Friday, March 30, 2012
Sleeping baby
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Happy St. Patrick's Day
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Bath Time
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
Going home
We were so excited to bring our little lady home! The boys were thrilled to have her home too!
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Visitors
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Welcome Claire Marie
We are pleased to announce the birth of our daughter, Claire Marie. She was born March 7th at 7:23 am and weighed 8 lbs 11 oz. and was 20 inches long. She is beautiful!!!
The birth story:
So just like Miles, I was pretty convinced baby number three was going to come earlier than the due date. I was so happy to make it past Miles' bday (so he could have his special day) and past the leap year (I wasn't sure how we would work that one) and then I was ready to roll. Just like always, the last month of pregnancy was getting pretty uncomfortable. On Monday night, March 5th, I had contractions all night long. This was becoming pretty usual for the last month, but this night they just never went away. That also caused me to have a sleepless night...never fun! The next morning I wanted to walk and get things going, so Pete and I dropped the boys off at school and headed to the mall. Yes, we became mall walkers and were younger than everyone else by about forty years. After an hour of walking and the same constant but not hard contractions, the doctor told me to go to the hospital. With Miles, I was also four centimeters and after an hour of walking, progressed into labor fairly quickly. This is what the dr. thought would happen again and wanted me to be safe at the hospital when it did. Boy, did this labor go differently!
After checking in to the hospital, Pete and I went to walk for an hour. Sure this was going to bring on the hard contractions, I was motivated that we were going to meet baby number three very soon. After hours of walking and being monitored, nothing was happening. I was still have contractions every three minutes but was remaining dilated at four cm. Since we were earlier than 39 weeks, the hospital could not help bring labor on anyway (new rule this year). So they decided to send me home after given me an Ambien so I could at least sleep a little (at this point it had been almost 48 hours since I slept).
As much as we were disappointed to be sent home, I think it was a godsend. I went right to bed and slept 6 pm to midnight uninterrupted. Then from midnight to 3 am I sort of tossed in turned in my sleep. At three I woke up and could feel pretty strong contractions. I went downstairs to time them and knew within five minutes that it was time to go! The contractions were so painful I wasn't even sure we were going to get there!
Elissa came over quickly to watch the kids and we left. Because it was the middle of the night, Pete even put on his flashers and drove through lights and stop signs when it was clear. Thank goodness!!! When we arrived at the hospital they checked me quickly and I was a 7 and by the time they checked me again 30 minutes later I was a 9+.
Of course I still wanted the epidural...I'm not a fool :) The words I never wanted to hear were, "you are to far along for an epidural at this point". I'll never forget the fear I felt hearing those words. The good thing is that my doctor and the anesthesiologist both were ok giving me a spinal. It was the weirdest feeling to be numb from my waist down, but also a wonderful relief that I could have something.
After the spinal kicked in we finally were able to sit back and relax for a few minutes to let the baby come down a little more. Once it was time to push, she came out in only a few rounds of pushes. We were so surprised when the dr. said, "It's a girl!" What wonderful words to hear. Pete and I always knew we would be happy with whatever happened, but it is amazing to know that we get to raise both two amazing boys and one little sweetheart of a girl. We feel like the most fortunate parents!
Then came the fun part, announcing our good news. With both boys, they were born in the middle of the night so we waited a bit before calling everyone. With Claire, we knew everyone was up and starting their days so we were on the phone right away. What fun telling everyone that baby 3 was a girl! When we called my parents, we did not tell them the gender. We wanted them to surprised with the boys at the same time (they had driven up from Cincy right away to take care of the boys!) They got the boys dressed in their big brother attire and brought them right over. It was so fun introducing the boys and my parents to our new little girl.
From Day One Will and Miles have been amazing big brothers. This little girl is very lucky! When the days or nights get hard I always think ahead to the future and realize that I'm going to miss these three little faces being so little in no time at all. I have shared with Pete that for some reason I always visualize what it will be like when we have a senior, junior, and freshman in high school. Wow, hard to imagine that isn't too far away.
For now we will cherish these early years and be so thankful everyday that god has blessed us with three healthy, amazing, and special children.
The birth story:
So just like Miles, I was pretty convinced baby number three was going to come earlier than the due date. I was so happy to make it past Miles' bday (so he could have his special day) and past the leap year (I wasn't sure how we would work that one) and then I was ready to roll. Just like always, the last month of pregnancy was getting pretty uncomfortable. On Monday night, March 5th, I had contractions all night long. This was becoming pretty usual for the last month, but this night they just never went away. That also caused me to have a sleepless night...never fun! The next morning I wanted to walk and get things going, so Pete and I dropped the boys off at school and headed to the mall. Yes, we became mall walkers and were younger than everyone else by about forty years. After an hour of walking and the same constant but not hard contractions, the doctor told me to go to the hospital. With Miles, I was also four centimeters and after an hour of walking, progressed into labor fairly quickly. This is what the dr. thought would happen again and wanted me to be safe at the hospital when it did. Boy, did this labor go differently!
After checking in to the hospital, Pete and I went to walk for an hour. Sure this was going to bring on the hard contractions, I was motivated that we were going to meet baby number three very soon. After hours of walking and being monitored, nothing was happening. I was still have contractions every three minutes but was remaining dilated at four cm. Since we were earlier than 39 weeks, the hospital could not help bring labor on anyway (new rule this year). So they decided to send me home after given me an Ambien so I could at least sleep a little (at this point it had been almost 48 hours since I slept).
As much as we were disappointed to be sent home, I think it was a godsend. I went right to bed and slept 6 pm to midnight uninterrupted. Then from midnight to 3 am I sort of tossed in turned in my sleep. At three I woke up and could feel pretty strong contractions. I went downstairs to time them and knew within five minutes that it was time to go! The contractions were so painful I wasn't even sure we were going to get there!
Elissa came over quickly to watch the kids and we left. Because it was the middle of the night, Pete even put on his flashers and drove through lights and stop signs when it was clear. Thank goodness!!! When we arrived at the hospital they checked me quickly and I was a 7 and by the time they checked me again 30 minutes later I was a 9+.
Of course I still wanted the epidural...I'm not a fool :) The words I never wanted to hear were, "you are to far along for an epidural at this point". I'll never forget the fear I felt hearing those words. The good thing is that my doctor and the anesthesiologist both were ok giving me a spinal. It was the weirdest feeling to be numb from my waist down, but also a wonderful relief that I could have something.
After the spinal kicked in we finally were able to sit back and relax for a few minutes to let the baby come down a little more. Once it was time to push, she came out in only a few rounds of pushes. We were so surprised when the dr. said, "It's a girl!" What wonderful words to hear. Pete and I always knew we would be happy with whatever happened, but it is amazing to know that we get to raise both two amazing boys and one little sweetheart of a girl. We feel like the most fortunate parents!
Then came the fun part, announcing our good news. With both boys, they were born in the middle of the night so we waited a bit before calling everyone. With Claire, we knew everyone was up and starting their days so we were on the phone right away. What fun telling everyone that baby 3 was a girl! When we called my parents, we did not tell them the gender. We wanted them to surprised with the boys at the same time (they had driven up from Cincy right away to take care of the boys!) They got the boys dressed in their big brother attire and brought them right over. It was so fun introducing the boys and my parents to our new little girl.
From Day One Will and Miles have been amazing big brothers. This little girl is very lucky! When the days or nights get hard I always think ahead to the future and realize that I'm going to miss these three little faces being so little in no time at all. I have shared with Pete that for some reason I always visualize what it will be like when we have a senior, junior, and freshman in high school. Wow, hard to imagine that isn't too far away.
For now we will cherish these early years and be so thankful everyday that god has blessed us with three healthy, amazing, and special children.
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