Carly Elizabeth is 3 years old!

In the midst of all the chaos of the holidays and having a new baby at our house another one of our little babies turned 3 on Christmas Day! It's hard to believe that Carly is already 3 years old.

She loves to play with Ella. She loves Play-Doh. She loves stories and singing karaoke ('the wheels on the bus go round and round'). She is even picking up some new tunes while listening to her siblings play Rock Band. She holds her own in our crazy house and knows what it takes to be heard.

She has recently taken to using whatever shirt she has on for a napkin. Stain sticks are our friends! She loves to have 'ponies' in her hair (see attached pic---can you say Coolio??). She loves to sit in her big girl desk and color (we hope on paper--that doesn't always happen either).

We have not broken the news to her yet that her 'Birthday Lights' will be coming down soon! :(

Happy Birthday, Carly Elizabeth! We love you!

Graysen --1 week old today!

Curious little sister wants to check out her new baby brother!

Right after Graysen William was born! He has great lungs!

Here is Graysen being weighed! (6 lbs 6 oz.) He was right in the middle (weight-wise) compared to his other siblings.

Proud daddy!

Do you like my hat? Our great nurse Jessica picked out this Christmas hat for Graysen!

Sleepy baby!

Graysen has arrived

Graysen William Sankey was born on December 23rd at 4:03pm. He weighed 6 lbs 6oz and was 18 1/4 inches long.

He is adorable (I may be just a little bit biased)! At this point, I even think he is still adorable when he is up all night! He was always very active in my tummy in the middle of the night and has held true to that schedule now that he is here.

I have lots of details to share, but not much free time these days! I need to upload some pics and get those on here as well. I will hopefully get them up this next week.

We hope that everyone had a blessed Christmas!

Off to feed the baby!

Birthdays and Baby Countdown Update

Brian celebrated his 39th birthday on Monday! :o)

He was on call last night (12/16) and stayed overnight at the hospital since we had gotten about 5 inches of snow here. It was good that he stayed because he only got to sleep for 3 hours in between admissions.

Had my 37 week appointment today. I am dilated to 2 and 50% effaced already. That was good news to me! All of these Braxton Hicks are getting something done! The little one was also in the correct position today so no need for an ultrasound or to have him 'moved' in my tummy.
Next appt is Christmas Eve! :o)

We are awaiting another big ice/snow storm here starting Thursday afternoon sometime. We will see how that turns out! Christmas Break starts Friday after school for the kids. It will be nice to slow down (and have a baby!).

Christmas...No I mean Birthday lights

I forgot to mention in my last post that little Carly is truly fascinated by this season of lights! She is convinced that all of our kind neighbors and businesses are putting lights up for her birthday! It is quite comical to drive around with her and watch her get VERY excited to see all of her 'Birfday lights!'

Here are some recent snow pics! Check out the one with the pregnant mom snow person! My kids are so clever!

Life Update...

We celebrated Thanksgiving on a couple of different days. On turkey day we went to our friends (Dave and Jacinda's) in Hudson, IA. It was a nice evening. The kids all played together and we got a little bit of adult conversation in (they have 5 kids too!).

On Saturday (Nov 29) my mom and Brian's family all came to our house. It was a busy day! It was great to see everyone and all of the cousins got to play together.

Brian has been busy delivering babies! He has really enjoyed this rotation. It has been more of a struggle for me though as he gets calls at all hours of the night (and day) and truly I want to be the one who gets a turn at this delivery thing! :o)

My last doctor appt was Dec 3rd. Things were fine. He is still doing full flips in my stomach and for the most part he lays across my stomach. That works for me right now because I am not getting kicked in the ribs and I can breathe! My next appt is Dec 17th (at 37 weeks) and I will get checked (for dilation) and they may have to do an ultrasound to see if he is getting into the correct position.

It amazes me how people will walk up to me and tell me that I am huge (do they NOT think that I am already aware of that!). I have gained 30 pounds with this little one which is very typical for me. I tend to gain the weight in the middle months and then not gain much at the end.

I have not hit the 'I cannot stand to be pregnant for one more minute' wall yet. Even with my back aches and large stomach I have been able to keep it all in perspective much easier than when I was pregnant with Carly.

We have not decided on a name yet. This seems to be driving some people crazy! Keep sending the name ideas. Maybe something will strike us as being 'the' name! :o)

Delivering babies...

Don't get too excited....the baby(ies) I am referring to are not ours! Brian started his OB rotation this week and he delivered/participated in 8 deliveries this week. The most exciting one being a woman that came in and was in a triage room waiting to be checked and decided to deliver right there! Brian was the ONLY doctor on the floor--so needless to say he delivered that one on his own! He was VERY excited!

This rotation means long hours at the hospital 7am to 7pm daily plus staying overnight on Fridays. Only 3 more weeks to go with this rotation! (the bad news--he goes back to TEAM which is what he just came off of. I actually think those hours are worse (6am or earlier rounds at the hospital, followed by whatever admissions come in during the day so he has no idea what time he gets to come home at night-plus 1 to 2 nights of call per week--Ugh!).

I took Ethan, Ella and Carly up to Allen Hospital today to see Dr. Daddy while he was working. This is not the hospital that we will deliver at, but it has a VERY nice maternity area. We got to see where he sleeps in the call room. The kids were excited because the nurses gave them suckers and drinks! There were no babies in their nursery either!

Otherwise it was another quiet weekend at our house. It snowed a little bit on Friday night so we dragged out all lof the winter gear on Saturday morning and sent the kids out to play. I will try to get some pics uploaded soon.

Quiet Saturdays...

I love quiet Saturdays! It's chilly outside today and there have been occassional flurries. The kids have played well together today (for the most part!). Carly has been napping for the last 3 hours. (I should probably go get her up or else she will be up until midnight) I even had a few moments to sit in the front living room in front of the fire place and read. WOW!

Brian has been at the hospital doing rounds since 6am. He called at 2:45pm. He was on his way home and got called back to the hospital. Oh, our life with a doctor in the house has officially begun. :o) He has to be back to the hospital tomorrow morning at 6 am again so I know he is antsy to get home to see the kids while they are awake!!

He starts his OB rotation this Monday. That means in the hospital from 7am to 7pm daily and carrying the pager 24/7.

How many days until maternity leave again??

Birthing Center Tour

We all went to the hospital this morning to take a tour of the Family Birthing Center. Why would you do this some of you may be asking since this is your 5th child? They opened an entirely new section of the hospital with a new Family Birthing Center in it since we last had a baby at this particular hospital. I wanted to see what the new facility was like (see if there were any improvements) and I wanted the kids to visit once before seeing mom 'in the hospital'.

We decided to try out the parking garage (just so we would know where we are going in the middle of the night) and that was it's own adventure. My husband took us on his tour version. We went in via a 'doctor's entrance' (with a special security code). I was so thoroughly confused as to what direction we were even going and we came through a back door into the Birthing Center. We only got a couple of odd glances from the nurses wondering where we came in from. :o)

Anyway, the Family Birthing Center is pretty cool! Lots of updates since the old labor/delivery unit. Now you have one room (like a suite) the whole time you are at the hospital (we used to have to move to another room after delivery). The bathroom is HUGE! (I know, not something that most would get too excited about). There is Room Service (maybe an oxymoron, because does it matter that you can order hospital food at any time of day??). You can bring your own laptop as they have wireless. Brian has been updated in accomodations in the room also--no more flip out chair/bed. There is now a couch that turns into a queen size bed. :o)

There were no babies in the nursery today which kind of disappointed me. I wanted the kids to be able to peek through the windows and see some little ones.

The highlight for Bryn and Ethan was the Family Kitchen area. There was chocolate milk!!! The bright spot for Ella and Carly was a ladybug they found crawling on a window in the main waiting area. Guess they were really excited about the tour, huh? lol

Anyway, it was good to see the new Birthing Center. Now we just have to wait........

Baby Update

Had a doctor appointment today. I am at 31 weeks (only 9 to go--YAH!!!!) I measured right at 31 weeks and the baby's heart rate was at 138 (same as 2 weeks ago) so everything is looking good.

My blood pressure is doing great and I did not gain weight this week (this is okay with me)! I tend to gain more in the middle months of the pregnancy and slow down at the end. My back/hips don't need anymore weight at this point!

Next appointment is November 18th!

Thanks to all that have voted in the baby name poll so far!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere!

Every year our friend Linda grows pumpkins in her garden for the kids. She carves their names into the pumpkins early in the season and keeps the kids updated as to how their pumpkins are growing! The kids LOVE getting their pumpkins every year!!!

Thanks, Linda! :o)

Halloween!

Another great year of Trick or Treating took place yesterday! It was 75 degrees in Iowa! WOW! We will take that on October 31st any year.

Brynna and I took Ethan, Ella and Carly downtown Cedar Falls. This is an easy way to T-or-T because the businesses hand out candy from 3:30-5:00 pm.

Ethan was a ninja, Ella was Clifford and Carly was a bumble bee (won't my mommy be so proud of me~~~we heard that song a fews times yesterday!)

Brynna went over to a friends house later in the evening and went T-or-T around their neighborhood. She was a Roman person (I never got to see her outfit :( )

Carly was amazed and so so excited when she only had 3 pieces of candy in her bucket! :o)

Let the blogging begin...

Blogging? Can't say this is something that I have ever done before, but am excited to share some of the zaniness of our life with 4 great kids (and #5 on the way).

I am always open to receiving and sharing parenting advice. Life is much too short to have to re-invent the wheel on each parenting topic. I am open to share what we have tried (and it's a lot!).

Living with a teenager and a 2 year old (and a couple more in between) brings new insight to life to say the least. Learning to let go (14 yr old) and trying to have some control (2 yr old) are a constant 'battle' in our household.

Trying to keep perspective is always a main goal. These precious gifts we have been given are our's to cherish and raise up to be competent, loving, compassionate adults. Not such an easy task.