So Long, Farewell 2015

January: my last month of pregnancy! Harley was supposed to make her debut this month, but decided that she wanted a February birthday instead. Stubborn little thing from the start! ;) All I really remember from January was being huge and miserable, and dying for Harley to come. I went on countless walks trying to make myself go into labor. I would start having contractions and get all excited, but then they would stop. I didn't ever want to go anywhere because I was afraid my water would break inside Target or something.

SO TRUE!

One of the last pics of me before having Harley

Trying to "rock" her out 

February: I become a mom! Best thing in the world! Harley was born on the 3rd, and we spent most of that month just soaking it all in and learning to be parents to our precious little gift. When she was 3 weeks old, we took a little trip down to Corvallis, OR to visit Jason's grandparents.

The most perfect chubby cheeks

Newborn photo shoot

March: Nothing too memorable here, so enjoy some pictures.

Church

So precious. I'm sad she outgrew this before ever wearing it again

Looks just like Daddy!

Jason decided it would be fun to burn himself with 400 degree bacon grease

Blue steel

Sweetheart

April: Harley and I flew to California for Amber's (my best friend, Harley's godmother) wedding. First time flying and traveling with a baby, and I had to do it solo. Luckily my child is amazing and is an awesome traveler! We also celebrated Easter, Harley's baby blessing, and had some family come visit.

My cousin Brittany and her son Isaiah (Elijah was in her tummy)

Harley meeting her cousin Aiden for the first time. He said "Hi Harley, I'm Aiden Richard Gavel." SO cute! She loved him.

Baby blessing at my mom's house

Baby's first Easter

All smiles at Amber's wedding

Three pretty cousins!

All prettied up for the wedding

May: I got to celebrate my first Mother's Day. Harley moved into her crib and her own bedroom.

June: Jason and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. We left Harley with grandma and went out to dinner. I got a "mom" haircut, because it was super hot and I just needed to chop it all off. We drove down to Oregon for a day of river rafting with Jason's family. Harley and I went to California again for my friend Liz's wedding. She was a pro traveler by now! I took her to the beach for the first time, but it was super windy and she didn't like all the sand blowing in her face.

July: We spent 4th of July with Jason's family. Harley did not like the fireworks, but slept through the ones that went all night when we got home. I turned 29, and went to birthday brunch at IHOP with Eliza (my birthday twin). Michelle and her family came to visit, we went to Lattin's and the county fair. It was a very hot Washington summer so we spent a lot of time swimming.

Birthday twins

August: We had a family reunion in southern Oregon. Harley loved having lots of family to love her and cousins to play with.

September: Jason turned 27 and traveled to Chicago for work. Harley and I took that opportunity to go to California for the third time in 2015! This time we went to San Francisco and the Santa Cruz boardwalk, and Harley discovered that rides are fun!

October: Harley had a really bad allergic reaction that resulted in her first trip to the ER (it was Sunday, otherwise I would have just taken her to her doctor). We never did figure out what caused it but it hasn't happened since. It was really rainy on Halloween but we braved the rain and crowds and took Harley to the mall and then trunk or treat. On Kim's birthday, we went to O'Blarney's and the pumpkin patch. 

November: We went to Idaho for the week of Thanksgiving and spent it with Jason's family. Harley got to see snow for the first time, and jump on a trampoline. We also drove down to Utah for a night to see my grandma and family.

December: Jason surprised me with tickets to see the Sound of Music live in Seattle. It was amazing! Harley loved her first Christmas, and as expected, was more interested in the wrapping paper than the actual presents. For New Year's Eve we went to Jason's parents for dinner and games, and came home to put Harley to bed. I fell asleep around 11:30, and Jason rang in the new year with his friend playing video games online together haha.

2015 was an amazing year. I finally became a mother, and Harley is the greatest blessing I could have ever asked for. Jason and I love being her parents. I hope you all had a great year, and may 2016

be even better! 

Family Updates

I remember thinking that once I had a baby, I'd blog all the time. The last time I blogged, Harley was 7 weeks old. She is currently 5 1/2 months. Oops!

We are currently renting my mom's downstairs to save money. It's nice having a built-in babysitter, and Grandma and Grandpa LOVE seeing Harley every day! Auntie Kimmee moved home from New Mexico so it's a full house, and Harley loves having so many people around who love her to death!

Jason is still working for his father building decks and I am still doing online school. I had a 3 month leave of absence when I had Harley but I am back into it. I'm also starting to work out regularly again FINALLY! I was getting tired of being stuck in between maternity and regular clothes. I'm excited to start seeing some results and getting my pre-baby body back!

Some fun things about Miss Harley Savannah:

• Currently in the 100th percentile for height and 64th for weight
• Started eating solids at 4 1/2 months with her doctor's okay (she has been showing an interest in food since she was almost 3 months old!)
• LOVES eating and usually cries when she is done
• A few days ago she started sitting up by herself
• Refuses to roll over because she doesn't want to be on her stomach
• Sleeps through the night most of the time
• Loves being outside
• Loves her kitties! Zuko loves her back but Jack doesn't really pay much attention to her
• Giggles at Daddy the most (even when he doesn't do anything to make her laugh)
• Smiles when she sees cell phones because she thinks we're going to take a picture of her
• Loves looking at herself in the mirror
• Screams, squeals, shrieks, and says "mama"
• When I lay her down on the floor, within a matter of minutes she is in a different place or turned completely different
• Heard her daddy's voice on speakerphone once and started smiling and giggling immediately
• Loves baths
• Hates me touching her face at all (wiping off her face, picking her nose, wiping eye goobers out, etc.)
• Doesn't like hearing other babies cry
• Enjoys being serenaded and watching me dance like an idiot
• Likes being read to, and likes to "read" the books back to me
• Very good at entertaining herself so mommy can get stuff done
• Loves people, and all the attention she gets from strangers when we are in public
• Still breastfeeding, but my supply has started decreasing. I've been taking fenugreek to keep it up
• Has already flown on a plane twice to CA for two different weddings. She's an amazing traveler!

Now for the pictures!

I truly cannot believe how big my little girl is getting! It is so much fun to see her grow and watch her personality develop, but I already miss her being a tiny little thing! Time is flying by and I just want to pause haha. I finally understand why parents always say that! Either way, I absolutely LOVE this child. She is such a blessing in my life and makes me so happy. I'm incredibly lucky to be her mom. I couldn't have picked a better baby, I love my crazy weird spaz of a child!

Harley Savannah

This little cutie pie has me completely wrapped around her little finger. She has so much personality and I love every second of being her mommy. She will be 7 weeks old tomorrow, I can't believe it!

Some Harley Fun Facts:

• She can roll over from her tummy to her back.
• She is ALWAYS moving--kicking her legs, jerking her head around, flailing her arms and fists in the air. I love it. She is such a little spaz :) That's how she was in my stomach also.
• She usually sleeps 5-8 hours a time at night, it's wonderful. I sleep way better now than I did when I was pregnant!
• She smiles all the time and I am obsessed. 
• She usually falls asleep when we go in the car or when I wear her in the Moby wrap. She's easy to run errands with because of this.
• We went on our first date without Harley and let Grandma babysit. It was a spontaneous date meaning I didn't have time to pump, so Harley had to have some formula which made her gag but she drank it like a champ :) The next time I tried to give her a bottle (of breast milk) she looked really hesitant and cautious, expecting it to be yucky formula haha.
• She snores! It's super cute.
• She has the silliest facial expressions.
• She used to HATE baths and getting her clothes changed but now she doesn't mind.
• She is "talking" more and more, and she tries to laugh but hasn't quite figured it out ;)

Here are some pics of my favorite little lady!

Harley's Birth Story

Disclaimer: If birth-related things gross you out, you may not want to read this. I wanted to write down every detail that I remember and some people may not want to know everything. If that's you, don't read. If you don't mind, read on! :)

Harley was due January 25. I hoped she'd come a little early because I was really tired of being pregnant and huge, but I had a feeling she'd be a stubborn little thing and come late. I had asked my midwives about induction, and they said they wouldn't do it any earlier than 41 weeks. That fell on the weekend and apparently the hospital doesn't like to do inductions on the weekends so I had to schedule it for Monday the 2nd.

The night before the induction I could not sleep at all. I knew I needed to get some rest but it did not happen. It was like Christmas Eve, I knew that within the next day or two I'd have my precious little girl! We woke up at 6:30am to call the hospital and make sure they had room for me. I was going to freak out if they said no, but fortunately they told me to come in at 7:30. I texted our doula Rianne and she said she'd meet us at the hospital.

After checking in and getting settled, the nurse asked if I wanted to have some music. They had Pandora playing a Norah Jones station and I told them that Harley liked Bon Jovi, so the whole time I was in labor we listened to 80's rock music. Who wouldn't want to enter the world to that??

They did my first examination at about 8:30am. I was 2cm dilated and 0% effaced, which was disappointing since they had told me I was about 60% effaced less than a week before. My midwife Morgan discussed my induction options with me, and we decided the first thing to try would be a pill that they put in my cervix that would make me have contractions. While waiting for the pill to do its job, I walked around, bounced on a birthing ball, ate breakfast and just hung out. It worked, but not well enough. I was having small, frequent contractions that I couldn't even feel. I was dilated a half a centimeter more and was 50% effaced. I had some visitors, Shaun and Eliza, who brought me and Jason food and kept us company.

At around 1:30pm I was given pitocin, which I had kind of wanted to avoid after hearing some horror stories. It was the best option though. Morgan didn't feel comfortable breaking my water because the baby wasn't low enough. The pitocin definitely worked. I began having very painful, intense contractions that were really close together. It got to the point where my contractions didn't even pause, I would have one long 10 minute contraction with no break. It was impossible. I threw up a couple times (surprise, surprise). I remember making a conscious effort not to breathe in Jason's face during contractions because I knew I had barf breath haha. Rianne was very helpful in reminding me to breathe through the contractions and I was surprised that it actually seemed to help me get through them. At some point during all this, Jason tried to compare my contractions to some bad gas pain he had a little while ago. I remember thinking, are you kidding me?! Haha. After a few hours I decided I wanted to try laboring in the tub. The heat felt nice but it was also making me feel dizzy and lightheaded. By this point I was positive I could not take the pain anymore so I told Jason I wanted an epidural. Before being induced I was pretty set on having a natural birth, but as I went past my due date and decided to be induced, I knew the chances of me doing it naturally went down. At 5:45 I got the epidural. By then I was dilated 4cm and 80% effaced. Once the epidural kicked in I began feeling MUCH better. I didn't go completely numb, I could still feel and move my legs, and I could feel the pressure of each contraction.

I kept throwing up and feeling nauseous so I asked to have some Zofran. That helped with my nausea, but then I started having really bad acid reflux and every time I would lay down, I would throw up again. I was given Pepsid and finally felt better. Shortly after I was given the Pepsid, around 10pm, I started feeling a strong urge to push. I told the nurse and she said that's a good sign, but didn't really do anything. I told her again a few minutes later that I REALLY felt like I needed to push. She finally went to get Morgan, and when she came in she said "Oh, you're probably dilated to a 7 or so." When she checked me, she was surprised to discover that I was dilated to 9. I told them I needed to push! They had already taken me off the pitocin because it was working too well. Morgan decided she could break my water now and did so at 10:15pm.

At 10:30pm I was fully dilated, but Morgan wanted to let me rest for a little bit. I told her that my epidural was running out and I wanted more, but she told me it would really be better if I could feel when to push. I was starting to feel the pain again so I was scared, but I agreed to try. At about 12:30am I started pushing. I remember wanting to just not push at the next contraction, so I could take a little break but when the contractions hit, I couldn't NOT push. We tried a couple different positions. Jason had originally said he would stay up by my head but he wanted to see the action so he went down to the end of the bed and helped me hold my legs. I felt so incredibly exhausted, I had gotten NO sleep and had no food in me. I pushed for 2 long, excruciating hours. With one really big push, I went from her head not being out at all, to crowning. Nobody was expecting it to happen that fast. Jason's favorite part of my birth story was that with that big push, my catheter flew out. Morgan said she'd never seen that happen before. Since they weren't expecting this to happen so suddenly, they told me to wait while they got the extra doctors and nurses in the room. Up until that point I had been pretty calm, and quiet through my labor. No screaming or yelling, but that was when I started panicking. That big push hurt like nothing else and then they tell me to wait?! I started freaking out and couldn't hold still, I remember squirming all over and yelling "Get her out, pull her out!" Morgan asked if I wanted to reach down and feel her head, and I said no. I just wanted her out! Jason said when her head came out, she turned it and everyone freaked out and had to turn her head back down. Rianne was trying to help me breathe but the pain was too intense to think about anything else. What felt like hours later, they told me to push again and I was able to finish pushing her out. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, and I still can't believe I did it! Harley Savannah Katwijk was born at 2:38am.

She wailed just enough for the pediatrician to not be concerned, and they placed her on me right away. She didn't cry; instead she immediately looked up at me and stared at me with her big beautiful eyes. I got to hold her for about 30-45 minutes while they stitched me up. I tore really badly, and I could feel them stitching me up. It hurt like crazy but I just kept focusing on my sweet baby girl. She weighed 8lbs 9.7 oz and was 20.5 inches long.

It's been over a week since that traumatizing, yet wonderful event. I have wanted Harley for so long and I am ecstatic that she is finally here. She's as perfect as can be, and I am loving every second of being her mama.