meet the harrison's: Seraphina

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Spring break to Maine day 1

For Elle's spring break we decided to bite the bullet and make the road trip to Maine. Having never been there it is difficult to determine where and what to see. Anticipating the long drive, we planned lots of little sea side town stops along the way.

We left Friday evening and made our way to Boston. We wanted to get an early start the next day and figured it would be best to get 4 hours drive out of the way.

Saturday morning we woke up and drove into Boston. We were going to go to the Children's museum, but decided to enjoy the nice day outside. We went to the Boston Tea party site and looked at the ships, then made our way to Fanieul Hall and Quincy Market for lunch. We strolled along the Freedom Trail and ended in the Boston Commons to watch the ducks and see the statue of 'make way for the ducklings'. After that we headed back to the hotel after a quick dinner at Bertuccis, so the girls could swim. Great first day.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Playschool Olympics

Seraphina is a part of a little playschool. Our friend hosted the other day and put together a wonderful playschool centered around the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

She made a torch and each kid received a cookie good medal for riding down the 'bobsled'.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Seraphina's Blessing

Shortly after having Seraphina we packed up our apartment in NYC in preparation for our move to Singapore. We went to Dallas to visit family and spend Christmas in Oklahoma before our move so the family could meet Seraphina. Since we knew we were coming to Texas, we decided to wait and bless Seraphina so that family could be there. It was wonderful to have family and friends there to be a part of such a special day.

Harrison Family

My side of the family

great friends - the Vincent family

Seraphina Lee Harrison

8 lbs. 10 oz.

21 in.

I went past my due date again. After getting to my due date, my doctor and I decided to go ahead and set an induction date for September 19, which would put me 6 days past my due date (just like I was with Elle).

I went into the hospital at 5:30 am and left Mathew and Elle at home. The plan was to have Mathew meet me at the hospital after he got Elle breakfast and dropped off at a friends house. I was started on pitocin pretty quickly and things started moving right along. Mathew made it to the hospital around 9. My doctor was wonderful and came into the hospital room to chat with us while I was waiting for things to get moving along. They kept telling me that once I 'turned that corner' things were going to happen quickly. The nurse came in and checked me, I was a 7 and they said it might be a few more hours. Not 10 minutes later I was ready to push and the baby was born a few minutes after that. They were right, once I 'turned that corner', it went by really quickly. I felt amazing. The labor and delivery went really well. I was able to get up and walk around just shortly after birth.

Mathew stayed with me for awhile and then went and picked up Elle from our friends house to bring her to the hospital to meet her new sister. To say Elle was excited and loved her little sister is an understatement. She was so happy to finally meet this little baby we had been talking about. While Elle and Mathew were at the hospital visiting, the baby (not named at this point) spit up green. We were concerned, because I had only nursed her one time and that was right after delivery and this is 6 hours later. We called the nurse, but it took awhile and by the time she came over Mathew had left to take Elle home and get her in bed. About 20 minutes after he left the nurse came to see what was going on and had the pediatrician on call come see the baby to rule out any concerns. Unfortunately, she was concerned and recommended they take her up to the NICU to take x-rays to rule out a blocked intestine. I called Mathew has soon as they took her telling him he needed to come up and give her a blessing, because she was being taken to the NICU. He was able to call a good friend who was over to our apartment in a matter of minutes to stay with Elle so he could come up to the hospital. Another one of our friends met us there to assist in a priesthood blessing. As he began the blessing and started to say 'baby girl harrison' he felt strongly that her name was Seraphina. This had been a name we discussed and jokingly had agreed that if the baby was over 9 lbs, she would be named Charlotte (my choice). If she were under 9 lbs, she would be Seraphina (Mathew's choice) - (she was 8 lbs. 10 oz). He did not tell me this until the next day...I was fine with it though, because we love what the name represents.

Seraphina remained in the NICU for 14 days. She was diagnosed to have NEC. Necrotizing Enterocolitis. The treatment was: 7 days of gut rest (no eating), with a repogal tube that went into he stomach to suck up any stomach acid so that the intestines would not have to work at all and have time to heal. She also had a central line and several IV's providing lipids and nutrients. After 7 days of gut rest we SLOWLY re-introduced food. The nurses loved her and would take turns holding her (she liked to be held). Her incubator neighbors were little bitty premies, so to the nurses Seraphina was a butterball. The two weeks she was in there I was a wreck. I wasn't able to walk into the NICU without spending the first 30 minutes crying. Even though I knew she was on the up and up (after the first week), you just never know. The NICU is a scary place. I watched one sweet little baby crash and another pass away. I felt so bless that Seraphina was doing so well and was in such a great hospital to be treated, but it didn't change me wanting to just get my baby home.

Shortly after talking to my family my Dad made arrangements to come out and help with Elle. It was so nice to have him there to take care of Elle so I could spend time in the hospital. After he left my Mom changed her flight to come out earlier than planned. It was so nice to have family around to help out when they were most needed. We feel extremely blessed to say that Seraphina is completely heeled and was able to come home after 14 days. She is a beautiful and sweet baby and we love her so much!