Thanksgiving

We went to Grand Cayman for Thanksgiving this year, a tradition I've done on and off throughout my years growing up. It was fun being able to bring my little family and especially to see Ollie frolic and play in the very sand that I once did. Luca did not love the sticky heat and spent most of his time indoors with someone who was willing to let Taylor and I get away to play on the sea doo's or go on a bike ride. Taylor's co-worker Robbie came along and he seriously was the biggest help to us. He and Ollie became buds right away and Robbie always made an effort to play with Ollie and keep him happy the whole trip. The picture below describes their relationship perfectly. Seeing as Ollie is around the corner from turning 2, this will probably be his last trip for a long time. We've definitely taken advantage of the free tickets for kids under 2 rule. As fun as it is flying with two children (wink, wink), I'm hoping our next big trip will be one where it's just me and Taylor.

Picture My Problem

I have a problem. Before I go on a vacation or a fun little adventure, I always tell myself to take lots of pictures. Then I get caught up in the fun of what I'm doing and forget to snap those memorable moments. I go home, upload the photos that I do have and then hate myself. Wouldn't it be nice to have a full time photographer who just follows your family around and takes amazing candid photos of you?? There are so many awesome experiences that I didn't capture, and yes I know they are memories stored in my mind but come on! Physical, tangible pictures are way better. I am reminded of this because a year ago Taylor and I embarked on a journey to Thailand and I came home with a measly amount of photos that definitely did not capture the whole of our trip. The best pictures we have were taken by someone else and I cherish them like no other!

As requested, here are some of our newborn photos taken by Katie Dudley photography.

In short, In long

In short...I gave birth 3 weeks ago to a baby boy who has a head full of dark hair and chubby cheeks. We named him Luca Makakoa Harrington and he weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and measured 19" long. We are all healthy and (mostly) happy. Poor Ollie is feeling a little love starved, but I think he's starting to warm up to the idea that he's a big brother.

In long...I woke up on Wednesday September 10th at 6 am with some contractions. I wasn't sure if these were the real deal so I decided to try and sleep a bit more. At 6:30 am, the contractions appeared to be pretty consistent so I started timing them. I remember thinking to myself, oh my gosh if the baby is coming today I need to clean my house pronto. I called my mom to pick up Ollie and I ran around my house cleaning frantically while the contractions were still manageable. I didn't have a birthing ball, so I set up a chair next to my bed and stacked about 5 pillows and a large fluffy blanket on the bed that I could lean into and get comfortable. Taylor set up his laptop next to me and worked while I turned on my hypnobabies CD's and let them run through. I was really able to focus and use visualization that my hypnobabies course taught me all the while munching on a tortilla and sipping water. I did not change positions or make a peep until 2:15pm when one of my contractions made me feel the urge to push. I figured going to the hospital was a wise idea. When we were driving to the hospital when I had Ollie, I remember how immense the pain was and thinking that was the worst 20 minutes of my life. This time, the car ride was easy and comfortable. I started to get worried that the nurses would turn me right back home saying I wasn't progressed enough. I mean, the pain wasn't that bad so I started to psyche myself out and almost made Taylor turn around. We arrived at the hospital, checked in and were brought back to a room. I asked the nurse if she would start filling up the tub because I was ready to start laboring in the water since I found the hospital bed uncomfortable. (They told me at my doctor's appt that it takes an hour to fill up the tub once I get to the hospital). She kind of blew me off and continued tapping away on the computer saying she wanted to check me first to see if I was even dilated that much. She finally checked me and that's when things kicked into high gear. I was dilated to an 8. She quickly got on her radio asking for a tub to get filled immediately and then my midwife showed up. The tub filled slowly with water and my midwife told me that I could not have a water birth if my waters were not broken. That made me upset because I knew that if she broke my water, then the pain would really intensify. So I layed there on the bed contemplating if I even wanted to have a water birth. I told her I wanted to wait a bit longer and she started to get really antsy. In the course of 20 minutes she probably asked me 6 times if she could break my water. I continued working my way through each contraction and I saw my midwife put on all her gear because she knew that the baby was going to come at any moment. I really did want a water birth so i agreed to let her break my water. And what do you know, the pain was amped up 50 times and I started to lose that focus that I'd had the entire day. I tried to stand up to get into the tub but the pain and pressure was so intense that I told the nurse I couldn't do it. With some nervous coaxing, the nurse and midwife managed to get me from the bed to the tub and plopped me in. The following 15 minutes were not a quiet 15 minutes. I was screaming at the top of my lungs with each contraction (video footage proved that I sounded like a cross between a cow and hyena). My sweet husband was sitting behind me trying to rub my back and be helpful, but when you are giving birth naturally, you just need to do your own thing and can't be bothered. I reached down and felt the baby's head coming out of me and it was the craziest feeling. The midwife was coaching me to scream a "mmmmmm" sound instead of an "aaaaahhhh" sound which actually really helped give me more control. Out popped the baby's head and I lost all urges to push. It was the strangest thing. My midwife looked at me and said," His head is out and you need to push."I just looked at her and said "I can't!". I tried anyways and the baby came out in 2 seconds. It was amazing, beautiful, surreal and emotional.

THE List

39 weeks pregnant and waiting…any day now! These last few weeks have been pretty rough for me. I've been experiencing insomnia and have been having a lot of back/hip pain. I am so ready for this baby to get here. About 3 months ago, I started to make a list of all the things I wanted to get done before the baby came. I've slowly been checking things off the list, but have also been continually adding to it. It appears to be never ending. I've decided that maybe this baby won't come until I complete this list. So this week was dedicated to THE list.

Freezer Meals! My mom and I busted out some of our favorite freezer meals like taco soup, chicken enchiladas, breakfast burritos and chicken noodle soup.

I pulled out all of the newborn clothes, blankets, burp cloths, bouncers etc…Ollie got nostalgic on his old bouncer.

My favorite thing to cross off the list was getting my car detailed and installing the old and new car seats. Pearl (my car) was in need of some serious love and looked amazing with a clean and refreshed interior.

I wanted to find little toys/activities Ollie could do while I fed the baby, so I headed over to Target to see what I could find. Their dollar section was 70% off! I found tons of stickers, coloring books, play dough, paints…it was amazing. I could have bought way more stuff, but while perusing I put Ollie down on the floor to explore and some other little boy found him and put him in a headlock. So we left.

This was the most dreaded and yet most needed task on my list. Cleaning. My mom enlisted the help of my sisters and came over and gave my house a good scrub down. My mom is a rockstar and has helped me so much this pregnancy and I know she'll be helping me even more once this little guy gets here. It feels good to have a clean home and I finally feel prepared and ready to add a new member to the Harrington crew. Now it's just the waiting game...

Got it for FREE

I am a great consumer, just not the smartest one at times. I generally don't like to spend the time searching for the best steals and deals. If I see something I like, I'll buy it. My lack of frugality is certainly not one of my better qualities, but it's something I'd like to work on. Especially when it comes to meal planning. I swear I make 3 trips to the grocery store in one week and end up with the weirdest things that I can't make dinner with. I didn't have to try hard for my freebies this week, so I feel pretty lucky. Big thanks to my brother for being out of town this week because I was able to take home over a dozen fresh eggs from his chickens.

The Little Gym near our house was offering FREE introductory classes for Ollie's age group. Of course we had to take advantage of that. Ollie is pretty shy so we thought he might not enjoy it as much, but we were wrong. The kid was having the time of his life. It was apparent which kids were regulars at the gym, they were able to hang on to the bars, jump, and overall were stronger and had great balance. I would love to have this be a weekly thing for my little shrimp, but with the baby coming soon and Taylor's schedule it wouldn't work out for us.

Our home warranty just expired a few months ago and when our dishwasher broke this week we did not want to pay a ton of money for someone to come out and fix it. With the help of Youtube videos and our bishop, we were able to get it back into shape. I was so grateful our bishop was willing to help us out. I also think this was a big confidence booster for Taylor, now he thinks he's the handyman of the century. Ollie wanted to be part of every little step of the process, he was a good helper!

New Beginnings

There have been a lot of exciting things happening in my family lately. My siblings and cousin have entered a new chapter in their lives each in their own way and it has been fun to be a small part of it. A couple weeks ago we attended my cousin Kendis's parisian inspired wedding reception. I am so happy for her and Austin, they are one good looking couple. Ollie especially loved the mango gelato.

My brother and his wife have been on the hunt for a new house the last few months, and it seemed like they weren't finding anything that they absolutely loved. We thought that they had decided to take a break from house hunting, but really they had found the cutest little house in Lehi that they purchased. They surprised us by calling and asking if we could help them with a "service project" that was really us helping them move into their new home. I'm jealous of their big backyard, huge deck, trampoline and CHICKENS!!! Ollie pulled his weight by watering their lawn.

My sister Maya is officially a missionary now. We dropped her off at the MTC yesterday and it was bittersweet. She has been a huge help to me this summer with Ollie. It hasn't been easy chasing him around while being 7 months pregnant. Maya is my very easy going and care free sister. Everyone loves to be around her. She will bless so many lives in Japan! The morning that she left we think she forgot to eat her toast, so we left it in the toaster and made a mini maya shrine. We'll see how long it stays there hehe.