One Month!

Lilly is technically 4 weeks old today, and I guess we would consider her "one month birthday" to be on the 3rd, but I figured I would go ahead and post while I have a moment!  I cannot believe how quickly the time has already flown!  We have enjoyed getting to know our new girl, and we can't wait to see all the changes to come.  Here's a few highlights:

• Lilly weighs 8 lbs. 15 oz. and is 21 inches long.  She is growing FAST!
• She eats every 3-4 hours and eats A LOT!  Being the neurotic mom I am, I think we are overfeeding her, but who doesn't love a chunky baby, right?! :)
• She sleeps well at night, usually going for about four hours inbetween feedings with the occasional five or six hour stint! 
• Lilly spends her days eating, sleeping, and hanging out.  She is usually a content little baby, and she loves being held.  Due to her being born a few weeks before Christmas, she has seen family often...and therefore been held often! 
• We have recently put her on reflux medicine due to some gagging/choking spells she has on a very regular basis.  We are trying the reflux medicine first to see if it helps before we have to possibly see an ear, nose, and throat specialist. 
• We thought we were being so grown up this time by having her sleep in her crib from day one.  Well that lasted about 2 weeks until she got a little sick and also really started this choking mess.  Since then, she has spent her nights elevated in her bouncy seat right next to my side of the bed.  Her doctor says she should stay there until she is 3 or 4 months old, so I guess we will follow doctor's orders! 
• Lainey loves her little sister and tells her how cute she is every day.  She is such a good helper with a great attitude towards her sister, and I really can't wait to see these two grow into what I hope will be wonderful friends!

Jovan and I are sleep-deprived, but loving every minute.  It is so different this go round.  You know that this too shall pass, and I am trying to soak in every minute of my last baby.  She's already grown and changed so much, and I already tear up at the thought of having to leave this girl to return to a job I am not too fond of these days!  Oh well!  We're just going to live in the minute and love on our sweet one month old baby girl!

And just for fun...here's Lilly and Lainey at one month in the same onesie.  I have been AWFUL at taking pictures of Lilly, and that is definitely a resolution of mine for 2012!

Lilly at one month

Lainey at one month

It's funny, because I don't think these pictures do them justice as to how much they favor each other.  There are times when we think Lilly looks exactly like her big sis!  Obviously Lilly is a better eater than her sister, ha!  Love these girls!!!

Christmas 2011-Christmas Day

Every year Christmas day comes, and the Runyon family has already opened our gifts!  We are notorious for not being able to wait until the actual day and often find ourselves opening our gifts on Christmas Eve.  HOWEVER, this year we actually waited, ha!  Since my sister-in-law's parents came in town, we were forced to wait until the actual day since we were splitting time.  We were able to open Santa's gift first thing in the morning though. (Santa only brings one gift to the Tosic house)


That afternoon we read the Christmas story like we do every year, sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus, and opened our gifts.  My parents really outdid themselves this year-they always do, but they really went a little overboard!  I think the commercialism really got to a lot of people this year (my Dad especially) for some reason, and next year we will be forfeitting the gift part and giving to those who need it.  We are truly blessed!

Lilly got these cute "First Holiday" stickers from her "Aunt" Beth

The girls in dresses my Aunt Patty sent them. 

LOVE this girl!

Lainey's present from Nana and Papa--a Barbie bike!!

MORE Barbie stuff!

Barbie Charm School dress--she puts this on EVERY day as soon as she gets home from school.  Hilarious!



Family photo minus Dad...we look a hot mess, ha!

 We had a very Merry Christmas and are looking forward to a fabulous 2012!

Christmas 2011-Christmas Eve

As usual, we had an amazing Christmas.  Seeing as we had a 3 week old, my parents decided to come to our house for the holidays so we wouldn't have to travel.  Bless them!  They arrived on the 23rd, and they just left our house to go home about 15 minutes ago.  Some people would go crazy having their parents stay with them for a week, but I truly enjoy every minute and pretty much cry every time they leave.  I know...weirdo! :)  Anyways...

On Christmas Eve we took Lilly to church for the first time.  Our church had three services on Christmas Eve and the same one on Christmas day.  We decided to go to the 2:30 service on Saturday, and then we headed to my brother and sister-in-law's for dinner with our family and Megan's family.  We had a great dinner followed by some exciting games of Telepictionary and Pit.  We then headed home to make sure our a certain 4 year old's room was clean and that she was getting in bed because Santa doesn't come to a dirty house or a house where kids aren't sleeping, ha!

Lilly's first time at church

Lilly on Christmas Eve

What Lainey did on Christmas Eve :)

Jovan and I with our birthday cake on Christmas Eve

Lainey decided Santa needed cookies and Cuties this year!

We had a great time on Christmas Eve, and I am so grateful to have my parents and brother and sis-in-law so close!

Visiting Santa

We took the girls to see Santa yesterday.  We went to the same Santa we went to last year because he is AMAZING!  I'm pretty sure as long as I have girls that believe in Santa we will track this man down for our visit every year.  He sits there and spends time with each child, and let's be real--he just looks like the real deal.  Both girls cooperated, and Lainey even managed to tell Santa that she wanted a horse for Christmas.  Not really sure where that came from, but he politely told her he could not do that because a horse could not fit on the sleigh...I love this guy!  Now if only he can say the same thing when she starts asking for an iPad, a DS, or things like that! 

We did not want/expect to be in a picture, so you can imagine how excited we were! :)

And just for laughs, here is last year's picture as well.  Love when you can get two years out of an outfit!

Lillian Charlotte

**WARNING--It's a long one!**

We welcomed Lillian Charlotte into our family on December 3rd at 8:19 am weighing an even 8 lbs and measuring 20.5 inches long!  I figured I'd better document the events of the day pretty quickly before my memory starts fading, so here goes...

We woke up early Saturday morning because we had to be at the hospital by 6.  After a quick trip through the McDonald's drive thru to get Jovan some breakfast, we were on our way.  Here I am once we arrived at the hospital.

We headed up to labor and delivery to get prepped for surgery.  I'll spare all the details of what horrible veins I have and how every time I have to get an IV I end up with purple hands and arms a few days later.  Hoping my girls don't have the same issues I have!  Once we got all that working, Jovan and I just basically sat around and waited for our surgery team to get there.  Jovan had to get dressed for surgery as well. :)

At 8:00 we headed back to the operating room.  I had been freaking myself out for the past couple of weeks about the c-section.  With Lainey, I was SO ready for her to get out of me that I really didn't know or care what was going on by the time we had the c-section.  With a scheduled surgery I had been told by several people that it is so different because you are actually aware of what is going on...they were right!  I had a great experience!  We were just talking and laughing and having a good ol time as I lay there sliced open on the table, ha!  We were able to bring in the iPod, so we had our own tunes to groove.  Feel free to judge, but some of our tunes included Justin Bieber's "Baby", Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back", and Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You."  Everyone loved it!

Lilly was born at 8:19 a.m. and I couldn't tell you how long we were actually in there after.  Once we got back to our recovery room, I took a turn for the worse.  Once again...details spared, but I got sick several times.  I spent the rest of the day Saturday completely doped up and not really sure what was going on!  My family came to visit, and I know I talked to people on the phone, and I will apologize for anything I said that day because I honestly do not remember it!  :)

Lainey did come to meet her little sister, and I can vaguely remember the meeting.  At least we have some sweet pictures of them!

Lainey also got a backpack from her little sister filled with all sorts of goodies like coloring books and crayons, candy, nail polish, a tiara, books, and her most favorite gift-a disposable camera to document the day's events. 


The only visitors we had Saturday were my parents and my brother and sis-in-law.  God decided that Lilly needed snow for her birthday, and He gave us plenty of it complete with slippery, nasty roads!  It actually turned out better to not have anyone up there the first day because like I said, I was completely out of it!

Sunday was MUCH better, and I was up walking around and actually coherent.  We had more visitors on Sunday, and I was able to start taking those much needed laps around the post partum floor! I was also able to have Jimmy John's for the first time in 9 months.  My love of Jimmy John's is no secret, nor was the fact that this was the first thing I wanted once Lilly was born.  We even received a Jimmy John's gift card as a baby gift, ha! 

We decided to go home Monday because I was feeling pretty good.  My mom stayed for the entire week, and my dad was here for most of it.  We could not have done it without them!  I seriously have the most selfless parents, and I can only hope I can be for my girls what they have been and continue to be for me. 

It is now almost two weeks since Lilly was born, and we're learning the new norm for us.  We're happily exhausted and equally confused about this whole newborn thing again, but we are extremely happy and feeling blessed beyond what we deserve!

 



The Waiting Game

So I hit a milestone in my pregnancy this last week.  I have now spent the week more pregnant that I have ever been.  I didn't make it past 37 weeks with Lainey, so this is all a new experience!  I am feeling absolutely massive, and I can only imagine how much more I will grow this week. :)  I didn't get stretch marks with Lainey, but all of a sudden I have a few appearing here at the end...hoping those can disappear! 

My poor husband is about to lose his mind, too.  The other night we were talking about things, and he just stopped and said "I'm so confused!  What do you want?!?!"  To which I told him I had no idea what I wanted and that I was confused too!  I know I am done being pregnant, but I change my mind every day as to when I want this baby girl to actually get here!  There's pros and cons both ways.  One day I think I'm ready for our family of four, and then the next I think about all the things that still need to be done before she gets here!  Oh well!  What we know for sure is that she will definitely be here next Saturday, whether we are ready or not!

I found myself watching newborn Lainey videos today and tearing up.  It made me really excited and scared about how much our lives are going to change next week.  She was so tiny!  We can only sit and wait to see what Miss Lilly's stats are going to be.  My guess is long and fat, ha!  I'm putting my guess at her weight to be 9lbs. 4 oz, so we'll see.  One more week!!!!

DONE!

So I'm 36+ weeks, and I think I have officially reached that point where I'm done.  I'm pretty sure anyone who has been pregnant knows the feeling I'm talking about. 

1. I feel HUGE!

2. I do not feel cute in anything I put on.

3. I can't sleep.

4. I have trouble walking.

5. I'm just generally uncomfortable.

All of this to say I wouldn't have it any other way.  As much as I am not really enjoying life right now, I know there are people out there that would give anything to be in this position and I try to remember that on a daily basis!  I have less than three weeks left, and we're pretty sure this will be the last time I'm pregnant, so I'm just going to take the good with the uncomfortable and thank God for the amazing gift we're about to receive.  We can't wait to meet you, Lilly!

Lilly's Room

So seeing as our daughter will be here in less than a month, I figured it may be time to finish her nursery!  We've been working on it in bits and pieces, and I think it is finally done...or at least as done as it is going to be for awhile! 

You can't really see the back of the crib since we've got it full with hospital stuff right now. 

We now have a scheduled date of December 3rd at 8:00 a.m.  We'll see if she makes it that long.  At least I feel a little more ready this week than I did last week!

Getting Ready

So last weekend we had a bit of a scare, and I spent the entire weekend laid up in a hospital bed.  It was miserable, and it made me very appreciative of my health because I'm pretty sure I was going crazy after about 24 hours of bed rest!  Long story short, Lilly got some steroids so in case she decides to make an early debut, she'll be a little more developed!  If anything, that weekend gave us the wake up call we needed to get things a little more prepared for baby girl! 

Everyone always talks about how different it is with the second one, and I am feeling this on a daily basis.  I feel like I am not only neglecting her already because there is so much other stuff to be done, but I also feel Lainey is not getting the attention she deserves either.  It's just hard!  Definitely had some guilt-battling this week which has prompted me to get on the ball and get some stuff done so we can spend as much time with Lainey as possible before all of our worlds are (positively, but incredibly) rocked!  

The nursery is almost finished, and I will try to post pictures of that soon.  We packed Lilly's bag and have gotten together Lainey's big sister present "from" Lilly.  We also put the car seats in both cars today...totally surreal.  I was able to get a lot of my sub plans done while I was in the hospital, and I continued to work very hard on them this week.  All in all, I think we are ready for her arrival...or at least as ready as we're going to be!  We just keep praying that she will come when God is ready for her to come, and that He gives us the strength, patience, health, and confidence to be ready for that time too.  It's crazy that we only have 5 more weeks!  Can't wait to meet our baby girl!

Part of our hospital luggage.  All we need now is Lainey's "Big Sister" outfit and my bag, and we'll be good to go!

And here I am at 34 weeks...not really sure how much bigger or uncomfortable I can get, but it's worth every second!

Crazy

We can't believe we'll be seeing this sweet face in "real life" in 7 weeks! 

4 years ago...

I was laying in a hospital bed holding my new baby girl!  It had been a LONG 37 weeks, but the end result was worth every last minute.  I cannot believe Lainey turned 4 today!  I straight up cried on the way to work this morning...partially because I am a hormonal mess, and partially just because the reality is hard to handle.  I am so blessed and honored that God chose me to be her mom.  It's such an amazing (and challenging) responsibility, and I just sat and thanked God for the priviledge this morning. When did my sweet girl turn into this little lady??  I remember thinking 6 months was my favorite age...how could it get any better than this?!?!  But then she was able to walk and talk, and I thought it couldn't get any better than that.  Then she went through the terrible two's (6 months early), and I couldn't wait for that to end. :)  And then we've had the last year...

I can say this age has definitely been my favorite!  My dad always said this is his favorite age.  They are old enough to have fun conversations with, and still young enough to be so stinkin adorable!  She has had a big personality since birth, and it has only gotten bigger with age.  We love our baby and the sweet, loving, sassy girl she has turned into! 



September 19, 2007




1 year old!




2 years old!



3 years old!

4 years old!

It's amazing to see how much she has grown and changed!  Happy Birthday, sweet girl!  Here's to another amazing year!

GO BIG RED!

Our good friend Dusty called us Thursday night and said a buddy of his had some extra tickets for the game Saturday...for free!  So naturally I called my brother to tell him the good news, and we started making plans!  I figured this was the last game I should probably attend this season seeing as it is getting harder and harder to breathe/move each day!  So Jake and I headed to Lincoln for game day, and we had a really good time!  I just love my little brother and am loving every minute of our houses being 12 minutes apart seeing as we haven't lived in the same city together for the last 12 years! 

Right after we took this picture a lovely college boy walked by and pointed at my belly and said "He's going to be a Husker!"  Jake and I just laughed and laughed.  I'm not quite quick enough on my feet to respond, but I should have said "She's going to be a cheerleader!" :)

We got to watch the team walk in, and I was like a giddy little school girl.  Ridiculous when you sit back and actually think that these are just college kids, but I just love these boys! 

Here I am at 28 weeks sporting my yoga pants and a t-shirt for the game, ha!  The joys of being pregnant, right?!  We took this picture about 45 minutes before game time.  It was a dreary day and I think the high was 56 degrees.  Luckily the rain held off until the 4th quarter, and we had fun and enjoyed a win despite the weather!  I'm glad Lilly got to "attend" her first Husker game.  At least now she can say she's done something her big sister hasn't! 

Life

I know everyone feels like this, but life seems to be moving SO fast for us these days!  It seems like we always have something going on, and we are not able to slow down for anything.  Our weekends are now filled with our most favorite thing--COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!  We live for this time of year, and our house can get a little loud any given Saturday.  Jovan and I are both phychotically crazy passionate about our teams, and I wouldn't want it any other way.  He commented the other day that he falls more and more in love with me every year during this time, ha!  Actually living here during football season makes my heart very happy.  I love knowing that I can go anywhere on Saturdays and EVERYONE is in some form of red or Huskers apparel!  It's also funny to drive around Omaha on Saturdays when we have home games and see how little traffic there is because of the mass exodus to Lincoln for game time!  Anyways...here's me and my girls on the first day of college football this year.  We have a picture of me 35 weeks pregnant on Lainey's "first day" of college football also.

My belly definitely popped the last couple of weeks!  I'm starting to feel the strain of the heaviness, and she is taking a toll on my back.  I'm sure the whole standing 8 hours a day plays a huge role as well!  I only had to teach about a month when I was pregnant with Lainey.  The thought of teaching an entire semester pregnant makes me a little nervous!  Oh well...I'll just do a lot more sitting over the next few months!

This is today's picture at 27 wks 1 day.  Tomorrow we take 72 6th graders out to a camping ground where we will spend 2 days hiking trails and doing all things Science!  The weather here last week was AMAZING, and it will continue to be amazing again this week...with the exception of tomorrow.  It is supposed to be 91 freaking degrees and sunny.  Not really sure how this big ol preggo is going to survive hiking in the heat with the most challenging kids I have ever taught, but God's going to get me through it...of this I am sure! 

And last, but not least, Happy Grandparent's Day!!  I am usually SO good at sending cards to all the grandparents in our life, but it absolutely snuck up on me this year.  So for the moment being, we sent Nana & Papa, J-Ma & J-Pa, and Grammy this lovely last minute picture on Facebook.  Sad???  Yes!  But it will have to do for this year.  I promise I'll make it up to them next year with what is sure to be two of the most adorable girls in the world!  We are so incredibly blessed to live SO much closer now to my parents!  I love seeing them as often as we do, and I love that Lainey will have such great memories of spending time at Nana & Papa's farm.  I don't know what I did to deserve such wonderful parents, and I thank God for them daily! 

Can't believe we're entering the third trimester!  Life is not slowing down for a moment, and we will be meeting our sweet baby soon!