4 Days

Sierra turned 4 days old this evening. Today she mastered: her first long car drive, her first shopping trip, and the art of sleeping at exactly the wrong time.

These pictures have no real purpose except that they are adorable and we took them today.



Actually, above is Sierra's response to Nana's attempt to convince her to sleep. She looks sleepy doesn't she? :)

Introducing Sierra Lyn Clanton

Sierra Lyn Clanton joined us at 5:53 p.m. on Monday, November 30. She weighed 7 lbs, 13 oz and measured 21 inches long. After spending 2 days in the hospital, Sierra and I were released to come home yesterday; today has been our first full day at the house.

Someday I may go back and fill in the first 48 hours of Sierra's life, but tonight the task seems daunting. Instead, I'll start with today.

Last night was our first night without the benefit of the hospital nursery... an interesting experience. I'm pretty sure I only got about 45 minutes of real sleep. Sierra had an upset tummy all night and wanted nothing but skin-to-skin contact with me or Cress. Our normally very peaceful and content baby struggled to find her happy place. Eventually we gave up on the cradle and just let her sleep between us in bed.

As soon as I heard my parents stirring in the house, Sierra and I were out the door. Time for Nana and Papa's shift!


Thankfully, they gave Husband and I another couple of hours of rest.

After a slow morning, Cress's parents (Grandma and Grandpa) came down to visit. Grandma hasn't had a lot of opportunities to hold Sierra, since some of the family has been sick and no one wanted to spread the germs to baby girl. Sierra loved spending a little time with all her family.


Allison, Caleb, and Carson came shortly thereafter. Because Allison had strep, this was her first chance to meet little Sierra. Caleb showed off his skills with babies, taking extra-gentle care with his cousin.


Another big milestone for Sierra today: her first bath at home! Husband and I worked together to give her the fastest bath we could, but since we're inexperienced, it wasn't fast enough for the freezing baby. Nana stayed in the bathroom with us, giving us tips on how to best complete the process.


Sierra did not like the bath at all.

At 72 hours old, Sierra has already displayed a bunch of talents and skills. Besides being a generally patient baby, she is quite attentive. She loves to watch everything going on around her. She was less than 24 hours old when she mastered the art of holding her head up on her own (but she doesn't have much neck control). She learned to latch immediately and loves to work those muscles. In fact, we gave her a pacifier for the first time when she was 48 hours old... yes, I just said we gave my 2-day-old daughter a paci.

And the lactation consultants around the world just passed out.

We realized yesterday afternoon that Sierra was using me as a pacifier, so we decided to try it. From what we know of her so far, we deeply doubted she would get confused by the paci, and we were right. She knows the real from the fake. (It helps that I never give her the paci, only those who can't feed her give her the fake.)

With this, I'll stop, as I'm starting to ramble and I've run out of pictures to corroborate my story.

Sierra's Here

Sierra Lyn arrived yesterday! The stats: 7 lb, 13 oz and 21 inches. There's no time to really blog now, but here's a link to some pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/jamiedperry/SierraLyn#. More to follow, but busy day ahead!

Jamie (aka, Nana)

Falala-ing

It's the Christmas season!

As in most houses around the U.S., the Friday after Thanksgiving really launches the day you're allowed to decorate for Christmas (without catching any flack that is). I didn't quite make it to decorating on Friday... have I mentioned I move slowly... so I recruited my parents and we decorated today.

One of my favorite parts to put together every year: my Christmas village. I'm still working on collecting pieces for the village-- it's a fun trip down memory lane. For instance, the Christmas after I graduated from college, Mom bought us the Victorian University. Then last year, to commemorate the purchase of our first home, Mom sent us the Frasier Family Farm House (yes, that's really the name of the piece!).


I may have slightly overdone the snow, but hey, Husband lived in Tahoe... surely I'm allowed to "commemorate" the large snow drifts found there.

Among other decorations, nothing says winter and Christmas like a homey fireplace. This year, Mom, Dad and I made a trip to Hobby Lobby in search of one special item... a new stocking to hang by the chimney with care! (Well, really we went for other things, but that was on my mental list!) Sierra has to have her own stocking for when Santa comes to town.


After spending the late morning decorating, then about 3 hours wandering Hobby Lobby and Walmart trying to convince Sierra to show her pretty face, we came home to cook dinner.

At this point I gratefully surrendered my kitchen to Mom, who made this wonderful coconut chicken with an apricot ginger dipping sauce, rice pilaf, and green beans. It was FANTASTIC. If mom sticks around like this for a month, Husband isn't going to know what to do when I resume control of the kitchen... hot dogs, anyone?

Somewhere in this process, Sadie found and stole one of Pebbles's treats-- a rawhide stick. Sadie, in fear of losing her prize, carried the thing around with her all evening, even to her belly rub. Some hostess she turned out to be.


Finally, the whole family settled into a quite evening watching TiVo-ed shows like Monk and White Collar as we got ready for bed. And of course, we all had to get caught up on email.

While I wish Sierra had decided to join us, today was a very good-- full-- day.

Thank you Mom & Dad!

Nana & Papa Are Here

Nana and Papa arrived safe and sound! After more than 30 hours in the car driving with Pebbles, they all disembarked safely around 8:30 last night.

I wish I had a picture, but my camera is dead at the moment, so I'm relying on Mom (Nana) for pictures. But she only took a picture of Husband and I. So I'll share, since some of you haven't seen my gargantuan belly in a while.


Speaking of Pebbles, she's a little worn out at the moment. She has a stressful morning. While she and Sadie have a mutual non-interest established years ago, Pebbles has yet to reach any amnesty with my other two dogs.

Now, thankfully, the other two are outdoor dogs. However, for curiosity's sake, I brought Rusty in. I realized shortly after his insane barking began that Rusty has never actually met a dog besides Sadie and Zee (we've fallen far short of our usual socializing standards for our pets when it comes to him); he and Pebbles never quite reached an equilibrium. After my ears gave out (he has a loud, deep bark), I returned him to the front porch where he and Zee proceeded to carefully observe Pebbles's every move for a good 10 minutes.

Zee loves Pebbles. But the feeling's not mutual. And Pebbles is a little delicate for the rough-and-rumble pair.

Maybe after a month of caution, these four-legged cousins will figure out how to get along.