Long-legged Brunette!

Our first two weeks with Maddie have been going perfectly! She is such a GOOD baby and is already sleeping great at night - only waking up once or twice. Can't complain about that! She had her 2-week doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon and I was anxious to see how long she was because she's already out-growing a lot of her 0-3 month outfits and her toes are reaching the end of some of her sleep sacks when she stretches. Sure enough - she's grown 2 inches since birth and is measuring 22-inches long which puts her in the 90th percentile for her height and she's an even 9 pounds (gaining 14-ounces since her appt. last week!) which puts her in the 75th percentile for weight. So we have ourselves a long-legged brunette! The doctor also got quite a kick out of her when he asked her to open her mouth so he could check things out in there and sure enough - she did. :o) She's a genius already!! Overall, she's doing fantastic and the doctor said that she has a more "mature" look about her than most 2-week old babies. I'm sure when she's a teenager we won't be real thrilled about her looking more mature than other girls her age!

Last Saturday night we went to G&G Wunderlin's for supper to celebrate grandpa's birthday and Travis' (which was Sunday). Maddie slept pretty much the entire time we were there and wasn't even bothered when being passed from person to person. So I don't think I have to worry about the daycare noises bothering her at all!

Lexi, Kiegan and Patrick are all doing great too! I need to get a picture of each of them holding Maddie to put on here - hopefully this weekend I'll remember to do that. I think we're finally going to get to have Christmas with my parents this weekend too - nothing like still celebrating Christmas in the middle of January! Kiegan has decided to play basketball at the Boys & Girl's Club - his first practice was this past Saturday and he did great! Travis did end up ordering him a pair of basketball shoes - his regular tennis shoes apparently have no traction on the gym floor because he kept sliding around when he'd try to stop and shoot a basket. His next practice is tonight and his first game is on Saturday. Lexi has also decided to play volleyball at the Boys & Girl's Club! She has volleyball clinic every day next week after school and then her games will start in February. We're glad that the kids are getting more active!!

I busted out my Wii Fit the other day and despite the fact that I only have about 1 more pound to lose before I'm at my pre-pregnancy weight, I am considerably overweight for my age & height. Not that I was surprised by that! And my Wii Fit age is 41 years which is also not surprising considering the fact that I don't exercise AT ALL. Kiegan also made a profile for himself and he is considered obese for his age and height which we all knew he was getting too chunky and his Wii Fit age is 22 years old! Lexi really wasn't too bad - she is overweight for her age, but her Wii Fit age is 13 years. Travis attempted to make a profile for himself, but the Wii Fit board's scale apparently doesn't go beyond 300 pounds. It's been fun doing the different exercises and getting lectured by the game when we go too many days between exercising - you can't help but laugh!

That's all for now - enjoy the pics below!

Here is a shot during "tummy time" of all of the hair she has:

See that pouty bottom lip? Daddy says that's what will get me anything I want from him!

Doing what I do best....sleeping.....

Welcome Madalyn Elizabeth Sancken 12-31-08!!

Our little Maddie has finally arrived and we missed having the first New Year's baby by just over 5 hours! When we went to the hospital Wednesday morning for our non-stress test and ultrasound to check that there was still enough fluid for her to be ok in - we had no idea what the day would end up bringing. The ultrasound went just fine - they give the baby 30 minutes to do certain things such as move and stretch around, practice breathing, etc. Of course Maddie waited until she had about 3 minutes left before doing any of her stuff, but did pass with flying colors. After the ultrasound, we headed up to the OB department for the non-stress test. This was basically just the nurse putting the monitor on my belly that tracks my contractions and making sure that's all going ok. About 20 minutes into that, she told me that I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes which was not news to us since I had been having them for about a week and a half or so. She asked if we wanted her to check me to see where I was as far as dilation goes - we told her that would be great and when she checked me, she said I was almost a four! She let us off of the monitor and told us to walk around the hospital for awhile to see if we can get me to a four because if I could get there then she could probably convince Dr. Nyi to admit me. So we practically ran around the hospital hoping it would do the trick and when we went back to the room for her to check me again, I was almost a six! AWESOME!!! My contractions were also closer together (although I still wasn't feeling them much) and Dr. Nyi said that there's no way he could let us go home now. YES!!! So the nurse hooked me up to my IV and got my antibiotics started that I had to have since I tested positive for the Group B Strep. They are suppose to get 2 rounds of the antibiotics in me 4 hours apart BEFORE the baby is born to ensure that the baby will not get sick from the Group B. Dr. Nyi came in and broke my water at 2:37pm and gave me an hour to progress before putting me on the Pitocin which I was really dreading b/c I had heard horror stories about how Pitocin can make things much harder. After an hour, I had not progressed as much as he had hoped so they started me on a very low dose of Pitocin - I was still not feeling much as far as the contractions were concerned. After another hour, they bumped the Pitocin up from a level 2 to a level 4 which seemed to do the trick! They said that a level 4 of Pitocin is what they call a "whiff" because it's such a low level - most moms need it bumped up to the max before it does what it needs to. Dr. Nyi said that if I were to have an epidural then he could probably get me ready to push even quicker, but I was like "Heck no!" I had no interest in having an epidural! Finally, I could tell that I was ready to push and exactly 3 pushes later Miss Maddie was born at 6:44pm - almost 4 hours after my water was broke. Dr. Nyi told us next time to just save ourselves a few thousand dollars and just deliver at home since everything was so quick and easy for me. :o) Maddie weighed in at 8 lbs. 8 oz., 20 inches long and was absolutely perfect from head to toe including a head FULL of beautiful black hair! She took to nursing immediately and Travis took to changing diapers immediately. In fact, he changed her first two yucky diapers within 10 minutes of each other - she has the pooping thing down for sure! We did end up staying in the hospital an extra day because she was jaundice and had to be in one of those incubators with the bright lights. She looked like she was in a tanning bed with her little glasses on and everything! When we left the hospital Saturday night, she weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz. - she had lost almost a whole pound, but there was no concern over it. We were glad to get back home though - there's just not much sleep to be had in a hospital. Home Health did deliver us a lighted blanket that we had to keep on her at all times to help with her jaundice, but when the Home Health nurse came out to the house Sunday to draw her blood and check her levels, she called us back later that afternoon and said her levels were dropping and we could take her off of it! We were glad for that because it just wasn't easy to hold and cuddle her with this blanket/machine attached to her. She then had her first doctor's appointment on Monday and passed with flying colors. All three of the kids really love her and are doing a great job of not being too wild and crazy loud when she's sleeping (which is all the time!). And Daddy is absolutely head over heels over his Princess as he likes to call her. The first thing he does when he gets home is plop in the recliner with her and just hold her and watch her. She has some of the greatest little faces that she makes! I'll stop bragging about her now and get some pictures posted as I'm sure that's what everyone is waiting for!!! But let's just say that we are enjoying every single second of finally having her with us - she is such a calm, relaxed little girl.

Just minutes after she was born:

In her tanning bed (check out all of that hair!):

A proud Daddy:

A week old already:

Latest update...

Well, it looks like January 5th will be THE day unless something happens between now and then! The doctor's office was able to get me in at 9:30 this morning. Actually, it was more like 10:30 - Dr. Nyi had to go do an emergency c-section! So in the meantime, I went over to our family doctor to see if I could get something stronger for this horrible cough of mine. And guess what I have?? Bronchitis!! Isn't that awesome?! So I'm on 10 days of Penicilin (yes, it's safe for the baby) which I honestly wanted to hug the nurse practicioner when I left the office because I was so happy to have drugs. I've had this cold since Thanksgiving and it's become worse over the last week or so. Then when I got back to the OB's office (the two offices are just down the hall from each other) they were ready for me! Dr. Nyi tried to find every reason he could to suggest inducing me this week, but my blood pressure is fine, I'm not leaking fluid (well, I still leak pee), I'm not dilated past a 3, I'm not 100% thinned, the baby's heartbeat is perfect so we just wait. I go back Wednesday morning for another ultrasound just to make sure the level of fluid that the baby is living in is still ok and to check for some other stuff - just normal procedure for when you go past your due date. So it's still a waiting game!!

Change in baby plans :o(

Well, to start things off we ended up in OB again Friday night. I was having contractions 3-4 minutes apart so they monitored me for 3+ hours, but no more progress was being made. I was still dilated at a 3 and wasn't thinning anymore - the doctor said we could stay longer and see what the night brought or we could go home. We decided to head on home where it was more comfortable. Today was just more of the same - I did have a couple of contractions this morning that stopped me in my tracks, but that was it. I did have a lot of energy though I think because of the excitement of what was going to happen tomorrow! I mopped the floors, caught up on laundry (and even put it away which is the WORST part of laundry!) and cleaned the bathroom. The rest of the day we spent just relaxing and watching movies (If you haven't seen Stepbrothers yet - it is a MUST! We've watched it MANY times now and we laugh harder every time!). For supper, we ordered out and Travis even brought home a Pepsi for me - that was the bestest!! We decided to go ahead and go to Travis' cousin's wedding reception for a bit, but we didn't plan to stay for long since we needed to be up at 4:00am to get ready to head to the hospital. BUT I ended up getting a phone call from the OB department letting me know that we will NOT be induced tomorrow. WHAT?! I was caught off guard by the call so I didn't even think to ask why. Very disappointing though....but what good does being upset do? A great friend of mine that happens to be a nurse at the hospital looked into things for us and come to find out the hospital does not schedule inductions on weekends because they do not keep surgery "in house" (in case I were to need a c-section) and that our doctor absolutely should have known this before scheduling us for Sunday. UGH!! So I am just to call first thing Monday morning to schedule my next weekly appointment. Maybe things will just happen on their own - you never know! I'll keep everyone updated as best I can!

Baby news - the end is near!!

We had our weekly appointment this morning and it started off a bit frustrating. We didn't have the nurse that we usually have and that makes things frustrating because this nurse didn't know anything about us or where we were at with things. She told us that the doctor probably won't be checking me today which we both looked at each other like "What?!" We had to convince her to check us last week and were told that she normally doesn't start checking until 39 weeks which is how far along I am now. So when Dr. Ingram came in the room and saw that I still had my clothes on, she didn't look too happy. So she handed me my lovely little paper skirt and stepped out of the room so I could change. When she came back, she listened to the heartbeat which was in the 140's - where it should be and when she checked me, I was dilated to a 3! So she said we had two options: we could either plan to come in on Sunday to be induced or wait and see what next week brings. The only problem with waiting to see what next week brings is that our doctor is on vacation and is not on call at all so we would have Dr. Nye who we are not comfortable with. PLUS Travis is so worried that with this lovely weather we're having that something will happen and he'll be at the far end of the county with no cell phone service and I won't be able to get a hold of him. So we have decided to go in on Sunday morning to be induced! We are to arrive at 5am, but call first around 4am to make sure they have an available room (just in case other expectant moms went into labor over the weekend and hogged all of the rooms). If by chance they don't have a room for me then we will have to go with plan #2 and wait to see what next week brings. It's getting exciting!!!

In other news - our weekend was ok despite the nasty weather. Travis is getting a lot of OT in and was told to plan on working Christmas Day thanks to what it looks like we've got coming our way. Saturday night we were suppose to go to a wedding/reception, but I wasn't feeling the best so we ended up getting some movies to watch (all of our little people were at grandparents houses for the night). BUT power lines were falling all over the county thanks to the heavy ice that was on them and the MAJOR wind we were having; so Travis got called out to close a bunch of roads. I ended up going with him and we didn't get back home until 2am - talk about a long night! We thought maybe the bumpy ride in the truck would get something started, but it didn't. We had a couple of Christmas' back-to-back on Sunday afternoon at my in-laws house which is thankfully only about 1/4 mile down the road, but the wind was so terrible that I was a nervous wreck walking outside on the super icy ground! Not to mention that we didn't have power so none of us were able to take showers - that's always fun to be the stinky ones at a family gathering. :o) It all worked out though and everyone received awesome gifts (I got a Wii Fit so I will be one skinny mama after the baby is born!). Our power came back on finally last night, but now today it keeps going off and on (it just now shut off and came back on). So I've been trying to make a quick lunch for the kids while it's on and get stuff done - makes for a long day when there's no power!!

Keep watching for updates - there's still a chance that the baby could decide to arrive before Sunday!!

No exciting news to report :o(

We were really hoping to have some great announcement after our doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon, but we left there with an appointment card for our next weekly appointment. We had to convince the doctor to check me because we were just convinced that I had progressed since my last check thanks to all of the pains and contractions I was having over the weekend. So when she finally did, she felt as though I was only dilated to a 1 - not a 2 like Dr. Nye had thought. She just said that can happen when different people check. UGH. She even made the comment that we could have a New Year's baby which was NOT what we wanted hear. We just both looked at each other like "NO WAY." She likes things to happen naturally which is how I think they should happen too, but I'm getting a bit impatient I think! Travis is really worried that I'm going to go into labor during bad weather and he'll be at the far end of the county plowing and won't be able to get to me or the hospital in time. She did say that she won't let me go more than a week past my due date so at least we know we only have about 2 weeks left before the big day!

We were also worried about this round of antibiotics that I have to have. I tested positive for Group B Streptococcus (GBS) which can possibly be passed to the baby at birth; so I have to have 2 rounds of antibiotics through an IV the moment I go into the hospital to give birth. This also means the baby can't actually be born for 4 hours after my labor starts so that I can get both rounds in me! Now with this being my third baby - the labor could go really quickly (which would be great!) and they may not be able to get all antibiotics in me, but the chances of the baby getting sick are very small especially since he/she will be full-term. I just need to make sure that if my water breaks at home that I immediately get to the hospital so the IV can be started (yahoo for IV's). This whole process is new to me because once again, this was not something that Doc ever tested me for. Oh well - I'll survive, right??

We head back next Tuesday morning (if we're still pregnant) - watch for an update!

Happy Monday!

Only 10 days until Christmas - yikes! Actually, I think we're in pretty good shape. Travis & I headed to Bloomington on Saturday and finished up the last of the shopping. Now it's time to wrap it all!

We thought maybe this past weekend was going to be THE weekend. I was having some pretty decent contractions and back pains. We tried to stay close to home most of the weekend, but it all eventually went away. I'm curious to see if the contractions helped me to progress anymore though - our next appointment is this Wednesday afternoon. I don't know if she'll check me or not, but I think I'm going to ask her to anyway just out of curiosity. I have to admit that what I dread the most when the day actually gets here is the IV I'll have to have. Once again, that wasn't something Doc Hable did, but I guess Dr. Ingram gives you an IV no matter what. Yahoo....can't wait for that one. I must say that my body seems to be preparing me for some sleepness nights. I seem to wake up around 2:00 a.m. and am either up for the day or end up falling back asleep around 4:30-5:00 only to wake up an hour or so later to get Lexi & Kiegan ready for school. So this also means that I'm sleeping a lot during the day - so if you try to call me and I don't answer it's probably because I'm sleeping! :o)

Kiegan ended up coming down with something Sunday morning. He was running a low grade fever and had diarhea and vomiting to top it all off. He just sort of hung out all day Sunday and by the time he went to bed he was over it - so who knows what it was, I just hope he didn't share it with me! That would really stink....

This week isn't too busy for us - doctor's appointment on Wednesday, kid's Christmas program on Thursday, wedding Saturday night and 2 Christmas' in a row on Sunday (which by the way is my birthday so maybe I'll share my birthday with the baby). Ok, well now that I've listed it all out I guess we are a BIT busy. That's ok though - helps the time go by!