SHE is here! Yes, that's right - it's a GIRL!
Claire Everly Simpson was born on Tuesday, October 14th at 12:48pm via a scheduled c-section (breech). What an experience a planned c-section was! We were relaxed and had plenty of time to get ready and drop Avery off at my parents' house that morning. Once we got to the hospital, we were calm and went through the motions of completing paperwork and settling into the monitoring and prep for surgery.
I think part of the reason I was so calm was because I spent the majority of the day before crying! Crying with Avery in the morning when she said she was going to miss me when I was in the hospital, crying when I thought of how affected she would be if anything ever happened to me, crying because I love her and Jeff so much, crying because I was so excited to meet our newest little family member. I literally cried all I could and that was such a releasing, cleansing feeling. I woke up on Tuesday refreshed, happy and beyond excited!
The surgery went as planned and when they pulled the baby out and asked Jeff to announce the sex, he said, "it's...a... ... ...GIRL!" Immediately, I was overcome with emotion! Another girl!! I would have been absolutely thrilled with a boy, but another girl is just perfect for our family and I couldn't imagine it any other way! So, back to the sex announcement...Jeff took a long time to say "girl." Right after it finally came out, our doctor said "what took you so long? Do you know the differences in parts?!" Haha! She totally called him out and everyone in the room was laughing. Jeff said it took him a minute to register that it was a girl...and it was hard to tell, because of swollen parts and lots of you know, birth stuff.
As for Avery's take on Claire...wow - talk about crying! Avery is filled with so much love for her little sister!! She is super gentle and loves to help change her diaper and cover her up with a blanket. She always tells Claire that she loves her and that she's really cute. Ha! She makes up songs to sing to Claire and gives her hundreds of kisses a day. She has shown Claire more love than I anticipated and Jeff and I are over the moon!
With all that said, there was day or two of minor adjustment for Avery with questions like "do you guys love me AND Claire?!" And, when Claire made a funny noise in the backseat on our drive home from the hospital, Jeff and I looked back to make sure she was okay and Avery said "can you guys look at me and not Claire?" Besides those few questions, Avery has exceeded all our sisterly expectations!
Claire is 15 days old today! I am trying to stop time as best I can and soak up every moment of this newborn stage. It's gone with a fleeting eye and I want to cherish this time in our lives. There have been a few times in the past two weeks when I've had a sleeping newborn on my chest and decided that that was more important to me than putting her in her cradle and writing her birth blog post or picking up the house. I think I made the right decision and plan on making ones like that for the next few months. I have my priorities straight and it feels so good.
Claire was 8lbs 2oz and left the hospital 8lbs 3oz. She lost a few ounces the first day or so, but quickly made up for that and then some. At her first newborn pediatrician checkup at six days old, the doctor had to confirm with the nurse who weighed Claire that she was indeed 8lbs 8oz just a short time after birth. Being the eater that she is, we've had some long nights and some sore "me," but it is worth it and starting to get better. She's filling out so well and already has a little baby chub on her thighs! If Claire was born on her due date (she was born one week early), she would have been closer to the mid 8's or even close to 9lbs!
Avery was the same way with eating. She was born weighing 7lbs 6oz and left the hospital at 7lbs 6oz! She weighed in at 7lbs 9oz at her first newborn pediatrician checkup. The difference between the two is that Avery was more on a schedule (her own doing). She was a 3 hour feeder from the get go with some variations here and there. Claire is all over the map with timing, which keeps me on my toes...and keeps me close to her at all times!
Claire has started sleeping in 4-hour stretches the past few nights (...or at least it starts off that way and then goes to 2.5 - 3.5 hour stretches). I go to bed with Claire around 8pm and due to this early bedtime, I am pretty rested during the day for the most part. We are in bed for 10 - 11 hours and with nursing time, I'm getting around 8 hours each night. Love me some sleep!
Claire is awake and alert more and more each day and we are all loving that. She is very calm when she's awake, for the most part, and loves looking around the room at everything. She is truly seeing her world for the first time!
I could go on and on, but won't. I'll let the following pictures tell the story!
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| Dropping Avery off on the way to the hospital! |
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| Dad is dressed and ready. |
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| She's here!! |
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| Love. Joy. Happiness! |
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| My girls meeting for the first time. |
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| ::tear:: |
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| Another visit and more love... |
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| And, more kisses! |
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| GramCin love! |
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| Loved my view from the hospital bed... |
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| So calm, so peaceful. |
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| Danda! |
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| Some gifts from our neighbors! |
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| First bath - no tears, just questioning looks. |
One very special additional piece of news is that my brother and his wife welcomed their second daughter 26 hours after Claire was born. Welcome to the family, Rose Elliott!!
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| Rose on the left, Claire on the right. |
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| Happiest grandparents around! |
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| Four granddaughters! |
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| Busy birthday week. Claire 10/14, Rose 10/15 and Brennan 10/17! |
FPT
This segment is called "The Progression of a Yawn."
