The Birthday Continues

Many people celebrate their birthday for the whole week that falls during "their" day. Lauren totally got special treatment during her week. She really does deserve that though. She is such a sweet little individual who makes everyday very interesting and full of new things and excitement. Her perspective of the world right now is so innocent and happy.
I had so much fun planning her party. When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she replied "streamers and balloonas" all while twirling her arms and the look of wonder in her eyes. I knew that when it came to decorating the house, I had to have something that Lauren would approve of.

First baby playdate!

While Lauren joined my sister Allison, her husband Carson, their daughter Brooklyn and my Mom and Dad and my youngest sister Andrea and her boyfriend Kevin at the circus, I got to babysit the newest addition to my side of our family.

Reegan is so easy to watch. She is just perfect. She eats and sleeps. I guess typical for her age. She also doesn't cry and she loves to snuggle!!!
Claire had the best time hanging out with her. I think so got that there was someone here to play with her. I think Reegan had a great time too!

The Great Reveal

When Randy came home today...he may have brought home Laurens most beloved object.
Her princess bank turned out perfect!
She may have a yellow eye and blue arms, but in the eyes of Lauren, she is the most beautiful princess.

My baby is 3!

Laurens birthday festivities started the day before her real birthday. We took her to see her first movie at a theater. We saw The Princess and the Frog. What a cute movie.
It was also a first for Randy and I as we went to see it at a theater which serves food and drink all while you enjoy a movie.
I also loved going to this theater because we didn't have to watch previews. I think they are a waste of time...as you can guess I get very impatient easily.
What a great idea for a family activity...note: next time we go we have to remember not to show up 30 min. before the movie starts!
On her actual birthday (which occurred on a Monday) Randy took off of work and we were able to have a family day.
So we had a special day where we all got to use our creativity. We all painted a piece of pottery. Lauren chose to paint a beautiful princess bank. Her style was more abstract.
Randy painted a platter that will fit in with our dinnerware.
And I painted a birthday plate which will be a special plate for the birthday girls. We were there for three hours and I could have spent the whole day creating wonderful things for our home. I want to make a return trip to make things for birthdays. Now we all have to be patient for a few days while our treasures are fired.

A new chapter

This first month of having Claire at home has been filled with firsts for her.

First smiles :)
First baths.
First sister moments with Lauren.
There really hasn't had much to adjust to since Claire has just seem to fit into our family perfectly.
Her personality has already shown. She is a very easy.going.baby.
She goes with the flow and at most times is calm and content.
She enjoys attention and listens to every word when she is spoken to.
Right now she is such a little joy to be around.
I think it is safe to say that we are so lucky to have her here with us...part of our family.

baby o baby!!!

i didn't get much sleep last night. surprise surprise! we got up this morning and had to pretty much leave for the hospital to get a big fat needle poked in me! the sheer thought of what was going to happen was far worse then the actual procedure. i worked up a sweat and like my dr said...i wouldn't feel a thing. she was right. after the test i was hooked up to a monitor to see if everything was still great with the baby. we then had to play the waiting game for awhile. we got the green light to go forth with the delivery.
we had a long walk to the birth area of the hospital. i got settled into the room and was hooked up to a pitocin drip. this was about 12:00 in the afternoon. during this i was experiencing contractions but nothing that i couldn't handle. nothing really was happening and it was already 7:00 at night. my dr. came to see what was going on and we decided that the pitocin be stopped and i could rest for the night so that i could have the strength for the next day...when hopefully we would have another baby.
friday morning i started the petocin at 6:00. i continued to have strong and regular contractions but no progress. then at 12:00 my water was broken. this would hopefully get things moving in the right direction. i was experiencing very strong contractions so at about 3:00 i had an epidural. still though at 7:00 at night i was nearly 3cm. my goodness...how much more petocin could i handle? the dr. gave me a choice to either continue with the petocin or have another c-section. i was at the point that i could no longer think about having more petocin in me (my ankles were cankles at this point and swollen tight) and maybe i didn't have the right kind of body to deliver babies. who knows?
so at 7:20 pm Claire Elizabeth Johnson was born. this time around there was not as much pain and was a better experience for me. she was 6lbs. 4 oz. and 20" long. like her sister, claire had lots of hair too! my intuition was wrong! randy said "i told you so" as he had always thought that we were having another girl.
the one cool thing about having a c-section is that in about 20 minutes you are guarenteed a baby if everything goes well. we got to see lauren before we had claire. then while i was in the operating room...lauren was eating dinner. then after, when lauren came back, voila she had a sister. she was so proud of her little sister and i will never forget the look of adoration in her eyes when she saw claire for the first time! oh how proud i am to be the mom of two great little girls!

i yi yi!

at our appointment this week we have decided that it would be wise to try to deliver two weeks early in hopes for a bit of a smaller baby (not too small though) so that i wouldn't put stress on my body which could result in rupturing parts. because of our decision i will have to under go an amniocentesis test to measure lung development in the baby. this is the only real scary part that i am worried about. sticking a needle into my belly. oh goodness! we will have this test done on thursday morning and if all is well with the baby we will go forward with getting induced that afternoon.