The first 3 weeks of #3

Miss Claire has now been part of our family for 20 days!  She is doing great and is, as Mike says, a "professional baby".  She's been a great eater and sleeper and only cries if it's time to eat.  We have thoroughly enjoyed the newborn snuggles :)  At night, she sleeps in the pack and play with the Miracle Blanket.  Mike may be the only newborn dad ever who has gotten 3 weeks of great sleep.  I have never needed to wake him up at night (except in the hospital) because she has been so easy.  She wakes up, I nurse her (and try to wake her up to keep her eating by changing her diaper, etc), and then she puts herself right back to sleep in the pack and play.  She's actually established a fairly regular daytime schedule.  I wake her to eat for the first feeding of the day around 7:30-8.  She eats again around 10:30, then again around 1-1:30, then again around 3:30-4, then again around 6:30-7, then again around 9-9:30 for the night.  So, basically, I wake her to eat every 2.5-3 hours during the day and then let her sleep until she wakes up at night.  At night, she sleeps for 3-6 hours between feedings.  We've all enjoyed her increased wake time between eating and sleeping.   

Claire was born at 7 lbs, 4 oz on 10/30 and weighed 7 lbs exactly at her first pediatrician appointment on 11/1.  On 11/2, her big brother celebrated her due date with his first ambulance ride (from the urgent care to the pediatric ER).  I'll elaborate on that in his 2.5 year post.  On 11/6, I weighed myself and was thrilled to find that I had lost all 18 lbs of the baby weight.  My tummy is not back to normal yet but most of my jeans fit well :)  On 11/8, Claire went back to the doctor for her one week weight check and weighed 7 lbs 10 oz.  She's close to outgrowing her newborn clothes and her 0-3 month clothes fit well.  She went through her first growth spurt at two weeks old where she wanted to eat every two hours during the day for two days.  She's been such a sweet and fun baby!    

So far, the transition to 3 has been manageable because we have a very easy baby and we've been blessed with lots of help over the last several weeks.  Elise and Jack have both loved their sister and haven't shown any signs of jealousy or changes in behavior.  The hardest part of the day is getting everyone fed and out the door on time in the morning (to get to preschool, church, bible study, etc).  Hopefully that will get easier as Claire gets faster at nursing and as she and I get longer stretches of sleep at night (and therefore, it will be easier for me to wake up earlier in the morning...).  The kids LOVE their grandparents and have had a great month with lots of extra attention.  Mimi was here from 10/18 - 11/9, Pop was here from 11/2 - 11/9, then Gram and Grandpa arrived on 11/14.  Grandpa had to go back to Texas yesterday but Gram gets to stay until Monday :)  The extra hands and adult company have been amazing.  It was also great to have many friends bring dinner for us when we were on our own in between visitors.  

Now for some pictures!  We've had a lot of firsts over the last few weeks... 

First bath

First time in the play mat

First nap in the rock and play

First trip to the park - one week old!

First trip to the zoo/first ride in the double stroller

She was obviously very impressed by the zoo

Zoo trip the week before she was born

First time in the crib

Cuddle time with Daddy

Many, many hugs and kisses from big sister

First picture of Mimi and Pop with all 3 grandkids!

First picture of Gram and Grandpa with all 3 grandkids!

 I still need to upload all the pictures from my phone!  I've been a little busy... :)

Claire's Birthday Pics, Part 1

I've got a bunch of pictures on my phone to add to this post, including more from Claire's first night of life.  Coming soon!

38 weeks, last family of 4 photo

9 cm :)

Bundled up for the ride to the recovery room

Elise and Jack first came to visit on Wednesday at noon.  Talk about the proudest big sister and big brother ever!  They love her.

Elise's first time holding Claire... you have to fight her for a turn :)

Jack's turn, which lasted for about 30 seconds until he announced, "I am done!"  Then he summarized his experience with, "I held baby Claire.  Baby Claire cried (just whimpered).  I told her it was okay."

Many, many attempts at a family photo.  These are representative of real life :)

Hmm, maybe if we confine everyone to the bed we can get a good picture...

Am I really a mother of 3?

Mimi and her granddaughters

Jack's favorite part of the visit was exploring the food trays and climbing all over the bed and "couch"

Jack brought Claire a toy and Elise brought her some new outfits.  Claire gave Jack the Thomas and Friends front loader (named Jack) and gave Elise some dollhouse nursery furniture, which will go with the dollhouse we are giving her for Christmas :)

Mommy and Daddy

On Thursday, Mike picked up Elise from Pre-K, took her to lunch at Panera, and brought her to the hospital to visit while we got ready to go home. 

Ready to go home!

Snug and cozy

Ariel and the Fire Chief had a brief (2 houses) evening of trick or treating.  

More pictures to come!

Claire is here!

Claire Lucille Powell

10/30/13 at 12:05 am

7 lbs, 4 oz

20.5 inches

Here's a quick rundown of her birth story before I forget the details :)

I had been having contractions around the clock for about 10 days. They were gradually becoming more uncomfortable though I could usually sleep through them at night. They would get closer together and then space back out again.  I was checked at my appointment on Monday the 28th around noon and hadn't made any more progress (still 1 cm and 75% effaced).  I felt pretty yucky all day Monday and then by Monday evening, the contractions started to get "painful". I went to sleep around 9 pm and was woken up by contractions and some wincing and "oww-ing" several times.  Unfortunately, Elise had her turn with the cold that we all passed around, and Mike and Mimi were up quite a bit with her that night.  I got up at 5:45 to take a shift with her on the couch and the contractions were still painful but not coming at regular intervals (20 mins, 8 mins, 15 mins, 6 mins, etc).

By later that morning, I was pretty sure that this was the beginning of the actual labor and it was just a matter of time to see how long it took them to get closer together and regular.  The pain was not going away.  I tried cleaning and running errands to get them closer together.  By 2:00, I decided to go on a walk and after an hour and a half, I was having a hard time walking through the contractions so I called Mike to come home.  By 4:00, they were getting much stronger and closer and by 6:00, they started coming 3-4 minutes apart.  We left for the hospital around 7:30 and they were 2.5-3 minutes apart and lasting about a minute each time.  This was the lovely phase I describe as, "I feel like someone is stabbing me with a knife and twisting it in my stomach with every contraction".  I had long labors with Elise and Jack, and I was only at a 1 the day before, so I wanted to make sure I was going to be dilated enough by the time we got there to be admitted.  Meanwhile, Mike put Jack to bed and we said goodnight to a very excited Elise and Mimi with promises of pictures in the middle of the night.

We got to the hospital (the 10 minute drive was much, much nicer than the 45 minute drive to the hospital when Jack was born) and I was admitted at 4 cm around 8:00 pm.  The receptionist was surprised that we had waited that long with close contractions, but it worked out perfectly.  I opted for the epidural and got it around 9:30 at 5 cm.  Shortly after, my water broke on its own during a contraction.  When my doctor arrived, I was at 6 cm and fully effaced.  By 10 pm, we turned on the TV and watched Person of Interest and then started an episode of Blacklist.  This was the most effective epidural ever!  Imagine our surprise when the nurse came in and checked me around 11:30 and said I was at 9 cm.  We just looked at each other and laughed.  By this point in the other labors, I was so tired and exhausted and in pain (epidurals didn't work very well with E and J) and "disheveled" (Mike's words).  This time, I asked Mike to get my hair brush and lip gloss so I could "get ready" to push.  The nurse then asked me to push a little to see if her head would come farther down.  She quickly asked me to stop and went to get the doctor.  He came in and I pushed twice and she was here!

I've got a ton of pictures on my phone and camera and I'll try to get them all posted before I get totally swamped with new ones.  We are all in love with this sweet little girl!