Clara's Quirks

In the hospital, Clara loved her Halo wrap blanket. But I felt bad cause it was always covering the bottom half of her face. I was constantly trying to push it back down so it wasn't covering her mouth. After doing that for two days, I finally realized Clara had been snuggling her little face down in there on purpose. I'm sure it was frustrating for her that after she worked so hard to get tucked down inside, I would push it back away from her haha.

We got to do newborn pictures with Brittany Stanly Photography. Brittany was incredible! She was so sweet with her. Clara did really good sleeping and not being fussy. But she did pee all over the poor photographer. Little stinker. We should get the rest of the pictures back in about a week. I love the ones I have seen so far! I can't wait to get them printed and hanging in my house!

Clara LOVES taking baths. Anthany and I always work together for bath time. Since I'm the cosmetologist in the family, of course I always wash her hair. Anthany always washes her little body with the wash cloth. My most important job is keeping the water the perfect temperature. Even though I kind of love when the bath gets a little cold because Clara's little chin quivers and it is the CUTEST thing in the world. She hasn't pooped or peed in the tub yet, so I would say that we are pretty good!

 Clara makes the funniest faces in the mornings. We like to stay in bed for a long time in the mornings and I just watch her. And take a million pictures.

 Clara is so cute with her hands. She loves her hands. She always has to have them touching her face while she sleeps. She is a master at escaping her swaddle every night, no matter how tight I wrap it! Every time she wakes up to eat or for a diaper change I have to swaddle her all over again and get her little hands tucked in. She also loves her pacifier but she has a really hard time with it. She is still figuring out how to keep sucking on it. If you hold her, you usually have to give her pacifier back to her several times haha. It's even worse when she keeps pulling her pacifier out of her mouth. Then she gets so frustrated. It stinks having hands you can't control yet!

She did this whole time I was feeding her the other day haha.

One of Clara's favorite things is rocking with her daddy. We found albums called Rockabye Baby! They are lullabies made from songs by artists like The Beatles, Queen, Maroon 5, and Taylor Swift. We like to sing along to the lullabies to her. Our favorite is I Don't Want to Miss a Thing by Aerosmith. Clara is pretty alert at night. Which I love because I could stare into her cute little eyes forever but it's also exhausting.

I'm getting better and better at multitasking and doing things one handed. The boppy definitely comes in handy!

I celebrated my 23rd birthday! It was a pretty emotional day. Clara woke up with her little eye swollen shut and it was all gunky. I was so worried about her. Luckily her two week appointment was already scheduled for that day. It turned out to be just a blocked tear duct which is pretty common. We have to give her eye drops three times a day to get rid of the infection. I just cried all day looking at her. Her poor eye looked so sore and I could tell she was miserable. So I spent most of the day just cuddling with her and watching Friends on Netflix. Anthany spoiled me when he got home from work. He made me my favorite dinner: teriyaki chicken, grilled peppers, cornbread, and mashed potatoes! Plus he made me a delicious Funfetti cake! We played Phase 10 and Anthany changed most of the diapers :] It was a good night!

 It's so crazy to me how fast time is going by. I just want my baby to stay tiny forever! I'm loving getting to know her. She has so many little quirks. She is such a happy, cuddly girl. I love you, Clara Lou!

Clara's First Week

After Clara was born, we stayed two days in the hospital. Anthany and I had about five hours alone with Clara before we let family come see her. Honestly, I don't remember much of it haha. We spent lots of time holding Clara, gave her a bath, I got a quick shower, and we tried to get Clara to breastfeed. I think that I got a grilled cheese sandwich in there somewhere too. 

Anthany was incredible the whole time we stayed at the hospital. Trying to get Clara to turn was rough on my poor body so I was pretty miserable. I was on some pretty strong pain medicine and I only felt good when I was laying down. So Anthany changed every diaper, burped Clara almost every time she ate, rocked her to sleep, and picked her up when she cried. I basically just fed her and cuddled her whenever I was feeling good enough. Clara had inhaled about 5 milliliters of amniotic fluid so whenever we laid her down, she would cough and start choking. It was terrifying. Our first night with Clara, Anthany stayed up with her and rocked her almost all night because laying her down was too scary. I had nightmares all night about labor. It was almost impossible to sleep too because every little sound Clara made would freak me out haha. Plus, the nurse would come in every couple hours to check our vitals and see if we needed anything. I think I got about three hours of sleep total the first night.

The second night in the hospital, we decided to send Clara to the nursery. I felt like such a horrible mom. But we were both so worn out, and her choking was freaking us out. We wanted the nurses to see what she was doing so they could make sure she was okay. They would bring Clara in for me to feed her and I would cry when I sent her back haha. I loved staying in the hospital. I could order whatever food I wanted whenever I wanted, they had an awesome jetted tub, they brought me ice packs every couple hours, and I had SO many pillows. I was kinda sad to go home. 

Getting Clara dressed the first time was so scary! She was so tiny and fragile. 

Anthany got to stay home with us for a few days before he went back to work. Also, all my family came to stay with us and help out. I was a baby hog. I held Clara pretty much every second. Everyone was so sweet about never asking to take her from me. But they were always super willing to hold her when I needed sleep! 

The first night home with Clara was rough. She grunts in her sleep and kicks her legs like crazy. I always think she is about to wake up.

This is one of my absolute favorite pictures of her. 

She is definitely a daddy's girl. Clara falls asleep for Anthany a lot better than she goes to sleep for me. 

But since I'm the only one that can feed her, she likes me too sometimes haha.

My family cooked for me, cleaned my house, brought me anything I needed, and I got a few amazing foot massages from my mom. They were also so sweet with handling my tender emotions. I cried a lot. Usually for no reason at all haha. My nephew Ian was staying with us too. He loved to pet Clara's head and poke her haha. 

Cute little cousins

I was pretty sad when my family had to leave. My youngest sister, Krista, is staying with us a few more weeks though to visit my dad so I still have a little helper. Staying home with Clara everyday is a lot of work. One day, while I was changing her diaper she peed all over her bassinet. So I moved her to my bed to change her and she spit up all over her clothes and my bed. I finally got her all cleaned up and sat down on the couch with her and of course she started pooping. She definitely keeps me busy. But I absolutely love it. There is nothing sweeter than cuddling with your baby and kissing those soft little cheeks! I feel so lucky to be this girl's mom!

Clara's Birth Story

Before Clara was born, I thought I didn't have time for blogging. Now that she is here, I definitely don't have time for blogging! But I really want to remember everything about when she was born so I'm making time! So here is the story of the most stressful, exciting, happy, and scary day ever!

On June 3 at approximately 4:45 AM, I woke up out of my sleep because I had felt a little pop. I got up to go to the bathroom and water was running down my legs. I yelled for Anthany and told him my water had broke! When he came into the bathroom, my whole body was shivering uncontrollably. He asked if I was okay and I said I wasn't sure haha. I think it was just excitement and adrenaline and terror all kicking in at once. I tried to call my doctor's office to get the after hours phone number. I had to call three times because I couldn't focus long enough to listen to the whole recording and get the phone number. After I finally talked to the doctor, we started getting ready to head to the hospital. The whole thing didn't feel real because I wasn't even having any contractions. I did my hair, packed my last few things, and asked Anthany for a blessing. I don't really remember anything he said because I was basically in shock this whole time but I do remember that I felt so calm afterwards. I do remember him blessing me that my body would know what to do. 

On the way to the hospital, I got to experience my first contraction. I was not impressed. During pregnancy, I was always scared that I wouldn't know if I was actually in labor or not. After experiencing contractions, I know that it is definitely unmistakable. All the pain was in my back. After we checked in at the hospital, I told them right away that I was ready for the epidural. I had no interest in trying to do it naturally. I was having strong contractions in my back about every three minutes. I had Group B Strep so I had to be on antibiotics for four hours before I delivered Clara so that she wouldn't get sick. I told the nurse that Clara had been posterior [she was face-up instead of face-down like she was supposed to be] at my last appointment. When they checked me at about 8:00 I was only dilated to a 2, but the nurse said that she didn't think Clara was posterior anymore.

Getting my IV was a horrible experience. I'm terrible with needles and Anthany let the nurse know what a wimp I am. She decided this was a good time to tell me that they were giving me a larger needle than what they use at the doctor's office. She was also nice enough to let me know that this would hurt more than it usually did. Dummy. She got the needle in and was wiggling it around for a long time. I started to feel so nauseous so she finally gave up and said she was going to get another nurse to come try. The second nurse tried on my other arm. She got the needle in and started messing with the IV bags and I started to feel so much pressure in my arm. Turns out, my vein had burst. So she said she was going to get another nurse to come try. I really tried to hide how annoyed I was. Luckily, the third nurse was finally able to give me my stinking IV. Then, I had to wait FOREVER for the epidural. There was an emergency that the anesthesiologist was dealing with so we had to wait. They tried giving me some pain medicine but it did not help. Back labor was so horrible; I didn't think there was anyway I was going to be able to last much longer. 

They checked me at 10:00 and I was at a 7! I was so excited that I was progressing fast. I asked again if Clara was in the right position and they said that she was. Before labor, the epidural was so scary to me. But I was in so much pain and I figured there was no way it could be worse than the IV was so I was ready for it! Turns out, it wasn't bad at all! And I felt SO much better after. Probably at least 20 times I said to Anthany, "I just feel so great right now!" It instantly calmed me down and I was able to just hang out and watch TV. I will definitely get an epidural every single time haha. The nurse said I would probably be ready to push soon but it was important that we waited till 12 so that the antibiotics would have enough time to kick in. Anthany and I tried to take a nap but we were just way too excited. 

My whole pregnancy, we had loved the name Clara. However, I am so indecisive that I refused to say that was her name until I had seen her. I knew that I wanted her middle name to be Louise, after my mom. That was the only part I was sure about. While we were sitting waiting, Anthany asked if her name was Clara. I told him not yet haha. Finally, it was 12:00! The nurse came in and said we were going to start pushing and getting things going. The doctor would come when Clara was almost here. When they were getting set up for me to push, my whole body started shivering uncontrollably again and I got so nauseous. They put me on oxygen to help me not throw up. They had me push for about 30 minutes, but Clara was not budging. Turns out, she actually was posterior. But now that she was farther down, it was going to be a lot harder to get her to turn. I was so frustrated that I tried to tell them twice and that they didn't realize she was facing the wrong way. The nurse said Dr. Evans would be there in 20 minutes and they didn't want me to push anymore until then. So we just had to wait around again. 

20 minutes turned out to actually be almost an hour and a half. Then it was finally go time! When I had contractions, they had me push and Dr. Evans would try to turn Clara. Clara had pooped, so they warned me that when she came out she wouldn't be crying and a respiratory nurse would have to help her. This next part of labor is what I remember most. It was the most chaotic, emotional part and I can remember it so vividly. I hadn't been pushing very long when Dr. Evans said he didn't think they would be able to turn Clara and she wasn't progressing anymore. Also, she wasn't handling labor very well and her heartbeat was all over the place. He said we would have to use the vacuum or I needed an emergency c-section. I said I would like to try to push her out with the vacuum if she was okay to do that. He said, "I can't promise that she will be okay." At that point, I was pretty much a wreck. I said "I don't understand what you are telling me I should do. If you think I need the emergency c-section then I want to go do that but if she is okay to do the vacuum I would rather do it that way." Dr. Evans reassured me that he had delivered a lot of babies with the vacuum and that he felt confident he could do it. He said it was really important that I stayed focused and did everything exactly how he told me to. I appreciate so much how calm and comforting Anthany was. I know he was just as scared and worried as I was but he never let me see it. 

Every time after I pushed, Dr. Evans would say "What's the heartbeat? How is she doing?" I could tell he was worried. He asked if the baby had a name. Anthany and I looked at each other and he said "Her name is Clara." I wasn't anxious about picking her name anymore. It's just who she was. Dr. Evans said "Come on, Clara. We need you to come right now." They put the vacuum on her but it somehow slipped and came off. Luckily, Clara flipped at the perfect moment and I pushed and she was born! I was instantly worried about her. Especially because she was crying when she came out and the doctor said that she shouldn't. The whole time they measured and checked her I was freaking out. I just wanted them to say that she was okay. 

Finally, they gave Clara to me. I just cried. I can't even explain that moment. I was so relieved she was okay. I couldn't believe that she was ours. It was just incredible. I feel like the pictures show it better than I can tell it. 

Anthany got to hold her and give her the first bath. He was so sweet with her from the very first second. Clara LOVES her daddy. 

Clara Louise McCabe was born at 2:01 PM after about nine and a half hours of labor. She was 7 pounds. They said she was 20 inches long, but my pediatrician says she was actually only 19 inches haha. She came when I was only 38 weeks, but the doctor said if she had been any bigger, she wouldn't have been able to turn so I'm so grateful she came when she did. We love our sweet baby girl so much! And I am SO happy to be done being pregnant!