Random Picture Update

Even though football season is not looking too promising for our wildcats we still had a fun double date to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch football with friends. 

Jacob loves Micah and loves to hold him. Which is cute...most of the time :)

Chase and daddy got to go to watch race cars at a local track.

I love holding a sleeping baby in my arms!

I think the only place we have gone with all 4 kids is church. It's still a little crazy.

We have been playing outside a lot and drawing with chalk. Chase still loves trains :)

We also like eating out on the porch on nice days. Someone likes spaghetti!

I have more pictures on the regular camera that I will hopefully upload soon. 

Micah is 3 weeks!

 If you saw the number of pictures I had of Chase at 3 weeks vs the number of Micah it would be embarrassing. Here are a few quick ones I got the other day. Most people who meet him are surprised at his dark hair. They are used to seeing us with blondies :) At his 2 week appt he weighed 10 lbs 2 oz. He is eating and sleeping really well. Several nights he has only woken up once. Why am I still so tired then?! I definitely hold him a little longer knowing he is my last baby. I've already gotten rid of most of my maternity clothes and newborn clothes as soon as he outgrows them. This little man completes our family perfectly!

First Week of Kindergarten

Chase had a good first week of Kindergarten. Here he is on his first day of school. Its been so nice having Brad home in the morning to take him to school. On the first day we were trying to figure out what to pack for a snack since he wouldn't get home to eat lunch till almost 1pm. Brad suggested a granola bar but I told him that the school is peanut free. The next day when picking Chase up he told me he wasn't allowed to eat his brown granola bar because Jackson could get sick. Right away I knew Brad forgot what I told him the day before and he packed a peanut butter granola bar! I was so embarrassed. Especially since we had been at the school the year before and should know the rules! When Brad talked to the teacher the next day she said Chase had a hard time understanding why Jackson would get sick when Chase was the one eating it! 

Chase and his teacher Ms. Reiss. Her husband is Brad's boss in the squadron. Hope we stay in the family's good graces :)

Micah's Birth Story

I need to record the birth story before my mommy brain forgets everything! Like I expected I went past my due date with little man #4. I think he was scared to join the craziness! After my experience with Gavin I wasn't going 2 weeks past my due date again and the doctors agreed with the high fluid and other issues I had during the pregnancy. The doctor I wanted to induce me was on call the 28th so that's what we went with. Gavin's induction was pretty quick and smooth so I had expectations of the same. It didn't quite go as planned.

I got to the hospital right at 7am and got up to our room to get started. I think they started pitocin around 8:45am and the waiting game began. I wasn't feeling anything for hours. Eventually I could tell when I was having a contraction but I barely had to breathe through them. Time seemed to be ticking away pretty fast. The doctor checked me around 2pm and I was 4cm. He told me I should go ahead and get the epidural if I wanted it. I think his reasoning was I progressed so quick with Gavin that I could miss my opportunity this time around. I am all about the epidural but I had a hard time getting it when I wasn't feeling anything. So we waited. Contractions were consistent over the next couple hours but still not very strong. That is the hard part about being induced. I had to stay hooked up to all the monitors. I couldn't walk around, it was hard going to the bathroom, etc. We were hoping Brad would be home by bedtime to have the boys back at our house but we started making plans around this time to have the boys spend another night at friend's houses. Around 5pm, I actually had to start breathing through the contractions so I went ahead and agreed to get the epidural. Of course the last 2 labors it took 2 hours to get it and I was really in pain and this time the doctor was in the room in about 10 minutes. It was hard getting it knowing it wasn't going to relieve immediate pain. I actually felt worse after - I got a headache and I had a pain in my side I couldn't get rid of since I couldn't move around. This made me very emotional. I was crying and they kept telling me to calm down because my heart rate was going up. The nurse gave me phenergan to help with the nausea and that knocked me out. The nurse came in a little before 8pm and said that the baby was starting to have sharp decreases in the heart rate. They wanted me to move around in case the baby was on the cord. After a couple times of rotating back and forth I noticed that everyone was starting to get ready for me to push. I was wondering what was going on since I didn't feel like I needed to push. I guess the amniotic sac was coming out of me when they were moving me so the doctor broke the water and they knew he was coming. I was checked at 8:10pm and was 10 cm. They wanted me to push during the next contraction..I did and there he was! The doctor did have to take cord off the neck before I pushed the rest of his body out. I was so glad I had the epidural because the placenta took a while to come out. He was massaging my stomach pretty hard and pulling the cord trying to get it out. Glad I didn't feel that. I am not complaining now that everything took so long because I didn't tear which is a huge blessing.

I was still really out of it after the birth. I held him right away because I felt like I should but I was grateful when the nurses took him to clean him up. I was right on my guess of 9 lbs. He is another long one coming in at 22.5 inches. We both liked the name Micah. I wanted another 5 letter name with a different initial than the other boys. We also decided that since we had 2 non-biblical names (Chase & Gavin) that we should go with a biblical name to even it out (Jacob). Charles in my grandad's names and also my youngest brother's middle name (his daughter's middle name is Janelle). I lived with my grandparents for a year before going to K-State. They made it possible to attend there and meet Brad, etc. :)

You can't tell here but he came out with a head full of dark hair. I could tell from the ultrasounds that he had a lot of hair but was surprised how dark it was!

Welcome Micah

Yesterday we welcomed Micah Charles Caywood into our family. He was born at 8:20pm weighing 9 lbs and was 22.5 inches long. He has a head full of dark hair and has been pretty chill so far. The induction was harder than I was hoping but all is well now. I hope to post more soon. Brad is bringing the boys up now to meet their little brother. This will be interesting!

40+ Weeks

I haven't posted much on the blog about the pregnancy. I always thought I would make a post with the sonogram pics, how we told the boys it was another boy and a few belly pictures but it never happened. It has been a long pregnancy with a blood clot on my placenta wall (causing me to go up to UNC to monitor it several times) and high fluid which meant weekly ultrasounds and non stress tests. They told me no strenuous activity from about 18 weeks and I felt like I lost my energy very quickly with not being able to work out. High fluid can also cause extra stomach pain and trouble breathing. So needless to say we are ready for this little guy. How many people go past their due date with #4!!! Here is a picture of me on August 21, one year exactly after surgery to remove the cancerous tumor from my large intestine. So grateful for God's healing and Him blessing us with another child. Hopefully I will be posting soon about a new child! I think I will get induced Wednesday if he isn't here by then.

Summer

A few random pictures from our summer...starting with a train ride at a park in Maryland. Train parks are a hit right now!

With our squadron we headed down to Atlantic Beach for the day. Brad always brings a shovel to make a little "kiddie pool" which makes things so much easier to keep track of the young ones.

Mommy and Gavin

Our friends from England, the Ashmores, moved into our neighborhood. Jacob loves playing with Becky. On our walk the other night when we passed their house he was trying to get out of the stroller and kept saying Becky, Becky. It was so cute.

Brad really enjoyed playing softball with the church this year. I enjoyed going but sometimes it was hard keeping the kids busy. I let Jacob play with my phone one game and he took a couple "selfies."

Some girls from the squadron insisted on throwing Emily and I a girls night out to celebrate the arrival of boy #4 (for both us). We had a great time eating out at Olive Garden.

Our caregroup at church was thrown a progressive dinner by the other caregroup. It was a great time of food and fellowship.

Grandmom was here helping me with one of the last weeks of pregnancy (ever :). One a nice day we ventured to Raleigh to go to the train park there :) 

Chase got a few Legos for his birthday and they enjoyed putting the plane together.

There are still a few more weeks of summer for us but with this baby hopefully coming at some point we are slowing down around here. Hopefully I will post about boy #4 soon!

Fun with Friends

Two random pictures from the summer with one of our favorite families. When we go out we turn heads with 6 little boys. In a couple months it will be 8 little boys! They are moving on to their next assignment soon and will be greatly missed!

Getting some free chick fil-a!

At the lake house about to go on the boat. Gavin was asleep for this pic.

Chase is 5!

I know that this is really old but wanted to post about my big boy! Hard to believe I have a 5 year old going in Kindergarten! We had his big pool party about 10 days before his birthday so his actual birthday is always a little low key. He had friends come over and play during the day and we had cupcakes then. He is so funny about stuff. I had specifically saved his birthday crown he got from school so that he could wear it on the day and he did not want to. Not even for a picture. 

He normally hates pictures but randomly he told me to take a picture of him and Wagner. I got a real smile out of him!

Opening gifts.

A week after his birthday I took him to his 5 year check up. He weighed 39.5 lbs and was 42.5 inches tall. About 40th percentile for both. He has had a fun summer of beach trips, a few camps and VBS's, pool and playing with friends. He has gotten tired the weeks we have a lot going on so I think even an half day Kindergarten is going to be an adjustment.

Hershey

One reason I really wanted to go up to Maryland was to take a day trip to see my brother and his family. They just moved to outside Hershey, PA from Kansas. I was excited to meet my nephew, Ronan, born in June.

We also had to get some chocolate! There's a lot to do in the area and we are excited to come back (with Brad)!

On the chocolate factory tour.

I made him take a picture with me or else he couldn't eat his chocolate and this is still the best I could get. 

With my brothers!

Melissa has the better pictures on her camera. But wanted to show my parents with all their grandkids!

Thanks for having us! Can't wait to come back!