THREE!

My baby girl is three months old as of last week! Where has the time gone? I realize that three months isn't much, but it seems like I had her about a week ago. She is getting to be SO fun! Each day she smiles more than the last and seems so much more responsive to us. I think she knows her mommy cause she seems to smile the most for me :) I love that of course. I can't seem to get a good picture of her smiling - too much of a delay on my camera.
She doesn't seem to be making much progress in the sleeping through the night department. Pretty much she's the same as she was a month ago - five to six hours for the first stretch, then usually around three to four hours for the next stretch. She still eats quickly and goes back to sleep easily so I can't complain too much.
Palmer tells some pretty awesome stories these days. She babbles, coos and squeals all day long and I would just love to be inside her head. She isn't rolling over yet but she seems to be getting pretty close to rolling from front to back. She loves tummy time for about five minutes and then she realizes she's bored and she gets over it very quickly.
One fabulous quality about Palmer is that she does not spit up. I can count on one hand the times that she has spit up in her whole life and two of those times were the morning after she was born.
I mentioned in my last post that she was starting to get into sucking her fingers/hand. Just about a week ago she really started separating her thumb and sucking on it alone. I don't really want her to be a thumb sucker because it can be such a hard habit for kids to break, but it is the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life. She sucks so loudly and intensely and I think she's pretty proud of herself every time she gets her thumb in there. I feel like I have more control over a binky as I can take that away when I'm ready for her to be done with it...I can't take her thumb away. I do like that she can self-soothe with the thumb sucking though. She's started pulling her binky out of her mouth and then trying to put it back in. She is not coordinated enough for that yet, but she gets a little closer every day.
Poor little P-Tay is still a little sick. Over the last few weeks her cold seems to have gotten better, then worse, then better again. She still doesn't seem too bothered by it, but it is really sad when she coughs her cute little cough or her breathing gets all congested. I finally took her to the doctor last week just to be safe and she was given a clean bill of health. Her ears looked fine, her lungs sounded clear and she had no temperature. The doctor said as long as she doesn't seem too miserable or the symptoms don't get worse then she should be fine. One good thing about going to the doctor was that we got to get her three month measurements instead of waiting until her four month check-up. Tiny little girl was only 10 pounds 5 ounces, 22 inches long with a head circumference of 15 inches. The doctor was not concerned with her tininess. She said she's very proportionate and seems to be growing just fine. She's just a little cute thing all around :) I weighed her at home the other day and my scale had her at 11 pounds.
As for how Taylor and I are adjusting to life with a baby, Palmer has made things too easy for us. She is pretty easygoing wherever we go and she usually doesn't mind being passed around. Anybody who knows me knows that I am ALWAYS tired and I need more sleep than the average human. This was something I was extremely worried about with having a baby because new moms are notoriously tired. I am more convinced than ever that Heavenly Father loves me because somehow I have felt just fine. Don't get me wrong, I'm still tired, but I am truly no more tired than I was before having Palmer. That is such a blessing for me! Taylor loves his sweet little girl and she loves him back. They're just as cute together as I always expected. I love my little family.
There's not much else going on in our lives these days. Everything pretty much revolves around our sweet baby. Our townhouse is going on the market soon and while it will probably take a good little while to get it sold, we are hoping and praying that it happens quickly.

Again, sorry for all the pics of just Palmer but I take about a million pictures of her each day. I can't get enough. Enjoy!

Baby blessing and more...

I'll apologize in advance for the length and randomness that this post could become. I guess that's what happens when I procrastinate doing a new blog post for so long.
We blessed beautiful Palmer on August 28th. It almost didn't happen as our bishop forgot it was supposed to be on the program that day. But thanks to a brave nephew running up on the stand to remind him, we were able to get it done. Taylor's parents and his sister Brook and her family came down for the blessing. Noelle was also here, as were Kacey, Joe, Nicole and Osiris. It was so nice of them to be here and we love them all! Palmer looked absolutely beautiful in her blessing attire; Taylor's mom made the amazing dress, Brook made the cute cute headband, Kacey gave us the sweet little bracelet and Noelle took the awesome pictures. Palmer is so lucky to have so many people who love her so much already. Taylor did a great job with the blessing and Palmer could not have looked more beautiful! Our bishop commented to us after the blessing that he had never seen a baby so peaceful during a blessing. That's our girl!
Palmer was two months old a couple weeks ago on 9/11. Where has the time gone?!?! I'm already freaking out that she's growing up too fast. But at the same time it is so much fun to see her grow and learn new things. She is such a fun and sweet little girl. Everyone always comments at how mellow she is and it's true - she's just way laid back...most of the time! Every once in a while she gets upset for reasons that I am not sure of and she proves that she does actually have some strong lungs. During these little freakouts she will cry for up to a couple of hours and it just breaks my heart. It doesn't seem like she is in pain. Sometimes I think she must be hungry, but she gets so upset that she won't let herself calm down to eat. Maybe she's just tired and needs to let it out...who knows really? She gets over it as quickly as she starts usually and then she'll seem just fine. Hopefully I'm not jinxing it but she seems to be going longer between these little freakouts as time goes on. She does a great job of sleeping at nights. She still isn't giving me a full night of sleep, but that's ok. She usually sleeps five to six hours for her first stint, sometimes a little longer, sometimes less. She's very quick about getting through her midnight snack and then she does a great job of going back to sleep. From there she usually goes about three hours and then eats and goes right back to sleep again for three more hours. She usually seems to want to be up for the day between 8:00 and 8:30 and I hope she sticks with that schedule. She is still really sporadic with napping during the days. Some days she sleeps more than she's awake and some days she barely sleeps at all. When she's awake she's very alert and very curious, looking around at anything and everything. She has the cutest smile in the world, but is a little stingy with them. She is usually very happy in the mornings right after getting up. I LOVE this time with her! She smiles at the ceiling, lights, fans etc. just as much as she smiles at people. She tells cute little stories and I would so love to know what she thinks she is telling us :) She has recently discovered the joy of sucking on her hands. She tries out different combinations of fingers or sometimes it's the whole fist. Every once in a while she sucks on just her thumb, but more often than not she puts multiple fingers in. I don't necessarily want her to be a thumb sucker but it is the cutest thing I have ever seen when she gets so happy to suck on her fingers. She weighed 9 lbs 8 oz at her two month check-up and was 21 1/2 inches long. She's just a little petite thing and we love her so much. I want to cuddle with her all day long! She got her first cold last week and is still trying to get over it. She hasn't acted like it's bothered her much. She's been congested, sneezing lots and coughing a little and she had a little fever for the first day or so. Like I said, she doesn't seem too bothered by it but I hate it! She also had to get shots at her appointment last week. She cried for a few minutes, but overall she was really tough. We love our sweet little girl!
We had our annual Lyman Labor Day weekend extravaganza at the Colorado cabin a couple of weeks ago. As usual it was AWESOME and crowded and dirty and fun! We ate tons of good food and relaxed and just enjoyed each others' company. The men got some good projects done; the kids played tons and we all watched BYU squeak past Ole Miss. Some of us went bear-watching with Justin and we even saw a bear! We almost missed it and by the time we saw him he was about to walk away and he was pretty far, but at least we saw him. All in all, a fabulous time!
We had a really sad occurrence in our family last week. Deco and Kera were expecting a baby in a month and they found out on the 19th that he had died. I can't imagine the heartbreak they felt. We all had a really hard time understanding why this had to happen to them. It made me hold and cherish Palmer even more than before. Deco and Kera handled the whole thing better than I could ever hope to do. They were so strong and you could just see in them that they had a very strong knowledge that they will see him again one day and be able to raise their perfect little boy. Eli Fred Lyman was born asleep on the 20th and he was absolutely beautiful and perfect. They had a graveside service for him in Blanding on the 22nd and it was a really really nice tribute to a perfect little spirit. We all can't wait to meet Eli one day.
For my birthday a couple of weeks ago Taylor gave me a girls weekend with my sisters and mom. He had reserved a hotel room in Grand Junction and talked to the girls beforehand to make sure it would work. So this past weekend we loaded up and headed to GJ. Unfortunately Marilyn and Kera were not able to come, but we had my mom, me, Palmer, Noelle, Denver, Heather, Livvy, Kristi and Camryn so it was lots of fun! We ate some delicious food while we were there. We went to a pottery painting place and got in touch with our artistic sides. Our painted pieces had to stay there to be cooked so I can't show any pictures of our beautiful finished products but it was really fun. Then we did some shopping and went back to the hotel for some relaxing while Cam and Livvy swam. We were tired and lazy so we went to bed nice and early. We went to breakfast, then Barnes & Noble and headed home the next morning. We had heard about a fall festival that was happening in Fruita so we stopped there on our way home. It was a fun little fair/carnival thing. It was a quick weekend, but really fun for me.
Please forgive me for the amount of pictures in this post. It is really hard for me to narrow down what pictures of Palmer I want to use because I love every picture ever taken of her. Also, please forgive the randomness of the order; it is just too much of a pain to go through and get them all in the right place I would like them to be.

Coy is loving his chocolate pudding at the Colorado cabin! Love this boy!

Addison and Livvy love their new baby cousins :)

Palmer and Denver took turns sleeping in the swing at the cabin. Palmer's BYU jersey was way too big on her, but it seemed like the right thing to do to bust it out for the season opener.

The men did lots of projects while we were at the cabin. They worked hard and the ladies kept them well fed so that they could keep up their strength.

Palmer's all ready to watch her first BYU football game.

Elmer loves Colorado. The dogs run all around and get all kinds of dirty.

Scouty was very interested in her movie.

Jeremy J and Jeff made lots of cool paper airplanes for the kids.

One of the best parts of Colorado is the 4-wheelers and my dad's new side-by-side.

This was one of the few minutes that my mom actually sat down. The weekend doesn't end up being very relaxing for her, as she runs around helping everyone with everything. I sure do love my sweet mom.

McKenzie (Nicole & Osiris' little girl) and Palmer can still be best buds even though they cheer for different teams.

This was just a random day when Camryn, Scout and Palmer all happened to be wearing pink and grey striped shirts. Cute cute cousins!

This isn't the best picture but this was taken on Palmer's two month birthday. Such a big girl! (Her jammies are too big cause she grew out of the smaller size recently)

Also a two month old pic with a cute funny face.

Asleep in her carseat on her two month birthday. I love watching this girl sleep - so cute and peaceful!

Ready for another BYU game!

Just a cute picture. Palmer sure loves her daddy and I think he likes her too :)

So. Dang. Cute.

This isn't the best pic, but it shows the full beauty of her blessing day.

Pottery painting - fun for all ages.

This is what Palmer did most of the time we painted our pottery.

What a Week...

So first off, Little Miss Palmer is one month old today!!! How is that even possible? Every single day I ask her to stop growing and stay exactly how she is right now but she just keeps on getting bigger. Truthfully I'm excited to experience all of her milestones but I know I am going to miss this newborn phase so much. She also keeps getting cuter, which I'm not even sure is possible. She is so sweet and so much fun; I can't hardly remember or imagine life without her. So far she has been the easiest baby imaginable (knock on wood). If she stays as mellow and sweet as she is now I am sure I'm going to be in for it with my next baby. She eats well, quickly and easily. She sleeps great. She seems to be figuring out days and nights already. She has times during the day where she will be very awake and alert for two to three hours at a time. During the night she just wakes, eats, gets a diaper change and goes right back to sleep. Generally she goes around three hours between feedings but at night she usually has one longer stretch that lasts anywhere from four to five hours. Last night she had a five hour stretch of sleep followed by a four hour stretch. Amazing! I weighed her on Monday, which was her four week anniversary of life, and she was eight pounds even. She is a little grunter - I absolutely love the noises she makes. She loves attention when she is awake and she loves to be held all cuddly snuggly close. I literally can't get enough of her. I know I'm biased but I think she is the cutest little thing that ever existed!






Taylor got a promotion at work the same day that Palmer was born (woohoo!) With the promotion came the requirement of a lot of training in SLC. He's had to be in SLC every week for the last three weeks and he'll come again next week and in three weeks. Palmer and I came with him last week and this week. She is a GREAT traveler! I was honestly pretty worried about how she would deal with all the driving and hotel life and such. She sleeps fabulously in the car and she seems to love her car seat. She has made it really easy to tag along with Daddy, which is good because we missed him a lot the first week when we didn't go with him. We have been staying at the Sheraton Hotel and it's been a very nice home away from home. I really really like staying in hotels. I think it's a combination of the fact that I associate hotels with vacations and that I don't have to do any cleaning at a hotel! Luckily I am able to take my work with me anywhere that has internet. Palmer and I spend our days coding in the hotel room and then visiting family and friends and running errands. I don't miss living in SLC for the most part, but I do miss the family and friends that live in Utah and Salt Lake Counties and I miss shopping! On that note though, since I have lived in Blanding my love of online shopping continues to increase exponentially. I am positive that I spend more money online shopping than I ever spent at stores when I lived in Salt Lake. By the end of the month I am sure we're going to be very happy to stay in Blanding with no more trips for a very long time.
Noelley Belly had her sweet baby boy yesterday! Little Denver middle-name-to-be-decided DeGroot was in a hurry to get here and his mommy had a very quick and exciting labor and delivery. He is so dang cute and I am super excited to see him and Palmer grow up as best cousin buddies.
Now onto the last item of business for today's post - I was rear-ended on the freeway on Tuesday and now our car is totaled. BOO! That was my first car accident and it was just as awful as I would have expected. The positive side is that neither I nor Palmer was hurt. Taylor wasn't with us; we were on our way to pick him up actually. It was rush hour and the traffic in front of me had stopped due to an accident so I stopped. Apparently the guy behind me wasn't paying attention because he bashed into the back of us after we'd been stopped for a couple of seconds. I don't think he even slowed down much. He was in a big Excursion so it could have been a lot worse than it was. Our back window shattered but luckily Palmer's car seat cover was draped over her car seat and zero glass got on her. She continued sleeping peacefully after it happened while I cried and shakingly checked on her. The EMTs and highway patrolman were very nice and made the situation less awful. The guy in the other vehicle was nice and apologetic. Palmer doesn't seem to have any effects from the wreck and I have been only minimally stiff in my neck, shoulders and upper back. I feel really lucky. I am SO sick of dealing with insurance companies but I must say that both my insurance and the other dude's insurance have been really good and easy to deal with (so far). It took longer than I would have liked to get into a rental car but now that we have it things are good. I guess it's time to start car shopping.

Taylor's golf clubs did not fare as well as Palmer and me.


All in all a busy and crazy week, but mostly good and fun. Life is good.

Palmer Tay Harrison

We are so happy to welcome beautiful Palmer Tay Harrison into our family. She was born on Monday, July 11, 2011 at 5:55 p.m. She was 6 pounds 10 ounces and 20 inches long. She was and is absolutely perfect!
July 11 was my due date and I had an appointment with Dr. Black that morning. We knew there was a possibility I could be induced that day, but didn't want to get our hopes up too much in case it didn't end up happening. I'd been having contractions for a couple of weeks, but they were irregular and varied in strength. I'd begun dilating a couple of weeks prior also, so we knew my body was getting good and ready to bring her into the world finally. We were so ready to have our baby and had tried all kinds of methods to try to get her here for the week before my due date. It wasn't meant to be I guess.
Dr. Black checked me and I was almost four centimeters dilated and 90% effaced. I'd had contractions all during the night but they hadn't become regular. He asked what we wanted to happen and I told him we would like to have a baby that day if he felt ok with it. He said he felt great about it because my body had progressed as far as it had at that point. Yeah yeah yeah!
So they got me all settled into my room and got me hooked up to the Pitocin. They started at a low dose and my contractions became regular and stronger almost immediately. Around that time it started to become a little more real that we were actually going to have our baby in a few hours. We could not have been more excited!
The next time they checked me I had only progressed to 4.5 centimeters dilated, but at least it was progress.
Taylor's parents had hopped in their car and headed down from Salt Lake as soon as Taylor called to tell them she was coming that day. It was so nice of them and we were glad they were able to be there when the baby was born. They stayed for a couple of days and were super sad to say goodbye to little Palmer when it was time for them to go home.
A few hours later the anesthesiologist came in to get my epidural going. At that point my contractions weren't too bad yet, but they like to get the epidural in early so they don't miss the window if things start progressing too quickly. The anesthesiologist was awesome! He explained every single thing he was doing and made sure I was comfortable and relaxed. It was not even close to the nightmare that I was fearing; it was painless and quick. My right side went numb immediately and he said to kind of tilt my body so that the medicine would flow to my left side hopefully. As the time passed I continued to be able to feel my left side. The contractions got stronger and stronger and way close together. I could feel them really well on my left side. After a couple of hours of that the anesthesiologist came back and explained that he would try to re-adjust the catheter to see if we could get my left side numb. He did warn me that sometimes there will be a nerve block around a nerve or group of nerves that just keeps the medicine out. I was praying that would not be the case for me. He jimmied it around in my back and then had me lay on my left side again. Pretty quickly I started to feel my left side go numb and I was so very happy about that. As soon as the anesthesiologist was content that all was well with the epidural the nurse wanted to check my progress. She checked and was surprised to find that it was time to start pushing! Right then Dr. Black came in to see how things were going so he checked and confirmed that it was time to get the party started. He left to change into scrubs and the nurses busily got everything in place for the delivery. I just couldn't believe that I was so close to finally meeting my little girl. I was a little nervous because I had no idea how long I would have to push, but mostly I was just so excited and ready! My mom and Taylor were in the delivery room and after pushing through eight-ish contractions little Palmer made her debut! Before I was able to see her I heard her little cough and then the cutest cry in the world. I was already in love. They cleaned her off a bit and Taylor handed her to me. I have never seen anything so perfect in my life! I can't put into words the way I felt at that moment, but any parent can understand exactly how Taylor and I were feeling.
We were able to bring Palmer home on Tuesday evening. Her aunts, grandparents and cousins absolutely love her (I'm sure her uncles do too, but they just don't show it in the same way). My mom has been SO helpful. She is amazing and Palmer, Taylor and I will be forever grateful for her help this week. Palmer has been a GREAT baby! She sleeps well (so far), she nurses great and she is just so sweet! I can't get enough of her and I am just so grateful that she gets to be a part of our family. I'm not sure why Heavenly Father would trust us with this perfect little soul but I have a new resolve to be a better person and to teach little Palmer all of the things she'll need to know to live a great life. Somehow my love for her grows every day, which I wouldn't have thought possible when I first held her in my arms.
I had the best doctor and nurses and wouldn't have changed a thing about Palmer's arrival. My recovery has been awesome and I have felt great since we left the hospital. This experience has been amazing and I am so excited to introduce Palmer to the world and the world to Palmer.

40 weeks! This picture was taken Sunday evening, the day before Palmer was born.


First family picture...don't mind my hair.


First of many naps the two of us will take together. This was a couple of hours after Palmer was born. She is so sweet!



Car ride home - how exciting!