A Couple of Weeks In

We've had this little girl at home with us for two weeks now, and boy, do we all love her!  She gets plenty of hugs and kisses from her big brother and sister, and I try to hold her all I can.  Madeline chooses out Clara's clothes every morning, and Benson loves to fetch her binky any time its needed. I keep waiting for it to get hard, but it really hasn't been yet.  Granted, we haven't left the house much all together.  Clara sleeps a lot and isn't fussy at all.  \

One silly thing that has happened with the birth of each of my children is that I miss being pregnant.  What?  Really.  It's like I can't appreciate the magnificence of growing a person inside of me until I actually meet them.  Then I really get it.  I don't know why the whole thing is so surreal to me until the child is born.  Then I wish I could go back and really enjoy it and appreciate it.

I've bonded easily to this little one.  For some reason the late night feedings and tasks of caring for a newborn baby don't seem as difficult this time around.  I just love her to pieces!

Miss Clara Grace

Clara Grace

8 lbs 1 oz, 20 inches long

Born July 6, 2013 at 10:34am

She is my smallest baby, but she did decide to make her grand entrance 9 days early.  I had a short labor with her, for which I am grateful.  I was only in active labor for about an hour before we got to the hospital, and she was born just two hours later.  

Remember how I had Madeline in the hospital and it was an awful experience, and how I had Benson in a birthing center and it was a wonderful experience?  And then, remember how I had a feeling that I needed to have this baby in the hospital?  Why, why why? - I wondered off and on throughout this pregnancy.  Aside from the usual horrible morning sickness, my pregnancy with her went without a hitch.  I felt great all the way to the end.  Well, that Saturday morning we found out why.

Baby was doing very well when we first got to the hospital, but as my labor progressed her heart rate began to drop lower and lower.  And not just with contractions.  By the time I was nearly fully dilated, she wasn't doing well at all.  We didn't know what the problem was, but we knew she needed to be out right away.  She was successfully and quickly vacuum assisted out.  I found out later that the OR staff had been notified that I would need a c-section, and one of my work friends had been called in from home to recover me.  I'm so, so grateful that I was able to avoid the c-section.  When she was delivered, we discovered that she had a true knot in her cord, as well as a loop around her neck.  As she descended down the birth canal, the knot was tightened and compressed so that she wasn't receiving enough blood and oxygen.  True knots only occur in 1:2000 pregnancies, and even then it rarely causes complications.  I am confident we made the right choice to give birth in the hospital, and that we chose the right practitioner who skillfully aided in her delivery, and who allowed me a chance to deliver her vaginally instead of just rushing me down the hall to the operating room.  

My poor baby girls and their umbilical cords - Madeline had a short cord.  While their deliveries were nearly identical in method, the experience was completely different this time.  The delivery room was peaceful and calm.  My nurse was attentive, respectful, and kind.  My postpartum stay was really nice.  My recovery was the smoothest and least painful of the three.  I've bonded quickly to this little baby.

Miss Clara looks nearly identical to her older sister, with the exception of having lots of dark hair and sadly, her mother's long, long toes.  She's been a good, good baby.  I'm enjoying every moment with her.  

TWO

Oh, this boy is about as cute as they come.  And now he's TWO!  We had a sweet little party for him a couple of weeks ago with just the grandparents.  We had a hot dog bar, opened presents, and ate homemade blue-beary (I put gummy bears in it) ice cream sans cake because it was entirely too hot to bake.  He loved every second of it.

Here are some things about our little man at two:

• He loves to sing and be sung to.  Often tantrums can be averted by just a simple song.  Silly ones are best.  His most requested song at bedtime is "Pokey", meaning the Hokey Pokey.  
• He likes to play with cars, and trains, and balls
• He also likes to play with baby dolls and he wears headbands around the house.  Usually 5 or 6 at a time.  One morning I went to get him from his crib and found that he'd taken a baby to bed with him.  He had swaddled her in his blanket and put her to sleep carefully at the end of his crib.  
• He is completely enamored with real babies, too.
• He's getting to be a much better talker, and we can usually understand what he's saying.  Usually.
• His very favorite thing to do is play in the car.  Every time the door to the garage is opened he makes a beeline to it and asks, "Blue car?".  He likes to climb over the seats, turn the lights on, and pretend like he's driving.  He can spend a whole hour entertaining himself out there.
• He eats half my bowl of oatmeal every morning, usually after eating Madeline's leftovers too.  His bowl is left mostly untouched.  As my cereal comes out of the microwave, he yells, "Mommy's cereal couch!" to let me know he wants to sit next to me on the couch and share bites.  
• He has a crazy sweet tooth, and shares my love of chocolate.  
• He likes to watch me cook, and he sets the table for dinner every night while talking to himself - "Plate Benson, and plate Madeline".
• He's quick to say he's sorry and says "thank you" several times a day without prompting.  I didn't teach this, he just does it.  This is a sharp contrast to his sister whom I couldn't for the life of me get to say she was sorry until she was at least 3.  They are so different.  
• He like to call out "One, two, three...blastoff" and run from one side of the house to the other.  When he gets to the other side, he yells, "I won!"  Then he'll do it again and again.
• He's really just the sweetest thing