Happy 1st Birthday Claire Lucille

Hard to believe that one year ago she surprised us all when she came into this world early! She has been through a lot in one year and continues to amaze us everyday. She has brought us pure love and joy! She is our world and we love her more than she will ever know! Happy 1st Birthday Claire Lucille!

At birth she was 4lbs 4oz and 17in long and now at 1 year she is 16lbs 10oz and 28in long. She has quadrupled her weight which is amazing even though she isn't on the growth chart yet. She loves to eat, lately her favorites are cottage cheese and pineapples, quesadillas, mixed veggies and toast. She is now on whole milk (fortified for extra calories though) and loves it. Some of her favorite things is going to the park to swing and go down the slides, her sit to stand walker, Minnie Mouse and Elmo.

Her Minnie Mouse Birthday Bash is tomorrow and I am so excited. I made all her decorations, there will be lots of yummy food, friends, family, presents (of course) and I can't wait to see her smash into her cake. A lot of pictures to come from today and her party so stay tuned!

Prematurity Awareness Month

Did you know 1 in 8 babies in the US are born premature? Claire is 1 in 8, weighing barely 4lbs when she was born. She has struggled to overcome some of the issues resulting from her prematurity but with the help of modern medicine, an exceptional NICU and a team of amazing doctors she is happy and healthy.

November is Premature Awareness month. I am thankful for organizations like the March of Dimes that work to help mothers have full term babies and research the problems the threaten babies lives.

Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek of some of the decorations I've made for Claire's birthday party this coming Saturday. A lot more pictures to come, so be on the look out!

Typical Day

Oh how my days have changed since I was a working mom. Before my days were non stop and exhausting, I didn't usually sit down until around 9:30/10:00 at night. I really don't miss those days. My job yes but not the scrambling to get everything done and ready for the next day. By the time the weekend arrived my husband and I were so exhausted from the week we didn't want to do anything. 

Now that I stay home with Claire and run everything in our home my days are filled with order, flexibility and Claire's doctors appointments (no kidding she has one almost once at week). It was a hard transition at first but after a month or so I settled into my new role. Myself and our family is so much more stress free now and we can actually enjoy our evenings and weekends together. I've also actually been able to go on extra trips home to California for family events, which before I always missed out on because of work. 

Thought i'd share a typical day for Claire. It's always interesting to see other babies schedules especially if your trying to work out a schedule for your own. Of course it's subject to change depending on her appointments and other events we have going on like MOPS. But this will give you a basic idea of how  we spend our days now. 

Claire's Typical Schedule

8:45/9:00: Wake up

9:00: Morning sippy cup (6oz) and breakfast 

9:20-10:30: Play time (toys, books, sit n' stand walker and her jumper)

10:30-12:00: Morning Nap

12:00-1:00: Snack time and table top toys or activity center

1:00: Midday sippy cup (6oz) and lunch

1:30-3:00: Errands or walk to the park and playtime

3:00-4:30/5:00: Afternoon Nap

5:00: Evening sippy cup (6oz) and a snack

5:30-6:30: Play time

6:30: Bath time

7:15-8:30: Play time

8:30: Night bottle (6oz)

8:45/9:00: Bedtime

*She drinks water and snacks at will throughout the day*

Fall Has Arrived....

Fall has arrived, which as much as I love fall, the cold weather and the change of colors it also means all the acorns and leaves start falling in our trees. The last few weeks the acorns have been falling. We will be in our living room and just hear them one right after another drop onto the house, roll down the roof and then drop to the ground.

Christian and I had been talking about raking them up over the weekend before the leaves start to fall, when he mentioned that he wished there was something we could do with all of them besides bagging them up to throw out. That got me thinking, surely I could do something with them.  I quickly did a quick search on Pinterest and then made a trip to the craft store and whipped up this wreath! Overall i'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm thinking I could do something similar for a Christmas wreath too. We'll see if I feel up to it once I finish all of the projects I have going on for Claire's birthday this month.

Claire's First Halloween

Yesterday was Claire's first Halloween. Its actually also her last "first" holiday though I don't know if I count Thanksgiving since she spent that in the NICU. Anyway as usual I like to go all out! I can't help it, I love any and all holidays! Unfortunately my poor Claire Bear was sick. She has been fighting a horrible cold all week so we didn't take her out trick or treating especially since at this age it would really just be for us anyway. We spent the evening watching Halloween movies and we dressed her up in her costume to help us pass out candy to all the kids trick or treating, she loved that! All in all it was a great Halloween. I cant wait till next year since she will be walking and talking and can truly enjoy this fun holiday.

Happy Halloween from Minnie Mouse

Claire's New Ride!

The last few months especially as Claire has gotten increasingly more advanced with her developmental milestones I noticed she wasn't as happy in her infant car seat (Chicco Keyfit 30). We love her infant seat, it fit her when she was a tiny 4lb peanut and has grown with her as she has grown. But even though she is nowhere near the weight limit of her seat and had a couple of inches left height wise, she just didn't like being at such a recline anymore and didn't like not being able to look around and see out. Plus it would be much easier to get her in and out in a convertible seat.

I began my research on convertible car seats. There are so many out there on the market it can be quiet overwhelming. I made a list of requirements that I wanted in a convertible car seat; safe (of course), compact especially front to back space (I drive a Volvo S40 and Christian has a 135i), easy to install with premium LATCH connectors and good height and weight limits.

On my short list for seats to look at once I eliminated what didn't meet my criteria was the Diono Radian RXT, Graco MySize 70/Size4Me 70, First Years True Fit and Britax Roundabout 55. The Radian is a fantastic seat it has very high height and weight limits, has a steel frame and its very compact but because of the high height range the seat is very tall and it is not a user friendly install. I felt it would be to big of a seat for Claire since she is so small so I crossed it off my list. I was really leaning toward the Graco MySize 70 for awhile it also has a very high height and weight limits and it's very easy to install, but the buckle can be a bit tricky and it had big head wings. This seat also seemed like it would swallow Claire. The True Fit was a nice seat but I didn't like that it didn't have much of a base to it, it has such a recline to it I felt it wouldn't be much of a difference when rear facing than Claires infant seat. Finally the Roundabout 55 I was really surprised at just how compact this seat was, installed rear facing I was able to put my front seat back all the way. Its steel reinforced, has great side impact protection without having massive head wings, the quality of the material is amazing, very easy to install, the height and weight limits are good especially with Claire being so small, made in the USA and one of the added perks to this seat is you can buy replacement covers (with Claire's reflux this is a great feature).

After comparing all the pros and cons of each of  these seats we decided on the Britax Roundabout 55 and couldn't be happier with our decision. Oh and Claire loves it too! She looks at herself in her car mirror and chats away and I see her looking out the window all the time.

11 Months Old...Where did time go?

Happy 11 Months Claire Lucille!!! I can't believe she's been in our lives for 11 months already. Its been such an amazing 11 months. It amazes me how much love I have for her. She has been such a blessing in our lives. Her newest achievement is pulling up! She pulled up for the first time about 2 weeks ago. Every since then she tries to pull up on everything! She is started to learn to transfer her weight and walk with the help of us and her activity walker. Its amazing to see what she learns every day.

She likes Mexican food (the whole family stuffed her full of it while we were home), pulling up, her activity walker and Minnie Mouse.

She dislikes teething, bumps and bruises from learning to pull up and walk and her reflux.

Claire's Nursery

When we found out we were having a girl I was at a loss for what I wanted to do with her nursery,since about 90% of baby girls bedding sets are pink and I hate pink or at least baby pink. I don't understand why baby girl bedding sets have to be pink? I can do a little pink or even a dark pink but why does it have to look like pink threw up all over a baby girls nursery?!?! 

So I searched all over the internet to find just the right color combination. My first thought was my mom or sister could make it, but that is time consuming and if I could find one to order that would be easier on everyone. Finally after several weeks of searching I found the perfect set on Amazon (my favorite website of course). Once the bedding set was selected I started planning all the details. Unfortunately I had just got her nursery cleaned and the furniture set up when my water broke and I went into preterm labor, leaving my husband to finish the nursery for me which included picking the paint color. I have to say I think he did a great job and I love it!

The wall color is called Moonshade and we went with cherry furniture to match her cherry wood blinds. 

Her bedding is Migi Sweet Sunshine

In the beginning we did a lot of feeding here in the middle of the night. Now we love to rock and read in this cozy corner.

This is a custom canvas piece my friend made for Claire. I love it and it looks perfect in my glider corner.

Dresser and changing area. We selected a long dresser and added the changing pad. It looks great and we won't have to buy her another dresser when she doesn't need a changing table anymore.

Wooden Rocking Giraffe the sits underneath the other window. 

Her toy basket. Sits between the door to her room and her closet door. 

Claire's hair bows/flowers and head band hanger.  We hung this on her closet door. My sister made it for her. 

Please Stay Tuned...

I apologize for my recent absence. I had been trying to get a blog post done on Claire's nursery, in fact I even took the pictures already. Unfortunately about the time I was going to sit down to make the post we found out we had a death in the family and had to make an emergency trip home to California. We just got back and I promise I will get the post up this week. I hope its worth the wait and I appreciate your patience.