Lydia is 1 month

It almost doesn't seem like it but our new Baby Lydia turned 1 month old today. Things have been a lot busier since coming home from the hospital and now having 2 kids. Claire is still very proud of her baby sister. Lydia has been a good influence on Claire. It used to be hard to get Claire to drink her milk but now that she sees her baby sister drink it, she will now ask me for her cup of milk. Lydia is such a strong eater and at a week old started drinking 3 ounces and now is up to 4 ounces. She continues to sleep a lot and is a very content baby. She has started sleeping between 3-4 hours at night.

Lydia lounging in her favorite bouncy seat

Chad multi-tasking with both girls.

 Some fun pictures of the girls together......

Claire was gearing up for the River City Roundup Rodeo

Lydia's Birth Story

Our new baby girl Lydia Ann was born on Sept 7th at 12:01pm. She weighed 7 lbs 2.6 ounces and was 20 inches long. She had a unique birthing story and ended up being delivered in my doctors office since my labor was only 4.5 hours long. When I called my doctor to tell him that I thought I was ready to go to the hospital after only having contractions for 2.5 hours he told me I had better come into his office so that he could check my cervix before trying to check into the hospital. So 45 minutes later when I showed up at his office and he made me wait  another 15-20 minutes to see him. He told me I was fully dilated and could have this baby now if I really wanted to. I had only hoped I was 4-5 centimeters dilated so that I could go to the hospital and have an epidural started because I was in so much pain. I told him I would rather go to the hospital since it was only a few minutes away from his office. After my doctor told me they could not give me any pain medicine at the hospital and calling a rescue squad to take me and waiting another 15-20 minutes I felt the urge to push. I gave about 8 good pushes and Lydia ended up being born at the doctors office on an exam room table. This was the first time in over 37 years that my doctor had delivered a baby in his office. A few minutes after I delivered we were sent in the ambulance to finish up in the Labor and Delivery at Bergan Mercy. Lydia's Echo cardiogram was done on Thursday and they found 2 minor heart abnormalities a PDA (Patent Ductus Arteriosus) and a PFO (Patent Foramen Ovale) that are common in infants and should fix themselves over the next 6 months. Our Pediatrician reassured us that she has clean bill of health. Big sister Claire is very proud of her new sister and still continues to be a good gentle helper. We had a lot of friends and family come visit us in the hospital and came home on Friday afternoon.

                                                     

Claire's First Day of Preschool

Today was Claire's first day of Preschool. We had been telling her for the last month that she had to be good or she couldn't go to Preschool and it was a good way to get her to behave. She was excited to go and talked about it often. It was funny to see some of her other classmates because they were all so shy and just looking around at each other like who are you. When I picked her up she had already made new friends, done a few art projects, and played on the playground. Neither Claire nor I cried, I am not sure who I am more proud of.....

Summertime Fun!

This summer has kept us busy! We spent a day at Adventureland in June, drove up to the Gavins Point Dam and then spent almost a week in Branson, Mo and Table Rock Lake just a few weeks ago. This summer has flown by and made this pregnancy go fast also. Our 2nd baby girl will be due in the next month on Sept 12th, or sooner if I have any say. Claire took swimming lessons this spring, gymnastics this summer and will start part-time Preschool next week on Tues, August 16th. Claire has just started learning how to ride a bike with training wheels and loves to be outside. She loves to go on bike rides with Dad, swimming, and going to the Zoo. Her favorite things at the Zoo are monkeys, girafees, and the jungle.                                      
                                     

Claire with our dog Joe playing in the backyard

Claire finally got up enough courage to go over the shaky bridge

 in the Jungle at the Zoo.

Claire with Grandma Dalrymple looking over at the

Gavins Point Dam

                                     
                                         Claire loved boating on Table Rock Lake

New Baby!

We are excited to announce we just found out that we are having another baby girl! She will be due September 12th. Big Sister Claire was right the whole time and kept telling us she knew it was a girl...

Claire is 28 Months

Claire is now a little over 28 months old. She had a developmental Clinic at Children's Hospital on 3/8/11 to check her skills since her surgery over 2 years ago. The doctor said the average score was around 100. Claire scored a 115. They said nothing about her development was a concern and that they were impressed with many of her different skills. She definitely still continues to amaze us and we thank god everyday for our healthy little girl. She likes to sing along to her favorite songs in the car and just got a swing set for the back yard that we are waiting on getting some nice weather to install it. I added a video and some recent pictures.

a fun video of Claire in a bounce house at a recent birthday party

Claire has been doing great in swimming lessons and we signed her up for another semester

Claire riding a Police motorcycle in Minneapolis

Claire waiting for her appointment at Children's Hospital

Claire's cheesy "happy face"

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Happy Valentines Day!

Claire is still doing a lot of new things each day and finally loves going to her swimming lessons. Now she asks if we are going to swimming lessons everyday! Claire had a great time at the Midwest Heart Connections Banquet last night. I wanted to share some pictures.

Claire with her heart surgeon Dr. Hammel or as Claire calls him "camel"

This is a friend Joel that we met last night who had his first

 heart surgery in 1969. Total he has had 3 heart surgeries

 and is doing great!

Claire learned how to do the chicken dance

and then she danced all night!