6 months

My Claire is 6 months old, and I love her.

It struck me recently how much has changed in 6 months. Obviously our lives have changed for the better now that we are parents of not one, but two precious daughters. But it's more than that.

For the first 6 weeks or so of Claire's life, I was living through my own personal hell. There's no other, kinder way to describe it. I was miserable. I was blessedly functional, but I hurt so badly. Pregnancy and the hormonal shift after giving birth really did a number on my brain chemicals. It was awful. I used to think my issue was with anxiety, but in retrospect, I know I was dealing with some awful depression as well. This was way more than the baby blues, and while I am lucky that it got remedied relatively quickly, I am terrified to go through that again. I think I've said this before on this blog, but I have so much empathy now for those troubled by anxiety and/or depression, or any mental illness for that matter. They are very real, they are not "all in your head" (well, they ARE in your head, chemically), and you cannot simply "snap out of it". Would that it were that easy.

I am so grateful to feel so amazingly well these days. Through a combination of time, adjustment, therapy, and medication, I feel wonderfully like myself. Life is beautiful again.

I don't know how to explain it adequately, but I feel like Claire was my anchor during those rough weeks. I needed her so badly. Her sweet spirit carried me through.

But enough of the heavy stuff. Here is a "snapshot" of Claire Abigail at 6 months:

She has brown eyes and blond hair. Not a lot of hair.
She is CRAWLING! Like full on, coordinated crawling. It's insane. My pediatrician was shocked. She's about 3 months early on this skill, apparently. I wish wish wish she wasn't in such a hurry to grow up. While she's happier being able to get to what she wants and move how she wants, it makes me a tiny bit sad. She's a very determined little thing.

She's starting to pull herself up onto things. WHAT?! Be assured that I am not bragging. I wish she would just sit still and not be in such a hurry to grow up!
She adores her big sister. She watches her intently when she's nearby, and she loves it when Meredith takes the time to interact with her.

She has this super cute scrunchy-face smile.

She likes to eat. So far she likes it all, except for maybe bananas, but maybe she was just overly tired the last time I fed those to her. She's always been a great nurser.

She is a cat-napper. Maybe someday she'll take longer naps, but usually she just cat naps throughout the day.

She sleeps fairly well at night. Better than Meredith did for sure. At this point she is in her crib for most of the night, but I'll usually get her and bring her into our bed when she wakes up at 4 am-ish to eat.

She wakes up for good about 7. She wakes up chattering, and usually she'll crawl over to Jeremy and beat on him in the morning. If she's still asleep when Meredith wakes up, she immediately perks up once she hears her voice.

I know when she's hungry because she tried to eat my face.

She babbles "da da da da da da" a lot these days.

She's a fairly content little baby, but she has more fussy periods than I remember Meredith having. I guess she's a little more temperamental? It's hard to say. She gets upset easier, but she's also easy to please. Sounds like a contradiction, I know. Guess I'm still trying to figure out her little personality.

We just love our little Baby Claire!