Category Archives: Our Family

4th of July Travels

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I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend! Ours was quite a whirlwind and I think it’s going to take us a few days to recoup. On Thursday night, we took a redeye flight to Vermont (with one layover) which was Claire’s first time on an airplane. She did an amazing job and got her first set of wings from the flight attendant! We’ll definitely have to put those in her baby book. Now, to find where I threw them in my carry-on. 😉

She was amazing on the flights and slept through most of them. We used a Moby Wrap to carry her through the security lines and on the flights. We are so glad that we bought one before leaving on Thursday because it was such a huge help! We got so many comments from people telling us how cool it was on the flights. We have two other baby carriers but Claire is not the biggest fan of them right now; she seems to feel claustrophobic in them. The Moby Wrap is great for skin-to-skin contact and she loves it because it’s kind of like being swaddled mixed with cuddling with us. The facilitator of my mom’s group recommended it and I’m so glad she did.

Flight attendant: "Are you taking a selfie?" Me: "Yes but it's because we have to document our baby's first flight." Flight attendant: "OMG there's a baby in there!!"

Flight attendant: “Are you taking a selfie?” Me: “Well, we have to document our baby’s first flight!” Flight attendant: “OMG there’s a baby in there!!”

We flew back yesterday and have been resting ever since. The last flight was pretty long so I had to feed her a couple times and she was awake for half of that flight. She spent that time taking in the sights around her and was very smiley. She did get upset at one point because I think she got overwhelmed with the flight attendants ooogling over her cuteness. We were able to calm her down and she fell asleep soon after. She wasn’t bothered by the air pressure but I think that was due to me either feeding her right before, her sleeping, and/or sucking on her pacifier during each takeoff and landing. People sitting around us told us that she was the best baby they’ve ever flown with. We’re so lucky that she did so well.

Oh and apparently, Delta changed their preboarding policies and, on the last flight, they wouldn’t let us preboard because we didn’t have a stroller. What kind of policy change is that!?!? We were so mad. Boarding early with a newborn helps so much because it gives us time to get situated, change her diaper if needed, and feed her if she’s hungry. I honestly don’t understand why they would change their policy to only allow babies that have a stroller to board early but it’s dumb. We are definitely going to send them a complaint letter for that.

Other than that, our weekend was so fun. We went on a cruise on Lake Champlain on Friday night to kick off the wedding weekend celebrations which was amazing. The scenery was gorgeous and it was so great for Claire to meet some of our East Coast family members.

Spirit of Ethan Allen on Lake Champlain

Spirit of Ethan Allen on Lake Champlain

The following day, my niece got married overlooking a beautiful bay at a state park in Vermont. It was the perfect day for a wedding – it wasn’t muggy and the scenery was breathtaking. Not to mention, the bride was so stunning that I got goosebumps when I first saw her. Congratulations Alli and Ben! You are the sweetest couple and we’re so happy for you both.

Congratulations to the happy couple!

Congratulations to the happy couple!

Kingsland Bay State Park

Kingsland Bay State Park

Claire’s Nursery Reveal

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Some of you may be curious about what Claire’s nursery looks like. We are in love with it (and I like to think Claire is too ;)) and are still working on adding some final enhancements to make it perfect. It’s hard to say when a room is ever “done” but hers has been pretty much done for a while. We just want to take it to the next level.

Right now, this is what Claire’s nursery looks like:

Claire's Nursery! This is the view when you enter the room.

Claire’s Nursery! This is the view when you enter the room.

Crib, glider, and corner photo gallery

Crib, glider, and corner photo gallery

Her changing table

Her changing table

As far as where we got the items for her room – it’s a mixture of Pottery Barn Kids, Amazon, Target, Buy Buy Baby, Cost Plus World Market, and a few other random websites. We wanted her nursery to have a gray and soft yellow color scheme and we also wanted it to be classy and feminine. I’m a little obsessed with Pottery Barn Kids rooms so we used their design style as our inspiration.

The “C” in the gallery wall was a DIY project. We bought a wooden letter from Michaels, painted it yellow, wrapped it in lace, painted the canvas a light gray, and then hot glued it to the canvas. I’ll have to see if I took pictures through the process and maybe I’ll do a blog post on it. It was super easy and turned out so cute!

As far as what we are still planning on doing to her room – we want to add a bookshelf and hang a few pictures.

We feel like she needs a bookshelf in her nursery to keep all the children’s books she has and add a little extra decor. It’s taken quite a while to find the perfect one but we finally found one and ordered it a couple days ago. We can’t wait for it to arrive in a couple weeks. It will also be the perfect location for her baby monitor to sit.

We bought a frame from Pottery Barn Kids that has a space for a picture of every month of her first year so we’re thinking about hanging that to the right of the window. We’re planning on putting the bookcase to the right of the crib (it’s a white corner bookcase) and are still deciding what we want to hang above the crib. We have several ideas that I’ve mocked up in PhotoShop but we’re still not sure which one would look best. Stay tuned. 🙂

And because a post about Claire is never complete without a photo of our beautiful girl, here’s one of our little family on Father’s Day!

First Father's Day

 

We hope you have fun plans for the upcoming 4th of July weekend!

 

One Month!

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One Month!

Month-by-month iron on from Zulily.com

Claire is officially one month old!! Well, she was as of June 8th. Part of me wants to say it’s amazing how fast time flies by but then again, I feel like Claire has been with us for forever now. It seems like so much longer than a month ago that she was born. Every day passes by so quickly that I’m constantly amazed at how fast 5pm rolls around.

I know that Claire is still tiny but she seems so much bigger than she was when she was born. I weighed her last Tuesday after MuirMommies (a mommy group that I joined) and she now weighs 9 pounds 1 oz. A full pound larger than she was when she was born. I think she’s right below the 50th percentile for weight.

Here’s a rundown of facts about Claire at 1 month old…

  • Loves – Snuggling with mommy and daddy, glider swing, her pacifier, and grabbing my hair while eating.
  • Eating – CJ and I are endlessly entertained at how excited she gets when she realizes she’s about to be fed and the noises she makes while eating.
  • Sleeping – She lets us sleep for 3-4 hours at a time which means that, generally, we only have to wake up once or twice a night which we’re so grateful for. I’m sure that will change as she goes through growth spurts but we’re enjoying the time she gives us to sleep.
  • Tummy Time – She’s happiest when tummy time is done while laying on one of our chests. She used to hate doing it on the activity mat but now she’s okay with it. She’ll do it for a little while before getting frustrated or falling asleep. She’s also starting to lift her head a little when doing it.
  • Smiling – When she falls asleep, she starts smiling. I wish I could record it every single time but I don’t seem to be fast enough. I want to freeze time so that she never grows out of this phase because I love those little smiles so much. She’s also starting to smile at us when we’re talking to her which is so cute, I almost can’t handle it.
  • Car Rides – She falls asleep every time we drive somewhere.

People were right when they told us that every day gets a little easier. Yes, every phase comes with its challenges but I don’t think anything will be as hard as those first two weeks. These last few weeks has been so much better and I can’t get over how adorable she is. I’m a bit biased but I really could look at her for hours and not stop smiling. She is such a little angel.

 

What’s in a Name

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When CJ and I first found out we were expecting, we immediately jumped into coming up with name options for both a boy and a girl. We had a ton of names on our girl list but not so many on the boy list. For some reason, coming up with a boy name was too difficult for us (maybe that was a sign that we were expecting a girl?). But anyway, we went through our list of names for girls and kept narrowing it down and then expanding it when we found a new one that was a contender. We tried to imagine what name would fit best when I read someone’s blog post about how they came up with their daughter’s name and it really resonated with me (and CJ too, once I told him about it).  I wish I could find that post because she was so eloquent with how she explained her reasoning but allow me to try in my own words…

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Claire. A name that I’ve known since I was four years old when I first met my best friend. Claire was magnetic even then. A person that you would look up to and admire even if you were decades older. When I moved to California, I feared that we would lose touch but we never did. In fact, we became closer. She is that friend that you can talk to once a year and it’s like no time has passed. She’s one of my heroes even though she’s only 3 months older than me. She’s the type of friend where you don’t have to say a word but she knows exactly what you’re thinking. She has supported me and been there for me no matter what. Not to mention, she is strong and independent and so incredibly accomplished. She knows what she wants and will do what it takes to make it a reality. I’ve never met someone who doesn’t love Claire and I don’t think I ever will.

When CJ and I were coming up with names and I read that blog post that I mentioned, I told CJ about it right away and we agreed immediately – if we want our daughter to be like anyone in the world, it’s Claire. She’s kind, caring, driven, independent, inspiring, and most of all – the best friend you could ever ask for. So we decided then and there, even before we knew we were having a girl, that if we were having a girl, her name would be Claire Elizabeth. Claire, because we hope that our daughter will grow up to be like the powerful and wonderful person that she’s named after. Elizabeth, because I’ve always loved my middle name and the names sound beautiful together. Not to mention, we hope she’s a bit like me too. 😉 It also works out perfectly because her name has both of our initials, C and E.

Our Claire <3

Our Claire ❤

So there you go, now you know how we decided on her beautiful name. 🙂

Claire and I at my 16th birthday party

Claire and I at my 16th birthday party

So cheers to every friend out there that inspires you to be a better person! Those friends are the ones that you should hold onto and never take for granted.

 

Introducing Claire Elizabeth!

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Claire

Photo Credit: photographybyshawnee.com

 

We are so excited to announce the arrival of our beautiful daughter, Claire Elizabeth, born May 8th at 9:28pm. She weighed 8 pounds 1 ounce (the same as me when I was born!!) and was 18.5 inches long. She already has quite the personality and definitely knows what she likes and doesn’t like.

It’s amazing to think that almost 2 weeks have already passed by since she entered the world. The birth was very long and difficult but so worth it. Now we understand what people meant when they said to us, “Forget the birth plan”, because that’s exactly what happened with us.

Claire was estimated to be about 8 pounds 3 ounces the Friday before her due date which made our OB nervous because I’m so petite. When we went in for our appointment on her due date, we decided to go for an induction since I had not gone into labor yet and she was only going to get larger. The hospital’s inductions were booked for the rest of the week but luckily there was a cancellation that day so they thought they could slip us in to that slot. We had to call almost every hour that night to see if they could take us but it ended up being an extremely busy night for them. The next morning, I called and they said we could head on in. We arrived at 7:30am on Wednesday the 7th. 36 hours of labor and a c-section later, we were holding Claire in our arms. It definitely wasn’t what we planned but, in the end, the #1 item on our birth plan was satisfied – making sure that she was safe and healthy.

We left the hospital last Monday and have been trying to get into a routine since then. So far, it’s been going fairly well except for the exhaustion. It’s hard to adjust to waking up every few hours for feedings and I’m sure all parents out there understand that. But, looking at our beautiful daughter makes it all worth it. She is such a dream come true.

 

Happy Due Date to Us!

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40 Weeks

Today is Baby T’s due date! Since I’m writing this, you’ve probably figured out that she has not yet arrived.

We are very patiently waiting for her to join us and are just so incredibly excited for her to finally be here! We will keep you posted on when that happens to be.

The Waiting Game

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Maternity Photos

Today is officially my first day of maternity leave! I’m proud to say I’ve been quite productive so far. I’ve deep cleaned the entire house, vacuumed, dropped off dry cleaning, unloaded the dishwasher, did 5 loads of laundry, and so much more. Some might say it’s nesting but I honestly have always loved cleaning especially on my days off. I knew that when Baby T arrives, the last thing we will want to do is deep clean the house so this is my last chance before she arrives and I’m so happy to have the time to do it.

Another thing on my to-do list for this week – figure out some time to paint my toes… or I should say figure out if I’m still capable of painting my toes. Last time I painted them was when I was about 7 months pregnant and man was it quite the task. It was much harder to navigate around my baby bump than I thought. That belly has only grown larger so I may end up throwing in the towel and heading to a nail salon.

I also plan on going on daily walks and resting as much as possible.

Tomorrow will be exactly one week until the due date. It’s only a matter of time until we get to meet our little girl!

 

38 Week Update!

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Taken before our delicious Easter brunch!

Taken before our delicious Easter brunch!

We’re getting closer! I kind of wish I organized my weekly updates like this from the beginning but oh well!

Bump Update: I’m constantly amazed at how large my belly is these days. Now, when I sit down, my belly rests on my legs which is the strangest feeling ever. The only comfortable sitting position for me lately is sitting on an exercise ball. And, I officially look like I’m smuggling a basketball under my shirt. It’s nuts! I’m told that from the back I don’t look pregnant at all but, let me tell you, I definitely do from the side!

Sleep: My sleeping isn’t horrible. I can’t really get comfortable but I do fall asleep right away and stay asleep the entire night except for the occasional bathroom breaks. It doesn’t really bother me though because I literally fall right back asleep. CJ says that I move around a lot at night and he wakes up a couple times in the middle of the night to rotate me back onto my side (since that’s better for circulation). Unfortunately, that means that my poor husband isn’t sleeping through the night anymore.

Food: I really really enjoy the taste of a nice cool milkshake or ice cream in general. But milkshakes are really where the party’s at. I’m not having them more than once or twice a week but, boy do I enjoy them when I have them. Other than the occasional milkshake, I’m generally eating really healthy.

Weight Gain: I’ve gained the perfect amount for my size! My doctor says it’s been steady throughout the pregnancy and has been a healthy amount. I don’t plan on revealing any actual numbers though. 🙂

Baby T: During our weekly appointments, we’re told she has a perfect heartbeat and is measuring large. I knew I had a big baby in there! She gets the hiccups allll the time and loves moving around all day. She’s quite an active little one and I love every minute of it.

Work: Tomorrow is my last day at work before maternity leave starts. I’ve been working from home the past couple of weeks which has helped avoid any stress from commuting. But it’s definitely bittersweet – I’m really going to miss everyone at work and miss my job because I truly love what I do, but at the same time I’m sooo excited to relax a bit before Baby T arrives and plan to soak up all the time I get with her over these next few months. I know it will be hard to return to work when the time comes.

Nursery: It is officially complete!

Other than that, we had a lovely Easter this last Sunday which wouldn’t have been complete without a delicious Easter brunch!

37 Weeks!

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37 Weeks

In approximately 3 weeks (depending on when Baby T decides to join us), we will be holding our little girl in our arms for the first time. It feels so surreal and is SO exciting!!

We’re definitely ready for her arrival – car seat is in the car, stroller is set up, glider is put together, nursery is done, overnight bag is packed, diaper bag is packed, all of her clothes that we’ve received as gifts have been washed and put away… You name it, I’m sure we’ve done it.

Over the New Years Eve weekend, I started to teach myself how to crochet and have officially finished my first blanket for Baby T this weekend! I’m pretty proud of myself for actually finishing it. I’ve tried so many times to teach myself to crochet/knit over the years but have never gotten close to actually finishing a project so this is a momentous occasion. I have my amazing husband CJ to thank for keeping me motivated.

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We had two date nights last weekend since we won’t get many of those once she arrives and it was so nice. I will never ever take date nights for granted, that’s for sure. We also have a gift card to one of our favorite restaurants in Walnut Creek that we’re saving for our first date night after she arrives…whenever we’re ready to venture out on our own.

We still can’t believe that we’re going to be meeting our little girl so soon. I know that she’s been in my belly for the past 8.5 months and feel her moving around in there all the time (she has quite the dance moves!) but it’s still crazy to think that we’re going to officially be parents in a few weeks. The suspense is killing us! But, we’re happy to wait until the due date for her to come, we wouldn’t want to rush her out. 😉

As far as how I’ve been doing, not much has changed since my last update except my belly has grown quite a bit more. I’m still sleeping well and am not too uncomfortable. Although, if I’m walking or standing for an extended period of time, I definitely feel it in my back. And it’s really hard to get in a comfortable position when sitting down but I eventually figure it out. I’m trying to stay active so wearing my fitbit every day has kept me aware of how much walking I’ve been doing. I have a pregnancy workout DVD as well which I’ve been doing and really enjoy. It’s only 30 minutes for each workout but I definitely feel a difference after I’m done.

We took another hospital tour last weekend as a “refresher course” since we last took the tour in January and wanted to make sure we were fully prepped on all the details of how to arrive and check in. It was nice to do another walk through before the big day. I can’t even tell you how excited we are for her to be here.

We also can’t wait to tell everyone her name and show off her nursery – along with obviously showing off our adorable little girl! We’ve been calling her by her name when it’s just the two of us around so it will be nice for everyone else to finally know. I’ve had a few sneaky individuals try to trick me into saying her name but I didn’t fall for it! They will have to wait with the rest of the world to find out.

My last day at work before maternity leave is next Friday (April 25) and I have so much to do before I’m gone. My coworkers threw me a surprise baby shower which was the sweetest thing ever. It was definitely a perfect example of why I love my job and love the people I work with.

Baby Shower

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We had the most wonderful baby shower this weekend thanks to my mom and sister! Also, shout out to CJ’s mom and sister as well who helped them set up the bridal shower and organized the games!

Baby Shower Decor

Even though it was raining on the day of, the day turned out perfectly. All of the tables were set up inside and looked beautiful. The food was amazing (we got rave reviews on the tri tip so thanks to our brother-in-law for those!) and we loved having Kara’s Cupcakes as the dessert.

We’re so glad we chose to have a couple’s shower because it was nice to have all of our friends and family over to celebrate. We can’t believe how fast the party flew by! The party started at 1pm and, at least from our experience, we blinked and it was 5:30pm. It went by so fast that we didn’t get through all the games that were planned but we played one of them later that night and it was so fun!

Overall, it was the perfect day and the perfect weekend. We’re so thankful that everyone was able to come to the shower and especially to those who traveled in. It meant so much to have everyone there.

Our Baby Shower!

As you can see, I have quite the baby bump now!

P.S. Holy cow! How do we only have 5 weeks left until our little girl is here?!?!? (if she’s on time)