A Month of Favorites

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Claire's first month has been full of so many sweet moments. She's so loved by Wyatt and Stella; they're never far away. Claire enjoys their sweet cuddles and playtime and studying all of their little details. So many times I have to pinch myself just to make sure they all are truly mine.







 Don't get me wrong, there are definitely moments of struggle. Times when I'm not sure if we'll survive the day, or even the morning; making it to school on time is definitely a struggle. There are times of jealousy between them and times where no one is content. Some days we don't get dressed and spend way too much time staring at screens. 






I know this is a time that I won't ever forget. I'm soaking up all of the moments, all of the story reading, all of the mornings spent cuddled up in my bed watching cartoons. The days are going by too fast. Next year Wyatt will be in Kindergarten and our days will be so different without him.






So for now we will continue to have fun, cuddle, and just be together.




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ONE MONTH of CLAIRE

Friday, December 29, 2017

Our Dearest Claire,

The first month with you flew by -- I'm blaming it on the holiday season. We are so thankful for your laid-back & happy demeanor. Your favorite things are eating and being held, which I'm blaming on your brother. Wyatt is so in love with you. He would sit and hold you all day, and any time you start fussing he declares that you're hungry and immediately starts saying, "It's ok, Claire. Mama's going to feed you." It's the absolute sweetest and most annoying thing. Your big sister loves you too, as long as she's getting the same amount of attention and being a helper for all your needs. We love you so much and we're not quite sure why we waited so long for you. 



  • You weigh about 10lbs, 3oz and are about 21in long.
  • You wore NB clothes for about 2 weeks before moving onto 0-3/3month. 3/6 clothes are a little baggy still but we're definitely moving through clothing pretty quick.
  • You are wearing size 1 diapers still but I think this will be our last box before starting size 2.
  • You eat about every 2-3 hours but it really fluctuates everyday. Some days you seem so much more hungry than others. At night it's usually every 3-4 hours. 
  • Sleeping is ok. You really like to be held so we're working on breaking you of needing to be held to sleep all.the.time. You've also been more gassy at night the past week or so--we think it's related to me eating dairy, so I'm trying to watch it. 
  • Noise does not phase you at all. You actually prefer when there's a lot of sound, aka, your brother and sister playing loudly + TV + all other noises. 
  • You hate to be swaddled. You let us know that after about a week when you would wake up fighting with your arms.
  • You enjoy sitting in the bouncy seat; it's by far your favorite place to be put down. 
  • You're so smiley and love to talk--especially in the mornings. 
  • You've been busy meeting people this month. Thankfully everyone has come to our home. We're trying to keep you protected from all the yucky flu going around. 
  • You did get to go meet Santa at Wyatt and Stella's school. 
  • We celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas at home this year with you. 
  • We lost someone so special to us this month and we're so sad that you won't have the chance to meet him. Mr. Ryan would have loved you. 


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Claire's Birth Story || November 15, 2017

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Well, given that Claire is now 3.5 weeks old I figured I should try and get her birth story written. I do not know how anyone with three kids blogs...I barely have time to eat. 
I digress, let's get this written before someone needs food or a butt wiped.

On the morning of November 15th I started having contractions around 5:30am. I'd been experiencing braxton hicks contractions pretty much my entire pregnancy, and I definitely knew these were different and real. It was a Wednesday so I knew that I needed to get the kids to school, which meant I needed to get them and myself ready.

Around 7 I realized the contractions were coming about every 4-6 minutes. Although they weren't real painful I still felt they were the real deal since I'd never actually had contractions without pitocin. I also knew that bowel movements are common before labor, and well, twice in one morning is enough to make me a believer. I called my mom (who was 5 hours away) and told her I was pretty sure it was happening. I also called Sean who, as I knew he would be, was skeptical and not in any hurry. And although I was a little skeptical too, I definitely wanted to at least be checked and see if I was at least progressing.


I got the kids and car seats dropped off at school around 8 and arranged their transportation for the afternoon with friends. I got home and finished getting ready, gathering a few last minute items, and picking up a bit. The contractions were still continuing on about the same at this point.

Sean arrived home around 8:45 and we left for the hospital about 9:20. By this point the time between my contractions had actually spread to more like 9 minutes but they had progressed in intensity and I actually felt like something was happening. 


We arrived at the hospital around 9:55, after a quick stop for some breakfast. They got me into a room and said they would monitor my contractions for a couple of hours and we'd go from there. They checked my uterus and I was dilated 3cm, which was progress from two days before when I was almost 2cm.

After being there for about two hours they checked me again and there had been no change in dilation, and my contractions had slowed down substantially. The nurses called my doctor to get his thoughts and he gave us the choice to go home or stay and induce. Since I was already two days past my due date and knew we'd probably be back soon, at 12:30 we decided to stay and induce. 



Coincidentally, or not, almost as soon as we decided to stay my contractions picked back up on their own. I blame it on the lab work and IV since they made me nervous and tense, but whatever. They went ahead with the pitocin at 12:45 and at 1:20 my doctor came in to break my water. Everything after this point went super fast and is kind of a blur but I tried to record as much as possible.

My contractions really picked up once he broke my water and I was dilated to a 4 almost immediately. The nurses went ahead and called in the anesthesiologist for my epidural and by the time she got there I was in some serious pain. The epidural was in by 2:30 and I had progressed from 4-7cm over the course an hour. 


After the epidural was in my blood pressure immediately dropped. They had me lay back and had to give me meds to bring it back up. The medicine caused it to spike up really fast so it caused me to have a migraine. Thankfully Claire was totally fine during all of this, but Sean was in a bit of shock once they let him back into the room and he saw me laid back on oxygen. 


By 3:00pm I was fully dilated and ready to push. Claire made it easy on me and was born by 3:14pm...with a head full of dark hair. And let me just add, pushing with a migraine...not so fun, but like I said, thankfully she came quick.


Since this is our third baby to be delivered by Dr. R we have a wonderful relationship with him and he let me hold her for a few minutes before Sean cut the umbilical cord. It was really sweet and surreal. And feeling my heartbeat through her is something I'll never forget. 


After a few minutes they got her weighed, 7 lbs, 10 oz (our heaviest baby), and wrapped up. She pretty much just wanted to cuddle and sleep immediately, and that pretty much hasn't changed since. We were, and are, just so thankful for another happy and healthy baby.














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