My first born...

*In honor of my first born child's recent 4th birthday and because Amy( I put it on there too, Amy!) tagged me on facebook, I am doing this little meme. I thought I would share it on my blog because right now I just really am struggling for things to post about! Play along if you would like!

1. Were you married at the time?
Yes

2. What was your reaction when you found out you were pregnant?
Long story but I fell off of the dr.'s table! Really!

3. How old were you?
25

4. How did you find out you were pregnant?
we could not have children for 7 yrs. I was at the ddr.'s office getting my horomone levels checked for infertility tests. She also did a pregnancy test.(blood test) Routine. I was just pregnant enough for it to show up. About 3 weeks. My progesterone levels were a -4. Not good at all. Went to a specialist that very day. Cost me $1,000 up front. Put on progesterone and stayed on it until I was 4 months pregnant. Never been so sick in my entire life. Migraines nausea vomiting could not even lift my head ! Awful but worth every bit!

5. Who did you tell first?
My Mom because she was with me at the dr.'s. Then home to tell Charlie .(I didn't want to tell him on the phone so I just to him to get dressed because we had to go the the specialist. he thought I was dying! I felt so bad! But I wanted to tell him in person!

6. Did you want to find out the sex?
Yes, we found out because we didn't know if we could have another baby(haha!) and we wanted to do the nursery up either really girly or boyish.

7. Due date?
February 14th, 2005 and February 21st ( I had 2 due dates!)

8. Did you deliver early or late?
day after; induced

9. Did you have morning sickness?
See #4 AWFUL!!!!! Alll day & all night sickness

10. What did you crave?
Ice chips and when I could actually eat at about 7 months, Taco Bell

11. What irritated you the most?
Being SICK

12. What was your first child's sex?
Female

13. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy?
19

14. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy?
low blood pressure & blood sugar

15. Where did you give birth?
McAlester Regional Medical Center, McAlester, OK

16. How many hours were you in labor?
15

17. Who drove you to the hospital?
Charlie

18 . Did you take medicine to ease the pain?
Epidural but I was already transitioning when they gave it to me ;Once I get to a four, I go fast!

19 . How much did your child weigh?
6 lbs. 15 oz.

20 . What did you name him/her/them?
Claire Victoria Rose (LONG story but a good one)

21 . How old is your first born today?
4

22. Who does your child look like?
Me & Charlie; A combination of my sister Tammy and Charlie's sister, Cheryl, I think.

23. Did you get mad at your husband during labor?
a little before my epidural ; one word, transition. Not really mad, just irritated. He wanted to eat!

24. Who was with you in the delivery room?
My God (see below),My husband,My Mom, nurses, and doctor,

25. Funniest moment during labor?
I don't really have a funny story. Claire was born in distress. She wasn't breathing and was purple.She had almost no heart beat. So, all I remember about that is being scared to death and praying that God wouldn't take her. But, this is funny: the day after Claire was born, dr. came around to see us. He was talking to me about nursing. Claire just wasn't latching on good. So he told me not to worry. He said that he was formula fed and he turned out to be a Dr. Then he said, my sister was breast fed and she is a drug addict and he wasn't joking! What he was trying to say it being formula fed will not make you a terrible person. It was pretty funny to a woman who had just gave birth and was extremely worried about being able to breastfeed!

Rattling around in my head...

*Updated with pictures at the bottom of the post!!!!!

Um, yeah. The best title I could come up with for all that I have been dwelling on lately. Must be the horomones! =)

* Is baby a boy for sure? How do I know? (See, how useless is it to worry about this? And, so what if it is a girl?! Either one is fine with me & Charlie!)

* I get up at 4am with Charlie almost every day and don't get to sleep until around 10:30 or 11 pm. After I get up with him, it takes me about an hour to go back to sleep and then Claire is up at 6 am. So, I am just a little tired all of the time!

* I am really ready for Fall!!! It's raining a lot here and cooling down some already which is extremely strange for August where we live! It's usually so dry and HOT all month and into September! I am loving this weather even if our finances aren't (Charlie can't work much when it rains).

* Still not completely ready for Andrew. I just can't seem to get it all together with this 3rd baby. I desperately want to but I am just so tired and occupied with taking care of Charlie & the girls. So, I am feeling some Mommy guilt already.

* Read Romans this morning. I don't really remember which chapter! LOL. =) I could not go back to sleep so I read and then I fell asleep reading. I think it was the 8th chapter! I do remember reading about our sin nature and the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. =)

* Thinking about posting about a serious issue. Trying to figure out exactly what to say. I usually don't like to deal with the aftermath I get when I post about things like that but I feel this is important. We'll see.

* Making a ham in the crockpot and cooking pinto beans, steamed cabbage and mashed potatoes with it. Of course, sweet tea. And little Miss Clairee made her Daddy a cake this morning. =)

* My dr.'s appt. got rescheduled today. Going early next week and I am actually hoping to have the baby before then. I am shooting for Paul (the 24th?) or Kylie's (the 27th?) birthdays!!!! =)

*Did "school" with Claire today! We made circles and stars and cut and pasted them on construction paper. We also worked on her counting and the letter "R". She is doing so great and I am SO proud of my babies!! Lily is scribbling away on her construction paper while Sissy works!!! I will post the pictures I took of their artwork sometime today. My computer still does not cooperate with that very well so I have to use my Mom's to load my pictures until we can afford a new one!

* Charlie's home for the 3rd day this week. Check will be small but the Lord will provide. HE always does. =)

*Lily has a head cold and Claire is getting one. They are stuffed up pretty bad right now. =(

* Going to go and play catch with Claire and go for a walk. Hope I can get baby to come on down!!! Pray for us please as we near the birth of our precious little one!

Lily can do school, too!

Claire's circles & stars(the stars were traced with a cookie cutter, I know they are funny looking but I think they are the cutest stars, ever! She also cut and pasted these with VERY little of Mama's help, I am so proud!!!

Love and Prayers to all,
Julie

Claire & my many blessings....

I am so proud of this little girl. I am so blessed to be her Mama and watch her learn so many new things and grow into such a sweet and beautiful young lady.

She received a baby doll the other day that looks like a real live baby and squishes its face up and cries and makes sucking noises just like a real baby. She calls it her "baby bruddher (brother)" and takes such wonderful care of it. She "changes" it's diapers and feeds it a bottle and rocks it and sings a wide variety of songs to this little baby doll. It's so precious to watch.

She is counting really well and learning her letters. It is so much fun to work with her on all of those things. We love it! She is also learning to swim a little at a time. You can't push Claire, she does everything at her own pace and I so love that about our oldest girl! =)

Claire is very focused on her sister. She adores sissy and adores being the older sister. She is also very good at bossing sissy and correcting her (I have to remind her that I am the Mama, lol). She always worries about sissy and talks to her in the cutest ways.

Every morning she comes into our bedroom and gets in the bed with me to snuggle. She lies there and talks to me nonstop until we get up and get ready for the day. We blew bubbles this morning and giggled in the bathroom so we wouldn't wake up Sis. She is quite the master bubble blower! She is amazed that you can make bubble solution with dish soap and her shampoo! =) That was SO much fun and a great memory!

I love the way she sings to Sissy at night and when sissy is fussy or sleepy. She sings "Jesus Loves Me" and "Everybody ought to know". The other day she was trying to sing, "Wonderful words of life" and Lily kept fussing so Claire said, "Sissy, hush! I try sing wonful words to life but you make me not know words to life, Care not happy with you, sissy!" See why I LOVE being their Mama!!! =) They are unbelievably precious!!!

We have also learned a new thing to help Mama make: Brownies!! She loves to make brownies! It was cupcakes for a while and she still loves to do that but for now her most favorite is brownies. She is going to be such an unbelievably great cook !!! She does good! She already knows all the ingredients for sweet stuff! She knows eggs, butter, sugar, flour, vanilla and her fave right now, COCOA!! =)

I felt like bragging on my Care-bear today and I am thanking God for my sweet little girls. Claire is such an incredible gift in my life and her Daddy and I thank God every day for the chance to be parents to her and her sister and brother. Claire made us a Mama & a Daddy. She made us a family of three and today I am savoring the gift and the feeling of being her mama and also of being a mama to another precious little girl, Lily(thank you God!) and baby Drew (what a blessing!).

I love you, Lord Jesus and please make me worthy, mold me and make me into the wife and mother you want me to be. Thank you for this awesome chance that I never thought I would have and the amazing blessing of Charlie, the greatest husband and the most loving, kind and gracious Daddy to our children. I love them (Charlie, Claire, Lily & Drew) SO very much and you, Lord, are SO very good to me! Thank you for my family Lord and all the blessings that you have rained down upon us. What a marvelous God is our God!