The Cook Family Adventure Blog

After getting home from the hospital, the next week is a bit of a blur. Fiona was up every 1-2 hours as expected, to eat but at least she would go to sleep easily between episodes of nursing. Elliot was the hardest, she NEVER wanted to be put down in those early days! Fiona never really felt like a newborn. She had great head control from the start, was bigger at 9 lbs and nursed immediately without help.

A few days after Grandma Weis left, Grandma and Grandpa Cook arrived. We were able to go on a few adventures such as going to an outdoor concert but kept things low key around the house and keeping Elliot and Weston busy. It was amazing to have the support of our parents again this delivery. Now with a busy house with 2 other kids, there was definitely more of a divide and conquer mentality.

Elliot was so helpful offering to refill my water and get me and Fiona things. She would hold Fiona any chance she got and wants to be where ever she is. She also HATES when Fiona cries. We are working with her to know that babies cry and its "there way of telling us they need something." But she finds it VERY stressful and starts crying herself sometimes.

Wes on the other hand....has fleeting interest in Fiona. He is happy to "hold her toes and give her kisses." Then off to the next thing which is usually playing with magnatiles, trucks or cars.

While sleep hasn't been great, it could be worse too.

Fiona gave us a good scare at about 5 days old spitting up a bunch of blood. We are still not exactly sure what happened or where it came from, but luckily it stopped on its own and has not come back. Pretty scary though!

Mac got to stay home for 1 week after Fiona was born then back to the grind. Luckily we also had help from our Au Pair, Andrea, after Grandma and Grandpa Cook left.

Elliot has now started Pre-K 4 days a week at ABC and is loving it.

Summer came and went too fast this year. With the kitchen remodel, preparing for baby, pregnancy, having a newborn there was not nearly enough camping or hiking...we will need to make up for that next year! Focusing on enjoying the rest of the late summer weather and planning some adventures during maternity leave and with baby Fiona.

Sleeping smiles!

Grandma time

First bath

Siblings!

Grandpa definitely wants some corn.

Sharing Fiona's bed

Wes and Elliot pretending to sleep. Fiona and Dad are out!

First day of her 4K year of preschool at ABC. Now 4 days a week.

Wes just wanted a sign too

Wes...don't eat your sister.

She's HERE!

Welcome to Fiona Sierra Cook born on 8.23.2019 at 5:33 am. Coming in at 9 pounds and 21 inches that extra week she spent in moms belly paid off in growth! She was finally born at 41 weeks, the whole crew was very anxious for her arrival!

Early August Crystal finished up her last shifts at work. If we would have known Fiona was going to want to wait until the 23rd to come out I would have worked more! We were pretty convinced that she was going to come early or on-time given our history with Elliot and Weston. We then rushed to complete our last minute items around the house and get ready for baby. We were still settling into our new kitchen! Also, we decided to finally move Wes out of the crib and move both kids into a shared room 1.5 weeks before my due date. So every Cook got a new bedroom! In one crazy day it was all done and luckily it actually went over pretty well!

Elliot is a great big sister. She is more than happy to wake us up to speak for Wes "Wes has to pee" "Wes wants mom and dad." Overall them sharing rooms has went great! We think it has really helped Wes adapt to the toddler bed and out of the crib.

Mid August brought Grandma Weis to Oregon to get ready for baby and Mac off work. Crystal had predicted that Fiona would come around August 12th, since the due date was the 16th. Hence A LONG WAIT for baby to come. There was lots of naps, sleeping, working out (for Mac), playing in the backyard...and anxiously awaiting baby.

Elliots preschool gave her a book called "Baby Come out" and Elliot proceeded to very lovingly yell to the baby every day to "come out."

On August 19th I thought my water may have broken, the midwife used the wrong testing paper and sent us to L&D but it was a false alarm and we went home. Then we waited and waited. On the 17/18 I didn't feel much baby movement and started to feel anxious. We went in on the 19th and the NST looked great, baby was good. The midwife stripped my membranes without any results. At this point I had been having on and off contractions, some more intense then others and had given myself plantar fascistic from walking so much, ate spicy food, done acupuncture and was really trying to put myself in labor! We waited, and waited and waited...what seemed like forever. Finally on the 22 at my routine appointment at 40 weeks 6 days she stripped my membranes again and we set an appointment for induction the next day at 41 weeks.

We left the clinic around 2:30 and at 5:30 dinner time I was having some mild contractions. Since I had been contracting on and off for 8 days at this point I refused to think it was labor and be let down again. Finally while putting the kids to bed they got more intense and regular that we knew it was the real deal. Giving the kids kisses goodnight Mac and I headed on walk to try to keep the contractions going. This time my water did not break before hand so I was able to stay at home eating popsicles, laying in bed, taking a bath and other things to keep myself distracted. Finally at midnight things were getting more intense and we headed to the hospital.

One of my goals for this delivery was to try Nitrous oxide and water birth. Somehow I completely forgot about the nitrous until 2 days later! I did however get to spend 99% of my time laboring at the hospital in the tub. We got there around 12:30 and Fiona was born at 5:33 am. When we got there I was 5 cm, earlier that day I was 2-3 at clinic. This labor was actually more intense for longer than Weston, I think this was because my water did not break on its own. The next check I was 8-9 cm and felt like things were going to progress quickly given my history with Weston, but they kinda stalled out. Strong contractions for nearly 2 hours with no real change. Baby cook did have some episodes of low HR but they got better with positions and I was able to get back in the tub. She then broke my bag and from there things went QUICKLY. She was born about 15 minutes later, or 4 contractions later. On the 4-5th contraction suddenly I needed to push. I breathed her out and after that contraction most of her head was out. Between the contraction and the start of the next contraction I was able to push out the rest of her head, she got caught a bit at her shoulders but not a true "dystocia." With a little bit of a twist from the midwife Fiona was born via water birth and up to my chest. She wasn't pinking up quite as fast as we wanted and didn't cry, so she was briefly taken to the warmer. Her HR was in the 80's briefly but came back up and she was able to come back to me. we snuggled for a bit, at which time we realized we still didn't know the sex of our child....we had forgotten to look. It was supposed to be Mac's job :) It's a girl!

Time to get out of the tub. Mom and dad got some good snuggle time with baby girl Cook. Fiona started nursing only 10 minutes after delivery, pretty much on her own, lets just say, this was never a problem for her. Luckily we had an uneventful recovery despite being exhausted from being up all night. The midwife had asked me ahead of time how much I thought the baby was going to weight. I guessed just over 8 lbs since I hadn't gained as much weight, only 25 lbs, this pregnancy. When baby girl came out, the midwife smiled and said that is not an 8 lb baby, sure enough she weight in at 9 lbs! Well technically one of the nurses wrote 8 lbs 15.9 ounces on her bassinet...come one give me credit, that is a 9 lbs baby!

Elliot, Weston, Grandma Cook and Andrea our Au Pair were able to come by later that morning a few hours after baby girl Cook was born. Elliot was so excited...even more so to find out it was a girl. She had informed us before delivery that "it has to be a girl, I can not take care of another brother." This seems fair given Wes' personality! Wes was momentarily interested in the baby then proceeded to be more interested in pushing the code button, calling the secretary from my call butting, and getting into any other buttons or trouble he could in the hospital room!

Lots of naps and settling in as a family. Luckily nothing to eventful and we were able to go home the next afternoon. With all of our children we named them the day after they were born, it felt right to wait to see what felt right. Fiona wasn't even in our top 3 until we met her...and Fiona it was. Julianna "Jules", Harper, Madelyn "Maddie" were all at the top initially. So it was official minutes before we left the hospital that she was Fiona Sierra Cook. Sierra after the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Elliot is Elliot Cascade after the Cascades Mountains.

Mac had used up half of his time off waiting for the baby, since we were both convinced that she was going to come early. Grandma Weis at this point was supposed to have left already! We had extended her flight to leave Monday, Fiona was born on Friday so they got some time together.