Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Clara: One Month Update

Happy 1 month to our beautiful baby girl!


This girl has been, and continues to be our easiest newborn transition! She is certainly fussy at times, but she's been sleeping great (for a newborn!) and for the most part is content to be held. Looking back to a year ago when we were in the midst of infertility treatments, I'm amazed that I'm holding this sweet baby girl in my arms now! Just another testament in my life of God's goodness and love!

Height and Weight: At her one month appointment today, she weighed 7 lbs, 2.5 oz (3rd%), and was 20 3/4 inches (29%).


Sleep: Nighttime sleep has been great for the most part. I finish nursing her sometime between 8 and 9, and then Luke takes her down to the basement and hangs with her until about midnight. Most of the time he gives her a bottle (pumped milk if we have it, formula if not), but she's had some nights where she just sleeps the whole time she's down there. Once he brings her up, most of the time, she's been waking for a feed around 2:00 a.m., and then sometime around 5:00 a.m. Usually after one of the feedings, I'll pump if it doesn't feel like she's drained me.

She usually wakes for her morning awake period sometime between 7:00 and 8:00, and then is usually on and off awake for a good chunk of the morning. Thankfully we never dealt with nighttime cluster feeding (unlike with the other two!), but between 8:00 and 11:00 in the morning she just kind of eats on and off. I'm more than ok with that! Especially since Luke is home and can help with the other two. (Again, SO thankful to have him with us for so long!) Then she'll usually nap for a few hours from early to late afternoon. In the evenings she again feeds on an off until bedtime.

She did have one night where she gave us about a 5 hour stretch of sleep after Luke brought her upstairs. Unfortunately, I didn't sleep through the whole thing because I kept checking on her, and then I was so uncomfortably full that I needed to pump. BUT we'll take it! Hopefully by the time Luke goes back to work, we'll have some consistent 5-6 hour stretches (or maybe even longer.)


Eating: Like I talked about above, she seems to be more of a grazer. Eats on and off for a few hours at a time, and then has her 2 to 3 feedings throughout the night. She's great with breastfeeding (thankfully we worked that out after a few days of fighting it at times in the beginning), and will also gladly take a bottle. She occasionally gets formula, but gets breast milk if I've kept up with pumping.

Diapers/Clothing: Rocking the newborn diaper and clothing, but really, it seems like she'll be outgrowing those faster than big sister did! Thankfully she's not leaking through diapers (and I'm not changing her in the middle of the night), unless she has an all out blowout.

Social/Milestones: Clara definitely has longer periods of alertness than she did in the beginning, and she'll make eye contact, but doesn't hold it for long. Her neck is getting stronger, and even though we've only done little bouts of tummy time, she doesn't scream through it, unlike the other two!

We've had so many firsts- first time to church (at 8 days old), first walk in the stroller, first movie ($1 movies for the win!), first trip to Chick Fil A, and so many more. Her first bath went pretty well- she was quiet and then cried, but wasn't screaming her head off. Her umbilical cord fell off at 9 days old. She had her first 4th of July- also her first holiday.


Likes: Being snuggled up in a wrap. I found one very similar to the Solly baby wrap on Amazon for much cheaper, and she almost always falls right to sleep when I put her in it. Whenever we run errands, that's usually what I put her in. She likes to eat, but is oftentimes quick to fall asleep on the boob, thus the grazing.

Dislikes: Clara is not a big fan of the carseat. She often cries when she's in it, though sometimes less so if the car is moving. She has her fussy times, but we haven't figured out if it's something bothering her, or if it's just general baby fussiness. Overall she's still pretty content to eat and sleep!


Fun things we've done: We've been able to do so much more at this point since Luke is home. If he wasn't, I highly doubt I'd be able to wrangle all three out to do much, especially if we needed to get anywhere by a certain time. I have taken all three to playgrounds by myself, but that's about all I've attempted. Last week the older two did VBS, and we managed to make it on time for the most part. We celebrated Noelle's birthday with family over, we've gone to our family's houses for cookouts and food, went to a friend's house for a going away dinner, and we've been to library time.

Some pictures:









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