Claire at 3 and 4 months

First let me just say I am so behind! AHH! If you are one of my faithful blog readers, hang in there. I am going to be doing about four posts in a row in the next week to catch up from November till now.

Claire is now four months old as of today! I am aware of just how much Claire has grown when I see Hannah Beth and how little she is right now. Claire seems so big sitting next to her and they are just three months apart. Claire turned three months old on the same day that Lindsey passed away, so I never got around to doing her three month write up. So I am including pictures of both months.  We do not go to the doctor for her four month stats for a couple of weeks. I will let you know when I get that information.

Claire at Thanksgiving. This was a couple of  weeks before she turned 3 months old. This is when we were really starting to see her big smile.

Claire at three months. Again you can see the big smile coming out. At 3 months we could see her starting to swat more at toys and starting to get more head control to sit up in the Bumbo seat. At 3 months Claire did not have much consistency with her sleeping. The only consistent thing was that she would be awake 1-2 hours before going back to sleep. She also was wanting to nurse every 2-3 hours during the day. Then she would go down for the night between 10:30-11:30 pm and usually sleep till around 7:00 am. 

Claire hanging out with Mommy while the girls put ornaments on the Christmas tree.

Claire on Christmas Eve at my parent's house. Sorry Claire, we did not realize your headband had fallen over your eyes! So funny, though!

That is much better.

Santa brought Claire some toys at Nana and Papa's house. She is so excited!

Papa and Claire

Claire and Hannah having their first Christmas together. 

Ian and Claire.

Christmas Day in Abilene. Claire getting some special time with Mom Mom.

Claire loved the presents she got in Abilene, too. This is a typical spot for her at Mom Mom and Dad Dad's house. We noticed at Thanksgiving that she loves to be sitting there so she can look up at the fan. She just smiles and coos at the fan like it is her best friend. We liked making jokes about her being happy because she was playing with her best friend, the fan.

Kate loves to hold her baby sister!

Christmas in Plano. We got family stockings this year now that our family is complete.  Love, love, love these sweet girls!

She likes her stocking!

Claire's first Christmas. What a treasure.

Zack was making Claire laugh. She was enjoying some special time with her Daddy.

Claire enjoying some tummy time on New Year's Day.

Look at that face! As you can see she is not a huge fan of tummy time. It is very short lived.

Hannah and Claire in matching outfits. It won't be long before we see Hannah's big dimple smile. I can't wait to see that!

Sorry girls, but this never gets old. I love these cupcake outfits! Claire loves to do this with her hands! She is always grabbing at her hands or putting them in her mouth. It cracks me up!

Here she is today at 4 months old.

I love her big, open mouth smile!

Claire has really been changing over the past couple of weeks. She is grabbing a lot more at things. She now doesn't like to just be put down some place for awhile. She wants to interact with people and talk. She has gotten really loud the past couple of weeks, too. She will make loud coos or squeals to get your attention whether she is happy or upset. She now will interact with people a lot more and will laugh and smile constantly. At first we wondered if she was going to be our quiet one, but I don't think so. She is already learning that she has to have a voice around her if she wants to be heard!  She has been drooling a lot more and will chew on her hands frequently. We are wondering if she is teething. Kate got her teeth really early and Carly got her teeth fairly early, so we would not be surprised. Over the Christmas break Claire started having more trouble going to sleep at night, so I knew it was time to start getting her on a schedule. She was past the stage of just being able to go right to sleep after nursing. I am still trying to figure out her new schedule but over the past week we have been getting her to bed between 9-10:00. That is with her taking about three naps a day. I am trying to figure out her natural schedule of when she is falling asleep and kind of then plan for her to nap around those times. Some times her naps are in the carseat, some times the swing and some times her bed. I have to allow some flexibility with her schedule because Kate and Carly really like to have outings in the day. The down side with her going to bed earlier is that she is now waking up for a middle of the night feeding. However, Carly did the same thing and at their age that is to be expected. I have read that they are more ready to be on a schedule between 4-6 months, so I am now at a point where I think we are both ready for it. I honestly enjoy the first couple of months when they are sleeping on your chest while watching TV at night and they just nurse and go back to sleep and still sleep through the night. Those first few months are such a treasure. Especially, when it was the only time I had with just her in the day. I really did not want to rush putting her on a schedule. It is only because it is now becoming a problem that I feel like we need to. I am also wanting to get in bed earlier. This is how she is sleeping right now. She will wake up between 7-8:00 am for a feeding. Go right back to sleep or be awake for about an hour and then go back to sleep. Around 10 or 11:00 pm she will have a nap for an hour-two hours. She will usually take a nap some time around 2:00 or 3:00 pm again for an hour or two hours. She then likes to take a short nap around dinner time for 30 minutes and sometimes and hour. This is usually around 5-6:00 pm. Then, she goes to sleep between 8:30-9:30 and may wake up shortly afterwards for a cluster feeding. I also have to go in her room at times to just put the pacifier in her mouth and then she will fall back asleep. She does not have to have it in her mouth all night long, but usually until she gets in a deep sleep. She will wake up in the middle of the night usually around 2:00 am and sometimes again around 6:00 for a feeding and then go back to sleep before the next feeding to start the day. It is not perfect but we are tweaking it. I am just glad to be getting in bed at a reasonable hour.
Claire has such a sweet and smiley disposition. She loves to coo and talk with you with a big smile on her face. She is really ticklish and we can get big laughs out of her doing that. She smiles so big at Carly and Kate. Claire does not seem to get bothered with how rough Carly loves on her, either. There have been a couple of times that Carly has caused Claire to cry, but usually it is from Carly just trying too hard to get her attention. Claire has lost a lot of her initial hair and has a bald spot on the back of her head from laying on her back so much. I don't think she is going to be a tummy sleeper like her sisters. She only likes tummy time for a very short time period before she starts crying. She enjoys looking at her mobile in her bed. Just this week I started putting her in the Baby Bjorn so I could get more stuff done. I had tried it when she was a little younger and she did not like it at all. Now that she has more head control she likes it. This is another way that she has changed. She use to be able to sit for a long time in the swing or her play mat, but now she wants to be with us. Kate and Carly never really liked the Baby Bjorn but Claire seems to be liking it, especially when she is facing out so she can see everything. Claire also doesn't fuss about baths. She will just lay there and stay perfectly calm the whole time. Such a great baby!
She is wearing 3-6 month clothes but I don't think it will be much longer before she is wearing 6-9 months. She is already in size 2 diapers, but they usually stay in those for awhile. She will sometimes go a couple of days without having a poopy diaper and then it is like she comes unplugged and we will have huge blowouts for a couple of days. She can get fussy if she needs to burp or has gas like most babies. Some times it will keep her up. She is inconsistent with the spitting up. Some times she will spit up quite a bit and other times none at all.  I still feel like I need to allow plenty of time after nursing to make sure that she doesn't need to burp. She still takes the pacifier really well. Unfortunately, she has not been so interested in the bottle. I tried one brand of formula and she did not like it at all. I really do not have hardly any stored milk, so I would prefer her to get use to some formula. Just so Zack can give her a bottle if I am away without me stressing about pumping. That is something else I am going to try to work on in the coming month. Zack and I really wanted to go on a date over Christmas break, so we took her with us since she would not take a bottle. We had a babysitter watch Kate and Carly. We went to Olive Garden and to see Les Miserables. She did awesome in Olive Garden, but struggled a little in Les Miserables. Luckily, the theater was pretty bare. I didn't want her distracting other people so when she started fussing I took her off to the side until she fell asleep. I never realized how loud the movies were until trying to have a baby with me. It did some exceptionally loud, though. If I didn't have Claire I would have loved it! Zack and I both really love the musical, so we both really enjoyed the movie. We had a great date night even with a baby. Plus, it is not very often that Claire has time with just us away from the girls.
Overall, I just love her age. It is such a fun age. At this age they become a little more predictable and their personality really comes out. Her big smile just melts everybody's hearts. We are so blessed.
Stay tuned for some more posts about Thanksgiving and Christmas soon!