Claire - 1 Month Old

I had all good intentions of posting a 1-week post, 2-week post, etc. but life got in the way. So here I am, posting Claire's 1-month update (+5 days :).

She has been such an easy baby for the most part! She mostly cries when her diaper needs changed or when she's hungry. And she's always hungry. She must get that from me :) I figure if she wants to nurse for comfort or hunger, who am I to say otherwise? Whatever I can do to make the crying stop! Breastfeeding has also been going so well and I know I'm fortunate to be able to say that. She also started to take the occasional bottle last week and got the hang of that real quick! Seriously, every time I prepare myself for a new hurdle and read countless articles on how to prepare for something, she makes it seem like a breeze. She really has been such a blessing!

She does have the usual nighttime fussiness which can be calmed by nursing and nighttime cluster feeding. But she's just starting sleeping in one 4-hour stretch when she first nods off! It is glorious! And then she goes back to her 2-hour stretches of sleep. But I'll take what I can get.

She had her 1-month checkup today and did so well! She's now 10.0 lbs, 22" (grew 1.5" since her 1-week appt). And she's finally growing into her head, haha.  At her 1-week check-up, her head was in the 92nd percentile, today it is in the 71st.

Ross & I have had such an easy transition into parenthood thanks to her being such an easy baby. I think the biggest challenge for me is realizing that running out to the store is no easy task any longer! I can't even imagine how people do it with multiple kids. By the time I get her fed and in her carseat, hours have passed. And carrying that carseat is no fun... it's so heavy, only to get heavier. Hmph.

And lastly, here are a few photos :)

Claire at 1-week...

vs today, Claire at 1-month (+5 days)...

The biggest difference I see from over the last month is that her face has un-scrunched, haha. She is definitely growing fast!! I'm so afraid I'm going to forget these precious moments.

She's not crazy about her hat today! haha

Another close-up from today:

Lastly, my favorite 1-week photo. Who doesn't look adorable in a big bow?! Double-chin and all :)

*Kristin*

Welcome Baby Claire!

It's been 9 days since Claire has greeted us and boy, how life has changed!!! It's weird to think that today is actually my due date :)  It's amazing how fast time is already flying.

I thought I'd share Claire's birth story, so I don't forget :)

Wednesday, 11/25
It was the last workday before Thanksgiving break and I wanted to wrap up most of my work items by the end of the day in case maternity leave was coming sooner than I had expected. A few peculiar things had happened with my pregnancy in the middle of the night, so I had a feeling that she was going to be coming that weekend! I even told Ross when he left for work to make sure he brought home anything he would need for the next 2 weeks (as he was going to be taking off time for when she arrived).

So I was trying my best that morning to work and wrap some things up, but at the same time, I was trying to clean my house in preparation for mom, dad, Michelle, Mike & Luca coming to our house for Thanksgiving. Mom was going to bring the turkey and her and Michelle were bringing all the side dishes! I was so excited for them to be coming up and to have a relaxing Thanksgiving meal! Of course, all along, we knew I might go into labor any day so it would be no surprise if we had to cancel.

After working a bit that morning, I called my dr.'s office to ask them about the peculiar incident in the middle of the night. They told me it was nothing to be concerned about. So I kept working. And cleaning. I was at my dr. appt. just the day before and was only 2.5cm along and 80% effaced, so there was def. progress, but it could still be days or weeks before labor! As the morning progressed, I guess so did my labor! Michelle and I were even joking about me going into labor that day, to which I assured her that I wasn't, and that Thanksgiving was still on! *famous last words*

Around noon, I called my dr.'s office again. I told them this time that I was leaking pretty steadily (sorry if this is TMI!! haha). I was going through maxi pads like crazy but didn't think much of it. The nurse's response? You need to go to the hospital now and go to Triage on the 3rd floor. *Uh oh* haha So I called Ross at work. Him and I had an agreement for the past week that I would only call him if it was TIME. I would not call for any other reason. So there it was. I called him, and he rushed home. I ran around the house packing last minute things into our hospital bag but I was still under the assumption the hospital would just send me home. After all, I was having no other signs of labor, no contractions, nothing. I even promised Ross McDonalds on the way to the hospital, but we ended up not passing it and I told him we would swing by when they sent us home.

In the hospital, they checked me, and sure enough, my water had broke! It's not a gush of water like they portray in the movies! Since my water had broke, they wanted to kick start labor with pitocin since the risk of infection goes up with there being no barrier there any longer.

So this was it!! I had left things unfinished at work and was not mentally prepared to have a baby!! haha

Here I am before things got real!...

We checked in to the hospital around 1:00 and had Claire at 9:27pm. The labor went smoothly with no complications. I cried for the epidural pretty much from the beginning. I thought I'd tough it out, but nope, those contractions are no joke and I have no tolerance for pain. Even with the epidural, I was still sobbing in pain between pushes. Luckily, I only pushed for 90 minutes and Claire was born! My doctor and nurse were exceptional and encouraging the whole time! I sobbed even after she was born, thanking the Lord that labor was over. How do people do this multiple times?!! haha

First family photo...

 

It was the most surreal moment, seeing her for the first time. I look back on that day and easily count it as the best day of my life. Claire was born healthy and passed every test with flying colors. She was 8 lbs. 4 oz., 20" and has an exceptionally large head, to which Ross & I already tease her about, haha. Her head is in the 92nd percentile! Claire's pediatrician gave me kudos to pushing this thing out. No wonder I still hurt :(

What we ever did to deserve such a blessing, I can't even begin to explain.

 

My heart be still. To see these two together is more than I can handle...

Ross has been such a huge help this week! He's done everything from laundry to changing diapers. He has jumped in to help in any way possible and I'm so lucky to have him. We are both obsessed with Claire and can't put her down! (besides right now, when I needed 2 hands to type :P).

Claire has been the easiest baby so far! She grasped breastfeeding almost immediately and things have been going smoothly ever since! What a relief! And she almost never cries. She really makes us feel like we have this parenting thing down, even though neither of us has any clue as to what we're doing. We just go with the flow and figure things out along the way.

As for her name, Ross and I really stressed about what to call her. Her nickname 'Baby No Name' was not going to cut it any longer, haha. We had a few contenders, but in the end, I couldn't get Claire out of my head. It's time-tested, vintage and sweet, exactly how I picture her. And not too 'cutesy' for when she's an adult. I had tried Claire Marie (using my middle name) but couldn't get over the fact that when swapped, Marie Claire, is a magazine. I loved the way Elyse sounded, so Claire Elyse it was. Neither name has any meaning, but that's ok. We purposely stayed away from any family names to not offend anyone.

Friday after Thanksgiving, we were discharged from the hospital. I apologized to every nurse and doctor in the hospital who had to work on Thanksgiving, haha. But none of them seemed to mind. I can't brag about the staff at the hospital enough, they were all so kind and helpful in those painful recovery hours!

Here we are heading home....

Well that was it. The biggest Thanksgiving surprise I ever could imagine! Now to get back to holding my baby before she grows up....

*Kristin*

Baby Girl Nursery Mobile

Happy Monday! I have a quick project I wanted to share for baby girl's nursery. First and foremost, Ross & I have been really careful to buy only what we need, trying not to get carried away with the craze of baby-galore 'omigod I must buy everything!' extravaganza. Baby stuff accumulates and adds up quickly! So for these frugal, minimalist parents, we've been really conscientious of what to buy and where to save money on. We've also been lucky to get a LOT of handy hand me downs (thanks Michelle!) so that's helped us keep costs down as well and we're truly thankful!

As for baby girl's nursery, we wanted to keep it simple and cost-effective. Ross & I bought her a white crib from IKEA (I loved the simplistic design and the pricetag) and bought the IKEA Poang rocking chair with footstool as her 'glider' for her room. I couldn't decide on a glider I loved and didn't want to spend the money if I was going to regret the decision. So the $200 pricetag for the IKEA Poang chair was the perfect solution. If it ends up not working out, I can always upgrade to a real glider instead! But so far, I love the Poang chair for what we need.

As for her dresser, she actually got my old dresser :) Ross came up with the idea of buying him & I new dressers for our master bedroom, since we were using handy-downs that I can't stand and we've never bought us furniture for our bedroom before! I loved the idea and have been bragging on him ever since, haha! Besides, I'm sure baby girl could care less what her dresser looks like... as long as it's functional, which it is. It's just not my taste. So it was a win-win situation!

Now that the furniture pieces were settled on for the nursery, I wanted to decorate just a little. I guess they call this the 'nesting' phase, haha. I found the cutest Nursery Mobile on Etsy. But the $40 price tag was a bit steep to me. Especially when it seemed like something I could make.

Let the crafting begin!

Here are the supplies I bought from the craft store: some cardstock, some fishing line (from the jewelry making section) and 2 metal rings, also from the jewelry making section that I guess are used for making necklaces:

Note that I ended up not using the blue polka dot paper. I decided on using the blush pink paper, the silver metallic and the gold/white polka dot paper as my 3 colors :) Here's a close-up of the necklaces I used for my base:

I stretched the 2 necklaces out to form the base then tied the middle together with wire. It's not perfect, but it'll do :)

Next, I googled the octagonal and triangular shapes, printed them on the pink card stock, then begun cutting out the shapes and gluing them together.

I traced the metallic silver paper and gold polka-dot paper and glued those to random sides of the cubes. Here are my 5 shapes with their random colors:

Lastly, I strung up the shapes to my base, and ta-da... a nursery mobile! For a final total of $10! And a weekend of crafting :)

It's not perfect, but that's ok with me! I decided to hang it over her changing pad for now with a removable 3M hanger from the ceiling, so it can be moved easily enough if I decide to later hang it over her crib. So that's that! A nursery mobile on a budget :)

*Kristin*

October Recap

Can anyone else keep up with all of the photos they take on their cell phones these days?? I'm falling behind. I finally transferred photos to my computer from my phone and couldn't help but want to share an October recap!

Oct. 2nd - we said goodbye to our home in Alabama. The movers came and packed up our house and we made the final trek north. I can't believe this was only a month ago that this happened!!! I feel like we've been living in Cleveland for so much longer!

Oct. 17th - Ross' good friend, Christina, got married! The reception was held at the Rivers Club at the Oxford building in downtown Pittsburgh, which was the same building and floor I used to work on when I worked at GVA Oxford 7 years ago! Talk about a trip down memory lane :) Ross took a pic of me in front of my old office too which I need to find and share!

 Does this dress make me look fat pregnant?!

 

Ross & Jay feeding eachother. Yeah.... I don't ask. I was just told to take the picture...

Here's *almost* the entire gang of Ross' friends! What a good lookin' group :)

All in all, it was a great night! And I spent a majority of it at the cookie table. No shame.

October 25th - Ross & I snuck in a maternity photoshoot before it was too late! I NEVER hire a photographer, so this was a true splurge for me, but I knew I just couldn't do it myself and I really wanted to capture this phase of life before our next chapter begins! (and a remote & a tripod only go so far!) I shared my favorite pics on facebook and am ecstatic with how they came out! The lady only charged $150 for a one-hour session, and I couldn't believe how many pictures she got in such a short amount of time! And how talented she was! Best money I ever did spend :) I've hired her again for a newborn session and some hospital photos. And THEN I promised Ross that I would stop spending all our money on professional photos and start doing them myself, haha.

October 27th - the official closing date on our house in Alabama. All went smoothly, at least I heard. We FedEx'd our portion of papers and didn't hear another word. Another chapter closed!

October 31st - Halloween!...

Ross & I had no special plans for Halloween this year, but Ross' parents decided to come up for the day, so it turned out to a be a fun day of carving pumpkins, handing out candy to trick-or-treaters and Ross trying to scare the trick-or-treaters.

I picked up a small pumpkin for baby girl, since it was the same size as my belly!

Ross always wants the largest pumpkin!

Below - My 'costume' for the year. And Ross' scarecrow costume he wore to scare children. I told him to only scare the older kids, I'm not sure he obeyed :/

Ross had Halloween music playing in the bushes, him and his dad both dressed up to scare kids, and my MIL, Rose, and I sat inside and handed out candy. It was a really nice evening and we had a good turnout of about 75 trick-or-treaters.

November 7th - Mom and dad came up for the day to visit and took us out to lunch. We tried to show them a bit of Cleveland. Mom just wanted to see the water though so we took them to a park up the road from our house and took in the scenery of Lake Erie :)


I have to say, it is SO nice being able to have day-visitors! And I bet they'll be coming around even more once baby girl comes along. I'm really enjoying it (for now!) and love showing everyone our cute neighborhood and our rental house. I am just so happy and content in this home, I'm counting my blessings that the Lord allowed us this opportunity to rent a 'house' and not be stuck in an apartment (again). I knew I would grow restless immediately if it felt like a 'rental' but our house doesn't. I am so content to not even think of our next step. I'm enjoying where we are right at this moment! And Ross is really enjoying the fact that we have a landlord to call on when something breaks, haha. It's a welcomed break from the home renovations we're used to!  And our landlords, by the way, are awesome. They are a married couple in their mid-30's with 2 young kids and simply outgrew this house. The had trouble selling the house this past year and finally decided to rent it out. They have been so easy and kind to work with anytime something comes up! I think they are just as happy to have someone renting it as we are to not be tied down to a mortgage :)

As for baby girl updates, Ross & I are anxiously counting down the remaining 4 weeks. I'm getting pretty uncomfortable these days. I'm having trouble sleeping and breathing when I lay down, heartburn, etc. I think now that we're settled in and our lives are calm again, we're ready to just meet her. And hopefully by the time she comes, we'll have thought of a name!! Ross has a few favorites, but I have none :( Ross may get to decide because I just can't think of anything I really like, haha. We'll see. Hopefully once she's born something will click.

Anyway, it's crazy to me to look back at this month and realize we only settled down in Cleveland a few weeks ago!! I feel like we've been settled for months. I guess my lightning speed unpacking did us some good, ha.

So for these next few weeks, I'll keep trying to enjoy the rest of this pregnancy and enjoy having Ross all to myself. But omigosh.... I'm so excited to meet our baby girl!!! *squeal*

*Kristin*

Baby Shower

In September, Mom, Michelle, Betsy, and Rose (my MIL) put together a baby shower for Ross & I! I can finally blog about it  now that I have my camera (and the photos) back!

The shower was absolutely gorgeous and Ross & I had such a great time! The original idea of having a coed shower was due to the fact that we were living away long-distance and only got to visit home and all of friends and family every once in a while. Just days before I mailed the invites, it was official that Ross & I would be moving to Cleveland in a few short weeks! Talk about some last minute scrambling, haha.

The day of the shower was beautiful, good thing too since it was at the park! I really wanted something more casual and relaxed than the formal 'ladies-only' baby shower and it was just as I had pictured! It was sunny and perfect fall weather but *windy*... oh the wind!!.... poor mom & michelle didn't get to put out half of the decor they worked so hard on because the wind kept knocking things over.

I tried my best to get some good photos but didn't get as many as I would've liked! Here's us 3 girls... excuse the 'wind-blown' look :) Hence the reason Michelle and I both wore our hair up that day!

After about 15 takes, Luca is finally looking in the right direction :) I'm getting my bff, Ang, trained on how to use my camera... she was my pseudo-photographer! haha

Here are a few shots of the decor... the cookie table (yum!) and some of the prize gift baskets for the winners of the scavenger hunt (created by mom and turned out to be a real success!), a crossword puzzle (thanks to michelle) and some Ross & Kristin Trivia (also thanks to michelle, mom and rose) that even I didn't know all the answers to!! haha

Before the shower started, my girlfriends surprised me with their gift...

They actually engraved the back of the wagon with their initials and yes, though they may not technically be my sisters, through 15 years of friendship, they will most certainly be aunts to my baby girl :) I love them dearly and baby girl is going to be so spoiled by them!

Not sure what the intense conversation is here but this photo makes me laugh.... (dad is laughing in the background too!! haha)...

Rose, my MIL, brought along some way-too-many goodies for the kiddos of the shower. She bought this pinata where you pull one string at a time to finally crack it open. It was more like.... pull every string at once than all the candy jammed the opening. I poked my finger in to fix it and it all came pouring out!!! There was enough candy for 50 kids. literally. But alas, there were only 5 kids old enough for this. Sorry parents!! It was not my idea to load your kids up with sugar before you headed home!! haha but it was all in good fun. I hope.

Aunt Beth was the only one to remember to get a photo of just Ross & I!! Big failure on my part :/

And lastly, after the night was over and all was cleaned up, Michelle remembered to grab a photo of the 3 of us siblings! Yay!!

So after about 5 minutes of this...

 

We finally got one....

I'm not even sure what was so funny :) haha

The shower was more than I could have ever asked for and I know Mom, Michelle and Betsy spent so much time planning it!! So many people pitched in to help as well and I couldn't have asked for more. It was over the top and we received so many great gifts to help us get ready for Baby Girl!!!

I'm finally putting the nursery together this week and keep telling Ross I'm gonna go play with all my new toys! They are mine, right?! No? Oh well. I shall adore everything in the meantime until she arrives :)

Countdown: 6 weeks, 2 days!

*Kristin*

Settling In to 'Normal'

Our lives are finally getting back to normal and settling down!!

I'm sitting here in our rental house... looking around at the last few things that need to be organized. The house is so cozy and our things and furniture fit well! (aside from items placed in the basement for storage :) We had to downsize from our AL house since rent was a bit outrageous here... but it feels good to downsize. Our AL house was half empty anyway, so we didn't have a ton of extra furniture. And it constantly makes us re-evaluate how much we own and what we can do without. I'm always on a 'minimalist mindset' and I love when Ross starts to jump on board! haha

Back to the 'charm' of the 1920's house... take a look at a few of the original doorknobs we have here, I love them...

Glass doorknobs make me swoon :) Wouldn't it be funny if they were actually only made to look old?! I tell myself that they are original. They are in rough enough shape for me to think so!

I also love the original wood floors throughout the house. They have a few scratches and wear-and-tear here and there, but that's all the more reason to love them and imagine who has lived here in the past 90 years. *blush*

The living room is my favorite room in the house! (I apologize for the cell phone camera quality!)...

For the first time EVER, I have a fireplace and a mantle to decorate!! I can't wait to decorate it for Christmas. And I don't even know where to start on all of those built-in shelves, I love them but for now, they will sit empty. Ross & I are already looking forward to some cozying up in front of the fireplace this winter and with baby girl here :) It's gonna be a good winter this year.

So even though I love the charm of the older home, it also has a few quirks that only older homes can have. So maybe it's not our ideal house for the long-term, but for now, I'm loving it and we're comfortable.

And now... I can finally focus on getting ready for Baby Girl. We're purchasing her crib next weekend and will start putting her room together. Only 8 weeks to go!  It's coming fast and we'll hopefully be ready just in the nick of time :)

*Kristin*

Newbies in Cleveland :)

I have to go back and read my old posts to see where I last left off! It's amazing how our lives have changed in just over a month! I can't remember the past 24 hours, let alone the past 2 weeks, but here it goes!...

Our house in AL is *SOLD*. The official closing date is not until 10/22, but the inspection period went well and it should be smooth sailing until then.

Last weekend, Ross & I made the first trek up to Ohio with his car and Dakota. We're currently living out of a hotel in Cleveland until our rental house lease begins (Oct. 1st). It's been the first time in weeks(!!) that I've had enough time to just sit and watch tv. Hotel living really ain't that bad and we'll be out of here in no time :)

Ross started his job at Alcoa this week. It's been all training and meeting people this week, so not much to report other than he'll have his hands full once he gets in the swing of things! The environment will challenge him in his career but he's so good at what he does, I'm confident he'll do great. And if he doesn't, well heck...we'll just move again! :)  #kiddingnotkidding

Our movers are scheduled to come pack up our house on 10/1 & 10/2, so I'll fly back down to B'ham for the week to oversee that, see my coworkers one last time in the office before completely working remotely, and make the final trek up to OH moving my vehicle this time (Ross will meet me down there to help with the drive). This will be our FINAL farewell to Alabama and the life we made there these past few years. It's always bittersweet to see your house left empty as you drive away but it's hopefully for the better!

We'll move into our rental house the first weekend of October. Of course, our furniture and belongings will not arrive for another 3-10 business days, but that's expected. Let's hope it's not more than 10 days (movers love to make promises that never keep!). We'll be sleeping on an air mattress until they arrive with our bed. I'll make sure to play up the pregnancy sympathy card while they are packing up the truck :)

Here's a pic of our rental house that I stole from the internet...


The house *feels* like a rental but I'm sure once I give it a thorough cleaning and get our stuff unpacked, it will feel like home! It's been vacant a few months so it needs some TLC.

It's the cutest house in an adorable neighborhood with sidewalks and tree-lined streets... I've always envied these cute neighborhoods and thought now would be the time to try one out since we're only renting! It's in the town of Bay Village, OH. Go ahead... google it. I'll wait :)  Do you see how close Lake Erie is?!?! I'm picturing strolls around the neighborhood, waving to neighbors, watching the sunset on Lake Erie, etc. I guess maybe after the dead of winter!...

So now that we're *finally* in the downswing of our chaotic lives, I'm able to focus on Baby Girl. I'm 29 weeks today and feeling good! She's moving a lot more now and I love it! I'm also giving into every dessert temptation I come in contact with, so watch out!!

This weekend, Ross & I have NO plans. I repeat.... NO plans! I don't even know what to do with that. Ross celebrated his 30th birthday on 9/7 while we were camping over Labor Day weekend with our friends in N.C. but we barely got to celebrate with everything going on and I completely failed as a wife to get him a cool, memorable gift (aside from one little item I bought at the last minute), so we're hoping to get out this weekend and just have fun!

Next weekend is mine & Ross' baby shower in Pittsburgh! I'm so excited to see all of our family & friends.... but really, what I'm most excited about?! The 2-hour drive to go home!! (as opposed to an 8-hour trek spent flying & on layovers). Yeah, it's dumb... but 2 hours thrills me! :) And I'm sure the shower will be great as well! haha

So that's it for today :) See most of you next weekend!!

*Kristin*