8 months old already!

So, our little baby is 8 months old already. It's so hard to believe...but what everyone says is so correct, they truly do grow up so fast. Since we've been negligent bloggers, let me catch you all up on a few things:

Harrison hasn't started crawling yet but he's just about to. He sits up on all fours and just rocks back and forth, like he's trying to get the momentum to propel himself forward. A few times now he has pushed one knee forward and then his face plant followed. It's going to start soon and then we'll have to baby proof everything! In the meantime though, he completely sits up on his own now for long periods of time. He's definitely ready to expand the boundaries of his world--everything looks interesting, tastes good and sounds intriguing to him.

No teeth yet but that's another thing that will soon be happening. He's teething like crazy--drooling double time and rubbing all sorts of toys against his achy gums. We know when it's happening because you hear 'squeak squeak' in the background.

He's still such a happy baby--giggling and now talking all the time. It's easy to make him laugh by making silly faces, playing peek-a-boo or just saying funny words to him. Although he has said 'da da' and 'ma ma' out loud, it's not really to us yet. He's just babbling to himself...but of course, we'd love to think he knows who we are. Most of his baby talk is to himself or to toys, he's just interested in his ever-expanding world and is great at keeping himself occupied.

Harrison's a great eater--he's now moved up to multiple containers of baby food a day along with his 24+ ounces of formula. He seems to accept everything we feed him although bananas and apricots aren't his favorite foods. He's tried a few baby puffs, first semi-solid but they melt in the mouth, and it's hilarious to watch his face as he tries to figure out what he is eating. It looks like he's not a fan but then he keeps going back for more puffs!

All in all, he's a great little guy and we can't wait to watch more of his personality unfold before our eyes. We're so happy to have him!

Happy Easter!

Harrison's 1st snow

January 2011, we celebrated our first snow day with Harrison!

Not quite enough for a snowman yet, but maybe next time we can try a snowball or two. It doesn't happen often in Texas but we'll take what we can get!

5 months already...

Right now I'm watching our little Harrison bounce and giggle in his jumper and I can't believe it's been 5 months already! We have been the worst bloggers for a while, but we have a great excuse. It's been amazing to watch him grow and change right before our eyes. His personality is developing and we're truly starting to see who he's meant to be. Since we have been slackers, let me fill you all in on a few milestones...

At around 2-3 months he began really laughing and smiling at all our silly faces. At 3 months he was looking around at his surroundings with much more interest and began drooling like a king, a.k.a. Droolicus Maximus! At 4 months he started bouncing in his jumper but it wasn't until now that he began to go bananas in it. Now that he's 5 months old he's really started to giggle out loud, he turns towards sounds, he's eating his first foods (he loves apples but the verdict is still out on bananas) and can sit in his bumbo like a pro. He's trying to roll over but finds his best mode of transportation is scooching himself around by arching his back and pushing out with his feet. He sleeps through the night now but every once in a while wakes up just needing his pacifier. His hair is finally coming in on top but we're still not sure what color it will be, although our entire family thinks the answer is red like Daddy's.

He celebrated his first Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. We were able to spend a lot of time with family so everyone could spoil him rotten already. He's been enjoying all of his gifts and we're trying to get him into all the cute clothes before he grows out of them. At our last appointment he was 15 1/2 pounds and had a few shots, which he wasn't so pleased about.

All in all, he's a very happy baby. He wakes up every morning with a big smile on his face. He never fusses or cries when we give him a bath, change his clothes or his diaper. He loves to giggle at you and play peek-a-boo. Truly the only area of his life that he fights and fusses about is naptime.

We look forward to every day we get to spend with him; we are truly blessed!

Love,

Steph

6 weeks and growing

It's truly amazing--Harrison is over a month old now. He's already around 11.5 pounds and is a very happy baby. He's started smiling at us and lifting his head to see the world around him. He loves the new mobile we put up in his crib and has started to spend more time awake during the day and a little more time sleeping at night (we can't wait for that magical time that he sleeps through the whole night!). We can really tell that he's interested in everything around him and that he's starting to see things more clearly now. He's starting to 'coo' at us and give us little baby giggles and noises that we gladly give back to him to keep him smiling. In this short time the incredible growth and changes he has gone through have been so wonderful to watch.

Thinking back to when we first brought him home it was quite a stressful time. He was only sleeping for short hour and a half segments at a time, was completely demanding about eating (since he had a teeny tiny stomach that could only hold a teaspoon) and was unable to interact with us at all. Now to think in this short amount of time his personality is starting to come out and he can laugh and smile with us. That is just awesome!

We're doing much better too--we're getting used to our new routine and are starting to understand what some of his cries mean. The "I'm starving" cry is the easiest to identify since he make snuffly sounds that accompany it. And with Harrison there is no "I'm hungry" cry, he starts right in with the starving one every time. Speaking of feeding, we also recently decided that it was time to go 100% to bottle feeding--that was not easy. I'm definitely glad I made the decision to breastfeed for the time that I did but since I'll be going back to work very soon, it really felt like the best decision for us to get him ready now for that change. He didn't like it at all for a day or so, but now he's totally content to eat from bottles. It may have helped that we introduced bottles from the very beginning to supplement at times when he was really hungry and I didn't have enough for him (remember, he was a big baby coming out and he has a big appetite). All in all, it took a good day or so to convert him over (a very tough day or two..but completely worth the stress and constant crying bouts). Now for all my girlfriends who will have babies of their own in the future, also take note that when you stop the factory, it takes a while. I'm not sure exactly how long since we just weaned Harrison this past weekend; I'm currently still waiting to see how long it will take. Every book says 24-48 hours to stop the supply but all my girlfriends are saying it's longer than that. I'm currently on Day 3 and it's much better. Be prepared, days 1 & 2 are no picnic. Just a lot of pressure that requires wrapping and frozen bags of peas--they truly help. Again, I'm happy we made the choices that we did but the more I think about it, the more I wish I would have been given the complete utter truth about both options of feeding in order to make a fully informed decision by weighing the pros and cons. So for my friends that need to make that choice later, I will be there for you. I will be honest and open about both sides and then you can fairly decide what is best for you. I will tell you this--it greatly helps having other Mom friends to connect with. There is just so much to learn and experience. You can read all the books in the world or never open a page, but all in all, you just have to do it and it's nice to not have to do it alone (no offense to our husbands---it's just great to have a female perspective).

What else have I learned so far? Hmmm...well, you can take a baby to the movies so nanny-nanny-boo-boo to all of those who told us we would never get to see movies again at the theater...he slept through the whole thing. Bath time is easier than I thought it would be and he totally loves it. Breastfed baby poo doesn't smell at all, but formula poo does! Babies can totally burp--I mean loud, manly burps that are totally hilarious. Baby nail clippers are super important and at least one of you has to be able to man up and use them. And mobiles, swings and pacifiers rock. I mean that in every way. Sometimes we've done everything we can to soothe him and it's just not enough--well these amazing modern devices help us do the job. I have no idea what archaic things our parents had to use but I feel super bad for them because modern technology has really helped us have a few moments of hands-free time and it's worth every penny!

Steph

Steph's Point of View

So I thought I would blog about the whole labor and delivery process since I'm the guinea pig for a ton of my friends on the subject...funny thing is, here we are a month later and I'm just now able to get to the task. Maybe that's my first insight: understand that after the baby comes you will be very tired and will not be able to get to normal tasks in any urgent manner. It just takes time to figure out this whole new life and that's all good.

Anyhow, Harrison celebrated being 1 month old yesterday--it's been a whirlwind. We're still getting used to it all...we know that he's ours but it still feels so surreal that we have a child. Last night he only woke us up once (versus two or three times) so I have the energy and brain power to write down my thoughts, yippee!

Ok, labor. I was really surprised. I had heard horror stories and I tried to avoid talking or asking people for any other info on the subject. All throughout my pregnancy I refused to watch any of those gross videos of other people giving birth; we didn't go to any child birthing classes for that and many other reasons. For me, the whole situation began when Dr. New told me that Harrison was getting really big and that my edema was getting really bad...and because of that we would have to induce labor. So we were scheduled to come in the next night and begin the whole process. I was given a pill to prepare my uterus, since I was only 1 cm dilated at this time, and then we just spent the night in the hospital. I was lucky enough to get a sleeping pill. Poor Mark was not. They checked on me all throughout the night (probably why Mark got no sleep) and then the next morning at 8am they broke my water to really get it all started. And no worries, when the Dr. broke my water I didn't feel a thing. It was simple and easy. One fear abated. After this they gave me the petosin so that my contractions would really start kicking in. On the note of contractions, I have to give my husband props. For about the 3 weeks prior to all this, he kept telling me that I was having contractions and I kept telling him that it was just the baby stretching....and for the first time ever, he was right! I really did not think they were contractions--I kept waiting to feel what everyone else had told me. Apparently it feels different for everyone. Mine just felt like pressure, like the baby was really stretching out inside my belly. It didn't feel like cramps and it wasn't across the whole belly, it was mostly concentrated on my right side which is where Harrison liked to camp out. So, all in all, the whole time I was having contractions and didn't know it. How did we figure it out? At the hospital when they hook you up to the machines (pain-free process), they attach a monitor for the baby's heart beat and one for your contractions. Then you can look on the screen and see when you're having one. The nurse had pointed to the screen and said, 'Wow, you're having a contraction right now' and I said, 'Huh?.' That's when we figured it all out.

Ok so back to the labor process. The contractions kept coming, no big deal. We were just waiting around for me to reach 3 cm dilated so I could get the epidural. That took pretty much all morning and some of the afternoon. Once we got right around 3 cm the Dr. came in to give me the epidural, another one of those 'horror story moments' I thought was about to happen. Also, no big deal. After all the fear that had been shoved in my brain about this process, it was pretty funny how easy it was. I barely felt anything. It was so quick and so easy I couldn't believe it. I really thought it was going to hurt--not at all! He was finished and I was asking him if that was all there was to it! Now having the epidural in, my body just started to fill with fluid. You numb up pretty quick and it's so weird not feeling your legs. They get pretty rock solid hard from all the fluid but it's amazing, it really works because the only way I knew I was having contractions was from what the computer screen said. I could not feel a thing. Nor could I move my legs, lol. On that note, don't fret about the catheter either. That was a piece of cake and it obviously makes so much sense. If you can't move your legs, you sure as heck can't go to the bathroom. Anyways, the epidural was a breeze and made the next part of it all much easier.

Waiting. That's pretty much the next part of it. To get from 3 cm to the necessary 10 cm in order to push, that took the whole rest of the day. Pushing began somewhere around 8pm. What's also strange is that when they get you ready to push it's so not a big deal to anyone else. The nurses do this every day, it's not epic to them. So, it's you, your chosen push buddy (my hubby) and a nurse. Since the nurses rotate shifts, by this time I'd met and had quite a number of nurses involved in lots of what used to be 'private moments'. You really get used to it and they make it so easy. I know it seems like it should be so weird...like 'Hi, I just met you. Sure, let me show you my entire birthday suit' but really, they are so professional and you've had so many other nurse change overs at this point, that it's so okay. So, she helped us try a push position (did you know there are tons of different positions? I sure didn't) and it all began. You still can't feel a thing because of the epidural so it's almost impossible to know if you are pushing the right way. The nurse just tells you if you did it right or not and you go with that. But really, I would much rather not be feeling any of this nonsense, I was grateful for the epidural. (I can tell you this as truth because somewhere in the midst of our two hours of pushing, my epidural bag ran out and I felt full blown labor until they could find the Dr. to get a new bag of the special stuff back on there...and it's not something I would want to feel again. I respect but totally do not understand women that do this without the epidural!). So for us, it turned out that the baby just did not want to cooperate. Apparently his head was not facing down (chin to chest) as it should have been; his head was actually turned to his right shoulder. Dr. New said that each time I pushed, the baby would start to move down the pelvic bone area and then with every 'relax' the baby would just pop right back up to where we started. So not funny Harrison.

Time for a c-section. Not emergency, just unplanned. Oh well, I'd read up on both on the odd chance that this would happen and here it was. Mark began changing into his space suit of scrubs and I was wheeled into the operating room. That was probably the freakiest part of it all. It was a lot easier than my imagination was going to let me think at the time, so no worries to any of you who have to have one some day. They transfer you from your hospital bed onto their operating table (which be prepared--your arms are straight out in a giant 'T' formation to your body. Nothing weird. Think they said it was so the IV fluids flowed in right the whole time). Then you start to numb up. I kept worrying that I wasn't going to be 'numb enough' and kept bugging the Dr. about it. He finally asked me 'Did you feel that?' and told me he had grabbed my tummy skin with big clamps...and no, I did not even know anything had happened so that helped quite a bit. After feeling like an eternity, they let Mark in to sit by my head during the procedure. All in all, it just felt like a bunch of people pushing on my stomach. A lot of pressure and random pushing. Then all of a sudden, we heard Harrison cry. It was the most incredible sound in the world. We were both so happy that he was healthy and strong. The nurses took him over to clean him off (I couldn't see any of this--the giant tarp in front of my face blocked it all). One of the nurses did lift up a corner of it so I could see him moving around as they were doing all of the necessary tests and such--all I could see where arms and legs flailing around, but it was a beautiful sight. After he was cleaned, tested (9.9 Apgar--go Harrison!) and bundled up, they let Mark bring him over to me so I could see him for the first time. He was perfect!

So, 24 hours+ and we had our precious baby boy--healthy, strong and happy. Born August 20th at 10:38pm weighing 8 lbs, 9 ounces and 21 inches long. Our amazing family had stayed all throughout the process in the waiting room. It was a beautiful moment when Mark got to wheel Harrison out to see all of them.

He's been a joy and a struggle all at the same time! We're still learning what he wants when he wants it and we are just now getting those very sweet baby smiles from him. We can't wait for his sleep schedule to balance out so we can sleep too! He's amazing--to think that this little guy popped out of my body, super crazy! The whole process is an incredible miracle and we are so blessed to have this awesome little guy in our lives. We realize life will never be the same for us and for that we are very glad. We love him to pieces and look forward to you all getting to know him too!

Baby Harrison

There are many, many more pictures. However due to space, time, and well... time, we're going to have to leave it at this for now. We'll try to add more later.

Harrison Rhys Massey

It has been nearly two weeks since little Harrison Rhys joined the land of the breathing and dry. It has been a long 2 weeks, but we're loving it.

Before the pictures, let me recap the adventure we went on here at the end of August 2010.

August 19, 2010 at 8:30 p.m. we arrive at Baylor Medical Center of Grapevine. Steph is admitted and they begin a regimen of pills that will slowly start the process of labor. She is mercifully given an Ambien, something I was not afforded as the lowly husband who seemingly doesn't exist to begin with. Instead I was given a pseudo couch and a thumbs up. Steph fell asleep and was awoken every hour or two for a check up or more medicine. I didn't sleep much that night as I was convinced that the medicine would cause her to give birth unannounced, so I was hyper alert throughout the entire night listening intently to every beep and whir in the room.

My mother appeared the next morning at 7 a.m. with 3 pigs-in-the-blanket from Cliff's Donut shop. Yum. I devoured the three that she'd gotten me and immediately started chugging coffee, something I wouldn't stop doing for about 18 hours. About the same time, Steph was given the Pitocin to start labor and get the show on the road. From that point on neither of us ate anything and Steph was only allowed ice chips. She's still irked about that.

Friends, family, and well wishers came and went throughout the day as Steph's body prepared to do the unthinkable. Finally at 8 p.m. on August 20th the nurses decide it was time to push. After 20 minutes of trying to figure out the best position we finally started really pushing. By 9:45 the doctor had determined that Harrison wouldn't scoot past the pelvic bone. Steph valiantly pushed, but every time Harrison would slide down until she stopped pushing at which point he'd go right back up the way he'd come.

By 10:00 that evening Steph had been put on the operating table for an unplanned (not emergency) C-Section. Both she and Harrison were doing fine, but this was the way it had to be. At 10:38 Harrison was brought into the world screaming bloody murder. At 10:39 he stopped screaming and just observed everything going on around him proving he was truly my son. I was allowed to take pictures and video until he was ready to be held, at which point I was allowed to bring him over for Steph to see for the first time. Magical to say the least. We had known him for mere seconds and we couldn't fathom being without him.

After the very successful C-Section, Steph was moved into the recovery room while I was allowed to take Harrison to the nursery and push him down the hall past the mass of family who had stuck it out with us. That is, without a doubt, the proudest moment of my life.

A year ago we'd lost our little baby. We were both crushed but understood it was for the best. A year later we were holding our new little miracle. These two thoughts were in my mind a lot over that weekend.

By 1 a.m. we were both exhausted. Steph was finally allowed some fluids. The family had gone home for the night and it was just us in the Post-Partum room. Steph finally got to hold her baby boy at this time. However due to extreme exhaustion, we opted to let the nursing staff keep him for us as much as possible until we left the hospital. We'd have him for our own very soon.

On Monday, August 23rd, we were allowed to come home. Its been an adventure ever since.

I'm sure this story is similar in nature to every other parents' out there. This is our story and we won't soon forget it.

I'll upload some pictures with the next post.