15 month check up - 17 months old

This picture is when she was about 15 months old, so it's relevant to this post :)

Took her to the doctor yesterday, she is 17 months old, so a bit behind on well checks due to a health insurance issue that took about a month to fix, now it's all squared away :)

Height: 32 inches  - 75%
Weight: 23 lbs. 7 oz. - 50 %
Head: 18 7/8cm - 90%

This is from my facebook:

"So after lots of time, I think we've pinpointed that Claire may have a VERY strong aversion to all milk products (don't think she's allergic, b/c no extreme reactions). Therefore, Dairy free peeps, I need your help! 

So grateful that Heavenly Father is looking out for me and her and I was able to have inspiration, mother's intuition, a "thought" whatever you might call it, answer my prayers and search for answers on this girl.

My evidence is 5 dairy free days and she was sleeping 11:30-6:30am uninterrupted!!!! Last night she managed to get Luke's sippy cup FULL of milk and downed at least half of it....the night was terrible with unending wake ups and crying.

Good news: I think I know now how to help her!"

Talked to the Doctor about dairy intolerance, said she was shocked that we found success b/c her symptoms didn't sound like a reason to remove dairy.  

Asked about her curved left foot....said just to watch and wait.  That nothing can be done, only would be put in a brace if it caused her to fall and she couldn't walk b/c it.

Still has a small herniated belly button.  Not to worry til she is 5.  Should go away on it's own.

I've noticed an improvement in her patchy eczema skin since removing dairy.  She still has dry skin but no patches.  Will keep watching this b/c it might have just been a way she was showing us her problem.

So grateful for all that we've learned in the past 2 weeks to help this girl! 

Measles, my thoughts.

Warning, stop reading if you are easily offended.

Did you know that children do not receive their first MMR (Measles Mumps Rubella) vaccine until they're 15 months old?  This means that Claire has been unprotected against these diseases until now.  This is not by choice, it is not allowed to be given earlier.

When the ebola scare was going on I thought, if one of us caught Ebola, we would all die, due to my children sharing their germs with one another constantly, and I wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.

I can and do choose to protect my children against other preventable diseases.  But, as I learned yesterday, I wouldn't have been able to protect her up until 15 months old.  There is no choice to babies and toddlers up until that age.

I felt like it was my duty to get a whooping cough vaccine before having Luke and Claire, they're too little to protect themselves and it's usually the adult that spreads it to them, before they have a chance to be immunized.

I'm sure I won't change anyone's mind about vaccines.

In Hawaii and Polynesia the first birthday is a HUGE celebration, bigger than some high school graduation celebrations I've seen on the Mainland, this is b/c to make it to the first birthday was a huge celebration and used to be rare.  Children would often die before one.

I know this was common in most other places in the world.  A huge factor was diseases killed these little ones.

We have the chance to protect our littles from these diseases now with vaccines and I feel strongly that we need to protect them and all others who have poor immune systems.

My dad had cancer and a bone marrow transplant.  He had a compromised immune system for YEARS after the bone marrow transplant.  He COULDN'T be protected if he encountered one of these diseases.  Claire COULDN'T have been protected up until 15 months.

Do we really want to put all of these people, babies and toddlers at risk of illness and death from diseases that don't need to be around anymore?

Just food for thought.

Family photos 2014

I'm in love with the family photos we had taken today by my good friend Tasha.  She did an amazing job, especially with all 6 of us.  I'm in love with these pictures.  I'm putting just some of them that she gave me, but it's hard to choose favorites. Not only did she take them, she also edited them had them on cd and delivered to me this evening, wow!  I hope you enjoy these pics, b/c I can't get enough!

1 year old!

Claire's birthday is today!  She is:

-Crawling
-Climbing onto anything she can, quite the climber
-Waves and says "hi"
-Says mama, dada
-Is sick on her birthday
-Takes 2 naps per day 2-3 hours per nap
-Wakes up at least once per night (being sick hasn't helped)
- Loves her siblings and all the attention she gets from them
-Her favorite thing is being outdoors
-She loves water = bath, pool, sink
-Loves to cuddle and be held


Claire's birth story:

I was scheduled to be induced with Claire on 8/27/2013.  We went into the hospital, checked in at 7am.  I was checked at the Dr. office a week before that and was di

lated 3 cm, so thought I'd go into labor before then, but I didn't.  Just lots of braxton hicks, or pre-labor contractions.  We went into the hospital nervous (b/c labor was impending) but excited.  Had my pillow to make things comfy and had the other 3 children watched by Grammy and Grampy.

From 7am-11am I was checked in, got a blood sample, IV started, got in a gown and then they hooked me up to an antibiotic.  I needed 2 rounds of the antibiotic which takes 3 or 4 hours per round.  So from 7-11am Rob and I just watched tv and hung out.

At about 11:30 am the nurse started me on pitocin.  She still didn't "check" my progress at all, which was fantastic for me.  They set it at the lowest setting and came to turn it up ever 30 minutes.  About noon they talked about getting me an epidural before the Dr. came to break my water.  I had requested this b/c last birth I progressed really fast after the water was broken and wanted an epidural, and was guessing I'd miss out if there was no epidural before the Dr. came.

Aboutr 12:30pm I got the epidural and was just starting to feel "uncomfortable" from the contractions.  One side wasn't as numb as the other, but not as bad as with Luke where one side could feel everything.  Epidural was relatively quick, but I was much more nervous during it b/c I wasn't in massive amounts of pain, so I was concerned about it, rather than just so relieved to get it.

At 1ish, the Dr. came in and broke my water.  She checked me before and I was already dilated 6cm, so I'm glad they hadn't checked me before she broke my water.  After she broke the water she said I was an 8.  She left the room and said she'd see me soon.

Within 10 minutes I felt like the epidural was broken and was in a lot of pain.  Nurse checked me and said I was a 10.  They set up for delivery and said I could start pushing.  We had called my mom at 1pm and told her that my water was broken and I was a 6 and she better head down quickly.  She walked into the room as I was pushing, 30 minutes from the phone call.

Claire was born a few minutes after my mom's arrival.  She was born at 1:45 pm , 8 lbs. even.

It was a very painful delivery despite the epidural, but I guess that's what happens when you go from no labor to baby delivered in 2 hours.  I honestly only felt like I was in labor from 12:30-1:45, so an hour fifteen minutes....fastest delivery of all 4.

Claire had fluid in her lungs and was purple with lower oxygen at birth.  Thankfully her nurse was so calm about it that I didn't know there was an issue.  I was able to hold her and do skin to skin and then they took her to clean her off and put her under an oxygen mask and rubbed her chest for quite awhile.  She was on oxygen for a good 30-45 minutes while I was being cleaned up and she was being cleaned up too.

Because of this I didn't hold her for about an hour, which seemed like quite awhile.  After a bit she would take the oxygen off and Claire's stats would drop but then with oxygen she went back to normal.  After that hour she was perfect.  For the next 2 days at the hospital it was rough with her coughing, spitting and choking on the extra fluid in her body (trying to get it all out). But, day by day she acted more and more like a normal newborn.  The first 2 days she acted the same as Luke had and I was so upset that I had another colicky/reflux baby to raise.  Thankfully she ended up with a milder case of reflux and no colic.

The hospital stay was nice besides the fluids in Claire.  Rob and I had a blast ordering food and also found out that we could get tiny Ben and Jerry's ice cream with my meal, so we'd order those too.  It was a great time to bond with JUST Claire, not the whole family.

I definitely also felt like relieved that this was the last baby and last hospital stay and last postpartum recovery I'd have to endure.

Now here we are a year later and I can't believe it flew by this quickly.

We were blessed with a sweetheart, Claire Olivia Douglas.

He did it! E went to Kindergarten!  The day was glorious for me.  So quiet and relaxing b/c Claire went down for a nap once we dropped him off.  Luke played in a pool in the front yard and then watched a tv show.  I relaxed, cleaned and prepped food for dinner.  I also went through one of the kids closets and de-cluttered it, which is one of my HUGE goals for our entire house.  I want to get EVERYTHING unnecessary out of here, but more about that later.

Rob and I were able to walk with him to school drop off.  Bre, Mikey, Amari, Hugo and Ethan all rode bikes to school and Rob pushed the little ones in the stroller.  He didn't cry and didn't look back when he walked into the school in his class line, following his teacher.  I will remember that the kids backpacks are almost as big as all the kids, they all look little (especially compared to Breanna's 2nd grade class).

He said it was a good day.  He had no complaints, and was all smiles when I picked him up from school.  Normally I will just drop him off, but today I did both, b/c it was a special first day.  It was nice doing the walk to and from school, it was a warm, but beautiful day outside and I think the kids enjoyed the fresh air.

The little ones played in the pool in the front yard about 10 times today.  I changed them over and over again from wet to dry, wet to dry, wet to dry.  But, they're super happy while playing in there.  Luke brought out tons of his trains and was driving them down the slide into the pool....they're wooden, so that can't be good for them, but once again, I didn't worry b/c it kept him busy and happy.

Took a tiny walk with just Luke when Rob got home from work.  I think it made his night.  He kept smiling at me over and over.  Rob made Ethan and Breanna's night by jumping and playing with them on the trampoline.  They ask him a lot to do this and they were thrilled when he spent lots of time with them playing on the trampoline.

The best part is....we get to do it all again tomorrow!  Send the 2 older to school again, hallelujah!  I really felt like a good mom today, which was so nice, b/c I've felt not so much like that the past while.  It was a long summer with all 4 home all day long everyday, so this new change we've started, feels amazing!

Monday/Tuesday's

Right now Mondays and Tuesday's are Rob's days off from work, therefore, it's our weekend :)  No big deal throughout the summer, but now that school has started again we will need to make a big effort to do things with the kids from 3:30-7pm on both of those days, b/c that is our chance to be together, all 6 of us, throughout the week.

The big first day of Kindergarten for E is tomorrow, wahoo!  He had his assessment today and did pretty well.  He knew his numbers, most of the uppercase letters and some of the lowercase letters.  Actually kinda surprised that he couldn't identify a circle for the shape test, but could identify a diamond....hmmm, but he did great!

Now to see how life is with just two littles from 9am til 12pm everyday, let's see, I"ll let you know how it goes.

Sunday's

We attend church every week. It is usually the 3 hardest hours of my week. These pics were taken in less than 5 minutes and it's just 2 out of the 4 kids (all age 7 and under) that we expect to sit and listen reverently. I go because of my personal beliefs and faith in Jesus Christ. I also go so my kids have a good moral foundation. I couldn't do it without the kind friends at church who weekly help me and truly love my kids, despite all the chaos. I don't go because it's easy