Harper’s first photo shoot
Go to www.ebsphotography.com/slideshows/Jones to view the images from our photo session with Elizabeth! If you’d like to order prints, click on the little cart icon and use the password b93f0391.
Enjoy!
Harper and her family
A few pictures for your enjoyment…
Carson greets her baby sister with the most precious gift– Curious George band-aids.
Harper Caroline is here!
On January 3 at 12:56 pm, we welcomed into the world Harper Caroline, measuring up at 7 pounds 12 ounces and 19.75 inches long. She has a little bit of light fuzz for hair but otherwise appears to us to look just like Carson, albeit with a bit of a smaller head. We are all doing well. Carson is very excited about being a big sister, but it’s definitely an adjustment in progress for all of us.
I’m not sure how many of you care to know the details of Harper’s birth, but I will sum up (and if you don’t want to know you can skip this part): on January 2 at my regular office visit, Harper’s heart rate showed signs of dipping and not recovering. I had fully expected that that day I would schedule an induction for the next week, then go home and continue piddling around with the various projects I had going on at the house. Not so, as I was sent straight to the hospital to be induced. The rest of the day was spent much as day 1 of Carson’s birth process was: sitting in the hospital bed unable to move around and hooked up to drugs I didn’t want. I sobbed and, when we saw that Harper’s heart rate was just fine the rest of the day, begged the doctor to let me go home. He would not. That night no progress had been made, so the drugs were pulled and I ate a great dinner (Houston’s– mmm) and went to sleep.
The next morning we started again, and there was not much sign of progress by mid-morning, at which time I finally agreed to let the doctor break my water, recalling that with C things had started moving fairly quickly after that occurred. Immediately I started having intense contractions with no space in between, and I got an epidural maybe around 11. My heart rate plummeted, and I dozed in and out through an oxygen mask while nurses swarmed around and Shane paced the floor listening to the alarm going off over and over again. Things eventually stabilized, and I was taking a nice nap when the doctor came in to check on things before he went to lunch, around 12:30. He announced, to my great surprise, that it was time to have a baby. I complained that I wanted to finish my nap (perhaps I knew it might be my last one for a while). Instead, I pushed 4 times and Harper was here. I can truly say that I did not feel a thing, and other than sitting in the hospital bed all day Friday, which was no fun, and the hour or so of intense labor I endured, the whole experience was wonderful. Nurse Nadaene was so fabulous. I wanted to take her with me over to recovery, where the nurses basically vacillate between leaving you for dead (i.e., making you call to ask for Motrin over and over again) and endlessly harassing you right when you’ve fallen asleep (someone please, please tell me why they can’t figure out how to check your vitals at the same times that they come in to check your body or belatedly give you Motrin, as it makes absolutely no sense that they do this separately). The recovery room period was so awful that I was counting the seconds until we could go home. Piedmont, which is otherwise a wonderful place, could really use some review of its recovery room processes and some training for its nurses on appropriate bedside manner.
Anyway, none of you are here to hear my ranting about the hospital– all you want is pictures and stories about little Harper. As for the stories, she is a pretty easy baby most of the time, except for the period from around 9:30 pm to 1 am, during which she tends to scream non-stop. This is hard, as I would really like to be asleep during that time. I wonder if this is what people refer to as colic, and I hope it will get better. Carson is a fabulous big sister– so sweet and gentle and full of love. She is doing really well with the whole thing– I think we’re over-compensating a bit as we want to make sure she’s happy, but I’m sure that’s normal, right? The pictures will come soon– we are having some technical difficulties but I will do my best.
Happy New Year to all!!
Christmas Pictures
Here are a few pictures of Carson enjoying Christmas and all it brought– especially her dollhouse and tent.
Merry Christmas! (a little late, I know)
We had a lovely Christmas this year– the first of what will hopefully be many in our new-old house. We kicked things off with a Christmas Eve celebration with C’s nana, pop-pop, grandie, and pa at our house. C enjoyed drawing on everything in sight at church with the pencils she found in the back of the pew. She also may have enjoyed the cast of Christmas story characters that proceeded down the aisles, and perhaps the music and candlelight. C loved her new dollhouse and all of the gear for her dolls– doll bed, diaper bag, and baby carrier. In short, though, she got so many presents on Christmas Eve that she was completely overwhelmed. At one point she looked at me– no kidding– and said, “I don’t know what to do next.” I took her cue, and so after she went to bed had a little chat with Santa about how we should put away the vast majority of what he’d planned to bring for her birthday. Happily, Santa is a very obliging chap, and he agreed that on Christmas morning C would most appreciate her Ikea pup-tent (which looks like an igloo) filled with an assortment of books and a Mr. Potato Head with Santa parts. Birthday will bring a super-cute tea set and tea kettle (if I can wait that long), as well as some additional parts for the train set.
So Christmas itself was spent crawling in and out of the tent, reading books and playing with our new dollhouse. Oh yeah, and eating all the delicious junk food that ended up at our house. We will attempt to get some pictures up soon (not of the eating). Shane and I put our Christmas funds toward a plan to have drapes made for the study. Thanks to a cold, I did not make it to any after-Christmas sales, but that was probably for the best.
We topped the weekend off with a visit to the zoo, where the animals seemed to be enjoying the mild weather. We saw the rhino rolling in the mud, as usual– watching a rhino manage to roll on his back in the mud reminded me a bit of how I feel these days when trying to turn over in the bed. Pretty awkward. On that note, thanks to all of the well-wishers for checking on us. There is no baby yet, but don’t worry– we will keep you posted with any news. In the meantime I will be keeping up my regimen of walking, eggplant, pineapple (a new one I learned today), reflexology, and refusing to pack a bag (I mean, I figure it must be Murphy’s law that as long as a bag is packed nothing will happen, so I’m just not going to do it). Also on the list is evening primrose oil (which I haven’t tried yet) and walking up stairs (ooh, how fun does that sound).
Carson wants a spider for Christmas
Hi all– I know I skipped right over Thanksgiving, but time just got away from me! We are now in the full swing of getting ready for Christmas and have been so busy! Weekend before last, we went and bought a real Christmas tree– the first Shane and I have ever had! Carson liked the flocked trees, or the “snow trees,” as she called them. I decorated the tree last week as a surprise for her, after Shane spent about 5 nights straight trying to get enough lights on the thing (it’s 9 feet tall, so that’s a lot of lights), and she loves coming home each night and turning on the lights and looking at all the ornaments. She also loves spotting the Christmas lights on our drive home each night.
This weekend was packed with fun, as we went to see Santa for the first time! Okay, let’s be honest, C was really, really unexcited about Santa. She did not want to sit with him and almost had me in tears, as he was an awesome Santa all set up in a sleigh with a professional photographer there to capture the moment. I had to get in the sleigh with C and Santa, which was highly uncomfortable and had me afraid the whole thing would crash down with the weight of the three of us. But, in the end, she pulled it out, and she even smiled at the jolly old elf. She would not tell him what she wanted for Christmas, but on the way home she said she wanted a spider without a cage that could crawl all over the house. Hmmm.
Also this weekend, we attended our friend Gavin’s first birthday party, and we had a lovely dinner at the Dyars’ home, along with the Smiths and the Wilkinsons and all the kiddos (there are seven of them among us, and six of the seven are under age 3!). The little ones greatly enjoyed decorating and eating Christmas cookies– who knew that they make food coloring pens that work on icing?
Below are some pictures of C with Santa for your amusement. Hope all of you are doing well!
Cold
It’s really cold outside, yes? Ah, one of the joys of living in a 100 year old house is that there are some spots that just never seem to get warm. And so Carson has a new fondness for her footed pajamas, which she simply calls “the feet.” “I want the feet!” she says. Those things would drive me insane.
The bed still seems to be working out fairly well, although getting C to go to bed has become a bit of a challenge as we have to have “one more” this and “the last” that. Usually this exchange is followed by screaming for a bit. I hope this phase passes soon. The potty is going very well, too, and I suspect with the bed and the potty there is just a lot of change going on that’s caused some insecurity. But I ain’t no Dr. Spock, so who knows.
Carson is just plain talking like an adult these days, carrying on full conversations with me. Last night she told Munson that he’d lost his mind when he would not stop barking. I think she was right about that. She loves to play with her train set– we got some cool new Thomas trains at Target over the weekend to go with our basics from Ikea, and those have been a hit. She pointed out all the things during said Target trip that would be appropriate for her baby sister, such as the bouncy seats, pack-n-plays, and little sleepers. She keeps trying to put on the baby clothes, which is hilarious, and she laughs about it along with me.
I am just beyond tired these days, as the insomnia is severe and even when I can sleep, it’s only sitting up. I have discovered that all of the 007 movies are available on Comcast on Demand, so I’m working my way through the free ones during the wee hours and doing a lot of snacking as well.
Not much new to report– looking forward to this weekend, when the Wilkinsons are hosting a little dinner for us in honor of Baby Jones 2. Kelly W. is one the world’s best entertainers so I know it’s going to be awesome!
Big girl bed
I haven’t posted anything about this because I didn’t want to jinx it, but C has been sleeping in her big girl bed for a week now. She loves it. She doesn’t quite understand about getting under the covers and putting her head on the pillow, so sometimes she lies longways across the headboard with blankets on. But she has not tried to get out in the middle of the night a single time! I am not sure if she just doesn’t know that she can, or if she doesn’t want to– but if she wakes up she just calls out. I am happy about this, especially because the bed is much higher off the floor than I’d thought it would be. So we are doing very well with the whole thing.
In connection with this development, we’ve also given up the bedtime milk and the high chair, and are working hard on getting used to the potty. So, there is much going on in C’s little world! She is a big girl!
Halloween, which has happened since I last wrote, was a blast– C really got it, although she was very shy about saying trick or treat. She did finally say “trick or treating!” at a few houses. She ate a ton of candy and we were very concerned, but she seemed to forget about it the next day and so I’ve had the pleasure of eating it all. She does get a Skittle or two for sitting on the potty, though– we may end up with a potty-trained kid with cavities, but whatever works, right?
Hope everyone has a great weekend! We have a wedding to attend and a Georgia game to watch on TV. Other than that we are lying low!
Pictures from the weekend
No time to write at the moment, but enjoy a few pictures from the weekend in Sky Valley as well as some pre-Oakhurst Halloween party shots.
Want some pumpkin bread?
Carson and I made pumpkin bread on Sunday. She helped me measure the water and count the eggs. She also spilled half a cup of vegetable oil on the rug while my back was turned, but she was kind enough to say, “I spilled the oil, mama. I’m sorry.” After the bread baked for what seemed like an eternity, she sat down at the table with a piping hot slice and some milk. I had sampled enough of the goods while slicing, and so did not serve myself. Carson held out her plate to me and asked, “Want some pumpkin bread?” It was amazing because it is one of the first times I can recall that C has asked me a question of this type. Of course, she’s asked me questions before– like “Where is Munson?” or “what are we gonna do today?” But this sweet little question seemed to embody such concern for my well-being.
Carson is excited about her trip to the mountains this weekend. She asked when we were going, and I told her that we would leave on Thursday. Her little face crumpled up– I thought she was going to cry as she said, “We have Spanish on Thursday!” Of course I assured her that we would leave only after Spanish was over. What a love of learning!
