Who's Who?

Anja at 5 weeks . . . Milla at 6 days.

Milla will only be a week old tomorrow, but she's sure looking like her sister already. Check out the resemblances!

The Things They Do . . .

When Anja told us she needed to feed Baby Stella this morning, we thought nothing of it. Then, she brought Baby Stella downstairs and proceeded to nurse her. That's our girl!

A Good Day . . .

After all of the drama from the past few days, it was nice to have an uneventful day at home as a family. What did we do? We ate, bathed, napped (some of us), and rolled down our hill in the backyard (the one who didn't nap). :)

We'll post more pictures tomorrow . . . we're tired tonight.

Homecoming . . . NICU . . . Homecoming . . . Relief

Yesterday afternoon, the three of us brought Milla home. It was wonderful to have our family of four together at home for a brief period of time. We spent the afternoon relaxing together, had a nice dinner and were about to make a birthday cake with Anja for Milla.

Then things took a turn for the worse. We were shocked to witness our little Milla choking on some mucous or something and turning blue in the face. Erik was able to do some infant back blows which were able to help clear her airways and allow her to get some good breaths in again. She was only in distress for a few seconds, but it was after a few small cries Milla's color in her face came back but her extremeties remained a purplish blue for sometime. We called our clinic's afterhours line and were instructed to take her into the ER as soon as possible.

We arrived at the ER and were helped out fairly quickly. After another bout of choking and blueish extremities, we received much faster help from a sleu of nurses and doctors. The doctors let us know it could be just an isolated incident of choking, but it also could be a host of other things. We appreciated how serious they took the situation. After contemplating sending us to Children's Hospital, they realized they could use the NICU right there at St. Johns - I doubt they get too many 2 day olds in the ER.

We went up into the Special Care NICU unit and Milla was put into a warmer bed as her temperature was below normal, and hooked up to a number of monitors to watch her heart rate, blood pressure, O2 level and breathing. Later, she was hooked up to a machine that monitors symptoms of apnea and records them for the night.

The nurses did a few tests and were quickly able to tell us that they didn't feel it was anything out of the ordinary. To be safe, we were to stay through the night so they would be able to rule other problems out. I stayed in Special Care to nurse Milla and Erik was given a room in the maternity ward (right outside).

It was a long night, but very reassuring to have brought her in. They think that it was only mucus or milk that she was choking on, as her systems are still so immature that her body just needs to learn how to do things. We left at noon today armed with more information and skills to help Milla get herself out of these predicaments. We will be watching her very carefully as every time she wakes up, she chokes a bit, spits up through her mouth and nostrils, and looks alarmed. This is scary for us, but the nurses assured us that it's normal and that we did the right thing to come in and have her checked out.

You quickly learn how easy it is to become so attached to someone so new when something like this happens, and we were very relieved to bring Milla home with us again today. Tonight, we once again plan to be together as a family, and finally make Milla that birthday cake.

Milla's First Day

While Friday may have been Milla's official due date, we were not necessarily expecting her to be on time. In fact, we've been expecting her to be early. After two false alarms, she has kept us on our toes the past few weeks. Yesterday morning Shana had a biophysical test at St. Johns. I was able to get off work a bit early and meet her there. When we got to the hospital at 11:15, I doubt either of us expected that we wouldn't be leaving. Milla's biophysical score came back a 4 of 8, a score that prompted the doctors to try and get things moving because of her breathing and movement.

After some discussion with the nurses, doctors and Heather (our doula pictured above with Shana), we decided that it would be best to have an artificial rupture of the membranes (AROM or in other words, to break her water) due to the concerns of the biophyscial test and the strong likelihood that Shana would go right into labor. Sure enough, after the AROM at 3:00, Shana was in active labor by 4:00. At 5:57, she delivered our healthy baby girl without any further interventions. Milla arrived in this world with a shout and it was great to hear her strong lungs announce her arrival.


We wanted to make sure Anja got to meet her new baby sister as soon as possible so Ron and Linda brought her to the hospital later in the evening. Anja was great! She was very excited to meet Milla and couldn't wait to hold her. Anja was also very happy to see her mama and climbed right up into the hospital bed with her.




It was great to see Ron and Linda as well! They have been a huge help and have been taking care of Anja over the past two days. Milla makes grandchild number six for them, although I think Linda would like to see that number increase. We'll have to wait and see, but I wouldn't hold your breath. As they say, one kid is like one kid while two kids are like ten kids!

Many of you know that my father, Paul, had emergency open heart surgery to repair an aortic dissection around 4 weeks ago. Recovery for him has been going well, although the steps are small. After Ron and Linda left with Anja for the night, Paul, Marilyn and my brother Karl came to visit as well. It was great that Paul could make it for a visit, although we know it took a lot out of him. Karl also made a big occasion of it, dressing up in his fancy suit. It's always good to see a surf bum in a suit!


Our first night with Milla reminded us of the sleep deprivation to come! We finally did get some solid sleep around 4:00 am. The lack of sleep is a small price to pay as we had a great morning. We simply enjoyed being with Milla and taking it all in. We gave Milla her first bath, met with the doctor who delivered her (while not our regular doctor, he has been fantastic) and relaxed as much as we could.





Today, Anja came for a long visit over lunch with Ron and Linda. We had a nice time, and Anja and Milla had the opportunity to "exchange" gifts - it was Milla's birthday after all. Anja got right to work putting her new puzzle together although she kept going back and forth between Milla and the puzzle. One minute she wanted to sit by Milla and hold her hand or give her a kiss, the next she was back to a puzzle piece. So far, Anja is enjoying being the big sister. We hope this is a sign of more good times to come!





As a final treat for the day, Paul and Marilyn stopped by for a quick visit. All the activity of yesterday really took it out of Paul and made for a pretty rough Saturday. We were glad to have their visit and we know that 10 minutes with your new grandchild can certainly brighten one's day!


We plan to take Milla home tomorrow as a family. Anja is looking forward to it and we have her big sister outfit all ready to go. For Shana and me, it's been nice to have some relative peace and quiet at the hospital. We're excited, but also a bit nervous to see how life at home is going to change. I suppose we can be assured our new life will be similar to what Paul told Shana before we got married: "Life with the Erickson's may be many things, but it is not boring!"

Say Hello to Milla!

On Friday April 24th, Shana gave birth to another beautiful little girl. We named her Milla Letnes Erickson. Milla is pronounced me-lah. She was born at 5:57 pm, weighing 7 pounds 9 ounces and 20 and 3/4 inches long. Baby and Mama are both healthy and doing very well.

Anja was able to meet her new sister tonight and she was wonderful! She is going to be a great big sister. Ron and Linda, Marilyn and Paul, and Karl were all able to visit as well. We'll post some more pictures of their visits tomorrow.

40 Weeks Today . . .

Well, we've officially made it farther with this baby than with Anja. I'm 40 weeks today, and we have yet to meet our little one! I'm set for tests to make sure she's not in any distress today, then on Monday, then . . . I don't want to be induced if I don't have to be, but if there's any concern we'll do what's necessary.

We finally decided on her name last Sunday . . . it's fully Scandinavian but won't be unveiled until the big day. You'll never guess--we promise!

Hopefully we'll be able to report more exciting news soon!

Another Good One from Putamayo!

Calling all Putamayo fans! We received our first Putamayo CD from friends for Anja's 1st birthday and have purchased several since then. They are by far our favorite kids' CDs (not annoyingly irritating for the parents to listen to over, and over, and over again!). Today while shopping, I found a 50% off sale at the Coon Rapids Borders bookstore, which meant their Putamayo CDs were only $7.50 each. (Bargain! Whether this is a nationwide sale, I don't know.) I snatched up Sesame Street Playground as well as another. Anja loves it . . . danced around like crazy tonight and loved hearing the voices of her favorite Sesame Street characters. Worth every penny!

And in other news . . . no baby yet. We hope that all of the dancing tonight will encourage her to arrive soon!

Enjoying the Outdoors

A trip to the hospital for an ultrasound this weekend provided a couple of things . . . Anja was able to see her baby sister again and we happened upon a good idea to help us all enjoy more of the natural world. What's the big deal? Well, we decided that a bird feeder in the backyard was long overdue. So, off to Fleet Farm we went!

Anja picked out the pinkest bird feeder in the lot, a 40 lb. bag of bird feed, and a two-pronged shepherd's hook. We were set.

She helped pour the bird seed, then started shouting, "Come eat, birds!" This is when we tried to explain that the birds are a little shy, so it's best to watch them from a window inside. We think she's okay with this, but bless her heart, we know she would much rather stay outside to personally welcome them over for some snacks.

She then proceeded to continuously roll down the hill. I loved this. I hope that this is something Anja can teach her little sister . . . to get a little dirty and to enjoy the simple things.

Happy Easter!

Anja patiently waiting for her eggs to color earlier this month.

Easter started early this year . . . an egg hunt on Thursday, a community-wide one on Saturday, and finally a couple of hunts today. At church this morning, Anja made it through the 1 1/2 hour (!) service almost perfectly and learned about how the egg symbolized "new life" during the children's sermon. (At least it's a point that I hope becomes clearer in the next few years.) We ate Easter lunch and searched for eggs and small gifts with G'ma Linda and G'pa Ron, and Nana Marilyn and G'pa Paul even stopped by for a few minutes.

Erik took Anja to the community hunt. He said it was a zoo!



Anja met up with her friend Teagan, and one of Teagan's friends, Reese. Looks like they had a great time together!

She has now mastered the you-hide-em, I'll-seek-em game!

Erik gives Anja a boost to get another egg at G'ma and G'pa's house.

It's been a beautiful weekend, and we feel very fortunate to have been able to get outside into the fresh air for a few walks and tricycle rides. We feel like it's the calm before the baby comes . . . we're both getting quite anxious, so truthfully we hope that the calm ends somewhat soon. Our calendar is bare, which is an oddity in itself, so we look forward to filling it up with everything that comes along with having a new baby at our house. Her name is chosen, bassinet is ready, and Anja is ready to help change diapers (yes!).

Less than a month to go . . . we hope!

Playing with chalk in the driveway yesterday. It's fun to see her creativity develop!

It's the Big Red Dog!

Today, with the umteenth day of 40 degree temps brought us to the Minnesota Children's Museum. The big draw? Why, Clifford the Big Red Dog! Anja was somewhat perplexed by the notion of going to see him and kept asking where Clifford was, but after the drive down to St. Paul and three long purple flights of steps later, we were at his paws.

Hanging with Clifford . . . watering "Birdwell Island's" flowers.

The place was crawling with toddlers, kindergartners, school groups and more, so it was a little crazy, but well worth the lessons in sharing, taking turns, etc. (What do you do when some kid smacks another kid? Intervene or not?) Anja did a great job with the chaos, but was a little miffed when she would wait in line for her turn, only to be turned away because some other kid stepped ahead of her. Truth be told, she wasn't perfect either. She did try to take a small child's plastic fish, but then gave it back (and then some). And, she did push a boy (where does she learn this?). But, on the whole, I give her high marks for not succumbing to anything more than those two incidents. :)

Anja working the conveyor belt to feed Clifford some snacks.

Driving the truck around Birdwell Island.



Anja loved finding scissors, crayons and tape to make her own creation.



Dressing up as Cleo and petting Mac.



She got a kick out of the musical part of the exhibit, sometimes even dancing around as Cleo.

Playing with the "sand" by T-Bone.

She was thrilled with the morning, and after almost two hours with Clifford, was perfectly content with heading to her favorite eating establishment, Noodles and Co. Ironically enough, she's napping now. Thanks, Clifford!

A Day at the Ballet

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to take Anja to her first ballet performance. The James Sewell Ballet presented what they dubbed the "First Chance Dance," a performance especially for the under 10 crowd, with no intermission, and only an hour long. At the end, we asked Anja what she thought of it, and her response was, "It was too loud . . . but I liked the dancing!" It was a fun experience for the three of us to do together as we look to becoming four later this month!

Anja loved wearing her pink sparkly Converse and her dress from the Botn Family, our good friends in Norway.