A while back, our friend Piper turned us on to these great little t-shirts called “The Great Mysterio”. They’re these tiny t-shirts that come in a small bag and you have no idea what they say on the front. The idea is that The Great Mysterio will determine what your child will grow up to be by what is on the shirt. Of course the professions that your newborn might one day become include things like “Criminal Mastermind”, “Gameshow Host”, and “Professional Bowler”, so it’s not to be taken too seriously. It’s just a fun way to surprise someone when they have a kid.

What’s odd is, it seems that these shirts are often close to the mark or at least have some kind of connection with the people you give them to. For example, we bought a Mysterio shirt for our niece Lucy and her one-day profession was going to be “Big Tipper.” The thing is, her dad Drew is a restaurant manager, and her mom Leigh has been a waitress more than once in her life. So it seemed almost fitting. We then bought one for our friends The Lowns for their soon-to-be-born son. Their t-shirt said “Flamenco Dancer”, which is interesting because flamenco sounds a lot like flamingo, and the pink bird has been a sort of mascot for their marriage. Some odd things are afoot with these Mysterio t-shirts.

So what about the shirt that Piper got for Harper?

Well, check out the pics below and see for yourself what OUR little girl is going to one day be:

Yes, that’s right, she will apparently be a “Hog Calling Champion”.

We couldn’t be more proud… *sniff, sniff*

Thanks to Marla and Leslie for commenting on our sleeping issues. We’ve tried swaddling as Marla suggested and it’s a 50-50 situation for Harper. She either loves it and settles in or, like a 9lb Houdini, wriggles her arms out one-by-one then somehow gets the blanket completely off of her. For the time being we’re just trying to put her down whenever we can, just so she gets used to the idea. Sometimes she’ll sleep for 10 minutes in her papasan chair, sometimes it’s 3 hours. But for now we’re just adapting and doing whatever we can to keep her happy.

We’ve been home since Monday and, let me tell ya, the horror stories everyone tells about sleepless nights with a newborn are absolutely true. It’s one of those things where you say to yourself, “Eh, it won’t be that bad”, but, really, it is. Every night has been different. One night Andrea’s in bed by 11:00, the next night she’s still awake at 2:00. One night I’m in bed by 2:30, the next night I’m still awake around 5:00. It’s just been a roller coaster ride that is sapping our energy and completely throwing off our bodies. Needless to say it’s been rough.

But also as everyone says, it is so completely worth it. It’s amazing how quickly your parental instincts kick in. Especially for someone whom, a few years ago, was wondering if he even had any. We’re already prepared to do just about anything we need to for this kid and she’s only been here a little over a week.

Well, I have to close for now because Harper just got done feeding and Andrea wants to get a few hours sleep. So I’m going to sit here in the recliner, watch some streaming video from Netflix…maybe another episode of The War on DVD…and give my poor wife a little rest.

Sorry we haven’t written much in the last few days.  We made it home from the hospital Monday evening and, well, as I’m sure you can imagine, life has been pretty hectic around here ever since.

Harper is doing well, feeding often, sleeping quite a bit, and we’re enjoying the few times she’ll stay awake long enough to stare at us and try to figure out what those blurry things are in front of her.

While she is sleeping, we’ve been having a heck of a time getting her to lie down by herself.  Seems we set her in her cradle or papasan chair and five minutes later she’s screaming like a banshee.  Some say to let her cry it out, while others say we should give in to whatever she demands for the first few weeks of life.  All we know is that it’s keeping us up at night when one of us has to sit in the recliner so she can sleep on our chest or in our arms.  Even after she’s “out”, if we try to lay her down, it only gives us 15 minutes of peace before she realizes she’s not being held.  Today is her first doctor’s appointment, so we’re going to ask if the pediatrician has any suggestions on what we can do to get her used to being on her own.  Ahh, the joys of parenthood.

Andrea is doing really well after her C-section.  She’s had some aches and pains, of course, but she’s getting around with relative ease.  She even went up and down the stairs last night and handled them with no problems.  She’ll be good as new in no time.

Not much else to tell, really.  We’re just happy to be home and learning to adjust to this new little person in our lives.  I go back to work next Wednesday, so I’m sure that’s when the fun will really begin.  We’re not sure when Andrea’s going to be able to go back just yet, but we’re hoping in the next few weeks.

Thanks again for all the wonderful comments from family and friends.  It’s been great to login here and see new ones all the time.  Keep checking back and we’ll keep checking in.

Due to popular demand, here’s a small album of photos of the whole event.

Harper’s Debut

Enjoy!

Harper Lammle has finally arrived!

She was born this morning at 2:24. She wound up being 20 3/4″ long, which is apparently pretty close to average. However, she weighed in a pretty chubby 9lbs! It’s no wonder Andrea had such a hard time during the labor and delivery. We wound up having to do a C-Section, but not after Andrea, ever the trooper, pushed for all she was worth for a good two hours. While the recovery is not going to be fun for her, I think she was happy just to have it all over. I know it was a relief for me.

When she was born, the pediatrician said that “she cries like a four-month old”, which I guess means she has quite a pair of lungs on her. They also weighed her about four times because they just couldn’t believe she was 9lbs. But sure enough, 9lbs exactly (I have the picture to prove it, actually). Although even at 9lbs, she’s not the biggest baby in the ward right now as she got beat out by a 9lb 13oz boy the night before. They grow ‘em big down here in Missouri…

Andrea is doing really well, all things considered. They’re trying to get her up and moving around some, which she’s been able to do with relative ease. She does require some meds for pain, but it’s on an as-needed basis. She’s still not on good solid foods, but even pudding and chicken noodle soup is better than sips of iced tea and IV fluid.

By the way, January 11th - Harpers birthday - is also Andrea’s birthday. We had scheduled the induction a few days beforehand so that Harper (and Andrea for that matter) would be able to have their own birthdays to celebrate. Well, fate decided differently. Then again, I can think of worse birthday presents.

To those who were told they’d get a phone call after she was born, please don’t be upset because, as you can imagine, things have been insane around here today. We’ve been connected to the outside world, but mainly through email, this website, or text messaging. We haven’t had a whole lot of time to talk on the phone as we’ve tried to sneak in a few winks, a fresh shower for me, and, well, let’s be honest, changing diapers. I will get to you, so don’t worry. I’ll most likely finish phone calls tomorrow, so I’ll talk to you soon.

Thanks to everyone who has been emailing, texting, commenting here and chatting with us via Gtalk while we spent a rather long couple of days here at the hospital. It has meant the world to know that so many people were excited about our new addition.

Look for more posts soon - especially come Monday or Tuesday when they send Andrea and Harper home. I’m sure we’ll have a few pictures of Rufus and Peekaboo sniffing at her and wondering just what the heck this thing is that we brought home. Should be entertaining.

Love to all and we’ll talk to you again soon.

It’s now about 8:15 and we’re still waiting for Harper to get here.  Andrea’s doctor came in around 6:45 and said that if we didn’t see any big changes in the next couple of hours, that we’d go ahead with a C-Section.  She’s still having contractions, but thanks to the epidural she’s resting peacefully right now.

I’d expect us to know the plan of attack in the next 15-30 minutes, so we’ll see what happens then.

Keep checking back.  It’s only a matter of time now…

We woke up this morning to start the pitocin again at 9:30. No change - some contractions, but nothing consistent.

Around 2:30, the doctor came in and was able to break the water, and since then things have been progressing nicely. She now has her epidural in - thank god for that thing - and her contractions are a few minutes apart, but not terribly long. So while things are moving along, we’re not done just yet.

Keep checking back…

Today we woke up at 4:15 in the morning after a very tense, sleepless night.  Andrea got a grand total of maybe three hours; thanks to a shot of Nyquil at 10:00, I got about four or five.   We both got our showers and headed to the hospital for our 5:30 induction appointment.

They put her on an IV drip to get some fluids into her, then about an hour later they started with a small dose of oxytocin (AKA pitocin), which is meant to start contractions.  Every 1/2 hour they upped the oxytocin dosage a notch in an effort to get her contractions to be a bit stronger.  And she did contract…for the next 13 hours.  However, her contractions were never consistent and not quite strong enough for her to go into full-on labor.

Most of her day was spent lying on her back, slightly propped up in her hospital bed, which really began to become uncomfortable as the day wore on.  Whenever she tried to roll over so she could get some rest, the external baby monitor would lose track of our wily daughter, so she’d have to go back to her back.  Basically she was miserable for a better part of the day.  Finally, around 5:30, a nurse came on who said “You get comfortable and I’ll find the baby”, and that’s exactly what she did.  Andrea got to roll to one side and the nurse put the monitor right on Harper the first try.  So after 12 hours she finally got to get a little much-needed rest.

Around 6:30 the doctor said to go ahead and stop the oxytocin.  At that time Andrea could eat a meal (her first of the day [she had the rib eye]), take a bath, and was able to get up and walk around a little.  I was able to leave around 7:15 to grab myself some dinner and head home to grab some more clothes since I’d be spending an additional night in the hospital.

At 9:30 p.m. they gave her some medication that is supposed to soften the cervix and we try again to induce Harper at 9:30 a.m.

So needless to say it’s been a long, rough day.  A lot of sitting around, a lot of helping Andrea get as comfortable as possible, and a lot of waiting.

Keep checking back for more news tomorrow.

Well, the official due date, January 3rd, has come and gone, and we’re still kidless.  If nothing happens over the weekend, we’re going to induce on January 9th at 5:30 in the freakin’ morning.

It’s sort of weird picking your kid’s birthday like that, but I guess it’s pretty common.  Still, it’s a strange thought that you can actually pinpoint the day when your life is going to change forever.  Ahh, the wonders of modern science…

But there is still a chance that Harper will decide that catching us off guard would be a better route, so we’ll keep you posted should there be any progress.  Until then, keep checking back!