Westmoreland State Park

Harper Stats

She's 11 lb 1 oz and 22 1/2 inches long.

Happy One Month Birthday!

Harper is officially four weeks old as of Monday. She is able to hold her head up, but not with much control. She is starting to vocalize, cooing at us. She is starting to smile and chuckles in her sleep. Doctor visit is tomorrow, so we will have her latest stats then.

Ten little piggies!

Sleeping angel.

This is Spenser's response to his new favorite t-shirt. Who knew the Elmo love could be so strong in one so small?

My new favorite picture of Spenser.

Preview is up!

Go here to see a preview of Harper's newborn photos.

Our weekend

Taking a short, humid hike at Caledon Natural Area. Just a 30 minute drive away with some nice trails, a great ranger station, picnic area, and bald eagle nesting site.
Hanging out with a warm, soft, cuddly baby.

Bath time and Grandma

Our chubby baby boy is getting the skinny toddler look. It was normal bathtime the other evening. C was attending to Spenser in the tub, while I had Harper. After scrubbing the sand, sun block and assorted snacks off Spenser, it was time to let Harper get in on the sudsy action.


Her umbilical stump came off more than a week ago so she's been ready for a big girl bath. The bath seat was chilly since it had already been wet down and the girl did not like it and let us know in no uncertain terms. After we warmed her up with the bath water, she was pretty happy to be soaped up and rinsed off. Spenser was a good big brother and helped by handing me the bottle of soap (Burt's Bees - Fabulous) and her wash cloth.


Here she is in her Grandma pants....not actually pants worn by a grandma, but Grandma Gail made these for her without measurements and probably not even a pattern. They are super cute on her and I particularly love the lace edging.

Too sweet not to post

A couple of weeks ago, Spenser was not feeling well. My parents got this picture....poor boy hanging out on the couch with his brand new, Grandma-made robot pillow, Cookie Monster, and a blanket while watching a little Elmo. It was just the recipe for healing he needed.

Harper weighed in at 10 lbs this morning. Our baby is growing fast!

I imagine our lovely girl is not going to get the second child syndrome of having little documentation of her life. I'm already getting calls about not posting enough pictures. Here she is last Sunday, looking stunning with a bow in her hair. The photographer sent me proofs today of her one week photo session. I'm having a hard time narrowing them down and may just buy all of them. Marta Locklear did Spenser's newborn photos and her work continues to just be amazing.

Here he is almost 20 months ago. Hard to imagine him being that tiny now. He's currently sporting a huge black bruise on his forehead from falling out of bed last night. He didn't hit the floor. Fortunately, there is a small step stool that he ran into first.

Harper's 2 week visit

Harper had her 2 week check up yesterday. She has grown 1 1/2" in the past 2 weeks and is in the 90%-ile for her age. She weighed 9 lb 3 oz. At her first follow up visit a week and a half ago, her weight had dropped to 8 lb from her birth weight of 8 lb 11 oz. so she has more than regained her birth weight. She gets more beautiful each day.

Spenser also decided it was ok to start kissing her this weekend. Next step, teach gentle kisses.

Harper's First 10 Days

Here we go with Harper's first 10 days! If you don't want to know about the medical goop, skip straight down to the pictures. Otherwise, carry on!

We checked into the hospital at 4:30 AM to start our induction. The concern was that Harper was measuring pretty big and I was showing no good signs of progressing to getting our not so wee little baby out. As is typical, we spent the first 2 hours just getting checked in, checked over and assessed by the nurses, labs drawn, an iv started and an ultrasound to check on Harper's weight as well as the status of her amniotic fluid level. (It was critically low with Spenser, which led to his induction a week early) Around 7:30 AM, my doctor came to check on me and strongly recommended proceeding with the induction. (Our other options were to go straight to C-section or wait another week and try an induction then with a greater risk of C-section.) We elected to go ahead with the induction. As with Spenser, Dr. S had to break my water with a fetal scalp monitor. We started the pitocin and settled in for things to start happening. Mild contractions started within the next 30 minutes and the pitocin was increased by 2 milliUnits every 30 minutes. I ended up topping out at 7 milliUnits, which is a miniscule amount in the scheme of pitocin use. By 11 AM, the contractions and pressure was intense enough to be making me nauseous and life in general was pretty unbearable despite all my Bradley relaxation methods and zen training. I chose an epidural at that point because percocet and zofran were doing nothing to take the edge off. Having read all the anti-epidural literature and blog rants, I have to say that I could feel the need to push and control the pushing. I could move my legs, even though I couldn't feel them. I had no post-epidural headache or back pain. The epidural this time was much better than the one I had with Spenser. I was completely comfortable once it got started. I was also making good progress on the dilation front as well. Around 5 pm, I was starting to feel more pressure, so the nurses had me do a "test push" and immediately had me quit until they could call the doctor to the room as that test push had caused Harper to start to crown. Once Dr. S was in the room, I only gave two strong pushes and Harper was in the world!

An emotional first meeting between Mom and Harper. The cord is still attached here, but not for long before Dad got to cut it.


Geting weighed! 8 lb, 11 oz and 20 inches long. Her eyes are a lighter shade of blue than Spenser's and her hair could be described as dark blond or golden brown.

Mom and Dad with their gorgeous new baby. Look how alert she is!

First bath with Dad in the nursery.





Sweet chubby pink cheeks. She's asleep in the hospital basinet and wearing a hat that was knit by a hospital volunteer.

Home at last and cuddled up to Mom. She's been a very calm baby so far.

Long toes for such tiny little feet!

Her squishy lips crack us up.

Spenser is using Daddy as a lounge chair here. C is not nearly as tired as the picture makes him look.
Spenser "talking" on Mom's cell phone.
I've tried every permutation and can't get these photos to be right side up. Spenser doesn't waste much time paying attention to his new little sister. They both happened to be asleep at the same time, so I snuggled her up next to him so we could get a picture of them together. I can't decide if he looks sooo big or she looks sooo tiny!
Peeking out to see what's going on.
First bath at home. She seemed to enjoy it and did not cry even when I washed her hair.
Clean baby that smells like honey. (Love Burt's Bees Baby Wash)
Asleep again on the couch.

Harper Lynn is here!

Harper Lynn was born on 7/11/11 at 5:13 PM. She weighed in at a healthy 8 lb 11 oz and is 20 inches long. Everyone in the family is doing great. We had a 10 hour induction (as opposed to Spenser's 4 day one) and she was delivered after only two pushes. She was bright eyed and wide awake after delivery and nursed without difficulty for an hour within the first thirty minutes of making her debut. We are hoping to be discharged home later this evening and I will start getting pictures up after we get settled in. If you can't wait that long, I do have a single picture up on my flickr account at flickr.com. If you need my user name, make sure I know who you are and how to email you.

It's Mid July Already??

Not much new to report on. I managed to finish all my shifts without going into labor or being ordered into the hospital by my doctor. My mom flew in on July 1 and has been waiting around for the new baby ever since. We had a pretty low key Fourth of July holiday. I think everyone was asleep by 9 pm when the public fireworks started. We did get two tiny little fountain style fireworks so Spenser could see what all the fuss was about. Our usual unbearably hot and humid July weather has settled in for the rest of the summer. That means I have been taking Spenser swimming quite frequently. The water has warmed up a lot since we did swimming lessons last month, so he is enjoying it much more now that when he was shivering and turning blue during lessons.

I'm still pregnant. Induction is scheduled for Monday the 11th if I don't go before then. I've been having some cramps intermittently for the past two days, so keep your fingers crossed that this is things warming up to go on their own, so I can avoid the pitocin.

Shoes

The boy is pretty fascinated by shoes lately. When it's time to go or he's just ready to get out of the house, he will first bring me my shoes, then C his shoes, and finally get his own shoes so we can put them on him. He also likes to try to put on shoes by himself. So far, my flipflops and Birkenstocks are the easiest ones for him to get into, but he has made it into C's boots a couple of times.

Click the photo to get the bigger version that includes his feet.

Summer is unofficially here.

We have this odd corner in the backyard that is shaded to the south and west by the house. The grass never grew here very well and was very mossy. A couple of weekends ago, we put in a shade garden. Because it was near the foundation, we had to heavily amend the soil with compost, manure, peat moss and garden soil. We have a mix of daylilies, hosta, ferns, coral bells, lily of the valley, bleeding heart, and forget me nots. So far, things seem to be sprouting well.



It's was rather hot and sticky yesterday, so I stripped Spenser down and started filling up his little pool. He had more fun playing with the hose than actually getting into the water. Oh well, nothing is cuter than a naked baby playing in the yard.



Playing with the hose got boring after a while, so he decided to go adventuring about the yard.



C was in the process of putting together a playhouse/slide/climber thing. Spenser couldn't wait to "help" and do some test climbing.

Mother's Day

Spenser painted the vase for the petunia and the butterfly magnet as well as helped make a card while he was school.



He also managed to "borrow" Daddy's credit card and order me this beautiful bouquet of lilies, roses and tulips.



The sentiment of the card made me cry....or maybe it's just the pregnancy hormones. We also had a lovely breakfast at IHOP and spent the day playing together. Very relaxing.

What we did last weekend.

Worked in the yard, putting in a shade garden. Spenser helped....And then we rewarded ourselves with pizza on the grill.



Buffalo mozarella and pancetta



Gruyere and carmelized onions.

Happy Easter!

April

I have been gently chided for not keeping the blog up to date. My reply? You come clean up after Spenser and I will update the blog. hehe. The little man is keeping us on our toes At the end of March, he started teething, working on his left lower molar. Then he got an ear infection and then he had another stomach bug, that put him down for about 5 days. His Grandma G came to visit, letting C and I escape for grown ups only time for two nights at the Greenbrier. They had a wonderful spa and fabulous food. We were there right at the end of low season, so I think we were the youngest guests by about 20 years. Next time we go, we will probably take Spenser as they did have individual cabins available as well as a park with swings. Spenser is still not sleeping completely through the night, which is starting to wear me out, especially since allergy season is hitting hard this year and I'm limited in what I can take. He has figured out how to back crawl down the stairs, but would prefer to be carried down if he has a choice. He will also now point to and say: hair, ears, eyes, nose, teeth, belly, and toes. We are working on please and thank you. He will also pet the cats nicely....most of the time.

Keeping up

So we had our second perinatology appointment yesterday. Here we have a couple of 3D shots of our wee baby. I am 23 weeks and 4 days in these pictures. Every thing is looking fabulous and healthy. We also found out the exciting news that we are having a GIRL!!!!

Gah!

I can't believe it has taken more than month for me to post again. Life with Spenser keeps us very busy. He got over his little tummy bug in January by the next day and was back to his super cheerful self. We've been working on his stair skills. If he has a rail to hang on to, he is able to walk up stairs on his own. Going down, he has never learned to crawl, but does very well walking down as long as he has a hand to hold on to. He can drink out of a regular cup by himself ( but we don't fill it more than 1/3 full). His vocabulary is expanding: mama, dada, kitty, puppy, ball, book, teeth, nose, and diaper. He still signs for milk, drink, hungry, and more. He can follow directions. For example, I asked him to get a towel after he spilled some water and he went and pointed at the paper towels. ( He couldn't reach them on the counter).

He loves to go to the park and generally spend time outdoors. He likes riding in the baby backpack. Bath time might be his favorite time of the day. He has recently started waking up in the middle of the night. Brief research indicates this is probably developmental and he should go back to sleeping all night soon. He's finished all his booster shots until he's four years old.

Parenting Fail

Spenser has been getting better about sleeping through the night. If he wakes up before midnight, it is usually between 9:30 and 11:00 PM and he requires some walking and soothing to get back to sleep. After midnight, he will usually fuss a bit (less than 5 minutes) and go back to sleep on his own. Last night was following his standard protocol. He woke at 11, I rocked him, he went back to sleep. As soon as I got back into bed, he started fussing again. I waited and he was back to sleep within 5 minutes. Sometime in the middle of the night, 2 or 3 AM I'm guessing, he started crying. He quit within 5 minutes so I didn't think much of it. This morning, he woke up at 7:15 AM which is pretty normal for him. What was not so normal was the dried vomit on the floor, all over the crib and all over him. Poor baby had gotten sick last night and we, his lazy parents, didn't even know it. He's been acting mostly normal this morning, though he's barfed about 8 more times, triggering two loads of laundry and a bath. He ate lunch and seemed ok for it and is now down for his afternoon nap. I'm hoping his little stomach bug is short lived.

It's about time I got back here

Yup, Christmas and the New Year has just flown by. We've been hunkered down at home, working, playing and trying to keep warm in the frigid winter. I worked Christmas Day. I came home and C and I started cooking furiously. C had already smoked a turkey breast, so all we had to come up with were side dishes and dessert. Dinner was rounded out by creamed spinach, cheese grits and homemade rolls. We followed it up with Jack Daniel's Chocolate Pecan Pie. Spenser was pretty amused by opening gifts, but all gift opening stopped when he unwrapped a tiny baby sized broom that C had got him. All bets were off. He was completely enamored and ran around, sweeping the floor and swinging the broom through the air.

For New Year's, we had a couple of friends over for Detroit Style Pizza. Their little girl is 2, so our festivities were done by 8 PM and we were down for the night by 9 PM. Sadly, I think this is evidence of my domestication. I don't even feel like I missed out on much by not getting to go out and Party it up.....not that I could drink anyway.

Yes, for anyone that missed the hint in the last post, we are expecting bambino #2 in July. We're 16 weeks along and we'll find out the sex in about 4 more weeks. We are very, very excited about this.

And, to finish, I give you: Spenser's first taste of Oreos. I don't think it would exaggerating to say he really, really, really liked it.