Clara Jane

Clara Jane was born today! Hooray! For those of you who want the short story, she was born at 2:39pm, 19.5 inches long and 7 lbs, 7 oz (and 7/10 oz)! Very healthy and lots of dark hair!

 

The traditional last-time-we-have-to-hug-bending-over picture!

Now for the slightly longer version. We reported to the hospital at 7 am for the induction. My awesome OB had asked Chris, the nurse who helped at Bryce's delivery, if she would be willing to come help with Clara's and she said yes! It was wonderful to see her again and she recognized us the minute she walked in the door. I got all hooked up to the monitors and got the IV placed after a couple tries and we waited for Dr. MacDonald to come up and break my water. I was negative for the group B strep test, so I didn't need any antibiotics. I wasn't very dilated or effaced, only 2 cm and 40% effaced, but we went ahead with the induction anyway. I decided to wait to get the epidural when I could be distracted by the contractions, since the epidural always freaks me out. I don't do needles, particularly huge ones uncomfortably near my spinal cord.

Dr. MacDonald broke my water and started my Pitocin around 8:30 and the contractions started at 9. I was able to get up and sit in a rocking chair to help me manage the contractions which was new for me. The contractions started to get closer together and much stronger at 11 so I decided to get my epidural then. Ugh, it wigs me out just typing about it, but the near instant relief always surprises me. You don't really notice how much you hurt til all the pain is taken away. I got through it and lauded the anesthesiologist, Dr. Troop, as "my hero." :) Chris monitored my heart rate and we didn't have as much of a problem with that as we did with Bryce, so that was great. We settled down to wait but things started really moving at 1 pm.

Christ checked me at 1 pm and I was 6 cm and 100% effaced. I hadn't moved as fast as I thought I was going to considering Clara is my third child, but Chris was confident I would progress quickly. Oh was she right. That was the most excruciating hour, since the epidural couldn't keep up with my progression and the contractions. My whole body started shaking and my teeth were chattering with the intensity of the labor. That was a really scary hour for me because I thought we were going to have a repeat of Derek's delivery. Mitchell stood by the bed holding my hand and stroking my hair which helped me stay calm and soothe my anxiety. Chris helped me breath through the contractions. When she checked me after an hour, I was complete at 10 cm and 100% effaced. Whew! Chris turned the Pitocin down so I could get a break while we called Dr. MacDonald and got the delivery tools all ready to go. That helped immensely and the contractions slowed to ten minutes apart.

I pushed through three contractions and Clara started crowning. I was a little startled by how quickly her delivery was going and Mitchell's excitement was a great motivator. Two more pushes and second degree tear later, Clara was born! Dr. MacDonald suctioned her out and then placed her on my chest. A nurse handed me a towel and helped me clean Clara's face and body. The nurses thought she was so cute trying to suck on her hands and, when I gave them the green light, they took her to the warmer to clean her up and weigh her. The nurses got yet another fun fact when they weighed her and found she weight seven pounds, seven ounces and seven tenths of an ounce, haha!

Hello sweet girl!

We are so grateful to all our friends and family who came to see us. It was wonderful to share our sweet Clara Jane with them, and a special thanks to my mom, Amy and Val for watching Derek and Bryce for three and half days while we were in the hospital. Derek and Bryce adore Clara already and I know they'll be fantastic big brothers.

Not happy with the big wide world

 



Mother and Daughter



Clara and Nana



Bryce and Aunt Val



I think Bryce missed me. :) He leaned back against me and just cuddled for a while.



Our little family and Chris! She delivered Bryce and now Clara. I'm loving this tradition and I really REALLY hope Chris and Dr. MacDonald can deliver my next baby. Love my team!



Nana, Clara, Derek and Bryce



Bryce and Papi



Clara and Aunt Val



Derek and Clara. He's so excited that she's finally here. When he walked in, he saw her and said, "Mom, look! Baby Clara is here!" So sweet. Bryce is still kind of oblivious. :)



Grandma and Clara. I think Clara has her profile.



Clara was not happy about her first bath, but she loved getting her hair washed.



The nurse didn't dry Clara's hair all the way, so Mitchell took it upon himself to brush and towel dry her hair. Tammy and I thought it was adorable. :)



The proud daddy and little daughter



Ally and Aunt Jenn came to visit too! I loved their accidentally matching outfits. Can't wait to do things like that with Clara. :D



Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Austin brought their kids to see Clara. The kids were so excited about the new baby.



I don't think she liked Mitchell taking so many pictures, haha!



Clara and Uncle Colton. This is his first time to see a brand new baby.



Our friends from church! Mallory and Kevin brought their little boy Bauer to see Clara. Bauer is a couple months older than Bryce and he is adorable! We love hanging out with these guys. :)

Almost Done!

Only 10 more days until Clara is here!

37 weeks 5 days

Birthday Letter to Bryce

Happy birthday, Brycie Bryce! You are a whole year old today! I am so glad you are in our family, sweet heart. You have reached so many milestones this year: first smiles, first giggles, sitting up, crawling, walking and now you aren't content with anything slower than a run. You are adored, son. Your older brother loves to make you laugh and you seek him out at any opportunity. Your father sometimes squeezes you a little too tight when he gets home from work just to hear your happy squeals. Your mother cuddles you a little too often for your liking sometimes, but she's just getting them in while you still fit on her lap. You're growing so fast, you'll soon outgrow her lap, son! You're already wearing 18 month old shirts and even then, some of them are too short. Your sweet little legs are still in 9-12 month shorts, though. We love to see you dink dink dink around the house chasing your brother or pulling the books off the shelves. You love to look at books, though you are too impatient to hear the words read to you. I've never seen your beat for love of stuffed animals and blankets. You get so excited when you find a soft blanket and you have to have one when you go to bed. Stuffed animals are usually preferred to cars, unless Derek gives you one of his cars. Bryce, I hope you always remember that you a son of God. He loves you, we love you and we're so grateful that He sent you to us. Happy birthday, sweet heart!

Birthday burgers for the birthday boy! Cake will be this weekend. :)

Derek Conducts the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

 

Derek enjoyed conducting the MoTab today. :)

Weekend At Nana's

We hung out with Val and Rob at Mom's house this weekend. We had a great time just hanging out and watching Derek play on the blow up slide. Bryce had fun being passed from person to person. He was most content while being held and would walk around til he found someone willing to hold him, haha! Funny little kid.

Happy-Go-Lucky



He didn't like these little shoe/socks I had for him. He kept picking his feet up one at a time and trying to shake it off.



Bryce liked kicking back with Aunt Val on the porch swing



Derek enjoyed kicking the soccer ball off the slide and going after it face first down the slide.

Beautiful Saturday

We went to Nana's house this weekend! It was so nice to relax, especially with Mitchell there to help entertain the kids. He had a blast helping Derek learn to ride a big boy bike. I can't believe it! My three-year-old is riding a bike WITHOUT training wheels! He basically jumped on and took right off. Mitchell has to help him on and give him a push, but then Derek takes over from there. He's more comfortable making a left turn than a right, but he gets the job done. He even had quite the bump that jolted his groin and all he did was jump up and hop around til he walked it off. What a tough kid! Nana has her house pretty much all set up for Halloween and it looks AWESOME! Derek had fun helping Nana hang up spider webs on the dining room chandelier and check some of the decorations for old batteries. Even Bryce got into the spirit of Halloween! My mom has a sound-activated witch hanging in the dining room and every time Bryce would screech for attention, he set off the witch's cackle and sassy comments which would, in turn, make him be quiet and look around for the source of the sounds. I'm so glad we live so close to my mom! The boys sure love Nana. :)

 

 Hopping on the bike

 

 Bryce found these fun star sunglasses in the bottom of the wagon. This kid loves sunglasses!

 

 Nana pulled Bryce in the wagon while Mitchell helped Derek and I took pictures. :)

 

 Working on the right turn

 

 No matter how many falls, Derek hopped right back up and took off again

 

 Check out the cool mowhawk helmet!

 

 Groin check! :S

 

 Bryce and Nana!

 

 Bryce, Nana and Derek - they're so cute!

 

Enjoying the beautiful September afternoon

 

 
 
 

 Nana helped Bryce go down the inflatable slide on the bouncy house

 Bryce didn't like his bare feet touching the damp grass, haha!

 

 Yep, still not a fan.

 

 Bryce loves being lifted up though!

 

 Derek got creative with the bouncy house, haha! Nice little hammock.

 

 We even broke out the soccer ball to kick around!

 

 Derek found a big grasshopper but wouldn't be persuaded (or bribed, lol) to catch it.

 

 Halloween bat glasses!

 

 Derek loves this spider. Also noise-activated, it plunges about two feet down a string and then noisily works its way back up. Bryce was quietly observant as he watched this little show.

 

 Here is the noise-activated witch. Derek took this picture all by himself! He's so good with the camera now.

 

The "broken house." Derek was extremely concerned that this house was broken. The house was hit by lightning in a storm last month. My mom and Amy happened to be driving down a street parallel to this when the lightning bolt hit, though they weren't close enough to be hurt. Thankfully, the family was wasn't home at the time, but their house was basically destroyed. Derek was really scared tonight as I tucked him in bed and kept asking if our house would break. Poor kid.

Happy Birthday, Liz!

Happy birthday Liz! I'm glad you get to try on 26 before I do. ;) So crazy to think we met a little over 7 years ago. It's been wonderful to have you as my sister-in-law the past five years. We always have fun taking all the kids out on play dates and doing frozen yogurt for girls' night. I look forward to celebrating 30 with you! :D I know you're not too thrilled about 30, but everyone says 30 is the new 20. Either way, you've got quite a ways before then, so enjoy still being "in your twenties." Love you bunches!

 

 

 Tammy made a gorgeous chocolate cake for Liz's birthday party!

 

 We had friends Mallory, Kevin and Bauer over from the ward to celebrate with us

 

 Liz had adorable help to blow out her candles

 

 Happy birthday, Liz!

 

 Happy boy with happy birthday cake

 

Bryce, Mallory and Bauer! The boys are about three months apart.