Wednesday, March 26, 2014

1 month


Just a quick snapshot of our 1 month old!!  Her cheeks are growing chubbier by the day!
Clara weighed 9 pounds at her 2 week appointment so I bet she is close to 10 now.  We're starting to get into a routine around here which feels nice.  Clara has moved from out bed to the bassinet which allows us to sleep MUCH better.  Next project is working on spacing out the night meals- but for now I don't mind our night visits to much.  : )

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

2 weeks!













Clara is 2 weeks old already!! Slow down time! She's a sleepy little one- probably 23 hours a day! She's starting to settle into a rough schedule, but honestly I haven't taken time to keep track. Corinne had about five different scheduling charts logging her every move when she was two weeks old. Oh how times have changed!

Nights are still kind of a blur, but I think Clara wakes 2-4 times to eat. She's in my bed for now, but we'll start transitioning her to the bassinet soon.

No smiles yet (on purpose anyway) but soon I'm sure!!

She's very content and loves to eat and poop- what babies do best!!

We're loving every minute with Clara and love our new family of 6!!!

Sunday, March 2, 2014


Introducing Clara Elizabeth Schneider!  She came into this world at 6:18pm on Wednesday, February 26th weighing 7 lbs 9 ounces. She is just perfect and we are so in love!
Meeting Clara for the first time.  I wish I could bottle this feeling.  Love at first sight. 

The miracle of birth never ceases to amaze me.  The way baby knows just how to enter the world on her own. The way she knows her mama right away.  The way she knows how to nurse from the minute she's born.  The way labor pains instantly fade away the moment mom meets baby. Of course this is all by God's perfect design, but I'm still so in awe.

Clara's birth story: 
At 39 weeks 4 days, I went to my weekly midwife appointment.  The midwife listened to baby's heartbeat as usual which was beating at a healthy 120 beats per minute. She then decided to try and get the heartbeat to accelerate by rousing baby a bit.  After not getting much of a response, she sent me to lunch and told me to come back for a NST just to make sure everything was Ok. 

The NST showed lots of movement and several contractions.  During one of the contractions, Clara's heartbeat dropped below 100.  It only happened once, but this alarmed the midwife enough that she decided to measure my tummy (for the second time that day) to make sure amniotic fluid levels had not gone down.  The measurement she got at that moment was a bit smaller than the one she got in the morning. Because of this, she sent me to get an ultrasound the following morning to make sure amniotic fluid levels were OK.

The ultrasound showed that fluid levels were fine and that baby looked great but that there was a bit of fluid around her heart.  My midwife recommended that I be induced that day or head to the city to a specialist have have a higher level ultrasound.

Because I was due in 3 days, it seemed silly to go to the city for further evaluation.  I figured they would most likely tell me to be induced anyway, so that is what we chose. 

I met Glen at home (luckily Grandma was already there with the kiddos), grabbed my stuff and we were off to the hospital to have a baby. I was pretty emotional as things were not going as I had planned. It's so easy to forget sometimes that OUR plans pale in compassion to God's.

I had been practicing hypnobrthing techniques for several months in hopes that I could have a natural, relatively pain free birth.  This method teaches you to relax and focus on how a woman's body is meant to give birth, which in turn makes intervention less likely.

 Adding pitocin into the equation made me fear that I would not be able to handle the pain and would end up with an epidural.  Pitocin was started at about 2pm, but not very much was needed to get labor going.  My water broke while the nurse was checking me which made things go even faster.  I was able to breathe through my contractions and things were very calm.  

When my water broke, there was quite a bit of blood which concerned the midwife. Even though I was only 8cm, she asked me to begin pushing during the next contraction.  This part of the labor was not calm, or pain free, but 3 pushes later, Clara entered the world! 

Because the ultrasound showed fluid around Clara's heart, she had to stay in the NICU overnight for monitoring.  She was to receive and Echocardiogram the following day which would show if the fluid was still present. Glen and I held her all night in the NICU, taking turns sleeping in the room. She had no issues at all during the night.  Her ECHO was at 9am but we did not receive results until around 2pm when we were praising God that the fluid was no longer present! 



I have gone over the situation many times, wondering if everything that happened was simply because our midwife was being overly anxious.  I wonder if the ultrasound was read wrong and if fluid really did exist around her heart?  


 Or maybe the midwife being overly zealous that day in her check-up was all part of God's plan.  Maybe there WAS fluid around Clara's heart that would have not been detected had I not been sent for an ultrasound.  And had it not been detected, the MANY MANY people that prayed for Clara could not have prayed for it to go away.  God's plans are so much bigger than mine.  He holds the script and sees the big picture.  We just have to trust.




No matter the events or circumstances surrounding the birth, Clara's entrance to the world was perfect.  



 Corinne is so thrilled to have a sister.

















Now if I can just figure out how to slow down time…..

Corinne turns 7!


Corinne turned 7 on February 25th.  Watching her grow has been such a blessing- just wish time would slow down!  She continues to thrive with her second grade curriculum, loves playing the piano and drawing, and has such a mature disposition about her. She will spend hours in creative play with her brothers.  Her most recent love is board games.  Corinne and Caleb spend A LOT of time playing board games every day!

Corinne invited a few friends to go bowling for her birthday.














She had so much fun!  And course we also had family over to celebrate too, but those family parties are crazy, so taking picture is hard!! : )


Calvin Turns 3!

A bit late with this post, but better late than never!

Cal turned 3 in November.  His such a funny guy and we love watching his personality develop! He had a fun birthday party in November, but of course I didn't get any photos!!  Here are a couple photos of our cute little guy from the last year.


Such a joyful little guy!



Batman!


 Nothing like playing in the rain in your underwear!


 He's getting brave in the water.


 One of the many activities he enjoys while the big kids are doing school work.


Cal's first visit to the dentist. He did so well!