Claire at 15 Weeks

Claire usually wakes up between 6:45 and 7:30 every morning.  She is always very happy to see me--lots of smiles!  Sometimes she's too busy smiling to eat much breakfast.  While every day is different, our basic schedule is eat, play, sleep, repeat.  Her total awake time is 1 to 1.5 hours, and naps range from 45 minutes to 2 hours.  Her first nap of the day and a short one in the evening are taken in her swing if we are home.  If we're out and about, she sleeps pretty well in the car seat, as long is it's moving in the car or her stroller.  She eats every 2.5 to 3 hours during the day and just once or twice between 8:30 pm and 7:30 am.

Playtime is getting more and more fun as she gets older.  She still loves to just sit and make faces.  Unless she's really sleepy or hungry, she'll pretty much give me a big grin every time we make eye-contact.  She's getting more vocal.  When playing with someone, she'll give a few squeals or "talk" with a very serious look on her face as though she's explaining something very important.  When she's alone she'll sometimes let out long series of "oohs," often staying on the same pitch for awhile.  She does this in her car seat and crib.  She'll also "talk" like this to the fish mobile above her swing and the bear that flashes and plays music on her activity mat.

Speaking of her activity mat, she just loves spending time there!  She does tummy time when she watches and talks to the musical bear.  When she gets tired of tummy time, I roll her over to play with the dangling toys or look at herself in the mirror.  In the last week, she has started to grab on to one particular dangling toy and watch her hands play with it.  Up until this week, she would just sporadically hit the toys as she moved her arms.  It looks much more intentional now.

Claire still enjoys stroller walks.  She doesn't always fall asleep like she used to and is more content to look around.  Yesterday we walked to the nearby middle school so I could vote and walked back home.  Claire stayed awake the whole time and didn't fuss a bit.

We've been attending a Mommy and Me group for breastfeeding mothers that meets every other week.  This past Monday we went to a baby story time at the public library.  It was a lot of fun, so I hope we can go back in September when it starts meeting every week.  There were probably 20 babies, and we sang, read books, bounced, played tickle games, and played with shakers.  At one point the babies were on their backs facing their parents.  Claire decided that she would rather look at the little boy next to her instead of me.  She and the boy (probably about 5-6 months old) locked eyes for several minutes.  Claire was giving him several big grins.  The boy's mom and I laughed because it looked like they were flirting!  We saw a baby and mom from the Mommy and Me group at the story time, so we sat next to them.  That little girl, Natalie, was born the day before Claire was.  We held Natalie and Claire up facing each other, and they made some eye contact, and there were some quick smiles between the two. 

Claire has been to the church nursery several times and is a big hit with her teachers.  They all tell me that she is very sweet and good for them.  They are getting to know her little personality.  I even overheard one teacher tell another, "Claire likes to swing!"  We usually go to the 8:30 services which is the older crowd, so there aren't a lot of children that hour, and Claire may be one of only two or three children under age three.  It changes for the Sunday School hour though.  She moves into a room with all of the babies who haven't started crawling yet, and this can be quite a crowd--especially if the triplets that were born in January are there!

Since she was about three weeks old, Claire has been sleeping in her crib at night.  We stopped using her velcro swaddling blanket last week because she outgrew it.  Now she sleeps in one of her little sleepers with a zip up blanket (pediatricians recommend no loose blankets in the crib when they are this young).  We turn on a sound machine to create some white noise during her day time naps but not at night.  She fusses a little when we put her down for a nap but is usually asleep within 10 minutes.  During the night she goes right back down without fussing any.

Claire still fits into most of her 3 Month sized clothes.  She's wearing size 2 diapers in most brands.  I usually keep a bib on her during the day now because she likes to blow bubbles and tends to put her clothes in her mouth, so they get all wet.  She hasn't been weighed since her two month checkup, so I'm not sure what she's weighing these days.  She is enjoying bath time more and more as she is discovering the fun in kicking to splash the water.  She can sit up for a little while in her Bumbo seat.  I'll try to get a picture of this soon because it's really cute.  If she's awake, we'll put her in her chair on the table while we eat dinner. 

She loves spending time with Daddy when he gets home from work.  They like to make faces, talk, read stories, and play together.  Matt likes to give Claire her bath and put her to bed when he can.  Matt and Claire are so cute together!

It is so much fun watching her learn and grow.  We're loving every minute with her!