Harper- 4 weeks

Say what? Our little girl is a Hungry Hungry Hippo! Look at how big she is in only two weeks! This idea is officially brilliant for two reasons:

1. It get to document Harp's incredible growth in fab pictures.

2. It makes me do laundry.

I hope you enjoy!!

Love,
S

Harper at 4 weeks

Harper at 2 weeks

Valentine's Day...It's a tough world when you need a baby sitter.

I'm pretty sure professional baby sitters made a killing this past Tuesday, AKA Valentine's Day. I didn't even put feelers out for a possible baby sitter, I knew it wasn't going to happen for this romantic couple (that would be us, if you were momentarily confused there). Plus, having a new baby we weren't really in the mood to make it a big production. Thus, we opted for a romantic family affair which turned out pretty fan-tab-ulous from my point of view! The boys were made a heart shaped pizza by the most important woman in their lives (that would be me, not to be confused with Mrs. Butterworth or Little Debbie). Jonathan and I had a feast of rib-eye steaks and itsy-bitsy tiny lobster tails (thank you Safeway for that timely sale) and to top it off, I made a Red Velvet Cake from scratch. The steaks were phenomenal because that's how Jonathan rolls and the rest was good but the cake was TO DIE FOR. In fact, I'm eating it right now as I type this entry. Good thing I'm still rocking the maternity pants otherwise this would have been disastrous to my waist line.

After our grand meal we watched a little" Charlie Brown, it's Valentine's Day" and sent the boys packing. At that point Jonathan and I watched our new favorite show "The New Girl" and laughed our little hearts out. Over all, it was romance at it's finest. Move over Hollywood, that's what real love looks like :)

Love,
S

P.S. Here's some photographic evidence of our adventure.

Valentine's 2012- We may have started a tradition. Check back next year to verify.

Thatcher, my sweet little valentine.

Harper's 1st Valentine's Day...Rocking the hearts!

 

Yeah, that's right. My kid eats asparagus. He's a special kind of awesome.

A little romance for the grown-ups after the munchkins went to bed. It's also the only proof that this cake existed because it's just crumbs in my lap now.

He's also normal and eats pizza like every other kid in the world :)

2 Weeks already!

Our little Harpie is already 2 weeks old! She is steadily chunking up like only a Fernandez-Yarsley baby can (we make a sturdy model, what can we say?). Her eyes are staying open more often and for longer periods of time, generally from 1:30 to 6 AM, much to my chagrin. Occasionally we catch a smile while she's asleep and it would absolutely melt your heart if you saw it; BUT could I catch it with the camera? Not a chance. The other day Thatcher said that he loves his sister and that we should keep her and then, concerned he asked if we could keep Coopie too. Cute kid, I think we'll keep them both. Well, today at least.

Anyhoo, I saw this adorable picture thing on pinterest where a lady took a picture of her baby in the same laundry basket to mark it's growth so I'm going to attempt to try to do laundry regularly enough to take pictures of the little lady to mark her growth. I did some laundry today, because it's been about 2 weeks (and we're out of undies) and managed to capture my girl in her own little basket.

Harper Evelyn- 2 weeks old

Enjoy!!!
S

Do we have a receipe or what?

Here's a picture of the 3 kiddos all around the same age...9 days. Do we have a consistent recepie for a baby or what? Everyone keeps asking who Harper looks like, me or Jonathan, but I think that she looks exactly like her brothers and that they are all a perfect mix of us. I will say this, Harper looks a little more like her Dad as each day passes but she's still a perfect mix. What do you think?

Thatcher

Cooper

 

Harper

P.S. Each kid seemed to have less and less hair. Thatch needed a haircut the moment he popped out. Coop had quite a bit but not as thick. Harps has a Benjamin Franklin thing going on and it's really long in the back (like 1 1/2") but kind of a receding hairline in the front. Hopefully that fills in soon!

Vacation Anyone?

I can't imagine why you all don't come visit us in the winter more often. The real question is why don't we visit you all in the winter more? Chile is sounding pretty good right now.

Fact: Did you know that mercury freezes at -39*F? Good thing we bought the cheap thermometer :)

Not quite a Beckham

Thatch started indoor soccer this past Saturday and I'm so glad he did because I haven't laughed that hard in quite some time! Friday was his first practice and Jonathan took him while I hung out with the younger crowd at home. When Thatch came home he was quite upset, apparently he thought that the team name should have been the Polar Bears but they picked the Moose as their name instead. I was hoping he was just tired and this wasn't foreshadowing a hate of the game already and my Motherly instincts proved correct. The kid passed out faster than you could say Adidas. (Speaking of Adidas, that reminds me of a side story for later.)

Anyhoo, we wake up on Saturday morning and all plans go out the window. No family outing to Big Brother's first soccer game...it was -60*F outside. I, being a hormonal wrecking ball, start crying because I have to stay home with the baby and miss my guy's first soccer game (It was more of a welling up, there were no actual tear drops). Luckily, I had already pumped a bottle in the fridge and we had some formula left over from the hospital so Jonathan, being the altruistic soul he is, offered to stay home with Harps AND Cooper while I took Thatch to his game. He said he saw that practice that that was basically the same thing. So Thatch and I trekked out into the frigid arctic to play soccer, that's worth a medal in the Soccer Mom World if I say so myself!

When we got there Thatch got very excited and eventually his team showed up and they played! Thatch didn't start the game, there were only 4 players on the court at a time and there wasn't a goalie. Watching Thatcher play soccer is like watching a baby gazelle frolic in the open plains. You'll see in the video, it's hilarious! He is clearly shy of the paparazzi too. In the first video he also obtained his first sports injury. He face planted in the gym floor after tripping over his own feet :) God, I love that kid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3n_O3Xam7Y

In the second video you can see the gazelle in action again. He also likes to just walk off the court when he's done playing and is thirsty. Playing time isn't a huge priority at this age :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fjmD7Gws68

Here's some photographic evidence of the soccer extravaganza

Fancy Footwork

He hates long shorts

Riding the Bench

 Side Story: Thatcher's soccer ball needed pumping so Jonathan ran in to Sports Authority to get a pump with a needle, some soccer shorts and a pair of sweatpants to put over them. MISTAKE. He comes out with a poop eating grin on his face and immediately says "That was the most fun I've ever had shopping for Thatch." He said he almost got him the matching adidas warm up suit but decided against it because the other kids would think we're snobs. Oh Jonathan, the reason should have been that buying a $75 soccer warm up suit for a 5 year old is ridiculous...but sure, we'll run with the snob thing.

Enjoy our little Beckham!!

Love,
S

Baby Harper

I think that most of you know the story of Harps' arrival but here it is again. On Friday night I was having contractions and they were pretty consistently apart and really not much to write home about (but enough to blog about I guess). I told Jonathan to just go to work and that if anything got serious I'd call him. Eventually they stopped so I took a shower, blow dried my hair and called it a night by 12. I was having dreams about contractions but I managed to sleep but woke up at 3am. After 6 minute intervals for an hour I finally called the hospital, Jonathan, and my Mom to come over. At 4:30 we left for the hospital with a breif stop at Safeway so I could get something to eat because they weren't going to feed me once I was there! We drove around looking for a coffee shop for Jonathan but there wasn't one open (much to mine and his chagrin...remember he was on night shift when he was called to action). We got to the hospital at 5:30 where the contractions slowed down and then finally stopped. BOO. I was a 4 cm but because I was only 38 weeks they couldn't do anything so they sent us home. I started having contractions on the drive home, of course, and they continued through out the afternoon. My Mom took a quick break from taking care of the boys but decided to come back since I was contracting. Good thing too! They started to get really intense but were still quite a bit apart. Finally at 2:30 I went in to see if Jonathan would wake up. At 3:00 I sent Thatch in to wake Jonathan up. At this point the boys started to get worried and upset. Thatcher passionately explained to me "Mom, you need to go to the hospital! We DO NOT have babies at home!" He also started to hide under the table during contractions which was definitely my signal to go. Jonathan woke up at 3:30 and decided we should go to the hospital. I still didn't want to go since they were so far apart and I didn't want to get sent home again BUT I didn't want to be home with the monkeys and scaring them either. We left the house at 4:00 and immediately hit Badger Rd traffic, it took eternity to get out onto the main road! Once we were on the highway it was good but Jonathan, Mr. Cautious, wouldn't go over 63 mph so it took for ever to get there. Luckily contractions were still 8 minutes apart...until we pulled into the parking lot. At this point they start coming at 2 minute intervals and I could barely walk in from the -30 weather to the lobby before having another one. By the time the nurse came down I was in a wheelchair because I couldn't walk anymore. As we get up to the room I stand up and take my boots off (woohoo!) and my water breaks. They officially are not sending me home!! Between all the contractions the nurse, aka Jamie-my hero, suggests we check me. He announces that I'm at a 9 cm. HOLD THE PHONE...NO EPIDURAL? Nope, way too late. There's no way to slow it down either. I ask about Stadal but that's a no go either because babies have to be resuscitated afterwards. Well crap, I did not mentally prepare to have a natural birth nor did I ever have the inkling to do it. At this point I'm panicking and barely managing to get through each contraction. Things in the hospital room are busy with preparation for the actual birth. I'm pretty sure I yelled at a lab girl because she was in my focal point (which is one of the ONLY things I remember people saying about laboring naturally, pick a focal point). My breathing was shallow and was borderline hyperventilating during contractions and close to passing out during the breaks between.  The real kicker to all this is that I was tested positive for Group B Strep which if passed from mother to baby in birth bad to say the least. I had to be administered 2 bags of antibiotics before her birth. It wasn't going to happen, but they managed to get one bag in at least! It was finally time to push and I'm fairly sure in between all the hub bub and contractions I begged to just let me die and to just cut her out. I think it was especially awful because i didn't want to do it at all, I love epidurals! It came time to push and I'll just say that it was pretty much the most intense pain I've ever felt and I am completely glad it was the last time I'll ever do it! Harps was born at 5:34 pm after pushing for 4 minutes. Exactly 1 hours after we arrived at the hospital. The girl can make an entrance, and it was fashionably early! While she was relaxing on my chest she decided to pee on me, twice. She weighed in at 7 lbs 5 oz and 20" long with a full head of hair, extremely long fingers and the signature Yarsley pinky toes that curl under her other toes :)

So far she's completely adored by her brothers and constantly receiving kisses and love. I was rubbing her head the other day and her hair was sticky from all their kisses. Even the dogs love being by her and sleeping under her bassinet. She's really starting to uncurl and fill out kind of like a blooming tulip. Her ears are unfolding and her features are plumping up. She sleeps a TON but is starting to stay up for a couple of hours at a time now. Jonathan fed her today and she easily drank 5 oz of milk and formula so she's clearly inherited her mother's appetite. I'll keep posting pics of her of course :)