Erica's wedding

Harper got to experience her first wedding this past weekend! :)  She was fantastic.  She wore a beautiful silver, taffeta dress! :)  She was ravishing if I must say so myself!  She was quiet an snooz-y during the whole ceremony and the cocktail hour.  It was fun to see college friends and get out of the house, dressed like a person.  :)  Only around her bedtime did she become fussy.  We made our exit at 7:15 just before dinner was served, although the wait-staff noticed and gave us our food to-go so it didn't go to waste.  Is that tacky?  I Hope not!!!!!  We got home and put her in her pjs just in time.  :) Pictures to follow...

Different again

So I have become that mom who is obsessed with their child's sleep habits.  UGH.  The swaddling only worked for 2 days, so my pacifier hunt has continued.  This morning, I fed Harper, burped her and then put her in bed awake, but drowsy.  She looked at me with her beautiful little face, smiled a few times, I kissed her and she turned her head to the right and went to SLEEP.  Without a fuss, a peep, a cry, anything.  Now, why was it so difficult yesterday?  Is it all truly related to timing it just perfectly??  If so, I don't know how I am going to get things done during the day obsessing about "is it the perfect time??"  Well, either way, she's still a great night sleeper, and is "technically" sleeping through the night.  She goes to bed around 7, 7:30 p.m.  She doesn't make a single peep!!!  She sleeps 6-8 hours for the first stretch, gets up to eat, then goes back to sleep for 3-5 more hours!  So, she is sleeping 11-13 hours each night, which is fantastic!! :) It's just nap time that continues to keep me on my toes.  :)  

Things change everyday

It's interesting that each day, I think I am starting to understand Harper and her daytime sleep needs.  Each and everyday, these apparently change.  WHAT?  I don't get it.  Some days, she sleeps great and is able to easily fall asleep on her own.  Other days, she is impossible to get to sleep without help.  On these hard days, every little sound wakes and startles her.  On the good sleep days, a semi driving through her room wouldn't wake her.  I don't get it!!!  I become frustrated, only to remember she's 7 weeks old and is trying to find her way too.  At this point, I will do what is needed to get her to sleep, or to help her sleep as I know how important sleep is to her.  I do think her sleep would be much easier if she would take and hold a pacifier in her cute little mouth.  She gets it in there for a few minutes her and there, but doesn't hold it and usually rejects it.  I am thinking about spending out "out of the house time" today at Target buying every single type of pacifier to try with Harper.  I am hoping that in the next few weeks, as she gains more weight and gets a bit older, that this nap issue is solved and that she's able to be more consistent with her daytime sleep.  :)

Pic of Harper

Sleep

I think I have finally solved Harper's disruptive sleep problem.  She's always been a great night sleeper, however naps are much more difficult.  She's a great sleeper, but since we've put her in her crib, she's had a harder time sleeping during the day.  I read two books-babywise and healthy sleep habits, happy child-neither of which helped.  She's too young to be on a rigid schedule and the ideas are great, but don't lay out step by step what to do.  SO, I randomly decided to try swaddling her.  Once I did this, she's been a fantastic, normal napper.  This has also almost completely eliminated fussing and bed and nap time!  WOO HOO.  LOVE IT!  :)  Harper is such a wonderful, fantastic, phenomenal little miracle.  WE love her SOOOOOOO much!  :)  Now 

Harper's hips... :(

Well, we had our 4th appt. today at Gillette Children's for Harper's hip dysplasia.  The ultrasound appt. this morning went well and Harper was very cooperative!  I again got to see her CUTE little feet!  LOVE them and I can't wait until I can kiss them anytime.  The doctor appt. was later in the afternoon and is promising.  Initially, we were told 4-6 weeks in the harness is typical, however after the first ultrasound, 2 weeks after the harness came on, showed it would probably take a bit longer.  Harper has met two of the three requirements for being out of the harness.  She's not met the 50 percent coverage requirement and the stability requirement.  The only thing left is waiting for the angles in the hip sockets to reach or exceed 60 degree angles.  We have an appt. on July 13th and HOPE HOPE HOPE HOPE that she will be finally given the go ahead to be taken out!!  I was very upset at the appt. and after knowing she has 3 more weeks.  :(  However, in the long run, this is a minor bump.  She and we are so blessed that she is otherwise completely healthy and normal.  Let's hope these next few weeks are quick and cool!  

Crying it out...

Well, yesterday I became frustrated with Harper's new need to be held to sleep. SO, per the advice of Alyssa Hammar, I decided to try letting her cry it out. The first test was bed time. I wanted to try a 7:30 bed time, so at 6:45, I put her in her pjs and her sleep sack and nursed her. After she ate, I burped her and then laid her in her crib (second night in the crib, bye bye bassinet). It took her only a minute to start crying...was about 7:25 pm. I decided I would give her 10-15 minutes and then go in, burp her again, check her diaper, then lay her back down. Well, after 11 minutes, she was out cold!!!! I was completely shocked...not really believing that she was asleep. I kept checking the monitor-it's a day/night camera one, so I can see her!-and she was still sleeping. We went to bed around 9 pm...Harper slept until 1 am. She woke up-I changed her, she ate, burped her and then laid her back down. She slept again until 6!!! I did the same, put her back to bed and then got her up at 8:30 am. I am so impressed!!! Letting her cry it out has really worked! She realizes that she's tired and puts herself to sleep!! :) I was able to shower, eat and relax a bit before she woke up!! It's great...and I am hoping I continue to have the strength to let her cry herself to sleep! :)

Second month

Harper is now in her second month of life!!!  I cannot believe she's already 5 weeks old, however we have really enjoyed every moment of those first five weeks and look forward to all the moments in the future! :)  She grows and changes so much these days...each day taking on a new look!!  Thursday we had the 4 week appt. at Gillette to check up on her hip.  Left and Right are now at the same point, which is great that the left has made such leaps and bounds but not so great that the right made very little improvement over the last two weeks.  :(  Neither hip is at all dislocatable and both are very stable.  Left is completely stable, right is almost stable.  We have another appt. on Tuesday, June 23rd and I am really, really, really hoping for great news of huge improvement.  

Harper has started to have fussy periods in the evening.  Not every evening...it's more random, but when it happens, she cries for up to two hours.  :(  She can be calmed and it usually happens when she is very over-tired.  I have been working really hard to not let her be awake for more than an hour and a half to two hours at a time, and am trying to be proactive in soothing her so she can fall asleep.  Let's hope these bouts of fussiness are a VERY short phase!! :)  

We tried a bottle with breast milk last night...for the first time.  She was very confused as to why her milk was coming out of a rubbery-thing!!  Once she realized that when she sucks, milk came out, she downed the ounce very quickly!!  It was great for Brian to share in the feeding experience, but it was very sad for me to not have that time with her.  Let's just say we won't be switching to bottles any time soon!! :)

Harper is ONE MONTH!

We've decided to take a picture of Harper every 8th of the month to capture how she is growing.  The point of measure is her fuzzy white sheep/lamb she got from her great grandparents! :)  Because of her harness, this first picture is taken laying down, once that is off, we will have her sitting up with it! :)  

More pictures!!

More pics of Harper

Sweet girl

Harper's first few hours and days

Feet

I really love the picture of Harper's little feet posted below.  I love good feet in general, but love her cute little toes.  Sadly, because of her harness, I've only had the opportunity to see her feet 2 times in the past month.  :(  Today, when we were at Gillette, we had to un-strap the foot portion of the harness so the ultrasound tech can do the ultrasound on her hip.  It's such a joy to see her little feet, toes and legs.  She was kicking them all around, like she was free.  It really makes me happy seeing her kick and move her legs all around, and it makes me yearn for the day she can be free of the harness.  

More Harper!

Baby Girl!

Pics of Harper

Finally!!

Well, I am finally getting on here to update!!!  Harper Olivia Sampson was born Friday May 8th, 2009 @ 4:03 p.m.!!!  Her arrival was much anticipate by all.  

Harper:

Born: 05/08/2009

At: 4:03 p.m.

Weight: 8 lbs.

Height: 20.5 inches long

Initially, Harper looked a lot like me!  Comparing her to both our baby pictures revealed she was a mini-Tatiana!  However, as she is filling out more (she will be 5 weeks old tomorrow!!!!), she is looking now like a great mix of me and Brian.  She definitely has his eyebrow area and nose, my eyes and mouth.  She is a beautiful little girl!!  Harper has been a delightful baby thus far.  She likes to sleep, is a great nurser and is mild mannered for sure.  I believe she has Brian's temperament and hope that continues!! 

When Harper was 5 days old, we went in for her first pediatric appt.  The doctor said she is wonderfully pink, was gaining great weight already and was very healthy!  Except...her left hip was completely dislocated.  This hip dysplasia typically occurs in babies who are breech, which she was definitely not.  Unfortunately, something about the way she was positioned in my womb caused her femur to sit outside of the hip socket and it didn't develop properly.  The news came as a serious shocker to me and I cried for a few weeks about it.  :(  We are, however, very thankful it was caught so early.  We were sent to Gillette to meet with an orthopedic specialist.  She was great!!  (And did some of her residency with Maren!)  Harper was put into a Wheaton-Pavlik harness and is still in it!  She's now been in it for 4 weeks and is making progress.  Neither of her hips can dislocate at all, and the hip sockets are deepening.  She has 2-4 weeks left in the harness...and all I can say is those weeks can't come fast enough.  The harness is great because it is helping our baby, but it sure is a pain in the butt!  She only has a few outfits she can wear with it and it makes diapering a chore.  She also can't have a bath :(  She's been given a "sponge-bath"every few days, but I feel like I really am missing out on some of the fun parts of having a new baby girl: baths, cute outfits and seeing her cute little feet.