Claire Eleanor

Claire Eleanor was born on November 6th, weighing 7 lbs., 8 oz. and 19 inches long. She has surprisingly dark hair for how Scandinavian we are! And at first we thought her "tan" was just mild jaundice, but her darker complexion (relative to James and Christina who are porcelain white) is looking to be more permanent. 

She is a professional little nurser and now she seems to always be hungry even just 20 minutes after eating, so it seems she wants to nurse for sport and entertainment and not just nourishment. And with the Christmas season approaching I just keep thinking of the Jim Carey Grinch when he says, "Am I eating because I'm bored?!" as he stuffs screws in his mouth. Anyone else know the reference? Anyhow, at first I was pushing back against giving her a pacifier because of nipple confusion. (Which when I said this Brian thought I was joking and he couldn't believe that is a real thing!) But she does very well with a pacifier to soothe her and she has none of this mythical nipple confusion! 

The toughest part so far has been scheduling the baby girls' feedings. Christina has her tube feeding every three hours and Claire breastfeeds every three hours. Luckily my parents came to town to help out and they basically took care of most of Christina's care and tube feeding so I could rest and focus on baby Claire for the first couple weeks. It was so helpful having them here and very fun since all we did was feed babies, feed ourselves, watch HGTV and play lots of pinochle. Brian must have gotten particularity close to my parents during this trip because on their last night he asked my mom if she still ovulates. Yes, there may be some context to help explain this question, but still I found it a bold question to ask a mother-in-law!

But with them gone my life will be a bit trickier, especially when both babies want me at the same time. But I figure for the next couple weeks (or months) I will just stay in my bathrobe and occasionally venture out into the world! When Christina was born she had so many doctor appointments that forced me to get out of the house nearly every day of the week for the first couple of months. And I figured if I was getting out of the house I might as well shower, put on real clothes, do my hair and makeup since that makes me feel better anyway. I may need something like this again to force me not to be a hermit. But I'm okay being a hermit for the short-term. But if you see me in pajamas out and about come springtime, tell me this is not acceptable! The old Christina would not be impressed! 

Christina has taken some notice to Claire, especially when they are put in close proximity. Christina will crawl over to her and either kick at her or put her hand on her or sort of smack her in the face! I'm sure these are all love touches! So at this point Christina is bigger than Claire and we are mostly keeping them apart so Christina doesn't maul her sister. But soon enough Claire will be the bigger sister in size and we will have to reverse the protecting! 

James just adores Claire and can't keep away from her. He always wants to kiss her and play with her. Which is very sweet! And thankfully James hasn't had any jealousy issues since Claire was born. He is actually quite helpful to me! Some ways he helps is by fetching things for me, singing to one of the crying babies, and putting a pacy back in Claire's mouth. Without James my day would be much harder and much more boring!

Welcome to our family little Claire!