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.

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.

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)