Family Visits

My blogging has been suffering, I know, I can't really help it! Life isn't necessarily crazy, but the days and nights are starting to blur a little. Reagan is a really good baby, so I'm not sure why I am so tired all the time. I still can't believe I have 3 kids! Fortunately I have had a lot of help. Patrick was off for almost 2 weeks and when he went back to work, my mom came to stay for a few days. We had a lot of fun with her, doing pretty much nothing but hanging out. It was great! :) She did do some grocery shopping (we really don't get out much) and make the worlds best cookies! And she even watched all 3 kids while Patrick and I went on a date... dinner and a movie!!! (Avatar is SO worth the money!) It was really weird to be all alone together, but in a good way! :) Thanks mom for everything you do for us and for coming and spending some time with us! I really loved having you here!!! The boys were a little heart broken when they woke up from naps and realized you were gone, so I am guessing that means they enjoyed you too! :) Luckily we will see you again soon.

We also had a visit from Uncle Ran and Aunt Lena. They live an hour and a half away and they made the drive just to see us. Harrison got so excited when we opened the door, he thought it was Grandma and Pops (Patrick's parents)! LOL! He was instant buddies with Ran, even after he figured out who he was. :) The boys were competing the whole time for their attention, it was funny! They were even kind enough to bring presents for all of the kids! We are spoiled!

With more family visits planned over the next couple of months, we are excited to spend more time with so many of the people we love!

Sweet Girl!

I am totally loving my camera! And to celebrate, I decided to take some newborn pictures of Reagan. So here is a preview. She is such a good baby!

A Week in Pictures

We have been having fun doing pretty much nothing at home! We've had some crazy weather (there was a tornado warning for about 6 hours last night!) so we have been mostly stuck inside. But we have enjoyed it! Patrick got me a new camera! Yeah! The one we have is 5 years old and has served us well, but was having some issues. So I have been taking lots and lots of pictures! :)

The boys being... boys! They are so funny! ...Is it just me or do they seem HUGE all of the sudden?!

And Reagan, finally with her eyes open! We were starting to wonder if she could open them! ;) She is the sweetest baby. Such a good temperament and happy, I love it! She... loves her dad! (And he totally doesn't mind!) :)

She has a little bit of Jaundice, but other than that is perfect and doing really well. We are even close to having our days and nights straight! Yeah for me! :)

We're HOME!

Patrick makes me laugh, I barely expected him to post pictures and he managed to remember every detail! (Even what type of stinky Chinese food he was inhaling! lol) And while it was a little scary for a few minutes, I think he managed to make it sound worse than it was (or could have been!)! I do want to tell him that I LOVE him SO much and thanks for all of the brave faces and sweet words! We scared him pretty bad! But he was seriously great through everything, I could not have done it without him!!! I also have to thank him for not putting any pictures of my train wreck self up! :) ...But for all of the drama, it was well worth it! She is beautiful! And we are SO excited she is here!

We got to come home last night, which was heaven sent! Especially since hospital beds and food are not the most awesome things ever... and the boys couldn't come to the hospital! It was very nice to be home! And the boys were pretty excited to see us too! :)

Jackson is in love! He has to be within a few feet of her all the time, holding her, talking to her, asking questions about her. She is the apple of his eye... but it's only been a day! haha. It's very sweet. She makes a peep and he comes running! Harrison, I'm pretty sure, thinks she is a new pet! haha. Like a puppy, everyone wants to hold her and pet her hair! :) But he seems to be pretty ok with having her around. No major issues yet!

I really am doing so well! I feel better than I did after Harrison, which I totally did not expect. My only problem right now is a cough (the cough the doctors were so worried about because I aspirated) that has suddenly returned. But yesterday my x-rays were clear, so I am going to do my breathing exercises and hope for the best.

Thanks to uncle Kenny for being the babysitter/entertainment for a couple of days and making the trip down here to help us out! It was VERY appreciated! And thanks to all of our family and friends for all of your love and support and prayers! We love and miss you all!

Now... on with the adjusting. We have about a week and a half with all 5 of us at home, so we are going to enjoy the crap out of it!

Reagan Leigh Swain

This is posted due to Jennie's request who is still at the hospital with Reagan. Yep...Reagan finally joined our little family today. It was a little hectic, but so far so good.

Our day began at 0530 hours to be at TMC by 0730 hours. At 0600 hours, TMC called us and said they didn't have a room available for us. I went back to bed tired and ticked. At 0730 hours, they called us back and said they had room for us and to be there by 0900 hours. We got there at 0900 hours and Jennie was in a bed at 1000 hours with an epidural and her water broken at 1030 hours. This is when I started to get nervous.

Normally, I don't get scared about things unless it's a spider or a big a_ _ cougar stalking me at night, but this one got me. Jennie had some complications and I was starting to get a little edgy. Something about the epidural didn't agree with her and her heart rate went way up and her blood pressure went way low. I saw it all coming too, but couldn't do anything to help her. As soon as I got up to check on her, her eyes rolled into the back of her head and I thought she was going to pass out. She convulsed a little, but then started to throw up some kind of liquid while she was on her back. We couldn't roll her over fast enough, so she actually inhaled it into her lungs and quite breathing for a little bit. It seemed like forever. She was changing colors, but after a few minutes, she was able to cough some of it up and breath again. When you see doctors panic, and nurses running to phones and more doctors and nurses running into the room, you get an eerie feeling. All in all...things worked out.

With all that going on...Jennie was still in labor and they actually wanted to slow things down. They wanted to get her blood pressure up and heart rate down, but Reagan was slowly making her way down. They gave Jennie oxygen and all sorts of breathing machines to help her lungs and other tubes in her arms for her BP and HR. Once they got that under control, Reagan decided she was going to take her sweet time. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! This girl was already testing me. No progress at all. Not even a little. Jennie was doing fine, but labor seemed to have stopped. Having a lull in the action, Jennie finally kicked me out of the room to go get something to eat at 1430 hours. Reluctantly I left and came back with a big 'ol meal from the Panda Express. When I walked in, Jennie said she was at an 8 and we were going to have a baby. I pounded that ham fried rice, kung pow chicken, sweet and sour pork, and orange chicken in six minutes!!!! As I wiped my face off, Doc Dean walked in, put her gloves on and walked over to Jennie with me. Jennie pushed twice and Reagan popped out at 1528 hours. I was literally minutes away from missing the birth of my daughter. UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Reagan was 7 lbs and 18 1/2 inches long. TINY! She had DARK, CURLY hair and she looked BLACK. We thought we finally had our black baby and Doc Dean and the nurses were hysterical. It was AWSOME!!! Jennie let it slip and told them I was half black so the surprise I'd always hoped for was gone, but it was still funny to see their reactions. The excitement slowly faded though, and after 20-30 mins., Reagan started to turn pink. I was left with another WHITE baby. At least they said Momma and baby were doing fine and they were both healthy. I was just glad to see Jennie laughing with Doc Dean.

When I left at 2000 hours tonight, both Jennie and Reagan were doing fine. They both would have come home tomorrow, but Doc Dean wants to take an x-ray of Jennie's chest in the morning and run some more tests on her due to the above mentioned incident. We're looking more like Sunday, but you never know. The staff at TMC was AWSOME!!! Doc Dean and Jennie's nurse, Nurse Annie, were incredible and actually made me laugh several times. They did well in taking care of my girls. Can't wait to get them home. Here's Reagan.

No pictures of Jen because she wouldn't be too happy with me if I did!!!!

1 Week!

Yep, I mean the baby!!! Next Friday is the big day (unless for some reason it happens sooner)! I am SO excited I can hardly contain it! And the boys are pretty excited too!! (All three of them!)

Is it possible for time to fly and drag at the same time? Cause that's how it feels! :) I am starting to get a little nervous. It's funny, with Jackson I was nervous because I didn't really know what was coming. (All the reading and prepping in the world isn't the actual experience!) Now I am nervous because I do know what's coming. haha.

But I really am super excited too! Mostly to finally see her! I'm extremely curious about what she will look like. :) So at least I only have to wait a few more days to find out!

And then there is the picture. I am sad to say that I regret not taking any while I was pregnant with Harrison! That, and the fact that I am bigger than I have ever been are the reasons I decided to take this one. So for record-keeping sake, it's now documented.
So, the countdown begins. I am dilating and thinning, all normal so far. And everything looks really good. Now it's just the waiting... and hoping she waits until next Friday. I don't know if I will post much before then, but just so everyone knows, Patrick is totally in charge of getting pictures posted as soon as possible. (So you can harass him as much as you need to!) :) I know I am not the only one waiting to see her! Thanks again for all of the donations and gifts and well wishes! We really do have the very best family and friends!

New Threads

They are SO handsome!!! I was so excited, they finally got to wear their new "Christmas" cloths to church yesterday. (Thanks Mom for the cloths and Kenny and Eric for the shoes!) With all the sickness at our house, they haven't been able to go to church too much lately. So they were "New Years" cloths this year! :) But does it really matter? I don't think so! ;)

HaPPy NeW YeAR - 2010!

Wow, did 2009 go by really fast! It was a big year for us, a lot of changes. But also a year with a lot of blessings! We really have been blessed so much! I can't believe we have been in Arizona for 8 months already. Or that we are about to have a baby #3, something I seriously started to doubt would ever happen at all! And man, have the boys grown... and changed!!!

Dec. 2008

Dec. 2009

Jackson is getting to be such a little grown up. He has an opinion about everything and loves to believe he is in charge. He is filled to the brim with imagination, and loves to drag Harrison along for the ride. He is a VERY good big brother (most of the time) and he is SO excited about having a baby sister. (Mostly because he has no idea what that actually means yet, but I will take it!!) :) He is 38 lbs. and 43" tall. Our bean-pole for sure! He has even managed to not have any major accidents this year! (Poor kid has my grace!) 2010 will be a big one for him, starting school and turning 5 (that's a whole hand)! He is very excited!

Harrison has done nothing but change this year! He has developed SO much personality and is a complete handful most of the time with a lot of attitude! He even grew some real hair! :) He is talking up a storm, and says things all the time that make us laugh. His whole world is wherever Jackson is. Still my cuddler, and I love that. He is 34 lbs. and 37.5" tall. Completely solid kid. 2010 will be big for him too. He will turn 3 and be potty training. (I am keeping my fingers crossed) And he will go from being the baby to being the infamous middle child! :) He's not too excited about that already! lol.

Patrick is enjoying his job. It's a lot of working, which is hard on him sometimes, he is gone for 12 hours a day. But we are ever so grateful that he has a job, especially one that has allowed me to stay at home. He spent the first 4 months of 2009 away from us, so it's been a whole lot of GREAT being back together! We love him SO much and I am especially grateful for everything he does for our family!! He says that this place is slowly growing on him, which surprised me a little, brown is not his idea of beautiful! ;) And he will start 2010 with a baby girl. He is SO in for it! And I totally can't wait! haha. He is such a good dad, my third (giant) child. But he is also an amazing best friend! We have a lot of fun together, he makes me laugh all the time! Every year I end it thinking "I can't possibly love him more than I do right now!", and then the next year happens... and I get to think it all over again!

As for me, I'm trying to wrap my head around the fact that this year is over! The days with my boys go by way too fast. Sometimes I really wish I could freeze time, even for a little bit, just to keep it from flying by. The new place and new job are a definite change, but I really can't complain, it's 60 something degrees outside and sunny! And I am getting more and more excited everyday to have this little girl here! I'm also a little (lot) scared! :) I got to try a lot of things in 2009 for the first time, and I have a feeling 2010 will prove to be no different! But for all of the challenges and changes, we are a better family, a stronger family. And I think personally, I am stronger too! It's been hard in ways I didn't expect and totally surprised me in others. I'm excited to see what is in store!

Happy New Year everyone! We wish you all the bery best in 2010!