Photo Session

Niki managed to get Elli and Nya to lay down for a little photo shoot and pulled off these pics.  Mighty fine I must say...

 Sharin The Love

Sweet Touch

Plugged In

 

Officially Fall

Today was the first official day of fall so I thought it would be appropriate to put up a couple leafy photos... The last couple weeks have been crazy times for the four of us. I'm definitely glad that I've had this time off. From having a baby to taking our first family trip to Anchorage, all four of us getting sick, and going to Anchorage again for a family emergency, it seems like we've been go, go, go. Things are wonderful though. It sure is fun being a parent!

In these next two pictures I was having a little fun with some color stuff.

Subscribing To Schemanski Shenanigans

This post isn't necessarily witty or interesting but it may be useful for the uninitiated in the blogoshpere.  (if you don't know what blog even means it's short for: weB LOG)  Since I have a feeling that the majority of our readers are the aformentioned 'uninitiated' I've tried to make keeping up with the Schemanski's shenanigans as easy as possible.  There are two ways you can be automaticly notified of our shenaniganary without ever visiting the actual site.

The first and probably most common is via email.  If you just enter your email address in the form below or the subscription field on the right side of the page you'll receive a daily email with the new content for that day.  I promise I won't be selling your email address.
To subscribe via email:

The second way to subscribe is via RSS (really simple sindication).  This is really handy if you follow multiple blogs or news feeds.  To do this you need to use an RSS reader such as Google Reader.  I only suggest this one because I use it everyday and it works very well.  There are a ton of other options out there but I don't even know that they're worth the time.  To subscribe with a RSS reader just click on the RSS Feed link and then click on the subscribe now button.  Alternately you can paste the feed address, http://feeds.feedburner.com/SchemanskiShenanigans, into your favorite reader an stay up to date.

 Subscribe via RSS feed

If you have made it this far without falling asleep I commend you and will reward you with this funny informative video.

Elliana's Song

There is a song called Elliana's Song by Watermark that Niki has liked for a while now and I thought it would be fitting to put Elli's first couple days to it. My ulterior motive was to see if I could make Niki cry watching the video and I'm happy to say that it worked beautifully. She was starting to get a little annoyed that I was spending so much time working on this and couldn't imagine what was so important. I just kept telling her, "It'll be worth it, I promise..." Now she agrees.

Watch In High Resolution

Elli's First Trip To The Park

View In High Resolution

We had our first trip to the park today as a family of four. It wasn't the nicest day but we had a fun time for all of the 30 minutes that we were there. Nya is able to get around pretty good and kept saying "BIG" when she'd get up on top of something letting us know that she's a big girl now. Elli made her first trip down the slide by herself, I don't think she knew it though, she's a pretty hard sleeper. Niki enjoyed just getting out and moving around a little without Elli kicking her in the ribs and taking her breath away. Oh, and a quick stop at McDonalds for momma's chocolate milkshake made it a great trip.

Big Sister Love

Watch in High Quality

Nya seems to be adjusting pretty well so far. She's very interested and whenever she's not in the same room as Elli she says: "Where's Baby?"
I'm not sure if it's something that happens to all babies or if we're just getting more and more blind but we can swear she's getting cuter every hour... (OK, I know, it must just be a parent thing.)

And Then There Were Four...

Well here's my 1st blog... Niki here. We're HOME! What a memorable time this is in our lives! Having our first baby was so amazing and life-transforming, and I didn't think having another one could possibly be as much fun... but I was SO wrong! With #2 I feel so much less intimidated and nervous at the task ahead of us. I do have to say, though, that it wouldn't be nearly as fun if I wasn't married to an INCREDIBLE man who delights in being a father and husband! He just pours out his love on us girls so naturally. At the moment Ty is changing Elliana's poopy diaper, Nya is sound asleep in her "big girl bed", the house is silent, and beams of sun are barely breaking through clouds on this beautiful fall evening. I love the serenity of being in our own house...just the four of us. I'm not ignorant to the hard work and change that's ahead of us, but for now I am basking in the goodness of God's grace. He has brought us through the long months of pregnancy, the intense pain of labor, and I know he will supply the energy and patience needed to care for a newborn and toddler. I know this is getting lengthy (what do you expect from a woman?) but for those who are interested, Elliana's name means "God has answered our prayers". Her full name is Elliana Grace Schemanski.

Our First Morning With Elli

It sure was fun waking up this morning, having a new toy to play with. Last night we had the nurses take Elli for about five hours while we got some good sleep. They were able to get all her tests done so today we can just enjoy our last day in the hospital. It's kind of nice to say that we're actually enjoying a day in the hospital. We'll probably be be here until late this evening soaking up every last bit of nurse TLC we can. Did we forget to say that it's really fun having another baby?!?

The Big Day Comes To A Close

Wow, what a perfect day! We are wiped out but so excited. It is so fun doing this all over again but this time knowing what's going on. We've had two diaper changes, one outfit change because of some spit up and two sneezes. (Down 10 sneezes from Nya's first day.) And after Niki's three hours of sleep and my 1.5 last night we're ready to hit the sack. Thanks for all the prayers and warm words, this really has been one of our all-time favorite days!

Calm After The Storm

Its been 3 hours and everything's great. Elli got a bath and nursed, Niki and I both ate and now it's time to get some much needed rest. Looks like we'll be in the hospital until tomorrow evening so feel free to stop by later.

More Pictures

Visitors are welcome this evening. We should all be cleaned up by then...

She's Here!

10:43am Sept. 3, 2009 Elliana Grace Schemanski was born at 8lb 4.1oz and 21" long. Mom and baby are both doing great!

Intensifying!

Contractions are 2 minutes apart and getting pretty intense.

It's Really Gonna Happen!

Giddy Up! Dr. Sheridan just checked Niki and she's 5cm, 90% effaced, and at station -1. Everything's looking good so she broke Niki's water and now we wait; contractions seem to be picking up a little bit. One way or another it's going to be less than 24hrs and Elli's going to be here!

This Time, This Time, This Time (Bee Movie)

Here we go again, but this time is different. We're not coming home until Elli's out. It's 6:50am and we're just getting to the hospital to start our adventure. After Niki's 14th restless night, we're ready to get this show on the road. Doc Sheridan is going to check Niki at 7am and if things have progressed from yesterday (4cm, 90% effaced) she'll break her water and that should get things moving, otherwise they'll start Niki on Petosin to induce.

We'll do our best to keep the posts coming as things progress today. I'd better not spend too much time on the computer though, I still want to be allowed in the room when the baby comes...

Running A Quart Low?

What a roller coaster... Today Niki had a Dr's appointment to see how things are progressing and as they were looking at the baby with the ultrasound machine Dr. Sheridan said, "Wow, I haven't seen that before!" Those aren't really the words you want to hear from your doctor who has delivered hundreds of babies... It looked like the babies guts were by it's head outside of it's stomach, otherwise known as Gastroschisis. Niki called me at home to pack up a bag because we were going to have to fly to Anchorage to have an emergency C-section, so I got Nya out of the bath and started packing. To make a long story short it turns out that after 30 minutes more on the ultrasound machine Dr. Sheridan came to the conclusion that Niki's uterus is stretched so thin that it was actually Niki's guts that she was seeing and the baby's guts are neatly packed where they should be.

Another observation that she made was that Niki's running a little low on amniotic fluid. Does anyone know where to get more? I guess this was one of the reasons that it was hard to tell whose guts were whose since the baby wasn't totally surrounded by fluid. Since we're so close to the due date (Sept. 7th) and we're a quart low, doc stripped Niki's membranes and made an appointment for us to go to the hospital tomorrow morning to induce if things don't happen before then. Finally! It's gonna happen! We'll keep you updated.