Clara Four Months

Baby Clara turned four months old on Saturday and as you can see she's as cute as ever - (I totally should have brushed her hair some more before the pictures, but I only have a very short window to take them as you can see from below.) 

^^That was an outfit Amélie chose herself. 

I haven't been to get Clara weighed this month, but I'm pretty sure she's growing just fine as you tell from the developing chubbiness. Lately, she has become so active. She's always rolling from her back to her belly whenever I put her on the ground. She tries to twist and turn out of her bed and bouncy chair and just doesn't want to be in one place for too long. She can grab her toys now and plays with rattles and other easy to grab things. She always puts everything in her mouth - the opposite of Amelie who never put anything in her mouth as a baby. I think weaning with Clara will be a bit easier since she's so willing to taste everything. We won't officially try weaning until she's six months, but I'm hoping it will be a faster process than with Amelie. 

Clara is still breastfeeding in a similar pattern to last month, she usually stretches to every 3 hours during the day. She's been sleeping mainly 7pm-7am with a feed or two in between. Nap times have become shorter lately and usually don't last more than an hour, but she still has at least 3 naps during the day. She's been much better than Amelie at this age with going to sleep on her own. I used to feed or rock Amelie to sleep, but with Clara I can usually put her down and she'll soothe herself to sleep by sucking on her fingers. I bet she would love a pacifier, but I don't want to deal with breaking the habit later on. 

Other than that, Clara is still a good little baby, but I can tell she needs more and more attention now as she wants to play and is always trying to escape from where I put her down. She still likes being in baby K'tan or my Solly baby wrap, but just not for as long periods of time as when she was a newborn. We're looking forward to the Christmas break and doing lots of fun activities soon!   

                                         

Amélie 2.5 Years Old

Amélie is my big girl now. She amazes me every day with how much she learns and with her great memory. Since Clara was born, she seems so much more grown up to me and she's only 2.5 years old.  I think it has a lot to do with how much she can say. Her English accent and expressions are adorable and sometimes she says the most random and funny things ("Mummy, shall we play now?", "That sounds like great fun"). She's definitely had a growth spurt in the past couple of months or so, going up a couple shoe sizes and needing lots of new clothes.

She's becoming my little sidekick and absolutely loves helping and getting involved in anything I do. We love having chats about our day before bedtime and even watch Full House together. Our thing lately has been cooking together. She'll climb up onto her stepstool and help me wash vegetables and mix ingredients. We love making pancakes in the morning and muffins from time to time. Mealtimes are a struggle sometimes, but keeping her entertained and having at least one thing she likes helps.  She loves imaginative playing - doctor and an airplane ride are a couple of favorites. Most recently, she's mastered going on Andrea's tablet and playing toddler animal puzzles (by herself). It's incredible how fast she's picking up technology and probably knows how to use my iPhone better than some adults :)

Amélie is the best big sister. She is so excited when Clara wakes up in the morning and we both go to her to give her kisses. The other day, I caught Amélie caressing Clara's face and giving her a cuddle when I left the room for a minute. It was the sweetest because it was unprompted, just sisterly love. There are moments she tells Clara to stop pulling her hair or doesn't want to share her toys plus she'll ask me put the baby down if she wants a cuddle instead.

The classic toddler tantrum happens from time to time and it makes me want to pull my hair out, but we survive using different strategies (either leaving the room and waiting for her to finish or distracting with something else). I can see how the term threenager has come to be and am so looking forward it to be over.

In September, Amélie started going to preschool three morning a week and in the past month is now loving it. It took her a while to get adjusted and she's quickly making friends and looks forward to going to school. With that and the new addition of a little sister, there has been a little bit of a regression in potty training recently and I really hope it will pass soon.  It mainly happens if she's very distracted and so into playing that she kind of forgets to go, but it's been happening more frequently than once in a while so we've been using stickers for encouragement and reminding her tons.

I feel like I can write tons and tons more on how Amélie has grown, but I'll call it a night and leave you with a few pictures instead.

                                                                  

Clara Three Months

Clara is three months old today and I can't believe she's not a little newborn baby anymore. She's been such a a good baby especially this past week when she's slept through the night (9pm-7am) a few days in a row without waking up at all. She's started to wake up again once for a feed, but it's usually pretty quick and she'all go right back to sleep.

She's still feeding about 2-3 hours during the day, but not cluster feeding as much in the evening. She's 5.55 kilos and right below the 50th percentile for her weight. I thought about pumping and giving her a bottle with breastmilk in the beginning, but now I've decided I can't be bothered so exclusive breastfeeding it is!

When she was about 2 months Clara rolled over from her front to her back and this past week, she's done the more difficult manoeuvre of rolling from her back to her front. She's also cooing and babbling a lot plus the most smiley in the morning. She loved playing peekaboo just before bedtime today, I haven't seen her smile/laugh so much!

Amélie continues to be very sweet with her. Today she called her gorgeous and then said, "hello, my precious little baby Clara." Sometimes she'll tell me to put the baby down when she wants to be cuddled, but that's usually around nap/bedtimes or when she's particularly cranky.

We have an exciting weekend ahead with the family in London for Maria's wedding. Then we are looking forward to a couple quiet weekends before Thanksgiving!

Happy 3 months baby Clara.

Clara Two Months

Clara is already two months old and is getting cuter by the minute. I'm feeling much more like a normal person these days by getting more sleep and having more of a routine down. Amélie has started going to preschool three mornings a week which also helps me tremendously.

Clara is such a good little baby. She's grown so much in such a small amount of time (4.9 kilos) and she is long outgrown her newborn clothes and even on to some 6 month clothes.

Breastfeeding is still going well and she continues to feed every 2-3 hours during the day. She's down for the night around 9-10pm and will usually only wake up once in the night for a quick diaper change and feed until she's up for the day around 7. With Amélie I was so worried about a schedule, but Clara just follows along with Amelie's that it all kind of works out.

She's started smiling though it takes some work! She doesn't give out those smiles easily, but when she does it's just the best. I mean, look at the first pic - those eyebrows and that serious face!

Amélie is still very sweet with Clara, but is now asking me for more and more cuddles plus asking me to put the baby down when she needs me. I feel like one of them is always waiting for my attention and I can say that most of my meals are eaten in 5 minutes, standing up. Despite this, I'm much more relaxed about everything this time around. I don't freak out as much if one is crying, breastfeeding in public isn't a huge deal anymore plus I just know that it will all be fine sans worrying.

We're headed for our first trip to Italy since Clara was born in a couple of weeks. She already has her American passport and we are getting her Italian one next week. We have a busy October ahead with lots of weekend activities which we are looking forward to!

Clara One Month

Clara is already one month old and boy has this month been tough and amazing. Andrea had to go back to work after two weeks and being on my own with a newborn and toddler was hard work especially when I was sick for a couple of days. Despite this, being a family of four is just the best and we love having another baby.

Everything is getting better now and I had my first night's sleep of 6 hours the other night. Most days, Clara has been cluster feeding nonstop particularly from about dinnertime until 10ish. I am exclusively breastfeeding as I did with Amélie and for most of the month she was feeding every two hours. This past week, she can go about every 2-4 hours during the day and about every 4-5 hours at night.

We're usually all up by 7ish and getting out the door with two takes so much effort. Amélie has been so good with Clara. She grabbed a burp cloth for Andrea when she saw Clara spit up. She'll bounce Clara in her chair when she's crying and sing her a song. She even talks to her in a little baby voice and go up to her all the time to give her kisses. Sharing my attention with both can be difficult at times especially when Andrea had an overnight work trip last week and both needed to be cuddled to sleep. I heard Amélie quietly crying and then I heard her say to me that she was sad. (I think because I was giving Clara a lot of the attention.) Other than that, Amélie has been very good at patiently waiting for me to finish breastfeeding or tending to Clara.

Clara has definitely grown so much since she was born and is up from her birth weight of 6 pounds 15 ounces to 9 pounds. Most of her newborn onesies don't fit her anymore. She has really long legs and feet. She's also developed some baby acne on her cheeks that I am hoping will pass soon.

Lately, Clara has been loving cuddles all the time and I'll have her in my Solly baby wrap during the day so she can nap. Otherwise, it's her bouncy chair then the Cocoonababy plus Snuzpod at night which we used with Amélie.

I can't wait for Clara to start smiling and showing her personality, but overall she's been a very easy and hungry baby so far. We all love her very much. Happy one month Clara.

Clara's Birth Story

I had been so worried about the labor and delivery this time around since everything went so well last time. All my worrying in the end turned out to be nothing because Clara's birth story is actually very similar to Amélie's.

On my due date, August 2nd, I saw the midwife and we planned to do a membrane sweep that Saturday to try to bring on the labor if I hadn't had the baby by then. I was nervous about everything and started looking up induction methods while Andrea looked up statistics of when babies are actually born according to their due date.

I went to bed around 11pm that night after putting my phone down from my curiosity on inducing and thought it would be a few more days until the baby would come. Then around 12:30am, I felt my first contraction. I had been kind of crampy for the past couple of weeks, but I knew this time around it was for sure. I laid in bed for about 45 minutes and got through a few more contractions before waking Andrea up.

As the contractions progressed, I knew I had to get ready quickly since Amélie came within 5 hours. This time around, I also had to think of Amélie and made sure she had her breakfast ready (her favorite overnight oats) plus do a few things around the house. We were really lucky that Andrea's dad was already staying with us to watch Amélie so that was covered.  The contractions were about 8 minutes apart so in between is when I found time to get everything ready. By 2:30ish, I knew it was time to go to the hospital. My contractions were about 5 minutes apart and I almost felt like pushing with each one. When we called the hospital, they told us to come when we felt we were ready which was different than the first time as it took a few calls until they decided we should come in. Luckily, we only like less than 5 minutes from the hospital so we were there quickly.

Since it was the middle of the night, I went directly to the labor ward and not the birth center. After the midwife examined me, she said I was only 3cm dilated and 4cm meant established labor. Since Amélie came so quickly, they didn't send me home (they normally would have) to wait it out. At this point the contractions starting coming less than 5 minutes apart and were STRONG. Despite this, I opted for no pain relief when they offered and worked through it all with lots of words of encouragement from Andrea and staring at this really ugly rose picture against the back wall. Counting to 10 worked for some but not all the contractions. I really felt like pushing during each one of the contractions, but I wasn't sure if I should because I was only 3cm dilated. The midwife said to just go with how I felt and she actually didn't do another check to see how much far along I was so in my mind I still had a lot of contractions to get through before the baby came.

Soon after, my mucous plug came along then the midwife had to break my water as things were progressing really quickly. Before I knew it, I gave my first big push and the baby was already crowning. Then I had to do a bunch of controlled pushes, which was so difficult because I just wanted the baby out. With another final couple of pushes the baby was out and Clara was born at 4:25am. We immediately did skin to skin time while we waited for the placenta to be delivered and for the midwife to decide if I needed a couple of stitches, which I did get in the end.

After Clara was weighed and checked over quickly, the midwife left us alone for some bonding and feeding plus a shower and tea and toast for me. We moved down to the recovery floor and opted to pay for our own room for privacy. It was around 8am by this time and another midwife came soon after to check if I wanted to leave by lunchtime or later. They weren't kicking us out in any way, it's just normal to go back home soon after if there were no complications. I decided to wait it out a little to see how my bleeding plus Clara's feeding were going. After a visit from Amélie and Nonno, we just rested and worked on breastfeeding. By late afternoon, I was feeling ready to go home so we did our final checks with the pediatrician and the midwife and were home by dinner time with Amélie.

The midwife has already been to the house the next morning followed by another visit the day after. She came again on day 5 and will also visit on day 10 then a health visitor will come to check the baby. The home visits are the best since you don't have to trek down to the doctor's office or hospital.

It's been a week now and we're all doing fine now, just super tired and getting used to being a family of four. I'm so lucky that Andrea was able to take paternity leave this time around because I would be struggling with taking care of a toddler and a newborn. Cluster feeding from around dinner time until past midnight these past few days has been the hardest part so far. It feels never ending and that I'll never get any rest. Other than that, Clara is a good little baby, just a very hungry one.

Clara Anne Senso

Introducing Clara Anne Senso

Born the 3rd of August at 4:25am in Chichester, UK 

Weighing 6 pounds, 15 ounces (3.16 kilograms)

Measuring 20 inches (51 centimeters)

We've been home for a couple of days now, myself tired and Clara super hungry all the time. She's such a curious little baby and we can't be more excited to have her here.

Baby Senso #2: Week 38

baby's size: 
a leek

i'm feeling: 
better now, but i was particularly cranky the past few days because of the heat (i mean it wasn't even that hot here, high 70s/low 80s, but to me it's unbearable) 

food love: 
pasta (mac & cheese) 
peanut butter 
berries 

food hate: 
nope 

pros: 
i'll all set and ready to go - laundry, housewise and mentally i think? 
my blood pressure is all ok and it looks like preeclampsia isn't in the cards anymore 
this time around, i know what to expect contraction-wise so knowing what it's going to feel like when i go into labor is kind of comforting, but also still scares me at the same time 

cons: 
still not really able to sleep and waking up probably every hour 
constantly thinking about going into labor while pregnant with amelie and remembering it's not so fun when the contractions are so strong 

currently living in: 
the husband's shirts and anything that is comfortable

looking forward to: 
the baby's arrival, i'm at the point now where i know it can happen any day now so i'm trying to enjoy my time with just amelie and get whatever sleep i can 

Baby Senso #2: Week 36

^^Amelie & I with our red, white & blue on the 4th of July

baby's size: 
a head of romaine lettuce

i'm feeling: 
stressed out about the labor & delivery and just generally anxious about the baby's arrival 

food love: 
craving salty these days 

food hate: 
nada

pros: 
the house is pretty much set for the arrival of the baby - i just have a bunch of laundry to do 
i asked amelie is she was going to share her monkey toy with the baby and she lifted up my shirt and put it against my belly, it was cute 
the baby's head is already facing down 

cons: 
my blood pressure is little high so i'll have to go back to the midwife next week - let's hope this doesn't develop in preeclampsia which almost happened with amelie as well
it feels like there is no more room for the baby to grow, she also feels pretty far down, which makes it uncomfortable - i just feel like she is going to come sooner rather than later 

currently living in: 
a couple of tees are comfy 

looking forward to: 
meeting this baby! i'm going to prepare myself and pretend like she' due to arrive any day now, but it really is three more weeks until my due date though i swear i've already been having some braxton hix contractions. 

Amélie Potty Training

^^the little miss decided to choose her outfit - she loves those owl boots so much 

I was DREADING potty training Amélie, like anxiety over it all the time - not sure whether to do it before or after the baby and just generally freaking out about it. I don't why it affected me so much, maybe because I know she doesn't do well with change or because she had such a hard time starting solid foods. After worrying and thinking it over for a while, I made the decision to just do it before the baby was born and have just one little in diapers. 

I knew Amélie was actually ready for it maybe a couple of months before she turned two. She would tell me when she was pooing, etc. and was showing all the signs I read about. The problem was my mental preparation so I bought a book called "Oh Crap! Potty Training..." This book saved my life and not only prepared me, but worked because Amélie has been potty training for close to a month now! 

What I Bought 

IKEA LOCKIG potty 

IKEA TOSSIG toilet seat 

IKEA step stool (so she could reach the sink) 

Potette Plus (portable potty) 

Piddle Pad (for the car seat) 

Books: Lulu's Loo & Princess Polly's Potty

Carpet cleaner 

How It Went Down

• We choose the last weekend in May as it was a holiday weekend and had three full days of dedicating ourselves to nothing but potty training (yes, I dragged Andrea into this and made him do it with me because I just needed the support) 
• Prior to that weekend, I read the book in it's entirety plus started reading the potty training books to Amélie just to get her into the idea of it all 
• I followed the method in the book to a tee and it went as planned 
• I covered the living room with some wipe able puzzle mats and waterproof picnic blanket

And So It Begins: 

The first two days were miserable - the poor girl didn't know what hit her and every time on the potty was a screamfest. We watched her like a hawk like the book says, but she still had accidents all the time and requested her diaper to be put on. She learned how to hold it and sometimes just wouldn't go. We struggled through and the third day was much much better. By day three she started to get a hang of the idea and by the end of the week, she was pretty much fully potty trained. We didn't really go to any playgroups or venture out very far the first week or so just to get used to everything. 

Progress!

We slowly gained confidence in doing longer trips out and using public restrooms (mainly at playgroups & occasionally the supermarket). The Potette Plus is a life saver because I get pretty grossed out by public restrooms and this solution provides your own little clean potty. 

By the third week, we had a flight/trip to Sardinia and I was worried how Amélie would react since we weren't bringing her normal potty (she preferred the little potty rather than sitting on the big toilet). In the end, the vacation we took actually got her used to using the big toilet (the Potette Plus folds flat to fit on top of the toilet seat too) and now at home she pretty much only uses the toilet seat with IKEA insert. Now Amélie will say in a quiet little voice, "pee or peeing..." when she needs to go and is getting pretty good at holding it if we are out and need to find a bathroom. She does occasionally have an accident here and there particularly when she's busy playing, but that's expected. 

Naps/Nighttime: She's being keeping dry during her nap during the day plus the whole night. I'm still being cautious and putting her in a pull-up only at night, but I think she's kind of trained herself to keep dry throughout. Maybe in the next couple of weeks I'll be brave enough to get rid of pull-ups completely. 

I know every child is different, but I highly recommend using the method outlined in the book I linked above, it really worked and gave me the confidence to potty train Amélie. I just hope #2 will be this easy as well! 

Baby Senso #2: Week 35

^^this is from our trip to Sardinia last week (34 weeks), it was lovely, but I was just so hot all the time - it was actually nice to come back to cooler weather

baby's size: 
a honeydew melon

i'm feeling: 
particularly moody these days and pretty tired

food love: 
peanut butter & jelly sandwiches on crustless wholewheat bread (it's amelie's new favorite too) 
steak fries (so happy that M&S sells them in their frozen section) 
berries of all kinds 

food hate: 
loving everything 

pros: 
my pregnancy carpal tunnel seems to be going away which is awesome and i really hope i don't get mommy thumb again when the baby is born. it was so painful with amelie for a few months after she was born. 
thoroughly enjoying nap time with amelie, i know i won't be getting tons of sleep soon so having a 2 hour snooze most days cuddling amelie is pretty nice. 

cons: 
leg cramps (charlie horses) in the middle of the night
being restless at night thinking about the labor & delivery 
getting up to pee sometimes 4+ times a night 
way too much laundry to do for the baby 

currently living in: 
the same old stuff - i ordered a bunch of clothes from ASOS and not one thing was a keeper! 

looking forward to: 
hanging out with my two girls - baby senso #2 could arrive as early as mid-July (amelie was 2 weeks early) and i really can't wait to meet her 

Baby Senso #2: Week 30

baby's size: 
a large cabbage

i'm feeling: 
generally fine 

food love: 
coffee cake (just dreaming of it though) 
pasta 

food hate: 
nada

pros: 
i'm feeling pretty huge these days, but at least it hasn't been as bad as my last pregnancy. i remember around this time, i would have to wear a pregnancy band nonstop because of back pain. it's still there, but not too bad. i don't think amelie quite gets it, but she will sing and give kisses to my belly and it's the cutest. 

cons: 
i wish i could fit into my old jeans! my clothing selection is becoming smaller and smaller as the bump is growing 

currently living in: 
anything stretchy and comfy  

looking forward to: 
cuddling a tiny baby and having her in my arms 

America Trip 2016

^^Boston! 

We finally made it to America after almost a year and a half and boy was I was glad to complete all of my food goals while we were there. Flying with an almost 2 year old wasn't as bad a we thought especially since we flew at night and bought her her own seat. I must say though, London airports are way more child/family friendly than in NYC. Here's a little recap of mainly all of the food we ate :)  

^^We bought her a Peppa Pig vacation book and she watched some shows on my iPad before falling asleep. 

^^Sticker obsession

^^Beijing Duck Burgers in Flushing were amaze. 

 ^^Dim sum with the family. 

 ^^We saw Dafna!

 ^^Ok, Momofuku cereal milk & pretzel soft serve. Kind of weird, don't think I really enjoyed it, but kind of thought I had to because of all the hype? I think the cereal milk would have been fine on it's own, but the pretzel soft serve was just a little bit too salty. 

^^Dafna bought her honey nut Cheerios and she was in love! 

 ^^The reaction on this girl's face when I opened up the wrapper was utter amazement. She loved this bagel and so did I. 

 ^^Amelie isn't usually a huge fan of pizza, but give her a slice of Joe's and she couldn't stop! 

 ^^Reunion in Brooklyn. 

 ^^Smorgasburg was the best thing ever. 

 ^^Omg, doughnuts, finally, that are good! 

 ^^She love the carousel. 

 ^^Lots of grilling, with perfect weather all week.

 ^^This ice cream was SO good. Chocolate with sprinkles and pistachio with butter pecan. 

 ^^Magnolia cupcakes!

 ^^Diner food was delish, though Amelie had a huge meltdown and I ate two bites before we had to wrap everything up to go. Seriously this girl was so off during and after the trip. She's finally back to her old self though. 

 ^^Playing a little basketball with daddy before going to the airport. 

^^Waiting for our flight at 11pm, she slept for most of the way.

I miss you America and all your food. We'll be back soon hopefully and with two babies!