Gender Reveal

Our Gender Reveal:

(I purchased ornaments and ribbon from Hobby Lobby.

 The perfectly-sized boxes came from Dollar General. Easy and adorable.)

Boy or Girl? Pink or Blue?

It's a Boy!

Our Story:

I am not one of those women who can wait until the birth of my child to find out whether I'm having a boy or girl. I HAVE to plan. So, when we were presented with the option to find out what we were having at 13 weeks with a blood test, I jumped at the chance! Especially since we were able to find out right before Christmas.

I love showing off my babies (who doesn't?!). So, I was more than eager to announce the gender of this Harner baby in some creative way during Christmas. We celebrated two Christmases: one in-state with my family, and one out-of-state with my in-laws. Because of this, there were some secrets to be kept after we revealed to our first set of family, but no one seemed to mind keeping the secret! ;)

I will admit that I thought for sure I was having a girl. I was convinced. But, just to be safe, I purchased "boy" items as well as "girl" items for our reveal. I was too excited to wait to put together our reveal, that I prepared to assemble the "girl" reveal before we ever received the call from the doctor. I'm glad I didn't! :) :)

My sweet, sweet OB's office staff actually called me on the day the results arrived - one day before we thought we could find out. When they said, "it seems to be a boy," I simply said, "ok!" I had planned to surprise the hubs with the news on our Christmas morning, but he was sitting beside me in the car when I received the call!!! He knew from my reaction that we were having a boy - I was completely shocked. Even though he knew before Christmas, he still melted to see a sweet blue hippo toy hanging in another stocking on our mantle. ;)

I am so in love with the idea of having two little boys, now. I can still be queen of the castle, even if my castle is filling fast with superheroes, balls, trucks, blocks, and smelly boy shoes ;)

New Mommy Blog! - Products we can't live without!

So, I've fallen behind on blogging - but I've had a new little 7lb bundle of love taking up my time. I'm completely in love and cannot believe he was born on Christmas Day! He's my world, and like any new mommy, my time has been completely consumed by him - and I don't mind one bit! :)

I have a friend who recently had a baby and posted a similar list - I thought it was a fantastic idea (especially since I have LOTS of friends due within the next few months) - (there really must have been something in the air! lol)

I want to share some things we've found indispensable since we've welcomed Samuel into our lives...so here's a list of products we love and cannot live without!

*First off, a SNUZA HALO alarm.

I am obsessive - completely obsessive with control! :) I was like any new mom and thought for sure that Samuel would stop breathing if I didn't watch him ALL NIGHT LONG. My poor husband got no sleep as we stayed up with him night and day to make sure he kept breathing. We found this alarm and it changed our lives! It's not like the motion alarms that are put under the crib mattress - those are incredibly touchy and increbidly LOUD - this is a small alarm that clips to the front of the diaper. If the baby stops breathing/moving for 15 seconds, it vibrates to startle the baby. If after 3 vibrations the baby still isn't moving/breathing, it alarms to alert you to check the baby. The alarm doesn't sound like a siren for the end of the world either - it's loud enough to be heard in the room or on a monitor, but not nightmarishly loud enough to cause a heart attack upon waking.
It's about $150, which is pricey, but we were more than happy to pay up in exchange for sleep!

*Summer Infant babytouch color Video Monitor

This is another component to my obsessive-sleep-watching. :) This monitor is wonderful! It had great night vision, can be controlled/moved using the parent-unit, and has a charging base as well as a battery pack. We've already put our little man in his own room only because we had no room for his bassinet in our bedroom - so this is wonderful!
This has also been used by my husband to freak me out when I'm feeding Samuel in his room - I'll suddenly hear a voice through the monitor saying "Hello, Beautiful" followed by the camera follwowing me around the room. lol
It's great now, but will be great when Samuel is a toddler and gets out of bed - we'll be able to scan the room to find him!

*Aden & Anais Muslin Swaddlers

Oh my! These little guys have been used for everything - swaddlers, burp clothes, changing pads, blankets, nursing covers...
I put them on my registry, not expecting anyone to pay $50 for 4 muslin blankets...but one kind soul purchased them and they've been one of my favorite gifts! They wash so easily and are light enough and big enough to use for anything!

*SwaddleMe Swaddlers

Samuel LOVES to be swaddled - only one arm in and on arm out, though :) These swaddlers are amazing because they're so easy to swaddle a squirmy baby and they velcro to keep a squrimy baby swaddled all night. They have a velcro flap at the waist so baby doesn't need to be completely unswaddled when changing a diaper.

*Arm & Hammer Diaper Pail
Short and sweet: cannot even smell the explosive formula diapers once they're in the pail. Explanantion enough :)

*Bourdeux's ButtPaste
There are two kinds - the pastey kind and the cream kind - I hate the pastey kind - it's too hard to get out of the tube while holding still a squirmy baby and trying to hurry so a little baby boy doesn't christen his surroundings. The cream kind is the best - easy on - except the first few times when I ended up with it all over me, all over him, and all over his clothes - ha - rookie mistakes!

Last, but not least...

*Phisoderm Baby Wash

My baby boy smelled SO SWEET in the hospital, but once I got home and washed him with Johnson&Johnson, he didn't smell as sweet. Later I found a sample from the hospital of the wash they used - Phisoderm - (buried in the piles of stuff brought home from the hospital and thrown in the floor for the first week home - aka - survival week!)
It smells SO sweet - makes their skin SO soft, and is great for diaper rash, or so I hear :)

Anyway, those are a few of my choices. I'm sure I'll have more "must-haves" later on (aka - Baby Bullet, once I can break that out of the box)!

Thanks for reading!

Lately.

It's been awhile since I've last posted. So many exciting things are happening in our lives right now, that I feel it's a good time to post and share our day to day blessings :)

I've gone from a stay-at-home wife/part-time hobbyist photographer/graduate student to an expecting first-time mommy/graduate student/student-teacher. A lot has changed - I've given God full reign of my priorities and He's elevated things I love and taken away things that were only causing me stress. It's an amazing thing and I can't complain one bit :)

These days I'm student teaching in my Christian high school - spending days with high school students until December. I come home, do a Premier Designs jewelry show here and there, complete school work, make dinner, and try to sleep anywhere between! :)

Josh and I are SO excited about our little boy coming in January 2012. He is an answer to prayer and a very direct blessing from God. The moment I was pregnant I knew, I felt God confirm to me that He'd answered our prayers for a child to give back to Him. I felt Him tell me I was having a boy and what we were to name him. It was an amazing experience feeling God so positively confirm His blessing. When the pregnancy test was positive, I was a mix of shock, peace, and sheer happiness. I knew I was pregnant 2 weeks before I took the test, so I felt guilty feeling shock, but I knew God was smiling on both of us as we reveled in excitement! :)

We are busy getting our house and lives ready for our little man's arrival. Not sure how ready we can really be, but we're enjoying the excitement and anticipation that comes with a first baby.

I hope to update with baby news, pregnancy excitement, recipes, lesson plans, decorating ideas, and devo thoughts. We'll see how often I keep to this. :)