A Family of Four

Last week, we added Desmond James Harris to our family.  He came on May 28th, one day before his due date.  Wes was out back with a friend working on installing a spa we recently acquired (for free!).  Scarlett was taking her afternoon nap and I decided to shower.  Afterwards, I felt super exhausted and slightly nauseas.  So, I called Wes to come get Scarlett up from her nap and take her outside with him and Victor.  Wes VERY reluctantly agreed because they had all sorts of tools and saws they were using laid out everywhere.  After he left, I laid down for about ten more minutes and then guilt set in about whether or not Scarlett would hurt herself or slow them down too much.  So, I got up, went down stairs and decided to quickly return an e-mail to my friend Lesly Morton when I had my first contraction at 4:05pm.  It immediately took my breath away and lasted for a minute.  The next one came 4 minutes later.  At my last appointment, my doctor told me that once they were 4 minutes apart, I should wait an hour and then go in.  I sent the e-mail and Wes came in right as I was having my 3rd contraction.  I knew I wasn't going to be able to wait an hour.  So, I told him to grab our bags because we were going to the hospital.  We left Scarlett with poor Victor who very graciously rose to the challenge and we headed out the door.  My sister and Alexsis were staying with us so they could watch Scarlett when I went into the hospital.  Luckily, they were only about 20 minutes away and were able to relieve Victor of babysitting duty.  


We walked through the doors of Labor and Delivery at 4:26.  They asked how long I had been having contractions and were very unimpressed when I told them 20 minutes.  They sauntered me over to a triage room and had me get into one of their lovely hospital gowns.  She checked on me and I was already dilated to a 7 and had a "bulging bag"—which means my water was about to break.  At that point they kicked into high gear.  After seeing me to the triage room Wes had quickly moved the car from the entrance to the parking lot.  He barely caught them wheeling me to a delivery room.  They kept telling me that I was the exception to the rule and that if I told my friends how fast I had come in they would have seventy moms coming into the hospital way too early. 


They debated on whether or not they should call the doctor.  My doctor wouldn't be coming since it was Memorial Day, so I  had to use the on call doctor.  Which was fine with me.  As long as she could get the baby safely out of me.  At 5:15, I got the epidural and that slowed me down a lot.  The anesthesiologist gave me a large dose because they knew I was going to be having the baby very soon and he wanted it to take effect.  However, it took a little too good of an effect, because I got the chills, my lips turned blue, my blood pressure dropped drastically, and I couldn't move my legs at all.  So, I had him come in and lower the amount of medicine he was giving me.  He wasn't very gracious about it.  I don't think he liked that I wasn't 100% happy with his administration of the epidural.  He did as I asked though, and immediately everything leveled back out and I felt better about having control of my legs again.  


At 7:07pm the doctor came in to break my water.  At 7:17, Desmond was born.  He's got a head full of peach fuzz, white eye lashes, and white eye brows.  He's got a perfect little nose, a perfect little mouth, and a perfect little round head!

Why is Scarlett so quiet?

Wes and I were sitting on the couch and noticed that Scarlett had been quiet for a while.  So, we went to investigate and this is what we found.

Does she even look guilty?  No.

Three crayons stripped down to their bare nakedness...

...a couple of hundred more to go!

She's not wasting any time getting started with that either.

Touch a Truck

We went to touch-a-truck this last Saturday.  This is an event where they bring tons of trucks (maybe 30) into a parking lot and let kids go through them, even getting inside and pushing buttons on some of them.  Due to that ability, there were a LOT of horns being honked.  This is what Scarlett thought about the noise.

She did, however enjoy looking through the trucks and sitting in the driver's seats.  For the firetruck, they let about five kids on and the firefighter talked to them about fire safety for seriously, about 25 minutes.  I couldn't even see Scarlett, Wes had to go to the other side of the truck to see her and make sure she wasn't freaked out being squashed in there like a sardine.  He said she was just staring intensely at the fireman as if she were following every word he said...for 25 minutes.

I think this picture was more for Daddy than Scarlett.

She didn't really seem very interested in the Monster Truck.  She seemed more interested in the kids playing in the sandbox that we cut out of the picture.

Wes is trying really hard to get her to look at the camera.

Fail.  Oh, well.  Maybe next year, Wes.  Baby Boy Harris might care more about Monster Trucks.

They built a huge sand pit in the middle of the parking lot with tons of different types of trucks to play with.  They also had various art activities for the kids.  It was a fun, if loud, event and we'll definitely have to hit it up again next time they do it!

Blog Neglection

I have been totally neglecting our blog. It's just so much easier to post pictures on Facebook and its less of a commitment. I don't have to add any captions or anything, I can just throw up 15 pictures in 5 minutes. However, I think about how much our kids will love going back someday and reading this blog and seeing the kinds of things their parents wrote and posted. So, its important to me that I keep it up. This is an effort in that direction!

 A few updates, we have 2.5 weeks left until my due date which is Tuesday, May 29th. The day after Memorial Day. I get the feeling he's not coming early either. This pregnancy in many ways has been a lot easier than the last. I had much, much, MUCH less vomiting, no high blood pressure, and no PUPPPS (that horrid pregnancy rash.) I have, however, still been very tired and uncomfortable. I think he is going to come out a lot bigger than Scarlett. He just feels bigger to me. She was 7lbs 5oz, so we'll see.

 We still haven't posted any pictures of our house, which I would like to do at some point. Its been slow progress, because when we first moved in I was smack dab in the middle of my first trimester and was nauseous and tired all the time. So, with boxes piled to the ceiling in every room, the house felt more like a prison than an exciting new home. Luckily, we had 3 very wonderful things happen to help pull us into a better place. One, two different families from our church called us at different times and offered to come help us unpack. Each family spent about 3-4 hours helping and they worked so hard even though I sat down frequently for breaks. Two, my mom and my stepdad, Jerry, came and stayed with us for two weeks at Christmas. They both worked tirelessly the whole time they were here. Jerry got our dryer working and helped with a million and one other jobs around the house. My mom did laundry (once the dryer was fixed) probably for a week straight catching up what had fallen behind. She made meals, she played with Scarlett, she helped unpack more boxes. Three, I entered into the 2nd trimester and with that came renewed energy and determination to turn our new house into a home. I think we're at a good place now. Much more has been done and there's much more to be done, but from what we hear that's the nature of being a home owner...there's always more to be done. I love our home and I love watching Scarlett prance around it like she owns the place. She knows which cupboards have the exciting stuff, where the dirty clothes go, where the shoes go, where her toys go. Having lived in many houses and many apartments during my life, "stuff" feels very temporary to me. It's funny how permanent it all seems to Scarlett. You suddenly feel slightly guilty when you think about getting rid of the couch she's known her entire life. She knows where I stash the remote in the back cushions and where I put the otter pop wrappers before I get up and throw them away. (Please don't judge me on that one!)

 Anyway, those are just a few thoughts about the house and the pregnancy. I'll leave this post with a picture of Scarlett. I really, really wanted her to wear these sandals that matched this outfit so perfectly. She, however, wanted to wear the blue shoes with the bling bling. They totally clashed, but I figured if that's what she wants to wear, then that's fine with this pregnant woman! She also wanted to wear the pink bow instead of the orange one. Guess what? That was fine with me too as long as she moves it and gets into the car ASAP! She's talking away with her "phone" in one hand and her baby in the other.

Here she is enjoying some frozen yogurt at Orange Leaf. She's been enjoying ice cream more often lately since it seems to be a serious end of pregnancy craving for me this time around. Of course, that could have a lot to do with the 85 degrees temps we've been having in Houston lately!

Scarlett's 1st Haircut

This week, I went over to a friend's house to get Scarlett's haircut. There were a few moms from our playgroup getting their kid's hair done as well. They were surprised that Scarlett was almost 2 and had not yet needed a haircut. I thought about it and decided Scarlett just has a LOT less hair than most kids.

Let's review.

She was a little baldie for a long time.



Here she is at four months, there's barely a hair on that bald little head!



Here is my hair pretty close to the same age as Scarlett's is currently.


Do those fine wispy hairs look familiar?



Well, recently I noticed things had started to change when it came to Scarlett's hair. As I downloaded and looked at our Christmas morning pics, this is what I saw. . .




Then, the other day I took a couple pictures of her on the couch.


It was definitely becoming a mullety unruly mess!



So, we cut it. Which she was amazing during. I gave her some goldfish and blueberries to work on and she was good to go!






Here is the final, beautiful bob she is now sporting.