Clara

She's here! And she's sooooo cute!

Born Tuesday, September 28th at 1:01am at 7 bl 13 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. And the baby's a GIRL! I still can't get over it. I really, really thought it was going to be a boy. Right after she was born, I was so exhausted from pushing and so surprised that she was a girl that I didn't have the typical outpouring of emotion. I just kept looking at Jordan going, "A girl? Really? Are you sure? It's really a girl?" At one point the nurses wanted me to look at her, exclaiming how cute she was. I was a little... loopy, I guess, because all I could say is, "I can't see her, I don't have my glasses on." Yeah, that's a loving mother for ya. :)

In my defense, right after she was born, there was a sudden flurry of activity and so much was going on and I was so shocked that I had a really hard time deciding what to focus on (I know, the baby probably should have been my first choice... come on, I just pushed the 7 pound baby out!). She ended up having some trouble with her lungs. She was breathing, and I heard her cry, but her lungs weren't fully inflating. I got to hold her for about 3 minutes before the whisked her away to the NICU for some sort of breathing treatment on the CPAP machine. We got her back about 2 1/2 hours later (now 3:30 am), and at this point I had come to my senses and all I wanted to do was snuggle her.

Since then, she's doing pretty well. She's a bit jaundiced, so she looks quite yellow. We've had to go in for a blood test the last three days, but no lights yet. And Jordan and I just can't get over how pretty and sweet she is. We just love looking at her and cuddling with her.

Every night that we've been home has gotten better. The first was the worst: I was the human pacifier. Since we've introduced a REAL pacifier, she sleeps better and only eats every two hours, NOT every hour (thank goodness!). We're both pretty sleep deprived, but we're in good spirits and surviving. I struggle to remember to eat and shower, but I figure after we get through these first two "survival" weeks, I'll get much better about being presentable. All in all, I'm SO happy she's here!