"It's Getting Better All the Time"

Yesterday we were surprised but pleased when Anika's pediatrician changed her
feeding schedule. Instead of us being able to feed her 1 in 3, it is now 1 in 2 feedings.
She is awake more often and is more ready to eat. Yesterday morning we had a
breakthrough when Than went to give her a bottle in the morning. She took 37 ml!
It isn't a ton, but great for her. She has continued to do well overall. We still don't
know when she can come home. It may be sudden in the next few days, or it may be awhile.
She has to take at least 70% of all her feedings by mouth before she can come home.

Nathaniel was able to get paternity leave after all. His local supervisors worked out a
few things for us and we sure do appreciate it! I'm amazed at how much I can't do.
I am so grateful that he has been able to be with me, take care of me, and spend time
with Anika. We go to the hospital several times a day/night. It is kind of crazy that
we are both just home (except that we're not), and can't even keep up with things here.

Thank you for all the prayers!

Update

Sleepy Girl

Here are some pictures of Anika at one week. We don't have a picture of it yet, but we've
decided that she is part potato bug. She curls up suddenly all the time. She has had a
few good feedings lately. "Good" for her means around 20ml, which is still less than
half of her feeding. We can only feed her by mouth 1 in every 3 feedings. It is our
favorite thing to go and see her bundled up in her crib like a burrito, sucking on her pacifier
with her eyes wide open and looking all around, just content as can be.

Happy with Daddy

Some people aren't sure how to pronounce Anika. It sounds like Monica.

The angle on this picture is a little funny... but she's still cute.

By the way, the "37 Week" post with picture was supposed to be a joke.
We hoped it would come across that way, but I guess it didn't. I would have been
37 weeks when we took the picture, but I had already had the baby. :)

I was kept at the hospital until Tuesday so the doctors could keep an eye on a
few things. Not everything has quite settled down yet. I was discharged later
that day, but we took advantage of the hospital's boarding program. That allowed us
to stay 48 hours in an empty room (the same one we were in). The deal is that we
don't receive any services or get our room cleaned, but we can stay if they have
enough rooms while our baby is in special care. It was nice. We came home Thursday night.
I'm doing better and better, but I'm slow and can't really do anything besides eat,
sleep and visit Anika. My arms are still all bruised. You can't see very
well in the pictures, but they look terrible!

My laryngitis has mostly cleared up. My cough got worse before it got
better. I think it is almost gone. It has been a killer with a c-section incision.
Even with my pain meds it hurt REALLY bad to cough. I was always having
to brace myself. I'm so glad it is getting better.

37 Weeks

37 weeks, and people still say I don't look pregnant. :)

Our Little Miracle

Anika Mae Hardman was born by C-section at 6:57 PM on Thursday, January 14th. She weighed
5 lbs 3 oz and was 17 inches long. She was born at 36 1/2 weeks so she is considered
late pre-term. However, the doctors think she is one or probably even two weeks younger than
that. This is based on her wrinkles, her ability to eat and her general "behavior."

Thankfully she is rather healthy. There have been concerns with her blood sugar,
oxygen, temperature maintenance and a few other things that have all resolved themselves.
She hasn't had to be on oxygen at all. Really the only issues are her feeding/weight gain and
jaundice. She was under the lights for jaundice for 2 days and was able to have them
turned off today (Wednesday 1-20). So her feeding is the main focus. She needs to be able

to follow a feeding schedule in order to leave the hospital. At this point she is only able

to eat 10% or less of her food by mouth; the rest is through a feeding tube. In order to

go home, she needs to be able to eat 100% by mouth.

She hasn't been in the NICU, but she is in a special care unit and will likely be there
for another week or two. She had an IV in her hand, and then she had one in her head
(as you can see in the picture above). We are delighted to have that out,
and it has been replaced with a feeding tube.

She is such a sweetheart! We are very blessed to have her here - I'll try to
post soon with more details about our crazy experience. We love her so much!

baby

I'll format this later. For now, enjoy:

Not my week

Yes, I'm basically complaining. Not to get your sympathy so much as to let it out.

Last Wednesday/Thursday, baby really wasn't moving - sometimes at all. After about 15 hours
I started paying REALLY close attention and tried to get her to move (eat, lay down, shower,
poke/push, talk, etc.). I spent all day Thursday doing this and was really worried all day.
I talked to Than when he came home and he encouraged me to call. My midwife ordered an
ultrasound and non-stress test, so we went straight to the hospital. My fluid level seemed low,
but otherwise things looked okay. Since it seemed low, my midwife ordered the same tests as a
follow-up at a different hospital Friday morning. Our little Stinker (who wouldn't move for
anything all day) immediately kicked the monitor twice as soon as they put it on my stomach.

Thursday night I slept terribly. So after having breakfast with Than, I took a nap until they called
to tell me what time to come in. I hurried and got ready. I was about to call to cancel my
dentist appointment when I realized I had left my phone. Then I spilled water all over my lap
because I hadn't screwed my bottle lid on tight. Once I got to the hospital, I drove around and
around trying to figure out where to go in and where to park. I made it, but was a little late.
While registering, the lady said that they didn't take my insurance. And, if they didn't take it,
then neither does the hospital I was at the night before. Uh-oh. Now we get to figure out
how to pay for some outrageous bills.

Our insurance changed at the start of the new year. Nathaniel had checked to see that the
midwifes were still covered, and they are. But the hospital where they work is not.
How lame is that? A nice receptionist let me into the office to call my insurance. I talked to
some really cranky lady who wasn't very helpful even though I was being polite. The
receptionist even helped me make some phone calls and gave me a mini candy bar when
I left 1 1/2 hours later. So I didn't get the tests done there, but got the order changed and
headed to yet another hospital that is covered by our insurance.

I stopped home to get my phone and a sandwich. At the next hospital I went from one desk
to another and back again. Then a nurse took me to the other side of the hospital where I waited,
registered, waited and then had the ultrasound. Things seemed okay. Then I went back to one
of the first desks and they put me in a room and said, "We'll be right with you." Almost 45 minutes
later I poked my head out the door to see what was going on. Two nurses got wide-eyed when they
saw me, and one came in to start the 20-minute procedure. She said she'd be back in 15 minutes.
An hour later, a different nurse came in to unhook everything and tell me I could go home
(after almost 3 hours).

What an ordeal that was. Until yesterday I figured I'd have to switch doctors/midwives even
though I'm 36 weeks because I can't go to the hospital that we had originally planned on. But,
as it turns out, there is a new midwife who has rights at the hospital that I can go to. So
thankfully I can continue to go to their clinic and then she can come to the new hospital when I
have my baby. But it is still like getting a new doctor because I haven't even met her yet...

And now I'm sick. I have laryngitis. I never knew laryngitis could be sooo painful. It kind of
started Friday but really hit me on Saturday evening. I drinking a lot, sleeping, using a humidifier,
etc. and I hardly seem to be better. Maybe my cough isn't quite as bad, and my throat doesn't hurt
ALL the time now. However, now I am congested with a very runny nose (gotta love when that happens),
with occasional headaches and sneezing. My coughing and sneezing is such that I'm sure my baby
must be experiencing some trauma every time. I guess I'm really frustrated becaue I managed to actually stay healthy for sooo long, and I was trying so hard to stay healthy during my pregnancy. Sigh.

Due Dates and Deadlines

Here I am with my dad and big brother, Josh.

So we were happy to hear that Nathaniel's company offers 2 weeks paid paternity leave.
Yes, 2 weeks! However, you have to have worked for the company for at least 6 months.
The baby's due date (or rather, guess date), is exactly 6 months from Nathaniel's first day of work!

They might make some exceptions because we are SO CLOSE, but they just sent the policy description
without a hint of whether or not they would make considerations for our situation.

So we are hoping and praying that she will be late, or at least not early. We wouldn't mind if you
want to do that too. :) Yes, I realize I don't know what I'm asking for by hoping she'll be late,
but I believe it would be worth it. Besides, if I'm already planning on her being late
then I (and my patience) might be able to last a little longer anyway.

We'll keep telling her what she is supposed to do and hope that because I was late,
my brother was late and Nathaniel was late that she might follow suit.
Due dates are usually wrong anyway.

See, won't Nathaniel be such a good dad!?