Cheyenne is 1 month old!!

I can't believe how fast the first month of Cheyenne's life has gone by. She is such a joy and blessing. She is so laid-back and easy going. You would have to be when you are the 4th child. She loves to be in her swing, on the floor kicking around, on her tummy, in her crib, and being held. She is really content just about anywhere. She is sleeping now for 3 hours at a time now. She is still only 8lbs, but seems to be filling out her little body and has some adorable little rolls starting to show up. We are so in love with her. These pictures were taken on our window seat at our house.

Lots of updating from the past month.

Okay, where do I start. I will start with the beginning of June! In due fashion, my labor did not follow the traditional rules. I went in at 37 weeks for my OB apt. and was not dilated or effaced at all. I had made some progress at that point with all other 3 kids, so I was a bit discouraged and getting anxious. At 38 weeks, I went in and was 4 cm dilated and fully effaced...and slightly uncomfortable. That was a Friday. I had contractions through the weekend, but still worked at church on Sunday. I went in for an OB apt. on Tuesday, June 7th and was 6 cm dilated. My Dr. sent me over to L & D (which was across the hall from her office) so I waddled my way over. It took a couple of hours to get me hooked up and in a bed. There was no rush, since I wasn't in active labor, despite being 6 cm. I called Chad and he came up to the hospital, but I told him to go home and help with the kids since I was just hanging out in my bed and I would call him when things got interesting. My Dr. came in around 9:30 to break my water, so Chad did come up a few min. before that. Within 15 min. of breaking my water, I dilated from 6cm to 10cm. My Dr. had gone home, assuming it would be at least an hour or two, so she had to rush back up, while I just sat there and waited....which wasn't bad at all. She came in, I pushed through one contraction and was SHOCKED to find out we had a girl!!!! Chad had kept it a secret from me and Kiley for 6 months! The labor and delivery were both so short and easy. The recovery was not as easy because of a third degree tear and some serious stitches. After a week though, I felt healed for the most part. Kiley was in bed when Chad got home and she asked what we had in the morning. He told her a boy, of course. :) She came up to the hospital and said she was happy to have another brother, but really wanted us to have a girl. I then pointed to the baby's isolette and the sign that read "it's a girl" and Kiley was thrilled. She stayed up at the hospital with me and held her sister even after everyone else had gone home. We named her Cheyenne Isabella and we are sooo excited to have her! Cheyenne weighed 7 lbs 2 oz at birth, but dropped to 6 lbs 5 oz a couple days later. She is now up to 7 lbs 5 oz and perfectly healthy, eating well, sleeping as well as to be expected, and soooooo cuddly and sweet. The only time we hear her cry is when she is starving. Chad and I have finally, after 4 kids, figured out how to work effectively as a team. I get up with Cheyenne at night all 7 days of the week, unless it's a particularly rough night. Chad gets up with all of the kids on Sat. and Sun. mornings around 6:30am-early risers-and I sleep in as late as I need to, but I haven't slept in past 7:30am yet. Chad offers to help M-F, but he has an important job and needs to be well rested and able to be productive and efficient during the day. He comes home and most evenings after we put the kids to bed, he works on finishing our basement-so, he is just as exhausted as me. So far, so good. I also know this is our last baby (Chad is not so sure about this) and I am appreciating the one on one time that Cheyenne and I get at night.

Cheyenne is almost a month old and I can't believe how fast it's gone. I am sad that it's gone by so fast and hope it's not an indication of how fast her first year will go by.

For the 4th of July, we kept it pretty low key. We worked on the basement most of the day and then went next door for a BBQ and fireworks. Creighton loved them, Cort was scared of them and cried the entire time until we took him inside to watch a movie, and Cheyenne slept through the entire show. I can't wait to get our cabin and be able to spend the 4th on the lake with family. The basement is moving faster than expected. Chad has done all the work himself. He framed the entire basement and is now running electrical, installing appropriate plumbing and mechanical and then we will call for our first inspection before August, hopefully. I am really, really impressed with how skilled Chad is. I have always been so impressed with his talent as an architect, but he is so smart and can figure out nearly anything whether it be car repairs or electrical work. I am smart too, but I know that if I were to try to figure out electrical, I would start a fire and nothing would work. Here are some pics from the past month.

Daddy with his baby girl, who has already stolen his heart.

Baby Cort playing outside. It's so nice to be able to take Cheyenne out on our porch (which is covered so she doesn't get any sun) and just sit and watch the kids play.

Kiley climbing the tree and looking into the neighbors yard. I guess she will be nosy like me. :)

Cheyenne at 3.5 weeks

Cheyenne on the 4th of July in her outfit.

Cheyenne Isabella

Our sweet little girl was born on Tuesday, June 7 2011 at 10:37pm. She weighed 7 lbs 2 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. Like the others, she has beautiful blue eyes, but we are unsure of her hair color still.....although, I have no reason to think it will be anything but blond. :) She is the perfect baby and so laid back. Kiley is in love with her and so are her two older brothers, who are always very nurturing with her. So far, we have had no jealousy issues and all three kids love to hold her, kiss her, and bring her things. The labor was very short, about an hour and I only pushed through one contraction. I am loving having another girl and have taken so many pics of her already. I am sure she will grow up to be very comfortable in front of the camera, like Kiley.

The last OB appt. before the baby comes!

Today was my last scheduled OB appt. The next time I will see my Dr. is for my scheduled induction on Friday or if I go into labor sooner. I can't believe it's just around the corner. Today, I had another ultrasound and the fluid was still low, but no different than it's been the past two ultrasounds. I was also told that I am fully effaced and 4 cm dilated. I am not sure how I got there because I haven't been having too many contractions these past two weeks and last week I was not dilated or effaced at all. I'll take it though! I am a little nervous just because at 4 cm I was in the hospital getting the epidural with Kiley and Creighton. I was in labor for 12 hours with Cort before finally convincing myself I may be in true labor and calling my Dr. who came to my house and found me to be 4 cm. I then dilated and delivered within just a couple hours with Cort. My Dr. didn't advise me on anything other than to not take too long to figure out if it's labor or not once contractions start. It's easier said than done with me though because my labor doesn't follow the traditional rules. My contractions never got closer than 10 min. and never got more intense until I was either administered pitocin with Kiley and Creighton or had my membranes stripped with Cort...I know, that's a lot of info. I know I don't want to deliver a baby without an epidural so I will stay on top of things and not wait 12 hours this time :) We'll see how the next couple days go!

1st of 3 new posts...I am not sure why I didn't combine them into one.

Kiley, outside our house.

This is a picture of baby Cort wearing Kiley's bike helmet...and it looks like a necklace he got from church. He loves hats and shoes like Creighton, but Creighton steals most of his hats, so baby Cort has to improvise. He wore this helmet for a couple days :)

Kiley and Cort. She is so motherly to them. Cort hurt his lip and wanted to cuddle with her. She is better than any babysitter we could hire, but it's not legal until she is 12.......

This was the only pic I could get of Cort on Easter. He and Creighton had the same outfit and Kiley had a similar dress. I wish I could have gotten all three together.

These are Kiley's old glasses that Creighton found. They are dark pink, so Chad won't let him wear them in public, but I think he looks adorable. Here we are on our way to church on Easter.

Pregnancy stats!

My belly at 37 weeks.

Pregnancy stats: My weight: up 37lbs total....hmmmm.....

Blood pressure: seems to always be in the 120/70 range. 110/78 on Monday.

Babies heart rate: 124-135 while on the monitor in the hospital overnight (explained in the post below). I still have my money on another boy!!!!!

Babies weight: Estimated last Friday at 6 lbs 2 oz, so most likely about 6 lbs 8 oz now and 20 inches long. (About the size of baby Cort when he was born). Only 15 more days until my due date, but I am thinking I may go into labor on my own before or wind up getting induced because of low amniotic fluid (again, explained below...I should have flipped these posts) Otherwise, everything is looking good with the baby!

Lots of catching up!

It's been a busy couple months to say the least! I'll try to catch things up beginning with Easter. Easter was very nice and laid back for us. We went to a brunch at church and it was so nice to sit around and chat with friends. It was also nice to see so many faces that I often don't get to see. I had the kids all dressed similar and it was so funny to see the looks on peoples faces when they saw I was pregnant and asked if it was my first and I said "nope, that one, that one, and that one over there are mine too". The kids participated in the church's Easter egg hunt too. We went home and they took their Sunday marathon naps which lasted from about 1:00-5:00 that evening. When they woke up, we did an Easter egg hunt in the house and had a nice dinner. I finally broke the news about the Easter bunny not being real to Kiley. I did offer an explanation of why the bunny represents Easter, spring, and new life. I also threw the tooth fairy in. I am sure Kiley had already begun to figure these things out. She has drilled me about Santa and every other holiday mascot since last year and I keep trying to pass it off to the grandma's to explain, ignore it all together, or find someway to mix a little bit of the truth in without answering to honestly. Finally, I figured she is 9 1/2, all her friends keep telling her they aren't real, and she continues to ask (I think just to put me on the spot). She didn't seem to care at all and now she can participate in the fun for her younger siblings.

Mother's day could have been better. Chad has gone to skiing and golfing ( a Colorado thing-since there aren't many places you can go skiing in the morning and then golf in 70 degree weather in the afternoon) the day before, so I hadn't gotten much done around the house since he was gone all day. Cort got very sick around 5pm that night and I heard the infamous croup cough. I normally wouldn't get too worried about something like this, but he was having a very difficult time breathing and so I took him into the E.R. (Sadly, ruining my streak of never having to take a child to the E.R). He had a fever of 104 and was feeling pretty miserable. We stayed until around 1am. They gave him meds and a breathing treatment and observed him for several hours before giving us the okay to head home. He was sick for about 5 days after and then Creighton got it and was sick with it for another 5 days. My Mother's day weekend was spent cuddling my sick babies....but, I wouldn't have even considered leaving them for a minute when they were feeling so sick. I meant to go get a pedicure another weekend and have a Mother's day re-do, but things haven't really calmed down here long enough for me to sneak away.

Creighton moved to his "big boy" bed. About a year ago, we put a twin bed in his room along with his crib. He loves to lay in his bed and watch movies, but when he gets tired, he asks to sleep in his crib. I can't bring myself to force him out of his crib before he is ready. Finally, around his 3rd birthday, he showed much more of an interest in his bed than his crib. He's been doing great since moving to his bed! We haven't had any problems with him coming down at night or anything. I think that my belief in following their cues instead of pushing them into something they aren't ready for is still the best way. He goes to bed at 7pm, no tears or complaining, and sleeps until 7am, when he gets himself up and dressed and makes his way downstairs.

The basement is making good progress. All the rooms are framed. There is now a clearly defined office/study (that is much larger than a typical office-but it's also a conforming bedroom that we will use as an office and it has to be large enough to fit two desks and a drafting table) It's 12 X 12, the size of a large bedroom. There is another 12 X 12 bedroom that will be a guest room, a living room, a play room/area off the living room, a bathroom, a storage room, and a workout room! Chad's done nearly all of it himself and has only injured himself twice-once shooting a nail through his finger with a nail gun and another time by getting his finger stuck between two walls. I think getting a tetanus booster would be a good idea! I am excited to see the progress, but it will take another 6 months to a year to completely finish.

The pregnancy is winding down. I am 37.5 weeks now. A week ago, I hurt my stomach....One would think that with baby #4 I would have an idea of where my stomach was, but nope. I am constantly bumping it on things. I just don't seem to have a good idea of where it ends! I hurt it at around 8am and it was pretty sore. I thought I would give it all day to see how it felt later. As the day went on, the pain became pretty intense and at 6pm, I decided I should just go in and make sure there was no serious damage. I never go to the Dr. with complaints and NEVER go to the E.R., but I was feeling pretty bad and was concerned for the baby. My Dr. had me go to LDR for an extended non-stress test. Once I was all hooked up, they realized I was in labor. I had pretty bad contractions every 3 min......maybe that was what was hurting so bad :). I ended up being admitted and staying overnight. After about 6 hours the contractions stopped and I was able to go home the next day. I had to go in for a follow up 2 days later. An ultrasound showed my amniotic fluid was very low. My Dr. did not want to induce me at that point so she gave me the option of going back to LDR for 1-2 days to get fluids or to go home for the weekend and drink 120 oz of water each day and stay off my feet and be re-checked on Monday. I opted to go home. Monday's visit showed no change in the fluid level and that my fundal height was measuring 34 instead of 37. I go back in on Friday to have both re-checked. We are just taking it day by day now. If the fluid drops or there is no growth in my fundal height, an early induction may be the best option. Also, I am full term, so I could go into labor on my own. I have already made it further than I did with Cort. Even if there is no induction, my due date is only 15 days away!!! We are ready, but I'd like to get through next week and the end of the school year. We shall see!!!