6 Months!!! {1/2 a year}

"And though she but little, she is fierce"~William Shakespeare

Our baby girl is 6 months old!!! Where has the last 6 months gone?! I cannot believe half of a year has gone by already... this time last year we had just starting telling people that we were expectivng a baby, and now a year later she has changed our lives forever!! 

Our sweet baby girl is absolutly amazing (I think I might be biased...) She is funny and moody and has the personality of a teenager! She gives the best snuggles, loves to laugh and more recently scream (happy high pitched screams), she loves to bable and loves it when you make faces at her.  

She has two teeth (teething has been terrible!!!), loves to sit up and play with her toys, likes to scoot on her tummy (but has yet to roll over!!) and eats everything!!!

We have started to do baby led eating, which basically means we don't feed Rae pureed foods, but rather we give her chucks of fruits and veggies cut into easy to grab pieces and let her play and eat away! She has definately started to get the hang of it, and loves when it's time to eat.  We put her in the high chair at the table so she feels included and give her pieces of what we are eating or one of her favorite foods like tomatoes, broccoli or sweet potatoes.  The only foods she has been kid of confused about has been pineapple and lemons, both pretty sour foods!Check out the collage of pictures below.

Rae went on a bit of a sleep protest at around 4 months, and (knock on wood) has decided she likes to sleep again (thankyoujesus).  Raegan goes to daycare 8-10 days a month and absolutly loves it! She loves her two teachers, and alwasy has a great time.  She has a boyfriend at daycare named Elliot, so watch out Asher and Kevin you guys have some competition.  

Raegan loves her older friends Kennadie and Susie, she loves to watch what they do and mimic them. I think it's safe to say they have fun with her too. 

This summer has brought many firsts for Rae, she went on a boat for the first time, vacationed at the cabin, celebrated her first 4th of July and spent 5 days away from Mommy while she was in Nashville for a work conference (harder on Mommy than Rae!).  

I hope you enjoy the following pictures (there are way too many to choose, sorry there are a lot!!) 

2 months {young}

The Best is Yet to Come!

The last two months have been the most amazing two months of my life! My baby girl has brought me so much joy and love that I didn't even realize I was missing.  Before Raegan, I thought I loved my husband as much as I could... But watching him with our daughter has brought about a whole new love that I never even imagined was possible! The look on his face when she smiles makes my heart so happy, and to watch her react to his voice and give him the biggest smiles makes everything feel complete.  We have had two amazing months with this little girl and I know the best is yet to come! Watching her change and grow is the most amazing site, it's like nothing else in this world matters except for this 11 lb little baby girl... The house may be dirty, I may be covered in crusty baby puke and may not have showered today, but as long as she is happy nothing else matters.  I never realized how fast time flies until Rae came into this world... There are days where we just cuddle on the couch and then I look at the clock and realized its 2:30 pm and we are both still in our PJ's, no homework has been done and the house is a mess but it has been an amazing day! I had full intentions on weekly blog posts, but that just isn't realistic... We take tons of pictures every day (like 750 in the first 2 months of her life) and its crazy to see how much she has changed!
She is an amazingly easy baby, and motherhood feels like second nature. She nurses like and champ, and loves to sleep like her mommy! She gives tons of smiles every day and will make any bad mood or bad day 10 times better. Here are just a few of my favorite pics of our little girl, trust me it was hard to choose just a few!!
We are so blessed and thank God every day for Miss Raegan

Raegan Evelyn Lilja

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, 

I know that full well." Psalm 139:14 

Thursday February 6th, 2014 at 9:07 pm we were blessed with the greatest gift ever imaginable, Raegan Evelyn Lilja at a whopping 7lbs 5oz and 21 in long. She is absolutely 100% perfect and we are head over heels in love with her. 

Wed AM, 2/5/14 (Due date) 40weeks

Rewind to Tuesday February 4th...(skip this part if you don't want to read about my induction and labor!)

I was at my 40 week apt (after a long morning working on a school project and a quick visit to my friend Bri's work) and my blood pressure was running a little high. (I wonder why?!) My Dr. was on call that day and she decided that since it was the 3rd week in a row that my Bp was creeping up that it might be a good day to have a baby! (I without hesitation agreed!!!) So I was headed over to labor and delivery to have my Bp monitored with the potential to be induced if it stayed elevated.  Well my Bp stayed up there (not dangerously high, but enough to warrant inducing me) so I was admitted to room M473 and little did I know I was going to have to get quite comfy in that tiny little room before I met my daughter... I was dilated 1 cm with a long road ahead of me!  Chad made his way down to the hospital (thanks for the ride Andy!) and we hunkered in for some fun.  We ordered Davanni's Pizza and watched some of our favorite tuesday nigh TV shows.  I was given Cervidil to help dilate me with the hope of starting Pitocin Wednesday morning. It was a long night for both Chad and I, but we had a great night nurse who let me sleep (when I could) and gave me some good meds to keep me comfy. Wednesday morning we said goodbye to my main Doctor and welcomed a new one.  The plan was to let me get up and shower (or in my case take a bubble bath), eat breakfast and then we would start Pitocin.  Wednesday afternoon rolls around with no progress made, I had sent Chad home to workout, shower and grab some things I forgot to pack (and some candy and diet coke!).  That afternoon the Doctor decided to try a cook catheter (a little balloon that is supposed to help you dilate), lets just say it wasn't fun and it didn't work.  

Thanks Blake for the 4am snack!!!

10 hrs later (3:30am thursday morning) they took it out and with no progress made the Doctor decided to stop the Pitocin and let me rest, and more importantly EAT (it had been since 8am wednesday, and I was hungry!) So I had a 4am visitor who snuck away from work and brought me exactly what I had been craving... Fruity Pebbles!!! Thanks again Blake!!! So after a few hours of amazing sleep it was 8am Thursday AM and once again we said goodbye to our 2nd Doctor and welcomed our third! When I met our day nurse Sara (most amazing nurse!!! Was with us through all the pain and never got to meet rae! Hope you are reading this Sara, you rock!!), I told her I thought today would be a GREAT day to have a baby.... it had been a rough and disheartening night and we were ready for some good news, or at least a new plan! She told me the plan was to shower, eat breakfast and then they were going to try Cytotec (another medicine to help me dilate).  So since I was STARVING I ordered a big breakfast and even sent Chad down to the coffee shop for a blueberry muffin (my favorite!).  After my shower, Sara and the Doctor came in to do the Cytotec.  (We had been told great things about this Dr. so we were pretty pumped to finally have her) She checked me and told me she had a new plan because I had dilated to a 3-4 on my own!!! Best news ever!!! So the Pitocin was re-started and around 12:30pm, she broke my water...  At that point, after a very long and uneventful 2 days, it was like we went from 5MPH to 500MPH!! The contractions were the most intense things I had ever felt and my poor husband got the brunt of it... Around 3pm I got my epidural, and shortly after that I was fully dilated! I was lucky enough to have the 2 nurses we had had the previous evening (so nice to have some familiar faces during labor!! They were absolutely fabulous thought the entire process, helped keep us calm and relaxed!!) I got to take a long nap (because I didn't feel like I had to push yet) and around 8:30pm I got to start pushing.  We had a blast with our Doctor, joking around and watching the Olympics.  We were so comfortable and our Doctor was absolutely fabulous and made us feel so comfortable.  37 min of pushing and our baby girl was born (during Olympic Figure Skating!!!).  We were so lucky to have our friend Brit there to capture some amazing pics. (See slideshow below) We made it up to the postpartum unit around 12am and promptly ordered pizza and enjoyed some snuggles with our babe! 

The last three (almost) have been the most amazing weeks of my life! While exhausting with all the visitors wanting to meet Raegan, and the lack of sleep we are doing amazing. Rae loves to nurse and actually is a very good sleeper right now.  She was pretty jaundiced right after birth but never had to have any light therapy. She dropped her weight to 6 lbs 10oz, scoring us a visit with a home health nurse and some anxiety over her feeding schedule... but she was back up to 7lbs 7oz at her 2 week apt so we are very proud of our chunky monkey, and her rock star eating skills!  

Chad and I have gone on a few dates leaving Raegan at home (the first when she was only 6 days old... yes I may have freaked out a little but but we all survived).  I have gone back to school, which while its a huge bummer leaving her all day (and having to pump in the bathroom stall) makes the snuggles in the evenings so much better!

I can't guarentee how well i will keep this blog up, as you can see it's taken three weeks to write her birth story, But I promise to try!!! Stay tuned for another post with some awesome photos!!

1 month to go {or less!!!}

^"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~ Jeremiah 29:11

 We have entered the last month of this amazing journey, and the excitement and anticipation is building.  We have everything ready for you to make your entrance baby girl, come whenever you are ready.  2013 ended with some quality family time over the holidays, and it feels like we haven't stopped moving since October.  Chad and I hosted my Mom's side of the family for Thanksgiving (30 people!!), we took a trip to South Dakota to visit our friends Leah and Bryan (Who are expecting their first baby any day now!!), had multiple family gatherings to celebrate Christmas, and we rang in the New Year with friends! (Chad visited a few of our good friends, and I was at work celebrating with my fabulous co-workers and great kiddos. 

It has been a few months of baby showers! My co-workers through all the first time Mom's (4 of us!) a shower right before Christmas, it was a great time with lots of fun games and good food.  Three of my friends threw me a shower the weekend before Christmas, it was so fun to see old friends that I haven't seen in a while and we had lots of fun entertainment from a few little kiddos who joined in on the party!  This past weekend, Chad's cousin Cindy threw a Dr. Seuss themed shower! The food and games were all themed, and the cake was gorgeous.  Baby girl got lots of books to add to her growing library, and we got the remaining essentials we needed.  I am so blessed to have such amazing support from my friends and family, this little girl is so loved already and she's not even here yet!!

Here are just a few pictures from my showers (I have yet to get my pics from Brit from my friends' shower so those will have to come later!)

 

 

Right before Christmas, Chad, Josh (Chad's brother) and Josh's girlfriend Danielle took a road trip to Madison MN to have maternity pictures taken by Danielle's cousin.  They turned out amazing, and we had a blast road tripping with Josh and Danielle!!!

 
I have been feeling pretty good these last few months.  It has been such an amazing experience to be pregnant, and I am so THANKFUL that God has giving me this gift.  I know far too many people who have struggled to bring children into this world, and what heartache it is to lose a child before even getting to meet them.  SO needless to say I have tried (sometimes not very successfully) to stay positive when I'm feeling crappy and thank God every day for this privilege of carrying a child.  I must say I had an amazing evening at church on Saturday. With all that has gone on in our lives the last few months, Chad and I haven't been attending church as regularly as we usually do so it was really good to 1) just be at church, forget the fact that it was AMAZING! Worship was perfect and exactly what my heart needed, and then there was communion which is my FAVORITE part of church, it always has been! While Pastor Darren was talking about why we do communion, and remembering the sacrifice that was given for us, baby girl was going CRAZY!!! I'm holding the elements and trying to listen, but all I could focus on was the flips and somersaults going on inside of me. It made me so excited for everything she can look forward to at River Valley, and sharing these special moments with her once she arrives. 

Chad and I are getting really excited to meet this little girl, all I can think about is what she will look like and who's personality she will have.  What she will like and dislike, and how it will change Chad and I's relationship.  I am so excited to see Chad with her; I love watching him with our friends' kiddos and can only imagine how he will be with our daughter.
So everyone keeps asking us... Are you ready?! How do you even answer such a loaded question!!!?? Her room is ready! The pack'n'play is set up in our room, we have diapers and a car seat, and she sure has clothes to wear. Am I ready for labor? Who knows... When the time comes, I know it will be ok and that I will have the strength and encouragement from my husband and know that my faith will bring me comfort and strength.  I have a pretty large group of prayer warriors (you know who you are!!!) that will help me get through the difficult times.  SO I guess I could say we are ready... We have a "how to have a baby class" this coming Saturday, so it might be convenient if she waited until after that but regardless I think we will figure it out, that's why there are Labor and Delivery Nurses!!! So we appreciate your prayers these last few weeks, especially with all this beautiful weather we've been having in MN (baby girl don't pick the coldest day of the year or a blizzard to show your face please!!).
Here are a few nursery pics!

 Weekly/Monthly/Whenever I get around to it UPDATE!

How far along? 36 weeks (tomorrow)

Total weight gain: 27ish

Maternity clothes? Still wearing some non-maternity tops, but pants (besides cozzies) are all maternity

Stretch marks? Nope

Sleep: A bit of a struggle, got a fancy U shaped body pillow that has been amazing!

Best moment of the week: Baby girl dancing in church

Miss anything? Being able to take a deep breath or roll over without being winded :)

Movement: Lots of kicks, somersaults and flips!!

Food cravings: Anything sweet... Made Chad stop at DQ to get ice cream when the temp was -15 this weekend....

 Anything making you queasy or sick: Weird smells... otherwise just running out of room so I feel sick if I eat too much.

Symptoms: Occasional contractions, puffy feet and hands

Belly button in or out? In-ish... don't think its every gonna pop!

Wedding rings on or off? On kinda... I only wear them when I leave the house and only my band when I go to work... Off while I sleep and when I'm just lounging around the house.

Happy or moody most of the time? Happy, excited, emotional...

Looking forward to: Meeting baby girl!!!!

Thanks for stopping by the blog!! Hopefully the next update will have a super cute little baby girl in it

~Love, Hugs and God's Blessings~