Happy Birthday Kelly!

Today is my sister Kelly's 13th birthday. Kelly is my youngest sister (she's the one on the right in the photo below). I just wanted to let her know that I was thinking about her today and I hope she had a wonderful birthday :)
We celebrated Tom having the day off work today by going to the mall. This was Harper's first mall trip and she was so good, she basically slept the entire time.
Today when I was putting her in her pajamas, it really hit me how much bigger she is than when she came home from the hospital. The first picture was taken the day she came home and the second was taken this evening.
Crazy. She will be five weeks old tomorrow and I can't believe the difference.

Also, I just wanted to post a video that our friends Joshua and Charlotte made. It actually made it onto the Yahoo homepage today. Enjoy.

Well, Tom just finished his first week at work and so far so good. The office he is working at is much smaller than the office he worked at last summer so there are only a few other summer associates. Harper and I enjoyed our first week home alone. It seems to me like she's getting really big, but everyone still comments about how tiny she is. She has started to smile more, though I have yet to catch a really good one with the camera, and she has actually slept for a 4.5+ stretch at night a couple of times. Woohoo. My brother, Chase, has requested a picture of Harper with a mohawk. I took this one the other day. I don't think she liked it.

I have been contemplating whether Harper looks more like me or Tom. I don't have a picture of Tom when he was a newborn, but here is one of me to compare:Other than the fact that we both have a lot of unruly hair, I don't think we look much alike. I was quite happy to discover that she did not inherit my ears. I do, however, think she inherited my long, skinny, monkey-like toes:

By the way, we are going to bless Harper in my mom's ward in Salt Lake next month and everyone is welcome to attend. Her blessing will be on June 29th at 1 pm. My parents ward meets here and then we are going to be getting together for refreshments afterward. Let me know if you have any questions.

video

Click here to view the larger version.
Untitled from Erica Jackman on Vimeo.

four weeks old

Wow, I can't believe Harper is already four weeks old. She is getting bigger, holding her head up better, and showing a lot more personality. We have been home alone together for the past couple days since Tom started his internship for the summer. Here's a picture of Tom with Harper yesterday morning. He was sad to leave his baby behind.
After staying awake basically all day Sunday, Harper slept through a large part of the night and then most of Monday. But she was back to normal today. Here's a couple photos of her trying to lifting her head up this morning. I can't believe how lucky I am to be her mom.

weekend photos

There's not much going on with us. I've been napping during the day to make up for missing sleep at night, so all of the days are kind of blending together. Harper is doing great. She has basically been up all day today with the exception of a few very short naps, so hopefully that means she will sleep well tonight. Most nights she sleeps for three hour stretches, but she will occassionally sleep four hours at a time and one night even slept for five hours.

Here are a few photos from this weekend.

Yay!

We had yet another doctor's appointment this morning to check Harper's weight and she is finally over her birth weight. She weighed in at just under 8 lbs. 5 oz. and she has grown an inch since she was born. She is looking great and she is just as sweet as ever. I feel so lucky to be her mom, I can't believe she is already more than three weeks old :)
Tom and I have been enjoying his week off. We haven't really done much, but it has been nice not to have to worry about getting things done. He starts his summer internship on Monday, so it will just be me and Harper hanging out together all day.

is that a smile?

Ok, it probably wasn't intentional but it was definitely cute. Sorry the second picture is a little blurry, but I thought it was cute so I'm putting it on here anyway.

Curse the World

Someone needs to write Prego and let them know that they have messed up royally. Don't they know that everyone sells pasta in bags with 8 servings a package? So why do they and everyone else in the industry make pasta sauce in 6 serving jars? I thought the food companies learned their lesson from the hot dog / bun fiasco...or have they?

Happy Mother's Day

This was my first Mother's Day and I am now more grateful for my mother than ever. I love the relationship that I have with my mother and I really hope that I can have a similar relationship with Harper. My mother is fantastic. Here are a few of the many, many things I love and admire about my mom:

• she stayed up late checking my math homework every night when I was in elementary school
• she handles a classroom full of middle school students better than anyone I've ever seen
• she went back to college to get her teaching certification when I was in high school and then got a masters degree
• she ran a daycare full of crazy kids until I was 15 so that she could stay home with us
• she has always supported the decisions that I have made
• she has a great sense of humor and I love laughing with her
• she is an amazing cook, she makes the best rolls, yum :)
  
• she is a wonderful grandmother to Harper and I have had so much fun dressing Harper in the cute clothes she bought her

That is just a very short list of the many wonderful things about my mom. I'm pretty sure I posted this picture last year, but I love it so I'm going to post it again anyway. Here's a picture of me with my mother and my mother's mother from when I got my bridal pictures taken:
And I know that all of my family is now reading strictly for photos of Harper, here are a couple. Today was her first day at church. Tom took some photos of me and Harper afterward, but she was not very cooperative.

Done with finals

Tom just finished finals and we now have a little over a week before he starts working for the summer. It has been tough trying to let Tom stay well rested and prepare for finals while I have been up with Harper. We are looking forward to having him home with us for a few days :)

ER Visit (don't worry, it wasn't for Harper)

Sorry I haven't posted any pictures in a couple of days. Harper and I took a nap Monday afternoon and when we woke up, I was shaking and had a fever of 102. Groan. I called the ER since my doctor's office was already closed and I was worried that my c-section incision might be infected, and they told me that I should come in. Three hours later I found out that it was just a really bad urinary tract infection and I am now on antibiotics. I'm feeling a little better, but this has definitely slowed me down a little. I am so grateful for Tom. He spent all of that time in the ER with me even though he really needed to be preparing for finals. I have such a wonderful husband.

Speaking of my wonderful husband . . . Tom has a final paper due tomorrow, but instead of working on it earlier this evening, I found him hanging out with Harper. They're so cute together

Harper is doing great. We had her 2 week appointment on Monday and she is getting closer to her birth weight, though we have to go back next week to make sure she is still gaining weight. She weighed 8 lbs. 1 oz. when she was born and she was 7 lbs. 11 oz. on Monday (she was down to 7 lbs. 4 oz. at her first appointment). She is quite a bit more alert during the daytime which has been fun (but I am getting a lot less done). My mom went home on Sunday night and we are missing her. It was so nice to get to spend time with her and have some extra help, especially since Tom has been busy with finals.

Yesterday we got a package in the mail from Irell (the firm that Tom worked for last summer) and it had this beautiful blanket with Harper's name and date of birth. They have been so good to us :)

Who me?

Current record for soiling a fresh diaper: 12.8 seconds

bath time

I can't believe how much Harper has changed in the last week and a half. She will actually let me bathe her and change her diaper without screaming and she has started sucking her thumb when she gets upset. My mom and I have been having fun just hanging out at home and taking turns holding her. Unfortunately, she spends most of the afternoon sleeping and then wants to wake up every 90 minutes or so at night. I'm pretty tired, but Harper is wonderful and I love spending time with her.

Here's a photo of Harper with her glow worm. If she gets really upset and I squeeze the glow worm so that it plays music, she usually calms down for a few seconds. It's really cute
Here's Harper with my mom. She's trying to find her thumb. I think most of the time she finds it by accident, but it seems like she's finding it more often.
We gave Harper a bath tonight and she seemed to love it (every other bath she has had involved a lot of screaming). She even tried to drink the bath water. The bath went well, but she didn't enjoy the cold air after her bath.