Two weeks old

Jeff and Cheyenne

Kisses from Daddy

Elder Nay holding Cheyenne

Ready to go to the Doctor's office

Stop taking my picture!

Mommy and Cheyenne

Cheyenne taking a nap on Daddy

We both need sleep!!!

I took Cheyenne to the Doctor today for her 2 week appointment.  We see Dr. Jones in Royston, who is new in town and he doesn't have many patients yet, so we were the only appointment for a couple of hours which was so cool!  The Doctor came in and was playing with Cheyenne and spent lots of time talking to me about her and seeing if I had any questions.  I am so used to Doctors being so busy and barely having time to do the appointment, so this was very cool.  He said that Cheyenne is a really "good baby." People always ask me if she is a good baby, and I think to myself, I have no idea she is the only baby I have ever had.  Well whatever that means I guess she is good because she doesn't cry to much and is pretty easy going.  The biggest news is that this week she is already 8 lbs 5.5 oz!  She is growing like crazy which is so great because I was so nervous about if I was feeding her enough because it is hard to tell with breast feeding and she spits up a lot.  We can already tell by the pictures that she is starting to look older.  Here are some more pictures we have taken:

We need your email addresses!!

We have decided that we are going to make our blog private.  I never wanted to, but just having this little baby we want to protect her, and there are so many weirdos out there!  Anyway, please post your email addresses so we can add you to our list, or you can email it to me at stacita@juno.com.

Cheyenne Stacey Bennum

Sorry it has taken me so long to post these pictures... it has been quite an adjustment bringing this little girl home! I felt great when we got home, but it seems Cheyenne is confused between night and day and I have gotten no sleep two nights in a row.  Since I am breast feeding, it is very hard to sleep during the day as well.  I just get a little nap here and there whenever I can.  I feel bad, because I have had so many friends and family calling to talk and I thought I would want to, but I am just so tired I haven't wanted to talk or see anyone but my little Cheyenne.  I am sure I will soon adjust and be back to a normal routine, but for now I am just trying to enjoy every minute.

So Monday night we went in to the hospital to be induced.  I was so so nervous all day and I probably would have backed out of being induced if my mom and sister weren't flying in for the occasion.  Jeff gave me a blessing before we left and it helped to calm me a little.  When I packed for the hospital I had a huge bag of stuff to do to keep me busy, but we never even used any of it.  They inserted the cervadil that night and sometime in the morning I started having small contractions.  Even though they were small, they were very painful and I was pacing around the room in pain.  I called the nurse and told her I was in pain, but she said it was probably because I had never had period cramps before I probably wasn't used to the pain.  So feeling like a big wimp I just continued to pace and breathe and do anything to not think of the pain.  At 7 am I got a new nurse and she came in ask how I was doing.  I started crying and told her that I had been better, haha.  She moved me into the delivery room and said I should have told someone that I was hurting and she gave me some amazing medicine through the IV.  That is also when she started the pitocin.  The night before when I got the cervadil I was dilated to a 1 and 60% effaced. The doctor checked me in the morning and I was dilated to a 3.  The contractions started to get worse after I got the pitocin so I requested the epidural.  It took the nurse anesthesist 45 minutes to get there and those were the worst 45 minutes of the whole labor, which is a good thing.  Jeff did a really good job of helping me through it, holding my hand and I told him to be my little coach, haha.  He thought of some good ideas to distract me from the pain.  My mom and sister got to the hospital about 15 minutes before I got the epidural and I started to cry when they got there because I was so happy that they could come.  They helped me through the final contractions and then I got the epidural and that was amazing.  Then I asked my sister if she could braid my hair, she always used to for me for my track races in high school.  Then it was great because we just waited and I felt so relaxed.  I did have a small hotspot on the left side of my abdomen but the pain was so much less than the contractions before it was no big deal.  It was such a weird feeling not being able to move my legs, but I was so glad I got the epidural.  My sister does her births naturally and I don't know how she does it!  The doctor came in again around noon and I had already dilated to a 7 so they said to check me again at 3 pm.  Tanya (our nurse we had most of the time, who was awesome) came to check the baby's heart rate and stuff around 2:45 and she couldn't find it so she decided to go ahead and check me and she could see Cheyenne's head, she asked if I wanted to feel it and I reached down and could feel the top of her head, it was so crazy! So, she hurried and called Dr. White who was still at his office seeing patients.  They got me all ready to push and she said if he doesn't come we may have a baby sitting here on the table! When he got there he told me to push and it was so weird because since I was numb I couldn't tell if I was pushing or not.  I must have been because he kept telling me to stop.  He was going to cut a little but I am glad he did not.  I only had a small tear to stitch up.  When the baby came out it was the best feeling ever! I got to hold her while Jeff cut the umbilical cord.  After they did all the tests I got to breastfeed her for a minute which was a cool experience.  Then Jeff went with the nurses to weigh her and give her a bath.  She was born at 3:04 pm on Tuesday December 2.  She was 7lbs 5 1/2 oz and 20" long.  She has already been such a blessing to our lives and it makes me love Jeff so much more to have this beautiful little daughter together.  If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't change anything about my labor experience.  It feels so good to not be pregnant anymore and breastfeeding is getting better and better and less and less painful by the day.  This has been the most wonderful experience of my life, and I thank God for it every minute!  I am so thankful to all my friends and family for the love, support and prayers:)

Our First Christmas Tree

I decided to take advantage of the fact that Cheyenne is camping out in my tummy for a few extra days and use the time to decorate for Christmas.  I knew I probably wouldn't feel like doing much after I had her, so I was kind of excited to have the extra time to get all the decorations finished.  We have never really decorated our house for Christmas before, since we usually just go home anyway, so we really didn't have any decorations, except for a few Jeff's grandparents had given to us last Christmas.  I didn't want to buy a ton, just because we don't have a house yet so I am trying not to collect unneccessary junk, haha.  Jeff wasn't too thrilled about the idea of putting up decorations, so I enlisted the help of the missionaries.  Jeff did come with me to help pick out a tree and he cut off the end and brought it inside, then sawed off a few branches for me.  I think he liked the end product:)  Since we have a pretty big house I decided just to decorate the living room.  Most of the decorations are just all the pictures wrapped in wrapping paper and I covered the couch in a red sheet and removed everything from the room that wasn't red or green except the giant pink rug.  I am excited that I will have a  Christmas room to bring Cheyenne home to.  I am sure I will post more pics of the room in the future, but here is us decorating the tree:)  As you can see Jeff's Western sweat outfit has been the only thing I have worn the past week, it is my favorite (and pretty much the only thing that fits).  Happy Holiday Season:)