One Month Old!

Yesterday we celebrated Clara being a month old. She has already grown and changed so much! At birth, she weighed 7.5lbs; now she weighs a full 2lbs more. Her head control and vision improve daily. She follows us with her eyes and seems to be aware of the locations in the house of her favorite things to stare at: a small stuffed Cy (ISU mascot), a red paper crane, Dan’s Twins hat, the curtains.

We also marked the occasion by taking the first steps towards obtaining Guatemalan citizenship for Clara. One requirement for registering her is proof of certain vaccinations, and Clara received her first one yesterday. She handled it like a champ but we really struggled with both the decision to do it and the physical holding her down for the injection. The vaccine we gave her is for tuberculosis; it is no longer done in the US and leaves a circular scar on the shoulder where the injection is given. We initially had hoped to avoid it, both because of the scarring and also because she will always test positive on Mantoux tests for TB (plus she’s just not at much of a risk). So we tried to get an exception so that she could still have citizenship without the vaccine, and were passed around until finally the physician at the state facility where vaccines are administered gave us a mini-lecture on skirting the law.

I was surprised at how guilty I felt, holding her arm in place for what felt like an eternity while the nurse gave her the shot. Clara hardly cried, but Dan noted an expression on her face of surprise and fear that she’d never made before. Fortunately, she doesn’t seem to be bothered by it today.