Tuesday, August 17th 2010

***There has been some question as to how you pronounce Kelan's name. It's pretty simple. Most often, you might see it spelled "Kellen". It rhymes with Helen, Melon, etc. Not to be confused with Kee-lan. Steve wasn't into the double L because he felt it was kind of feminine... Hope that clears it up! :) ***

Kelan Dean Sonnenberg arrived weighing in at 8 pounds even and 19 inches long! He beat Kanyon and Scarlett's weight by an ounce, so he is officially my biggest baby.

I was scheduled for an elective induction after my appointment with the doctor on Monday. I was already dialated to 3cm and still 75% effaced and I just decided that I was ready to get this baby out. I went to the hospital Tuesday morning at 6:30am and was admitted and started on Pitocin finally by 8am. My doctor broke my water shortly after. I waited on the epidural until the contractions were pretty uncomfortable and I couldn't sit still anymore during them. I was at 4+cm then and it was just about 11am.

After the epidural (which was really uncomfortable to get this time around), I just relaxed and tried to sleep. Tried is the key word... I never can seem to actually fall asleep when I'm in labor. It must be the adrenaline/nerves or something. It could also have been Steve walking in and out of my room to the nourishment room across the hall and bringing back soda and cookies... crackers and pudding, etc and eating it all right in front of me. :P Oh well... luckily Orem Community Hospital added a new option for laboring moms and that was the flavor that you could put into your ice... like lime, watermelon, and cherry. It was kind of like eating a sno-cone. :)

I steadily progressed and felt the need to push at about 1:30pm. But my nurse was in delivering with her other patient at the time and my doctor wasn't right there yet. So, I was told to not push and just wait. That is really hard to do! Finally everyone got in and got setup for delivery and I pushed through 2 contractions... one for his head and then one more for his shoulders and he was out. It was really an easy delivery.

Because he came out so fast and because his head was turned just slightly in the birth canal... he had some pretty bad bruising on his face and head. He actually cried that first day for a couple hours whenever you moved his head. The nurses finally took him to the nursery to give him another thorough exam and make sure there was nothing broken or out of place that they might have missed the first time. They didn't find anything though, which we were glad. He was just in some pain and we figured it was a headache. He would just wimper as you rocked him and it was hard to get him to nurse or anything that first day. :( Luckily by the next morning he was good as new and a happy little baby.

The kids came to visit him that night, but because he had been in so much pain that day, we didn't get him out of the little crib and just let them look. That was hard for Scarlett and she was just giddy looking at him and how little everything was. Cohen didn't pay much attention to Kelan and was more interested in making as big of a mess as possible in the shortest amount of time in my hospital room. ;) Kanyon just had a lot of questions about the whole process which was kind of interesting to try and explain without getting into too much detail.

Here are a few pictures of the minutes after Kelan was born...

This guy is the respiratory therapist and he has been the one to work on each of my 4 kids once they were born. I think that's kind of fun.

My favorite nurse from this baby was Andra... pictured on the left. She was awesome through labor and delivery and I even got her back on the day that I was leaving the hospital. That was really nice.


Kelan - fresh out of the oven and using his lungs.

My first moments with Kelan after he got cleaned up and I was taken care of.

My hospital room... huge, right? It was awesome.

Here are a couple pictures from the next day once Kelan was bathed and he and I were just hanging out.



I'll have lots more pictures to post... I just need time to get them off my camera!

Kelan's finished nursery

I finally got the nursery completed... Still waiting on my little yellow ottoman to come, but I don't know when that'll be here for sure, so we're calling it complete now. :)

I was waiting on my new chair and I love it! It's always a little scary to order a larger piece of furniture online without having tried it out, but it's absolutely perfect. So happy for a wingback chair where I can rest my head during those late night feedings with a new baby. It was just what my last glider was missing.


I've reserved the wall just to the right in the photo below for a large canvas of my new little man once he arrives and I can get my camera on him.





Here is the bird mobile a little closer up... those are stuffed fabric birds that I sewed and then put on string. The original was supposed to look quite a bit different, but trying to balance all those birds on little branches at 3-4 different levels proved to be much harder than I cared to proceed with! So, this was version 2... but I think it turned out well and was so much easier anyway.


I was attempting to get a set of photos of the nursery child-free... but you know, it just doesn't happen when there are 3 kids running around awake and wanting to know what I'm doing. ;) The photo above of Scarlett showing off her acrobatics was just exactly what I was dealing with.... that and Cohen playing in the closet or throwing pillows. It's my everyday life... ;)

Kelan is going to have lots of excited siblings to smother him when he arrives!

Kanyon is a veteran big bro and knows that each new baby that arrives to our family brings him (along with the other siblings) a little gift at the hospital... so he's been whispering his order to my belly for the last week or so. Kind of hilarious to watch him trying to "show" Kelan with his hands exactly what toy he's talking about.

With this nursery complete now... all we are missing is Kelan! I have a doctor's appointment on Monday morning and at that time we will probably just set our day and time for induction. I'm assuming Tuesday morning since that's when I was induced with 2 of my other kids (same doctor). So, we may have a baby here in just a matter of days! Can't wait. :)

Sneak Peek: Nursery

It's getting there...
... slowly but surely...

However, since I look like this as of yesterday:
I'd better get a move on!

Ninety-one years old...

... and Grandmother Cahoon looks great!

We were so grateful to be able to spend a few evenings with Grandmother while she was here in town this last month... and one of those was for her birthday.

We decided that we needed a picture of her and Cohen together because we didn't have one. Cohen, being the busy stinker that he is, would hardly hold still long enough for me to snap this one. We'll take what we can get out of him! ;)
And, the last picture I've taken of this pregnancy thus far... I think this was at 35 weeks. You know you look large when you hear the last 2 weeks at church that one - "you could do damage with that thing!" and two - "if I saw you in a movie, I would totally think that belly was fake!"

Yes, I have run into people with the belly and I'm sure it could cause a little damage... but I promise you it is very real! :P
I'm hoping to get in one more photo in before I officially serve this little man his eviction notice.

I have been saying all along that I don't want to be induced this time, but it is looking nicer and nicer as time passes. It's been a hard pregnancy for me and I'm ready for it to be over. An induction could mean just 2 more weeks of this... I hope I can handle even that much more!

Finally a name at 34 weeks

Sometimes mac photobooth is just the easiest way... but not the best photo. Convenience wins today. ;)
Here is the belly, with just 6 short weeks left, holding our wiggly baby boy...
...whom we are naming Kelan Dean Sonnenberg.

29 weeks... and my current baby boy.

I've kind of slacked on taking pictures of this pregnancy belly, but luckily I have friends that take note of that and kindly remind me. ;) So, here I am at 29 weeks with baby #4 (since I'm so late posting these, I'm actually now 31 weeks). Not quite a torpedo yet, but since baby boy is up in my ribs already, there is no where else to go but out at this point!
Cohen has been napping by 10:30 or 11am and not waking up until the older kids are napping, so he has been eating a late lunch daily. It's a nice time because it's quiet and just him and I hanging out. His favorite snack lately? Berries. Any kind...

On this particular day, it was blackberries and raspberries and he was loving them both!







I was laughing after noticing that not only is he wearing Scarlett's old pink bib, but it says "little miss sunshine" on it. haha! I ought to just round up all the pink baby anything around the house since I know we're bringing another boy into our home shortly. Maybe that would keep me from using pink things because it happens to be clean and available at the moment. :P

Randoms from March

I very rarely take out my camera when it's just Cohen and I, but did on this day. It was the end of March and I was feeling like Cohen hardly had any pictures in the last couple of months that I'd been sick. Since he's so young it made me sad to think I missed all that changing going on with him.

So, here he is... at exactly 11 months old.

Climbing on mom and trying to get closer to the camera since it's so foreign to him. ;)

My ball lover.



Saying hi to his baby brother in mom's tummy.
Kanyon woke up from his nap and joined us. He requested a picture of Optimus, but I said he would have to be in the picture then.
And my belly... courtesy of Kanyon. I was just 19 weeks here and it was just the day before we found out we were having another little boy.

Scarlett turns 3

Scarlett turned 3 on the 10th and we had a "Pinkalicious" birthday party for her at her request.

Here is the invite I sent out:

I think this is the first birthday where she totally got what was going on well in advance. She asked about it for days - okay who am I kidding... it was weeks. But, the day of she just knew. She ooh'd and aww'd over all the decorations and was giddy about her cake and cupcakes. I knew when she was asking for a cupcake by 7:30am that it was going to be an issue. ;)

Some of the goodies.
The birthday girl, herself. She's wearing the darling necklace that my friend Jen made for her. Isn't it cute?? One of her favorite things for sure. She asks to wear it daily now.
The cupcakes, pinkalicious style.
The cake. Kudos to my sister for helping me out big time on the cake and cupcakes.

The "green" table of food. The only way to cure pinkitis. Although, I had the kids eat their healthy green lunch before we had sweets... just to make sure no one turned pink!
My mom was kind enough to use her 2nd grade teaching skills and read the book to the kids for me. It really is a cute story.

Mid - singing of happy birthday. Scarlett is thrilled to be the center of attention.
Making a wish.
After the party...

Scarlett opened up a gift from my sister 2 days before her birthday. My sister didn't want this gift to scare any of the kids at the party. ;) It was a mannequin head from my sister's hair school. She was named "debra" and I think it's one of Scarlett's very favorite gifts. I'm lucky that she's not asking to do my hair now. Thanks, Mical!
Funny story about Debra... Kanyon sneaks turns doing her hair while Scarlett is still napping. He learned to put a curler in and a clippy. He was very proud to show me her "do" after he was done. I'll have to snap a picture next time... it's hilarious.
Mom and the birthday girl.

Three years have gone by so fast... I love having my little girly girl in the house with me since we are going to be VERY outnumbered soon. I've taught her well... whenever she goes into the bathroom and notices that Kanyon or Steve have left the seat up, she goes, "Ugh... Mom, the boys forgot to put the seat down AGAIN." Then she does a perfect little eye roll as she puts the seat down herself before using it. Some day I need to get it on video.

And a shot of the belly at 21 weeks after the party. Nice and round already.