Happy 2 Month Birthday!

Claire is 2 months old today! Wow! Happy Birthday, love!!

We had her 2 month doctor appt this morning. Josh came with and I'm really glad he did! Here are Claire's stats:

Weight: 9 lbs 5.5 oz 10-25%
Height: 21 inches 5-10%
Head: 14 3/4 inches 10-25%

She has grown 2 inches and over 4 lbs since her birth! The doctor said she's little but perfectly proportional.

She had one vaccine orally to start with. She did not like that and was already crying so it wasn't looking good for her shots. She had two shots in the left leg and then two in her right. She cried a cry that I had never heard before- especially when the nurse was inserting the needle. It was very high pitched. It made me sad :(. Fortunately it was over pretty quickly. I scooped her up and held her tight and gave her kisses. The pacifier helped calm her down too and she fell asleep in the car. She's sleeping right now. I foresee a lot of cuddle sessions today.

The many faces of Claire

7 Weeks

Claire turned 7 weeks yesterday.

Claire at 7 weeks:

• has slept through the night (6.5-7 hours) the last 5 nights in a row!! This is amazing! She's definitely doing this earlier than the norm. Maybe she'll be doing it very consistently by the time I go back to work.
• is better at "being alive". It's tough to transition from the womb to the world! In utero, she ate 24 hours a day, was "held" 24 hours a day, was always warm, could do whatever she wanted with her hands and didn't have to worry about mommy swaddling them at her side. It's not easy to enter the world and be content. But she's getting a lot better at it! She's in the "quiet alert" stage, as they call it, more often and for greater periods of time. She fusses less (I also attribute this to her reflux medication), and generally seems happier.
• smiles ALL THE TIME! She loves to smile. She smiles most often before, during, and after her diaper changes. She is a fan of her changing table that is inside the Pack n Play so this is where much of the smiling takes place. Last night Chris was holding her at my mom's house and she shared a few smiles with him, which made his day!
• eats every 2-3 (sometimes 4, if she's taking a long nap) hours during the day. It's hard to know how many ounces she's eating since I am breastfeeding but when she has a bottle she drinks 3-4 ounces.
• doesn't particularly care for the bottle. We need to remedy this before we go to Brainerd for the weekend and before I go back to work. We're going to give her a bottle every day or every other day so she becomes accustomed to it.
• doesn't hate her car seat as much. She used to have a difficult time during walks or car rides because she hated her car seat. She's getting a lot better though! We go for walks pretty much every day and she either sleeps or is awake and content (which sometimes requires the pacifier, but hey, she's making progress). I occasionally have to pull over while I am driving to climb in the backseat and comfort her because she's screaming her little head off but that is happening with less frequency.
• is very strong! You wouldn't think she is only 7 weeks old by the way she holds her neck!
• doesn't hate baths as much. She still cries here and there during baths but it's getting better for her.
• has a bad case of baby acne. This is normal. It spread to her chest so I called the nurse advisor line at the Pediatrician office and they said that is normal too. We need to keep it clean and dry. Once it heals, we can put Aquaphor lotion on it to moisturize the skin.
• is the love of our lives!!!!

First Mall of America visit!

Claire took her first trip to the Mall of America yesterday! She was a perfect little shopper. We fed her right before we left but I was prepared to feed her in a women's lounge if necessary (would be my first time in public). She was awake, alert, and content for much of the time. She also slept for awhile. Josh and I really enjoyed this family time. The MOA recently opened a Noodles and Company, which Josh loves, so we ate lunch there while Claire napped. The top picture is from her big day at the mall. Life couldn't get any better!

I also included a smiling picture for you viewing pleasure. She smiles so often! I love it.

My maternity leave is offically half over and I can't believe it. How does it go by so quickly?? Today is a gloomy, cold day so we're planning on staying in the house and cuddling. I love it when Claire takes a nap while laying on my chest and I can rest with her.

Christmas

I haven't posted in a couple weeks and so much can happen with a newborn in that amount of time!

Claire is doing so well. She almost seems like a different baby than she was a couple of weeks ago. I think the Zantac is helping her. She is not a huge fan, probably because it is peppermint flavored. Seriously- who makes baby medicine peppermint flavored??? You'd think they would be able to give it no flavor or even milk flavor. She seems a lot more comfortable than before. She doesn't scream for hours, her tummy isn't hard all of the time, and she doesn't arch her back when she eats as much.

She seems to change every day. I am glad I take so many pictures because she changes so quickly! She is definitely filling out her newborn clothes now. I put a 0-3 month sleeper on her last night and it's quite large. I know it is common for babies to have poop "blow-outs" where it goes up their back... Claire doesn't have those very often (only twice I think) but she has pee "blow-outs" all the time! Almost daily! I don't know how she manages to get so much pee up her back, but it causes me to do her laundry frequently! All of her newborn sleepers were in her laundry last night so that's why she had to wear the 0-3 month size. I think she'll be wearing a lot more 0-3 month clothes within the next two weeks.

She started smiling about a week and a half ago. It is the most beautiful sight!! Josh and I love to make her smile. She is developing her own little personality. She is a lot more content than she used to be. She is still not a big fan of her car seat but we go on walks almost daily because I want her to get used to it. She is focusing a lot on our faces and I feel like she is starting to get to know me.

Claire was a rockstar and slept through the night TWICE last week! On May 28th she slept 6 straight hours and on May 29th she slept 7 straight hours. Amazing! The following two nights were worse than normal so it didn't last of course but I thoroughly enjoyed it!

She is taking a bottle (of breastmilk) now so that gives me some more freedom. On Memorial Day Josh and I had our first date post-baby and Jeff and Annie babysat. We went to dinner (quickly) at Old Chicago. That same week Annie babysat for a couple hours so we could go to our neighborhood garage sales and my mom babysat for a few hours so we could go to Burnsville Center and Applebee's. Last weekend Josh had some one-on-one time with Claire while I had brunch with Amy, Sarah and Pam for Sarah's birthday. I love being able to get out once in awhile.

Claire makes me so happy. Every day with her feels like Christmas. She is the best gift I could ever receive. Every day I look forward to spending time with her, getting to know her more, and showering her with love and affection. I am loving every minute of my maternity leave. It breaks my heart to think about going back to work in 6 weeks. One thing that helps is knowing that she'll be in good, loving hands with Annie doing her childcare. It would be a lot harder to think about leaving her with strangers that don't love her like we love her. Oh, I almost shudder at the thought. I just want the best for her- in everything. I always want to keep her safe, protected, happy, healthy. I know that isn't reality but I am doing the best I can for now!

Okay- Claire will probably be waking up soon so I'm going to get some stuff done. Have a great day!