Changes

Life sure has changed in the last year.  Between closing the daycare, homeschooling again and adding another family member, life is different.  I have always been a very scheduled person.  Between having a daycare for the last 6 years and having a large family, I've had to.  Breakfast was always at 7-8, lunch at 11:30, naptime at 1, snack at 3-4 and dinner at 5:30-6.  It was always like this for years.  But I've been a work in progress of letting go of being so scheduled since I've closed the daycare and homeschooling.  We no longer have to be scheduled like this.  There's no more extra children coming to my house, no more buses to catch in the morning or early bedtimes.  It's nice making our own schedule everyday.  We were starting school about 9am before Reagan was born.  But, she has really thrown everything off.  Definitely in a good way though.  It has really relaxed me on being so particular of when we do things.  Tonight, I looked up at the clock and it was 8pm and we were just making dinner.  Last night, we didn't go to bed until 11 because we stayed up watching a movie.  That was okay though, because we can wake up whenever we want.  Although, Reagan had a different idea of when to wake up for me and her this morning.  We still get all our meals in, all our school done and have tons of fun together.  I feel like we have more time in the day somehow when not scheduling everything.  I feel like the house is a disaster most of the time, but I'm really becoming okay with this.  You wouldn't think it would be so hard to relax about things, but man it has always been for me.  But, I'm constantly trying to work on that!  Here's a few photos from the last couple of months!!

Here is Chris fired up to go to a HSE basketball game! 

Love how I find them all in Kyndal's room just playing so nicely together! 

 My little Reagan!

Mason and Kyndal having fun enjoying dipping their fries and chicken sandwiches in their fry sauce! 

Such a happy baby!  Feel so blessed with her! 

They love to play with games and puzzles while the older kids are doing school! 

Chris and Reagan enjoying a nice nap together!  So sweet! 

Ready to go play in the snow together!  Love how they wanted to hold hands for the picture! 

Can't go to the dentist without enjoying some video games! 

Jacob loves his baby sister!  He's so great with little ones! 

Chris and the boys dressed to go snowboarding!  Great father-son time for them! 

   The last picture of all the kids together before Reagan was born!

Reagan's Birth

What a busy couple of weeks its been!  I finally have time to write about Reagan's birth.  I was almost 38 weeks, when I started having contractions more often.  I woke up Friday morning, having contractions for a couple of hours, but they eventually fizzled out my mid morning.  Saturday night, I woke up with contractions around 1am and they were about 5 minutes apart but not really strong.  They eventually stopped after about 2-3 hours.  We woke up that morning and went to church, but I ended up coming home after Sunday School from being so overly exhausted.  Sunday evening, we went to the zoo for Christmas at the zoo.  I was hoping the walking was going to help me go into real labor.  Well. again at 1am I woke up again with contractions.  This time they were much stronger.  Within a half hour of waking up I knew I was in real labor.  I woke up Chris and we started getting ready to go to the hospital.  Of course we had to call our friends to come over and stay with our kids.  Great friends that are willing to come over in the middle of the night, thanks Leanne and Jeremy!  We got to the hospital about 2:30am.  I was dilated to 4cm and having contractions every 2-5 minutes.  They admitted me and gave me my epidural!!  Yay!  But that always slows down my labor, so they just let me rest til my doctor arrived about 9am.  He started Pitocin and the contractions started back up some.  Around 10:30am, he broke my water and upped my Pitocin.  Of course I couldn't sleep at all, but Chris sure did!  About 2:20pm, I knew it was about time to have our little Reagan!  They started to prepare the room for her arrival, and she was out in 3 contractions!  She was born Monday, December 22 @ 2:40pm.  She was 7lb 2.5oz and was 20 in.  

It was love at first sight!  She was beautiful.  I loved cuddling with her.  Chris and I enjoyed spending time with her the next few hours.  Then Chris had to go home to be with our other kids.  Because the flu is so bad this year, the hospital had a no visitor policy.  So, none of our kids could visit us in the hospital.  Which meant Chris couldn't come up to the hospital very often.  Luckily he did get to come up some, since 2 awesome teenage girls came to take care of our young ones so he could visit and do a little work, and finish Christmas shopping!  The Still's were amazing to our family while I was in the hospital.  Besides their daughters babysitting, their family made meals for our kids the whole time I was in the hospital!  They were such a blessing to our family.  I had some great bonding time with Reagan in the hospital since it was pretty much just me and her the whole time.  We came home from the hospital on Christmas Eve.  The kids were all very excited to meet their baby sister!

Preparing for Reagan!

It's hard to believe I'm already 31 weeks pregnant!  That has Reagan weighing a little over 3lbs.  This pregnancy has flown by so quickly.  I'm sure it's because I've been very busy with homeschooling the kids, which is going amazing by the way.  You know what they say, "time flies when you're having fun!"  I've been feeling pretty great through my whole pregnancy.  I am to the point now where I'm starting to get tired more through the day.  I'm sure it has to do with having insomnia in the middle of the night.  Some nights I'm up for more than an hour at 2am and sometimes I make it till 5am and then just lay there staring at the clock for an hour or so.  I'm sure that's only going to get worse with the more uncomfortable I become.  I finally feel like I am almost prepared for Reagan to be here.  I have her crib and bassinet put together.  All her clothes have been washed and are put away.  Just a few more things to still get and I will be ready for her.  All the kids are getting really excited for her!  She will be in our room for a few months and then transition into sharing a room with Kyndal.  Kyndal is so excited about her little sister sharing a room with her!  

As I'm planning for Reagan to be here in a few weeks, I've realized I need to get busy making some freezer meals.  I've done this for my other births too.  I've been looking through my recipes and on Pinterest for some wonderful meals to make and freeze.  Some of the meals that I've thought of so far are Chicken & Dumplings, Chili, Enchiladas, Quesadilla Casserole, Wild Rice & Chicken, Pulled Pork, Terriyaki Chicken & Rice, Penne with Chicken, and Biscuits & Gravy.  Let me know if you think of any other ideas of fabulous recipes that do well in the freezer??

I'm wondering if Reagan will follow her siblings and be early.  All of the other kids have been born 1 week to 10 days early, either from going into labor naturally or being induced.  She is due January 4, so I'm waiting to see if she will be born in 2014 or 2015!  My original due date was December 28, which I have been measuring for that date my whole pregnancy, except during the dating u/s, but they don't change it back unless there is more than a 2 week difference.  My guess is that she will be born in December, which is exciting because that is next month!!