and dirty hiney!
Picking...
... and smelling the mint planted near the waterfall... yummy!!!
Whew!!! That is all!! It was such a fun week... thanks to the whole fam!!! Reagan has gone through the pics with me several times today while making the post, reliving and retelling me all about how much fun we had!

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Have to say... we had loads of fun, but it was JAMpacked with weddings, showers, parties, two families... so we certainly didn't get to see everyone we would have liked to! Even about a week wasn't enough time! So please know that we missed seeing EVERYone and wished we could have!