10 Weeks

As of yesterday, Anika is 10 weeks old. She is probably over 10lbs now too.

She is smiling more. She loves the bath.
She enjoys going on walks (she basically always sleeps the whole time).

She often smiles for Than when he gets home.
She smiles and coos regularly while getting her diaper changed.

Last night was the first time we left her with someone else.
My sister watched her while we went to the temple to do sealings.
It was hard to leave her, especially since she has been so fussy lately,
but amazingly she slept the whole time! It was a miracle.

26

Friday was Than's 26th birthday. I was able to surprise him by inviting his
3 best high school friends over for the evening. I really didn't think it
was going to work out, but I was glad it did.

We had crepes for dinner and then played Bang!


Nathaniel has been wanting to do an egg drop contest ever since
he was a little boy. Here he is with Bryce and Kris
(Dustin had to leave) packaging their eggs.


Nathaniel's finished product. The bags are supposed to be parachutes
(they actually worked), and inside he has his egg sort of suspended by
6 rubber bands; one connected to each side of the box.
His was the only one that survived.


The overpass/bridge where they dropped the eggs.

Happy Birthday!

Smiles :)

Our Stroller Debut

6 weeks is the typical time that babies reach the developmental milestone of social smiles.
Because Anika is premature, we'll have to wait a few extra weeks and go by her "corrected" or
"adjusted" age (age based on due date not birthday) for most milestones; at least for a year or two.

Even before Anika was 6 weeks, I was excited for her to smile. I was a little bit sad as her
6 week mark came and went. An extra few weeks can be a long time. However, yesterday
(8 weeks) I finally felt like she smiled at me a few times in response to me!

She seemed to have a few questionable smiles before then, but now I think she's
really starting to do it. I am just so excited I had to share!

By the way, we've used cloth diapers about 30 times. We only have about 110 more
times until we pay off what we've spent so far. (We've use the bigger ones quite a bit not
as cloth diapers.) I don't love it or hate it. I do feel like there is a way to cloth diaper that I
would love but I just haven't quite found it yet. I'm getting warmer though; just so many choices.

I don't know what to title this post...

With Great-Grandma Koerfgen

In answer to a question, Preeclampsia does not run in my family. Ironically though,
I married into a family where it does. Two of my sisters-in-law (Nathaniel's brother's wives -
not his sisters) have had it. Maybe it was so we could all commiserate together. There are
a lot of unknowns with preeclampsia. My midwife said if she could figure out what
causes it she would win the Nobel Prize. The best they can figure is that your body
sort of gets allergic to being pregnant, and the only known cure is to take out the baby.
Not only does it not run in my family, but I didn't have any of the risk factors either.
I think they include being under 20, over 40, African-American, having high blood pressure
when you aren't pregnant... But, now that I've had it, I am more at-risk to have it again.
It was hard to diagnose in me until that day because I wasn't showing some of the signs
really obviously (swelling, rapid weight gain, high blood pressure, protein in your urine).
There were other symptoms that I didn't have at all (headache, dizziness, stomach pain).
That is another reason why it a blessing to have been at the hospital that day because
I wouldn't have sought help because I wasn't feeling any of those symptoms.

Just over two years ago I had an ectopic pregnancy that the doctors couldn't really diagnose.
Unfortunately it ended with surgery and the loss of one tube because it wasn't found/
caught/diagnosed sooner. Thankfully my friend just so happened to make me aware of the
possibility of an ectopic pregnancy the morning of the first day I went to the ER (when I was
with her I didn't have any symptoms). It was later that night when I had Than look up the
symptoms online and I had all of them. I wouldn't have even had a clue what was going
on if she hadn't mentioned it. But it was so early on that no one could ever quite decide what
was really happening (even though I had pretty much concluded that that was my
problem). It was too small to find in any of the 6 ultrasounds I had. I wasn't in
any of the at-risk groups for this either. Same as this go-around, I am now at
risk for having it happen again just because I had it once.

I was afraid to get pregnant again for awhile after my ectopic pregnancy. By the time I
found out I was we had been hoping for it for awhile. It just so happened to be ONE day
before we were leaving to go to Europe for 3 weeks. That really scared me because if I was
to have another one, it would be while we were in Europe. I remember asking the Women's Center if there was any way I could keep in touch by email or something. So now I am sort of
scared again, but it is okay. I don't want to have preeclampsia again, a premature baby, or a
baby that has to stay in the hospital again. Despite all the hardship, I realize that there are
some people out there who would trade places with me in a heartbeat.

I am grateful for my experiences (although I don't wish to have any more). My ectopic
pregnancy totally helped me understand why the church is organized the way it is
and strengthen my testimony of scriptures, prayers, Relief Society, Visiting Teaching,
friendship, and especially the Atonement. The emotional pain was almost unbearable, and
He took it away. That experience is so much of who I am now. I know that everything
happens for a reason. I know the Lord is watching out for me, and that he doesn't give
us trials that we can't handle. I am so glad to have Anika! Maybe I shouldn't joke,
but I try to keep things light by saying, "Hopefully it is 'Third Time's the Charm'
and not 'Three strikes, you're out!'"