My favorite baby girl is 7 months old today — and she’s still as happy as ever.
Clara loves bath time, pulling her shoes off, grabbing her feet, chewing on anything she can grab, and watching her older siblings play. She also still loves her carseat and falls asleep almost any time she’s buckled up inside.
Her bottom front teeth have officially popped through, and I can see the top 2 teeth will be coming in soon!
She is ALMOST sitting up, and she can get almost anywhere she needs to go by rolling and scooting.
She is still very chill, mellow, and quiet — but so quick to flash smiles to anyone she makes eye contact with.
This child is such a perfect addition to our somewhat crazy, loud, and energetic family — she brings us down a notch for sure. Plus it’s nice to know one of my children will always return my smile! 🙂
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As we approached Clara’s 7 month milestone, I started thinking back to when I was 7 months pregnant with her — oh, so many pounds ago!
I had a doctor’s appointment that day, and we were starting to talk more about my “birth plan”.
As many of you know — I don’t have a “birth plan” with any of my children, except to push the baby out quickly whenever he or she is ready to come out!
However, that day, I told my doctor the one thing I REALLY wanted for this delivery (most likely my last delivery) was simply to not cry when I took her home from the hospital.
That’s it… that’s truly ALL I wanted.
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So, she prescribed me a very low dose of Zoloft (25mg), with instructions to start taking it 2 weeks BEFORE my due date so it would already be in my system when the baby arrived.
She said she couldn’t be positive it would work completely (hormones after delivery are SO crazy), but it would certainly be better than the boys’ deliveries when I didn’t start taking it until after they were born.
And of course, I never took anything with Nora — so I basically felt horrible the first 2 years of her life!
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Since Clara was born a week late, the medication was in my system for 3 full weeks before she was born… and I can honestly say this time around was a 180-degrees different than with any of my other 3 babies.
It was amazing!
I was so happy, so calm, so collected, so relaxed.
And… I never shed even one tear!
Of course, now I actually feel a little teary-eyed just thinking about how happy I was in the picture above, and how happy I am that I finally got to take my sweet baby home from the hospital without crying!
The nurses thought this picture was so cute (because of my “home” t-shirt and the fact we were going home — yes, I planned it!) They asked if I had taken the same picture with all my babies… Dave and I just looked at each other and grinned.
With my other babies, I had all I could do to make it out to the car without attracting unwanted attention due to my puffy, swollen eyes (not from pushing so hard, but from crying). Though no part of me wanted to be unhappy, I always cried, starting exactly 24 hours after delivery until roughly 3 days after I got home.
For a very unemotional person like myself, it felt so foreign, especially when I was supposed to be happy.
So here we are, 7 months later, and just as happy!
Of course, it helps that Clara is a rock-star sleeper and relatively happy all day long. But I have no doubt in my mind that taking the medicine a few weeks early was the only reason I brought Clara home from the hospital tear-free.
Six weeks after giving birth, I stop taking the Zoloft and I’m “back to normal” again!
It’s just the craziest thing, and it certainly makes me appreciate modern medicine so much more.
Happy (truly happy) 7 months, sweet little girl!
KR says
What a cutie. Your kids are adorable.
Lesa Humphreys says
She sure is a beauty.She definatelly favors Simon:)
Andrea says
Thanks 🙂 We think she’s pretty sweet!!
Helen says
Great post & adorable pics ! Do you mind sharing what kind of car seat Clara loves? I have a 6 month old who hates hers !
Andrea says
haha — my other 3 hated their carseats (and they all had different ones) so I’m almost positive a switch in carseats won’t matter for you. It’s just the baby!
That said, she’s in a Britax b-safe carseat — and I personally REALLY like it! It’s very light-weight. I’ll actually be talking a little more about it in my Favorite Things post next week 🙂
Erin says
Hi Andrea,
Thank you so much for posting about using antidepressants post partum. I think there is such a stigma to take anything while breastfeeding, but you are so sensible about the situation. I think this post could help many women not feel guilty about their decisions.
I finally decided to ask for help with my third child. Looking back, I know I had post partum depression with my first two but I didn’t ask for help, mostly because my symptoms weren’t sadness, just constant anger/crankiness and a loss of desire to do things I previously liked. I felt like I was underwater all the time. The zoloft helped me so much that I wish I had done something sooner.
Anyway, thanks for being open about something that people can feel stigmatized for. Another reason to love your blog!
Thanks,
Erin
Andrea says
I know! If only I would have knows about this with Nora — but of course, “hindsight is 20/20” or so the saying goes 🙂
Mary Grace says
Wow, Andrea! What an amazing story! Thank you for sharing. I have heard a lot about postpartum depression but never about a somewhat mild case that is preventable. And Clara is a sweet doll baby. Without a hat, she looks so much like your boys. With the hat, I can see her big sister’s face. Love the blog, MG
Andrea says
She’s our little chameleon — looking like different siblings depending on the day 🙂
Paulette says
What an adorable little girl! 🙂 The baby blues…at a time when I was supposed to be so happy. I can relate. So happy your Doctor had a solution.
ShellyL says
I had postpartum depression with all of mine. I did a lot of crying when I was supposed to be happy. I had medication with my last one and it makes a big difference. Thanks for sharing and helping to let mamas know it’s pretty common actually and they shouldn’t be ashamed to ask for help.
Michelle Bonk says
So lovely …
I’m trying to decide … does Clara look like Simon??
Andrea says
haha — we still don’t really know who she looks like. She looks very different from all our other children, BUT if we had to decide, we think Nora and James look more similar and Simon and Clara look more similar!
Jen says
When I saw the car seat photo with the pink flowered hat, my first thought was “Boy, she looks like Simon there!”
They definitely all came from the same place! 🙂
Jenny says
Yep. Michigan. Lol!
Andrea says
yeah, that picture does look more like Simon I think!
Michelle Bonk says
That’s the pic that screamed Simon to me too!
Annette Silveira says
I appreciated you posting about this right after Clara was born, and I’m happy you are reiterating it here. As someone who suffered from postpartum depression with my daughter I think it’s wonderful that there is a safe, temporary solution.
Jenny says
And that medication, or similar ones, are also very helpful with severe PMS issues, as well as PPD (postpartum depression). It’s recommended to be evaluated by a mental health professional, not just a gyne or family doctor, but talk to someone about it! You’re not alone!