Claire - 9 Months

Claire is 9 months old!  On the downside towards turning 1!

She was 19 lb, 4 oz (60%) and 28 3/4 inches tall (80%)

Her latest milestones:

• Crawling and crawling FAST.  
• Into everything and wants to be wherever Cason or Mommy is
• Pulling up on anything she can reach -- ottoman, couch, coffee table, chairs, play kitchen.
• Scaling the furniture but not quite what you'd call "cruising".  She pulls up on one end of the table and after a few minutes she will be at the other end.  It won't be long
• She's still in love with her brother and thinks anything he does is pretty awesome... even when he's stealing her toys (which is an all day/every day occurrence)
• She's eating all sort of veggies and a few fruits.  She's not a big fan of avocado anymore and that makes us sad since its our go-to food at Mexican restaurants to keep Cason happy while we wait.  She's also eating cheerios and crackers, both are good to keep her busy while I scarf down my food  
• She's very demanding when it comes to her food... if I don't feed her fast enough, she shreaks and lets me know to hurry up.
• She babbles all the time
• Kicks and bounces non-stop.  She's always in motion.  We think she'll be walking by Christmas.

Claire - 6 Months

I'm very, VERY, behind on blogging.  This two kids-working full time-have a super busy husband life is HARD!  Blogging has definitely been put on the backburner.  So tonight, I'm staying up to write a couple of posts to make sure I don't forget things that Cason and Claire are doing.  First up... Claire!

SIX MONTHS OLD!  Not possible.  She is 26.75in tall (84%) and 16lb 14.4oz (70%).

Cason was 28in (93%) and 18lb 11oz (75%) at the same age.

At Six Months, Claire is:

• Sitting up
• Rolling over in both directions
• Babbling a lot
• Squealing and big belly laughs
• Loves the Jumperoo -- she would sit it in for hours if we let her
• Eating 3-4 8ounce bottles of Formula -- she is on the sensitive kind as her reflux still gives her some issues on the regular stuff
• Sleeping 12 hours (when we let her, I have to wake her up most mornings) and takes 2 good naps
• Eating baby food (2-3 ounces) at night.  So far we'v done Avacado, Squash, Zuchini and Broccoli.  She loves the Avocado and does okay with the others after the first couple of bites.  She starts to attack the spoon if I don't feed her fast enough.
• Is IN LOVE with her brother.  She hears his voice and starts smiling.  She watches every move he makes.  If she's eating her bottle and he's being extra crazy (the normal for him) she stops eating to watch him.  
• Loves her toes
• Loves stuffed animals
• Loves her Daddy (Mommy is alright too, but Daddy is #1)
• Still has blue eyes!
• Sucks on her bottom lip all the time, chews on things, drools... no teeth yet

A few more pictures from her at home photo session.

And a sneak peak of her 6 Month Photo Shoot.  She was not giving out smiles... this is the ONLY one we got.  Next time I'll be sure to take Cason or Daddy with us.

Claire - 4 months

Claire is 4 months old.  I feel like I don't have time to record her milestones like I did with Cason... but I'm doing my best.

At her 4 month checkup, Dr B said she was perfect!  And we learned that she is just as big as her big brother!

Claire: 25.88" 14lb 9.5oz


Cason: 25.75" 16lb 9.4oz

So she's a little longer than Cason, but in his defense, she had just woken up and was stretching pretty hard when the nurse measured her.  Either way, they are about the same in height and she's just growing like a weed.

• 5-6 6oz bottles a day - still all breastmilk
• Rolls over from back to tummy
• Laughs, especially at Cason -- She LOOOOVES him.
• Knows when Cason is around and smiles when she hears his voice
• Goes to bed around 8:30 and will sleep until 7:30 or 8 on weekends (we get up at 6:30am on weekdays)
• Sits up really well in the Bumbo and with the boppy around her
• Finally not throwing up all the time but we still have lots of little spit ups and still have manly burps
• Eyes are still blue and hair has a hint of Cason's red... we think she'll be strawberry blonde but not as red as Cason.
• Loves to be outside
• Loves to be sitting or standing and puts lots of weight in her legs
• Can push up on her elbows and look all around the room when on her tummy

I'm sure I've missed some things in my list.  She's getting big so fast and our days just fly by. 

Claire - 12 Weeks

Claire is 12 Weeks old... whew, that flew by!

She still looks so much like Cason but so much of her own little person too.

At 12 weeks, Claire is:

• Holding her head up very well -- you can lift her up from laying flat with very little sagging of the head
• Pushing up/Putting weight in her legs
• Sitting in her Bumbo for short periods
• Smiling and Laughing
• Smiles when she sees or hears Cason
• Sleeping 9 hours at night (sometimes 10)
• Takes 5 or 6, 6oz bottles (breastmilk) per day
• Still burps like a man

I go back to work on Monday and will be working from home every day.  I'm not as anxious as I was last time to go back... probably because I've done it before and I trust our babysitter.  I will miss my little munchkins though.

More pictures HERE

Claire - 8 weeks/2 Months

Claire is 2 months old and growing like a big strong weed.  She weighed 12lb 3oz (85%), 23.5in (89%).  Cason was 12lb 10oz and 23.25 inches but these were were in the 50-75% range for him... I guess she's gonna be a big girl!

She is still a fairly easy baby but has her high maintenance moments.  The major spit ups are less frequent but we do still have them every couple of days... and she's still got some manly burps.

She is still eating every 2 to 2.5 hours, sometimes she'll go 3 hours but not very often.  She's more of an "eat-play-sleep" baby than Cason was (he was more eat-play-eat-sleep).  She's falling into a bit of a routine and naps well during the day when you add all the naps up together... I just wish I could get one or two good long naps out of her instead of the little 45 minute ones.  I'm sure that will come.

The big thing is that she's pretty consistently sleeping 9 hours at night.  Yay!  She typically eats sometime between 9 and 9:30 and goes down between 10 and 10:30... then she wakes up between 6:30 and 7:30!   Now I'm working on figuring out what our routine needs to be in the mornings in order to get her fed and dressed and Cason dressed by 7:15am when I go back to work.  It's still so hard to get them both out the door since she's eating so often.

The rest of the photos... I took these while Cason was at the baby sitter so no appearance from him this time!

Claire - 6 Weeks!

Every one always tells you "how fast it goes" when you have a newborn. I've been guilty of saying this to other people myself.  You'd think that when it's your second time around, you would be prepared for how fast time really does fly and how fast they get so big...  you've done this before, right? You should know that it feels like just yesterday you were still pregnant and now you have an almost 2 year old.

Well, like so many other things, you forget and boom, all the sudden your little newborn is 6 weeks old.  Sigh.

Claire still looks so much like Cason and they seem to be about the same size.  Every day I think to myself... why is this little boy wearing girl clothes.  It's not that she looks like a boy to the average person, just that she looks so much like Cason.

I weighed her this week and think she's pushing 12 lbs but it's a very non exact process of weighing myself holding her and comparing to weighing myself alone... on our scale that gives you a different reading each time you step on it.

At 6 weeks, Claire is:

• Holding her head up really well
• Sleeping in 6 hour stretches most nights
• Sleeping in her room (we moved her up about a week and a half ago, just after 4 weeks)
• Eating really well -- every 2-3 hours and having a couple of bottles.
• Still very gassy and with a little reflux. We do lots of laundry.
• Starting to be awake and alert a lot more
• Wearing all 0-3 month clothes (no newborn anymore)

Not only is it going so fast (I go back to work in 6 weeks??? Boo) but I definitely don't get to soak it all in.  That said, I'm also loving the extra time I'm spending with Cason since he stays home with us 3 days a week.

Here is the rest of the photo shoot... with big brother of course

Cason loves to hug (and try to pick up) Claire.  I have to keep her out of his reach if I'm not right there.  I turned my back for two seconds the other day and he was trying to take her out of the bouncy seat.  Doesn't help that he's a master at buckling and unbuckling.



Isn't this just the cutest thing?  Love these two so much!

Claire - 1 Month Old

It's amazing how fast it goes... even faster the second time around when you are chasing a toddler.  It's been a whirlwind month but we are trying to soak it all in.

Claire is a good eater, good sleeper.  She's giving me 4 hour stretches at night but wants to eat all the time during the day.  We still have some pretty significant spit up issues but it's more manageable these days.

And the rest of our photo shoot, complete with big brother who couldn't let Claire have all the camera time!