Life As We Know It

I have been horrible about posting lately. I am so sorry. Suddenly having a baby to take care of cuts back on the free time. Mother's with more than 1 child can start laughing and mocking me now. You're probably saying "Do you realize what you can get done with ONE kid?!" I know, I know. It's just an adjustment. I promise I'll get better again. :)

So, about Miss Claire. She's doing great. In fact, she slept 6.5 hours last night! Yahoo! She's started sleeping one 4-6 hour stretch almost every night for the past 2 weeks. We've had an occasional all-nighter here and there, but for the most part we're gettin on a schedule! Needless to say, I'm happy. And much more well rested. :)

Claire is also becoming much more alert. Her favorite thing to look at is anything bright i.e. lights, the sun (when it shows itself), etc. and lately, I find her staring at our big picture of the Columbia River Temple that we have hanging in our living room. I kid you not, she looks at it ALL THE TIME. I think she knows it's a special place. Seriously. This girl is smart. She knows mine and Dallin's voices and she knows my mom's and Valerie's voices really well too. Her eyes get big and she starts to look around when any of us speak. It's amazing. She grabs our fingers and holds on a lot too. And let me tell you, this girl has a death grip. Holy schmoley, she will not let go of you once she's got a hold of ya. Claire also loves music. (We would certainly hope so, with Dallin and I as her parents.) When I turn on The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, she quiets down if she's fussy, which she rarely is. It usually puts her to sleep too. And whenever I sing to her, it calms her down and puts her to sleep. Seriously, this girl is the easiest baby to console. It's awesome. We are INCREDIBLY lucky.

Another favorite of Claire's is bath time. It's pretty entertaining because she hates getting undressed and her diaper taken off, but as soon as she gets put in the bath, she relaxes and starts kickin her little legs around. I think she might be a splasher as she gets older. :) So, she loves bath time, but she hates getting out and me putting lotion on her. Oh my goodness, you would think we were abusing the poor child with the howls she lets out. I hope my neighbors don't report us to the CPS, sheesh. Sometimes I just put her in a onesie and then calm her down because trying to get any more clothing on her than that is a wee bit difficult. She fights me when I try to get her dressed. And she tries to eat her hand when I'm trying to put it through the sleeve. Needless to say, it's hard to get Claire dressed. :)

A new found favorite is her swing. Hallelujah. She was not liking it a few weeks ago and then this week, presto change-o, she loves it! It's been nice to stick her in so I can get some things done around the apartment.

Today, I was holding her on my chest and suddenly, she started laughing. For like 5 seconds. She just laughed. Giggled really. Smiling and everything. It was the CUTEST thing I have ever heard. I look forward to many more laughing sessions. She was kind of half asleep when she did it, but that seems to be the time when she smiles the most. I think she is starting to respond more to our smiles when she's awake though. A few times in the past week we have started smiling at her and you can tell she's really focusing on us and then she gives us a little smile. Or an attempt at a smile anyway. Have any of you seen How To Train Your Dragon? Cutest movie ever. You know the part where Hiccup smiles at Toothless and Toothless tries to smile back? Yeah, that's pretty much what it's like for Claire right now. Gummy smile and all. :)

One last thing and then I'll get to the pictures. She LOVES her car seat. But only when it's in motion. Like in the car or if we are swinging it back and forth. If she's just sitting in it, she gets mad. She's very opinionated already. :) But really, it makes it a dream for traveling. We usually just do a feed and diaper change at Biggs and then she's good the rest of the way home, whether it be Ellensburg or Pasco. Our little girl is the easiest baby. We are so incredibly blessed.

So, here are some pictures as of late. These first ones were taken at about her one month mark. She'll be 2 months on December 9! Can you believe it? She goes in for her 2 month check up on the 14th. I'll let you know her stats then.

This is a headband that Grandma Calaway sent to us a few weeks ago. I love it. Claire? Not so much. I am crossing my fingers that she starts to not mind having headbands and bows on her head. :)



I thought this picture was too cute not to post. Just look at that little butt. She'll kill me when she's older. But for now, let's just enjoy this cute shot. :)

Grandma also sent us a cute little beanie! Once again, I love it, Claire's not so sure about it.



I didn't think this little snow suit would fit her very well, because I got it in a 3 month size, but we put it on her while we were in Washington for Thanksgiving and it almost fits her perfectly! I was hoping it would last her until January or February, but I think that's gonna be stretching it. (Literally)

Bath time!

Doesn't she look like she's posing in this shot? so cute.

With Cousins Luke and Mathew over Thanksgiving

Claire and Cousin Luke

Claire and cousins William and Emiline

Claire and Emi. Emiline LOVES "Baby Care". She doted on her like you wouldn't believe. And the only thing to stop Emi from crying one night was telling her that baby Claire was asleep and if she kept crying, it would wake up baby Claire and would make her sad. Too funny.

Christmas Cards

Our Christmas cards are almost complete. And soon, there will be one in all our loved ones mailboxes. I just love this time of year when suddenly the mailbox is full of Christmas Cards and letters updating everyone on their lives. It just makes me happy.

This is the first year we've done Christmas cards. We felt it was necessary with the new little one in our house. (Actually, she just gave me the excuse to finally do it. :)) We decided to go with Shutterfly this year for a couple of reasons. One, they have SUPER cute cards. And two, they gave me a deal I just couldn't refuse. 50 free Christmas cards. Is that a steal or what?? Now, with all their cute designs, I have had a hard time picking which card I want, but I finally found the one. I can't tell you which one though. You'll just have to look for it in your mailbox. :)

I highly recommend Shutterfly's Christmas cards, if you haven't already selected one yet this year. Just click here and get to browsing. They are so fun!

Hope you are all enjoying your Holidays as much as we are! I promise I will post later about Miss Claire and all the going's on at the Calaway household soon.

Until then, Happy Holidays!

I Love Free

Don't you just love free things? (on a totally unrelated side note: I am typing this whole post one handed as I am holding my sleeping child. Yipes! Let's see how long THIS takes.) Shutterfly is giving away 50 free holiday cards to anyone who blogs about it. I dunno about you, but it sounds like a sweet deal to me! You do have to pay any applicable taxes and the shipping & handling, but you get really cute cards for free! :) If you're interested, click here to sign up. If you want to browse their cute cards, click here. The promotion is good for any 5x7 card, so check em out! Oh, and updates and more pictures of miss Claire will be coming later this week. Enjoy your Fall weather! We sure are!

23rd Birthday/Halloween 2010

So, um, we didn't take ANY pictures on my birthday. Woops! Oh well, who needs pictures of their 23rd birthday? Totally an insignificant birthday in my book. :) Pretty much the next big milestone after 21 is 30, so I have 6 more totally insignificant birthdays to celebrate til then. :) It was a fabulous day though. We shopped til we dropped and then we headed north to Portland and had us some DELICIOUS Cheesecake Factory. Can I just profess my love publicly of all things Cheesecake Factory related?? Really, it's amazing. And we had Pumpkin Pecan Cheescake for dessert/my birthday cake. Is your mouth watering? Mine was all Saturday and I just started salivating again. Delicious.

My birthday night was not so pleasant, unfortunately. Little Miss Claire Bear decided she wanted to keep up the festivities of my birthday until the wee hours of the night; 2 am to 5 am, to be exact. Little stinker. Oh well, she has been forgiven and smothered with approximately 1000 more kisses since then, so all is well in the Calaway household.

Yesterday we wanted to take some family pictures since the trees and leaves outside our apartment complex are amazing right now, so Marcus and Ash came over and we took turns taking pictures of each other. They turned out pretty good. I'll give you a sneak peek, but only one, 'cause these are Christmas Card material here. :) After the pictures we carved pumpkins (I know, a little late, but better late than never, right??) Dallin carved ours. He's the artsy one in this relationship, trust me. It turned out AMAZING, if I do say so myself. He didn't carve it all the way out, just carved it so it was thin enough for the light to shine through. Pretty stinkin awesome. My husband rocks, by the way.

Claire gave me a belated birthday gift in the form of sleeping REALLY well last night. Dallin and I prayed REALLY hard last night for a good nights sleep. :) I think that may have had a little (read: EVERYTHING) to do with it.

Now I am impatiently waiting for my birthday package from Mom and Dad to arrive in the mail. I like getting packages. They're fun. :) Hope your Halloween was a safe, candy/fun filled evening! Now it's time for Christmas music!! :) (Please tell me I'm not the only one itching to play Christmas music as soon as November 1st comes around. Dallin has forbidden me to play it though. He claims he can't handle the excitement. Maybe I can get him to let me play it November 15th?? Crossing my fingers.)

The Pumpkin that Dallin so masterfully created! :)

Preview of the Photoshoot :)

The trees outside our apartment

Another shot of the beautiful fall colors.

Dear Claire. . .

These past few nights have been, we'll say, interesting. 3 nights ago you decided you wanted to wake up at midnight, 2 am, 4 am, 6 am, and 8 am to have me feed you. Luckily, your dad is a super star and held you off until 11:30 am so that I could get a *few* precious hours of shut eye. Then 2 nights ago, you slept from 2 am until 6:30 am. Mama rejoiced. So did dad. It was a wonderful night. But last night. Oh last night. You just didn't want to go to bed. So you decided essentially pulling an all-nighter was on the agenda. I fell asleep nursing you every time. Once again, your dad is a super star and he held you off with a bottle this morning so that I could get my much needed sleep. If not for him, I would be in a walking zombie state as we speak.

But Claire, I want you to know something else, besides all the craziness of late night feedings and sleepless nights. I want you to know that as I held you before I went to bed last night, I looked at your precious face and felt my heart swell with gratitude that you are ours. Never in my life have I felt this kind of love toward someone. You are special. So special. Your daddy and I feel so lucky and so privileged that Heavenly Father entrusted you to us. We know you're destined to be something great, and the task to teach you everything you need to know is daunting, but we're up for the challenge. You have never been so loved by two people as you are loved by your daddy and I. So although these sleepless nights are tough on mom, she still looks at you with complete love and adoration every time she drags herself out of bed to feed you. Seeing that precious face is all I need to remind me how lucky I am to have you. I love you so much little Claire!

Love,

Mama

*Notice the white uggs! Thanks Bonnie, we LOVE them! :)*

Introducing: Claire Calaway

The fact that I had this baby 3 weeks early is probably just as much of a shock to you as it has been for me. I figured that I would go full term, but after pushing a little 6 lb baby out, I am incredibly grateful she wasn't any bigger. :)

Late Friday night/early Saturday morning, I noticed I was having some pretty hard contractions. Harder and more painful than anything I had experienced up to that point in pregnancy. They were inconsistent, at best, so I just figured it wasn't that big a deal. I wasn't terribly worried or concerned. Saturday morning, Dallin asked me if I wanted to go to the gym with him, but because I had been up some of the night with contractions, I was pretty tired and decided I wasn't going to go with him. Then, right before he left, I noticed I had quite a bit of fluid leaking out of me and it was tinged with blood. Once again, I figured I was just getting to the end of the pregnancy and wrote it off as not a big deal. I got in the shower and then all the sudden I started having contractions that were rocking. my. world. I had to lean up against the wall and just concentrate on my breathing. After I got out, I sat down and drank a bunch of water, thinking that would help, but they just kept coming.

I finally started considering the possibility that I was, in fact, in labor and thought about calling Dallin at the gym, but figured he would be home soon enough and then we could head to the hospital. (Yeah, I know, I'm kinda dumb.) Then I got a text from Dallin asking me if I was feeling any better from that morning and I replied I thought I was in labor. He couldn't believe I hadn't called him, but things hadn't seemed that bad. Then suddenly, the contractions started coming fast and furious. I suddenly thought, "I wonder if we're even gonna make it to the hospital!" Dallin got home from the gym and we sprinted (read: Ashley waddled) to the car and hit every green light to the hospital. Hallelujah. I had a couple hard contractions on my way to the hospital and then as I was checking in, I had a few more. I was in so much pain at this point that I just wanted to get into a room and have an epidural as quick as was humanly possible. A triage nurse came to get me and led me to a room to check me out, explaining that she just wanted to make sure I was really in labor. This whole time, I am thinking, "if this isn't labor, then just shoot me now, 'cause it can't get any worse than this!" I got undressed and into my hospital gown as fast as I could, and she checked me (which was about as uncomfortable as all get out, holy crud!) and then she looked at me with shock in her eyes and said, "you're dilated to a 9!! We're moving you into your own room NOW!" I was kind of shocked, but not really, because of the amount of pain I was in. I asked the nurse on the way to my room if I was too late for an epidural (which I figured I was) and she said they MIGHT be able to get me one. Then she asked, "what's your plan for pain management?" Just then I had a contraction and I blurted out, "the epidural! That was my plan for pain management!!" She just started laughing. Luckily, I found humor in the situation as well. :)

They got me into my room and the nurses were just scrambling everywhere. I kind of felt bad. But then another contraction would hit and I didn't feel so bad anymore. I just wanted to be out of my misery. Those contractions were so hard and the urge to push was starting. My doctor came in (she was AMAZING. LOVED her) and she checked me and said I was actually more like an 8, not a 9, so they were going to get the anesthesiologist in to me STAT! :) He came in and gave me my epidural and within 15 minutes, I was in heaven. I also received an amazing blessing from Marcus and Dallin and things went smooth from there on out. I pushed for about an hour and a half, got hung up on her high little cheekbones, then out she came! The doctor flipped her over, asked Dallin if he wanted to tell me what it was, and we were both so overcome with emotion when he said it was a girl. They plopped her on my stomach, she started crying (we were already crying :)) and the rest is history.

It's been a crazy roller coaster so far. This is the hardest, most rewarding thing I have ever done in my life. Claire came to this world at 6 lbs. 3 oz. 18.5 ins long and left the hospital at 5 lbs. 12 oz. She dropped further down to 5 lbs 8 oz. and we were getting pretty scared. I was supposed to go to Claire's pediatrician on Wednesday, but I got a call Tuesday morning at 8:00 telling me they had a last minute cancellation and asked if I would like to come in for a 9:00 appt? For some reason, I felt I needed to say yes and we went in. That's when we found out that Claire had dropped to 5 lbs. 8 oz. and that we needed to pretty much start shoving food down her throat or else there were going to be negative consequences. So, we did just that, and are continuing to do it now. Our pediatrician was so inspired to call us to fill that appointment on Tuesday. If we had waited til Wednesday, I don't know what might have happened. I think Claire could have potentially been in big trouble. He said for some reason he just remembered the name Claire Calaway and thought of her to fill that appointment. I know there were higher powers at work in her behalf. For that, I am truly grateful.

So now we have feedings that are 2-3 hours apart all day everyday and after I feed, I pump like it's nobody's business! :) She's back up to 5 lbs 15 oz. and, the way she has been eating lately, she'll be up to her birth weight in no time flat. Meanwhile, I'm not getting much rest or much of anything done, but I am loving my new job as mommy. It feels so weird to have a daughter and know that she is ours. Dallin is probably the worlds best dad and is totally in love with Claire. He sits with her on his chest all the time and loves on her all day long. I think it's pretty safe to say that she is just as smitten with him as he is her. We both think she is the most beautiful baby that ever graced this planet (of course, we're not biased at all) and she continues to wrap us around her long little fingers everyday. We're so blessed and are loving every moment of this new journey.

Oh, and we just moved yesterday to a new apartment in our building so that Claire would have her own room. No big deal. We could NOT have done it without the help of my wonderful angel mother and Claire's two biggest fans, Marcus and Ash. With their help, we were able to move apartments and get everything cleaned and squared away. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU Marcus, Ash and Mom. We love you guys and appreciate you so much!! I especially want to thank my mom for all her help this week. She has fed us delicious, healthy meals, has run errands for us, helped me with the late night feedings so that I could get a little extra sleep and was super mom/mother-in-law/grandma all week long. I couldn't have made it through this first week without her. I love you, Mom!! Now Valerie, we need you here to fill the grandma void. :)

So, here are some pictures from the first week of little Claire Calaway's first week of life.

Claire's Favorite Place: Daddy's Chest





She's already starting to suck her thumb!

No Good, Very Bad Day

I've been feeling exceptionally sorry for myself today. I've been frustrated, annoyed, irritated, sad, and had a string of four letter words continuously running through my brain. Shocking, I know. (Or not) So, this is my attempt to try and get me out of my funk.

I realize my situation right now is really not pitiable at all, nor am I looking for any of you to tell me it is, because if we're being honest, I'll be fine in a couple of hours. Just chalk it up to hormones. I've thankfully escaped the crazy roller coaster of hormones that some women are plagued by when they're pregnant and, for the most part, have been exceptionally happy. I've had a good attitude about most things and have just rolled with the punches, because I knew I really had no other choice, so I may as well enjoy my time, right? Well, today I guess things have just caught up to me. I don't sleep well at night anymore and haven't really for about a month and a half, so I am in a constant state of tiredness. And even though I probably shouldn't, I worry constantly about this baby inside me. I feel it move almost all the time, but if I notice it hasn't moved in a while, I freak myself out, wondering the last time it moved. Then I think of all the possible defects it could have once it's born and I wonder, "am I ready for all this??" Needless to say, that's not helping me at all either. And maybe, just maybe, the fact that we're still in Washington and I'm not near my doctor has me stressed out too. Because I am almost 37 weeks, and therefore, almost considered full term. So there you have it, my grievances all laid out there for you all to see.

But really, I would be an ungrateful brat if I didn't tell you all the wonderful blessings I have in my life. I have an amazing husband who works so hard to provide for me and this baby and loves me, despite my many flaws. We have two working vehicles that get us from point a to point b quite comfortably. We have clothes on our backs with plenty to spare. We have our health and really good health insurance just in case our health takes a turn for the worse. :) We are so lucky to have musical abilities and the opportunities to share them with others. We have incredible family members who support us in all we do and amazing parents who offer their homes to us whenever we need a place to stay without complaint. And, as far as I know, we have a healthy baby inside me who loves to kick and play. There are so many more blessings I know I'm not mentioning, but I'm feeling better now. :) So as you can see, I am incredibly blessed and am so grateful for this life I lead. Even though it doesn't always turn out the way I think it will, and there are twists and turns, I just have to keep up an attitude of gratitude. So I will try to be better about that. No promises though. :)