Second Child Syndrome

I swear that the second child gets the short end of the stick, I feel bad for children beyond this point. Little Miss Claire doesn't get as much undivided attention as Emma got when she was a baby, that's for sure. But she sure is wonderful by letting me do everything I need to do throughout the day, which mostly consists of chasing Emma around and cleaning the house. Claire's getting to the really fun part of infancy, she loves just staring at toys, of course she doesn't grab them and play with them, but she will lay there and just stare at toys while giggling and talking to them, it's so cute and so wonderful all at the same time.

She sure does love her big sister though. Whenever she hears Emma's voice she stops whatever she's doing and searches for Emma. Emma of course loves this and will lay by Claire and tell her the most wonderful stories, they are the best of friends. Claire sure is lucky to have a sister as wonderful as Emma.

I still can't believe that Claire Bear is three months old! She's way too old! I look at her baby baby pictures and can't believe that she's changed so much in such a short amount of time. Every

time I pick Claire up I swear she has gained weight, she's becoming more and more solid and her head is becoming less and less wobbly. I love my smiley Claire B.

That face gets me every time.

And then it turns into this face....Ahhhh...heaven.

And stretch!

The typical sister picture. Emma always has to get in on the pictures.

Fours years down, an eternity to go

Neil and I celebrated our four year anniversary on June 2. I know I say this every year, but I can't believe that it's been four years already. I love Neil more and more every day. We've been through so much together. The birth of two wonderful girls, the death of my wonderfully amazing great grandma, the death of Neil's favorite grandma, buying our first home together, four years of college, buying two cars, moving three times, figuring out each other's likes and dislikes, and so much more. You would think that after four years of marriage that I would know everything there is to know about Neil by know, but the truth is that I'm still learning new things each and every day. There's so much to learn about one person.

For our anniversary we actually didn't do anything at all, there's just been way too much going on, but I really didn't matter. Neil got me a Nook for our anniversary and for my birthday, and I got him some stuff for grilling, he was thrilled about it. I love you Neil Dawg and I can't wait to spend eternity with you. Pepper.

Summer Lovin' Had Me a Blast

Summer has finally decided to rear its lovely head and we are all enjoying every minute of it that we can. The first thing Emma says when she wakes up is, "Can I go outside, please?" I unfortunately have to inform her that we have to get ready and eat breakfast first. I'm sure it's the longest 2 hours of her life, but she's a survivor.

We live in the best little neighborhood. All around us are kids that are Emma's age, it's perfect, there are two boys and two girls and they are all the best of friends. There are also tons of other neighborhood kids so whenever we go outside we are sure to have at least one playmate for Emma Love. The newest friend is McCoy, and he is totally in love with Emma and Emma is totally in love with him, they will play and play and play until the practically fall over from exhaustion. Emma's best friend is Jade and they are so cute together. They will sit there and play for hours without fighting, and for two three year olds, that is a miracle. It was so funny, Jade got a new outfit and was wearing it outside, well the next day we were at Target and Emma saw the outfit Jade was wearing and just HAD to have it. I tried to get her to get a different colored of shirt, but she wouldn't have it. It had to be exactly like Jade's! Now when one of them sees the other one wearing the blessed outfit, they are sure to run inside and change so they match, it cracks us up. It's so fun to play outside. It's good cheap fun for Emma and it is sure to wear her out.

Emma and Jade in their matching outfits.

Emma and Jade outside eating lunch. I'm not sure what Emma is doing here...

Emma and Jade playing Barbies. Yes we take them outside so the kids stay out there.

One of the neighbors had their pool out so Emma was getting ready to go swimming. Claire wanted to join so I snapped a picture of the two most beautiful girls in the swimsuits. Unfortunately, the water was too cold for Miss Claire.

Emma on her bike. She LOVES to ride her bike all around.

I really need to get a picture of Emma and McCoy. We will for sure get one though because those two are inseparable. We always joke that Emma and McCoy just have to get married, even if we have to arrange it.

Time Goes By Way Too Fast...

I still can't believe that little Miss Claire will be three months old in a couple of weeks. She is such a precious angel and I can't stop staring at her. It's terrible, when she's sleeping I just want to hold her all day long and kiss her to death, but I restrain myself from doing such.

Claire was the very difficult baby the first couple of months of her life. But after putting her on Prevacid and changing her formula she is a totally different baby and I actually don't dread waking up in the mornings, I know that may sound terrible, but until you lived it....But seriously she is so wonderful and Emma loves her to death. This little girl won't have any shortage of kisses in her life. At her two month check-up Claire weighed 9 lbs. 11 oz. I laugh because even though that is still small, it's big to me because little Emma wasn't that big for a very long time. I love my girly girls.

Neil and I are also doing just great. Neil got a promotion at work and we are so excited. He will actually be home at nights and on the weekends. He will be working normal hours, it already feels wonderful. Me, well, I'm just getting along with now having two kids to chase around. My grandma is back and so I've been watching her three days a week, and that keeps me busier than ever. And because I know posts aren't fun without pictures...

Our life before Prevacid...

The picture we put in her birth announcements. Isn't she just perfect?

Emma in her Easter dress ready for church.

The first official smile captured on camera.

I love how chunky she looks in this picture. And it shows how much of a slobberer she is.

I just love the look on her face in this one. It cracks me up every time.

Life Updated

So it's been about a month since I last updated this blog. Easter came and left and it was wonderful to have my two beautiful girls with us. It was a blast, but of course I didn't take any pictures, I'm lame like that. Emma got a "real camera" as she calls it. She loves taking pictures so we decided to get her her own camera so she wouldn't break ours, and she of course loves it. She also got her Easter dress and a few other things along with candy, and of course Bomps and Grandma Sue spoiled her to death and she got a lot of fun things from them. Claire got a glow worm and a rattle along with an Easter dress and accessories to go along with it. She didn't get any candy though, imagine that. And Bomps and Grandma Sue spoiled her as well and she got a lot of cute clothes and a few toys. All in all it was a blast and we couldn't have asked it to be any better.

The last few weeks I have had a very unhappy baby. And saying that is being extremely nice. Little Claire has been crying non-stop, you can't make her happy no matter how hard you try. As you can imagine this has taken its toll on me. I would go to bed to a screaming baby and wake up to a screaming baby. I'm not used to this, Emma was the picture perfect baby. Finally we tried Mylicon drops thinking maybe she had colic and this would help. It did seem to help, but not entirely, she was still screaming her blood curdling scream, just not so much, but still enough to make it extremely hard on me. Finally yesterday I gave in and tried soy formula per request of my sister and mom, thinking maybe she's lactose intolerant. And would you believe it, I felt like I had a totally different baby, she was actually cooing and smiling and just being content, I hadn't experienced that before with her. So today I called our doctor to see if there is something that I can to do continue to breast feed. The doctor's office had me call the dietitian and I talked to her and explained Claire's symptoms and she told me what I was dreading to hear, that Claire is lactose intolerant. I was expecting to hear that, but I really, really didn't want to. She said if I wanted to continue to breast feed then I would need to cut out all dairy out of my diet, along with whey. I wanted to cry. Of course I want to continue to breast feed because it's the best thing for my little girl and of course I want the best for her, but after talking to Neil and my mom and really thinking about everything I would have to cut out of my diet, for about a year or until she stopped breast feeding, I realized that it was pretty much impossible for me. It was a very difficult decision for me and tears were shed. But I'm looking forward to having a happy baby around.

So life has been extremely interesting these last few weeks, and to top it off it's finals week and so the stress keeps building and building. But after Wednesday it will all hopefully go away. All I need to do it look at my girls and I realize how extremely lucky and blessed I am to have these two beauties in my life.

Life With Two Children

It's been almost two weeks since Claire has joined our family and life has been hectic to say the least, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

It all began on the Monday before Claire was born. I had been having irregular contractions for about a month and knew there was nothing to be concerned about, but on Monday they started to get a little more intense and more frequent, but again nothing to be concerned about. On Tuesday the contractions were still coming and I remember even telling Neil that it was only a matter of days before she came, I just had a feeling. On Wednesday it was the same thing, until around three o'clock and they started becoming extremely regular, so I decided to see if I could walk them off. I packed Emma up and we went to Walmart because I needed to pick some things up so I walked around Walmart for a good hour seeing if it would help...and I guess it did in a sense, the contractions got closer and stronger, although they still weren't hurting me yet, just really uncomfortable. I went home and walked around the house for yet another hour and around five I called my mom and asked her what I should do because I didn't know if I should go to school or not. She convinced me to go up to Heber for an NST because I was scheduled to have one the next day, so I woke Neil up and we left.

When we got there I wasn't feeling them as much (of course) so we went out to eat with my parents and went back to my parents hosue so I could do some more walking. I walked around for yet another hour and then all of a sudden I felt extremely sick and I barely made it to the bathroom. After that I still wasn't sure about going to the hospital but my mom convinced me to go in. When I got all hooked up I wasn't having any contractions and I pretty much told my mom that I told her so. But after about ten minutes they started and were about 2-3 minutes apart. And they were getting more and more intense. My doctor thought that maybe I was just dehydrated so the nurses pumped me full of fluid, but that didn't help.

Around 11 pm Neil decided to come and see what was going on and as we walked into my room he gave me a really funny look and a nurse walked in right behind him and informed me that we would most likely be having a baby that night. I was completely shocked. I really didn't think that I would be going home with a baby. I had packed a few necessities, but I really didn't have anything. Shortly after my doctor came in and confirmed that I was going to be having a baby.

That's when it hit me...I was going to be the mother of two now. And I was at 12:40 am. When Claire let out that first scream I just started crying and couldn't stop. My baby girl was healthy and here with me! I was totally fell in love all over again.

She melts my heart and I love her so much. She is such a good baby, just really impatient. She's been sleeping pretty well at nights too. Emma is in love with her little sister and she tries her hardest to help, which can be very hard on me, but I try to tell her thank you for being such a great big sister.

Neil is totally in love with his two little girls and is the best dad in the world. He went back to work on Sunday night and I've missed having him home, but it has been a pretty good transition. He can't wait until April when he can go back to swing shift and have a more normal work schedule.

And I'm doing wonderful. I have been healing wonderfully from the C-section. I swear by them. They are AMAZING! And I love my family of four. Claire has been the best addition to our family. She fits right in and our world is revolving around her for the time being.

She looks just like her daddy!

Bedhead

Believe it or not, this is the face she makes while she's pooping.

Emma loves her little sister and loves laying next to her.

She's Here!!!

Baby Claire decided to make her debut three weeks early! She was born on March 11th at 12:40 in the a.m. She is abosolutely perfect weighing in at 6 lbs. 6 oz. and 18 inches long. She looks just like her daddy and I can't stop staring at her. She makes my heart melt. Here are a few pictures...

less then a day old

Our family of four?!

Emma loves her little sister!

just a few hours old