Shot Time

It turns out that Harper throwing up her antibiotics every time we gave them to her was in fact a bad thing. She is still getting hammered by the infection several days after we began trying to give her the supposedly beefed up medication. Erica found this out after deciding to take Harper in today in response to her throwing up the antibiotics AGAIN this morning. The pediatrician decided to just give Harper a two shot dose that should take care of things. Erica will be back again tomorrow so Harper can get the second shot. Hopefully this takes care of things.

I want my sweet Harper back.

warning: gross pictures

We have had a long day. I don't know if Harper is having a hard time with the antibiotic or if she's still bothered by the infection or if something else is wrong(she has also had a low grade fever in the evenings), but she has been very cranky lately. I'm also having a really difficult time getting her to swallow her medicine. Her previous antibiotics were nice and pink and smelled very sugary, but this one is a very ugly yellow color and it smells bitter. She does not like it. She has pretty much thrown up or spit out the medicine every time I have given it to her. In fact, after putting her to bed this evening, I walked in to find this (sorry, I know this is gross, but I'm sharing anyway):However, she was in a really good mood. We have been debating when we should move Harper from her bassinet to her crib, but I guess she made the decision for us.

On the bright side, one good thing did happen today. A few weeks ago I bought Harper some booties because I had read that they were basically impossible for a baby to kick off. She wore them once and although she couldn't kick them off, they really irritated her feet. I emailed the company to let them know about the problem. I actually got an email back from the president of the company apologizing and offering to send me an outfit if I would send the booties back. I got the "outfit" today and it was a lot more than I was expecting. Here is Harper with the package before I opened it (I thought the packaging was adorable):The package contained a dress, some leggings, a jumper, a sweater, a beanie, a hat, a bib, a pair of socks, and a blanket. I am so impressed with this company. Here's Harper in the hat. It's a little big on her, but it's so cute!

earthquake?

Harper and I were going for a walk this morning when I got a text message from Tom that said "earthquake" to which I replied "where?". I totally didn't even feel it. Apparently Tom (who works on the 15th floor of his building) experienced quite a bit of swaying, but it looks like Harper slept through her first earthquake.

Harper and I were walking this morning because we were picking up her new bumbo seat that I bought from someone off craigslist. At first she was a little confused by the whole thing. . . but now she's loving it :)

feeling (a little) better?

Harper seems to be doing a little better, however I got a call from her doctor this morning to let me know that the bacteria she has isn't sensitive to the antibiotics we've been giving her. Poor girl.

She has been really cute lately, despite not feeling so great. She has started blowing raspberries, getting really excited when we start to pick her up, and playing with her hands and larger toys. Here are a couple photos from yesterday before church. She loves playing with her hands :)

iFly

Today I went out for the last big event of the Summer associate program. It was a trip to Citywalk, next to Universal Studios, where we did this thing called iFly. The video explains it all. It was pretty fun! Afterward we enjoyed a nice meal at the Hard Rock Cafe. Yes, that's me in the video.


Tom does iFly Hollywood! from Thomas Jackman on Vimeo.

Vesicoureteral Reflux (VUR)

Although the test won't be for a few weeks, according to Wikipedia, Harper has a 70% of having VUR. I'm guessing the percentage is higher because Harper has now had two UTIs in a very short time span. VUR occurs because of the insufficient subtmucosal length of the ureter relative to its diameter. This just means the fluid waste in her body can back up because a valve in her body isn't sealing properly, and this defect causes frequent infection. There are 5 grades of VUR and for grades I and II there is approximately an 85% chance that the problem will resolve itself as one gets bigger and the submucosal ureters grows longer. If that doesn't happen or if she has a more severe grade she will have to undergo surgery to correct the problem. In the meantime she will most likely be put on low dose antibiotics to keep the infection at bay and we will have to take her to a urologist periodically to monitor Harper. The monitoring process is not pleasant at all, although I will probably cry more than Harper. If Harper indeed has VUR, than I pray we get this all resolved before her long term memory kicks in. Please say a little prayer for her. For now we are just greatful this is all we have to deal with. It could be much, much worse.

trip to the grove

Last night Tom called (I assumed he was calling from work) and just as I was asking what time he would be home, he walked through the door and asked if we wanted to go to the mall. Although he is pretty tolerant of the occasional trip, Tom does not enjoy going shopping. So I was quite surprised when he came home last night and was willing to go to the Grove and shop for a bit. I have such a great husband. We have been in LA for two years now and this was our first trip. We had a delicious dinner at a bbq restaurant. . .Spent some time exploring the farmer's market . . .Shared an ice cream cone . . .And did some shopping. It was a lot of fun and was a nice treat since Tom has been working really hard this summer and usually comes home too late in the evening to do anything.

:(

Well, Harper's doctor called this morning and confirmed that she has ANOTHER urinary tract infection. It is likely that she has some sort of kidney reflux problem so we are going to see a specialist in a couple of weeks to get some testing done. Until then our poor little girl is on antibiotics :(

3 months old

weekend in bakersfield

We started out our weekend by babysitting for a couple of cute kids, Shay and Clare, while our friends Jenna and Chris went out for their anniversary. It was a little crazy to have three kids in the house, but we had fun. I lined all three of them up to take a picture, but they all wanted to look at Peter Pan on the TV instead of the camera.

Then on Saturday we went to Bakersfield to visit Tom's parents. It has been a few months since we have been there, so we were glad that we could coordinate a weekend for a visit. Tom made a homemade pizza for everyone:while I relaxed and enjoyed some ice cream:and Harper got some quality time with her wonderful grandparents:

Other recent events

I have been kind of slacking with the blog lately. Here are a few of the things that we have been up to.

-I quit my job. Well, kind of. They gave me the option of coming back part-time, but even part-time is a lot of hours while Tom is working too so I turned it down. They then offered me a "per diem" position where I just come in occassionally if they need me. It turns out they do need me right now so they gave me the option to work as many hours as I want. I'm working for a few hours on Saturday morning so we'll see how that goes. The downside is that I no longer qualify for benefits :( This is a big downside since the spouse/dependent benefits for Tom's student insurance plan aren't very good. My job allowed Harper and I have pretty great insurance for about $26/month. This also included vision and dental insurance for both me and Tom. We are currently exploring other options if anyone has any suggestions. We need to have something in place by September 1st.

-We made a trip to Redlands for Tom to set up some electronics for Tom's aunt and uncle. It was a fun trip since Bob and Judy are wonderful and we also got to go to dinner with Tom's cousin Rachael and her husband Nate who just move to Southern California after living in Tokyo. Plus Tom got to play with new electronics all day which is pretty much his favorite thing.

-We went to a Bastille Day celebration at the home of Hogan's managing partner. I still don't know what Bastille Day is, but it was fun to chat with everyone since I haven't been able to go to many firm events this year.

-Harper and I have been going on lots of walks. Some of you may know that I love going on long walks. After having a c-section, I have been less enthusiastic about this, but I am starting to enjoy them again. Today Harper and I walked from our apartment to Tom's office.

-Harper has started drooling. A lot.

I guess that's about it . . . pretty boring, but pretty great at the same time.

a few photos

While we were in Utah, we went with my mom and my sister to get Harper's pictures taken. My sister just scanned a few of them in for me so I thought I'd share. A couple of the scans didn't turn out so great, so I'll have to try to rescan once they send me the pictures. Here they are!

bath time

Harper has been really funny lately. The other day she was next to me while I was sitting up in our bed and she started to get a little fussy so I propped her up on some pillows next to me. I have never seen her get so excited about anything, it was so funny. She started kicking her legs and looking around and making these really funny squealing noises. She has also started to like standing up when we hold her. She isn't really standing up, she is just kind of locking her knees and swaying around while we hold her up but she loves it.

She is also enjoying her baths. We took a picture of Harper with Tom tonight after her bath and it reminded me of one we took of Harper with my Mom.

She is getting bigger and has outgrown about half of her 0-3 month clothes and fits into a few of her 3-6 month clothes. I can't believe how visible her changes are from day to day.

Guess who slept for 10 hours last night . . .

That's right. I was really surprised to wake up to Tom's alarm clock this morning instead of a crying baby. Harper has gradually been sleeping longer and had been sleeping 6-7 hours and a couple of days ago had slept for 8. Hopefully this was not a fluke. Plus she was so happy when she woke up. She's such a wonderful baby :)Isn't she so cute in that little sleeper? She has lots of clothes, but pretty much doesn't have any pajamas so I was thrilled to find this at Costco. Plus it has the cutest little feet.

One more post . . .

Harper rolled over for the first time today. She absolutely HATES being on her stomach, but I try to give her a little tummy time every day and today she rolled from her stomach to her back. I don't think she enjoyed the experience very much, but she did it. We actually saw her roll over three times (sans the tears) before we were able to catch one with the camera, but here it is. She is such a great baby!

Harper's First Day of Flipping from Thomas Jackman on Vimeo.

night out with the firm

Last night we left Harper with our wonderful friends Jean and Peter and went to dinner with Hogan. This was the first time that we had left her with someone other than a family member (we left her with my family on Saturday night when we went to see Wall-E, which we loved). It was a progressive dinner so they had scheduled a place for us to go for appetizers, dinner, and dessert. We skipped the dessert because I wanted to get back to Harper, but we had a great time.

Hogan rented a Hummer limo for us to get from place to place. This was the first time I had been in a limo so I was pretty excited, but they fit 19 of us inside so the novelty wore off pretty quickly.
Unfortunately, on our way to One Sunset for appetizers, the limo drive got pulled over for running a red light. He then took us to the wrong restaurant, so the evening got off to a rough start. After the appetizers we went to The Lobster, which is right by the Santa Monica pier. I got to try lobster for the first time and, although it was an interesting experience, I don't think I will be trying it again. It was a little too rich for me.
Overall, we had a great evening :) It was great to spend some time getting to know some of the people that Tom has been working with this summer.

The rest of the Utah trip

Tom left Monday morning and took our big camera with him, and I wasn't very good about taking more pictures but I did get a few.

Monday we were able to go to lunch with some of my mom's family. I love spending time with my grandma and my aunts so this was a real treat. One of the things that I have missed most since we moved to California is going to dinner with my grandma, mom, and aunts during the priesthood session of conference. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures.

On Tuesday we spent some time with my dad and his parents. My grandparents drove all the way from eastern Texas to be there for the blessing. We spent some time together, did a little shopping, and had a wonderful dinner.

We had a great trip. I'm getting tired of posting pictures and I have more things to blog about so I will try to get the rest of our photos uploaded to Flickr sometime this weekend.

Utah Part 2 (Harper's blessing)

Sunday we had the opportunity to bless Harper in my mom and stepdad's ward. We had decided to do her blessing in Utah since we both have family in Utah that hadn't been able to meet her. Plus our ward building right now is under construction (there's no air conditioning in the chapel) and many of our friends have moved or are gone for the summer.

Tom gave Harper a wonderful blessing. Afterward we got together with everyone at my mom's house and had a chance to visit. This post will be mostly pictures, but I don't want to leave anyone out. We were so grateful to have so many family members there.

This is from before the blessing. Harper loves her Uncle Chase.This is me, Harper, my mom, and her mom. Harper was asleep.Here we are after the blessing. Harper was so beautiful and she didn't even cry.Here are my maternal grandparents with Harper:And my paternal grandparents:And here we are with Tom's dad and grandpa. Somehow we didn't get one with his grandma Pat or one with my step-grandparents. We'll have to do that on the next trip.Here are a couple of my sisters and a few of my cousins:And here Harper and I are with my sister and her daughter Hailey:And my sister Kara with Harper:We got a picture with my mom, my grandparents, and some of her siblings:Coincidentally, my mom and her two sisters were all wearing black and white:And here's my mom with Harper. I love this picture.