Happy One Month!

I can't believe Clara has turned one month old! It has been the most joyous time in my life. It scares me a little to love someone this much! I am really making sure to savor every single day. And as much as I want to see her grow and learn new things, I get a little sad knowing she will never be a newborn again. It's so weird!

Something else happened on August 30th. My friend Jessica had her little girl Madilyn Jane! So her and Clara will be exactly one month apart! It has really been neat to go through our pregnancies together over the past year. We have some good memories with all our miles of walking in the summer heat together. Saturday night we were at a movie night at a friend's house and Jessica was holding Clara a lot throughout the night. I'm convinced Clara somehow persuaded Madilyn to come out because 12 hours later Jessica's water broke and out came Madilyn 5 hours later! I told Jessica she must have the perfect body to birth children to have a first labor like that! haha. So happy for her and Brandon!

Madilyn Jane. What a cutie!

It looks like they're telling secrets

Movie night


Pictures of my cutie...

Clara with her Gampie (it IS Gampie now, right?) :)

I might already be losing the "house divided" war. It figures since I'm the ONLY aggie in a family of 87 longhorns!

Photo Shoot

Jason started back to work this week part-time, I don't he was very excited to go back. If it were up to him I think he'd rather be a stay at home dad. HA. Granpa Richard and Gramma Mara came to visit us so Clara got lots of love this week!

I received my last paycheck from Clear Creek ISD this week, officially marking the end of my teaching career. Everyone keeps asking if I will miss it or if it will be weird to not start back at school this next week. I must say that I am VERY excited to not have to go back! Although I thoroughly enjoyed teaching high school I am really excited to be moving on to this next stage of life. I guess I'm officially a "stay at home mom" now! (that's gonna take some time getting used to saying)...

Today we took Clara to get her pictures taken. She did so good and only got a little fussy right in the beginning when the lights starting flashing in her face while the photographer made high pitch screaming noises to get her attention. She kept scrunching her eyebrows together and the lady had to keep stopping to rub her forehead in attempt to un-scrunch her face (I have included one of these pictures). I was a little worried the whole photo shoot would continue that way. But Clara adjusted just fine and let us put her in any position. What a sweet baby! Here are some of our favorites.

My hands

I love this one!

Daddy's hand

This picture cracks me up! She was lying flat on her chest and then lifted herself up into this pose. It's like she's doing one of those cheesy high school picture poses. HAHA.

Daydreaming......mmmmm milk

Scrunch face

Boats, Bellybutton and Boobs

This week Jason FINALLY achieved 2 out of 3 goals he's had for quite sometime. First, he sold one of his sailboats that he's had and been working on for over 3 years and then turned around and sold his 18 year old jet ski! We sure will miss Sea Princess (the jet ski's name due to her hot pink and purple stripes). With 2 water crafts down and one to go (the second sailboat), Jason is on his way to bigger and better things, a ski boat! At least that's what he's dreaming of now...

Clara continued to have several "firsts" this week. I took her to meet the Clear Creek Volleyball team and coaches and then we went to their first home game. Trying to expose her early. :) She officially now has a bellybutton since her stump fell off. We joke around that we are going to where it in a vile around our neck. HAHA. But seriously, I want to put it in her baby book and Jason is revolted by that. Now that I think about it, I think he might have secretly thrown it away! I'll have to ask him.... Clara also went to high school church for the first time last Sunday and then went on her first walk around the neighborhood last night followed by her first real bath. She was so good! She really seemed to like the water. I hope she stays this laid back!

I have learned about a million things in the past 2 weeks, but the one thing I thing I've probably learned the most about is in regards to breastfeeding. You take the classes and read the books but nothing or no one can REALLY prepare you for it. I'll never forget in our breastfeeding class the teacher saying, "now, it can be a little difficult at first, blah, blah, blah..." A little difficult!?!?!?! She happened to leave out that after you get home from the hospital is when the REAL pain sets in. Maybe she forgot to tell us that it hurts so bad at first that you bang your head against the head board of your bed and your toes curl up. "This is up there with labor pains!" I shouted a few times. Or that when your milk comes in the baby seems to completely forget everything she's learned, refuses to latch on and eat and screams constantly in frustration all while your trying not to burst into tears yourself. Oh, and that having any sort of clothing on your boobs makes them feel like they're on fire so you just need to walk around topless for 2 weeks in order to let the air "heal them." Let's just say that several family members and close friends have seen a lot more of me than they may have wanted when they come to visit. But although breastfeeding has been quite the....uh...adventure, we survived the first 2 weeks (which now I hear from lots of people is what you just have to get through) and absolutely love it. I'm sure Clara loves it too.... :)

We figured out how to upload from our camcorder so I've posted some videos as well


This is when she was just minutes old



Clara's 1st bath

Beautiful smile!

My sweet friend Liz came to visit. She's the one who captured Clara's smile.


Bama and Poppy. They love their little Clara!


Little angel


My little glow worm

Pretty Gramma Mara

On the way to Grandma Mary's 80th birthday party

4 generations.

Mommy time.

Clara's only aunt and uncle. Aunt Marie and Uncle Mitchell.

Watchdog Amber.

Great Grandma Nana. I hope I look as good as her when I'm 78.

Every ache, pain and frustration when learning to breastfeed is worth it for moments like this. :)

Clara's Birth Day and First Week

Clara Grace Campbell

Clara Grace Campbell was born on Thursday, July 30th at 11:44pm weighing 7lb 3oz and was 19in long. She is the most beautiful thing we have ever seen! Sometimes I just look at her and get tears in my eyes because I am so in love. I can't believe she is already one week old! The past week has gone by in about 2 seconds and has been challenging, tiring and amazing. Jason and I have definitely learned a lot to say the least. Clara is a major sleepy head so we pretty much have to wake her up for every feeding. I'm sure that will all change soon though. I have never been a "baby person" so I was very anxious to see how I would feel toward my own. And just like everyone tells you, I am so overwhelmed by how much I love her and want to take care of her. We are so blessed! I put some pictures of her "firsts" and will put up some more in a couple days.

Clara's Birth Story

Because I was about 2 weeks past my due date we were scheduled to start induction at 6AM on Thursday and had the plan already to go. But just like the past couple weeks had gone, those plans would quickly change. Just hours before we were going to leave for the hospital my water broke at exactly midnight as we were finishing packing our bags. Contractions started right away and started to get closer and stronger. We were so excited! We couldn't believe I was going into labor on my own. Because of the excitement and mild contractions I of course got zero sleep. The midwife on call said we were to still go in at 6 AM since Clara was post term. But by the time I was admitted into the hospital and started the monitoring the contractions had almost completely stopped! And because my water had broke this totally changed our plans once again. We were planning on having Cervidil placed in my cervix to help ripen it and hopefully start labor. But because my water had broken they did not want to stick anything up there for risk of infection. So we were left with two more options, start the pitocin right away, or take something called Cytotec which was supposed to do the same thing as the Cervidil. We had heard some not good things about Cytotec so we were originally against it. But on the other hand I REALLY didn't want pitocin. Pitocin in my eyes was my arch enemy. haha. This was because my mom had a bad experience with it and I had heard it made labor A LOT harder. We took about an hour to rest and prayed about what we should do. We finally decided that we really trusted Debbie (the certified nurse midwife working with us) and that she would not suggest something that wasn't safe. We chose the Cytotec which was taken in a little tiny pill form. After I took the Cytotec they had to monitor me and Clara for two hours. Clara was awesome and apparently had no idea what was going on. :) After this two hours she had me walk the halls for another two hours in attempt to get the contractions going again. We became hopeful once again when the contractions started up again and were getting harder. But after the two hours they pretty much came to a stop. AGAIN. At this point I had been up for 36 hours with no sleep and in my eyes hadn't even begun the REAL labor. Now we had no option but the pitocin since I was 8 hours away from the 24 hour mark of my water breaking (the risk of infection continues to go up after that). I was going to have to meet my arch enemy. I remember just sitting there in the rocking chair, looking at Debbie, saying I couldn't fathom going through labor right then. I had nothing left physically or mentally. But regardless of how I felt we started the pitocin at 4:30. Debbie left Jason and I to labor together for a couple hours (Jason was awesome by the way). After that the contractions started to get a lot harder and she came in and stayed the rest of the time. After two more hours of hard contractions she FINALLY was ready to check me. I had not been checked at all since I arrived because of risk of infection. I was 5 cm!!! This was seriously a miracle because my body seemed so resistant to progress. I really thought I was going to be a 2 or 3 (and so did Debbie) so this really encouraged me to keep going. 2 more hours went by and the contractions were super intense. But the weird thing was that I felt really relaxed and almost drugged. I would even start to fall asleep in between contractions! All those endorphins I guess. After those two hours Debbie checked me again because she thought I was maybe ready to push. I couldn't believe we were maybe at that point. When she checked I was at a 9! Woo Hoo! They let me start pushing. It was the most physically demanding thing I had ever done. After an hour and 15 minutes of pushing Clara Grace came into the world (almost 24 hours exactly after my water broke)! It was so amazing when they put her on me and getting to hold her for the first time. She was the most beautifully squished thing ever! Jason and I couldn't believe we had made it through that 24 hours. And as far as my arch enemy pitocin, I no longer have bad feelings toward it. It helped bring my baby into this world! I really think God allowed us to go through all of this to show He could bring us through something we never thought we could handle. To show us that although I had nothing left, He provided me the strength to bring Clara into the world!

We wanted to say a special thanks to Sharon Tilotta. She taught our birth classes and gave us a lot of great advice. I know for sure our experience would not have been the same if we had not met her. She is apart of First Birth Ministries and has a passion for teaching couples about labor and delivery. She also offers labor support. She has 11 children and is pretty much always on call for an upcoming delivery. I still can't figure out when she sleeps. The website is http://www.firstbirthministries.com/ and her classes and expertise come highly recommended. Love you Sharon!

Pretty girl!

First moments together

Squishy face and cone head :)

Our new family

Debbie and nurse Jamie delivered Clara. They were amazing and so encouraging!

Where's your bottom lip?!

Sweet Daddy

Mimi!!!

Gramma Mara and Grandpa Richard

Grandpa Russ and Baba

Amber and Philip

Leaving the hospital

Turtle ballin'

The ride home. She's so tiny!

Christy and Chaz

First tummy action

First sponge bath.

She loves her daddy