Little Miss Claire

So...
I had a baby.

It went well.
I feel great.

The baby lives at our house.

I spend something like 4-6 hours every day just feeding/burping her.
Another 1-2 hours changing diapers/clothing/bathing her.

Being a mother literally is a full time job.

All of our family is gone.
My own mother left August 12th.

Peter's parents left Wednesday night.

Constance reminds me that she is available to come on over any time if I need help--just a 2 day notice.

Claire is no longer a newborn. She can still squeeze into newborn clothes which is good because the 0-3 month things don't quite fit yet. She can hold her head up really well while on her tummy and while being held against your shoulder. She stares at everything, and sometimes you can get her to focus on a specific object.
Claire started out weighing 7 pounds and 15 ounces.

At her lowest (that we know) she weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces.
At 6 days old she weighed 8 pounds.
At 20 days old she weighed 9 pounds.

We now own a baby monitor.
So she sleeps in her crib.

Yes, we live in a 2 bedroom apartment, but unless she is screaming so that she is red in the face, I can't hear her in my bedroom. And even then, I'm not sure the sound would wake me up.
It's good that she upgraded to crib, because she outgrew her old bed.

Yes, it's a laundry basket.
She fit perfectly at one point.

Now she's a little cramped.

I didn't feel it necessary to buy a bassinet for the 3 weeks I intended to use it. The laundry basket worked.

A preview of things to come:
Claire will be blessed in church on Sunday September 4th.

Claire's birth story
Studio pictures
Other pictures and tidbits about our growing girl
and
Peter's BIRTHDAY!

Our new baby girl!

Yesterday, at 7:05pm, we welcomed the most beautiful little girl to our family!

Meet Claire Annette Lieber

She is 7 lbs 15 oz and 20 inches long.  We are absolutely loving her and love to hear all the squeaks and sounds she makes. She is definitely a bundle of joy!

Our new little family!

I am so excited to be a dad!

Melanie is so happy to have her finally in her arms!

Today is the day!

Well I haven't updated since last week, but today is probably going to be the day we have a baby!

On Monday I went to my doctor for the last time. During my exam he said I had dilated another centimeter to a 2. He figured that I would probably go into labor this week--given that I had continued to progress consistently over the previous weeks, but we scheduled an induction for Monday, August 8 just in case.

Tuesday, August 2 was our official due date. BUT at one of my first ultra sounds they estimated the due date to be August 3. We didn't bother changing the official due date because really, a day does not matter.

This morning I was having some contractions when I woke up at 7. Since then they've only increased in timing and pain. So we'll probably be heading to the hospital sometime this afternoon. It's almost noon now and we'll probably be calling my doctor in the next hour to let him know that my contractions have been about 5-6 minutes apart for an hour now. EEEK!

We're going to have a baby!
(And yes, it's not bad enough yet for me not to be excited about it!)