We're Excited!

We've got so much family coming into town this weekend. Reagan was so excited, she wanted to get all dressed up for the occasion! She is so excited to meet her grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins!

Yes, Reagan? Do you have a question?

Observations of a Proud New Mommy

I spend a lot of one-on-one time with Reagan. Over 8 hours a day just nursing. And there are a few things I have noticed since she was born:

*She has such a strong neck! She could lift her head up immediately after birth, so I haven't really had to worry about her head flopping around. However, she hates tummy time, even though she can kind of scoot herself forward and turn halfway over.

*She LOVES her little mittens that she wears all the time to keep her from scratching herself. In fact, often she prefers to nurse on them rather than me.

*She makes the cutest faces ever when she nurses. She looks like a ferocious tiger going in for the kill, and then she acts surprised every time when milk comes out.

*She gets the hiccups multiple times a day.

*She can't keep her mouth closed and is always drooling milk, but she has never spit up.

*She has Lance's nose and my eyes apparently. (I think she just looks like a baby. A cute baby.)

*She falls asleep on my shoulder after nursing/burping and nuzzles my neck and I think it might be my favorite thing in the whole world.

*She is an awesome sleeper!!!! After the first two nights at home, which were terrible, we figured out a rhythm and now she sleeps in 3 hour intervals with feedings in between. Which is great news for us because it means we get at least 6-8 hours of sleep at night.

*Even though sleeps great, she is a very inefficient nurser. Each feeding takes at least an hour, and the second half is a constant battle to keep her awake and interested until I am sure she's really full.

*She went to the doctor today just to get weighed, etc., and she passed with flying colors! At only 6 days old, she is already back up to her birth weight! I was so proud! Even though I've been keeping track of her nursings and dirty diapers and they were right on target, I was still worried that she wasn't eating enough. But no worries. She is an ideal baby and practically perfect in every way!

What a little angel.

Bringing Baby Home

We were so excited to bring Reagan home from the hospital and start our life together as a family. Don't judge me for how I look...
When it was time to go, we dressed her in a cute outfit that Lance's mom gave us.

Complete with her little bunny ear hat!

After several tries and about 10 minutes, we finally got her buckled in the car seat. She was so patient with us and hardly fussed at all. After she got settled in she fell asleep and stayed asleep the whole way home (which included a 30 minute stop at Walgreens).
It's so strange having her here in our house. It would be way harder if my mom wasn't here. She's been awesome! I've been slowly recovering. Last night was pretty rough. Reagan does really good with feedings and napping during the day but she's up almost all night. Lance and I took turns holding her, although I had to feed her every time :). It's crazy how suddenly our whole life revolves around her and it's so hard to get anything else done. But I think she is just the cutest thing ever. Even at 3 am I just look at her and think how precious she is and how happy- and tired- I am. I love my baby!

Reagan's Birth

Our baby has finally arrived! Reagan Lane Brunson was born at 2:32 pm on Tuesday, June 21st. She weighed in at 7 lbs 4 oz and was 20 inches long. We could not be more happy with her- she is such a perfect little angel. And totally healthy!

I want to remember everything about her birth experience, so I'm going to share it on here, even though it will probably be too detailed for most people.

First of all, I was soo disappointed that she wasn't born on Fathers Day, especially since I had been having very frequent contractions all weekend (luckily they weren't painful). But I got over it and was able to run some errands on Monday with my mom. Monday night my contractions started getting more intense, and around 1 am they became very painful and were about 8-10 minutes apart. Lance and I realized that we weren't going to be getting any sleep that night, so we watched Arrested Development until around 3:30, when we decided the contractions were close enough to go to hospital. We checked to the hospital around 4 am, and I was in a lot of pain at this point. Unfortunately, the hospital has a policy of waiting an hour to admit first time mothers to make sure they are really in labor. So even though they checked me and I was dilated to a 5, I wasn't actually admitted to the hospital until after 5:30 and the epidural didn't take effect until almost 7. By that point, I though I was going to die. I usually don't handle pain very well, and the contractions were so frequent. I can't imagine going through this experience without the drugs. I have a lot of respect for women who can, but it's definitely not for me. However, once the epidural kicked in and everything below my hips started to go numb, I felt great.
In fact, Lance and I both both dozed off and on all morning, with the nurses coming in periodically to check me. By 10:30 I was only dilated to a 6+, so they decided to give me some pitocin to speed things up. Half and hour later, I was dilated to a 9! By noon I was completely dilated, but the doctor decided to have me wait an hour and a half to start pushing. Apparently this is a technique known as 'rest and descend', and I was a big fan. Basically, the contractions did the same thing in terms of moving the baby down that pushing would have. At 1:30, the doctor had me start pushing. (On a side note, apparently my doctor was out of town this week. I was a little irritated that he hadn't mentioned that he would be gone the week I was due, and I had to find out at the hospital that someone I never met would be delivering my baby. But the other doctor was great). By the time I started pushing, the baby was far enough down that they could already see her head! I had no idea that pushing would be so exhausting. It wasn't really painful, because I couldn't feel anything but pressure, but it was so tiring because you have to tense pretty much every muscle in your body. I can't imagine having to push for any longer than I did, and I'm sooo glad I got the epidural so that I wasn't completely dead from the pain at this point. I pushed for an hour- and then out popped daughter! She was a posterior baby, so even though her head was down like it should be, her face was the wrong direction. The doctor was really impressed that I was able to push her out that quickly! It was the strangest sensation when she was born, and when they held her up and showed her to me I couldn't stop crying. She was so little! And she had the biggest cone head ever! Seriously. Luckily that went way down in a couple hours.
Apparently she had pooped sometime while I was pushing, so they had to call some extra nurses in quick to clean her off before she swallowed any. But she had great color and volume and the nurses rated her a 9! I tore just a little bit during the delivery, so the doctor had to stitch me up. I just couldn't believe my little baby was here, and I got to hold her on my chest for a little while and cuddle her and even try to nurse a little bit.
I was so sad when they took her (and Lance) away for a bit to do some tests. After they cleaned me up and moved me from Labor and Delivery to Mother/Baby, they brought her back. I don't remember too much about the rest of that day except that I was so happy to be with my baby, and that I was in a lot of pain. I had no idea that such a little baby could pretty much destroy your whole body. I literally felt like I had been hit by a truck, and my whole body was sore and achy. I could barely move, and going to the bathroom was quite a (frequent) chore. Thank goodness for pain medication! The 48 hours in the hospital after the birth are were kind of blur. We tried to sleep as much as we could, but baby had to be fed a lot, and nurses were coming in all the time to check on us. My mom came to visit a lot, and Reagan loves her Grandma!
On the morning of the second day, we realized that Reagan was not feeding well at all, and in fact she hadn't eaten anything for like 9 hours. She had a hard time nursing at first because she sucked on her tongue, and then she kind of gave up because it was too hard. Her blood sugar dropped really low, and the nurses were going to put a feeding tube in her. We were really worried, but we said a prayer and, after an hour and a half of trying, she started nursing in earnest! We were so relieved and grateful.
She has been nursing pretty good since then, with the biggest challenge being keeping her awake long enough for her t0 get full. It was nice to be in the hospital for a couple days with so much support staff, and the hospital food was so good! But by Thursday afternoon, I was definitely ready to be home with my baby. Oh also, Lance was basically the best daddy ever in the hospital. He changed every single diaper (and even got pooped and peed on once!) and held he whenever she was being fussy so I could sleep. I'm so grateful I have such a good baby daddy!

Still waiting...

No baby yet. However, we did go to the rodeo last night.
Since it was Strawberry Days in Pleasant Grove, we had 3 cups of strawberries and cream. Delicious.
In other news, at my doctors appointment today, the doctor said the baby was in the perfect position and I was looking great! I believe he actually used the term "model patient". Hooray! And my mother is coming tonight! Double hooray!!

Full Term: At the Zoo-- Did a Hippo Escape?

As of yesterday I am officially full-term: 37 weeks! That means Baby should be welcome to show up any day now! I would love if she did not make me wait until the 25th. Anytime after the 17th would be great. I hope you're paying attention, Daughter.

We celebrated the day by going to the zoo with Lance's sister and their family.
It felt really good to be out in the sun. I even got sunburned, and I'm happy about it! We had a great time even though my hands and feet swelled up like marshmallows in a microwave. Also, maybe wearing gray wasn't the best decision. I spent the day keeping my fingers crossed that no one would mistake for an escaped elephant or hippopotamus.

Twins

Maternity Photos

I am lucky to have a talented photographer in the family. Genevieve took these beautiful pictures for us a month ago at a random place we drove past in Springville. They turned out so good! These are just a few of my favorites.













Although at this point, Baby has been kicking my ribs all day and I'm so ready to be done being pregnant.