Clara's got her first tooth

From Clara's First Tooth

That is all.

Trip and Tear Ducts

It's been an eventful few days in our little world.

First, we decided to go to Augusta for one more visit before school starts up. We left on Friday and came back yesterday (Sunday), so it was a quick visit, but we enjoyed the time we got to spend with them.

Here's Clara with her Aunt Sarah (who, as of today, is in her sophomore year of high school):




Hanging out with her Nana, and waving to all her adoring fans (no, she doesn't actually wave yet):


Kisses from Papa:


And petting Izzie...Clara giggled so much at the dog!



We got back home last night with a tired girl and pretty much put her straight to bed. Then we woke her up at 5:40 this morning to head to the hospital. She has had blocked tear ducts since she was born. She's had cellulitis around her right eye twice (treated with antibiotics), so her pediatrician referred us to a pediatric ophthalmologist, who recommended that we go ahead and do surgery to fix her tear ducts. Thankfully, we were able to schedule the surgery for today, a full week before I go back to work and Clara starts daycare.

Here she is before the surgery in her little hospital gown. This would be before she got too terribly annoyed about not having anything to eat this morning.


The procedure was short - we were only away from her for about 15-20 minutes. The doctor said everything went well. She was VERY upset at the lack of bottle by the time she woke up, and she gulped down the one we offered her...and then proceeded to vomit all over Mommy. She seemed to feel better after doing so, though I don't know whether that's because her tummy was relieved or because she felt like she had gotten me back for putting her through the ordeal. Either way, though she's been sleepier all day than usual, she seems pretty much back to her normal self, as you can see in the picture below.


The doctor said that, by law, he is required to mark which eye he's going to operate on, even though there are only two eyes and he was doing both of them. That's why she has dots on her forehead in that picture. :)

So those are the latest adventures for us. Hopefully the surgery will be effective - it is in over 90% of cases. We have a follow-up appointment in a couple of weeks.

All Sorts of New Things (5.5-ish months old)

Clara has started to "army crawl" - using her arms, and sort of using her legs, but not quite. But she can move forward. Of course, every time I try to get a video of her doing it, she just stops and stares at the funny shiny thing Mommy's holding. However, between the army crawling and the rolling, she ends up in some interesting places...

Like under the piano bench:

From Weeks 24-25

Or under her jumper:

From Weeks 24-25

We're pretty sure she's teething, though we can't see (or feel) any teeth poking out just yet. She's always got something in her mouth.

From Weeks 24-25

From Weeks 24-25

Today, for the first time, I was holding her in a standing position and she let go of me and held onto nearby objects instead. So she didn't pull herself up in this picture, but she did maintain her balance this way.

From Weeks 24-25

She also has a fun new trick...click for the video (it's only 18 seconds long).

From Weeks 24-25

Another Trip to Augusta

Well, if I have the keys to this place, might as well post.

We had an unexpected reason to go to Augusta last weekend, Amanda's aunt, who had cancer, passed away.

The trip was about the same as the previous trip. Clara slept while in the car for most of the trip, but she didn't like being in the car seat for so long and so whenever we stopped for food, she would want to look around and squirm. Added about a half-hour or so to last time in March, which was about a half-hour or so from life BC.

From Aunt Elaine's Funeral

Clara's thoughts on long trips in the car

From Week 23

Clara trying to get out of her seat at McDonald's

But Clara got to see lots of familiar faces. Most important of those is Aunt Elease (at least that's what Elease said).

From Aunt Elaine's Funeral

(Elease wanted to make sure she had some happy pictures of her with the baby since she gets jealous of pictures of Uncle Brian with the baby.)

From Week 21

More pictures of our trip to Augusta can be found as always at Amanda's Picasa site (and Derek has some pictures on his, though they're mostly repeats).

At around 5.5 months, Clara is doing fine. She's able to roll over, but she can only roll over in one direction. You might think this means you'll always know where she'll end up, but she's able to rotate herself so unless she's right up next to a wall, she could head in any direction. She's also able to sit up on her own unassisted, which is really great.

She's eating some solids now. We've been giving her rice cereal for a while, but we've started mixing in some 1st foods. Bananas and peas have been all so far, but we've got others to slowly introduce.

So that's the status report. Now I can say I've posted. w00t1

About 4.5 months old

Sorry I'm horrible about updating this thing. I'm going to set Derek up with permission to post here, and then you can all be mad at BOTH of us for never updating. ;)

Anyway, Clara is about 4.5 months old now. And today I put her in 9-month clothes. The child is huge - 90th percentile or higher on all measurements at her 4-month checkup. But she's healthy and happy. :) (However, I am now thinking that the Christmas clothes I got in size 12 months at the end of last year might not have been such a great deal, as she'll have outgrown them by, you know, Thursday.)

She's a total and complete delight for her Mommy and Daddy. She loves her activity mat, anything made of fabric that you wave in front of her face, and books - she tries to devour the written word. Of course, she tries to devour everything else, too. Hands and toes are among her favorite munchies. She enjoys hearing herself make noise, so she does quite a bit of babbling.

She smiles at us readily - especially if we sing to her - and giggles at us too. She isn't as likely to smile when there are a lot of people around (like at church), because she's in "focus and study" mode with lots of faces to process.

She's been rolling from back to tummy for about 6 weeks. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to roll in the other direction, and her tummy isn't her favorite place to be, so we played a lot of Flip the Baby...until yesterday, when she finally figured out how to roll from tummy to back! There was much rejoicing in our house last night.

Speaking of nights, she's a pretty good sleeper. I think I can count on one hand the number of "bad nights" she has had. She wakes up and needs us to replace her pacifier once or twice most nights, but she rarely needs a bottle in the middle of the night. She generally takes about four 40-minute naps during the day. I'd love to get her to switch to two longer naps, but she doesn't seem interested.

There's probably a good deal more I could say, but my time is limited for posting, so I'll just move along to pictures now.

Happy, happy girl:

From Weeks 19-20

Why, yes, I am incredibly cute:

From Weeks 19-20

(If you're wondering about her eye - she had a little infection that was related to the blocked tear duct she's had since she was born. It's cleared up now.)

Mmmmm...feet!

From Weeks 19-20

First time in this seat with the toy tray added on:

From Weeks 19-20

And click for a video of her trying to hold her own bottle:

From Weeks 19-20

(By the way, I *do* update the pictures on the Picasa site pretty regularly.)

A Trip to Augusta

We had a somewhat unexpected trip to Augusta earlier this week - my grandmother passed away on Saturday, so we went up there on Sunday and got back home Wednesday night. She had been in poor health for a while and was in a nursing home, and she spent 2-3 weeks in very poor health before she passed away. She will be missed, but we praise God for the hope that we have through Christ, so that death is not victorious in the end.

Anyway, Clara did great on the trip - slept most of the time we were in the car (just one stop halfway through the six-hour drive for feeding) and slept just fine in the hotel's portable crib. She got to see lots of people, many of whom she'd never met before.

She finally got to meet Aunt Elease and Uncle Matt!


She also met my cousin Mike, his wife Kerry, and their daughter Serena (who turned 3 on Thursday).


She got to meet all of my aunts. I have individual pictures of Clara with each of them, but to save space, here's one of my grandmother's four daughters - Elaine, Phyllis, Becky (my mom), and Tina.


Here's one that I'm sure will embarrass Clara when she's older - her first time eating at Dairy Queen:


And one that expresses her distaste for the burp cloth that has fallen down onto her head:


When we got back to Tallahassee, we had dinner at Derek's parents' house with them, Derek's brother, and Derek's Uncle Joe & Aunt Margaret, who were in town from Indiana. Here's Clara with her great-uncle and great-aunt:


And I don't have a picture of it, but Clara was SO happy to be back home. When we got back to our house Wednesday night, she had fallen asleep in her carseat. I took her out to change her clothes & diaper, and she woke up and looked at her changing table, crib, and wall...and she just gave her room the BIGGEST smile ever. She might've just been in an "I feel like smiling" mood, but I think she recognized her room and was happy to be home. :)

Oh, and a couple of notes: I changed the name of the blog, just because I felt like doing so. I've also started using Google Reader to keep up with other people's blogs, so hopefully I will be better about commenting on your posts. :)

6 Weeks Old

Well, here's an update on Miss Clara, who turned 6 weeks old yesterday. These pictures are in no particular order, because I was trying to get Picasa's "BlogThis" feature to work for me and having difficulties. Anyway, here we go.

Clara is smiling a lot for us now! Having a baby smile at you has to be among the most wonderful things ever. Sometimes feeding her takes a little longer, because we have to pause for "smile breaks," but we don't mind those. In this video, I was trying to capture her doing another of her "tricks" - sticking out her tongue - but she decided to show off her smiles instead. :)

Since she turned 6 weeks old yesterday, she met the pediatrician's requirement for going to church! I don't know that I've ever in my life gone so long without attending a worship service; it was really good to be back in the house of the Lord with fellow believers. Here's a picture of me and Clara in the fellowship hall after the service yesterday.

On Saturday, we took Clara on her first day trip. My sister was rowing in a regatta in Jacksonville, so we headed over there for the day. The weather was absolutely perfect, and it was fun to see Clara's Papa (that'd be my dad) and her Aunt Sarah. Here's a picture of our little family by the water.

And here's something Clara seems to enjoy well enough, so far: bath time. This picture has a "what are you people doing to me" sort of look, but she really doesn't mind getting a bath - although she does shiver once she's wet!

Other news in Clara-land...she's having a lot of fun figuring out how to use her arms and legs. She'll hold onto a toy for quite a few seconds (very long in baby years) if it's put into her hand. She attended her first play (my school's production of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) and did very well, sleeping through the whole second act. She has grown quite a bit since she was born - was 9 lbs 7 oz and 22.5 inches at her 1-month appointment on 2/24. She's moved into some larger clothes that didn't fit her at first.

And right now, she is HUNGRY and would very much like for me to stop typing and fix her a bottle, so I'm going to do that. :)

(Almost) 3 Weeks Old

Clara will be 3 weeks old tomorrow! While Derek and I can certainly remember what life was like before she was born, we can't imagine not having her at this point. She's so incredibly precious to us...a wonderful blessing from God. :)

Clara is generally a very contented baby, though she certainly lets us know when she's hungry or when (horror of horrors) her pacifier has abandoned her. She's got a pretty good idea of days and nights - in fact, last night she went seven hours in between feedings, from 11 PM until 6 AM! There were a couple of calls for the Paci Retrieval Squad in there, so it wasn't quite "sleeping through the night," but it was definitely nice.

Not quite sure what else to update regarding Clara at this point - there's only so much a 3-week-old can do. ;) I'm doing well, recovering as expected. The postpartum hormones get the best of me at times, but my crying sessions are becoming fewer and farther between as the days go by, so I think things are heading in the right direction as far as that goes.

At some point soon I'll scan in some pictures of myself and Derek as babies so you guys can see if you can figure out who Clara looks like. I'll also change the ticker at the top of the page (tried to just now, but it wasn't cooperating with me, so it'll have to wait). For now, some pictures of my beautiful little girl...

Like father, like daughter:

Awwww:


Checking the mail with Daddy:


Eyes wide open:


"Can we stop the pictures now? Please?"

Photographic Evidence

A teaser:


Go here for more. :)

Announcing...

Clara Katherine Dean arrived at 7:30 PM on Sunday, January 25. She weighed in at 8 lbs 10 oz and is 20.5" long and absolutely beautiful (photographic evidence of this assertion to come). :)

I lost a lot of blood after delivery and ended up needing a transfusion the following day. Made things interesting, but I feel MUCH better now than I did then. Clara is doing great, and her absolute favorite thing to do is fall asleep (sometimes even when she ought to be eating).

As I said, I'll come back with pictures later on...there's an opportunity now for me to get some sleep, and I think I should take advantage of it.

This Is Getting Old...

So I'm 41w1d today, and baby's still quite comfortable where she is. I had an appointment yesterday afternoon and got an induction scheduled - a two-part process, since I'm only 50% effaced. They'll give me cervidil on Saturday night and then start pitocin on Sunday morning. That was the earliest they could get me in, though they've promised to call me if an earlier slot becomes available. I was (am) pretty disappointed to have to wait that long, since they'd told me last week that I'd be induced today or tomorrow if baby hadn't come yet. The good news is that baby's still healthy and doing great, so I'm trying to be thankful for that, even though I want her evicted from her current quarters. :p

I did decide last week that I wouldn't be returning to school this week, so I've started my maternity leave. Teaching was making me incredibly exhausted, and I've now got a nice head cold too, so it's just as well. I'm off through spring break and will return to my classroom the first full week of April.

Anyway, I'm kind of in a holding pattern at this point, just waiting for labor to start or Saturday night to come. I'll post again once the little one has arrived. :)

Still Alive, Still Pregnant

Hi guys - sorry that I totally stink at updating this thing. (And M, I did receive your email, I just totally stink at responding to stuff in general.)

Anyway, as the title says, I'm still alive and pregnant...due this coming Tuesday. My doctor's office has told me that they will normally induce within a week after the due date, so I presume that when I go in on Monday, we'll discuss when I'll be induced if the little girl doesn't show up on her own.

Derek and I have been telling her that she needs to go ahead and come out, but thus far we seem to have a rebellious child who refuses to take instruction from her parents. We're discussing disciplinary techniques, but she's got us at a disadvantage since we can't actually use them until after she's born...and I think she suspects that we'll forgive her at that point, anyway. :p

Health-wise, I've done pretty well. There was one week where I had a couple of indicators of possible mild pre-eclampsia, but subsequent testing was negative, and I haven't had any indicators of it since then. My overall weight gain is just slightly more than the recommended range, but my doctors haven't expressed any concern about it. I'm tired all the time, but that's pretty normal for this point, I think.

Here are a couple of pictures. This one is of me about a week and a half ago, at 38 weeks:


And then here's one to show you how the baby's room is decorated...I made the crib sheet & bumpers.


There are more pictures of her room here (taken before I'd actually finished the sewing).

We've been incredibly blessed with gifts from family and friends, such that we've basically got everything we need at this point and are just awaiting the little one's arrival. (At home, anyway. At school, I'm trying frantically to get things together for the person who'll be subbing for me for two months. Things are falling into place there as well, just not quite ready yet.) We appreciate your prayers as we head, hopefully soon, into labor, delivery, and then the adventure of parenting. :)