Claire's Birthday Weekend

I know this is way overdue, but work and packing just take up my time these days. So I wanted to write about our fun weekend for Claire's birthday. I had taken Friday the 20th off of work, and we went to the Rainforest Cafe for an early dinner. We had taken both Curtis and Lauren there for their first birthday's, but we weren't able to go last year for Claire's first birthday, so we made it this year. Curtis and Claire loved it, but Lauren was petrified...she hid under the table the whole time. (We were by the gorillas and she didn't want any part of it!) I ended up feeding her under the table. (You would've thought we were feeding a dog!) Claire had a blast and enjoyed having "Happy Birthday" sung to her.

On Saturday (which was her birthday), we went to Como Town and Como Zoo for our PBS station's Family Fun Day. We have never been there before and the zoo is free, so it was a no brainer. Unfortunately it rained that day, but let up enough to head over there. The rain let up for about an hour, then it started pouring and we had thunder and lightening. We ended up hanging out in the animal buildings until the rain let up. Then we ate lunch outside under the overhangs (the kids thought it was fun and had a blast!) Around 1 p.m. the rain finally let up and we went to Como Town to ride some rides. The kids had so much fun...they still talk about it! We do have to go back when the weather is better to see the animals in their habitats and ride more rides without being soaked. So here are some pictures of our wild birthday weekend.

Here is Claire's birthday cake. I originally wanted a Tinkerbell cake, since Claire loves Tinkerbell, but Target has discontinued the cake I wanted, so Hello Kitty was the next best thing. I think it fit her personality very well.

The pony cart ride at Como Town.

Claire had so much fun, even though she didn't want to sit with her brother.

The girls thought is was cool to drive Curtis around.

This is a Moray eel that was right next to our table at The Rainforest Cafe. I've never seen an eel that big before.

Claire is digging in to her volcano cake. She wasn't waiting for anyone!

2 Years

My dear Claire, I can't believe we celebrated your second birthday yesterday! These last two years have gone by so fast and you have grown so much! It just seems like yesterday you went breech at the last minute and gave us a good scare, only to turn the right way a week and a half later. I wonder what you thought as we were calling you by the boy name we picked out, since you tricked us into thinking you were a boy. You have definitely kept us on our toes! Once you were born, the nurses scared us into thinking that you were going to have trouble walking because of the dimple on your bottom, but you proved them wrong and walked at 10 months! You've done just about everything early: got your first tooth at 4 months, crawled at 7 months, and your vocabulary amazes us (you are giving Curtis a run for his money). Just this morning, you counted to 15, what!?! You know your shapes and quite a bit of the colors. You are so sure of yourself and have an amazing sense of humor. I love it when you make us laugh! You also have this cute lisp that adds to your charm. I can't wait to see what this next year has in store for you, my sweet little Claire Bear!

Happy Birthday, Curtis!!

So today my little man turns five and I am happy and sad at the same time. He will be going to school in a couple of weeks and I am having a hard time letting go. Part of me wishes he was still a baby, but I love watching him grow and seeing how sweet and compassionate he can be. I love talking to him about Jesus and we have great conversations together. In honor of his birthday, I will be telling his birth story.

Curtis was my worst pregnancy and birth of the three. Kevin and I think it was in part because I got pregnant with him six weeks after the end of my miscarriage. I got sick as soon as I got pregnant and started bleeding at eight weeks and continued bleeding all throughout the pregnancy. Between the bleeding, bedrest, and throwing up, it made for a very long pregnancy. At 29 weeks, I went into labor and thankfully the doctors were able to stop the contractions. That was also when we found out we were having a boy. At 35 weeks, I went into labor again, but asked to be sent home because they couldn't induce since I wasn't 37 weeks and wasn't progressing. Then he ended up being five days late. At 2:45 the morning of August 29th, I got up to go to the bathroom and as soon as I got into the bathroom, this gush of water came out. I was like, "Oh man, I just peed myself." So I changed my clothes and went back to bed. A short time later, it happened again and I knew that I couldn't have wet myself again. I woke up Kevin and told him that my water broke, but he didn't believe me and went back to sleep. I lied down and tried to go back to sleep, but 15 minutes later I started getting these really bad contractions that just radiated from my spine all the way around my belly. I started timing them and they were seven minutes apart. I lied there for about half an hour then I decided to get up and walk around to see if they would stop. Kevin came out to check on me and I told him about the contractions, but he still wanted to wait and see what happened. So when walking around didn't help the contractions, I sat down and watched a little t.v. That didn't help either, so I told Kevin that this was the real deal and we were gonna need to go to the hospital. Kevin putzed around for awhile then decided to take a shower and I went into the kitchen to get a drink of water. As soon as I reached the kitchen a contraction hit me so hard, it brought me to my knees. So when it was over, I went into the bathroom and told Kevin that we needed to go to the hospital NOW!! Again he just kind of blew me off and took his time getting ready. My contractions were now four minutes apart and getting stronger. We finally headed to the hospital around 4:45 and my contractions kept stopping me in my tracks. Kevin took his sweet time driving to the hospital, he didn't even reach the speed limit! I will be honest, I wanted to rip his head off. I still give him a hard time about the drive to the hospital. Once we got there, I thought he was going to drop me off at the ER entrance while he parked the car...no, he drove around looking for a parking spot and found one quite a distance from the entrance. Thankfully, the security guard saw me wobbling around and grunting, so he ran inside and grabbed a wheelchair and ran out to me. When we got to the L & D floor, I got put into the triage unit so that they could check me out before they put me in a room. The nurse confirmed that my water had indeed broken and I was 6 cm dilated, so they got me into a room. The contractions were so bad and my blood pressure was getting high, so we decided to have an epidural. Once I had been given the epidural, which was around 6 a.m., the nurse checked me and I was fully dilated and ready to push, so she called my doctor and we waited. He got in around 6:30, so I started pushing. Two hours later, I was still pushing and he wouldn't come out. The doctor gave me an episiotomy and was trying to pull him out, but he was stuck. The doctor determined that his head was stuck on my tailbone and tried to wiggle him out, but it didn't work and he started getting distressed. The look on the doctors face when he told us that and that we needed to get him out asap was so frightening and I was so tired, I didn't know if I could push anymore. I prayed that God would give me the strength to push this baby out and that the baby would be okay. The doctor asked me if he could use vacuum extraction to get the baby out and I told him that he needed to do whatever necessary to get the baby out safely. The next part I don't remember because I was so focused on pushing, but Kevin told me that the first attempt at the vacuum extraction didn't work, so the doctor had to pull it off and readjust it on Curtis' head. The second attempt worked and Curtis came out at 8:39 a.m. screaming and flailing his arms. Ooohh was he mad, but he was so beautiful and perfect and I was so thankful that he was okay. He weighed in at 8 lbs. 4 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long with red hair. Thank you Lord for blessing us with Curtis, we are honored to be his parents.

Happy Birthday Lauren!!

So today our Lauren turns three. Time is just going by way too fast! I made her a Strawberry Shortcake cake and we brought it to church and everyone sang Happy Birthday to her. We will be taking Curtis and Lauren to Chuck E. Cheese next weekend to celebrate their birthday's. In honor of Lauren's birthday, I will be writing her birth story...We decided to induce a week early because the doctor was saying that Lauren was going to be bigger than Curtis and after what happened with Curtis we were trying to avoid a c-section. So on Tuesday, August 14th, when I had gone in for my doctor's appointment we decided to induce the next day since I was already 4 cm dilated. Now let me just say that Lauren was my best and easiest pregnancy. I didn't have any morning sickness and had a lot of energy. In hindsight, we shouldn't have induced because it didn't work and Lauren was our smallest baby. Oh me of little faith! Anyway, we got to the hospital at 7:30 a.m. so that they could start the Pitocin at 8 a.m. When they checked my cervix, I was 5 cm so we thought things would go rather quickly. Wrong!! At 10 a.m. when the doctor came in to see how I was doing, I still hadn't progressed any. They were going to give me until noon since he had to do a couple c-sections and if I hadn't progressed then they would break my water. So noon rolls around and I'm now 6 cm, so he breaks my water to a pop and a big gush. That was a very weird feeling. So we just wait. About 1:20 p.m. the doctor comes back in to see how I am doing and it's progressed a little, so he leaves and asks them to page him if anything changes. Not long after that I started to feel a lot of pressure and felt like I needed to push so we called the nurse and she came in to check me and sure enough the head was crowning and I was told not to push until the doctor got there. That's a lot easier said than done! So the nurses pages the doctor and he doesn't answer the page so she tries again and he still doesn't answer. She calls his office and he's not there, so she comes in to me to make sure I'm not pushing and let me know that they can't find the doctor. Are you kidding me!! This baby is coming with or without him. After about 5 minutes they finally found him and told him to get to my room asap. He shows up about 5 minutes later to my relief and we get things going. After two pushes, Lauren slid right out and we were in love. Our little peanut was 7 lbs. 7 oz. and 18 1/2 inches long. So Happy 3rd Birthday Lauren, we love you!!

Claire's Birthday Weekend

So, our Claire Bear celebrated her 1st birthday on Friday and we had a Care Bears party for her on Saturday. She didn't really understand what was going on but she sure did enjoy the cake and ice cream! Here are some pictures from her birthday weekend.

Here is Claire eating her birthday cupcake on Friday. She stuffed her cheeks, it was so cute!

Here is her invitation that I made. I think they came out real good.

Her Care Bears birthday cake that was strawberry flavored, yum!

Her is Claire wearing Lauren's old birthday dress and enjoying her balloon.

My friend Myra bought the hat for Claire's birthday. As you can see, she wasn't too impressed.

It was a fun, but busy weekend and I'm glad everything turned out so well. Now I can sit back and enjoy what this next year is going to unfold.

Happy Birthday Claire!!

It's hard to believe that our Miss Claire Bear will be a year old tomorrow. This past year has gone by so fast! In honor of her birthday, I will be writing about the day she was born, so be warned that there is gross girlie talk about to happen.



The morning of Thursday May 21, 2009 had started off with me not feeling very well. Not feeling well was the story of my whole pregnancy, but I had been up all night with really bad low back pain. Kevin could tell that I wasn't feeling well, so he decided to stay home, just in case. My back was hurting so bad that we decided to go to the hospital (I was already 3-4 cm dilated as of my appointment that Tuesday). I called my grandmother to let her know we were bringing the kids over. We got to the hospital around 8 a.m. and found out that my doctor was on vacation, so the on call doctor would be delivering our baby, bummer. As we were being escorted to our room, the nurse that would be taking care of me, walked out and exclaimed, "Kevin, is that you?" I looked at him like, who is that? He couldn't believe it, our nurse Katie, had worked with Kevin for 5 years at Disneyland, cool. So Katie got us settled and checked my cervix...4-5 cm...so she called the doctor. The doctor was in surgeries until 3:30, so I couldn't be induced until then, but we were also hoping that I wouldn't go into active labor until then. AAhhh, the waiting game. We did have her check to make sure that the baby was still head down, since Claire had decided to go breech at 37 weeks, but that is another story for another day. We also told her that we didn't know what we were having and wanted Kevin to call out the baby's sex when he/she was born. I cannot tell you how exciting it was to not know the sex of the baby, and the anticipation of is it a boy or girl (even though I swore we were having a boy and were calling it by the boy name). We had accidently found out with Curtis at 29 weeks and found out on purpose with Lauren. If we decide to have another one, we are definitely not finding out. Anyway, to combat the back pain, which we found out was because the baby was resting his/her head on my spine, Katie had me lay on my side, but partially on my belly for 15 min, then change sides. I did this for about 1 1/2 hours and it did help, so we decided to take a walk around the maternity ward to try and get things moving along. Around lunch time, Katie checked me again and I was only 5 cm with contractions every 7-8 min and my water bag was bulging, so Kevin went to get something to eat, while I had ice chips, lucky me. I did sneak a few bites of his burger since I was very hungry. After lunch, we just did more of the same, walking around, lying on my side, you get the idea. Since things weren't progressing very fast, the doctor decided that she was going to break my water at 3:30 after her last surgery, so at 2 p.m. I decided to get an epidural, since my back pain was getting really bad. The anesthesiologist came in at 2:30 to do the epidural, but low and behold blood started to go into the tube, so he had to pull it out and redo it...fun, fun, fun. The cool thing about this epidural was that I could still feel the contractions, but the back pain was gone...very nice. So 3:30 comes around and the doctor comes in to break my water...not so simple, the hook broke because my water bag was really thick, so she had to get another hook. Thankfully, this time it worked, so we wait some more. At 4 p.m. she checked me again and I was only 6 cm, so they decided to give me Pitocin. I told them that I didn't need it because once my water breaks, labor is very quick (Four hours with Curtis and two hours with Lauren). I argued with them on this, but they won out, so I got the Pitocin. Around 4:15 as I'm lying on my side, I feel a bunch of liquid coming out and it feels like something is sliding out, so I tell Kevin to run out and get Katie. He goes to the nurse station but she isn't there, so I press the nurse call button. A couple minutes later Katie comes in and I tell her what happened, so she goes to lift my leg to check me and quickly puts it down. She tells me that the baby's head is coming out and overhead pages the doctor... no answer... so she pages the doctor on her beeper and finds out that the doctor had gone to her office across the street...great, the baby's coming NOW and the doctor isn't here, so what does Katie tell me...don't push...that's a lot easier said than done. So I'm trying not to push, when all I really want to do is push, and finally the doctor arrives...yeah! Now I can push...first push, head is out...second push, I feel a lot of pressure and stretching, but baby's shoulders are stuck, so doctor is wiggling baby, very painful...third push, more tearing and I scream...fourth push, baby slides out...I look and the first thought that comes to mind, that doesn't look like a boy. So doctor looks to Kevin and says, "Okay dad, what is it?" and I hear him say, "It's......a girl!" No way, it can't be a girl, it supposed to be a boy. Kevin cuts the cord and they place her in my arms...and she is beautiful, all 8 lbs. 4 oz. of her. What a blessing!!

Claire moments after being born.

Claire today, no longer a baby, but now a toddler.

I love you Claire, Happy 1st Birthday!!

Trains and Birthdays

What a fun weekend we had. On Saturday we went to Irvine Park to ride the train and play at the playground. The kids had so much fun. It was so nice to just hang out as a family and chill. On Sunday we went to my cousin's daughter's second birthday party. The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins and eating cake! Here are some pictures from our weekend fun.

Waiting for the train to leave the station.

Curtis, Lauren and Mr. Rob (the Conductor)

Claire loved being in the backpack so much, she cried when Kevin took her out to put her in the car!

Curtis chillin' on the slide. (He is afraid of going down slides).

Lauren didn't want to get off.

Claire and cousin Nathan

Lauren with cousins Natty and Mollie. Can you tell they had too much fun at the party!?!

On a side note, we take Lauren back to the GI on Monday for her follow-up. She has had six bouts of bleeding since last month. We are going to try and push for the scope to be done because this treatment isn't working. Have a great weekend!