Clara: Three months!

Three months!

Clara is growing and developing well.  She had a cold/cough two weeks ago which wasn't fun. She has since recovered and back to her happy self. 

She is attempting to pull herself into a seated position from laying flat. She looks like she is doing crunches. In addition, she can hold her head at a 90 degree angle and somewhat trying to roll over.

Clara LOVES talking to us. She grins from ear to ear and babbles away. It goes without saying that we just love this :)

She gets startled with sudden noises and seems to be a little shy with people. But, otherwise she is a happy, healthy baby girl! She weighed in at 13lbs on July 15th!

Amelia and Clara

Enjoying the park

Pool time

The end of maternity leave

Maternity leave is officially over. Today is my practice day. I successfully woke up at 4:30am, nursed and changed Clara and left the house by 5:40am. Tomorrow I will go through the same routine, with one added step, I'll take the train to the University of Pennsylvania.

The past ten weeks have been awesome! I was able to enjoy every minute and really soak in the joy of my newborn and toddler. Maternity leave with Amelia was not easy for two main reasons. 1. Being a new mother is stressful! The first five weeks of Amelia's life I worried constantly if she was eating enough. This in turn caused me to be irritable. 2. I lost my dad without warning when Amelia was five weeks old. So...sadly those last five weeks of maternity leave were a blur. Needless to say several months of Amelia's life are blurry.

I've spent the past two years feeling so guilty that such a joyous moment in my life was overshadowed by grief. I am now able to let go of that guilt now. I made up for lost time with Amelia and I enjoyed every moment. She is my little firecracker and reminds me just how special life is. She also reminds me that Pop-Pop is still around. Just last week, she told me she saw him working on the building on our car ride to Target. His memory lives on within her.

And sweet Clara has reminded me that newborns are a pure joy and there is no better job then being a mommy. Watching her grow over the past ten weeks has been amazing! She went from a sleepy newborn to an active infant too quickly. I will miss the closeness of being with her throughout the day.

While, I will miss my girls tremendously throughout the day, I am excited for work. Working is a big chunk of who I am. I strived to be a successful career woman and want to continue to challenge myself. I hope my girls understand why I made the decision to have a career when they were young. I hope they learn from my successes. Because woman can have it all.

Clara: Two months!

Clara is already two months old. I can hardly believe it. The past two months have gone by too quickly.

Clara has been smiling and cooing the past few weeks. She's not enjoying tummy time just yet...hopefully she will soon. She's doing great with sleeping. We've been bathing, feeding and putting her to bed by 9pm. She sleeps 6-7 hours. I'm a happy rested mamma :)

She had her two month check today. She weighs 12 pounds 2 ounces and measures 23 inches in length.

This week we are working on bottle feeding. Nursing was going so well I didn't give her the bottle much the past 9 weeks. Hopefully she gets use to it the next few days because I'm starting back to work on Tuesday. Wish us luck!!

Clara Marie Thomas

On Tuesday April 30th at 7:20am, Tim, Amelia and I welcomed Clara Marie to our family. She entered this world weighing 7 pounds 1 ounce and measured 20 inches in length. She is as beautiful as big sister Amelia :)

For a few days prior to Clara's birth, I was having minor contractions. I had my 37 week check-up on Wednesday April 24th and it was determined that I would have a repeat c-section. I was feeling pretty unsettled with this decision as it seemed the only reason I had a c-section with Amelia was because of her positioning. The doctor scheduled my section for Tuesday May 7th. I had a feeling I would go into labor before that date so, I spent the next several days cleaning, gardening and finishing up some projects at work.

On Monday, April 29th my co-workers and I went to Chili's for lunch. We joked that the food at Chili's would put me into labor as that was the lunch I had with them the day before having Amelia. After lunch we returned to the office and I finished up a few things. The weather was pretty miserable that day. It was raining and chilly.  When I got home from work, I spent some time playing with Amelia and put together a quick dinner. After dinner Tim put up the remaining trim in the bathroom and I scrubbed the tub.

The three of us sat down around 8:00pm to relax and watch a bit of TV. Amelia had her snack, we read to her and put her to bed. I told Tim I wasn't feeling that great and thought baby number 2 may be arriving in the next few days. By 9:30pm I was having contractions about ten minutes apart from each other. I was feeling a little panicked and wasn't sure what to expect as this was a bit different then my labor with Amelia.

I decided to try and relax so, I logged onto the internet and poof around 10:45pm---my water broke. Tim was in the other room resting and I let him know it was time to go to the hospital. He called his mom to come stay with Amelia. As he did that, I called my doctor's office. I was so relieved when I heard Dr. Han was on call that night. I had seen her for an OB visit earlier in my pregnancy. She was a real advocate of VBACs.  When I arrived at the hospital I told the nurse I wanted to attempt a vaginal birth. Deep inside I knew I had to try because I did not want to always wonder.

My labor progressed relatively quickly and without problems. I was fully dilated around 5am and began pushing. After about an hour of unsuccessful pushing the doctor made the call to perform a c section. The procedure went very smoothly and it was determined a piece of my pelvic bone was too narrow for a 7lb baby. All in all I'm so happy with myself for trying and have no regrets.

Over the past seven weeks Clara has grown and continues to do well. She has been smiling and loves watching Amelia run around.

Tim and I are so happy with our 2nd blessing and look forward to watching both girls grow.

Clara's stats:
Birth: 7 lbs 1 oz
1week: 7 lbs 0.5 oz
3 weeks: 8lbs 13 ozs

Amelia at 2.5 years

I really slacked throughout year two with blog updates on Amelia. Amelia is a ball of energy and loves everything about life! Her biggest love is her dad.  She screams with joy when he walks in the door and follows his every move. Lately she's been enjoying playing video games.

Amelia has adjusted well to being a big sister. She loves talking to Clara and showing her things. Hopefully this continues as they grow :)

Amelia has been attending camp at the Y two mornings a week. She loves playing with the other kids and doing arts and crafts. I think she will adjust well to preschool this fall. She'll be attending two 1/2 days per week.

Through the year...

Amelia is One Years Old!

Amelia turned one years old on the 18th of December. Can you believe it? I hardly can. It seems just yesterday I heard the words "It's a girl!" This past year has been filled with many different emotions and through it all Amelia has been a blessing.

Amelia had an exciting and fun filled holiday. She celebrated Thanksgiving at her Aunt Marirose and Uncle Richard's house with the McCarthy family.

The following week she enjoyed Christmas at Hershey and added another word to her vocabulary: lights! So fitting for a Christmas baby :) She loved looking at the Christmas light these past few weeks. She points and says "lights".

She celebrated her birthday on December 17th with a winter wonderland theme. The party was complete with some snow flurries. A true gift from above :) She has a blast the party celebrating with family and friends.

Tim and I took her to Red Lobster for her birthday and the wait-staff sang "Happy Birthday" to her.

She had her 12 month check up and is 18.8lbs, and 28.5inches.

On December 24th she celebrated Christmas with the McCarthy family. Aunt Colleen, Uncle Joe, and Ben were in town. We celebrated Christmas with the Thomas family on the 25th. Amelia had fun both days being around family.