By Popular Demand

A Clare update for all you family and friends who are anxiously checking the blog daily (Mare) ; ) to see if there are any new pictures...She really is getting bigger, it's crazy to think that just 2 1/2 weeks ago we were in the hospital awaiting her arrival!

Things are going well so far -- we are all adjusting to life here at the Herring household. Clare sleeps a lot (unfortunately not at night) and eats a lot; at her 1-week check up she was already back up to her birth weight of 8 lbs...her doctor says that we definitely don't need to worry about her eating enough since she had gained her weight back that quickly!

She does sleep in about 2-hour intervals through the night, so at least I get a good nap in before she's ready to eat again. The other night, however, she slept for 3 1/2 hours all at once! I woke up after about 1 1/2 hours -- it seems my body clock is changing too-- and she was still sound asleep. I couldn't believe it, but trust me, I enjoyed every minute of the next 2 hours of sleep after that. I think slowly her days and nights will get turned around.

Tom and I took her for a walk this evening; it's so nice to get outside and feel active again. I even ventured out for a "glorified walk" (aka: my attempt at going running again) tonight, which felt GREAT. The past few days I've actually felt like I'm healing up, so it's making me feel adventurous. Don't worry, though, I'm still taking it easy for the most part and resting a lot.

It's amazing to me how much I don't get done around the house during the day! The other day, Tom came home and it looked like a tornado had hit the house...I guess I underestimated how much our little Clare would impact my daily schedule. Oh well, we're all getting used to each other and we'll figure it out. It has been great to have my mom, dad, sisters, the Herrings, and friends all ready and willing to jump in and help out wherever we need them. Thank you all!

Ok, here are the long-awaited pictures. Enjoy!





















I took this one so that you could compare it with the previous post -- can you tell that she's bigger?






















Andrew and Lindsey came to visit us yesterday!






















Clare with Great Aunt Margo




























4 Generations! Clare and I went down to Olympia to meet the Wigren side of the family and to watch Aunt Kristy play volleyball against St. Martin's.






















Clare with Aunt Shannon while she was here visiting