Cheyenne’s World

For shame, for shame. I am so far behind that I figure no one is even looking any more. But just in case…

Cheyenne has her baby sister! And she’s almost two months… Isabella Jean arrived Dec. 22, and is doing very well. Cheyenne has mostly gotten past the “jealousy” part of a new sibling, and loves to talk to “sissy” now. She calls her “Bella Jean” most of the time, and never forgets to include “sissy” when giving out hugs and kisses at bedtime. Its very sweet… now if only I’d capture it on camera and post it, right?

Anyway, I have some pictures of Isabella that I’d like to share, including some with Cheyenne. An album can be found at the link below. Enjoy!

Isabella’s Facebook album>

Also, we had one of the biggest snow storms in recorded history in this area, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take Cheyenne out in the snow. After all… it may be a very long time before she sees this much again! Here are some pictures of her out in the big snow.

We had our first measurable snowfall today, and I took Cheyenne out to play for a few minutes.
She had a good time, and I got a few pics that I’ll share with you.

Our Snowflake

Cheyenne's miniature snowman

Cheyenne with her blanket and "coffee" like her Mammaw Brewer

Its been a long time since I’ve posted, but I wanted to post a picture of Cheyenne’s sister. The picture below is a few weeks old, but we did have another ultrasound done today and Isabella weighs approximately 5 pounds, 10 ounces, and is approximately 19 inches long. This means that she is already a little bigger than Cheyenne was when she was born. Nikki is about 34 weeks and 5 days along, and the baby will probably be delivered at about 38 weeks… so only about 3 to 3 and a half weeks left!

This pregnancy has been smoother than Cheyenne’s, though still some bumps in the road. But we are thankful to God that Nikki has not had to spend time in the hospital this time!

Please keep Nikki and Isabella in your prayers that everything will be smoother this time around!

Thus far, Cheyenne is excited about her “sissy”… but time will tell once she’s actually here!

Isabella Jean

… pictures of Cheyenne’s “Sissy”. Nikki has had two anatomy scans for the baby, and things are looking great! Her blood pressure is behaving itself with the medication she is on, and the doctor said things are on track for this baby to go close to full-term. We are thankful to God for the good news.

I am trying to get some good copies of the ultrasound pictures on my computer so that I can upload them. As soon as I do, I will post them here. I will also add in some new pictures of Cheyenne… I think you’ll be surprised!

So far, Cheyenne (as best as she can understand) is excited about the baby. She loves to talk to “Sissy” and give her hugs and kisses (on Nikki’s stomach).

Cheyenne herself is also doing quite well. At her last pediatric appointment, the doctor said she is in the 95th percentile for height. So, as I have reported before, she is very tall. She is much lower on the weight scale, however. But now that she is off of bottles, she is eating a lot more, so I think that will correct itself in short order.

I never reported on here the accident that Cheyenne had a few weeks ago. She was attacked by a stray cat! The cat attacked her for no reason, and clawed two deep scratches down the side of her face, bit through her ear, and added another scratch on top of her head. We had to rush her to the ER where they treated her, cleaned it all out, and put her on antibiotics. We also had to have the cat (which we were fortunately able to catch) sent to the state lab for rabies testing. By the grace of God, the cat was infection free, and Cheyenne is healing very nicely. It even appears that scarring will be minimal. Here are some pictures from right after the attack:

Poor baby - that cat really got her!

Cheyenne's scratches - but she's still smiling!

Cheyenne is progressing so well that Nikki and I wonder how we’re ever going to keep up with her! We marvel at some of the little things that she does… its hard for us to believe that she is able to put things together so well… things that we didn’t think she connected in her head yet. She amazes us with something nearly every day. She is getting pretty good at putting two words together, and a couple of times I have even heard her put three together, so she’ll be into sentences in no time.

She already keeps us hopping, and with another on the way, our lives are going to be more hectic than ever. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers that we retain our sanity, and most importantly, that we raise these children properly in the Lord.

Thanks!

With everything that’s been going on, it’s been a while since I have updated here on Cheyenne’s World. I’m afraid a lot of people have stopped checking in, and that’s entirely my fault!

Cheyenne has been doing very well since her surgery. She had her post-op check-up this week, and the doctor was very pleased. He said that her ears look great now, and no signs of any infection. For this, we are very thankful.

Still, we haven’t been getting much sleep since she is getting 4 new teeth at the same time! She has a mouthful of beautiful teeth now and uses them to eat just about anything we’ll let her have. She is growing up so fast we can’t hardly believe our eyes! As any parent knows, that is both a joyful and a sad thing.

Some may not have heard yet that Cheyenne is going to be a big sister! Nikki is nearly 11 weeks along now. Unfortunately, she is already having some complications with very high blood pressure. She has already started on the same blood pressure medication that she was on in the hospital last year. We pray that this will get the situation under control (with God’s help of course!) and that it will help prevent a recurrence of the severe pre-eclampsia that Nikki dealt with last year.

For your viewing enjoyment, I am posting some of the pictures that we had taken for Cheyenne’s first birthday.

If you’re still checking in, thank you for your patience with me!

Cheyenne’s surgery to have tubes installed for her ears is scheduled for 7:30 am on Monday morning. Please keep her in your prayers. Thank you!!

As has been previously reported here on Cheyenne’s little corner of the web, she has had a terrible time with ear infections. She has stayed in a near-constant cycle of infections and antibiotics for several months now. For this reason, Cheyenne is scheduled to have surgery on May 18 to have tubes put in to try and relieve her of this problem.

The doctor has assured us that this is a routine procedure and that complications, while possible, are extremely rare. Still, as any parent knows, any kind of operation on your child makes you very nervous. So we would just like to ask everyone to keep her in your prayers for a safe surgery, and for relief from her infections.

I’m also very happy to report that Cheyenne is walking all over the house now! Just in the last couple of days, she has figured out that she can get where she wants to go much faster by walking than she can by crawling, so she has nearly given up crawling except when she gets very tired. We are so proud of how well she is doing! I would like to get some video of her running around the house and get it posted at the first opportunity that I have!

My apologies for the long delays in updating, but on dial-up internet, posting is quite a time consuming task! That’s usually why I end up posting something in the middle of the night…

It was such a happy day today, but there might have been some other emotions involved as well.

It is incredibly hard to believe that our little Cheyenne is ONE already! Time goes by so amazingly fast anymore. Believe it or not, it has been a year since our adventure into parenthood began. The first 17 days of parenthood forced us to adapt to new things at an accelerated rate, but we eventually got into the swing of things. Sure, we’ve had our fair (or unfair!) share of sleepless nights, but the joy she brings to our lives makes them well worth it.

The first birthday is a huge milestone in any child’s (and parent’s) life. But when a child starts life out the way that Cheyenne did, it becomes ever so much more important to you. If you haven’t experienced a similar situation yourself, it is difficult to describe the emotions that run through you.

But all of those troubles are far in the past, and Cheyenne is a happy, healthy, playful, energetic, always hungry, almost walking on her own, developing her own sense of humor, etc., ONE  YEAR OLD!!

It was difficult for me to look back at Cheyenne’s hospital pictures today while reflecting on the past year, but to see her now makes the difference all the more amazing!

Look at how far she’s come!

Thank God for His wondrous works!

Cheyenne recently had her first taste of chocolate pudding, and as you can see… it was a hit!!

Cheyenne is now 11 months old, and we just can’t get over how fast our little girl is growing up! I just can’t get over how much she has grown in just the last couple of months. I was looking at some older pictures the other night, and it is amazing how much difference there is. She is around 18 pounds now, and very tall. She can crawl extremely fast (I can’t keep up!) and has taken to standing without any support just a little bit. I think she’ll be walking by her 1st birthday.

She is once again getting over strep throat and ear infections. The poor little girl catches everything coming and going. She is on another round of antibiotics. She seems to be doing some better after a few days, but still has a way to go.

Thank you for continuing to check in, and I can’t believe I’ll very shortly be making a post about her first birthday!

My apologies for the long drought. A lot has happened since the last update.

To begin with, we have moved! We are no longer in the Akron, OH area. We are temporarily living in Charleston, WV. Our ultimate goal is to get into the Huntington, WV area (providing I can find work in that area). I am currently not working, but I am applying everywhere I can! The Lord will provide a job for me soon.

One major thing that has happened is that our car died, and it took several weeks to get it repaired. It is now running great, however, and we are on the go again. Fortunately, my grandparents were kind enough to let us borrow their car for the duration, so we weren’t depending on someone else for a ride all the time.

I have also had trouble getting updates because I have only sporadic access to high-speed internet. As you all probably know, trying to load pictures on a dial-up connection is a big no-no.

But enough of the fluff. If you are reading this, it is because you are interested in Cheyenne! She is doing great! Ever since she got ‘wheels’ (learned how to crawl) we can’t keep up with her! She also is growing like a weed and eating us out of house and home (I exaggerate… slightly!).

She has had some illnesses since the last update. As I currently don’t have insurance, we have taken her to the Urgent Care in Charleston twice. She’s had another ear infection, and strep. But she has recovered fully from those ailments. The worst thing that she had, however, was a nasty bout with the flu. Nikki and I also had it, but the flu is always harder on babies. Poor Cheyenne was miserable for several days, didn’t eat, didn’t drink anything, didn’t want held, and didn’t want put down. But she finally got past the worst stage, and we were able to get her nursed back to health.

We have been taking lots of pictures, and as soon as I am able, I will get them uploaded and posted. You won’t believe how much she has grown. She is very tall; in fact, she has already outgrown her first car seat. Someone was kind enough to give us a convertible seat that is larger and allows her a little more leg room. Plus, it will be able to be turned around to face the front in a couple of months.

We are approaching the anniversary of Nikki entering the hospital (January 27th). We have been through a lot since then, but now, a year later, we have a happy, healthy, beautiful baby girl, and we are so blessed that the Lord saw fit to take such good care of us!

We are also so blessed to have so many who care about our family and have helped us in so many ways over the last year. May the Lord bless your good works!