Merry Christmas

The Simek Family on Christmas morning in our PJs
The BEST GIFT EVER!

Chloe Jo with all of her presents on Christmas morning


We hope everyone has a wonderful day with those that you love. Merry Christmas!

Holiday Happenings with CJ

Here is what is going on in Chloe's world:

1. She is having some problems spitting up through her nose. Yucky for her and upstetting for us because she gets so sad when it happens. Obviously, she has no understanding of what is going on. We went to the doctor today and they prescribed baby Zantac for her. I guess you would say she has heartburn or reflux. It should relieve some of her discomfort. We'll keep you posted on how that is working.
2. While at the doctor we found out that Chloe is 6 1/2 pounds!!! This is a dramatic difference from December 5 when she was only 5 1/3 pounds. She's been putting on an ounce a day since then. Wow - she is almost regular baby size!
3. Also while at the doctor she decided to pee all over Dan's fleece. Way to go, kid.
4. We may have had a genuine smile today. It lasted way too long to be gas, we decided. We will try to capture a video and post it.
5. We are excited to spend our first Christmas with our little girl. We will take lots of pictures and get them up as soon as we can.
6. Thanks to Uncle Morgan and Auntie Megan for this cool new digital video camera. Hopefully, our videos will be of higher quality and we can post video more frequently.
7. The video really isn't anything special except Chloe being Chloe and Daddy being silly. This is what a day in our lives is like through the eyes of Mommy :)

Merry Christmas to everyone from the Simeks-

Chloe's First Smile?

We may have captured a smile... or perhaps just a gassy moment. Whatever it is, sure is cute, hey?

Chloe's Friends continued

Chris and Amy Guthrie came to visit and see Chloe when she was a couple of weeks old. I went to high school with Chris and worked at the YMCA with Amy. We're so glad they could stop by.

I've realized that I am short on pictures of Chloe with all of our friends, so this will be the last post until I can catch up. Don't be surprised if when you see her we ask to take your picture!

More of Chloe's Friends

Dan has scolded me from veering from my blog theme last week of introducing you all to Chloe's friends. So we are returning to all of the "people" she has met. This happens to be one of her best friends named Chuckles. Chuckles was our "practice child" before Chloe came. As you can see, she is growing out of some of her preemie clothing, but he fits into it!

Precious Little One

Just a couple of shots that our friend Sarah took during Chloe's first week home. I know these aren't current shots, but they are a couple of my favorite!

Chloe's New Trick

Chloe gets confused sometimes... enough said.

1 Month

Happy 1 Month Birthday, Chloe! We love you, even with your chicken legs :) She is actually already growing out of her preemie clothes and beginning to wear some newborn outfits. Exciting and sad at the same time; we like her being so little :)

The Other Kids

Here are some of Chloe's friends that are closer to her age.

Ethan Reske - 4 years and Lauren Reske - 22 months

Ella Heideman - 22 months and Lucy Heideman - 3 years

Chloe's Friends

For the next few days we'll post pictures of all our wonderful friends that have come to see Chloe. Regretably, we do not have pictures of each and everyone holding her... so we are sorry if you don't see yourself!

Paul Reske

Melissa Reske

Kolin Golchert

Meeting the Family

Meet Chloe's extended family - the Simek's and the Shemanske's:

Nana Donna (this name is pending)

Grandpa Don

Gramps

Grammy Jo


Auntie Megan and Uncle Morgan



Auntie Jodi


*Note: Uncle Mike and Aunt Jan are not pictured, but Chloe can't wait to meet them!

Chloe at 3 Weeks

For all of you that haven't met her yet... and those of you that just can't get enough ;)

Trimming the Tree

Chloe helped us decorate the tree today. She got a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament from St. Nick yesterday and was just dying to put it on. We helped her a little bit, but she did a good job. (Notice her "I'm concentrating really hard" face... not to be confused with her "I'm pooping" face.)

Then Chloe helped us put the tree topper on. It'll be fun to look back at these pictures of her first Christmas as she gets older.

Thanks to my mom and dad for all of their help getting the house ready for the holidays!

Family

We spent Thanksgiving with our families - both the Shemanske's and the Simek's. It was wonderful to have everyone together (although we missed you Uncle Mike and Aunt Jan!) in one place. We wanted to share a picture with you of our new family.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from Kristi, Dan and Chloe. We are truly blessed this year and every year to have all of you in our lives!

Happy Two Week Birthday!

Today is Chloe's two week birthday. In honor of this, we have decided to dress her in her monkey outfit from the Marinkovich's. We have also decided that the pants (from a different outfit) make her look like she is part of some monkey gymnastics squad. Don't the pants look like part of the men's uniform? This is her shout out to you, Uncle Morgan.

Welcome to the Belly Button Club

Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday. The day just got away from us. I will have a second bonus posting today so stay tuned!


Two days ago, Chloe officially got her belly button, rather than her umbilical cord stump. Other parents out there, you know what a big deal this is. It means she is that much less fragile.

Wonder if it's going to be an innie or an outie?

Chloe's Friend

Our friends Jessica and Chuck came over last Friday with their beautiful daughter Addison. Addie is only 5 weeks older than Chloe, but Chloe is soooooooo much smaller than Addie!

Slave to the Trends

Already a fashionista! We have discovered that the only socks that fit Chloe (thanks to the Marinkovich's!) don't even look like socks. We call them her Uggs. What do you think?

Chloe's Story

So, there won't be any new pictures today, but not all of you know the story about how Chloe entered the world. Don't worry, it won't be graphic.


So, think back to 10 days ago. We had an ultrasound scheduled for Wednesday, November 12 to check Chloe's growth. It was at our doctor's office and wasn't made out to be big deal at all. When they got me all hooked up, the first thing that the ultrasound tech said was, "You know she's got her butt down, right?" We didn't know that, but I had mentioned long ago that I thought she might be breached because I was only feeling movement very low - none of those kicks in the ribs that you hear about.


She also told us that Chloe was measuring small, especially in her belly. I don't remember why, but I know that wasn't a good thing. She estimated Chloe's weight to be about 5 lbs. Then she told me that my amniotic fluid was low; not critically low, but low.


Our friend and nurse practitioner Karen came in and explained that they probably wouldn't try to turn Chloe, because there wasn't enough amniotic fluid. Remember that along with this all, I still had the high blood pressure that had put me on bedrest to begin with. She asked how I felt about a scheduled C-section (we were fine with it) and indicated that one might be scheduled in a few days. She told us that it was time for her to come out and meet us... she had "baked" in there as long as we could keep her in.


So we sat in the waiting room until our OB could see us. While we were waiting, Karen asked what I had eaten this morning. I asked her why and she told me that our OB wanted to schedule the C-section for today, but it had to be 5 hours after I had last eaten.


I freaked out. I wasn't ready for the baby to come TODAY. I think I started shaking. Dan was awesome and reassuring, telling me that this was good news because then both of us would be healthy and we would get to meet our daughter.


So, our doctor sent us to the hospital to be admitted. The C-section was about 2 hours after we left the doctor's office. I was prepped for the C-section, Dan was dressed in scrubs and the whole things happened VERY fast. The spinal for the cesarean did NOT make me nauseous (yay!) and they got her out so incredibly fast. She did not cry at first (scary for mom!) but they gave her some oxygen and then she did great. She didn't have to go to the nursery at all. We got to be by her right from the beginning.


As you can see from the picture, her legs were up by her head the WHOLE time she was inside of me, but they already look like normal baby legs.

Dan and I are so grateful to the entire staff at Elmbrook for making the delivery and post-partum care so easy and comforting. Welcome Chloe Jo!