Life with two

It's been 4 weeks since Harper was born. So much has changed. Each days gets a little better and Lucy and I are still adjusting. The first week my mom was in town to help, which was. Huge blessing and so much fun to have my mom to hang out with. The second week I think was the hardest. I was still recovering and really stressed/ nervous to have two babies by myself during the day. Work was really busy for Evan so he had to put in a few extra hours each night at the office. 

Week three was a little better; other than Lucy threw her first tantrum. Like, on the floor kicking and screaming. She pounded her fists and kicked the wall for a good half hour. She still cries for no reason sometimes but nothing like that day. 

Week four I feel like I am getting the hang of things. It did help that Evan was off work for four days over thanksgiving weekend. Lucy is back on her schedule and Harper is sleeping better not being held. I can usually get them to nap at least one nap together a day which gives me time to fold laundry or do dishes. 

I love seeing Lucy with Harper. I know she loves her little sister. I think I say be gentle or be soft all day long; Lu just wants to hold her or poke at her all day. Lucy has started walking (while holding on to things) so Harper gets rides in her rock and play a lot!

Harper Jean

Since we have been asked a few times, here's the story of Harper's name:

Lucy is named after three grandmas (my paternal grandma, my maternal great-grandma, and Evan's maternal great-grandma). Lucy's middle name is my middle name- Nichole. We like the idea of family names, but couldn't find one that we felt right about. So, after a few months of thinking, I heard the name Harper somewhere. I told Evan and we started calling the little one Harper that day. It just felt right. We already had a middle name picked out (Jean after my mom's middle name and my great-aunts first name). We liked Harper because we were able to name her after both grandmas. Evan's mom is a professional harpist so we were able to name her in honor of her grandma Pack by using her beautiful talent. We love the idea that our girls are named after special people in our lives and their ancestors. 

Harper's birth story:

At 12:30 am on the 4th I woke up with awful stomach craps. I tried to go back to sleep but every couple of minutes I was rolled up in a ball (I now know they were contractions). I went out to the couch so I didn't wake Evan up and watched TV for about an hour. I took a bath to ease the pain and drank a ton of water hoping it would stop and I could sleep. After a while, I decided to start timing these "cramps". I was in pain for about a minute and a half every three minutes for 5 hours before I woke Evan up and told him that I think we should go get things checked out. He quickly jumped out of bed ready to go, but I hadn't packed a thing and really wanted to shower. So I showered and packed while Evan sat nervously kindly trying to get me to hurry. I pack a few things for Lucy for the day in case I wasn't coming home. Evan woke my sister up and have her the monitor and asked if she could watch Lucy until we found a sitter.

We arrived at the hospital around 6:30 am and they monitored me for about an hour. I progressed enough to be admitted. That's when things got real for me. Even though I was past my due date, I didn't expect to meet this little girl for a few more days. We moved from triage to the labor room and sat for a while. I was added to the list for the anesthesiologist. That was a slice of heaven! 

My OB was on call at the hospital all weekend so we missed him by half an hour (he was off at 6am) so I had the new on call doctor. I don't think we could have been luckier.  If I could have asked for a second choice doctor, it would be him. 

Dr Haskett came in around 2 pm and broke my water and contractions stopped. Like no movement on the screen. So the started pitocin around 3 and they picked up pretty quick. At 4:30 I was ready to push. I pushed for about 15 minutes and a nurse came in telling the doctor that he had an emergency in the next room. He left for a second, came back and told me to stop pushing! WHAT? He had to leave for an emergency c-section. He was gone for about a half an hour and I sat waiting. And waiting. And waiting. When he came back, three more pushes and Harper was born at 5:38 weighing 7 lb 6 oz and was 19 inches long. She had the cord wrapped around her neck a few times but the doctor said it wasn't really tight so her breathing was ok. We feel so blessed to have a safe and semi-easy labor.  She is healthy and perfect. 

She's One!

Weight- 

Height- 

Diaper Size- 3

Clothes Size- 9 months

I can't believe my baby is one. It's been a crazy year of figuring out this whole parenting thing. Lucy is the sweetest little girl I have ever know. She is kind hearted, sassy, tender, sweet, spunky, and so fun to be around. I'm so glad that I get to be her mom and to watch her grow up. I feel like she grew up overnight. She is one fast little crawler. She has shown no interest in walking, but can out crawl anyone. Lu has started standing and climbing. She also thinks its a fun game to laugh at us when we tell her "no". 

Painting

Since moving in our house I have painted three rooms. The first room I did was Lucy's. I added horizontal stripes to three walls and an accent wall of glitter paint behind her crib. 

The next room I pained was the guest room. This room was last on my list, but my baby sister asked to move in with us for a few months so I added a chevron wall behind the bed. I thought about doing it in a different color, but stuck with the gray family and used left over paint from Lucy's room. After a few precious nap hours of taping, I spent another nap time painting. It was a long project, but I think it's cute. 

The third room I painted was the new nursery. Evan said he wanted to add color to our gray/black/white house, so I went with pink!  I have fabric picked out for the bedding, so I matched the pink to one of the fabrics. I could decide on a design for a while because I didn't want classic flowers. I went with almost the same modern rose pattern that is one of the fabrics. This room has sat basically untouched for the last week. Hopefully I find some motivation or the whole nesting think kicks in soon because baby bean is coming soon...

One Year Photos

Over the weekend, we had Lucy's one year pictures taken. Since the baby can come any day now, we thought we would do them before she's here. She was so cute and hamed it up for the camera. Here are a few that I grabbed off of the cd. I'm going to print off a few this week to add to her 6 month pictures we have around the house. 

10 Months

Height- 26 inches

Weight- 13.7 pounds

Diaper Size- size 2

Clothes Size- 6 months

First- Pack family reunion, pony ride, trip to Costco, trip to the museum, waving, clapping

Personality- She definitely is very caring. Lu still loves to cuddle and is starting to hug all of her toys before she starts playing with them. She loves attention and flirting. She claps when she is excited and loves watching for daddy to come home every night; she gets so excited when she hears the garage door open. Lucy is getting better about strangers holding her and is less clingy around me. She loves to play on her own as long as you don't leave her alone in the room. 

First frozen fruit bar. She loved it!

We spent most of the summer swimming.

She loves "hiding" under her blanket. She giggles when you find her

Football with daddy. She controls the remote. 

Pony rides at This is the Place

She loves to read. She was teaching her monkey about how other monkeys live in the jungle. 

This girl loves her berries!

Pack Family Reunion(s)

At the beginning of August, Evan's family had their annual Cousin Camp. Every single sibling came home! It was fun to see everyone- it's been over 10 years since everyone has been able to come. This year, it was in Rexburg (where it is most years) at Evan's parents house. Because we are a current family of three and had to accommodate for a pack-n-play, we traded for a little bigger room so we could fit. And, because a new mess hall type room was built, most of the noise was outside or in that room so sleeping actually happened this year! All the older girl cousins would take Lucy around and include her in all the doll and Barbie playing. They were so cute with her and always wanted to hold her. 

Some of the activities included water ballon kick ball, capture the flag, lots of ice cream, and lots of time catching up with siblings we haven't seen in years. 

We also said good bye to our niece Emily who leaves for her mission at the end of this month. 

Whatever food Lucy could get her hands on she ate. She "found" (aka cousins gave her) pancakes, graham crackers, fruits, veggies, popsicles, rice, and many more things. She loved it all!

John Pack Reunion

John Pack was one of the original Utah settlers and even has a statue at the This is the Place Park. Evan's dad was the president of the JP Association so we went up to Salt Lake for the reunion. First they had a business meeting for the presidents and council members, then a reunion after for all the descendants of all 7 wives. Lu was a little restless during the business meeting, so we went for a walk. We walked over to the petting zoo so she could see the animals and the worker at the horses let her pet and ride the ponies. She probably rode for about 10 minutes. She would pet the horse and the squeal. After the meeting we walked with evan's sister and her family for a bit before heading home. 

Summer Lovin'

Lucy and I have been playing at to pool and eating snow cones all summer long! Grandma sent her a new (newish- it is retro after all) swimsuit so we needed to try it out. 

Off to Seven Peaks for the day. We usually spend a few hours in the kiddie pool area and then we float the lazy river a few times. 

This girl takes after her mamma and loves the water and sun. She could splash all day 

July Happenings

A few weeks ago, we had about 40 pounds of plums than needed to be canned/frozen/dehydrated before they went bad. So, Lucy and I went to work. In the time that I could peel and take the pit out, she would be digging in the bowl for another bit. I am pretty sure she ate about 6 plums that day. 

I kept a bowl for us to eat through out the week and left it on the counter. I was making dinner, and when I turned around I found 3 plums with little teeth marks and one in her had. I am guessing she was finding the perfect one to eat. Whole plums are by far her favorite food to eat!

Evan had the day off for Pioneer Day, so we went mini golfing and for snow cones.  We finally found a place that has all the right flavors to make a Malibu Barbie; I was a happy camper!

9 Months

I can't believe this little lady is already 9 months. Only three more months and she will be a year old- that's cray cray to even think about! 

Height- 25 inches 3%

Weight- 12.4 pounds 1%

Diaper Size- size 2

Clothes Size- 6 months

First- sit up on her own, trip to the water park, mini golf caddy, 4th of July

Personality- she is still sassy as can be! Littles has definitely been a good nickname for her. Lucy is the sweetest little girl, she is so in tune with others needs and tries her hardest to be a comfort to those that need a little extra love. She has a tender heart and is in tune with the spirit more than I think I can ever understand. I love watching her try to be independent but look for us when she is frustrated or needs help. Because of the holidays lately, she makes me take her to Evan's office to see if he is home or not. She loves her daddy and gets so excited when she hears the garage door open. 

Sitting up for a whole 3 seconds

Her favorite food is whole plums. She ate about 5 this particular day. If I have her on the counter, she looks through the bowl of fruit to find the plums

Vintage little baby clothes. I need to find my baby pictures to do some side by sides

Found some glasses in her toy basket. Yes she also rocks a popped collar 

We were playing on the floor and she rolled over to cuddle with me. She knew it was a hard day for me and I needed a hug