Pictures of Claire

17 hours of labor... but I tried to keep a smile on my face! This must have ben after the epideral kicked in.

Little Claire Bear in her Daddy's arms. She started sucking her fingers as soon as she came out of the womb. I should have known though, we have an ultrasound picture of her doing it too!

Getting her hair washed. I wasn't there for this, but Mom and Dexter say that she loved this part and she looked like she was at the spa relaxing.

**Getting weighed and measured. 7 pounds and 14 ounces. measuring 18 and 3/4 inches**

Look at how happy he is!!! He is so proud of his little girl and just loves her.

Our wonderful little family. All we need now is a puppy!

Three generations right here!! I am so glad my mom got there in time to help me deliver Claire. She was awesome and gave me the guidance and strength I needed! Her and Dexter both!

Our sweet baby girl... look at how beautiful she is!

Napping.. She does that a lot

Laying on her Momma and loving her

Promotions, photography and baby!! Oh my!!

So I know that it has been quite awhile since my last blog. I have no excuse other than I have just been lazy and not getting on the computer and keeping everyone updated. Plus... there really hasn't been too much exciting stuff going on in our lives. Although now it seems like I am excited about every little thing that goes on. Where to begin...

Let's start with the most recent news. The news that I woke up at 4:00 a.m for but couldn't get till 7:00. I want to congratulate Dexter on his recent promotion with the Air Force. He moved up from an E4 to an E5 (for those of you that know what that means!) and is now a Staff Sergeant. I couldn't be more proud of him and I know that he is proud of himself too. It was a very intense morning here. This is Dexter's third time testing, and I just could not bear to see him disappointed in himself if he had not made it. The first year he tested only 3 months after sewing on for Senior Airman, so he even said he wasn't ready for the promotion. Last year while he was in Korea he missed the promotion by 3 points and it just tore him apart. So this year he made and will now complete an ALS course, so he can sew on by Christmas!! I'm sorry that I can't tell you what ALS is. I know it is some leadership thing with some intense training. My friend went through it and used it as a weight loss plan and loss 30 pounds during the training. Of course with the promotion comes a pay scale increase, which will be helpful with having the baby due any day now. So his promotion is really a great help in so many areas. It will be two years before he can test again for Tech Sergeant. Which will be great because he also just re-enlisted for another 5 years. Being a military wife is not always the easiest job in the world. But I am glad that I have so much to be proud of in my life, and that my daughter will have an incredible human being as a father. So again congrats to him!!

Now it is my time to brag! Although I will have a lot of that coming up when Claire gets here, I do have an accomplishment of my own that I am proud of. You may remember from previous posts that photography school is something that I am interested in, and a fun hobby that I can see being a career passion of mine. Due to some unfortunate events job wise awhile back, we agreed that putting the school on hold was something that we needed to do. The program is cheap for the course that it is, so we want to save and pay for it in full, instead of monthly, adding an extra $300 onto the cost of it. So in the meantime, I have just been practicing with my camera and taking pictures of things that catch my eye. Well... here is where my husband gets proud of me! I had some pictures that I was playing around with and editing and he fell in love with one of them. Without my knowledge, he submitted the photo to a contest online. A few short days later we received an email from the company, requesting my permission to submit the photo into a 300 page hard bound book titled, The Best of 2009 Photo Anthology. I was shocked because it is just a random photo that I took at the zoo. Of course I gave them my permission and we are waiting to hear more of when it will be published and all that. They will also include a photo of me and a biography. Through this publication, I am also made to be in contact by other photo companies and such. I do not get paid for this, but I can sell the rights to the photo, or even sell prints of this and other photos through the website.

For being an amateur photographer and just using what I learned from the portrait studio and my own natural creative eye I guess... it makes me feel great when it goes noticed. The colors in our kitchen are red, black, and white. We recently printed some black and white photos and framed them to look wonderful in our kitchen! When I went to go pick up the prints, the girl at the photo counter asked me who took the photos. I thought... Oh great! They are going to want to see some copyright because they are national buildings and they think that I printed them off line! I told her I took them hoping she would believe me and she said, "Wow, I have been staring at these photos ever since your order came through. I am fascinated by them and I really hope you are framing them!" Again- it made me feel great! So that is my little boost of excellence for myself!

I don't really have much to update on baby. We are just weeks away from her arrival and mom and dad couldn't be more anxious. We did finally finish the nursery so our weekends have been full of Dexter relaxing and playing College football or Tiger Woods golf on the Xbox, while I have begun my nesting phase. I woke up the other morning and while he went downstairs, I stayed in the bedroom for 2 hours, DEEP CLEANING! If you have ever seen the episode on SNL with the anal retentive chef I was just like him. I would start to clean something, and then see a spot on something else, and I would quickly take care of that hoping to get back to what I was originally working on, before spotting something else. It wasn't easy! I have also been tackling the "craft room" now computer room. We moved the computer upstairs so all the wires and cables and what nots that come out of it aren't in the living room for the baby to grab hold of and bite into. So by putting it in the upstairs spare room, it has become our everything room. I accomplished quite a bit on organizing my crafts, but I am at the point where I am overwhelmed! I look at it and I can just feel my blood pressure rising. Haha!! It will get there. I have to clear the room out so that we can put the air mattress in here for guests when the baby arrives.

I will be sure and update this when Claire actually does get here, and I will try to do it before hand but like always, no promises!

We love you all!

D&A

More updates on Claire!

Today we had another ultrasound! Found out that it is still a girl so that is great to hear! We also got a lot more pictures. Everything is going really well and Claire is going to be a healthy baby as of right now! It's gard to believe that we only have 16 weeks left. It doesn't seem like much. And he past 24 weeks have gone by so fast. There really isn't that much to report since last time. She is measuring in teh 50% range which is good, and means she is an average size baby. We read in our what to expect book that mothers who give birth in higher altitudes usually have smaller babies! That is good because I am not ready to have a 10 pound baby like I was! No thank you! And she weighs about 1.6 pounds right now. I did include a picture of my tummy popping out. I think it is disgusting, but it is part of being pregnant right. I can't feel bad though because I still haven't gained any weight. I am really excited about that! haha!! So here I am at 23 weeks!
This is just a side view of Claire again!

Here is her face poking out. You can see her eye sockets and her nose and her mouth. Her mouth is slightly opened! She has her Daddy's nose!

This is probably my favorite picture so far!! She is sucking her fingers!!

And here is the attempt of the 3d ultrasound. There is not enough space between the face and the pacenta for the maching to distinguish the face. She likes to stay real close to it. Again though... she has her Daddy's nose. I called that from the begining!

It's a girl!

Well... we had our 20 week ultrasound today and it looks like little baby Gore is now Claire Elisabeth Gore! The technician reminded us that sometimes it can be wrong, but she usually won't tell someone until she is pretty positive. Let's hope so because we already picked out the crib set, and painted the room!! Dexter and I feel so blessed. First off, my mom and step-dad Dan were able to come down for the week and go with us to the ultrasound. To me, it meant the world. It's funny to me how girls can fight with their moms, but as soon as you become a mother, you have a whole new appreciation for them. At least that is how I felt. I've heard the saying that a man becomes a dad the second he sees his child, but a woman becomes a mom the second she knows she is pregnant, and I really believe that. I think I have said it before that I started getting homesick fo rmy mom, and just appreciating all she went through from the beginning for me. I also think that having my first child, I felt bad that my parents are missing out on their first grandchild too. I still wish that my dad could get a chance to come down here and be able to see the ultrasound too. But as I layed on that bed today watching the screen, holding my mom's hand and sharing some tears, I couldn't help but just feel so much love and blessings. I couldn't even look at my husband because I would start to cry. To me it is just a miracle to see this life growing inside you. The technician can't tell me if anything is wrong, but from the comments she made everything seemed to be just fine. The baby is still so small, and weighs about 11 ounces. But it is measuring at 19 weeks, 6 days. So we are only measuring a day behind. Which means that the due date may be September 24th now... so on my dad, and her grandpa's birthday!

After the appointment this morning, and sharing the good news, we went to breakfast and talked baby's room. We then went and looked for the crib sheets and such that we wanted. One thing that mom and dan wanted to do for us was paint the room and get it ready for us. My mom is so good at that so I had no problem saying no to that! We looked at quite a few and then I found the one that I loved. It's pink and brown which is exactly what I wanted. So mom and Dan bought it for us as a gift, and then I had to go to work. In the 3 hours I was at work they managed to pick out the paint and paint on the pink coat. We worked all night and we still aren't sure if we like the border or if we need to fill the wall. We are sleeping on it and deciding tomorrow. I have attached a few pictures so that you all can see the room so far, and the ultrasound pictures. Remember the baby is still kind of small, and she wasn't co-operating as well as she should but you can see her body and it is so great!

I really do want to say from the bottom of my heart that all your love and support has been so great for us. At dinner, during Dexter's prayer he said, "thank you for all the positive responses and the love we have been receiving from everyone." No joke it made me cry. I think that the pregnancy hormones are a big part of it, but still the fact that it is so true just makes me feel like we are once again blessed with wonderful friends and family. So truly, thank you all so much.

I go back sometime to get another ultrasound. She couldn't get the images she needed of the heart so we get to back again. Which makes me happy because I love pictures of the baby. So I will again let you all know when those come.

We love you guys and thanks for keeping us in your prayers!

Dexter, Amber and baby Claire!

This proud wife will boast!

So, even though I just wrote a huge long update about the family, I thought that Dexter deserved his own litle post. I just have to say, that I am the proudest wife right now. Yesterday we went to an awards banquet and he got two different awards! The were both for Senior Airman of the quarter. Which means, that he will be up for Senior Airman of the Year at the end of this year. He got it for his 498 squadron, as well as for the Nuclear Weapons Center. That one has a star on it, which means that it was presented to him by a general. For someone who has only been here 6 months, that is a great accomplishment out of his group! I love him, and I am so proud of him!

For soem reason I can't add the picture of his award right now, but I will add it later on.

A whole family update!

Where have the last 4 1/2 months gone? I can't quite believe yet that we are almost half way through this pregnancy. It is going so fast. Sorry I haven't been very good about the updating on here. It has been a very busy past few weeks. Before I fill you all in on the baby, I will fill you in on what has been going on in our lives as well.

First, we have been in New Mexico already for 6 months. I have to say, it's not as bad as I had anticipated. We are living on base, which seems to be about the safest place here. Well, we though anyway until Dexter's Georgia Bulldogs statue got taken from our front porch. It was a very sad day and we are still missing him. He was like the real bulldog we couldn't have. But just like most places, Albuquerque has it's fair share of violence and crime. So while we may have had our dog stolen, I am very grateful to be on base. Dexter does not let me go out at night alone. Although, he wouldn't go get me a frosty at 10 o'clock last week when the baby started wanting something chocolaty cold, so I may have to start breaking those rules! Haha! You may have seen in the national news lately that they have been digging up some bodies. Yes, this is true and I think the count is up to like 12 or something. But it happened before we got here. Trust us, we are very safe down here.

Despite all that, we are having amazing weather! So a quick history lesson for those of you that don't know either Dexter or I very well. He is from the Georgia. He spent his first 15 months in the service in Turkey, then went to Louisiana for a year, (where we met!) and then spent another year in Korea before coming here. All those places were hot summers with a lot of humidity. Korea had less, but still had some. I come from the Pacific Northwest. Rain, Rain, RAIN! I then spent 2 summers in Omaha, Nebraska, and then the next one in Louisiana. I went from rain with possible sunshine, to hot and humid in both Nebraska and Louisiana. The weather here I think is the best sun I have ever had. It is so nice out, but yet there is a little breeze that blows high up here, that it cools you down. It's not that hot and muggy breeze. It is simply put... GREAT! Now... who wants to come visit??

Dexter is doing great, as always, in work. He test in just a few weeks for staff. It couldn't be a better time. We will find out if he makes Staff Sergeant in August, right before the baby gets here. It will be a great time to get it. Keep him in your prayers! A promotion is what he deserves.

I have been transitioning through jobs. I think that I finally found the job that is perfect for me. I recently accepted a position on base with the Child Development Center (CDC). It is a daycare for children 6 weeks through preschool. It's a government job so Dexter and I will have holidays off together, as well as weekends. It is close to home too which is always a bonus. The one thing I love most about it, is that when it comes time to return to work after having the baby, I get to bring my baby to work. As long as there is a spot that opens up. If not, then we will have to find something else out. But this is what we are praying works out for us.

Now for some mommy/baby news! First and foremost, the morning sickness is GONE! It has been such a relief. I was so sick and swore I would never get pregnant again! One and done is what Dexter kept telling me. Now I have a cold, but it is nothing compared to 13 weeks of misery. Every time we go to the doctor the heartbeat gets a little bit stronger, and the uterus sticks out a little further. Thanks to the "extra padding" I had around the baby, it is taking a little longer to show to everyone else. Plus, the 30 pounds that I have lost look like they are still there because it is baby sticking out. There are days where I feel like I am showing so much and I can't hide it anymore. But other days I think, hmm... no bump!

The ultimate best thing was feeling the baby move. It started with some flicks and flutters. And now I can feel movements like turns and little jabs. It sometimes makes me cry because it is so incredible. I'm slowly getting an appetite back, but still have some food aversions. I still can't eat meat. Which bums me out. I think that Dexter took my will to eat meat, because he has been eating ribs, and pork chops, and t-bone steaks in front of me. I remember that I used to love meat, but when I see it now, it makes me want to vomit!

Everyone keeps asking me if I have had any cravings. I really haven't had anything too crazy. For about a week I craved vinegar. It started when I had fish and chips one night. I put the malt vinegar on them and it was all it took. I went the next day and bought a thing of white vinegar and 3 cucumbers. You better believe that I soaked all three cucumbers in vinegar and ate them. I wanted to put vinegar in with my juices and sodas, and even contemplated drinking it from the bottle. I have also been loving me some apples.... Dipped in nacho cheese sauce. Maybe that's weird? I don't really know. Some people like apples and cheddar slices together. And chocolate... I'm not much of a chocolate fan, and I really do not like chocolate ice cream. But I had some triple chocolate ice cream with brownies in it and it was the best thing in my life that day. Ok... so maybe I have had a few. But nothing too weird!

Just a week and a half till we find out if it is a Nathan or a Claire! I had crazy baby dreams the other night and in all the dreams it was a boy. So we will see. I will of course keep you all updated!

Thanks again for your love and support!

~D&A

Baby Gore updates!

Hello again!! I know it's been quite awhile since my last update. I have been meaning to put some updates here ut every time I get a free moment I fall asleep, or decide that getting up and moving is just no tin the cards for me. So let's see... where can I fill you in at?? Well, as of today we are 13 weeks, 2 days along. I am so glad to be reaching this ponit. Hopefully, as the second trimester approaches, the morning sickness will fade away. I have felt like I have had the flu for about 8 weeks straight. I have had very little appetite, extreme exhaustion, and a few (ok, more than a few) random outburst of tears. I really feel that I have the best husband in the world, who is so tender and caring thorugh it all.

We were watching Jeopardy one night and I suddenly burst into tears. He comes over, sits next to me and starts rubbing my back. He asked me what was wrong and I said, "Nothing, I just felt like crying suddenly." His attempt to get me to stop is by saying, "Oh it's ok sweetie, not everyone gets the answers right all the time on this show."

I guess for me the plus side is that through all this I have lost 22 pounds since we found out. I was shocked. But it makes complete sense to me due to the lack of keeping food in my system. I also gained a lot of weight in the begining retaining water, so that was a large part of what I lost.

The baby is doing great! It has a great solid heartbeat. I still only heard one, so those twin genes must not have gotten passed on to me. I really wish so though, I am not sure I can do this again! haha! But that is what they always say I guess. Then I will get the baby blues and put myself through it all again.

We have an amazing midwife that we are working with. We chose a midwife because they are more likely to be there with you through the whole thing and they spend more time with you than the doctors. We are so happy with our decision and couldn't be more thrilled about the one we were assigned. I met another one at my appointment yesterday, and knew that we were with the right one for us.

We have another appointment on May 6th to do an ultrasound. This will be the first ultrasound that we will actually be able to see the baby as more than a lima bean. It will also be the one to determine the sex of the baby. Once that happens I can finally start seting up the nursery and picking out clothes and a theme. Dexter wants to do the babies room in renguins, but I have been having a hard time finding penguin stuff. So maybe just penguin toys?? I don't know, we will see.

We do have the names picked out. If we have a boy it will be Nathan David Gore. And if it is a girl it will be Claire Elisabeth Gore. Either way we will be excited. Both of us are in love with the name Claire, so we are kind of excited about the thought of a girl. But a boy would be great too. I am just glad that I got Nathan, and not Hershell like Dexter wanted. I don't know... it's his way of making sure our son is a Georgia Bulldog I guess!

I haven't really had any weird cravings yet. I think the fact that I haven't been able to eat is a part of it. I would really want some for two days at a time, and then it would get ruined for me. I have a longer list of foods that have been ruined fo rme, than foods I crave.

Dexter, who is going to kill me for telling this, has been the sweetest guy that I have ever seen waiting for his child. He talks to my belly every night in bed, and kisses it before going to work. Saying hello and god morning, and I love you! It is one of the things that can bring me to tears.

I promise that I will put the pictures up here when we have our ultrasound. So check back around the 6th. I will try to get better about posting too. Brie keeps yelling at me because she wants the details... so sorry, I will try harder! haha!

Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers!