Clarissa Grace was born on June 27th at 2:55 AM.  Little Claire was 19 inches long and 7 pounds 2 ounces.  She was born at home, assisted by our wonderful midwife, Sue, and my husband who was such a help! 

I figured I better get to writing down the birth story before I forgot what actually happened.  As always… my own accounts are always somewhat differently perceived than what my husband witnesses… though I am sure we are not totally focussing on the same things at the same moments. 

Little Claire gave me a pregnancy that was very hard.  I was sick the entire time… well the first month things were fine, but come October 29th…I got so sick.  I had horrible morning sickness and then around Thanksgiving got the flu which made it even worse.  The morning (all day) sickness didn’t really ever go away the entire time.  Smells made me gag all during my pregnancy.   My girls were absolutely divine… taking over the cooking and the chores that I couldn’t hack due to the smells… the chicken barn was definately a no-go area for me!  Towards the end… around 34-35 weeks, I began to get contractions nearly every night.  Not just braxton-hicks.  They were strong and kept me up and even woke me up.  I assumed it was lack of water, and drank even more, but that didn’t help at all.  Needless to say, the last month I was pregnant, I got very little sleep… usually 5 hours or less per night, which when I normally need 10 hours (yes I need 10 hours… my husband will verify that! LOL) I was really dragging the last month.  My morning sickness came on harder… I had to focus strongly on what I ate so that I ate enough… I just didn’t want to eat. 

Anyways, the week prior to her due date, I had at least 3 instances of thinking it was time… but then it stopped… due to being interrupted by life.  Then the week of her due date… Things just stopped.  I was kept up at night due to a kicking baby, not due so much to the painful contractions I had been getting.  Needless to say, I was pretty frustrated.  However, I had prayed that if baby had needed more time inside, that all would be well and baby would just stay put until she was ready to come out.  Baby was due June 25th. 

On the 25th, I actually got contractions again that evening… they continued on through the morning of the 26th, not stopping as they normally did by 8 am.  but continuing, although they seemed a bit irratic, even if they were strong.  I finally called the midwife and we talked… realized that my daughter was to leave for camp the next day, dh needed to drive her plus another girl from church as well.  I was stressed out over him leaving for 10 hours and she suggested we find another driver as labor might be on the edge, but the stress of not knowing what is going on was halting its progress.    Dh had taken my daughter to church that morning and upon returning home, told me he was able to get our oldest to leave camp to pick up her sister… the camp director requested that it be a day early as registration day they really needed my daughter to be there working.  So, quick as they could… arrangements were made and by mid afternoon, it all fell into place… my oldest on her way, the two girls going to camp… were able to go, even if a day early, and suddenly contractions began to come more regularly, though not super close… about 20-15 minutes apart.  When my daughter arrived, we had supper for them and sent them all on their way (trading vehicles so that my daughter didn’t have to gas up on Sabbath).   I relaxed a bit with a quiet house and things continued on quietly but regularly.  Just after the sun set, contractions began to get more close 10 minutes apart and began to hurt.  We called the midwife and she headed out… in the middle of a bad storm.  (I had warned my husband not to talk to me about the weather as at least 3 previous storms I was told to “stop” it’s not a good night to have a baby… and I did… contractions stopped.  LOL)  She prayed for a window in the storm to drive through and told us that even though she was driving through the “radar” detected bad part of the storm… she really had a clear nice drive.  

The labor was a bit harder than I remembered with Paige.  Paige was posterior and I thought that would mean that an anterior settled baby would mean a bit easier labor… but I was wrong.  My back hurt worse this time and my stomach hurt as well… so double whammy.  Contractions were strong and hard.  I wanted to push way early… and yet I was only 5 cm dilated and I about started crying… I braved it out, obviously…   the last part of labor went quickly but was hard.  I talked to myself thru every contraction just to try to break the focus of what was going on otherwise.  Up until this time I had labored pretty much in the rocking chair.  Steve sat behind me on the bed and rubbed my arms and sometimes moved to rub my legs when they cramped during a contraction.   Steve was sick by the way, running a fever and dog-tired from his cold which had gone into his lungs and yet he never complained… only agreed when I would say… I want to stop and just go to bed… he said that would be divine, but we’re not done, yet.  LOL. 

When it was clear it was time to push, we moved to the bed and it really wasn’t long.  My water broke spontaneously this time, and yet there was hardly any water… compared to with Paige when I had at least a gallon or more… Steve said there was not much water this time… This is likely the cause of the nightly contractions and her smaller size measurements the last month… Just a couple pushes and she was out… With Paige I remember pushing alot longer… so I was thankful that once it was time to push… I really was almost done!  Little Claire had her hand on her face when she was born and we had to pull her arm out so that she could continue on… as the arm sort of kept her in, somehow.  She was out and started crying almost immediately… much different than our silent Paige.  I heard her cry and said… I want to cry, too… I’m so glad this is over with!  I got to hold Claire all wet and slimy and it was absolutely wonderful! 

Dh was curious as to how much I actually lost during the birth of this one.  In the past, I’ve lost around 20-25 pounds at birth… this one, I only lost 13 pounds… which likely lack of amniotic fluid had something to do with the weight difference.  The crazy thing… I weighed exactly what I did before I got pregnant, after I gave birth to Claire.   Even with all the sickness I endured during the pregnancy and the struggles at the end, baby Claire is healthy.   God is good! 

Warmly, ~Melissa

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I have no photos as my camera batteries are dead, but it seems so surreal to have all these critters having babies when I am in the midst of my pregnancy!  At the end of my pregnancy with Paige, we had a cow that gave birth when I was around 36 weeks pregnant… Oh, Iwas so jealous!  Then the sheep were near lambing when I was about to give birth to her as well. 

This pregnancy is no different.  We had troubles setting up our fish aquarium for our daughter.  Went through 3 or 4 rounds of fish until some finally lived.  We got some silver mollies and they seem to be hardy enough to live… and live they did… within a month, the female fish set up creating a nesting hole in the rocks and before we knew it, we had little baby fish.  However, we did not realize it until it was too late… and I’m afraid we may not have fed them enough… however one did survive… even without the breeding grass that one normally puts inside to protect the little ones.   It is unique to watch this one grow.  The silver mollies are almost white in color, yet the babies were pure black.  Now that it is a couple weeks old and growing, it seems to be losing some of its darker color.  The kids enjoy watching the little fish… even my big kiddos… passing the tank several times a day stooping low to try and find him. 

Our black cat, Vanilla, also had a baby.  She is a first time mom and not barely a year, so I was concerned that she wouldn’t know what to do and we prayed that she wouldn’t have many kittens to take on with this first learning experience.  (Most every cat we’ve had, their first batch never survives).  This kitten arrived about a week ago.  Mom put it in a box in the garage.  Our dog found it and tipped the box over… we moved it to the barn, but the barn cats don’t get along, so she moved it back to the garage… and again the dog took it from her.  Poor kitten drenched in dog slobber!  I think our dog was intending to adopt the little kitten, yet she has no way to feed it!  We finally drug out our large dog kennel and put a small kennel inside it.  The smaller one shields mom and kitten from the intruding stares of those round about… which mainly is one very large English Shepherd dog who will not leave the side of the kennel except for an occasional bark down the lane.  We had to institute a litter box for the momma cat and I am not able to care for that as I am pregnant, but one cat doesn’t make too much of a mess, thankfully.  The kitten is growing and still has not opened its eyes.  It is black and the girls were sad to leave it and worry that with it under my fragile care that it will not survive until they return home from campmeeting.  (my care is bare minimum due to my pregnancy and limiting contact with it).   So far so good. 

We also have an abundance of birds this summer.  Many of which have taken up nesting and produced little nests of baby birds.  The sparrows which frequent one particular house on our deck have returned and had their first batch… they usually have several throughout the summer in this box.  It is fun to see momma and papa birds flittering here and there as they feed the little ones.  I was hoping to take up a bird journal, however my energy has only gotten me so far as to having the suggestion in my head… no actual follow through.  I did set up a feeding station near the front of the house so that I could see the different birds as they visit the feeders and the bird bath… (which our one dog has decided is his own personal watering dish!) 

Anyways, with all these babies around, I am getting very anxious to hold my own.  (hear that little one?)  I just ordered a sling last week… Dh says, perhaps it is waiting for the sling to arrive, LOL.  Steve is also anxious…sometimes seems to be more so than myself.  Mine seems to be related to wanting to end a terribly long and sickly pregnancy, whereas he’s just excited to see the little bootite!  However, in the last few days, I have turned from focusing on the pregnancy to focusing on the baby inside… I think that is a good step in my progress and I hope that means I will soon meet this little one that God has been fashioning on the inside! 

Warmly, ~Melissa

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“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.”  Ecclesiastes 3:1

I am sorry I am not keeping up with comments and blogging.  It seems that right now my season is one of rest as I near the end of this pregnancy.   Keeping up with cameras and batteries and life in general is often just so hard right now.  I will be posting soon.  My daughter got baptized the end of May and I still haven’t downloaded photos of it.  Blogging can wait for the moment.  But I do miss all of you! 

By the way, I am 38 weeks along… so it can’t be much longer.  This third trimester has not beeen easy going.  Since 34 weeks I have bouts of all day contractions 3 or 5 minutes apart, but then it stops.  The next day or two I am exhausted from the workout and then another bout.  We simply prayed we’d make it to 37 weeks… and yet here I still am… God has better timing, I’m sure… and I will have to trust in that, though I am really tiring of the games my tummy is playing!  The contractions are beginning to come at night… which seems to correspond to all my other pregnancies which started in the wee hours of the night or late evening.  That means it is getting closer!  Dh says… do it in the morning, then I can sleep at night… I scoffed… he slept all night every night I’ve ever had contractions…hmmm….perhaps he didn’t sleep soundly…??? 

Anyways, this right now is my season… I shall soon be back to enjoy blogging again and to get used to the new format of HSB2. 

Warmly, ~Melissa

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If you want to change your blog look, go to your dashboard and click  “appearance” in the left hand column.  You can then click “themes”.  You can choose from over 130 different themes that wordpress has uploaded for us to use… that’s where I found mine.  Of these, you can often change header pictures and sometimes the basic colors of the backgrounds to personalize it for you.

I mentioned using the free themes online.  The easiest thing I can suggest is to go to the Appearance tab, then to the themes link.  At the top there is a small tab that says “help”, it is located just under the “hello You” and the log out in the upper right hand corner. 

This help button will have two choices with themes… choose documentation.  It will help you figure out how to download wordpress and be able to download themes so that you can use them here.  Hope that helps someone.  I think that is easier than me trying to explain it… especially when I am often wording impaired!  LOL. 

Have fun!

Warmly, ~Melissa

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In looking for a new theme, I had in mind what I wanted, but as I thumbed through, I couldn’t pass this one up, at least for a short while.  I have notebooks, many notebooks of which I have post it notes, paperclips and flags all over them… this is ME!  I love paper and I love the gadgets that go with them.  So why not play with the blog in the same way???  LOL. 

I’ve worked with wordpress for a while on a different site and for those that don’t know you can search for free wordpress themes and find a TON of unique and interesting themes for your blog.  Have fun looking! 

Warmly, ~Melissa

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