1 Month!

Precious Claire…

You’re one month today, baby girl!

In many ways the past four weeks have flown by in a flurry of diapers and feedings…but in other ways it feels as if you’ve always been a part of our family. It absolutely amazes us how much you’ve changed already — a fact that both excites and saddens your momma. Although we can’t wait to see you grow and discover that feisty personality, I can’t help but get wistful over these fleeting baby days. I can’t count the number of times perfect strangers have told us to treasure this age — advice I recite to myself over and over during your middle-of-the-night feedings and those inconsolable baby fits. Here are a few of the highlights of your past four weeks… Weight: 10 lbs, 6 oz (from 7 lbs, 14 oz at birth) Length: 22 1/4 inches (from 20 1/2 inches at birth)

What’s keeping you busy: At this age babies can only focus up to 12 inches from their face, but that sure isn’t slowing you down. When you’re awake, you’re studying. It’s fun to watch you watch us (I don’t blame you — your daddy’s handsome!) or even focus for minutes on a pretty patterned blanket. Of course a majority of your day is spent snoozing, tooting, and eating.

What’s keeping Mommy and Daddy busy: YOU! Babies are constant, and even though you sleep a good portion of the day, your naps are in hour or two-hour increments, meaning that the waking time between is spent nursing, burping, rocking, playing, and diapering. Oh, diapering. You’re averaging 12-14 diapers a day, little lady. That’s mighty impressive! So far we’ve been a fan of cloth, although we admit we’re cheating a bit by using a local diaper service. (Hey, our washing machine thanks us!) It feels good to know we’re helping the environment and keeping your booty a little healthier too. PLUS, diaper covers are adorable…and given how hot you tend to be, we often let you spend whole days hanging out in just your cute cloth.

Let’s see — in the past week Mommy and Daddy have enjoyed a few opportunities to get out of the house! Last weekend sweet Nana Beth babysat you while we attended your dad’s high school reunion. I know he’s proud of you, baby — he told anyone that would listen that he had a beautiful 3-week old! And although we enjoyed our first baby-free evening, I have to say that by 11 p.m. we were missing our girl and eager to get home.

Eating: My goodness girl, you are quite the eater! You sure delighted your parents in the delivery room when you latched on to nurse only minutes after birth. And you haven’t slowed down! The lactation consultant found out that you put down 2 ounces of milk in just 5 minutes (that’s a lot, quickly!), which explains why our nursing sessions are rather short. Of course, the fact that you nurse 12 times a day means that you and I still get plenty of special Mommy-Claire time. In the past week we’ve also introduced you to breastmilk bottles, giving Daddy the chance to do a nighttime feeding and making life a little more flexible for the occasional babysitter or evening out. We’re still experimenting with different bottle brands (babies are picky!), as you’ve had some trouble figuring out the difference between a bottle latch and a nursing latch. Thankfully your daddy is an extremely patient man, and he’ll sit with you for as long as it takes to get you to drink your milk. Slowly but surely you’re catching on, and you were a perfect bottle-drinking angel for Nana Beth when she babysat.

Sleeping: For your first few weeks we were certain you had your days and nights mixed up, baby. You’d sleep all day long, and then wake every hour or so throughout the night. This was fine at first because you’re super super cute, but let’s just say Mommy and Daddy are thrilled that your nighttime stretches are getting longer. We start our bedtime routine about 8:30 each evening, when we splash around in the bathtub (your furry brother likes to help), have a little “tender time” in your nursery with books and music, and enjoy a final feeding where (hopefully!) you’ll fall fast asleep nursing. At this point you’re sleeping swaddled in our room in the bassinet of your Pack-n-Play, but we’re getting eager to introduce you to your crib. You usually give us about 4 hours of sleep before you’re bright-eyed and hungry around 1:30 a.m. A bottle and a clean diaper will often appease you, although sometimes you decide that you’d rather stay awake. Mommy and Daddy are still perfecting our get-Claire-back-to-sleep strategies, but if all else fails, bringing you into our bed and letting you nap chest-to-chest with Daddy is fail-proof. You usually have one more wake-up around 4 or 5 a.m., where we’ll change you and nurse you and typically have you back down within an hour. From there you’ll sleep as long as we’ll let you — so Mom and Dad will take turns showering and dressing, tip-toeing around the room to avoid disturbing you. That said, one of our favorite things about you is your waking-up routine. We’ll have to get it on video sometime, but you make us laugh out loud as you stretch and grunt and stretch some more. We like to think that you grow a little bit more each time.

Play: Although “playtime” is fairly limited at one month of age, we spend time each day on your activity mat. Here, Mommy and Daddy help you do bicycle legs, “so big” reaches, and knee-to-elbow touches. Besides helping get out the gas (it’s true!), we think you like the active movements. We also give you some “naked time” each day when you can kick, punch, and wiggle diaper-free. You’ve been a hot baby since birth, and we think you really enjoy this refreshing taste of freedom. What you love: Bath time, music, stroller walks around the neighborhood, the Moby wrap, being held, sleeping in the carseat, tummy time, your hands, and eating! Oh, and smiling…although the books tell us that it’s just gas! What you hate: Hiccups, the pacifier, getting dressed, getting in the carseat, Vitamin D drops, bottles, and having your hands swaddled.