Sunday, December 28, 2008

Harper. 5 and a bit weeks.

Merry Christmas!!

Harper is still lovely, but incredibly AWAKE during daylight hours. Today, for example, she's been bright eyed and bushy tailed since about 5.30am! She's only had about an hour or two's sleep MAX during this time, poor little monkey.

It's incredbly hot here today and we have no air con, so no doubt that's added to things. She settles like a champion when wrapped but I just couldn't do it to her today :( Here's hoping tomorrow is much cooler - but I'm looking at rental properties as I type this!

Harper started smiling a few days ago, such a lovely Xmas present! She doesn't smile very much, usually when she's just woken up and they are so cute! I forgot how lovely gummy smiles can be!

Still feeding every 3 or 4 hours but it's not too bad. She's finally taking the reflux formula which is making her sleep a bit better.

I'm going to try and have her weighed this week!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Harper. 4 and a bit weeks.

Harper is doing really well. She's got the night time sorted, and will generally wake once or twice for a feed then goes straight back to sleep with minimal fuss - just the way I like it! Daytime is a different story, she's very alert theses days and will have a period during the day where she's awake for anywhere from 3-7 hours.

As much as I hate swaddling, it really works for her, the most important thing for me is to recognise her tired signs, as soon as she's over-tired, the next few hours are a write off!

No idea how big she is now, she's still fitting in her 0000 rompers but about to burst out of her 000 wondersuits. Should probably have her weighed again, but we're having lots of wet and dirty nappies so everything is going well I suppose.

We'll be off to the dr's soon, hopefully before Xmas, because I heard a clunk when I lifted her legs to change her nappy the other day, so I really think it would be a great idea to get it checked out ASAP, especially as Xmas is now 3 days away, I don't want to go over the Xmas/New Year period without having it looked at.

What else...

Isla is still being a wonderful big sister. We had a few issues with her doing wee's in her undies, we think as a reaction to Harper, but we've had no accidents since Friday and we've been using lots of positive reinforcement, seems to be doing the trick!

Isla and Harper went to their first birthday party for a gorgeous little girl called Eva on Saturday. Unfortunately, Isla didn't want to join in any of the party goings-on and chose to play on the climbing equipment for 2.5hours instead *roll eyes* and Harper just fed practically the whole time, but had a wonderful 5 hour sleep when we got home!

I can't believe my lovely little person has been with us for more than a month now, I can't remember what it was like before she arrived. I love her so much, she's such a beautiful little friend.

Here's my most favourite photo of Harper, and the 2nd shot was taken about 3 seconds after the first LOL and finally, some little toes, Harper's skin on her feet just peels all the time though :( I'll have to moisturise the little chicken first next time!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Harper. 3 weeks.

Harper is a little more unsettled these days, I'm thinking it may be reflux, she seems to cry her little eyes out when she's flat on her back, so she's been on her side a fair bit with a safety roll thing to stop her rolling around. Today has been particularly stressful, I am sitting here typing this wearing the Baby Bjorn so she can sleep upright - if only I'd thought of it hours ago, may have saved my eardrums! I'm most definitely buying a Peanut Shell now!

The little lady already has tears! Has had them for about a week or so, and it breaks my heart when she has wind pain and cries those little tears.

Harper is having bigger feeds now, yesterday she took 180mls which was massive, but generally she's having 120mls every 3-4 hours. She's stopped snacking too which is nice :)

What else...We bought her pram yesterday with a buddy board for Isla - and Isla thinks it's the best thing ever! She insisted on going for a 'ride' at the inlaws place last night when we dropped over - hopefully with this, shopping won't be the nightmare that I've been anticipating!

Nothing much else to report. No new photos - will take some with the family tomorrow.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Harper. 2 and a bit weeks.

Well, she’s still lovely!

We’re all slowly adjusting to having Harper here and starting to work out what her different cries actually mean - although generally she doesn’t cry much, only when her bottles are taking too long, or when having her nappy changed.

We had the health nurse come to visit on Tuesday of this week. Harper is doing really well, she’s put on the weight she lost after birth, and weighed in at 3650grams so 10g heavier than her birth weight. She’s 51.5cms long, so now we’re not sure how long she was when she was born, they measured her at 53cms so who knows!

The nurse did point out what her funny looking bum is - a “sacral dimple”. She said that it can be linked to Spina Bifida, but not to panic because Harper doesn’t have that, and also, there’s no hair coming out of it, and it’s complete. She said that when we visit Isla’s paediatrician next time to mention it, they may want to do an ultrasound on it to make sure everything is okay. She also said that with the hip problems on Ian’s side of the family to see whether the paed would like Harper’s hips x-rayed/ultrasound as a precaution. At the moment, they don’t have any click, but the paed at the hospital, as well as the health nurse both said that it can develop later, so we’ll be sure to get that checked out.

She loves being on her tummy up on my chest and often drifts off to sleep like that, and as much as I said there was no way I was going to rock/cuddle another baby to sleep after well over a year of having to cuddle Isla to sleep - I just love having Harper so close to me, and I love knowing that she loves to be close too.

I’ve been trying to sleep when she sleeps, but our bed is quite low to the ground and I swear it feels like my scar is ripping open when I try to get up from it, so I’ve been camped out on the lounge as much as possible, although the nights when Ian stays up with her, I have to go to bed because we have nowhere for Ian to sit otherwise…I think I’ll go to the GP tomorrow or Monday and have the wound checked out, I’m still too chicken to look at it and have a feeling it may be getting a bit gross given that I now have some completely feral stomach overhang which I never had after Isla’s birth.

Isla is still being wonderful with Harper. If she cries, Isla will either cover her ears or will come to us and say, “I think we have a problem here!” LOL The only problem, for lack of a better word, that we’re having with Isla at the moment is that she is really quite loud. Ian and I have different opinions on the matter - Ian thinks Isla needs to be quiet and should be more mindful of the fact that Harper is sleeping/feeding/what-have-you. I, on the other hand, think that Harper should just get used to Isla and the array of noises she makes, after all, most of the noise that comes from Isla is when she walks and considering she has an unusual gait because of her CP, expecting her to walk quietly seems crazy to me. One thing I do know is, I don’t want to have to have a completely quiet house in order to get Harper to sleep. So far, I’ve kept the tv at the same level etc to get her used to the noise, which is what we did with Isla too, and she managed to sleep through any noise.

I haven’t taken many more photos…but here are some that my Mum and sister have taken…