Clara turns one!

(We always ask Clara how old she is and she will tell us by holding up her one finger! She loves it and so do we!)


I can hardly believe my little girl is one! It seems like just a few months ago that she came into our lives. I remember the day she was born so well. And I realized I never put the birth story on my blog and I want it for memories. (Because my memory is terrible and I forget things easily, this is one thing I never want to forget). So if you don't want to read all of the birth details, and I don't blame you, feel free to skip over the following story.

I was very lucky when it came to being pregnant. I felt sick during the first trimester but found that eating little snacks made me feel qiute a bit better. I never once lost my cookies because of morning sickness. I had discomfort like I am sure all pregnant women have but that was as bad as it ever got. Yet even though I had it pretty good, I did not actually enjoy being pregnant. What I did enjoy was the thought of having our baby here with us and starting our family. I don't think I could ever replicate or explain how excited I was to have our baby. I remember just as soon as we found out I was pregnant I was online looking at baby names. From that moment on my life was completely consumed with the thoughts, plans, and information of our coming baby. As soon as I was 37 weeks(when it is usually completely safe to have your baby), I was SO ready to have our little girl. I wanted to go as soon as I possibly could! It was just agony waiting. Every day felt like an eternity. It was about April 14th (Wednesday) when I went into the O.B for the now weekly checkups. I told him I wanted to go ASAP and so he gave me the option of stripping my membranes. I was up for anything to speed up the process! So after that appointment I was hoping it would send me right into labor. But no, just some more braxton hicks contractions. So I decided to get the house cleaned and make sure absolutely everything was done and we had everything packed for the hospital. It was so agonizing not knowing what to expect or when to expect it to happen. But finally on Friday I started having contractions in the late afternoon. REAL contractions! That night we were supposed to go on a tour of Alta View hospital. So we went in, but it turned out it was so full they could not do a tour. SO we went back home and tried to figure out what to do. The contractions continued, so I waited and waited and they eventually got about five minutes apart. So trying to think of what we could do in the meantime until we could head to the hospital, we drove to the temple then being built in Daybreak. We wrote in our journals and just walked around together. Well as the night went on the contractions slowed down, and eventually..they stopped! I just wanted to cry, I was so incredibly disappointed! So that night, I slept, contraction free. So the next morning I decided to keep on cleaning because I had nothing else to do to keep me busy and I was just trying to get my mind of of the disappointing false labor. (WARNING: the following contains details people may not want to know) So I noticed in the morning a slight watery discharge. I really did not think too much about it though. And I was having a few contractions but I figured it was just some more false labor. I called my mom in the morning and for some reason mentioned the discharge. She then told me I should call the hospital for sure because my water could just be leaking slowly. SO we did. We called and they told me to come in because I was having contractions and had a watery discharge, and the only way to tell was to check me. But we did not want to head to the hospital agian only to turn around and drive back home. So I procrastinated and continued cleaning, I showered,and got ready. Then around four o clock we headed to the hospital. The contractions were pretty hard, but I expected worse. I always had expected to be in excruciating pain, doubled over and not able to talk etc. Well it was not THAT bad! So anyway on the drive the contractions were getting closer and closer and I did have to kind of breath through them. But I could still talk so I figured it was false labor again. Well we got in and the nurses told us they had turned away about eight people who came in and thought they were in labor but were not. We thought "oh great, now it will be nine". So they put us in a room and a nurse came in to check me to see if it was actually my water breaking. She tested and then said "you guys better get comfortable, you are having a baby today!" We were shocked! I remember looking at Chris' face. It reminded me of his face when I told him I was pregnant. Shock, fear, and disbelief. He told me he felt sick. I just started laughing at him because what was he so nervous about? I was the one that had to actually give birth in a few hours!! So they started about four thirty on pitocin to get the contractions going even more. Then the nurses informed us we could be there for quite a while since the average labor time was 15 hours and then 1 1/2 hours of pushing. Oh dear. Chris started to feel sick so I told him to go get some dinner because we had PLENTY of time. So he went. ( I was so jealous, I was STARVING). When he got back my contractions had really started to pick up. So even though I was not in excruciating pain I decided why even feel this pain if I don't need to? So they called the anesthesiologist for the epidural. He got there 15 minutes later, and just in time! Just as he was injecting it into my spine I had my first MAJOR contraction. It was the weirdest feeling. My insides all "popped" when he gave me the shot, plus the contractions was so overwhelming! Anyway, it only worked on one side at first so they re-dosed me. They checked me previously and I was dilated to a 3. My family then showed up. The contractions had started getting pretty hard, so hard that it affected Clara's heartrate. So they attached a monitor to her head so they could watch her.All of the sudden I had THE HARDEST couple of contractions yet. I asked my mom to go get the nurse because I felt like I was just about crossing my legs because I felt like she had gone all the way down with just those few contractions! So the nurse checked me and to everyone's surprise Clara's head was RIGHT there! They had called the doctor a while before because he was rock climbing. So the nurse decided to have me do a practice push to make sure I was ready to go. I pushed, and the nurse panicked a bit and said "OKAY, no more pushing!" She was ready to come out. So they set everything up and were just waiting for the doctor to come. Those moments were so frightening and exciting at the same time. They asked me if I wanted a mirror and I had said no but in the last few minutes changed my mind because I did not want to regret not having it. I remember looking at Chris again and he looked so scared standing next to me. During these few minutes I literally was crossing my legs because Clara was coming! Finally the Dr. came in and being a very nice guy started to make small talk. The nurses cut him off and told him he had better get his gloves on right now. So he quickly slipped on the jacket and gloves and we started! They told me to push so I did my best with the epidural(It was hard to tell if I was pushing but I could feel the pressure). And it took two or three pushes and she popped right out! It was about ten minutes! I was surprised because I expected an hour and a half! But I was so grateful! When I saw her for the first time and they put her on my chest I could hardly believe. I was so overcome with love and happiness. It is hard to explain the feeling, but it is one of the best feelings in the entire world! I then remember them taking her to weigh her and do whatever they do. I remember hearing them sucking liquid out of her throat and getting worried but the reassured me she was perfectly fine. She was 7lbs 13 oz. and she was born at 7:49 pm. She was perfect!

This past year has been the best of our lives to have Clara in our family. She is such a joy to have around. I love to see her spunky little personality come out more and more every day. She is quite the little clown and loves to make people laugh and will repeat anything that does. She has found that her fake laugh almost always makes people laugh (because it is SO obviously fake, and she pulls a silly face). She loves her mom and her Dad and loves to give big hugs to everyone she meets, especially the other kids. She loves to learn and read books, and even talk! She also loves to throw tantrums at the moment or fake cry to get what she wants. She says yes to almost every question we ask her which is quite entertaining. She can do some sign language and can say a lot of things as well. She is very smart! She can also walk, but does it VERY rarely on her own. She is not a daredevil (she takes after me). But she loves to explore and make a mess of anything somewhat organized. She lately has this fake super cheesy smile that I just love. She wrinkles her nose and gives us a huge grin. She is the light of my life and my everything. I can't imagine not having Clara in our lives. I am so thankful Heavenly Father entrusted us to have this special little girl to raise and love. I love you Clara with everything I have!











She was not sure she wanted to touch the cake at first and even grabbed for me. But as you can see below. She changed her mind. All I had to do was give her a little taste of the frosting..then she was hooked!










It was my first attempt at frosting anything or decorating a cake, so it is not perfect but I thought it turned out pretty cute!





She got some new shoes, and you have to know she LOVES shoes ("soos") She gets so excited whenever she sees them. So when I put them on her she just kept admiring her feet and playing with them.




Showing everyone where her ears are.





Clara is no doubt a girl! She loves getting clothes and gives all of the clothes she gets big hugs. That's my girl!

Happy first birthday Angel!