Posted on | October 30, 2010 | 23 Comments
Harper:
Head to toe Target. easy peasy.
this little birthday girl deserves her own SOS post. she stepped out. she ate ice cream. she opened (awesomesuperamazing) gifts. she played. she looked adorable.
can’t wait to see what you all wore this weekend. i’m now off to pass out. today was awesome, tomorrow? her actual birthday. happy SOS my friends!
Posted on | October 28, 2010 | 12 Comments
well here we are – just 2 more days until Harper turns 2. here are months 19-23. thanks for all the kind words, i’m really glad you all enjoyed the look back at the nugget in photos. i sure have enjoyed making these posts! if you’d like to catch up, you can go here, here and here.
and now, if you’ll excuse me, i’m off to finish decorating for a party. someone has a 24 month photo to get ready for. ahhhh! my baby is going to be two!
thanks for all the sweet comments about Harper’s birthday, i will be sure to pass them along to her 
i’ll be back Sunday morning with a SOS post – from her party! – and next week i will share her party pics and deets. click here to vote for us – call it an early virtual birthday present for the monster
Posted on | October 28, 2010 | 10 Comments
thought i’d squeeze in an entry at the last moment for The Paper Mama’s photo challenge. this is one of my favorite pictures i’ve taken. it’s my dear friend Emily in labor with her daughter Poppy in april of 2009. i was so lucky to be there with Emily and David during the entire process and it was a really special day! this shot really captures the feeling of those first hours of labor – quiet, focused and really shows the strength Em showed that day.
Posted on | October 28, 2010 | 40 Comments
i wasn’t here when i was pregnant. i had a little blog, if you could call it that, so that i had something to put into my “siggy” for the bump dot com (let’s NOT even go there)(btw, the blog was called “i’m for shiz up the spout” which is amazing, obv). if you were to look back at that blog, it would be short posts about my pregnancy, complaints about the CRAZIES i worked with while i was with child, and other things that few people would really care about. in fact, the posts were so boring, i couldn’t even find something good to post here for you to read as a blast from the past. i believe less than a handful of you read that blog (amy, mae, meg…am i missing anyone?).
i thought about writing my birth story last year for Harper’s birthday, but never did. the truth is, i don’t know if i could ever write it out because i know i’d fail to capture all the feelings i had that day. i still remember all of it like it was yesterday, but i do know i won’t always remember it like that. the big parts, sure, but the details, probably not.
maybe i will forget that feeling i had as we pulled up the hospital, knowing we were having our baby that day. or how when the valet saw me get out of the car he asked in a panic if i needed a wheelchair, and i laughed and said no thanks (i was being induced – well kind of. i was 4cm dilated but straight chillin’.) and waddled my giant self inside to have a baby. maybe i will forget how Scot and my mom drank giant starbucks in front of me while i ate ice chips (hmm, maybe i won’t forgive forget that one) or how my mom brought Harper a bear dressed up as a pumpkin. i may not remember someday how i was so bummed to be having this baby on Halloween until we all decided to call it Harperween. perhaps i will forget my amazing nurse, Shannon, who wore bright blue fake eyelashes and a pumpkin hat as she helped me breathe through the worst pain i’d ever felt, but had to leave right before i could push leaving me with a cruddy nurse who freaked out on me for eating graham crackers – “we don’t eat on pitocin“. do we eat shorts? then eat mine.
perhaps i will forget the gorgeous fall leaves outside the window of the hospital, and how i looked out and thought, everyone is out there living their life, the hussle and bustle of a normal day, and we are in here about to have our baby. i know i will forget how bad those contractions hurt at 8cm, because i already have. i might forget how on one push i yelled to my doctor “am i doing it right?!” and he let out a huge laugh with everyone else because her head was already out.
the things i will never, ever forget? Scots face as his daughter entered the world, the tears streaming down his face. the celebratory yells coming from my mouth, and the mouths of my mom, my mother in law, my dear friend Emily and 2 nurses from the sidelines as Harper was placed on my chest. Harper looking up at me for the first time and realizing i had done it. her pink face, her long monkey toes, her head full of dark hair. the amazing friends that had waited in the waiting room (all dudes, btw) and came in immediately – to the point where it’s entirely possible they saw a boob or something, who knows – and watching them each hold her and be not dudely about it if you know what i mean. how i felt knowing my mom and Scot’s mom got to both see their first granddaughter come into the world. how loved i felt. how loved i knew this little girl would be. was already.
a birth is such a personal thing. everyone has a story that is a little different and some have stories that make them sad or weren’t what they had planned or expected. i feel really blessed that my birth went well and was everything i wanted it to be (to be honest i set my expectations low in case it didn’t go as i wanted so i wouldn’t be disappointed). the days following Harper’s birth were a completely different story, ones that i’d rather forget forever (my recovery was beyond terrible due to the fact that some of my spinal fluid leaked out during the epidural) but my birth? my birth was perfect in every way. because it ended with her.
