Clara Jane is very sweet and peaceful most of the time. She doesn’t really seem to get upset by loud noises (read: Amelia using her “outside” voice or the fire truck racing past our house with its lights and sirens blaring). She seems to enjoy watching everything around her when she is awake. Clara has good control over her hands and can easily (and repeatedly) knock over an object that is within her reach.
She is very efficient eater. Whereas I remember spending 30-45 minutes at a time breastfeeding Amelia in the first few weeks, Clara usually only eats on one side per feeding, and rarely takes more than 10 minutes. She’s definitely growing, so we’re not concerned about her food intake. She can also sleep for three or four hours in a row (albeit without any sort of pattern yet). So far we’ve found that she only really gets fussy (loud crying) when she is trying to fall asleep. It doesn’t happen every time, but often if she has been up for a while she needs a few minutes of crying before she seems to conk out. At night she tends to fall asleep while nursing, but during the day this is rarely the case.
Yesterday, for example, she fell asleep lying on the couch. While I was taking a video (she has a cold so she sounds a little snuffly):
Amelia has taken to asking us to “read.” Sometimes she wants you to read to her, but often she will hand out books to everyone in the room and then sit down with her own book and say “read, book.” She wants everyone to read their own book while she reads her own book. Amelia especially likes to do this with her new set of Stella books by Marie-Louise Gay that Clara gave her as a big sister present.
It is easy to take health for granted when you don’t know any different. But spend a few minutes reading the story of a bright little girl named Kate, the daughter of a friend and former teammate, and everything will be put in perspective. Kate’s mom is an incredibly strong woman and I am in awe of how well she handles everything. She is so motivated to do all she can for her beautiful daughter and I thought the least I could is share their story and information about the special fundraising event scheduled for June 7.
If you live in Ottawa, please consider attending Hope for Kate. If you can’t afford the tickets but want to attend, please let me know. I will be buying two tickets and would be happy to share them as I don’t believe we’ll be able to be there. Leave a message in the comments if you are interested.
You forget how adorable and snuggly babies are until you hold one all day long. And Clara Jane is so sweet. So far she has been nothing but pure joy. She eats and sleeps as well as can be expected for a 1.5-week old. She’ll sleep 2-3 hour stretches at a time, and has done a couple of 4-hour naps. There’s no real pattern at night, yet, but she tends to do at least one 3-hour sleep between 12-6 am so I can’t complain.
The second time around is definitely different. There is none of the anxiety of becoming a new parent and being responsible for such a tiny creature. It helps that Ian is taking paternity leave, too, so I’m not home alone with a baby 12 hours a day. And of course Amelia is a fantastic big sister. She’s doing really well adjusting to having Clara Jane around. I also think she’s happy that Dada is home to take her to the park or play with her when Mama can’t. The past couple of mornings when Amelia wakes up she asks to go see baby Clara right away. It’s adorable.
Clara Jane arrived on April 30, 2010 at 4:20 pm, five days past her due date. I was scheduled for induction on May 3 but since there was a slight deceleration in Clara’s heart rate during my non-stress test on Friday morning, the doctors decided it would be better to induce me then rather than let me go home.
So, I was induced to get things rolling and within four hours Clara was born. Luckily, Ian decided not to eat his lunch in the cafeteria or he might have missed the whole thing! My obgyn wasn’t the doctor working the floor that day but she happened to come down to see how I was doing right at the time when Clara was ready to come out, so she was there for the delivery. It only took about three pushes and then Clara was born.
I spent 24 hours in the hospital, which felt like an eternity since I wasn’t in pain and I wasn’t tired and I just wanted to get home with Clara and see Amelia.
*Congrats to my teammate Julie who correctly guessed April 30!
Yes. We are still waiting. Today is her due date, so we’ll see if she decides to make an appearance or hold out a little longer. This time around I am finding it harder to wait for her arrival because I know what to expect. It may also be because being with a very active toddler 12 hours a day seems more tiring than lazing on the couch reading books all day (what I was fortunate enough to do last time around).
Yesterday, Amelia and I had the following conversation:
Amelia: Mama!
Me: Amelia!
Amelia, trying to detach two pieces of Lego: Mama!
Me: Amelia, you can do it. Keep trying.
Amelia, in a louder voice: Mama!
Me: Amelia can do it.
Amelia, in a quieter voice: Mama….Help.
Me: Would you like Mama to help you take apart the Lego?
Amelia, nodding: Yes.
It was the first time she used the word “help.”
At the park with Dada, hanging out in a tree trunk.
A week to go until baby #2′s due date arrives. Will she make it that long? My doctor told me Friday that only 4 percent of babies are born on their due date. So, since Amelia was born on her due date, the likelihood that #2 arrives on the 24th is, well, slim. Personally I think she’ll be here before Wednesday. But maybe that is just wishful thinking!
In an Amelia update, she can now count from 1 to 10 by herself. We showed her how to do it two nights ago (with Ian saying the numbers and Amelia repeating after him) and then last night before bed we asked her if she wanted to try it again, and she said “yes.” So we thought she’d want to repeat after us but instead she just started counting by herself. Tonight was the same. She counted to 10 all on her own.
Amelia has started using many two-word sentences and some three-word sentences. She is very good at jumping two-footed and can easily climb up and down stairs and steps and stoops if they aren’t too deep or if she has something to hold on to while she is doing it. Today during bathtime she was holding the (foam) letter B in her hand and I told her that it was a “B.” Then Ian and I started naming some words that started with B and Amelia added “bleuets” and “bum bum” to the list. They are two of her favourite words. But she said them without us having to tell her they started with “B.”
Maybe the next post will include pics of baby #2, if she’s decided to join us by then!
