Tenley Monthly: 1

It's amazing how quickly this time goes when you look back.  While its happening, it feels like forever.  We already have a month in the books.   I never thought I could love someone as much as I love Cooper.  Tenley has proven that to be wrong!   By no means does this mean that I love Cooper any less, but it just means my heart has doubled in size to make room for Miss Tenley.

Age:  1 Month
Weight:  9lbs 13oz  (50-75%)
Length:  22.25" (75%)

Milestones:  She has been holding her head up since day one, but is gaining more control every day! She also responds to us when we talk with little noises and even the occasional little smile. 

Sleep:  She is not the worlds greatest sleeper.   She prefers cat naps and snacks with the bottle.  She is getting much better at eating more and sleeping longer.   She is sleeping in her rock-n-play at night and the swing during the day.   She had her days and nights mixed up for the first couple weeks but I think we got that figured out.

Best Moment:  Catching that first smile.   She tends to eat, and then want to play for a bit.   She's super smiley when she has a full belly and you talk to her.  I always tell her that she's gorgeous and she lights up from ear to ear.

Worst Moment:  Having to go to the doctor for a couple different things.  Tenley was having blood in her stools, and sometimes struggling to get out a bowel movement.   The doctor diagnosed her with a Milk Protein Intolerance.  She is not lactose intolerant, and will hopefully grow out of this by age 3.   We are going to try to reintroduce regular formula at 6 months, and see if she's already grown out of it.    She was also diagnosed with acid reflux.   She has been put on Nexium and a thickener for her formula.   We will see if it helps any!

Health:  Overall, she's healthy.   We just need to figure out a few things and then it will be much better.   She still has her belly button attached as well.  We haven't been able to give her a good soaking bath.

Eating:  She is eating roughly six 4 ounce bottles a day.  Sometimes she will eat 6 ounces at once. 

Things I want to remember:
**How much her big brother Cooper loves her.   He is always giving her kisses and tells her that "it's okay Tenley, you don't need to cry!  Mommy will be right back."
**She loves to be held all the time.  
**She prefers to sit up on your knee so she can see everything going on.  Heaven forbid that she misses anything!

Next appointment:  2 week check up to see how her acid reflux is going.  2 month check up!

Tenley Grace's First Week

Life with a newborn is challenging.   We are exhausted, but extremely happy.   How does that work?  :)   We got home on Thursday and on Saturday, Papa Denny, Grandma Deb and Great Grandma Fischer came to meet Tenley.  

 

 

Cooper loves his little sister.  He only calls her "baby".  I keep asking him what her name is and he knows it.  He says he's the best big brother.  I agree.  If I need something, he will do it for me.  Except for taking the dirty diapers to the diaper pail. Hehe.

 

Camden LOVES Tenley.

Our children look nothing alike...  OMG!  Same kid.

1 week check up

I'm too sexy for my diaper...  :)

 

It's A Girl!

The birth story of our beautiful daughter, Tenley Grace Fischer.

On Thursday, October 23, I thought I was contracting while at work.  My doctor's appointment was at 11:30am, but I called and got in around 9:30 to be checked out.   When the nurse took my temperature, it was at 102.5 degrees.   Dr. Sebata came into the room to check the baby's heart rate.  It was at 190bpm.  This was way too high for his comfort level.   I was sent over to the hospital to be monitored overnight.  Throughout the next day and night, I was checked on every hour.  Baby's heart rate went from 215bpm back down to 145-150bpm.  I was contracting every 1 1/2 to 3 minutes.  But I wasn't progressing at all.   I was treated with 3 rounds of antibiotics and over 5 bags of IV fluids.  I was finally released around 4pm on Friday afternoon.  

The rest of the weekend, we rested.   Dr. Sebata didn't want me to go into labor for at least 3 days so that I could get my body to fight off whatever virus I was carrying.  He wanted baby to be born as healthy as possible so he/she didn't have to be treated with antibiotics as well.  

Over the weekend, I grew increasingly uncomfortable.   I was already huge in size, plus baby was in my ribs.  I wasn't really sleeping and getting up every 3 hours to use to rest room the way it was.  On Monday morning, I was exhausted.  I didn't want to go to work, but ended up going in a few minutes late so I could save my sick time for maternity leave.  My doctor's appointment was set for Thursday, Oct 30, but I called to get in on Monday because I wasn't feeling well.  I couldn't tell if I was just exhausted or in labor.  My hope for going in early was that Dr. Sebata would induce me.  If I wasn't sleeping already, I might as well have a newborn at home too.   I went in and Dr. Sebata checked me.  He said I was at 4cm.  He stated that he could keep me and send me over to Labor and Delivery.   It was the answer I wanted.  But I just wasn't mentally ready yet.    

I asked if I could head home to get my stuff together and then come back after Cooper's parent teacher conferences.  He said that was fine.  Cooper's conferences were slated for 5:30pm.  I was definitely in labor, on my own, at 1pm.   I called the school and got his conferences pushed up to 2:30pm.  Brad and I sat with Cooper's teacher for about 20 minutes.  After that, we went home, cleaned up the house, both took showers, relaxed a bit and around 4:30pm, headed to Worthington. 

39 weeks 4 days

Once we got into our Labor & Delivery room, I was checked by a nurse and she stated that I was at a 2.   But when Sebata checked me, he said I was at a 4.   My contractions were about 5 minutes apart at this point.   I got my IV, was hooked up to the monitors and just relaxed.  Around 8pm, I got my epidural.  It wasn't working 100% on both sides right away so I was able to feel most of my contractions still on the right side.  It took some moving around and repositioning, but we finally got it to work correctly.  

When Sebata checked me around 11pm, my water broke.  He discovered that there was meconium in my waters.   He explained that everything could be okay as long as baby doesn't swallow it.   But if baby does, he/she will need  to have a tube placed down his/her throat to clean everything out.  They called the pediatrician that was on call, Dr. Makwinja.  She happens to be Dr. Sebata's wife.

Around 1:45am on October 28, 2014, I was finally at a 10 and was able to push.  After pushing with maybe 4 contractions, the baby's head was out.  The cord was wrapped around the neck one time.   With one more push, at 1:59am, I delivered our beautiful baby girl!   She weighed 8lbs 7oz and was 20.5" long.  I wish someone would have been in the delivery room with a video camera to catch our reaction when they said "Its a girl!"

About a half hour after she was born, I spiked a 101.4 degree fever again.   I was instantly put on antibiotics as was our baby girl.  It was heartbreaking to see an IV in her tiny hand.  The doctors wanted to make sure that she was safe, so they gave her antibiotics as well.

She didn't have a name right away.  It took Daddy and Mommy over 2 hours to name her.  I offered up Savannah, Daddy shot it down.  Daddy said Samantha, but I nixed that.  It was then between Tenley Grace or Alena Grace.   We decided that Tenley fit her so much more.   It was the girls name we had picked out for when we had Cooper too.  

 

Around noon, Grandpa Skinny and Grandma Julie brought big brother Cooper to meet Tenley.  He was so excited to meet his little sister. 

 

 

Our Family by the Numbers:
Day 1 – We started dating
Day 783 – Brad asked me to marry him
Day 1462 – We had each other, wedding day
Day 1913 – Big Brother Cooper was born
Day 3425 - Our family is complete with you in our lives

Our family is now complete.  Brad, Ashley, big brother Cooper John and little sister Tenley Grace.

 

 

 

 

Announcing Tenley Grace!

	Tenley Grace Born: October 28, 2014 01:59 AMWeight: 8 lbs. 7 oz. Length: 20.5 inches
	Big brother Cooper is so excited for his baby sister. Parents: Ashley and Brad Location: Sanford Worthington

October Fun

We were trying to do as much as possible before we have a newborn at home.   We had a bunch of stuff planned and enjoyed every minute we could. 

We headed to Fairfax to celebrate Baby Boy Loverude.  Cody and Kali had their baby shower.  We drove up for the day.   Daddy and Cooper spent some time on the farm while I went to the shower. 
Holy baby boom!

The Ashley's & Kali
Me - October 31, Kali - November 27, Ashley - January 1, Ashley - January 27

I got Cooper's school pictures back.  Isn't he so handsome!?   I wish he would smile like this for me at home!   Let's all say a little prayer that his school pictures always turn out this good!

 

Melanie and I brought Katrin and Cooper to Poppe's Pumpkin Patch in Lakefield for the afternoon.  This kids were able to play and we finally got a chance to talk.  Harvest was very busy for both of us.   I'm sad that this is Poppe's last year!

 

 

Mommy HATES carving pumpkins.  The thought of the mess makes me nauseous.  They also don't usually last very long if they are carved because we almost ALWAYS have a freeze.  We tried to pick out four pumpkins that represented our family.  A tall skinny one for daddy.  A short chubby one for mommy because of being pregnant.  A medium sized one for big brother Cooper and a baby one for baby!    

 

 

 

On Sunday, Cooper and I packed up the Yukon and headed to Lake Shetek to have lunch with Great Papa and Donna.   We figured that with the new baby, we wouldn't be able to go to Thanksmas, so we wanted to spend some one on one time with Great Papa.   Seeing Cooper play with the toys we used to play with brought back so many memories.  He also spent a couple hours on the beach, where we were raised! 

 

 

 

We like to have picnics at our house when we are lazy.  This is really the only way to get Cooper to eat sometimes. 

 

We were lucky because Chelsea and Jenna took Cooper trick or treating.  I was way too exhausted to do it.   Cooper was a "Cop officer like Big Wyatt" this year.