Thumbs Up Thumbs Down Thursday

Happy two weeks of life my little Cheyanne. I have decided to share how we celebrated with a little thumbs up thumbs down Thursday game.

Here we go.

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Thumbs up to precious sleeping faces!

Thumbs up to being more alert during the day! Bright eyed girl.
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And an even bigger thumbs up to cuddling on the couch while its raining cats and dogs outsides! Flooding them is actually more like it.


Thumbs up to our new cloth diapers. Today was our first day trying them out and so far so good. Of course, the Thirsties diaper cover sure does help (see orange?). So cute. And note Peapod throwing out the peace sign. She liked the orange Thirsties too.

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Thumbs down to gas. Baby gas causes baby screams. Thumbs down to both of those actually.

Thumbs down to dark circles under my eyes from lack of sleep even though Mom had the baby most of the night last night. I think the last three nights before of me handling the baby by myself all night might have caught up to me. Maybe tonight will be better.

That's all for my thumbs down. Life is good.

My 8-pounder

From 7lbs 8oz to 8lbs even in 12 days. She's a healthy girl my 8 pound beauty.



She's more alert each day. We spend much more time eating and playing now. I introduced her to a rattle sound today,, and she loved it. She even smiled a few times!... Then she lost interest and cried, but those smiles were priceless while they lasted! My mom's still here and she'll vouch for those purtty smiles too. Of course, more alert time means less sleep for me and much more time breastfeeding. That alone takes a lot out of me, but its worth it.

OK, well its late and I have an hour before she wakes up to eat, so I'm going to run to bed and grab a few minutes of shut eye. Wish me luck. Oh, and happy two weeks in the world tomorrow Cheyanne. Sniff sniff.

I will leave you with this. Pictures from Chey's first bath from last week, a sponge bath only since her umbilical cord hadn't fallen off yet. These pictures are a little late, but oh well. Thank you Nana for your continual assistance in the bath area since Cheyanne seems to like pretty much EVERYTHING else more than a bath.

This is how it began. Calm.

And this is what it became. Brutal.

Nana and Peapod made amends

She slept it off. It was traumatic.

New and Improved

That's how I feel. I feel new and improved--- and exhausted and a little confused on a daily basis. But, Cheyanne has made my life so much better just in her short little nine days of life, that new and improved takes up most of my day. Nine days. How, oh how, is that possible? Is it too early to say that time is flying by? I am loving these days.

Every day she changes. Its the neatest thing to see how much she develops from day to day. Like even from morning to night, she is obviously learning new things. Around day five, she became much more alert, staring at things with these HUGE bright eyes all day long. I think that she started to see colors because she would stare at my mom's bright yellow shirt for long periods of time or at anything colorful that moved. She looked a little something like this.



We had her first doctor's appointment on Monday. They weighed her and she was doing great. She only lost 3 ounces since her birth weight. Then we weighed her again yesterday and she is at 7lb 12oz already (my weight when I was born). She's growing so fast. I thought it was supposed to take two weeks to get back to her birth weight. Well apparently despite all that breastfeeding pain (for me not her), she is getting something good out of it. That actually has been our main struggle since we've been home. Breastfeeding. Friends, let me tell you... especially my children-free friends that want to breastfeed one day. Its hard work. It may not be as easy as you have always thought it would be. Perhaps for some it comes naturally. But, for me it did not. For neither of us actually. Its very much still a work in progress at each and every feeding. But, it is sooo worth it. That satisfied look on her face afterwards melts me heart every time. So anyways, I will be working on my birth story post and get it up as soon as I can. Its crazy how very unmotivated I am to do much other than stare at my little sweetheart all day. One of these days, I'll entertain you again. I hope ;)

For now, I'll leave you with this.



My little clone is just too cute. Can you see the resemblance?

Happy EDD baby

and thank goodness you have been here for 5 days already! Wait. How have you been here in my life for 5 day already? Here's what you did today to celebrate... made a lot of funny faces.













Yep. We had a very exciting day. Eating. Sleeping. Pooping. Takes a lot out of a girl. Now we really are pooped so we're off to sleep to do it all over again tomorrow.

Sneak Peak

Here's a quick sneak peak at my world during the last few days... Much more to follow (one day...when I sleep for more than 45 minutes at a time).

All this...











Led to this perfect beauty...

























Cheyanne Faye born 9/16 at 6:13pm 7lbs8oz 20.5inches

She's Here!

Cheyanne Faye is Here! At exactly 6:13pm, she made her debut into the world. She couldn't be more perfect.

2 Days Left

What do you do when you have two days left before you have a baby? Last day before induction begins...?

1) Give yourself a manicure - using this french tip pen (which I just bought and love! So easy.).



2) Carefully give yourself a pedicure. Carefully.

3) Clean the kitchen for the mmphteenth time of the week.

4) Clean the entire house for that matter for the mmphteenth time of the week.

5) Attempt to finalize Peapod's middle name.

6) Take a shower and make yourself look halfway attractive, even if you can't find anything to wear that will fit over the belly.

7) Move Peapod's bassinett into your room.

8) Repack your's and Peapod's hospital bags.

9) Go to mother-in-law's to pick up Babies R Us coupons, then head to Babies R Us.

10) Organize iPod delivery playlist, after figuring out why your iPod isn't syncing...

11) Deal with health insurance.

12) Fix broken toilet seat (that you might have broke while cleaning the shower and slipped on).

13) Laundry.

14) Walk. Walk. Walk.

15) Finish knitting Peapod's booties.

16) Fix beds when the Giant gets home from football practice tonight.

17) Sweep out garage.

18) Go to storage unit and pick up a few things.

19) Think of more things that need to be done today and add to list.

20) Rest.

Yep, that's my list of things to do. So what am I doing now? Sitting on the couch blogging. Maybe that should be #21 on the list. Ooooor #1 perhaps?

Oh and happy 39 weeks to me!!

4 Days Left

Let the countdown begin. 4 days!!

Survey time!! (a few days late...)

How far along?: 38 weeks
How big is baby?: She's ready, that's all we know.
Weight Gain?: Right around 25lbs.
Stretch Marks?: Thank you Mom's genes for not passing down stretch marks.
Maternity Clothes?: Dresses and my maternity capris. That's about it.
Sleep?:Well lets see, I woke up at 3:30am (after three trips to the bathroom since 11:30) and haven't fallen back to sleep. So, sleep? No. Not so much.
Best moment this week?: Scheduling my induction for next Thursday!
Food Cravings?: Not craving much at this point. But I have eaten Mexican twice this week trying to get things going. Nothing...
Pregnancy brain?: She's all I'm thinking about.
Gender?: Girly girl.
Movement?: I think we might both be uncomfortable now. She has no more room. I have no more comfortable positions. So, lets go baby!! Come on!
What I miss?: Being able to lay down comfortably.
Belly Button?: Outty out out out. But only for a few more days!
Labor Signs?: Lots of random cramps and tightness all day but nothing constant still.
What I'm looking forward to?: Thursday is the BIG day!
Milestone?: Hmm... biggest milestone this week. Done with work! My last day was Friday. You know things are close when I'm not working anymore. WOOHOO!

Our last trip to the beach before baby gets here. I couldn't even fit in my preggo suit. What's that? Nice gut hanging out you say?! Hey it took a lot of guts for me to put this gut picture up!

Here's a better one of us last week at a Tides baseball game. We went to watch a friend Martin "run the bases" at the end of the game, but I got a little tired. I made it to the 5th inning and called it quits. My attempts to walk the whole game and walk this baby out failed.
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So what are we doing today? Working on the list that I created at 4:30 this morning...plus a few extra things. So since its just been the Giant and I here, we have a few things to get from storage. Like, we need more than two bowls in the house. And, a few extra blankets for beds. Hmm, I won't go through the whole list or you will get horribly bored! OK the Giant's home from the gym so its time to get crackin'. Enough procrastinating.

Back Online [way too early]

It's 6:30 in the morning and I'm awake. No big deal right? Right, people get up this time every day for work. Except, I've been awake since 3:30. Doing what you ask? Nothing. I laid in bed for almost two hours just thinking. Trying to get comfortable. Once finding a comfortable position, trying to decide if I really needed to get up to use the bathroom. Wondering if I should go ahead and wake up to start my day or if the Gods would find favor on me and let me drift back to sleep. No such luck. So after two near misses of my husband's elbow in my face as he tossed and turned every time I tossed and turned, I gave up. Here I am. Laying on the couch, with it still dark outside, wrapped in a blanket, blogging.

But, notice I'm at home blogging?! Yep, we're back to the 21st century. We have internet and all 22 channels of basic cable [which the installation tech told us he never has to put in for younger people, but mostly for old retirees that just watch the news- thanks tech guy- we are broke and actually do like the news]. So, let the catch up begin.

Turning the frown

Here's my quick update that I am begrudgingly writing. Not because I don't want to update you, but because I had so wished I had something different to update with.

First, I had my 38 week appt today. No changes. Still. 1cm. However, I've had my time to sulk and cry and be depressed. I've had a few hours to recoup from my disappoinment and am moving on. Moving on to the idea that apparently baby girl just needs a little more time in there. As Dr. sis said, even though I don't see changes dialation-wise, things are happening. So, I'm trusting that my body is needing more time to prepare and Peapod is getting herself ready for her big debut. Positive thoughts. Positive thoughts. Man, its getting hard. Nothing that I(we) have done has helped so far. Ok, I'm stopping here on this one before I slip back into sad mode. Good thoughts.

Second, my OB scheduled my induction for next week, Wednesday AM which means then Thursday I'll be admitted into the hospital for baby girl's birth. Good part, baby girl is at most one week away from holding. YAY! HUGE YAY! That part hasn't completely hit me yet at all. I'm still thinking about the bummer part, this means I have to change hospitals to one I wasn't crazy about deliverying in because it is much farther away from home and older. I really liked our other hospital Obici. Its brand new and we're comfortable there since that's where we did our birthing class. The staff is wonderful and the facility is immaculate. So I'm still holding out that Peapod will make her appearance sometime this week. PLEASE!!! Switching subjects for real this time...

Third, we still don't have internet at the house- however- good news! We are getting it this weekend!! WOOHOO technology! As of Saturday at noon, we should be revisiting the 21st century sans Redbox movies. Life without internet/tv at home wasn't so bad for a while, until my blackberry called it quits on me leaving me completely technologyless. No good. Not for this Crackberry at least. So, soon and very soon, I'll be back to my bloggity blog ways (with pictures). Excited? Probably not as much as me.

And last but not least, the Giant is back. Not back back because that would have meant he left and has returned. No no. (No thanks to the USAF- different subject). He is back in football mode, in more than one way. Its football season- another big push for getting tv/internet going in the house. And in our house football season isn't just a season, its a way of life. Our schedules completely revolve around who's playing when. (OH boy is he in for a few changes when Peapod comes?!). But so this year, football isn't just on tv for him. Its on the field again, but in a different and waaaay cuter way. He'll be on the sidelines this time as assistant coach of a local middle school (6th-8th grade) football team this season! He is the Offensive Line coach, and they had their first practice yesterday. He expected the worst from these little ones (seriously, I've heard they are little...not in comparison to me I'm sure...just little for middle school boys apparently) based on all he'd heard from the head coach. However, he split the offense into two teams: the bigger/experienced ones and the smaller/lacking experience ones. He took the latter ones to test out and by the end of the first half of practice, the assistant offensive coach he had practicing the bigger boys wanted to switch kids because the smaller ones were catching on faster! :) GO GIANT!! I always knew he'd be a great coach. Even though most of the littler 6th grade boys will be cut, purely due to size, he was happy with the turnout. Practice is every day after school until 6:30. Games are on Wednesdays. I can't wait to take Peapod to these to watch her daddy coach like a big boy. If we weren't ridiculously broke, I'd be that killer coach's wife that makes homemade brownies and brings Caprisuns for after the games. But, yeah that won't be happening. Not this year at least.

That is all for now. How's your post-Labor Day Wednesday going? Wow, that was supposed to be a "quick update." Sorry for the long read with no pictures to break it up for amusement.

Look Who We Saw

BABY MAX!!!

Cheyanne's future play buddy. We finally got to meet this little stud over the weekend and let me tell you, he is precious! All of 11ish pounds and the spitting image of his daddy. It was a nice surprise that the Saia's were coming in town, despite the "destructive" hurricane Earl. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to see them until after Cheyanne's here. Which by the way, she is not yet. I think I might be pregnant for the rest of my life. At least its starting to feel that way. Maybe my long walk last night helped. OK, here's my last picture of me and Max. My cell phone has died and is currently at Verizon trying to be fixed. We'll see. Its pretty d.e.a.d. If not, my bro-in-law is going to give me his old phone tonight and I'll have it up and running tomorrow. Now is NOT a good time to be without a phone!!!

Earl is a Girl

Hurricane Earl... what a dud. Now we have multiple stacked packs of bottled water, a new flashlight, extra batteries, and barely even a puddle to show for us surviving Earl. Oh well. We're going to have a hurricane party anyways- with our lights on and water running



And no hurricane baby yet. Yesterday was my 37 week appointment and no progress. I'm still at 1cm. Disappointed to say the least. I decided to take off work the rest of the day yesterday and today. I was too frustrated yesterday to go back to work and decided I need a full day to myself. None of my walking or other efforts had helped, so, we're stepping up the efforts now. Today, I'm elevating my feet to help this dang swelling. All I can think when I see my swollen feet is the Eddie Murphy version of The Nutty Professor movie when his feet and hands start swelling so much they look like they are about to burst! Elevating seems to be helping a little. I'm also spending the rest of the day getting some final things done around the house. I've cleaned baby girl's window shades. Washed all sheets and towels in the house. Cleaned the kitchen twice. Working on my thank you cards. Lots to do in between propping up the feet. Oh and the Giant brought me to the in laws house for a while while they're at work to use their internet..hehe :) I needed to blog.

Let's see. I have pictures to catch you up on. A random mix of pictures, but ones I obviously haven't been able to upload so here you go.

My daddy made this for little girl

These are here new Kenya sweaters from Aunt T

Her closet so far

Her hospital bag is packed and ready to go!

Her entertainment shelf :)

Our closet sea of pink