One month old today...

Harper shared her 1 month birthday with her Aunt Andrea (who she can't wait to meet tomorrow) and posed wrapped in a prayer shawl from her Great-Aunt Therese (my god-mother).

She also marked her 1 month birthday by holding on to her frog/ladybug rattle and moving it around without letting it go. That's really good and advanced, right? :)

Nene and Papa's visit

Patrick's parents, dubbed Nene and Papa, came for a visit this past week. They loved every last minute of their time with Harper, as did we. We got a little extra sleep and a date night (we saw Avatar and I finally got some sushi). Harper was very good at imitating Papa and Nene was a natural at dressing her and getting her to sleep. Here are just a few pictures of their visit.

Papa thought these glasses were the perfect accessory while Harper enjoyed her first trip to the mall.

I finally caved and bought a bow to girl-up Harper's bald head and androgynous outfit.

Harper got all dressed up for her first family dinner at Uncle Jim and Aunt Louann's house.

When you see a group of Klocke's (Marlene's maiden name is Klocke) you can see the resemblance.

Daddy does bath duty.

One last smile for Nene!

3 weeks old

Hard to believe, Harper was born 3 weeks ago. Her spontaneous smiling has become more frequent and she's weighing in at 10.5-ish lbs. (I stole this sign idea from my cousin Shannon. Thanks for being so clever Shannon.)

Eat, sleep, poop and Grammy's visit-Harper's first 2 weeks

Harper has been a pretty normal newborn...she eats, sleeps and poops like a champ. She also had some other adventures during her first 2 weeks in the world.

Harper's first ride in the Moby.

Grammy comes for a visit. She stayed for a week and was a wonderful help. We were so sad to drop her off at the airport. Good thing she'll be back in March and we have Nene and Papa coming next week.

Harper had her first pediatrician's appointment. She gained 6 oz in 3 days and then another 9 oz a week later. We thought she looked like a little Russian with her hat on the Dr. exam table.

Our friends, Tom and Jill, sent Harper a set of embroidered bibs and burp cloths. Adorable!

Dad and Harper got lots of bonding time since Patrick's work schedule was somewhat flexible her first week home.

We took Grammy and Harper for their first visit to Snoqualmie Falls. It was very windy, but lucky Harper was snug wrapped close to Daddy in her Moby.

Momma gets a nap with her precious baby girl.

Harper loves her swing.

And she loves when Grammy sings to her (Grammy has a way more amazing voice than either momma or daddy).

Harper's coming home...

Just one day shy of Harper's 1 week birthday, we were discharged from the hospital. We were so relieved that she was healthy, we forgot to be nervous.

Patrick had gotten us flowers and made us a welcome home sign. (So sweet and thoughtful...par for the course for this adventure.)

Patrick's first try at the 5 s's. Worked like a charm.

Harper's first sleep in her co-sleeper and than on my lap after a feeding. So breathtakingly precious.

Harper Grace has arrived

7 days after my due date on Dec. 27th, 2009 Patrick and I decided to pass the time (as we not so patiently waited for the baby to make an appearance) by organizing all our pictures. Just as we were making real progress, I stood up from my sitting position on the ground and oops, my water broke. Holy cannolli! We both showered and I called the Dr. She suggested I come in because if my water had, in fact broken, we were on a time crunch to prevent any infection. So we packed a few final items and headed to the hospital. Once we got there, I was put on a fetal monitor and asked to walk around to get my water to fully break...and it did! But I was only 1-ish cm dilated. So they had to start the labor process for me with 2 drugs...miso-something and Pitocin. The Pitocin forced my body to have contractions every 2-3 minutes.

After 12 hours of this with no epideral, I was still only 1-2 cm dilated. "Are you kidding me!?" I caved and took an epideral. 12 more hours and I was finally 5 cm dilated. 4 more hours and I was 8 cm. Finally, at around 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 29th I was ready to push, despite the fact that I couldn't feel a thing from my chest down. After a few pushes, drama struck...we lost the heart beat and the nurse hurridley called in support. Once they found the heart rate again it had drastically dropped and the team rushed me into a surgical suite to perform a crash c-section. Once in the surgical suite, the baby's heart rate stabilized and Patrick was brought into the room. The Dr. explained that they didn't know why the heart rate had dropped so we could try to keep pushing and it might happen again or he could perform a c-section. We chose the c-section. At 6:34 a.m. the team pulled a 9lb 1.5 oz baby girl from my belly. We were so shocked she was a she that we forgot the girl names we had considered. We decided on Harper because it was just unique enough and went well with Grace. The team worked to get Harper breathing. She was breathing but not well so they brought her to the NICU and Patrick followed while they stitched me up. Patrick soon returned and said they had stabilized her and I could go see her just as soon as they were ready to move me to our post partum room.

When we went to visit Harper in the NICU, we were told that she had a small hole in her lung and she needed to be placed in an oxygen hood to help correct it. She was in the hood most of the day but was breathing on her own by that evening.

Momma's first time holding Harper.

Daddy helping with Harper's first bath.

Because Harper's arrival into the world was a bit traumatic, she had a hard time maintaining her temperature and glucose levels after her lung had recovered. So she remained in the NICU for 3 more days while I recovered in post-partum, and then 2 days in the infant care unit sleep-in room (I got to sleep in the room with her). Patrick was an unbelievable support person for...bringing me my favorite foods from home and calming when I felt frustrated or nervous. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect partner. Harper made wonderful progress and we had wonderful friends visit us the whole time. Thanks, Uncle Tom and Shannon & Dan.