Claire went to visit her uncle. He has a pool, but she didn't swim, just her brother and sister got to swim. She had a rough evening, she threw up when we were visiting and became very fussy - something we hadn't seen before, and when we got home, Claire had a slight fever at 99.1 and the beginnings of diarrhea. So we gave her some infant's Motrin around 7pm and gave her some Pedialyte which she threw up also.

Claire's second day at daycare and everything seems to be going as normal as can be. She's been taking 3 oz feedings at night (sleeping as much as 6 hours) and 3 oz in the morning, then just 1-2 oz feedings during the day. As long as she is continuing to grow, we won't worry about it. Still waiting to hear about getting a Neurologist appt. We will probably check on the status on Monday.
You can click on the image above for a larger picture.

Claire started her daycare today. She is only going 1/2 days right now to help ease her mom into the idea that she needs to get back to the office and trust that Claire will be just fine. And she was!
Claire is trying to roll over. She can go from her back to her side, and probably doing this because she doesn't like to be on her tummy unless she's laying on her mommy or daddy.

Claire had a rough day. She went to the drs office and got two shots....I think it was harder on the nurses than on Claire. But good news follows as she gained another 10 oz in the past two weeks... (she went down to 3lbs. 13oz, after she was born) and she is now up to 5lbs 13oz and she is 8 weeks old. She is up 2 full pounds.
Also saw the OB who took care of Claire's mom while she was expecting Claire, and he was truly amazed... he said it is a miracle how well she is doing, and he was truly dumbfounded... I was so very proud... after so many sad visits to the OB office (he warned me the visits would be sad, seeing the u/s of her moving and knowing she wouldn't live, seeing other moms pregnant with healthy kids and mine wasn't, etc), now, our visit was finally happy!

Claire had a good day. She finally found a wonderful woman to take care of her when her mom has to go to work. Mom and Dad like her too!
Claire is eating well and snoozing in the bedroom while her mom works. She is such a good baby!
We go for Claire's 'weigh-in' tomorrow... perhaps she will no longer be a 'featherweight'. ;O)

This morning Claire snoozed in her carseat in Mom's office. It was very quiet and warm in there while mom clicked away at the keyboard all morning.
Her eating has gained some yesterday and last night. It as if she had forgotten how to suck and swallow... and I think her mom is to blame for some of that. We were using a pacifier to help her get her sucking fixation, but I think that only confused her when she got her bottle, and all this milk came out when she sucked hard. Anyway, we have hidden all pacifiers and decided to teach her how to drink again, and she is almost back to normal.
She also decided she likes to drink about 1 1/2 oz, then take a break for about 15 min, and then continue for another 1/2 oz, then another break... eventually she will drink about 3 oz in about 45 min.
We spent a good part of the evening looking for daycare, but every center has a waiting list at least 4 months long. We will continue our search.

Claire's eating has slowed down a bit today... she had a few feedings yesterday that were 3 hours apart where she only had 1 1/2 or 2 oz. Today she visited her big brother at his school and all the people who have been praying for her. She was held and had a very nice time meeting so many nice people, who are all so happy she is still here with us.
Afterwards, she went to her big sister's school and got to hang out with the kids for a short time. It was a big day and wore her out. She came home and had a really good meal, rested, and getting ready for her night-time bath.
You can click on the pix to enlarge.

Claire has moved into the nursery now, she's a big girl! She's sleeping very well still and up to almost 3 oz every 5 hours last night. We got her pix back from the hospital today and she looks beautiful. We also got the online version of the sitting at Pennys, you can see her images above. She is going to yell at us one day for not 'controlling' her hair better. For the record, it is most uncontrollable, but we are working on it. :o)
Today we signed up for Early Intervention so we can get help determining Claire's needs and getting her the physical therapy she needs.

Claire had a big day , lunch with dad and shopping with her mom. It wore her out, mom too! That shopping is a tough job, but someone has to do it!
We had some visitors in the evening and that was a ball... more people to hold her and let her know how loved she is.

Eye appt today. After a 2 1/2 hour wait to see the dr (including getting drops in Claire's eyes for dilation), and a 5 minute visit, the dr told us that there was no reason why she wouldn't have normal vision (in other words, she should have normal vision). We were very happy about this diagnosis and felt the wait was worth the good news! They dilated her eyes and so she will be kept in the dark until tomorrow (just like her mom, always kept in the dark). They said her eyes may still be dilated tomorrow too.
It seems the case that one appt leads to another. We have another appt to see another eye dr in 6 months for a followup visit. It is very cool to make appts for Claire 6 months in advance and actually think we may be able to keep them!
Claire has been fussy lately, but we think we've figured most of the problem out. It appears that upon picking her up and holding her, and walking around with her, she is most content, and even falls asleep. In other words, she's spoiled from being held so much. I guess there really isn't anything wrong with that - except mom has to frequently type with one hand. :o)

She had a great night last night. She had a nice warm bath and downed 2 1/2 oz (75cc's) before bed and had 4 1/2 hour feedings throughout the night. Guess we'll need to get out the 4 oz bottles soon.
She went to church to pray for all her friends who have been thinking of her and sending kind words and prayers to her and her family. She loves you all very much!
Here's a pix of one of Claire's fav cousins holding her.

Movie night tonight and we are watching Pollyanna - Claire's favorite movie to sleep through (like she stays awake for any of them!) Claire slept on the back porch this afternoon in her carseat with her mosquito netting on it... it was nice and cool and she was bundled up in her blanket. Mom was outside with her enjoying the weather and watching Claire's big sister play.

Claire is eating like clockwork... every 4 hours she starts fussing and is ready to eat... she eats about 2 oz each feeding, often more, sometimes less. We set up an appt for her hearing next month and will let everyone know how that goes. She has her first eye exam next week.

Claire had a big day. Today was take-your-daughter-to-work-day, so Claire went to her daddy's work to see all his friends, then she went to her mommy's work to see all her friends. She was held a lot and got lots of attention... and hey... isn't that what being a baby is all about?! She did sleep through most of that, and so when she got home, decided that Mom didn't need a nap and stayed wide awake all afternoon.
Claire put her hand up to her mouth and sucked her thumb today too!

Pediatrician appt. Claire is 5 pounds 3 ounces today!! That's 3 oz more than last week. We are letting her sleep as long as she likes to now, which means no more waking her for feedings. It is nicer for her mom, since Claire often likes to sleep for 4 hours, sometimes longer (but we do wake her if she goes too long). We just don't set the alarm anymore for the middle of the night. Here's a pix of Claire being weighed today.
We put her back on the cross-cut nipple, we want her to drink as much as possible and may work with the smaller holed ones in the future.

Claire had an appointment at Shands today. The dr said that she is a 'candidate' for a survivor of T18. For a Trisomy baby, that means she may actually live past a year (90% of T18ers don't make it past the first year) - so I guess that is something. He also reminded us that T18 babies, even ours, will never have the capability of walking or talking, much less running or skipping, which was a very sad reminder for us. Many of them don't sit up by themselves. But we know that with love, she will reach her full potential, whatever that may be. Only she will be able to tell us what her capabilities are, no doctor can predict how she will handle the challenges ahead, and there will be many, even in her short life. He also mentioned that she could get apneas, or a pneumonia, both of which could take her away from us very quickly, and like all babies, there are no guarantees.
Wow! is she Fun!

Claire took her family to see Grandma this Easter. She had lots of visitors and everyone wanted to hold her and play with her. She really enjoyed the cuddling and attention. The Easter Bunny brought her a nice basket with cool toys!
She changed bottles this weekend, going to a regular bottle and nipple (0-3 month size - single hole) instead of the previous bottle and nipple (cross cut nipple and squeeze bottle made for cleft palate babies). With the previous bottle, she would drink and swallow a lot , then she would stop for a burp, and then suck and not swallow - rather she would spit it back out, as if she were full, but wanted to keep sucking. So we would give her a pacifier and that would work nicely. But we have decided that since she needs that extra sucking, and now that she is gaining weight nicely, we know she can handle the 'regular' baby bottle and nipple. And we want her to be as 'regular' as she can be. She is doing very well with the new bottle, just taking a bit longer to drink from it, but I guess it would be about the same amount of time as if she drank, then had the pacifier. You can click on the images to get a larger pix.

Claire has an appointment for Shands next week. We will keep everyone posted on how it goes.
Claire took her family to Penneys to get family portraits taken. She was very excited and stayed awake for the whole sitting and didn't cry once. She even kept her outfit clean when she was drinking her bottle. What a good baby! I'll post pix when we get them back.

Pediatrician appt. Claire is 5 pounds today!! That's 4 oz more than last week at the Ped Cardiologist appt. She also had her first immunization... her pediatrician recommended starting them, and this one wasn't a "live virus", so we thought it would be a good one for starters - she will have her next one in one month. He also suggested the Neurologist at Shands (Children's hospital in Gainesville, FL), so we will try to get an appt down there when we see the Geneticist.
She was not happy about the shot she received today, but I think it was harder on the nurse having to give it to such a tiny baby.

Claire had her second social outing today. She went to church and saw family and friends. She also got to visit with the priest who Christened her. It was a banner day.
Today we put a 'preemie' size one-piece outfit on Claire and it was too small - guess it could have just been running small, but the tag states up to 5 lbs, and she has got to be at 5 lbs by now. She gets weighed at the dr office on Wednesday.

Time to have a one month birthday PARTY!!  Get out the party hats, cake and ice cream!! :o)