I think it hurts Mommy more than it hurts Harper!

On Monday we went to the eye doctor and decided to do a tear duct probe. This involves sticking a probe up Harper's nose and forcing it through her tear duct- sounds horrific right? I handed her over to the doctor (because this is apparently a minor procedure which they do in office) and I went to the bathroom and cried. This took about two minutes, and when I walked out, they were looking for me to tell me they were done. Harper was lying in the nurse's arms whimpering, while mommy was bawling like a baby! I am sure the doctor was thinking, "Great, another high strung mommy." That night and the next day she seemed only slightly uncomfortable. She is so tough! On Wednesday she got her 2 month shots and last night began to run 103.3 temp! As if her week had not been bad enough we had to go back to the doctor this morning and she had to get her heel poked to draw blood. It looks like she had a reaction to her shots or a virus (very hard to tell which one). Whew! I don't know if I can take anymore, however, Harper keeps smiling through it all. She is such an amazing baby. Let's cross our fingers that next week goes better!

Announcing....

Here is her birth announcement. A little wild but it fits our personality.

Look out Vogue, here I come!

At 4 weeks old Harper had her first photo shoot and she did great! She did not want to go to sleep, as usual. She was so good though and she only peed on the pillow once!

I cannot believe she is 8 weeks old now! Time is going by so fast. It is so bittersweet to see her grow. She is smiling at me all the time now. My favorite thing is to get her up in the mornings because as soon as she sees me she gives me a huge grin and it melts my heart. She loves to lay and kick her legs and be free to move. I spend a lot of time singing to her and the song that gets her smiling the most is Ice Ice Baby- I have no idea what made me sing it to her but she smiles and kicks everytime I sing it. Go figure. Every night we read books and she watches the pages and sits so quietly in my arms as we read. My mom said I was the same way.

We have had a rough couple of weeks with problems with her eye. She has had a clogged tear duct since birth and two weeks ago we started her on eye drops to clear an infection, however they did not work and her eye became very swollen and painful. We took her back in and had to put her on antibiotics by mouth that are very strong and upset her stomach quite a bit. These helped clear the major infection but a large knot was left under her eye. We saw the eye doctor last week and started some more eye drops. If these do not work then she will have to have surgery on her eye to remove the knot. I know that this is very minor compared to many of the things that other families have to face, however, she is my daughter and the thought of her going to surgery creates a knot in my stomach. My thoughts are consumed with prayers that I will not have to watch them wheel my little girl away from me to the operating room. If you are reading this, please take a moment to say a little prayer for her. Again, I know this is easily fixable and considered a minor procedure, but no matter how small it is, it is still surgery. I will update this after we see the eye doctor again and get a decision. For now, she is a happy little baby who loves crappy 80's music and is growing like a weed!

Sleeping Beauty

I just had to post this pic of her sleeping in her bassinet. She sleeps with her arms up in the air everytime she sleeps! It is so cute. That's how we know she is in a deep sleep. Even in our arms, if she falls asleep those arms will go straight in the air!

She is growing so well. She loves to eat and it shows! She weighs 8 lbs 8 oz! I cannot believe how much she has grown. She is already too big for her newborn onesies. I was so sad the day I realized that. I swear all of her weight is in her cheeks! She is so skinny everywhere else!

She is already showing her personality. She does not like to take naps. She sleeps fine during the night but if everyone is awake, SHE wants to be awake. It is so cute and so frustrating how she fights sleep. She is laid back (for now) and loves to watch everything around her. We read the Black and White book and she is so tuned in to it. She watches the puppies and they watch her. Marley cannot walk through the hallway without going into her room to check on her. If she is crying, he comes and gets one of us and whines until we follow him into her room and pick her up. He is so protective of her. Maizie on the other hand pretends that she does not exist. SHe climbs up on the boppy when Harper is feeding and tries to push her off.

It is amazing how quickly they change and time just races by. I am loving every minute of being her mom, no matter how exhausted I am. I still cannot believe that I am lucky enough to be a part of this little girls life.

I love my bath!

7/12/2009: Introducing...Harper Marie!

We went in at 7:30 this morning to be induced. They broke my water at 8:30 and after 10 hours and a NON-WORKING epidural, Harper Marie Morris arrived at 6:20 pm! She weighed 7lbs 10oz and 20 3/4 in long. I was instantly in love. Jon was amazing! I fully expected him to get light headed and need to take a break but he was at my side the entire time feeding me ice chips and rubbing my back. Even during the few scary moments with blood pressure problems and the realization that this was going to be a natural birth whether we wanted it to be or not he kept encouraging me and holding my hand. He even cut the cord. My mom and dad helped calm fears, wipe sweat and cheer me on. I could not have pushed her out through all of that pain with them all. Jon was head over heels the minute he met her. He could not put her down. All in all it was the best day of my life because I got to meet my beautiful daughter and all of the pain and tears was worth it because she is absolutely the best part of me. I am so lucky to be her mom!

My Giant Belly

We took some pictures of my stomach finally! I knew if we didn't I would never believe that I was this huge! It is amazing how much you can stretch. I feel like there is no more room for her to grow but there is so much time left on our clock. We are 35 weeks now and I am almost finished with school. I am doing about 55 hours per week trying to get it done and I am almost there. As long as Harper stays in for 3 more weeks we will be in good shape! Here are some of the pics we took. Amazingly it has only been 3 days since we took these and I am even larger! I am begining to get concerned that I might explode! :)