T
his year was pretty mellow on the gifts for our little Raegan since she already has so much and um...she's only 4 weeks old! But that didn't stop her grandparents from spoiling her already. She could barely control her excitement while opening all of her presents. She received more adorable outfits to dress up in, a fancy play mat, Christmas tree ornaments, toys and books!
And even at just 4 weeks old, Raegan was forced to wear Christmas attire for a few days straight. I'm sure a few years down the road she'll fight me on this, but I'll torture her now while I can! :)Check out all of the Christmas photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/raegankelly/sets/Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
OMG, I can't believe it's been 4 weeks since our little Raegan has blessed us with her presence! She has brought us so much joy and it keeps coming each and every day. Even on those days where my patience wears a little thin, she quickly changes my tune with one look at her. 
This month has been a real adventure and a big learning experience for me and Hayden. We've quickly learned that Raegan rules the world we now live in and all we have to do is keep her fed, clean and rested. Sounds simple in theory and has become easier each and every day. We're slowly getting the hang of things.
A few monumental things for Raegan this month are a trip to Target, putting the angel on the Christmas tree, her first bottle (despite the "rules" to not give her one for a little longer), her first holiday party and I swear her first smile at me :) I'm sure it was just gas, but I'm taking it as a smile directed at me! We're having a blast with our little girl and enjoying every second of this new life we now have.
Here are a few new pictures from Raegan's first month of life.
Enjoy!
Being new parents we have all the new gadgets and and things we "need" to make our little Raegan comfortable. I bought her bedding so early that I had her room decorated for months before her arrival. And of course, she never goes in there! She is either sleeping in her bassinet next to our bed our in the pack and play downstairs. So, when I had a few chores to do and set her in the crib in her room, it was a great surprise that she LOVED it! I purposely picked out a decor that was sharp in contrast and quickly forgot to let her enjoy it, until now. She even told us how much she loved it in this short video. We of course find this absolutely adorable and these little things please us to no end. That's the new parent thing I guess!
Well it's officially been 2 weeks since Raegan has blessed us with her arrival and boy has she changed our lives! From the day we got home, we were instantly challenged with our new lives as parents. She was blessed with her father's tiny little mouth and had some trouble breastfeeding, so we had to employ a feeding tube during feedings to ensure she was getting enough to keep her happy. I also had to pump after each feeding, lending to an hour and a half process that started all over again around the 2 hour mark...giving me just about a 30 minutes break. Needless to say, this is what lead to my first breakdown. It was hard to know just how much she needed to eat and she let me know it was not enough! I was upset and thought I was starving her! Thankfully, Hayden was calm and collect and helped this crying mom get her confidence back and take charge.
Following my small breakdown was daddy's first breakdown. Luckily we didn't have them at the same time! Using a feeding tube was proving exhausting and challenging and Hayden wanted to switch to a bottle to make things easier. I was adamant about giving breastfeeding a little more time before introducing a bottle so I wanted to keep going. I think Raegan could sense our frustration because she ditched the feeding tube on the following feeding. All that work we put in helped my milk come in and Raegan was finally getting enough! Whew!
Luckily Raegan has been a decent sleeper and has slept in 4 hour stretches, giving me a good amount of sleep each night. That has definitely been a blessing. Her newest challenge has been a 3 day growth spurt where she was eating about every 30 minutes!! I had to really channel my patience over these last few days to get through it. I was literally drained! But, today she finally is back to a 2-3 hour feeding schedule, which has given me the chance to do a few things - like write this blog!
In the past few weeks we have taken our fair share of photos and instead of loading them all on this blog, I've uploaded them to Kodak Gallery online for everyone to enjoy. Please use the link below to enjoy photos from day 1 to today of our precious Raegan's little life.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?facebook=true&sourceId=984136008703
Stay tuned for more of Raegan's little adventures!
