More Pictures

Life as a family of 5 is crazy busy, but the transition is going pretty smoothly, all things considered. Tabatha is a very easy baby so far; she pretty much just cries when she is hungry. She has gained enough weight now that I can start letting her sleep as long as she wants at night. Last night she slept for almost 5 hours without eating! It felt great to sleep for a several hours at a time. I hope this trend continues. I am thrilled to have a baby that is gaining weight like she should; it really takes a lot of stress away.

Here are a few more pictures of the hospital...

Precious moments with Daddy


My nieces Inara and Arabella loving on their new cousin

Grandpa and Grandma Schonewill with their newest grandbaby


Aunt Kari

Bethany holding her new cousin

Our nephew Alex...he was pretty curious about the baby

Proud grandparents

Snow Angels

It was 100 degrees outside last week when Charlie insisted on putting on all his winter clothes so he could go outside to make snow angels. I was sweating just watching him but he didn't seem to mind the heat :)

Delivery Story

I can't believe a week has passed already since we had Tabatha! For those of you that are interested, here is her delivery story...

Last week I was still having contractions on and off all the time, but they would never get intense enough to put me into active labor. Because I was uncomfortable and Tabatha seemed to be healthy, my doctor agreed to induce me on Friday morning; I was 39 weeks pregnant on Thursday. Thursday night before the induction, I took Tylenol PM hoping to get a good night of sleep before labor began. At 1 am I woke up with painful contractions that were coming every 3-4 minutes. I knew we were scheduled to go to the hospital at 6:30am so I just waited things out at home until then. When we got to the hospital I was still having contractions often, but they weren't intense enough so the doctor gave me pitocin to speed things up. By 10am he broke my water and then from 10-11am I had intense and painful contractions. Thankfully, at 11 I got an epidural. We had a few complications getting the epidural in, but once it was in I felt great!

In the next hour and a half things moved so quickly that my blood pressure dropped a little and Tabatha's heart rate went down. The nurses stopped the pitocin and gave me oxygen which seemed to help. I also changed my position several times until Tabatha's heart rate was stable again. Thankfully, that was short lived and then, after about 15 minutes of pushing, she was born!

When Charlie was born, he wasn't fairly stunned because of the cord being around his neck so he didn't cry and the nurses took him right away to make sure he was responding. I remember being very scared and worried that he was not okay. Tabatha's birth was a much different experience. She had a healthy cry right away and I was able to hold her on my chest for a little while and then, after the nurses weighed her, I fed her. She was wide awake for the first hour and a half; it was a blessing to spend those first precious moments with her.

Here are some photos from last week Friday...


Mark seems to be handling the contractions well :)

A Transition

Tabatha is doing great. All she does so far is sleep and eat so she has been easy to take care of. I am feeling pretty good as well, although the lack of sleep is catching up with me. I know that she won't need to be fed every three hours forever so that is encouraging :) Mark has been so helpful in dealing with the other two during the night so I can just focus on feeding Tabatha.

Charlie, on the other hand, is struggling with this transition. We have seen a lot of tears and tantrums from him. If anyone has any wisdom or advice about how to make this easier for him I would love to hear it. We are doing our best to be firm, while trying to give him lots of loving attention. I hope this is a short phase and
that soon I will have my happy little guy back.

A Few Pictures

Tabatha Marie is a sweetheart and we are thrilled to have her here! We were all doing pretty well at the hospital yesterday so the doctor let us come home a little early. It is nice to be able to be at home and sleep in our own bed (for the few hours of sleep that we got last night :) Here are a few pictures. I will share more pictures and the delivery story soon.

Introducing......

Tabatha Marie TenHaken, 7lbs 6oz., 20 inches born @ 1:21PM on 7/15. Mom and Baby doing very well (Dad is too). Pictures etc.....coming later!

Summer Fun

I am still here and still pregnant :) Sorry about the lack of posts! I have been enjoying being back on my feet again and hanging out with my family. The 4th of July weekend was filled with outdoor activities such as grilling with family and friends, going on walks, swimming in the kiddie pool, playing frisbee, eating ice cream...etc. We were exhausted from all the fresh air but we had a great weekend.

I am still having mild contractions off and on, but nothing that has amounted to anything. It is crazy that with Charlie's pregnancy I did not have much preterm labor and I delivered him at 37 weeks. Now, in spite of all my preterm labor with this pregnancy we will be at 38 weeks on Thursday. Not at all what I expected to happen, but I am very thankful this little girl has made it this far. Hopefully she will be chubby and healthy; now she could come anytime and it would be fine with me :)