And Then There Were 3 (Linnell's): September 2013

Most of you probably don’t know that I have a very small immediate family. I lost my grandpa (dad’s dad) before I was born, my uncle (mom’s brother) when I was 6 months old, my aunt (dad’s sister) when I was 8, and my grandma (dad’s mom) when I was 22. I have one set of grandparents left and my mom and dad only have one sibling left between the two of them. I love my small family because we are so close but I definitely miss the family members that I lost too soon. I would have also liked to have known the members that I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting. From what I hear, they were pretty great.

This post is a tribute to my aunt. She is pretty awesome. My mom always jokes that if she didn’t give birth to me, she would have thought that I was her sister’s daughter. I am honored to be like my aunt. She is truly an amazing person and it is nice to have someone who is as clumsy as me =) She is one of the strongest people I know. She works very hard to provide for her family, she cares about everyone, and has a great sense of humor. She doesn’t let a lot get her down and she continues to praise God through the hard times.

My aunt, Sherri, was diagnosed with breast cancer this past February. It was a very hard time for the whole family. All we kept thinking was “not again”. In March, she began her fight against cancer. She had several meetings and lots of decisions to make about what care she was going to have. She has had many rounds of chemo and is almost done with her radiation. I am very sad that she has to go through all of this treatment and I pray that she can overcome this.

I choose to see a positive side of this. When she was diagnosed, she decided to have her treatments at a facility in northern Illinois. This has given my family the opportunity to see her more. My mom has gone up several times to see her and she has even been able to bring Harper up with her. It has been nice for my family to be able to see some other family members that we don’t get to see so often because we live about 500 miles away from each other. She has even come down to our neck of the woods to hang out with us. She went to the softball game I was helping to coach just to watch the game. She also went and sat at my brother’s soccer game, even though she didn’t know the rules of soccer. It has been so nice to see her and on our own turf to boot.

A few weekends ago, I had the pleasure of meeting with my aunt and cousin up in Chicago to go to the Cubs game. I just love her spirit and willingness to try new things. I look at that trait and I think, “that’s where I got that from”. I love my aunt and I can’t believe how strong she has been through this whole thing. She is still the bubbly, funny, strong women that I have come to love. I LOVE you, Sherri, and lets kick this cancer where it hurts!

What I wanted people to get from this post is:

1) My aunt is the best aunt in the world =)

2) She is one of the strongest people I know and I am honored to call her my aunt

3) Please pray for her journey. Pray that the cancer stays away and that she will live a long, healthy life

Disclaimer...I got all of these pics from Brittany's facebook so hopefully she won't be mad at me ;)

My baby girl is 1. I can’t believe that Harper is a year old already. I know that I am almost a month late but with the going to a destination wedding and helping out, I did not have time to say anything. So I am thinking, better late than never. It was very sad for me to miss my baby girl’s 1^st birthday but I know she will not remember it and I was glad to share in Adam and Kate’s special day.

There are a few things I want to accomplish in the post. I want to reminisce about my pregnancy, the day she was born and what she can do now.

Pregnancy:

Harper was due in late August. For those of you who have never been pregnant and don’t know this feeling, carrying a baby is like carrying a furnace on your stomach (at least it was for me) and being the most pregnant during the hottest months was like torture. It was like 90-110 the whole month of July and August and I was so miserable. Not only was I huge but I was so HOT! I was so hot that we had our bedroom air conditioner on full blast and our ceiling fan on the highest setting. I froze my poor husband out but the cool air felt so good! If you don’t know anything about Harper, you should know that she is a big tease and it started when she was in the womb. There were and are definitely a lot of “just kidding/psyche” moments when it comes to her. The whole last month of my pregnancy was a big tease.

(Special thanks to Jaklyn Cato for my beautiful pregnancy photos)

(Leaving the house for the hospital)

Harper’s Birth:

Harper’s arrival was anything but climatic. After I realized that my fantasy of her arriving early wasn’t going to happen, I got really anxious. Like really anxious. I had like two weeks of constantly getting contractions at night but waking up to nothing happening. It was so frustrating. Finally, I needed to schedule a day to be induced. We were to arrive the night before to get me prepped for the induction in the morning. When we got there around 4, I found out that I started labor. I had so many random contractions the weeks prior that I had no idea that my labor had actually started. She hooked me up to the monitor just to check and she asked me if I felt that contraction. I was like, “ I am having contractions”? Then I kept feeling what I would consider little contractions and asked her if they were contractions because I had no idea. The beginning stages weren’t intense at all but the whole process took SO long. Because I was supposed to be an induction, I got there SUPER early. This is the only part that I hated about the labor. I really wanted a natural birth but by the time I reached 6 to 8 hours, I was so tired. It was really hard to be there earlier than normal and for it to have been night. I am convinced that more women could have a natural birth if it didn’t take so long. I do not do well with anything if I am tired. Once I reached 16 hours of being awake, I decided to take some drugs. I started with just a pain medicine, which knocked me out like almost immediately. It was so nice to get some rest. After I woke up, the contractions started to get more intense. I just wanted to walk/move through them but that meant that I wasn’t being monitored with the strap or blood pressure cuff. It was definitely a battle between the nurse and I. I hated being confined to the bed/medicine ball. Around 4am (after being there for about 12 hours), I decided to just get the epidural (Btw, epidurals are wonderful. Yes, it has its pros and cons, but it made my experience more enjoyable because I was able to rest). The contractions were getting more intense and I was SO tired. After that, the whole thing happened so fast. The doctor came in around 8am and I had jumped from 6 ½ cm to almost 10. It was close to time to push. Harper took her time getting here, that’s for sure. She made me work for it. She kept wanting to come but then changed her mind. It was the perfect combination of Eric and I. Finally at 9:19am I had our baby girl.

So to recap...1. I didn’t get the middle of the night, wake your husband up water breaking (my water never actually really broke. Harper blocked it so it was quite messy when I actually delivered) 2. I didn’t get my natural childbirth 3. Oh, my husband passed out when I was getting my epidural 4. I was still there when the nurse that admitted me came back for her next shift (which is not common) 5. I was awake for almost 48 hours before I could go to sleep again. But hey, we have our baby girl so all is well.

(Does she look like a Harper?)

Present:

I came home from the wedding to a child who not only can climb, but also wants to climb EVERYTHING!! She has graduated from formula and is drinking whole milk and eating meals just like the rest of us. We are starting to get her to drink from a cup with a straw. She has tried (and likes) peanut butter. I was a little scared for this one because I have a peanut allergy. She says yes to every question we ask her. She knows how to use my smartphone or what it means when the phone rings. She knows that the creak of the door means that someone came home. My baby is smart and getting so big. I didn’t know how smart babies are or could be until I was living with one 24/7. I keep saying, “I can’t believe she can do that” or “I can’t believe she knows what that means.” She is a surprising 21 pounds and 28 ½ inches long. We have come a long way from our 7lbs6oz, 20 ½ inches baby girl. What a year this has been.