Clara has been sleeping for 3 hours at night which is good for me. Her umbilical cord came off day 6, there is a small scab left. I have started pumping and Andre can feed her now and give me a break from time to time. This week at the doctor she developed a deeper cry. She hates being naked on the table with the AC, who wouldn't...and always happens to be starving when we go to the doctor so she wailed on the table and in the doctors FREEZING hands. Andre named it the dolphin cry. I can't even listen to what the doctor is saying because I just want to grab my little angel, warm her and hold her tight. Thankfully Andre was listening. She is spending more time alert during the day, her eyes open wider and they may have lightened slightly but are still a deep blue.
I went to get Aunt Kristin from the airport Monday and it was our first outing without Daddy. We both hated to see him go back to work this week, it was so nice having him home with us. I think I'm the most sad, not enough sleep makes me too emotional! We did good on the trip to the airport and Clara only started to cry right when Aunt Kristin got in the car, but only for a few minutes. We met Andre out for lunch for the first time. I had to breast feed in public and the cover I bought works well. Kristin and I ran a few errands while I was out with extra hands.
We cannot thank Aunt Kristin enough for her help. She played with Clara all day, watching her handle her taught me a lot as a mom. She is so calming and gentle. She and Clara did lots of exercises and belly time. Kristin set up her play station that she loves, so many colors to look at. They would walk around the house or yard admiring colors and sights. Aunt Kristin cleaned, baked, cooked, stayed up with Clara for a part of a night, snuggled, played more, changed diapers, consoled me...I don't know how I would have gotten through week two without you. Kristin is very much like my mom would be, it makes me happy and sad. I'm so lucky to have Kristin but it was so hard to have her leave. It's the first time I ever considered begging Andre to move to western NY. (I knew better) I want my family to know Clara and watch her grow and it breaks my heart being so far away. I know I could never handle living in the cold again but I miss my family so very much and want them all to know I wish we could be in two places at once. I'll never be able to repay all the visits we get from my family and I hope you ALL know it means the world to me that you take your time and spend your money to come see us. We will do our best to come home as often as possible and hopefully with facetime and the blog you can watch Clara grow from afar, I know all her late grandparents and family members are watching from above and wishing they could be here in person to hug and kiss this angel.
Clara is starting to like her baths now, hopefully it stays that way. She is not sleeping as well during the night. She wakes up every 1.5 hours almost on the dot and it takes about an hour to feed her, change her (sometimes a few times) and get her back to sleep. Andre has been taking care of her from around 8 to 12 or 1 with pumped milk. She tends to stay awake with him during this time, sometimes fussy. Last night he worked some magic, he swaddled her and ran the vacuum and she went to sleep right away and slept during his time for a few hours, way to go Dad! I'm able to get a few hours of sleep then he goes to bed from around 12 or 1 until 7ish for work. We have been sleeping in separate rooms, glad we have that option but I miss him dearly. He comes home from work and about 2-3 hours later I need to get in bed and try and sleep. It's so hard because I'm not always tired but know I need to get some sleep and I just want to hang out as a family, hopefully soon Clara will sleep better throughout the night and help us with that. Thank you for helping me so much Andre, you are the best husband a new mommy could ask for!
Clara is more and more attentive each day. We've been able to tell her cries apart for a while now. She has a good fake cry she tries to use, it's funny. This can be when she just wants to be fussy or usually when she's tired, or even a hurry up and feed me. She has a serious cry, a very serious dolphin cry and the silent cry when she's most upset, her face turns red and her mouth is open and my heart breaks 50,000x. Thankfully this is not often, once in the car and once at the doctors office. Andre says she does this with him, he can tolerate her crying a tad better than mommy can. I tried to let her fall asleep today on her own, she started crying and I watched the clock for one minute, by the end of the minute she was in the silent cry and I promised her I'd never do that again. Maybe someday I'll be a little more tough, probably not. I try to use the pacifier to calm her but she just gets mad that it's not milk, even when she's not hungry, I can't fool this little girl. Once in a while it will work, not often, I usually only attempt this in public if she's been waiting to eat too long.
Right when she wakes she is very attentive and excited. She loves to be talked to and look around. We try and coordinate our morning with Andre so we can spend some time with him before he's off to work, sometimes this works, sometimes not. I have had doctor appointments all week for my leg. I'm hopefully going to get an MRI in the near future if all works out with insurance. I'm now able to lift it and walk better but I cannot bend all the way down, only about 30 degrees. I have a hard time getting off the couch and such. The rest of my body has healed well I'd say. I lost about 25 lbs in the first week which has been amazing. I still have my more to shed, I gained around 40 lbs during this pregnancy. I can sleep on my belly again and NO acid reflux if I don't eat too late. It's amazing. I cannot get on the floor with her that well yet. I still have tingling along my leg and my knee is useless. Clara comes all over town with me and is so good. Everyone loves to see her at the doctor. I have a cherry angioma on my left arm that showed up this pregnancy that I'll need to have removed but it's just an eye sore. My linea negra is the only mark I have on my belly which is nice, I think that will fade with time. The rest of me has healed well I'd say, most everything back to normal other than my leg. Once that's back I'll be in good shape to get back in shape and I can't wait!!! I can fit into some of my regular pants that I wore right before maternity clothes, normal clothes are great! I wear four nursing tops since I've been home, there is no point in any other shirt since Clara needs to be at my boob so often. I go for my MRI for my leg on November 18th as long as there are no problems with my insurance.
Clara is getting TOO big. Most her newborn clothes are already too tight. :( She is now in 1 diapers as a 9lb+ baby. The newborns were fine around her waste but were getting too tight around her legs and I could tell rubbing too much on her skin. She is in the in between stage where ones are a little saggy on her but newborns are too small. She likes to suck on her fingers when she is hungry. Kristin calls it the boob bob when you're holding her and she's hungry because she starts bobbing her head all over the place and sucking on anything in sight.
The hospital only did footprints so Andre and I bought a hand print set for her baby book. I read the box fast and told Andre it said, "no ink on hands" and I was curious how that worked. Well, we should have read careful. Andre dipped her hand in the ink and we tried to get her print on the page but this darn little girl makes a fist like no other and the jaws of life cannot pry it open, so you'll see below our first attempt at her hand print. Then he read the box more careful and you are supposed to put the pad face down and press her hand against the non ink side, duh. So we had an inked baby hand that we couldn't get clean and quite a messy upside down attempt at her hand prints. It was funny at least. She still has black ink under her nails. Daddy and I will read better from now on. We got a cool picture of her hand print in the ink though.
Of course in no order yet.
Tummy time in her crib.
Aunt Kristin taking good care of me as always.
Sponge bath time. She still had a scab from her umbilical cord and I wasn't sure if we could get it wet so we played it safe.
This is the play station from Peter and Courtney that Aunt Kristin set up to play. Clara loves to play with Aunt Kristin!!! (Come back!)
Two beauties.
Bibs have helped us not have to change clothes so much. The onesies going over her head isn't her favorite.
Love this pic!
Baking deliciousness for us! Kristin and I ate an entire cake in a week, oops. Pretty sure most of it was me. I couldn't eat sweets my entire pregnancy, I have to make up for it a bit!
Halloween photo shoot. I'm going to blog Halloween separate.
Daddy loves his little pumpkin but, literally. Thanks Aunt Brandi.
I tried to treat Kristin to a massage with Corrie, the darn girl left me money. Clara and I hung out at a coffee shop next door and enjoyed some fresh air and much needed caffeine. I may have a cup or two a week as a treat.
Going for a walk, it's nice and cool out so I'm wearing my jacket from Aunt Corrie. Newborn clothes are almost too small already!
My favorite.
Two weeks too old!
Stretch!
Cutie.
The "clean" ink hand.
Picture of our first attempt.
Her cool hand print done the wrong way!
Aunt Brandi's amazing cat outfit, it has a kitty face on the butt too of course!
Her birth announcement with the wrong date, haha. Emailed Tampa Bay Times, hopefully they correct it.
Mommy loving this face and the many to come after.
Look at those cheeks!
We miss you Aunt Kristin!
Getting excited.
More excited.
First nap in her crib!
On our way to yet another doctor for mom's leg.
Jane came to visit while she was down helping Rebecca move back to Florida. It was so nice seeing you Jane, thanks for coming! Tiffany took some amazing pictures with the blanket you made for Clara, I'll be sure to send you copies and post them!
Starting to like her bath.
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