Cheyenne’s World

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!

Cheyenne has been involved in a ton on new things lately! I wanted to share a few pictures of her involved in discovering her new abilities.

She is doing very well. Her last pediatrician’s appointment went well - she is 16.5 pounds and 27.5 inches!

Hope you enjoy the pictures! I’m also looking to get some new video up soon.

Cheyenne’s momma was very happy to finally be able to put a bow in her hair!

During our last snowstorm, we bundled Cheyenne up and let her sit out in the snow for just a few minutes. As you can tell from her smile, she enjoyed it immensely! However, that smile only lasted until she fell over face-first into the snow. Then, she wasn’t having fun anymore…

Yep, Cheyenne is doing a lot of standing up now! She is so strong, she amazes us. She pulls herself up on just about anything she can get her hands on. She’s even starting to try to take steps by herself while holding on to a chair! She amazes us more every day.

This is what she started doing the other day…

And this is where she ended up…

I tried to post this the other night, but YouTube kept messing up. So here it is again!

Cheyenne has been struggling with ear infections for the last few weeks. She has barely been out of the house, especially since the cold weather has hit, and she is still having problems. She is on her second round of antibiotics, we’re going to have to make another appointment tomorrow or Monday because she just doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

I know its part of it, but its tough watching her tug at her ears and cry. Tonight, she was even whimpering while she was sleeping. I feel bad for her.

Other than that, though, she has been doing very well. She is growing like a weed! She is going to be tall, I think. She’s already wearing some 9-months clothes because she is too tall for most of the smaller clothes. But the trade-off is that they are too big around on her, so Nikki continues to rotate through all the bags of clothes that people were so generous to give us to keep Cheyenne in outfits that fit her!

The really exciting thing is that she’s almost got crawling down! I hope to post a video very soon with her crawling across the floor. She has been “scooting” for a while now, but she is now getting up totally on her hands and knees and making inches of progress before she’s too tired to continue. I think she’ll have it mastered in a couple more days.

Thank you for continuing to check in! Hopefully we’ll get this ear infection licked, and move on to the next childhood milestone!