Another Week in the Books

Lindsey is 3 weeks old already. She's doing well. Right now she is relaxing and dozing in her swing. She's quite the gassy little thing which keeps her a little agitated when she is awake, but at least it doesn't effect her sleep at night. She is usually only getting up once during the night. Last night we had our first "cry it out" session. She woke up an hour earlier than usual so I went and changed her diaper and put her back down. She was in and out of slumber for about an hour, then I fed her and she was happy until the morning. I am so grateful for the video monitor so that I can comfortably (if that is possible) let her cry and see that she is really ok.

With all of our family help gone, we seem to be adjusting well to life with two kids. It really helps that Ben is only gone to work for half a day right now. Hopefully that will make for an easier transition once the season gets here. Whitney is doing well too. Ben usually takes over Whitney when he gets home which typically consists of playing outside. That is by far her favorite place to be. We got her out in the water hose last weekend while we were cleaning the car. She loves water. Whitney seems to be enjoying her little sister which is a real blessing. She pays her just enough attention. I can tell she wants Lindsey to play though. Today she was trying to get her to look through her camera. Soon enough...

Aunt Abby and the girls

Misc Pics

Lindsey is 2 weeks old now and doing well. She is starting to be awake more and you can tell she is trying to focus on things. Whitney is starting to pay more attention to her. She likes "petting" her and giving her kisses and hugs.

These are just a few cute pictures from the last week.

Daddy and his little girlsThis girl loves apples!Whitney in her new swing from Grammy and Grandpa Hartsock

Luke and Kallie's Birthday Party

Last weekend our friends Luke and Kallie had a wild west themed birthday party at a ranch. It was a beautiful day with friends, horses, a rooster and a playground. Whitney actually got to take her first ride on a horse and Lindsey made her debute. Fun day!

A Day of Firsts

Today Lindsey had her first doctors appointment and her first bath. Neither were much fun for her, but she pulled through. The doctors appointment went well. She weighed 7 lbs 4 oz, so she gained 4 oz since we left the hospital. Everything else checked out fine. The doctor was not concerned at all with the heart issue and just told us to follow up with the cardiologist in 2 months. We go back in a month.

The bath went well too. She wasn't crazy about it, but didn't completely hate it either. Her favorite part was getting her hair washed. We weren't real sure what to do with all that hair...do you use a hair dryer on a 9 day old? We didn't. Hope that was the right call. :)

Hippity Hoppity Easter!

The Easter Bunny found his way to our house and Whitney reaped all the benefits. Hope you all had a great Easter and were able to celebrate the true meaning of the day! Thank you Jesus for your gift! (And the Easter Bunny for the candy!)

Proud Grandparents

The girls had a double dose of their grandparents for a day and Lindsey finally got to meet her Grandma and Grandpa Hartsock.

Heading home to meet big sister Whitney!

After three long nights, Friday morning we got the news that Lindsey was going to be discharged, and so was I! Hooray! We were so excited to get home and knew Whitney was really ready to meet her baby sister. Up to this point she hadn't see Lindsey because children under 4 weren't allowed in the NICU. Whitney was so excited to see us walk through the door, but then we showed her Lindsey...she was really excited then. She just kept saying "Aw, that's cute" and "She's so pretty" and "She's so little". It was the cutest thing. Then after about 5 minutes, she was over it and moved onto playing and running around. She's such a good little girl!

Lindsey Kate-Day 3

Day 3 was an even better day! The feeding tube came out, they started weening Lindsey off of fluids and oxygen and I got to nurse her throughout the day. Later in the evening she got moved to the "intermediate" NICU and that's where they removed the iv and oxygen. She progressed so fast and so well. Late that night the nurse that was assigned to Lindsey had to come upstairs to the "mobile" NICU that was right across the hall from us and she was able to bring Lindsey with her. So it was exciting for us to know she was just right across the hall. We could see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Lindsey Kate-Day 2

Day 2 was an exciting day for us. I got "disconnected" from everything, iv's, etc. But most importantly we got to hold our baby girl for the first time! We loved getting to hold her! Up until this point Lindsey hadn't eaten anything, she just had iv fluids, so the nurses wanted me to try to nurse her that day. We did and it went pretty well, but as you will see, this was the day they put the feeding tube in so it kind of made it difficult. After I nursed they supplemented with formula through the feeding tube and then they wanted me to pump so they could measure what all she was getting. It was a day of observation and tests and Lindsey continued to get better. We also had my parents and Whitney come in for a visit and friends in the evening. They brought us dinner...pizza! Yes!

Whitney Grace eating mommy's lettuce

She's here!

Little Lindsey Kate has arrived! We went into the hospital for our scheduled c-section on April 7th at 4:00 pm for a 5:30 pm surgery time. Of course, the doctor was behind, we should have expected it. At any rate, I was kind of glad because it gave me some time to relax a little bit. I finally headed back to the operating room around 8:30 pm to get my epidural. A few minutes later Ben came into the room and at 8:54 pm Lindsey Kate Hartsock entered the world at 7lbs 6oz, 20 inches.

As you can see in the second picture, she was very pale. All of her vitals were good, but for some reason she just didn't have the right color. The doctors and nurses didn't like this so she was sent to the NICU for observation. She ended up staying there for the duration of our hospital stay, all the while being very stable. Once she got into the NICU they ran through a checklist of tests throughout the next couple of days and eventually passed with flying colors. Each day her color got better and better. She was on oxygen and IV fluids for a couple days and had to have a feeding tube on one of the first days just to get her nutrition. An echocardiogram they did on her heart indicated that she has a small pin size hole in the wall of the ventricles, (I don't really know what that is), but the doctor said that had nothing to do with her paleness and should close up itself. So we do have to follow up with that in a couple of months. Each day in the hosptial she got stronger and stronger, better and better. It was definitely hard seeing her with all the tubes and wires and not being able to have her in our room, but we were grateful that she was under such great care and realized that she was very stable compared to other babies in the NICU. God is good!

All hooked up

Seeing my baby girl after being released from the recovery room, on my way to our post partum room.

Meeting Grandma Lykowski

Meeting Grandpa LykowskiI'll keep working on posts to get more pictures up...it might take me a couple days to get it all done. :)