Claira
My Youngest Daughter
July 29th
As Claira gets older we get more time with her when she is awake and
not angry for milk. She is starting to track people (moving
her eyes and sometimes even her head) to follow where people
are. It's nice to be able to interact with her a bit.
July 14th and 15th (Claira 18+ Days old) - Hanging out with Nara
It's tough to really "play" with your
younger sister when most of the time she is either sleeping or on
your mothers breast. Just because she can't play, doesn't
mean she isn't interesting. Nara often wanders by to see
what all the fuss is about. If Mom is willing to read a book
while feeding, it's almost as if nothing is wrong at all.
Claira of course is getting larger and more
awake. She opens her eyes more and more actively looks
around. She tries to follow voices. One of those "Oh
yeah, I forgot" realizations is that she needs help to get to
sleep. Nara basically just goes to bed and sleeps.
Claira needs some rocking a to nod off. It's amazing how
quickly your forget.
July 10th (Claira 14 Days Old) - Making faces
I'm sure that babies don't make faces
because they are trying to communicate or even know what the faces
they make mean when read by another human. That said, they
do sometimes make some pretty amusing faces and you do sometimes
wonder if that smile really does mean they are "happy".
July 7th (Claira 11 Days Old) - Have a Bath
Baths are a special time for babies - most
of their days are just eat, sleep, poop so bath time is quite an
exception. Claira really likes her baths (no crying at all)
so it's fun to give her a bath. We couldn't find the bucket
for her first bath so she got bathed in a large mixing bowl.
June 30th (Claira 4 Days Old) - Life at Home
Now that you are home you try to make a
new routine. We have the feeding situation well in hand so
Claira is getting lots of sleep (and Mom tries too). Of
course there are a lot of new things to do - a never ending stream
of Laundry and a surprising number of diapers, but it's all in
hand.
Being home means easier visits.
Grandma has been by pretty much every day to see her newest
Granddaughter.
June 28th (Claira 2 Days Old) - Last Day at the Hospital
Nara was an unplanned C-Section.
After two days of Labour, Nara was born in a surgical suite and we
were exhausted. The next three days in the hospital were a
confusing blur and we never really felt we got on top of sleep and
the new developments. (We didn't know at the time, but you
never get your sleep back). With Claira we didn't start with
a huge sleep deficit and we had some idea of what to expect and
how to navigate the system. We got all our visits done and
at two days we were quite happy at the prospect of going home.
Of course Claira wasn't so thrilled with the idea - she had never
had a car ride and having to share parents with a sister - the
horror! Claira did really well with the transfer and
everyone was glad to be home.
June 27th (Day 1)
The experience for first and second child
is night and day different. First child, I stayed at the
hospital for the first three days after the Nara was born and was
basically a zombie. For "Baby", I go home to take care of
Nara overnight and arrive at the hospital fresh as a bunny.
Helen has her Aunt here providing support, but I'm sure her life
is far from a walk in the park.
Given our feeding experience with Nara, "Baby" is being
supplemented with donor breast milk. Everyone is happier
compared to our first.
Nara and I dropped by for dinner - Nara
misses her Mommy and still doesn't really want to acknowledge the
baby. Hopefully tomorrow is come home day!
June 26th (Day 0)
Nara was born after two days of labour and
an unplanned C Section. We knew very little of what to
expect (even though we took the course), were tired and basically
just kept our heads above water. With our second child we
had a planned C Section booked (two days before due) and were
almost well rested before the surgery. (Neither of us slept
well the night before - even Nara got up in the middle of the
night to return some noodles from our "Last Dinner").
The surgery was a bit late so we had lots
of anticipation time. Once things get under way, it goes
very quickly. We haven't yet picked a name so we are
currently calling here simply "baby". Baby was delivered
about 12:30 and was willing to yell at the new world. She
quickly calmed down and did well through the testing phase.
Post surgery, we are shuffled to the recovery room and we get to
appreciate what is going on. Baby was very well behaved -
she did well with the latching and after a "feed" hung out in the
bassinet and surveyed the room. She was easy to settle and
seemed to be having a good time. We moved up to our longer
stay room fairly quickly.
Some time after 4pm we were ready to receive our first
guests. I left around five to join my Mom and Nara (who had
graciously picked up Nara from daycare) and after dinner we
returned to the hospital so Nara and my parents could see
"Baby". Helen was getting over the drugs and felt much
better.
Nara recognized there was a baby in the
room, but she wasn't keen to interact. Mommy read Nara some
stories before we took Nara home for a bath and bed.
Tags: bucket(1), bathing(1), holding hands(1)
People: Claira(33), Nara(3), Helen(1), Janet(1), John(1)
From: John Harvey Photo > Pictures of People > Claira
From: John Harvey Photo > Claira
Last Modified Saturday, January 28th, 2023 at 23:15:40 Edit
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