Great Grandparents

Harlow has been doing a lot of visiting and meeting important people lately. We are here in Oregon for the summer again (YAY!), so we knew that we had to take the chance to meet cousin Ivy and Grandma Williams while we were still so close. So, Emily, Ivy, and Emily's sweet friend Sara, met us in Beaver. I'm SO thankful that we made this trip! Grandma was wonderful and sweet and hilarious as always. She is not sure about Harlow's name hahaha, but she sure did love her, despite her name... which I adore :). I love this picture and will treasure it forever. 

It was so fun to see Emily with my baby! I'm just so used to snuggling her babies, it was just so weird to see her lovin' on my baby! Harlow looks so big there! And speaking of Harlow being big, She's HUGE compared to Ivy! At least that's how I felt! Let me tell you about Ivy. My goodness, she is absolutely precious and beautiful! Her skin is perfectly smooth and soft. I couldn't stop touching her! She is just so cute. Her face just melts my heart. Her and Harlow love each other so much already, as you can see below. They were snuggling. 

 A couple of days later, we were SO lucky to have Harlow's Great Grandma and Grandpa Woodmansee come into town. Michael and I love them so much and it was so special to see them interact with Harlow. She really did love them and was such a good girl for our visit.

We were blessed to have a lot of other visitors as well and we have loved introducing Harlow to the important people in our lives. Here are just a few pictures of some of Harlow's new friends. I love these people so much and it's so fun to see them with her!

Look at how she's smiling at Lauren... SO CUTE! And now, we're here in Oregon and she is having SO much fun meeting even more friends! Post about that to come. We love our girl so much. She really is such a good baby and she is changing so much every day. We are looking forward to so much fun this summer!

1 Month Old!

Our little Lo Bug princess is 1 month old today! She got to wear both of her special outfits from Aunt Emily and Aunt Steph :) I absolutely cannot believe it has been a month. All day I've been thinking about what we were doing exactly 1 month ago. We were just getting to know each other. Now we're best friends. Harlow is a great baby. She is growing too fast! At our last doctor visit, which was last week, she weighed 9 lbs and 13 oz. She is a growing girl! She is on an awesome day time schedule. She eats, plays, and then naps. Over and over all day. She is really good during the day. I am starting to feel accomplished every day. I get a shower, tidy up the house, prepare dinner, and have time to play with my baby. I hope that lasts! And of course, every now and again there is still an off day. She does pretty well at night. Every night is still different, but for the most part, she gives me one good long 4 hour stretch and then another short stretch. I think she's gowing through a growth spurt right now though. Last night she woke up every 3 hours on the dot to eat, so I didn't sleep much. Michael is insanely helpful. He always makes sure that I feel rested. That way, Harlow and I have very happy days together.

She is starting to wiggle a lot more. She kicks and waves her arms all around. Which means that she has begun to be a wiggly eater... not cool! Michael and I are truly in love with her. Every day when we are hanging out together in the evening, we both just talk about how dang cute she is! We feel that we've been really blessed with patience. Having a baby is difficult, but we truly love it and we're enjoying every day.

This month has gone by so fast! She is getting too big already! We can't wait to keep watching her grow.

We love you soooooo much Harlow!

My Baby's Jaundice Story

My precious baby girl's first week in this world was not very good to her. Or her mommy and daddy. The events of that week were so very upsetting to us and heart breaking. I cried every time I talked about it, which is why nobody knows about it. But now that it's all behind us, I want to record it. When you read this, some of you will think it's no big deal and that I freaked out over nothing. But it was a very big deal to me! Nobody wants to see their first baby in this condition the day after their born! Even though it was a somewhat minor problem, I sure have learned to be CRAZY grateful for my baby's health and my heart aches for those who watch their children deal with any kind of pain. I'll try to tell the short version of the story, hopefully you make it through this post!

In the hospital, the day she was born, the doctor told us that her biliruben levels were a little high and that he wanted us to get them tested again the next day. It didn't even phase me! Tons of kids get jaundice! We'll keep her in the sunlight and no biggie! So, the next day, she got her foot poked and here biliruben level was 14.5. I reported that to the nurse (idiot nurse), and she did nothing. Said nothing. So I assumed we were all good! Then, later that night, I looked at Harlow, and she looked like this:

Yikes! She's orange! I kind of started to freak out. I was telling my mom and Michael how I just felt uncomfortable with how she looked and how the nurse didn't give me any info. It was 9:30 PM by now, so I called the on call nurse. I told her that Harlow's level was 14.5, and she said "what?!, go to the emergency room". I of course, began crying instantly. My baby in the ER!? I hate that idea! She quickly called back and said just to go to pediatrics and that the doctor was going to meet us there. And to pack our bags because we'd be staying. I was a mess. That is upsetting news. We just got our baby home, and now we had to take her back!

They tested her again when we got there and her levels were up to 17 by this point. Over 20 is risking liver and brain damage. Her jaundice was bad. I'm so very thankful that my mom encouraged me to call the nurse. I'm so very thankful that I noticed that she looked worse. They then spent 2, count 'em-2, hours trying to get an IV in my angel. They tried every vein. They poked her OVER AND OVER and she screamed until she lost her voice. It was the most awful experience. This is 3 of the nurses who tried, the eventually had to get the NICU nurses and the FINALLY got the IV in her poor foot.

It's now 2 or 3 AM and they explained that she would receive fluids from the IV because the high biliruben had made her dehydrated. Then, she would sit under the bili lights all night. We could only take her out to feed her. Michael asked if this was the same amount of lights they would put on a normal jaundice baby, and the nurse told us that this was way more, stronger lights. She had them coming at her from all angles.

It was the worst thing EVER to see my little princess just stuck in that bed. We stayed up all night just waiting for feeding time so we could hold her and kiss her and remind her that life gets better!

To make matters worse, our nurse in pediatrics was CRAZY annoying. Oh my gosh, I nearly knocked her out. Seriously, I won't go into detail, but she was nuts. The next morning, the doctor came to check on us, her levels had gone down to 12 yayy! So, he said we could go home, but she had to be under lights at home. That sucked just as bad. She was trapped in a tiny box that was too small for her so she couldn't even stretch out her legs.

She stayed in her little box for I think 4 ish days. I don't know, it all runs together. Again, we could only take her out to feed her. The worst part was that her eyes had to be covered with a hat and a mask. It was so awful. Even if she was wide awake, I had to cover her pretty eyes. I felt so evil. She worked it though. She looked cute even with a mask on, and she was a perfect angel in the box. She just layed there and enjoyed the heat :).

I love this one, She's so precious, it's like she's trying to escape. Throughout this process, she had to have her levels tested pretty much every other day, so she has 4 poke marks in each foot. No wonder she hates her car seat, every time we put her in it, she goes somewhere where she has to get poked! The good news. It worked! Her biliruben levels are normal now and my little love is freeeeee! Like I said, obviously there are worse things, but all I wanted to do was snuggle this baby I'd been waiting to hold for 9 months and I just had to watch her in a box. Boo :(. Now, her skin is glowing and beautiful and we're having all kinds of fun :)