Help is on the way

I took Claire to see the pediatrician today. She has been throwing up at least once, if not multiple times, per day. Not just a little spit up... more like an entire feeding or even multiple feedings. Sometimes it just comes out and sometimes it's forceful. She also appears very uncomfortable. Her tummy becomes hard as a rock and she grunts and screams a lot. The pediatrician said that she would be concerned that she had a blockage (not sure what that is) if she was throwing up after every feeding or if the forcefullness worsened. For now she prescribed Zantac (spelling?). If she isn't feeling better by Monday we are supposed to go back. This was the first public outing just the two of us. She was very unhappy at the Ped's office. She fell asleep in the car after her appointment so I was able to go to Wells Fargo to have her form for her birth certificate notarized and to Target to fill her prescription. She slept through the whole thing! I was so relieved. I just envisioned her screaming at Target and not being able to console her quickly.

Oh, for the fun part... guess what her weight was today? 7 lbs 1 oz! Such a big girl! :) She gained 9 ounces in 9 days. I read that newborns should gain about an ounce per day so I guess she is textbook perfect! I can't believe she's gone from 4 lbs 13 oz to 7 lbs 1 oz in 3 weeks! That's a 48% increase! Babies are supposed to double their weight by the time they are 4 or 5 months old. I bet Claire does it much quicker than that!

Monday night she slept from 11:15PM until 4:40AM!!! I got FIVE hours of straight, uninterrupted sleep! It felt glorious. Last night however was not that great. I would be surprised if I got three hours in total. But those cuddle sessions in the middle of the night are pretty priceless. I just love her so much.

My Grandma

Today is the 2 year annivesary of the passing of my dear, sweet, precious grandma (Myrna, my mom's mom). She was the sweetest and funniest lady on the planet. We miss her so much. We were blessed to spend some precious days with her before her passing. A couple days before, my brother asked her what advice she had for me and him for when we are parents. I'll never forget her response. She said: "Make them obey you. Don't let them talk back. And love them, love them, love them". Here I am, a parent, two years later. How are we doing so far? Well Claire certainly did not obey me last night when I pleaded with her to stop crying and go to sleep. She hasn't talked back yet, thankfully. And Lord knows I love, love, love her!! So we're two for three.. doing pretty good.

I love you, Grandma.

Poop adventures

I think somehow when you become a parent, you automatically don't get as grossed out by many things...like poop. Josh and I both had fun poop adventures in the past 24 hours.



Last night we gave Claire her first non-sponge bath. That means she was without a diaper for about 10 minutes.... a scary concept. The "sink bath" was less stressful for her than the "sponge bath" but she was still not a fan- to say the least. The bath was so close to completion before Claire pooped all over Josh's hand, which was positioned nicely right underneath her butt. I don't know how much Josh appreciated me laughing at him...maybe it was karma that caused me to experience my own poop adventure this morning.



I have to say my adventure was much worse. Claire is sooooo cute when she wakes up in the morning. She streches her arms, legs and neck and pushes her tush in the air for a couple minutes. Her streching takes after me- I love, love to strech. She makes these cute little sounds while she streches and raises her eyebrows high while keeping her eyes closed. So these are all precious moments that I watch while she's on the changing table before her diaper change. This morning after having my heart melt at this little sight, I remove her diaper and marvel because it is hardly wet or dirty at all. Should have seen this coming... I put a new diaper underneath her before removing the dirty one, but before I could close the diaper, she literally sprays poop AND pee EVERYWHERE. I mean projectile. And when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere. The poop AND pee are on:
My hand
My arm
My robe
The beautiful dresser
Her stack of clean clothes on the dresser
The clothes she's wearing
The changing pad cover (which is fabric, not plastic)
Her blanket

After a moment or two of shock I dove into adventure clean-up mode. I think she was quite embarassed by the whole incident because she broke into a very loud scream that lasted until I had things partly cleaned up and her into a clean onesie.

Yup, so that was my morning. Good times.


(Side note- Josh and I aren't convinced that Claire has colic. This past week has been much better. She is fussy in the evenings but hasn't had the hours on end screaming that she had last week. Maybe it's a fluke and next week will be bad again but I feel like colic can't be turned on and off like it seemed to this week. I think the diagnosis of colic is tricky since there isn't a medical test that can be conducted. So for now we remain skeptics. We are really enjoying the temperament of 2 week old Claire much better than 1 week old Claire. Hoping it lasts!)

(One more side note- Claire is getting professional pictures taken at our house on Sunday! I'm so excited! They will be put online so I'll post the link once I have it).

Chunkster!!

Claire had her two week "well visit" this morning at the Pediatrician. Josh went with us, which made me very glad! The appt went very well. By the time babies are two weeks old, they want them to be back at their birth weight, which was 5 lbs 4 oz for Claire.

Well today Claire weighed.....

drum roll.............


6 lbs 8 oz!!!!!

Amazing! Josh and I so thrilled. The Pediatrician called her growth "phenomenal". She's going to be a chunky monkey in no time! It makes me feel good that all of the hard work we put into breastfeeding is paying off. (Breastfeeding is going well, but it is a lot of work and it's tough- no question about that).

The pediatrician (who, by the way, we really like!! The Ped. we had at her weight check was not cool but we really like this doctor so we're sticking with her) also was impressed with her alertness and how she was moving her hands. I guess most babies at this point have their hands still curled in a little ball but Claire's hands fingers were streched apart and opening and closing.

This is all good news...but then Dr Hansen busted out the dreaded C word.... colic! She said babies generally aren't diagnosed with colic until they are 3 weeks old but she said Claire has all of the signs and symptoms of colic. On one hand, that's hard to hear but on the other, it's reassuring that there's (most likely) nothing physically wrong with Claire and this is a phase she'll grow out of. Unfortunately, Dr. Hansen said it should worsen over the next few weeks but then start improving around 6-8 weeks and be virtually gone by 12 weeks- just in time for me to return to work!! While it has been rough and I dread the evenings, I am so glad that Josh is as good as he is with her. If I had this fussy (and more precious than anything in the world) baby and a clueless husband, like most first time fathers are, it would be much harder! We'll get through it. We're a really good team. And we love her to pieces.

Okay, I'm going to grab something to eat before she wakes up.

Thank you to everyone for your support! We soooo appreciate the support, encouragement, meals (!!!), and well wishes. Again, I'm sorry if you have been wanting to visit and we haven't had you over yet. It's so hard during the week because her evenings are usually miserable. Soon- I promise!

Claire Update

Life with Claire is wonderful! Our first week home was amazing. Josh, Claire and I had such a special time bonding as a little family of three. Josh is so good with her- I can't even put it into words. Everything is so natural to him- it's like he was born to be a father. He went back to work yesterday and Claire and I miss him very much! We're doing pretty well though. Yesterday I had visitors in the morning and afternoon so it was a busy day. Today it is just me and Claire all day and it's going great! It's special to spend time alone with her.

Claire is doing so well at night. For the past four or five nights, she has only gotten up twice and she would probably sleep longer but one or both of the time is due to us waking her up. She can't go more than 4 or so hours from the start of one feeding to the start of the next. It seems like a crime to wake a sleeping baby in the middle of the night but we want her to keep growing!

Speaking of growing- she sure is doing it! Usually babies lose weight the first five days. Pediatricians want them to be back at their birth weight by the time they are two weeks old. Claire made her first trip to the pediatrician last Thursday when she was five days old for a weight check. She was already back to her birth weight- 5 lbs 4 oz! She's going to be a little chunky monkey soon!

Claire wants to eat all.the.time. She would eat every waking hour if I let her. Sometimes I do let her. For instance, yesterday morning she ate at 8:46, 9:36, 10:30, 11:45 and 1:50. Her feedings usually last 15-35 minutes so there isn't much of a break sometimes. If that means I get 3 hour streches of sleep at night, I'll take it, but wow, that is tiring. Her unpredictable and frequent feeding schedule makes having visitors and returning phone calls pretty difficult. I'm sorry if you've left me a voicemail and I haven't called you back or if we haven't had you over to visit yet.

Other tidbits about Claire:

• She gets hiccups all the time! It makes me sad for her because it looks like they hurt! She frequently had hiccups in utero so maybe she's somewhat used to them!
• She also sneezes a lot. Today she set her record with 5 sneezes in a row.
• Yesterday she sucked her thumb for the first time! Both Josh and I got to see this "first".
• She loves, loves, loves to have her hands free and by her face. We usually have her swaddled because she is calmer and sleeps better and longer but boy, does she fight hard to get those hands free! She's often successful no matter how tight Josh and I try to swaddle her. She's strong! This afternoon she slept unswaddled and woke herself up a lot by flinging her hand into her face. Luckily she fell back asleep quickly. In the morning when I remove her swaddle, it is sooo cute and precious to see her little body strech. She really likes to stretch- Josh said she takes after me.

This post was written a few sentences at a time over the past 6 hours. :) Life with Claire is busy but we wouldn't have it any other way! She is our little bundle of love.