Seems like always...

This post is late. But happy one month to Erika! She is starting to put on a little chub as you can see. Aren't those cheeks just so pinchable?

Baby Girl is one month old already!

It seems as though she has always been part of our lives. We love her so much! Not only has she worked her way into our hearts, buy she has worked her way into our house! 

This is what my house looked like on Friday

We had an exciting time at the Norseth house! It was early Christmas! I received a few gift cards to Babies 'R Us and I finally got around to using them. I've been watching and waiting for a good sale and 15% off and free shipping isn't too bad! Especially for a specialty store. I do a lot of research into items before I buy. I like to get the most bang for my buck. It was difficult to decide what I needed the most because we really have everything essential. I considered using all the money for diapers, but BRU is very expensive and I love my Walmart brand. Plus, what fun is that? I considered getting a baby swing, but they did not have the one I liked and again, that store is so expensive! A lot of their items I could get on Amazon or at Walmart at a much better price. We ended up deciding that we needed a high chair eventually and we would also need some place to keep the baby on our camping trip next month since we are staying my parents' trailer. With that in mind I went looking. I delved into reviews and price comparisons. Here is what we ended up with:

Safety First Prelude Sport Playard - Citrus

After much research I have come to the conclusion that pretty much all playpens are created equal. They go up and down the same way, they are all roughly the same size, and they are all very heavy. So the only differences are the accessories that come with the playpen and the color. This one is orange and has a bassinet, a changer, and storage. I will admit, I have been pretty bummed about not getting cute girly baby gear, because I wanted to use it again with any children I have later on. I splurged a bit. I got a fairly girly pattern. I know, I'll probably have little boys someday. But I really love this design. It did look much more orange and red than it did pink online, but I knew that from all the review reading I did. I love how summery it looks. It isn't extremely pink, but it is extremely adorable.

Erika is very happy with the bassinet feature 

Mom really likes the changing station

This was my present, a new diaper bag! I already had one that I loved, but I found out pretty quick that when you go out for an extended period you need a lot of stuff. This one is quite a bit bigger, not massive like some of them out there, but it is bigger. But that means heavier too, so I think now with one small and one big bag I have covered my bases. Little bag for quick trips, big bag for days out. I do love that this bag has lots of pockets for organization and the pattern is cute!

Cute pattern, bro.

Lastly, our portable high chair. I ended up loving this way more than I thought I would. At first I wasn't too keen on the tiny strap-on chairs, but they really make a lot of sense, especially at this point. Maybe when we have a bigger family I'll want something else, but our little threesome only needs this. Best part? It will have multiple functionality. It tilts for younger babies and the back comes off to use as a booster seat for older kids. And now Erika can sit at the table with us, which she loves! At breakfast the next day she smiled and cooed at us. Much better than her seat on the floor!

This baby is so spoiled!

So that's all my new gear! I'm glad we got some stuff that we needed and I had a lot of fun picking it all out.

Mom's Nightmare

Right now I'm in a daze. We're in the car driving to Primary Children's hospital and it is 12:01 am. As a first time mom I am sure I am oversensitive to everything my little one goes through, but I will be glad to find out I'm just being oversensitive in this case. My baby is bright red. From head to toe. Literally. And it has happened in a matter of hours. What I first thought was baby acne now is making me think measles, rubella and scarlet fever. Little girl is only 22 days old, just barely 3 weeks. I feel much better being safe rather than sorry. She started out the day her pretty pink self. We all watched conference together and I had an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction. I had my daughter and my husband sitting with me in our wonderful house listening to inspired words. We visited family, had cake and ice cream for my mom's birthday. But as the day went on Erika just got redder and bumpier. Her face, her legs, her tummy; everything! And she would hardly eat. By the time we got home I was very worried. I called the doctor's office to ask what I should do. I thought it might be an allergic reaction. They told me to bring her in and we were there in minutes. The PA on duty was puzzled. She was perfect except for this rash. He said he was sorry but with her being so small we needed to go to Primary Children's. And here we are just pulling in.

Update
We spent 3 hours in the emergency room only to find out no one could tell us anything. 2 doctors and a nurse practitioner were stumped. We took our baby home and got some sleep. Now we are waiting to go back to see a dermatologist. But fortunately she is totally perfect except for the rash. No fever or vomiting. And it doesn't seem to bother her. It just scares me a lot. Chris gave her a blessing last night and the rash seems to be slowly getting better.

Our newest addition

I deliberately stopped writing on this blog when I found out I was pregnant, solely because we weren't ready to spread the news and I didn't have any thing else that seemed even remotely exciting in my life in comparison. Then school started again and took up all my time. But now we have a daughter and funny and special moments are happening everyday and I have a feeling that my Facebook friends are getting tired of the baby posts. So I am going to switch my sights to blogger. I need a place to share all my happy experiences as a wife, mother, and homemaker. And maybe share some of the struggles as well. This is not intended to reach a wide audience, but just another outlet for a journal addict (I have three hardcopy journals that I regularly write in already).

Erika Jean Norseth 

3/16/13

A lot of you know the struggle I am having in my recovery from the emergency c-section, but that is a story for another post. This is about our baby. Erika is a healthy and beautiful girl. We took her to her first appointment with the pediatrician when she was 6 days old. Funny though, at the hospital they measured her at 18 inches, but after triple checking she was 20 inches! I doubt Erika is growing that fast, so I think the hospital was mistaken. At that appointment she was up to 7 lbs 7 oz which was more than her birth weight. What a nice feeling it is to know that my baby is growing and that I can feed her. Then her two week appointment was on Monday. She was just barely under 8 lbs! The doctor says she looks fantastic. And she is! What a wonderful baby I have been blessed with. Although she is starting into a bit of a fussy period it usually doesn't last for very long. Last night she slept for over 5 hours at night! I'm afraid I'm going to get spoiled with such a good baby. Everything I've had to go through has been worth it to know that my baby is healthy and strong. She might not have even made it if not for the c-section.

We've already done so much with her! We took her to the park for a picnic with some of my family. We have taken her to a restaurant where she was absolutely amazing. She didn't make a peep the whole time we were there! I even took her shopping with my mom and me.

At the park

But my favorite thing to do with my baby is cuddle. I could just sit and stare at her for hours. Chris and I love her much! We wonder how we ever lived without so much cuteness in our lives.