3 Months

Claire hit the 3 month mark in May.  She's chubbing up quite nicely.

Her sleep routine is to go to bed for the night around 10:30.  She wakes up between 3:30 and 5 to eat.  It used be every 2 hours after that, but in the past few days she has spread that out a bit, so sometimes eating only once more before waking up for the day around 10.  She gets sleepy after about an hour and a half of awake time.  She needs lots of help to get to sleep (bouncing, whacking her butt, patting her back) and will generally sleep for about 30 minutes.  But sometimes she surprises us with a few hours.

She eats about every 2 hours.  She's taking the bottle pretty well now.  Sometimes with bottles she'll go a little longer.  She eats between 3-5 ounces at a time.

She has been able to sporadically roll from her belly to her back for a few weeks now.  But she has to propped up on her arms so she can make use of gravity and get some momentum with her big noggin.  On my birthday I did find her almost on her stomach in her crib, even though she had been swaddled and put on her back.  So full rolling may be coming soon.  She is able to move her hands with some purpose, grabbing rings or batting at things hung in front of her.

She loves chewing on her hands and fingers.

Mmm, fingers!

She likes standing up on our laps and playing on her play mat

Look!  I'm tall!

Listen, Mr. Elephant, get over her so I can grab you.

And she's holding her head up quite well these days.

Yeah, I'm cute. 

Carrie's wedding

Jeff's cousin Carrie got married this past Memorial Day weekend.  The cold, rainy day cleared and warmed enough for her to have a beautiful outdoor ceremony at a restaurant with gorgeous grounds in Naperville, IL.  Jeff's family came up from Atlanta so we had a good weekend hanging out with them.  Here are a few shots from the day.

Family photo

What?  Who me?  No, I am not eating my dress.

Hanging with Grandpa

GG-Ma and GG-Pa

Sleep, glorious sleep!

A few nights ago, Claire slept 7 hours in a row.  Awesome!  But then she got up every hour or two after that.  Not so much fun at 5 in the morning.  And the night before last she slept for about 5 hours straight and then was up every 1.5 to 2 hours.  Since I didn't go to bed at the same time as she did, I spent my night get up every two hours or less.  Yuck!  It was a flashback to the newborn days and it wasn't fun.  I was pretty mad at the world that morning.

But I glimpsed the promise land last night.  First, Claire was asleep for the night by 9:45.  That's the earliest it's ever for our little night owl.  Then she proceeded to sleep until 4:45!  Yep, another 7-hour stretch.  But even better, she went back down by 5 and slept until almost 9:30.  Hallelujah!!

Update:
Apparently I cursed myself.  The next 2 nights Claire was up every 1.5-2 hours.  Kill me now.  Fortunately last night she was back to her usual routine of one long sleep stretch followed by multiple short ones.

Beach!

Claire and I took another trip down to Atlanta.  My mom wanted a little company as she was off work recovering from some sinus surgery.  And I welcomed the help she gives in sharing Claire duty.  So a cheap airfare sealed the deal.

Over Mother's Day weekend we went to visit my sister, who is going to school in Savannah. Friday afternoon we strolled around Savannah, getting some pictures of Claire in a square. Saturday afternoon we visited Tybee Island for Claire's first visit to the beach. Here are a few pictures.





Simpsons/Schulzes in the square

  

Watching the big yacht come in

Claire enjoying the mossy tree



Enjoying the evening after a noisy dinner



View outside Pearl's Saltwater Grille

Baby in a beach tent

The latest in baby beachwear



Dipping my toes in the ocean for the first time



It's too cold!

Oh, this isn't so bad.

Hanging with Mommy



Our little patch of beach

  

Chillin' in the shade



Hanging out at Aunt Jamie's apartment

Maine

After our foray into Boston, we took Claire up to Maine to meet the rest of the Simpson side of the family.  We stayed with Claire's Great-Aunt Dori in Wells, ME.  It just so happened that Claire's namesake and Great-Grandfather, Clair Sawtelle, was celebrating his 80th birthday.  That meant most of the family was around to meet the new addition.  Grammi Simpson just happened to be in town for the event.  I'm not sure what would happen if she had to go more than a week or two without seeing Claire!

Great-Grampa Clair

Mommy, Great-Grampa Clair, and Grammi

(From L-R) Great-Great Uncle Erwin and his wife Carol,
Great-Great Uncle Bee, Mommy, and Grammi

Nap time with Great-Aunt Dori

Nap time in the cradle
Great-Grampa Claire made

New Pictures!

New pictures uploaded to Picasa.  Follow the link on the right.  If you need a higher resolution file for one of the pictures (for all of those 8x10 you want to print), let us know and we'll get it to you.

Boston!

Our friends Sally and Nate invited us out for a baby shower.  The timing worked out best for after Claire was here, so our college friends got a chance to meet her.  We arrived Friday afternoon in time for a fabulous meal cooked up by Sally and Nate.  Saturday morning Sally and I went out to pick up some yummy muffins for breakfast.  Kudos to Nate for suggesting the girls get a few minutes away while the boys stayed home with the baby!

Then Saturday afternoon many of our college friends arrived to hang out.  Thanks to Dave, Stef, Rishi, Nirali, Tim, Jen and Dave for driving up from Philly/Connecticut/New York to see us! Big thanks to Sally and Nate for hosting and providing most of the food.  We had a great time hanging out, opening gifts, playing video games, and playing board games.  And making fun of Dave for such gems as "Is Claire walking yet?"
The next morning some of the group returned for brunch and a walk to the park before seeing us off to the next part of our trip.

Unfortunately we didn't bring out the camera until the evening on Saturday.  So we didn't get pictures of everyone.  Here are a few that we did get.



Sally and Claire

 

Stef and Claire

Dave and Claire

Tim and Claire

Sally watches while Nate makes Claire dance

Time for board games!  Claire slept through the fun.



Making brunch

 

Jeff mans the bacon



Football/Keep Away



The crew
(at least those who were around the next day)

World Traveler!

Claire took her first plane trip to Manchester, NH so we could go to Boston and to Maine.  (More on that later).  Here she is on board.

She did great!  Slept most of the time there and was largely awake but content on the way back. 

From the trenches....

So life here in babyland is rough.  Jeff is working long hours and has a couple residency requirements to work on in his off time. So it's close to single parenthood for mommy.  And Claire can be a very fussy baby.  Doing ok during nights right now but days are tough.  Difficult to soothe, difficult to get to sleep and then she has trouble staying asleep as well.  All this can equal lots of crying and a frazzled mommy.  So that explains the lack of blog content.  I had much higher hopes for getting pictures up and documenting her changes.  But I will have to let that go and take a break from posting.  For the most part. We do have a trip to Boston/Maine coming up that I will try to post about.  Other than that, pickings will be slim as I try to take one thing off my plate.  Keeping Claire content, myself clean and fed, and gathering all the crap to apply for a mortgage are quite enough of a challenge for the moment.

So here's hoping she'll be a little calmer in a few weeks/months and I can resume sharing her moments of cuteness!  Til then, you can keep tabs through facebook.

Parent FAIL!

We went to the zoo this past weekend to enjoy a fluke 80 degree day.  We brought a camera to capture some moments from Claire's first zoo trip.  Jeff pulled it out to take a picture of the rhino lumbering along after a goose.  And, the battery was dead.  No problem, this is why we have a back up right?  Well that was nowhere to be found. 

So, Claire went to the zoo.  We have no proof.  But she slept through a lot of it anyway.  :)

Atlanta trip!

Our little family of three made a road trip down to Atlanta. Our trip had multiple purposes: make good use of Jeff's vacation time, introduce Claire to the rest of the family, and hunt for a house! Successful on all 3 counts!  We also fit in a celebration with friends and family for Jeff's 30th birthday.

Most pictures are currently in RAW format, which I can't do much with.  Once Jeff has a chance to edit them, I'll try to post some.
But here's our house!   We'll soon be residents of Acworth, GA.  (Well, provided everything goes as it should.)

Visitors!

Grammi (Brandi's mom) was with us from the start. A few weeks after her arrival, Claire had her first visitors. Brandi's dad, brother, and sister-in-law drove up from Atlanta March 11th to meet the little munchkin. They hung out for the weekend and then, sadly, took Grammi home with them.

That same weekend, Claire went to visit GG-Ma, Jeff's grandmother, and some of his aunts.

Paaps meets Claire for the first time

Paaps gets some love

Uncle John

Aunt Jessica

John and Jess handle diaper duty

Proud grandparents

And now for the Schulze's! 

GG-ma and GG-pa with Claire

Jeff's aunt Carla with a passed out Claire

3 generations!

Proud great grandma!