HIP HIP HOORAYYYY!!!

Happy Happy Joy Joy! Do a little dance!!! On this, Reagan's 8 week birthday, she slept through the night!!! 10 pm to 5:15 am! WOO HOOO! I'm trying to remember the exact combination of events that got us here.... bottle of breastmilk at 7 pm, formula at 8:30, swaddled in a blanket, lying in a boppy to prevent reflux, new moon, Jupiter aligned with Mars, humidity at 90%, room temperature 70.5 degrees Farenheit.... so we can reproduce this phenomena. I am so happy and well-rested. This was SUPPOSED to be the day my maternity leave ended and I return to work, but my boss was very kind to me when I panicked and I have an additional 5 days. I love my job, but I wonder how I'm going to handle life back at work. Baby sleeping through the night will definitely help with my ability to cope, that I know. What a good, sweet baby Reagan is. We couldn't have asked for better when we placed our order... Thank You Lord!!!

Milestone

Notable milestone this week - Reagan has started smiling! It's not entirely consistent, but it's appearing more and more and is SOOOO CUTE. Like she didn't have us wrapped around her little finger before. We're hopeless now!

Like Father Like Son

If you've read the boys' blog, you saw that every time Quinn holds Reagan, he wants it memorialized on film. Less than one hour after the last photo shoot with her brother, I hear "Wifey! Get the camera!" Not a four year old this time, but the BIG boy. Reagan is like having a celebrity in the house - everyone wants their picture taken with her! Shoot - if I wasn't always the one behind the camera, and didn't have baby-weight to lose, I'd want MY picture taken with her, too :). Pretty cute. There's just something about Daddy's with their little girls....

A Date With Mommy and Daddy

With her brothers safely tucked away at grandma and grandpa's house, Reagan journeyed to the "big city" two hours away with Mom and Dad yesterday. This was the first time the three of us were alone, save a quick trip to Walmart while Quinn and Colby were in Sunday school last week. It was such a calm, quiet time! Reagan was so alert - I've never seen her awake that long. She snacked continually on a bottle, but was wide awake, looking around, taking in her new environment, and smiling at strangers (she has yet to smile at ME!). For close to three hours. It's amazing how she comes out of her shell when there aren't two rambunctious little boys trying to "pet" her constantly. The evening was the same, as soon as we got home and her brothers were in bed. Wide awake, kicking, looking around, flailing arms. 7:00. 8:00. 9:00. 10:00. OK, little girl. It's been fun, but aren't you getting sleepy? 11:00. 11:30..... snacking the entire time on a bottle, and definitely NOT wanting to go to bed. In NO UNCERTAIN TERMS. It took all my creativity, but I finally got her to sleep - swaddled in a blanket, lying in a boppy, being fed the bottle while IN her crib (so as not to wake her when she fell asleep eating). I was anticipating a good night's sleep, after so much wakefulness, and I wasn't disappointed. She slept almost 6 hours. Not record time, but certainly better than it's been. It may take some doing, but I am determined to that both of us are going to sleep through the night sometime in the not too distant future. Maternity leave is almost over!

One Month Well-baby check up.

Another milestone - Reagan broke 7 pounds! She's now six weeks, one day old, and weighs 7 pounds, 7 ounces. Additional stats: 20 inches long, head circumference 15 inches. We have continued, sustained growth!! This puts her in the 5th percentile for both height and weight, but at least she's on the chart and following the growth curve. You go girl!

Blessing

In the midst of hustle and bustle that is the Christmas season with a young family, I sometimes forget to just sit and enjoy my little girl. She is still such a mystery to me. I don't know her every little expression and mannerism like I do the boys. I can't anticipate how she will react (although lately, it seems like her primary reaction to ANYTHING is sleep!). I look at her, and she still seems somewhat a stranger to me. I can't believe she's here, and that she's going to be "sticking around" as part of the family, and not just a visitor. I still sometimes stumble over her name - "Reagan" doesn't come so readily to my lips as "the baby". I wonder what she'll look like when she grows up (and WAKES up... she looks so different with her eyes open as opposed to eyes closed!). I wonder what her little personality will be like. I wonder what the future holds for her, and how she will fit into our family. The boys already love her intensely. They're so incredibly proud of their little sister. It makes me smile. Here's to getting to know you, my daughter Reagan. We're so blessed to have you in our lives. I hope we take the time to realize that!

No schedule whatsoever

The boys, when babies, were trained to be on a rigorous schedule by the nurses on the NICU. By the time they came home a month later, they ate every four hours on the dot, and at night took 15 minutes to eat and went right back to sleep. By two to three months of age, they were sleeping through the night. Reagan did not have the "advantage" of such a boot camp. There's no such thing as a schedule, especially at night. So last night, feedings were at 8:00 pm, 9:30 pm, 3:15 TO 5:15 am, then again at 7:00 am and now 8:15 am. (Just a note - the husband was up at 6 am, and boys by 6:45, which means mom was essentially up since 3:15 without going back to sleep). Reagan did get one stretch of sleep in there, for which I am grateful, but if only I could feed her and she would go BACK to sleep, I'd be even MORE grateful. If I try to nurse, she gets tired out after half and hour and falls asleep, and then is hungry again an hour later. If I DON'T nurse, it means an extra visit to my good friend the breast pump. Either way a time consuming process. I'm fine with time-consuming during the day, but at night, I'm rather protective of my sleep (HA). I think I need a better plan. Gary Ezzo and Babywise - here I come. Time to schedulize, for my sanity's sake. Now that I think about it, the only real schedule I see appearing is that she consistently wants to eat during the three busiest times of day - when I'm trying to get the boys out the door for school, when they come BACK from school, and when I'm trying to fix dinner.

For the record...

For the record... the trend was a fluke. Little girl slept not at all last night.

Sleep...

8 hours Thursday night, 6 hours Friday night, 6 hours Saturday night.... There may be a trend forming here, and I LIKE it!!!!

OH Happy Night

Joy of joys!
Perhaps to make up for the sleepless night the other night, my daughter today slept from 8:30 pm to 4:15 am. Do the math... that's ALMOST 8 hours!!! Which means MOM slept ALMOST 8 hours!!! Well, not quite, since I went to bed at 9:30, but still.... substantial, sequential hours of sleep. Yeah!!!!! Will this be a trend? I can only hope.

Late Night Gal

Reagan may be showing a stubborn streak that the rest of us don't have (yeah right!). She has been using these teeny-tiny two ounce bottles for feeding since birth. Her appetite has increased such that I was having to fill them up twice per "episode", so I decided to switch bottles. First tried the Playtex brand with the more "natural shaped" nipple, but NOTHING DOING. Decided then to keep the same standard nipples, just put them on a full-sized bottle. HOW would she know the difference? She ate almost nothing yesterday, taking 2-3 HOURS per feeding, and then last night (this morning), was up from 1:30-5:30 am. She'd cry like she was starving, I'd give her the bottle, she'd fall asleep. I'd take the bottle out, she'd start screaming again. For the first time in her life, that scream had some volume! We'd try "going straight to the source" and nursing, she'd also fall asleep. UGH. Doesn't help mommy's mood at all that, after Reagan JUST fell asleep (albeit with me holding her) the boys come tromping into the room a little after 6 am. AND WOKE HER UP. ARGH! Anyways. During the mad rush to get the boys ready for school, Reagan begins crying like she's starving AGAIN. I get out the teensy tiny bottle (same nipple), put her in her bouncy seat, prop the bottle against a pillow, and.... viola. Guzzles it down in 30 seconds. We're on our second teensy tiny bottle now. HOW does she know? And WHEN can mom fall back to sleep???????