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!)

Nothing Yet...

Seeing as I am now 39 weeks along, I know you are all wondering and just as anxious as we are, but we don't have a baby yet.

At my doctor's appointment yesterday we determined that the baby is continuing to move down--very good thing--and I'm continuing to dilate slowly. My stomach actually measured smaller yesterday than it did last week, not because the baby has gotten smaller, but because more of her body is in between my hips now. So we're definitely making progress toward this baby arriving sometime soon, but nothing has happened to indicate that it will be within any of the next few days.

Peter's praying for July 28th. (That's only 2 days away!)
Why the 28th?
Well, my mom arrives today. And Thursday is just before the weekend. And it's still before our "due date" of August 2nd.

I'm just trying not to be nervous about actually having a baby. I'm done with the whole being pregnant thing. Sure, it wasn't that bad really--just terribly awkward and occasionally uncomfortable--but I'm ready to hold a baby in my arms : ) I'm even ready enough that I'm ok with pushing out a baby--almost. But there's not much choice now, is there?

So as a celebration of our last night alone as a couple, Peter and I went to see HP7 pt. 2 using tickets he bought from Fandango for $8!
I really enjoyed the movie, and I think Peter did too. As we were walking out he said that the reason people liked this movie best of all 8 films is because this one actually ended. He imagined that as people left the theater they were rejoicing because they don't have to wait for another production and then wait in lines at theaters to see yet another Harry Potter movie. I laughed.

If we have a baby before anything else exciting happens, I'll make Peter blog about it ; )

Legos and Trains, cont'd

My Lego and train adventure continues...

After building all my buildings,

I build a shelf frame:

To go in my cubicle:

It goes all around:

Yah, and everyone's jealous..

I now have my shelf layout setup at work!  Lately, I haven't been able to do anything more because we are getting ready for our baby!  My baby girl is going to LOVE trains a Legos!