I Know. I'm Terrible

Hey Harper,

Dad here again. I know you're looking at the number of posts I've made during your incubation and then looking at the number I did with your sister and you're saying what the heck Dad! Five months to go and you've only posted TWICE!??! I'm sorry. It seems that whenever your Mom gets pregnant I decide to get a new job. Unlike my previous job with OWC my new job at Claire's actually has me doing real work and its been keeping me busy. But today is Christmas Eve so it is super slow in the office so I can write some thoughts down!

First off - the new job. I'm the digital manager for Claire's and their sister brand Icing. I took this job because my job at OWC was boring as heck. They had no business goals or direction and I just sort of sat around all day reading the news, checking Facebook (is it still a thing now?) and Twitter (also still a thing?). I was so disenchanted by the management and the CEO specifically that I had been looking for a job all year. Thankfully in November I saw a posting for the job at Claire's, interviewed, and was quickly hired. Now you and your sister reap the benefits of me working at a company that makes fashion accessories for girls. Or maybe I'm not working there anymore - who knows when you'll be able to read this.

So Claire's takes up a lot of my time so I haven't been able to write down much about your pregnancy. About the same time I got the new job you stopped making your Mom feel sick every night so that was good. You still make her tired and she goes to bed around 9-930 every night but it is without sickness so that's a win there! Plus it gives your Dad time to stay up and play video games and watch Walking Dead.

Yesterday your Mom went in for an ultrasound. Here's you.

They said you were measuring tall and a week and a half ahead of schedule! Madison was pretty big when she was born so we'll see if you can beat her record of 9lbs 10oz. Other than being tall you were perfectly normal in there. 2 arms, 2 legs, no tail.

In a little sadder news this past weekend we had to put our dog Hannah down. I'm not sure if Madison remembers Hannah at the point you're reading this but currently (my currently, not your currently) she really doesn't "get it". She knows Hannah is in Heaven with other dogs but I don't think she knows what that really means. I'll admit putting her down was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Honestly she had been quite a terror - constantly tearing apart our fence and escaping, tearing things up inside the house, freaking out over loud noises and thunderstorms, keeping us up late at night but still she was our dog and she was sweet in her own way. As your Mom said she was weird but in a good way. It was sad that we had to do it right before Christmas but her cancer was really keeping her in pain and it was just the best thing we could do for her. If I'm reading this with you I should tell you about the time me and her drove up from Georgia to Illinois. It encompasses what Hannah was about.

Well things are closing down here at Claire's so I'm going to get out of here and head home for long weekend. We've got a dinner with your Mom's aunt tonight (always exciting...) and then Christmas morning tomorrow. This is the first year your sister understands who Santa is and that he'll be getting her presents so it'll be pretty fun. I can't wait to share Christmas morning with you too! I'm sure you and Madison will be waking me and Mom up at way too early of a time in the morning to go downstairs and open presents. I may grumble about it but inside my heart I'll love it.

Love,

Dad

Boy That Was Quick

Hello....Harper!

This past week we found out that you are going to be a girl. Whew, 2 girls plus your Mom and our dog Hannah. That's going to be a of estrogen floating around our house with me the lone man in the house.

We were driving home from O'Hare - I had just picked up your Mom and Madison. They had been in Augusta all week visiting GiGi and The Colonel. Your Mom called her doctor to see if they had the results for her blood test that would tell us what your sex was. This is a relatively new thing and it didn't exist even as recently as when we had Madison. With her we had to wait a couple months for an ultrasound to see her little girl bits (or lack of boy bits) but here we are at just 14 weeks and we know - you are a girl.

Immediately your Mom asked me if I was disappointed because you weren't a boy. First off let me say it's a difficult question to answer. Immediately it conjures up negativity by assuming I had my heart set on a boy and wouldn't be happy any other way. While I did want a boy because, having been a boy myself, I was looking forward to getting buy all sorts of cool boy toys like Legos and Star Wars but I certainly was more than happy to have a girl as well. Maybe I can get you or Madison interested in things I like and still get those Legos and Star Wars toys or maybe I'll be stuck buying pink princesses for the next 15 years. Either way I'm happy. I don't want this whole "hoping for a boy" thing to be associated with any negativity or that I would love you any less because you were a girl. You are my child and that's all that is required for my love. I'll love you just as much as love Madison and your Mother.

Speaking of Madison...as soon as we found out we were having another girl (we we were on speaker phone with the doctor) Madison got really quiet. She was quiet for the entire ride back home which was very unlike her because around this time (2 years old) she was pretty much talking or singing non-stop. When we got home she told your Mother that she "didn't want a sister" and that it was "very frustrating". This was the first time I think she ever used the word frustrating with us. I didn't even know she knew that word! I explained to her that in Frozen Ana was Elsa's sister and that's what you'd be - Ana to her Elsa. She then said I must be Olaf and Mommy was Kristof. I'm just glad she didn't say I was Sven...

So there you have it. The story of how we found out you were a girl. We actually dodged a bullet here because your Mom and I have never been able to agree upon a boy's name but just like with Madison we immediately agreed on the first girls name presented - Harper. We'll see if that lasts the whole pregnancy. Man it'll be quite embarrassing to call you Harper here and then 6 months later call you something like Gertrude.

....just kidding - we'll never name you Gertrude.

Love Dad

Greetings from the Past Child #2

Hello Currently Unnamed Second Child!

Welcome to the story of your birth. This blog is my attempt to record various milestones during your mother's pregnancy with you. I did it through your sister Madison's birth so it is only fair that I make one for you as well. I know my parents (GiGi and The Colonel) sort of stopped remembering things pertaining to children born after me and I don't think that by the time you're old enough to want to ask me about your birth I'll be able to remember it with the clarity that I'll be able to record it here.

Here is you at 8.5 weeks:

Your pregnancy is a little bit different than your sisters as that you are our second. We sort of know what to expect this time so many of the things we worried about with Madison aren't as high of a concern now. Not that we don't love you any less it's just there is a much less unknown with the second child so that's nice.

I'll start with when we found out your mom was pregnant with you. We had just returned from a weekend at Mimi & Boompa's lake house with some of mom's friends. We had just decided that we wanted to have a second child. Normally this takes a while to go from "lets have a child" to "we're pregnant" but in your case, just like your sister's, you were immediately conceived. In fact, as found out at the first sonogram, you were actually conceived a week before we went to the lake!

(At this time Madison came over to me and I asked her if she wanted to say anything to you and she said, "I love you and I'm going to be gentle with you!" Hopefully by this time you two still love each other and there is none of the sibling rivalry that my sisters had when we were growing up...) BTW this is your sister using a wash cloth as a "dress"

 So surprisingly the very first pregnancy test your mom took came out positive. Now from Madison's pregnancy we knew that there is virtually no way for a pregnancy test to be a false positive. Apparently there is an enzyme it detects to be positive that only a pregnant woman will have. Regardless we still had to take a couple more just to be sure. After those we knew your mom was pregnant with you but it really didn't "set in". It happened so quickly and you hear about couples who have to try for months to get pregnant and yet we got it done on the first try. It really didn't fully set in I think, for me at least, until that first sonorgram and we got to see you there and hear your wonderful heart beat. 174 BPM and more importantly only ONE heartbeat. You see twins and triplets run in your mom's family and twins also run in mine. Thankfully there was only one of you in there - we don't know what we would have done with twin newborns and a 3 year old. It would have been madness!

Now that we knew you were on the way we had to figure out a clever way to tell your grandparents. Half the fun of having a child is surprising your family with the news. Luckily my parents were flying into stay with us that weekend so we decided to buy a shirt for Madison that said "I'm going to be a big sister" and put it on her and see how long it took the grandparents to notice. My parents arrived and Madison kept being shy and cuddling with me or your mom not showing her shirt. Your mom, not being able to keep a surprise, eventually just told them "Look at her shirt!". Then my parents got it and there was much yelling and cheering (my mom loves babies). Mimi & Boompa were coming over as well for a BBQ so we tried the same trick with them. This time Madison was running around with the shirt in clear view but neither of them noticed! Again your mom was like "Do you like Madison's new shirt?" and then they got it and there was more cheering and hugs.

Here's the shirt:

Since Aunt Erin is in Chicago and Aunt Kim and Uncle Chris are in Georgia I had to text them that picture. They got it a lot faster than the grandparents although I was talking to Chris on the phone while I sent the pic and he didn't look at it. All through the call I didn't tell him and after we hung up he texted me back "You couldn't tell me that over the phone?!".

So that's the story of how we found out and how we told the family. Currently you're making your mom very nauseous at night and very tired. She's usually in bed around 830-9p. She'll be very happy when the evening sickness portion of the pregnancy is over with! Only 31ish weeks until we meet you - looking forward to it!

Love,
Dad