A few of Kennedy's firsts

I can't believe that Kennedy is almost five months old. The time has just flown by. She has definitely started to develop her own personality over the last several weeks. Kennedy has been a very well behaved baby, but she hasn't gotten the hang of sleeping through the night. She is rolling over in all directions, learning to eat baby food and playing in her baby einstein exersaucer. She'll be crawling and walking before we know it!

Kennedy's first attempt at baby food. She's gonna need some more practice!

Kennedy's first time in the exersaucer. There's so much stuff to play with.
Big sister is feeding Kennedy a bottle and singing songs to her. She is a really good little helper!

This was Kennedy's first time taking a bath with the big kids. It didn't last very long because the big kids are just a little bit too rambunctious for her liking.

There are many more firsts to come, so we'll do our best to keep you posted!

Summer Recap

I have been such a terrible blogger so I will do my best to catch everyone up. Our summer has flown by! The kids have been spending a lot of time playing outside in the little pool and running through the sprinkler. I'm sure that Kennedy will be toddling around with the big kids this time next summer. I'll try to do better with the postings. Please enjoy the pictures!

Kennedy is modeling her new hairbow made by Aunt Chela. She's so crafty!

Addy and Lincoln are having a blast running from the sprinkler.
Lincoln is taking a break from all the playing and eating a snack in the pool.


Addy has been learning to ride her bike this summer. She really wants to be able to ride her bike like her big cousin Gracie.
On Wednesday evenings the big kids get to go golfing with Stephen. They love it! Stephen is hoping that they will love it just as much when the get bigger. He is working on getting them both their own set of clubs.

We went on our annual Hilton Head trip the first week of July and we had a great time. Here are a few favorites from our trip.

Kennedy's First Photo Shoot

We recently recieved some proofs from Kennedy's first photo shoot. We are very impressed with how they turned out. Once again, Whitney Ulm of Eminence Photography took these pictures. She did an awesome job! Here are just a few of our favorites from her session:


I love the picture of Addy and Lincoln holding their little sister. They look so proud!

Kennedy will be 3 weeks old tomorrow and she is doing very well. We have gotten used to the whole eating thing, now we just have to get this sleeping stuff down. She has been a very good baby, so I can't complain. We will go to the doctor tomorrow to see if she has made it back up to her birth weight. As of last Wednesday she was only 5 lb 7 oz, so hopefully we have made it back to 5 lb 10 oz by tomorrow.

Addy and Lincoln are doing a great job in their roles as big brother and sister. They love to help out. In fact, there have been many fights over who gets to throw the poopy diapers in the trash!

Addison Paige is 4 Today!

Our little girl turned 4 today! It doesn't seem possible that it has been four years since Addy was born. We celebrated her birthday on Saturday at Gymmnastics World with family and friends. The kids loved running around and playing on the trampolines and the pirate ship. Addy received lots of nice presents that she wanted to play with immediately, but unfortunately we didn't plan ahead with the appropriate batteries (we'll do better next time!) Somehow she was able to convince her mommy and daddy to get her the much wanted Pixos. We are regretting that decision, but she loves them!

Our first days at home

We have officially made it through our first 24 hours at home and everyone has survived! Addison and Lincoln are smitten with their baby sister and can't seem to get enough time with her. There have been a few arguments over who should get to hold Kennedy next, but they are doing really well.

Before leaving the hospital, we were told that Kennedy's bilirubin levels were high and that she would need to be on photo therapy to bring them down. A home health nurse came to our house to bring us the lights and she will return each day to draw Kennedy's blood until her levels return to normal. Hopefully we won't have to mess with these lights for too much longer because it doesn't allow for much cuddle time. She looks like a little glow worm under the lights!

We are still trying to get the whole eating and sleeping thing figured out, but Kennedy has been a very good baby. She seems so easy going, but I don't want to brag too soon in case I jinx it. I would be happy with 3 solid hours of sleep...wish me luck!

Kennedy's Birth Story

I am happy to announce that at 5:24 a.m. Kennedy Layne Sheets joined our family! She weighed in at 5 lb 10 oz and was 18.5 inches long. We had quite an exciting journey and it didn't go as planned, but we are all doing well and enjoying our time together.

Here is how it all started:

At 5:00 pm yesterday Stephen and I arrived at the hospital to register. We were taken upstairs to our room where I was hooked up to all the monitors so that they could keep an eye on the baby. Shortly after I was hooked up, they started an IV just in case it was needed later. Dr. Odaffer came in with an ultrasound machine to check on the position of the baby which ended up being head down, so we assumed we were in for a long night and a long day today. (Not so much!) Dr. Odaffer then began the induction with a foley bulb catheter which I will spare you the details of. It wasn't fun, but apparently it was very effective. While the foley bulb was in place, they also started Pitocin so that my body would start contracting. The contractions started coming about 3 minutes apart around 10 o'clock at which time they gave me some Ambien to help me sleep.(again not so much!) The contractions started getting really strong around 3 o'clock, so they gave me some Stadol to try and help me relax, but it didn't really do much. At 4 o'clock I got another dose which also didn't do much.

At 5 o'clock, my water broke, but my foley bulb was still in place which meant that I wasn't dilated anymore than 3 cm. With the next contraction the foley bulb was forced out, so my nurse Christy checked my cervix which was dilated to 5 cm. I politely asked for my epidural, so Christy went out in the hallway to call the anesthesiologist. While Christy was in the hallway, I told Stephen that something didn't feel quite right and I thought the baby would be coming soon. Christy came back into the room and I told her that I felt like I needed to push. She promptly responded with, "You can't push, the doctor isn't here!" She then checked me and realized I was serious. Stephen ran out of the room to get another nurse who called my doctor and the ER doctor.

The ER doctor was downstairs and my doctor lives about 10 minutes away from the hospital. Unfortunately neither of them made it for the arrival of Kennedy Layne. There was no time to break down the bed for delivery, no time for anyone to "catch" Kennedy (don't worry the bed wasn't broken down yet, so she had a nice soft landing), and no time for my epidural! I apologized profusely for having to push anyway, which I now realize was silly because that baby was ready to come out. Stephen came back into the room and within seconds we met our little girl!

Kennedy cried shortly after her safe landing on the bed. She was pink and moving around well. I was totally in shock so I didn't even pay attention to her Apgar scores. The ER doctor was able to cut the cord and tend to Kennedy and my doctor (Dr. Odaffer) made it in time to take care of me.

It all happened so fast and not at all as planned, but we have all enjoyed our first day together. Addison and Lincoln came down to meet their little sister this afternoon. Addison was completely crazy about her new little sister, she just couldn't get enough of her. Lincoln was also excited to hold his little sister, but it didn't last too long. I think it will take some time for Lincoln to adjust to our new family and I also think I am going to have to keep a close eye on Addison who will not be able to keep her hands off of our sweet little baby.

Sorry that this post is so long, but it was such an exciting adventure. We are all doing well and we should be sent home from the hospital on Saturday morning. We appreciate all the well wishes and words of encouragement. We both have such wonderful family and friends to share these exciting events with.

Enjoy the pictures!

Our last day as a family of four

Since today will be our last day at home as a family of four I thought that I would add another post to the blog. I even took pictures!

The weather was so nice today that we all decided to go outside to play. The kids get really pumped when we can all get outside together. Addison loves to dig in the "garden" and Lincoln usually strolls around the yard with a golf club or umbrella in hand chasing the birds away. I decided that since I will be in the hospital in about 24 hours I could ignore the bed rest orders. (shhh! Don't tell)
Doesn't Lincoln look so sweet and innocent?! I'm sure that daddy won't be impressed with the pink umbrella picture, but I just couldn't resist posting this picture.Lincoln was blocking the sun so Addy could get a really close look at her "beautiful flowers." I would call them weeds, but if she thinks they're beautiful we'll go with it!Addy was somewhat annoyed that I was disturbing her landscaping to take a picture of her.

Stephen and I will be heading to the hospital tomorrow evening at 5 pm. Look for the next post, it should have some baby info. I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Baby #3 will be here this week!

I had my final visit to the doctor's office today which I am not at all sad about. They took me back to the ultrasound room right when I got there so that we could check on baby's position. Believe it or not, the baby was head down today. This active little booger can't make up it's mind where it wants to be! The head is not engaged yet and they consider the baby to be in an "unstable lie" which means it could still turn in the next couple of days.

So, here is the plan: I will got into the hospital on Wednesday at 5 pm and we will check on the position of the baby. If the baby is head down, we will begin the induction process on Wednesday evening and most likely meet our baby sometime on Thursday. If the baby decides to flip again, we will do a c-section on Wednesday evening. We won't know anything for sure until we get admitted on Wednesday.

The doctor said that the baby looked great on the ultrasound. We could even see baby taking some practice breaths which was pretty neat. Keep your fingers crossed for an easy delivery for me.

I will try to update the blog as soon as I can after baby #3 is born! Wish us luck :^)

38 week update

I thought for sure there was going to be a baby this week, but according to my most recent phone call from the doctor's office it doesn't look like that will happen. At Monday's appointment, the baby was breech again, my blood pressure was high, and it sounded like we were going to meet this baby on Thursday. I did some more labwork and those results came back okay, so now we have to wait until next week. I will see the doctor again on Thursday and then I assume that we will either induce or do a c-section on Wednesday or Thursday of next week depending on the baby's position.

I am going to try to maintain my sanity here at home until this baby comes.

Sorry for the boring pictureless updates, but until this baby comes I won't have anything too exciting to show!

Another Update!

I have been reprimanded for not posting more often. I really have no excuse since I've been sitting at home doing nothing! I'll try to be better...

I had another appointment yesterday and once again my blood pressure was high (170/110). I was sent over to labor and delivery to be monitored for a little while and have some lab work done. After resting for an hour or so my blood pressure came down and my lab work came back okay, so they decided to send me home to continue with bed rest.

As of right now, Dr. Odaffer is diagnosing me with Pregnancy Induced Hypertension (PIH) and as long as I don't have any protein showing up in my lab work she wants me to make it to 39 weeks (March 18th). At 39 weeks she plans to induce me unless of course either a.) the baby decides to come on its own or b.)I get some bad test results before then. The baby seems to be growing well and as of yesterday was head down (on monday baby was not cooperating and the head was up by my ribs).

I'm trying to be patient. As of today if everything stays the same I have 12 days to go. If anyone has access to a time machine, I'd love to get my hands on it! Even Lincoln says, "Hurry up and get outta there baby!"

That's all for now...

One full week of bedrest and losing my mind!

Well it has been one full week of bed rest and I am getting even closer to losing my mind! I have been watching lots of daytime TV, internet surfing and reading some books, but I still think I'm starting to lose it. All this time at home has made me think of all the things that I could be doing, but am not allowed to do. It's pretty sad that I'd rather be doing laundry!!!

On another note, we had a friend from high school come to our house this weekend to take some pregnancy photos. Whitney Ulm is now running her own business called Eminence Photography out of Columbus, Indiana. Today she gave us a sneak peak of some of the pictures that she took. Whitney will be coming back in a few weeks to snap some pictures of the baby. We can't wait! Enjoy the pictures. Here is Whitney's website if you would like some more info: http://www.eminencephoto.com

Quick Update

I had a check-up today and my blood pressure was much better than the last visit. Bed rest has made a big difference so far. According to the ultrasound, the baby weighed in at a whopping 4 lb 14 oz but Dr. Odaffer did remind me that the accuracy of the ultrasound is about +/- 1 lb. She was pleased with the growth of the baby and with my improved blood pressure. I will continue to go in twice a week and we will do some more lab work at my next visit. I'll keep you posted!

Baby Update (35 weeks and counting)

As of Monday I am officially on strict bed rest. If you've never been on bed rest, you might think that this sounds great, but it just makes you think of all of the things that you could be doing and aren't allowed to do. My blood pressure was pretty high on Monday so Dr. Odaffer decided that it was best if I lay around and rest so that we can get to 37 weeks.

This morning I had an ultrasound to check on the growth of the baby and it looked as though everything was great, but I won't know any details until my appointment tomorrow. The image below is of the baby's profile, but you might have to take my word for it. I'm not too good at figuring out what is what on these things! Be sure to keep us in your thoughts. It looks like it will be about two weeks and we'll finally get to meet the little one!

Snow Day!!!

We woke up to a winter wonderland this morning. Mommy wasn't brave enough to travel to work today and daddy's day was cut short, so we are having a cozy day at home. Our morning began with Addison convincing Lincoln to play house with her. Addison was the mommy and Lincoln was one of her babies. She tucked Lincoln into bed with his two sisters. I'm pretty sure at this point, she could convince him to do anything. Hopefully that changes by the time they reach the teenage years!

While Stephen was out this morning, he got the kids some new gloves and some new boots for Lincoln so that they could play in the snow later. They insisted on trying them on and acting crazy.
The kids had a great time playing in the snow. Addison perfected the art of the snow angel with her daddy while Lincoln mostly just watched. He wasn't too excited about the cold, wet snow. We're hoping that tomorrow the snow will be better for making snowmen. Addy wants to make a whole family of snowmen. We'll see about that!

I'll close with a cute picture of Lincoln and his daddy. They both look sweet and innocent in this picture, but don't let them fool you!