We have definitely been keeping busy lately. We have taken the girls to the beach a few times, and for Labor Day weekend we drove to visit Aunt Bindy (Pam) in Kingman, AZ. We went to Oatman to see donkeys, Havasu, and then even drove up to Las Vegas.
Also, Hayden is beginning to count. She starts with two, of course, but if we say one she will say two, three. Her four molars have all broken, and there are many ridges in between her front teeth and the molars so we are expecting lots of teeth soon, though since she is such a slow teether maybe the end of the year is more realistic!

One more thing we forgot to mention. Lately when we change Hayden's diaper she reaches up and says "hug". It is the sweetest thing to see these little arms and hands reaching up to our face to grab it and get a little hug!

Finding the time to sit down and chronicle Hayden's progress has proved difficult recently :) Hayden has been doing great. We have had no more incidents with sickness or fever so that has been a relief. Just after Hayden's febrile seizure, she had a really hard time sleeping. We were back to being up either multiple times per night or hours at a time in the middle of the night. We were very paranoid of getting her temp too high so she was sleeping in just a shirt and diaper. As we tried to figure out what could be happening, Lauren remembered that as an infant last summer Hayden had to be swaddled up with no fan on, even in the midst of the heat of summer. Soooo... we put her jammie pants on and voila! She slept all night! What a stinker!
Hayden has been chewing on things a lot lately and last night Lauren gave her some Orajel and while she was feeling around found two upper molars broken through. She still only has 4 front teeth and two bottom teeth, plus these new molars, but obviously things are moving. We can see ridges all along her bottom gums so we expect more toofers to break through soon.
Hayden's communication skills are really getting good. We took the girls to the beach and Hayden saw a seagull and started chasing it saying "Birdie! C'mere!" So sweet. She really enjoyed playing in the sand. She is learning her body parts, and can point to and name her nose, ears, eyes, mouth, tummy, toes, feet, hands, hair.
Many people have remarked about the way Hayden walks, so we thought we should diary it for posterity. Hayden walks with a bit of a swagger. Its as if her hips are loose or something, she sort of leans back and sways her hips and the result is this assured, swagger walk which is so unlike a baby just getting her bearings walking.

Hayden's First Trip to the ER

Sunday, July 26, we suffered the most frightening moment of our lives when Hayden suffered a febrile seizure.
She had been fighting a virus, throwing up Saturday night and Sunday morning. Finally, she was able to keep a cracker and water down before she took a nap around 1pm. She woke up around 2 pm and wanted another cracker. So Lauren gave her one. Aaron had poked his head in from outside and she laughed at him and was fine. Hayden did not eat the cracker and Lauren gave her a fingernail-size bite of something else. As she was closing it up, she looked at Hayden (on her hip) and her eyes were rolling in the back of her head. Immediately, Lauren started screaming for Aaron to come in. She thought Hayden was choking. She tried to get her finger into her mouth but her jaw was locked. Aaron took Hayden and told Lauren to call 911. Lauren called 911 while Aaron put Hayden over his knee and patted her back to dislodge anything since we thought she was choking. Her body was like a doll - tense but sort of lifeless. When it was over, she whimpered, and sort of passed out. She was breathing, though. The man on the phone tried to soothe Lauren and the emergency rescues were there really fast. At some point, all the hysteria woke Jordyn up from her nap and she came out of her room and just stood watching. Lauren was still on the phone, crying, but took her hand and told her it would be okay. All told the seizure probably lasted 1 to 2 minutes and 3 minutes for emergency to arrive.
First the police came in and took Hayden. No sooner had she changed hands than the firemen and paramedics arrived. When the paramedic took Hayden he remarked she felt really hot. They gave her oxygen. She was sleeping, and they put her on the couch. After we explained what happened they told us that she probably suffered from a febrile seizure, which is caused from a spike in temperature. The entire time Jordyn was not even scared by all the people in our house, Lauren held her and she was great.
Aaron called Lauren's mom to come over to watch Jordyn as Lauren rode in the ambulance with Hayden, Aaron followed. Hayden slept the whole ride and had the oxygen blowing on her face. Her levels were all good (heart rate, etc.) She was transported in her infant carrier since that was what Aaron could get the quickest and it was weird seeing her back in it.
When we arrived at the ER we were given a room. Hayden was awake in her carrier and looking around, but her eyes did not look right. She was not crying which made Lauren worried. The doctor came in and Lauren had taken her out of the carrier. Once the doctor started examing her she started crying and got really mad which was what they wanted to see. She was diagnosed with the febrile seizure and they wanted to keep her for observation for a few hours. These are not epilepsy, they are the result of a temperature spike, should not leave lasting damage, and the child should grow out of them. We were to give her pedialyte to make sure she could keep it down, to keep her hydrated, and to make sure she did not have another one. She slept most of the time we were there but we did manage to get the fluids in her and by the time we left she was asking for a cracker, walking around the room, playing on the doctor's stool and laughing and flirting with the doctor. The doctor said that her reactions afterward were completely normal and she was doing everything she was supposed to be doing. Once we got home she was very hungry. She ate well and had a pretty good night. She was on Tylenol for the first 24 hours. Since then she has been her normal self, though of course we are monitoring her very carefully and are painfully aware of anything that seems out of place.
From what the doctors told us, the literature, and a little bit of research, we have found that febrile seizures affect about 1 in 25 kids, usually toddlers. 98% grow out of them by the time they are 5 or 6. Most of the kids who don't grow out of them have other indicators, like an especially long seizure or other things Hayden does not seem to have. They are scary, but we have been told how to deal with one should it occur again. At any sign of a cold we are to put her on Tylenol for the first few days. There is not a whole lot known about them, but the seizure is caused by a spike in temperature, either on the way up or the way down.
We are so thankful for the paramedics, ER staff, police and firemen who helped us. They were there so fast. We are so thankful Hayden is all right, and while we are shaken up, we are okay, too.

Here is Hayden eating her cracker while the doctor talks to us before she was discharged.

We realize we are way overdue for a post. Photos to come soon but for now we will try to catch up on the last few weeks.
Hayden has lots of words. She loves bananas and asks for them often, especially when we drop her off at daycare because she sees them on the counter. She also gets very excited when she sees "Mamo" (Elmo). Just like her sister, Hayden understands the telephone and will put it up to her ear and say "hello" into it. She is excellent at saying 'thank you' if she is given something, and she will ask for things by saying "I want that". She often walks around saying "I want baba", but half the time we think she just says it because she can, not because she wants the bottle. She gets very excited when she sees balloons as well.
She is recognizing people, too. She can pick Boppy and Grandma out of photos. And, the other night when Jordyn was getting into bed Hayden said "Night night Jordyn." She has not said it since but we were shocked and excited that she called her sister by her name!
Hayden is also learning body parts. She knows "nose" which she calls "no" and occasionally will point to mouth ("mow").
We got out our little kid pool this past weekend but Hayden is not interested in the water at all. She climbed up Lauren like she was a tree to get away from the water. Some of that may be in response to how enthusiastic Jordyn is in the water, but since she has just started being more comfortable in the bath it may just take her some time to get interested. Or it may just take her watching Jordyn - she watches Jordyn and tries to imitate her big sister on lots of things so maybe she'll look up to her with the pool, too!

Hayden is now in her big girl carseat! She absolutely loves it. Jordyn was very excited, too. Hayden cannot keep from smiling when we put her in it.
Hayden also has a lot of words, now. She knows bottle, bath, ball, cracker, doggie, book and will repeat lots of things we say like please or I love you (which is a jumbled mess but we know what she is saying). We are amazed at how much she is picking up. But, she does have a big sister that she adores that she is learning from!

Birthday Girl

Hayden turned 1 this past Sunday! This photo was made for us in addition to the portraits we had taken of the girls this weekend.
We began the day with Hayden being fussy to the point where she wasn't going back to sleep. Lauren went to cuddle her for a few minutes and when she put her back down and came back to bed, it was 5:15 a.m. We had to reflect on the fact that one year ago at that time Lauren's water had broken, paving the way for Hayden's arrival. Very interesting. Its bittersweet to look back over the past year. It has gone way too fast but we are enjoying every minute of it.
We held a small birthday party for Hayden. We began at 11 a.m. with lunch with the grandparents, then her party and we did not leave until 8:30 p.m.!! Party girl! Boppy and Grandma were gracious enough to have the gathering at their house which was great. Thank you to all who helped us celebrate this great day! Luckily, Aunt Bindie (Pam) was able to make it out for the event. She had some car trouble, but she did make it!
Hayden is walking so well that she pretty much won't crawl at all anymore. She is such a mellow, happy girl. She had her one year checkup and shots on Monday. She weighs 17 lbs. 13 oz. which puts her at about the 10th percentile, and is about 24 inches long. She is holding steady at the 25th percentile for height, but for now she is still a petite little girl. She did absolutely awesome for the doctor. She smiled, laughed and walked for him. Hayden was also tested for anemia (came back negative) and she did not even react when they pricked her finger for the test. She did cry for her shots but after that she was a real trooper. Slightly fussy that night but other than that great. We are transitioning her to milk now, and in compliance with California law, she will have to wait until she is 20 lbs to get her "big girl" car seat.