Happy 1 Month Birthday Claire Bear!

I can't believe Claire is already a month old! I thought time was flying while I was pregnant - it seems to have only gone faster since she's been here. We had a wonderful 3 weeks together as a family while Scott was on paternity leave and this last week I've been going it alone, which hasn't been so bad. I think it's funny what a little perspective does, because I catch myself repeatedly saying to myself "Why did I think it was so hard with just Kaitlin?" I have a theory that second children are easier because the parents are more relaxed, thereby making the babies more relaxed, and this is certainly true for Claire. I just remember a lot more crying and a lot more walking around in the wee hours soothing an upset baby. I basically wear Claire all day in the Baby Bjorn and she's as content as she can be in there. At night I feed her and she goes right back to sleep on her own, something I never remember happening with Kaitlin. Maybe it's still early yet? I forget the timeline so I'm sure as soon as I post this she will turn the corner and start up with some fiery antics like her sister. But either way, we've had a great first month getting to know each other. Some things I wanted to note:

• She loves her bath. Loves to have the water pour over her and loves to have her hair washed.
• My mom discovered that she loves to have her feet rubbed. She just looks at you and immediately relaxes if she is starting to get fussy. In fact tonight I did it and she fell asleep in less than a minute.
• She loves to watch Kaitlin. She does NOT love to have her diaper changed, so while she is fussing about that I will ask K to come in and entertain her, and it never fails that she calms down and turns towards her.
• She seems to have a bit more sensitive tummy than Kaitlin did. She doesn't spit up alot, but there is definitely a lot of times that milk comes back up and she just swallows it back down, and it upsets her. It seems to be better when I feed her in a more upright manner though, so we're working on doing that. Stinks for middle of the night feedings b/c I can't just lay down with her and go back to sleep like I did with K, gotta sit up. I guess that's the tradeoff for her going right back down after I feed her though.
• She takes a pacifier! And a bottle! Halleiuiah!
• I haven't been successful at putting her down during the day, hence the Baby Bjorn. She just wants to be close to the action I guess, because I have maybe 10 minutes max if I put her down (even swaddled). I don't mind it except for the fact that it sometimes impedes play with Kaitlin, and again I'll take this with the sweet nighttime routine we have at the moment.
  

Overall I really just feel like she is a laid back, content baby. Maybe I'm just remembering the hard parts about Kaitlin and comparing them with the easy parts of Claire, who knows. I think the biggest difference is that for some reason with Kaitlin, it never struck me to back up and look and see that "This too shall pass." I felt like it was my full-time job to make sure she never cried, and that every obstacle was the end-all. Like if she didn't sleep well one night that "Oh my gosh, she's not going to sleep well ever again and she's going to be so cranky from now on and I might as well just get used to getting up every hour." Now I know that both the good times and bad will come and go, so don't get caught up in it. Babies cry and they do survive. So Claire, I'm sorry, you're probably going to have to endure a bit more crying than your sister did, but know that we love you just the same.