Five Months

On December 2nd, we celebrated a couple of big 5s! 5 months old for our sweet Harper and 5 years for Andrew and me :)  I asked Andy if he would've thought 5 years ago on our first date if we'd be hanging out with our 5 month old baby in 5 short years... he said yes, he definitely could've believed it.  Harper is so lucky to always get to celebrate her months/years on our wedding or "date-a-versary" dates ;) In the future, Andy and I will just be moving our wedding anniversary to January 15th.  It's an excuse to do something fun in the dreary month of January and will ensure our anniversary actually gets remembered in the midst of baby girl birthday festivities!

Every month I always find myself deciding this was the best month yet, and her 5th month was no different!  She is so smiley and interactive!  She continues to share her sweet little giggle with us and her new favorite laughter inducing activity is getting tossed around by her dad!  She cracks up when she's in the midst of falling.  Andy also likes to drag her around on a blanket on the wood floors... which she loves.  She still loves, loves being on her playmat and has really started to like her exersaucer a lot more as well!  She had been rolling off and on all month but this past week it all clicked and she really has it figured out now.  I watched her on her monitor rolling around last night when she was wide awake at 330 ;)

Her crazy loud shriek that she found last month disappeared... and then reappeared just in time for Thanksgiving at the Kings.  ha... silly girl.  She loved all the attention she got all day long and she was in good hands with so many cousins to play with her :)  I was in the next room feeding her and I could hear all my cousins discussing the order they were going to get to hold her when she came back to play with them :)  I also took the opportunity to get advice from 7-16 yo's on how to be a good mom and make my kids like me... haha :) Anyhoo, the shriek has disappeared again in favor of blowing raspberries and making this weird gasping noise where she sucks in her breathe for a couple seconds.  She loves her little tricks!

Harper went to pick out her first Christmas tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  We went to a tree farm in Lexington and picked out a beautiful tree after walking through the entire farm about 3 times ;)  She was bundled up in her snow suit so didn't mind the cold weather.  She cracks me up in her snowsuit.  It's 9 month size and is huge on her.  When we put her in it she just totally freezes and doesn't move, smile, cry, etc.  It zaps all emotions out of her! lol

The next weekend she got to go to Uncle Dave and Cams to be babysat while we had an engagement party to go to.  Carrie and Christie were also present ;)  I tried to give David and Cam tips but they were too busy strapping her into the baby bjorn and trying to feed her pizza so I think they missed out on the part where she goes to bed  about 9 and if she gets overtired, she gets crazy upset.  When we went to pick her up they cracked us up talking about how hard these 4 adults were working to get the poor girl to sleep!  Fortunately, they said she was a fun, happy baby for the first half of the night so I think they'll probably babysit again for us ;)

We also took Harper to the park for the first time last weekend which she loved!! It was a gorgeous morning and not too chilly but we got all bundled up anyways to go swing.  She sat in the baby swing well and also liked sitting with dad in the big swing :) 

We went to Shellain's baby shower for Miss Peyton and Harper had no shortage of ladies willing to hold her ;)  She was not friendly at all though! I don't think she managed a smile the whole time we were there.  She had just fallen asleep in the car when we were pulling in and then woke up when I turned the car off so I know she was tired.  She wouldn't fuss when I was holding her but after a few minutes of someone new holding her she would start some serious fussing! I'm hoping that was just the tired speaking and we aren't starting with stranger anxiety already.  Fingers crossed we at least make it through the holidays without any stranger danger! ;)

One of the coolest thing Harper has developed this month is grabbing at objects.  It's almost like it happened overnight too! I have an attending this month who has a baby 1 week older than Harper.  My first week working with her I was telling her how Harper really isn't interested in our food/drinks yet... and the next week she wants evvvvverything we have! She is showing so much more interest in her toys and working to get them on her own.  It's pretty neat to see! She is also working so hard to sit up.  She is definitely still pretty wobbly but will sit in the tripod stance for a few minutes if she's entertained by what is in front of her.  If she wants a toy off to the side or out of her reach she will immediately flop over to reach it ;) 

Harper is still in her 3-6 month clothes.  Certain brands are getting a litttttle short though :( She got an awesome pair of jeggings a couple weeks ago that I am in love with right now - she looks so grown up! She also sported her first pair of baby uggs last week.  They were really the first pair of shoes that she's worn for any extended period of time and they looked awfully cute.  She has a pair of santa slippers that I've also been putting on her.  They have rattles in the toes so they keep her amused for a while :)  We're still in size 2 diapers.  Technically we could start giving some baby cereal this month according to our pediatrician.  I'm going to wait just a couple more weeks.  She still seems totally satisfied with milk and it's just so fuss-free and simple for the time being.  It will be fun to see her reaction to some big girl food though!

Here's a few pictures from this month :)

 Christmas tree picking!

 first time on the swings!

 Happy 5 months sweet girl!

 so happy :)

 love my feet!

 future gymnast??

 christmas card preview ;)

this shirt is awesome because the bow gives her something to suck on even when she loses her paci! :)

Four Months

It's hard to believe that Miss Harper has been with us for four months already!! It's been another awesome month and it is crazy how much she has grown and changed.  She amuses us nonstop and definitely keeps us busy! 

October flew by for us! Harper ran in another 5k at the beginning of the month and did awesome! She made a couple trips to the pumpkin patch and picked out her first pumpkin :) Granddad hamilton also surprised her with her own personalized pumpkins in his pumpkin patch at home! He carved her name into little gourds when they were softball size so when they got bigger, "Harper" was scarred into the skin.  It was pretty neat!!  We've been to a lot of UK games and she's done her fair share of tailgating.  She also made her first trip to Keeneland where she looked so super stylish in her sweet little horse smocked dress! 

I started working in the PICU a couple weeks ago and am halfway finished with this rotation.  It is definitely exhausting! I have to be up at 430 which is seriously early, especially when someone gets hungry in the middle of the night.  She has been sleeping so much better, though!  We haven't been doing anything different, she's just kind of figuring it out I think.  She sleeps through the night pretty often and if she does get up, it's usually only once.  I had to spend my first night away from my girl a couple weeks ago :(  I have 24-hr overnight calls on this rotation so I miss hanging out with Andrew and Harper those nights :(  Luckily, the evenings haven't been busy so they come to visit me for a few minutes at the hospital! We grab dinner together from the cafeteria then I get to nurse Harper at least once that day :)  I seriously don't know what I'm going to do when residency starts.  My hours seem so short with them in the evenings and time will be even more limited in the future! It's going to be pretty tough on this momma!

Harper celebrated her first Halloween last week and was pretty much the cutest little owl I have ever laid eyes on!  I originally bought her a strawberry costume but then stumbled across the idea for an owl on Pinterest.  Coincidentally, Mom had bought her an owl hat recently and I figured I could put together the cape easily enough!  It definitely looks more difficult than it was! It probably took me an hour to do and consisted of felt, ribbon and fabric glue! haha... We didn't have a ton of trick or treaters but we did get surprised by Uncle Dave, Cam and Christie!

She has the sweetest little belly laugh and is sharing it with us more and more often.  She started rolling over a few weeks ago but is only going from back to belly.  Babies typically go from belly to back first but Harper is not really a fan of tummy time so she isn't getting much practice that direction!  When she ends up on her belly after rolling over she looks like "oh shoot, im stuck... what now?!"  She has started doing this wild squealing thing! It's like she has found her voice and is determined to use it... it cracks us up and she knows it.  She'll squeal and then wait for us to laugh and then she laughs... repeat x100! She has also found her toes and loooves grabbing them and sucking on them.  Baby flexibility is crazy!

She's wearing mostly 3-6 month clothes now and most of the stuff she is outgrowing is because it's too short.  All of her 3 month onesies are too short as well as her footie jammies!  I absolutely love all her footie jammies and am so sad everytime one gets retired to the too-small pile.

We went to the doctor last Friday for our 4 month check up and shots.  I was lucky to be post-call so I got to go with my girl!  She weighed in at 13.9 lbs and was 25.5 inches long.  She's now 50th percentile in weight and 95th in length!  She eats about 7-8 times/day and when she gets a bottle she takes about 4.5 oz.  She's still wearing her size 2 diapers.  Her shots were pretty pitiful... her feelings were most definitely hurt!  We came straight home and she slept for 6 hours straight!! I just let her sleep even though I knew that she'd want to party all night long.  We go back for another eye check up at the end of December but our pediatrician thought nearly all of the cysts were gone in one of her eyes so that was great news!

I think we have something going on every single weekend until Christmas!! The holidays are always so busy but filled with friends, family and fun!! I'm especially excited for Thanksgiving at Aunt Lisa's.  Harper has SO many family members she has not met yet and I know that she will love to meet everyone!!

Here's a couple pictures from this month :)

 Getting measured at the pumpkin patch!

 Boyd's Orchard 2012

 Happy Halloween!

 Our halloween visitors!

 Snuggling after a long day at the hospital

 I could not get a smile for anything during our photoshoot! I think she knew the shots were coming...

Love slobbering on my dad's head!

Three Months

I'm a few days late but last Monday we celebrated 3 months with Miss Harper!!  She has grown and changed so much that it's hard for me to think of her as a tiny little baby anymore! And then I see a picture of her snoozing on someones chest and I'm reminded how itty bitty she still is.  She's developing quite the little personality - Andy said that if he could describe it with one word it would be... diva! haha! We think it's so cool how well we know her and have figured out what all her little cries, faces and movements mean - it's amazing how much babies can communicate without talking!

I went back to school the day Harper turned 12 weeks old. It was pretty darn sad and I miss her like crazy during the day!! Fortunately I ended up with a super easy rotation to start with so I'm really only gone 9-3ish.  We love our babysitter and it's clear that Harper is pretty fond of her as well :)  There's nothing more reassuring to this momma than seeing Harper give our sitter a big ol' toothless grin!  We are so, so thankful to have found her and have her keep Harper at home for us.  I race like a mad person home every afternoon so excited to see my girl!  The week before I went back to school we had our babysitter come over for the afternoon so I could show her around and make sure she didn't have any questions.  I then left to meet Andy for lunch just so they could hang out by themselves for a bit.  Andy was excited because it was kind of our first little date alone since Harper arrived... needless to say I ruined lunch for everyone when I sat there fighting back tears the entire meal.  And we were downtown in the middle of a quiet little restaurant full of business people... embarrassing!  I'm happy to report that I'm not bawling anymore when I'm at school but you will catch me flipping through pictures on my phone quite often throughout the day! :)

I've always loved mornings with my happy little girl but now that I'm back to school our favorite times are Saturday and Sunday mornings.  She is the happiest, smiley little girl in the mornings and I'm not sure there is anything better than cuddling in bed with a warm, sweet baby!  We've done a 5k the past 2 Saturdays and I'm definitely missing our hangout time!  I normally wake her up before I leave so I can feed her one more time but I love it when she wakes up on her own and we get to play for a bit before I have to get to school.

Evvvveryone asks how is she sleeping... and the answer is always different!  She has definitely started to sleep worse since I've been back to school for some reason... or maybe it just seems worse since I can't nap with her until 8 or 9 ;)  She has slept through the night a few times but she's probably up an average of 2 times/night.  We've read a little bit about sleep training but I'm just not ready to do it.  I feel absolutely awful hearing her cry for too long and the thought of letting her cry herself to sleep just about breaks my heart.  And honestly I really don't mind getting up with her at night, especially since I don't get to spend all of my days with her anymore.  She's smiley even in the middle of the night when I go get her and I enjoy just hanging out for a bit :) Call me crazy but I may even be a little sad when she starts sleeping through the night!

She's growing a ton and getting so strong! She is so so close to rolling over from back to front.  She is not a huge of tummy time so I wouldn't be surprised if she goes back to front before going front to back.  She loves standing up in our laps and does an awesome job holding up her head.  We've been weighing her on our scale at home... not sure how accurate it is but I think she weighs about 12.5 lbs.  The pediatrician in me thinks that is not quite enough since she weighed 11lbs 11oz at her 2 month appt so that's another reason I'm happy to feed her at night if she's hungry.  She's currently wearing 3 and 3-6 month clothes for the most part.  She has grown quite fond of her paci fortunately... the next baby will be getting the paci immediately after birth ;)  I don't care what the doctors say... ;)  She also loves her hands and loves to put them in her mouth.  She's starting to grab onto everything but I don't think it's really intentional just yet.

Besides going back to school we've been busy with many other things this month... the biggest of which was Harper's first trip to the beach!! We went to Atlanta for me to take a test then headed down to Hilton Head for a few days.  We had such a great time although I will say vacation is very different with a baby.  We were posted up under our huge tailgating tent the whole time we were at the beach.  I've never been so pale when returning from a vacay ;)  It was pretty cute getting to take some pictures of her dipping her little toes into the ocean for the first time :)  And it was awesome to have Andrew with us all day everyday as well! I think Harper really bonded with him while we were on that trip.  The week after we returned we were out on a walk one night and I had Harper in her little backpack thing.  She stared at Andy with the sweetest little smitten look on her face for about 15 minutes straight... melted my heart!

Harper's been to quite a few more UK games... wish I could say she's good luck to the team but I think they need more than that.  She's been so fun to tailgate with and a champ during the games!  I think this season will actually be way easier than next when she's mobile and putting everything from the ground into her mouth ;)  She also attended her first play... Wicked!! She slept the whole time... it was perfect! And the show was pretty awesome :)

We got into the ophthalmologist early and got her eyes checked out.  They think that she does have bilateral cysts of the iris.  Between 3 doctors they have only seen a handful of cases in their careers and apparently it's even rarer for them to be bilateral.  But the good news is that they have never caused any problems that they've seen.  They don't tend to enlarge and some even go away.  If they were to enlarge she'd likely need surgery so they wouldn't obstruct vision but fingers crossed that doesn't happen!  We do go back every 3 months for a couple years so they can monitor them.

Here's a few pictures of our sweet, sweet girl!! We seriously could not be any happier and are so thankful!

 Watching UK/UL... not such an exciting game says Harper

 Layin out in her little yellow bikini at the beach

love playing with dad over lunch!

Mom and I in our cardigans before church

toes in the water for the first time!

love my happy little girl

playing on the beach

one of my sweet new smocked outfits from grammy!

family pic at hilton head

Happy 3 months Harper!

another family pic

love those big eyes

snoozing before a uk game

Scratch!

first uk game!

tailgating is tiring!

Two Months

It's hard to believe our sweet little girl is 2 months old!! They have flown by :) She's exactly 9 weeks old today and turned 2 months yesterday.  As much as she changed in her first month, I feel like she has changed so much more in the past month!!

I'm still at home with Harper and we're loving our days together :)  I am finished with my more difficult board exam so no more studying during the day which has been fun! It means I get to snuggle with her a little more while she naps :)  We spend a lot of time reading books, singing songs, walking around the house, playing on her mat, etc... I have become a professional at narrating whatever I am doing at the time.  While I fold laundry I tell her the colors, who wears it, when we wear it - if she understood me she would definitely tell me to be quiet and let her little ears rest!  But I don't want her to be bored so we talk A LOT!  She likes to sit in her bouncer for a few minutes at a time in the kitchen.  She typically hangs out on her play mat while I work out and looks at me like I'm a crazy person.  I don't watch much TV during the day but one day she spotted my workout DVD and watched the entire thing.  She loves the bright lights and noise!  We have decided what we are going to get her for Christmas... a new light fixture for her room! ;) She looves watching the fan and lights... way more than any of her toys at this point! 

We've been pretty busy in the past month!  Andy and I did a mini-triathlon with Dad and Cam at the beginning of the month.  Mom, Olivia and Christie took good care of Miss Harper while we raced :)  We also made a trip up to Indiana for Harper's first Colts game!! She was a trooper!! She slept the entire time we were there.  The constant dull roar and the open air stadium lulled her to sleep and she was sacked out.  Harper also got baptized in Lexington a couple weeks ago and she loved getting to see so much family! She's typically pretty awesome when we have company because that means someone is holding her, talking to her, giving her attention... and that's all she needs to be happy ;)  I spent my first day away from her when I took my board exam in Nashville.  I'm happy to report that no tears were shed but I did miss my girl so much!! If I failed my test it will probably be because I flew through the test in 6 hours with no breaks just so I could get back to my girl in Etown.  She had her Dad, Grammie and Olivia looking after her so I knew she'd be in good hands but it still made me awfully sad to leave her.  But when I got back she was happy as a clam sitting outside watching Olivia play soccer :)

Her hair had fallen out a bunch from when she was born but I'm happy to report that it is growing back!! It's still pretty long and thick in the back so I'm glad the top is coming back.  I don't feel guilty putting the headbands/bows in her hair anymore ;)  When she was born we weren't really sure what color her eyes were... they looked kind of dark blue/gray.  We've been waiting to see if they will change and we definitely think they are starting to get a lot more brown!  We're thinking we may have a little mini-olivia on our hands which would be pretty great :) 

My girl has definitely chunked up a lot since being born!! At her 2 month well child check she was up to 11lbs 11oz and 23 1/4inches - about 85% in height and 75% in weight.  She moved up to size 1 diapers at about 5 weeks.  She has also outgrown some of her clothes which breaks my heart!  I was dressing her one day and Andy was eavesdropping with the monitor.  I put her first ever little personalized onesie on her and realized it wasn't going to fit.  Of course I'm telling this all to Harper and then I hear Andy's voice on the monitor saying, "uhoh! is Mom going to cry?" and I tell him "No (sniffle, sniffle)... okay maybe a little!"  haha! I mean, I could've gotten it snapped if I really wanted but I didn't think it was worth giving her a diaper wedgie all day long ;)  She's wearing mostly 0-3 clothes now.  In addition to getting so much bigger she is getting so strong! she loves to stand on your lap and look around and is doing a great job pushing up during tummy time.

She is developing quite the personality and it is so, so fun to hear her talk to you and smile!  Andy and I were talking today about how even in the past week she has started smiling responsively so much more often.  One of my favorite things though is how when she's drifting off or about to wake up she'll smile in her sleep.  I think it's so sweet!  Her cries are pretty easy to interpret for us now.  She actually cries when she's hungry.  When she's tired it sounds like she's talking to you more so than fussing.  Her sleep pose always cracks us up.  We call it the touchdown stance.  We know she's out whenever she raises both her arms up besides her head.  We still don't swaddle - she just doesn't like it.  Instead we just lay her in the crib and stuck her blanket around her belly and let her arms be free! She still doesn't have her bumper :(  She's too wiggly! I went to get her the other night and found her sucking on the one of the slats of her crib!! haha... She found her hands a few weeks ago and often soothes herself just sucking on one of her knuckles.  Last night was the first night she really slept through the night! From 10-7!! I wish I could say I slept well but I woke up at 4AM and thought she might not still be alive since I hadn't heard a peep from her!  I then couldn't fall asleep for an hour or so because I just knew she would be waking up soon... ha! When she finally got up at 7 she was her smiley little self just waiting for us in her crib.  She's so sweet in the mornings... I love it when she wakes up a few minutes before Andy has to get out of bed so she can come lay with us and talk for a bit :)

I have been a little worried about my girl after her last doctors appointment.  The doctor was checking her eyes and her pupils look a little abnormal so we have to take her to the pediatric opthamologist :(  I looked at her eyes and can definitely see the irregularity with the opthalmoscope but have never heard/seen anything like it.  Basically her pupils just aren't perfectly round but you can't notice it until they are magnified.  The pediatrician said she'd had another baby with a similar issue and that baby had some cyst that the opthos just followed, no surgery or anything.  We're praying for something benign like that for Harper!  We don't go until October unless something opens up so we'll just have to wait and see.  The dr. does not think it will be anything serious and said it was okay that we weren't able to get in with the optho any earlier so we hope that's the case!  After we got her home we kept testing her to make sure she was actually tracking us with her eyes and not just listening to us but after many games, we are confident her vision is okay :)  She also got her first set of vaccines at that doctors appointment... her face turned a shade of purple I've never seen on her before but she got over it quickly and did just fine that night! :)

I go back to school Sept 24th and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't absolutely dreading it.  Every week on her weekly birthday I am reminded that I am one week closer to leaving my girl.  Fortunately, through the blog, we have found the sweetest girl to keep Harper! I know she will be in great hands but it is still going to be awfully hard to be away during the days.  My first rotation should have pretty good hours and thanks to some messed up scheduling by the med school, I get to do it at UK rather than having to drive to Georgetown everyday! I'm not complaining a bit! :)

We've got our first big family vacation coming up! I have to take another board exam in Atlanta and then we are going to scoot down to Hilton Head for a couple days.  It will be a short trip but we're pretty excited!! We are also hoping that Harper sleeping through the night wasn't a fluke and is something she plans on repeating for us ;)  We will see!!

Here's a few more pics of our girl!!

 Godparents after her baptism

 Olivia watching Harper during the triathlon

 Love this hat Aunt Lisa bought her! We call it her Derby hat! ;)

 She's in a milk coma... cracks m up

 This is the touchdown stance!  The funniest thing is when she's fighting sleep but has her arms up like this she'll sometimes grab her hair in the back and then scream like whoooo is pullling my hair?!!!

 Trying on some headbands :)

 I love my big flower!

 Andy got a smiley pic of her :)

 She's supervising her dad doing some yardwork!

 Pretty girl in her bonnet!

 Beautiful christening gown her Grammie made her!!

 This was last Wednesday! She looks so grown up in this little dress!

 Probably my favorite picture I have of her :)  She has a ton of UK outfits so she wore one everyday this weekend to celebrate college football :)

Happy 2 months sweet girl!! We love you so, so much!