Young House Love

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How About A Baby Announcement?

Just thought we should mention that we recently welcomed a new member of the family.

On Friday the 14th at 5:57pm, Clara Kenley Petersik was born with a paint brush in her hand weighing in at 7 lbs 10 oz and measuring 20.5 inches long. We’re insanely in love with her. And she and Burger are already best buddies. Seriously, he thinks it’s his job to stand guard next to her at all times.

Clara And Burger2

Clara was named after John’s grandmother on his dad’s side. And her middle name, Kenley, is an homage to my dad (Ken) with John’s mom’s maiden name worked in there (Kelley) along with a reference to my great aunt on my mom’s side named Lee. Gotta love rooms and names that multitask.

We’re all home from the hospital and happily settling back into life here at Casa Petersik (there’s nothing like a four day hospital stint to make you miss your house like crazy). Yes, we actually had an extended stay due to a pretty terrifying scare during Clara’s birth (an unexpected placental abruption paired with an umbilical cord prolapse had a slew of wonderful doctors and nurses performing an emergency c-section in under three minutes to ensure that Clara was a-ok). But although her delivery was anything but restful, we’re both over the moon that she’s 100% healthy and 1000% adorable (not that we’re biased or anything).

Clara Emergency Room

And now that we’re all back home, Clara really seems to be enjoying her new surroundings. In short: we feel like two of the luckiest people in the world. And we’re so thankful to be able to share this amazing time in our lives with such wonderful readers. Thank you all for the well wishes that you’ve passed along throughout our big journey to parenthood. We can’t wait to detail all the ways that our house grows and changes to accommodate a little person and we promise to share all the organization, storage, and simple living tips that we pick up along the way (while tackling even more DIY adventures and cheap-o room makeovers of course).

Clara Little Feet

But now back to our regularly scheduled blogging. We have an awesome house tour to share, so stay tuned…

Psst- We’ll also be announcing the random winner of the big baby pool (and a $100 West Elm gift card) tomorrow, so stick around.

Comments

  3. Sarah says

    Congratulations!! She is so precious! Looking forward to seeing how life unfolds now that Clara is in the YHL family!

    Reply

  4. Christy says

    OMG, congrats you guys!! Sherry, reading your birth story brought tears to my eyes, how terrifying!! Thanks for sharing it, I am so, so happy you both are doing well! Enjoy all those precious baby moments, Clara is a doll! I am so happy for you guys!

    Reply

  5. Robyn in Chicago says

    YAY YAY YAY! Ohhh, it’s so exciting! Congratulations! And I LOVE the name Clara. So great! And Clara Kenley that has so much meaning? Forget it, it’s so cute.

    I am so happy! Enjoy that new baby. She is beautiful!

    Reply

  6. Crystal says

    Oh wow! I was so surprised to click on your site for my daily dose of YHL and see BABY! I can’t imagine how you guys kept up posting without a hint! =) Clara is a cute name and she is a super cute baby!
    I had a super scary birth with my son too, but he’s adorable and wonderful and just started walking last week, so I know you guys will do great too!

    Reply

  9. caitlyn says

    Congratulations! Clara is beautiful! I’m sure you are relieved that she is 100% healthy.
    Sherry, I hope you experience quick recovery!

    Reply

  11. Ginger says

    Clara is absolutely perfect! I’m sorry your delivery was less than “fun” but I’m thankful that you’re precious gal is here safe and sound and of course that you all are doing well. Congratulations and welcome to the wonderful and sometimes crazy world of parenting!

    Reply

  12. Sloane C. says

    I saw your post and got so excited to see that little Clara had arrived! Congrats!! She is precious!

    Reply

  14. Aimee says

    She’s so beautiful and so lucky to have you two as her parents! I love how Burger is her protector!

    Reply

  16. Amy says

    Congratulations! You will be wonderful parents. I love readying your blog and can’t wait to see what great tips you have as you change your house to work with kids.

    Reply

  18. Aimee says

    CONGRATULATIONS!! She is simply adorable….and I love the name. I’m glad everyone is okay and home enjoying a new life!! :)

    Reply

  19. Leah says

    That’s so exciting!!!! Congratulations. She’s adorable! And so glad everyone is doing well. So sorry that you had all those complications, but so relieved for you that everything ended well. I know how hard that can be, I had an emergency c-section with my first daughter (she had the cord around her neck 5 times, tight!) and she was a planned birth center birth. A bit of a shock. In the future, if you feel like you need support, there is a great organization called ICAN that is basically a support group for recovering from a c-section, working out your feelings about it, etc etc. It’s a wonderful organization. http://www.ican-online.org/

    Enjoy your new baby daughter and happy babymoon!

    Reply

  20. chacha says

    Congratulations! I’m sorry you had a bit of a stressful delivery but it’s great that it all worked out! Looks like she’ll be taking after her dad with her height – 21″ is pretty long, right?

    Reply

  22. heatherly says

    She’s beautiful! Thanks for sharing her story and photos. As much as I love your blog for home inspiration I absolutely love to hear about new babies too. Congratulations! :)

    Reply

  31. Anita says

    Whoa!! Happy baby news!!! So much for being absolutely certain that you’d go late, huh?

    Glad to hear everyone is healthy after your scare. She is beautiful… enjoy it!!

    Reply

  32. meghan says

    my blog people have a new blog baby!

    welcome to the world, sweet girl! after the drama of your entrance, i’m pretty sure you’ll be well-equipped to handle anything life brings. congratulations sherry & jon!

    Reply

  33. Izabela says

    Congratulations to the four of you!!! She is gorgeous and has a beautiful ( and very creative ) name!!! Welcome Baby Clara to your huge blog family!

    Reply

  37. Lisa in Seattle says

    Oh geez, what a harrowing tale. I don’t blame you for taking some time to recover before sharing the big news. She is of course beautiful (so many babies look like raspberries with eyes) and is a lucky girl to have such a wonderful family (big brother and all). Congratulations!

    Reply

  38. Karen says

    Congratulations!!! She’s beautiful. I’m so glad you’re all healthy, okay, and back home. Enjoy these first few precious weeks with your peanut. ;)

    Reply

  39. Chris A. says

    Congratulations! Now you begin the most terrifying and wonderful journey of your lives! Love her name and the meaning behind it – how special!

    Reply

  41. Joni says

    Congratulations, she’s beautiful! C-sections are hard, take it easy on yourself for a while – no painting :)

    And enjoy every minute!

    Reply

  43. Vicki says

    Welcome, Clara! And, congratulations Mommy and Daddy Petersik! Clara is just beautiful. I hope you recover quickly from your c-section (physically and emotionally!). I too know how hard (and scary) it is when things don’t go as planned when the plan involves your most precious gift! Take care.

    Reply

  45. Ann Marie says

    Congrats! She is beautiful. I hope you are being showered with lots of help and people dropping off delicious food. Get some sleep, recover and enjoy every minute of it.

    You make beautiful babies.

    Reply

  48. Alina says

    Oh my gosh, Sherry! I’m so glad that you and Clara are well! I’m a nurse and that is definitely terrifying.

    I had a feeling that we’d get a surprise ‘we had a baby’ post! She is beautiful! Congrats!

    BTW – Burger is doing a great job as big brother! :)

    Reply

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