Months 1-2

Because I started writing so long after Claire's birth, I wanted to at least write about the highlights of the last few months. There are so many changes and developmental milestones in those first 12 weeks that you don't know what you'll wake up to. The first few weeks we were home from the hospital were hard (see Postpartum Me) but the hardest part for both my husband and I was the sleep deprivation.

Claire was one of those babies that had her nights and days mixed up and on top of it all she had a touch of colic. The second night we were home from the hospital she cried for so many hours straight that we thought something was wrong with her. She wouldn't even nurse or take a bottle she was so beside herself. We tried everything we could think of and in the end I called my mother at 3am asking her to come over. As soon as my mom took her in her arms she fell asleep! And we went straight to bed. Our nights were similar to this for several weeks (without the help of mom) until Tim remembered something about babies being soothed by the sound of hairdryers. In the middle of one of her long stretches of crying Tim tried out the hairdryer and she instantly fell asleep. This was how we became white noise addicts in our house. Actually Claire is the addict but if she sleeps well than so be it.

Not long after discovering the white noise she started sleeping more regularly and for longer stretches at night. I remember the first time she slept for 5 hours we thought something was terribly wrong with her!

Tim passed out with Claire

Sometime around Thanksgiving she woke up to the world and started really looking around and really looking at us. That was a pivotal moment for all of us. The zoloft had regulated some of my emotions and I was starting to feel more connected. This was also right around the time she turned 1 month old. At her one month appointment she weighted 10lb 10oz and was 22 inches!! If there was any doubt breastfeeding was going well it was gone! We were thrilled. Our baby girl was thriving.

1 month old!

 

Hello world!

Christmas was upon us faster than we could imagine. Tim's mom and brother came from Nebraska the week before Christmas. His mom was amazed by how much Claire had grown. Christmas eve I read a book to Claire before she went to bed and I remembered Christmas 2010. I had been so sad that I wasn't pregnant and really struggled with the holidays that year. Looking back on that moment and seeing where we were this year meant so much to me. It was the first time since Claire had been born that I cried because I was truly happy and joyful. I looked at my girl with sheer wonder that we had made her and she turned out so perfect and so beautiful. This was the best Christmas I've ever had in my life and I felt truly grateful and blessed to be a mom to Claire. Living so close to family makes the holidays even more special. We get to spend a lot of time together and we've been able to maintain our family traditions.

For Christmas she got an activity mat and it was perfect timing for what her developmental stage. She started with accidentally grabbing onto things and is now working on really grabbing and pulling on them.
The week after Christmas Claire had her two month check up and her first big round of immunizations. She was a real champ and did great. That day and the next couple of days she was a little fussy and slept a lot. And once again she blew us away with how big she was. She weighed in at 12lb 15oz and measured 23.75 inches!

Our year ended on a very high note. This year is a big year in the U.S. for snowy owls (NPR story on snowy owls) (New York times article on owls)and many have been seen in the county we live in. New Year's Eve we went looking for one that had been sighted about 20 minutes from our house. We packed Claire up into her car seat and went driving and looking. We had success! I forgot the camera so we didn't get any pictures. But here's a picture of Claire from the New Year:

So different from that sleepy newborn!