Grandma Katherine's Visit

My mom came down for a visit. Saturday morning we had Mediterranean Omelettes, and she made Claire laugh. Here are some pics.

Claire's Blessing

Here are some pictures of Claire's blessing. We forgot to take one of her in her dress. We'll get one of that up later.

Halloween

Here are some overdue Halloween pictures.

Marcella and I carved the pumpkin on the far left. Kanien carved the mini pumpkin, and David carved the one on the right.

Marcella's loot

Kanien was a flapper girl

Nordic Bo Peep and Long Lost Sheep Costume GIVEAWAY!!!!

Nordic Bo Peep and Long Lost Sheep Costume GIVEAWAY!!!!
Check out this Costume. It would be so cute for Marcella's dress up box.

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

I am sad because I am a little late for this, but check out the dress it is amazing. It would have been perfect for the dress up box I am creating for Marcella for Christmas. It is amazing though go look at it.
Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

So BIG!

Today Marcella and I put Claire on the floor to play with her for a little bit. She was on her tummy for a few minutes, when she decided she didn't like that and she rolled over. It was pretty funny, because Marcella and I started dancing and clapping. We were pretty excited. It was most likely a fake out, and she won't do it again for another 2 months, but she is our little Wigglewe worm, as Marcella would say.

Then we rolled her back on her tummy and she decided she wanted to look around. She was doing this for about 5 minutes. She would look all around and then lay her head down to rest. Marcella and I had a lot of fun cheering her on. I bet if you could have heard us you would have died laughing. I hope you have a fun evening!

What does

...this Fabulous, on sale, Tony's pizza,

these Chocolate covered Cinnamon Bears,

Gilmore Girls,

and this sassy girl all have in common?

She went on her first date while the rest stayed with me. We both had a fabulous time! Thanks Daddy you are the BEST!!

5 GeNeRaTioNs

It is crazy to think that not very many people can say they have a 5 generation picture. Marcella on the other hand is pretty lucky. Her and her Great Great Grandmother were almost 100 years apart to the day, (just a couple weeks off). Grandma Noni was born in 1905 and Marcella in 2005, I think it is incredible to look at this picture and think about the things that happened in that hundred years. From Left to Right: Back row: Richard (Jon's Dad) Jon, Marcella Front Row: Keith (Jon's Dad's Dad), Noni (Keith's mom)

With that being said, I was looking at the 5 generation picture the other day I feel sad that I haven't gotten one with all the grandparents on the other sides of the family, so I decided the next time we were with any of the grandparents I would make sure to get a generation picture. I think they are amazing to look at. So I was able to get this picture yesterday. From left to right: Terry (my mom), Claire, Me, Marcella, and Grandma Pollard (my mom's mom).

Everyone was having a good laugh because Claire had the worse case of the hiccups and was making the funniest faces ever.

My little girl is growing up, but she would say, "no mommy I'm not little, I'm big!"
She started ballet last Wednesday and she had so much fun. Well, she will tell you she loved it, but during the lesson she was really nervous and scared, so not until she came home did she start doing everything she learned and went crazy in the living room. I am hoping her nervousness wears off and she ends up having fun at the lesson as well, I will let you know how it goes this week.

These are her fairy wings that she uses to fly to Disneyland to see all the princesses.

Meet Chris. He will be the newest member to be added to the Wallin Clan on January 3rd. I think the picture just explains it all, he fits in rather nicely.

Sunday we had a fun Thanksgiving Day Dinner. It was so yummy thanks Mom and Dad and everyone else that helped. This is about the extent of what I did to prepare, but I did offer up my child for clean up duty.

Yep she ended up washing them all by hand. She only had to clean up after 15 people so it wasn't too bad. If you look real close I think she is still smiling. (Side note: I think she might have made a bigger mess and Lizzy and Kristin ended up cleaning it all up. Thanks Gals you are the cutest and the Awesomest. Someday you will really be able to make Marcella clean it all up and hopefully she will do the job as good as you guys did.)

Sunday was a crazy day, as Jon and Marcella were leaving for Church I got called into work to reset an alarm, so they ended up being late for church and then came home during nursery for a much needed nap (and because all the other crying kids freaked Marcella out and wouldn't let Jon leave, she actually wouldn't get off his lap so they came home). I walked in to see this, and it just made me laugh so I had to get a picture. I love Sunday Nap time.

Here is Claire's new trick. We like to call her little bobble head, because she acts just like a little bobble head doll. It has been fun to watch her. Just before Jon came in with the camera, she was holding her head all the way up and just making funny faces at me. I was laughing so hard. Then once the Camera came she was being a little bobble again and most of the pictures we got are super blurry.

Last but not least here is a sneak peak of the super cute pictures I got for Claire's birth announcement, I am hoping to get them sent out this week, so we will see how that goes. I hope everyone gets a chance this week to have a day like I am having today. A fun relaxing one with the ones you love. Have a good one!

Who's Who?

The other day I went in and saw Claire asleep and it reminded me of a picture I have of Marcella sleeping just about the same way and I had to get a picture. Crazy how much they look the same. I sure love sleeping babies, I just had to share how cute it is. Any guesses on who is who?

What a good Big Sister!

This is after Claire's first car ride. Marcella could hardly stand to wait any longer to hold her.

I am sad that these next pictures are blurry because They really show how excited she was to hold baby Claire for the first time. The first thing she did was run to the chair and take off her shoes, then she kept laughing and smiling. It was the cutest thing ever!

Marcella really was the happiest girl you ever saw. She sat and held Claire for about 20 minutes, just singing her songs, talking to her and laughing. It was pretty cute. She loves watching her every move.

We are so happy to have baby Claire home. We were able to bring her home without learning how to do the feeding tube so I am so glad about that. We picked her up Monday morning and it has been wonderful ever sense. I hope you enjoy the pictures, I will try to post more later.

My Love/Hate Relationship

So I am wondering if anyone else out there has had this problem, or maybe it is just me, but I am beginning to HATE Claire's nurses. Of course it is only one day in every couple or so that I get one that tells me things like, "how many times have you held your baby today? You are only suppose to hold her twice a day." Or something else like "Well, I was too busy chatting about all of my problems in my life, so I decided she didn't need a bottle, I just tube fed her instead. So ya, sorry it looks like she will have to stay another day because she didn't take a bottle every three hours today." Sometimes I just want to scream....

Yet on the other hand, I Love most of these nurses for taking care of my sweet baby. How can you get mad at people who are helping your baby get better. It will be three weeks tomorrow since this whole ordeal happened I guess I can and should just expect that I will get a bad nurse about every 3rd day/night, so really I shouldn't be surprised, but as you might be able to tell I had a bad one last night and it is driving me crazy at the moment. So I decided that I will just have to step it up and be at the Hospital every three hours to feed her so it actually gets done.

Well, so far today she has taken a bottle every single time from 5:30am til now, so we are doing awesome. The funny thing is I finally got to talk with the Dr. and he said that if we are ok with learning how to put a feeding tube in then we can take her home! So we will see how that goes. I am really nervous about it, but I am hoping I can do it, because then I might be able to have my baby at home by Monday. It is crazy, but I never thought I would have to do this, I think with our next child I will be prepared to have some kind of Hospital stay, because it sure is becoming a trend in our family.

I really thought I would have this child down packed. I would know what signs to look for if she had an allergy etc. but instead I have to learn how to stick some tube down my daughters nose and get it into her stomach (because if you don't get it in her stomach then it could go in her lungs) so she gets enought to eat. I am hoping that when I take her home I will just be able to give her the whole bottle every time, which is what I do when I am at the hospital Then I can just blame Claire being in the hospital forever on the nurses.

Claire Bear

Claire is doing well. The criteria for her coming home consist of her breathing on her own, eating on her own, and gaining weight. When she takes all of her feedings from a bottle for three days in a row, she'll be ready to come home. She's been off the oxygen for a couple of days, and has been holding her levels just fine. Yesterday they moved her from an Isolette into a crib. She just needs to get a bit better at eating and she'll be home. We don't know how long it will take, but we're hoping it's real soon.

Pictures of Claire

Here are a few pictures of Claire and an update of what's happened since our last post.

She was taken of the ventilator on the 12th, about a week ago. It felt pretty good to get a better look at her face.

On the 13th, she had her umbilical arterial line taken out. They were confident she wouldn't go back on the ventilator, so they no longer needed to do blood gas tests, which rendered the UAL obsolete. Once it was out, they let us hold her. She started to feel a bit more like "our baby" after that.

At this point they stopped all of the sedatives she was on, and started to bring down the levels of blood pressure medicine she was taking. That meant she would be more alert, awake, and aware of her surroundings.

She even opened her eyes a little bit.

On the 14th, they started feeding her with the milk Kanien had been pumping. She had a tube down her esophagus to vent gas that might build up in her stomach, which doubled as a feeding tube once she was able to eat. They started by giving her 5 cc's of milk, and gradually worked it up. A normal feeding is 52 cc's.

Happy Daddy

Marcella stayed at her Grandma Dougal's house. She loves the bikes and their dog, Chester. Having her there made an unbelievable difference for us, since they won't let anyone under 18 into the NICU.

On the 15th, two days after Kanien was discharched, we "moved in" with the McCann family. They live about 10 minutes from the hospital, so we could try and attend Claire's feeding and care sessions, which take place every 3 hours. Caroline and Jeff let us stay in their bedroom. This is Marcella's bed on the floor of their room.

On th 16th they tried to move Claire into a crib. She was wearing a onesie, pjs, two hats, and three blankets, but she couldn't maintain her body temperature without the heater, so they moved her back.

She's been doing pretty well with a bottle. The nurses tell us as long as she's awake, she'll eat from a bottle. Her feedings are up to 32 cc's now.