4 months

Latter-Day Saint Voices

Claire loves noise! I guess its normal, after being inside my noisy belly for 9 months. She loves it when I sing to her, talk to her, read to her, or when we listen to music. I started to turn on the tv so she could have some noise, but once she began starring at the tv, I began looking for other alternatives. Well, Jason showed me this cool find- He is always finding cool things online. On lds.org you can listen to the Ensign. Here is the link. If you scroll down the bottom you will find the last 4 years of issues from the Ensign, New Era, and the Friend. And once you find an issue you want, you can listen to any particular article. We love to listen to the Latter-Day Saint Voices (found at the end of the Ensign)- Short and inspiring stories that make the day so much happier! Its great to have something to listen to while I try to catch up on our family photo journal.

Update on Claire's sleeping schedule: Just as Dr. Weissbluth explained, her naps are now longer and more consistent now that she is sleeping longer at night. So her regular sleep schedule is to sleep 7PM to 8AM (wakes up once to eat) 9-11AM nap #1, 1-3PM nap #2, and 5-6PM nap #3. She still cries for a couple seconds after I leave the room, until she finds her thumb :). If she misses a nap, then she cries a little more, before falling. asleep. She doesn't sleep in her swaddle me anymore and I don't nurse her to sleep (since it was getting harder and harder for her to fall asleep to this... too social). I just nurse her until she is done- she usually starts looking around and lets go. It can be quite entertaining to watch when she realizes that she stopped eating and goes back to get more.... then repeats this over and over. Love this little girl!

Week 14- Valentines

Mom > Claire how did you get so cute? Claire > I dunno mom, I just don't know

"Gee, Thanks dad!"

"Mom is this really necessary... can't you just help me up? Lucky for you, I stopped before I fell off"

Side note to my mom- can you believe I painted the heart stuff on the bear?

Valentines Day!

"Here we go again"

3 Months

She Sleeps!

Claire slept 11 hours last night! From 7PM to about 6AM. She probably would have slept longer but I was already up so I fed her after the first little peeps she made. I realized after reading Healthy Sleep Habbits Happy Child that I was putting her to bed too late. And that her being more fussy at night was because she was ready to go to sleep (or past being ready for sleep). I thought this book was about "How to have confidence while your child cries/sleeps through the night". But its not!

Until last night, Claire has been sleeping in our room, in her swing or bassinet (depending on how tired I was and how much I wanted her to sleep- which usually meant she slept in the swing, because even when it was turned off, she slept longer in the swing). While in our bedroom, it is hard to not appease her every little cry. But I know she is not really hungry, because:

1. she is doing the "oww" - I am tired cry (see below for details)
2. she weighs 15 pounds now (As a side note, at 2 months she weighed 10 pounds, and in 5 weeks she gained 5 pounds! That sure beats the 5 oz. a week minimum or the "ounce a day" normal requirement too)
3. she slept better when she weighed 7 pounds

As I am pretty sure she is past the 3 month growth spurt (which started 2 weeks ago), I decided last night that I would give this a try. So here are the details:

I began the bedtime routine at 6pm with a quick bath, dress for bedtime, then soothing lullaby music and rocking while nursing to sleep. She fell asleep in my arms and then I put her in her crib with no problems. Then I accidentally knocked a blanket off the side of crib and into the trash can, and the crinkly trash liner woke her up. (Oops.. did I do that) She didn't cry, so I left her room, but she broke free from her swaddle me- which I knew would cause other problems if it wasn't fix later. (At 2 months old she began waking her self up with her hands scratching her face). When she realized that she was "being put to bed" she cried for about 5 minutes before Jason rescued her and lulled her back to sleep (and fixed her swaddle me in process...YAY for hubbies!) The only other time she had a hard time sleeping was from 10PM-11PM. She would cry softly for a little then sleep for 5 -10 minutes. I was about to get her after she was began crying loudly, but I told myself that I should let her cry at least 5 minutes (since it was still the "oww" tired cry), she was asleep by 4 1/2 minutes!

I know we still have more room for improvement.. like extending her sleeping until 7AM, without the swaddle me and without nursing her to sleep. But for now this works! We will work on the other stuff in time and once I know this is working consistently. Luckily this (more sleeping at night) should help improve her naps too! It also felt so good to have our bedroom back. Now I don't have to live in fear of waking her if I brush my teeth (Sonicare is noisy) after nursing her to sleep (something my husband will greatly appreciate)!

As a side note, I remember hearing that babies are supposed to sleep up to 10 hours after they are born. Claire was hungry and awake right after I was wheeled downstairs. Dr. Weissbluth explains that this is because she was born a week late. Have others, whose babies came on time experienced this? Wow... things to hope for with the next child!

Here is a picture of the cutie after her beauty sleep! Gotta love the hair!

Since I have a few friends who recently had babies, I wanted to write about some resources that have greatly helped me as a first time mom:

1. Lactation specialist- She taught me how to use the football hold position. This was huge! It helped me continue to nurse even though I was cracked and bleeding, and it greatly reduced the pain I felt because it allowed me to(watch out it gets graphic) better position my nipple at the roof of her mouth(okay all done- I only include because of how essential it was). Having less pain allowed me to have more let downs and build up my milk supply again!!!
   
2. Happiest Baby on the Block DVD- taught me how to soothe my baby with 5 S's:swaddling, shaking/jiggling, sushing (as loud as they are crying), sucking(including pacifiers), and swinging
   
3. Dunstan Baby Language DVD- great for first time moms who cannot magically discern what their baby is saying:
   
   • Neh means "I'm hungry" (listen for the "n" sound)
     
   • Oww means "I'm tired" (mouth open wide like yawning)
     
   • Eh means "I need to burp" (I just thought Claire was grunting)
     
   • Air means "I feel gassy"- need to pass "wind"(as the aussie mom teaches)(this is an urgent, pain cry)
   • heh means "I'm uncomfortable"- need to change positions, need a diaper change, or am too hot/ cold (I find this the hardest to hear and distinguish between eh and neh)
     
   (If you want to hear the examples on the DVD, just call me, its much easier to recognize when you hear it). Here is a preview.
4. Healthy Sleep Habbits Happy Child - enough said
   

I feel so blessed to have these great resources and many more. If something doesn't make sense, just ask! There is alot of mommy lingo in this post!

Silly Claire Bear

Lots of cute pics and videos to catch up on, but all of them are uniquely cute!

Uber HAPPY CLAIRE!
The red eye kinda makes the pic look a little scary... hehe (Week 11)

"Mom, Church is over, do I really need this anymore" (Week 12)

Like the sea turtle says to "jelly man" on Finding Nemo,
"You have serious thrill issues" (Week 12)
As a side note, the yellow spot on her shirt is not Claire's doing...
Mom got some curry sauce on her while taste testing dinner...oops :)

"Steve Ercle pants is sooooo in! (lip pout)"

Only able to catch the end.. but "this is what I was up to yesterday"

"And this is what I was up to today!"

Sledding

Good times!