Balancing Baby

We just discovered a new trick Kaitlyn can do. She is able to stand up on my hand and I can balance her, it is amazing. We discovered this trick when we went up to visit my cousin Cody and his family. I think it is pretty cool that baby's are able to do this at such a young age.

Crazy Hair Day

This morning when Kaitlyn woke up her hair was all over the place. I don't know what she was doing in her sleep, but she sure gave herself quite a hairdo! I love it! I had to brush it down before church though, so she didn't get to keep it for very long.

P.S. Steve and I are blessing Kaitlyn on the Sunday before Christmas (the 21st). We would love for you all to be there.

Single Again??!!

Yesterday Steve and I attempted to make it to church but didn't. I have still been so tired after working the night shift to make it up for church the next day, and since Steve had Kaitlyn and was helping me, he ended up not making it this week either. So, we decided to go to another ward for sacrament. We looked one up online and decided to go. When we walked up to the church there weren't very many cars in the parking lot, and we wondered if that ward still met there, but decided they must cause there were still several cars. When we looked on the door on the way in we noticed that it said they met a 1pm, so we were happy that there would still be sacrament even though we were a couple of minutes late. When we walked in the room had not very many people in it. We were still outside of the chapel, but it was a glass window looking into it if that makes sense. This guy came up to us and told us that the family ward met earlier that day and that this was a young singles adult ward. We totally felt stupid at that point since it was the two of us with a 3 month old baby. We decided to stay and take the sacrament anyway, so we just sat outside the chapel where we could still see and hear everything that was going on. Right as they started passing the sacrament Kaitlyn started screaming cause she was hungry. After I decided there was no way to stop her I fed her, but that meant we had to stay part way through the rest of the meeting. Talk about embarrassing by having to feed a baby in a singles' ward!

Baby Rocky

Kaitlyn and I decided to do our own workout video to show how strong Kaitlyn is getting. She was awesome, Kaitlyn worked out so hard and is building those strong muscles she needs. I am so proud of her with the decision to start working out at such a young age so she can be healthy and strong. We decided to go with the music of "Eye of the Tiger" since that is one of the greatest workout songs ever. Hope you enjoy the video.

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

Our little baby is growing so much! On Sunday night I was complaining to my sister how Kaitlyn is still not rolling over. I stick her on her belly everyday in hopes that she will roll over. She told me that it is really a 4 month milestone than a 2 month. So, I decided to stop anticipating it. Well, lo and behold I gave her a bath that night and she was laying on the floor of her bedroom and I turned around to put something in her dresser. When I returned to look at her she was on her back and just a little further over on her blanket! I couldn't believe that she had rolled. I wondered if it was a purposeful roll or an accident from her kicking so much. So, I put her back on her belly and she did it again. Then, she did it twice more the next day. She thinks it is pretty cool. I definitely was way excited! Then, I also got her laughing pretty good today. I just can't believe how much she is growing. Still working on the naps though, but we are making some progress with that slowly too! Here is a video of her rolling over.
P.S. The video kind of sucks cause we are way too zoomed and so it is grainy and wobbly, but it gets better right at the end. Might I also add that it was our first time in a long time using the recorder. When we went to re-shoot the video she was just plain mad that we were making her do it over and over and so she just screamed. So, this is what we got.

Back to Work :(

Tonight is my first night back to work. I was supposed to go in at 7pm, but they put me on call until 11pm when I had to come in. This was actually a nice transition back to work to only have to come for 8 hours, and leave for work after Kaitlyn was already asleep for the night. It was hard leaving her for the first time going to work. Now that I am at work things are going better, but I am sure it will be hard all over again next week when I have to go again, but for more hours. If I am able to stay awake all night it will be a miracle since I haven't worked a night shift since July, and by the time I get home I will have been up for 24 hours. I guess this is the new life of a working mom. Hopefully I will adjust quickly.

Happy Halloween!

Here is our beautiful angel on Halloween. Doesn't she make the cutest flower ever? I sure think so.

2 months

Another month has passed by and now my little baby is 2 months old. She is such a sweet little girl. She went to the doctor's office yesterday and got her shots. They made her very sleepy. She slept for 10 hours straight and then woke up to eat and then right back to sleep. After 5 more hours I decided to wake her up because I thought she should eat more than twice in 15 hours! She weighed in at 11 pounds 6 ounces and 22 3/4 inches. For weight she was in the 75th percentile and for height and head circumference she was in the 70th percentile. She is smiling up a storm and every once in a while we get a laugh, but loves to coo. She is just so much fun!

Friends

Kaitlyn has a new friend BreAnna. A week and a half ago we got together with our friends Laura and Andrew because we both wanted to see each others' babies. We had a fun night of catching up with each other and introducing our babies together. As you can see they became really good friends as they are holding hands in the picture. It is fun to see Kaitlyn already has friends at such a young age.

Isn't My Bum Cute?!!?

We finally got the rest of our cloth diapers in and they are so fun to use. We have them in pink, blue, yellow, green, and white. It is fun to go in her drawer and pick out the color diaper that she will wear. It will be fun in the summer for her bum to poke out from underneath her dress and see them. It is definitely more affordable than disposable diapers. Plus, it is a lot better to not have to throw all those diapers in the landfill. An amazing fact that I learned was that diapers are the number 3 thing disposed of in landfills. I am not sure what number 1 and 2 are though. The other cool thing is that they are just as easy as using a regular diaper because they just velcro on like a regular diaper and your done. They just have a little pocket inside that you put an insert in to absorb everything and the actual diaper wicks away all the moisture from their skin. Pretty cool invention I think.

6 of 6

This was a tag from one of my old work buddies. You pick the 6th pic out of your 6th file and post it. Then tag 6 of your friends to do the same.This is a funny picture. This was our first Christmas married, and we lived in student housing. We decided to make a gingerbread house (which I don't think we ever finished). Steve has the biggest, bushiest goatee ever. Looking back, it is disgusting, but I didn't think so at the time. Steve thinks the picture is hilarious.

I tag Char, Cody, The Burtons, The Leiters, April, Aubree , and all the rest of my blog friends that I haven't yet mentioned.

San Francisco

Since school is on Fall break right now, we went to San Francisco this past weekend through today. We had a ton of fun visiting my brother and sister-in-law and seeing some of the touristy things of San Francisco. On Sunday Steve and I went to the 49rs game. Kaitlyn stayed with her aunt and uncle, which is the longest we have ever left her. We had a ton of fun at the game even though they lost. It was both of our first time going to an NFL game. On Monday we went into San Francisco and saw a lot of the cool sights there, then we went to Christen's school to see what she does there. On Tuesday we went up to Muir Woods where we hiked through the coastal redwoods. It was absolutely gorgeous. Kaitlyn slept the entire time in her front carrier on her daddy. Today we went and toured around Stanford University with Matt. That university is absolutely amazing. The architecture is just so beautiful.

Follow Our Blog

So I added a link below our pictures to follow our blog. I would love for you to follow our blog. I am going to leave this link up for a couple of weeks if you want to add us to your followers, then I am going to get rid of it because I think it looks kind of dumb on the side bar.

Fall Colors

Last week Steve, Kaitlyn, and I drove up Ogden Canyon to take a look at the Fall colors. They were absolutely amazing. I thought I would let you all take a peak at the colors; although, these pictures don't do them justice. After driving to see Fall colors we went up to grab a bite to eat in Ogden. We decided on Gandolfos. In the middle of eating Steve noticed that they weren't using gloves to prepare the food. I then remembered back that they hadn't, nor had they washed their hands in between handling our money and making our food! I was so disgusted by it that I confronted one of the workers (the one who took our money and made our food). He denied not using gloves and acted offended that I would ask. While I was asking him I could see another worker slicing tomatoes without gloves! I was so disgusted the whole drive home. The next day I called the health department to report it. I will never eat there again!

P.S. Do any of you experienced mothers have any ideas on how to get Kaitlyn to sleep in her crib or cradle. After about 2 or 3 weeks she decided she wouldn't anymore at night or during the day. I continuously try with no success during the day or night, but I don't want her sleeping in our bed. I love that she loves to cuddle, but nighttime gets to be too much. During the day she won't take a good nap unless someone is holding her. Also, since she is officially 6 weeks old now I want to start getting her on a schedule. Any good books to read to help with that?

1 month old!

Our cute little Kaitlyn is 1 month old today. We have grown to love her more than we could have ever imagined. Time is flying by fast, and soon I will be going back to work. That will be a hard day for me. In the past month Kaitlyn has grown a lot and so have Steve and I for that fact. Some of the milestones we have hit are:



Kaitlyn can:
*follow people with her eyes as they move across the room
*take a pacifier (that took 3 1/2 weeks)
*smile
*hold her head up for the most part
*coo and makes noises at people
*take a bottle (breastmilk bottle)
*gained almost 2 1/2 pounds in 4 weeks with rolls in her thighs, arms, and neck to show for it
*9 pounds 12 ounces at 4 weeks

Steve and I have hit the biggest milestone and that is to learn to calm her down when she is crying. This has been a struggle for us since she has been a crier. She has cried for hours on end through the day and night for days in a row. When we finally went into the pediatrician at 4 weeks for a weight check and she told us she wanted us to buy this DVD called "The Happiest Baby on the Block" by Dr. Harvey Karp. She told us that this would help us with our crying baby to calm her down. Sure enough we watched it that night and we can now get her to stop crying in less than 10 seconds rather than hours. No more unsuccessful car rides anymore because this DVD works! I would recommend it to anyone that has a baby. Even if they aren't excessively fussy. I feel so much more sane now, and Kaitlyn feels more comforted. Steve loves it because he feels like he can be a real help now with calming her down, and he is.

Enterprise sucks

We finally took our car into get fixed from the biker that hit us last month. Just as a side note we are not going to get any money out of that biker which makes me kind of mad, but I expected it. Anyway, our insurance set us up with Enterprise for a car rental while our car is in the shop. When they set us up with it a couple of weeks ago I specifically talked to Enterprise car rental about how I wanted a smaller car that is more economical with gas. They said they would make note of it, but to remind them when we came to rent the car. I did this because last time we rented with them they didn't even have a car to rent that was within the price range our insurance would pay, so they gave us a yucky ford taurus to drive. When we returned it they tried to charge us for the difference, but I had to stick my ground and tell them their lack of cars was the reason that we had the ford in the first place. So, when they came to pick up Steve at the body shop the lady pulled up in a big white van with all the seats out of the back. It just had the 2 front seats and that's all. She told Steve that they were out of cars and so he could either have the van or they had one small SUV left at the Murray location. Steve decided on the SUV since the van didn't even have enough seats. When he got there they refused to take my credit card because I wasn't there. I threw a fit about it because I sent my ID and everything and didn't want them to use my debit card since they actually have to charge it. After all that I found out about the SUV and so I told Steve to just wait while I called insurance to find another place to rent from since they didn't grant my request of a smaller more economical car. While I was on the phone calling insurance Steve called back saying they were willing to give us a gas credit of a half a tank to compensate the difference if we would just take the SUV. Steve and I decided to do that. It was so annoying that they rent out all their cars knowing for a couple weeks that we were renting from them. Maybe Enterprise should figure out how to rent out cars and have enough in stock or not overbook their rentals, especially when I called a couple weeks in advance!

Kaitlyn's First Bottle

Kaitlyn's first bottle

This past weekend Steve's two sisters were in town visiting. Holly left for South Africa with an unknown return date and Martianne is actually still here in town until Wednesday. It was fun to see both of them and have them meet little Kaitlyn. Well, she is actually not so little anymore. She is growing to be a big chunk. She is fully into her 0-3 month clothing, but I am sure will be out of them in the next month if she doesn't stop growing so fast because they fit absolutely perfectly right now. On Thursday she will be 4 weeks old! I can't believe 4 weeks has already past by. She has definitely made some huge strides in the past 4 weeks.

Along with Holly and Martianne being in town, we all came down with a cold/flu bug this past weekend. Mostly it has been Steve, Judy, Randy (in Colorado), Justin (in Phoenix), and my mom. Steve has been wearing a mask on the few occasions that he has held Kaitlyn. I have been on the border of coming down with it, but it looks as though I am not going to get the worst of it. That is good because I have been trying so hard to keep Kaitlyn from getting this yucky bug too since she is so little. So far we have been successful.

ESPN in HD

So today Melanie called Comcast because I guess we haven't paid our bill since July. While she was talking to them I asked her to talk to them about how much it would be to upgrade our package so we can get more HD channels because I wanted ESPN in HD. Well to my pleasant surprise they told Melanie that we already had ESPN in HD and apparently a lot of other channels that we didn't know about. It made me so happy because if any of you are a big sports fan like me you know how much better watching sports in High Definition is than on regular TV. It is so cool, Monday night football is on tonight and the picture is so clear I love it. I am so excited to now be able to watch all my favorite sports and games in HD, it is going to be awesome.

Kaitlyn's First Real Bath

Here are some pictures of Kaitlyn taking her first real bath. Her umbilical cord fell off this week, so now there are no more sponge baths for her. She seems to really like it because she is in the water and it keeps her a lot warmer. We also went to her two week appointment and the doctor said she is perfect. She weighed in at 8 pounds 5 ounces, which is great because she is gaining 1 and a 1/2 ounces per day. Melanie is also excited because the doctor said that this coming week we should start to introduce the bottle to Kaitlyn as well since Melanie will be going back to work. This means that when I don't have early school I get to do the middle of the night feeding (lucky me).

Pajama Day

Tonight we had a pajama night because Melanie was told to take it easy obviously and just stay in pajamas for two weeks. Melanie and Kaitlyn were in their pajamas the whole day but I joined the fun later in the night. Last night was a very hard night, Kaitlyn kept both of us up crying and demanding her food. Although we are very tired we love having our beautiful daughter in our home, there is such a peaceful feeling with her here.

Announcing Kaitlyn Elise Harris!

Everything went really well with Kaitlyn's delivery. We were blessed with no complications at all. She was born at 11:18pm on August 28, 2008. She was 7 lbs. 9 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long. She cried pretty much her whole first 3 hours of life, but now she is pretty content. She still tells us her opinion when she has one though. She doesn't like getting put in the carseat when she is awake or getting dressed. Other than that, she has been a very happy baby. Enjoy the pictures!

An Update

Just for an update.....There is still no baby. The plan is to induce me tomorrow. I guess I am third on the list of 'indicated' inductions. My midwife said that means I might not get in first thing in the morning, but that I will get in tomorrow. As of yesterday the baby kicking around enjoying herself still. Little does she know we are about to give her the boot out of her warm, dark space. I was dilated to a 3 and still 90% effaced. So, not much change from the week before.

What happened to my hope of going early?

Well so much for all the text book theories of the signs that labor is coming near. I think I have had everyone one of them minus the contractions that says you should deliver within the next two weeks, and that was over two weeks ago! So, now I am just sitting around until the baby decides that she wants to come out. My midwife said that there are no openings at the hospital until next Thursday to be induced! (That means you win Christen if I don't go into labor before I am induced. I have my bets on your date now!) With my due date being today, that is 1 week past my due date. Hopefully I will just go into labor before then, but I am not counting on it. I am just planning on being around until next week. So, if you have any suggestions of things to keep me busy let me know. I have already decided that I will go to the gym everyday because that will keep me active and feeling good, especially since I won't be able to right after the baby is born anyway. Please give me some ideas to keep me from going insane this next week.

Why are bikers so stupid on the road?

Last Thursday
on the 7th of August Melanie and I were driving to our mid-wife appointment.
I stopped at the intersection of 11th east and 3rd south because it was a four way stop. I looked both ways and didn't see any cars so I started to go. When I got about half way through the intersection Melanie screamed my name and then all of the sudden I heard this big thud in the back of my car. I was wondering what had hit us and when I looked back I saw a guy skidding across the pavement. I was scared out of my mind because I initially thought that this was my fault that I had hit a biker and almost killed him. Luckily this guy only had minor injuries, just a few gashes on his leg and that was it.
So the reason why I did not see the biker is because on that intersection if you are heading north on 11th east there is a big wall and trees on your right side blocking your view from seeing all the way up 3rd south which is a big hill. So apparently the biker was being stupid because he saw me stop at the stop sign and then go and for some reason he decided not to stop. He was going about 25 to 30 mph and he had no plan in stopping. He ran the stop sign and tried to swerve out of the way but he he hit me. What an idiot. Luckily there was a witness who saw the whole thing and called the police. We first thought he was against us and was going to say that it was my fault, but when he filled out his police report he said that the biker was being stupid and ran the stop sign. The biker got a ticket and he is supposed to pay for the damage of our car but so far our insurance has not been able to contact the kid to get the money. So we may be out of 500 dollars to get are car fixed. This sucks hopefully the dumb kid will pay so the car will get fixed.

The Baby Room

Well, after much time and hard work the baby room is complete. I didn't think that we would ever get it done, but it is complete now. I am really excited for how the room has turned out. The only thing we will still probably add to the room is some curtains to the window, but that is no big deal. I went to my midwife today and she said I was dilated to a 1 and 40% effaced. I was a little disappointed with that, but she seemed to think that was pretty good. The baby is posterior, meaning she is facing forward instead of backward. Hopefully she will cooperate and turn around so that labor is a little easier. She thinks she is engaged in the pelvis. So, hopefully we will see Kaitlyn in the next couple of weeks. Especially since my due date is 2 weeks from today! My midwife is guessing that she is between 6 1/2 to 7 pounds right now.

Memory Game

1. As a comment on this post, leave one memory that you and Steve or I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.And if you're just a "lurker" that I don't know very well, please use this as an excuse to comment and say hello!

Could my delivery be coming sooner than August 21st?

So, a lot of people tell me that I am sitting pretty low with my pregnancy. I have felt like that too since I haven't really had any problems with indigestion or the baby kicking under my ribs much. Last night when I was laying in bed I had about 4 contractions that were definitely stronger than other ones I had had. I got pains all the way down in my groin. It felt like the baby's bony something (probably head) pushing against my pubic bones, and then it would radiate down my leg. This happened a couple times and I seriously had to think of something else to make it not hurt so much. I am hoping that this is a sign that the baby has already descended into my pelvis and that I am closer to delivery than my due date or even being overdue. I am 36 weeks tomorrow, and so almost full term. I think that my midwife will check me next week to see if I have dilated or effaced at all. Hopefully good news will come of that and we can see our baby in the next 3 weeks or so. Who knows, I am probably just getting my hopes up too early.

Why is it so hard to go camping?

I don't know if any of you remember the post last September about us trying to go camping over Labor Day weekend. Well, it didn't happen because it was snow with lightning and thunder in a 3 hour radius of our house in every direction. So, this year when Memorial Day weekend came I wanted to go camping. We didn't end up going because Steve was so busy with school that we just didn't have the time. So, the first weekend we had available to go again was this past weekend. We have been planning on it forever. We got everything packed and drove up the canyon to go, but the first place we wanted to go was still closed from winter. Then, we drove to another place up Little Cottonwood Canyon and they were completely full. I was not happy at this point because I was so excited to finally be going camping. Steve had planned all the meals and everything so that we could dutch oven. We drove over to my parents and called every place that was within an hour of our house and not one place had an open site! How is that possible! I was definitely not happy at this point, but we decided to make the best of it anyway. We still dutch ovened that night and then on Saturday we spent the day up Millcreek Canyon playing games and then Steve made dinner again that night. It was probably the next best thing to camping, but still not as good. The next weekend we have available is the weekend before my due date. I figure we might as well plan on it because it probably won't happen. That would mean the baby is already born, and that would definitely be better. So, one of the two might as well happen.

Mr. Harris

Well it is official I am going to graduate in 2010. I just received my letter of acceptance to the Elementary Education Program at the University of Utah. I start my student teaching in 2009 and will complete the program May 2010. It is such a relief to know that I have been accepted and now I only have to worry about my classes and not wonder if I will get into the program. I can't wait to become a teacher. It is going to be a lot of fun helping kids and knowing that I could make a difference in their lives. I can't think of a better career than that.

Our 24th Birthdays

Steve and I both celebrated our birthdays this month. In fact, we are only 18 days apart. Thanks to everyone who called and wrote to us. It is great to be remembered. For my birthday, I decided I wanted to go bowling. So, Steve took me to a yummy Mexican restaurant, Tres Hombres, and then out to bowling. Steve got me the coolest gift ever! He had our wedding vows from our ring ceremony professionally framed along with a picture of us at our wedding. This is something I have been wanting to do since we got married, and I talk about it all the time, but I have never done it. So, Steve decided to do it all on his own and surprise me with it for my birthday.

For Steve's birthday we stayed overnight at the Anniversary Inn. We had a free night stay there. So, we decided to use it for his birthday. We stayed in the South Pacific room (or something like that). It was really cool. The jetted bathtub had a waterfall that ran into it. Plus, the whole bed was under this grass hut thing. We would both definitely recommend it to anyone that wants a little get away.

31 week Ultrasound

Last week Steve and I went for an ultrasound at Fetal Foto. We went on Monday and she just wouldn't cooperate. She had her hands in front of her face and refused to move them no matter what we did or what I ate. Steve even tried playing music and vibrating his phone at my belly to get her to move them, but she didn't want to move them. So, we went back on Wednesday, and with a little coaxing she took her hands off her face. But, as you can see in one of the photos she just put it right below her chin. It looks as though she already has chubby cheeks and she has 8 wks more to go! We can't wait to see her. This week we have been painting the room, and we are going to set up the crib and dresser this weekend. I will post more of that later.

Prego Belly Shirt

Isn't this shirt cute? My sister has a friend that designed these shirts and has a website that sells them in California. I guess they are a big hit there and some of the movie stars have even bought them. I am now 28 weeks and the baby is growing tons. She loves to kick and move my belly around a lot. I have been so lucky in how well this pregnancy has been going. I haven't had any real problems physically with it. Only 12 more weeks left!

If you would like to see the website where they sell them it is: www.tummyts.com

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day Steve and I went to some of his family's grave sites. It really nice to be able to do this and spend the time talking about some of his family members that have passes away. I didn't grow up really doing that, and so I have only done it one year with all my family members in California. Someday I would love to go back and do the same thing. We also decided to go and visit President Hinckley's grave, especially since this is the first Memorial Day that he hasn't been around. We didn't know exactly where it was and so we drove around the cemetary until we found it. Luckily, it didn't take us too long to find it. His tall memorial headstone (not really the headstone, but I don't know what you call it) is made out of stone from the Salt Lake Temple and Conference Center. I thought this was so cool that they were able to do that. Of course lots of people had put flowers over his grave. So many, in fact, that you couldn't even see his headstone or Marjorie's very well. There were letters from what looked like small children placed over his grave too. He is definitely a missed prophet from people of all ages.

My Nasty Bike Accident

Last Monday, the 19th, I was riding home from school to go visit Melanie. I was riding down a sidewalk up at the University of Utah and I was going kind of fast. I went down and caught a little bit of air and the force of me landing made the screws to the wheel of my bike break off. I BIFFED it hard core. I flew off the bike and landed on my arm, shoulder, and head. Thankfully I was wearing a helmet. I was in complete shock when it happened, but I was able to get up despite all the pain and check myself to see if I was okay. I was in a lot of pain of course; so, I called Melanie and she came and picked me up and took me home. She was a great nurse; she cleaned me up and put bandages all over me. As you can see I have scrapes and cuts all over from my head all the way down to my knees and feet. When the accident happened my back hurt really bad and Melanie was really worried that I had seriously injured it. So we went to Instacare and got an x-ray and thankfully everything was okay. This past week has been a painful recovery, but every day I feel a lot better than the previous.

Hawaii

Steve and I went to Hawaii with my parents for 12 nights. We went to Oahu and the Big Island. While we were on Oahu we were able to spend a couple of days with his cousins B, Jenny and Rex. It was fun to see them since it has been over a year. We were able to do many fun activities such as, go to the polynesian cultural center, go to both temples, see Pearl Harbor, tour the waterfalls and volcanoes, be beach bums, and celebrate our 2nd anniversary. For our anniversary we went out to a really nice dinner at the Hilton hotel. The hotel was really cool because we had to take a boat over to the restaurant where we passed by some dolphins. Neither of us had ever spent that much on a dinner before, but it was definitely worth it. Hawaii is just expensive like that. Just for an idea, we had 4 jumbo macadamia nut shrimp for our appetizer which costed $18. They sure know how to work the tourists. The trip was a blast and the weather was perfect. This was our great last blast of a trip before Kaitlyn joins us in August and we will take trips as the 3 of us.