Sienna Comes Home!

After three days in the hospital, we brought Sienna home. As when we had Elli, the hospital treated us great: Heather got a massage one day and for our final meal, they brought in a table, laid out a nice table cloth, and gave a nice dinner to both Heather and me. But even still, we were ready to come home.

Since then, though, we've been a little behind on everything, including blog posts. For those who have had new borns, you probably understand ... for the first week or so, Heather and I both felt like zombies. And even now, Heather still doesn't get a lot of sleep each night. We were especially grateful to have Heather's mom Christine staying with us. Each morning, she would get up with Elli and watch her while Heather and I tried to recover from the lack of sleep the night before. On top of that, Christine kept us both fed and our fridge full. She was wonderful!

Okay, so back to Sienna coming home; here are some pics we took right before coming home. Isn't she so tiny and adorable! In the last few pics, you can tell that she barely fits into her car seat.

Utah visit to see Kyle and Jamie and fam

This post is a flashback post to cover a great trip we took back in January. Since we've moved to VA, we've wanted to go back to UT to visit Kyle, Jamie, and their kids. We thought it would be perfect to visit in the winter so that we could also take advantage of the mountains to go skiing. Great plan, right? It was, right up until it decided not to snow at all this winter! In fact, I think Mother Nature was purposefully toying with us: the last day we were there, it started snowing. And within four days after we left, it had snowed two more times.

But even though we didn't go skiing, we had a blast. And it actually worked out better because we were able to spend more time together having a good time. And Elliana loved being around her cousins.

Here are some pics we took while we were there.

On one of the days, we went to an indoor gymnasium playground place. It was a lot of fun, for both adults and kids. Too bad they don't have things like this out east.

We couldn't get enough of playgrounds. On a separate day, we went to a McDonald's or Wendy's and played inside their tube playground for a while. Fortunately, I was the only adult who got to play with the kids. Normally, this would've been fun for me, but now that I'm 6'1", my knees take a beating inside of these little kid-size tubes. Oh well, it was still fun to play with Elli and the other kids, too.

We were also blessed to have to chance to see my Grandpa Hart for one afternoon. This was his first time meeting Elli.

Meet Sienna Christine

As avid readers of our blog will know, we've been expecting a recent addition to our family. After months of pregnancy (which we kept out the "public eye" of our blog so as to avoid the paparazzi), Heather gave birth to a beautiful healthy baby girl on 16 February 2012 at 9:10pm. We named her Sienna Christine, and we couldn't be happier.

Here is some of the behind the scenes story of her coming into this world. At the start of week 33 of pregnancy, the protein level in Heather's urine spiked, causing our doctors to increase Heather's appointments to three times a week with two 24 hour urine samples. They essentially told us that they could decide to induce labor at any moment since preeclampsia was becoming a high risk. So Heather and I scrambled to get the absolute essentials ready around the house to welcome the new baby, Heather got a couple of steroid shots to promote Sienna's growth, and then we waited. Thankfully, Sienna gave us almost 3 more weeks to prep and get ready. On 15 Feb, Heather's OB/GYN had her go to the hospital all day for monitoring, and then that night he decided that the 16th was going to be the day.

At 9am on the 16th, Heather was started on pitocin and her water was broken. Unfortunately, even though she had contractions on and off all day, she was not far enough along by night and so at 8pm, Dr. Tudder advised that it was time to move to a c-section. We were not thrilled to hear that, but by then we knew it was best for both mom and baby; Heather's blood pressure had been very high all day and that was not healthy for anyone.

So we got all suited up and at 9:10pm, Sienna emerged into the world at 5 lbs 4 oz 19 inches long with a full head of golden brown hair. She was beautiful.

On a slightly morbid note, the surgeons allowed me to watch the whole surgery, which I found fascinating. I had to reassure them that I could handle it because a nurse told me that they rarely allow the husband to watch. But I found the whole process really interesting. I think I would go be a doctor if I had to redo my career.

Heather handled the decision to have the c-section and the surgery like a champ. Of course, she was in quite a bit of pain afterward, and she had to have a magnesium-sulfate IV drip like the last time to prevent seizures, which caused nausea, jitteriness, light-headedness, and general achiness all over. A nurse summed it up as it's like being hit by a mack truck. Not fun. But after a lot of resting on the 17th, she was even able to get up and move (barely) that evening and today (the 18th), she is looking and moving and feeling much better. But full recovery will still take time.

Meanwhile, about Sienna, the hospital policy is that all newborns born before 36 weeks must stay at least one night in the NICU. Sienna was born at week 35 day 6, so she was taken to the NICU after only a very brief time in the OR (Heather only got about 10 minutes with her). Sienna did great in the NICU, though, eating like a pro. By early the next morning, Sienna was discharged to the regular nursery. We definitely feel that Heavenly Father blessed us tremendously that Sienna was so healthy. Thank you to everyone for your prayers.

On the evening of the 17th, we brought Elliana to the hospital to meet her new little sister. Elli's reactions were a bit mixed. Her first reaction was excitedly asking to hold her. Then, with Sienna in her arms, she started to get upset and cry. Then she became confused and didn't quite know what to make of her. After a few minutes, we placed Sienna back in the hospital crib alongside Heather's bed. Elli had brought a yellow duck doll-like thing that one of our good friends/neighbor had given to Elli so that she could give it to Sienna. When Sienna was in the crib, Elli grabbed the duck, leaned over the crib, and started making duck noises in an effort to play with her little sister. "Kack, kack, kack!" (That's Elli's interpretation of a duck.) It was adorable. We recorded it on video, but haven't been able to figure out yet how to get those videos onto our blog. But here are the pictures.

Heather's mom, Christine, arrived on Friday night, and we are grateful that she is here again. She is a wonderful emotional and physical support.

Elli visited Sienna again this morning. She still showed a range of emotions, but we were happy to note that being upset was not one of them. Obviously, having another child in the house will be a big and lengthy transition for Elli, but we think she's going to do great and love being a big sister.

Choosing the Name:

Several people have been asking us what Sienna's name is. It's Sienna. : ) Coming to that decision, though, was a bit more of a process than it was last time.

1. In the run-up to going to the hospital, we were considering four names: Sienna, Sophi, Maya, and Myla.

2. By the time we entered the hospital, we were down to two names: Sophi and Maya.

3. After entering the hospital, we did not feel good about either of those two names. So we checked out lots of online resources and used a huge genealogy chart of Heather's family going back 5-6 generations that her Grandmother Betty had put together for inspiration. After Sienna was born, we had narrowed it back down to essentially two names: Sienna, Sadie.

4. Then, we had picked Sadie. We tried it out for about half a day, but neither Heather nor I felt that it was the right name for her.

5. So we tried out two other names all day today (the 18th): Sienna, Cora.

6. At 11:30pm tonight, we decided on Sienna. It just felt right. And that is how we picked Sienna's name. I'm sure Disney will make a movie about this epic tale.

Okay, time to get a few bits of sleep tonight. But first, we wanted to thank all of our family and friends for their prayers and help. We feel tremendously blessed that so many friends helped out with Elli while we were spending so much time at the hospital before Christine arrived, and that both Heather and Sienna have been healthy. We can't wait for people to meet Sienna in person!

P.S. We're moving to Taiwan this summer!

We're pregnant! It's a girl. And she should be born today.

Christmas Catch-Up 2011

For Christmas 2011, Heather, Elli and I traveled to the tropical climate of Hartford, CT to spend the holidays with Sarena, Adam, and family. This was particularly fitting since our first Christmas out east we also spent it with the CT Sharps, and now we spent this our last Christmas in the east with the Sharps too, before we leave for Taiwan this summer.

We had a wonderful time. Although Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, we decided that it would be more enjoyable (i.e., the kids would be able to play with their toys longer and the parents relax more) if we celebrated it on Saturday instead. We were very glad we made the change. That idea came from veteran parents Adam and Sarena. Thanks for the expert tips, guys!

Here's us Christmas morning getting into our traditional "Jingle Bell" lines in preparation for jogging around the house. I love this tradition, and it was so much fun doing it with more people this year.

First, we start by opening all of our stocking presents.

Heather got me a new ornament this year. It was perfect: Captain America coming out of a real mini comic book. Thanks, Sweetheart! (She got me other gifts, too, in case you're wondering.)

I got Heather two hats (among other gifts). Elli loved putting one of them on. What a beautiful mother and daughter pair.

Grandma Carr got Elli a cool foldable tunnel. She loves this thing and is always asking to play with it.

Trevor and Jared got Air Soft guns that you use to shoot beebees at each other. We had a lot of fun with them; more on this later.

Elli absolutely loved being around her cousins. And they were all so great about playing with her. Heather got Elli this great scooter thing that she could move around the house in. Karinn and Elli had a blast riding on it taking turns pushing each other.

We took the scooter outside, too, and found out that it can go pretty fast. Apparently, I went a little too fast, giving Heather and Sarena a little bit of a panic attack. But Elli really wanted to go fast! She loved it.

On actual Christmas Day, we held our traditional Christmas pageant. It may not have been the most reverent production, but it was fun. Heather as the angel was especially dramatic. Makenzie was moving in her depiction of the donkey. Elli was a very attentive sheep who kept stealing baby Jesus. Jared and Karinn took a new twist on playing Mary and Joseph. Sarena added a feminine flair to the shepherds. And Adam, Trevor, and I were perfect as wise men; we merely needed to play ourselves.

So back to Air Soft guns: these are toys that imitate the real thing fairly well. It shoots these beebees at pretty decent speeds, so if you get hit with them, you certainly feel it. Sarena, Adam, Trevor, Jared, and I played team battle for most of Saturday late afternoon and early evening. It was really fun.

One thing we didn't get pictures of, we went skiing on the Monday after Christmas. Trevor lent me his snowboard boots and Adam lent me his snowboard, and I gave snowboarding a try for the day. I knew it was going to be difficult, but I was surprised how how challenging it was. I consider myself a pretty coordinated person, but this was a whole new thing and it took me 5 hours before I could stumble my way down a full run. Adam and the kids all gave me great tips throughout, and I even got a free mini lesson from one of the resort instructors. Makenzie was great in staying with me and helping me after a few particularly painful face plants. Although I enjoyed the physical challenge and the feeling of snowboarding was fun when I could briefly get into a rhythm, I think I'm going to stick with skiing. My very sore tail end and wrists liked it better. : )

This Christmas trip was wonderful and was a reminder of how much we're going to miss being so close to family when we move away. We're glad we've been able to take advantage of being so close and see each other so often while we all lived nearby.