Clara Randolph is Two Months Old!

The last month has flown by (or maybe it just seems that way since my one month blog post was about two weeks late)!  Clara's little personality is really starting to come out.  She has started smiling socially now and it's really stinking cute (pictures to follow).  She enjoys eating but only straight from the tap.  We've been trying to do the bottle thing for the last week or so and she is not a fan at all.  I go back to work in about three weeks so we're pretty stressed about that. Ughhh!  She's also still a pretty big fan of sleeping, especially in Mommy's arms or being worn in the ring sling or Moby wrap on Mommy (she's a pretty big fan of any and all things that have to do with Mommy).  She's not the biggest fan of Daddy (something else we're stressed about with me returning to work soon).  When I'm wearing her, she likes to hang on to my shirt and I just think it's so darn cute.

In just the past few nights, I've started trying to get her to sleep in the Pack n Play in our room for short periods and she's done better than I expected.  She's fallen asleep on her own in the PnP on at least three of the nights and she's stayed asleep for three hours on two occasions and last night, she slept for five hours straight!  This all gives me hope that Jeff may survive when I go back to work!  And that we won't be as sleep deprived as we always have been with Eden (who still wakes up at least once a night on most nights).

Clara is very healthy although we have dealt with some (what we think is normal) gas issues.  Her pooping slowed down to once every 2-4 days and she seemed pretty uncomfortable on many evenings and especially in the car at times.  I started giving her a probiotic called Gerber Soothe probiotic drops about a week ago and she's been going poop MUCH more often (at least once a day) and seems a lot less gassy already.  She also hasn't had any screaming fits in the car *knock on wood.*  I don't have any concrete stats on her right now since she hasn't been weighed since her one month check up.  I know she weighs over 11 lbs and she is a long girl.  She has a big head like the rest of our family but probably not quite as big as her sister's.  She's been rocking some pretty cute bows in that head and still sports some really cute hair all the time.  Haha.  She's pretty solidly in 3 month clothing and is transitioning to size 2 diapers after having lots of leaks, especially after not getting a diaper change through the night. She just started rolling from her belly to her back during tummy time.

World Breastfeeding Week 2016

Happy World Breastfeeding Week!  Today marks 945 days that I have been breastfeeding.  Needless to say, there isn't much I haven't experienced.  Low supply, clogged ducts, mastitis, sore nipples, nipple trauma, tongue tie, nursing strikes, growth spurts, pumping, nursing and returning to work, nursing a toddler, nursing in public, nursing during pregnancy, tandem nursing a toddler and an infant, oversupply, overactive letdown, engorgement, etc., etc., etc.  You can read about my early breastfeeding days and the obstacles Eden and I overcame here and here.  As you can imagine, there have been many ups and downs, good days and bad days, rewards and sacrifices…but I wouldn't change a thing.  And I'm so very thankful for breastfeeding and what it has done for me.

When I first went to the amazing International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) who grew to be like family and played a vital role in saving me and Eden's breastfeeding relationship, she told me to take lots of pictures of me nursing Eden.  I thought that was strange and didn't really take her advice to heart.  Over two years later and I see what she meant.  And I wish I had more pictures of me nursing Eden when she was an infant.  I take pictures of her nursing now any time I can because you never know when it'll be her last time.  I don't think she's anywhere close to weaning (and I plan to let her wean herself when she's ready) but you just never know.  I don't have many pictures of me nursing both girls because 1. I try not to nurse them both at the same time any more than I absolutely have to and 2. It's really impossible to take a selfie of all three of us (until Jeff gets me a selfie stick like he says he will).  Here are a few pictures I've taken recently.