Harper turned 7 weeks old today, so I'd better wrap up and publish this post!
Well, Harper is alreay 2 weeks old, so I'd better write her birth story down before I forget it! It all started on Sunday. After a whopping 6 months of experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions all day every day, I noticed a contraction while sitting still during church. Hmmm...that was very unusual for me, so I peeked at Mark's watch. Throughout the service, they were 10 minutes apart, so after church we went out for a big lunch and took some quick
maternity pics!
They never got closer together, so Sunday afternoon we made the difficult decision to have Mark go ahead and go to Houston. I haven't had a chance to finish the blog entry about it, but after a lot of heart wrenching days and LOTS of prayer, Mark accepted a job in Houston! The job started when I was 38 weeks pregnant. His job was a 5 and a half hour drive from our house. Oh, and our house was on the market and had a million showings. It's been a touch crazy!
Monday morning, I was home alone with the girls and those pesky contractions started up again. Only, this time they hurt a lot more! After a few hours, they STILL weren't getting any closer, but it's no fun to chase girls when you are hurting. My sweet friend Kimi offered to take them. Then they hurt even more! I called and got an appointment to check things out at my doctor's office, so we would have more notice to get Mark there! Sure enough, contractions sped up to every 5-7 minutes during the 20 minute drive to the hospital! My doctor was doing a c-section, so a nurse midwife checked me and said it was time. She said I could eat dinner first though. :) I called Mark and said "HURRY!!!" and called my sister-in-law Megan to bring me Chick-Fil-A and be my sub labor coach. It was about 4:00pm.
Megan snapped a picture of me waiting for Mark to get there! We got in a room around 5:00pm. I did not envy him driving as fast as humanly possible, wondering what was happening! Getting checked in and calling everyone (and having contractions!!) kept us very busy, but we kept calling and updating him.
I told my doctor and every single person who walked in my room to make SURE not to give me any Pitocin (the drug that speeds up labor) until my husband arrived. My doctor scheduled me to start it around 4:00am.
. After several hours of Megan being an AMAZING labor coach, an epidural, and a few visits from friends, look who arrived!!! I was SO glad to see him!! He got there around 9:00, with less than 2 hours to spare!
Soon, the room was filled with Mark, his sister Megan, my parents and my sister in law Christy and neice Abbie. I was feeling great! Everyone left so the nurse could check me, and suddenly I felt like I might throw up. Then, I just crashed! I passed out and everyone came running in! It turns out my blood pressure went down to 50/24. That's low enough to make you feel really awful! Poor Mark! It was pretty scary for him.
We were all making bets on when Harper would arrive, and while Megan guesssed the earliest time, no one guessed 10:42 that night! My doctor walked in to check on me, and I suddenly KNEW something was going on by the crazy feeling I had! Harper was ready to come out!!
Thankfully, I didn't push long, because it HURT! My doctor said something about when a baby comes so fast, the epidural just can't keep up. Yikes. I was not prepared for pain like that! I even yelled a few times. Ouch!!! I was so unprepared for her to be born that soon and for it to feel like that. It took me several minutes to recover! I may look like I was saying something sweet to Harper when they laid her on my chest, but I actually told her, "Your head is really big!!" Then I realized what my first words were to my precious new daughter and told her I loved her. :) Sorry, Harper!!! At the end of my pregnancy, Harper got in the same strange position Tatem was in, so we prayed for a round head and no torticollis. Well, not only did she not have intrauterine molding like Tatem, she also wasn't in the birth canal long enough to get squished, so she has a beautiful, very round (ouch!) head! haha!
Our newest daughter is such a JOY!
Harper Joy Long
7 pounds, 1 ounce
20 inches long (They remeasured her the next day and kept getting 20 instead of 19.)
My parents were thrilled to meet their 9th grandbaby!
Aunt Christy thinks she's adorable. :)
Abbie is 13 and was over the moon to be at the hospital for her cousin's birth!
The next morning, my parents brought the girls up to meet their little sister!! Landrie instantly crawled up next to me and was ecstatic to meet Harper!! Tatem was not so sure at first.
She quickly left my side and jumped into Daddy's arms.
Landrie was positively giddy over tiny baby Haper!!
Tatem slowly warmed up once she realized that this was the long awaited baby Harper!! She said, " Beebee Ahh-puh came out of Mommy's tummy!!" over and over again, and she's still saying it two weeks later! When she says "Harper Joy," it comes out "Ahh-puh Doy." So sweet!
Still, she was happier in Daddy's arms!
My doctor stopped by to hold Harper!
Finally, a picture of Megan! After being so amazing through labor for me, she took all those pictures above, so she wasn't in any of them! She, Greg and their kids came by to meet the newest member of the family!
Harper with Aunt Megan and four of her cousins!
My brother Kevin, sister in law Christy and 3 more of Harper's cousins came by to love on her too!
We tried to leave the hospital much earlier than last time, but it turns out you have to wait until your baby is 24 hours old! Since she was born late at night, we left the morning after she turned 24 hours old. I am SO thankful that my recover way WAY better than last time, and I only had to take ibuprofin. I was amazed at how great I felt! We got home, and about an hour later, the home inspector and the home buyers came over for a few hours! The following night, we headed out to a Halloween party at our friends' house. The next night was the girls' friend's birthday party! With the third baby, we hit the ground running, and haven't stopped back since.
Mark took a week off from his brand new job (he'd only been there a week!), then headed back to Houston each week. We had my parents and Mark's mom stay with us, plus lots of help from sister in laws and friends!! I think each mom has a different opinion on this one, but for us, adding a second was a huge adjustment, but adding a third was a breeze! Harper really is living up to her middle name...she brings us so much JOY!!
