Time is so weird.  On the one hand, I can't believe how fast these last 4 1/2 months have gone.  I feel like it was just yesterday that we were in the hospital anxiously awaiting her arrival.  On the other hand, it feels like she's always been part of our lives.  Like I've always been a momma.  And I love it.

Claire's Nursery

Alright alright.  I'm a little behind.  I've had a few people ask to see pictures of our nursery so it's about time I post some.  It's only been three months, after all.  I'll have to redo this post pretty soon when we buy a place.. if we can actually get an offer to go through before some big shot investor comes along with cash and a million dollar smile.. I'm not bitter.. Anyway, UNTIL then, here you have it. White walls, brown doors, and a cottage cheesed ceiling in all its glory.

Blue Bird: Hobby Lobby

Crib: Walmart

Rug: TJ Maxx

Bedding: Courtesy of my amazing momma

Fabric: Gracie Lou's Quilt Shop/Cornwagon Quilt Shop

Sign: Painted it myself

Pom Poms: Courtesy of my best friend Jaime, left over from my incredible baby shower.  Purchased somewhere on Etsy.

Dresser: Garage sale a billion years ago.  I painted it and replaced the hardware.

Snow Globe hiding on the corner of the dresser: Courtesy of my little sister from ceramics class. Cutest.

Peg Board: Sunroc, then painted in Behr's "Cool Lava"

Baskets: Hobby Lobby, then replaced the linings to match

Wooden "C": H.L. then covered in scrapbook paper and Mod Podged

Frames: Ikea

Crystal Door Knob hangers: H.L.

Soon-to-be-replaced Crappy Overexposed Print: Walmart

Blanket Barrel: Target



This is where my cushy gliding armchair used to go with the table off to the side.  We don't use it in the middle of the night like we used to so I moved it to the living room to add more seating.

White Curtains: Ikea, then added the strip of coral polka dot fabric to the top

Blue Bird Painting: Gift from my seester.. I believe it's from Rod Works

Side Table: Made from an old bar stool then painted

Clock: Target

Lamp: My childhood bedroom..

"Baby Claire" Banner: Courtesy of my other best friend Amanda and her scrapbooky skills.  Also left over from my baby shower.

There you have it!  

Claire's Birth.. aka Longest Post Ever

It's about time I posted something about the sweet new daughter in our lives.  Mostly this post is for me to remember all the details since it's the only journal I keep.. so feel free to skim.

Reason for Induction:
Everyone panicked when they found out I was being induced because they thought something was wrong.. so here's the reason.  Normally I had my doctor appointments on Fridays, but my 39 weeks appointment happened to fall on the same day as my sister-in-law's wedding, so I had to move my appointment to Tuesday instead.. even though it had only been 4 days since my last one.  As it turned out, I had progressed significantly in those 4 days and would likely go into labor by the end of the week. My doctor decided to induce me on Thursday, his hospital day, so he could control the whole thing. (Needless to say, I didn't make it to the wedding.)


We were supposed to arrive at the hospital at 5:00 a.m. to begin my induction.. I got up at 3:30, showered, starting loading up our stuff and then got a phone call at 4:00 a.m. saying they didn't have any rooms available and to wait until 7:00.  I'm convinced that that is the meanest thing you can do to someone.  Anyway, we eventually arrived and were admitted.  My nurse came in and hooked me up to a monitor to follow my contractions, a monitor to watch Claire's heartbeat, and then attempted to insert my IV.  Apparently my veins have a high valve count.. which makes for healthy blood flow, but BAD IV insertion.  It took six attempts. SIX. Three per arm. See photo for details.

Monitoring Claire's heart and my contractions

The first 3 attempts

By the time I got hooked up to everything, my doctor had arrived.  He did a quick check and then announced he was going to break my water and told the nurse to start my petocin.  I panicked momentarily because I thought they would give me SOME kind of pain meds before breaking my water, but as it turns out I felt nothing but gushing fluids.  The petocin kicked in immediately and my contractions had begun.  They were extremely.. effective.. and I progressed from a 2+cm dilation to a solid 5cm in the first hour.  

Contracting

Over the next 3 hours I only dilated to 6cm.  Somewhere in that time I got my epidural.  It was incredible.  It worked within 5 minutes. Getting it inserted, however, was more difficult than I anticipated.  Something that no one talks about is how much your body violently shakes during labor.  The combination of such intense pain and the crazy hormones surging through your body makes you shake uncontrollably.  With a gigantic needle going up your spine it's fairly important that you hold still.  Eventually we got it done.  After I was warm and tingly, Sean and I just sat around waiting for my nurse to come check me every hour for progress.  Somewhere between the hours of 1:30 and 2:30 I went from 6cm to 10cm and fully effaced!  They prepped my room and we got started.  After pushing for about 30 minutes, Claire made her appearance.  Best moment in our lives. 

First moments of life

Momma and babe

First family photo

First decent family photo.  It's amazing what cropping can do

Parade of Homes!

Sean's job definitely has its perks.  His bosses are awesome and they got us tickets to the Parade of Homes, so on Saturday we made a whole day of it.  Some of the houses are INCREDIBLE.  The beauty of the whole Parade is its ability to make you want to throw out all of your decorations and burn down your house for the insurance money so you can build a beautiful new 10,000 sqft one with a custom floor plan and personal decorator at your fingertips.  Oh, and a beautiful outdoor living space with a barbecue area and enormous pool surrounded by cushy patio furniture.

Until the day that we purchase our first home and I get to do whatever I want to it, I'll just keep pinning my dreams on pinterest and will spend the next 20 years designing my dream house so that the plans are ready the moment we decide to build it.

Here are a few pictures from our fun weekend.. They're not great quality, but we're planning on going through our favorite houses again with our real camera in tow so I can relive the beauty.

T-minus 4 weeks

It's a fact, I'm not good at blogging.  I'm hoping that after little Miss Claire arrives I'll be more inclined to post all of her cute pictures.. but I can't promise anything.

Updates.
I GRADUATED!!!  That's right, I am an official college graduate and never have to go back to school again.  I never thought I'd make it.  Feelin pretty darn goooood.

The baby room is nearly complete!  I am working on my last project (a side table to go next to my glider) and then it is finished.  I'm dying to take pictures to show everyone but I want to wait until I have all the finishing touches.  The table should be done by tomorrow so hopefully sometime this week I'll have some pictures up.

We are now at 35 1/2 weeks!  I can't believe it!  Just over a month to go and it can't come fast enough.  I'm done with this whole 'being pregnant' thing and ready to meet the little girl that's been kicking me for the past 4 months.  I can't wait to see her in person!  What she looks like, her tiny fingers and toes, her hair or lack thereof, her tiny baby bum.. everything. The excitement just keeps building and it's going to be a miracle if I don't explode before she arrives.

Also, this is a conversation that I had with someone last week.. and I've had several others very similar to it.. and I'm going to snap at the next person that says this to me.  It went something like this, "You're looking great! How are you feeling?" and I respond, "Pretty good!  I'm really tired and excited to be done with the pregnancy so we can just meet her already!" and their response, "Well get used to be tired because you won't sleep for the next 18 years!" REALLY?  I'm telling you how excited I am to be a mom and that's your response?  EVERYONE knows you don't get much sleep with a baby.  It's not a new concept.  I don't need the negative reminders of how hard it's going to be or your little "just you wait" jokes.  I KNOW it's going to be the hardest thing I've ever had to do and that there's no way to fully comprehend it, but I'm excited beyond belief for every minute of it!  Couldn't you say something like, "You're going to have so much fun being a mom!"  I'd even be fine with, "The tired thing isn't going to go away after the baby arrives, but it sure is worth it!" Come on, people. Try to be a little more uplifting instead of trying to scare me.  This also goes for all those women who think it's okay to tell me  how horrible labor is.  Or tell me the very worst birth story they ever heard about a friend of a friend of your 2nd cousin.  Just keep it to yourself.

Whew, just needed to get that out of my system.  Another post coming soon with pics of the nursery!

23 Weeks

We are almost done with our 23rd week of pregnancy! Less than four months to go until our due date. It's coming up fast! We named our little girl Claire and this past month she has started moving around like crazy! Sean has felt her kick a few times now and it still shocks him. Our ultrasound was so amazing. Seeing her for the first time, even if it was just on a monitor, was one of the greatest experiences of our lives. We can't wait to meet her.

In other news.. we moved! About two weeks ago our neighbor told us that he had a friend interested in renting our apartment when we moved out, so we started looking around for a new place. Within about 3 days we found a new place, sold our contract at the old apartment, and moved out. We LOOOOVE our new duplex. It's more than twice the size of our last place, has a little back yard and patio, two bedrooms, AND has a one car garage. I've picked out the fabric for Claire's room and now it's just waiting to be decorated and filled with cute pink ruffly baby clothes. I'll be sure to post pictures when it looks like a baby room :)

Pregnancy

Here I am at almost 18 weeks! I'm still at that stage where if you don't know I'm pregnant then I just look fat.. but I don't even care! There's a baby growing in there!

I thought I should jot down a few things about this whole pregnancy experience so I can look back on them a few years down the line when we are thinking about having another baby. That way I can either talk myself out of it or at least say "I told you so" to myself when I keep asking why I would do this a second time ;)

We found out I was pregnant at 6 weeks along and then from about weeks 7-16 I was quite miserable. I was exhausted ALL the time and took lots and lots of naps. I threw up consistently 2-6 times a day.. and not just in the mornings. Morning. Afternoon. Night. Middle of the night. Middle of class. Basically anytime and anywhere. I lost about 5 pounds total and still managed to grow that belly. BUT. At week 17 it just magically stopped. I didn't want to say anything and jinx myself, but it's been just over a week since my head's been in a toilet and I'm feeling fairly confident that my morning sickness has passed.

I didn't eat very much during that time, but here are some of the things i DID eat:

Popsicles

Saltine Crackers

Sprite/Gingerale

A glass of orange juice EVERY morning (this was a must for some reason)

Toast

Macaroni and Cheese

FRAZZLES (specifically Tiger's Blood flavor)

I think Sean is even happier than I am that I'm not sick anymore. He has been the best husband in the world these past 4 months.. always asking me if there is ANYTHING he can do, running to the store to get me something no matter what time it is, taking out the trash even if it isn't full so that I don't have to smell it.. basically everything I could possibly need or want. I sure do love him!

Now that we're almost half way and we can actually SEE my baby bump, everything is starting to feel a little more real. We find out if it's a girl or a boy in 2 1/2 weeks and we can't wait to start making plans! We're going to pick out the baby room colors and officially choose a name! That way we can stop calling it "baby" and "he or she" all the time. I can't wait to start shopping for baby stuff! Anyway, we'll post an update when we find out if it's a girl or a boy!