Three-Month-Old Clara

How I have enjoyed this first quarter of a year with Clara!

We loved our firstborn baby oh-so-dearly and doted on him and were proud new parents (he really was precocious and rewarded us with smiles so early!), but his colicky first few months were also hard. He cried inconsolably for a few hours each night for weeks on end. I loved being a mother, but the adjustment was harder than I thought it would be--dealing with body image issues, hormone changes, healing from a tough birth, engorgement and then over-production and some mastitis, etc.

Then, of course, we had twins. They were dear, sweet babes; but there were two of them! My recovery was much easier (after a much quicker and easier birth), I knew how to nurse, and they weren't nearly as colicky. But the sleep deprivation and all-consuming needs of twins and a toddler were difficult to handle. I'm so thankful for the help I had from my mom and sister Hannah at the beginning. Our transition would have been much less graceful without them.

Tiny Lydia

Abby on the left, Lydia on the right

But then--here's little Clara! Just one baby, mellow and apparently pretty flexible. I've mellowed out, too--I'm not worried about exactly how often she's nursing or up tight about her sleeping schedule. I've become more of a pro at nursing and don't need to seclude myself in a room or under a bulky cover to feed her. Welcoming and adjusting to her has just seemed smoother and more natural a transition. I don't take it for granted--nearly every day I marvel at what a joy she is, at God's graciousness to me in granting me such enjoyment in her. What a little love she is.

No, her ears don't actually stick out like that . . . it's just her positioning here :)

And what fun it is to see her brother and sisters love and delight in her! Josiah in particular likes to shower her with kisses and make her smile. The other day he told me his cheeks were sore from smiling so much at Clara.

At three months old, Clara is pretty average in her growth and abilities. In fact, when I took her for her two-month appointment a little over two weeks ago (yes, late), she was right about at the 50th percentile for height and weight--23 inches and 12.5 lbs. (She doubled her birth weight!) Her head circumference was in the 73rd percentile, if I remember correctly. I'm pleased that her umbilical hernia is quickly resolving itself. Her belly button looks pretty normal now, though she still has a slight gap in her abdominal muscles.

She continues to love being around people. She likes to watch me cook and join us at the table for meals. Recently she started rewarding us with an excited chortle or laugh when she's particularly happy to see us. She also loves to "talk," often getting quite loud and animated. Her monologues can last awhile.

When we take her for a walk in her stroller, she stares at the sky and trees and then usually falls asleep. However, she dislikes facing in when in the Moby wrap now. She'd rather look out at the world when we wear her to go hiking or walking. Clara seems to like movement and typically does very well on car rides. (I don't think we've had a bad one yet!) She has gone out on a few dates with Jeremy and me and mostly behaved angelically, allowing us to talk and eat at our leisure.

Clara is discovering her hands: she likes to suck her fists and sometimes stares cross-eyed as she lifts a hand to her face. She seems to try to get just a thumb or finger at times. Sometimes she stuffs her fist in her mouth in preference to nursing. She also likes to scratch, making noise on her sheets or drawing blood on my neck!

In the past few days she's been playing with her tongue, sticking it out, sucking it, moving it around. She has also started drooling a bit. Between that and the fist-sucking and shoulder-gnawing, I think she's started teething already. Who knows how long those first teeth will take to come through, though!

While she typically does at least one five or six-hour stretch at night, she still doesn't have a solid sleeping schedule. Often she'll be up with Jeremy and me in the evening and go down, swaddled, a little before we go to bed for the night. Sometimes if she falls asleep earlier in the evening, I'll try a "dream-feed" at my bedtime and then swaddle her up and hope for a good, long stretch.

 Nursing daze :)

After her initial nighttime stretch of sleep, she wakes to nurse; we sometimes have a little trouble with burping or the transfer back to the crib, but she eventually goes back down for another stretch. Sometimes this is short, but more recently she's stretched it out, too. So these days we've often had just one night-waking for me. Amazingly enough, she sleeps in! If she's nursed at 4 or 5 a.m., she'll often sleep till 8 or so. (Once or twice it was as late as 10 a.m.!) This usually gives me enough time to get breakfast started for the kids before she needs hers.

I think Clara's personality and birth order and the current nature of our family have all contributed to the relative ease of this transition. I'm still keeping my expectations low. We haven't attempted lots of out-of-the-house excursions and activities. But I find that my realism about this period helps me reduce stress and enjoy all my kids more.

Josiah begged to photograph Clara