Newborn/family pictures

Living outside of Utah has it's down falls and one was finding a good newborn photographer that didn't charge $450-600!!! So since I'll be in Utah when Harper is 2 months I figured we would just get some simple newborn pics from JC Penny. I was adamant about getting newborn pics done. You can never go back and get them if you change your mind and being that I had a brother die at 4 months old and we never had any pics of him I told Jeff I will always get my kids pics taken on a routine basis. Luckily he doesn't care because he agrees with having the memories. So JCP was fairly cheap so we went with it. I got all excited on the phone when I booked it because the lady shared all the ideas she had in mind i.e. naked pics with ruffle diaper covers and a big bow, caccoon baby sack, and many more cute ideas. The end result was not what I had pictured but at least we have something. Sadly they only take one shot of each pose so whether it turns out good or not they don't do another one (hello, ever heard of burst mode;). Also, they do no editing! Once your photo shoot is over you immediately look at the prints and order what you want. We just ordered the whole CD and had my sister Amanda edit them on her photography program and thanks to her they turned out amazing. I appreciate her time and talent because I know it wasn't easy finding the time being pregnant and having 2 toddlers always hanging around.
So luckily my mom was in town for the photos. Harper was 2 weeks old and did fairly good considering the circumstances. We get there and she is sound asleep. We capture a few photos of her in a cute outfit and then she is wide awake. We strip here down to catch some naked newborn shots and of course she pees everywhere because it's an open studio with no doors or heaters. She pees and then poops and I ran out of wipes... this was the first time out of the house so my diaper bag wasn't adequately stocked to head out of the house. But we managed. Then she started getting hungry. We tried to hold her off with a binkie and would just hurry and pull it out of her mouth before they took the pic but this resulted in some pretty hilarious photos. At this point I hadn't introduced a bottle yet so we took some time to breast feed. I didn't want to pull her off early and then have her angry so I let her go at her pace but of course the photographer made me feel rushed (despite the fact when I called she said they schedule plenty of time for newborns since they usually get hungry).

 

 

This pic makes me laugh every time I see it... it was a post binkie pull so this is the reaction you get ;)

Poor Harp is trying to be patient but she has the hiccups in the next 2 pics and wasn't a very happy camper.

We also got a few family photos (which I actually love more than her newborn pics). We have a cute collage of frames on Harp's wall in her nursery so I'm glad we are able to fill them up now.

 

 

 

 

Grandma comes to town

My mom was able to come up for 13 days in January after Harper was born. When I originally booked her flight it was just 3 days after my due date. I didn't want to have her in town any sooner because I didn't want to use up all her vacation time and not be able to spend it all with Harper. Well since I was induced a week early she didn't meet Harper until she was 10 days old.
It was a lifesaver having my mom here. I can't even put into words all that she did for our new little family. She made dinner AND dessert every night (not a good time for Jeff to be on a diet when mom is in town :) She helped me at nights by taking Harper to bed with her and then waking me up to feed her and then she would take her back to bed until the next feeding and then I would take her in our room so my mom could sleep. (now one might ask why we would do this but until you sleep with my baby you won't understand. She is the LOUDEST sleeper ever!!! She grunts, moans, whimpers, laughs and passes gas like no other... all in her sleep. So whoever sleeps with her gets NO sleep, but she is an incredible cuddler :) She took care of the dogs, cleaned our house, dressed Harper daily (bows, boots and all) and she kept me company. We literally left our house only a hand full of times in 13 days... it was so nice to just relax, visit, laugh and stare at my new little girl.

My dogs were obsessed with my mom, especially Chewy, he never left her side. And KO just gets jealous when we are holding or giving too much affection to the baby. In the pic below he literally jumped on my mom and backed up her chest to sit on her shoulder. He is always trying to be the top dog. Way too funny.

While my mom was here Jeff and I tried to get out of the house a few hours everyday (my mom would have preferred more, she kept pushing us to go on a date) It was pretty late one night and we had missed the movie time for some shows we wanted to see so we ventured to Target and Fred Meyers and walked around. It was nice to be together, just him and I.

One of the last nights my mom was in town we took her to Simon and Seaforts, a very nice restaurant with incredible food. We loved being out of the house and treating my mom to a nice meal, since she had cooked every night for us while she was here.

 

My mom literally is my best friend. I can't wait to have the same relationship with Harper like I have with my mom. I will never be able to repay her for all she did for us the last 2 weeks. I'm really sad I didn't get any pics of all 3 of us girls, but we will be in Utah next month so hopefully I'll do a better job at taking pics there.

1/13/13, Harper 1 week old

The past week in our home has been amazing. I feel like Harper has always been a part of our lives. We both just can't get enough of her. We truly are blessed. It's been an amazing first week. I love being a mom.
(These first 4 pics are of her the day after we came home from the hospital, only 4 days old)

My sister Amanda text me and said she needed her daily pic (I've been sending daily pics of Harper to my family) and this is the pic I sent her... needless to say I made her laugh pretty hard :)

First night home, Harper found daddy's hands to suck on. She is so tiny compared to his hands.

Harper cuddling with Daddy at her 1 week Dr. appointment. She wasn't a fan of being naked waiting for the Dr. after being weighed. The Dr. was SHOCKED that not only had she gained back her birth weight in 5 days (she weighed 5lb 14 oz when we left the hospital) but she gained an additional 4 oz. 

1 week stats:

Weight: 6 lb 7 oz

Height: 19.5 in.

 

Welcome Harper Lynne Harris

Warning: PIC OVERLOAD!!!
Our sweet little girl, Harper Lynne Harris was born Sunday Jan 6, 2013 at 1:04 am. She weighed 6 lbs 3 oz and was 19.5 inches long. She didn't end up being IUGR. She had an apgar of 9/10 and was just the cutest thing Jeff and I have ever seen. I was just ecstatic that she had a full head of dark hair (I was bald until I was 18 months old so I didn't want my poor little girl taking after me ;) I don't know what more to say except that I have waited so long to become a mom and Jeff and I sure had our patience tested to get this sweet angel here.

So I just want to take a moment to express my love to Jeff. Everyone kept telling me their labor stories how they punched their husbands, or yelled at them and one friend even said that during her labor she bit her husband in the stomach during a contraction while he was leaning over holding her. Well I said sorry numerous times in advance to Jeff for the way I may or may not treat him during labor (cuz sorry in advance totally works, ha ha) Well NOT ONCE did Jeff bother me and not once did I yell or scream. He was the sweetest I have ever seen. He did stroke my cheek with his finger once and I kindly moved me face away and that was all he needed to get the hint. :) Other than that he held me hand, let me squeeze has hard as I wanted ( and I actually kept apologizing and all he said was, "It's ok, it helps me to feel a little of your pain.") He kept cheering me on, telling me how amazing I was doing. The look on his face was priceless... he really didn't want to watch the delivery but he watched the whole time and loved the experience. He told me over and over how proud he was of me and how much he loved me. He brought me so much comfort that I fell deeper in love with him. It was at that moment that I was glad no one else was in our labor room except for me and him (and all the medical personel) It was such a neat experience for both of us. And to top it off his love for me didn't stop. Every person he talked to on the phone he kept telling them how proud he was of me and how incredible I did. I'm so thankful for him and his love for me and that he lets everyone know through his actions and his words how much I mean to him.

Just 5 hrs old... oh my heavens I'm completely in love with you little Harper.

Already sick of pictures... trying to pull her hat down over her eyes :)

 

Monday, January 7, 2013

Delievering early in the morning sure has it's draw backs. Luckily I only labored for 5 hrs and pushed 15 min so I wasn't overly tired from delievery but being we checked into the hospital YESTERDAY morning at 7 am and then got sent home, I didn't get a nap or time to rest before little Harp came so I was exhausted. Right after delievery my epidural was d/c'd and after about an hour I was given the option to shower. Of course I felt like getting out of bed and cleaning up. The nurse helped me up to the side of the bed, I dangled my feet and felt great. She helped me walk to the bathroom and I had no problems walking (just felt the awful pains and aches of delievery) So I get into the bathroom, hot water running and the nurse leaves me. I don't know if it was the combination of hot steamy bathroom or what (I'll spare you the graphics) but I immediately became dizzy and knew I was going to pass out. I tried to take a deep breath but was unable to. I tried to call my nurses name for help but couldn't think. I remember her telling me to pull the cord if I needed assistance and at first I saw it but right then I had no clue where it was. I knew I was going down so I just yelled. I tried to grab the arm rails to lower myself to the seat but I couldn't. All I remember was my nurse grabbing me before I hit the ground. Luckily I wasn't injured. She called for Jeff to come hold me while she straightened up my room and changed the bed sheets. I was so embarrassed. I hated that my husband was having to hold me and I couldn't do anything for myself but I'm so grateful he was there and was so understanding and loving. They both helped me back to bed where I continued to feel dizzy. so I was hooked up to vital signs every 10 min.  I wasn't allowed to be send to the mother baby unit for at least an hour after I was stable. I ended up asking for juice and crackers and just rested for 2 hrs and then I finally felt somewhat better. But at this point they said they had no rooms available upstairs (here we go again) and that I would just stay in the labor room until discharge. I honestly didn't care, the rooms were large and very nice... I just hope that if I did have to stay here I wouldn't have to hear other mom's delievering while I was trying to sleep. Well then my nurse came back and said never mind they had a room (probably more of a staffing issue again) so upstairs we went. I wish I would've taken pics of our labor room and the mom/baby unit cuz they were both newly built and were super super nice. So by the time we got upstairs it was 6 am. At this point I had been up for 24 hrs straight and was ready to crash. Luckily I did get 4 hrs of sleep. I sent Jeff home at 9 to go get some sleep so he could function and come back to help me. He said he would only sleep a few hrs, which I was totally ok with but poor guy crashed and didn't get back to the hospital until 3 pm. But again, I didn't care, I wanted him to get his sleep.

I had a busy morning with Harper between the pediatrician, nurses, lactation specialist, hearing specialist and skyping with all our family members. Jeff kindly screened ALL guests so I could relax and sleep, but sadly I got no sleep. Once he was back we just visited, stared at our daughter, and had dinner together. I still hadn't slept all but 4 hrs total in 36 hrs so I figured I would sleep good that night. I sent Jeff home at 11 pm and told him to be back by 7 am so he didn't miss any doctors (he had a bunch of questions for the Dr. and on very little sleep my brain wasn't functioning to remember everything) Well sadly I was nieve and didn't realize how little sleep I would be getting. Again another night had come and gone and I got all but 4 more hours of sleep total. The nurses were fantastic and only came in when I called. But between feeding, getting up to the bathroom and being in pain and of course staring for hours on end at my little girl, I just was restless and had too much adrenaline in me I guess so I couldn't really sleep.

 This was the first night (of many to come I'm sure) that me and Harp cuddled and sleep togther in bed. I loved sleeping cheek to cheek with this little princess.

 

Tuesday January 8, 2013

Jeff came back at 6:30 am and was just in time for the pediatrician. My OB dr. rounded at 8 am and I told him I wanted to go home (he was shocked) but they prepared my discharge and all though I was discharged at 10 am, we hung around to have lunch and let me shower and take my time. Jeff's cousin Cathie and her mom Iva came to visit us in the mean time and we were so excited to see them, especially his Aunt Iva how just happened to be in town for a baptism. We ended up checking out at noon to head home. Jeff continued to screen visitors until the following day (wednesday) so that I could hopefully try to rest and get some adequate sleep, especially since we were home and I had my own bed. I'm so glad he was thinking of me. As hard as it was not to have visitors I'm thankful for the time we had together and for the rest I was getting. Sadly Jeff had to work half a day on Wednesday but Harp and I survived and I finally got some sleep.... 3 days after delivering :)

 

We had 2 different outfits picked out to bring Harper home in, 1 premie and 1 newborn... well she was between sizes so needless to say nothing fit her but she still looked cute. 

This little girl has loved her binkie since day 1 and I love how she holds it, as if someone is going to take it out of her mouth. 

 First family photo before leaving the hospital.

 The dogs sure were interested in Harper and were quit cute licking her to death. It's definately going to be a change for them cuz they aren't momma's babies anymore.