Clara's Birth Story: Detailed.

Here is the story of Clara's labor and delivery: Jan. 24th I woke up to a little twinge about 4 am. At 8 am they started to be more consistently apart about 6-7 min, lasting about 5-25 sec. At about 12:30 we decided to go to the hospital to get checked to see if anything was progressing. I figured it can't hurt and the kids were really excited to go to Rick and Ivy's house. And my story to the kids that Clara was poking me wasn't really sufficient anymore. So, I wake up Josh who at this point had only slept 3 hours after working a 12 hour shift the night before. Being the good dad that he is, no complaining about getting woke up, in fact he's quite alert when I mention I want to go to the hospital. hahaha Well we get there and I insist not to be dropped off at the door because that would just make it more emberassing when they send me home with tylenol. So we park like the fathest spot away... and funny thing is they took us to the 2nd to last room to be checked. Nice little walk right? Sooo.. she says she will go ahead and check me, and if nothing we can wait a few hours or she can send me home with pain medicine... la la la... she checks, I apologize to be bothering her.... She says I'm 7 1/2 and my water is bulging! She says I'm not going anywhere. She became quite urgent, very calm though, to get a warmer and the room set up. Scurrying around asking me if I need to push. She said she was sorry but she didn't think I was going to get an epidural. Well, I said no really I want one of those. She said if I didn't push I could have one. So, I would imagine it was about 1:30 at this point. The ladies at work joke about how high Clara is, and how she must be all propped up in there to make sure she isn't born. And that turned out to be quite accurate. She was high. Anyway.... she said if she broke my water it'll be quick. But that it might be better to let her come down the canal a little on her own. The nurse wouldn't check me at this point, because she said that if she touched the water would break and all. So, I stayed like this til about 4:30. I apparently had a water of steel. I didn't mind because I wasn't in much pain. I did have an epidural that took the edge off. With Monroe, my epidural made me not feel anything. This epidural didn't work so well though once the pushing part came. Well the doctor broke my water at 4:30.... and she came pretty quick. But let me tell you, this 1/2 hour is my war story. Eve I didn't really push, Monroe I pushed but had a great epidural, so I giggled him out. This baby... oh my heck! Well, we'll just say that Josh says I was screaming but the nurse said I was just moaning loudly. Mom and dad said I was screaming and they were listening outside the door. I always thought that was dumb when people screamed, like oh please nobody does that.... But anyway... all 9 lbs 3 oz. WIDE of Clara came at 4:59 pm. She was 20.1 inches. I consider myself to have had a very good birth experience, with very little pain.... except for that 1/2 hour (my war story 1/2 hour) which is such a small price to pay to have this beautiful baby girl. It was really amazing to hold her with her cord still attached and all, really, that is cool. She looks so different from Eve and Monroe, and I'm in love with her. She is nursing well and is very healthy. She has a really strong suck, so I have a feeling she's not going to be missing any meals. Her temperment so far is calm. Funny thing is we have to negotiate with Eve to hold her. Josh just took her from Eve after Eve had her for 1 1/4 hours. Ha It's neat to see them bonded already. Monroe is not terribly interested in her, though he thinks her car seat is really great to play with. When daddy can peel the baby away from Eve, I see the pride in his eyes and love for his baby girl. We're a happy little family! We're blessed that everything went so smoothly. We're also very blessed to have a lot of supportive family who we know would help us with anything at a moments notice. We are also grateful to both have supportive co-workers and friends from church who also love baby Clara.
Here are some pictures:

Baby Clara proably2-3 min. old getting her Apgar assessment. Awwwwww.
This is mommy loving Clara about 22 hours old.

Daddy holding his baby girl.

Daddy helping Monroe to lean in and give his baby sister a smooch.

Eve is very good with Clara. Clara was fussing and Eve insisted we should check her diaper. So we changed her diaper together.

The LOUD mouths of babes!

This evening I took the kids to Evergreen Park. We were a little late getting there by the time Monroe had a nap and dinner was done, but I did promised Monroe so we went. And Josh was kind enough to offer to stay home and clean up the house. Anyhoo.... we went down to the water part for 5 minutes after we were at the playground and when we came up everyone was suddenly gone. (Because they were smart. hehe) Except of course for 2 men polishing their cars in the dark 2 spots from where I park. This made me a little nervous, just because oh you know it's turned completely dark, and I don't know about you but I don't polish my car in the dark?? So I tell the kids it's important to hold my hand and go straight to the car because we don't know those people. BAD IDEA. The whole way Monroe is like.... "Mom! I see those guys!", "Mom!! Let's hurry!!", "Hurry!! Open the door!! They're coming to get us!!" He thought it was a really fun game. I just about died laughing once I shoved them in and locked the doors.

All kids need is a pile of dirt and big box.

Here we have Eve and Monroe on a big pile of bark accross the street from our house. And another picture of Eve sitting on the "boat", which is actually the box Clara's stroller and carseat came in a few months ago. I just get to thinking you know, the kids room is stuffed full of toys. But they have spent at least 50 hours playing with this box as a dog house, etc... Though it's really had it by now.. good grief... for Christmas we should all just get our kids boxes filled with dirt.

Slumber Party at Grandma's

Eve, Monroe, Asher, Mason, and Elise spent the night at Grandma's. Here we have a picture of Asher, Mason, Eve, and Monroe in the bed.

Here we have Eve's attempt to clean her room by herself

Daniel's Birthday Party

These pictures were taken at the rollerskating rink where Daniel had his b-day party. The top picture is of Eve braving the skates. Her excitement was off and on, but constant. Monroe braved the skates too, though his excitement for them were short-lived. In between episodes of wearing skates, Eve hung out with the other folks there. Monroe mainly hung out with T or playing on the arcade games. Here we also have a picture of Monroe and Mason, just before the cutting of the cake.

T

Theresa and her glorious tummy. At this point in life, she's got 15 days left before Clara's due. We are all excited to see her (SOON) and all her cute features.

More Snow

So you thought the snow days were gone. Well, another round has come.
Eve & Monroe woke up and saw it coming down. And, of course, they wanted to play in it.

Visit To Mandy and Jerel's

Trip to Mandy's

Mandy sewed a bunch of burp clothes for me. She showed me how to make a little border around them. There's also one here that my friend Melanie made me that has lace around the edge that I really like! My baby is so going to be pukin' in style.

Mandy made both blankets. There's a crocheted border on the one on the left. You'll notice the one on the rght is a little loud. I obviously picked out that fabric and Mandy sewed it for me in like 25 seconds.

We went with Mandy to "The Doughnut Factory". That's what we call it.. but uhhh... I think it's just Krispy Kreme. I think each time we've been there we go there. Maybe it's not so exciting for Mandy, but heck it is for me and the kids. The coolest part was when I locked my keys in the van. So cool, I know. Fortunately I have that coverage and the locksmith was there in less than 15 min. And foremost fortunately, we got to eat doughnuts!

This is Eve going down a bouncy house toy at an Outer Space pizza place. It's similar to Chuck E. Cheese except that it's not arcade toys, it's play stuff. So I like that better. As usual, the kids ate nothing pretty much til we got in the car to go home, where they of course were starved to death and ate in the car. Eve was the most beautiful child on this toy of course. Cool picture huh? (Mandy took it)

Here's Monroe at the top of the slide. I do wonder what he is thinking. Hmmmm. He's so genius and always thinking big thoughts of course.

All in all, we had fun and will go visit Mandy again when Clara is born. I'll be glad to be able to walk like I'm not 85 again. And to not to need to lay down for 4 rests a day. Mandy's tummy is stickin out there all cute. She doesn't complain near as much as I do either. Sorry, Josh!

Oh Glorious Creations!!!

Theresa went to grandma's to finish the masterpieces, the curtains, you see before you. The pink gingham curtain will grace Clara's room, in addition to the letters (these were created a couple of months ago).
The green with lady bugs will grace Eve & Monroe's room.

Cuddle Bugs

Don't they look so quiet and not talking and silent?? Whew, these kids have been stuck in the house for a few days with colds and let me tell you, they play hard man. After them giggling and trying to get out of bed for 1/2 hour I checked on them and awwww.... they are all cuddled.

Cute Boys @ Chuck E. Cheese

This is a picture from Friday night at Chuck E. Cheese. We went there for Elise and Tab's b-day party and we all had a great time. I thought it was cute how these 2 boys stuck together the whole time like glue. I made a chocolate Barney cake for 12!!! year old Elise. ha And Elise made a cute smiley cake for her momma.