Two Months Old!

Harper Lily is now two months old. She had her two month check-up the day before Thanksgiving and she has made it on the growth chart finally! She weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces which put her in the 5th percentile for weight. She is 21 1/4 inches long in the 10th percentile for length and in the 25th percentile for head circumference. She had to get all of her 2 month immunizations too and I thought I was going to lose it. Poor thing! It was so sad. But, we made it through.

Harper is growing and growing, gaining weight everyday. This girl loves to eat! I love that she is getting some chubbiness. It is so cute!

She is definitely going through the period of PURPLE crying. Colic has reared its ugly head. Sometimes she will scream and cry for hours in the evening. Yesterday she cried until 11:30 at night. Nothing would console her. It is so frustrating when you cannot help. Her new best friend is the vacuum though. She loves the sound of it. We will run it for hours in the evening just to keep her calm. I cracked up one night as we were watching television while running the vacuum. How times have changed!

Here are some pictures of Harper over the last month. Also, her newborn photo shoot with J & M photography. I love these pictures!

 

 

 

Harper's first Halloween. I love the little smirk she has on her face in the last photo.

She loves her bath time.

Reading with Daddy.

Harper's first Thanksgiving.

 

 I just love this face!

 Uncle Ryan holding Harper for the first time.

 I can't believe how much bigger she is since last month.

We are loving spending time with our little girl. I can't believe my maternity leave is going to end in just over 1 month. I don't know how I am going to go back to work and not spend time with my little squirrel all day.

Harper's Nursery

• Vintage owls on the wall from Etsy.
• The H sign was something my mom found at a flea maorket. We painted it to match her dresser.
• Fabric from Dwell Studio.
• Prints are from Etsy.
• Yellow H was bought at Jo-Ann fabrics and painted to match her dresser.
• Paint done by Tal and my mom.

• Modern rocking chair, gift from Tal for my birthday.
• Owl from Etsy.

• Dresser bought on Craiglist and painted by moi.
• The print on the wall was cross-stitched by mom years ago. We spray painted the frame pink.
• Changing pad to match her crib fabric from Dwell Studio.
• Wallpaper done by mom and me.

Thank you so much to my mom and my sister for coming down and helping me finish Harper's room. Since she came early we had not finished everything up. We are just waiting for her window treatments to be finished being made. We love how her room turned out.

Harper,1 Month Old

Harper has been doing phenomenally since we came home. She now weighs 5 pounds 10 ounces. This girl loves to eat! We are still working on nursing since she is so small. She loves her Dr. Browns bottles though. We are sticking to her NICU schedule and feeding her every 3 hours, even if we have to wake her up. Since she was premature her little body does not cue her in to wake up and eat. Tal has been a great dad and loves feeding her and taking care of her.

Every Tuesday Harper and I go back to the hospital for a breast feeding class. I mainly like going because they weigh her and I can see how much weight she is gaining. It is so important for her to gain weight since she was a preemie.

Our little girl sure is feisty and a wiggle worm. I like to call her Squirrel because she just does not stop moving! Even when she sleeps she makes noises and movements all night long. She makes this funny little sound that sounds exactly like a billy goat. It cracks me up.

Goldie is adjusting to having Harper around. Mainly she just ignores her but sometimes she will come over and lick her hand or head. It is so cute.

Everyone always remarks at how long she is. Even though she is small our little girl is long. Tal likes that because he wants her to play basketball some day.

Here is our one month little girl!

 

The quilt was a gift from the NICU. A lady sews these beautiful quilts and donates them to the NICU for each baby to take home. Tal chose this really bright one. It was my favorite too!

 

I am going to take a picture of Harper each month with her owl and on her quilt to see how she grows over the first year. This picture was hard because she couldn't sit up on her own. Sorry for the poor quality. I was trying to hold her up and snap the pic at the same time. I tried to take another one but by then she had enough pictures.

 

On a side note I am doing well. My blood pressure is back to normal and after a few weeks of being really sore and walking around like a granny, I am feeling back to normal again. I have already lost 36 pounds since my doctor weighed me on September 18. That tells you how freakin swollen and full of fluids I was. My clothes fit me once again which feels wonderful!



Harper's Birth Story Part 2

I was given a drug called Cervidil internally to begin labor. The doctor said I would feel mild cramping or nothing at all. Well, he was wrong. I had mild contractions every 3 minutes all night long. Good thing my mom was staying the night with me. She really helped me feel better.

In the morning they started me on Pitocin to speed things up. The doctor really wanted Harper to be delivered vaginally because it is a lot healthier for the baby. I labored all day long. My mom told me I did really well. I just breathed through everything and when people were too loud in the room or would start talking to me I would just hold up my finger asking them to wait a minute and breathe right through the contraction. I would say my pain level got to a 7 before I asked for an epidural in the evening. However, things changed very quickly again. Dr. McGee came back in to check on me and I started bleeding really bad. They tried to insert an internal monitor to monitor Harper but by then I was bleeding too bad and he said it was time for a C section. There were 2 other moms who were scheduled for C sections also but I was bleeding too much so I went first. Everything happened so quickly and since I was still on all the drugs I couldn't really comprehend everything that was happening. I remember the nurses coming in to prep me and wheeling me to the operating room. I saw my mom as I went down the hallway. I also remember the anesthesiologist talking to me about getting my epidural. The doctors and nurses were fabulous at keeping me calm.

Next thing I knew Tal came in all dressed in his scrubs and they got going. Before I knew it we heard crying and Harper Lily was born at 8:59 pm on September 20. She weighed 3 pounds 15 ounces and was 17.5 inches long. All of the doctors and nurses loved her feisty attitude. She never had to be on a respirator and although she was really small, she was okay. Tal was amazing through everything and immediately started taking care of Harper while she was in the NICU and I was still recovering.

I remember while they were stitching me back up the doctors and nurses were talking about playing the game "Mother May I." They were having a grand ole time in there laughing away. I also remember starting to shake uncontrollably and I was really cold. While Tal was with Harper my mom came in to the recovery room with me. I shook the whole time. It was the weirdest feeling. I was pretty wiped out after that. I don't really remember much else of the evening.

I didn't get to see Harper until the next evening because I was still on the anti-seizure drugs. It was absolutely the best feeling in the world when I finally got to hold her. She was just so little but absolutely adorable and precious. Definitely love at first sight for me.

Harper had to spend 2 1/2 weeks in the NICU. I spent everyday with her and would come home and sleep at night. Tal had to go back to teaching but would come to the hospital every evening for ou little family time. Again, the nurses and doctors were amazing and took wonderful care of her. They taught us how to take care of our little one. She had to have a feeding tube for a couple of weeks but then really took off and started breast and bottle feeding.

Here are a couple of pictures of us giving her a bath in the NICU the night before we brought her home.

 

Harper snuggling with her daddy.

 



Here we are taking her home! We were so excited!

 

Finally home with Goldie!

 

I am so happy that we are at home and healthy and well. Harper is thriving and growing each day. We love her so much!

Harper's Birth Story Part 1

We have been through quite an adventure the last couple of weeks. I am so excited to say that we have our baby girl at home and we are all doing really well. I am going to try and explain what happened but because I was on so many drugs during my stay at the hospital some things are a little fuzzy to me. Here we go...

Everything started on Tuesday, September 18. I had not been feeling well the couple of days before that. I just thought I was tired from working full time and being 8 months pregnant. I felt like I had the flu. After talking to my mom on Monday night she was concerned. I decided to go to school Tuesday morning but barely made it through the morning staff meeting before I bursted in to tears and went home sick. I hadn't slept very well and I was extremely swollen. Not to mention the weather had been so hot and in my classroom with no A/C it was beginning to really take a toll on my body. Anyway, I went home and slept really hard for three hours and woke up and still did not feel any better. I called my mom and asked her if I should call my doctor. I had an appointment already scheduled for the following day so I wasn't sure if I should wait until then or call. She told me to call them and see what they said. When I called they asked me to come in and they would check my vitals. So I headed up to the doctor and the nurse checked my urine which was copper colored (not good) and full of protein (uh oh!) and then checked my blood pressure. 190/109!!! I was immediately admitted in to the hospital.

I called Tal on my walk, well, wheel chair ride, over to the hospital and luckily his principal could cover his class and he came straight to the hospital. By then I had an IV and they started giving my magnesium sulfate (which makes you feel really hot, groggy, and yucky). This medicine helps control seizures and keeps your muscles relaxed to control blood pressure. My doctor came over and told us that she would like to move us to the Salem hospital which has a NICU in case I had to deliver early. Harper would be 34 weeks on September 20. The doctor said that she wasn't too concerned because gestationally that would mean that she would be okay. Tal and I were really nervous. So then I had to get a catheter which the nurse basically ripped my apart to get in. Not fun! Next came my first ride in an ambulance.

When I arrived in Salem I was taken up to the third floor of the Mother/Baby unit and continued to receive IV fluids and magnesium (mag). Tal met me there after running home and getting some things for us and taking care of Goldie. By then my mom had thrown together (literally) a bag of clothes and came speeding down I-5 from Olympia to be there with us. The doctor on call was Dr. McGee. Tal and I really liked him from the beginning. He explained that they were going to monitor me and the baby and decide if I would be on bed rest at the hospital for a few weeks or have to deliver Miss Harper. So we ended up staying at the hospital on Tuesday night. For someone who has never really had health problems or stayed in the hospital, it was hard. The nurses have to check your vitals every couple of hours and I had to have my blood drawn every couple of hours too. I was a human pin cushion.

My mom, Tal, Tal's mom, and I all spent Wednesday in my room playing games, watching tv, and waiting for the doctors to decide what they wanted to do. By this time my kidneys had started shutting down and my liver was not processing all of the medicine very well. For someone who never takes medicine, this didn't surprise me. Finally the doctor called my room and explained that because my kidney funtion was not great (the worst levels they had ever seen at the hospital by the way) and my blood pressure was not going down I was going to have to deliver Harper early. We all cried together after I had the nurse tell my family what was said since I was too emotional to do it. We were all scared but knew how important it was to get Harper here safely.

I was diagnosed with a severe case of preeclampsia. If you want to read something really scary check out this website www.preeclampsia.org.

The only way to solve the problem is to deliver the 'faulty' placenta. So Wednesday night after a really great ultrasound to see Harper I started labor.

To be continued...

Back to School!!!

Boy have I been tired since going back to work! It is nice to be able to come home and rest for the most part. Tuesday night we had our Back to School night at school and I got to meet all of my new third grade families. It was a blast and I loved seeing all the kids but boy was I exhausted! Yesterday when I came home from work my ankles and feet were pretty swollen. That was a first. I rested the entire evening and that helped. When I woke up this morning I still felt really tired though. Luckily today is a non-contract day so I got to rest a little bit this morning before I go in to work and get my classroom ready for the first day. Here are the pictures of my classroom this year. I absolutely LOVE how everything turned out.

Here is the bulletin board right outside my classroom. Pinterest gave me the theme idea and I just went my own way with it. The little bird I painted is my favorite. He is just so cute!

 Wreath I made that hangs on my classroom door.

 This is the GIANT bulletin board in the hallway. Now I will have a place to hang all of my students' work. All I will have to do is clothespin it up on the wall. No stapling needed!

 Reused job chart from a couple of years ago. The colors worked so I just made inserts from cardstock I had.

 These tissue poms were ordered from Etsy. Don't you just love that site? I do! They came all folded together and then I just "fluffed" them. Took some time but I love how it turned out.

 My new way of posting my learning targets. So easy to write on with dry erase markers and then just wipe off. Thank you Pinterest!

 Lunch check in. Looks the same every year but I found popsicle sticks in the colors I needed.

 Our reading focus wall.

 I used fabric for a lot of my bulletin boards. I loved how the colors worked.

 Table markers that look like little nests.

 Not sure what I am doing with this board yet. I am thinking either a science or math bulletin board.

 More painting I did. Just a fun bulletin board over one of my bookshelves. I had painted the birdhouses earlier this summer along with the clay pots. The bird and "fly" sign I painted in my classroom on butcher paper.

 My new birthday treat idea! Thank you Pinterest! Now every kid will get to pick a silly straw out on their birthday since we are not doing classroom treats anymore.

 Gotta represent my Cougs!  This is my own personal board behing my desk.

 Even found some cute green things for my desk at IKEA and Jo-Ann Fabrics. The clay pots in my room were all painted earlier in the summer.

 New bathroom passes. Again, Pinterest!

The Name Game

Last week was my 30th birthday (which was spectacular by the way, dinner and a movie with my man) and when I talked to my grandma on the phone she mentioned that it had been a while since my last post. Oops! Here are the baby haps in the last month:

We decided on a first name!!! That is a huge one. Tal and I have been debating over names ever since we found out we were expecting. We really liked Payton to begin with. Me being Miss Planner had a list of baby names that I had been adding to over the last year. It wasn't until a family dinner with Tal's family that we heard a name we both loved. Tal's mom mentioned the name Harper. After a lot of contemplation we decided last week that was the name. It is so exciting to have a name to call her now. We are still working on a middle name. Will keep you posted on that one.

I am now going to the doctor every two weeks since I am in the third trimester. We had an appointment last Wednesday and everything looks great. I am super healthy and so is Harper. My blood work has been normal (no thyroid problems interefering, thank goodness!), urine sample was normal, blood pressure was great, I haven't had any swelling or any major issues to report. Just a lot of body aches! I guess that comes with the territory. Harper's hearbeat is strong and she is a growing girl. I measured at 30.5 weeks at our last checkup. I have gained 16 pounds so far. For being 30 weeks pregnant, I feel pretty darn good about that. Everyone keeps telling me it looks like I haven't gained any weight except for the basketball in the front. I am still walking as much as I can which has been helping a ton.

In other baby news we scored a free bassinet from our neighbors (awesome!) and also a great deal on baby stuff from a parent at my school. We got a car seat, two car seat bases, a stroller, a baby carrier, a car seat cover, and a mirror for the car. Everything was $220! Amazing deal! We had all of that stuff on our registry and the price was about $575. Everything is like new and very well taken care of. The next day that same parent brought us four bags of baby clothes for free! Super adorable and in perfect condition. People are just so generous. I have had so much fun going through all of the clothes. I have washed and put away all of Harper's clothes according to size. I even have larger clothes washed and folded and stored in our new IKEA containers under her crib. This girl is going to have an amazing wardrobe.

At our 28 week checkup Tal and I had our whooping cough vaccines and I also had to get a Rhogam shot since my blood is Rh negative. I wasn't aware that I was Rh negative so the nurse explained to me what it was all about. Here is a brief synopsis:

"When Rh negative blood is exposed to Rh positive blood the Rh negative person begins producing antibodies to fight the invading blood. Antigens trigger your body to produce antibodies. Antibodies are usually a good thing and serve to protect a person from foreign invaders.

 

Now the problem lies when a pregnant woman is carrying a baby that is Rh positive. If the mother has antibodies to the Rh antigen, those antibodies can attack the baby's red blood cells. This can lead to complications to the baby including anemia, jaundice, and other blood related problems."

 

This shot was a doozy right in the rear! The needle was super thick and it kind of hurt, unlike most shots. Out of all the shots and blood draws I have had in the last couple of months, this one was by far the most painful. Totally worth it to protect our baby girl though.

 

My favorite baby thing right now is just to feel all of her kicks, jabs, and rolls. Harper is one active girl, must take after Tal! She is getting so strong. I just love to feel her moving around and knowing that soon we will get to meet her. It is so much fun!

In non-baby news, Tal and I start back to school tomorrow with inservice days and work days. I am actually really excited for school to start (I am every year). I love late summer/early fall in the Northwest and back to school time is so exciting. I have been setting up my new classroom and I love how it is turning out. I will post some pictures when I am done. I get to meet my new kids this week which I am really looking forward to.

I cannot wait to reveal our nursery pics. I just love everything about Harper's room. We are still working on things so I don't want to show it off until we are all done.