Claire Isabella is 5 years old!!!!

As of November 28th, 2008, 6:55 am - My baby girl was 5 years old! Yep, I woke up Friday morning and bawled my eyes out. I woke up just before the actual time and realized that she is growing up soooo fast.

Just as you would expect from such a sassy little girl, Claire came out with a bang! She was born the day after Thanksgiving in 2003. Shane and I went in on Thanksgiving night at 8pm, to be prepped to break my water first thing the next morning. I was pretty miserable, but MORE than ready to meet our precious Claire Isabella. My Dr. inserted a pill on my cervix to soften it and told me to be ready for a long day tomorrow and rest up. He gave me an Ambien and told me he would be back at 7am to break my water. We told all of our family to just come up in the morning and she will hopefully be here that night.

Shane and I did not have a clue of what was to come that Thanksgiving night!! I passed out from the sleeping pill. Shane noticed about 1am that I was not sleeping well and was restless. He woke me up and asked me if I was in pain, I said yes, but you have to know, I WAS KNOCKED FLAT OUT from that sleeping pill. He paged a nurse, she checked me and I had not dilated anymore, but she did give a small, not very powerful pain medicine in my IV. I immediately threw it up and then passed out. Shane, being the sweet hubby he is/was, stayed by my side as I slept, holding my hand. Long story short, from then on, I had consistent contractions for the rest of the night, but was so passed out, I did not even realize it. The nurses had no reason to check on me as I was asleep and Shane did not really know what was going on (poor guy, I had them take the thermostat, IN NOVEMBER mind you, below 60 as I was burning up and he just sat their and froze)! Finally I started coming to about 6:15am and told Shane that something was going on and he needed to get a nurse. I was dilated to a 6 and they started to get me ready, but they THOUGHT I had a bit!! The Dr. was asleep at home so they paged him to inform him I was already progressing. They paged for an epidural. I started feeling different, asked to be checked again, 10 minutes later. They checked me, I was fully effaced and dilated, READY TO GO!!! All HELL broke loose!! They were not ready, the Dr. was about 15 minutes away and Claire was coming!! The worst part for me, IT WAS TOO LATE FOR AN EPIDURAL!!! The nurses were throwing stuff in my room, rolling carts in through the hallway, all the time yelling, "DON'T PUSH"!! At one point, the Anesthesiologist came in and asked if someone paged for an epidural, I swear it was like a glow from the door like an angel =). I screamed "YES", they screamed "NO, TOO LATE". Finally, the Dr. came in and Claire was born literally 15 minutes, and 4 pushes later!

She was the prettiest baby girl I had ever seen with big dark eyes and the most beautiful head of dark hair. She looked right at me and I have never been the same since!! The first thing Shane said to me "I can't wait to show her off at church!". Unfortunately we did not have time to call any of our family until after she was born. When he called our Moms, Claire was crying in the background, they were sooooooo excited and could not believe it!!!

Sorry for the TMI - but I love this story and wanted to document it and I thought some of you would love to hear it. Oh - and with Owen just so you know, he was insanely big and I had an epidural. When I hit 6 with him, I did the same exact thing again and I had him in 20 minutes!

Now that I am crying again - Here is a post dedicated to my Claire-bear, her top 12 favorite things and obsessions from her 5th year, 2008. (There are so many more and family and friends feel free to comment with some of your favorite things about Claire =))

12. Claire's favorite color is purple and has been for a couple years now!! She is getting a brand new big girl room in 2009, in purple!!!

11. Claire loves to perform!! She loves to sing, ALL THE TIME!! When she is not singing, she is dancing or flipping around from what she learned in gymnastics! Always a show in the Brown House! And I know I am her mother, but she has a great voice already!! =)

10. Claire loves a dress!! She would wear a dress everyday, which she pretty much does!! She told me this weekend that she wants Santa to bring her a bunch of pretty dresses for Christmas and then some matching ones for her dolls...then she asked me if Mrs. Claus would have to help =). She is going to be just like me and her Aunts Tara and Nicole!

9. Claire's best friend is her imaginary friend, Keeko. I have not talked about him much, but I will one day dedicate a post to our live in guest. Shane and I are not real fond of Keeko....Have you seen the movie "Drop Dead Fred"? That sums it up if you have =).

8. Claire loves to play restaurant. She will take all of our orders, "write" it down and then bring it back to us, with a total due =).

7. Claire loves movies. She loves any Disney movie, but her most favorites are Christmas movies. Her all time favorite is "New York City Kevin" or better known as "Home Alone 2".

6. Which leads to me the next obsession - NEW YORK CITY! Claire dreams of going to NYC one day and talks about it all the time. She is just blown away at the fact that Mama gets to go there for work a few times a year. In fact, her aspirations for when she grows up "Working Mama that gets to go to New York City!". Love it!

5. Claire loves a good craft!! Clayton and Caiden got her a craft set in making mosaics. She literally spent the entire day Saturday making one and getting it perfect. She is really good at them too!!

4. Claire needs to hear her schedule...EVERYDAY! Every night as we are preparing for bed..."Mama what do I need to do in the morning....that night....the next morning...". I swear she has a little planner in her head.

3. Claire loves her daddy more than anyone else in this world!! She looks forward to him coming home everyday and they are the best of buds! I love to see them together as she has brought out a new side in her Daddy that makes me love him even more!! Her close seconds in the family are Mama, Aunt Tara, Nana and Papa, and Nonna and Poppy!!

2. Claire loves the BEACH!! We went there as a family for the first time this summer. I swear to you that not one day goes by that Claire does not ask when we are going back, or she will just say "Mama, remember when we went to the beach, that was the best time EVER"!! How sweet and we decided to give her the beach for her birthday this year!

1. Claire loves school!! I cry typing that as I wanted her to so badly love school and and there was a time not too long ago when Claire would have nothing to do with it! She is so smart and is doing so well! She has made friends and learned so many wonderful songs!! There is nothing better than to hear your daughter in her room all by herself playing and singing "...because Jesus is well and alive today, he makes his home in my heart...".

God blessed us with this sweet beautiful little lady 5 years ago and we could not imagine life without her! Words cannot express how much we love her and are proud of her! She is such a good big sister to Owen and he loves her so much!!

Claire Isabella Brown we love you so much!!! You have such a promising life ahead of you and though we may be crying and tugging along the way, we cannot wait to see what is in store!!!

Claire's Birth-date - November 28th, 2003, 7lbs, 5oz, 19in.Claire's First Birthday Nov. 28th, 2004 (sorry for the quality, picture taken of scrapbook =))Claire's 2nd Birthday Nov. 28th, 2005 - Not really a bday pic - but the Elmo party pics are not that good =)!! This was taken just before her birthday!Claire's Third Birthday - Disney Princess Party - Nov. 28th, 2006 - Funny pictures =), always a ham !!

Claire's 4th Birthday - Nov. 28th, 2007 - Purple Karaoke Party!!!

Sneek Peek at BIG 5!!!!!!!!

Next post will be birthday party pictures!!!