Claire's first Christmas

Claire's first Christmas was great! Aunt Colleen, Nana, and G-Daddy came down Tuesday night and hung out and then on Wednesday we had Aaron's whole family over for Christmas Eve dinner and presents. It was about 30 people. Very busy, but lots of fun. And it was great to get to see all the kids open their presents. Claire had a good time getting held by everyone, and getting her hair done by Ella!

On Christmas morning we went to church, then came home, had some breakfast and opened presents. Claire was very spoiled by everyone!! She got a new jumperoo, pj's, books, all kinds of toys, and her Nana made her a cross stitched blanket. Mommy and Daddy both got new cameras to take plenty of pictures of her!! And Daddy's takes video too! It was great to get to spend time with the family and have everyone around to celebrate our first Christmas with our little girl.

In other Claire news, she's started eating cereal, and has finally started to get the hang of swallowing it, instead of spitting it back out! She still acts like the first bite is the most disgusting thing she's ever tasted, but after she swallows that first bite, she's back for more! Her new trick is blowing raspberries while she has food in her mouth. Half the time I get to wear as much of her cereal as she does. In a few more weeks we're going to move on to baby food, which I plan on making myself. Sounds like fun, and is much cheaper than buying it at the store! Claire and I are going to the book store tomorrow to see if we can find a book about making baby food.

We're also very excited to spend our first New Year's Eve with the munchkin, even though her bedtime is a good 2-3 hours before midnight, so she won't be awake for the festivities. And by "festivities", I mean sitting on the couch watching the ball drop. I'm a huge homebody, so that's a pretty ideal New Year's Eve to me, just a nice, quiet evening with my family. At least this year I'll be able to break out the bubbly, last year I was about 8 weeks pregnant for New Years and didn't want to do anything!

Here are some Christmas pics!

Claire pretending she's Jesus in her swaddling clothes

After church

New jumperoo is yummy!

On the blanket Nana made her

New jammies from Aunt Megan

messy cereal face

4 months!

I finally have a working computer again, so I can update the blog! After the personal computer got a virus, the work one did too, so I've been without a working computer for the past few weeks. So I had to reinstall my whole computer, and lost everything on it. Thankfully the baby pics had all been saved on a disk. But now it works again, so I'm happy!

Claire is 4 months old today! She went to the doctor yesterday and had her 4 month checkup and shots. The shots weren't great, but they weren't too bad, she just cried for a minute or two. She did give me and the nurse that gave the shots a "I hate you people" look. But I guess I would too if I had just gotten 4 shots. She has a little bit of a cold, and a crusty nose, but it doesn't seem to be bothering her too much. The doctor said that we can start her on rice cereal any time we want, so we'll see what she thinks about that! Might have to get her a highchair soon.... Her new stats are below:

Birth:
Weight-- 5lb 14oz
Length-- 19"
Head Circumference-- not really sure, but I think it was about 14.5" or so?
2 months:
Weight-- 9lb 4oz (10th percentile)
Length-- 22" (50th percentile)
Head Circumference-- 15.25"

4 months:

Weight-- 11lb 9oz (10-15th percentile)

Length-- 24.5" (50th percentile)

Head Circumference-- 16"

We (I) finally bit the bullet and moved Claire into her own room. She has been sleeping in a bassinette in our room since she was born, and it was super convenient when she would wake up during the night to just be able to take care of her without getting out of bed. Especially once she quit sleeping through the night a few weeks ago. But it was time to get her used to sleeping in her crib, and she's been a champ at it! She's slept completely though the night without waking up for the last 4 nights. Or if she's woken up, she hasn't made any noises and I haven't heard her on the monitor. And I'm a light sleeper now that she's in her own room :) Mommy worries....

We're getting really excited about Christmas, somehow it's a lot more fun with a baby around. She sat and watched us decorate the tree, and we helped her put on her "baby's 1st Christmas" ornament. She loves looking at the lights on the tree. I've been singing her Christmas songs too, and she seems to like that. Or maybe she's just humoring me, since I can't sing at all. We're also excited to have both of our families coming here for Christmas, it's a lot of work, but we like having everyone together at our house. Gotta go grocery shopping for Christmas Eve dinner this week!

Here are some random pics from the last few months, since I can finally post pictures again!

Looking cute in my little hoodie!

Baby's First Halloween

Claire with "her" Christmas trees

Looking at the tree

Almost 3 months!!

So, I've done a terrible job at posting lately, because my computer is, um, infected. So I'm having to use my work computer until the personal one gets fixed. And the work one is SLOW, and not really intended for "personal use". But oh well!

Claire will be 3 months old this week. It's unbelievable how fast the time has gone. She has been an absolue joy every day since her arrival, and I couldn't really ask for a better baby. She's still sleeping through the night, about 8-9 hours in one stretch. I went back to work two weeks ago, so she is now spending her week in a mixture of Nana-care, Mommy-care, and "baby school" (since I don't like the word daycare). She's adapted really well, and seems to like baby school, although after she blew out her diaper the other day, I'm not sure how much they love her :). Just kidding, they tell me every time I pick her up how cute she is, and how snuggly, and how much they just love to hold her because she's so much smaller than the rest of the babies in there. And because she's a girl, and there's only one other part-time girl in her class!

Work has been REALLY busy, and very crazy. I'm told several times every day how glad they are to have me back, which is kind of nice because when I was at home on maternity leave I wondered if they really needed me back. And they do. I actually wonder how they survived without me! Conceited, yes, but they had me working until 6:30 the first day I got back, so I know they need me.

Aunt Colleen came to visit this weekend, and Claire loved seeing her. We took Claire to Barnes and Noble, which is one of my favorite stores, and seems like it will be one of hers too, she LOVES to have us read her all her little books. And whenever I go to the bookstore, I get so excited in the kids section remembering all the books I liked when I was little and I can't wait to read them to her. She'll be the only 2 year old I know listening to Little House on the Prairie... Nana and G-Daddy also came to visit yesterday, and it was nice to have the whole family around.

Just 1 picture from my dad to add right now, since I can't use my regular computer, and can't put pictures onto my work computer, but I can tell that she's getting bigger, she's probably close to 11lbs now. I finally decided to break out her 0-3 month clothes this weekend.... even though the newborn stuff still fits her, at 3 months old. I just needed a little variety from seeing her in the same onesies every day! Hopefully our next baby will be a girl too, since we have so much of her stuff that she really hasn't even been able to wear, and now it's getting too cold. Note to self, next time don't buy so many clothes until you know how big your baby is! This pic is from yesterday, and it's part of a totally cute outfit, but I think this was right after a nap, so the "totally cute" part was on her changing table.

2 months old!

Claire turned 2 months old on Monday. I can't believe she's already 2 months, it has absolutely flown by!! Da munchkin continues to grow, and the doctor said that she looks great, and that she's "amazingly visually alert" because she was looking all around and was very attentive during her checkup. I think he was also impressed by her lungs, since she also exercised them through a good part of the exam. Good to know that she doesn't just save the screaming for mommy. She had to get her 2month vaccinations today, which she really didn't love, but she seems to be doing pretty well so far, she came home and ate a bottle, and is now playing on her Baby Einstien, which is pretty standard behavior, so I'm glad that she doesn't seem to be feeling too bad from all the shots. Here's a little comparison of how she's grown:

Birth:

Weight-- 5lb 14oz

Length-- 19"

Head Circumference-- not really sure, but I think it was about 14.5" or so?

2 months:

Weight-- 9lb 4oz (10th percentile)

Length-- 22" (50th percentile)

Head Circumference-- 15.25"

So she's gained 3lb 6oz and has grown 3". She's still a petite little pixie of a baby, but she's growing right on schedule, and has pretty much maintained the 10th percentile for her weight for the last 2 months.

We've been busy this week with figuring out what's going to happen with baby once I go back to work. I go back to work on October 27th, I think that work is looking forward to my return more than I am, because I hate to have to leave her, but with the economy the way it is right now, I'm thankful that I have a good job to go back to, and that after 2 months of being gone, they all finally realize how valuable I am :). Once I go back, Claire will be in Nana-care on Mondays and Tuesdays, Ivy Hall Day School on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and Mommy-care on Fridays. That's right, my mom has decided that she'll come down from Chattanooga two days a week to take care of Claire, which is awesome for Aaron and I, and Claire will absolutely love it! We're also very excited that I'm going to be able to stay home with her on Fridays, mainly because I still have some vacation days to use up at work! She'll also get the chance to socialize with other babies and learn to get used to people other than Aaron and I at the daycare, which is a pretty awesome daycare, they do baby sign language in the infant class, and then once they're two, they start music and science and art classes, it's very cute.

That's about all that's going on around here, some of her new pictures are below...

New fall dress Nana made

There's that visual alertness the doctor was talking about!

Channeling the Murrin spirit with the popped collar

little baby spit-face puke-mouth (her new nickname)

Chattanooga Trip

Last week we took Claire on her first out-of-town trip to Chattanooga. My aunt and grandma came down from NY for a few days to meet Claire and see the rest of the family. Claire was SO good in the car on the way up there, she fussed for maybe 30 seconds but was quiet or sleeping the whole rest of the ride. Thank god for small miracles...


Claire and I got to Chatty Wednesday afternoon and went to dinner at Bones with my mom and dad, and then just hung out with them for the night. Then on Thursday morning dad went to Nashville to pick up Grandma and Cathy, so mom and I took Claire for a walk in the park. She slept through a lot of it, but she does love being outdoors! Then we went shopping for a little while until they returned from Nashville. We sat around and talked to Cathy and Grandma and then had lasagna for dinner. Too bad Aaron missed it! We watched Grey's Thursday night, and then went to bed. Colleen showed up around midnight. Friday morning we all took Claire to the park for a walk again. Colleen brought Dicey too, so she ran around and opened her legs for all the other dogs...her mommy taught her well. We came back to the house and sat around and played with Claire that afternoon, and then had a really good turkey dinner. Aaron got to the house around 9 that night, after FINALLY finding some gas near Calhoun, because Atlanta is pretty much out of gas. On Saturday we just watched football all day and hung out. Becky, Charlie, Robin, and Mike came over for a little while so Mike and Robin could meet Claire, and Charlie could see his beloved. And try to eat her (see picture below). We (I) were very excited that Auburn won, and Aaron was a little (lot) disappointed that UGA lost. On Sunday dad took Cathy and Grandma back to Nashville to go home, Aaron went home, Colleen went home, and Claire and I stuck around so Nana and G-daddy could get some time alone with Claire. Then she and I came home on Monday.


Claire was very well spoiled all week, and got used to being held and played with all the time. We're having a rough time getting back on her schedule, and she's been fussy pretty much nonstop since we got home. But at least she was good while we were in Chatty, so everyone got to see how sweet and cute she is. Hopefully it will just take us another day or two to get her back on her normal schedule, she was up to almost 8 hours of straight sleep a night, so it will be nice to get back to that, last night was rough!

I can't believe that she'll be 7 weeks old tomorrow, she's getting so big so fast, it kills me to think that I have to go back to work in a few more weeks and leave her, at least part of the week. Guess it might be time to start trying to bring that up with work and figure out what I'm going to do in terms of work, and what we're going to be doing about childcare... don't really even want to think about it!


Some pics from this weekend...

So cute in her basinette in her smocked nightie

Charlie trying to eat Claire's shoulder

Riding her pony, Dicey

4 generations of Van Bourgondien mothers and daughters

Claire loves Baby Crack-stien (aka Baby Einstien)

Claire has a new favorite toy.... her Baby Einstien playmat. The thing is her new obsession, she'll lay on it and play and laugh for a good half hour at a time. I love this, because I can finally eat or use the computer without feeling like I'm neglecting her (as I am now, while she fusses in her Boppy seat...)

I love my Baby Crack-stien!!!

Today Claire is 5 weeks and 2 days old, and she's almost broken the 8lb mark...almost. As of today, she's 7lb 14oz, so only 2 oz to go until 8lbs. We can tell she's growing and getting heavier, and so can her Nana and G-daddy, who don't get to see her as often as mommy and daddy do (or as often as they would like to). Nana came down this week to take care of Claire while I had to go to the doctor, and she stayed a few days to get in some baby-time. It was great having her here, especially because I have a cold and it was nice to have someone to help take care of her so I could rest and recuperate!

Claire had a few "firsts" this week. First car accident.... we got rear-ended yesterday when we were taking Nana home. No damage to my car (tank) at all, and Claire didn't even wake up. That made me feel good, that the car is so safe, we barely even felt the hit, but when you looked at the other girl's car, you could tell it was a fairly hard hit.... and she was in a Cavalier, so her front-end drove straight under my car, and into my towing hitch. The hitch destroyed her hood and busted her radiator, but my car was in perfect shape, just a tiny little scratch. She also had her first cold and her first sick-baby visit to the doctor. The doctor said it's just a head cold, so we've just got to keep pumping the saline up her nose and sucking out her snots. She had her temperature taken rectally, and did not enjoy that one, not that I blame her. So we just have to keep an eye on her for the next few days and keep checking her temperature and listening to her cough so she doesn't get RSV. She's been extra fussy with the cold, so it makes nights fun for mommy... until the cold she was sleeping about 6 hours straight every night, which was awesome.

That's about all that's going on for now, we have a fun week coming next week, my Grandma and aunt are coming down from NY to visit and to see the baby, so we're going up to Chattanooga for a few days, it'll be Claire's first out of town trip! Now I just have to figure out what all to pack....

I love looking out the window

Oh dear, looks like we have a receding hairline...

time to start the baby comb-over!

New dress that Mommy made!

So many toys you can't even see the baby!

Claire's life

Claire is 3 1/2 weeks old now, I can hardly believe it! We've been on our own now without Nana's help for a full week, and we're surviving, although the first day was a little rough. We've gotten out of the house just about every day this week, which is good and bad... good that we're getting out and having fun, bad that I'm spending the child's college fund on clothes, since we go shopping most days. But we also went to Aaron's softball game, and out to lunch with Aaron one day and then Kate another day, so we're having lots of fun! On Thursday we had a nice long afternoon of shopping, and Claire got new clothes from Kohls, Gap, Old Navy, Macy's, and Babies R Us. We're building the fall wardrobe... See below for a fashion show!

We've finally slowed down on the different doctor's appointments, so we're not going to different doctors every 3 days, which is nice. Claire is continuing to gain weight, but is still in the 10th percentile according to the baby growth charts. But she's maintaining, so we're not worried. She's a good eater, although her new "favorite" thing to do is spit up all over her mommy. Several times a day. She's a good baby, very happy except when she has gas, then she gets a little cranky until she can rip a fart or two. It's really quite charming, especially to hear man-farts come from a tiny baby girl. Makes her daddy and I laugh, clearly we're not past the age where farts are funny!

Not much else going on, I'll try posting more often, so Nana can get her baby fix!

Baby Fashion Show!

In the Georgia outfit I made for her

In the dress Nana made her

In her sailboat dress from Aunt Joanie

Rockin the popped collar in her Polo outfit

New jammies!

In her H&M dress from Aunt Leslie

11 days old

Baby Claire is 11 days old today, and has been a fantastic baby so far! She's a fantastic sleeper, and it's actually really hard to wake her up to get her to eat some days. And some nights, she's a good night sleeper. She has started to work herself onto a little schedule, we eat, have some playtime, and then a little nap before we start the cycle over again, every 3 hours. It does make life a little easier, knowing what to expect from her every day, but leaving the house does make it a little harder because she sleeps the whole time an then gets fussy later.

Claire's Nana has been down all week helping out with everything and going with us to the doctor/lactation/shopping. She'll be her next week too, and then after that mommy is on her own (until Nana decides she can't stand being away from her grandbaby). She's been working on baby clothes to get her smocked-wardrobe started. So far we have a really cute bonnet and by the end of today should have a dress to match. G-daddy has been down this weekend to visit and has been teaching Claire everything there is to know about golf. He loves playing with her and being baby paparazzi, he's all over the pictures.

We went to the pediatrician this week, and Claire is back up to her birthweight (5lb 14oz) within the first week, so we're happy about that, although it's probably mostly from the supplemental formula she's been getting. She (and I) have been getting better with the nursing thing, she actually nursed twice today without wanting any supplemental milk or formula, so something must be going right! We go back to the pediatrician for her 2-week checkup on Wednesday, so we'll see then how much she's gained. I can't tell any difference, but also couldn't tell a difference when we were in the hospital and she got down to 5lb 5oz, so I'm not a very good judge. It is funny to see her next to other babies, it makes us realize what a tiny little peanut she is, by herself she doesn't look that small, but next to other babies she really is little!

Here are some new pictures!

Bathtime!

Sleeping in my pack 'n play

My bonnet that Nana made

Crazy Baby Hair

Big smile!

Ah, home at last!

We're finally home with baby, so nice to be here and living our normal life with baby. We had visitors today, Becky, Josh, and Charlie came to visit from Alabama, and John, Leslie, Jimmy, Heidi, and Tripp came over too. It's only been a month and a half since we saw Beck, Josh, and Charlie last, but Charlie has gotten so big!! Can't believe he's double Claire's size! We hung out for a few hours and had lunch, it's nice to hang around with other new first-time parents that know exactly what we're going through right now.

In other exciting (for me) news, I weighed myself this morning to see where I was at, and I'm actually 1.5 lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm very excited, but still have a long way to go in terms of weight I need to lose and toning up the tummy. Guess that will have to wait a little while, c-section is still a little bit sore, and I'm on excercise restriction right now, so my weight loss is all from breastfeeding for the next few weeks. I go back to the doctor this week, so they can give me all the "rules and regulations" for the next few weeks.... it's hard to follow the rule of not lifting anything heavier than baby when baby is only a 5 pounder. We also have to go visit the lactation consultant tomorrow for some breastfeeding advice, and will be going to the pediatrician for the first time on Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully Claire hasn't lost any more weight, we've been supplementing her feedings, and she seems to be eating better, so I'm not very worried, she seems to be doing well. Lots of pee (yep, little things excite me now)

Congratulations are in order...

*Aaron's 30th birthday is today

*Kate and Chris, who got married yesterday, can't wait to see the pictures

*Sarah and Jason who got engaged last week

Some pics from Becky and Josh's visit...

Becky and I with each other's kids

Claire sucking on Charlie's elbow (true love)

Charlie with his arm around Claire (so cute, would have been better if they weren't crying!)

Announcing the arrival of Claire Grayton Parker

Claire Grayton Parker was born via c-section at 8.13.08 at 4:25pm. She's tiny, weighed in at only 5lb 14oz, and 19".... but she arrived on her due date, so she's just petite!! She's absolutely perfect, sooo good, a great eater and not fussy at all, just perfect.

We had tons of visitors come yesterday to see her, mommy was pretty much passed out in bed the whole time in quite a bit of pain, so she was really not very good company, but appreciated everyone coming up here!

Below are a few pictures of our new addition!

Mom at the hospital, just after checking in... MONDAY

Baby Claire at 20 hours old

Claire and Mommy

Our little family

New plan...

So, things haven't been progressing as quickly as they would like, and there was meconium in my fluid, so we're doing a c-section at 4 today.... 24 minutes! Baby Claire will be here soon! I'll try get some pictures on here sometime tonight or tomorrow!

yay!!!

Finally, progress! My water broke (on it's own) a few minutes ago! The pitocin has been on max, and I've been passed out, thanks to the awesome drugs that they gave me when the pitocin contractions started hurting. All the sudden I feel this pressure, and I go "oh shit". Aaron says what, and I'm like, "either I just peed myself or my water broke!" Sure enough, it was the water! Now I still feel like I'm peeing myself, but I'm very excited that things are starting to happen! I am also dilated to a 2, so some progress there.


More later!

Day 3... I heart Ambien

Technically on my third day in the hospital now. Through the wonders of Ambien, I slept pretty much from 8pm until 6am, with just a little wakeup at midnight. Not too bad. I'm resting right now, 2nd round of cervadil is done, so hopefully that helped. Pitocin starts again as soon as the nurse comes in, and some more sugar water, which is about the only think I'm eating these days...

I've been told that treatment today gets "a lot more aggressive"... higher pitocin levels earlier, breaking my water, and helping to get rid of scar tissue from a surgery I had 4 years ago that is probably a big part of the reason I'm not dilating as fast as I should. So maybe once they get that cleared out I'll just go from a 1-10 right away! Right....

Okay, pitocin is in, let's get this show on the road!!

No baby today

So, 5pm check...still no progress. I've been taken off the pitocin, and they'll restart the whole process again at about 8 tonight. We will be having her tomorrow, either the regular way or by c-section if I don't make any progress tomorrow. Super frustrating, and not a lot of fun to spend this much time at the hospital, although everyone has been really nice.

Frustrating...

So far, no new progress. Ridiculous... Still having contractions every 2-3 minutes, they just aren't doing much of anything at the last time I had been checked, around 2 hours ago. So if nothing happens by 5, they'll shut off the pitocin, let me eat and take a shower, and then will start the cervadil again around 6 I think. It's very frustrating how slow it's going, but at least it's not too painful, since I'm no where near ready for an epidural.

Fun stats... current blood pressure 122/82, baby's heartrate 157. More to come later...

6lb 6oz!

That's what the doctor last night put in as her guess on the baby's weight, but she's still not here yet to compare.

We got to the hospital last night at around 9:30, and they called us upstairs a few minutes after 10. The midwife on duty was one of the midwives that I see in the office pretty frequently, so it was nice to see a familiar face, since I had been freaking out a bit. My nurse was really nice, even though she couldn't get my IV in. I have thin, rolling veins. She had to get another nurse to come in an get my IV set .... it took her 2 tries too, so I look like I have track marks on my arms. I got the cervadil at about 11:30, and an ambien to help me sleep. Woke up around 6 am to have the cervadil removed, took a shower, and was started on the Pitocin about 6:30. I've been on it almost 4 hours now, and am having contractions about every 2-3 minutes, although not particularly painful. I'm guessing they'll check me in a little while to see if I've made any progress, until then just hanging out in my rocking chair making gravity do it's job. I'll keep updating!

News!

So, nothing really happened on Tuesday, the doctor called back Tuesday evening and said that the OB surgeon had decided I wasn't "a good enough candidate for c-section", so they were just going to see me in the office again on Thursday.

I went back to the doctor today, and surprise surprise, the blood pressure was still up! On the plus side, baby has dropped lower and seems to be locked into place. I was measuring a lot smaller than I had been on Tuesday, she said that was a good sign that the baby had dropped pretty well. So anyway, after I told them that my headaches were not going away, I was still seeing spots, etc, they decided to send me into triage at the hospital and let them montior my blood pressure for a few hours and then decide what to do with me. Typical to everyone else, they monitored me for a few hours, then decided to send me home. But they did decide that they will be inducing me Monday night, so baby Claire will be here on Tuesday! I'm going in Monday night at 9:30 and they'll start the induction at 10, and she should be here sometime on Tuesday. It's exciting to finally know something, and to see an end to the high blood pressure and the headaches that come with it.... to be followed by headaches from the baby! I am also going back to the doctor tomorrow (yep, again, I live there) and if the headaches/blurry vision/swelling gets worse over the weekend, I'm under strict orders to return to the hospital.

So I'm excited, and will try keep up (or teach Aaron how to use) the blog so you can keep up to date while were in the hospital. I'll be your own personal "Truman Show", like Becky was for me! And I'll do better to post some pictures of her than I did of my fat belly!

Pictures, finally

So, I figured it was time to put up some nursery and belly pics, since today could potentially be the last day that I have the belly... I went back to the doctor this morning, and my blood pressure is still climbing, the baby, while head-down, is "sunny side up", I'm not dilating any more, and with a bunch of other issues, I'm a good candidate for an elective c-section. I was also put on bed rest for at least the next 3 days. So right now I'm sitting on the couch, waiting for the doctor to call me back and see when they can schedule a c-section for... possibly as early as today, since they are essentially starting my maternity leave today by sending me home, although I am working from home until baby gets here. Hopefully I'll hear something soon, I'm getting impatient!! I'll keep everyone posted on what happens, in the meantime, here are the nursery and belly pics!

The nursery, minus curtains, which are made but not hung...

The nursery, view 2

The crib with the bedding that Nana made

The dresser, with the pink softball glove daddy bought her

The changing table

A blanket chest for now, sure to turn into a toychest before long...

Little CGP's initials

Belly pic, 38 weeks, 6 days (in the guest bathroom)

Eww... up close of the big belly