Our little Claire has had a big couple of weeks! She’s been hitting milestone after milestone. She’s now crawling like a pro. I thoroughly enjoyed the few months I had where she was immobile and content (if she could see me) just sitting and playing with toys. But the name of the game has now changed. The good part about her crawling is that she can now come find me. She absolutely hates Mama being out of sight!

Her top front teeth poked though last week. It was a bit rough. They were quite sore for awhile. I just love her contagious grin. She is incredible social and smiley!

Claire’s been pulling up on her knees, but a couple nights ago she pulled to standing for the first time in the bath. Boy does she love the water. She comes running (okay, crawling) when she hears me turn on the water. We took her swimming for the first time at our new recreational center. She loved it as expected.

Though Claire is exceptionally smiley, it’s difficult to get giggles out of her. That was before this week at least. The last few days Link has been getting her to crack up. Especially when he pretends to tickle her in her car seat. Lincoln loves that she thinks he is so funny. I love to hear them play.

I’ve stopped buying baby food for Claire. She was refusing to eat it and always just wanted what everyone else was eating. She’s an amazing eater. Every meal I’m surprised how much that girl can put away. For example, the other night she ate 3/4 of a kid’s quesadilla from Cafe Rio and then topped off with a jar of baby food!

A couple days ago, durning lunch, Claire said her first word : “Uh-oh.” It happened in her high chair when she threw her banana on the floor. I said uh-oh and picked it up. She smiled and repeated “uh-oh.” I thought it was a fluke, but she said it back to us over and over. Then she threw her banana on the floor, and with no prompting exclaimed “uh-oh.” So this is now her favorite game. While at Costco today, she threw things on the floor, said uh-oh, and waited for me to pick them up, just so she could do it again. I’m sure this is going to get very old, but today I just thought it was cute.

The kids and I enjoyed a walk yesterday. It was so fun to go exploring on a beautiful spring day. I took my camera along.

Lincoln is now sleeping in a big boy bed. It hasn’t been the easiest transition, but we’ll save those issues for another post. Each night, we usually have to put Link back in his bed a handful of times. A few nights ago was no different. Finally, after round number four of tucking him in, we didn’t hear him again.

Later that night, Miles and I went upstairs to get ready for bed. While walking up the stairs, we heard the whirring of Claire’s swing. I said something to Miles like, “sounds like Link turned on the swing again—wasting the batteries.” It was dark as we entered our room. My heart jumped when I looked over at the swing and thought I saw Claire there. But that couldn’t be right because we put Claire to sleep in her bed. My next thought was “did Lincoln put Claire in the swing?” Oh, yeah right, she’s as big as he is.

Then we finally realized that it was Link in the swing—sleeping! He must have snuck in without us knowing and fallen asleep while relaxing and swinging away. We couldn’t believe it. I mean, this is a kid who has never fallen asleep watching a movie or at the dinner table. He even fights sleeping in the car. When we found him, the swing wasn’t swinging because he’s much too big for it and his feet drag on the ground. We were completely surprised! It was hilarious! I really wanted to take a picture but didn’t out of fear of waking him and enduring a few more rounds of tucking him in.

On Wednesday, June 9th our family left for California. I was scheduled to be induced June 10th. On our way through St. George, we stopped to drop Lincoln off to stay with my parents. When we told Link we were leaving and would be bringing home a baby, he just said “bye-bye,” and off he went to play. He was in good hands.

Miles and I made the rest of the trip that night. We spent a lot of the trip talking and daydreaming about what it would be like to have another child in our home. We were very excited!

We picked up the key to our friends apartment, dropped off our stuff, cleaned up and got ready for a late dinner dinner at Cheesecake Factory. Nothing better than cheesecake to give you energy for labor!

Even with all the anticipation, I got more sleep that night than I expected.

We got to the hospital at about 8:30am. We pulled into a very busy parking lot. All of the Labor/Delivery spots were take but one. It turned out they were having a busy morning.

We were admitted and sent to a labor/delivery room with our nurse. The paperwork took awhile. And because they were busy and I was there for an induction, I was kinda a last priority. It took them awhile to get things going.

A resident checked me and informed me I was still only 2 cm and 60-80% effaced. It was hard to believe after a week of early-labor contractions!

Finally they started the pitocin at 10:30am. I was a little bit apprehensive not knowing what these “artificial” contractions were going to feel like. I’d heard they are often more intense. But the nurse and CNM assured me they would start me out at a very small dose, and any time I wanted my epidural they’d call it in.

It wasn’t long until I was wanting them to pump up the volume and get things moving. They were increasing the dosage every 30 min or so. Miles and I were pretty bored just hanging out. I think I watched 4 episodes of I Love Lucy. I was in no pain yet. I think I was finally 3 cm at about 3 hours. Needless to say, things were moving very slowly. After this point I started feeling a bit of cramping, but nothing like what I remember with Link. So, the CNM instructed the nurse to start increasing the dosage every 15 min. After another hour or so, I finally started feeling some discomfort. Yay, pain was feeling good.

The resident checked me again and I had progressed to a 4. The contractions were still easy. I could have done this all day. There was talk about breaking my water to further augment labor. My goal was to get to a 5 before they did this. But then, the CNM (who I really loved) came in to check my progress. While checking me, she said she was going to go ahead and break my water. That was intense. There was A LOT of water. The midwife even commented about how my belly was all water. I was grateful things were picking up! The midwife told me I might want to order the epidural because the contractions were going to get pretty intense. So even though I thought I could labor without it, I went ahead and had them order it. I labored about 45 minutes though contractions that finally felt equal to those I labored through for 7 hours with Lincoln.

Getting the epidural was more uncomfortable than I remembered. Last time I think it was just such a relief, I didn’t care how uncomfortable it was. And this epidural was much stronger. I could feel it when I pushed with Lincoln. This time there was no sensation whatsoever.

After getting the epidural, it was another hour or so until the resident said I was at a 5. This was going way slower than I expected. She asked me if I as feeling any pressure down there. I told her there was constant pressure. About 10 minutes after the resident left, I started to feel pressure that rose and fell with the contractions. This was what I remembered feeling when pushing with Link. I remembered thinking, yay, progress! I might be a 6 now.

A few contractions later, something unexpected happened on the monitor. All of a sudden the baby’s heart rate dropped or was lost. A nurse ran in, and not knowing what was going on, she called for the midwife. This made me nervous, and my first thought was a possible cesarean. The midwife came into the room a minute later. She told me she was just going to check to see how the baby was doing. When she looked she said something like, “oh, that’s why! The baby is coming!” WHAT?! Only twenty minutes before I had been a 5.

People ran around the room getting things ready. Three minutes later the midwife was suited up and ready to deliver. She told me I was contracting and to go ahead and push. Well, I didn’t need anymore explanation, I was a pushing pro!

I pushed through three contractions—less than 5 minutes—and Claire was born!

She was so beautiful! People in the room commented on how healthy and pink she looked!

Truly, there isn’t a more joyous moment than when your child is born. But the emotion this time was a little different. With Link there was a deep relief wrapped up in the blissful moment. With Claire, it was pure elation and euphoria. Both experiences so different. Both so beautiful and unforgettable.

I can’t believe we’re a family of four now. That really hit me when I read a card from my Grandma that was addressed to “Michelle, Miles, Lincoln, and Claire.”

One of the highlights of this experience was introducing Lincoln to his sister. He loves her and is being very sweet to her. He’s proving to be very secure and doesn’t seem to be threatened. At least not yet. It’s so fun to see him acting as an older brother.

The last five days with Claire have been a dream! She is one content little girl. She nurses well, poops well, travels well, and sleeps well! Hallelujah! I think I must have done my time with Link! Everything seems easier on this one! It has truly been a blessing. Thank you Father in Heaven, for sending us one of your little angels!