LOOKS WHO'S SMILING

I only managed to catch a half smile.

But this is one happy girl and is not stingy with the smiles.

And she is definitely a mama's girl. Fine by me!

SISTA SISTA

WARNING - NAKED BABY PICTURES AHEAD. I SWEAR I DRESS FINLEY AT LEAST 200 TIMES A DAY BUT SHE INSISTS ON NAKEDNESS 95% OF THE TIME. I'M LUCKY IF I CAN KEEP A DIAPER ONE HER.

So I am starting to adjust to life with two children. And not just two children. But two girls! Can you believe it? Me, the one who said she was going to have five boys. Which I guess is still possible - but someone rescue my soul if I have seven children. YIKES. Anyway. I always knew deep down that I was going to have at least a few girls. So I'm not really surprised to be in the land of pink and princesses. Just know, I throw in my fair share of gender neutral and even outright "boy" things as well. Who cares anyway? I'm completely convinced children come with a heaping dose of opinions that you have absolutely no control over. And since Finley is two going on seventeen I can already see the rough road I have ahead for myself. At least she's giving me a heads up for the teenage years. Right now her favorite thing to do is cover her ears when she knows she's about to get in trouble. She's already shutting me out! She's actually doing a preemptive strike against her impending punishment. Which totally goes to show she knows exactly when she's doing something wrong. Rascal!

Our pediatrician warned us that it would be a good 6-8 weeks for the "old Finley" to come back after Reagan was born. Meaning that would be the normal adjustment time for a two year old. We were worried it would be double or triple that with everything that we've thrown at her the last few months. But actually I think within the last week she has finally calmed down and gotten used to her new life. Which is right on cue. The first three weeks after Reagan was born were the absolute worst - I really thought she had turned into a monster overnight. Sorry! It's true. There were multiple crazy meltdowns everyday. She stopped sleeping at night. She stopped taking daytime naps. She was above and beyond her normal unruliness. Now she's just her plain old normal unruly. Now that she has adjusted I can see that there is a potential for a great sisterhood between these two. Which is my big hope. They are only two years apart. And they'll be sharing a lot for the next sixteen years and beyond. Let's just hope she won't be teaching Reagan any of her tricks. I can already tell that Finley really wants to play with her and wants to love on her as much as I do. Which can prove disastrous. But mostly it's a good thing.

Today she spent a good thirty minutes playing peek-a-boo (or as she says,"Bo-Bo") with her and when I stopped her when she graduated to actually putting a blanket over Reagan's head she gave me a totally dirty look like I had ruined their special play time. 

She tries to hand her things all the time hoping Reagan will accept her offers. The other day Finley handed Reagan a sticker and then she got so excited when it stuck to her hand and it appeared she had finally taken something from her. She smiled really big and said, "You're welcome!"

 

In the car when Reagan gets upset we've taught Finley to say, "Oh, Reagan!" And we are working on, "Don't be sad." Right now she'll just frown and say, "Sad."

 She LOVES giving her kisses and has started demanding to give her a good night kiss before bed.

And she can't actually say her name so she calls her "Reagah." 

Often Finley demands to "Hold her!" over and over again. And she likes to have Reagan lay on her belly, which is what I do with her for tummy time. 

I'm hoping these are just the first of some fun exchanged between these two. And just so everyone knows I'm not naive. I'm complete aware that sometimes it will be like WWIII between these two, but my hope is that at least ultimately they will be two scheming confidants together.

FINLEY AT TWO

* Every night when we go into her room at bedtime she yells, "Stars!" Which means she wants us to turn on her turtle nightlight. As if we would forget.
* This is embarrassing to admit but right now she is sleeping on her crib mattress on the floor. We actually have a queen size bed for her but we don't have the safety railings yet so we haven't moved her into that room. We also figured it wouldn't hurt to wait a few extra weeks since she has had her world rocked these last few months.
* She loves ice cream, pizza, avocados, cheese, fruit snacks, eggs, and stealing my Diet Coke. Such a thief!

* She likes to dress up like a "Pree-cess" and she currently spends most of her days in just a tu-tu. Also, any woman dressed nicely in her book is a princess. I hope she keeps that definition for a while.
* She still loves Elmo, Curious George, and Woody - but since her world has expanded to princesses she also loves Tangled and Enchanted.

* She has the most animated face of any two year old I've ever known. We get comments all the time that she is quite expressive, especially when she does her very dramatic surprise face and sad face.

* "Sheepy" are goldfish crackers or any fish for that matter. Probably one of my most favorite words she gets wrong. I'm ashamed to admit I've started calling them sheepy too, she'll probably still be calling them sheepy when she's in highschool. Oops.
* She has started trying to getting into my makeup. Her favorite is putting on chapstick and blush.
* She likes to help me cook - and the other day learned the true meaning of a hot pan. I turned my head to put a dish in the sink and she reached over from her stool and put her hand flat on the bottom of a pan I was heating up. Luckily, she didn't get hurt since the pan wasn't fully heated up yet. But both of us learned a lesson that day. Now her cooking stool is placed a few inches further away and any time we're near the stove she says "HOT!"

* Bubbles are far and away her favorite thing. Her favorite song is "Bubbles" by Monkey Monkey Music.
* Her other favorite songs are: Twinkle Twinkle, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Call Me Maybe, and The Big Bang Theory's theme song.

* In our new house she has her own playroom upstairs and has slowly started playing on her own. It's weird to let he be in there totally on her own and know that she's okay. It usually only lasts for 20 minutes max, but that's a good 20 minutes that I can feed Reagan and not have Finley simultaneously climbing on my head.

REAGAN - ONE MONTH

Reagan is technically over 5 weeks old now, but I'm almost done with catch up! So far she is a great baby and we couldn't imagine our family without her.

* She has started smiling. It's mostly on accident - but just today she smiled right at me after she was done eating.
* She is still super mellow - and sometimes just hangs out on her own looking at the world around her. Not something Finley ever did.
* She is full of constant burps when she eats.Which unfortunately makes her a not-so-great eater. Half the time it feels like I'm teaching her to eat for the first time.

* She takes abuse from Finley fairly well, but honestly Finley is actually very sweet with her. The problem usually occurs when she blocks her breathing while attempting to hug her.
* She LOVES bath time. Usually she just chills in the water and watches herself in the mirror.
* She HATES her car seat. As in screams bloody murder the entire time. The only thing that calms her down is high speeds with Mumford and Sons cranked up. No joke.

* She is a big grunter. At night she doesn't usually cry when she's hungry - she'll wake me up by grunting to tell me she wants to eat.
*She is a fantastic sleeper. I don't want to jinx it but it has been so nice to still get decent sleep at night. We are talking 5-6 hours uninterrupted every night! I know, I'm very spoiled.

* She is still at the very sleepy stage, but is just starting to be awake more during the day. Which means she likes to be held a whole lot more than before. I'm okay as long as I have either my Moby wrap or Baby Bjorn carrier available. Both are huge lifesavers right now!
* As for who she prefers holding her - it seems to be the mama. Finally! A child that prefers me! Crossing my fingers it stays that way.
* Her eyes are still a dark blue/grey.
* She is already loosing her hair on top. Receding hairline o-rama!

* She is just starting to outgrow her newborn clothes! Sad! I begrudgingly started washing the tub of 0-3 month clothes yesterday. Time is already going by way too fast. Some of the items I pulled out feel like that were worn by Finley just a few months ago - but I have remind myself it was almost two years ago. HOLY MOLY.

WATER TABLE

These days Finley spends a lot of her day in a swim suit and with this heat I don't blame her. For her birthday she got a water table, which is a huge obsession now. She also loves spraying the hose and got Reagan and I thoroughly soaked yesterday. She thought it was hilarious, me not so much. We only have one car right now which Brad takes to the hospital every day and he leaves at 4:15am so it's not so practical for me to get up and take him to work. So I am home bound all day everyday! Yeah! Anyway, this water table has been a lifesaver for those long days. It's nice to have a change of pace every once and a while from the house. Even if it is just 2 steps out the back door.

(A big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for the awesome birthday gift!)

Now there's just the matter of getting me back in to shape so I can join Finley in the swim suit fun - I'm all for wearing a swim suit all day. Nothing says "SUMMER" to me more that that. 

MAGIC BLANKET

Reagan's red and grey blanket has become known as the "Magic Blanket." It's probably all in my mind but it seems like she sleeps her very best in this blanket. The two nights of her life that she didn't have it to sleep with were her worst nights. Even though she has about 500 blankets we pretty much use this one the most unless it's being washed. Here is pictorial proof of it's amazingness.

 Finley wishes she had a Magic Blanket. I wish she had one too. Then maybe she'd sleep past 5:30am - her new favorite time to wake up. Ugh.

This is Reagan's "I can sense the blanket, yet I know not why I am not wrapped in it" face.

This is her threatening "this towel isn't cutting it" face.

See, the magic also works on Grandpas.

And it also works to enhance tummy time (although she started her usual screaming protest approximately 2 seconds after this picture was taken).

THE BIRTH

This is an epic novel.... you may scan. There will not be a quiz.

Reagan's birth was a piece of cake. Throughout the process we kept saying, "This is like a day at the spa." So if easy birth stories annoy you turn away now. Run away! I warned you! And just so everyone knows I'm allowed to gloat about an easy birth experience because I had such a hard one the first time around. Anyway. So here's the story.

I went in to the hospital at midnight. Well, midnight fifteen because we were a little late. That just goes to show how relaxed about the whole experience we were right from the start. Normally Brad is crazy about timeliness, but we were playing games with some friends and lost track of time. So we got to the hospital and did all the paperwork nonsense. Then they started my IV - seriously my least favorite part - and pitocin about 1:30 am. They encourage me to get some sleep while my pain level was low and I obliged. I kind of slept off and on for a few hours until they informed me at six am that my doctor would be in soon to break my water. She was called in to some emergency surgeries so she didn't actually get to me until almost 10am. At that point she said that even though I was still only at a two and half that I was contracting regularly enough and I could get the epidural at any point. I wasn't in too much pain yet and I wasn't anxious to start the bed rest so I decided to stick it out until the real pain started. Which was exactly... 30 minutes later. Yeah I'm a wuss. Pitocin contractions are no joke my friend. So a few minutes later I got my epidural. It was more painful this time which was not helped by the fact that Brad requested a verbal play by play from the anesthesiologist. He'll have an anesthesiology rotation in residency so he was super interested in all the details which made the process slower because the doctor was eager to show him how awesome he was at epidurals. Anyway. Then came the sweet release of modern medicine. From there Brad and I were left alone in the room for a few hours. We slept, listened to music, and thought this was the most restful childless afternoon we'd had in months. Similar to last time I progressed pretty slow, but the difference this time is that I didn't have to feel the contractions. It was pure bliss. The nurse checked me just before Brad's parents stopped by the hospital on their way to pick up Finley and I was only at a three and half. That was at about 1:45. When Brad walked them to their car just after 2:00 I suddenly started to feel the urge to push. When he got back to the room I told him he better get a nurse to check me again. In less than 20 minutes I had gone from a three and a half to a NINE. Hallelujah! Time to push.

(This is me right before pushing. At this point with Finley I looked like a crazed cave person.)

The nurse tried to set up the room as quickly as possible without freaking me out, but I could tell she was a little stressed to get everything ready for my doctor to come in as soon as possible. While she set up I started to feel pretty strong contractions on my left side. Are you kidding me? I did not want to come all this way just to go au naturale on one side! They rushed the anesthesiologist in and he administered another dose - luckily he was readily available. Some time before 2:30 I started to push. It was just me, Brad, a nurse, and my doctor. And the only way to describe the atmosphere was fun. In between pushing we were laughing and I actually felt present and enjoyed the experience. With Finley I was on pain killers and so exhausted from enduring super painful contractions for 12 hours that I barely remembered half of what happened. This time Brad asked our doctor, "How many woman who labor without an epidural laugh in between contractions?" and she quickly replied, "None." Ha. Mad props to those who go without, but for me having an epidural made this experience so calm and enjoyable. So after a few rounds of pushing our little Reagan Hope Carn made her debut at 3:04pm. 

Right away she was different from Finley. She didn't really cry, but made this quacking noise like a duck. Her head was definitely smaller and rounder than Finley's. And she stuck her lower lip out like a champ. Also, even today her eyes are so far a darker blue than Finley's. Officially she was 20 inches long which is the same as Finley, but weighed 2 ounces more at 7 lbs. 8 oz.

I expected her to come out looking like Finley 2.0 so it was a little shocking to have a baby that had her own look and personality. It was a wonderful surprise to fall in love with an unexpected new little person. So far she is pretty mellow. 

From the first night home she has slept really well and has been a decent eater. She takes abuse from her big sister in stride and prefers to be patted on the bum when falling asleep. 

She doesn't seem to love a pacifier but I'm going to keep pushing it, because I'll have to do church on my own twice a month and I'll need some sort of calming device when all three of us start to cry on the back row. What's the equivalent of an adult pacifier? Diet Coke? I don't think I'll be able to sneak that in.

The day after Reagan was born Brad graduated from Dental School. I was obviously still in the hospital but Brad's parents went with Finley and I watched it live online from my room. Reagan slept through the entire thing. Afterwards they came to the hospital so we could get some pictures together in his robes.

 

Here is Grandma introducing Reagan to technology. She was less than 24 hours old and had already been subjected to: cell phones, Ipad, Flip Cam, Iphone... she was born into crazy times.

My good friend Kathy came by the hospital to see Reagan. She also came to the hospital when Finley was born and it's sad to think that we won't live near her as the girls get older.

And here she is in the outfit that me, my sisters, and Finley all went home from the hospital in.

I want to send a huge thanks to Dan for spending the night at our house and watching over Finley. We want to thank Selena for having Finley over later that morning so she could have some fun before her world was turned upside down. We want to shout from the rooftops our huge thanks to Brad's parents for helping use pack up and move our lives to Alabama. They worked themselves to the bone and we took way to much advantage of them. We also want to thank my mom for taking two weeks of her vacation to come to Alabama and complete the huge task of putting down shelf liner in my kitchen and bathrooms. Also, for being friends with Finley while I slept in and took afternoon naps. I was very spoiled. And finally, we want to thank all the well wishes, concerns, and inquiries of help. Even if we turned you down your offers meant so much to us. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

These are pictures from the first 3 days of Reagan's life.... and now she's 3 and half weeks old. I have a lot of catching up to do!