More firsts for Claire

As usual, we've been keeping Claire's social calendar pretty full. She's definately mobile and we hate to miss out anything that our friends or family are doing!

On Saturday Claire slept through dinner with some of my high school friends. Of course we were late and ended up leaving early. It just seems like we either have zero plans or all of the plans happen in the same day. Claire was a perfect angel during dinner with Blair, Tyler, Kylyn, Caden, Molly & Emily.

After pizza we headed to "Uncle" John's birthday party. He's turning 30 pretty soon so "Aunt" Marla and Jeremiah threw him a bowling party in Savoy. Claire spent most of the night eating dinner under her blanket, but got to meet a few new people too!

Claire gets to meet "Uncle" John.

and "Uncle" Ryan

We let "Aunt" Amy play with the camera for a while. Here I am with my favorite 2 year old, Jeremiah!

Trever is such a good daddy! Claire tends to be fussy during the evening hours unless she is eating. Daddy tends to have the magic touch to get her to quiet down!

On Sunday we were off to church again and then the three of us enjoyed some snuggling and napping. It was nice to be able to spend time at home, just the three of us. Sunday evening Claire visited her 3rd Monicals where we had dinner with Gammy and Papa Kuipers. We also saw Great-Grandma Ficklin, Great-Uncle Steve, Great-Aunt Jeanie and Great-Great-Aunt Sue. Then we went to Onarga to meet Great-Uncle Russ, Great-Aunt Janet and Cousin Kelly. Claire was a little anti-social there too, but once she got her magic dinner she was a perfect angel.

Monday, we had a big outing. I decided that it was time for Claire's 1st shopping trip. We were almost out of the house by 9 a.m. But, between a hungry little girl, a phone call and a malfunctioning garage door, it was almost 10 before we got on the road. Claire was a really good little girl wile we were shopping and slept most of the time. She did have an explosive diaper at one point but we survived!
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2 weeks old

Claire is 2 weeks and 2 days old today. I am only 2 days behind in posting her teddy bear picture! She has quite the look on her face below, but it shows her size the best.


We went back to the doctor yesterday and Claire weighed in at 7 pounds 2 1/4 ounces. She's still not back to her birth weight, but Dr. H has us trying a couple of things to see if we can get her on a better eating schedule. She measured 21 1/2 inches long. That's 2 3/4 inches more than when she was born. Maybe she'll be a volleyball player afterall!

Week 2 has been pretty uneventful after all of our outings during Claire's first week of life. Some highlights from week two:

• Cousin Caisey and Cousin Maddison came to visit
• We went to Mike & Ria's for a party
• We celebrated Trever's 1st fathers day
• We made it to church in Onarga before 9 a.m.
• Daddy went back to work full time.
• Grandma Marge came to visit.
• Kay S. came to visit and brought a cute little outfit and wonderful cookies!
• We got some nice presents in the mail.
• Birth announcements got sent out.
• We made another trip to the doctor and don't have to go back for 2 more weeks!
• Mommy left Claire with "Aunt" Ria and the kids while she went to Dollar General.

Today we are enjoying having Daddy home. He has been out working but we got to sleep in this morning. He made us lunch and changed a stinky diaper. Now Claire is enjoying some tummy time while I blog for all of you impatient followers out there!

And here is one more picture of our BEAUTIFUL baby girl!

Trever's 1st Father's Day

We had a very big day on Sunday to celebrate Trever's 1st Father's Day. It started with a little cuddle time for Daddy and Claire.


After everyone was ready for church. Trever unwrapped his present. He got a book called Daddy's Girl. Claire also had a special outfit to wear that said I Love Daddy but it was way to big for her teeny tiny body!We made it to 9 a.m. church in Onarga where Claire and Cousin Maddi were the center of attention. Then we headed to the Kuipers Ranch for brunch. After a too short nap for all of us the Builta side of the family came up for some pork burgers on the grill.

Monday, Trever went back to work full time and us girls have survived 2 days at home without him. Tonight we are taking Claire on her first trip to Dave's and hopefully Daddy is taking us out to dinner!

1 week old

Ok...so I'm a bit behind, but gimme a break, I have a new baby to worry about! Anyhow, I wanted to make sure I gave regular updates for all of you to see how much Claire is growing and changing. I don't see the changes so much since I see her all day every day, but for those of you who haven't seen her for a while or have only seen her in pictures, this is the first installment of the teddy bear pictures! We'll take regular pictures next to the teddy bear to show how she is growing compared to the size of the bear.

This pictures was actually taken last Thursday, June 18th. Claire's 1 week birthday and actual due date!



This isn't the best picture but it's a start. Daddy took it right before bedtime after we had all had a long day and were anxious to get some sleep. We'll try to get better ones in the future!

Cousins

Claire got to meet Aunt Kyla, Uncle Ron and her cousins Caisey & Maddison last weekend. We were excited to have thme come visit us and shocked at how much Caisey and Maddison had changed since we last saw them.







Maddison is almost 5 months old in the picture below and Claire is 9 days old. We were shocked at how big Maddison was compared to when we saw her just 2 weeks ago!







Getting a picture of Caisey holding two babies was not the easiest thing, but here is a picture of all 3 cousins. Caisey is really growing up and is really good with the little ones!





Another picture of Maddison and Claire. I'm sure Claire will catch up with Maddison before too long but for now we will look forward to lots of hand-me-downs!

A few firsts...

We've been home for a few days now and we're starting to get adjusted to each other. Claire has had a few more "firsts" but don't have pictures of all of them. Here the "firsts" we have in pictures...

Claire met Great-Grandma Ficklin for the first time.

Claire got to cuddle for the first time with Great-Grandpa Clarence Kuipers, who she was named after.

Daddy took Claire out to visit the cows for the first time.

And Daddy gave Claire her first bath.

Claire has also had a few other firsts that we haven't documented on film...

• Her first trip to church
• Her first trip to the doctor
• Her first trip to Monicals and Alco
• Her first kisses from her brother Rally
• and I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting!
  
  
  

She's Home

We're home and we all survived our first night as a famil of 3! Although, Daddy got a much better nights sleep than the rest of us! Before we left the hospital we had quite a few more visitors. Here are some pictures from Claire's first full day of life!

A BIG yawn! She's definitely a daddy's girl already!

Ria & Graysen were our first visitors of the day. You can see those pictures at here.

Then my little sister with Big Brothers Big Sisters, Shelbie, and her mom Cindy stopped by for a quick visit.

Then Claire got to meet Great Grandma Builta...

and her Great Aunt Kathi! Aunt Kathi brought us some pretty flowers too!

After our romantic "Proud Parent" lunch of steak and shrimp, "Aunt" Amy stopped by. She brought us a beautiful rose bush, a cookie cake, and some balloons!

After Claire had her hearing test and blood draw, they got her all dressed up for her hospital picture. You can see that picture here.

Then we packed her up and took her home! (Sorry about the sideways picture). When we got home, Gammy and Papa Kuipers were here with dinner waiting!

Thanks for all of visits and well wishes!

Ten Tiny Fingers, Ten Tiny Toes

It's official! Claire Marie Kuipers was born Thursday, June 11, 2009 at approximately 5:07 PM.



Unlike most of our previous blog postings, this one is comming from Trever, as Krista is sleeping.



We arrived at Gibson City Area Hospital at 1:45 AM after Krista's water broke during the night. After a long, uneventful morning, the doctors decided to speed things up a little. After some wonderful pain medication, Claire was born without much struggle.

One of the greatest things about this hospital is that the baby never left my sight. I was able to carry her from the warmer to the nursery where we took her weight, length, and vitals. She weighed in at 7 lbs 11 oz and was 18 3/4 inches long.

Our first visitor was Ria Voelker, a great long-time family friend of the Builta's. She recently moved two blocks from the hospital, so she was able to walk down the street and meet Claire.

Soon after, the Grandparents, and Uncle Kirk arrived.

We are basking in the joy of parenthood, and attempting to get some rest tonight. If things continue to go well, we will be able to come home tomorrow afternoon.

Please keep Krista and Baby Claire in your prayers. We can't wait to show her off to the rest of the world!

"What's in a name?"

Lots of you have asked us what we plan to name our baby. Apparently Bubba, Junior, Mini and Baby K aren't good enough for some of you. The real name will continue to be a secret until she comes out to meet the world.

However, we thought it might be fun to see what names our friends and family think we have in mind. Just leave us a comment with your guess on a first and middle name! And make sure it's a comment and not an e-mail so that everyone else can see what you are thinking!

Here are a few hints...

• We have agreed on this name since our dating days.
• It is short and can't be shortened any more (Trever's family has a tendency to shorten names :)
• It will be spelled normally
• It isn't extremely popular but you've all heard it before
• It has some family connection on both sides of our family
• It's not Wilda, Matilda, Minerva, Gilgamesh, or Zerle.

We're anxious to hear what you think!

Family Shower

Yes, I'm still here and able to blog. Although I wouldn't get too close to me with a sharp object or I might pop! As you can see in this picture, my shirt is stretched to the max by my enormous belly! I'm 38 weeks and 2 days in this picture. And, about to sweat to death thanks to my little internal combustion engine!

On Saturday Trever's Aunt Jeanie, his cousin-in-law Kelly and cousin Sherrie threw us a wonderful shower! The most hilarious part was when I sat down with our niece Maddison next to my cousin Sarah and her little girl Rylee. Maddison wanted nothing to do with it and I got accused of letting Rylee beat her up!

But does this look like the face of a bully?

We got lots of great gifts from our relatives. We were up until midnight Saturday night putting everything away and making sure the nursery is complete for the baby's arrival. Here are a couple of pictures from the shower.

Kara and Kathi got us a little swimsuit, hat and cover-up so that Junior can hit the lake this summer!

My grandma made us a very nice quilt! It even says that it's made by Great Grandma Builta on the bottom corner!

I really enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with some of our extended family this weekend. We can't wait until we can share our little one with all of you!

For the rest of the month the calendar is pretty empty except for doctor's appointments as we wait for Baby K to make her appearance. We were really hoping for today but we're quickly running out of time! It's getting much harder to sit upright and I've been trying to figure out how I can do work from a horizontal position. The carseat is in the car, the bags are packed, we're just waiting for someone to decide when she is ready!

Back to the doctor

We went back to the doctor last night for our weekly check-up. Dr. Hannah noticed some significant changes since last weeks appointment which means Baby K is getting ready to make her appearance!

The first thing she noticed was that my stomach didn't seem as firm as it did last week. She measured the size of my uterus and it dropped from 37 inches last week to 36 inches this week (the general rule is that it measures 1 inch for each week of pregnancy and today is the start of week 38). That means that the baby has dropped farther down and would explain why it feels like she is seated comfortably on my bladder.

During the physical exam she checked my cervix and said that things were progressing nicely. I am not dialated at all, but my cervix is thinning out and I'm approxmiately 50% effaced, a little further along than last week.

She did say that there was a possibility that she would see us before our next appointment on Wednesday. We're having a hard time making sense of what she's thinking since she's been telling us that we'll most likely go past our due date. Last night she mentioned inducing me so that I don't go past my due date. But like Grandma said, this kid has a mind of it's own, and she'll let us know when she's done baking.