Splish Splash Eli is taking a bath!

Last Thursday Eli's umbilical cord stump finally bit the dust.  Mark especially has been anxiously waiting for its departure since he finds it completely repulsive.  Cleaning the stump has been exclusively my duty...good thing because Mark would never have been able to handle the small amount of blood that occurred when it finally did fall off in his diaper on Thursday.  No big deal just a small amount of blood and he was left with a very nice innie belly button.

Since his stump fell off that was also a signal that we were able to give Eli his first real bath at home.  As soon as Mark walked in the door that evening I had the tub setup on the kitchen counter.  I had full intentions of grabbing some photos of Eli's first bath but his first bath was not as easy going as I assumed it would be.  In fact Eli hated his first bath.  It was the first time Mark or I had ever heard Eli give out a REAL cry, you know the kind where the scream is so long and his face gets so read you have to tell him to breath.  He was royally pissed off and we rushed the bath as much as possible to hurry up and get him out and prevent the blood curdling screams.  As soon as he was swaddled in a towel he was fine.  We waited until Sunday to give him his 2nd bath which became necessary after several spit ups and an incident where a diaper change ended with a shower in his own pee....boys are so much fun!  ha  To our surprise this bath went over much better....not a single cry!  Since he enjoyed his bath so much we were able to snap photos of his first "good" bath.

"What's up Mom?"

Nice shot of his belly button

We also went to our 2 week pediatric appointment today.  Eli has gained almost a pound since his last appointment and is weighing in at 7 lb 5 oz.  He has also grown a 1/2 inch in the last 2 weeks.  He is growing like a weed...I have a feeling I will be trying to sit on him pretty soon to try and prevent him from growing up.

Sneak Peaks

Eli had his first photo shoot on Monday.  He was 9 days old and already stealing hearts through the camera lens...that might be a little bias since he stole my heart from day 1.  Here are the sneak peaks from the photo shoot by Two Chics Photography.  Their work is amazing and I am so glad we got them to capture this time forever!

On Our Own

Well today is the first day since Eli was born that we do not have a visitor and Mark is at work.  It is just Eli, Toby, Saydee, and I.  Things have been going pretty well...actually boring since everyone is sleeping or lounging around.

Toby chilling in the living room

Saydee on her throne in the top of the closet

Little boy swinging away

My mother stayed with us for the first week after Eli was born and was more than helpful especially with breast feeding since Eli struggled latching at first and my mom gave me the reassurance that he would get it.  And he did...it took one bad day of feeding and from then on he has been a breast feeding pro!  Nana (Mark's mom) came in this weekend and left this morning.  She came bearing a weeks worth of frozen meals for Mark and I and cooked dinner for us while she was here.  The food was wonderful and we will really miss the good cooking after we have finished the frozen meals!  I am truly grateful for having family take time to spend with us and help us out...although I know Eli was the sole purpose for their visit...forget Mark and I! lol

The next few days will be interesting to see how we develop our own little family routine.  Mark woke up at 5:30am this morning and worked out which is awesome because now I can hand over Eli this evening and do my own version of a workout.  I have been feeling really good recently so I am eager to get back into shape....that and I have to fit in a bridesmaid dress by September 3rd for Stacey's (my sister) wedding!

Eli's Weekly Photo Project

Some of the extra time I had before Eli was born was spent scouring the internet for different nursery ideas and other DIY baby projects.  One of the projects that I fell in love with is the weekly photo project where a photo was taken every week for the first year.  I have decided to tackle this project and post the photos on a separate page within this blog which you can check out at any time to get an ongoing growth picture of Eli. 

And just so this post isn't completely boring...here are a few videos taken thus far.

The Latest and Greatest

I am going to make my attempt at the blogging world.  Over the past year or so I have slowly become a follower of many different blogs.  I thought many times about starting my own but thought "What the heck am I going to blog about???"  I mean life until this point seemed so completely average I couldn't think of what I could possibly write that people would actually care enough to read.  That was until Eli was born...now with the closest family member, besides my sister, 2 hours away I feel that I am in constant need of uploading pictures and making phone calls updating family of his every sneeze, yawn, or hiccup.  Ok, so that may be a little much but I doubt my Facebook friends will enjoy seeing a new picture of Eli on their news feed every 20 minutes.  So in order to keep family and friends happy that actually want to enjoy our new little Harper family moments in detail; I have decided to start this blog.  I am not making any promises but I will do my best to keep it up to date with the latest and greatest events of the Harpers.

I guess the best place to start is with a little introduction.  Mark and I will have been married for 3 years in September and are currently living in the up and coming city of Warner Robins, GA!  haha  So maybe that is a slight exaggeration...but really we have grown accustom to the small town life (Mark may say differently...but it isn't as bad as he makes out! ;-) )  On June 4, 2011 God presented us the greatest gift so far.  Elijah James Harper made his appearance at 5:55am after 32 hours of labor and weighed in at 6 lbs 13 oz and 20 3/4 inches long.  No, that was not a typo...I did say 32 HOURS of labor!  Here is the birth story:

I began having contractions about 15 minutes apart at 10:15pm Thursday night and they continued at about that increment until about 5pm Friday.  I would walk around the house through contractions and collapse on the nearest couch or bed to sleep for the 15 minutes until the next one.  Then at around 5pm Friday the contractions began to get closer and closer and more intense.  There was hardly any time to actually fall asleep or rest between contractions.  My mother, Mark, and my doula followed me around the house, massaging my back, giving me drinks of water, feeding me, etc.  I would NEVER have made it without ALL 3 of them!  At around midnight that night my contractions were about 3 minutes apart and we decided it was time to go to the hospital.  The thought of strapping myself into the car and enduring the contractions on the way to the hospital was terrifying.  I got myself into the back of the truck and had made it a little over half way to the hospital without a contraction.  I had just began to think that maybe I would make it there when the next contraction hit.  I think Mark hit the gas as I moaned in the back.  ha

We reached the hospital and I paced the waiting room as Mark signed me in.  I was checked once I got back into a room only to find out that I was 95% effaced but only 3 cm dilated!  The nurses reassured me that with such good effacement that I should go really fast but "really fast" was not going to be fast enough.  I had made plans that I was going to do this naturally without any pain medication but I was tired and I began to doubt if I could actually do this.  But I was determined...I spent the next 5 hours in and out of the shower, pacing the room, sitting on an exercise ball, leaning against the bed...basically whatever I could think of to do.  The contractions were intense but it wasn't until I hit transition (the last 3 cm of dilation) that the contractions began to become unbearable.  The time came to push and after 45 minutes of pushing our beautiful baby boy was born.  I picked him right up and put him on my chest and a huge rush of relief came over me.  The contractions were over and Eli laid on my chest crying out the most amazing sounds reassuring us that everything was alright.

So although it was a long labor process, I wouldn't change it for the world (well..I would fast forward the whole process if that were possible).  That moment was a week ago today, although it feels like yesterday.  Time seems to be flying by already...

After his first bath

6 days old