Little Sammy updates

Most recent belly shot, 28 weeks pregnant. Yes, I'm huge!

As I said previously, life has been quite crazy for us. We have had a couple scares with Little Sammy. First, at the end of October, first of November, we received the news that my test results for the triple screening came back abnormal. For those who don't know, the triple screen tests for the POSSIBILITY of certain birth defects such as spina bifida and downs syndrome. I wasn't informed at the time which test was abnormal, they just referred me to St. George perinatology for further testing. Once there, we found out the test for Downs' Syndrome was the abnormal one. Because of my age, they look for a 1% variance in the results. I was in the 2% margin and that required an extensive ultrasound. The good news is that he is perfectly normal. No sign of Downs at all. It was a scary week, that's for sure. We saw a good shot of his face which didn't happen in the other ultrasound as it seems my boy doesn't like to be poked and he hides alot. The Perinatologist poked and prodded extra hard though and finally we saw his beautiful face. He looked so much like his brother, it will be fun to see him in person and see the resemblance.
The second scare started a few weeks ago. I started to experience some contractions. I was only 26 weeks when they started. They were not painful, however, they were coming about 8 an hour which is way too many. I went to the hospital and was checked out and luckily, my cervix was not being effected. I was prescribed medication and sent home. The medication made me extremely sick. I experienced what I think was as close to a migraine as I've ever come and could hardly get out of bed. I spent 2 days in bed and the medication and bed rest did nothing to slow down the contractions. I went back to the doctor and was checked again. Again, the contractions were not affecting my cervix but the worry was strong that it might. The worry was also there that if these continued, I wouldn't know when or if the real thing was happening and miss some important signs. So, another medicine was prescribed and lucky for all of us, this one seems to have worked. While I feel shaky and weak with this one, the contractions have slowed WAY down. Its nice to get somewhat back to normal, although I am paying more attention to my limits. I try and rest more often and some of the harder chores around the house have been passed on to my husband. Lucky for me, he is willing and able to help and doesn't complain. Its hard for me to feel so useless but he just kisses me and reminds me that I'm not useless, I'm carrying and nurturing our son and that has to be my priority. What an amazing man I'm married to!
I don't have the Christmas pictures up yet so that post will come in a few days but watch for it. We had a fun one this year. I'll also be putting up pictures from Kayla's birthday. Can you believe my big girl is already 5?
Till next time!

Halloween and Thanksgiving

Well, its been quite a while since I last posted. Life has been quite crazy for us. I'll start with Halloween and don't worry, I'll be brief. Kayla was Dorothy and such a cute Dorothy too. She carried a toy dog in a carrier along with her, as her "Toto". Ricky was Handy Manny and he didn't care so much for the costume as he did the candy. He was in awe that he got so much candy. I dressed as a Redneck but unfortunately, not many people realized I was dressed up and I got some pretty funny looks. Rick and his friend, Colton did a "Haunted Driveway" and decorated our carport and dressed up scary to scare the kids. Sad part was that we didn't get alot of trick or treaters but he had fun scaring the ones who did come. Nana Katie came up for the night and she dressed as a biker chic. Not a big stretch for her, most of the costume came from her personal wardrobe! Hot Nana!

Thanksgiving was lovely. Its Rick's favorite holiday and he does all the cooking. He looks forward to it all year. This year, we had our neighbors over for dinner and it was so nice spending time with them. We were also lucky to have Gramma Kiki with us for the holiday even though she was recovering from carpal tunnel surgery. We continued our family tradition and put our Christmas tree up that morning so the house was festive for dinner. We ate and lounged and watched movies and had a wonderful day.

Beautiful Boy

So its official! We had our ultrasound yesterday. The baby was so active and moved around alot. Kayla and Ricky came with us and while Ricky was just concerned about me, Kayla was thrilled to see the baby! She talked about it for days beforehand and couldn't handle waiting the entire day yesterday.

ITS A BOY!!!!!!!

We were completely divided in our family on the sex of the baby. Kayla and I thought girl but Ricky and Daddy both said boy. The boys won out! He is a very proud boy too! I don't have pictures to put on here right now because our scanner is still in the garage in a box. I'll work on that though.

As I said, he is a very active baby. Kayla was a stretcher and I constantly felt like she was trying to push out my belly button. I even told the doctor that and she ended up coming via C-section. Teach them not to listen to me! :) Ricky was my kickboxer. He kicked and punched me all the time. Sometimes still does! :) This baby is my tumbler! The first week that I felt him move, I told Rick that I felt as though my uterus had grown its own axis and was rotating. He did this during the ultrasound as well, constantly rolling and turning away. Except when it came time to see the boy parts. These he displayed proudly! :)

We have decided on the name Samuel Moroni Chavez. Samuel because we had decided on Samantha for a girl and we liked the idea of Sammy so much we decided to keep it for a boy as well. Plus, when my brother, Bryce, was 5 or 6, he decided to change his name and wrote "Sam" on all his school papers for a few weeks. So its to honor him as well. Moroni comes from two sources. The first being Rick's baby brother who died in infancy. His name was Moroni and we chose to honor him by selecting this name. The second is a historical spiritual figure from our church. More than one "hero" possesses the name Moroni. They were great men who brought about great things in the name of Jesus Christ and what an honor for our son to carry this name.

The really fun part of yesterday was that it was also Rick's birthday. He turned 3lshfoehrf...... ;)
It was such a fun thing to give him for his birthday, a look at his newest boy. Sammy didn't disappoint his Daddy, he even gave him a Mexican hello! For those not familiar with this, the comedian George Lopez coined this phrase in his stand up act. Its what Mexicans do when they see each other. They don't wave or say hello out loud. They merely look at each other and throw their heads back in a quick salute. It was so cute to see our boy do this a couple times. He was showing his roots!

Kayla was extremely disappointed when she found out it was a boy but she is coming around now that we have told her she will be the only Princess.

We love you, Sammy! Can't wait to hold and kiss you!