The Harrison's Happenings: Early August

End of a real smile at Mommy

Thought it was time for a new post.

Everything is going pretty good at the Harrison house. Ramey is still a pretty good baby. He still hates having his diaper changed most of the time and cries when we change it, but last night when we gave him a bath he didn't cry at all! That was the first time. He goes to sleep at night very easily.
We give him a bath (every other night), a little massage, Harry and I read him his bedtime story, I sing him a song, and he is out. He normally sleeps 4 hours then wants up to eat, then goes right back to sleep, occasionally he needs to be rocked about 5 minutes, then sleeps another 3 or so hours. He normally wakes up between 6:30-7:30. He LOVES his swing but normally falls asleep after watching his mobile for a few minutes. Anytime he is upset and we are having a hard time calming him down, the swing always does the trick. He also loves to grab at his toys that hang down from his pack and play and his activity center. At first I thought it was an accident and just jerky arm movements until I realized he was holding his hair with his other hand and only swatting at the toys with the arm closest to the toys. And this morning I got my first real smile!!! Not a gas smile, lol. I went to get him out of his pack and play and he just smiled and smiled and smiled. It was definitely no mistake.

But at the same time I get teary every time I think about how fast he is growing up... alright, sometimes I actually cry. I was singing to him one night and Harry came in and said, "What is going on in here?" I just love him so much and everyone says to enjoy him being a newborn because they grow up so fast so I really am trying to enjoy it but it makes me sad because I know it will go super fast because it already has so far, he is already 6 weeks old!

Last week I called and wanted an extra weight check just to make sure he is still gaining weight how he should and at five weeks he was 8 lbs 11 ounces! That is still 1 ounce a day. He is getting to be a little chunky monkey!
Speaking of monkey, I am debating what he should be for halloween. Opinions please... monkey, giraffe, lion, or scarecrow (I found a super cute handmade scarecrow on Etsy), or something else. I just love when they are animals when they are little!

Now for Harry. Harry is LOVING his job so much! And I love the hours. It is so nice for him to work from 9-6 Monday-Friday. He even comes home and eats lunch with us some days!
He wakes up and leaves at the same time every day and gets home at the same night. Since he gets home at a decent hour he gets to hangout with Ramey and we tag team bath time and putting him to bed. Harry loves all the people he works with and actually gets to talk to patients and isn't stressed out every day. He already had high blood pressure and his old job just made it so much worse. I can just tell by his demeanor and attitude when he goes to work and comes home that his blood pressure and mental state is so much better. It makes me so happy. It was pretty stressful the first week of Ramey's life trying to get Harry a new job but it is already so much better and definitely worth it.

Harry has also been so great with Ramey. I always knew he would be a great dad, but he has far exceeded my expectations. He talks to him all the time and wants to hold him and just be with him. He changes his diapers all the time and will take him as soon as he gets home from work so I can get a little break. And here is the best part... he wakes up and changes him and gives him to me for his first night feeding. He also will rock, hold, or calm him down if it is from 10-2. (Thats his shift, lol). Then after Ramey's first night feeding Harry goes and sleeps in the guest room so he can get a full 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Most nights it is more because Ramey will wake up between 12:45-1:30 so Harry will give him to me and then go to sleep. And I like it because on the 2nd night feeding I don't feel bad about having the lamp on or bothering Harry because we are up and Ramey is eating. I know how important it is for Harry to get a good nights sleep with his job.

Now me. These last 2 weeks have been really weird for me. Normally I would be up at school getting my room ready for school to start. Today the teachers go back for their big district meeting. I know this sounds really stupid, but it is weird to think that it is going on and I'm not there. I'm sure I'm going to get emotional when I see all of my former parents posting pictures of my kiddos on facebook for the first day of school! I feel very blessed to be staying home with my angel, but I REALLY love teaching. I love getting to teach kids how to read, about famous pieces of art, and how to be great little people. The plan is to stay home as long as I can, but I just don't know at this point. I may want to go back sooner rather than later. We will just have to see.

Family... last Sunday night I got a text and call from my sister at 1:00am. I saw it when I was up with Ramey. My mom was going to have an emergency appendectomy in the morning. My dad was in NYC for a meeting, of course, (remember he was on a plane when my water broke). So luckily Katherine took my mom to the after hours clinic. Well she had a uti, but her side was also killing her. The doctor said if the pain got any worse to go to the ER. She left the room to write the prescription and when she did Katherine and Mom talked and decided they should just go to the ER anyways because Mom would just worry about it all night anyways. Then the doctor came back and said, "On second thought, why don't you go to the ER now to get it checked out." Well they went and yep, appendicitis. So she was scheduled for the next day but didn't know when. So Kat called dad and he worked on getting a flight home. This time it was easier and he got home around 1pm. The surgery was scheduled for 3pm. It took about an hour and she did great. The doctor said that he thinks it would have ruptured in 48 hours and it was somehow attached to her pelvis so it was a little harder to get out. She was suppose to stay in the hospital until Tuesday morning but it ended up being until Thursday because she was in a lot of pain and the stupid uti on top of it.

Well a different doctor was on call on Thursday so she didn't get seen until around 6 that night, so she had to wait around ALL day. Dad took off work and Katherine was done with school the day before all of this happened, so they both took great care of Mom. I felt horrible that I couldn't do much or be at the hospital as much as everyone else. Mom took such amazing care of me when I was on bed rest and I couldn't even go hangout at the hospital. I was nervous to take Ramey up there because hospitals are suppose to be the germiest places and with him not having his shots yet and scary pertussis going on, I was just too freaked out. So I told Mom I would come and take care of her once she was home. Well that didn't work out too well, lol. I went over the day after and thank goodness Katherine was there too! I was no help at all. Ramey was having one of those days and wouldn't let me put him down and his swing was here at home, so it wasn't gonna happen! But now Mom is doing much better. She ran an errand yesterday and her and Dad came over to watch Big Brother last night.

I think that is about it! I didn't think I had much to write about and then I wrote a novel! Here are some pictures since you powered through and read everything.