Comings and Goings

Life is so busy, crazy, fun, and jam packed right now. In an effort to remember all the things that are going on with my small little family, I thought I'd hurry and write it down.

Brooks is doing so well. Life has been so much nicer since he graduated. His free time no longer consists of late hours at the library doing homework or studying for tests -- Wahoo!! He is still working at TELOS (a residential treatment center for teenage boys who deal with various problems), but he is hoping to move on to a full-time job. We have been looking and applying almost every day, so if anybody has any leads for him, we would greatly appreciate it!

Fatherhood has come very naturally to Brooks. He is a wonderful dad to Reagan, and loves her more than life itself. I love how he interacts with her. My favorite thing in the world is when I'm back in the bedroom folding laundry or cleaning up, and I can hear high pitched "ah boo, boo, boo, boo" 's, or "I love my baby" 's from the living room. Reagan lights up when she sees him, and loves to dance with him in the kitchen. I have no doubts that she will be a daddy's girl. In fact, I don't really think she has a choice.

Right now, I'm taking 3 classes at BYU, as well as working as the Head Teaching Assistant for the Introduction to Film class (which has about 270 students). It is stressful to say the least, but I am doing my best to stay calm and collected (instead of turning into a batty, stressed-out freakazoid). I love that I am able to teach again, but I would love it more if I didn't have to grade papers or answer 100 emails a day. Oh well, so goes life. I am also in the process of editing 35 videos for the TRUEAfrica organization. It's a NPO that helps orphans in Africa get an education. The deadline for this project is fast approaching, so I am trying to keep my head above water, and get these videos done. The biggest challenge I face is finding time to study and do homework, while also putting the needs of Reagan and Brooks first. Oh, and let's not even mention the fact that my apartment is never fully clean, the dishes are rarely done, and the laundry baskets are always full. I'm not sure I will ever learn how to manage it all, but I am doing my best. I have to pick my battles, and no matter what, I will always choose 'peek-a-boo' with Reagan over pretty much everything else.

Without a doubt, I have never felt more blessed than I do right now. I feel the Lord's hand in every part of my life. I had an experience about a month ago that I can't seem to get out of my mind. It was the night before the new semester started, and I was having a little emotional breakdown. I didn't know how I was going to handle school, homework, and taking care of a newborn -- all on less than 6 disjointed hours of sleep per night. I prayed for help, and miraculously, help came. Reagan slept for 8 hours straight. The extra sleep worked wonders on me that first day of school. The next night, she did it again, except this time it was 9 hours. Ever since that very first day of school, Reagan has slept through the night, from about 11pm to 8am. Being able to sleep has made all the 'impossibilities' seem possible again, and for that I am very grateful. I am not expecting it to last (partly because everyone has told me to not get my hopes up) but I am grateful for this great blessing, no matter how long it lasts.

Speaking of Reagan, our little lady is doing amazing. Brooks and I tell each other several times a day that we got lucky with such a special, content, and happy baby. There is no way I could adequately express or capture what it's like to watch my baby grow. She changes daily, and I love witnessing her development. She has grown out of all her newborn and 0-3 month clothes, and is rockin' the 3-6 month outfits. Her whole face lights up when she smiles, and she is the funniest little talker. She will "coo", "ohhhh", "ahhh", and "goo" all the day long. Last night as we were driving home from my parents house, we could hear Reagan back in her car seat just talking, talking, talking. It was so cute! Oh man, I just love her! The biggest things she loves right now are milk (duh) and the floor. This girl would be content with just chilling on the ground (or in her bouncer) for hours if we let her. She is happy with anything. She loves music, loves when people talk to her, and loves the bath. She only cries if she is reeeeeally hungry. She has brought such a sweet and special spirit into our home. We feel so blessed to have her, poopy diapers and all!

Brooks and I are getting better at finding time/making time for each other. We love to get Redbox's, and cuddle up and watch them after Reagan goes to sleep. Real dates are difficult because it's hard to leave Reagan to do something fun (I feel a lot of guilt even for the short hours I leave to go to class). However, last week we went on our first date since Reagan was born, and it was wonderful. I think it's important to find time to reconnect and just have fun together. We went to Cafe Rio and then to War Horse. It was a great evening -- I love that guy so much, and he makes me so happy. As fun as it was to get away with just the two of us, we were so happy to get back to my parents and see the sweet smiles of our little girl.


I know that this time in life goes by fast, so I'm trying to cherish every bit of it.

P.S.

Did I mention that we have a thumb sucker? 

Reagan's Blessing

Reagan was blessed on November 26th. We took advantage of Brooks' family being in town because of Thanksgiving. 

Everyone gathered in Grandma and Grandpa Burr's living room, and a small lunch was served afterward (thanks to both of our awesome moms). 

...the entire experience turned out beautifully.

Reagan was dressed in my own blessing dress used 22 years ago (almost to the exact day)

After our Bishop welcomed everyone, a prayer was said, and a hymn was sung (which actually turned out to be pretty funny. The hymn was "Love at Home"...but no one knew all the verses, so there was a lot of humming going on). Then, all the men gathered around my sweet baby, and Brooks gave her a beautiful blessing. My grandma Beth held my hand the entire time.

By way of the Spirit, Brooks told Reagan that she was a very special little girl.
That her family loved her.
That she will grow up and have joy in the Gospel.
And that, most importantly, her Heavenly Father sent her to us because He knew that she would not only bless our lives, but the lives of so many people throughout her life.

Many more sacred sentiments were said, and Reagan stayed perfectly still the entire time. It was a precious experience that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

My Girl

Reagan is 8 weeks old today. 

Time has flown. I feel like November 10th was yesterday..not two months ago.

My baby girl has already grown two inches since then, and has gained 3.5lbs. I took this picture of her (below) on Sunday in the Mothers Room at church. I was changing her diaper, and I started to weep because I was so overcome with how beautiful she was. I stared at her for a few minutes as she looked out the window, with her eyes full of curiosity and wonder. I felt like Emilee was there with me, smiling down at Reagan, and basking in the beauty of life. While others in the building were learning about Christ in their Sunday School lessons, I was learning about Him while changing a diaper. 

 Many people have dreams of seeing the world and experiencing everything that the earth has to offer...but after having Reagan, I have realized that my biggest dream is to be a mom, and watch my family grow. That might seem boring or unadventurous to most, but I don't care. Nothing is more fulfilling than sacrificing your time, body, and energy for someone else. It is hard, and I mean really, really hard, but it is incredible.  

The Graduate!

My sweet husband is done with his undergraduate career. FINALLY. It's been a long road for him, but he made it to the end! I am so proud of him, and all that he has accomplished. He is such a great example to me, and I love him more every day. He is such a good husband, and he is the most wonderful father to Reagan. He adores his girls, and we adore him!

To celebrate his graduated-ness (and the fact that he no longer needs to comply with BYU's grooming standard) Brooks grew a big ol' beard over Christmas break. He shaved it yesterday, but this is what it looked like.

I love my handsome, graduated, grizzly man!

Christmastime

 

Happy Christmas, Harry!

I watched Harry Potter 7 part 2 twice this Christmas (thanks, awesome husband!) and I like how the British say Happy Christmas -- it's fun. Anyways, wow, I can't believe that Christmas has come and gone -- and now we've entered the new year!! I've been a little MIA, but there has been a very good reason for the absence (Reagan, duh).  Well, it's time for an update!

 Life in the Burr home has been as crazy as ever. Once finals week ended (THANK GOODNESS) we were able to finally take a breather and celebrate the Christmas festivities with our families. Here's what we did during our Pre-Christmas week. On Monday (the 19th) we went to the Festival of Lights (just me, Brooks, and Reagan) and had a grand 'ol time. We kept telling Reagan to look at the lights, but she slept the whole time, naturally. Unless she's hungry, the moment Reagan is put into the car, she falls asleep...seriously. Our car is a sleep machine for this little babe. Anyways, it was really nice to just have a little family date. We loved it, and it was a good kick-off to the rest of the week's celebrations.

On Wednesday (the 21st) Brooks' sister Bethany and her boyfriend, Aaron, flew in for Christmas. It was so fun to be with them. If we weren't with my family or at a party, you could find us at the Burr's house playing Balderdash. We probably did about 40 rounds collectively. That game is a riot if you have fun people to play with.

 Playing games --- yep. That's a hooter hider that I basically never took off the whole break. There is a reason my baby is 12 lbs. She's a porker.

Grandpa Burr with his favorite granddaughter

On Friday (the 23rd) we did 'Christmas Jobs' to earn money. This is a tradition that Brooks' parents started when their kids were young. They all do specific chores throughout the house which earns them money to buy Christmas presents for their siblings. It's such a great idea that we can't wait to do with our kids. After the jobs, we packed up Reagan for her 'Coming Out Parties'. Basically we had yet to take her anywhere because she was too little and susceptible to germs (still is, but I'll be worried about that til she's 50) so we dubbed Friday her 'Coming Out' day, where our extended families were finally going to meet her. It was so fun! We first stopped at Brooks' Grandma Hazel's Christmas Family Home Evening. It was so adorably decorated! Grandma Hazel put so much time and effort into the party, and the food was delicious. We stayed for an hour, then headed out to the farm for the Sainsbury Christmas party. OH BOY. It gets bigger every year. I have 12 aunts and uncles, and 48 cousins - 25 of which are married (which brings the cousin+spouses count to 73), and 20 of them have kids..which means a LOT of kids. It is a mad house, but it is a mad house full of love, laughter, and Christmas cheer. I know that this party will have to come to an end someday (because of the fact that nobody's house will be able to continue holding the 100+ that can make it to the party) but I hope that day won't come for a long, long time.

Reagan did great at both parties, and Brooks and I agreed that her Coming Out day was a complete success.

On Christmas Eve, we woke up, did a little shopping for Reagan, and then went to Brooks' parent's house for Christmas Brunch with his family and his uncle's family. It was so fun! I haven't met a lot of Papa Burr's side of the family, so it was great to finally meet some of Brooks cousins. After brunch, we played a little Buzz Word and Balderdash, then headed up to my parent's house for Christmas Eve festivities. Since our parents both live so close to one another, we decided to switch off who we spend Christmas Eve/Morning with every year, so this was the Sainsbury year. We had a great time! We ate a delicious meal, then played games and opened our pajamas from the elves. There was a pretty funny moment when I opened my 'elves' pajamas...I asked Brooks for big pants; ya know, the loungy kind that are big and comfy. Well he really took that request to heart. He got me some Old Navy pants that were HUGE! When I held up the pants in front of everyone, it got a big laugh -- and my mom came right out and said, "Woooooow, those are humongous!". I have a big behind, always have, but these pants could fit four of my behinds in them. Even though they're massive, I love them because they are mighty comfortable!!All the neices and nephews were hilarious in their little costumes that my mom has made (she has worked tirelessly for several months on all of these! Amazing momma!).


This is my two-year-old niece, Chloe, doing the "Hey You Guyys" from Goonies

This is hilarious. They are rough and tumble boys, through and through

Cute Kiddos!

When everyone left, Brooks and Mckay played video games and I took a luxurious bath while my mom watched Reagan. It was the best Christmas present she could have given me. After the bath, we all watched It's a Wonderful Life, a Christmas Eve tradition. Everyone went to bed around 1:00am, and I stayed up with Reagan til 2, then she slept until 8 (a good six hours!). We all enjoyed a lovely Christmas morning with McKay and my parents. Mom made waffles, and everyone let me blast my old High School choir Christmas CD. It was awesome. After breakfast and presents, we got ready and went to church where my mom, sister, and I sang in Sacrament meeting. Thankfully we didn't mess up too bad. Afterwards we went to Brooks' family's sacrament meeting, then went to his house for more present opening fun. Later on, Brooks' mom put together an AMAZING Christmas feast. Seriously, she put so much effort into that wonderful meal -- I am still thinking about the rolls and the Honeybaked Ham..yumm. After dinner, we played games deep into the night.

 Precious Reagan in her Christmas Dress

 Love this shirt that Bethany and Aaron gave Brooks. Ow, ow, hubba hubba.

It was such a fun Christmas. I felt the Spirit witness to me over and over about the truthfulness of the Gospel. I am so grateful for my Savior. He has been there for me through every good and bad moment of my life, and especially during the last 7 weeks since Reagan was born. Both Brooks and I feel so blessed and grateful --  not only for the gifts we received from our families this season, but also for the ultimate sacrifice Christ made so that we could be together for eternity. When I look down at my sweet baby girl while she sleeps, I am so grateful that she is sealed to us, and that she will be our daughter in this life, and the next.

 Reagan  (7 weeks)

How we came to a name

Look at my precious babe!! Reagan will be one-month old tomorrow, so in honor of her first milestone, I'm going to tell you about how we found her name...

The journey to finding Reagan's name was ... well, a lot harder than I EVER thought naming a child would be. I have always been the type that doodles names (see here for an embarrassing story about my doodling habits..and don't worry, I ended up marrying the guy, so it's all good). Before I got married, I would constantly doodle my name with different last names, but after Brooks and I got hitched, I naturally moved on to doodling baby names. There were about 10 names which I thought "I would name a kid this in a second!" and Brooks agreed with most of them....

and then we got pregnant.

All the names that we had previously 'loved' were now thrown in the trash. It wasn't just a hypothetical idea anymore -- we needed to name an actual human being!! Someone who was going to grow up, go to school, write her name on papers, have job interviews, have a boy say "(blank) will you marry me?", etc. etc. 

Basically, she needed to have an awesome name. 

We fiddled around with a TON of names for weeks, and weeks, and weeks. Our conversations would go something like this:

Me: Katelyn?

Brooks: No, that is totally 1985, how about Madalyn?

Me: No.

Brooks: Why?

Me: Because everyone will call her Mady, and if she's fat, they'll call her fatty Mady.

Brooks: Oh, true

There was always some weird reason for not liking a certain name -- and if it didn't meet our main 5 criteria, then it was out!

~ NAME CRITERIA ~

1. Name cannot rhyme with something that will cause child to be made fun of. 

2. No nickname-names

(this means that we didn't want the name to have an easily accessible nickname that, over time, would become the name. Like me, for example. My name is Jenalee, but no one has ever called me by my real name because ever since I was two months old, I had already been coined 'Jena'. I had a hard time with it growing up because people always said or spelled it wrong since it didn't have to 'n's. My mom always says she would have spelled it differently if she would have known that I would never go by Jenalee. It's not a bad thing to have a nickname-name, especially if the parents plan it, but I just didn't want it for our baby. To each their own!)

3. Name has to be somewhat modern, but not too weird

4. Name cannot end in 'er' because of our last name. However, exceptions may apply

5. No names of ex-girlfriends or ex-boyfriends or anyone who was related to said ex's in any way.

You can see why finding a name became difficult. To say we were picky would be an understatement. However, after much deliberation, we did decide on a few names over the course of my pregnancy. When I was around 28 weeks, we decided on the name Kenley. It was in the bag. Done, finito! When we started telling people the name, we got some mixed responses. Some liked it, and some didn't, but most people would say it wrong like this:

"Oh Kinley?"

"no, Kenley -- with an 'en' sound, not an 'in' sound"

It got to the point where at least 90% of the people we told would say it wrong. It was a trial run that failed, so we added a sixth criteria.

6. When child says their name, people should be able to understand it enough to repeat it back correctly.

So with that, Kenley was out.

By this time, I was about 33 weeks along. We needed a dang name. One day while driving, Brooks mentioned that he liked the name Scarlett. I had LOVED that name earlier in the pregnancy, but he hadn't been a fan. Once I saw his change of heart, I jumped on it! Scarlett was the name, wahoo! We were pretty stoked about it for a few weeks, but then things started to feel a bit iffy. My little brother just HAD to mention to us one night that it rhymed with Harlot. 

Great. Our child, the prostitute.

Scarlett wasn't going to fly, so we were back at square one again. It wasn't until I was 37 weeks that fortune finally smiled upon us. Brooks decided, as a last resort, to go through every name in the online baby name database. For about three hours, he said name, after name, after name. Finally, around #1800, he said "Reagan". He was about to move on to the next name when I stopped him.

"wait honey...I think I like that one"

Technically we had talked about the name Reagan about three or four months earlier, but it didn't stand out to me then like it did right at that moment. It was like lightning. I knew that Reagan was the name. Brooks liked it a lot too, but with my ever-changing mind, he didn't want to jump too fast on the name wagon for fear that I would make us jump off (for the third time). For the next few days, he would ask me if I still liked it, and I always answered yes. We didn't want to tell anyone (or blog about it) because we wanted to just fall in love with it before anyone gave us their opinions. Good opinions are great, but negative ones totally put a bad taste in your mouth when you're trying to decide on a name.

 Finally, just 2 weeks shy of my due date, we for-reals, officially decided on Reagan Beth Burr. We played with the spelling a bit at first because it worried me that people would think that her name was pronounced "Re-gun" (...which is ugly and unfeminine) instead of "Rae-gun", but we agreed that doing a 'common spelling' rather than a 'phonetic spelling' would be better, so R-e-a-g-a-n was the winner! Her middle name, Beth, serves three special purposes. Firstly, it's after my grandma Beth, who we look up to so much. Second, it's after Bethany, Brooks' sister, who we love dearly. Thirdly, it's a small homage to my sweet Emilee Beth, who I know is Reagan's guardian angel. 

So that's how we came to the name. We love it, and her so much!!

Reagan: Birth Story

I feel like so much has happened over the last four weeks. I have so much on my mind, so I will just start from the beginning...well, the beginning of Reagan's life, that is. I don't want to get too detailed -- but for some of you soon-to-be mothers out there, I feel like there are some interesting things that you should know about, so enjoy some slight tmi-ness. Just roll wid'it.

November 10th

Happy due date. I woke up feeling extra worse than usual. I could definitely tell that Reagan had dropped even lower than the previous days. I slowly got ready for my 40 week appointment (because my goodness, I was quite the massive lady) and had my mom pick me up to take me over to Payson. When I got in the car, she asked where my hospital bag was. I told her that I had experienced too many false alarms, and that I KNEW I wouldn't need it.

Ha. Silly old me.

I got checked at my appointment, and waBAM, the Dr. said that the baby had most definitely dropped. Since we had previously had our 'pro-induction' conversation weeks prior, my Dr. then said,

"I normally would schedule inductions a week out, but this baby wants to meet you. Would today work for you? Or do you want to wait?"

I was a little shocked because I had become accustomed to the idea of staying pregnant forever (joke). I nearly said, "YEAHHHH let's do it!!" ...but instead I did the smart thing and said, "I need to talk to my husband." After a talk with my sweet Brooks, we decided that going in that afternoon was the right thing to do. He got off work, packed the stuff at the apartment, and came to meet us at my sister Haylee's house. Meanwhile, I told Haylee that I really wanted either a Glade's or Barry's cheeseburger before I went into labor -- so after we took some '40 weeks pregnant' pictures, we hopped in the car and went to get the food! Ahhhhhh. Best decision of the day. It was delish. I would advise everyone to get something awesomely yummy before they are induced.

After checking in and getting all hooked up, we were having a mighty good time. I was calm and collected, Brooks painted my toes, Harry Potter was on TV, and we just spent some nice quality time before our parents came to see how things were moving along. I knew that these were probably the last moments of life as just the two of us, and I just cherished them. I was replaying our wedding day over and over in my mind, as well as the wonderful 15 months since that day. The spirit confirmed, for what seemed like the millionth time, that I had married such a good, righteous man. Even though a part of me was going to miss the easy lifestyle of doing what we wanted, when we wanted, I knew that we were entering a new phase of life that would be better than anything we had ever experienced.

-this is where things got interesting-

Around 4 o'clock, the Dr. came to break my water. Oh my lanta. That was, in the words of Glozell, kind of cray cray. The fluid is really warm, so it basically feels like you are just peeing all over the place. You have no control either, because there is a lot of fluid holding that baby inside of you, so it just keeps coming and coming. All the nurses were laughing at me because I kept saying,

"Oh my, Oh my! I'm peeing, I swear I'm peeing! I'm sorry!"

They kept assuring me that A) I wasn't peeing, and B) even if I was peeing, it would be no big deal.

After my water was broken, the contractions started coming on a lot more intensely. They felt like super concentrated MEGA-cramps. I asked for an epidural at this point, because the pain was starting to make me extremely nauseous (FYI: I barf when I am in pain. Here is my Barf Resume: Kidney stones? Barf. Cysts on my ovaries? Barf. Twist my ACL? Barf. Cut open my leg and have 50 stitches? Barf.)

You get the picture.

While we were waiting for the anaesthesiologist to come, I made my BIGGEST mistake of the day. I asked to be helped to go to the bathroom so that I could pee. My nurse even warned me, "If you can hold it, we'll get your epidural in, then put your catheter in right after so you won't have to worry about it. Your contractions might be really painful to walk through right now."

But did I listen? No. I was just too dang obsessed with not wanting to pee all over the place! Pee was on the mind, and I insisted on going to the bathroom. When I got up, more amniotic fluid poured all over the place and I started having a MAJOR contraction. Oh heavens. It was bad. While I was in the bathroom, the anaesthesiologist came in. He said he would come back a little later, but I yelled (only because I was behind the bathroom door, not because I am a crazy yeller-laborer person) for him to stay. Getting from the bathroom, back to the bed, then sitting still while the epidural was administered (which fyi - doesn't hurt a titch in my opinion) was probably the worst 10 minutes of my whole birthing experience. The contractions were so intense that I could barely breathe. I just tried to focus as hard as I could while Brooks held my hands and stared right into my eyes saying, "you can do it, you can do it". Once it was over and I could lay down, the pain was still severe. For the next half hour, I tried to really be in control while the epidural set in. Sadly, it didn't 'take' on my left side, so even after an hour and a half, I could still feel everything. It hurt, but with time, my legs were finally numb -- Hallelujah!

For the next couple of hours, everything was pretty peachy. The wonderful Harry Potter marathon was still playing on ABC Family, which took my mind off the pain. Bless you, Harry, bless you. Family came in and out, and we basically just waited for me to get dilated to a 10.

Around 9pm, I was dilated to a 9, and the nurses started to prep the room for delivery. Things started to get a bit surreal at this point. I couldn't believe that I was going to actually have my baby! A couple minutes later, I was at a 10, and I started what my Dr. calls the "Rest and Descend". Basically the theory says that once you are dilated to a 10, your body starts to push the baby out on its own -- not all the way out, mind you, but enough so that it helps to ease the pushing process. For an hour, you just wait while the baby descends. This way, when you start to actually push, you won't have to do it for as long because the baby and your body have already done the foundational work.

While I was waiting during the Rest and Descend process, I started to feel really sick. I don't really know what brought it on, but I just know that all I wanted to do was throw up. Brooks and Haylee fanned me and put cold wash cloths on my neck and head to cool my body down. Their efforts were/are soo appreciated. After awhile, my nurse said that I needed to be on oxygen because I wasn't getting enough air. I looked like a dweebasaurus with that dumb oxygen mask on, but boy did it help. Seconds after I put it on, I immediately started feeling better.

Before I knew it, I was ready to push. After getting schooled on how to properly push out a baby, I was in 'challenge mode'. I knew what I needed to do, and I was ready to do it. Although I could hardly feel any pain, I still had some feeling all throughout my legs and torso, so I could definitely feel which muscles to use in order to push. I could feel the pressure of Reagan inside of me as well. Without a doubt, this part of labor was my favorite.
I was in the zone.
Even though it was soo unbelievably exhausting, it was such an amazing experience. You have a great team of people around you, cheering your efforts, and you get to see and feel your baby slowly come into the world.

At 10:54, it happened.

After exactly 25 minutes of pushing, I felt her head, her shoulders, her body, and her legs all slip out. People were cheering and crying. My dad and Brooks' parents were outside of the door, hooting and clapping. I could hear exclamations of "Definitely a girl!", "She's so chubby!" and "She's so perfect!"

..my sweet Reagan was here.

I was elated. There were no tears, just amazement.

The Dr. immediately put my beautiful baby girl on my chest and Brooks and I wiped her off with a towel. When she let out that first cry, I thought I'd faint. It was the most precious cry I've ever heard. After a few minutes, the sweet nurses took her to get all the goop off of her and to weigh her (I'm sure they did more than that, but I'm not a nurse so I don't know the specifics).

She was 8 lbs. 6 oz., 21 1/2 inches long. Yes, she was born an hour before the big, bad 11/11/11 -- but I really didn't care a stitch about that. 11/10/11 sounds awesome to me, and it is a good story that we'll tell her when she's older -- she was too excited to wait any longer! She wanted to meet us as fast as she could!

After an hour of hugs, kisses, breastfeeding, and getting to know my beautiful little angel, the nursery people took her to get a proper bath. She still had a lot of body juice on her (aka, blood and guts. Nast.). After an hour, they brought her back, and I got to cuddle with her for a couple hours. It was absolute bliss.

Stay tuned for the post-labor experience, Reagan's baby blessing, and other good shtuff.

..better than my dreams..

Dear Reagan,

Happy 1-Week Birthday baby girl! It has been a crazy week, but you have been so patient with your dad and I. Getting a hang of this whole 'parenting a newborn' thing is tough stuff, but you are acclimating so well to life on the outside, and we are cherishing every moment with you in our home. 

Every time I look at you, I can't help but thank my Heavenly Father for sending you into my life. You are such an angel. I have been dreaming of being a mom since I was little, and you are better than anything I could have imagined.

My heart is yours.

Love, Mom

(Can you believe her adorable chubs? I can't get over how perfect she is)

Our new mem'burr'

Introducing..

Reagan Beth Burr

Born on 11.10.11 at 10:54pm

8 lbs 6oz

 21.5 inches long

We are so happy that little Reagan is here. She is already the light of our lives and we are loving every moment with her...even the sleepless ones. I'm sure the birth story will come once I can tear my eyes away from my sweet girl...so basically, it might take at least 18 years.

P.s. I'm a mom. what?

Vow, Vhat a Veekend

Vhat a Veekend!

(said in a Dracula voice, naturally. Halloween is tomorrow after all)

But really, it has been a crazy weekend. Let's start with Thursday. I had my 38 week appointment, and since I didn't get 'checked' last week, I had to get checked this week. My mom came with me and the appointment went well. The baby was doing great, and I was 75% effaced and dilated to a 3. The Dr. was impressed with the progress, so he stripped my membranes. 

Whoa. That experience has been dubbed the 'Least Favorite' of pregnancy thus far.

After that, things started moving. I felt contractions about every half hour, but was feeling pretty good in general. After the appointment we came back to the apartment and put up curtains for the baby's room. Since our crib isn't made to have/need a dust ruffle, I gave my mom the bedding dust ruffle and random curtain swatch and asked her if she could make some curtains out of it. Wow, she is a master! She made the most darling curtains, and the room definitely looks more girly and soft. I am so grateful for all of her help.

On Friday, I lost my mucous plug (and no, I'm not going into detail on that) and the contractions started coming every fifteen minutes. I wasn't feeling awesome, but I wasn't feeling too terrible either. That night we went up to my family's house and carved pumpkins while we watched the game. It was a blast, and we had a great time.

On Saturday, I woke up to intense contractions; about every 7 minutes. They were more painful, but I survived through them because I knew that I had to make it to two baby showers that day. The first was at Brooks' cousins house. Wow, she did an awesome job! The food was incredible, the conversation was great, and the games were so fun (my mother-in-law had some CUTE game ideas for little girls if you need ideas). I was still having contractions, but I felt pretty good.

After that shower, my sister and I headed straight up to my mom's house for my other family/ward shower. They weren't originally going to be on the same day, but because of the funeral last week, it had to be postponed. Again -- another great shower! Brooks and I feel so blessed and lucky with all the items/gifts we received during the day. It was absolutely amazing to see how much our family and friends love and support us. During the shower, my contractions got really intense, and everyone was joking/worrying that I wasn't going to make til the end of the day. I kept saying that I was fine, but inside I was starting to wonder if we should really go get checked just in case. Once the shower was over though, I started feeling a little better. Brooks and I came home and unloaded all of the stuff we received. 

(This was in the midst of unpacking the goods. I can't believe how much baby is inside of me, HA)

The clothes were washed, the hospital bag was packed, and by midnight we felt a little more prepared in case the baby wanted to come a little early. Brooks even offered to paint my toes since I can't really reach them. 

He is such a stud muffin.

 I was still having semi-consistent contractions, but I was SO tired. We decided to get a good nights rest and see what I felt like in the morning. 

Today I woke up feeling pretty good. My contractions were still coming though, and I was experiencing some intense pressure down under, so we decided to just go and get checked to make sure the baby was okay. The nurses were so nice, and it was fun to hear the baby's heartbeat for an hour while I was monitored. There has been no change since my appointment on Thursday, so we were sent home with a better idea of what to expect, and a lot of good information about what our delivery will (hopefully) be like. 

I am happy that everything is good with m'lil babe, and I am also grateful that she gets to bake a little longer. We aren't your average 'drink castor oil and walk 10 miles to induce your labor' couple. We just want her to come when she's ready -- whenever that may be. We're not antsy; just calm and happy. Everything is becoming more real, and we are so excited to welcome our little one. Only 10 more days til her due date! I can't believe that it's finally (almost) here. 

This was taken last Thursday at 38 weeks.

Jena out.