Baby Harper as we like to call her is 3 weeks old already! Part of me wishes she would stay 2 weeks for just a little longer. I liked the thought of knowing that I still had 10 weeks of maternity leave remaining but as each she ages each week, I can’t help but to think that is one less week at home with my baby girl. And now I am into the single digits of maternity leave remaining but I am trying not to think about it that way. I have really enjoyed being able to spend extra time with the girls as well. On days that Ana is here I hang out with them a little but not too much because I not only want their routine to be as normal as before baby Harper but also, I want to use it as an opportunity to get as much done as possible while only having the responsibility of baby Harper to care for. On days that my mom watches the girls, we are trying to do fun things with the girls. This past Friday we ventured out to the mall with all three girls. We took them out for lunch at Nordstrom’s Cafe and then went shoe shopping for the girls. As my mom pushed the double stroller and me the single stroller, I couldn’t believe that I was a mom to these three kids….wow, that happened quickly! Harper is such a good baby and the day was quite fun. We were out for about 4 hours. The hardest part was probably getting the girls in and out of the car along with the strollers and unfortunately the bulk of that task fell to my mom as I am unable to lift anything heavier than Harper for 3 more weeks. This Thursday we are taking the girls to the library in the afternoon. Harper will likely sleep right through it and even if she is up as long as I feed her before hand, I’m sure she will be well behaved.
Harper is such a good baby though. She cries very little…only if she gets very hungry and as soon as I feed her she stops. She is a good sleeper at night as well. I mean she certainly nurses during the night but I feel like I wake her up more than she wakes me up to eat. The past two nights she has had two 4 1/2 stretches which I think is really good at this age. Unfortunately, I’m also pumping some due to several clogged milk ducts already so while my sleep is WAY better than it was with the girls but not as good as it sounds since I’m the only one caring for Harper during the nights (with the girls I had help from Justin the first 3 weeks and my mom once or twice a week for the first 3 months). Justin and I joke about how easy it is to have one, but I am very aware to the fact that it probably isn’t so much a quantity issue as it is to Harper just being an awesome baby. She is thriving…in fact, she weighed 9.6 lbs at her 2 week check up (the goal is of a baby to gain their birthweight back by their 2 week check up). We’ve taken a decent amount of pictures of Harper in the hopes of finding that perfect picture for an announcement. We still haven’t found it yet but as soon as I do, I’ll post some more recent pictures of Harper’s photo sessions, which generally occur in the evenings after the girls have gone to bed.
The girls overall are really enjoying Harper. They call her Baby Harper which is why the name has stuck. They have had a few more temper tantrums lately than normal; it is hard to say if it is a reaction to their new baby sister, a result of them having a slight stomach bug/fever the past few days or simply a result of the approaching terrible two’s. Whatever the reason, they really do love her most the time!
See….proof!
