Baby #2 on the way!!!

Surprise!!! Baby Yost #2 is on the way... due sometime in June! On October 27 I decided to take a test just for fun. Well... it was a positive!!! I really had no idea, since my cycle hadn't returned yet. I just thought, what if....

We told our family and a few close friends. We wanted to keep it quiet until we went to the doctor. My first appointment was a couple days ago, Dec 27. We had the ultrasound first. The measured me at 14 wks 5 days, which put my due date on June 19! I guessed I was around 14 weeks, so I wasn't too far off :) The ultrasound tech gave us a guess on the gender, but she said it was very early yet, so we are keeping that quiet for now (until the next ultrasound). When I saw the doctor, she said my due date is June 19, give or take 10 days! So I could really have this baby any time in June... Since I never got my cycle back, it is hard to determine exactly how far along I am.

I have been feeling pretty good this time! I felt sick maybe 3 or 4 times total... and I think those times were either because I wasn't eating enough or ate something that didn't agree with me (orange juice). Much different pregnancy this time so far as far as the sickness... and I've been STARVING. I was hungry a lot with Claire too, but I feel like I need to be eating constantly. Tired too, but that's to be expected. I usually go to bed right after I put Claire down at 9. Not really showing yet, but some of my jeans are starting to feel snug.

So, they're going to be about 15 months apart. Yikes?? It's going to be a challenge for sure, but I've heard great things about kids close in age. Hopefully they'll be bff's :) Plus, Claire won't really know what it's like to be the only child, so there shouldn't be much jealousy going on. I am excited!!!

GOD IS GOOD!

Baby Y #2

Claire: 9 Months!

Our sweet baby girl is now 9 months old! She is doing so great... She is cruising all over the place. She pulls herself up on just about anything with no problem (including the Christmas Tree branches...) and walks all along the furniture. She occasionally lets go and can stand on her own for around 5 seconds! I don't think it will be long before she is taking her first steps! She is also crawling up on all 4's now instead of army-crawling.

Her first tooth popped through about 3 weeks ago! She acted fussy a couple days before it broke through, but that was it with the fussiness... I had to get up with her for a couple nights when she woke up crying. I felt her first tooth on November 24th :) Shortly after that, the second one on the bottom came in. So, we now have 2 tiny bottom teeth! She loves to chew on anything she can get in her mouth... including paper, dog food, and needles she pulls off our fake Christmas tree. She LOVES the organic puffs. Can't feed her enough of those.

Claire is still eating great. Not many changes since last month... still eating mostly rice cereal, avacado, squash, carrots, apples, bananas... I'll occasionally give her a small chuck of bread. I'm sure we'll be expanding in that department soon. She is on pretty much all formula now. I still pump at night and give her what I can, but it's only about an ounce... Will probably be stopping pumping all together soon. She does great with the formula, thankfully.

My biggest challenge with her is changing her clothes and diaper! She will NOT sit still. She immediately wants to flip over and hop up on her knees when I lay her down to change her. Really fun when she has a big poopy. I'm guessing this isn't going to get easier any time soon... oh well!

SO excited for her first Christmas :) We are blessed to have amazing families to spend it with! We will head down to Harrison this weekend and stay there through Christmas Eve. We're having a get-together at Grandma Jones' one night, and then Mimi and Papa's big event on Christmas Eve. Always a wonderful time :) We'll head back home after that and go to Christmas Eve service at our church... We'll open gifts at home Christmas morning and then head over to my parent's to spend rest of the morning/afternoon with them. We'll head to my Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner... It will be a busy few days, but we love our families and love spending time with them! That's all for now... Hope everyone has a very blessed Christmas! Remember the reason-JESUS!

Claire: 8 Months

Claire is 8 months!! This past month has been major in terms of development. Claire is now pulling herself up on everything she can, and with that comes many tumbles. She usually lands on the soft carpet and the falls don't phase her, but yesterday she took a spill in the bathroom  tile while I was in there cleaning and that wasn't so fun :(  I just do my best to chase her everywhere she goes and sit behind her when she stands up. She is EVERYWHERE. It is amazing. The other day I asked Ben, so what did you do today? He said... I chased, and chased, and chased, and changed a poopie, and chased, and chased, and chased....

She is babbling quite a bit more and saying lot's of "dada's" and "mama's" :) She hasn't associated us with her words yet, but it is quite adorable when she is in her crib saying "mamamamama!" She will get in little shouting matches with Ben which is hilarious. She will yell, and he will yell back, and they go back and forth for awhile and she has the biggest smile on her face. So sweet :)

Whenever I get home from work, she clings to me for quite awhile. If I try to put her down, she will often cry... and of course I pick her right back up. It makes cleaning and cooking dinner challenging sometimes, but I've learned to do many things one-handed. Ben is in the U.P. hunting and his mom is here watching her today, so I will take tomorrow off and have a nice 3-day weekend with her. Next week is Thanksgiving as well, so I'll get 4 days off then. Love the long weekends!

Claire is a great eater. She eats rice cereal, squash, carrots, avocados  apples, bananas, and we're about to start making some green bean purees for her too. We are still feeding her my frozen breast milk  but that is about to run out... I am going to start mixing with formula soon to start that transition. When I went back to work, my supply quickly diminished. I am so thankful I was able to store so much to keep her on breast milk this long. I wish we could keep her on it longer, but it just isn't going to happen. She is very healthy and happy, and I know the Lord will always take care of us :)

At the end of October, I decided to join Premier Designs and become a jeweler! My wonderful friend Stacey Walton has been with the company for a few years and I decided to join her team and give it a try. So far, it has been beyond what I've expected. I was nervous about doing a presentation in front of people, but after the first show, it was much easier. I went to Fall Round-Up which is a training/conference in GR, and had an amazing time. This company is all about God and serving others, which is just so awesome to me. They teach us to focus on enriching lives and spreading love, and selling really great jewelry is our tool. I am so glad we made the decision to join Premier, and I'm really excited about the possibilities with building my own business :) If you or anyone you know would like to help me out by having a home show and earning lots of great free jewelry, please let me know! :)

God has blessed our family SO much!!!

Claire: 7 Months

Claire is now 7 months old! Still army-crawling all over the house. She will pop up on her hands and knees sometimes and lunge back and forth, but hasn't quite taken off in the all-out crawl yet. She can climb up on Ben or myself when we are sitting on the ground and she pops up on her feet :) Ben lowered the crib yesterday .. it will be very soon when she will start pulling herself up on things.

She had her first cold last week :( She had quite the runny/stuffy nose... the bulb suction thing is not her best friend. Sometimes we would have to pin her down... poor baby. She is getting better now though and finally slept through the night last night for the first time in about a week.

Claire is in 9-12 month clothes. A few of the big 6 month clothes still fit. It is incredible how fast you go through clothes sizes!

All is going great with Claire! She loves being home with her Daddy all day :)

Oh, I decided to become a Premier Designs Jeweler... more on that soon!

Claire: 6 Months!

6 months already!!! Wow, time has flown. Claire is doing so great... I'm such a happy momma. Last month (about 5 to 5 1/2 months) she started crawling everywhere. Not quite up on her hands and knees yet, but she is army-crawling all over the house. We really need to watch her more closely now since she can be across the house and chewing on a shoe within a minute. She is still super-active. Won't sit still unless she is asleep :) Whenever we go on stroller rides, she always has one or both feet up on the tray infront of her. Cracks me up!

At her 6 month appointment, she weighs 16 lbs and is 27" long! 55% for weight and 90% for height. Perfect :) Shots weren't so fun... but we managed.

She is eating usually 3 servings of solids a day. We have fed her zucchini, apples, and avacado so far along with the rice cereal. Just started squash too a couple of days ago, and she likes it! Love the Baby Bullet. So easy to make her food, and it saves $ and is healthy for her. She has been sleeping all night! Sometimes she gets up once sometime between 3 and 5, but the last several nights she has slept from 9pm til 7 or 8am. Can't beat that.

The transition of Ben staying home now while I go back to work has went quite smoothly. It is still very hard for me to be away from her, but its so nice knowing she is home with her Daddy :)

We have been busy almost every weekend between going to the U.P. and Harrison, or weddings and other events going on. Hunting season is pretty much here, so Ben will be occupied with that for the next couple of months. Overall, things are great at the Yost household... so blessed :)

Claire: 5 Months

Our beautiful baby girl is now 5 months old! She is reaching new milestones and is as healthy as can be. She just recently started sitting up on her own for short periods of time. She is on the verge of getting up on all fours. A few weeks ago, I started her on rice cereal because she started waking up at 3 or 4am hungry. The rice cereal keeps her full for longer at night, and lets me sleep as well :) It is pretty hilarious watching her try to eat from the spoon. Her tongue is all over the place and she wants to play with it. We go with about 4 spoon fulls before adding more milk and putting it in the bottle for her... but we are getting the hang of it.

Claire is a VERY active little girl... won't sit still :) This is challenging at times, but I can always get work done around the house when she naps :) Her sleeping schedule is still great. She goes to bed at about 9, wakes up at about 7, and has 3 naps during the day that last between 1.5 and 2 hours. Can't ask for much better! Found out that she does not like the harmonica or when my parent's house phone rings. She cries every time... poor girl. Other than that and the occasional naptime fussiness, she is a very happy baby!

I go back to work next week... and it is going to be hard. I'm used to being with Claire all the time. BUT... Ben will be done with work after today, so he gets to trade and stay home with her :) Makes me feel so much better about returning to work!

Got some good news... Ben's sister is pregnant so I will be an aunt again! With this one coming around the end of March and Chuck and Cassie's new arrival coming in February, we will have 8 nieces/nephews! The family sure is growing :)

We are so blessed!!!

Eternity is a long time... are you ready?

I have felt a pretty big nudge from God recently to write this. There has been news about a lot of death lately, and some very close family and friends have been affected. It has me wondering and asking myself what some of my closest friends and family members believe when it comes to faith. I know that all of my immediate family and many of my close friends are believers and have been saved, because we openly talk about it... but there are also those I'm not sure where they stand. So here it goes.

Any of us could die at any moment. We see it happen all the time... car accidents, cancer, heart attacks, a random shooting in a theater.... people die, and many times it is totally unexpected. If you were to die today, do you know where you will go? Where you will spend eternity? God loves us all so much, that he sent his one and only son to die for us to take away our sins so that we could spend eternity in Heaven with him. A place so majestic and incredible that we cannot even image. He did this because HE LOVES US. More than we could ever know. All we have to do is accept that love and ask Jesus to enter our hearts and save us from hell. We all deserve to go to hell. Yes, I know that is bold and scary, but its true. We all are sinners and fall short. I will be the first one to admit that I have made plenty of mistakes and I sin often. I also ask for forgiveness all the time and ask God to help me live the way he wants me to live.

God gives us this totally free gift of salvation. All we have to do is accept it. I pray that ALL of my friends accept this gift, because I want to see you all in Heaven some day :) It just breaks my heart when I hear of someone who died and not knowing if they were a Christian or not. When I say Christian, I mean someone who has accepted the Lord as their personal savior. I hear so much about "religion" and it being about a list of do's and do not's... That is not what it's about. That is what turns many people off to the idea of being a Christian.

The bottom line... GOD LOVES YOU. He has offered you a free gift of eternal life in heaven. I pray that everyone reading this will search their hearts and accept him before it is too late. If you already have, that is wonderful and I am so glad :) I hope I didn't offend anyone here or lose any friends... I have just felt God asking me to do this for awhile now. I'll say it here one last time- God loves you, and so do I! I am praying for you all :)

Claire: 4 Months

Our beautiful baby girl is 4 months old already! She is such a great baby... Doesn't cry very often, and when she does, I can usually console her pretty quickly. She is a great napper, and is sleeping through the night most nights. She is starting to push up on her feet and knees... I wonder if she will be crawling soon? She grabs everything in sight. She likes to grab my face when I am feeding her, so cute :) She also loves to yank on my hair. It has been up a lot more lately :) She is making all sorts of new sounds, mostly Oooooo's and Ahhhh's, with some Ma's and Ba's thrown in there every once in awhile. She looks my way when I say her name. She is SO squirmy... this baby will not stay still!

We took a quick trip up to the cabin in the UP this weekend. Claire hasn't been quite as fond of long car rides lately. I think she doesn't like being strapped down... she just wants to move. But we got through it. We have shots later today... not looking forward to those, but they are for the best. She is such a strong and healthy girl, we have been blessed!

I am back down to my pre-pregnancy weight-YES! Last month I was only about 2 lbs over, but it feels great to be back to normal. I'm definitely not as toned as I was before, but I can work on that :)

I have to go back to work in about a month.... It is going to be so hard to leave Claire. I just keep remembering that Cassie will be watching her and she will only be a few miles down the road. Plus, when Ben gets his lay-off for the winter, she will get to be home with him. I believe this is what is best for our family... for now anyways. Only God knows what the future holds :)

Update after doc visit: Claire did great at the doctor's... she weighted in at 14 lbs 2 oz and is 26". Back in the 97% for her height! She did much better with this round of shots... Only screamed for about 3 seconds and didn't have a reaction this time :)

Claire: 3 Months!

Our little girl is already 3 months old! She amazes me every day.

Claire is growing so fast, it seems like there is something new every week! At about 10 weeks, she rolled over for the first time. I had her laying on her tummy, and she flipped to her back... and I just happened to be recording! (see video on Facebook) She went awhile before rolling again, but the past few days she has been a rolling machine. The other day I layed her on her back on her play-gym and went in the other room for a minute... came back and she was on her tummy! I missed her first back to front flip, but she performed an encore shortly after :) On the milestone chart I have, it says your baby might start rolling by 4 months of age... I guess we have a little super-baby on our hands :)

She has been sleeping GREAT. Last night she slept... 12 HOURS STRAIGHT! I couldn't believe it. I changed up our routine a bit and we skipped her evening nap. I'm going to continue to do that and hopefully she keeps sleeping that long at night. Usually she goes about 8 hours and sometimes wakes up in the middle of that. I really can't complain!

Our friends let us borrow their jumper and I thought Claire might be a bit too small for it yet, but she's doing pretty good! Her feet don't reach the ground so we put some phone books under her feet. She loves it so far... all smiles :) I have been putting her in her crib for naps (as well as the swing sometimes) to get her used to it... We will probably be moving her into her own room soon... yikes. I'm sure that move will be harder on me than her. I'm so used to having her right by my side in her bassinet at night, within arms-reach. She is sleeping 8 hours in a row at night now, most nights... I put her to bed at 9 and she usually wakes up at 5. Sometimes she wakes up around 1, and I just put the pacifier in and she goes back to sleep. After I feed her at 5, she will sleep til about 9... so I have been getting a pretty good amount of sleep lately!

Claire loves going outside. When she starts go get fussy, I will step out on the porch and she usually stops fussing right away. We will sit and swing on the porch swing and she just loves it. Lately we have been going for walks outside in the stroller, and she loves that too. Last weekend, Ben and I started working on our first garden and she sat in the stroller the whole time, totally content. I think she's going to be an outdoors girl :)

We didn't have a doc's appointment this month, so I don't have weight/height stats... but she seems to be growing great! Ben helped her with her first doggie ride on Haley the other day.... so precious. (see video on Facebook) She is a very happy baby the majority of the time, and I just love watching her discover her world.

Our first Anniversary is on Monday... I really can't believe it has been a year since our wedding already! I have always heard that the first year of marriage/living together is the hardest. Well, if that was the hardest year, then we sure have a promising future ahead of us. God has been so good to us.

Claire @ 3 Months

My favorite baby products so far

Claire is 3 months old now, so I thought I'd share some of my favorite baby products so far-

1. Mommy's Bliss Gripe Water. If you have a colicky baby, this is the stuff to get. If she is crying/screaming inconsolably, I give her a little bit of this stuff and she almost always calms down immediately. She often falls asleep within minutes too. It is all natural, so I felt ok about giving it to her... and it made her feel SO much better.

2. Boudreaux's Butt Paste. This stuff is awesome... it works better than Desitin and smells WAY better. Trust me, you don't want to accidentally lick something off of your finger after you have had Desitin on it... nasty. You don't want to taste the Butt Paste either, but it is much more pleasant.

3. ItzBeen Baby Timer. I live by this thing when it comes to feedings. You just push a button at the start of one feeding and restart it when the next one comes. It is so hard to remember what time you last fed, and this makes it so you don't have to write it down. I tried just remembering times for awhile, but you forget. You can use it to track diaper changes and naps too, but I just use it for feedings.

4. Fisher Price 3-in-1 Baby Swing. I use this a lot. She falls asleep in it very quickly... I sometimes turn it off once she falls asleep so she doesn't "need" the swing to nap... but it hasn't affected her night sleeping at all, and she will nap in the crib just fine too. If she started relying on the swing to fall asleep, I would stop using it... but she does just fine :)

5. Medela. Of course I had to put my pump on this list... It works perfectly and I haven't had any problems with it. I also have a deep freezer full of milk :) I  was using the Lasinoh storage bags and those work great. Once I ran out of those, I have been freezing milk in 1oz ice cube trays. Once they are frozen, I put them in ziplock bags and into the deep freezer. Also works great!

Some other random tips-

-Olive oil (or baby oil) on baby's head when it gets flaky. Claire has had a really flaky scalp lately, so I tried some olive oil (I did not notice it was seasoned with herbs, so she smelled like olive garden haha) and it worked great!

-Babywise. I read this book and have done my best to stick with the eat, play, sleep routine. It has worked out great for us so far. Last night we skipped her last evening nap, and she slept 12 hours straight! I'll be sticking with that from now on :)

-Clean out those ears after baths! The other night, she was itching and tugging on her ear and fussing quite a bit... turns out, she had some soap left in there from her bath. I cleaned it out with a baby Q-Tip and that fixed it.

-Massaging the tear duct... Claire had a goupy eye that I had to clean out constantly. The doc told me she might have a partially blocked tear duct and to just massage it with my finger every so often. I tried it, and sure enough her eye cleared right up.

Ok that is all I can think of for now. Hopefully this will help someone.. if not, I will refer back to this when ever we have our next little one!

2 Months!

So Claire is 2 months old already. We are loving every minute of parenthood :)

We had her 2 month check-up (and shots...) on Wednesday. She weighs 11 lbs 8oz and is 24 1/4 inches long. 41.2 head circumference. 95% for height, 75% for weight and 94% for head size... we have a big girl! Her vaccination shots weren't so fun. I'm glad Ben was there with me. She was not a happy camper... when we got home she napped and Ben left for work. When she woke up she was screaming like she did when she got her shots and felt fever-ish. I gave her some Tylenol and she eventually calmed down. Breaks my heart when she cries like that :( That was Wednesday... last night she had a rough spell again and we had a hard time getting to sleep. She kept crying and crying, which is so unlike her. She is usually very consolable... I'm pretty certain it was from the shots. I've heard the 2 month shots are the worst, and they do better for the next 2 sets. She finally went to sleep about 11:30, and slept... ALL NIGHT!!! First time ever. I was so excited when she woke up at 7:30. I'm not sure if it was because she wore herself out from all of the screaming and crying, or she's just ready to sleep at night now. Before tonight, she usually wakes up every 3-4 hours. Once she went 6, but that was the most until last night. Let's hope this can continue :)

She is doing really great with her development. She has been smiling away for about a month now, and her noises are changing almost every day! All sorts of new coo's... and I swear yesterday when she was "talking" to me, it sounded like she said "I love you!" haha... more like ahh-woo-vuu.... but still, melted my heart :) Her skwaks are starting to sound like laughs... she is holding her head up great now, and bears all of her weight when I hold her standing up. It's truly amazing watching her grow and develop so fast!

Ben is still working down in Mecosta this week. Unfortunately, he's working nights. Fortunately, this is his last week there. He gets to start a job right by Torch Lake next week, so he gets to come home every night!!! This makes me very happy :) I hope it is a long-lasting job!

I'm already dreading having to go back to work.... I mean, I miss everyone at my job and I really do enjoy what I do, but not being with my baby all day is going to be SO hard. It makes me feel better knowing that when Ben gets done working sometime in October, he will be home with her all day. We have about 2 months where we both are working. I'm pretty sure we are going to take her to Chuck and Cassie's while I'm working which makes me feel better knowing she will be with family. They also live just a few miles from the school, so I won't be far away at all. We'll see how that goes... and I'm very happy about all of the time I did get off.

We are dedicating Claire to the Lord on Sunday :) Greatly looking forward to it... We are beyond blessed!

 2 Months

 Family

First Mother's Day :)

1 Month Update

It's hard to believe baby girl is already 1 month old! Being a Mommy has been amazing so far :)

The first couple of weeks was quite exhausting. She was up every couple of hours in the night to eat (sometimes more often) and we had lots of visitors, which was expected and welcome of course. I was dreading when Ben had to go back to work... I knew I could handle it on my own, but I was just sad to not have him there. Nursing was a challenge at first. I had to get a shield because it was quite painful... once I started using that, things went much smoother. Now, I'm able to nurse just fine without it. I pump one side while she is nursing the other, and give her between 1 and 2 ounces in a bottle after she's done nursing... keeps her much more satisfied.

We've had a few bouts of colic/reflux and got some gripe water, which has helped a ton. She hasn't had it for about a week, so hopefully she's handling it better now.

She is doing GREAT at night now. Sometimes she even sleeps 6 hours straight... so nice for me :) We have been staying in Harrison the past couple of weeks since Ben is coming here to sleep at night. I'd rather have an hour or so with him than none at all... and I don't really like staying at home alone by myself all the time. We spent Easter down here too, and had a great family dinner at Ben's Grandparents' house.

At her 1 month checkup, she weighed 9lbs 15oz and was 23 1/4 inches long, which is in the 97th percentile for length!

Everything is going great!

Welcome Claire Ann!

I know this is a bit delayed, but our precious baby girl is here! We are SO in love... she is absolutely perfect. Here's the story of her arrival...

On Weds 3/14, I had a doc's appointment at 3:30 where they did a fetal non-stress test. Right near the end of the test, she rolled onto her cord and her heart rate dropped... this was enough concern for our doctor to send us to Triage to get checked out. We were kind of excited, because this might mean they would want to induce, but chances were slim. After a couple hours there, everything checked out just fine and we were sent home around 6:30. On our way home we stopped and met some friends for taco night, and got home around 9.

At 10:30 that night, I was in bed and just drifting asleep... and my water broke!!! It wasn't a huge amount at first... I was able to make it to the bathroom without making a huge mess. I was in there for about 15 minutes just leaking nonstop... and I knew I just had to grab a towel and get ready to get the show on the road! I came out and Ben was sleeping... I said, Hey Honey, my water broke! He half-woke up and said, "Where?" HAHA. He thought a pipe broke somewhere and water was spraying in the house... He soon figured out what I meant. I called the hospital and got ahold of the on-call doctor and he told me to come in. We grabbed our bags and headed out the door (and my water was going all over the place...). We arrived at Munson around midnight and had to go through the ER because the main doors were closed. When I was getting out of the car, another huge gush came out... the wheelchair guy looks at me and asked if I was ok. I just said yep, my water broke... He goes, "Oh my..." haha. We made our way back to Triage again, and this time they kept us! They determined my water had broke (which I was well aware of) and I was dilated to about a 1.5. They admitted me and gave me a 1/4 pill of Cytotec to get things going. About half hour later, the contractions started. They weren't horrible, but they were enough to keep me awake all night. They were about every 3-4 minutes apart. In the morning, they told me my contractions were consistent enough that I wouldn't need anymore of the drug and that I wouldn't need Pitocin.

We had a great nurse that night, but things changed the next morning... At 11 am, they changed shifts. Right off the bat, I could tell that this lady would not be nearly as helpful. She wasn't trying to help me with dealing with contractions (which were getting pretty intense at this point) and just wasn't keeping us very informed. I had the fetal monitors hooked up to me every hour for 10 mins. During the night, I would move and sometimes they'd lose the fetal heart rate, and the nurse would come running. This was no longer the case, and it was kind of worrying us... at one point, Ben hit the call button because there was a big question mark on the monitor.

So, the doctor came in around 8am and checked me, and I was at 5cm. He said he'd be back in around noon to check... well 1:00 came around and still no check. I had no idea where I was, and I was about ready for an epidural at this point, mainly due to pure exhaustion. I wanted to make sure I was at a 7 though, so I didn't slow down the labor. I asked the nurse about getting me checked, and she said she could do it... she said I was at a 7, Perfect. I asked for the epidural. The nurse first had to give me an IV, which she was very unsuccessful with... she missed the vein and was probing around with the needle in the side of my wrist trying to hit it. This was almost more painful than my contractions! I asked her to stop, and she went to get another nurse to start the IV. This one took 2 tries, but she got it. 20 mins later, I got the epi and was able to sleep for 2 hours which was amazing.

At about 4:00, the doctor came back to check me. He said I was at... a 5!!! I hadn't progressed at all and the nurse was wrong. The epidural had slowed things down, and I now needed Pitocin. After I got that, the contractions started getting more intense and I was starting to feel them again. I asked the nurse if she could bump up my epidural a bit. She had to shut the pump down to do this and was punching buttons for about 5 minutes... and my pain was getting worse and worse. She said it was all set, and I'm pretty sure she forgot to turn the pump back on because my pain went through the roof. Ben said he didn't see the epidural bag moving at all either... I asked her a couple times to check it and she said it was fine. UGH. I asked her about getting a catheter because I hadn't gone to the bathroom since I got the epidural. She said oh, we'll do that at some point. Well, I got to the point where I had to start pushing and she went to grab the catheter, and she was trying to get it in (very painful) and realized she couldn't get it around the baby's head anymore. So I got to give birth with a full bladder which I guess makes pushing more difficult...

The doctor finally came in when I was in the pushing stage. He said I'll be right back, and went to deliver another baby. He got back just in time. I gave birth at 6:55pm on 3/15 and it was the most euphoric, happy, (painful), incredible moment I could have imagined. As soon as they put her on me and she was crying, none of that pain I went through mattered anymore. All that mattered was that we had a beautiful, healthy baby girl in our arms.

Claire weighed in at 7 lbs 15 oz and measured 21 inches long. She passed all of her tests with flying colors. Ben and I decided to get home as soon as we could, so we were discharged around 8:30 on Friday. The rest of the nurses we had were all great... just had the one who made things much harder for me. But we delivered our perfect baby girl, and that was all that really mattered to us :)

I've heard a lot about the love you have for your child... but I really never understood it until now. I love this baby girl SO much, its impossible to put into words. I also felt the love for my husband grow as I watch him be an amazing Daddy :) We are so incredibly blessed... GOD IS SO GOOD!

40 Weeks... DUE DATE!

Well, today is the due date... and still no baby girl. I was getting pretty excited this morning because I woke up wide awake at 5am feeling nauseous with a knot in my stomach... followed by cramps for the next couple of hours. I decided not to go in to work because I thought for sure this was the start of labor! It appears that that was just a tease.... the cramps are gone :( Ben and I went in to TC and walked around Target, Meijer, and Menards to see if that would help move things along. Then we had some greasy burgers at Culvers... still feeling normal. I really had my hopes up this morning... pretty disappointing!

One kind of weird thing is that I've been dropping weight a bit... I've gained about 27 at this point. 4 weeks ago I had gained 32. Oh well, I'm still in the normal range and I know it's common to even out near the end so I'm not worried. I've been having these sharp pains once in awhile when I'm walking in my upper leg... probably ligament pain. Other than that I've been pretty comfortable. The back pain has pretty much gone away the last month or so :) I have an appointment on Wednesday if I haven't had her yet, and they will hook me up to a fetal monitor to check that the baby is still doing well and check dilation. I really hope I go into labor before that... :)

40 Weeks

39 Weeks

Come on baby girl!!! We are so ready for you :)

Due one week from today. I'm getting anxious and we really want to meet our baby! We've been trying all of the old "natural induction theories" and so far nothing has worked. Guess we're just going to have to be patient. I'm still feeling great... comfortable for the most part. I slept really well last night and only got up twice! I came in to work today to continue training my replacement, despite school being closed due to the crazy storm we had Friday night. We got over 15 inches of snow in one night! The heavy, wet kind too that took out power all over. We lost it for almost a whole day... and there are still many without power. I'm pretty surprised I didn't go into labor in the middle of it all :)

Patiently waiting....

38 Weeks... FULL TERM!

We're full-term today!!! So exciting :) I'm so anxious to meet our little girl.

Last week at the doctor's, I saw Dr. Wright and he said he estimates she will be about 8-8.5 lbs. That is what the ultrasound said at 29 weeks, so that prediction is the same. I hope we go earlier than later! That's one good-sized baby girl.

Pretty sure she's dropped. I felt a noticeable difference in her position when I got up this morning. I can't really feel her feet up in my ribs as much as before... and I just feel kind of different. I weighed myself this morning and I was down about 5 lbs from a couple days ago... weird. 28 lb gain according to my scale this morning, and last week I was was at a 34 lb gain. Maybe I'm not retaining water as much as I was before? I certainly haven't been eating any less.

So Ben got super-sick yesterday with some sort of flu-bug... I did get my flu-shot so I should be ok, I hope. Like I said, felt a little funny this morning so I really hope I'm not getting whatever he had! It hasn't gotten any worse since I woke up, so I think I'm ok. I'm usually really hungry when about 10:30 rolls around and I need a snack, but not today. Not feeling hungry like usual. Maybe this is the "feeling-funny" thing that happens before labor starts?! Or it could be because she dropped and there things have moved around in there? She has been moving like crazy so far today... more than normal.  Who knows :)

2/28 update- Ended up feeling pretty sick last night... must have caught Ben's stomach bug. Thankfully it only lasted about 5-6 hours and then I started feeling better. I didn't have it as bad as Ben (wasn't puking) but still. Feeling pretty good today-pretty much back to normal.

Can't wait to meet her... and I have this feeling that is going to be sooner rather than later.

Side note--- If she is born on Wednesday, she will have a Leap Day Birthday!

38 Weeks... Woah baby!

37 Weeks

Due in 3 weeks!!! Could really be any time now.... :)

Had our final baby shower on Sunday, and it was wonderful! Our great friends Tom and Jenny hosted it for us. The guys had a diaper party for Ben out in the garage while we were inside. We all had a great time, and we got many more wonderful gifts for our baby! We are truly blessed with great friends :)

I've been trying to get everything done at work so my replacement doesn't have a ton to do. It's hard to work ahead, especially with spring sports starting soon... but I'm doing my best to get things prepared for her. I know I'm going to be worried about things here once I'm out on leave, but I'll just have to trust that everything is running smoothly.

I'm still feeling great! When I get up at night I have to get up slowly... she is getting heavier every day! I feel huge, but my back hasn't been too bad.
No major complaints here.

Nursery!

Here are some nursery pics I thought I'd share :)

36 Weeks

Time is FLYING.

36 weeks. Due in 4, full term in 2. I've heard different reports on what is considered full-term, but at our Childbirth class they told us 38 is considered full-term by Munson. So I'll go with that. Previously, I was going with babycenter.com which told me 37... but oh well :) Childbirth class was very informative and I'm really glad we went, despite the very long 8 hour session. There were some things they taught us that I definitely didn't know, and I feel much more prepared. I don't think Ben enjoyed it quite as much as I did (I think I caught him drifting off a couple of times), but he survived :) Knowing everything they taught us makes me feel less anxious about labor and delivery. I know ultimately, it is all in God's hands.... so I really have nothing to worry about!

I feel pretty humongous right now, but everyone is telling me that I look great for being 8 months. Very nice to hear that :) I had someone ask me recently if I was about 4 months along! Considering my weight gain, that was a welcome comment. I've gained about 32-33 lbs, which is close to the maximum I should be gaining.  I'm trying to keep eating healthy as much as I can, but I know that some women gain much more... just this weekend someone told me they gained 90 with their first and she's about my size, so I'm trying not to be concerned about where I am! I know that breastfeeding is a huge help on getting back to normal size :) And no real stretch-marks yet, so hopefully I'll be ok in that department.

Still feeling pretty great! I'm starting to feel more pressure down low every time I stand up... especially when I get up at night. Perhaps she's beginning her journey out! My back pain hasn't been too bad lately. We went and watched a movie with my parents last night and I had to keep re-adjusting in my my chair. Can't sit still for a long period of time. Kicks are still pretty strong, and I'm still loving it :)

My amazing friends are throwing me a shower on Sunday... Can't wait!!!

36 Weeks

35 Weeks

We had the baby shower for my side of the family and our church family yesterday, and it was great! There were about 35 ladies there and we had lots of great food :) The Noah's Ark theme was awesome! My Mom got these really cool Noah's Ark birdhouses as prizes, and the cake was great. I got a lot of wonderful gifts, including many diapers which I greatly appreciate :)

35 weeks today. Wow. I am happy to report that my back has been feeling better lately. Knock on wood, because the back pain could return at any moment. Maybe my back muscles are getting stronger and used to carrying all of this extra weight. I still wake up uncomfortable sometimes and have to re-adjust. I've been using an extra pillow to help prevent me from rolling on to my back which seems to cause those crazy leg cramps... I'm retaining water and am a bit swollen in my legs and hands. I've had a few people tell me that means I'm going to have her early- but who really knows! I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday and I'll ask then. I haven't had much heartburn... a couple of times, but it was very mild and a tums took care of it right away.  No other real symptoms right now. Overall, I'm feeling pretty good!

Baby girl is fully developed and is putting on weight now. Probably somewhere between 5 and 6 lbs, and somewhere around 18 inches long.

She has the hiccups right now :)

34 Weeks

The end is coming quickly. 34 weeks.... Oh so close! Due in 6 weeks, and full term in 3! Baby should be close to 5 lbs and about 18 inches long. She would be just fine if she were to be born this early, which is great to know.... although a few more weeks in there would be better! Feeling pretty cramped lately, and sleeping sure isn't getting any easier. I'm glad Ben is a good sleeper and I don't wake him up very often tossing and turning and getting up 4X a night.

The baby shower for our side of the family is this Sunday, so excited!

I am so ready to become a Mom :)

34 Weeks

33 Weeks

Enjoying an extended weekend with an ice day! Had a wonderful past few days. Friday we headed down to Harrison when I got home from work, and Saturday was my first baby shower :) It was beautiful... pink cupcake themed and the decorations were so cute. The food was awesome, and I got a TON of great gifts. Ben's family is seriously great :) We came back home after the shower and got almost everything put away. Ben assembled the swing, pack-and-play and automatic bouncer. He did a great job :)

33 weeks... due in 7 and full term in 4. CRAZY. I'm ready to be done with the back pain... it has been getting worse lately and its difficult to get comfortable at night. Ben gives me great back rubs all the time which helps. Still having a little sternum pain when I move a certain way, not sure if that is pregnancy related or not... but it's bearable. I finally had to take my wedding/engagement ring off last night :( It made me sad, but I'm afraid the swelling in my hands is only going to get worse. There have been several times I couldn't get my ring off and my finger started turning purple! I don't want to have to get it cut off or anything... so I guess I'm going to wear my fake ring now. It's bigger and doesn't leave a big indent on my finger like my wedding ring does :) The crazy pregnancy dreams continue, but I'll spare the strange details.

SEVEN.MORE.WEEKS!

32 Weeks

I am currently enjoying the last day of my 4-Day weekend! We had a snow day on Friday and no school today for MLK day. Loved this break. I did a massive house cleaning on Friday while Ben worked out in his shed. That evening, we went out to dinner at Red Lobster and went bowling with some great friends :)  It was so nice to get out- it has been awhile. Stacey gave me a book called On Being Babywise and so far I love it! Read half of it last night, and I'll probably finish it today. It is about how to get your baby to sleep through the night by the time they're 8 weeks old. It makes so much sense, and I'm so glad to know this stuff. Saturday we made a trip to Menards and we got a new kitchen sink (my old one was impossible to clean) and Ben got it installed yesterday after church. I'm so lucky to have such a handy husband :)

SO, 32 weeks.... Due in 8, full term in 5. Time seems to be going faster. Still feeling good. I think I pulled something in my back while bowling... but the soreness went away after a day. I've surprisingly haven't had any back pain the past 2 days. Maybe straining it during bowling helped?! :) I've gained about 25 lbs so far... sounds kinda scary to me, but I'm still in the normal range. At my doc's appointment she said I was on track, but I shouldn't gain TOO much more. She said if our baby stays on the same pace, she will be about 8 lbs if we go til the due date. That's a decent sized little girl!

We have the first baby shower this upcoming Saturday in Harrison. I'm so excited! 2 weeks after that, we have my family/church friends shower, and 2 weeks after that is my friend's shower being thrown by Jenny :) Then I'm full term!!! Lots of exciting times coming up :)

32 Weeks

           

              28 Weeks                                        32 Weeks

31 Weeks

Due in 9 weeks, full term in 6.... WOAH. Still feeling pretty good for the most part. Getting bigger but I don't feel "huge" yet. Dealing with the typical back pain and waking up about 3 times every night to go to the bathroom. The movement and kicking is getting more intense every day... sometimes I'll have to re-position myself with those kicks to the ribs! The kicks to the bladder aren't very fun, but I still enjoy most of the other ones. She's kicking up a storm as I type right now :)

My first shower is in less than 2 weeks! Saturday 1/21 is my first one down in Harrison thrown by Ben's family. They are doing a pink cupcake theme. I'm sure it will be super cute! We're going to do a Noah's Ark theme for our side of the family and church friends. I'm sorta helping out my Mom with some fun ideas... I can't wait!

I have my next doc's appointment Wednesday, and I have to go in every 2 weeks from here on out. I think they make them every week in your last month. Relieved my glucose test came back good... so we have no worries at this point. I just keep praying that everything continues to go well :)

We threw a party for my Dad for his 50th Birthday on Saturday. It was really great to see that whole side of the family again, and a lot of our good friends showed up. Even though I was ready for bed by 10:00, we had a blast!

30 Weeks

10 weeks left til the due date!!! And in 7 weeks I'll be full term... it's coming quickly! Right now, babies average 15.7 inches and almost 3 lbs. Our baby estimated at 3 lbs 6oz last week, so she's a tad above the average. Our doc said everything was right on track :)

Sleeping has become an increasing challenge. It is pretty hard for me to get comfortable. It helps a bit when I use a pillow to support my back, but I still wake up several times in the night needing to re-adjust. I guess it's just something I'm going to have to deal with until she comes!

My glucose screen came back a bit high, so I had to go back in for a 3 hour gestational diabetes test... UGH. I had to eat extra sugar/carbs for 3 days and then fast for 8 hours before the test. I went in for that this morning. They drew my blood right when I got there, then I had to drink the gross orange glucose drink (double the concentration than the last one) and wait an hour, draw, wait an hour, draw, wait an hour, draw... So 4 blood draws in 3 hours. Not a fan of getting my  blood drawn at all, but the lady at the lab in Kingsley was super nice and it wasn't TOO bad... I started feeling pretty sick a bout a half hour after I drank the bottle of orange sugar syrup and almost wanted to puke. Thankfully that feeling went away after about another half hour. If I would have puked, I would have had to go home and start over again... so thankfully I didn't. My arm is pretty sore right now, but I survived. My wonderful husband brought me a warm sandwich and some snacks when he came to pick me up :)

Back to work tomorrow... It has been so great having almost 2 weeks off for Christmas Break. I was able to get a lot done around the house and I feel that everything is set up well for the baby's arrival! The room is pretty much set up with the crib, dresser, and glider chair/ottoman. I just need to put up the decorations when the nursery set comes and possibly the changing table... other than that, the room is good to go!

Quite disappointed in this "blizzard" we were supposed to get. So far, we have about 4 inches, and they were calling for 10-20". I guess we could still see some tonight, but I'm not counting on it...

1/3 Update: So, it snowed a lot last night and we got a snow day :) I still went into work after I slept in for a couple hours though... AND, my glucose test came back and I do NOT have gestational diabetes! :)

30 Weeks