Teenie Weenie Bengford

We are delighted to be in the final stretch now with welcoming Teenie Weenie into the world. I am 28 weeks along which signifies the start of the third trimester! But by the way my belly has been growing, I feel like (and look like, in my opinion) that Teenie Weenie could make his/her debut any day now! Yikes!

Much left to prepare before we will feel as ready as possible. Just getting started on Teenie Weenie's mural in the last few weeks. This mural will be smaller than Sienna's due mostly to my energy level and the layout of the room. It will be one one wall opposite the window so it can also be viewable from outside. The design is two stone ivy covered archways through which you can see rolling hills disappearing into the distance with a meandering path that leads off towards a circus/fair. In the foreground there will be some long grass, maybe a branch or two and rocks with birds, butterflies, small woodland creatures, etc. Rough sketch below... So far I have the sky painted in with a few prelim clouds.




Due to my lenten hiatus from Facebook, I have not been updating everyone on Sienna news. A small caveat here, as I'm sure all parents feel this way about their children, BUT...Shannon and I are pretty sure Sienna is a budding genius. Her cognitive development is off the charts. She is almost 20 months old now (just over a year and a half, for those who don't do baby age-speak). Her voluntarily vocabulary is well over 300 words, she speaks in small sentences, knows many colors, shapes, and letters. Her memory is incredible also, for example she is already becoming familiar with the days of the week and what happens on each day. One of her favorite babysitters moved to Colorado a few weeks ago, and she asks everyday if we will see Diana on Tuesday (Diana used to watch her every Tues evening), then says "Diano, move" and sometimes follows it up with "Colorado". She has gotten a little bossy with her new vocab too, ordering anyone who comes in the house to "SIT!" and "READ!" Probably the most astounding skill that Shannon and I have noticed is her ability to pick out certain instruments she hears on the radio and announce what they are and play a little "air guitar" or "air piano" to demonstrate. She notices drums, cymbals, trumpets/horns, piano, and guitar. She enjoys playing/building/and destroying lego creations, painting (with or without a brush), playdough, and playing piano and drums. She's also really been into throwing a ball for Malta, but sometimes doesn't want Malta to actually get it. Glad Malta is such a wonderfully patient pooch! Isabelle loves cuddling with Sienna too, and Sienna is quite gentle. It helps that she doesn't realize that picking the cat up is an option yet, and is content to just let her sit on her lap.

Our month of April is jam packed so far with prep for Shannon's newest musical endeavor-dueling pianos, taxes, finishing the basement spare bedroom, and prep for Easter, which we are hoping my Mommy, Gwen, James, and Jennie can make it down for a visit. Shannon is also playing full time in two cover bands in addition to his Queen band. So we'll be ready for a breather come May!

Peekaboo!!!!

First Birthday Party!

You're invited!

Sienna Rose's First Birthday Party!

When: Sat, July, 31st 2010
5:00-9:00p

Where: Beirne Park
10630 Country View Dr
Creve Couer, MO 63141

We will be grillin' and chillin'!


RSVP: 208-596-0504

First Thanksgiving

Sienna enjoyed her first Thanksgiving today all be it a small gathering. Shannon & I first got her all bundled up and took her downtown to enjoy the parade. We were excited to see our first huge balloons and bagpipe marching band. It was great! But it was pretty cold and windy too. Sienna had quite a few comments about how cute she was. Makes me beam! Later she enjoyed some fun time in her jumparoo while Daddy and Mommy played a game of Magic (Isabelle tried to play too). During dinner, we didn't want her to miss out on the fun even though she is too small to enjoy the meal. So we put her up on the table with us so she could feel included. It was right about her bed time so she was pretty zoned out. All in all I think it was a nice, quiet Thanksgiving even if it was just the three of us.

Goodbye Newborn Hair

Much like the beautiful leaves falling from the trees outside, little Sienna's beautiful hair is falling out by the handful. Everyone told us that newborn hair always falls out. I read it from endless sources also, but we just didn't want to believe our hairy cutie would lose those plentiful locks. It has grown so long now too. Having a bald baby will take some getting used to. When people oogle our little one, the first thing they always say is, "look how much hair she has!" so now they will say, "hey, where did all her hair go! Did you hold her too close to the microwave or something?" The exciting thing about it is that the new hair almost always comes in in a different color. So we are excited with that unknown. I'm guessing she will be a child of the corn with the ultra blonde, almost white hair like all the kids in my fam, but I know Shannon's fingers are crossed for dark brown hair. It looks like her eyes are going to stay blue, but they may still lighten up some.

Sienna has also been hitting some developmental milestones by leaps and bounds. She is a supported sitter and stander now. She prefers to be up and looking around at the world rather than viewing it from laying on her back. She is very curious about everything and is so bright and alert. She seems most intrigued lately by interesting patterns and big letters on our shirts (when we are holding her infront of us), and playing in her gym (THANKS GREAT AUNT EILEEN!!) She loves to hit and grab all those dangling stuffy toys and coo at herself in the mirror. She also loves all the wonderful toys that our wonderful neighbors handed down to us, in particular the jumparoo. During tummy time she pushes herself up with her hands well and rolls over in her crib pretty well, but we haven't gotten her to do it on the hard floor (with a cushy blanket underneath her of course). She does however love to launch herself forward on her face. Her legs are moving like they are ready for crawling already, but rather than using her arms, she prefers mashing her face into the floor. She makes the craziest noises when performing this act of floor acrobatics. She is incredibly vocal and social too. She has great eye contact and loves to have conversations with us. Her favorite sounds are razzing gurgly sounds and high pitch squeals. She also does the occassional ah goo still. She seems to prefer singing over talking and still loves it when Shanon plays piano.

Unfortuantely she is addicted to TV and computer already. We watched a lot of netflix when we were sick in bed with the swine flu for almost two weeks, and now everytime she sees a screen that is on she is glued to it with that familiar zombie look on her face. We will rotate her or move her so she can't see it and she tries to turn her head almost completely around backwards to sneak a peek! Trouble!

In other news, she (we) have completely kicked the pacifier. We haven't had one with us on outings or used one at all in probably 3 or 4 weeks now. We are very excited and a little proud too. We thank our lucky stars every time we see a crabby toddler with one in their mouth.

We are also happy to report that our sleep training (getting her to go to sleep on her own) has been a great success, when we are consistent and not running errands with her during nap times. Probably our biggest asset with this endevor is to recognize when she is ready to lay down and not waiting until she is too tired and getting cranky. We have found that as soon as she doesn't want to look at us anymore she's ready to lay down. She has gotten really good at finding her thumb pretty quickly and calming herself down, if we time it right. It's actually harder to get her to sleep now when we are in public because we can't just lay her down somewhere and leave her alone to fall asleep quietly. She's also distracted by being too interested in everything going on when we are out and about. I'm not sure if I mentioned this in the last entry, but she has been sleeping in her own room ever since we recovered from the swine flu. She has now been going to sleep at about 9pm and sleeping until 7:30am or 8:30am, eating and then going back to sleep until noon or 1pm.

We are still overwhelmed by how incredibly awesome she is! We can't wait to have more, of course. I am still tormenting myself because I want so much to be either a stay home mom or a freelance artist/designer that works from home and sets my own schedule. Unfortunately, because my job is the one with the health insurance (Shannon is completely self employed and private insurance would cost way more than we could afford) I don't think I could be self employed too. It sucks so much having to say goodbye and leave to go to work, and I'm only part time still this semester. I am dreading going back to work full time in the spring. I don't know how we are going to handle the hours especially tech weeks when I am usually working almost around the clock for an entire week. I know I'm going to get really sick of that breast pump by the time the summer rolls around. I am proud to say that I am still nursing Sienna full time (other than the one bottle Shannon feeds her when I'm at work and the one bottle that our sitters feed her every other week on our date night). It's pretty amazing to me to think that I have supported a life with my own body for 3 whole months already (well really for an entire year since she started growing in my belly about this time last year!). I'm glad I stuck with it because nursing is such a joy now. I love holding her knowing that I am nourishing and nurturing her at the same time. I love it when she looks up in my eyes and smiles almost like she knows it too. She's so wonderful. I now understand what people meant when they say they just want to gobble you up! I just want to hold her and cuddle her and never put her down. Boy would that be smothering to her independence. Luckily I don't follow that instinct. But I do do plenty of cuddling as does Shannon.

Malta has really taken a respectful liking to Sienna. She loves to go for walks with us and knows that when the stroller comes out of the closet it usually means she's going with. She also understands that when Sienna cries she is unhappy. As soon as Sienna cries, if we aren't with her, Malta comes and finds us and waits for us to go help Sienna. It's almost as if she's checking to make sure we can hear her crying and are going to respond and comfort her. It's pretty cool. Malta is also very respectful if Sienna is on the floor in her carsear waiting to get loaded into the car, or if she is doing some tummy time, Malta will always make a wide circle when walking by to avoid getting too close (we are always right next to Sienna supervising just in case). Probably the most extraordinary thing to me is that Malta doesn't lick Sienna's face, like she does to EVERYONE else. She'll cautiously sniff her hands and feet but that is it. She also has not gotten into the diaper pail yet which is a blessing cause Malta has always been bad with garbages.

Isabelle, my little princess, is still waiting for "that loud, squirmy thing that's always taking up Mommy's lap" to go away. She loves it when Sienna goes to bed, cause that usually means it's Isabelle cuddle time.....FINALLY!


Far Left: Sienna loving her baby gym from Great Aunt Eileen

Left: Ready for bath time! Love that squishy baby butt!










































































































































Crabby standing up Sienna in her crib "Enough with the pictures, make with the food, woman!"

The Swine Flu Attacks & The First Halloween

Sienna is now just shy of 12 weeks old. I can't believe it's already been almost 3 months. She is so much fun! She is very smiley most of the day and has started to squeal in delight at us and her mobiles in addition to the usual 'coo' , 'ahgoo', and razzing sounds she loves to converse with. She can now sit with some help and likes to stand up with some help. She's rolled over a few times. Her hair is thinning out and still lightening up. It has a tint of auburn but we've noticed quite a bit of it in her crib, so she may be a baldy before long. Sienna has been sleeping through the night since 8 weeks, which is a blessing for us! And we have just recently moved her into her own room to sleep at night. It was hard on us the first night apart, Shannon and I got up a number of times to check on her, just to make sure the monitor wasn't tricking us. She was sleeping soundly each time we checked. We have kicked the pacifier habit already also. We had read that 3 months is a good time to try to give it up (when the parents are more addicted to it than the child) and two weeks ago Sienna decided for us. Each public outing when she would get a little fussy we used to pop in the paci to calm her before scowling onlookers invaded our space, but Sienna has decided she hates the paci now, so that was easy. Now we just have to find other ways to calm her in public.

She has also just discovered her thumb in the last few days, but hasn't gotten the memo that most thumbsuckers close their fist when enjoying the thumb. So she looks adorable with her hand open in a frozen wave with thumb in mouth. For those in my family, her thumbsucking pose reminds me of Aunt Barb and the "you eat" the air biscuit gesture to the forhead. We're still having to swaddle her up like a baby in a straight jacket at night or she wakes herself up with the jolting "I'm falling" motion in her sleep still. I hope she outgrows that soon.

Swine Flu Attacks

Yep, if you haven't already heard, we all caught H1N1 at the same time. It's tough to have a sick baby, it's tougher to have a sick baby when both parents are sick too and it's baby's first illness. We were all in bed for a week and a half. Sienna recovered the fastest, Shannon soon followed and I am still battling it now. My flu unfortunately has turned into bronchitis, but the antibiotics will hopefully clear it up soon. The nice thing about the whole situation is that now we don't have to worry about her catching it for the rest of the flu season, I guess. But there are still plenty of colds and other flus to watch out for though.

Sienna's First Halloween

Last Halloween at our house was awesome complete with scary mood lighting outside, dead (fake) crows hanging over the entry way, spiderwebs, creepy mood music, and a cloaked Shannon playing the piano through the dimly lit front window. I answered the door also cloaked with Malta by my side. That was last year. This year Shannon had church service to play for and didn't make it home until 7:30p and I was still feeling under the weather. I ventured out of the house that afternoon (for the first time in a week) to see if I could find a few pumpkins last minute. The grocery store was all out. I was so wiped from just the trip there and back, I sadly through in the towel on my pumpkin excersion, bought a crappy paper witch to hang on the door and headed home. Luckily we had thought ahead and bought Sienna's costume last month before we all came down with the swine flu. She was a super cute Tigger. She answered the door with me to hand out candy to all the neighborhood ghouls and ghosts (witches and tigers too). By the time Shannon made it home, Sienna was pretty sick of being Tigger, and we only had a few straggling trick-or-treaters left at the door. So we decided to watch some B horror movies on Netflix (instant online, which is AWESOME). Not as flashy as last year, but still fun considering everything going on. We look forward to next year when we can go door to door with Sienna, actually doing the trick-or-treating, hopefully with our awesome neighbors, Carrie and Patrick, and their kids. I can already picture her tottering along holding our hands all dressed up in some cute get-up.

If I flap hard enough, I can fly!!!

Waving Hello to All

Sienna Rose Bengford, the birth story and beyond!

Welcome Sienna Rose Bengford!! She was born at 3:55am on Monday, August 10, 2009. Weighing in at 7lbs 7ozs and 21 inches long. She is our little star gazer, as she came out face up looking at the stars (as the Canadians dub sunny side up babies). She is incredible in every way. Of course, since she is ours, we think she is the most perfect baby ever and there has never been a more beautiful child. We feel so blessed and spend many moments during the day thanking God for her!

Sienna tried to make her debut the Thursday before she was born when my water broke while walking in the mall. However it wasn't the dramatic gush like everyone describes, so I thought I was just losing control of my bladder as she got lower and lower. So we continued with regular activities (going to movies, out to eat, watching UFC fight in local eatery, etc.) until Sunday evening when I thought I got my "bloody show". But it wasn't quite as the books described and I was feeling a little worried that "something wasn't right". So I called the Dr. and he said he thought it was nothing out of the ordinary but to come in anyway and get checked. So we went into the hospital on Sunday around 6:30p expecting to get sent home again with baby still in belly. But when they tested my "leaky bladder" fluid they confirmed that it was amniotic fluid. Now again for you folks who haven't gone through the birthing process yet, they rarely will let you go past 24 hours with your water broken if you haven't given birth yet-they will C section you to prevent infection to the baby. So here we are on Sunday night, and my water had been broken since Thursday afternoon. I'm starting to get really worried that she was sick in there. The nurses said that I would have spiked a fever and her heart rate would be irregular if she was sick, but they were very concerned anyway. They admitted us and started an IV with antibiotics right away. Oddly enough, upon arriving at the hospital I started getting pretty strong contractions, and by the time we were admitted to our labor and delivery room they were getting really strong and consistent every minute to two minutes apart. This was around 7:30pm. Within the next two hours the contractions had gotten so strong and close together I was begging Shannon for drugs. When we got to the hospital, I was already 4cm, so when the contractions started, I pretty much flew into active labor right away without much build up. So I was overwhelmed by how much they hurt. I felt disappointed that I couldn't make it without drugs after all the prep work we went through. But after I got the epidural, I was in heaven and was kicking myself for waiting so long to get the drugs. Crazy. So labor was progressing pretty quickly, with the pain meds, I was just laying back and chillin waiting for my chance to push.

When the time came to push, the nurse said she'd call the doctor (who was still sleeping at home) once I'd been pushing a while. So after 15 minutes of pushing, the nurse told me I'd have to wait and try not to push with the contractions so they could call the dr. since Sienna was well on her way almost out! So I had to wait for 15 min. which was even harder than the pushing! The dr. showed up, 15 more minutes of pushing, and out she came! She was face up, so we call her our little star gazer! Thank you Canada for a much more romantic alternative to calling her sunny side up!

Sienna was taken for a vitals check-up right away because of the increased risk of infection. Both her and I spiked a temp at pushing time, but it came back to normal soon after birth. She had her blood drawn 4 or 5 times when we were in the hospital to keep checking her white blood cell count, which was elevated the first two draws. But by the time we left the hospital she was given the all clear. No antibiotics needed. She was ranked in the top 5% of nursers right away, and has been great at it ever since!

Our time in the hospital was pretty romantic, I think. Shannon, Sienna, and I all stayed in our recovery room. There was a lot of interruptions from nurses coming in to check on this or that and to tell us about things, but overall Shannon and I did all the caring for Sienna ourselves. So by the time we got home with her, we had already had two days under our belts!

Our first week home was the most romantic though. It's like the world disappeared and our little hobbit family of 3 was all there was. It was a wonderful bonding time for all three of us and a great learning experience for Shannon and I. Shannon did an extraordinary job caring for both Sienna and myself. I was sad the next week when he had to start up piano lessons again, cause I knew those magical "time standing still" moments were gone. But I was able to catch on to taking care of her solo pretty quickly. I still have the ocassional difficulty with a diaper here and there.

She is such an amazing little person. She's so smiley and social. She is now 7 weeks old, today! She's gotten pretty predicable with her needs. She has given herself a feeding schedule for the most part and loves to be cuddled as much as possible. She's had visits from my mommy, brother James, and sis Gwen, Shannon's dad and his lady friend, Bev, brother Shane (who was the only family that was able to visit us in the hospital! Thank you so much again, Shane. You are so awesome!), my Aunt Katie, Aunt Barb, and Uncle Ernie. All the piano lesson students have met her too and of course the band!

I went back to work last week, which was hard. But it's been a good chance for Shannon to finally get some solo time with her too. She's already daddy's little girl though! She loves all the singing, dancing, and piano playing he does with her! Her favorite thing, besides being cuddled, is to watch mobiles, or lights and ceiling fans. She's very inquisitive. We love her so so so much!

Welcome Sienna Rose Bengford

Hello all,

Shannon here. We are happily hanging out in the hospital today with our new 15 hour old baby girl. Sienna Rose Bengford. She is adorable (no wait...the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my entire life). Angela and Sienna are both doing great. The feedings are going well and all the vitals are in line so far. Angela's water broke four days before hand (as we found out Sunday night) so there was some worry about the baby developing a possible bacterial infection, but as of today Sienna has passed all the tests so far and is seemingly very healthy. We will write much more about the whole experience when we find time and a little more rest (at least while we are in the hospital). For now, please enjoy the selected photos of our new baby girl. She is definitely a born rocker at heart and that makes me a very happy new daddy. More to come....

Shannon