It's Been One Week

Nathan was smiling in his sleep last night and luckily I had the camera right next to me.  I missed the really big one but this one is still pretty cute.  I love baby smiles.

     Nathan was one week old yesterday, on the 4th of July.  It was a Sunday so we didn't participate in the usual 4th of July celebrations.  Nathan and I stayed home while Daren took all the girls to church.  Each of the girls brought a picture of herself holding her new baby brother to show to her class.  Grandma Poetschlag told me that Kelsey held on to her picture all through Sacrament Meeting.  Nathan and I spent the morning sound asleep!  It felt so good to catch up.  I didn't even need a nap later in the day.

     In the evening, my mom and dad and grandma came over for dinner.  We had meatloaf with baked potatoes and Daren made a patriotic jello cake for dessert.  After topping it with the cool whip, he put sliced strawberries and blueberries all over the top.  It was Yummy!  It was pretty low key for 4th of July but a nice Sabbath way to celebrate with family.

     After dinner, we got a call from the Byerly's that they were going to come pick up their keys.  Daren and the girls had taken care of their animals a couple of days for them.  The girls immediately ran outside to wait for them, figuring they would be there any second since they live so close.  They decided to ride their bikes over so it took a little longer than the girls thought.  But then the sprinklers came on so Mackenzie comes in a little wet.  She said Haylee made her get wet.  Before I knew it, Mackenzie and Haylee had both changed into swimsuits and were headed out the front door for the sprinklers.  I stopped them right away-no running through the sprinklers on the Sabbath-go take off your swimsuits and get real clothes on right now!  But Mackenzie couldn't just leave it alone.  In her cute little red, white, and blue swimsuit, she comes over, "But why Mommy?  Why can't we just go play in the water?"  So I told her, "Today is the Sabbath Day and we try to be reverent on Sundays."  Next FHE lesson topic: Reverence.  Mackenzie's very logical response was, "Well we won't talk..."  So I need to teach my kids that being reverent isn't just not talking, although they haven't exactly mastered that part of reverence yet during Sacrament Meeting.

     I think the first week that a baby is home is usually the hardest.  I might change my mind when Daren goes back to work.  But having him home during this time has been so wonderful.  I don't know why I never planned for a summer baby before!  It's been really great to have him here to take care of the kids so I could just focus on taking care of Nathan and myself.  My mom has been a huge help too.  She's been cooking for us, cleaning up and sitting with the kids during naptimes so that they'll keep quieter while we get some rest.

     I still can hardly believe that we have a little boy now.  But I'm so glad that we do!

Kelsey got a little tired during dinner since she wouldn't take a nap after church.

A few pictures taken during the first week:

One of his rare awake moments.  The girls get so excited when his eyes are open.

Haylee adores her baby brother

Sound asleep in the bassinet.  I couldn't decide which picture was cuter so I just had to put them both in even though they are almost exactly the same.

Bringing Nathan Home

     We brought Nathan home the next day (June 28) in the evening.  We were sad to find out that his blood test showed that his platelet count was low (normal is 250,000, his were 80,000).  Dr. Kitty, our pediatrician, said that it could be related a bad cold virus that I had a few weeks earlier, and that it could recover on its own.  But there was a chance that it was something more serious.  He got his blood retested yesterday and his platelets were up much higher to 144,000.  So we'll test him again tomorrow, but it looks like they'll be back to normal all on their own.  Yay!
     The girls were so happy to have their baby brother home with them.  They couldn't wait to hold him again so we took a bunch more pictures of the girls with their little brother.

The First Day at Home

Kelsey wouldn't get in the picture unless she got to hold Nathan

Nathan gets a kiss from each of his sisters.  They are convinced he's not going to let them kiss him when he's older.  They're probably right.  :)

More Pictures at the Hospital

     Most of the time it was just Daren and me at the hospital with Nathan.  We took some pretty cute pictures in our free time.  The hospital really downgraded their TV service since Kelsey was born.  They didn't even have cable anymore.  Just the basic 7 local channels.  It was pretty boring.  Last time we watched USA and enjoyed watching Psych and Monk during our stay.  I will say that they improved their food though.  Last time I couldn't even choke down the food they brought me and Daren went out and bought me fast food.  This time it was pretty good.  I just wish they would give me a menu so I could choose.  They finally brought me one Monday so I could pick for Tuesday.  Well, we were going home Monday evening so that was no help. 

Welcome Nathan!

Nathan William Hardy

June 27, 2010, 10:34 a.m.

6 lbs. 15 oz.

20 inches

     He made it!  Nathan decided he'd like to come just as early as Kelsey did.  I was 36 1/2 weeks pregnant, but I was sure I was going to make it to July.  Sunday morning, I woke up thinking I might have felt a little something.  I wasn't sure though, so I kept getting everything ready for church.  Especially since I was in charge of sharing time.  Luckily we had a game plan for this.  Sandi Dickey and Rachel Huber (my counselors) are both out of town.  Sandi had arranged for Sandi Collins to fill in for me if I went into labor.  By 7:30 or 8:00, I knew I was in labor and I just needed to get everything together so I could get to the hospital.  We called my mom and decided to finish getting the kids ready for church, then drop them off at the church building and head for the hospital.  We got to the church and got the kids situated with my mom, the sharing time stuff to Sandi, and my dad and Daren gave me a blessing.

     We made it to the hospital just after 9:00.  It didn't take very long.  I really wanted the epidural, but unfortunately, he was coming too fast again.  Dr. Miller was off, so Dr. Carroll was the one who delivered Nathan.  He made his arrival only an hour and a half after we got to the hospital.  Apparently, some people at church thought that I'd come to Sacrament Meeting and then gone into labor and rushed to the hospital only to barely make it.  But as close as it was, I didn't almost deliver in the parking lot or anything like that.

     The girls were very excited to be able to come over straight after church to visit their new baby brother.  We gave Kelsey her new doll.  But she was pretty interested in the real baby too.  She said his name right away and she tells us that she loves him.

     We are so glad that Nathan is here!  We love him so much and the girls are being such big helpers.  They are so happy to have a baby brother.  Our family wouldn't be complete without him.

The Hardy Boys (sounds better than the Hardy Boy, doesn't it?)

Our whole family together.  Five kids! Wow!

Grandpa Moffitt

Grandma Moffitt

Great-Grandma Poetschlag

Natalee

Haylee

Mackenzie

Kelsey

This is Kelsey's new doll.  We told her its name was Emily since that was our back-up name if Nathan came out a girl.

     All of the girls got a sticker that said, "I'm a Big Sister" from the hospital.  One thing that was disappointing was that Mackenzie was giving a talk in primary and we had to miss it.  But my mom was there to help her.  Here she is holding the pencil that she picked out for giving her talk.  She chose to talk about Nephi and the brass plates.

Kelsey's First Prayer

     Last night Kelsey said her very first solo prayer.  She often says "My turn!" when I ask whose turn it is to say the prayer at night.  But every time we let her and I try to help her by whispering what she should say, she just stays quiet and then finally turns to me and says, "You do it."  So last night, when she shouted, "My turn!" I decided to let her have a go at it and I didn't say a thing to her.  (I also had to instruct the girls to back away since I could immediately see them closing in on her to be the ones to help her with her prayer.)  This is what she said:
Heavenly Father,
Thank you day,
Have fun,
Amen!
     We all said "amen" and then she got lots of snuggles and cheers, and I could tell she was so proud of herself.  Their first prayer is always so sweet and precious.

Dinner at Denny's

     We don't go out to eat very often.  First of all, it costs a lot of money to feed 6 people at a sit down restaurant.  Second of all, it's far more embarrassing to have dinner fights in public.  Fights at dinner are very common at our house.  They used to be about who got to sit by Daren (I think I've mentioned how they're all daddy's girls), but now they are about who gets to sit by Kelsey.  And of course a few other random fights during dinner.  And the usual, "Ewwww, this is gross, what else can I have for dinner?"  Well, we decided to combine some lessons about fasting with some lessons about good manners.  We told the girls if they could behave properly at the dinner table, in public AND at home (that would be the hard part), then we could go to a real sit down restaurant once a month.  We would go out the day before fast Sunday as a good start to fasting.  Fasting has been the hardest part for Natalee now that she's 8 years old.  We only have her fast for one meal so far.  But we thought that this could help her look more forward to fast Sundays.
     I took a few pictures of our first pre-Fast Sunday sit down dinner.  It was June 5, 2010.  We chose Denny's because it seems to be pretty kid-friendly.  Although it was painful to have Haylee order macaroni and cheese.  It even brags in the menu that it's Kraft.  We tried to talk her out of it by telling her it was the exact same stuff we make at home for 75 cents, but she was determined.  The girls had great manners.  They all liked what they ordered.  Haylee even had some leftover ranch dressing from some carrots she decided she didn't want and she gave it to Mackenzie.  Mackenzie ordered chicken nuggets and of course used all the ranch dressing that came with them.  I thought it was very thoughtful of Haylee.  Poor Natalee was still a little hungry after dinner.  I think it's time for her to stop ordering from the children's menu.  But all in all, we had a great time and we're looking forward to making it a family tradition.

Haylee and Mackenzie-it's always nice to get a picture of them cuddling up together.

Somehow Kelsey figured out she could make the spoon hang from her nose without anyone even showing her.  I know, not good manners, but so stinkin' cute from a 2 year old.

Random Cuteness

Kelsey, June 20, 2010

Haylee, June 21, 2010

     Kelsey was being so cute on Father's Day while my dad was opening his present.  I already had the camera out so I had to snap some pictures of her.  Yesterday, the girls got Natalee's makeup out to entertain themselves.  Haylee decided to put some "blush" on her cheeks.  I told her she looked like Raggedy Ann. :)  She said it looked cute.

     We have been working on getting Kelsey to sleep in her own bed lately.  She was doing really well at staying in her bed all night, but she wouldn't start in her own bed.  So I started by putting her in her own bed and sitting in a chair by her.  She did really well after a couple of days, but the other night, she had kind of a bad night again.  She was really crying about having to be in her bed.  I was sitting right there so she thought that maybe she could sneak out of her bed as long as she held her hands over her eyes.  It was so hard not to laugh even though she was so sad.  I kept telling her, "I can see you Kelsey," but she just kept walking towards me with her hands over her eyes, crying.  Poor baby.  The last couple of days she has stayed in her own bed without me even having to sit with her.  That part is great.  But she has come in to our bedroom the last couple of nights.  Not good.  We need her to be entirely in her own bed before the baby is born.  Probably only a couple of weeks to go!