Claire is 4 weeks old!

I can hardly believe that Claire has hit the four week mark. It almost makes me sad to think I'll never have those four weeks back with her. But then I think about all the nights with no sleep and all the diaper changes and maybe I won't miss it so bad! We did another photo shoot to mark the occasion. She was pretty tired, so we didn't get too many open-eyes pics.

Daddy and Claire!

Claire and Mom!
So sweet!

Aunt Annette's Surprise Party!

My aunt Annette turned 50 this week!!!! Nancy, Jeff and Katie threw her a surprise party on Monday and she was COMPLETELY surprised! Look at that face!


Mitch bought a sheet cake with black frosting...therefore, everyone at the party had goth-lips! Here's Bryton trying to make a mean face.


Here are the cousins Drew and Claire! They were both sound asleep when we did the surprise (and for most of the day). And for all my UWSL co-workers out there...yes, this is the infamous WINDSOR!!

Here's adorable Joshua (see Bryan...he made the cuts for the blog). He's just over seven months and is working on his crawl. Right now, he does the army crawl and it's hilarious!

Grandma and Claire...what a cute pic!

Happy girl!

We actually got a picture of Claire smiling! This wasn't her biggest smile, but I had to sit there with the camera pointed at her for like 10 minutes to get this one! She isn't smiling yet when she's awake, but she smiles a lot in her sleep. It's our favorite thing and every time she does we can't help but laugh. It's so cute!

Sticking her tongue out!

Claire loves to stick her tongue out! These pictures where taken right after she ate (when she's the most happy!). She swings her arms all over and makes all kinds of noises. This is my favorite time with her!

Growing way too fast!

It's been way too long since I updated this blog! So I'm going to post a lot of pictures. Claire is already growing so fast!

We were lucky enough to have Nate's mom, Sheri, stay with us all last week. She really took care of us and did all the cooking and cleaning while she was here. Here's a little three generation pic.

Here's Claire all ready for the Jazz game with her basketball bow! She loves to stick out her tongue!

We were so excited when last Friday, Claire's umbilical cord finally fell off! So she got to take her first real bath. Up until now, she's only gotten sponge baths and hated them. She'd cry through the whole thing. :( But when we put her completely under water she LOVED it!

Our friends Marie and Joe stopped by last week with their little girl, Olivia. Such a sweet picture!

And finally, a family pic!

One week old!

I can hardly believe that our little Claire is already a week old! She is SO much fun. Nate and I just sit and stare at her. She's also a lot of work...sleep has been hard to come by!

For anyone who knows me, they know I love to take pictures. We did a mini photo shoot of Claire today and she was such a trooper! We took the space heater in the room and had it on full blast to keep her warm. She's so fun to take pictures of.

She's here!!!!

Here's the vitals and if you want the full story you can continue reading.

Name: Claire Katelin Plowman
Born: May 2, 2007 4:14 pm MDT
Weight: 6 lbs 10 oz
Height: 19.5 inches
Beauty: She's an 11!
Cuteness: Unmeasurable
Health: Great! and mom is doing well too.

So, the regular weekly checkup on May 1 turned out to be anything but. Melissa had slightly high blood pressure, so after monitoring her for a bit the doctor recommended that Melissa have the baby! Needless to say we were not prepared for that. So after talking and praying about this we felt like this was the best option so here's what happened.

We get to LDS hospital and about midnight we get into the room. The doctors start her on some medication to help her body prepare more for labor with the intent the following morning to get her on Petosin to really get things started. However after the three doses of the medicine (I can't remember the name and probably couldn't spell it anyway) she was responding well. The doctor broke her water the next morning, May 2 at about 8:30. That really got things going. She immediately started having hard contractions lasting about a minute with 20-30 seconds in between. After enduring this Melissa felt it was time for the epidural. Unfortunately the anastesiologist was in a c-section so it was another hour before he got there. He was the hero though was he arrived. Melissa immediately stopped feeling all the pain.

At about 3:15 the doctor felt like she was ready to start pushing. She pushed for about an hour during which she threw-up a few times. The nurses said it helped because it was better than her regular pushing but Melissa was miserable. She was so tough and after the hour was up we had a beautiful baby girl. Watching Claire being born was the most amazing thing I've seen. There is no doubt that God is involved in our lives. Melissa and I have said several times since she's been born "How did we create something so beautiful." We know that she has come straight from heaven because she is definitely a perfect little angel. Enjoy the pictures and thanks everyone for your prayers and thoughts.

First family pic minutes after birth.



She's definitely all girl!

Being born is such a lot work!!

Proud new dad!

Claire, our little angel

Mom and daughter, what's better than this?

10 days and counting!

With my due date, May 11, just around the corner...we are anxiously awaiting our new baby girl! I have had a good pregnancy overall, but I'm really excited to have our baby here.

The nursery is almost completely put together (thanks to Nate for assembling the changing table, glider/rocker, car seat, stroller, bouncer, etc...he's the best!). We're just waiting now for the crib to come from Seattle via Nate's mom (thank you Sheri!). She's coming down after the baby is born and will bring it with her then. I'll post some pics of the nursery soon.

We have my 39-week doctor appt today...wish me luck!