Time flies!

I can't believe Clara is a month old! Wow! Time is flying! We are in survival mode right now. Just getting by day to day. It seems about every other day is a good 'sleep night' for her. Last night was not. :-X

She is doing pretty well! She's back to her birth weight, but still seems so tiny. Still in size NB clothes and diapers. Such a cute little girl. We are all adjusting to her very well. Her sisters adore her and she just loves them too! She is not a fan of her bassinet. I can safely say she hates it. We need to figure that out. I imagine once we do the sleeping won't be an issue for her.

She is eating really well! Because she has some issues with weight gain, I nurse every other feeding and then we give her formula every other time or so.

Clara has been such a blessing for us! We adore her!!!

Below is her birth story. You don't have to read it, I am posting it to remember it.

Clara’s birth story

I went into the doctors on April 1^st, and told her that, “We are done being pregnant!” She laughed and said no no I still had 5 more weeks. Then she checked me. When I heard that, “Uh oh..” I know I was going to win this one! I was dilated to four and my bag of water was bulging out. She asked when my next NST was, and told her it was right after this appointment. She said to go and we’ll go from there. She said that if I went home, if I felt even a hint of leaking water, to get right back. See, my last two, from the time my water was broken to delivery about one hour, and I live 30 minutes from the hospital. As I was leaving, I mentioned to the doctor that I thought the baby might be breech. She checked, and sure enough, she was.

At my NST, baby’s heart rate was not cooperating at all and contractions were 2 ½ minutes apart and the fluid levels were at a 7, and her feet were in my cervix. The nurse came in and asked me the last time I ate anything, and she took my water away. At that point I decided to text Pernell to give the girls to my friend and get my bag and get back to the hospital (he was in the waiting room with my two girls).

Doctor came over and said she was giving the baby a half hour to shape up or we were going to go in for an emergency c-section. If she shaped up, then I would be admitted (I think I was already admitted at this point LOL) and if I could make it through the night without my water breaking (it was a miracle it hadn’t at that point!) then she would try to turn the baby then induce, or if baby wouldn’t turn, c-section.

During the night I was more nervous about my water breaking because then it wouldn’t have been my doctor doing the surgery, so I stayed really, really still the entire night. Contractions leveled off and even stopped around 2am. At 8am my doctor came in and she tried to turn the baby. That was the single most painful thing I have ever been through. I remember just screaming really loud, and when doctor said, “I’m sorry!” I just kept yelling, “NO WORRIES! JUST KEEP GOING!!!” I really wanted to avoid a c-section if I could. After a couple minutes of trying that, it was very clear the baby was not going to turn. So, c-section it was. Funny, but I was not nervous at all for this surgery. I’d never had surgery before, but for some reason, a few weeks ago, I had this weird feeling that this pregnancy would end in a c-section. I can’t explain it, but prepped myself for it weeks before. At 8:30am I walked into the operating room, got a spinal and off we went!

The anesthesiologist was fantastic! Actually, EVERYONE in there was fantastic! Such a great group of people that got to see my insides. We talked and joked hed the entire time! There were seven nurses, two doctors and the anesthesiologist. The anesthesiologist kept me up to what was going on. He said, “Ok, doctor is going to map out right now where she is going to cut”. A little bit later I felt tugging and what not. I said, “What on EARTH are you doing up there??” My doctor, “Uhh… delivering your baby…” “Oh.. you already cut?? I just thought you were getting creative with a magic marker!” Boy I felt smart. Hahaha!

Clara was very stuck in my ribs. It took a lot of twisting, pulling, tugging, pushing and yanking to get her out. There was no way I would have been able to have her any other way other than a c-section. One of the nurses there said that it was a difficult c-section. When Clara's butt came out, they announced it…and then she started to pee. Clara was born at 9:06am April 2^nd, 7lbs 10oz and 20 inches long. The area were they clean up the baby was right where I could watch, it was great! Her apgars were 8 and 9. She had lots of bruising (especially on her head were she had been stuck). She has light red hair and was feisty! All the while, the fantastic anesthesiologist was pumping in drugs to get rid of the nausea and then he gave me something aawwwweeesssssooooommmeeee for pain. I have no idea what it was, but suddenly… life was just peachy. Hehehe!

The actual surgery started at 9am and was over around 9:35am or so. From there, they brought me and Clara into the PACU. They put Clara on my chest, and she immediately looked up and around, then put her thumb in her mouth!! AHH!!! GET THAT KID A BINKIE!!! No more thumb suckers!!! J

When they took Clara’s blood sugars (I had gestational diabetes), it was 12. They thought that was too low, since she was very alert and looking around. So they got another machine, and it was 13. Then got another machine and it was 10. At that point I said, “Give her formula”, which I think shocked the nurses. I had been through this with baby #2. A bit after that, they had to ‘break’ the news to me that she was going to go to the NICU. Really, this was no shock. Husband and I were waiting for it. So he carried her to the NICU with the NICU nurses, and they brought me back to my room.

Over all my experience was awesome!! I ended up losing way too much blood that kept me in the hospital an extra day or two. We were told Clara would be in the NICU for 1-2 weeks, and she came home at 7 days old. There have been some hiccups with my recovery and her weight gain, but nothing that time won’t fix. What a way to end my pregnancy years! BTW... I gained 2pounds the entire pregnancy. Not too shabby.