Claire's blessing

We blessed Claire this past Sunday, it was so special for us. Both set of grandparents were there and a few aunts and uncles. We are so blessed to have family so close to share these special moments with. I am so proud to have such beautiful children. I love my girls!

Christmas 2008

This was a great Christmas for us! We got to spend time with alot of family and santa brought too many presents for the girls (it . John had all week off so we got to spend time with one another which is rare especially when he is school.

My sister Ashley came into town and we spent Christmas eve with her and my parents playing games and eating pizza. Christmas day we went to my parents in the morning and then in the afternoon we went to John's parents house. This was the last Christmas John's parents will be here in GA :( We have really enjoyed having them here, especially the girls. We will miss them.

I could not really get any good pics of the girls and them opening their gifts because there was too much excitement but here are a few...

Long overdue post....

I have been soo incredibly busy lately adjusting to having a new baby that I have not had a chance to post new pics of our little Claire. She is doing great though, finally! She is gaining more weight and doing better now that I have switched her to formula. She was not gaining any weight nursing and was lethargic most of the time. Now she is more alert and eating alot more. I had the hardest time accepting that I was not able to provide food for her after the few weeks of struggle we had with nursing but things are better now.

Here are some of the pics we have took over the past few weeks, enjoy!

Thanksgiving

Wow, it feels like its been forever since I have been in blogging world.... I thought I would quickly give everyone an update on our Thanksgiving. We had alot of fun spending time with family. Thanksgiving morning we all (John's entire family) got together in our neighborhood to take a family portrait by the lake. It turned out really good considering all the children we had in the picture we managed to get one of everyone looking at the camera. We went to John's mom and dad's for thanksgiving lunch after the picture and ate alot of yummy food and dessert. After we finished playing with cousins and eating we went to my parents to spend time with them and my sister Ashley and her family. They were all sick so we did not stay long, considering we had a 5 day old with us :) It was good to see them and my nephew, even if I did not get a chance to hold him...but I will make up for that at Christmas. We finally traveled home and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

On side note, Claire is doing great. We had some jaundice issues and weight gain issues with her in the beginning but she is now gaining and her jaundice is fading. This is the first child I am nursing and that has been a bit challenging but we are getting in a routine and now I feel more confident. I think we will stay away from formula this time :) I will post some pictures of her once I have a bit more time on my hands, if that ever happens.. lol.

More pictures of Miss Claire Elisabeth

6:54 pm

That's when she was born. 6:54 pm. Our first child not born in the middle of the night.

Claire Elisabeth joins the Shores family weighing in at 7 lbs. 1 oz, 19 1/2 inches long, and with a head full of hair.

More pics to come but here are a few.

The Pit and Broken Water

Last night was a little bumpy with contractions and hunger and the general discomfort of hospital beds but we made it through the night.
5:30 am - Jamiee decided she was hungry So not knowing if she would have another chance to eat I went down to the cafeteria to get us some breakfast. Well, they don't open til 6 am. No problem. I come back to the room, we sleep for 15 minutes.
6:00 am - I head down to the cafeteria. When I get there the doors are still shut. I think what's the deal, it's 6:05? I look at the schedule on the door and notice that on SATURDAYS they open at 7 am. BOOO!! So I come back to the room and we go back to sleep.
8:00 am - Jamiee is really hungry now. So I jaunt down to the cafeteria and load up on bacon, eggs, biscuits and chocolate milk only to have Jamiee tell me upon my return that breakfast will be provided for her. Oh well, more for me.
9:00 am - Jamiee eats breakfast and takes a shower.
9:00 am - started the pitocin and her Dr. said he would come back at about noon to break her water. (BTW her doctor has MAD karate skills such that he can break water.) Well, Jamiee tells the nurse she wants her epidural before doc breaks her water.
11:30 am - The anesthesiologist shows up and administers the medical cocaine known as an epidural.
12:10 pm - Wonder-boy Windom, as he's known to the nurses, used his mad karate skills and broke Jamiee's water.

So as with the last post we are now just resting comfortably waiting. I'm gonna go get some lunch. :)

The pre-game

Howdy everybody!! Just a quick post to let you know we are at the hospital (have been since 7 pm) and right now we are resting. Jamiee was started on Cervidil at about 8:30 and the nurse said that in the morning they will start the Pitocin.

Just a few pics for now:

Checking in















In her evening gown




















Resting comfortably












That's all for now. Next post I should have some real news. :)

A bit overwhelmed and final doc update

So, I have had a few busy days and weekends trying to prepare for this baby to get here. I mean between obsessively cleaning and folding laundry as well as packing bags and buying things we need for her I feel like I am finally really ready. I am just a bit exhausted, I have been trying to relax but that is very hard to do when you have 2 toddlers running under your feet :)

I have been thinking alot lately about how the girl's are going to do with another sibling. I think Abbi will do great, she is always so eager to help and she constantly talks about her baby sister Claire. She knows this time around what is going on and I think she is genuinely excited about having another sister. Jenna however has no idea whats about to hit her...she is such a mommy's girl it's really hard for me sometimes to get much done because she literally will cling to my legs when I am not paying attention to her until I pick her up. She won't even go and stay with some of John's sisters she knows because she is so attached to me. Pretty much the only babysitters we can get that she is comfortable with are Aunt Kathy and grandparents. Even sometimes she has a hard time with my dad, she will cry and reach for me when he tries to pick her up. It really is something we need to work on. I am also having a difficult time with her in nursery. She will NOT let me leave, she will scream the entire time and it gets so bad that they bring her to me after 10 minutes because she is hyperventilating.

So, thus why I think having a baby sister is going to be extremely difficult for her. I am so overwhelmed thinking about how hard this is going to be for her. All I can do is pray she transitions quickly and things go differently than I am expecting with her.

I went to my LAST appointment yesterday!! I am really starting to get excited now because it's happening tomorrow! I have progressed alot, I am 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. Dr. Windom said he expects her to possibly be here by Friday night late or into Saturday morning, which figures because I have never had a child during the normal day it's always been in the middle of the night (1 am- 3 am). So, this will be my last post until the pictures of our sweet little baby girl.

On a side note, I am super excited to be going to see Twilight tonight at midnight ( I know I am crazy with being induced tomorrow in all)! I know alot of you are going as well so I will hopefully see you all there!

Baby update..

I went to the doc yesterday and was checked and I am 25% effaced and a fingertip dilated. Not alot of progress quite yet but better than nothing :) We have the induction scheduled for next Friday (November 21st). I will go in that evening and they will start cervadil and then pitosin on Saturday morning. So hopefully sometime on Saturday our little girl will be here. She has dropped a considerable amount. The doc wants me to come in this next week on Wednesday for my last appointment. This pregnancy has gone by so fast I cannot hardly believe in a week I will be a mommy of 3! :)