Harper Grace is one month - 6/24/14 *Warning: this is long and had lots of pictures!*

Harper Grace Finklea entered the world on Thursday, May 22, 2014 at 9:19pm.

I really wanted to blog monthly throughout the entire pregnancy, but if you've ever been pregnant, you know that you're usually sleeping or in the bathroom because your bladder is flattened like a pancake to make room for baby. Needless to say there wasn't much to blog about because we had a very easy pregnancy. Besides the fact that on NYE (the day we were going to reveal her gender to friends and family) she decided to be stubborn, for the first time of many, and we were not 100% sure that she was a SHE. Harper decided to face down and towards my back so the tech couldn't guarantee she was a girl, or that she had any organs because of her position. All we saw that day was the profile of a baby and her spinal cord. We decided to take a chance and reveal to everyone that the baby would be Harper Grace. We invited everyone over to our little house and it was packed full, filled with laughter and excitement. That was such a fun and memorable night.

We had to go back a couple of weeks later and the tech was 99% sure that she was a SHE (because you're never 100% sure until they arrive). We were also able to check off all major organs and she even gave us a profile picture of her sucking her thumb.

Flash Forward: We went to our weekly appointment on Tuesday, May 20th, and Dr. Head said that I was 3 cm and 80% effaced and that I was a great candidate to get induced and have Harper. I was 39 weeks at midnight that night and Dr. Head said he was "free" on Thursday if we'd like to be induced that morning. A little shocked, we agreed and nervously left the doctor's office to go home and "prepare" for baby. I went into work the next day to settle everything before my 12 week maternity leave. Then, we got up at 3AM on Thursday, got a shower, ate some toast (my doctor graciously told me I could have that before I got there), packed our last minute things, loaded up the truck and headed to Shelby.

We arrived at the hospital a few minutes before 5AM, went to the 2nd floor and was greeted by Dana (our first nurse) at the front desk. She was the sweetest lady and had me laughing and at ease in no time. She "gave" us her favorite room, Labor & Delivery Room #2, which just happened to be the largest room on the floor. I'm not kidding when I say it was HUGE. And it was good because so many people came and went throughout the day that it never felt crowded.

Around 6AM Dana started my IV, which is always fun because I have deep veins, but she got it on the 2nd try and started my pitocin drip. She also got me hooked up to my contractions monitor and fetal heartbeat monitor. When she connected me to the monitor I was already having good contractions and didn't even know it. Harper's heartbeat was consistently around 140. Around 630AM, Dr. Head came in, saw me and went ahead and broke my water. At this time I would like to thank the Good Lord for not letting that happen in public. That was the weirdest and grossest feeling and I would have been mortified if that had happened in the grocery store, or church, or anywhere except the hospital. Dr. Head also inserted internal contraction and fetal heart monitors. At 7AM, nurses changed shifts and Kathy was to spend the next 12 hours with us. She checked me and said my contractions were good and that I was 4cm and she was going to go ahead and call the Anesthesiologist to come and give me my epidural. I got my epidural and catheter at 8AM from Dr. Latham and it was the 2nd weirdest feeling of the day. Bruce and his mom went to get breakfast since they couldn't be in the room while this procedure happened. And if anyone had brought food in the room I might have bitten their heads off. I was hungry at this point, but not miserable. It didn't hurt to get the epidural but once it took full effect, you can ask Bruce, I acted a little different. Not verbatim but I said something like "Is my butt really this BIG? It feels HUGE!" He cracked up at me. I swear it felt like my skin felt like one of my childhood toys: Stretch Armstrong.

After this, we just waited... and waited... and watched tv. Once I got my epidural, we texted one of my childhood friends, Ryan, to let her know the process had started and I had my epidural. She lives in Hueytown and was coming to take pictures for us during delivery and after. She arrived about 10:30AM. Bruce, Ryan, and Bruce's parents just hung out in the room all day. Getting up and leaving every time the nurse came in to see if we had made any progress. Slowly we would be another centimeter further, the nurse would have me roll to my side to get my contractions more consistent, and then roll to the other side. Then, everyone (not all at once) went to lunch, at this time I was getting hungry and was eating ice chips like they were the best thing. Then, we waited some more... and more... and more. We seemed to be making progress but it was VERY slow. Then, as the day got later, I was afraid Dr. Head would be going home and not delivering Harper. Kathy said he would come by and check on me after he was done with his appointments in the office. Then, she had me roll over again and every time I would roll over she and Bruce would have to help me since I couldn't feel the lower half of my body. One time, when rolling over, my epidural came out. I cried and was so scared of what that meant because I knew once you were past a certain point, they wouldn't do an epidural. Since I still had a ways to go, the Anesthesiologist agreed to do another one in case I had a longer labor. When Dr. Head came by around 6PM, Kathy had told me I was close to an 8 or 9 but when Dr. Head checked me he said I was maybe a 7. I thought I was going to cry, actually I think I did cry. I was so heartbroken and wondering if I could make it much longer. I was so hungry and so tired and really tired of sitting in a hospital bed. He told me he was going home and that I was in good hands with Dr. Gooding who was on call all night. Once again, I thought I was going to cry. Finding an OBGYN that you feel comfortable with is an understatement, finding one that you plan to deliver your child is another thing, but then finding out that the doctor won't be doing it is definitely heartbreaking. He brought in Dr. Gooding and introduced us to her so that she would know our situation and I would feel comfortable with her. The nurse has already told us who would be on call and kind of "warned" us that she was a great doctor but was trying to conceive and could be a bit resentful at times. Let me say that was not the case. Dr. Gooding was an amazing doctor, and I am so glad that if Dr. Head couldn't be there for it, that she was on call that night.

Dr. Gooding and Dr. Head agreed that she would come back in and check me at 9 o'clock, and if there wasn't any progress, then it would be time for a c-section. While I didn't necessarily want that, I had prepared myself way before D-day that if they mentioned c-section, I knew there was a reason and they wouldn't automatically jump to that. And after being in labor for 15 hours, I was ready for Harper just to be here and be done. Luckily when our new nurse, Rene, who had come on at 7PM checked me at 9PM, she said I was ready to push. Bruce ran to the door to tell our family that it was time, and Rene started working and getting things ready. She told me to start pushing and with each push, that was the longest 10 seconds of my life. Bruce was right beside me, holding my leg and head. After 3 pushes she told me to stop and for Bruce to hit the nurse call button and let Dr. Gooding know it was time. She told me to stop pushing, but I screamed several times, "It's coming!" Dr. Gooding came in the room and so did two other nurses. It looked kind of like a Chinese fire drill because everything was happening so fast. Dr. Gooding told Bruce to play some music, and all I remember is Kate Perry's "Roar" playing beside my head and Dr. Gooding telling me to push. Three more pushes later and we heard a baby's cry. Dr. Gooding placed her on my belly, and Bruce and I were instantly in love with her. We decided to let the umbilical cord stop pulsing before Bruce cut it. Once he did, they took her over to get her measured and cleaned up. Bruce and Ryan went with Harper while I got stitched up. I remember them both saying several times, "She's beautiful!". So, at 9:19PM Harper was born, weighing 7lbs 13oz and 19 1/2 inches long.

After Harper and I were both cleaned up, the family came back in to see Harper. Bill and Tammy were there, my brother, Matt was there and my Aunt Patti came up just as soon as she got Bruce's text. It was really late and I was starving by this point. My wonderful cousin, Beth, brought Bruce and I Burger King chicken sandwiches, and I swear that was the best sandwich I had ever had. We took lots of pictures and then everyone left for the night. It was close to midnight before we were ready to try and get some rest. Since it had been such a long day, we let the nurses take Harper to the nursery for the first stretch until it was time to feed, and then she stayed in our room the rest of the time. It was definitely an adjustment waking up every time she cried to feed or change her diaper or just to be held.

The next day, we had Tommy come by and bring us lunch. Other guests were Granny Pat and Samantha, our Pastor and his wife came by, JP & Kendra, Keith & Ingrid.

So, since her birth she has been visited by several family members and friends. We have a wonderful Sunday School class who rotated shifts and brought us dinner for a week. My grandmother brought us a ham and potato salad that we ate on for a while. Bruce's parents brought us food, and we were so thankful that Tammy stayed with us for the first few nights while we got adjusted. There were some friends/family that wanted to come over but after having a rough night before, we would have to ask them to come another time. Most were very understanding, and we were thankful for that as well.

We had our first doctor's visit with Dr. Holly Johnson at Alabaster Pediatrics (we LOVE her by the way). Harper weighed 7lbs 11oz. Since we are breast feeding, we had to go back a few days after the initial visit to make sure Harper was gaining weight. At the 2nd visit, she weighed less, 7lbs 5oz. Dr. Holly didn't seem to concerned. She figured she hadn't finished losing weight and that she was on the uphill climb now. But just to be sure, we had to go back one more time. The 3rd visit, she weight 7lbs 13oz and was almost back to her original weight. At this time, she saw how tired I was and suggested supplementing some formula every now, and then if I needed a good stretch of sleep, Bruce could feed her a little bottle. I was so thankful to hear this and felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I had no idea how stressful and exhausting breast feeding could be and I thought about throwing in the towel and quitting more times than I'd like to admit. The 2 things that kept me going and trying were that I knew it was the absolute best thing for Harper and that I would continue to burn more calories :)

The sleep deprivation was definitely one of the hardest things in those first few weeks. Harper got to the point to where she would not sleep unless someone was holding her. I would sleep at night in the recliner or upright in our bed surrounded by pillows with Harper asleep on my chest. Everyone kept saying that they would fly by, and I wouldn't have a tiny baby anymore, so to cherish those times. It's hard when you got an hour of sleep, but I would definitely remind myself of those things often. At our 3rd doctor's visit, I brought up concern that I thought Harper might have reflux. She had been spitting up a good bit and just felt like she did not feel good. Dr. Holly told us to monitor it, and that all babies had a little bit of reflux. A few days before our 1 month appointment, Harper's spit up had gotten worse and seemed an entire bottle of milk would come back up and she would scream bloody murder. Dr. Holly was not at the office that day, but the on-call doctor suggested we come in just to make sure she hadn't lost any weight and to see what was going on. Harper had definitely not lost weight, she was up to 8lbs 13oz, but after talking with us, Dr. Schroder decided to prescribe her Zantac and to follow up with Dr. Holly in a few days at our scheduled appointment. Over the weekend we could already tell some different in her demeanor and she even slept a full 4 hours in the rock n play sleeper. At her 1 month appointment, her head measured in the 75th percentile (Bruce kept telling her she had to have a big head for all the brains she had :), her weight was in the 50th percentile (now weight 9lbs and 2oz!), and her height was in the 25th percentile at 20.5" (only 1" longer than when she was born but Dr. Holly didn't think we got a good reading because she was so squirmy, and Bruce said she was probably shorter at birth because she had a big cone head that went down a few days later).

Milestones:

Sleeping in the crib all night long - 6/24/2014
She's also been smiling like crazy lately which makes Mommy and Daddy very happy.
She's started to coo and "talk" to us as well.

We are so incredibly blessed to have such a healthy, happy baby - which is all I prayed for during the pregnancy. We cannot wait to see what she's going to be like in the next month. Will report back then! :)

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the last month:

Our cute door decor

Everyone who came to visit signed her book. It'll be a fun book to read to her on her birthday every year.

Waiting... waiting...

Contractions and more contractions

Time to push!

First time seeing Harper

She had Daddy wrapped already!

Precious!

Hello, Harper Grace Finklea :)

Our picture with Dr. Gooding

She loved Harper immediately!

Happy Birthday, Harper!

First family picture

Dea and Bilbo

Harper's room finished and organized :)

First Mommy - Harper selfie

On the way home - I say she looks like Mr. Magoo

This pretty much sums up what she thinks about the car seat

First picture of smiling

Daddy loves his little girl

She is adorable

Sweet baby

Mean-muggin' already

Daddy's 1st Father's Day

She really does love her Daddy

Pretending like she's asleep and then is wide awake

Daddy says Harper's gas is worse than ours

LOVE that sweet smile

Sleeping longways on Mommy's tummy, just like old times

Beautiful baby

Beautiful, beautiful baby

First successful nap in the crib

After 1st successful night in the crib

This kid cracks me up!