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!!
 

Slow Life Down

Do you ever long for a more peaceful slower life?  Over the last few months I've felt like I've been at this point of wanting a simpler life.  I feel like as a family we are slowing life down some.

We are back to homeschooling all the kids and it's going really wonderful.  We have our challenging moments but I wouldn't change it for anything in the world.  Homeschooling is not the right choice for everyone, but for our family it has been great.  When the kids were in school, I felt like our days were so rushed.  Rush them out the door in the morning, only to see them for a couple of minutes when they get home and it's straight to homework, dinner, showers and bedtime.  And then do it all over again the next day.  I feel like life was just passing us by.  I love having them all home with me all day, teaching them and spending time with each of them.  It warms my heart to see one of the older boys do reading with their younger brothers.  I feel like they are going to have a closer bond with each other by spending more time with one another.  We aren't home all day, everyday, we do get out of the house too.  The younger kids are enjoying doing Awana this year and the 2 older boys are in youth group.  We are also part of a homeschool group through our church.  We just went on a field trip to Ritchey Woods last Friday with our homeschool group.  

I'm 25 weeks pregnant.  The pregnancy is going really well and has been going by really fast.  I feel like my monthly doctor appointments are just days apart instead of a month apart.  Baby Reagan is doing great!  Can't wait to meet her in a few short months!

Chris and I have been so blessed by God.  He has blessed us with six wonderful children, soon to be seven!  He promises to give us everything we need and He has.  We have a house to live in, clothes for all of us and food on the table.  We get to spend our days together as a family.  I couldn't ask for more!