Claire - 6 Weeks Old

Baby Girl is deciding to sleep.all.day today! Not sure if that's a growth spurt, or what's going on, but it's giving this mama a nice break for once! So let's catch up :)

Claire is 6 weeks now and I'm looking forward to the day that we can have some routine back in our lives. At least a vague, flexible routine. She is still young after all.  At Claire's check-up last week, Claire's pediatrician recommended that it might be time to move her into her crib in her nursery. I gladly welcomed the change after realizing these past few weeks just how hard it is to get some good sleep with a newborn in your room! All of their cute little coo's and aah's in their sleep is actually very disrupting, haha. I would wake up to every.tiny.sound. So yes, it was time to move her. Luckily, the transition to her crib went better than expected. (Again, another big milestone that had me greatly worried, showed to be barely a speed bump with our girl!!)

So her current routine, if any, is that she goes to bed around 11pm every night (I'll work on moving that up a bit, I've tried a few times to put her down earlier without success) and sleeps for about 3-4 hours before waking for a feeding. After that, she'll sleep anywhere from 1-hour increments, to 3-hour increments, until we finally wake up around 9am for the day. Then during the day, it's extremely unpredictable. For instance, on Thursday, she didn't take one nap!! A few snooze's for 5 or 10 minutes, here and there, but that was it. I was exhausted!! But today? I can't get the girl to stay awake, haha (I'm secretly relishing the break though!). So even though our nighttime routine is slowly forming, I'm hoping over the next week or 2 to figure out her days. Especially since I'll be starting back at work in just a few short weeks.

I think reaching the 6-week mark is a big milestone for us. I feel like Ross & I are getting the hang of things and questioning ourselves less. Breastfeeding is going great and I'm getting the hang of pumping, when/if to give her a bottle, when to pack one when we're out, and when to stop questioning why she's cluster feeding again!

Of course, at the end of learning and feeling comfortable with one phase, there's always another to be learned! For instance, how the heck do people go back to work when they have kids?! I think that's why finding a routine is my next challenge. But thank goodness I'll be working from home and have more flexibility than most working moms, which I'm extremely grateful for. Ross & I found a lady just down the street that watches kids out of her home that we're going to use, so hopefully that'll work out. We had a great referral for her and I think she will be much more flexible than a traditional daycare facility. So that's our next phase/hurdle.

So that about sums it up... life with our girl. Exciting.Exhausting. Love watching her grow!

Oh, and I finally put her baby book together. It's adorbs! Ask to see it in person sometime :)

*Kristin*