The Harrison's Happenings: Life at Home

Love this picture!

Reminder... most of this is for me to remember everything that went on once we got our sweet little bundle home! But here it is for all of you to enjoy as well!

After we got home:

The first night home went pretty well. We were having to wake him up every 2-3 hours to feed him, but that was fine with me. Harry would get up and change him and then give him to me. But I started to have a little bit of a panic attack because I was afraid something was going to happen to him. He is already so strong and kicks his legs so much in his swaddle that he goes to the side and I was afraid he would roll into the side of the bassinet and suffocate. I started to freak out and Harry couldn’t calm me down so I went and got my mom. She stayed with us for a week and then is still coming over for a week to help do house work and errands. I have the best family in the world! She calmed me down and told me that it was normal to freak out because I already love him so much. She did make me feel better. Plus we have the Angel Care Monitor that goes under his mattress and can tell if he is breathing or not. But I was still pretty freaked out.

We went to the pediatrician on Friday, the 29^th, and he was still losing weight. He was down to 6 lbs and 9 ounces. (Started at 7.5lbs) That is 10% lost from his original weight. Most babies lose 5-10%. Our peditrician is very conservative, that is one reason I like her, besides the fact that she was my doctor and I went to her from age 1-21. I would rather have someone that is ultra conservative than someone who is a “wait it out and see” person. Anyways, she wanted to get me into a lactation consultant that day. So I had an appointment at 3:00 pm at Mercy. The lady there, Diane, was amazing!!!! I love her and she made me feel so comfortable. She weighed Ramey before he ate and then after each breast. He drank a significant amount and she thought he was probably done losing weight but had up to this point because he was born at 37 weeks and 6 days.
I had another appointment on Tuesday, the 3^rd for a weight check. He had gained 7 ounces! She had written down what she had wanted him to gain and it was only 4 ounces!!! He did great! Before the weight check, she wanted me to pump a little bit before I fed him, which meant 5 extra minutes before I fed him and then 15 minutes after I fed him to clean out the pump and store the milk- so now I didn’t have to do that anymore which was great!

Dreams…

I have always had half-sleep half-awake dreams when I am stressed out, normally at the beginning of the school year. Some previous examples: I woke up in the closet, told Harry a child was in our room (this one freaked him out so much he got out his flashlight to look around the room), sitting up and staring at Harry (which also really scares him) and just talking in my sleep.

Well now that we have Ramey they have gotten so bad! I keep thinking I am nursing him but he is in bed. I even woke up Harry and asked him to help me find Ramey because I thought he was laying somewhere in the bed (he was in his bassinet, don’t worry!) and one night I thought I had already feed him because my dream was so vivid that I turned off my alarm and didn’t wake up until he cried because he was hungry. One night Harry got up and got him for me but since I was in this half-dream state when he said “get up you need to feed Ramey” I said, “I can’t because” and then didn’t finish the sentence and then still dreaming I said “I thought he was already on there. What am I going to do when it’s a real baby.” The next night at 10:30pm (I went to bed at 9:00) I told Harry to get up and turn off his monitor because it was going to go off and Harry said, “we are feeding him at 11:00pm” and I said, “I guess I should put him back in his bed then” and Harry said, “He’s already in his bed.” Then we were going to feed him at 2:00am and at 1:30am I sat up in bed and Harry patted my back and said, “What are you doing?” and I said, “I’m waiting” Then I laid back down and went to sleep.

Harry also had an incident the 2^nd night we were home. I had gotten up to go to the bathroom after nursing Ramey. I came back into the room and started to climb into bed and Harry started yelling at me “You’re on him! You’re on him!” I had put him into his bassinet but when someone is yelling, “You’re on him!” you start to second guess yourself. I looked over at the bassinet and thank goodness, he was in there. Harry had thought when I went to the bathroom that I hadn’t put him back into his bassinet and the quilt on the bed was playing tricks on his eyes. He thought the dark patch on the quilt was Ramey’s beautiful hair and a fold in the quilt looked like a leg.

Hopefully these crazy dreams stop once we get a little more sleep and get on a schedule!

We had newborn pictures scheduled for July 18^th, a week after Ramey’s due date. Well obviously he was here much earlier than that and wouldn’t be the cuddly sleeping newborn when those pictures rolled around, so I called one of my former kindergarten parents, Shannon Foster (www.thephotojunky.com) and asked if she had any spots open. I knew she was super busy and probably already booked, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask and I’m so glad I did! She said she could take pictures on Sunday (7-1)! So we went over to her house on Sunday morning. She had even turned off the air conditioner so he wouldn’t be cold when he was all nakey! She took some amazing pictures and I couldn’t be happier with them. Harry was very concerned the whole time with him peeing on her table and blankets. She didn’t mind at all and said they were all washable but Harry kept freaking out. So of course we laid Ramey on a table and he started to pee, Harry was right there and we didn’t have a blanket near by so Harry cupped his hand and Ramey peed right into his hand. It was hilarious. I also had Shannon take a picture of my feet to document how horrible they had gotten. I called the nurse on the way home and she said that it could take 1-2 weeks for them to go back to normal. I just never thought one of the things that would hurt the most after having a baby would be my feet! Here are some of the amazing pictures! And the cute football onsie is from one of my sweet Kindergarteners, thanks Renner and Starns family!!! You made these pictures even better!

We had our first little boy peeing everywhere experience the other day. I was changing him on the bed with a waterproof pad underneath him and mom standing beside the bed about to eat a muffin for breakfast. Next thing we knew there was a huge arc of pee and her muffin was ruined. He couldn’t have aimed better if he tried. It was a perfect shot. Since then we have had a few other pee incidents but that was by far the best one!

Ellie has gotten use to Ramey. At first she would bark and run to him whenever he cried or made any sound, but now she doesn’t really care. She still goes over and looks into his bassinet to see what he is doing, but normally she just sleeps around the house like before. I was really worried about what she would do but she has been great.

Sunday night (7-1-12) our alarm went off. We have lived here for 3 years and have never used the alarm and don’t even know how to use it. And now it goes off at 2:15am! It stopped going off on its own, but we had no idea why it went off. Harry called the number on the box and they weren’t there. So the next day Mom called every alarm company she could think of and no one would come out. So she got smart and called Sales and we got someone out that afternoon. Kali was here, thank goodness, and watched Ramey while we dealt with the alarm guy. He told us we had to get a land line in order to have an alarm or pay like $200 extra and then $50 extra or something like that for an alarm without a phone line. So now I had to call and get a land line. We had already thought about changing from Cox to Direct TV so I didn’t want to get a phone with them if we were going to be canceling soon. So then I called At&T to get a quote from them and Cox to see what they could do. I argued with the Cox guy for awhile and got our bill lowered a little and a phone in addition! But it was so stressful! As I was on the phone with the Cox guy the alarm went off again and Ramey was crying but Mom was here to calm Ramey down and I found the booklet to the alarm and was able to turn it off.

We called the alarm guy and had him come back the next day to sign up for the alarm to be monitored. He brought in his big boss and he was able to unhook something so the alarm wouldn’t go off in the middle of the night again until we could get it set up.

For the 4^th of July, Mom, Dad, Katherine and Ryan came over. Harry grilled steaks. It was great to have a steak that wasn’t well done! I hate well done!

As of 12 days old, I think he is going to be a great baby! He only gets upset when he wants to eat or be held. He will have a poopy diaper and never makes a noise. Lets hope this keeps up.

Right now, I have to wake him up every 2-3 hours to feed him but that should be stopping sometime soon.

7-7-12- we gave Ramey his first real bath. He wasn’t too happy! He cried louder and longer than he had ever before. Right in the middle he peed but I quickly covered him with a washcloth. We then washed his hair, which he LOVES. Then wrapped him up in the towel. Almost immediately he started to poop. And I’m not talking about a little poop. This is the most he has ever pooped. We were laughing so hard because he just kept going! Surely there is a better way to do this and I think I’ll youtube some videos and see if I can get some pointers!

7-8-2012

The whole family, Mom, Dad, Katherine and Ryan went up to Walgreens around 8pm because they weren’t too busy and got the whopping cough vaccines from Harry. Ryan doesn’t like shots at all, but he got one because he loves little Ramey so much. Obviously everyone else does too, but for someone that doesn’t like shots, I really appreciate my wonderful brother-in-law taking one for the team!

On Monday, July 16^th, I called the Lactation Consultant at Mercy to see if we could swing by and get a quick weight check. We didn’t need one, but I just wanted to make sure Ramey was still gaining weight. They want babies to gain 4-7 ounces a week. We went in and he now weighs 7.14! He gained 8 ounces in a week! What a great baby!

Tuesday, July 17, Ramey is finally liking bath time. We got the water warmer than we have been, put on some upbeat kid music, and laid a towel in the bottom of the tub so he doesn’t slip around and feels more secure. After we got him out I had a warm towel waiting for him and warm pjs. It worked great! I was so excited because he was really HATING his bathtime.
He does LOVE getting his hair washed and always has!

July 18, we had our original newborn pictures with Angel Porch. I had these scheduled months and months ago, but since Ramey came early I was afraid he wouldn’t be so newborn-y (sleepy and easy to move into those cute newborn poses) so I wanted to get some pictures taken earlier when I knew he would still be a brand new newborn. Plus we LOVE pictures so much I didn’t mind having even more pictures. He will never be this little ever again! But anyways, we had the original ones today. Again he was a perfect angel. He slept the whole time and did exactly what he was supposed to do. I am so excited to see them!

We did get to Norman early because I was going to feed Ramey before pictures so he would be nice and sleepy, but we were super early so we decided to drive around and show some things to Ramey. We went down Lindsey street and showed Ramey Classic 50's and then drove to the stadium. As we were driving by I tried to get a picture of Ramey with the stadium but it didn't work out so well. Here are my attempts...

This one has the stadium in the background and Ramey is in his carseat in the mirror.

You can kind of see the brick of the stadium

After the photo shoot we went back to Classics and got our favorites... a vanilla coke with sour punch straws, cajun fries, and cheddar peppers. It was delicious. Ramey's first time to Norman was definitely a success.

Now the most exciting news of the last 2 weeks....
Harry has a new job! He didn't want me to say anything until he started, and today (July19th) is his first day!
Here is how it all went down!

We found out about a job opportunity. One of Harry's good friends works there and I use to work with the owners wife at my old school. Harry emailed his resume, had an interview and was offered the job all in a few short days. We are SO excited! It will be Monday-Friday 9-6 and every 3^rd Saturday 9-12. Plus it is super close. It is an amazing company with great people.

The only draw back is we are a little stressed trying to figure out the insurance situation. His insurance won’t start for 3 months, so we have to get Cobra for 3 months because no temporary insurance will take Ramey because he is under 60 days old, but we can keep the Walgreens insurance with Cobra for the 3 months, but it costs so much. Oh well! We don't have a choice. We are so excited for Harry's new job.

My mom always made us take a picture on our first day of school, so I made Harry take one on his first day of his new job!

And he gets to wear scrubs!!!! yay!

Sleep
We have just been getting use to having a little angel to take care of 24 hours a day. Ramey sleeps pretty well through the night but wakes up every 2-4 hours to eat. He normally goes back to sleep right away but occasionally wants to stay up for an hour just grunting and making noises. And my dreams have gotten better, thank goodness. I still think he is in bed sometimes, but am not nearly as exhausted so I make myself look over at the bassinet and realize he is in there and then I can go back to sleep.

Other highlights since being home-

We have had sushi 5 times since being home. I really missed sushi!

Our first family outing that wasn’t a doctor was to get snow cones! I love snow cones and really was wanting one so we put Ramey in the car and drove to the snow cone place, got snow cones and then came home. It’s the little things!

We have also already rearranged Ramey’s room. We had it one way originally and then changed it and then changed it back 2 days ago. It makes it feel so much bigger and open.

Lots of wonderful people have brought us dinners and visited. It has been great and we really appreciate all of the love and food!!! It is making being home much easier not having to worry about getting dinner together!

Some more newborn shots by Shannon Foster