Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our elf to you!

Our house!

10 years ago today - we purchased our house. Still love it!

Meeting more Family

Clarissa got to meet her Great Grandma Marilyn Rose last Tuesday. She is her first great grandchild. They also share a middle name!


Clarissa also met her Great Uncle Gary.
She was happy they had come all the way from Ohio to meet her!

Skol Vikings!

Clarissa and her dad like watching Vikings games together - especially when they win!!
Even the dogs get in on the lazy Sunday afternoon!!

A Week With Grandma

My Mom has been here all week helping me out. It's been so nice to have someone to cook, clean, and help out so much. We're going to miss her when she leaves tomorrow! As you can see, everyone likes her - Just a cozy spot on the couch!

I also took this cute picture of Clarissa. She always puts her arms in such cute positions when she sleeps! I do need to get more awake pictures of her, but it's so fun to talk to her at that point, that I don't want to pick up the camera!
We've been huddled inside all week since it's been so cold. Not that Claire can really go out and play, but it's hard to even take her to her Dr appointments when it's this cold out! Hopefully it'll warm up a little soon.

Attempts at a Christmas Card

Sunday, Auntie Breanne and I tried to get a good Christmas picture out of Claire. Unfortunately, she wasn't awake for it, unless we were changing her, and then she was awake but unhappy!!

Here's the first outfit, kind of a Christmas elf look. And a close up - That was cute, but I didn't like that it covered her head. This one was okay, but not quite right.I tried one with the dogs, but she just ended up leaning one way,And then the other way. I think even the dogs didn't like that one! So, what did I use? You'll just have to check your mailbox in a week or so. Or whenever those cards come!

Family

My family came over on Saturday to see Clarissa. My parents always have a picture in their Christmas card with the grandchildren, so this year, Clarissa got to be a part of it! Here's one of the outtakes. It's hard to get a 6, 3 and 1.5 week old to all look the same way, but we tried!
Here's one of just the grandchildren.
My grandma Alpha also came over to meet her 14th great grandchild.
This is our niece Ava holding Claire. Her mom said she used this as a bribe all week - if she wasn't good, she couldn't hold the baby. Ava also said that Claire was smaller than some of her Odies (that's what she calls all of her dolls). Here's my mom with her 3rd grand child. She's here this week helping me out and said she'd be lucky to get great grand children, let alone 14 like her mother! Here's my brother with Claire. He couldn't believe how small she was! It was great to see all of them and have everyone meet Clarissa.

Photo Shoot

I tried taking a couple of pictures of Clarissa today by herself. She wasn't really happy about that. Getting a little fussy...

Now Baron has to see what's going on...

And then Dad had to take a picture of his little girl today in the most lady-like position. I guess she wasn't that happy with him!

Sorry - not about Claire!

In addition to having a baby, we've been putting in a bathroom on our 3rd level. Okay, "we" really means Todd! It's looking really cool - so much so that I'd like to redo our bathroom upstairs! It's not quite finished, note there is no ceiling yet, but here's what it looks like so far.

It'll be so nice to have two bathrooms. I'm excited to have it done!

A couple of Pictures

Just some pictures from this week.


Finally a picture of Dad with Claire. Claire in her swing with her eyes open.
Claire taking some lip from Mom.
Baron finally getting close to the baby.
An adorable hat I got from this Etsy shop.
Oh, and for those of you wondering, she goes by Clarissa or Claire.

The Dogs and their new Sister

The big question we get is how are the dogs with the new baby? Well, as you can imagine, they fall into two categories. Orion has found himself a new job. He is baby protector number 1. If she cries, he is the first one out of bed or off the couch right there at her. He's gotta check her out to make sure she's okay. He even sits in her room at night as we feed her to make sure everything goes well. I think food is still number one in his life, but she's a close second.
Baron, well, he's Baron. He's still getting used to her. He used to run away every time she cried. But now he's a little more tolerable. He is sniffing her now and has even given a couple of kisses. I think he's still pissed that he's not the baby any more. This picture is him outside of her room. It's funny to watch both of them with her. Everyone is still in the getting to know you faze, but I'm sure they'll both be okay with her soon.

She's Here!!

Clarissa Rose Crum was born on Tuesday, November 24th at 4:40pm. She was 6lbs 10oz and 19 inches long. She's got blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair. It looked curly at first, but now it's pretty straight.
She was definitely a surprise! I wasn't feeling good on Tuesday and couldn't feel her move. I went into labor and delivery to see if there was anything wrong. My blood pressure was high (first time during the pregnancy!) and her heart beat wasn't fluctuating as much as they like to see. I was put on oxygen and an IV to see if they could get things back to normal. When that didn't work, they talked about inducing me in a couple of hours and having her the next morning. Things still weren't progressing like they wanted it to, so they talked about inducing me right away. One of the nurses looked at my numbers again, talked to the Dr, and they decided she needed to come out NOW. Todd was thrown a pair of scrubs and I was whisked away to the OR. About 40 minutes later, she was born. It took them another 40 minutes to close me up. I guess I had preeclampsia and she had a meconium in utero. She wasn't doing too well after she was born. Her lugs were filled with meconium. They really had to work on her to get her breathing. I did get to see her after she was cleaned up and they were bringing her up to the nursery. But because of her infections, I wasn't able to see her again until the next day, which was really hard. Todd was pretty much the only one who could see her until the next day. Plus, they had to keep her in the nursery at all times, instead of keeping her in my room. We both were on antibiotics and IV's. I am happy to say that both of us are doing great now and she has no complications or anything from her rough start on life.

This is a picture of the first time I could actually hold her.
Here's the little baby in the big crib!
I am now on maternity leave until February. I'd love guests, but just let me know when you're coming. Clarissa really likes guests too!

Baby's Room

I've finally remembered and had a good day to take some pictures of the baby's room. We're pretty much ready for her arrival. I'm already dialated to a 2 almost 3, so it could be any day now. The Dr isn't letting me go over my due date (Dec 7) because of my gestational diabetes. So, without further ado, here's the room!

This used to be our computer room/guest room. It's right next to our bedroom, which will be nice. I made the "believe" sign that's above the door way. My crafty friends made the "Baby Crum" banner for one of my showers. It was so cute I had to put it up! The walls are a little brighter than they show up in pictures. The bedding we got at Target. I'll be taking down the bumper pads once she's here, but you have to have them up for pictures! To the left of the bed is a bunch of blankets that were made for the baby. They are beautiful.

Here's a close up of the crib. It's one of those that can be made into a toddler bed and then into a full size bed. Dh's grandma made the afghan that is on the left hand side. It's gorgeous!
So going around the room to the left, this is the bookcase. The little Raggedy Ann night light was mine as a kid. I just need a new power plug for it. I love the art work that we picked out. Dh's Aunt and Cousin got it for us. Here's a picture of the closet. We had a diaper party while we were in Ohio, so we're pretty stocked up for now! I've got to do a little organizing in there, but otherwise it's ready to go!
This is the dresser we got. The picture above it was one of my favorites from when I was a kid. It's a cross stitch of a house. The colors are a little 70's, but I still love it. Here is the other side of the room from the crib. The little rocker is mine from when I was a kid, given to me by my Godmother. My mother made the Raggedy Ann doll and bear that sits in it. The glider we ordered from Target. It's really comfortable. I'm sure I'll be spending a lot of time in it! And then there's the final part of the room. The mirror above the dress is from my Grandma E's house. It matches perfectly! And I love all of the storage the dresser has - much better than the regular changing tables they had out there. Now all that's missing is the baby!

Wow. I'm really bad at this.

I can't believe that I haven't updated in so long!

Everything has been going good so far with the pregnancy. I'm 27 weeks now. Less than 100 days. Scary! We finally got the bedroom downstairs done so we could move most of the stuff out of the baby's room. Now we just need to move the computer and we'll be set! We got the crib and one of the dressers (the other one is on back order) so we can set that up as soon as we paint, which will probably be this weekend.

I have been feeling good. Finally started feeling the baby move last Sunday. The placenta is in front, so it makes it hard to feel movement. I'm really tired today, but that comes and goes depending on the day. We just got back from four days relaxing at the cabin, so I should be well rested! Oh well!

I'll post pictures when we start on the room.

Blog Change

It's pink for a girl!!

Ultrasound Pictures

We went to have our 20 week ultrasound on Thursday. We had hopes of finding out if the baby was a boy or girl, but the umbilical cord was in the way and the baby was moving too much. It make it hard to get all of the pictures they needed, but finally the tech was able to. We got to see the 4 chambers of the heart, the brain, spine, femer, and a bunch of other stuff.

Here's a picture of the face - which is on the right.
Profile shot
The arrow is pointing to a foot. She estimated them to be 1 inch in length.
Another profile shot
Both feet
Face shot
Looking down at baby, on the right is the head, two arms, and then probably the knees.
Profile with a hand in the air.
Looking down on baby.
We're hoping our doctor will bring us in for another ultrasound to find out if it's a boy or girl, but we'll have to see. Our next appointment is next week.