The Crafts

Announcing the birth of Claudia Jane Craft!!!! CJ was born Sunday morning at 8:40 a.m. after only 11 1/2 hours of labor. She weighed in at 7 lbs 7 ounces and is 21 inches long. Kate was 21 inches and 8 lbs 3 ounces...so very similar in size. They are also VERY similar looking. Can you guess which kiddo is Kate and which is CJ? Of course, this may be easy for some of you since family has the Kate picture. But play along anyway. :)

I was folding clothes in our bedroom tonight while Matt put Kate to bed. While standing near the door I thought I could hear Kate singing along with Matt. Kate never sings with me so I was very curious to listen a little closer. And sure enough she really was singing. But much to my surprise they were not singing the normal bedtime songs like 'Six Little Ducks' or 'Jesus Loves Me.' Nope, they were singing Matt's all time, absolute favorite tune...'The Iowa State Fight Song.' And it wasn't just one round. They sang The Fight Song multiple times in a row with Kate belting out 'fight, fight, fight' and 'rah, rah, rah' at all the appropriate times. Upon asking Matt about their bedtime song of choice Matt tells me that Kate specifically requested they sing that song...completely unprompted. He also told me it almost brought a tear to his eye, so I know he was telling the truth. While I probably won't be singing the Iowa State Fight...

I finally put together the pics from our Clear Lake trip last weekend. Enjoy!

By now I'm sure most of my 'readers' have heard about our little adventure on Wednesday night but just in case you have not, then here you go. We went to bed around 10 Wednesday night and as soon as I laid down I felt a contraction. A true contraction. EXCITED!! I laid there for awhile and eventually got up after they didn't stop. I went downstairs for awhile and then couldn't keep it to myself much longer so I went upstairs and told Matt I was in labor. By 1:30 a.m. I decided it was time to head into the hospital as the contractions were varying between 3 and 5 minutes apart. After arriving at the hospital I was hooked up to a monitor and they found that the 'big' contractions were 4 minutes apart but I was only 3 cm dilated. The doctor told me to walk the halls for an hour and then we would check vitals again. An hour and a half later I hadn't dilated anymore and the contractions were slowing...significantly. So we were sent home at 5 a.m. wit...

I had yet another doctor appointment today and nothing new to report as far as progress. However, we did choose a date to induce. If I haven't had the baby by Thursday, September 3rd we will head to the hospital that morning at 7:30 a.m. Who knows how long delivery could take after being induced but it is going to happen. We are really going to have two kiddos in this house. YIKES! :) The doctor seems to think the baby will arrive before September 3rd but we selected an induction day just in case. If we didn't do it now then we would have to wait until after the Labor Day weekend and I wasn't having that. So the maximum amount of time I have to sit around here with a 30 pound belly is 7 days! This news makes me tingle with excitement and shiver in fear all at the same time. Have I told you we have a girls name picked out? I'm not going to share that name but we have had it for a very long time now. A boys name, on the other hand, has been rather difficult. A...

Monday was Uncle Mike Craft's birthday and Kate made him two short videos. Check them out below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQDLPx8yivw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpQYi0H25HI I had hoped baby Craft #2 would get a chance to share his or her birthday with Uncle Mike but it didn't happen. Maybe today is the day? Who knows. I'm not too uncomfortable and I'm sleeping really well still so I can't complain. I'm just ready to have my body back. I realized last night that baby is completely sitting on my lap so it can't be much longer, right? On a different topic, we returned home Sunday from Clear Lake. Another fun weekend lounging by the pool, eating too much and really doing nothing. It was fabulous, and probably one of our last chances at true relaxation. I'll try to get some pics up later today. In the meantime, here is one teaser photo of Kate's attempt at vacationing.