We made another trip to Fisher this past weekend for the wedding of our good friends, Helen & Eric. It worked out well because Harper got to meet her Great Grandparents - affectionately known as Granny & Pop - as well as her Great Aunt Pam and Great Uncle Byron! Grandma Lesa and Grandpa Steve were also able to spend a little time with her while we were at the reception.

We’ve had some big things happening lately. Harper is doing just fine riding in the car now, she’s sleeping on her own in her swing, she’s doing ok riding in her stroller, she’s rolling over, babbling away at us (especially just after she wakes up from a nap), and she’s begun reaching for things. Big steps for such a little girl!

If you’re a member of our VIP club, enjoy some new pictures and videos from the last week. We’re hoping to have even more soon enough!

Last weekend we made our first long trip in the car, heading home to sweet ol’ Fisher, Illinois to visit my side of the family. We’d had a long Saturday to begin with - up early to switch our cellular service to AT&T, then ran a few last minute errands, then we packed up the car and drove to Collinsville for our friend Beth’s baby shower, then we finally hit the road for Fisher around 5:15. We probably should have known that if all that time in the car was wearing on us, it would really be wearing on Harper, whose ability to handle the car has been tentative at best.

Four hours and many stops to soothe a crying infant later, we finally pulled into the driveway at my parents’ house. To give you some perspective, the trip from Collinsville would normally take about 2.5 hours. It was not a fun day. However, we got to introduce Harper to her Aunt Kris, cousins Megan and Nicole, and Aunt Sara and Uncle Andy, who were all kind enough to wait patiently for us.

On Sunday, Harper got to meet her cousin Lucy, who is just under a year old, as well as her Aunt Leigh, and later her Uncle Drew, Uncle Mike, and cousin Aaron. She even got to meet my good friend, Jackie, who is one of those honorary aunts that I mentioned in my last post. It was a busy day, but fun for the whole family.

Finally, Monday morning we packed up the car and headed back to St. Peters, MO. We learned that the best time to travel with Harper is in the mid-to-late morning. She slept from 9:30 when we left, until 12:30 when we pulled up to our condo. Perfect!

Despite her troubles on Saturday, Harper has been doing really well in her car seat. She either passes out like most kids, or stares transfixed at the little orange elephant we bought that clips onto the seat. Either way, she’s happy, so we’re happy. We’re going home again soon to see our friends Helen and Eric get married, so we’ll see if we can keep this streak going. Wish us luck!

Those of you on our VIP list should already have an email inviting you to check out the photos from our most recent adventures at home and abroad. If you’re still not on the VIP list, shoot us an email (VIP @ lammlelounge dot com) and we’ll get you added.

By the way, I don’t know why some of you can’t see the VIP videos. I’m sorry, but I can’t seem to figure out what is making things difficult. I’ll try to tweak things a little bit the next time we have video to upload and maybe that will help.

Harper is going to be one fairly confused little girl. You see, she has a lot of female relatives. In Grandmothers alone she has four - Grandma Joan, Andrea’s mom; Grandma Lesa, my mom; and Grandma Marla, my biological mom; and, of course, she’ll know about my mom, Grandma Barb, through pictures and stories. There are a few Great Grandmothers. Throw in a few Great Aunts (who will probably spoil her so much they’ll be considered honorary grandmothers), a few friends whom we’re so close to they’ll be called “Aunt”, all those cousins on the Schumacher side, a handful of cousins on the Lammle side, and you’ll have one perplexed kid. And who could blame her? She’s going to think that every woman who ever holds her is related to her - and they probably are somehow.

Over the past weekend, Grandma Marla (that’s my bio-mom, for those trying to keep track) came down for her first visit to meet Harper. She came down Friday afternoon and stayed until about noon on Saturday, and we all had a nice time talking, watching a little TV, and generally getting to see one another. I’ll post a few pictures of her visit (hopefully) tonight.

This coming weekend, if all goes well with the whole “screaming her head off every time we drive anywhere” situation, Harper will also be meeting a bunch more of her relatives in Fisher. A few aunts, a few cousins, a few uncles, and even great grandparents. As well as a rather snobby little Yorkshire Terrier. Again, though, this all depends on her willingness to ride in the car. I swear, we have the only kid ever who hates to ride in the car. Although she has gotten better over the last few weeks, and I think it’s because we’ve been trying to get her out and about as much as possible. It seems to be helping anyway.

However, in better news, it appears we have reached a new level of sleeping comfort - she is now sleeping in her swing for fairly long stretches at a time. Yes, that’s right, Andrea has been able to sleep in a big kid bed for a little over a week now! Granted, she’s sleeping restlessly because she’s still a mom who has one ear open to listen for Harper’s cries, but she is sleeping horizontally again, rather than shoehorned into the recliner. So, one small step for mom; one giant leap for Harper.

Anyway, I just wanted to get everyone updated on how things are going with the (new) Lammle Family. Again, I’ll have pictures up of Marla’s visit and then, if all goes well, pictures from Harper’s first visit to Fisher will be up next week. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Andrea was messing around, taking pictures of Harper today, and happened to snap this one that I think is hilarious. So I thought I’d share it with everyone. She’s making a face we’ve all made from time to time in this life.

I’d love to know what’s going through her little brain at the moment.

If you’re reading this site, chances are you’re a friend or a member of our family. And if you are one of those sorts of people, chances are you’d love to see more pictures - and maybe even a few video clips - of Harper.

In an effort to satisfy everyone, but to also prevent our entire lives from becoming a huge hit on YouTube, we’ve decided to setup a password-protected VIP section where we’ll be posting new videos and pictures for those who are interested. Whenever we have new stuff to share we’ll send out an email to our members with the latest password for the VIP section. So it’s sort of like a speakeasy, only with less alcohol and no G-Men busting up the joint.

Don’t worry - if you’re just coming here for the occasional picture and update, we’ll still be posting a handful of pictures from time to time, but we’re going to limit the quantity that are posted to the main site. So you’ll still be able to see her, you just won’t have unfiltered access.

If you would like to become a VIP, please send an email to:

vip @ lammlelounge.com

(Just leave out the extra spaces, though; I wrote it that way here to hopefully prevent spam.)

Use the email address you want us to have and please write a brief note of some kind or at least include your name so we’ll know who “wookie_lover_493@hotmail.com” is. Obviously we’re not just going to be giving out the VIP password to any Joe Schmoe on the web, so if you’re not a friend or family, don’t even bother.

Once you become a VIP, simply return to this website and click on the VIP link at the top of the page. Type in the new password and you’re in.

If you have any questions, feel free to shoot us an email or post a comment and we’ll tell you how the whole thing works.

Thanks and we hope you all join up as Lammle Lounge VIPs.

For about a week now Harper has been really fussy at various times during the day - sometimes it’s at 5:00 in the afternoon, sometimes it’s 12:30 at night.  She has only wanted to be held in one position and one position only - over our shoulder with us standing up.  If we’re walking around it’s even better.  So it’s been kind of a struggle to maintain our sanity as we try to keep her happy and figure out when she’s going to be in one of these moods.

After a particularly rough afternoon yesterday, we had what we are hoping is a breakthrough in the sleeping department.  Once we get her to sleep, she now likes to be swaddled.  Before, swaddling was a 50/50 thing - sometimes she’d like it, other times she’d hate it.  But last night she’d settle right in and slept for 2-3 hours in her papasan chair before waking up to eat and going right back to sleep.  Andrea even got to sleep in bed for the first time in five weeks!

Of course we’re excited about what this new development might bring, but we’re also anxiously holding our breath to see if it sticks.  So keep your fingers crossed for us and we’ll let you know how things are going.

By the way, we have more pictures that we’ll be posting soon, so look for them sometime this weekend.

We’re coming up on four weeks since Harper was born. It’s been strange with this new little person in our lives, but we’re definitely getting our sea legs, so to speak.

She’s still not sleeping on her own yet, but we’ve sort of given up on pushing things too much. We have a few more tricks up our sleeve that we’re going to try this weekend, but for now we’re just going to let her sleep on our chests.

Harper had a doctor’s appointment this week and it sounds like she’s doing great. Up to a little over 10lbs. now, so she just keeps getting bigger and stronger.

An interesting thing happened at the doctor’s office - he said we were the only people he knew who were using cloth diapers. I don’t know if you remember, but we decided long ago that we didn’t want to use disposables for a variety of reasons. One is the environmental factor, another is the “Rob constantly having to take out the trash” factor, and another is the financial benefits of using cloth. And if you’re thinking to yourself, “Oh, but you have to mess with pins and folding and doing all that other stuff”, well then you haven’t seen cloth diapers lately.

We’re using what are called pocket diapers; specifically the ones manufactured by a local company called Bum Genius. As you can see from the illustration at that web link, BG’s look a lot like a disposable diaper, but they have a cloth lining, a waterproof outer shell, velcro closures, and there’s a small pocket (thus the name) where another cloth liner goes. Washing them is just as easy as throwing them in the laundry, being sure to use dye-free detergent, and running an extra rinse cycle. The best part, though, is that these diapers will last her until she doesn’t need them anymore - they’re good from 7lbs. until 35lbs. They cost a little more upfront (about $17 each), but you’re only buying them once - not every week like you do disposables. So in the long run the investment is worth it. Sure we have to do more laundry, but our laundry room is adjacent to our family room, so it’s not like it’s a major hassle for us. We both think it’s going to be a good thing in the long run.

Anyway, things are going really well here at Casa de Lammle. Maybe they aren’t all peaceful, quiet, restful nights just yet, but we’ll get there. By the way, we’ll probably have a few more pictures for you soon just to show how much she’s growing. It’s hard to believe it, but we can definitely tell a difference even after only a few weeks. I guess everyone was right in saying that the time goes by so fast.

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.