Growing Like Weeds

A week and a half ago, William had his 2 week checkup. The doctor said they really like to see babies back up to their birth weight by 2 weeks, well we don’t have to worry about Baby Will. He was 21 inches long (67 percentile) and 9 lbs 7 oz (81 percentile), we have a little chunky monkey on our hands! She said he looks just perfect.

Claire had her 4 year child wellness checkup last week. She measured 3’ 7.75” (99 percentile) and weighed in at 44 lbs (94 percentile). No surprise there, she has always been so tall! I still just cannot figure out where that height comes from. I’m 5’6” and Levi’s 6’1” which is maybe a tiny bit on the taller side but at the rate she’s going she’ll be taller than me by middle school!  Claire has had a rash on her back since she was a baby, I had asked the doctor about it at each of her wellness checks and she told us to put Vaseline and Eucerin on it 2-3 times a day. It was extremely frustrating because we kept telling her that wasn’t working. Anyhow, we have Kaiser insurance now and I love the kid’s new pediatrician, she took one look at Claire’s back and said it’s excema and prescribed a topical cream, yay! Now if I could just get my sleep-deprived brain to remember to rub it in her back twice a day. Claire told me for a couple days before her appointment that she hates shots. She had the flu vaccine by nasal spray and then the nurse lined up 2 shots. He had her lay back on the bed with me leaning over her to comfort her and keep her from bucking up (Claire made up that word about a year ago, now we all use it). He put the first shot in her left leg and she immediately started screaming/crying. He very quickly did the second shot and she continued crying for a good half hour; it was super sad. She got really freaked out when she saw a little bit of blood. The whole rest of the day (and for several days after) she regularly mentioned that she hated shots and that she hated doctors and even made up a little song that she would not sing for the camera. I told her that it was the nurse that gave the shot and that mommy told him to give it, so she should be mad at me. She said she still hated the doctor. But good news, she doesn’t have to have anymore shots until she’s 11.

More on her birthday and her love of dress up in the next post.

Completely unrelated side note; watch out for Barbies on baseboard heaters. Claire keeps asking me to fix her arm, eek…

Claire's B-day Party

So what you are about to read is way overboard and totally more for Levi and myself making it through the first year than for our sweet baby who would never had known nor remembered if we had toned it down a little but we're just not those kind of people. And sorry for this being so late, life has been a little crazy.

Claire's birthday party was a butterfly theme (big thank you to Auntie for loaning us all the wonderful decorations!). We provided some super yummy food with the help of some fabulous friends and family. It was at my grandparents clubhouse as our house could never have held enough people comfortably (oh wait I forgot about her blessing.)

Thank you to all of her wonderful family and friends for all the love and support that you have shown her over the last year. She is so blessed to have so many people that truly love her.

She wore her tutu for the whole party except for the cake part of course. We put her on a tablecloth, in her diaper with her cake and she thought it was so great. She was grinning from ear to ear. She wasn't too interested in eating the cake but sticking her foot in it was quite fun!

She loves having tons of new toys and I love having new clothes for her! I washed all of the new clothes over the past week and, my oh my, does she look absolutely adorable in them! Thanks for all the presents, you guys are the best!


Claire's meltdown after seeing her toy kitty (it meows and walks)


The Birthday Girl


Her shocked face when we were singing to her


This is so tasty, I think I'll stick my foot in it


Can we do this every year mom & dad?

Claire had her 1 year appointment last week and the doctor said she's just perfect! She is 31.5 inches tall (98%) and 21 lbs 10 oz (50%). $25, 4 shots and a finger prick later, we were out of there!

I think I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so

We picked up our exchange Miki on July 24th and she was with us till August 6th. We had so much fun with her. She was a super sweet girl and her English was very good for only studying it 3 years. I studied Spanish 5 years and mine wasn't even comparable to Miki's English. The one downside to having Miki come stay with us was that we had to have Claire in our room and move our spare bed in from the garage and clear out Claire's dresser. So it was a lot of work but such a wonderful experience. M-F she was in school from 9-5 and everyday I tried to fix a nice breakfast and dinner so she could experience as much American food as possible in such a short time. Every evening after dinner we had something going on; we went to both Salem malls, mini golf, Walmart, Dollar Tree, Silver Falls, Mollala Rodeo. And then we would come home and have dessert and play board games or watch TV. It was an exhausting 2 weeks! We also took her "camping" (we stayed in a guest house of our friend's aunt and uncle's) and she experienced her very 1st (and 2nd) smore, she loved them. We thought it was really funny that she didn't put any topping on her pancakes or french toast, no wonder Japanese people are so skinny. It was also super interesting to learn about her culture. Here are some of the things we learned; only the driver and front-seat passenger have to wear seatbelts, they go to school for 6 hours Monday-Friday and a half day on Saturday, they only get 6 weeks for summer break and even then have a couple hours of home work a day, they don't say anything when people sneeze, they dress very modestly-no tanktops, leggings under short shorts, etc, and they seem to be extremely environmentally conscious, they bike/walk or take the buss/train most of the time. Oh and her Mom goes to the store every single day, oh my gosh, Can you imgaine!? I hate the store and try to go a max of twice a week! But she bikes there so I'm guessing it would be super hard to buy very much food. At 20 you are considered an adult and that is when you can smoke, drink, drive a car, and they have this big party just for the 20 year olds in January at an amusement park, I'm jealous. We already miss her so much and wish that we could have kept her! She has a great sense of humor so she fit in quite nicely with us.

Claire had her 9 month appointment last Friday. She is 29.25 inches tall (95th percentile) and weighed 19 lbs 3 oz (58th percentile). I remember at her first couple appointments I was so worried I was going to have an oompa loompa baby since she was 90th percentiles for both but thankfully she has thinned out so much. The Doctor said she looks great and is doing very well developmentally, yay! Claire also learned how to wave bye-bye and clap and they're pretty much the cutest things I've ever seen. She especially loves doing them for complete strangers like at the Sayonara party the last night Miki was with us. We took Claire (she's wearing a Jimbay-probably didn't spell that right but it's the baby equivalent of a kimono) and the whole 2 hours she was waving at the crowd and clapping. She was totally showing off. We were dying laughing, it was so stinkin cute! I so wish we would have had our video camera!

Oh a much more depressing note Eric (my younger brother) left for the Marines on Sunday. He is going to bootcamp in San Diego, CA for 3 months and then he'll be home for 2 weeks and then he goes to infantry training for 1 month at a TBD location. After that he begins schooling for the diesel mechanic program. It was really hard saying goodbye. On the one hand we'll get to see him every once in a while and he can talk and email but on the other it is for 4 years! That's such a long time! Claire will be almost 5 by the time he's done. I think it will be good for him though. He is extremely intelligent but he is just not much for regular school so this will provide an excellent alternative and he'll be able to have a great career once he's done. I just hope this experience doesn't harden him. I'm so proud of him for serving our country!

Eric with all of his neices and nephews

Claire's 1st 4-wheeler ride-she loved it!
Last night together at the Sayonara party
Her smile takes over her whole adorable face, I can't get enough of it!

Mother's Day & a Blue Otter Pop

Well our little Claire-bear hit the 6 month mark last week. It is hard to believe how quickly time has gone by and how much our little bundle of joy has grown. I took her to her 6 month appt last Thursday. She was 27 inches long (89th percentile), 16 lbs 15 oz (69th percentile) and head circumference 43 cm (64th percentile). She has thinned out so much! I guess we can cancel her Weight Watchers membership ;). She had 3 shots and one oral vaccine. The doctor said all looked well and that she is just as healthy as can be.

I had an excellent first Mother's Day! Levi bought 2 beautiful black frames and filled them with pics that were black and white with just a splash of color on a couple; they turned out so good! Now I just need to decide where to hang them. We spent the late morning-early afternoon with Levi's fam. We went to Wortman Park (horrible name huh!?) in McMinnville for a picnic and it was beautiful. Janet loved her present from us which Claire then proceeded to suck on. The food was amazing; Subway sandwiches, grilled shrimp, oriental salad, 7-layer salad, potato salad, fruit salad and spice cake w/ bavarian cream frosting, yumm-o! I took Claire down a slide for the first time, she didn't really know what to think of that. We got to talk to Logan which was super nice; he's doing great! Then we spent the evening with my family. I love how sweet and gentle my nephews and niece are with Claire, it is the most adorable thing ever! More good food; seriously I wish our families were horrible cooks, it would make it so much easier to eat less! I played baseball with Rayden for a little while, he is so good and only 7. He's already a 3 sport athlete, wrestling, baseball and football. Hopefully he sticks with it and gets a bunch of scholarships. I got plants and flowers from both of our families which I am super excited to plant!

We've been continuing to try to feed Claire pureed foods but she is still not that interested. We've tried yams, chicken, bananas, applesauce, pears and rice cereal. We went and visited Ashley and her kids and daycare kids today and we ate Otter Pops. I let Claire try a little of my blue pop and oh my goodness she just started sucking on it like crazy! She sucked so much that the top of popsicle lost it's blue coloring. And then when I tried to snag a bite she screamed/cried! I'm still amazed that she was wearing a white onesie and didn't even get a speck of blue on it.

Oh and I have to apologize to everyone. We've been having asian people commenting on our profile in another language and it's a couple a week. I've just gotten sick of it so I'm now moderating the comments, which I hate but better than having some weirdo comments that I can't understand and have to delete constantly (not to mention my friend said they link to porn). So please, please, please still comment, it makes my day!

Spring is Here!

I’m such a slacker! It’s been over 2 weeks since my last posting. I’ll try to remember all that happened but leave out the boring stuff, so here goes.

Last week I got a job. It was a work from home job that I had found on Craigslist. It was only 10 hours a week and it was supposed to be half of what I made at my full time job, so I didn’t think it could get anymore perfect. The job was an appointment setter, and it was a whole lot more telemarketer-like than I was expecting. Not to mention super boring. But the real problem was that I wasn’t able to get Claire to nap for more than like 15 min at a time. I’m pretty bummed that it didn’t work out but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. So we are currently trying to get the house cleaned up and getting rid of stuff so I can start watching kids here. I’m thinking about doing the whole shi-bang and becoming a licensed daycare. It’s crazy though how much lower the going rates are down here compared to Washington County. In Washington County it’s $3-4/hour, in Salem $2-3/hour but $3 is considered pretty high. But I think that it would help considerably with making ends meet and it would be fun because I just love kids.

Claire had her 4 month appointment last Thursday. It had to be postponed 2 weeks past her actual 4 month mark (it seems like her doctor’s always out). So she was a whole 27 inches long (99th percentile!!!), 15 lbs 13.5 ounces (84th percentile) and head circumference 41.5 cm (55th percentile). Levi keeps calling her a little pea head but I think it’s just that most babies have heads that are too gigantic for their bodies and hers is just proportional. I knew she had to be pretty tall; people think she’s 6 months. She had 1 oral vaccine and 2 shots and again she did much worse with the oral one. She kept coughing it out and spitting it all over the nurse. So the nurse would give her a tiny squirt then I would shove her binky in her mouth super quick and we did that like 10 times. The Doc said everything looked good and that Claire is advanced for her age, like we didn’t already know that. ;)

Today we went and grabbed Subway and then went to the park in front of the State Capitol building. It was such a beautiful day today. This was the first time Claire was outside in short sleeves! The park was gorgeous with all the pretty flowers in bloom and the fountains. We ate lunch, walked around, took pictures and played with the baby. It felt glorious to have to sun on our skin again. I’m so ready to not look albino! Claire loved the flowers, I held her close to them and she grabbed some and pulled them off the stems, oops.

Also Levi’s brother, Logan left on his mission. He reported to the Missionary Training Center (aka MTC) in Provo, Utah on March 10. He’ll spend 3 weeks there learning everything he needs to know to be a successful missionary. Then he’ll travel on to the Jacksonville Florida Mission where he’ll spend 2 years. Levi set up a really nice blog that he’ll update with the letters Logan writes. Here’s a link to it http://sites.google.com/site/elderfergus/. As sad as it is that he’s gone, we’re so proud of him and we know he’ll be an excellent missionary.

This week I borrowed the book “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child” from a friend and oh my goodness is it a miracle worker! Claire went from taking two 15-30 min naps to now taking 3-4 hour long naps. I was getting so frazzled that I wasn’t able to get anything done during the day, that book is so amazing. I recommend it to all parents, even if your child doesn’t have sleep problems it talks about all about the brain, sleep cycles, when to cut naps out, etc; it’s really neat.
I haven’t read a single non-baby-related book since we had Claire. I guess that’s what parenthood does to you, it makes you boring lol. Levi and I actually went out last night. My Mom came down yesterday (we went shopping; so fun) and spent the night so she could watch Claire. We went with a group of our church friends to Laser Tag. We hadn’t played in years, it was such a blast. And then we went back and hung out at a friend’s house. We have made such great friends in this ward. We ended up staying out till almost 1 AM. It was a much needed date night though! It felt so weird not hauling around 50 lbs worth of baby stuff; we kept feeling like we were forgetting something.

Well I better get to bed otherwise we might not make it to church tomorrow.

I tried to add a couple really cute pics of Claire and Levi but it wasn't working for some reason, hmm...

I Need Some Prozac!!!

Wow, what an eventful day today! It was Claire's 2 month appointment this morning. I was such a ball of nerves leading up to her appointment because of the vaccines she was going to be getting. Yes we decided to get her vaccines. I know there are a lot of controversy with vaccines right now but like my friend, Lacey and I were talking about a couple months ago, I'd rather have an autistic child than a dead one from one of those diseases. And now researchers are saying there isn't a link, so who the heck really knows?

She was weighed and measured; 13 lbs 5 oz and 24.25 inches long. That puts her in the 98th percentile for height and 95th percentile for weight. Geez, I'm beginning to wonder if my breastmilk is pure protein; our little baby is beefing up fast! Luckily most of her 0-3 month clothes still fit; they're too cute, I'm not ready to box them up yet. Her head was 39.5 cm which is the 71st percentile. The doctor checked her out and all looked good. Next came the vaccines, cue dramatic music. The nurse gave her sugar water (does anyone know why it's an antistetic, that still amazes me) and then started with the oral vaccine for Rotavirus. Claire was coughing and gagging, it must not have tasted too good but she got it down. Then came the part I've been dreading for weeks. I had to hold her arms while the nurse gave her three quick pokes. Claire screamed, but thank goodness it was for less than a minute. I gave her some Tylenol and she made a pretty funny face with that one too. I put her in the carrier and she had fallen asleep by the time we got to Walmart which is like a 5 min drive. So obviously it wasn't as tramatic for her as it was for me. We also went to Toys-R-Us and she didn't wake up until we got back home. All that and it wasn't even noon yet! She has been a little fussy this afternoon and evening so I've been giving her Tylenol. Hopefully we're not in for a long night.

It is so fun watching her develop. She is becoming more and more alert and observant ever day. She is looking towards the sound of our voices and following our faces. She has gotten so good at ripping her binky out of her mouth but then she gets flustered that it's out. Silly baby girl!

Well I think that's all for now. I really, really need to work on the lesson I'm giving in church in less than 2 days now!

This picture is one we took at Christmas, it's my fave and I forgot to post it last time I blogged.

2 Week Appointment

Claire’s 2 week appointment was this morning; I still can’t believe it’s been 2 weeks! She measured 21.5 inches long (she grew a whole inch in a week!) which puts her in the 88th percentile for height and she weighed in at 8 lbs 14.5 oz which is the 70th percentile. Her head measured 35.5 cm, 40th percentile. We were finally able to see her pediatrician, Dr. Ronai, she is so great. She listened to Claire’s heart & lungs and performed a physical exam and said that everything looked great. She said she is growing beautifully and couldn’t find anything wrong with her (I knew she was perfect). The nurse had to do the 2nd set of newborn screening. Claire was so good, she cried for just a minute when her foot was poked.

Then this afternoon I had my 2 week postpartum appointment. I’ve already lost 20 lbs, woo hoo! Most of that was Claire and amniotic fluid, but it was still exciting. They just asked how I’ve been doing with nursing and how I’ve been feeling. And since everything has been going so well, that was the worlds’ shortest appointment.

I was unwrapping Claire to feed her this evening and I discovered that Levi had put her little pants on backwards. It was too cute, I couldn’t stop laughing. A little while later Claire spit up on Levi; that must have been her revenge. I just never knew it would be so much fun having a little baby around. We both just can’t get enough of her and we never knew we could love another person so much!

-Elizabeth

How the heck was I supposed to know the bear goes on the back? Last time I change her clothes!

- Levi.

First Doctor’s Appointment

Note: After the previous post with pictures of Claire, we received many, many emails from some interested 4 and 5 day old boys. Sorry; she is not allowed to date until she is 16 years old.

That being said, Claire has a new little trick. When she is super sleepy, but trying to open her eyes; she opens her eyelids with her eyes rolled all the way back in her head so she looks like a crazed zombie baby. Give daddy a scare why don't you!

We went to the pediatrician today for her first appointment. We didn't get to see her regular pediatrician that visited us in the hospital because she was off today. The doctor came in the room for literally 3-4 minutes; listened to her breathe, and started to get ready to leave. Bah! We came all the way down for that? We have been a little concerned about her feeding; she can't stay awake long enough to eat anything. She weighed in at 7lbs 9.5 ounces. They said to call and let them know tomorrow if she has had a dirty diaper or not. I can imagine how that conversation will go, "Just wanted to let you know my daughter had a dirty diaper today".

She has seemed to be feeding better tonight. Let's all pray for poop.

We have still been taking the split shift; Levi up with the baby until about 3:30am and Elizabeth from about 3:30am until 9:30am. That way we are both getting about six hours of sleep. She was a little fussy last night. We have set up her bassinet; but she has never seen it- we haven't managed to set her down long enough.

Grandma and Grandpa Fergus, Uncle Logan, and Uncle Hayden came down again yesterday; they brought along a very special person- Claire's great great aunt Dorothy. She absolutely adored her, we were so glad she could come down.

Katie Ruhr brought us dinner tonight; BBQ chicken and rice, corn, salad, and brownies! Delicious. We were so glad to not have to cook.

Today Elizabeth's Aunt Cheryl and Uncle John came down to visit; and Elizabeth's mom and dad are coming down to spend the night. It's always nice when they come down- they are so helpful. Maybe if they watch the baby we can get to the laundry and dishes!

Welcome to the World Claire!

Claire Elizabeth Fergus
Born November 5, 2009 at 10:27pm
8.85 Pounds
20.5 Inches Long

The chaos began as a doubtful series of events. We had planned to go the Glockenspiel in Mt. Angel for dinner. I called Elizabeth at around 11:30am and told her that we should probably go for lunch instead since the prices are much more affordable. She told me not to worry about it because we probably wouldn’t be doing either.

At 12:30pm she called and said she was leaving work early because she was starting to feel what she thought were early labor contractions and also thought her water may have broken because of some extra fluid. I got home around 1:30pm and started rushing around the house throwing things in my bag and doing some last minute cleaning just in case today was the day.

After debating for a while whether or not to go to the hospital; we called the Willamette Valley Midwives for advice at about 2:55pm. They told us if there was a chance her water may have broken, it’s safest to go in to get checked out and by 3:00pm we were in the car and on our way. We left the house halfway- expecting to return shortly after being turned away at the hospital.

We got to the hospital and were all checked in by 3:30pm. We were put in a bed in the triage on the other side of the curtain from a lady who was disappointed to have started labor today because of her now ruined plans to go deer hunting. The triage nurse took a sample and took it to the lab for an amniocentesis. We sat in this holding area for quite some time.

Around 4:30pm Elizabeth started having some hard, painful contractions. At 4:35pm, Elizabeth exclaimed “I can’t do this anymore!”. Ha! That was the easy part!

After all of the research Elizabeth has done, she elected to partake in the full birthing experience and to do what’s best for the baby and go through the process without any pain medication. Many people were very critical of the decision, but she was very brave and stuck to it.

Around 5:00pm, we got back the results from the amniocentesis; it was negative- meaning that the fluid sample was not in fact amniotic fluid. This was discouraging news due to the intensity of the contractions she had been having. The triage nurse then checked her and found that she had dilated to between 5 and 6 centimeters. Within a few minutes we were transferred from the triage a legitimate birthing room. This baby was on its way!

About 5:35pm I went to grab the camera and headed to the café and ate a cheeseburger. Not very noteworthy, although it was delicious. When I returned, Elizabeth was in the Jacuzzi tub powering through contractions and using the buoyancy to take pressure off of her lower back. We had a wonderful nurse named Talitha who took such good care of all of us; all of the nursing staff here have been amazing- what a wonderful experience it’s been. I sent out a text to our families and the Borts’; everybody was so excited they started on their way down as soon as they heard what was going on.

Our original plan was to wait until the baby was born to have everyone down so they weren’t stuck waiting so long- and Elizabeth and I wanted to spend the first hour after birth alone with the baby. Plans change! We were glad everyone came down and were so excited.

At 7:45pm we met Lenny, the midwife that was on call to deliver our baby- ironically enough the only one of the midwives we hadn’t met yet. She checked Elizabeth’s progress and she was 8cm dilated and at 0 station. At 8:45pm Elizabeth hopped back in Jacuzzi tub- until they pulled her out and strapped her back onto the heart rate/contraction monitors. 9:10pm Lenny checked her out and she was 9cm dilated- she popped her bag of waters and things really started to move fast.

By 9:35pm she had dilated to 10cm; Lenny said she’s done- it was time to push. 9:40pm Elizabeth started pushing; and after 19 sets of 4 sets of 2 pushes and 19 sets of 3 pushes- at 10:27pm baby Claire was finally here!

Claire has a full head of dark black hair, very nice skin, and a hyperactive tongue. She loves to make little coo’s and squeaks and absolutely loves to suck on her hands. She is very squirmy; and so far very, very sleepy. Coming into a brand new world must really be exhausting!

Claire has already had some great visitors.

Grandma Debi

Grandma Janet and Grandpa Fergie; Uncle Logan (Hayden had to stay at our house because of H1N1 Swine Flu restrictions).

Aunt Lacey and Uncle Dan.

We are such a happy little family; we are so lucky! We are so lucky Baby Claire was born healthy and happy. We are so lucky Elizabeth is so strong and powered through all of the pain. We are so lucky to have such a great set of friends and family that take care of so much for us. We are so lucky I have a great job and great boss that allows me to take the time off to spend with my wife and little baby.

The baby is very healthy; Elizabeth had a lot of stitches- please keep her in your thoughts a prayers. They said we will be in the hospital until Saturday- wish us luck!