Holidaze

Sleepy lazy, Christmas post time...  We were very lucky that both sides of the family made their way to our house and helped us with food and holding the baby.  Christmas Eve was just us three, it was so different but kinda nice.  I love hanging out with my hubby.  Claire had a few wardrobe changes because lots of people gave her Christmas outfits.  She got many cute outfits and toys and happily watched us open them for her!  It was a great first Christmas with our little bundle.

Here's a few pics from the holiday.  I have so many more, but BLEH Blogger takes forever..

We also had a few Dr. visits for little Claire.  At 3 weeks she was up to 8lbs 6.5 oz.  The Dr. would like to have another wiegh in in 10 days to make sure she's progressing well on just breast milk.  We also had an ultrasound on her little frank breech hips to make sure there's no problems from being in that position for months.  I bet we get the results soon. 

Claire is eating pretty well, but not sleeping that much.  Or at least for me.  Josh is the baby whisperer.  It does take us forever to get her to be sleepy, and if you set her down, sometimes it's all for not, and she is wide awake crying.  This baby be crazy.  She also grunts and kicks non stop.  Josh took a video.  It's really insane!  We may call the Dr and check to see if there's anything that could be up with that.  Anyone had a grunting baby? Haha, it's pretty funny.

Other than that, she's your typical pooping, peeing, eating, kinda sleeping newborn!  She is already looking around at mobiles and doing pretty well at her short tummy time.  I have a feeling with the kicking and everything, she's going to be pretty strong.

Time to go pump some milk and get to bed! Yep, bed at 7pm for me, then up for the night shift.  Man, I miss Josh now that he's working.  At least Shelby pup keeps me good company and loves her little sis, Claire, licks her milky hands clean =)

She's Arrived!

Introducing Claire Ellis Nowak

Born December 5th, 2011 at 7:41 am.

8lbs 1oz -- 20 inches

Claire is here! Claire is HERE!  I have had zero time to blog...I honestly don't even feel like blogging.  I should be nursing, diapering, and sleeping!  I do want to document the week though.

After barely being able to sleep and multiple bathroom trips, we were headed to Texas Women's Hospital for my C-Section.  My parents followed us there and walked us as far as they could, my mom hugged me and cried as we went through the Labor and Delivery swinging doors.

Josh wore cowboy boots (??) that would barely fit thru his paper scrub pants.  He looked so cute though, like all the baby shows where the hubby goes into surgery with the wife.  It was surreal, sitting there getting prepped for surgery.

The part which I had been dreading, getting an epidural, wasn't as bad as I imagined. Getting my IV in my hand hurt way worse!  I was laid on the hard table, got my catheter and Josh rejoined me.  Guess that's when Dr. P started going to town.

I think I shouted out every cuss word known to man when they were pulling her out.  I literally felt my ribs being crushed, tugging and pulling.  It was so scary.  I kept looking at Josh and telling him to please distract me...he didn't really do that. I asked Chad the aneths. asst. when it'd be over, he said "last big pull" and Dr. Plavidal said "Ok Josh here's your baby!" Josh snapped lots of pics and Dr. quickly showed her to me around the curtain then everyone went to the warming table to get her going.

I asked why she wasn't crying and got a little scared.  No one was acting panicked so it was fine and minutes later I heard her and started crying.  Josh was already over there snapping pics.  And when I mean pics, I looked at our camera in the suite later and he literally went to crazy town, it looked like a flip book of her first minutes!

We got a great first family picture, thanks to Chad and I got to hold her for about 10 mins while they did who knows what to me.  Josh DID look at my situation, even though he wasn't really supposed to, but the warming table was on the other side of the curtain.  He said it was nuts.  I'm glad I'll never know.

Seeing her was really surreal.  I had waited 10 months for this day and I was in awe.  I don't like the cliche phrase "I fell instantly in love..."  It annoys me. I would kinda describe it like.. 'so YOU'RE the one kicking me, YOU're the one I've been waiting for... meeting your child, your new baby and saying WOW, I made that?? It was a shock thing.  It was an amazing thing.  And I saw how happy Josh was, pure love in his face, made me so so happy.  When people "say we're in love," I believe you fall more and more in love with your husband that day and that first week for sure.  I'll expand on another post about the first 2 weeks.

Recovery has been really really hard.  Harder than I ever imagined.  The nights in the hospital were full of tears from pain.  I barely got to hold little Claire unless I was nursing her.  It was all almost too much for me to take.   We only had immediate family come by and visit at the hospital, it was a smart move.  My mom stayed with me sometimes and let Josh get rest at home, too.

Josh is absolutely amazing and has taken to her right away, kissing her all the time, talking to her... I love it!  And I love him and Claire, we're so happy.

Oink

Emily and I are getting ready for my parents to come tomorrow.  It'll be my mom's birthday!  Which will now be 2 days before Claire's birthday!  Heehee

We had some pink and black gel tubes, pink frosting, and M&Ms.  We tried all sorts of ways to make a pig...some better than others!

I think they turned out very cute!  Definitely don't look proFESH, but they were made with love, Muthy!!

 Just so you know, we aren't being mean, PIGS are her favorite animal, we have them all over our house in San Antonio =)

This sign will deter her from peeking before Emily comes over tomorrow, brilliant! "No Look Ma!"

Whew, big day today (for me).  Pre-Op appointment at the hospital went well, just got instructions (be there at 5:15am!) and took some blood.  Then had a lunch date with hubby at Cheddars.  It was delish!!  I'm obsessed with their spinach dip for real.  We had a day date since by 3pm I'm completely in pain and no fun.

**2 days and counting!!**