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.