I think that it is time for the story of Harper. I know that for some of you who have been gracious enough to follow along that you may be wondering what her "Sleep Story" is--- well, in order to tell you that story I have to tell you this one. So, let us begin...
My first born was Jack- so tiny at only 3 1/2 pounds- but such a trooper. He was followed one minute later by Pauley- my big He-Man- so sweet. He was followed one minute later by Harper- our little pink princess. She entered this world at 5:46 pm on December 26th 2008. She was perfect. In every way, absolutely perfect. She weighed in at exactly 5 pounds and she was 18 inches long. She needed no help and in fact, never set foot into the NICU- she went straight to the PCN. The first time I saw her, she was bundled up with her lips as puckered as if she had just eaten 10 lemons! Her lips could have had another zip code. She was gorgeous. And very, very, very pink! She would have blended into a Pepto Bismol backdrop.
Harper did not open her eyes for essentially the first six weeks she was on this Earth. Oh sure, she would crack them every once in a while just to check and see if we were all still here and then close them again. I am not exaggerating, we did not know what color eyes she had until she was almost 2 months old!
In the PCN, she was the easiest child to learn how to manage. Apparently she was saving it all up for when we brought her home.
For those of you who dont know, when you have children that are in either the NICU or PCN, they actually make you pass a test before you are allowed to bring home your child(ren). Not kidding, you have to pass a test. They set you up in a room with them and you get to keep them all that night. Ok, what the heck is the deal with that?????? You do not get any sleep, I mean lets face it- hospital beds are hard to sleep in when you are on REALLY good drugs, you dont have a chance otherwise. Lets save that little fun time for another story, shall we? Lets just say, we survived, they survived. We were released to come home with two of our children. The entire time that they were in the ward, I kept mentioning how pink Harper was - the nurses never thought anything of it. Until we were walking her out into the sunshine- then the nurse said, " You're right, she is REALLY pink!" DUH-------
So, we walk into the house. And then we realize- we have NO idea what we are supposed to do next!. What the HELL were those people thinking? They let us leave with our children? No supervision? No Chaperone? OH NO....
After the teensy tiny split second of panic, we settled in. We swaddled Harper and Pauley. We put them both in the bassinet. That is when Harper must have thought: I am home now. I can be me.
For the next 4 weeks that child did nothing but GRUNT. For those who have not have the pleasure of having a child who has intestines that are not exactly in tune all the way down the pipe, boy have you missed out!!! Every time she would try to go poopy- she grunted. Lets just say she needed to relax. For 4 weeks she grunted. FOUR WEEKS. GRUNTING. She was also the squirmiest child I have ever seen. She was never still, not even when she was asleep. She would turn from one side of her face to the other and then back again, all within one minute. She would take more than 30 minutes to go to sleep. With us trying every single trick in the book. But I promise, the story of the Not Sleeping Beauty will make its appearance shortly.
Harper was the second child that we bathed at home. She was a pretty chill baby as long as she was not hungry, tired or poopy. Or just felt like being cranky. You get the picture.
She is out little pink princess. Now and forever.
Please join us on the next little Grunt down the road of life, won't you~
