I Remember When...

I was looking back at some of Claire's baby pictures and it brought back some great memories, like...

We were out and about and Miss Claire got hungry.  Instead of hightailing it back home like I did the first few weeks of her life, I sat in the backseat of the car, nursed her, then passed her up front to Daddy to get changed.  Note the strategically placed Coke bottle and wallet, meant to keep her from doing a big old face-plant into the back of the seat!

After 6 weeks of not sleeping and a very colicky baby, I was getting desperate.  I had read about slings and baby-wearing, so I decided to give it a try.  I drove (by myself with Claire!) up to Rochester and bought the sling.  The first time we tried it she slept for 2 hours straight and I got a nice little break.  Needless to say, she spent a lot of time in there from then on.  It makes sense that babies love to be "worn"...they spend those first nine months all warm and protected on the inside, can you imagine how scary it is on the outside?  And then we expect them to be okay with us putting them down, when really, all they want is to be close!  Claire was much happier snuggled up next to Mama.

 

Meeting her cousin Natalie for the first time!

I remember this day so clearly.  It was our first big outing without Daddy, but JoJo did come with us to help!  We went to Eastview Mall and walked around and did a little shopping.  We bought Claire some cute summer dresses.  She did really well, though we did spend an awfully long time in the Mothercare room, since she wanted to nurse for an extra long time and I was not so comfortable with the whole nursing in public thing back then!  This picture says, "Whew!  We survived!  We had fun and we can definitely do it again!"

This picture is just so telling of Claire as a baby.  She was constantly on edge.  She never relaxed, not even when she was sleeping!

One of my all-time favorite pictures of Claire.  We were all ready to go for our first walk outside with the stroller and it was gorgeous out.  This was one of those times when I realized that I never have to feel lonely because I always have my little built-in friend by my side!  And seriously, how cute is this baby??

I love this little smirk and the way she was pointing at me.  She was getting to be so expressive!  Shortly after this picture was taken I had to go back to work.  It was heartbreaking to leave her every day.  As hard as it was to take care of her, what with the incessant crying, it made me so incredibly sad to leave her every day.  I constantly felt like a terrible mother, but not working was just not an option.  I put this picture on my desk at work and when I felt sad and missed Claire, that beautiful face always made me smile and got me through my day.  I still have this picture, tucked away in my desk, and although it's been replaced with newer photos, I still look at it every now and then to remind me of those baby days!

Well, what do we have here?  It looks like someone found her hand!

And just for fun, a very rare picture of Mommy and Daddy out having fun (at Uncle Matthew and Aunt Alexe's wedding!)