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!

38 Weeks and Waiting...

Well, we're finally full-term now and just playing the waiting game for when the baby is going to arrive. Our official due date is the 18th and due to the gestational diabetes the doctors won't let me go past this date. So, we're looking at a potential induction next Friday, February 11th or sometime the following week depending on how things look this week at our appointment. We are both hoping to NOT have to be induced so there will be a lot of walking and eggplant parmesan-eating over the next week to avoid this! At our last ultrasound they estimated the baby's weight to be 6 lbs. 12 oz. so hopefully this is a good indicator that my blood sugar levels have been well-controlled to hopefully not have a big ol' 10 pounder by the time he/she arrives! I do have to give the diabetes diet credit, though, for one of the reasons that I feel so good in the 9th month of pregnancy. I feel that it's helped me avoid swelling and excess weight gain. So, I guess...er, thanks diabetes? Now I can look forward to eating something sweet after delivery. Bring on the breastfeeding diet!

Andrew and I have both enjoyed being spoiled at our schools recently when our friends threw us baby showers. We are both so lucky to work in such awesome and supportive environments. Here are a few pics from both showers...

Judging the 'baby drawing contest' at our Radloff Middle shower.



Amazing red velvet cake made by Vanessa Platto for the Creekland shower.




One of our gifts...baby's first pair of shoes! So precious and tiny!



My dear friends Tyese Miller, Megan Nagel, Jayne Berry and Peggy Vanover who helped throw the Creekland baby shower.


Hopefully our next post is to announce the arrival of our little boy or girl! (For the record, Andrew thinks boy and I think girl...). Until then, it's back to waiting!