First Week of Life

It's MY baby's first week of life, whoa. Strange to believe he's mine.

A funny(ish) thing happened last Saturday night/early am that freaked me and Jon out. We were sleeping in our respective places in the hospital, Jon on the pull out recliner, me on the hospital bed and Harrison was snoozing in the nursery. We had decided to let him sleepover with the other newborn kiddos for the night, we were WAY tired and figured we should catch up on sleep ourselves. The staff was to bring him in during the night to feed.

So during the night Harrison got the munchies and was wheeled into our room. The staff then fled the scene as he began to cry. Jon alertly sat up to help me with baby. I apparently was given baby by the staff, held him and put him on my lap. Now I can remember hearing him cry and staring at him. All I could think of was "whose baby was this?" and what I am supposed to do with it? Meanwhile Jon is sitting there getting a bit agitated by the cries and my lack of movement to stop them. So he asked

J: Should I just give him formula?
L: What? No.....
J: Well do you need help?
L: Uhhhh, well I just need to know what to do
J: Laura, you need to feed him!
L: (sniffling and tearing up by now) But.....whose baby is this?
J: (staring at me like I'd gone insane) Really? Laura, he's ours.....are you okay?
L: oh (by now some real awake tears are flowing)
J: What's your baby's name Laura?
L: (sniff, sniff) Harrison
J: .........should I get the nurse?

Geez, I was out of it. I felt so bad! Poor Harrison, poor Jon thought I'd had a stroke. Apparently it takes a bit more than a crying baby to really wake me up!

Well, happily we made it out of the hospital on Monday and are getting settled into home. Now begins the real work, fun and craziness. Little Harrison has experienced some big "firsts" this week, one being his first bath.

aw, duckies and warm water!




Oh boy, he did not feel that first bath! Here's our son the tomato with a duck on his head. Listen hard and you can almost hear the screams....



We also took him out for a walk in his stroller. That he appreciated much more :)

Here's to more firsts to come!

Happy Birthday Harrison Paul!

Well here he is! After 39.5 weeks of waiting little Harrison Paul Randall made his big debut Friday May 21st at 1:01am.

He weighed in at 7lbs 8oz and 21 inches long.

I will write about Harrison's birth at a later time (it's pretty well seared into my memory so I think I can wait a bit). Most importantly we are well and happy to be home after a very LONG pregnancy. I was super happy to have my sister Katie spend the day with Jon and I at the hospital on the 20th. Mom also came over after work to say hi and ended up staying until after Harry was born. Jon surprised me the most as he was so calm and really interested in the entire process, not huddled in the corner like he thought he'd be. 

Here we are, happy to "meet" each other :)

I look forward to meeting his growing personality more and more each day :)

A Day in the Park

Peek-a-boo, Baby we see you!

Jon and I had a lovely weekend! Beautiful weather and limited work (Jon had do go in for 5 hours Saturday) made for a lot of time outside and with the family. The only thing that would have made it better would have been seeing Baby! Next appointment is this Wednesday, we'll see what doctor says then.

In the meantime! We went on little adventures. Katie and I went downtown Saturday morning, showed the apartment to a few prospective renters (cross your fingers!) and then decided to go shopping. Katie is leaving me and Baby for the entire summer, sniff :( She's off to Yellowstone National Park! I'm very jealous and proud :) But before she takes off next week she needs clothing, so we hit up a few consignment stores, One Girl's Treasure and Urban Exchange. I REALLY loved Urban Exchange, although more pricey it had much sweeter clothes and didn't smell of mothballs :) After that Jon was released and we lounged at home before watching some movies.

Sunday was Adventures in the Park day :) Jon and I went to Hager Park, threw the ball around and wandered the little trails. 

Baby has really put on some chub this past week, and he feels HEAVY! I can't believe we are approaching 39 weeks, for real? I did not think we'd make it that far, that silly filter might be a challenge to get out... But at least there was no cesarean, and that's the best thing for the present anyway. 

Baby Shall Not be Rushed!

I knew going into it that induction is not a guarantee that Baby will show up, so I shouldn't have been too surprised that Tuesday afternoon one of the doctors advised me to call it a day and go home. Okay, that's a bit of a bummer though. Made worse by the fact I was hooked up to an IV drip for 48 hours of drinking pitocin, penicillin and saline. Made even worse by the "labor diet" I was on which consisted of toast, jello and popsicles. Luckily Katie and Jon turned a blind eye when I stole food off their plates. Hunger really makes me ornery, no joke.

Now Jon is back to work, I am back home with Katie and Baby is lounging comfortably, just not in my arms yet. I guess I can take this as a sign to really finish up some last minute things around here, one being the final touches on the nursery. I really like the final outcome, my Mom did a lovely job on the floors, I'm really happy with my bookshelf and all his cute little clothes are stocked and ready to wear.

Knock knock!

Changing table (circa 1981, the era of older sister). I attempted some animal pictures but my dog looks a bit dolphin-like.

Jon and Katie put up the Blik wall sticker, it was a Xmas gift from Katie and we love it :) The crib is smallish but I really like it and that rocker is old old old but fairly comfy!

I love this area because it houses all of Baby's animal friends and scads of books that I poached from the basement. Katie painted the trunk the sweet green that I initially bought for the walls (now I would rethink that color for a wall- a bit overwhelming, plus I love the brown. The front of the trunk is chalkboard so that'll be fun to draw on eventually.

Baby is all set for clothing until he turns 2 I think! I've got them pretty well sorted by size now. I especially dig his bath gear complete with yellow duck robe! His sweater and pant set were a gift from Jon's sister and was a crowd pleaser at the baby shower :) So cute. The curious little blue pig is from Kellie, I love how he is spying out from the corner here :) That'll be Baby's college fund :) Ha. 

T-24 hours!

Gulp......in less than 24 hours I'll be checking into the hospital to begin the induction. Baby has been a squirmy guy this past week, I think in anticipation of meeting his really nervous parents and his very anxious grandparents and aunts! Whew.

Nervousnessssssssssssssssssssss.

Fabric Bookshelves

I came across these sweet bookshelves while perusing Ohdeedoh's site and oogling at all the pretty nurseries people put together. When I saw these shelves I really wanted them in baby's room.

So I picked out some fabric after a long deliberation. I decided to really go for the rainbow effect and got patterns from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Then I picked up two 4" poles from Lowes and a couple of wall brackets.

I followed the pretty basic instructions and made the actual bookshelf part of the project fairly quickly. Adding the wooden poles after.

Now the background is complete! Time to add the pockets to the front, I was going to put all three different patterns on but ended up stopping with the two instead. So what to put in the pockets I don't know but I like them anyway :)

I'll post the final put together nursery when it is actually put together....which will be just in time, gulp. Sunday night is Go Time.

Tulip Time!

Hooray for millions of tulips, my all-time favorite fleur :) I always forget what a big draw this festival is! I went to Holland with Jonny on Sunday for a midday tulip extravaganza. We picked up Mandy and Aaron at there sweet little apartment and took off for the center of town. We arrived around 11:30a and found close parking and subdued streets. Looks like we were among the first visitors of the day.

One part of tulip time I had forgotten about was the carnival aspect of it. There were a bunch of "food" vendors parked along the streets with enticing delicacies such as elephant ears, funnel cakes and gyros. It being almost lunchtime we decided to sit by the carnival rides and eat. I devoured an elephant ear, sooooo good (for about 30 minutes, than a tummies worst nightmare). I vowed it to be the first of five ears consumed that day, but sadly I did not live up to it.

We continued on the the arts and crafts square where everything was getting pretty busy. The Thomas' bought some delicious fudge and we wandered about looking at the sometimes cute, weird, smelly, and strange that was all brought over to be sold.

Then finally it was on to the tulip fields! This was my personal highlight of the day. We had to drive out to the wooden shoe factory site which sits next to a bison enclosure. That's where fields of tulips are planted and divided by name. I was tempted to buy a wooden shoe myself but passed this time. They are really cool looking. I spent the rest of the time wandering the fields, smelling the flowers and picking out my favorites. Of course not really picking them as that would be a $100 fine for each stem, a pricey bouquet.