Dinosaur Lover

Harper has been very into dinosaurs lately and after a week staying indoors with the new baby, we decided it was time to venture out as a family of four to visit some dinosaurs.  We went back to the Schiele Museum in Gastonia.  Harper was very excited to see some of her favorite dinosaurs and non-dinosaurs (pterodactyl).  The museum had a Creepy Nature exhibit featuring weird and unusual plants and animals.  We went through this exhibit four times!  It took a while to get all four of us ready and out the door, but we had a wonderful day together!

   

Harper was so excited to see models of the dinosaurs she has been learning about!

    

     

     

    

    

The pterodactyl has been Harper's favorite prehistoric beast to learn about.

    

   

I like the brachiosaurus. 

    

Little man liked snuggling his momma all day!

    

We uncovered some fossils.  

    

    

    

    

       

Alligator 

    

This huge burmese python was in the Creepy Nature exhibit. 

     

     

    

Harper put on a puppet show for us.

    

Creepy crawley bugs!

     

   

We had to stop by the pirate ship to play. 

    

And say hello to the pigs outside.

    

We walked down the trail outside to see the pond.  It was a little too hot for hiking.

     

First Days at Home

We have had an amazing first few days at home.  My postpartum experience with Harper was so painful, but luckily, I have been pain free since Ethan's delivery!  We have enjoyed watching Harper get to know her new baby brother.  They are so cute together.  We have spent our days at home passing Ethan from one loving person to another.  I don't think he has been out of someone's arms for more than ten minutes his entire life!  Ethan was on the smaller size at birth and had to have his glucose levels followed every three hours for the first day.  Luckily, the kid loves to eat so much that his levels were always perfect.  At his first pediatric visit on day of life two, he had only lost 4% of his birthweight.  Up to 10% is normal.  On day of life four, he was 6 pounds 5 ounces, surpassing his birthweight!  Our provider said it usually takes two weeks to do that!  Alex and I have been very lucky to have our parents around this week to help out.  Harper is going to miss all the attention next week.  Thank you very much for all the calls and messages!

   

Harper and Ethan

     

    

    

    

    

     

Luckily, we were home for my birthday.  Michele and Dave picked a beautiful cake from our favorite bakery in Charlotte.  It was amazing.  Michele made a yummy raspberry compote to go with it too!

    

     

It was the perfect way to spend my birthday.

    

Our boys even sleep the same way!

    

Ethan has slowly been more alert during the day.  We just love looking at his blue eyes.

    

 One of my birthday gifts was a cheese plate!  Hello unpasteurized cheese I have not been able to eat for the past forty weeks!

   

We received beautiful flowers from all the grandparents.  We just love flowers!

   

Harper received these flowers from her cousins.  It was so sweet!

    

We have been loving the blue flowers.

    

     

 We love our snuggles.

     

     

    

Sleeping and soon thereafter peeing on Daddy's old blankie!

    

Cookie bouquet from my work!

Our Little Boy

Our Ethan Alexander has arrived!  He was born on July 22nd, 2018 at 2:58AM.  He weighed 6 pounds 3 ounces and measured 19 1/4 inches.  Our delivery experience was completely different than Harper's.  We waited and waited for Ethan to come on his own, but at 40+5 weeks, we decided to move ahead with an elective induction (it would have been indicated two days later anyway).  It was a strange feeling driving to the hospital to have a baby without contractions!  It almost felt like a date night at first - just Alex and I, watching a movie without Harper.  With only just seven hours of pitocin, one epidural and two pushes later we met the newest member of our family!  Ethan is the most beautiful baby (other than Harper of course) who enjoys nothing more than sleeping all day and eating all night.  His beautiful blonde locks are the talk of any room we walk into.  Big sister Harper was able to meet him the day he was born.  She has been such a great helper with diaper changes.  We are so thankful for all of the family who have helped us this week watching Harper, arranging meals and providing us with all the support in the world.  We are loving being a family of four!

   

Ethan Alexander

   

We are in love with his hair!

   

   

We had an amazing view from our postpartum room.  I felt like we were staying in a penthouse suite!

      

    

Gigi 

   

Grandad

    

Grandma

    

Poppy

    

Aunt Bay

    

First diaper change!

    

Big sister Harper and baby brother Ethan!  She has been so sweet and gentle with him.  She worries about this umbilical "boo boo".

    

     

    

    

    

We loved our door decor.

    

On the way home!