Sweet, Sweet Seth

Our adorable kids

Our friends the Bennetts came for a visit during

spring break.

It was so fun to see them and their cute little boy! He and Seth are more than 2 months

but less than 2lbs apart. Their dads have been good friends for a long time now.

As Nathaniel would say, "J-Dawg and Seth. BFF."

We are always telling Seth what a good kid he is, and every single day we give thanks that he

is so much easier than Anika was. Several times a day, we'll be doing something, and we'll hear

Seth cooing, and we'll remember, "Oh yeah, Seth is over there!" and there he is, waving his arms and legs

and just looking around at stuff, content as can be. Seth cries when we put him in his car seat,

but then he calms down once we start driving, and sometimes he even falls asleep!

When he's tired, we can usually swaddle him, give him a binkie, and walk with him for a minute

or just lay him down, and he'll fall asleep. He sleeps for hours at a time, and he isn't woken up

by most movements or noises. And perhaps best of all, if he's crying, it's for a reason that we can figure out! We just go through the little checklist - Is he hungry? Does he need a diaper change?

Is he tired? - and voila! he stops crying. It's absolutely miraculous. And I'm not

exaggerating when I say we give thanks every single day.

Not the best picture, but Seth at 9 weeks.

At his 2 month appointment he weighed 14lbs 5oz and was 24 1/4" long

(both in the 75th-90th percentile range).

February 23rd, about 6 1/2 weeks.

February 22nd

February 5th, about 4 weeks

And a cute big sister.

Some fun

We went to the zoo with some cute friends.

Here is Seth in the stroller :) I was going to put him in the carrier after awhile but I never did.

One reason was because he was sleeping so well and seemed pretty protected like this.

It was fun but I think not having Anika in the stroller made it hard on her even though I carried her a lot :(

Anika got her cast off!!! Here is the before picture with the last link from our countdown chain.

And the after picture. Her arm wasn't as bad as I had feared.

It was itchy for awhile, but it didn't look very atrophied.

She was crying and tantruming as the nurse tried to weigh her, but she was perfect while the

doctor actually sawed her cast off. I took her swimming that night to celebrate!

We went to the Children's Museum in the Gateway Mall on President's Day. It was such a neat place.

I could only dream of having so many cool areas for pretend play and discovery when I

was teaching (and as a mother!). Thanks, Grandpa!

This picture is a good representation of how Anika looks when Daddy gets her dressed to go out and play :)

Boots (likely without socks), leg warmers, shorts, and a coat. She asked to wear the helmet.

Than helped Anika build a snowman (even with her cast wrapped in a bag).

Someone made this huge fish. Anika loved to go sit on it and called it a whale.

Anika filled up her sticker chart so she got to go to Chuck-E-Cheese for a few rides.

I won't put the picture here but Anika has continued to occasionally take off her jammies and

sometimes her diaper at night before she goes to sleep. We usually find her awake, but we have

now found her naked and asleep two times. Silly girl.

When it rains...

Silly Anika broke her arm on Saturday night!

After this picture was taken she said, "That was a good cheese."

(referring to her facial expression)

She fell from a step stool about one foot off the ground.

She had been standing on it to turn the lights off and on and off and on.

We called the after hours clinic about 8:30pm and headed right over. We waited forever for the doctor, then had to go get X-rays from the hospital which also took forever. Then we went back to the doctor with the X-rays. It is a buckle fracture just above her wrist. Anika was hardly cooperative. At the hospital when she was getting X-Rays, I could hear her screaming down a pretty long hall even though she was in a room with the door shut. To get her cast on was another ordeal. I was sitting on the table with her on my lap. I was holding her with my arms and legs. It also took Nathaniel a nurse and the doctor a bit of fight to get it on her. She calmed down more or less after Nathaniel started talking about the white padding as a mitten like the one from "The Mitten." I asked her if she thought the big brown bear could fit inside, etc.

Then she was all charm. We were the last ones to leave the office, and she had everyone (6+ people)

in love with her. She was being cute and saying things like: I got an owie. I got a big, big bandaid

(as she held up her cast). I got a picture (X-ray) of my arm. I got a sticker.

We shared a shake on the drive afterward and got home just before midnight.

She has to have the cast on for 5-6weeks, and it can't get wet.

When the doc asked how good of an escape artist she is, I thought of all of the clothes and pajama combinations we have had to try with her to keep her dressed. She has tried to get the cast off and often asks for us to take it off. Her wardrobe options have been limited (we did have a cardigan over this dress).

The first night she didn't want to wear anything, and I finally convinced her to wear a zip-up jacket for pajamas. She had gotten the jacket off by the time I got her the next morning.

Anika needs more help than usual but is managing pretty well.

She is still very busy and hasn't seemed to have a lot of pain.

In the 2 weeks since Seth was born we have visited the doctor and hospital A LOT:

January 7 - Seth was born, stay in hospital

January 8 - Stay in hospital

January 9 - Stay in hospital, barely managed to get discharged

January 10 - Seth to hospital for bilirubin check

January 11 - Seth to hospital for bilirubin check

January 12 - Seth to doctor for weight check and to get frenulum clipped

January 13 - Seth to hospital for bilirubin check

January 14 - nothing

January 15 - nothing, but we discover Anika has croup

January 16 - Anika 2 year appointment

& Seth to hospital for bilirubin check

January 17 - Lina to doctor to get hematocrit checked

& to hospital to get Seth's footprints

January 18 - nothing, but Seth gets a cold

January 19 - nothing

January 20 - Lina to dentist :)

& Nathaniel to doctor for Tdap vaccination

January 21 - Anika to doctor

& to hospital for X-rays

& back to doctor for her cast

And today (January 24) I took Seth for his 2 week check-up
I think we are well on our way to meeting our out-of-pocket max for insurance.

2 Weeks and a Family Picture

This family picture is as good as it will get for now :)

We are enjoying our sweet little guy!

On Saturday Seth was 2 weeks old.

He got a middle name: Seth Aune Hardman (my maiden name)

He is now 10lbs 9 oz and 21.5"

Can he really grow 2.5" in 2 weeks?

Maybe he was measured a little short and/or long.

Maybe we'll get some good pictures of him soon.

Prob'y 2

We had a birthday party for Anika on her birthday one week after Seth was born (I planned it quite awhile ago). I thought it would be good for her to be the center of attention, and it was.

Grandma: Anika, how old are you?

Anika: ... Prob'y (probably) two.

We just had grandparents over, and she loved it. Grandpa read her some books. Grandma and Dad played Ring Around the Rosies with her. The grandparents all got to hold Seth too, but she didn't seem to notice much.

Nathaniel put a pen through the middle of the crepe paper and let Anika hold it as it unrolled. She thought that was pretty great.

My friend made Anika an adorable lady bug cake. She loved it and also had fun blowing out the candles. I'm sure we sang "Happy Birthday" to her a couple dozen times throughout the day and a few more at her party. Anika would get a big grin on her face when we sang and would often join in.

Here is Grandpa Aune and Grandpa Hardman. Somehow I missed Grandma :(

We read a lady bug book and sang a lady bug song.

Anika got a super small set of legos for Christmas, but Than and I found a sweet deal for about 6x more for 2x the price on e-bay. You can also see her "Lily's Potty" book that we had to buy from the library because she was peeling off the back.

We had pizza, a super spinach salad (Anika just had toppings), and clementines.

Lately she has really enjoyed when we have a "picnic lunch" or "picnic dinner." Her birthday was the perfect time for another "picnic dinner."

She had fun with the red balloons. Than and his mom would blow one up, not tie it, and then let it go flying around the room. Once each adult blew up a balloon, and we all let them go at the same time. Her facial expression was priceless. I wasn't thinking, so I didn't really get a picture of it.

We did hang up some of the crepe paper. Today when I was finally starting to take it down Anika said, "Don't take the Christmas tree down. It makes me sad."

Getting Better

Sorry for the delay in updates.

Seth and I are doing well.

He was able to start eating again and did well so he got the IV out.

He wasn't going to be able to come home at least until Tuesday the 12th but after discussing things with the pediatrician we were able to take him home late Monday a few hours after I was discharged.

His cute hat seems to already be too small :(

His bilirubin count was high enough that Tuesday night he had to start the bili bed.

Thankfully we had him home but it was still a bit rough.

Anika says, "He doesn't like the lights." By Friday he got off the bili bed but Anika still tells us that.

We had a few more bumps along the way, but things are going well considering.

I am starting to feel better. My hematocrit was 40 before Seth was born, went down

to 22 and is now on it's way back up. Yesterday I was up to 26.

Baby Brother Seth

Seth _____ Hardman

Saturday, January 7th, 2012

9 lbs, 19 inches

7:50 pm

Anika finally got to meet Baby Brother

Seth has a little bit of blonde hair

Anika giving Seth a hug

Daddy and Seth

Waiting for Seth to come back to our room

Anika got to open a gift from Seth. It is a moose that does the Mexican Hat Dance and it is one of her most favorite toys ever (we've checked it out from a parent resource center a few times). She wanted him out of the box immediately. As soon as we told her it needed batteries and that Emily would help her get them at home, she just wanted to leave. The toy is pretty annoying, but how much she loves it is endearing.

I started having contractions at 4 am. They were pretty intense from the start. I did manage to have

VBAC with no meds. I had a really odd labor that never stabilized, even through transition.

I had the most random contractions - the intensity, the time between, the length.

My experienced midwife (30ish years as one) thought it was really weird and unusual,

but I continued to progress so it worked. I guess.

The placenta came out within several minutes after Seth was born, but then I hemorrhaged really

badly and lost over a liter (1200-1300 cc) of blood. The midwife and nurses were sort of frantic

for awhile trying to get me to stop bleeding. Someone was constantly massaging my stomach,

they gave me pitocin, I got a shot of something else to help stop the bleeding, they were stuffing

several things up into me (I still don't know what), the on-call doctor came in... It was exciting.

I seem to be getting better. I am really tired, dizzy and weak. I fainted last night after going to the bathroom, but luckily two nurses were holding me and all I did was sort of a face plant into my bed. I have an IV and my red blood cell count is pretty low but so far barely haven't needed a transfusion.

Seth was doing really well. We enjoyed him being in our room, nursing well, and Nathaniel even commented on how it was nice that we didn't have to worry about all the cords like we did with Anika. But he has sort of digressed. He spit up (amniotic fluid, meconium, blood) a couple times - which could be normal. Then he did it again and we called the nurse in by saying "My baby's choking" as the nurse had told us to do. He just really struggled for a little bit. Then Seth did quite well through the night but has had several more episodes of this today including a more urgent choking where he was pretty dark purple all over and was rushed off to the nursery. The nurses got him breathing again, but he still continued to spit up and choke. He had some oxygen for a little bit. He also had an X-ray and some blood drawn. Now he is in the Level 2 Special Care Nursery with an IV for the night. He is being monitored to figure out if he has some sort of stomach or intestinal obstruction or problem. If he isn't doing better in the morning then he might have to go to Primary Children's to see a surgeon. It has been a real downer to have all of our exciting success turn the corner, but the overall outlook is a little more positive than not. So we'll be praying for him and you can too :)