From Marcus' Blog: The Day You Were Born

On Monday January 30th you were due to be born. Since you hadn't arrived yet and we thought you were going to be coming early we decided to try and strip my membranes in order to get me to go into labor. I went in and was at 4 cm and almost completely thinned when the doctor stripped me. However, despite the effort you decided to stay put. So... we scheduled an induction for Tuesday.

We went into the hospital on Tuesday at 7 am. The nurses hooked me up to pitocin almost immediately. I was on pitocin until almost 11 o'clock with no serious contractions. Although they were coming every two minutes, I didn't find them painful and they wanted to get things moving so the doctors broke my water. When they broke it, we were amazed at how much fluid came out! Even the doctor was amazed at how much fluid came out and even went so far as to call it a 'fountain.' As they were putting the internal monitor on your head the fluid just kept gushing out. As soon as they broke my water the contractions started coming on strong and heavy.

I labored through the contractions for three hours. It was painful and we tried lots of different laboring techniques. I used the birthing ball, the jacuzzi, leaned over on the bed, and walked the hallways. Your dad was great. He was with me through the whole process and would help me breathe and was constantly telling me how much he loved me as I was going through each contraction. He particularly found it comical when I started swearing. All through the day he was constantly updating Facebook with my progress so all of our friends and family that were wanting to hear about your arrival could stay informed.

At around two I decided I had had enough of the contractions and couldn't take it anymore. I asked for the epidural. The nurses offered to check me in case I was close to being able to push. After being checked and finding out I was only at 6 cm I decided to take the epidural. The pain from the epidural was not nearly as bad as I was worried about it being. In fact compared to the contractions it was nothing. The hardest part was sitting still while there was a contraction going on and they were trying to administer the epidural. As soon as the drug hit me I felt tons better. In fact, I couldn't even feel the contractions by that point. Your Dad and I rested and watched 'The Office' on his new e-reader while we waited. Then there was a lot of waiting!

At around five o'clock your Harper grandparents came up to visit us at the hospital. I should mention that before them visiting we did have two other visitors, my friend Tina came and I immediately kicked her out as I had just finished having a contraction and was in no state to see anyone. I felt awful, but I did not want visitors. Then your grand-popper Harper came to visit right before I got the epidural and your Dad asked him to leave as well. So, once the epidural was administered and we were just waiting we asked for company. They came and hung out for a few hours before leaving.

At 5:30 I was dilated to an 8. This dilation process was taking a long time! Since I had an epidural I was told that I wouldn't start pushing until I hit a 10, even though you can frequently start pushing at an 8 when you have a baby without an epidural. Finally around eight o'clock I hit the point of a 10 cm and it was go time. The doctors had turned my epidural way down by this point since they had me try to start pushing at around 9 1/2cm and I wasn't feeling much. So once I started pushing around eight I could certainly feel again. I pushed for two hours. It was rough. I had a headache from not eating, was nauseous, and running a fever. They were extremely  concerned about the fever because if you had been born while I had the fever they would have had to put you in the NICU for two days for observation of any infection passing from me. My temperature got up to 100.5 degrees and then they gave me some Tylenol. This broke the fever. Right about the time we got to the end of pushing I thought I was ready to give up. It didn't seem like you were ever going to come. However of course you did and your dad called out that you were a boy. Then he cut the cord and they cleaned you up a bit and placed you on my chest. You were beautiful!

I got a chance to breast feed you right after they cleaned you and me up. You latched right on and fed for a good 20 minutes. The nurses were amazed at how quick you latched on. Dad and I spent a little bit of time with you just the three of us and we got some pictures.

After the commotion died down and you were pretty much done feeding we had a waiting room full of grandparents anxious to meet you. Dad had gone out and announced to everyone that we had a handsome baby boy that greeted us. Grandma and Grandpa Miklos and Aunt Megan had been in the waiting room the whole while we were pushing. Grandpa and Grandma Harper joined at the end and then they all came to meet your precious self. Everyone took turns holding you and you were wide awake and alert for the whole thing.

After everyone left we were transferred to the post partum side of the hospital and were finally able to get ready for bed. The bed was big enough that dad and I slept in the bed together and you roomed in with us. We didn't get to sleep until about 2 in the morning and by then we were exhausted. You slept well for a few hours and then woke up to eat. After eating we let the nurses take you from 4-8 so that we could get some rest. You greeted me wide eyed at 8 ready to eat again. Your first 'day' of life was a short one but my was it a very memorable one for your dad and me.

Announcing the birth of Marcus Colton Harper

He is finally here! Our precious bundle of joy, Marcus Colton Harper, greeted the world on January 31st at 10:05pm. He weighed 8 lbs 7 oz and was 22 inches long. Cole and I are so in love with our new blessing. Additional pictures and birth story to come soon.


I have created a new blog that will act as Marcus' 'baby book' to document significant moments in Marcus' life. Some posts will overlap between these two blogs, but not all of them. The new blog is:  www.marcuscoltonharper.blogspot.com

Lisa Peterson's A Tavola

Tonight I had every intention of cooking dinner, however being 39 weeks pregnant makes a girl not want to cook or be on her feet. So...we decided to try the new North Shore hot dogs downtown., which in turn led to a little bit of happenstance and added a big smile on our faces for the day. On the way down to the hot dog place we drove by the old Donnie Macs. I was curious to see what was going in their location, when we drove by my eyes were surprised to see an 'A Tavola' sign. A Tavola is Lisa Peterson's catering company. Cole used to do computer work for her and her husband when he worked for Dave. He used to rave about these two and their wonderful food. Lisa Peterson's A Tavola has been at the Co-Op in the deli for years and also is served at the Shakespeare Festival. Well, when we got to North Shore hot dogs they were closed at 6:30, so we decided to head to A Tavola. What a treat!

Lisa and Peter were both there so Cole got to catch up with them and hear about their new cafe and store. They wished us congrats on the upcoming arrival of baby Harper. They have only been open for four days, but this place is going to be awesome! If you like little European cafes and shops and love good food, this place is for you! They have sandwiches, desserts, and tons of really good homemade food to go. In addition it is a shop with lots of imported goodies like meats, cheeses, chocolates, jams, drinks, etc. We loaded up on delicious foods to take home. Our haul included:: green chili chicken enchiladas, golden beet salad with a vinaigrette dressing, asparagus and strawberry salad, fruit salad, french sodas, a homemade ham and cheese croissant, applewood sausage, and last but not least baked goodies of a chocolate and blackberry tart and a dulce de leche bar. Okay so we overdid it a little...but it is heaven.

Happenings of the Week

Well...still no baby. We are really trying to take advantage of the fact that the baby isn't here yet by doing lots of last minute outings and such. Might as well since no baby, right? A quick update on baby though before I tell you what we did this week. As of Monday I was 38 weeks. We went to the doctor on Tuesday and I am now dilated to 3 cm and 90% thinned. So...this means baby could come soon, or continue to remain stubborn. The doctor offered to strip my membranes at 39 weeks. I have decided to wait until 40 weeks and have her do it at that point if I haven't had the baby before then. This way I can hold off on induction until 41 weeks. Originally, we had talked about inducing at 40 weeks, I would like to wait if possible though so that way the birth can be with as little intervention as possible.

Now...on to the fun of the week. Tuesday instead of the usual Lift night, we went and played trivia at the Crescent. I had been thinking it would fun and Cole has done trivia a few times so he proposed we do it with friends. So Matt, Tina, Jessica, Cole and I tried our hands at it. We didn't do so hot. In fact we got last place, however we had lots of fun! 

Last night I decided that Cole and I needed to go on a 'last date before the baby comes' date. So we went out to Fork and had some dinner since it isn't really a baby friendly place in the evening. We had fun. Dinner consisted of an artichoke as an appetizer, BAM sammy for Cole with a caesar salad, and a prime rib french dip with parmesan fries for me. We were also going to go to a movie, but there weren't really any playing that we were interested in seeing. 

Tonight was my dad's birthday dinner so we went to my parents for a get together. Dad's birthday is only 4 days away so he is really hoping that the baby will be born on his 52nd birthday. It's a definite possibility! 

Tomorrow John and Loren are having their annual chili feed. So we will go and visit friends and have wonderful chili for dinner. After that it is off to Terry's for some karaoke with a big group of people. Best of all since the smoking ban went into effect on January 2nd, I can actually go since the bar will not have smoking in it. Should be fun!

Full Term - 37 Weeks

Monday I hit 37 weeks with Baby Harper. Yay! We are officially out of 'the danger zone.' Now we are told our little bundle of joy can arrive any time. Seeing as how we have been expecting our little one for the past three weeks, I am now ready and wanting the baby to come out. Even though the waiting is killing me, I do have something that I am absolutely loving about being pregnant right now. Since the baby has dropped so low into my pelvis the new feeling of the baby moving in my pelvis is awesome. The main reason I love it is because when the baby moves in your stomach this is amazing, but everyone has felt digestion or gas moving through their stomach. However, movement in  the pelvic area is something I have never felt until recently. It is wonderful to feel this sensation! It's pretty much just as exciting and wonderful as when I first started feeling the baby move. Lastly another sensation that I am still getting to enjoy is the baby hiccuping. For the past 3-4 weeks this occurs every few days. Since the hiccups have been occurring more frequently I find that I love them even more. 

The Nursery is Complete!!

It only took us 9 months, but we have a nursery! I am really pleased with how it turned out considering it is a gender neutral room. The 'BABY' sign and the animal collage pictures were the art projects that we made for the nursery. They were lots of fun to make and I like that we have unique pieces of decor for the nursery now.

Happy New Year!

New Year's was quiet yet beautiful. For Christmas Cole bought me some Chinese wishing lanterns. He thought we could use them for New Year's with our friends, and that is exactly what we did. With my impending little arrival Cole didn't want to host for fear that I might go into labor. So we headed to Joe's to celebrate. The night was fairly low key. Everyone drank and played beer pong and ate food. I laid on the couch and watched movies until the time came to get the lanterns ready. 

Right before midnight we all wrote our 'wishes' and 'dreams' for the new year on our individual lanterns. Then we headed out to Camel's Back Park right before midnight with champagne and our lanterns. The lantern below is my wishing lantern.

One of the best parts of getting the lanterns ready to go was reading the instructions. These really were lanterns from China. As a result the instructions for lighting the lanterns were in Chinese and then translated into English. The translation was quite amusing. Some of the translation follows:

"You can write down your dream and well wishing on the wishing lamp, the dream with the lamp will fly on the sky to make the dream come true. No matter what the sweetie to romantic profession or make a wish to friends or pray to sleeper. "

The guys walked to the park and the ladies drove with me so that I didn't have to walk. We toasted with champagne as the New Year struck and then Jake and Jessica and Cole and I lit off our lanterns at the base of the park. After we had lit the couple of lanterns, everyone except Jessica and I went to the top of Camel's Back to light off the rest of the lanterns. Jessica and I waited in the nice warm car and watched the lanterns be lit at the top of the hill.

Once the lanterns were all lit we headed back to Joe's for some homemade tamales. Joe's family spent the day making tamales, and we got to reap the reward of fresh tamales after our park outing. We had a wonderful celebration. It was quiet - but romantic and memorable with my close friends and wonderful husband. I love that he came up with this idea to ring in the New Year.

 Jake and Jessica with their Japanese symbol for Yen.

Joe and Coco with their wishing lamp toasting in the New Year. 

Cole and I bringing in the New Year. 

Releasing my Chinese lantern.

Happy New Year!!