Claire's First 2 Months from A to Z

I know that I haven't been very good about blogging lately and the biggest reason is because of this cute little girl :)

For the past 2 months, I have been in complete and utter awe. Claire consumes my entire world now and I LOVE it! Several times throughout each day, I have thought, "I need to blog about this." But I never did. I feel like I haven't really told you much about this little girl of mine, so here is the longest blog post ever alphabet style!

I just adore my sweet little Claire; here's why...

A is for Allie and Sammy!

Claire has two favorite cousins and they all love to be together! Whether it's hanging out at Grandma's or going to the lake, they always have fun!

Here's all three of them at Rigby Lake...

Sammy and Allie enjoying the sun and water while Claire took a nap...

haha I'm sure once they all get a little older they will all become best buds!

B is for bouncer

Claire's bouncer is a life saver for me. Most of the time she won't sleep in her bassinet during the day as you can see in the picture below.

But for some reason she has no problem sleeping in her bouncer or enertaining herself in the bouncer for hours.

C is for Claire Bear.

Here is Claire the day after her 2 month birthday.

Her 2 month stats are
11lbs 6oz (64th percentile)
23 1/4 inches (85th percentile)
(P.S. I LOVE how crazy her hair can be. Especially in these pictures!)

D is for Daddy!

Joe is such a wonderful Daddy to Claire. She's always the one who gets his attention first when he comes home from work and he has no problem changing her diaper or taking care of her in general. Joe loves her so much and I constantly catch him saying the sweetest things to her.

E is for eyes, beautiful blue eyes

I know it's really hard to see the color of her eyes on blogger but trust me they are the prettiest shade of blue you will ever see! Maybe I'm biased, but seriously they are beautiful and so is she!

F is for Family.

We went from being a family of two...

...to a family of three! And we love our new, little addition!

G is for Grandmas

Claire has lots of loving Grandmas. Unfortunately she has not been able to meet her Grandma Meloney (Joe's mom) yet but she sends lots of love over the phone and from special packages just for Claire. We hope she will be able to meet her soon!

Here's Claire with my mom. She loves her Grandma!

And this is Claire's Great-Grandma Carter (my mom's mom). She visits us from Utah quite frequently and we love the time we get to spend with her!

H is for HAPPY :)

Claire is seriously the happiest baby you will ever meet. As long as she is fed, she will coo and smile at you all day long.

I is for "I love you."

I am so in love with my sweet, little family!

J is for Johnson and Johnson
(I don't have a picture of Johnson and Johnson but I have tons of my baby girl!)

This was taken right after a bath and I had just finished using both the lotion and head-to-toe soap from Johnson and Johnson! I love that stuff! It's the only brand I use on her and it makes her smell so good.

K is for kicking

This little girl is very good at kicking her legs! She squeals and gurgles while she does it, it's so cute to watch.

L is for little

Sometimes I wish she could just stay little forever. But unfortunately she won't. Those last two pictures make me want to cry because you can see just how much she has grown!

M is for mommy

Being Claire's mommy = best. job. ever.

N is for newborn

I miss how little she was as a newborn. But I love watching her grow and learn.

O is for outrageous hair!

She has had tons of hair since birth...

...and I was able to tame it for a while with a little curly mohawk...

...but now it just does what it wants! :)

P is for pacifier

When Claire was a newborn she would only occasionally take the orange paci they gave us at the hospital.

And then she stopped taking it all together, so we tried every paci there is out there and she fell in love with this toddler sized pacifier! She loves her pacifiers but doesn't need them all the time, just if she's super fussy or extra tired.

Q is for quiet

I love the quiet moments with Claire when I can just sit and stare at her---really, I am just amazed.

R is for romper

I love this little romper! I bought it for her a week before she was born and she just looks adorable in it!

S is for swing

If you ever put her in her swing more often than not she'll fall asleep within fifteen minutes.

T is for tongue.
Claire has the longest tongue! And she's always sticking it out. :)

U is for Uncles and Aunts

Claire has some pretty awesome Uncles and Aunts. She hasn't met a few of them and a few of them I don't have pictures of but here are the ones that I do have.

Claire with Uncle Adam. He's the one that all the cousins play with.

This is Uncle Rex and Aunt Kayleen.

And this is Aunt Savannah and Aunt Kay.

V is for vacation.
About a week ago we went on vacation to Elko, Nevada for Joe's family reunion! It was loads of fun and the first time we took Claire camping or somewhere over night. I kept forgetting to take pictures so I only have one.

This was when we first arrived and she passed out in her bouncer. Love my sweet baby!

W is for water.

Whether it's splashing around in the tub or just listening to me do the dishes, she loves water. When I bathe her she runs her hands through the water and kicks her feet and if I'm doing the dishes, she slowly falls asleep in her bouncer.

X is for xoxo XOXO = hugs and kisses!

Joe and I can't stop hugging and kissing this little angel. She will never doubt whether or not her parents love her, that's for sure!

Y is for YUMMY!

Isn't my baby the YUMMIEST baby you have ever seen?! I think she is! :)

Z is for Zzzzz

(This picture is my favorite! She fell asleep in her carseat and pulled her headband down over her eyes!)

There is nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby! Especially my sleeping baby! :)
She is an awesome sleeper by the way! She will sleep all night from 10-6 and then 6:30-9. She takes naps through out the day but usually puts herself to sleep for those!

Well, there you have it! That's my baby in a nut shell!

P.S. Did I mention that I love my baby? Well I DO! I love her!

Stay at Home Mom

Having little Claire in our family has been such an amazing experience! We love her sweet spirit and love being a family of three. I love being with my baby girl and am grateful that
I can stay at home with her. But I'm not going to lie, although it is amazing to be a mother it is also one of the hardest things to get adjusted to.

Right after Claire's birth everything seemed perfect and blissful. But the baby blues quickly set in and they hit me really hard. I was bursting into tears for no reason, sad about not being pregnant anymore, and was terrified of being left alone. I've never been a very emotional person and have always hated crying in front of people so when I started bursting into tears for no reason it would make me cry harder because people were watching me.

I also found that breastfeeding is not as easy as it looks. I tried breastfeeding right after she was born but had a difficult time because apparently I have flat nipples. So with the help of a nipple shield I was able to get her latched on. But as the days went by I was having trouble getting my milk to come in enough that I wouldn't have to supplement with formula. I started to drink chlorophyll and that resulted in a blocked milk duct and a breast infection. At the same time Claire was having a hard time with her tummy and was extremely fussy and gassy. So we took her to the doctor and found out that she was lactose intolerant, so we switched her supplement formula and I cut out all dairy all the way down to butter. Well she wasn't getting any better so two days ago we switched her completely to formula and miracle of all miracles it worked! She is now a completely different baby. She is happier, sleeps by herself and through the night, and is hardly ever fussy! So even though it was a hard thing for me to give up we decided yesterday that it was best for her if we just stop breastfeeding. I cried about it but I know that for whatever reason, the formula is easier on her little tummy.

But other than dealing with crazy hormones and breastfeeding troubles I love being a stay at home mom! Now that I am no longer trying to get my milk production up I am able to do more of the house work and focus more on enjoying my little girl rather than stressing over making enough food for her. I love being her mommy and watching her grow!

Claire Marie

Our beautiful baby girl, Claire Marie, is finally here!

She was born on June 15th at 9:49 PM and was 8 pounds 1 oz and 20 1/2 inches long! She is the perfect addition to our little family and we are so in love with her!

For those of you that haven't heard her birth story, here it is. On Tuesday, June 14th I woke up at about 4 AM with some mild, irregular contractions. I was excited but not completely sure that it meant she would be here soon. The contractions continued all through the day and finally around 10 PM the contractions started developing a pattern. Joe was so excited he could hardly sit still and insisted that we pack our hospital bag just in case. I still wasn't convinced that she was coming just because the contractions were so mild and were 10 minutes apart, lasting about 15 seconds a piece but I was proven wrong.

At 2 AM we left for the hospital. My contractions were 5 minutes apart and each lasted a minute or longer but they were sometimes so mild I could hardly feel them. So we got all checked into the hospital and they hooked me up to all the little machines. The nurse came in and checked me and I was dilated to 2 cm and 90% effaced but my contractions were not hard enough to be admitted so they sent us home. I was instructed to stay at home until I could no longer talk through a contraction so I labored at home from 3-8:30 AM which by this point I was still doing fine with the pain but the contractions were getting too close for our liking. We left for the second time for the hospital and this time they admitted me. I was dilated to 5 cm and 100% effaced. After getting all settled in they allowed me to walk the hallways and soak in the tub. The midwife was pretty optimistic that I would deliver before 1 that afternoon so we were pretty excited. After a few hours the contractions were getting harder but Joe was an awesome coach and kept me focused and laughing. My mom arrived to be there with me around 11 and we were all so sure that I would be able to complete the delivery completely natural.

But when 1 PM rolled around I hadn't progressed at all. Our midwife was afraid that if I didn't start progressing soon that I would be too tired for delivery and suggested we start me on some pitocin. Once that was started the feeling of the contractions changed completely. They were hard and unnatural but I pushed through the pain with no pain medication until the pitocin pain level reached a 6. I was able to handle it until she checked me again at around 5 PM and I was STILL at 5 cm. She explained that she needed to up the dosage some more and that's when I finally broke down and cried. The pain was too much and to think about it getting worse was overwhelming so I decided to go with the epidural. While we waited for the epidural they injected a pain medication into my IV and upped the dosage on the pitocin. The medication made me feel loopy and dizzy and caused my entire body to shake. I could hardly concentrate on Joe telling me to breathe. I was getting frustrated and the pain was becoming unbearable. About a half an hour later the anesthesiologist arrived and proceeded to stick me with that huge needle THREE times while I tried to breathe through the contractions and Joe held my shaking body as still as he could and tried to get me to stop crying. But as soon as the epidural started to work I was in heaven!

At around 7:15 PM the midwife came to check me again and I was finally at 10 cm!!! She said I could start pushing and after 2 hours we could see the top of her head but her heart rate was starting to get too high so they called a doctor in to use the little vacuum on her head in order to get her out as soon as possible. Two pushes later and at 9:49 PM our little girl was finally born! They placed her on my chest and I was so relieved and happy to finally have her here that all I could do was cry. She cried with me on my chest while Joe stood next to us just beaming. :) He was so excited he just kept kissing both of us and kept telling me over and over that she was finally here. It was a wonderful moment to finally have our family of three.

My mom stayed with us through the whole thing and took a ton of pictures. Here are just a few.
Before they started the pitocin

Claire finally arrived!!

So happy to finally have my baby girl

8 pounds 1 oz

proud daddy

First family picture (please ignore how awful I look)

Our beautiful little Claire

It was a long and hard day for all of us but in the end it was so worth it! We love our baby girl and can't imagine life without her.

It's Go Time!

Today is my due date! And according to my pregnancy countdown on the right of my blog, it's go time! Ha I don't think Claire got the memo. I think she's decided she's pretty comfortable in there and I've decided I'm ok with waiting. Not thrilled about it but I'm ok with it.

I can honestly say that earlier this week I was NOT ok with waiting any longer. I wanted her out and I wanted her out now! But after my amazing husband gave me a blessing I feel much more relaxed and calm. I wish that was the case with Joe, the longer we have to wait the more antsy he gets. I think he's just a little over excited! :) I just keep reminding him that she will be here before the end of the month! I know it helps me to know that there is an end to being pregnant.

At our last doctor's appointment they told me that I am now dilated to 1 cm. Thank goodness! I was so worried that there would be no progress because I have had no contractions during the last week. At 37 weeks they were telling me she could come any day because of the contractions I was having but when week 38 rolled around I was only effaced 50% and then only 70% the next week. So now I know that just because I can't feel the progress, there is still progress going on. And since Claire is measuring slightly smaller than average they will not induce me until after the 25th. So I'm just going to sit back and relax and wait for this little girl to come out and greet us. :)

Here's some pics to show how big she's gotten:
This is 38 weeks...

And this was taken today at exactly 40 weeks!

I'm hoping she comes soon cuz I don't want to get much bigger than this! :)

One more month!

As of today I am exactly one month from my due date! I can't believe that she will be here that soon but I am so excited to meet my little girl! I can't wait to kiss her sweet little face and cuddle and love on her! We had a baby shower this past Saturday and it was so much fun! (I will post pics when I get them from my sister) We got so many things for her but it made me super antsy for her to be here already. :) But I keep reminding myself that she will be here soon enough!

So here I am at 35 weeks and 4 days

Thankfully this part of the pregnancy has been really relaxing. I have NO back pain, heartburn, or trouble sleeping! Yay! I get swollen feet mostly just after church and I still throw up occasionally when Claire decides to kick my stomache too hard but other than that I feel great! I'm still pretty flexible and free to move around for the most part. I can still touch my toes but rolling over in bed is a different story! Joe always makes fun of me when I roll over but I'd like to see him switch sides with a belly that feels like it's pinning you down! :) And the closer we get the due date, the more active Claire gets! It's fun to sit on the couch and just watch my stomache as she twists and turns. She's been getting the hiccups a lot lately too and it's pretty funny to watch!

Anyways, we finally got the nursery finished! It's perfect and I love it! My goal was to finish the nursery before the baby shower and I am so relieved that it is done! The biggest part was getting her pictures painted. So here are all the pictures I did for our little girl. They are from the books Angelina Ballerina. I loved reading them when I was little and I hope that she likes them too.

My personal favorite!

My mom helped me make some mates that would match the pictures, just to bring some color into the room. And she helped me paint the frames white. I love the way they turned out!

Here is the completed room. (this is the view from the doorway)

My sister, Kayleen, made the bow holder. It has already come in handy with all the bows we got from the shower!

My sister, Savannah, found this adorable bookshelf outside of her apartment and I love how perfectly it fits under the window. It has so much room for books and toys!

My friend katie made this for Claire. It's such a cute idea. In the empty space below her name is where her birthday date is supposed to go.

other corner of her room

And her nursery would not be complete if it had not been for my mother-in-law! She sent the sweetest little bed set for her room and it matches everything else in there!

Some of the gifts from the baby shower! I can't wait to see her in some of these outfits!

We thought it was pretty funny that the "C" fits my belly!

So stay posted these next couple of weeks because I will soon be blogging about my little girls arrival! Yay! I can hardly wait!

Sneak Peak

I was so excited today because the long awaited package FINALLY arrived! About two weeks ago I ordered a beautiful pink butterfly mobile for Claire's room. It's perfect and I LOVE IT!!!!

Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?!

I love it because the little butterflies flutter when you walk into the room. I'm pretty sure she's going to love it too. :)

I'm also loving how the rest of her room is coming together. I used a lot of decor from my old room in college and am so glad/relieved that it all matches! I haven't finished her paintings yet but I thought that I would give everyone a sneak peak before the finished project. I'm hoping to have her nursery completed before the baby shower.

I hung this wreath on her door...

Her beautiful crib and the butterfly mobile hanging above :) (the mobile looks bigger in person)

I don't have her bed set yet but I have it picked out and I'm hoping to add a pink letter "C" on this side of the room.

The other side of the room...

This side hasn't been finished yet. This is where all her pictures will be but I've also been toying with the idea of putting this above the changing table instead...

But I can't decide if it will be too much or not. I think I need to finish all her pictures first and then decide.

Also, Joe bought me this really cute rug

It's so SOFT and it has a reverse side to it! Sometimes I just want to curl up on it but I know that if I get down on the floor like that I won't be able to get back up lol :)

This is the soft side...

And this is the reverse side...I love the stripes!

And here is a sneak peak of the paintings

This is the only one that is completed but I hope to get the rest done before the end of next week.

And if you can't tell from all the frilly, pinkness in her room...I am super girly and super excited to be having this little girl! I can hardly wait for her to be here! And I am happy to report that at the doctor's appointment today everything was all going great! Apparently the diet they put me on really did help my baby girl. She is measuring only a week ahead now instead of a whole month(YAY!) and I only gained two pounds for a total of twelve pounds from the twenty I originally lost. I was also relieved to know that the cramps I've been having and the braxton hicks contractions are normal and a good sign that my body is preparing for labor! So the countdown continues...I am 33 weeks pregnant and have 7 weeks left! I can't believe she will be here that soon but I am so ready for it! I have a lot planned for the upcoming weeks so hopefully they will go by fast. :)

P.S. I am so proud of my amazing husband for his grades this semester! He worked so hard and it showed! I love you baby!