Strangefruit

We went to Discovery Green in downtown Houston last Friday night with our friends Amanda, Eric, and their twin girls Marley and Ava. We got to see a free show called Strangefruit. It is four people who are on poles which bend based on how they distribute their body weight. We had a very good time and it was an interesting show. Too bad Claire was only able to stay awake until right before the show started. She missed the entire thing but I think she had fun until then!

3 Months gone by

Wow! I cannot believe it has been just over 3 months since Claire was born. I cannot remember life without her, but it is hard to believe she is already 3 months old! Time goes by so fast and she is getting so big. This week she has started to grab her toys and hold them. She really likes her rattle from Renee (thanks Renee!) and her string of rings from Amanda (thanks Amanda!). It is fun to watch her hold them and shake them. It seems like each day she is starting to do new things...my baby is growing up!

We did not have a very good experience with our first nanny. The first thing she told us when she came that morning was that she was so tired from being out late the night before. Both times we came home from work she was sleeping! The first time Claire was also sleeping so I wasn't too bothered by that, but when I got home 15 minutes earlier than planned, my baby was wide awake and the nanny was sleeping! I didn't do anything immediately since I didn't have any back up childcare, but since this time we have found another nanny who will be starting Oct 3rd. She is a bit older and married so I am hopeful that she will work out just fine. I am not sure what happened with the first nanny...she had great references and interviewed fine. Hope my gut instinct isn't wrong about this next sitter, Emily. During her interview, she held Claire and Claire fell asleep on her so I figure this is a good sign that Claire was comfortable. Time will tell.

Still no news on the house. As of right now we have moved our closing date to Oct 16. We are still waiting on the appraisal to come back to see if we are able to do a pool built into our home loan. It seems to be taking a long time and no one can give us any answers on how much longer so we just wait. Hope we can close before the end of Oct since our 60 day notice ends then! We will keep you posted.

Our first week with me back to work

My first week back to work is over and we are getting into somewhat of a routine. I have found that after being up usually two times during the night to feed, getting up at 4:30 or 5am to get ready for work, working 12 hours, and coming home at 7:30pm, I am ready to go to bed! I have been able to catch Claire still awake when I get home. Jeff has been awesome at having her bath done so all I need to do is enjoy playing with my baby a bit and then feed her before she is ready for bed. I then shower and eat dinner quickly, spend a few minutes with my husband, and crawl into bed myself. I had two week day shifts in a row and was exhausted after my second day. It didn't help that Claire decided it would be fun to be up from 3-4:30 in the morning! I am very thankful I only work 3 days a week so I can space them out and get some rest in between! I do enjoy being back at work and seeing all my co-workers again. It is nice to know I was missed while I was gone. I do miss my baby lots and call to check on her often, but I think it is also good for me to get into thinking mode again.

Claire went to a co-workers house on Thursday while Jeff and I worked. She had lots of fun and did really well. I was a bit worried how she would do being in a different environment without her parents, but she proved to me that she would be just fine. Courtney sent me pictures on my phone every couple of hours so I could see she was doing well and it helped that I knew Claire was in good hands. Thanks a million Courtney.

Tomorrow Claire will have her first full day with her new nanny, Alison. I have no worries about leaving Claire with Alison. I know she will do just fine. I am sure being a new mommy, I will be calling to check on her a few times during the day!

We are still waiting to get the final go ahead on the house. Things look pretty good, we just need to see if we are able to do the pool in the backyard or not. We will keep you posted on what happens there. If all goes through, we will be closing on Sept 29! Once we get moved in, I am hoping things will slow down a bit for us and we will have more time to just enjoy being a family. We miss yall in MN and cannot wait for Mom and Dad and the Streich's to come over Thanksgiving.

We all made it!

Well, yesterday was my first day back at work and Jeff's first day to watch Claire all day long. It went better than I had expected. My first day back to work was not nearly as hard as I had anticipated. It took me a while to get back into the groove of things and I felt like I really had to think to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything. I only called home 4 times! Thankfully I have an awesome crew of co-workers who helped me through my first day back.

Jeff had an awesome day with Claire. He took her for a walk around the lake by our soon to be new home and sent me a picture message of some ducks swimming in the lake. He got Claire to take all of her bottles and even got her to sleep for a nice long afternoon nap. Of course, Jeff had to take a nap with Claire! By the time I got home from work, he had Claire's tubby done, a load of laundry done and put away, and all of the bottles washed! I was pretty impressed! I have a feeling Claire is going to quickly turn into Daddy's girl! When I got home Claire and I got to play for a bit, then I fed her and we were both ready for bed. We all got a good night sleep...we didn't wake until 2:30am for our first feeding!

Today is my day with Claire and then I go back to work for two days in a row. I am a bit worried about doing two days in a row since last night I was exhausted and my knee was giving me a hard time when I got home. And not getting to spend much time with Claire is going to be tough. I miss my baby so much when I am gone. Hopefully it won't be crazy busy at work. Better go spend some time with my baby!

One more day with my baby

Well, tomorrow is the last day I have left of maternity leave. I cannot believe it has been 12 weeks already. It feels like just yesterday I was coming home with my newborn baby. I know that time will go even faster once I start back at work. I still have lots of anxiety about going back. It will be hard to be away from Claire and hard to get back into the swing of things. I do worry about how my knee will hold out. I still have stiffness in my right knee which gets more uncomfortable as the day goes on. Being on my feet walking lots for 12 hours might prove to be quite a challenge. I will have to see how it goes. I know Jeff is looking forward to me going back...he is hoping that once I am required to start thinking again, my memory will improve! I hope that is the case too.

Claire is just so amazing. I could spend 24 hours a day holding her and cuddling with her and I am going to miss her so much when I am gone at work. It is going to take all that I have in me to not call Jeff every hour to check on her! He will have to expect a few phone calls though during the day. I am praying that the anxiety about going back to work will be worse than actually going back. I do miss my co-workers and my job, just not as much as I will miss my baby girl.

We are planning to close on the house we found the end of this month. We are very excited to start this next chapter in our lives and to be able to finally settle in down here. I know lots of people said they didn't think we would stay down here once Claire was born. I guess us buying a house in TX shows everyone just how much we love living down here. The nice part is that we have an extra bedroom just for Nanny and Papa to come stay every winter. I am hoping they come visit often so Claire will grow up knowing her grandparents and because I get lonely without seeing them too. We will keep you updated on how our move goes and once we are settled in, we can post some pictures of our new home. Until then, you get to see more pictures of Claire!

The Claire Bear

The past two days I have been preparing for Sheila to go back to work. I have been watching Claire by myself and it has been interesting to say the least. On Tuesday, Sheila went to a movie with one of her friends and I began babysitting at 7:00. The first forty-five minutes went pretty good but then Claire started screaming. I think what set her off was we were watching re-runs of the NHL playoffs from last fall. Clearly she remembered that we wanted Chicago to beat Detroit. When Detroit scored an overtime goal, she began to express her displeasure by screaming for the next hour and a half. I tried every trick I have in the book but nothing was working. So I just practiced my "let the baby cry" maneuver. I think after pulling that one out of the playbook, we will have plenty of help moving into our new house from our current neighbors in the apartment.

Today went much better. It was Sheila's birthday and she was very excited because she turned 33 on 09-09-09. So to stay with the theme, I got her a 99 minute massage which she took advantage of right away. While she was gone, I was able to feed Claire two bottles and we even took a nap. Today let me know that I will be fine when Sheila goes back to work. I think Claire and I will have many days of fun ahead of us. I am looking forward to it.

Just some fun pics of our baby girl!

Claire had her first day with her new nanny, Alison, last Friday. Jeff and I stayed in the apartment for the first two hours and then left Claire and Alison for about two hours. Things went well and Claire even smiled for Alison when she first saw her. It was much harder on mommy...I started to get tears in my eyes once we reached the car. This was the first time I left my baby with a stranger. I stopped myself before I started to cry though! It will still be hard to leave my baby when I go back to work but I feel much better knowing Claire did okay for Alison.

We are still working on getting Claire to take the bottle during the day. She does pretty well for me, Jeff is having a harder time getting her to take it. I am planning on leaving to go shopping tomorrow morning for a few hours and we will see how she does for Jeff while I am out. I have a feeling if she doesn't see me in the morning, she will do just fine. We will see. Either she does good, or she will loose a few pounds not eating on the days I work!

We are waiting to close on a new home the end of this month also. So with me going back to work and us probably moving, we have been keeping super busy. I have lots of anxiety about going back to work and leaving my baby. I believe that once I get back into it, work will be just fine and it is the waiting and counting the days that is making me most anxious. I will keep you posted on how everything goes. Claire is calling...time to eat!

I have found my thumb

Well, today Claire has for sure found her thumb. I have noticed a few times in the past couple days where she would be sucking on her hand, but today she has gone for her thumb every time. I have tried to get her to take the pacifier instead, but she has other plans! I will have to keep working on this one!

I went to work today to turn in my release so I can start working again. It is so hard for me knowing I only have one and a half weeks left and then my 12 week maternity leave will be done. I do have to keep in mind that I only have to be gone from my baby 3 days a week. It will still be very tough though. The saving grace is that Jeff will be watching Claire two of the three days. We have found a nanny to come to our home to watch Claire on the one day a week when Jeff and I both have to work. We are doing a trial run with the nanny tomorrow...wish us all luck! I am not as creative as Jeff on this site but at least you have constant updates on what is happening in TX! Enjoy!

Squeaky