Harper Grace

Harper was born 04/28/11. She was 7 lbs 0.4 oz 19 inches long. Her labor was quite a bit harder than I anticipated. My OB (Dr.Bell) who I LOVE told me that it would be super fast. She was really low and Easton came so quick that she would be here by lunch time. I was thrilled.

We arrived at 6am and in my head I knew I would have my baby girl in my arms by lunch. WRONG!!!!! I was induced immediately and he came and broke my water around 9. I was NOT progressing. Finally he told me to eat some lunch and that he would start me on pitocin. Around 2 the pitocin began and I was absolutely miserable. My contractions were so close together and I was having such back labor. I still refused to get the epidural. I didn't get one with Easton and knew I could suffer my way through it. This time I was much closer than I was with Easton to breaking down and Dr. Bell told me to just push through one more hour and I would have that baby in my arms. So I did just that. Only it wasn't an hour, it was almost 4!

For some reason my babies always come out facing the wrong way, which means intense back labor and bruising of the tailbone. This time was no different. I am blessed with having fast labor when it comes to the pushing. Easton was 17 minutes and Harper was only 9. Let me tell you, that was the worst 9 minutes of my life, but by far the best reward.

Here are some pictures of our little peanut

Easton-22 month

Obviously I have been such a slacker on the blogging. Between school, working part time, being a mom to two busy bees, trying to keep up on the finances, housework and laundry, I barely have time to sleep.

Easton is such a sweetheart. He is an amazing big brother and loves giving hugs to his sister. He calls Harper baby, but knows her name and sounds adorable when he says it.

Easton is so into sports. He loves just about every sport, but baseball is his favorite. He recognizes the logos for badgers, brewers and packers.

Our little man is so smart. He knows every shape, most colors, numbers and quite a few letters. He can count down backwards from 10 and count to 20 without our help. He talks non-stop and loves to jump. We even got him a little trampoline we put in his playroom in the basement. He is such a big boy that he goes downstairs by himself and zips himself in and jumps, jumps, jumps.

Every day he makes me smile and laugh. He has such a wonderful little personality. He has really brought my life more joy then I ever knew possible.

10 Months Old

I can hardly believe my little guy is ten months old today. Time flew by way too fast and he grew up so quickly. I feel like these ten months have been just a few days.

He is pulling himself up and walking around furniture, crawling SO fast and getting into every thing and becoming a real mama's boy. He is talking to much too. Aside from the normal baby babel he says ma-ma, da-da, ba-ba, ight (light), atch (watch), out (outside), ok (book) and mmm when he wants more.

He is such a sweet little guy and is so active. He is always on the go. At his dr appt last week he had only gained half a pound in 3 months. He was 22 pounds 1 oz and 30 inches long. I think we are going to have a big boy on our hands.

Poor little guy was diagnosed with pneumonia last Friday. After the RSV I have been really concerned with germs. I know it may be extreme, but I was super protective. I hated seeing him so sick for so long and wanted to do all in my power to keep that from happening and I did until now! I decided to take him into the dr thinking she would tell me I was just being paranoid and it was a cold. NOT! He had been coughing so hard he had popped blood vessels in his face and neck. She thought he was bleeding internally and took every test under the sun. Poor thing had to give 4 viles of blood. To our relief he did not have any bleeding and from those tests she found the pneumonia. Since it was in such early stages we were able to just do breathing treatments at home (which I had already started doing) and give him antibiotics. Maybe my paranoia paid off. The dr also told me since the RSV did so much damage to him lung for the next few years any time he gets just a cold it will probably turn into pneumonia or bronchitis. SO frustrating. But, good news is he is on the up and up.

Nothing else really new and exciting. We moved into our house and are loving it. My mom was just here for a little over a week and helped me to do some decorating. It is starting to feel like a home. Justin's dad customized my laundry room and it just might be one of my favorite rooms in the house.

Justin is playing in a softball tourney all weekend. Hoping the weather is nice so we can enjoy some softball and egg rolls at the St. Annes Polka Fest =)

Fingers Crossed

Well, we are crossing our fingers and praying so much that we FINALLY close on our house this Friday. It has been such a terrible process I hope no first time homeowner ever has to go through. There have been so many times we just wanted to give up and keep renting. What should have been the happiest most exciting time for us has been filled with stress, anxiety, worry and anger. When it seemed like things couldn't get worse, it did. But, I think it is going to work out. We finally have a little hope. So fingers crossed we will be signing papers Friday morning and moving all weekend. I cannot wait for Easton to finally have a home to crawl around and explore. He is getting so mobile and active and we really have outgrown this apartment. On the other hand, I am so sad to leave the place we brought him home from the hospital to and the place we raised him. We have so many wonderful memories here. But we will live less than 2 miles from our apartment and we can come show him anytime and tell him stories and show him pictures. I can't wait to finally have a house...YAY!

May Update

This month has been absolutely crazy and stressful. I am surprised I have been able to live through this stress and just keep telling myself it has to get better.

Originally we were worried about the house not being finished in time to close, but we have an AWESOME builder and he finished the house 14 days early. It is the lender that has been nothing but problems. I would never recommend him, but we are really too late into the process to change. As of now, I don't think we will close on time. Not trying to be a negative nelly, but really every thing would have to work out just perfect and it does not appear that will be the case.

To try and deal with all this stress, we bought a jogging stroller and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Every night when Justin gets home we have been going for walks. We started out at about a mile and now we are up to two. It feels great and Easton really enjoys it too. After my walk for march of dimes, where I nearly died at 3 miles, I realized that I am so out of shape. It feels good to be doing this as a family. Just one step to becoming healthier. Hopefully we will see results soon.

Here are a few pics of the inside of the house. It is completely done now, but I have not been able to walk through. This was prior to that.

House Progress

The house is coming right along. We have not been able to go inside lately as it has been locked, but hopefully some time soon we will be able to take pictures of the inside. Aside from the brick going on the front of the house, pretty much every thing else is done. The siding, windows, doors and roof are all complete. I am getting so anxious. I cannot wait to move in. I know we will not be able to afford every thing at one time, but it will be a work in progress and so fun to slowly complete each room. I can't believe it is already May! This year is just flying by.

Talking

Two days ago Easton started saying Ma-ma. I know he is not referring to me directly because he says it all the time at every thing, but it is still such an incredible feeling. I just love him so much. I guess you never really know what love is until you become a parent. It is just such an indescribable feeling. Here is a picture of my big boy a few days after he turned 8 months.