Reagan Kate :)

Our precious little baby girl has made her arrival!  We have two little girls.  Reilly Belle is a big sister.  Reilly and Reagan will be sisters the rest of their lives.  This is what I love about being surprised about our babies, all of these fun realizations that we keep thinking of.  The matching outfits!  The manicure/pedicure trips!  Oh, how Daddy's girls will spoil him with love.  Our little Reagan Kate has been such a blessing, even in her first days. 

Forgive me, but I will be jumping around with this update, because I have so much to say!  So much has occurred in the past five days, it's hard to believe that one week ago, baby wasn't even here yet. 

Reilly's favorite sentence is "See Baby Reagan?".  She just loves looking at her, and kissing her, and watching everything she does.  She calls her umbilical cord on her belly button a "raisin".  She loves pointing out different parts of her - "Oh, feet!" and "Oh, eyes!".  Her cheerful screaming and playing doesn't even make Reagan flinch.  She definitely remembers her sounds from my womb.  I remember every morning I would have the monitor next to my bed, lying in bed awake.  Then I would hear Reilly start calling my name and jabbering, and seconds later, Reagan would start kicking and jumping around in my belly.  She knows her sister's voice.  There have been some adjustments, as Reilly was a little more quick to be weepy on our first day home.  But already, she seems like she has always had a sister.  She is an amazing little helper already, and she isn't resentful at all.  I am breastfeeding Reagan constantly, and she didn't even mention it at first!  Then, yesterday morning, she said "Baby Reagan doin'?"  while we were feeding.  So Hubby said, "Baby Reagan is eating."  To which Reilly responded, "Yeah.  Eating Mommy's boobies."  This has become her sentence now when she sees me breastfeeding.  It's pretty hilarious.  We have, of course, been giving her extra love and attention so she doesn't feel like it's all about the baby.  Thank God, it's going very smoothly!  Reilly is so proud to be a big sister, and we couldn't be prouder of how well she is falling into her new role in the family.


And as for Baby Reagan?  Well, this little angel...I can't even begin to describe her.  She is so unbelievably content.  She will lay silently, not even sleeping, and just watch what is going on around her.  She is sleeping at night for 3 hour stretches!  3 HOUR STRETCHES.  I said to my mom last night, I feel like I'm getting more sleep than I did when I was pregnant.  She wakes up in the middle of the night, eats, gets changed, and goes right back to sleep in her little swaddle.  She is so calm, and so peaceful.  She has yet to cry without being hungry or wet.  Reilly was an amazing baby as well, but Reagan is just different.  She is so quiet and serene.  I am constantly checking her to make sure she is okay, because she sleeps so soundly already, without making a peep.

Breastfeeding!  We had a little hiccup in the beginning, which I will write about when I talk about her birth story and our hospital stay.  But because of her gestational age, being 36 weeks and considered premature, she was taking a little time in her first 24 hours to latch and stay on.  Her glucose levels were low right after birth, as well as her temperature.  I was pumping in the hospital, and feeding her through syringe on top of breastfeeding as much as I could.  The lactation consultants said I was basically breastfeeding twins for the first day and half in the hospital.  We did LOTS of skin to skin, so that she would not be wasting calories trying to keep herself warm and she would retain all of the calories she was taking in.  And by the time we left the hospital, she was breastfeeding like she was 6 months old!!  She latches immediately, and stays right on.  She's not even very hard to wake up, which was the hardest part with Reilly in the beginning.  She would keep passing out mid-feed, which Reagan does on occasion.  But I am astounded at how well she breastfeeds for being so young.  I think it definitely has to do with the fact that last time, we were both learning together.  This time, I have lots of experience, and only Reagan had to learn.  I am much more confident and relaxed, and it all came back so easily.  I am so happy that she is breastfeeding so well, that I could literally cry.

We had her first weight check appointment at the pediatrician, and she is gaining already!! She was born at 7 lbs. 5 ounces (I know, hard to believe that she was so early and weighed an entire POUND more than Reilly!), then was 6 lbs. 12 ounces when we left the hospital.  Yesterday, she was back up to 7 lbs. 1.5 oz!  I'm so happy she is gaining so beautifully already.  I am so thankful that she was so healthy for being early.  Our doctor said she evaluated like a full term baby, you would never know she was premature.  It's hard for me to even use that word, because she seems so healthy, I forget she was so early!  Until I made her appointment for her next doctor visit, which is 2 weeks from now, and still a full week before my due date!  So crazy.

Daddy is smitten with his girls.  He was always meant to be the Daddy of girls, it's hard to describe how.  But it's like he is filling a role that was always meant for him.  He loves the infant stage, he has just been holding her and testing out different nicknames for her.  And telling her not to get bigger. :)  That is, when he is not running crazily around the house with our Reilly face.

Okay, I have to go wake Reagan so we can breastfeed.  It's 7:35.  She's been sleeping since 4:00 in the morning.  This is crazy for a breastfed baby!  Crazy crazy. 

I could not be happier, or feel more of an overwhelming sense of gratitude to God for the family he has blessed us with.