Avery's first request "hold baby Harper & give her a check-up" ... sounds perfect to me!
Friday, November 22, 2013
Welcoming Home Committee
After our surprisingly quick stay in the hospital, we were oh-so-excited to get home to Avery & our two pups! We were greeted in the front yard by lots of pink balloons and a couldn't-be-more-excited 2 1/2 year old! Harper was literally attacked (in the nicest way you could ever be attacked) as soon as we got in the door - needless to say - Avery, Foxxie & Meiko are absolutely crazy about her!
Avery's first request "hold baby Harper & give her a check-up" ... sounds perfect to me!
Avery's first request "hold baby Harper & give her a check-up" ... sounds perfect to me!
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Harper's Birth Story
Baby Harper is finally here and has totally proven my previous philosophy that "it's not possible to love a 2nd child as much as a 1st child" totally false! We are head over heels crazy in love with our new baby and I can't believe I ever could have thought differently!
Since Avery's birth story was FAR from smooth, calm & uneventful - read it HERE - I of course had some anxiety about my delivery. Since we had a c-section the first time, we had the option to either a) schedule a c-section at 39 weeks or b) attempt a VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarean). My Dr. doesn't induce babies and said that my chances of successful VBAC decreased the closer we got to our due date, so we decided to schedule a c-section for 39 weeks, but attempt the VBAC if baby decided to come before that.
Although I was in a lot of discomfort, baby decided she didn't want to come out on her own, so we ended up with a 7:30pm c-section on Wednesday, November 13th. We arrived at the hospital at 5:45 and got checked in to the very quiet labor & delivery wing. I got dressed in my gown, got my IV, got a few visits from my nurse, Dr. & anethesiologist and at 7:30 walked right into the operating room. I received my spinal block (which is similar to an epidural but way way way stronger) and thank God it actually worked this time! We talked about diamond rings to distract me from the procedure - diamonds can make any situation better right?! After they got me on the operating table, they let Nick in the room (dressed to the nines in his fancy blue scrubs) and we were ready to begin. This time I am so happy to report that I felt very little during the surgery - right before the baby came out I felt a lot of heaviness and pressure on my ribs, but that was it! Before I knew it I heard "look at all of that hair" ... "it's definitely a girl" ... and then my favorite - baby screams! It was our baby - she was out in the world and she was beautiful! They cleaned her up a bit, wrapped her in a blanket and within minutes she was in my arms, which is where she would stay for the rest of the surgery. The hospital did not start doing this until after Avery was born, so it was such a nice chance to be able to be with her! The mood in the OR was so relaxed and fun - it was almost like we were having a party and celebrating Harper's birthday with all of the nurses, my doctor and anethesiologist. We were laughing and joking around and even had a photo shoot! Again, night and day difference than when Avery was born! 45 minutes after I walked into the OR, I was wheeled out with Nick pushing the baby bassinet right behind me! We hung out for 2 hours in the recovery room where I got to hold sweet baby Harper and feed her for the first time (and she was an instant champ!) and finally got to our room at about 10:45pm. Since it was so late, we decided to hold off on visitors until Thursday morning.
The hospital stay was so relaxed and so ... quick! We checked in at 5:45pm Wednesday, had a baby at 8:01pm, and were checked out of the hospital by 12pm on Friday! A nice little 42 hour/2 night stay beats our 60 hour/5 night stay with Avery!!
As far as recovery goes, I had very little pain at the hospital and I continue to have little pain at home - c-section recoveries aren't near as bad as people make them out to be! I am running around and feeling great. Avery is crazy in love and so proud of her baby sister and having Nick at home all week has truly made our family complete!
Since Avery's birth story was FAR from smooth, calm & uneventful - read it HERE - I of course had some anxiety about my delivery. Since we had a c-section the first time, we had the option to either a) schedule a c-section at 39 weeks or b) attempt a VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarean). My Dr. doesn't induce babies and said that my chances of successful VBAC decreased the closer we got to our due date, so we decided to schedule a c-section for 39 weeks, but attempt the VBAC if baby decided to come before that.
Although I was in a lot of discomfort, baby decided she didn't want to come out on her own, so we ended up with a 7:30pm c-section on Wednesday, November 13th. We arrived at the hospital at 5:45 and got checked in to the very quiet labor & delivery wing. I got dressed in my gown, got my IV, got a few visits from my nurse, Dr. & anethesiologist and at 7:30 walked right into the operating room. I received my spinal block (which is similar to an epidural but way way way stronger) and thank God it actually worked this time! We talked about diamond rings to distract me from the procedure - diamonds can make any situation better right?! After they got me on the operating table, they let Nick in the room (dressed to the nines in his fancy blue scrubs) and we were ready to begin. This time I am so happy to report that I felt very little during the surgery - right before the baby came out I felt a lot of heaviness and pressure on my ribs, but that was it! Before I knew it I heard "look at all of that hair" ... "it's definitely a girl" ... and then my favorite - baby screams! It was our baby - she was out in the world and she was beautiful! They cleaned her up a bit, wrapped her in a blanket and within minutes she was in my arms, which is where she would stay for the rest of the surgery. The hospital did not start doing this until after Avery was born, so it was such a nice chance to be able to be with her! The mood in the OR was so relaxed and fun - it was almost like we were having a party and celebrating Harper's birthday with all of the nurses, my doctor and anethesiologist. We were laughing and joking around and even had a photo shoot! Again, night and day difference than when Avery was born! 45 minutes after I walked into the OR, I was wheeled out with Nick pushing the baby bassinet right behind me! We hung out for 2 hours in the recovery room where I got to hold sweet baby Harper and feed her for the first time (and she was an instant champ!) and finally got to our room at about 10:45pm. Since it was so late, we decided to hold off on visitors until Thursday morning.
The hospital stay was so relaxed and so ... quick! We checked in at 5:45pm Wednesday, had a baby at 8:01pm, and were checked out of the hospital by 12pm on Friday! A nice little 42 hour/2 night stay beats our 60 hour/5 night stay with Avery!!
As far as recovery goes, I had very little pain at the hospital and I continue to have little pain at home - c-section recoveries aren't near as bad as people make them out to be! I am running around and feeling great. Avery is crazy in love and so proud of her baby sister and having Nick at home all week has truly made our family complete!
Sunday, November 17, 2013
On the night you were born...
With a heart overflowing with love, I am proud to announce the birth of our daughter Harper on 11.13.13. Pictures and birth story coming soon, but I wanted to share one last belly picture - taken just 3.5 hours before our angel was born!
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Bittersweet
I just put my baby to bed on her last night as an only child ... and the tears just won't stop flowing. She has been my life, the center of my world, my everything for the past 2.5 years and tomorrow we will be shaking things up. This is especially hard as I have been a stay at home/work from home mom since she was born. Anytime she wanted something, she got it. I have been there for her every second of her life and she has always had my full attention. Now things are about to change. She is truly so excited to get a baby sister - that's all she has talked about for the last few months. I know she is going to love her and dote on her and they will grow up to be the best of friends, but my heart just can't help but break that I can no longer give her 100% of my time, my energy, my attention. We have prayed for this second baby for a long time now, so while we couldn't be more excited about adding to our family, tonight and the next few weeks, I pray for a smooth transition and that God gives me the power to love both children equally and give them both all of the attention and affection they could ever need & want!
Monday, November 11, 2013
Anniversary Details
Happy 5 year anniversary to us! We had a great day & night - despite me being less than a week out from delivering a baby! We started with muffins and OJ (I pretended it was a mimosa) - special thanks to Avery who "made the muffins" aka stirred the batter for us!
Since we unfortunately never got to eat the top tier of our cake (it was secured at my work/our reception venue's freezer at least 11 months, but when our anniversary rolled around it had magically disappeared!), I decided year 5 would be a good year to get some cake! Plus, I couldn't have alcohol, so cake was the next best thing! We live too far away from the original baker, but a local one helped me out!
As far as gifts go, we do not typically do presents for anniversaries. Nick always brings home flowers and we go out to dinner, but that's the gist of it. On our first anniversary, we did take a trip to London & Nottingham, England, so I counted our tickets as the traditional first anniversary gift of paper. And again, because #5 just felt like a bigger deal than numbers 2, 3 and 4, I decided to gift need something wood - because I am so traditional and all! I came up with a wooden cigar box from Morgan Hill Designs on Etsy. Nick likes an occasional cigar, but doesn't smoke often, so I went to the classiest strip mall cigar shop I could find and picked up 2 cigars - one for our relationship and one for our kiddos.
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Bump Watch: 38 Weeks
The baby is coming! The baby is coming! This will be our last weekly belly picture as baby will be joining us in 5 days! While I am getting anxious about having another c-section, we are oh-so-excited to meet this little girl! Avery has been telling every stranger she meets that baby sister is in my belly and coming out soon and I am just dying to see her reaction! She is so maternal - she is going to be an amazing helper and wonderful big sister!
Friday, November 8, 2013
5 Years!
Happy 5 Year Anniversary to my wonderful hubby! We got married on the exact date of our 5 year dating anniversary, which means today we have been together for a DECADE! Wow, we are getting old!! :) I'll be back with another post with how we celebrated and a fun "wood" gift idea tomorrow! If you want to take a trip down memory lane, here is a link to our wedding pictures!
