Hello!

OMG, you guys!  I'm sorry I've been gone for so long.  I have an excuse for my absence and she's the sweetest, prettiest little excuse I've ever seen.  ☺  

 

Things are going really well with Claire.  One of my favorite things about her is that she has been consistently sleeping through the night!  The first night she did it was April 28th and other than a couple hiccups we haven't looked back since.  Sometimes she'll wake up for the day super early (like at 5 AM), but I'd rather have a good stretch of uninterrupted sleep and then wake up early than to keep having to wake up during the night.  I guess Claire agrees!

 

Naptime is a different story...she really only wants to sleep in my arms and will cry if I try to put her down, even if she was already asleep.  And as much as I love cuddling, sometimes holding her for much of the day gets to be tedious.  Today I decided to try "Ferberizing" to see what would happen.  I know she is a little young but she's already sleeping through the night so I thought she might get the hang of this too.  I started out with small intervals - 1, 3, and 5 minutes.  She cried during the 1-minute, 3-minute, and 5-minute intervals, but calmed herself down during the second 5-minute interval and was able to take a little nap on her own.  Tonight I tried it again and I only had to go in and calm her once.  That was about an hour ago and we haven't heard a peep since!  So I'm hoping we are starting a new phase of sleep habits but we'll see how the next few days go.  She is still sleeping in her bassinet in our room.  I'm thinking we will eventually move her bassinet into her room and have her sleep like that for a few days before moving her to the crib.  I don't want to spring too many new things on her all at once.

Speaking of new things, Claire started to smile a couple weeks ago and I swear her smiles could melt a giant block of ice.  It's so fun to see her personality develop more and more every day.  She has also been doing a lot of cooing so I've been trying to talk to her like we're having a real conversation.  I pretend that she's telling me a story that her big sister Larkin told her so I'll say things like, "Really?  Larkin said that?  Then what did she do?"  Hey, I've got to entertain myself somehow!

I've gone grocery shopping with Claire two times and both times were a success.  I was really worried she'd have a meltdown and I'd be THAT parent with THAT kid at the grocery store.  But both times she was very content to take in all the sights and sounds.  The second time she started to fuss in the checkout aisle, but I found her pacifier and all was well again.  I haven't ventured out of the house much just the two of us, but those two Hy-Vee trips gave me confidence that there is hope that I will indeed get to go shopping again.  ☺

The weather has been nice here lately so we've been able to go on walks.  I try to take Claire on a little walk during the day, and then all four of us (Steve, Claire, Larkin, and me) will head out after dinner.  It's nice to get some exercise and try to make the rest of my baby weight disappear.  I bought a new baby carrier (an Ergobaby) so depending on if Claire is alert/happy or sleepy, I'll either push her in the stroller or carry her in the Ergo.  She usually falls right to sleep when she's being carried.  I like wearing her in the Ergo because it reminds me of when I was pregnant with her.  And carrying her is good exercise!

It's hard to think of any stories about our life that don't involve Claire.  Work continues to go well for Steve.  A couple weeks ago he had to go to California for work but he left Tuesday morning and got home the next afternoon so it wasn't a bad trip.  Last weekend my mom and I went to an antique sale outside of my hometown.  We also stopped at my childhood home, the house they are trying to sell because they moved away last fall.  I took photos of the empty interior while we were there for posterity's sake; I'll try to post them sometime for those who have actually been inside that house because it looks so much different with everything gone.  That was the first time I had seen the house completely empty.  My parents moved in right before I was born and lived there until last fall.  I'm still bummed that someday (hopefully soon) they won't own that house anymore.  I just hope that whoever buys it takes good care of it and is able to create happy memories there like we did.

That's all I can think of to say.  Now, without further ado, Claire picture overload!