Happy 5 Year Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to the love of my life.

Looking forward to the rest of forever...

5 years ago today:

Welcome Back, Swaddle

I feel it's necessary to pay homage to the Swaddle.

Throughout the last 2.5 months, our family has had a love/hate relationship with the concept.


When Raegan was a newborn, she slept like a champ in the swaddle. She literally would be out for hours; I would even have to wake her to eat! There was one night when I just let her sleep to see how long she would go and she went over 5 hours.

All of that said, the only blanket that worked for us was the Miracle Blanket. My mom liked to call it a straight jacket. I told her that she was crazy. Straight jackets don't come in pastels!


De De (aka my mom) and Nan Nan (Chuck's mom) would watch me in horror as a I tightly wrapped our sweet baby girl in this blanket. I told them that babies like confinement! I don't think they were ever really convinced...even after I doggie eared the chapter dedicated to swaddling in the Happiest Baby on the Block book and happened to leave it on the coffee table when they were visiting.


Fortunately for them, that blanket and technique lasted, oh about a week. I don't know what happened; She abruptly began hating being swaddled.


For about a month after that, I aggressively tried to keep the swaddle thing going. I'm talking, we tried different blankets, different techniques (one arm out, two arms out, arms bent, arms straight, etc), etc. Raegan inevitably resisted. Not only did she hate the act of swaddling (as most babies naturally do), she despised being in it. She would grunt and groan all night while attempting to, in De De's terms, "escape" the swaddle.


As a result, Raegan digressed with her sleeping...as did mommy and daddy.
After about 4 weeks of this, we said "goodbye" to the swaddle blankets-all of them. And, believe me, we had every kind under the sun.


The following weeks, Raegan slept very little at night. Her erratic arm and leg movements would wake her and she would scream bloody murder. Unless she was on her belly (recommended by her pediatrician), she wouldn't sleep at all.


Then, a few weeks ago, I was talking with another mom about how I just couldn't allow her to sleep on her tummy anymore due to the risk of SIDS. She suggested that I try to re-introduce the swaddle. I listened but was full of pessimism. The whole point of swaddling, I thought, was to mimic what the baby was accustomed to-aka, the womb. Raegan had been out of the womb for 2 months. Wouldn't wrapping her up just confuse her and make her mad?

Never above taking someones advice (especially a mom who has "been there and done that"...Thanks, Lindsay!), I tried it. That night, I broke out a blanket and wrapped her up. And, because I'm such a loving mother, I left her arms out.

Low and behold-IT WORKED!

I'm happy to announce that Raegan has been sleeping, on average, 7 hours at night (without waking) and then going down for 2-3 more hours after she wakes around the 7 hour mark. And, she's even sleeping in regular swaddling blankets! Thanks to Holly M for the one in the above pic!


To all of the moms out there who I lean on for advice, thank you so much!

Welcome back, Swaddle! We are so happy to have you back in our lives!

A Visit to Mommy's Office

Raegan finally made her debut at Healthways, Inc.

As soon as we got off the elevator, there was a crowd waiting. Raegan felt like a little princess!

Here are some shots from our visit:

Cheryl can make anyone smile

Julie and Nick :)

 

Suzie, Kara, and Andrea

My camera wasn't really cooperating. It's been a little messed up ever since my attempt to zoom in on Chris Martin at ColdPlay a few weeks ago. (Which, might I add, was well worth the effort---I got some great shots.) I'm on the market for a real camera. If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears.

Gerrye left a very important meeting to come visit!

Thanks, everyone, for making Raegan feel right at home!

It's the thought that counts

So much for my plan to blog about my favorite show, So You Think You Can Dance. The intention was there, I promise. I overestimated my time and energy. Due to a sweet little baby in our house, my average time in viewing the shows? 10 hours after each airs. By that time, the results have come and gone and you, my friends, are-I'm sure-not at all interested in my dated thoughts.

In lieu of blogging about it, I'm opting to make a social event out of it. Several friends (3 of them being girls I danced with in high school) are going to venture over to start watching the show together. We'll keep our obsessive discussions to ourselves. :)

PS-Kayla is my favorite and has been since the auditions.

Over and out

First trip to De De and Pop Pop's

As mentioned in the posting below, Raegan and I took our first road trip to see De De and Pop Pop last week. We had a great time!

While we were there, Raegan got to visit...

her cousin, Maggie

who held her hand the whole time-so sweet

her cousin, Hannah Ryan...who was so cute while she poked at her trying to get her to smile

her Aunt Andrea and

her Uncle Ryan

She had so much fun with all of them!

Raegan also got to go with Mommy to visit...

Stephany

and Mabry...

who said, "I'll happily take care of the bill, thank you very much"

And, last but not least, we took a little ride to De De's office where she got to meet all of her co-workers. They were all so nice! She was so happy to get to see "Ne Ne" again...

who said..."oh, let me hold her, Kami. You go to the pool or something. We'll be fine right here."

I walked away for a few minutes and came back to find this...

Ne Ne may be the Baby Whisperer

I wonder if she would mind driving to Nashville every morning at 4am?

Raegan says, "Thanks for the great visit, everyone! I'll be

back soon!"

I'm Fired...

I know, I know, I know...SYTYCD was tonight. I missed it. Can you believe it?!?!? I can't. So the story goes.. We (Raegan and myself) decided to take a trip to West Tennessee to visit De De, Pop Pop, Uncle Ryan, Aunt Andrea, Maggie, and Hannah Ryan. Kami + 2 month old + 2.5 hour roadtrip by ourselves = Complete loss in track of time At one point during our visit tonight, I looked up at the clock and saw that it was after 8pm. AFTER 8pm?!?!? The worst part (besides updating the blog, of course) is that I can't watch tomorrow night until I've seen the show that I missed tonight. And, that means that I have to wait until I get back to Nashville where I can flip on the trusty DVR. So, to all of you who were anxiously awaiting my riveting post regarding the first week of SYTYCD, I'm sorry to disappoint. Unfortunately, you'll have to remain on the edge of your seats until next week. It's a shame...a crying shame...

Happy 2 Months, Raegan!

It's so hard to believe that Raegan has already been with us for two whole months! She is truly the light of our lives.

I am loving being a mommy. I never knew how fulfilling it would be to have a someone depend upon you for every little thing.

This past month has been so much fun! We can really see Raegan's little personality coming to life! My friends keep telling me that every month, it will get more and more fun. I definitely believe them. It's already more special than I ever imagined.

Here are some highlights from Month 2:

• Raegan is full of grins. My heart totally melts whenever she decides to give me one of those sweet little smiles. Her daddy can get her to do it quite a bit. He teases her with her "papi". She thinks he's funny. But, then again, don't we all?
• Along with the sweet smiles, come the precious little coos. My favorite part of the day is when I prop her up on my knees and have her facing me. I could sit and listen to her coo for hours. Sometimes...I do.

• This past month, she has also become fascinated with her hands. She can entertain herself for hours...ok, maybe not...more like minutes...when she's concentrating on her hands.

• She's also had an increase in appetite this past month. As some of you may know, during the first month-we had a little bit of a challenge when it came to nursing. Raegan was not at all interested in food. (Um, she must get that from her daddy....definitely doesn't get it from her mommy.) Either way, her appetite has really picked up; Now, nursing is so much easier!

• We've also noticed that she drools non-stop! Everyone, please take note and add "Please don't let Raegan be an early teether" to your prayer lists!

• One of my favorite things that have come to fruition this month are her eye dimples. I was looking at her a few weeks ago and noticed. So, I yell across the room to Chuck: "Babe! Look! Raegan has these cute eye dimples! Have you seen them?" Chuck: "Yes, dear, I've seen them. I have them too!" Of course he has them! Heaven forbid she not have ONE characteristic of his! That is all laced with sarcasm. I'm more than thrilled that she looks JUST like her daddy. :)
• Last, but not least, one trait that has definitely been established during Raegan's 2nd month of life is, as Chuck says, that she is "consistently inconsistent". No definitive patterns in moods, reactions to things, sleep habits, etc. Nope. This little one is all about keeping us on our toes...and that, she does!

Thanks for letting me talk about my girl. Oh! I almost forgot-we are in the habit of calling Raegan "Bitsy". My mom called me "Little Bitsy" when I was growing up. When she was here helping with Raegan, she called her "Bitsy" a few times and it stuck. Like we do for Gabby, I'm sure it's the first of many nicknames!

Happy 2 Months, Bitsy! Looking forward to Month 3!

Top 20

So, here they are folks!!!

2009 SYTYCD Top 20:

Girls: Randi, Karla, Caitlin, Asuka, Janette, Jeanine, Kayla, Melissa, Paris, Ashley

Guys: Kupono, Tony, Brandon, Phillip, Jason, Vitolio, Max, Evan, Ade, Jonathan

Next Wednesday, the top 20 will begin competing. I'm anxious to see who will be paired up into couples!

I think it's going to be a great season!

Photo Op

Little Raegan was in such a good mood the other day, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and take a few (ok, a hundred) pictures.

Posting a few of my favorites:

In case you missed samples from our first photo shoot, I've included a few of those too. Chuck was less than thrilled with the emphasis on her bottom. Seriously?!? Has he ever tried photographing a newborn? So, I'll tell you what I told him, "Next time I'll be sure to remember to ask her to swivel her behind a little to the left." :)

Enjoy my sweet baby's bottom...