Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home!

We now have our first Halloween season under our belts and what a fun season it was. A couple of weeks ago Clare and I went to the Little 5 Points Halloween Parade and met up with Aunt Libby. Uncle Kyle (or 'Uncle Cogey' as he is called) was a zombie in the parade and we tried to see him but there were SO many people that Clare and I hung back from the main road of the parade and listened to the marching bands a few rows back instead. What great people watching at this parade! She loved the marching band music, especially the drums, and she and I had a lovely walk in the stroller through Candler Park to get there. It was a perfect evening.

With Aunt Libby at the L5P Halloween Parade

We also met a friend of mine from work, Lisa Schulze, at a local park for her to take some pictures of Clare. The pictures turned out AWESOME! I've included a couple below. I love the outside pictures the best, especially in the Fall when there's so many pretty colors in the background. I also love these pictures because they're so real and she truly captured Clare's personality!





Clare was a ladybug for Halloween (thank you, Kid 2 Kid consignment store for the $6 costume. Priceless!). I took Halloween off as a personal day so I could fully enjoy the day with my girl. We slept in a little bit later that morning...6:50 instead of 6:30...a whole extra 20 minutes! It's like gold! We went to lunch at Agnes Scott with my mom (Mimi) and saw some of her fun co-workers in costumes. We had lunch in the dining hall and visited with Mimi's lunch group. Such fun! Later on that afternoon we went to Ms. Celeste's house to see Clare's friend, Piper, in her costume and to visit with Ms. Celeste and her kids. I sat Clare in the grass to take pictures and she was not a fan of that...I think the blades of grass must have been poking her through her tights!

Lunch with Mimi's friends Theresa and Martha

That evening for Halloween there was a little neighborhood gathering for the kids and their costumes to kick off trick-or-treating. Our friend Katie came with her son, Riley and we met Meghan and her son, Drew down the street and a few other neighbors with their kids. The older kids ate cookies and we took some cute pics of the kids in their costumes. We walked back up to the house to hang out for a little bit before Meghan, Drew, Katie and Riley went out trick-or-treating. Baby Clare went to bed around 7:00 that evening and slept right through the doorbell ringing. We have such a great neighborhood and always have a lot of trick-or-treaters. I remember when we first bought our home in 2007 and experienced our first Halloween in a REAL house...we must have had no less than 60 kids come to the house that evening and we both sat on the front porch that evening convinced we'd picked the best neighborhood in which to raise a family. We've made great friends in the neighborhood now and I'm so excited for all of our kids to grow up together!

Meghan and Drew the lion (he could even roar!)

Riley the Tiger enjoying his Halloween cookie...still trying to convince Mike & Katie to move to Lilburn! :)

All the Halloween excitement led to catching a cold this past week. Andrew had it first and I thought Clare and I had dodged it, but alas, it caught up with us mid-week. I had to stay home with her on Wednesday and Thursday since she had such a runny nose and wasn't sleeping very well. I'm so lucky to work with such a wonderful co-worker who manages the classroom perfectly when I'm not there and in a job where I've accumulated enough sick leave to stay home with my girl when she needs it. She went back to Ms. Celeste's house on Friday just in time for me to come down with the head cold. So, we're all spending this weekend resting and trying to get healthy for next week. Only 2 weeks left until Thanksgiving break!

Almost 8 months old...already?!?

Daddy and Clare

So, I totally dropped the ball for month 7 of Clare's life. I'm going to blame it on just not having enough time. After working and playing with my girl I just haven't found the time and energy to devote to blogging lately. I'm going to try to find more of a balance because I'm trying to use this blog to document Clare's first year of life (and subsequent years, too, but I'm REALLY trying to document her growth the first year month-to-month). Now we're a week away from her turning 8 months old (How?!?)...but rest assured the pictures posted are my younger, 7-month-old girl. I'll just have to do another post for Halloween to show some 8 month pics. :)



Things are just trucking along here in the Whatley household. Clare has turned into such a happy baby. As some may remember the first few months were very hard between the colic and a permanently overtired baby. However, as soon as she learned how to go to sleep and stay asleep she transformed into the most delightfully pleasant and happy baby. I believe that going to the babysitter's house has also helped her to be more flexible and open in her social skills and now she has big smiles for everyone she meets. She still LOVES music and loves to dance. Andrew won teacher of the year for his middle school and was in the homecoming parade one Saturday morning a few weeks ago and Clare's favorite part of the parade (other than seeing her Daddy, of course) was the marching band. She kicks her feet, opens her mouth in a big smile and waves her arms when she hears music. She also has favorite songs that we sing and Andrew and I joke that now that we're parents it seems like we're turning every spoken word into some sort of song. We sing all. the. time. For now Clare seems to enjoy our voices so I guess we'll ride this train as far as it will take us!

Taking a walk on one of the first really cold Fall mornings. Love it!

She has not started crawling yet but is a master at scooting across the room. She does a mix between an army crawl, roll and 360 degree spins to navigate the surface area of any room. She loves to sit and stand upright and often leans in to give big hugs and wet, slobbery kisses when she stands in front of us. Andrew has quickly become one of her favorite people. He picks her up 4 days per week from the babysitter's house and she just loves being in his company. She still looks exactly like him, except for her eyes which are the perfect shade of blue from the Dougherty side (just like her Aunt Libby and Uncle Ned). She enjoys sitting in her high chair for breakfast, lunch and dinner and has found that she loves to suck on frozen fruit (especially apples) using a mesh pacifier. She loves almost every food she has been exposed to...except for peas. She does not love peas! Most of the time, especially in new situations, she is still the little observer sitting back and taking everything in. When she's in her comfort zone she makes noises and giggles to communicate. The consonant sound she makes the most frequently is the 'H' sound and when she says it, it sounds like a very southern 'Hi' to which we respond with 'HI!!!'. She can wave 'hi' and 'bye bye'...she waves with her whole arm and so far will not do it on command but she can go 'upside down' on command when we say it and she tilts her head to the side or leans backwards.

Clare's version of dessert: a mesh pacifier with a frozen slice of apple.

On the day Andrew found out he won teacher of the year I received a text message from Celeste saying that Clare had her first tooth! Her bottom left front tooth was the first to come in and it was followed very quickly (about a week later) with the right front tooth. Teething temporarily upended our sleeping plan with her. She went back to waking 1-2 times (and as many as 4 times) per night. However, as soon as she cut the 2nd tooth she returned for awhile to her 'old ways' of sleeping all night or almost all night (1 night waking). She goes to bed sometime between 6:30-7:30 each night depending on how tired she is and she generally wakes up between 6:00-7:00 in the morning. This past week she came down with her first cough and cold and we had one pretty sleepless night but have gotten more closely on track since then. I'm so glad we taught her how to sleep well early on. Now when he have little bumps in the road like teething or illnesses it's easy to re-institute the old plans and she falls right back in line with them.

Getting ready for bed and playing with her ducky feet

One more small note...as some of you already know my dad was diagnosed last summer with Lewy Body Dementia. He is currently doing well and Clare is the light of his life. He looks forward each week to spending Wednesday afternoons with her...a day that he and my mom have dubbed, 'Clare Day'. Well, October is Lewy Body Dementia awareness month and the goal of our family is to raise awareness on the disease in the hopes of helping others. Please check out the link below for more information.

http://www.lbda.org

Clare and Mommy

Back to the Grind

We have been so busy the last month and there is a lot to update, so be prepared for a long post! Work started back at the beginning of August and my time then became extremely limited because we want to spend all our free time with our girl. Blog posts have been put on the back burner and I'm only able to get to them after making bottles, making baby food, washing clothes & diapers, packing my lunch, ironing clothes for work, taking a shower and getting Clare's things packed to go to the babysitter's house. Oh, and attempting to train for a 1/2 marathon when I have time (not going so well!). Whew! So, needless to say, this hasn't been high on my list. I'm taking full advantage of this weekend's naps and bedtimes to get caught up on what our girl has been doing these last few weeks!

The last week before returning to work Clare and I went to our last library play session with Katie, Riley, Kaye, Logan and Jennifer with her daughter, Jada. We had such a great time and it was great to spend one of our last days of summer hanging out with our friends. We're going to try to get back in the groove of going to the Library during Thanksgiving, Christmas and Spring Breaks.


We also had Clare baptized at the beginning of August. Andrew and I started attending Holy Trinity in Decatur before Clare was born and we really enjoyed the church. The people were friendly and we felt comfortable coming and going as we pleased. They have a GREAT preschool program and that was really important to us looking ahead a couple of years to a 1/2 day program we'd like for Clare. Ned and Erin served as her godparents and we survived the long Mass without any fussing...she did so well! It was also a great excuse to get the whole family together and hang out back at the house enjoying good conversation and food. Perfect way to end the summer!

My mom and dad kept Clare during my first week back to work because our babysitter, Celeste, was out of town. Looking back I think this was a good way to ease both Clare and I into the separation. She is familiar with my parents and even though there were some crying spells (for both of us), by the end of the week she was doing much better. The day before she had to go to Celeste's for the first time we took her over there to familiarize her once more and to install the car seat base in her car. This put my mind at ease because I was able to see, yet again, what a loving family Celeste has and how well she does with babies and children. The first couple of days were rough and a bit of an adjustment. I have to drop her off in the mornings and I had a very hard time that first week. Clare had some more crying spells, as did I. It's the hardest thing in the world to leave your little baby in the care of someone else. Luckily for me it's gotten easier each day. Now when I drop her off she smiles when we arrive and she loves interacting with Celeste's children before they go to school. Celeste's older daughters take turns holding her when they get home from school in the afternoon and Clare is always happy and being held or cuddled by someone when Andrew picks her up on his way home from work. There's another little girl who stays at the house, too, 3 days per week and one day I got a text from Celeste that Clare thinks she is hilarious! I receive text and picture messages throughout the day to keep me updated on her progress and I am just so thankful she's staying in someone's home with such a competent, loving mom to provide such nurturing care. It truly is the next best thing to staying home with her myself.





Here's a list of all the things that Clare learned to do between 5 and 6 months and also her latest stats from her 6 month check-up:

*Sitting up on her own
*Drinking from a sippy cup (with handles :)
*Holding her bottle
*Holding her spoon
*Sitting in her high chair
*Weight: 16 lbs (60th percentile)
*Height: 26 inches (70th percentile...she's going to be tall like her Daddy!)



We love to take her on walks and have been going to the local park each weekend to walk in the morning and also walking the neighborhood with our dog, Marley in the evenings after dinner. We also started on a cloth diapering adventure this summer. Thanks to our friends Joann Frick and Lisa Schulze, we were given sets of the cutest cloth diapers ever! Joann's daughter-in-law Janelle makes diapers under the brand Rumpsack Diapers (http://hyenacart.com/rumpsack/) and Lisa Schulze's friend Cami makes her diapers under the brand Momma Made (http://www.facebook.com/mommamade). Check it out! We also started our girl on solid foods a couple of weeks ago and thanks to our neighbors and friends, Meghan and Brendan, we've decided to make her baby food instead of purchasing it. We've been able to use some food from our garden and bought the rest from the organic section at the Dekalb Farmer's Market. Clare was able to start on avocado and then we introduced bananas. She caught her first runny nose/cold this last week so I took her off solids so she could be exclusively breastfed to hopefully speed up the healing process, but we re-introduced solids today with great success. She absolutely loves to eat, just like her mother. :) She get so excited to put the spoon in her mouth each time and has started to smile and giggle now before each bite because that's what we do as we watch her. I've tried to put the food on her plate but she's not interested in putting her hands in it...she prefers the spoon and she also prefers to help guide the spoon to her mouth. It's so much fun watching her eat and it's really been a lot of fun to make her food, too. I've referenced a terrific website in making baby food:

http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/

I've also found a book called 'Feed Me, I'm Yours' very helpful...it's the same book my mom used when my brother, sister and I were babies.

Amidst all of this I'm supposed to be training for a 1/2 marathon at the beginning of October that I'm running with my good friends, Beth and Rodney Edwards. Yikes! It's so hard to train in this heat and with such limited time. I'm typically able to get out once or twice a week to run but I'm not increasing my mileage yet like I should be. The most I've run is 4 miles...a LONG way away from 13.1. Hopefully as the evenings get a little cooler it'll be easier to run. Since Clare goes to bed at 7:00 it's easiest to run in the evenings as far as her schedule goes. She wakes up between 6:00-7:00 in the morning and it's impossible for me to wake up earlier than that to run. It just doesn't happen. So, hopefully I won't make a fool out of myself at the Atlanta 13.1! It will definitely NOT be a personal record run for me, but it's hopefully going to help me get back to pre-pregnancy weight...even if I have to walk some of it. :)

Well, that's about all for now. I can't believe she's already 6 months old. I just know she'll be crawling in no time...she's started to attempt the stomach 'scoot' so I imagine it's on the horizon! She is such a happy baby and has so much personality. Her smile lights up the room and it's the highlight of both of our days to come home to her and spend as much time with her as we can. Andrew is such a wonderful dad and I love to watch the two of them interact. Life is good. Really good.

Does it have to end?

I feel like there's a giant countdown clock hanging over my head and ticking down the days left of summer break. Now that sleep training has gone so well (she's now sleeping 10-11 hours each night!) and we've REALLY settled into a strong routine, it's time to reshuffle our lives and head back to work. Sigh. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my job. It's the best job in the world, actually, and I adore my coworker, Mrs. Miller, and all of my students. It's just that there's another part of myself now that is 100% fully devoted to Clare and I can't turn that part of me off...the part of me that desperately wants to be a stay-at-home mom. She will be staying at an in-home daycare with a wonderful person (who is actually the person we bought our house from) who loves and takes excellent care of children. I feel good about where she'll be staying and the fact that she'll only be there with one other baby...much better ratio than a standard daycare...but I'm still just sad that I can't be the one to stay home with her. Unfortunately it's just not possible for me to stay home and there weren't any part-time jobs available in the county that I was capable of taking on. So, my new mantra is 'It is what it is'. I can't change anything so I'm trying to look at the situation with a positive spin and remind myself that the teaching calendar is the next best thing to being able to stay at home if you have to work full-time.


Alright, enough venting...time for some Clare updates! She is now 5 months old and is doing SO much. Her laugh is infectious...although she makes you work for it! Andrew and I joke that she is a tough crowd sometimes with how selective she is with her laughter. For some reason, though, she thinks Aunt Libby is hilarious and always gives her best laughs in Libby's presence. She is not, however, selective with her smiles and she smiles ALL the time! It's the greatest feeling in the world to get her up in the morning or from her naps and find that sweet face peering through the slats of the crib smiling up at us. We fight over who gets to get her up each time! She is really into faces lately and likes to use both hands to explore people's faces when they hold her. She's also learned to imitate our kisses...we spend a great deal of time kissing her sweet face and now she will lean back in with a sloppy, open mouth and plant one right back on our cheeks making her best kissing noises! She likes to stand while holding onto our fingers and loves it when we 'dance' with her. She is so much fun and seems to be showcasing new facial expressions, babbles and talents each day.



She's also learned that she LOVES to suck on her fingers...she'll occasionally take the pacifier but she's definitely a finger sucker!



Our family friend, Tish Pack, painted this stool for Clare. Giraffes are her favorite! We've already put it in her bathroom and we absolutely adore it!



We celebrated her first 4th of July at home this year with my parents, Andrew's parents and Clare's Aunt Erin and cousins Hannah and Ian. Andrew grilled kabobs and we had a nice time visiting and spending the holiday together. That night we took the monitor out onto the back porch and listened to the fireworks while Clare slept. The fireworks, however, wore out their welcome later on that night...especially the ones being set off in the neighborhood that were loud enough to register on her sleep monitor. Luckily none of them woke her up...and I guess I don't really have a right to be angry since her bedtime is 7:00 and it's unrealistic to expect people to not shoot off fireworks...makes me feel old to even be complaining about it! :)

Recently, my friend, Katie invited us to a story time group at the DeKalb Public Library for 0-24 month olds. Clare and I joined Katie and her son, Riley, for a fun morning of playing games, reading stories and singing songs. Clare isn't yet old enough to play games but she was highly entertained by all the people watching and she did such a good job since that's the biggest group of kids she's ever been around! We had so much fun the first time that we went back this past week and met Katie and Riley again and our friends Kaye and her son, Logan and Lori and her son, Trey. Our friends are taking over this play group and I love it! I'm kicking myself for not taking any pictures last week but we plan on going these last 2 weeks of break so I'll have time to document our fun. Ladies, you have been warned! We also signed up for a reading program that required us to document reading up to 15 books to her and entitles her to a free ticket to the Children's Museum. So cool! We will be heading to the library for this group as often as we can when we're out of school.

Clare lounging on the beautiful quilt made by another family friend, Carol Kobayashi. This is where we do a lot of our reading and she practices rolling over!

Stay tuned for next month when we start introducing solid foods...we'll get to see if she's as picky of an eater as her mother!

SUMMER!

Ah, summer is here at last. Even though I despise the heat & humidity that Atlanta has to offer, I do love the extra time to spend with my little girl. It's like having 2 extra months tacked onto my maternity leave...and since I only had to work for 2 weeks before break, it really IS an extension! Having a baby in February was perfect timing. Of course Andrew's off, too, so we have all been spending lots of quality time together. This summer is all about sleep training, setting schedules/routines, and figuring this parent thing out. However, being teachers means we'll have endless summers to spend with our little family and make memories. I love it.



Clare is now 4 1/2 months old! She is now quite proficient at turning over...she started rolling from her belly to her back at 5 weeks old but has now fully mastered rolling from her back to her belly, often times with her hands clasped in front of her! So this meant that we immediately had to abandon the swaddler...which was fine since she wasn't sleeping that well anyway. Then we had to worry about putting her down flat on her back (still has a bad startle reflex) or sleeping on her belly. So, the compromise was sleep training...more on that to come....

At the beginning of June, Clare had her second trip to the beach to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. We went to Edisto Island with my parents, sister Libby and her boyfriend, Kyle and brother Ned. Traveling with a baby is hard. Like REALLY hard. We had settled into a routine at home of 3 naps per day and then book, bath, feeding, and bed in the evenings. Being on vacation threw that whole schedule out of whack...and Clare totally took advantage of it. She stayed in the same room as Andrew and I and in order to keep the peace I ended up bringing her into bed each night so she became VERY accustomed to the company of her mom & dad! That ended up being a very hard habit to break once we got home. But we had a great time, ate some delicious seafood and got to dip our little girl's feet in the ocean for the first time. Sweet memories. We're hoping to go back again next summer and are looking forward to building sandcastles, running from the waves and collecting shells. I'm sure, though, that vacationing with a 1-year-old will also have its share of challenges. :)



So anyway after the beach, rolling over + wanting to sleep in our bed + waking up CONSTANTLY without her swaddler = big time sleep training. I was really wanting to wait to sleep train her until she was a little older, but the desperate need for longer than an hour of sleep at a time forced us into action. We took her to the doctor to double check for any lurking ear infections or other reasons why she wasn't sleeping, but she received a clean bill of health from the Doc and it was recommended for us to start letting her cry it out some at night. So, we picked a method to use and a night to start and dove head first into the world of sleep training. We decided to use a 'check and console' method to teach her how to sleep on her own...statistically speaking it's not as effective as a full extinction 'cry it out' method but it made us feel better. Since I was worried I would get emotional while she was crying it was decided that Andrew should be the parent to check on her throughout the night while I stayed in the other room. Basically we put her down on her belly semi-awake and let her cry herself to sleep. Andrew checks on her in 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 15, etc. until she's asleep. The first night I was prepared for hours of crying...I couldn't see how she could possibly manage without me (Ha!). She cried for 15 minutes and then slept for 5 consecutive hours, which was more than she'd slept in about 2 weeks. Hallelujah! The second night she only cried for 7 minutes and only 2 minutes on the third night. This stuff really does work! She still has issues early in the morning, usually between 3:30-5:30, because that was typically a time when I would bring her into our bed since I was so tired. That's proving to be a hard habit to break. But luckily we're both committed and even though we're tired, we're trying to be consistent for her sake. She still feeds 2-3 times between 7:00 pm - 7:00 am, but the feedings are a little more structured and then it's right back to bed. My goal is to have a more structured sleep environment by the time we go back to work in August. I'll be posting updates as we go along. :)

In addition to rolling over, Clare is also starting to babble a whole lot. She's discovering that she can change the tone and pitch of her little voice and it's so darn funny to watch her. She enjoys standing in her bouncy seat and exploring the parts with her hands. Absolutely EVERYTHING is now going into her mouth and we've started to rely on frozen teething rings for her to chew on. I even saw her lean down to put her toes in her mouth the other day...hilarious. She smiles and coos each time Marley walks into the room and she gets very excited (kicking her feet, opening her mouth and breathing quickly) when you put her favorite things in front of her, like her little stuffed giraffe or a bottle. Even though parenting has been quite challenging at times, especially when going on very little sleep, things are getting so much better as she gets older and we settle more into our roles. There are still times that I have no idea what I'm doing and am so thankful for wonderful friends and family to be there to listen to my tear-filled concerns and offer countless streams of good advice. But as she gets older the happy times are starting to outweigh the challenging times and we're all figuring each other out. Long live summer break!

3 months!

Wow. When people said the time flies by with a baby, they weren't kidding. Clare has just passed the 3 month mark and I am wondering where the time went. She's not our newborn anymore, she's an infant! She has bright, beautiful blue eyes and light-colored hair that's almost strawberry-blonde at times. My in-laws told us that Andrew's older sister, Erin, had the same color hair when she was little. I think it's so pretty!


There were lots of things to keep us busy and celebrate over this last month. We had a great Easter. Clare wore a dress that was bought for her by the Dean of Agnes Scott (where my mom works) and she just looked so darn cute in it. Her smiling and laughing has increased so much over the last few weeks and it is so contagious! She coos all the time...we're thinking she's going to be a big talker...not surprising considering her parents. :) She is still definitely a home-body. She enjoys being at home and is not as much of a fan of going out for long stretches. She still needs her naps every couple of hours and gets VERY cranky if she doesn't get her nap in time (just like her father! :).


I also got to celebrate my first Mother's Day. We celebrated Mother's Day all weekend, seeing Andrew's Mom for dinner on Saturday evening, lunch with my mom on Sunday and then Andrew cooked dinner on Sunday evening for our new little family. I had 2 beautiful bouquets of flowers to decorate our house with and a sweet card from my husband. It was a great weekend!

My maternity leave ended this past week. :( I feel very fortunate to have had 13 weeks off of work to stay home with my girl, but that didn't make it any easier to head back. Luckily being a teacher totally rocks and I only have to work for about 2 weeks before summer break starts. As a family we divided up the days to stay with Clare at home to make the transition easier. Even though I went to work that first day in tears, Clare did very well at home with Andrew. He was able to send text messages and pictures throughout the day so that I could see that she was doing alright and that made it so much easier (what did working moms do before iphones?!?). Of course it also helps to have wonderful friends at work. I received lots of hugs and my friend Caroline brought in my favorite bagel for breakfast. My students are just the sweetest and getting to spend the day with them was an added bonus. I'm glad I got that first day over with and am also glad summer is on the horizon. I guess we'll start these emotions all over again when I go back full-time in August, but until that point Andrew and I are going to love having all the extra family time in June and July!

2 months in...

Our little girl has now passed the 2 month mark! She is officially 9 weeks old and is growing like a weed. At her last doctor's visit she weighed in at 10 lbs, 10 oz. and was in the 50th percentile for weight and length. There are so many things that she's now able to do...here are some of her 'firsts' that she's accomplished during her 2nd month here on earth:



Sleeping in a crib! She now spends the night and and takes some naps in her crib. Hooray!




First play date! Chaperoned, of course. Drew was so sweet and curious as to why Clare was making all that noise.



First Roadtrip! Not a lot of fun times in the car....the car seat is still Clare's nemesis.



First time at the beach! We had a great time at the Dougherty family reunion. Clare LOVED the sound of the ocean.



First smiles! Nothing in the world is more rewarding than seeing her smile. She has the tiniest dimple on her left cheek, discovered by Beth, and I spend my entire day trying to get as many smiles out of her as I can.

She is so much fun. It's so awesome to see her discover new things and be able to do more and more. Can't wait to see what month 3 brings us! Here are a couple more pictures of what she's been up to this month:

The first month home

Well, it has now officially been 1 month since Clare was born. While the first 2 weeks are a blur of feedings, diapers, rocking and more feedings, the last couple of weeks have started to feel somewhat normal. I am actually able to tell you what day it is and am able to differentiate between night and day (win!), which I'm taking to be a good sign. For someone like me who loves for things to be regimented, it was very hard to not be on a schedule....and we're still not on one, but we're at least able to function and are starting to get in the swing of things. Clare now knows that she is supposed to sleep at night (thank you, white noise air filter!) and is starting to be more alert during the day. She is feeding every 1-3 hours during the day and every 3 hours at night...nursing has by far been our biggest challenge. It's hard to know exactly when to feed and how much she is getting at each feeding. But, it's what is best for her and each week it seems to get a little easier. Once her feedings start to space out some more I think it will be even better. Then I won't feel like a 24-hour per day dairy cow.

Picture of Clare on March 15th...1 month old and getting some love from Marley! (Thanks to Aunt Maggie and Cousin Cady for the outfit...it says 'Current Family Favorite' :)


To sum up our daughter's blossoming personality at 1 month of age, here is a list of things that she loves and things that she does not love so much:

Clare LOVES:

1. EATING!! Just like her mother she can eat all day, everyday. That's my girl!
2. Movement. Baby Bjorn: Best invention ever.
3. The vacuum cleaner/hair dryer. O, providers of white noise. How we worship thee.
4. Being held. She is so cuddly and does not like to be put down while awake!
5. Walks. We try to take a family walk everyday, weather permitting. She enjoys being outside and usually falls asleep soon after we start our walk (see #2...)
6. Death Cab for Cutie. Yep, you read that correctly. Other than white noise Clare prefers to listen to Death Cab for Cutie when she's calm. After all the U2 and Coldplay I exposed her to when pregnant, she prefers one of her father's musical selections. Go figure.

Clare does NOT love:

1. Her car seat. It's like we're torturing her by putting her in this seat...and she lets the whole neighborhood know how she feels about it.
2. Sponge baths. I think she hates these because she's cold...now that we've started to fill up the tub a little more with water she doesn't hate them quite as much.
3. Lying on her back. Startle reflex + not being held = one unhappy Clare.
4. Pacifiers. Unfortunately for us, she typically rejects the pacifier. Occasionally she'll take it but usually it does not soothe her. She'd prefer to eat instead!

Taking a nap with Dad...such a cuddly little baby!


Last weekend Andrew's sister, Erin brought up our niece, Hannah to meet her cousin for the first time. Hannah had been anxiously waiting for this visit...we had to wait a few weeks before they were able to meet since we're still in cold/flu season (per doctor's orders). She was so excited to finally get to come up. She was able to hold Clare a few times, run around with Andrew in the backyard and give Marley some much needed love and attention. Our nephew, Ian, didn't make the trip up but hopefully he'll get to meet his new cousin soon!



On Thursday we celebrated St. Patrick's Day and my dad's birthday. Clare and I joined dad and mom at DBA BBQ in the Highlands for lunch. Clare slept on the drive in and for the first half of lunch. As luck would have it she woke up right as our food arrived! I was able to feed her a bottle and then a case of the fussies sent us to the car to head back home. It was our first restaurant outing since she was born and it was good practice for me to take her out. I think I need to do this more often to become more comfortable with soothing her when we're outside of our comfort zone. But we had a good time celebrating with dad and Clare was able to showcase the adorable St. Patrick's Day outfit that Beth bought for her!

It's a GIRL!

She's finally here! Clare Elizabeth Whatley was born on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 at 2:11 pm. She weighed 7 lbs., 12 oz. and was 20.5 inches long. It's been a whirlwind since she was born and I'm just now feeling organized enough to take the time to upload pictures and update the blog, 3 weeks later. Here's the story of labor, delivery and our new home life...

The day before Clare was born I had a doctor's appointment to see how things were progressing. I was still dilated 2 cm. but hadn't made any other progress from the week before. We went ahead and scheduled an induction for that Friday, February 18th, which was the original due date. That evening I started to have mild contractions, but they weren't frequent nor strong enough to warrant a call to the doctor. So, I went ahead to bed to try to get some rest. At 4:00 in the morning I had a strong contraction that got me out of bed. At this point the contractions started coming every 4-5 minutes and were increasing in strength. I woke Andrew up at 5:00 and we went ahead and placed a call to the doctor. At this point the contractions were starting to come every 3 minutes so we decided to go ahead to Northside even though we hadn't yet heard back from the doctor.

We arrived at Northside a little after 6:00 and were in our room filling out paperwork by 6:30. Let me go ahead and give Northside hospital a big shout out, they are VERY efficient! We did not wait long at all to be admitted and shown to our room. At this point the doctors and nurses were able to check on us and I was 4 cm. dilated and in active labor. I wanted the epidural, so our nurses set up an IV and collected blood to get that ball rolling. We had the most amazing labor and delivery nurse and student intern. They helped us feel relaxed and treated us incredibly well. We are very thankful to have had such a wonderful staff of nurses and doctors...again, props to Northside! At 8:30 the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural and by this point I was 7 cm. I only had to endure about 4 1/2 hours of hard, active labor! The rest of my labor was smooth sailing. I pushed through 2 1/2 contractions (about 10 minutes) and at 2:11 pm my amazing husband had the honor of getting to announce 'It's a GIRL!' in the delivery room! By far one of the best moments of my life.


We were in the hospital for 2 days and our family and friends had the opportunity to come by and meet Clare. The best part was that all 4 grandparents were able to come to the hospital the day she was born to meet her!

Andrew's parents, Maw and Poppy, holding Clare for the first time.

My mom, Mimi, rocking Clare in the hospital.

My dad, Boompa, rocking Clare after we got home from the hospital.


At the end of our stay we were ready to head home and give this parenting thing a try. Andrew had taken a week off from work and was able to be at home with us helping out. He is the best diaper changer I know! I really didn't want him to head back to work...it had been so nice to have a partner in taking care of the baby. It's funny how a little 7 pound baby can terrify you so much when you're left alone with her! So, I brought in the reinforcements...my mom took a few days off of work to help out as Clare and I transitioned to not having Andrew around. This was such a huge help! I could take a shower or walk outside for a breath of fresh air when I needed to. Having family nearby to not only share special moments with but also to enlist for help when needed is priceless. Andrew and I are both so fortunate to have both of our families close and we appreciate all they've done for us!

Clare is now 3 weeks old. I can't believe the time has already gone by this quickly! On one hand it seems like an eternity ago that I was pregnant, and the last few weeks are a kind of sleep-deprived haze, but it's also unbelievable that she's already a week shy of being a month old. I'm going to try to update the blog at least once a month to keep up with her pictures as she grows this first year! A big thanks to everyone who has brought us dinner, gifts and come by to spend time with Clare. We love you all and are so glad that our daughter is going to grow up surrounded by so many wonderful people. Here are a few pictures of our first few weeks with our new little girl.

Heading out for our first family walk. It was Andrew's turn to carry the baby's weight on his stomach. :)

Our little girl definitely has a set of lungs on her! I guess I should have expected this when you combine my genes with Andrew's...

Our sweet little girl. We're looking forward to watching you grow up, Clare!