Clara's Life and Times

I wrote this for Matt's parents for when they would be watching Clara while I am at the Ozarks:

Clara’s Life and Times

Her basic schedule:
Below is Clara’s basic schedule. Rule #1 for her schedule, she does not really follow a schedule  but this is basically what happens everyday. Our days are rather fluid except on days when we have a class or something.

Around 5 AM: Clara wakes up once before she actually wakes up for the day. If you try and keep her up at this time, she gets very cranky so do your best not to actually wake her up very much or stimulate her enough where she cannot go back to bed. This includes talking or changing her diaper. Try giving her a bottle at this time, though I think a small one is all she needs because she just needs to be lulled back asleep again.

7-8 AM: Clara will wake up for the day. This is pretty much her happy time except if she wakes up on the wrong side of the crib. She LOVES to play. Matt knows ALL of her favorite toys.

About half an hour after waking up, changing her diaper, and playing in her pajamas, it is breakfast time!

Breakfast: Clara tends to not eat very much at breakfast. I usually make a small amount of cereal (see “Making Food” below) and some sort of fruit mixture. If it is a #1 container, I will make about half. If it is a #2 container, 1/3 will be fine. It is perfectly normal for you to make breakfast and she will refuse to eat ANY of it. Serve breakfast with water. Sometimes when she is eating, she gets thirsty and won’t eat until you give her some water. She prefers her water cold. While feeding her don’t let her get the spoon until the end of the meal or you will never get it back and it will cause a meltdown. Don’t forget to do the “EAT” symbol (see Matt for this) and “ALL DONE” when it is complete and before you take her out.

After Breakfast until first nap: Play, play, play (oh and change a poopy diaper, if it does not occur first thing, it usually hits between breakfast and her first nap).

Recently, Clara has not been taking her first nap ever since she has been sick. Not sure what that means for you guys! She has been going down for a nap at around 1 or so. And only take that one nap which means she is SUPER tired at bedtime and I have been moving everything up about half an hour because of it.

8:30 or 9 to 10 or 11 - First Nap: She takes her first nap EARLY. Signs of an impending nap are loud whining, clinginess, random outburst of crying, rubbing her eyes or scratching the hair around her ear. Give her a bottle before her nap in her room. The glider is perfect for it! If she is not too tired, I like to read her a book or two before feeding. If you are lucky, she will sleep for a while and you can clean up the mess she made at breakfast . (See “Putting Clara to Sleep”)

After her nap: Change her diaper and play play play! (See “Playing with Clara”)

Snack: Sometime after this nap and before her second one, if you want, go ahead and giver her a snack. This is a perfect finger food time. But not necessary. (Though is she is not taking a bottle well, it might not be a bad idea to get more nutrients in her)

1-3 – Second Nap: Her second nap is basically when she gets tired. It is all based on how well she slept for her first nap and activities that you guys did after her first one. For example, being outside totally wipes her out and she will sleep long and hard after that. This nap usually does not last very long. Feed her before you put her to bed.

After her nap: Change her diaper and play play play!

5:30- Dinner time! Clara eats more at dinner than she does at breakfast. We usually give her one or two veggies. I usually make more cereal and a little more veggies.

6-ish – Once she is done with dinner, we usually play a little in her room and then prepare her for bed. That takes a while because she LOVES her bath and one of her favorite things to do is play in her room. Matt very capable doing the bedtime routine so I won’t bother writing it down though some things Matt forgets:
1) Lotion her up after the bath
2) Vitamin her up – give her the TriViSol (the PolyViSol tastes HORRIBLE and she gags). .5 is OK. Keep a wash cloth handy to wipe her mouth!
3) Wipe well in all her fat crevices or else it will get irritated and bleed. Wipe under her chin (get in there good), behind her knees, in her folds near her private parts, and under her armpits. Those are notorious for holding water in there and getting irritated.
4) Brush her hair
5) Dump the tub water out of the duck so the toys don’t get mildewy and slimy
6) Brush her teeth with the toothbrush that has the little plastic bristles. It really does not do much but get her used to the idea of brushing her teeth.
After she is ready for bed, read her the Quack Quack book and any others. The Quack Quack one is her absolute favorite.
Oh, and lots of kisses and remind her how much her mommy misses her and is thinking about her every second of the day (with a margarita in her hand). Feed her before you put her down.

Bedtime is normally 7 PM. After that, you really should not hear from her. Sometimes she might cry in the middle of the night but we are trying to ignore her (as the doctor has stated would be best). If she gets SUPER upset, of course go in there and feed her before you put her down).

Lately, since Clara can stand in her crib now, we have actually had to keep her up a little later to calm her down and allow her to fall back asleep without getting too upset.






Putting Clara to Sleep
Oh this one is going to be a challenge! Here are some tips and pointers. Normally, I nurse Clara until she is at least calm from playing and then I put her down awake. This usually works out for me especially for her morning nap and going down for the evening. Sometimes she will cry when I put her down, but then after crying for about 5 minutes or less, she will just simply start to moan. Moaning usually leads to sleep, even if she moans for half an hour. It is important that she know how to put herself to sleep. So for example if she cries out at first when you put her down, that is OK. Give her time to calm herself down. However, there are always exceptions to the rule. I don’t like to leave her up there when she is crying so hard she is gasping for breath. If that occurs, we normally pick her up and walk her around to calm her down and then start the process all over again. Matt usually has some success walking her around on his shoulder until she is asleep. Clara likes to sleep with something in her crib, particularly the crocheted blanket I made her or the ducky cloth that you guys gave her. She likes to grab onto it when she is asleep and it comforts her. Since it can be warm, we usually leave the fan on the second option when we put her down and I check on her in the evening, I turn it down to the third option. Her room is the warmest one in the house.

Making Food
To make Clara’s cereal, we either give her the rice or oatmeal. I end to give her the oatmeal one because the giving her rice too many times in a row causes her to become stopped up a little. I usually wet the cereal enough where it is the same consistency as the food in the jars. She does not like it when it is too pasty. For the veggies or fruits, I usually give her about a third of the 2 level food or a half of the 1 level food for breakfast and a little more than for dinner. To warm up her food, hit the power button until the power is at 40. I normally start with 10 seconds and then take out the oatmeal and continue warming up the other food at 40 power for 5 more seconds until it is complete. If it is in the fridge, it might take one or two more 5 second intervals. Mix it up in between so it does not get too hot! I usually taste it before I give it to her to make sure it is not too hot. Don’t forget to put a bib on her. Clara likes to feed herself sometimes. When she is like that, I use the little dipper to feed her instead. Or, you can put a piece of fruit (but not strawberries since they are high on the allergen list) in the little mesh bag. I mash up the fruit a little bit before I give it to her. Good luck taking it away though . While we feed her, give her water. Sometimes she gets too excited about the water and drinks to much so I usually take it away before she is actually done. For finger good, you can give her the veggie puffs or Cheerios. Because we are ultra paranoid, we still cut it up into little pieces. She is still trying to figure out the pincer grasp so give her some pieces so she does not get too frustrated.

I organized Clara’s pantry shelf for you guys. All the ones in the front are sort of random. The ones on the rotating shelf from top to bottom are breakfast, dinner and dinner/meat options. The meat ones are sort of touch and go at this point. You can give it to her but her poop schedule is a little questionable after that because her body is still trying to sort out the whole carnivorous aspect of her diet. Use at your own risk…

Don’t forget to put a bib on Clara. Normally I put a pile of them in the shelf in the family room because I am always forgetting to grab one upstairs.



Playing with Clara
Clara loves to play! She certainly has her favorite toys. They include Checkers, MoJo the Monkey, Forbin the Bear, the foam fish, turtle, ladybug, etc, her cups (or any cup or bottle for that matter), the Discovery ball, and her telephone. I am sure Matt can point out many more.

Tips on giving Clara a bottle
The nanny, Carrie, has been working on giving Clara a bottle for two weeks. She has had some success with the Dr. Browns bottles. They are different than the Avent bottles in that they do not allow a lot of air out and allows the baby to eat without getting too much gas. (FYI, burping Clara rarely works). There are many pieces to the Dr. Browns bottle (the bottle, the tube with a larger area, the beige piece that fits on the tub, the nipple and the cap to hold the nipple on). It will not work without all those pieces. I have a lot of milk stored in the freezer. They are in 3 oz bags. Warm the milk in warm water as you did for Evelyn way back when.
Carrie says that Clara takes her sweet time drinking from the bottle and she prefers it warm, which might mean that you need to warm it a few times before she finishes. If that does not work, Clara does drink from a sippy cup VERY well so if you need to feed her the milk that way, that should be OK. Though be warned, it will be ALL over her (and possibly you).

A note on the formula: I bought the premixed kind since I know about your fears of mixing formula. Just kidding, I know it can be a pain and much easier to have it all ready! Anyway, they suggest to make sure that she gets some breastmilk each day is a better approach at using all the breastmilk first and then moving to formula. So whatever works, at least try and give some breastmilk and then some formula. They say not to mix it either. (And P.S. by they, I mean the academy of pediatrics guide book (the purple and white one), I will leave it out for you guys as some good cereal reading). Since we have not really been giving her formula (she started on it a week ago, it was the first time she had it since she was a day old!) yet, I was not sure what kind to buy. Buying the one with iron in it made me nervous because it can make her backed up and a backed up baby is not always a happy baby. But the whole formula aisle was a little intimidating and I just got some random things but they did not have much of a choice of the premade kind. I did even know what brand to get! So I got the brand Evelyn drinks and sees to enjoy! In general, formula seems to confuse Clara a bit but hopefully she will get it. If anything comes out of this experience, it will be VERY nice if Clara learns to take a bottle because it would make life a little easier . It has been a little TOO long now, her being dependant on my body so much!











Going to the pool
Clara loves the pool so enjoy! Here is a list of things I normally pack to bring with us to the pool:
1. Sippy cup full of water and ice
2. Her swimming hat (make sure she wears it, it is hard to get it on sometimes so basically give her a distraction and put the cap on when she is busy with something else)
3. Extra suntan lotion (don’t forget to grease her up before you even head out!)
4. Towel
5. Extra swim diaper
6. Regular diaper
7. Lotion
8. A comfy outfit for after the pool
9. Swim shoes
Before you leave the pool, I normally change her diaper to a regular one and put on her clothes since she falls asleep in the car so it is much easier to get her down for a nap when you get home if you don’t have to change her clothes. Also, don’t forget to put lotion on her before you cloth her so her skin does not get too dry. Also make sure you bath her that evening.

Sign Language
Matt knows the words we are working on. We have had some success with it but she is still a bit young to be communicating back. They say it could take months for a sign to even come from her but she has done it in the past! We do: Eat, More, All Done, Kitty and Milk. See Diagram Matt for this 

Clara’s Closet
For the most part, her closet is pretty organized. All the clothes that she currently wears (she is in 6-9 comfortably and 12 months are a little large but she wears them anyway). In the middle are the two tiers. On the top of the two tiers are Clara’s sweaters and long sleeved tops to the left and to the right are all her fancy dresses. On the bottom are Clara’s clothes for everyday. Most of the outfits are paired together on a hanger. To the left of the tiers are Clara’s PJs. To the right are the clothes that are still tagged and either have not been washed yet or are too big for her.

Clara’s t-shirts, burp clothes, socks, bibs and shoes are all in the wardrobe. Blankets and towels (middle) are all in the dresser where the changing pad was. All extra sheets and covers for the boppy or changing pad are under the crib.











Random Important notes
1. Be sure if you go out, especially on a hot sunny day, even if you are just going to hope in and out of the car, that you put suntan lotion on her. And a lot of it. She tans through 50 SPF so I can’t even imagine how dark she would get without it!
2. Wherever you go, bring a sippy cup of water and ice with you since she gets thirsty, thirsty, thirsty.
3. Make sure you put a hat on her if it is really sunny out. Basically, if you are wearing sunglasses, she needs to wear a hat.
4. Please don’t over dress her. One of the easiest things that can happen is overheating in the summer.
5. Please change her diaper on the floor. We have stopped using the changing pad since she really tries to get away now when you are changing her diaper.
6. We have a bag of safety items we have been slowly installing. They are on the shelf in the family room. Feel free to go wild especially if you see her getting into something. We are still in the process of babyproofing the house so any help would be great.
7. There is an additional pack and play in our bedroom. So if you want to make a playpen somewhere else, that might be useful.
8. I bought a drying rack for the bottles but it has not been opened yet. It is in the cupboard with all the bottles. Enjoy.
9. Sanitizing bottles. Make sure you do so before you use them. There is a microwave thing you can use. It is circular and in the cabinet where the formula is. Add 6 oz of water and microwave for 4 minutes. Leave in microwave for 2 minutes and then they are sanitized.
10. Emergency numbers are
a. Clara’s doctor: Dr. David Schwartz 630.289.8800 and his emergency line 630.289.8801
b. The rest of the numbers are by my work phone in the basement.