Welcome Raegan!

Well, where to start... We have been waiting (some of us not so patiently) for baby Raegan to arrive.  She was due on the 24th of February, but felt like she wanted to stay a little longer.  She finally arrived on March 3rd, which also happens to be her Big Sister Sevrine's birthday. Sevrine was really excited to get a sister for her birthday, but we will see how she feels about sharing her birthday later down the road.  Jeff and I already have thoughts in place to make sure that each girl feels special and individual on the shared day.

Raegan was born at 7:30 am on March 3, was 7 pounds, 6 ounces and 20 inches long.  She was really good and alert the whole first day, but yesterday and today she would rather sleep than do anything else.  We have to wake her up to eat most times, but she does let us know when she wants something.

Jeff is loving being a new Daddy. In the hospital, the doctors weren't quite done with me yet after they had Raegan all cleaned and bundled up and I knew that Jeff was anxious to get his hands on his little girl.  The nurses it seemed wanted to wait and hand her to me, but I asked them to give her to Jeff.  That was a double edged sword, because now he doesn't want to give her up to anyone.  It is really fun to see him with her.  Don't get me wrong, he's still a bear, but when it comes to his girls, he is a total softy.

I am feeling surprisingly good for being only 2 days postpartum, and really can't wait to start feeling 100% again.  I got to come home after just 24 hours from the hospital (they say because I already have a kiddo) which was nice because I'm not sure if Jeff could have handled another night sleeping on the fold out in the recovery room.  SAMMC does things a little different and there isn't a nursery, so we got to have Raegan in the room with us the entire time.  I think this helped Jeff to acclimate better to feedings and diaper changes.  One of the nice nurses even showed him how, and now, even though he hates it, he still helps with diapers.  Another nice thing about the military is the 10 days of paternity leave that he will get.  This will take so much stress and pressure off of me since I will be able to get more help during the day and night taking care of Raegan.  I know that all of us will be getting a little less sleep, but we would all agree that this adorable little girl is more than worth it.  Sevrine keeps saying how cute and adorable she is, and I would totally agree, but I'm Mom.

Even though there are similarities between Sevrine and Raegan, there are also some differences.  Raegan also likes to keep her hands up near her face, but she really likes taking a pacifier, where Sevrine couldn't keep her thumb out of her mouth.  They make a lot of the same faces when they are sleeping which is so cute.

A lot has changed in 10 years.  They gave us a piece of paper to track all of her feedings and diaper changes, but there is a really cool app for ipad that lets me do that, as well as track other milestones and doctors appointments, even medication.  I don't remember them even asking me to track half of this for Sevrine, so we are trying to be good and keep it all together.  We love taking pictures of the little sweetheart.  I should be using my nice Canon, but I find that I take more pictures with my ipad, just because it's so much easier to put them up on facebook as well as updating the blog.  We did have to create a new one since there are four of us now.

I'm hoping that Sevrine will be able to get her homework done today, because I think that she and Jeff are in close competition for who is the most excited to have Raegan here.  That doesn't mean that Mommy isn't also really excited, but Sevrine and Jeff are at a whole different level. Mommy is just quietly enjoying the excitement and happiness around her. 

Well, I think that is it for now, but be prepared for tons and tons of pictures to be posted in the days to come.