At long last these two MC girls got a chance to meet. While MCW's mom and I were due 10 weeks apart, her little girl held out a little longer and Claire came a little earlier, making these girls only 6 weeks apart in age. Claire has some catching up to do on her growth to keep up with her friend who is double her current weight - but I've no doubt by our planned beach trip next year these two will be able to keep up with each other pretty well.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
The MC's Meet at Last
At long last these two MC girls got a chance to meet. While MCW's mom and I were due 10 weeks apart, her little girl held out a little longer and Claire came a little earlier, making these girls only 6 weeks apart in age. Claire has some catching up to do on her growth to keep up with her friend who is double her current weight - but I've no doubt by our planned beach trip next year these two will be able to keep up with each other pretty well.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Two Weeks Today
For Nani, here is a two-week picture of Clairebear. We haven't weighed her since early last week, but with how much she eats and the way her clothes appear to be shrinking, I am assuming she is gaining like crazy. We have now only a few preemie items that fit, though newborn clothing mostly swallows her. (And by the way, though she is fairly dark skinned, she came out looking super dark on this photo, not sure why).She is still a very good and easy baby (knock on wood) and is starting to understand the difference between days and nights, which means no more two hour wakeful period at 3:00 AM and a couple of fun alert times during the day. She is eating, sleeping and pooping a lot, which is what babies are supposed to do, and she has earned a nickname from her daddy, "the squeaker." She rarely cries at all, and if she does it's only for a second. Instead, her main form of communication is these tiny little squeaky noises which she makes both awake and in her sleep. So sweet!
A Busy Week
We have had a busy second week of life! Claire has started to have some really good alert periods during the daytime and I pulled out my favorite pregnant purchase - my bumpil pillow ( you can look these up online). It zips shut to create a great preggie pillow and then unzips to create a floortime play space once your little one arrives. 
Daddy loves to take pictures of Claire when she sleeps. She does the funniest things with her arms - usually at least one of them is sticking straight up in the air. Sometimes she looks like she is doing some sort of choreography.
I noted the other day while Claire was sleeping that her big sister Soozie was napping in much the same fashion, so had to show a cute picture of one of our four-legged children. We have had a lot of folks asking how the dogs/cat are doing with Claire and I can happily say that everything appears to be going really well. The dogs are a little frustrated with being second-class citizens, but they are behaving well around the baby and so far I'm feeling good about their adjustment.
Irving, the cat, is having a harder time. He has always been a big momma's boy and is used to being a nearly permanent fixture on my lap. He has trouble noticing whether or not Claire is there - or maybe he's just ignoring that she's there even if he knows it. We have to be careful or he'll climb right on top of her when trying to get into my lap. He figured out the other day that sometimes there is room for two...
Daddy loves to take pictures of Claire when she sleeps. She does the funniest things with her arms - usually at least one of them is sticking straight up in the air. Sometimes she looks like she is doing some sort of choreography.
I noted the other day while Claire was sleeping that her big sister Soozie was napping in much the same fashion, so had to show a cute picture of one of our four-legged children. We have had a lot of folks asking how the dogs/cat are doing with Claire and I can happily say that everything appears to be going really well. The dogs are a little frustrated with being second-class citizens, but they are behaving well around the baby and so far I'm feeling good about their adjustment.
Irving, the cat, is having a harder time. He has always been a big momma's boy and is used to being a nearly permanent fixture on my lap. He has trouble noticing whether or not Claire is there - or maybe he's just ignoring that she's there even if he knows it. We have to be careful or he'll climb right on top of her when trying to get into my lap. He figured out the other day that sometimes there is room for two...
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Claire at One Week
She's eating well and growing quickly, already weighing in right at 5lbs and starting to accumulate little fat rolls in all the right places. She's going to catch up to the bigger babies in no time flat! So far we find her to be pleasant and easy. We're tired, of course, but couldn't be happier so far. We have really benefited from the help of family and friends, which has allowed us to enjoy just figuring out caring for each other as a family.
My mom returned home for this week, and Geoff has this whole week off where it will be just the three of us for a bit. We're looking forward to it, especially knowing that mom stocked our freezer full of good food to eat, giving us one less thing to worry about while we're figuring out how to keep up with everything else.
Videos to come soon from her first bath...
The Birth Story
SO, last Wednesday morning, August 12th, I went to the hospital at 9:00 AM to have an ECV, where the doctor attempts to reposition a breech baby into a head-down position. I had an epidural because I heard the procedure could hurt like the dickins. In order to have this procedure, you need ample amniotic fluid around the baby and the baby needs to be smaller than 7lbs. The doctor had said if Claire was willing to move, it would take under 10 minutes, and if she wasn't going to move, he wouldn't force her. Well, the procedure worked like a charm and took less than 2 minutes. Geoff described it as watching the doctor manipulate a football inside of a basketball.
All that was left was to monitor the baby for signs of stress for 2 hours and then we would go home and induce at 39 weeks. Well, there were signs of stress from the getgo. Claire's heart rate drops came fairly frequently for awhile, then slowed to about once an hour. Eventually the doctor left me on the monitors but told me that he would be back and he had decided that we would need to see six straight hours with no heart rate dips. This was not the most welcome news as by the time we were at that point, it was after lunch and I hadn't eaten since the evening before.
My doctor was done with his surgeries and back at the main doctor's office and the on-call doctor was set to check on me. Geoff and his mom and I were sitting around trying to ignore the baby's heart monitor. At some point I thought that my water may have broken (a potential side effect of the repositioning of the baby). A nurse came in and confirmed the presence of amniotic fluid and it looked like we were going to induce. The on-call doctor then came in to run some other tests and couldn't confirm that my water had indeed broken, even though the ultrasound was showing less amniotic fluid than had been there that morning. So they had me walk for awhile in hopes of having more conclusive test results. Still it seemed that he couldn't confirm that my water had broken and said they would likely be sending me home.
At this point, I was pretty weary. Geoff's mom went on home since it looked like that was where we'd be heading and I laid in bed waiting for my doctor to drop in and I just cried for awhile. All I could think was that I was sure my water had broken and that I was going to end up having to have another epidural if they sent me home and I wasn't looking forward to that at all. But when my doctor came over he checked the ultrasound and said the fluid levels were so much lower than they had been that morning that it was absolutely time to induce.
The induction occurs in two parts and the first takes 12 hours, so we put out of town grandparents on alert that we would be beginning labor on the morning of the 13th. Part one of the induction (pre-labor) began and had immediate strong results, causing contractions that were really not what we were expecting at the time. I pretty much blacked out during all of this and remember nothing from about 7:30pm when the contractions started until around 2:30 in the morning when my water really broke and the doctors came rushing in to prep me for an emergency c-section.
Geoff was able to come in for the c-section which was truly over in minutes. We had to bump another couple out of our way for the surgery - they had been in our prepared childbirth class. Claire came out small but healthy - they had both of us briefly - very briefly - on oxygen, but other than needing a little time in the warmer, she was alert, healthy, and ready to nurse as soon as I recovered from being sewn up. I have been recovering really well from the surgery, and am so glad to be home with my baby and husband. It was a trying and frustrating day, both the worst and best day I've ever had. Worst for all of the scary and frustrating moments, all the fatigue, lack of food, pain, etc, and best for the birth of my daughter.
All that was left was to monitor the baby for signs of stress for 2 hours and then we would go home and induce at 39 weeks. Well, there were signs of stress from the getgo. Claire's heart rate drops came fairly frequently for awhile, then slowed to about once an hour. Eventually the doctor left me on the monitors but told me that he would be back and he had decided that we would need to see six straight hours with no heart rate dips. This was not the most welcome news as by the time we were at that point, it was after lunch and I hadn't eaten since the evening before.
My doctor was done with his surgeries and back at the main doctor's office and the on-call doctor was set to check on me. Geoff and his mom and I were sitting around trying to ignore the baby's heart monitor. At some point I thought that my water may have broken (a potential side effect of the repositioning of the baby). A nurse came in and confirmed the presence of amniotic fluid and it looked like we were going to induce. The on-call doctor then came in to run some other tests and couldn't confirm that my water had indeed broken, even though the ultrasound was showing less amniotic fluid than had been there that morning. So they had me walk for awhile in hopes of having more conclusive test results. Still it seemed that he couldn't confirm that my water had broken and said they would likely be sending me home.
At this point, I was pretty weary. Geoff's mom went on home since it looked like that was where we'd be heading and I laid in bed waiting for my doctor to drop in and I just cried for awhile. All I could think was that I was sure my water had broken and that I was going to end up having to have another epidural if they sent me home and I wasn't looking forward to that at all. But when my doctor came over he checked the ultrasound and said the fluid levels were so much lower than they had been that morning that it was absolutely time to induce.
The induction occurs in two parts and the first takes 12 hours, so we put out of town grandparents on alert that we would be beginning labor on the morning of the 13th. Part one of the induction (pre-labor) began and had immediate strong results, causing contractions that were really not what we were expecting at the time. I pretty much blacked out during all of this and remember nothing from about 7:30pm when the contractions started until around 2:30 in the morning when my water really broke and the doctors came rushing in to prep me for an emergency c-section.
Geoff was able to come in for the c-section which was truly over in minutes. We had to bump another couple out of our way for the surgery - they had been in our prepared childbirth class. Claire came out small but healthy - they had both of us briefly - very briefly - on oxygen, but other than needing a little time in the warmer, she was alert, healthy, and ready to nurse as soon as I recovered from being sewn up. I have been recovering really well from the surgery, and am so glad to be home with my baby and husband. It was a trying and frustrating day, both the worst and best day I've ever had. Worst for all of the scary and frustrating moments, all the fatigue, lack of food, pain, etc, and best for the birth of my daughter.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
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