We had my family Thanksgiving meal early this year, yesterday afternoon. We usually do it the Saturday after Thanksgiving but this year it conflicted with the all important Alabama-Auburn game. It turned out very well and Claire definately was the center of attention. She loved every minute of it! My cousin Pam has a great camera and took some of the best pics of Claire and here are some of the highlights.
Claire has been staying busy lately, and best of all has started sleeping through the night. Over the last couple of weeks she has been sleeping a little longer each night, and last night she slept a whole 7 and 1/2 hours!! It's so exciting! Of course I still wake up wondering if she is still breathing because I haven't heard a peep out of her (I still get up to check on her at least once during the night.)
Here are some picture of Claire's latest activities:
All dressed up on Saturday for a big Alabama game. She has definately been able to sport all of her many Bama outfits this year.
Yesterday, Todd and I took Claire for her two month check up. She weighed exactly ten pounds and checked out very good. It was also Claire's first shots at the pediatricians office. She had five shots in the leg and one oral vaccine yesterday. I think I cried just as much as she did (maybe more). It upset me so much more than I thought it would to have to hold her down to get that many shots. She was fine and calmed down after only a couple of minutes. Here are some pictures of her in the last couple of days.
Our family had a very busy weekend. Claire and I went to Anniston on Friday morning for a Grandma shower at my Mom's work. They threw her a wonderful shower and gave her great gifts to make a stay at Grandma's house more fun. She now has a pack and play, bath supplies, diapers, wipes, toys, clothes, burp cloths and books to keep at her house. We spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Anniston while Todd went camping at Oak Mountain State Park with some friends from church.
On Saturday my Aunt Ann and friend Ann Marie threw me a shower for family and friends that turned out really nice. Claire got some really cute toys, books, diapers, very cute personalized burp cloths (thanks Pam!), and a Bumbo chair. (I loved the little pacifiers made out of life savers and jelly beans shown in the picture of the cake below.)
She is getting more fun everyday. She loves smiling and playing. Claire finally gave me five hours of sleep in a row for the first time when we got back home on Saturday night! On Sunday night after church we had our annual trunk or treat and Claire dressed up as a bear. (We call her "Claire Bear" all the time and we thought it would be fitting for her to dress up as one for halloween.)
This afternoon Claire was all smiles, so I decided to get out the camera. Catching those smiles on camera proved to be very hard. I think I had to take 20 pictures to get a few smiles caught on the camera once I finally got the camera ready. We have really enjoyed her starting to coo and talk to her toys and respond to us with noises when we talk to her. She really smiles a lot now, and she especially loves to smile at her Daddy when he talks to her.
Claire has officially made it to 8 pounds! She is getting so much bigger every day. Her newborn diapers barely fit her and all of her newborn outfits fit perfect. She had to wear premie clothes the first few weeks because all of the newborn outfits just swallowed her up and now she fills them out just perfectly. She is really starting to look so much more responsive to our talking to her and she even smiles a little bit at us (at least we think she's smiling at us and not just the normal gas smiles). She is starting to lose her hair already, so she will probably be a bald baby for a good while (I did the same thing when I was a baby), and the infant acne has set in on her cheeks. She does sleep really well at night, although she thinks 4:30am is a good wake up time a lot of mornings. She usually lets me get about 6 hours of sleep with only one feeding at night.
It is so hard to believe that Claire is already a month old(tomorrow to be exact)! We are doing well, she sleeps pretty good at night. I usually get a total of six hours of sleep with one feeding in the middle of the night. She is growing a little bit everyday, she is getting close to eight pounds now. She is really starting to look around a lot more, and making eye contact with Todd and I--which we are loving. We can't wait to get that first good smile out of her when she looks at us.
In honor of Alabama's great win over Georgia this past weekend, Claire got all dressed up in her first Bama outfit so she could cheer with her Daddy. Roll Tide!!
Here she is being put to sleep by her swing after an inconsolable crying spell that she loves to start when she gets cranky and tired.
Here she is all dressed up after coming home from church this past Sunday--very asleep while she is being posed on the couch.Here are some cute pics from Claire's first two weeks at home with us. The first two weeks have been a blur of eating, sleeping, not sleeping, and diaper changing. Todd and I could not have done it without the help of my Mom staying with us for the past two weeks. It has been such a blessing to have her with us. Our wonderful church family has been bringing us meals every other night and we are so thankful for their support!
On Saturday, August 30th, at 10:12AM Claire Marie was born weighing in at 6 pounds 5 ounces and 20 inches long. We are all back at home now and doing well. Here are some pictures from the hospital.
Todd bringing Claire out to show off to the grandparents in the waiting room.
Claire with Todd's parents.
Claire with Lisa's parents.
Claire wrapped up ready to leave the hospital to go home!!
Claire spread out on Mommy's hospital bed.
We love our Claire!! We will be sharing more photos soon!!
