Claire LeAnn

On July 24th at 11:32a.m. weighing 7lbs 6oz and 20 in. long Claire was born. I know it has taken me 3 weeks to post this, I've been procrastinating.
First how she got her name, Adam and I both just really liked the name Claire and LeAnn was supposed to be my middle name. It is my dad's middle name Leland and my mom's middle name Ann put together. But when my dad filled out my birth certificate he decided to make my middle name Diane. Which my mom was not happy about. Anyways when we were trying to come up with a middle name, my family suggested LeAnn and we really liked it.
On July 23rd I was just over 38 weeks pregnant and was feeling pretty good just tired of being swollen, and feeling huge. I was dilated to a 3 already and was ready to have her. It had been over 100 degrees and humid for weeks here and being 9 months pregnant made it that much worse. So I decided on that day to go to the chiropractor and get adjusted then I had eaten spicy food the past couple of days, I also took caster oil (which I had never done before) then I bounced a little bit on the trampoline. That night our branch had a party at a park and we decided to go. It was 104 degrees outside and we were outside for a couple of hours. We then decided to walk on some trails. As you can see I did everything I could to start labor. We got home at 9 pm and I laid with Ellie and fell asleep with her. At 10:30 Adam woke me up to come to bed. I started having contractions and they felt different then my normal braxton hicks. I laid there for awhile and then told Adam I was having contractions every 3 minutes apart. So it was now 11 pm and we decided that we should go to the hospital since it was 45 minutes away. Since we are new here we didn't know anybody to watch the girls so we got them out of bed and took them with us. We called Adam's brother who was going to come to watch the girls to start driving because it was a 2 hour drive. We got to the hospital around midnight and they said I was dilated to a 4. They didn't want to admit me but didn't want to send me home since I lived so far away so they told me to walk around for 2 hours and come back. The girls had been awake so I told Adam to take them to the van and let them sleep while I walked around the hospital. After 2 hours Adam's brother got to the hospital to take the girls home and Adam and I went back to see if they would admit me. They said they would. I was relieved. I wasn't progressing that fast so they told me to keep walking. With my other girls I was induced and everything was quick and easy so this was weird going into labor by myself and then having to walk to keep my contractions going. I didn't understand why the doctor just wouldn't give me pitocin. So I was up all night long. Finally at 7 am the doctors changed and the new doctor walked in and said to me this is your baby and your labor what do you want me to do. I was so happy I told him I would like pitocin. They started me on that and then a couple hours later was ready for an epidural. Unfortunately it took them another hour before I got it and by then I was in pain. I was feeling comfortable after I got it and fell asleep. At around 10:45am I woke up to move a little and felt a gush. My water broke. I had never had my water break on its own, so that was weird. Right after that I told my nurse that I was feeling my contractions. For some reason when my water broke my epidural stopped working and for the next 30 minutes I felt all of my labor. Let's just say it was the worst pain I had ever felt in my life and I was begging the doctor and nurses to just give me more medicine, but they wouldn't. I never want to experience that again. Finally I felt her coming and pushed twice and she was out. It had been a long night and was a really different labor experience from my other girls. I was really surprised how little she was, she is my smallest baby. She never cried and we didn't hear her cry until she was 2 days old. I was able to come home only a day after having her which I was really grateful for. The girls came up on Saturday to see me and Claire. They loved seeing her and holding her. They have adjusted really well to having a new baby in the family and have been big helps to us. I feel really good and am recovering quickly. We feel so blessed to have this sweet new spirit in our family.

Claire LeAnn

On July 24th at 11:32a.m. weighing 7lbs 6oz and 20 in. long Claire was born. I know it has taken me 3 weeks to post this, I've been procrastinating.
First how she got her name, Adam and I both just really liked the name Claire and LeAnn was supposed to be my middle name. It is my dad's middle name Leland and my mom's middle name Ann put together. But when my dad filled out my birth certificate he decided to make my middle name Diane. Which my mom was not happy about. Anyways when we were trying to come up with a middle name, my family suggested LeAnn and we really liked it.
On July 23rd I was just over 38 weeks pregnant and was feeling pretty good just tired of being swollen, and feeling huge. I was dilated to a 3 already and was ready to have her. It had been over 100 degrees and humid for weeks here and being 9 months pregnant made it that much worse. So I decided on that day to go to the chiropractor and get adjusted then I had eaten spicy food the past couple of days, I also took caster oil (which I had never done before) then I bounced a little bit on the trampoline. That night our branch had a party at a park and we decided to go. It was 104 degrees outside and we were outside for a couple of hours. We then decided to walk on some trails. As you can see I did everything I could to start labor. We got home at 9 pm and I laid with Ellie and fell asleep with her. At 10:30 Adam woke me up to come to bed. I started having contractions and they felt different then my normal braxton hicks. I laid there for awhile and then told Adam I was having contractions every 3 minutes apart. So it was now 11 pm and we decided that we should go to the hospital since it was 45 minutes away. Since we are new here we didn't know anybody to watch the girls so we got them out of bed and took them with us. We called Adam's brother who was going to come to watch the girls to start driving because it was a 2 hour drive. We got to the hospital around midnight and they said I was dilated to a 4. They didn't want to admit me but didn't want to send me home since I lived so far away so they told me to walk around for 2 hours and come back. The girls had been awake so I told Adam to take them to the van and let them sleep while I walked around the hospital. After 2 hours Adam's brother got to the hospital to take the girls home and Adam and I went back to see if they would admit me. They said they would. I was relieved. I wasn't progressing that fast so they told me to keep walking. With my other girls I was induced and everything was quick and easy so this was weird going into labor by myself and then having to walk to keep my contractions going. I didn't understand why the doctor just wouldn't give me pitocin. So I was up all night long. Finally at 7 am the doctors changed and the new doctor walked in and said to me this is your baby and your labor what do you want me to do. I was so happy I told him I would like pitocin. They started me on that and then a couple hours later was ready for an epidural. Unfortunately it took them another hour before I got it and by then I was in pain. I was feeling comfortable after I got it and fell asleep. At around 10:45am I woke up to move a little and felt a gush. My water broke. I had never had my water break on its own, so that was weird. Right after that I told my nurse that I was feeling my contractions. For some reason when my water broke my epidural stopped working and for the next 30 minutes I felt all of my labor. Let's just say it was the worst pain I had ever felt in my life and I was begging the doctor and nurses to just give me more medicine, but they wouldn't. I never want to experience that again. Finally I felt her coming and pushed twice and she was out. It had been a long night and was a really different labor experience from my other girls. I was really surprised how little she was, she is my smallest baby. She never cried and we didn't hear her cry until she was 2 days old. I was able to come home only a day after having her which I was really grateful for. The girls came up on Saturday to see me and Claire. They loved seeing her and holding her. They have adjusted really well to having a new baby in the family and have been big helps to us. I feel really good and am recovering quickly. We feel so blessed to have this sweet new spirit in our family.

Adam's Birthday!

Well Adam turned 29 this year! I can't believe it. On that day I had my first doctor's appt. at Fort Riley I was 36 weeks pregnant. Adam and the girls came with me. Then on the way home we went to Famous Dave's. I had never been there but Adam loves to go there. We had a good family dinner and then went home and he opened presents. It was a fun day. You can also see in the pictures how big I was.

Adam's Birthday!

Well Adam turned 29 this year! I can't believe it. On that day I had my first doctor's appt. at Fort Riley I was 36 weeks pregnant. Adam and the girls came with me. Then on the way home we went to Famous Dave's. I had never been there but Adam loves to go there. We had a good family dinner and then went home and he opened presents. It was a fun day. You can also see in the pictures how big I was.

Ellie's Birthday and the 4th of July weekend!

This year 4th of July weekend was really busy. It started on July 1st when we went to Wamego's carnival. They had rides, games and food. We had fun walking around and the girls played games and went on the carousel. Then we went to Kansas City on July 2nd and shopped. Then we went to Adam's parent's house where we stayed for the weekend. On Sat. July 3rd it was Ellie's 3rd birthday. We actually went to my nephew Braden's birthday party that morning. My sister-in-law had a ton of fun activities for the kids to do. It was a really fun party. Then we went to the hospital to visit Adam's Dad who had a heart attack and had a quadruple bypass. Then that night we let Ellie choose where we went for dinner and she chose Burger King. They are so easy to please at this age! Then Sunday we went to Church and Adam's siblings and there families came over and spent the day and we celebrated Ellie's birthday with a cake and opened presents. She got a power-wheel, a Dora backpack, and a few other things. She had a really fun day and loved spending it with family. On Sunday the 4th we were going to go watch a firework show but we had a really bad thunderstorm and nobody in our area had fireworks. This was the first year I haven't seen fireworks! On Monday my sister-in-law Shannon, Holly and I went and saw the movie Eclipse which I loved! I love being so close to family and being able to spend time with them.

Ellie's Birthday and the 4th of July weekend!

This year 4th of July weekend was really busy. It started on July 1st when we went to Wamego's carnival. They had rides, games and food. We had fun walking around and the girls played games and went on the carousel. Then we went to Kansas City on July 2nd and shopped. Then we went to Adam's parent's house where we stayed for the weekend. On Sat. July 3rd it was Ellie's 3rd birthday. We actually went to my nephew Braden's birthday party that morning. My sister-in-law had a ton of fun activities for the kids to do. It was a really fun party. Then we went to the hospital to visit Adam's Dad who had a heart attack and had a quadruple bypass. Then that night we let Ellie choose where we went for dinner and she chose Burger King. They are so easy to please at this age! Then Sunday we went to Church and Adam's siblings and there families came over and spent the day and we celebrated Ellie's birthday with a cake and opened presents. She got a power-wheel, a Dora backpack, and a few other things. She had a really fun day and loved spending it with family. On Sunday the 4th we were going to go watch a firework show but we had a really bad thunderstorm and nobody in our area had fireworks. This was the first year I haven't seen fireworks! On Monday my sister-in-law Shannon, Holly and I went and saw the movie Eclipse which I loved! I love being so close to family and being able to spend time with them.