It's tubby time!

Pictures of Claire

Claire has started to develop a schedule...I think! Last night she went to bed at 8:30pm and slept until 2:45am. She got up to feed and then went back to bed and slept until 7:45 this morning! I was loving it! She has been putting herself to sleep in the crib. We lay her down when she is starting to get sleepy and usually within 15 minutes she is out. Thankfully she doesn't do much crying either. It is very hard for me to leave her cry! She is doing so many fun things now too. She smiles lots and coos more and more every day. I have started letting her watch the Baby Einstein videos while I pump and she seems to enjoy them for a short time. We have been tackling switching Claire to bottle feeding. This has been a bit of a challenge but we are now bottle feeding her during the day and I nurse at night. That means my entire day is filled with bottle feeding, pumping, cleaning bottles, then bottle feeding, pumping, and cleaning bottles. You get the idea! I don't mind though...at least she is slowly taking to the bottle.

We are busy with finding a house and finding a babysitter these days. I am not looking forward to leaving my baby with a stranger one day a week, but at least it is only one day a week. We are searching through a babysitting website that has background checks and references for each person which makes me feel a little bit better. We have done one interview so far which went very well and have two more to do tonight. It is going to be very hard for me to go back to work and leave my little girl. At least the first day I go back Claire will be home with Jeff. Here are some more pictures to keep you in the loop on watching Claire grow! Hope all is well.

Shots today

Today Claire had her immunizations. She had to get 3 shots and I think it was hardest on mommy and daddy to watch. Claire did pretty well overall. Of course she cried a lot initially, but was easily calmed down and just wanted to be cuddled this afternoon. Her weight was 13 pounds 10 ounces which put her at the top of the chart for weight! The pediatrician was very pleased with her weight and said he has no concerns. She is in the 75-90% for height and he guesses she will grow to be about 5 foot 7 inches based on her growth trend so far. So, we are going well and are right where we need to be. We are working on getting Claire to take a bottle a day to get use to the bottle for when I go back to work. So far, she doesn't take to it very well. The doctor told us that Jeff needs to bottle feed her and I need to leave for the feeding. We are going to try this in the morning and hope that we have some luck! I wanted to post a few recent pictures for you to enjoy.

Hanging with my friends

Yesterday Claire had a play date with her friends Marley and Ava. It was fun to watch them all interact and will continue to get more and more fun as they all get older. Claire had a good time and spent most of the morning just looking at the girls, trying to figure them out. She did get scared when one of them would cry though. I am guessing it was because she wasn't use to the sound of other babies crying.

Claire is doing a wonderful job of sleeping in her crib. We were nervous about how the transition from the pack-n-play to the crib would go, but thankfully we didn't have any issues. At least not yet! She sleeps well at night, waking every 2-4 hours to eat and then goes back to sleep. During the day is a different story though. She seems to take short 15-30 minute naps only and is definitely not on a schedule yet. I plan to talk to her doctor about this to see if there are any suggestions to get her to take longer naps and nap less frequently. I have a hard time getting anything done when I only get a 15 minute period! That is about it for now. Hope you continue to enjoy the pictures.

Looking more and more like Daddy

It is so hard to believe Claire is already 2 months old. The time has flown by. I stopped at work yesterday to fill out my schedule and every single person I saw said "she sure looks like Jeff". She definitely has his eyes and mouth, but I have to take credit for her nose. There has to be at least a small part of me in her! Claire is smiling so much now and cooing more and more. It is so fun to watch her interact when we talk to her.

I am almost back to normal with walking. My knee continues to be very stiff feeling but with each day I get stronger and more steady on my feet. I catch myself once in a while getting kind of wobbly, but overall, I feel I have made huge progress. It is very encouraging to see progress each day. It is also very nice to be able to leave the apartment with Claire and know I am not confined to these 4 walls. I think just the thought of this puts me in better spirits.

We are missing Minnesota and our family and friends lots already. I think we are back to our routine here and Claire continues to do well. These two pictures are of when we first got to MN and 11 days later when we were leaving MN. It is amazing how much she grew over this short period of time. The picture in the middle is Claire with her papa sporting their cool Texas Longhorns shirts!

First vacation

Jeff, Claire, and I went up to Minnesota from August 3-14. We had the most amazing time and miss everyone up there already! I want to start by sending a huge Thank You to my parents for all of their hospitality and hard work while we were there. Mom and Dad...we appreciate all that you have done for us to make sure we had a good time. All of the babysitting you did so we could enjoy pontooning, jet skiing, and hanging out with family and friends was wonderful. Yous two are the best parents ever and now you will have time to breathe and relax!

Claire was able to meet her grandparents and great-grandparents. This was wonderful and we all enjoyed being able to spend time with family. Claire did amazing the entire time. She didn't even cry on the airplane ride and only had one major meltdown after a long day of being passed around lots and not getting much sleep. She enjoyed the pontoon rides and I think she really liked being outside. After spending her first 5 and a half weeks of life inside the small apartment, she handled all of the stimulation and fresh air very well. We have an amazing daughter on our hands!

As you can see from the pictures, Claire is growing so fast and isn't lacking an appetite! She is healthy and likes to eat! She continues to sleep well at night and on vacation she even gave mommy one stretch of 5 hours of sleep! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Claire's first smiles!

Today is big day. We both got to experience Claire's first smiles. She gave us a big smile this morning before Jeff went to work and then I was able to get two more smiles out of her this afternoon while we were dancing to nursery rhyme songs! It was so amazing to watch her give these huge smiles. She has also started cooing once in a while. I am so glad we were both able to be here to witness her first smile!

Claire has spent most of the day resting up for her big trip tomorrow. We are so excited to see everyone. Tomorrow will be an early morning since our plane leaves at 7am. I am not complaining though...it means more time we get to spend with family.

We had one more test today. Jeff called me once he got to work and told me he has a nail in his tire and wanted me to come and switch cars to get his fixed. It was my first trip down the stairs while carrying Claire. I was pretty nervous but took it very slow and we did just fine. This test was good for me...I now know that when we get back from MN, I will hopefully be able to get out on my own with Claire to go for walks. This is wonderful news because this apartment is getting to be a bit claustrophobic for me!

I will post some pictures while we are in MN if I get a chance and access to the Internet. Otherwise, be ready for lots of postings when we return! Claire will have her first airplane ride, first pontoon ride, and will get to meet lots of her family for the very first time! We have a busy and exciting 11 days ahead!