Backyard Updo

A and I are not exactly green thumbs...our backyard flower gardens were slowly being taken over by grass and weeds. I didn't mind too much, we just weren't out there enough to pay much attention. Then Miss Clara  arrived, and she loves to be outside. So now that we spend more time outside, we noticed just how bad we had let things get. A couple of weeks ago, I suggested to A that since our anniversary was coming up, that instead of just going to a movie or date, we plan an outdoor date and work on our backyard. We made fairly good progress for only having one day to do what we could while my parents watched Clara. Then A's mom came up for a visit. Miss Janna is an amazing gardener. She helped us finish up the gardens and really made everything come together. Here's some before and afters. If we manage not to kill anything, I'll continue to show progress. So far so good!

By the house: BEFORE

and 

AFTER!

By the Deck: BEFORE

and

AFTER!

By the fence: BEFORE

and

AFTER!

(The hollyhock had reached the end of its blooming at this point and was getting eaten by something. We cut it down and have sprayed it hoping to take care of the problem.)

Clara's 4 Month Check Up

I can't believe how big Clara is getting. We loaded up this morning for her 4 month check up! Clara is as healthy as ever! She is now 13 pounds 8 1/2 ounces and 24 1/4 inches long. She is cruising along almost right at the 50th percentile in her growth. We'll be starting her out on some cereal soon, can't believe that she's old enough for that already! She is such a good baby!

Tuckered out from her appointment!

Three Months Old

Time is flying. Clara is three months old as of yesterday. She is beginning to laugh and to babble back at us. Within the past couple of days she has become aware that she has hands. She will hold them out in front of her and just stare at them...and then try to cram them in her mouth. She isn't quite rolling over yet but in the past week she has started turning onto her side. She is more of a morning person than me, she wakes up smiling at whoever comes to get her. I love her more everyday!  

I thought I would share some of our favorite pictures from the last month. I also realized that I never put any of the newborn photos we had done on here so I'll share a couple of those as well!

With her brother.

For this child I have prayed.

So focused on her toy.

Beautiful girl!

Wishbone Day 2013

Today is Wishbone Day! Just in case you don't know what that is, Wishbone Day is a day that raises awareness of OI, what our sweet Noah had. For more info go to www.wishboneday.com! Here's a few photos of us in our yellow!

Clara in her yellow!

Us with Noah's Yellow Roses.

Happy Wishbone Day!

2 Month Check Up

Happy after her appointment today!

Clara had her 2 month check up today! She is still perfectly healthy! She's at about the 50th percentile on her measurements. She weights 10 pounds 15 ounces so almost 11 pounds. She is 22 5/8 inches long so she's growing!  She's such a good baby! She gets shots later this week so I'm anxious about those and hope she does well!  Here's a few favorite pictures from the past few weeks.

Going Home Outfit

After her first bath

Easter Dress

Just a Happy Baby!

2 Week Check Up

Clara had her two week check up today! Her weight is up to 7 pounds 10 1/2 ounces so she almost made it back up to her birthweight. The doctor said most of the time he really wants them to be back up to their birth weight at two weeks, but since she lost so much he's happy with where she's at. She's actually exceeding the expected weight gain per day so no concerns! She is looking healthy and we go back when she's two months old!

Ready to go!

Momma decided it was time for a bow

Updates and Introductions

Just some small updates!

We went went to get Clara's bilirubin levels tested again on Saturday. She was a pro, slept through the whole thing! Her level went down about 5 points so no worries anymore about jaundice!

We went to get her hearing screen done on Tuesday, but had to wait until today. She passed no problems (we weren't surprised) so that issue is done as well.

We don't know how much more weight she has gained back, but we can definitely see some chubby cheeks coming back so we don't see any issues coming; we will find out her weight at her two week appointment on Monday.

We had her newborn pictures done this week. They turned out absolutely beautiful, even if I am a biased momma. I can't wait to show them off!

We introduced Clara to our dogs last week. We have a Schnauzer (Kimmie) and a Vizsla mix (Kletus). We introduced them one at a time. Kimmie came in and smelled the whole house. Once she calmed down. I took Clara and gave her to A, then called Kimmie over. She smelled Clara thoroughly then curled up by her and put her head on Clara's feet. She also will come find me if we don't get Clara quick enough when she is crying. I think she likes her. We did the same thing with Kletus, he smelled all over as well, but after smelling Clara, he went on his happy way, he doesn't seem to care one way or another, but he does occasionally come up and smell her.

Looking her over

Deciding to keep her

Helping me watch her after a late night feeding

Getting introduced before losing interest

Clara's First Appointment

Clara had her first appointment today!

All dressed and ready to go!

We had a couple concerns to discuss with the Dr. today. The first was her weight. Normally the doctors don't like for babies to lose more than 10% of their body weight. Clara lost about 11% of her body weight while in the hospital (down a whole pound), but we were able to go ahead and go home. Today when they weighed her she had gained about an ounce and a half back. Yay! So her weight is looking good.

The second concern we had is her jaundice. Her bilirubin levels were slightly elevated when we left the hospital, once again not enough to worry about. The doctor had us take her to test her levels again. We got the results this afternoon and her levels have elevated further (which we had expected). So now we have to get her tested again tomorrow to make sure that the levels have peaked and are on their way down. If they continue to elevate she will have to be kept and put under a lamp. So we are hoping that her levels are on their way down when we take her tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to them getting more blood from her, but she handled it really well today. They had to stick her twice, first in the arm, and then in the heel...not fun. For now, we had her sunbathing this evening and will again in the morning, hoping to help bring her levels down.

Soaking in the sun

Overall the appointment went really well and we'll go back when she's two weeks old. She's keeping us busy! Coming up in our Clara schedule: jaundice retest tomorrow (and possibly Sunday), newborn pictures on Monday, hearing screening Monday or Tuesday. Loving every minute!

How We're Doing

Hello all! I just wanted to do a small update on how things are going.

Clara is doing really well. After her initial issues from swallowing fluid during the c-section, her vitals have been great. Right now the only issue is she has not passed the hearing test twice now, but nobody is concerned. She does hear, but she more than likely still has fluid in her ears from the c-section keeping her from passing. So the plan is to bring her back up here next Tuesday to redo the test, just to give the fluid in her ears a chance to go away. So we are just asking for prayers that she passes next week with no further issues.

My recovery is also going well. My only complication is that my blood count has been low the past couple of days. Once again they aren't overly concerned and I'm taking iron pills. Overall my recovery has been worlds better than it was last time. 

Right now the plan is to head home sometime tomorrow! The weather isn't supposed to be that great so prayers for safe traveling is greatly appreciated!

Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us and Clara throughout this pregnancy and her arrival. God continues to bless us! 

Meet Clara Jeanette!

This is Erin bright and early at 7:30 this morning! Isn't she beautiful!

This is Clara sometime this afternoon after we flipped her to her back. From this point on she started improving consistently.

This is the beautiful girl after she has been brought back up to see her Mom!

    What a day it has been today! So you don't get confused this is Aaron. We started off bright and early at 6:00, that is as much as we could sleep in this morning. Arrived at 8:00, got checked in. We were scheduled to in for the surgery at 10:00, that ended up being closer to 11:30. This is the small price we play for having an amazing doctor. Things went great until Clara was born. At this point we started to have some concerns. There was fluid in her lungs, as is fairly common with babies delivered via c-section. We kept her in the delivery room hoping her oxygen saturation would climb up above 92%. She was unable to do this. 

    So they brought us down the elevator to the transition room. For those unaware, as was I, the transition room is a half-way room between the delivery room and the NICU. If we stayed on oxygen for three hours she would be admitted to the NICU. This was the same NICU where we said good-bye to Noah. This brought back many uneasy feelings for me and I was hoping it didn't come to this for Clara. Typically babies only stay at this particular transition room for three hours. At the 2 hour 45 minute mark the nurse was able to remove the oxygen and her numbers were decent, not ideal but manageable. So this bought us some more time. After another two hours her numbers were consistently where they needed to be and we were finally able to come see Momma! What a beautiful sight to see Clara in her momma's arms! I did not leave her side from the time she was delivered until she was able to see her mother. It was 5 1/2 hours after she was born, but it honestly only seemed about 30 minutes to me. 

    She is healthy and beautiful! She was 7lbs 12oz, 20 1/2" long. She has dark brown hair and is absolutely perfect! As I am typing this tonight Erin is feeling pretty well, sleepy, but well. I am beyond content with the blessings that God has provided us. I am looking forward to the next chapter that lies before our family. Thanks goes out to all of those who have offered prayers for us! I do not know where we would be without those prayers. I love you guys and I am about to go hold my darling little girl!

Final Countdown!

We are in the final weekend! I haven't updated in awhile, but everything is still going well! Our c-section got moved up a day so we will be meeting Clara Sunday morning! Today and tomorrow we will be getting all the little things done here I want to have finished before we leave Saturday evening for the city. My dream is for the house to be clean when we get back so I don't have to worry about it so we'll see how it goes. As far as everything being ready for Clara though, we are all set. Her nursery is set up, her bag is packed, cloth diapers are all prepped and ready to go, we are just waiting to meet her! We will update here either Sunday evening or Monday morning! In the meantime here are the pictures of her finished nursery. We will hang some newborn pictures up on the wall above her crib and I may get a rug for the floor but otherwise it is done!

Four Weeks To Go!

We had an appointment to check up on Miss Clara today along with an ultrasound. We learned a couple of things. Up to this point we had only had morning appointments, however today's appointment was at 3:00 PM. After today we hope to never have another afternoon appointment. We waited about an 1 1/2 hours before we went in for the ultrasound, it was 2 hours before we saw the doctor. Needless to say it was a long wait, one that we had never had before with this doctor. 

The second thing that we learned was that even though we had to wait that long, we go to an amazing practice. We were called back for the dreaded weigh-in and the blood pressure preliminary stuff pretty quick like normal, then they gave us the option of waiting in one of the rooms or back out in the waiting room (which was full!) We opted for a room. We were in there for a long time, and then they came in and told us there was still a wait, but they were moving us into another room that had a tv and a nice cushy recliner for me to keep waiting, which we had all to ourselves. So although we had to wait, I have to say it wasn't awful and I was pretty comfortable in that chair!

Now for the actual appointment, it went well! The first thing the ultrasound tech and then later the doctor commented on was her hair. It is definitely visible on the ultrasound. The old wives tale about heartburn being related to the baby having hair has been true for us it seems, first with Noah and now with Clara.  The tech ended with telling us her estimated weight is 6 lb, 8 oz! We had to laugh at that. Once the doctor came in and confirmed everything looked good, he also commented on her weight, along the lines of "She's looking like she's on the bigger side, it's a good thing you are having a c-section!" So it looks like we will need to be prepping for a big baby!

We are so thankful for another good appointment! We will be going back next Friday (morning!) Our c-section is scheduled for Monday, February 18, in the morning and we can't wait to meet her! In the meantime here are a few pics we got today!

One of her little feet!

 

Clara's Custom Bedding!

Once again I need to thank my WONDERFUL mother-in-law for the work she's done on Clara's bedding and curtains! They turned out beautiful!!! And the blanket I made goes with it too! Here are a few pictures. The next time I share it will be the finished nursery with decor and everything up!