Thanksgiving 2015

Eric's parents and sister came to Texas for Thanksgiving this year. It was very fun and fun to spend time together. I know Harper's Aunt Rachel and Grandma and Poppy Cecil were very excited to meet her. We ate yummy food, toured around Dallas and Fort Worth, they went to the Dallas Temple (I stayed home with Harper), and we did so much relaxing! It is always so much fun to spend time with family over the holiday's!

@madisonscecil

One Month Update- Harper

How Old?

Harper is 1 month and we can't believe it! Time is just flying on by and it is killing this mama and daddy.

Size? 

When I took her to her two week appointment, she was back up to her birth weight of 7 pounds and 13 ounces. She was also 20 inches long and her head had grown a little bit more. I was not scheduled to take her back in until her 2 month check up but last week, I was curious how much she weighed so I took her in to the doctor. They put her on the scale and she weights 9 pounds and 1 ounce. I am thinking when we take her to see the doctor in 2 weeks for her 2 month check up and shots she will weigh 10 or 11 pounds. She is putting on the pounds!

Sleeping?

Sweet Harper is waking up every 3 hours to eat. I think my body is used to not sleeping through the night by now. I love those snuggles from my little one in the middle of the night. 

Eating?

She LOVES to eat! We have mastered breastfeeding and it is the best thing ever. Harper is great at it and her mommy loves it. It seems like all we do it eat and sleep but it is just perfect. Our little one is starting to get chunky and it makes me so happy to know that she is getting lots of good milk from her mommy.

Size of Clothes?

Newborns and newborn diapers!! Crazy she is a month old and still in newborns. I am thinking within the next couple days or weeks she will be in size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes. She is getting too long for her clothes.

Harper Likes:

- Mommy and Daddy snuggles! She snuggles with mama all day every day and loves mommy's bed in the early morning. When daddy gets home from work, he likes to hold her and he snuggles her to sleep every night while I fold laundry or get something else done around the house.

-Bath Time!! We have ourselves a little rubber ducky! She cries whenever we take her out.

-Car Rides! Whenever she is sad, we go for a drive to Sonic and she falls right to sleep.

-Walks! We go on a walk most days and she loves being in her stroller and looking around outside.

- Laying Naked! Mommy lets her sometimes during the day and she loves it!

Harper Dislikes:

- Getting dressed and getting her diaper changed. We have to be sure she is super happy when we do these things so she doesn't cry.

- Going into her carseat but once she is in the car, she loves it!

- Tummy time! She thinks that is no fun!

We sure love this little girl and are loving every moment that we get to snuggle and play with her. She has brought so much joy into our home and we feel honored to be her mommy and daddy. 

Introducing.. Harper Lynn Cecil

I am finally getting back around to posting on the blog and I am so so excited that Harper is here. Since this is our little family journal, I know that I need to get her birth story written down so I don't forget any little detail of that exciting day. Eric and I always say that it was the longest 9 months of our lives but it was oh so worth it. Harper is 4 weeks today and we have been nothing but giddy these past couple weeks. She was exactly one week early and we were so glad that she decided to make her big debut early. She has brought so much joy into our family and there is truly nothing like a little baby straight from heaven. There isn't much getting done around the house right now and that is because we just love to sit and hold her and snuggle her all the time. The mounds of laundry waiting to be folded can always wait. This mama is soaking in time with her during the day and daddy gets to hold her at night. We have a hard time sharing her with anyone! We can't get enough of this little one. 

I went to the doctor on October 12th and had my membranes stripped for the third time. I was 60% effaced and dilated to a 2 1/2. My doctor thought that I was going to have a pretty big baby so she was not going to let me go a day past 40 weeks. I was scheduled to be induced on my due date which was October 21, 2015. She gave me my paper and told me that she would see me next Wednesday. I left that appt. feeling pretty sad that the doctor didn't tell me that I was going to be staying at the hospital that day. I changed my attitude and thought to myself that I had almost made it to 39 weeks so what was another week. I came home and Eric and I had dinner together. That night, I started to get some cramps but didn't think much of it. Tuesday (October 13th) came around and I cramped all day long. I talked to some friends that day and some of them thought that it may be the start of labor and others thought it probably wasn't anything. I didn't do one thing that day. I just hung around the house all day and didn't get out of bed. The one thing that I did do was shower and I made a list of all the things that I was going to get done the next day. That night, I decided that I was going to get up and go play Bunco with some friends. I needed to get my mind off things. Everyone at bunco that night asked me when I was having my baby and I joked that I was having her tonight. We played until about 10pm and then I got home and got ready for bed. I crawled into bed and my cramps were just getting worse and worse. Eric was already asleep so I didn't wake him up but I was tossing and turning in bed so I decided to get up and go to the couch. I sat on the couch for the next 2 hours and did a little bit of online shopping and talked to my sister McCall on the phone for a while. Finally, around midnight they were getting to the point that I was hurting pretty bad. My doctor wanted me to go to the hospital when they were around 5 minutes apart. At this point they were around 4 minutes apart and some were 3 minutes apart so I told my sister that I was going to go wake up Eric and go to the hospital.
I got Eric up and he jumped in the shower really quick. Then I got in the shower to see if it would help them go away. When it didn't help one bit and I was almost in tears, we made our way to the hospital. We left the house at 12:45am and got to the hospital around 1am. They checked me in and sent me up to labor and delivery. They hooked me up to the monitors and Harper's heartbeat was sounding great and I was contracting every 2 minutes. At this point I was still only dilated to a 2 1/2 but close to a 3 and 80% effaced. The nurse monitored Harper and I until about 2:30am and then told me to get up and walk the halls to see if we could get things progressing. Eric and I walked the halls until 4am and when the nurse checked me at that point I hadn't made any progression. We were stopping in the halls every 2 minutes for me to have a contraction. We were both so bummed at this point. The nurse talked to the doctor on call and they gave me some sleeping medicine and they told me to go home and rest. The nurse said that she thought I would be back that day but they would rather me labor at home because they couldn't do anything for me at the hospital. I took the sleeping medicine and around 4:30am we left to go home.
On the way home, I started to get very groggy and the sleeping medicine sent me into crazy mode. I was seeing things and was not myself. Eric and I are still so confused that they gave me that medicine because I was in so much pain there was no way I was going to be able to sleep. Eric looked like a bear and I kept asking him why there were little people running around our car. I don't remember much after this but Eric told me that we got home and he walked me into the house. When we walked in the door, I ended up throwing up the sleeping medicine and then Eric put me in bed. He told me not to get up and he was going to close up the house. I was in bed for 5 minutes and then jumped out of bed. As soon as I stood up, my water broke. I went into the bathroom and it broke again. Eric gave me some clothes to put on and put me straight back in the car and back to the hospital we went. We were home for about 20 minutes and then were on our way back. Eric put me in the back seat of the car so I could lay down and gave me a bucket in case I got sick again. Thankfully, that didn't happen but I was hurting so bad at this point.
We got back to the hospital and Eric told the people at the front desk that I would need to be checked in again later. They took me back up to labor and delivery and checked me again. In the 45 minutes that I was away from the hospital, my water had broke and I had dilated to a 4 and was 100% effaced. They admitted me and we knew at that point that we wouldn't be leaving the hospital without our little girl. October 14, 2015 was going to be her birthday!
They put me in a room and I started to finally get out of the crazy stage from the medicine that they had given me. The anesthesiologist came in and gave me my epidural around 7am and I started to feel so much better after that. They started me on pitocin and I was on my way. It took all day and finally around 4:45pm I was dilated to a 10 and was still 100% effaced. The nurse talked me through what the next little while was going to be like and called my doctor and told her we were close. My doctor decided to stick around after her office hours so she could deliver Harper. I pushed for 27 minutes and Harper was born at 5:35pm. My doctor was there just in time and everything went great. She came out screaming and was the most perfect little girl. Eric and I were in awe as she was born. They gave her to me and then Eric went with her as they cleaned her up, did her weight, and made sure she was doing okay. The doctor and nurse stayed with me and helped me finish up everything else and get my fixed and cleaned up. 
After Harper was born, I looked at Eric and told him that I would go through all the pain and do it over again in a heartbeat. There was nothing more special than being there with Eric and having our little girl come into the world. It was so sweet to watch Eric hold Harper for the first time and to see him become a daddy. We stayed at the hospital for 2 days and then on Friday (October 16th) we were able to bring our Harper girl home. My mom came that Sunday and stayed for a week to help us out which was so nice.
As I sit here holding Harper while I am writing this, I couldn't be more grateful to be this beautiful little girls mommy. I was able to finish my degree before Harper came and I am not working. Eric and I talked and we wanted me to be a stay-at-home mom. I have to admit that many days there isn't much that gets done around my house. I love to just snuggle up on the couch with my Harper. There truly is nothing in the world that I would rather be doing than being a mom. We are crazy about this little one and I have to admit that I have a hard time sharing her with anyone else. She brings such a sweet spirit into our family and we just adore her. 
Now be prepared for picture overload. I think I have taken more pictures of Harper over the past 4 weeks than I have in 6 months time before she came. We think she is a pretty cute baby and being her mommy and daddy is the best job in the world.