HAPPY NEW YEAR!
MAY 2010 BRING YOU JOY, LOVE, & LAUGHTER!
WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ALL IN THE NEW YEAR.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Claire's Due Date is Here!
Today is the day that was Claire's estimated due date! We have been blessed to have her arrive early so that we were able to spend the holidays with her. Luckily Claire was added to Santa's list of stops - here are a few photos from her first Christmas.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Claire is Two Weeks Old
Today Claire turned 2 weeks old!
Some of the highlights this week include:
- We are happy to report that she is finally gaining weight and at her weigh-in with our home nurse Nicole on Wednesday she weighed in at 5 lbs 12.5 oz! Our new weight goal is to be back at her birth weight of 6 lbs by her two week appointment with her doctor which is on Monday. With the way that she has been eating this weekend we are very hopefully that she will make this goal (maybe even surpass it!)
- Also on Wednesday - her umbilical cord fell off! She can now enjoy bath time in her "whale of a tub".
- Dave was lucky enough to be able to work from home this week and only had to go into the office on Monday. It was great to have him home as it allowed him to spend extra time with Claire. Over the next two weeks the holidays will allow Dave to work for three days and then have four days off. We are all excited to have this extra time together as a family over the holidays.
- Claire went to her first book club this week! Melissa, the avid reader, was very excited that one of her first outings was to a book event- we are starting her out young to develop a love of reading.
Update 2: (Wednesday the 23rd)- Weighed in at 6 lbs and 6 oz!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Claire is One Week Old!
It is hard to believe that Claire is already one week old. It seems like we just went into the hospital to start this adventure. On Thursday night Claire was finally able to live outside of the bilibed and on Friday she was visited by the home nurse and had her bilirubin levels tested. We are happy to report that her levels are now in the non-treatment range so she does need to return to the box. She still has her orange/tan color, but that should continue to fade as she continues to grow. Here is my favorite picture from her time in the box:
Just a little video of Claire making her cute faces and having a case of the hiccups!
(Cuddling with the bear rattle that the Muscle Team gave Claire on Friday)
One of the other challenges that Claire has because of her age is her weight. As you know babies lose weight after birth. When we brought Claire home she was down to 5 lbs 11 oz. At her weigh in on Wednesday she was at 5 lbs 8 oz and she weighed in the same this morning during her nurse's visit. Below is a picture of Claire in an outfit our friends the Stantons brought us- clothes have been a problem as Claire is to small for newborn clothes.
Today Claire was visited by Shannon, David and Grant. It was great to hang out with them and see what is coming up for us (Grant is 5 months old). Here is a picture of Grant and Claire together. The picture is a little misleading as it makes them appear to be close in size which is not the case.
Just a little video of Claire making her cute faces and having a case of the hiccups!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Thank you to everyone for their well wishes and support for Claire over the last few days! We have appreciated reading everyone's comments, and receiving phone and text messages. We are sorry that we have not been able to respond to everyone directly and hopefully these updates will keep everyone in the loop until we transition into this new lifestyle.
Monday: We spent most of the first day getting to meet various doctors and nurses and I am sure a few random people. We also were able to spend a great deal of time just hanging out with Claire and providing skin to skin (kangaroo care).
(Kangaroo Care with Daddy)
Tuesday: The day started out nice and quiet with a visit from Natalia, Barry and their little girl to be Alba. For those that do not know Natalia and Melissa were basically due at the same time so we have shared a lot of the pregnancy experiences and classes together. Now we are just waiting to see if the two little girls who were due at the same time are even born in the same year. From there we began to prepare for the trip home, assuming that we were going to be discharged later that day. It is amazing how much stuff we had brought into that hospital room in just a few short days! As we were packing we realized that Claire was starting to become a little orange in the face- yep you guessed it she has jaundice. So we were delayed a little as they repeated her blood work so we used the time to have Claire's first professional photo shoot. We are totally biased, but we think she was absolutely adorable!! You can check out her photos at: www.our365.com -- click on web nursery and you may be asked to enter our last name (or part of it) and the password 68231284336724.
Wednesday: We started the morning with a visit from a nurse, who assessed Melissa and Claire to see how they were progressing. It was great to have that kind of support without having to take her to the doctor's office, especially since the temperature outside is in the single digits. The nurse repeated the bilirubin test and we just learned that Claire will be under the lights until tomorrow night at 7 pm- 27 more hours of this torture!!
One last closing photo for you!
(If you ever wondered how a baby fit into mommy- this is the position that Claire put herself into on her own. I am only making sure that she does not fall over)
Love you all,
The Proud Parents of Claire
Here is a summary of the last few days (warning it is a little long, grab a snack)
Sunday- Claire's arrival! After waiting for about 36 hours we were finally introduced to Claire at 2:21 pm. We will spare all the details here, but it was harder than anticipated and Claire needed some help to make her grand entrance. Because of Claire's gestational age we had a team of nurses on hand who took care of Claire initially. Dave was able to watch and record on video and photo all of the events so that we would have them to watch in the years to come.
Dave and Claire were able to enjoy some father/daughter bonding time for the first few hours after her birth. They shared a bottle, some cuddling, and their first dance to Jack Johnson's "Hope" as they got to know each other. Claire was introduced to Uncle John, Stacie, and the Grandparents Gibbons. Melissa was able to join the family a little later on and was happy to see how well Dave and Claire had already connected- maybe even a little jealous. We remained in our labor and delivery suite until 1 am that night when we were switched over to the Mother Baby Unit. We were not a fan of the late night switch, but we did love our new room with the queen bed that was adjustable. We settled into our room as best as we could considering people were in and out throughout the night to provide care to Melissa and Claire.
Dave and Claire were able to enjoy some father/daughter bonding time for the first few hours after her birth. They shared a bottle, some cuddling, and their first dance to Jack Johnson's "Hope" as they got to know each other. Claire was introduced to Uncle John, Stacie, and the Grandparents Gibbons. Melissa was able to join the family a little later on and was happy to see how well Dave and Claire had already connected- maybe even a little jealous. We remained in our labor and delivery suite until 1 am that night when we were switched over to the Mother Baby Unit. We were not a fan of the late night switch, but we did love our new room with the queen bed that was adjustable. We settled into our room as best as we could considering people were in and out throughout the night to provide care to Melissa and Claire.
Monday: We spent most of the first day getting to meet various doctors and nurses and I am sure a few random people. We also were able to spend a great deal of time just hanging out with Claire and providing skin to skin (kangaroo care).
(Kangaroo Care with Daddy)Claire also received a visit from Kat and Phil who stopped by to meet her on their way to work. It was also a big day for Claire as she passed her newborn hearing test and her car seat test. She was one step closer to being discharged.
Tuesday: The day started out nice and quiet with a visit from Natalia, Barry and their little girl to be Alba. For those that do not know Natalia and Melissa were basically due at the same time so we have shared a lot of the pregnancy experiences and classes together. Now we are just waiting to see if the two little girls who were due at the same time are even born in the same year. From there we began to prepare for the trip home, assuming that we were going to be discharged later that day. It is amazing how much stuff we had brought into that hospital room in just a few short days! As we were packing we realized that Claire was starting to become a little orange in the face- yep you guessed it she has jaundice. So we were delayed a little as they repeated her blood work so we used the time to have Claire's first professional photo shoot. We are totally biased, but we think she was absolutely adorable!! You can check out her photos at: www.our365.com -- click on web nursery and you may be asked to enter our last name (or part of it) and the password 68231284336724.
Right before we left we learned that Claire would not be spending her first night at home in her lovely crib, but in a bilibox. For those of you that have not had the chance to see a bilibox- picture a white suitcase with extremely bright lights. This was now going to be Claire's home for a few days. It was quite dreadful for her to be placed in this box in nothing but a diaper and eye coverings, as she is a baby that likes to be bundled tightly. Luckily Uncle John hung out at Claire's side throughout the evening helping to provide comfort to her until she adjusted to the box. It was extremely hard to have Claire here and to not be able to pick her up and give her physical love her with the exception of feeding her every three hours.
Wednesday: We started the morning with a visit from a nurse, who assessed Melissa and Claire to see how they were progressing. It was great to have that kind of support without having to take her to the doctor's office, especially since the temperature outside is in the single digits. The nurse repeated the bilirubin test and we just learned that Claire will be under the lights until tomorrow night at 7 pm- 27 more hours of this torture!!
All and all we are slowly adjusting to our new lifestyle and we hope that in the near future we will be able to introduce Claire to everyone!
One last closing photo for you!
(If you ever wondered how a baby fit into mommy- this is the position that Claire put herself into on her own. I am only making sure that she does not fall over)
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Progression!!
After 24 hours without much progress things have been moving since midnight. With more aggressive induction Melissa began to have more productive and painful contractions. Fortunately she got an epidural to ease pain and has even been able to sleep some (she hadn't gotten any real sleep because of contractions since we arrived at St. Joe's). There's still a lot of progress to be made, but we feel confident that the Doctor's have her on a path to make this happen today.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Still Waiting
After 18 hours of trying to induce gently the Docs decided to allow Melissa to take a break for 5 hours to rest and to eat. Melissa was very grateful for the opportunity to eat after 24 hours with no solids. The Docs will reassess at the end of the rest period to decide the next steps in the induction, but we're expecting something a little bit more aggressive when they start back up. Now for some rest...
Looks like it could be a long day...
After waiting a little while for things to start naturally the doctors decided to help things along and begin inducing labor. However, they don't want to get things going too quickly either, so they're starting slow to see if things pick up on their own with just a little help. To us it sounds like we could be settling in for a long day, the most exciting of our lives!
Just a little update for you all- it's noon and we are still waiting around for something to happen. We should be having a "check up" from the doctor in the near future to get some type of information about how we are progressing. To pass the time Melissa has been trying to wrap up some work things (nothing like prepping cases during labor) and Dave has met with the car seat specialist and confirmed that Claire will be safe in the car. Dave took a little video of our room to share with you all.
Just a little update for you all- it's noon and we are still waiting around for something to happen. We should be having a "check up" from the doctor in the near future to get some type of information about how we are progressing. To pass the time Melissa has been trying to wrap up some work things (nothing like prepping cases during labor) and Dave has met with the car seat specialist and confirmed that Claire will be safe in the car. Dave took a little video of our room to share with you all.
So it is now approaching 4pm and there is no news to report. We are still in a holding pattern and hope to have something to report eventually.
At 1:15 am on December 5th, Melissa's water broke and we headed to St. Joseph's. Fortunately at this time of the night it was a smooth drive with no blizzards and no traffic. We weren't expecting such an early arrival but we are learning that things will be on Claire's schedule and not ours, and we can't wait for her arrival!!!
We took a quick picture before leaving the house and of Melissa in the observation room. Check back for updates, it's go time.
We took a quick picture before leaving the house and of Melissa in the observation room. Check back for updates, it's go time.
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