Lou's First School Picture!

Just had to share this because it is too cute not to! Avery had her first school picture ever! We talked about it beforehand, I kind of filled her in on what she could expect. She was pretty excited. I told her just to smile her best! I was so anxious to see what it would come out like, as her "say cheese" smile these days is pretty funny. She came home from school that day and said, "Mom, they only took one picture of me!" I guess she's used to her mama's photo sessions. She couldn't believe she was 1 and done! Here it is! Pretty darn cute if you ask me!

First Bath!

Harper's little cord stump has taken FOREVER to fall off! I photograph a lot of newborn babies, and nearly all of them have lost their cord stump by 2 weeks, but this little chick's has hung on forever. FINALLY...it came off and we got to have her first bath! She actually didn't mind it. She totally made the facial expression/hand gestures I remember from Avery's first bath, but once she figured out what was going on, she was pretty content! Nothing like that fresh from bath, sweet, snuggly baby! Also, her hair is still super dark and a little curly when it's fresh out of the bath, which is so crazy, as Cullen and I both have stick straight. It will be interesting to see if it stays that way or what. It has no curl though once it's dry, so who knows!

Harper's Nursery

Part of my favorite times of getting ready for my sweet little ones to come into the world, is planning their space. I am not the best decorator in the world, but I've loved putting together my girls' rooms. They are my two favorite rooms in the whole house! I didn't want to reuse Avery's crib bedding, as I loved it so much, I got the same big girl bedding for her. I wanted Harper's space to be her own. I've always loved the pink and brown combo. Cullen had been wanting to try a chair rail in some room for awhile, and I thought this might be the perfect opportunity with the pink and brown. After the Ace Hardware guy tried to sway me in my paint decisions, I'm so glad I stayed strong. He told me that this was a really light pink, nearly white, and a very dark brown, and kept asking if I was sure. I was, and it is perfect! I found the most adorable bedding at Pottery Barn Kids with little birdies on it, and knew it was perfect. After that, I was off! I found the perfect birdie artwork that matched her bedding on etsy, bought some cute white frames to match, and those got hung above her crib. I also found some paper lanterns online that I hung (okay, Cullen hung) in the corner, and it's the perfect accent. Then I ordered some Organic Bloom frames that I was in LOVE with! I hung them right away, but had to wait for her perfect newborn pictures to go in them...which turned out perfectly! We used the same rocker from Avery, but found the perfect pink and white polka dot accent pillow at HomeGoods, as well as the pink lamp, and voila...perfect nursery complete! I LOVE LOVE this space! This was an extra guest room before, that really just had the door shut most often. I love that it is now the coziest, most perfect space for my littlest love! I love snuggling her up in this space!

Harper's Nursery with finished pictures in the frames and the correct colors! :)

Cell phone snaps (so the color is horrible) of the finished product after Cullen and Papa's Dale's hard work!

Love it!

Avery's 1st Field Trip!

Avery has been a trooper the past few weeks with everything going on. I'm SO thrilled for her to be a big sister, and I know she loves her sister more than anything. Though part of me feels sad for her. Her whole world has just been rocked. With Harper coming a little early, and then back to the hospital for awhile, the poor thing has been bounced around here and there, and has handled it better than I could've ever imagined. Just one more reason why I love this girl so much. She just comes home each day and loves up her sister. She wants to do anything to help, or just play with her. It is my favorite thing to watch..their bond already growing.

Anyway, we have kept her in her routine, with pre-school and Lori's, and that seems to be helping a lot. She has so many friends at Lori's, it's fun for her to go see them each day. This year she started Rainbow Pre-school. She is loving it. She has wonderful teachers, and it's been great for her. She will go next year too, so this was kind of a bonus year. With me being home 6 months of the year though, we were able to sneak her in this year.

About a week after Harper was born, her class had their first field trip...to the Fire Station! They even got to ride the school bus. She was so looking forward to this trip. Since they weren't going far, and it was just a quick trip downtown, they didn't need any chaperones. They did invite any parents who wanted to come along, to meet them at the Fire Station. Since Cullen was still home that week, we took Mrs. Beth up on it, and Avery was so excited to see him down there! They got to tour the fire trucks, see their equipment, and learn about how to be safe in a fire. They even asked if anyone has ever held a tiny baby, and I guess he said you should've seen how quick her hand popped up! That's our proud big sister. Anyway, here are a few cell phone photos Cullen snapped while he was there. I've said it before, and I'll say it again..thank goodness for our cell phone cameras! Though not the best quality, they at least capture the moments for us!

Avery's Pre-School Class

Checking out the hose

Stop, Drop and Roll

The fireman trying on their equipment so the kids wouldn't be scared if they ever saw them..great idea!

Avery checking out the fireman in all his gear

Such a good listener! She's the little one on the left in the pink jacket :)

About a week after this field trip, she got to go on their first BIG field trip to the Lowry Nature Center! Mama was supposed to go as a chaperone, but with Harper coming early, and then being back in the NICU, it didn't work out, so Avery got an even better guest...Nana! They had a BLAST!!!!

Almsot 4 Year Old Avery!

The same day that we took the maternity photos, I took some of Avery too. I don't know how my girl is already almost 4 years old! I am in love with these. They so capture her right now. Love it.

Official Belly Pics!

This time around, I knew I wanted to make it a point to take some maternity photos, mostly with Avery. I only wanted a few, so I set out to do them myself. I just got everything set in my camera, and had Cullen do his best, and I'd say he did pretty awesome. I am in love with how they turned out, and these will forever hold a special place in my heart. I did a maternity session a few years ago for a mom who had this yellow dress on and I loved it! I asked her where she bought it, and then went out and bought it myself and it has been hanging in my closet ever since. I bought it just hoping I might time it right someday to do my own maternity photos in it, and it worked out! :) I love the yellow and green..and of course the photos with "both" of my girls! :) These were taken on August 21, so I was just about 31 weeks.

Love this one

Quick family shot on self-timer

Belly Pics!

I know this is a bit backwards, but I wanted to add in a post with some belly pics I took along the way. Thank goodness for cell phone pics! Sadly, I didn't really make it a point to take belly pics. We were so busy, I just never really thought about it, until the end. So I didn't take them weekly :( But I did get a couple more towards the end, which I think is fun! I think around 30 weeks it must've hit me, that this chick could really come at any time, if she was anything like her sister! I have a few belly pics from Avery too, so it's kind of fun to compare. I got so much bigger this time around with Harper, then I did with Avery. I'm sure because I went 3 weeks longer, and I suppose it just being the second time around. In any case, it's fun to see and hopefully will be fun for my girls to look at down the road! They will also probably look back and laugh at my sweet, pink phone I took these pics with!

August 11 - 30 Weeks

August 25 - 32 Weeks!

My last belly photo...September 30...6 days before Harper arrived! Getting a little bit lower and bigger! 36 Weeks!

The first time we found out Harper was coming! :) February 13, 2011....Let the fun begin!

Lazy Days and Mama's Mini-Mi

Well things have been going well since we've been home. I only take the poor girl's temperature about 10 times a day! I can't help but freak out a little. If she develops another fever, we would have to go back in, as she is too little still for tylenol, etc. They told us we have to really watch it up until about 2 months. So far though, so good. We've just been hanging out. She seems to be a really happy, sweet-natured baby. She is still sleeping pretty good, and eating great, so that's awesome. Avery is still loving up on her as much as ever!

Found this photo of me as a newborn...I guess we know who she looks like..right down to the dark baby hair!

Playing with Avery..she loves to watch her!

Sister Playtime

We're Home...Again!!!

Thank Heavens...NEGATIVE!!! We're home again. We got the news this morning that the cultures were negative. This means it was not meningitis and just some sort of bug. Likely it was the same bug or virus that I had. We got home and Harper was sleeping and Avery was on her field trip for school. Cullen was supposed to chaperone, as it was her first field trip, but Nana stepped in and they had a blast! They got to go to the Lowry Nature Center. So while Harper was sleeping and they were gone, Cullen and I went into mad, clean and disinfect mode. We scrubbed and cleaned this place. GERMS.BE.GONE! I think we got 'em!

The next few days are MEA break for Cullen, so he's home with us. We're going to lay low, rest, ENJOY our time together, home as a family. It's funny how just a couple days away make you SO appreciate your time home together. Man this was so hard. I know it was only 3 days, but it felt like forever. Just so glad to be home with both of my girls again.

Still Negative

So we made it safely though yesterday and today...and still nothing. Every time the phone rings outside at the nurses station my heart stops for a second and I HOPE they don't come in to tell us they found something. But for now, we are good. My parents have brought Avery over here both nights to see us, so that has been nice, but it's SO hard to say good-bye to her. Poor girl has had her world rocked the past few weeks. Thank goodness my parents are close by, and the best, and Avery adores them. She just gets excited that she gets all these sleepovers at Nana and Papa's! Cullen ran to Target and bought us new books, so we're trying to read to pass the time. It helps a little, but not too much. I just want to make it to the 48 hour mark tomorrow morning with negative results so we can take our girl home. It's been a long few days.

Of course I didn't bring my camera with me to the NICU, and it surely isn't a moment I want to capture and remember forever, but thought someday Harper might like to see them, so here are two quick cell phone snaps Cullen took of our time here. Harper and I pretty much have spent most waking (and sleeping) moments for that matter, snuggling in this horribly uncomfortable rocking chair. :( Poor girl.

Bad News :( :(

Oh Children's hospital, how we hoped we wouldn't have to see you again :( Well my fear came true last night. We were SO hoping to avoid Children's hospital this time around, and really thought we had. We were just getting settled and into a routine, so this has kind of come as a big blow. Not to mention, how much harder it is to be in the hospital when you have another little one at home.

So Harper woke up in the night last night and felt really warm. I didn't think too much of it. We took her temp, and it was a low grade fever. So we put her in some cooler jammies, fed her, and she went back to sleep. She woke again at about 4:00 and was on fire. We took her temp and it was 101. We called the nurse line, and they said we needed to bring her in to Children's right away. :) NOT the news we wanted to hear. They did say we could go ahead and bring her to Wacnoia, as they do have a NICU there now. That didn't seem quite as scary as going downtown, so hear we are. We got to the ER, and her temp was still 101. For a 10 day old, this isn't good. They have no way to know really what is going on, since she can't tell us. So this morning they ran all sorts of tests. They had to put in an iv, do a catheter to check her urine, and do a spinal tap to check her spinal fluid. NOT GOOD for this mama. I'm pretty much a wreck again. Thank goodness my mom came over to be with Avery. Poor thing, she wakes up and we're all just gone :( There was good and bad news from those tests. The good news is her blood work looked good. The sucky news is that there were some white blood cells in her spinal fluid, which means there is some sort of infection. It could be nothing, or it could be some form of meningitis. We won't know for sure until 48 hours, as it takes that long for the cultures to develop.

So, they moved us up to the NICU. Here we are again. This time though, we are in our own little room, as she is technically kind of quarantined, just in case it would come back positive for meningitis. So all the nurses/doctors have to gown up before they can come in. This just sucks. We're right back in this place. My sweet girl is all hooked up to wires, ivs, cords, etc. She is still eating okay and has lots of wet diapers, so that is good. I'm snuggling her up all I can. She's exhausted from our night, as are we. She has to be on antibiotics as if the cultures come back positive, so that if they are, the treatment has already started. If they do come back, she has to have IV antibiotics for 10 days, so we'd be here for awhile. So for now...we just hurry up and wait, and cross our fingers and hope that nothing develops in those cultures. We're hear for sure until Wed. :(

Fave photo ever!

Well the past few days have been a bit busy. I hadn't been feeling well and have been fighting some fevers the past few days. I went in to the doctor, but all was good, so we just have to keep an eye on it. I'm feeling better now though. They were very reassuring that Harper shouldn't have to worry about it, as I'm nursing, and that should really help her. Other than that, we're just hanging out, getting used to new routines. So far, she has been doing great. She's eating really well, and actually sleeping pretty well too. She wakes up every 3-4 hours at night. She seems to be a little gassy, just like her sister was, but we can deal with that. She goes down at night great, so that is nice. I took a few more photos today, and then Cullen and Avery went to our neighbors wedding. I wasn't quite ready to bring Harper out just yet, so her and I stayed home and aunt Jess stopped in for some snuggles! I was anxious to try to get a good photo of both girls. I didn't have expectations, just hopes! Finally, we got one though. I LOVE it!!

Daddy and Avery off to the wedding

My girls :)

Smooshy cheeks

Sweet smile

Avery holding her sister again

Growing Girl!

Harper is doing so great! We were in for her 5 day checkin this morning. Our little chubba love is already back to her birth weight at 7 lbs! Her doctor said that was so great. That is one thing I am so thankful is that my girls have both been great nursers, and my body has no trouble producing enough for them either! Thank you babies and body! Otherwise, everything else looked great too! Grow baby grow! I also took a little bit of time today while Cullen is still home to take a few newborn photos. It's been killing me to not have taken any yet, but honestly, the recovery from a c-section is a bit harder than I thought, and it's not that easy to move around. Luckily, Cullen helped me get everything set up, and I only spent about half hour, one set-up, just taking a few. I was so hoping to get some brown and pink images for her nursery. I got a couple good ones in our little mini shoot! It's killing me not to be able to do a full on session! I bought so many fun things just for this, but it's just not happening yet. I love these though!! Cullen heads back to work tomorrow, but my mom is coming over to hang out and get some snuggles in. Avery has been back at Lori's this week. I felt a little bit guilty, since I'm home, but it's definitely for the best. She sticks with her routine, gets to play with her friends, I get some rest, and then when she comes home we're all ready to play! :)

Gah! Look at that little smile!!!

One of my favorite newborn poses..love that little tushie and those back rolls!