Baby Room Finally Done

Growing, Growing, Growing

 It's so amazing how big little Harper is! She is moving all over the house these days.  Currently she is still army crawling but latley she gets up on her knees, rocks, and then scoots on her knees until she gets frustrated with that and just army crawls. I can't believe how far she get though and how fast! She also finds the most random collections of dirt and small pieces of paper that seem to elude everyone and everything else! Blake has been speaking to her in Russian exclusively in hopes she will pick it up. I think it might be a bit more challenging than other languages since it is so different! She has to learn two alphabets and completly different noises.  In addition to that it is an insane request to get anything for children with the Russian language on it in America... no books... no toys... no blocks.... no movies... unless of course you want to pay big bucks!  So anyway I am currently making a few things for her to use later.  I hope our little "Rebynuk" picks it up!  

Blake had a snow day so we decided that we could all go play in the snow, Harper was not thrilled about the idea! 

 She loves plastic bottles.  Water bottles, juice bottles, Dr. Pepper bottles, doesn't matter. We don't know why... I guess the satisfying crunch they make when she squeezes them and I guess since she sees us drinking from them so she tries.  

She crawled to the hat... so I put it on her... 

 She wears a lot of pink...

 She loves Oreos like her mom... She will really love them when she finally tastes one! 

 We celebrated Blake's birthday. Happy 28! Harper took a special interest in the box...

 As  you can see she does some sitting... Not very reliable though, she still falls over a lot. She has developed a move where she lays on her hip and then pushes herself on her butt and sits there supported by her hand.  

Tummy slaps...

We aren't sure why this started all of a sudden, but she would not stop doing it!

Harper's Bazaar

Week 11

She has become very interested in things

She loves to put her hands in her mouth

She is always covered in drool

She loves her floor play gym, and her mirror and giraffe, Melman, the most!

She is still addicted to her swing

and loves some white noise

She calms down and loves her room and especially her ceiling fan

She has started feeling like she should take 20-40 minute naps and then wake up really mad that she woke up and then fight for another 40 minutes before she will take another nap

She drinks 4-5 ounces of formula spiked with antacids!

She loves to talk to us, herself and her giraffe

She enjoys holding her head up and swinging it about to check everything out, this generally includes head butting her parents

She enjoys changing her clothes about 2 times a day, due to accidents...

She has a new picture in her room that she likes to look at

We love spending time with her even more now that she likes to play. She is still very dramatic about sleep and food. I think she is going to have a dramatic stubborn personality forever. Its amazing to see how much she has changed!!

Harper's Bazaar

Week 10

Well Harper had a terrible week and a very good one at the same time!

She got her first shots last week and it was obviously very traumatic and tiring for her because she went to sleep right after the shots till about 10 the next day, only waking up to eat. It was kinda nice to have a little break!

She went to the White Coat Ceremony and was very good!

The night before the White Coat didn't go too well! She was up till 3:00 am and finally went to bed. She was screaming and crying and upset. That was quite a night but thankfully Mary and Rocky were here to help! That was the worst night that she has had and they have only gotten better. Instead of a 1-3 hour fight to get her to sleep, it only takes a few minutes. She is so calm at night now too, instead of dreading the night, I enjoy it. She is very calm after her bath and it is such a relief!

Now he is a real student!

Blake has officially been welcomed into the dental community and is now an official dentist in training and he has a very fancy white lab coat to prove it! We had a lot of fun at the event and it was really nice to meet some teachers and deans as well as his classmates who he will be studying with for the next four years. Nana and Chief (Blake's parents) were able to come out and enjoy the event as well. We were so happy to have them here and to have the extra help! Harper, as the pictures show, also wore a very fetching white coat for the event and she was quite the celebrity with EVERYONE talking to her and us about her, luckily she was in a very good mood and covered in drool!

Harper's Bazaar

2 Months!

Stats:

11 Pounds 12 Ounces

24 Inches long

She is now in the 95th percentile for length, however she is only in the 18th percentile for head circumference... so apparently she has a little head. We decided that was better than a huge head!

She has been very fussy at night for the past week, as I wrote in my last post. The doctor today agreed with me that it is most likely some reflux. So we will see how that works for her. It would be nice not to dread the night as much as we do!

She is now seeping in her crib as well, instead of her swing! She feels inclined to wake up at 2:00 am consistently and then wake up every 30 mins to an hour till 6:00 am. But I have been working on it with her and she did much better last night!

Blake has his "white coat ceremony" on Saturday so we will be attending that with his parents. The "white coat ceremony" officially welcomes Blake into Dentistry. It should be really exciting and I am hoping Harper behaves herself!

O no... Its 7:30....

Well Harper has moved into a new phase, screaming from about 7:30 pm till 10 pm. It isn't really very much fun! Right when I decide that I want to get her sleeping in her crib she decides she wants to be a grump every night for several hours. I can tell she is in pain and we are trying to figure out why. I don't think it is colic, and I don't think she is sick... but I do speculate that she has reflux... While there is no cure for mild reflux, it is still nice to know that maybe that is it. There are simple things that can be done and seem to help but there is not much to solve it. Ive just accepted that she will scream every night for awhile and eventually grow out of it. Each night I hope will be a better night, I try new things, some help, some don't but we will figure it out! It's hard on weekdays to have a husband in dental school. Waking up for every feeding and dealing with her at night is hard but I am getting more used to it everyday and looking forward to the day when she doesn't wake up in the middle of the night!

Harper's Bazaar

Week 8

Harper has been growing every week, and changing so much. She has the cutest little personality.

Every time she lays down flat she has to stretch her arms and legs out and contort her face into a grimace.

She Loves to smile at anyone who will look at her

She LOVES her swing

When she smiles she sticks her tongue out

Her smile eludes my camera

She got, yet again, some new bottles.

She still has the world's smallest mouth.

She loved hanging out with her grandparents last weekend

She is the most dramatic eater... she swings her arms and squeaks like a little piggy

She loves to tell us stories about her day, in her own special little way

She has the chubbiest face and legs

Her eyes are getting bluer every day

She love s to watch TV, especially when dad watches with her

She loves to watch football, only if dad watches with her

She has Hemoglobin C trait

She loves to snuggle

She calms down and snuggles with you if you swaddle her up

She loves to take a warm bath and talk about it while she is taking it

She loves to change outfits several times a day, just because she can...

She finally has her room all set up, I just wish she would be willing to sleep in her crib!

Some nights she sleeps for seven hours, and some just two at a time, all in her swing of course!

We love getting to know Harper! Sometimes she can be difficult and just such a little crab, but there are also those times when she wont stop smiling and she is so much fun!

Harper's Arrival

Harper has finally come, all the waiting is over! She was born on Wednesday July 28th at 8:42 in the morning. We are very excited to have her here and are now learning how to be parents! She is the cutest baby. She has dimples, blue eyes and blondish brown hair. When she was born her feet where squished flat together, with her toes intertwined. She still keeps them this way when she is sleeping, its pretty funny.

Now for the story! On Monday the 26th my doctor told me he could induce me anytime. Since my due date was not technically till Thursday the 29th we decided to wait till then to decide when we would induce. Blake had to return to Missouri for Dental school on August 5th so this really limited our time! We decided on Tuesday that we would plan on inducing on my due date so that Blake could be around Harper for a few days. After talking with my doctor we were told that the hospital would be too busy and the earliest day for an induction would be Saturday the 31st. We were sad to hear this since that wouldn't give Blake anytime with the baby. That night my doctor called and said that we could come in that night at 11 pm and be induced. I was shocked! I hadn't quite mentally prepared myself for that! We talked with each other and the doctor and decided that was going to be our best option!

We went into the hospital at 10 pm and I was given Pitocin around 11 pm. After receiving Pitocin the contractions started and they were very strong! She was facing up so most of the pain was in my back and felt like my back was snapping! So at that point, around 1 am, I got an epidural. Shortly after that things started to go badly. With every contraction Harper's heart rate was decelerating and her baseline was extremely low. They reduced the Pitocin drip and had me change positions several times to try and fix her heart rate. For about 2 hours that night her heart rate was in a dangerous zone and the doctors were considering an emergency c-section. Every 10 or 15 minutes my doctor and nurse would return and have me rotate to try and move Harper off the cord. They also gave me an amnioinfusion which means that they pump water into the uterus, in order to give her more room to move. I ended up throwing up a few times during the process also which made it just that much more fun!

It was hard to watch the monitor and see her struggling through the process. We were all pretty nervous and scared about what might happen. My mom and Blake were in the delivery room with me and I am very thankful they were both there for support! I could tell they were both trying to keep cool so I didn't freak out!

The nurse came in to check me to see if I had progressed at all around 3:30 am. She never said this but I think if I hadn't dilated anymore by this time they were going to perform a c-section. She checked and I was at a 6.5! So I had gone from a 4 to a 6.5 and about 80 % effaced. That was good news. Around this time Harper's heart rate started to normalize some and they were not as worried about her. The nurse checked me every hour from then on and by 6:40 am I was fully dilated and ready to push! I was so relieved!

As I said earlier she was face up to begin with and the doctor expected her to come out that way. I was pushing for about two hours and the whole time her head was almost out but she was not moving anymore out when I pushed. Right at the point when I was ready to quit, or throw up again, her head finally moved and the doctor was able to get her head out. She ended up being face down but her shoulders were face up. She had basically corkscrewed out. Not the easiest way to come out! She was born at 8:42 am on Wednesday July 28th. She was 8 lbs. 3 oz and 20 inches long, with some really strong legs!

At first she wasn't crying so the NICU breathing team came in and worked with her. Due to the addition of water she had breathed in a lot of water, and was having a really hard time breathing. This was another very scary 5 minutes but eventually they got her to start breathing an everything was just fine! She came out with a really bad cone-head too, which I thought was kinda funny!

Based on the way she entered this world, her disposition during pregnancy, and her personality we are planning on her being very strong willed and stubborn! We expect her to do everything at her own time and in her own special way!

We are so happy that she is here and that she is healthy!

Misinformed...

Well I went to the doctor today... a different doctor since mine is out of town and apparently I am not as dilated as was previously thought! at least to him! So it really doesn't change anything since dilation doesn't mean anything... just makes me feel a little more discouraged. I plan to go do some walking in an attempt to speed it up a bit. I just worry since most first time moms go over their due date by an average of 4 days and Blake leaves for dental school 5 days after my due date! this is making me go insane, either it is all of this or the fact that I now cannot sleep at night and just lay there thinking... whatever the reason I feel like I might be going a little crazy!

33 weeks and ready to be done!

Well I haven't written in a long long time... Since my last post I have graduated from BYU and am moving out of Provo in 11 days!! Holy Cow! In about 50 days we will have our first child, Harper, and about 5 days after that Blake starts dental school! wow! We will be moving out to Missouri in August for school. I am currently 33 weeks and am getting kinda sick of the whole thing! The fun of it all has worn away I am afraid! We are having another ultrasound next week which I am really excited about but it is for a health reason... Apparently I am measuring to small, so we have to make sure everything is okay. But I am not too concerned... I have been small the whole time. So thats the latest!

And the gender is...

Monday morning we went in to the doctor and had our twenty week ultrasound! It was a very exciting experience, but I was so nervous that we would find out something terrible was wrong... but everything was normal, thank goodness! Now all along I thought it would be a girl... partly from the "ring test" as we call it and partly because I just thought it was! Ben, LaRee and Blake were all hoping we would find out it was a boy, just to prove me wrong. I must say it made me nervous to find out because I had such total faith that it was a girl. So after looking at different things and trying to find the right picture to determine the gender she found the perfect shot. And the results are...

that it is a girl!!!

So I was right all along... good thing to because I had only thought about girl names and I had already bought a couple girl clothing items I found on sale at the store. We are very exited about it and can't wait for the new experiences that are in store for us. I just need to remember to refer to her as a "her" and not an "it" now... so Kelsey won't kill me...