Claire Louise Thompson

She is here at last. She came on September 15, 2010 at 10:34 a.m, at St. Joseph Medical Center, weighing 10 lbs, 3.8 oz and measuring at 21" long. More on the birth and labor story later. For now I'm happy to report that it's been a bit day in the Thompson household, and a big day for Miss Claire-bear.

We've been getting to know her bit by bit, and today, we learned a very valuable lesson: she does not have to eat once an hour, that's silly. Mostly when she fusses once an hour, she just needs to be bounced, jiggled or rocked, and would prefer to have that accompanied by either a loud crashing train outside, a hairdryer running, static on the radio, or our obnoxiously loud dishwasher running. I've always hated this dishwasher, until today. It's been a rough go of it nursing-wise trying to sooth her by feeding once an hour (you can imagine what happens to my feeding anatomy under that kind of work schedule, so I'll remain decent and not go into detail about it). Now that we've learned some other techniques for soothing (and learned when we need to use them--thanks Mom), we are no longer dealing with both a crying Claire AND a crying mommy (me).

We had our first pediatrician appointment on Saturday morning (two days ago), which went splendidly. She weighed in at 9 lbs, 10 oz, which is a net loss of only 9 oz. She has no jaundice, and they let us go at the end of the appointment with absolutely no concerns for her. We go back on September 29th for Claire's 2 week physical and parenting class. We are really looking forward to the classes offered for free at Union Avenue Pediatrics, and have heard that it's a wonderful way to meet other families with babies the same age as our Claire.

She also had her first day with more quiet, alert wakefulness today. It was so fun to see her awake and calm looking all around and taking in her world. Her big blue eyes were tracking Luke across the kitchen as he put the dishes away, and would turn in my direction each time I spoke.

We also went on our first walk as a family. I'm not technically supposed to be doing any walking until my 2 week postpartum appointment, but it felt so good to get outside in the fresh air. We mainly stuck to the walk-way behind the building and did a loop around the Museum of Glass. We got a couple of great pictures by the glass sculpture, and Claire loved being outside, especially when we came back around the front of our building to head in and a long coal train came cruising by. They even spoiled her by blowing the horn nice and loud (she didn't even flinch!) I did okay with the walk, as my recovery is going well, and luckily, a stroller operates pretty much as a walker would, so I got the little extra support that I needed to make our jaunt enjoyable and pleasant. Still, I was feeling sore and a little winded (gasp!) by the time we were done, and I dream of the future when I'll be back to jogging again. I'd like to walk as a family in the 2010 Pierce County Hunger Walk (it's only a 5K), so I'm hoping that I'll be up to that by October 3rd. Seeing as how that is only a couple of weeks away, it could be a challenge--but it's good to set short-term goals, right? Right.

For now, my short-term goals for the rest of the day include: taking a nap (which will happen in about 3 minutes), eating a full meal tonight, paying the bills and FINALLY finding time to paint my toenails, which I haven't been able to do for myself in a couple of months.

Congratulations to us; here's to Claire Louise who has changed our lives and taught us so much already.