Mothers Day 2011

Our first outing as a family of five!  Here we are outside of St. Vincent's after Mass this morning.  Fortunately we had a photographer handy!  (Rachel).

I think the biggest miracle since Clara's birth is that we actually made it to church on time!  Although we were not without our mishaps this morning.  I, for the first time in years probably, thought ahead to iron my blouse (and Joseph's shirt and Clara's dress) the night before.  I made sure to take a shower the very first thing when I got out of bed.  Unfortunately after having carefully selected an outfit that would fit me six days postpartum and still be attractive, I forgot about my abundant milk and after I was halfway through breakfast noticed a great big wet spot on my shirt.  Ugh!  I rinsed it out and threw it in the dryer in hopes that it would come out OK in time to finish getting ready.  (Because I really don't have anything else to wear!!)  It did and Michael even helped me out with cleaning some other schmutz that he noticed on there, so I think I still looked presentable, from a distance anyways.  :)

It has been a good first week as a mom of three.  I've had so much help from my loving husband so that I could rest and not worry about taking care of the boys or housework or meals.  We've also been generously given prepared dinners by several friends.  Rachel has also been a big help from sleeping over here the night that I started to labor; and coming back the following night and helping out with some other babysitting while Michael has had to leave for a while and doing all the loving sisterly and auntly things that she is so good at.

Clara sleeps all. the. time.  She is practically comatose all day long, stirring just enough so that she can latch on and have some milk every few hours, but promptly falls back asleep.  Until midnight that is.  For the past three nights, she wakes about every hour and is often agitated about something (she won't just simply nurse and fall back asleep like during the day), so I have to try other maneuvers, when all I really want to do is just lay there.  Plus I have to change her diaper two to three times a night, which at the very least requires sitting up in bed.   But since I've changed my frame of mind to expect this to happen, it is easier for me to just accept it and go with it.  And it also helps that I'm not quite as sore and tender as I was a few days ago when my milk started coming in.   I know it will all be changing and evolving in the very near future.  Then at about 6 am she's ready to settle in for the day and finally falls into a deep sleep for about three hours.