Happy 3 weeks to us!

WHO'S 3 weeks old already? ME??

Claire celebrated her 3 week bday by sleeping in.

She has this new thing she's been doing the past few nights where she acts like a little bit of a maniac between 8pm and 11-midnight.  She gets really unsettled and wants to eat every 20-30 minutes for 3-4 hours straight.  Just when mom has had enough, dad usually swoops in and rocks the little lady in her room while playing her favorite mix of music to get her to finally fall asleep - some Beatles, James Taylor, Billy Joel, and Van Morrison.  Once asleep, she rewards all of our hard work with sleeping for 5-6 hours straight only to wake up to eat for 10-15 minutes then back to beddy bye for another 4 hours.  So while the late night craziness can get a little tough, Claire gives us plenty of time to re-coop and relax which we LOVE her for :) And she wakes up looking so stinkin cute...our little ladybug.

Once she finally woke up yesterday, the little lady and I took advantage of the gorgeous weather and went for a nice long walk.

She of course slept the entire time :)

Happy 3 weeks Claire!  We love you!  

We survived

At 3 weeks of age, Claire has already experienced an earthquake and a hurricane.  Two things I just experienced for the first time myself at 29 years old.  She handled both like a champ....sleeping right through them.

I must admit, the earthquake scared the crap out of me.  I had just fed Claire up in the bedroom and was burping her when the entire bed started shaking, then the walls, the mirror, and all of the furniture.  The guy next door to us has been working on rehabbing his house so I thought for sure he was doing something that was about to bring both of our houses down.  I scooped Claire up and ran downstairs and out the front door only to find all of my neighbors had done the same thing.  That's when we realized it was an earthquake.  Phew.  Claire did not blink an eye through the whole thing.  Just laid on my chest and slept right through it - even with my heart pounding.  God bless her.

As for the hurricane, well I think we all expected it to be a lot worse than it was.  We had a 30th birthday party to go to up in Lebanon so we decided it would be best to stay over Patrick's parents' house in Reading on Saturday night rather than make the 1.5 hour drive back home through the heaviest rain and risk losing power at home, getting stuck with no air conditioning, cable or electric.  So Claire had her first sleepover.  And we all know if Claire is good at one thing, it's sleeping.  Here she is at Nana and Poppa's house doing what she does best.

And here's a pic of her waking up after the hurricane wondering what all of the hype was about.

We came home Sunday night to find all is well in Philly...even the new tree Patrick planted in the spring.  Phew.  (p.s. it's the skinny little tree on the right you can barely see :)).  

Once home, Claire continued doing what she does...

I really meant to take more pics of her big hurricane weekend but of course forgot to so here are some highlights of week 3.

Mommy trying out the baby bjorn for the first time.

Claire watching the Phils game with Daddy.  She's obviously a big fan already - can't even take her eyes off of the tv for a quick pic.

 And Claire's cool new chair we love.  Thanks so much CC!  

I'm hoping to take some cooler pics of the little lady this week so stay tuned :)

Week 2 in review

Busy busy bee.  That's what Claire has been over the past week.  She's had lots of firsts...as have I.


Tuesday, Nana and I took Claire for her first trip to the mall - my first time driving the precious cargo.  She did wonderfully...slept the entire 4 hours we were out.  I like to think I did ok myself :)  Here's a pic of her in her stroller on our way there.

Wednesday, the little lady and I went to Target for our first trip out just me and her.  She was this wide eyed the entire time we were there.  Nosey little girl loves Target just as much as I do.

Saturday,  Claire went to her first party - a bbq at Uncle John's house.  She was a little fussy before we left but as soon as Daddy put on some James Taylor she was lovin' it...calm as can be.  I like her taste in music :)

Look at that little face.

One last touch to get her ready to party...a cute little bow thanks to big cousins Grace & Maddie and we're on our way.

Daddy did a great job driving us the hourlong ride there.

This was our view from the front seat of little Claire in the backseat....cutest piggies around.

She's not exactly a party animal yet.  She slept pretty much the entire time we were there - only waking up to eat then back to sleep...as you can see here with Poppa.

Sunday we gave Claire her first real bath.  We were a little nervous since she was NOT a fan of sponge baths at all.  I was really hoping she'd like it.

Here's a pic of her before she got into the water.

Not a fan of being held over the water very much.

But once she was in....she was lovin' it.  Phew.  Thank goodness.

 Much better than those sponge baths :)

Today, Grammie and I took Claire to the doctors for her second week check up.  Her only requirement was that she had to gain enough weight to be back at her birth weight of 7lbs 9oz.  Well, we're happy to report she passed with flying colors.  She weighed in at a whopping 8lbs 0.5oz...more than enough.  She's in the 50th percentile for her weight, 75th percentile for her height, and 25th percentile for her tiny little head.  Perfect.

Here's a pic of the little lady on her big day at 2 weeks.

Bitter sweet day

Our little Claire bear is 1 week old today!  We can't believe it.  It was by far the fastest week of our lives.


Claire has been nothing but a joy so far.  She's real big into sleeping and eating right now...as expected.  And she's been really nice to us...usually going 2-3 hours in between feedings during the day and 3-4 hours between feedings at night.  We thank her every morning for letting us get 6-7 hours of sleep :)


We had an in-home nurse come visit us today to see how mommy and baby Claire have been doing and we're happy to report Claire has gained a whole 5 ounces since Friday which is great news because it means Claire has been eating great and getting plenty of food.  Such a relief for any breastfeeding mom to hear.  I'm doing well also.  Recovery has been pretty smooth so far.


Claire has lots of people that love her very much...that were just dying to meet her so we've had lots of visitors the past week which we LOVED.  Here are some pics of just a few...


Some of Claire's big cousins Grace, Maddie, and Luke

Nana

Grammie

And Pop

Now you might be wondering why the title of this post is "bitter sweet day".   There are obviously many reasons why it's a sweet day but the reason why it's bitter is because Patrick had to go back to work today :( We were both very sad to see him go.  Not only has Claire spent every minute with her daddy since she's been born but I've also spent nearly everyday with Patrick since we've met.  Both of us had a tough time watching him go this morning.  Since we don't want daddy to miss a minute with his little girl, we took some pics to capture our first day without him.

Claire was NOT happy for her bath without daddy today...look at that mad face!

Bouncin around

We miss you daddy!

Little angel

Daddy's finally home...he couldn't wait to see his little girl!

Clean bill of health

Claire had her first doctor's appointment today.  She did amazing!  The doctor couldn't be happier.  She didn't lose an ounce of weight since we left the hospital.  Her breathing sounded nice and clear.  Her hips were in perfect position and her bilirubin levels were low.  We were stoked to hear it!


Here are some pics of her first big day out.


Gave her a little sponge bath which she was not too happy about at first.  Daddy of course made her feel better...she didn't want to let him go.

She was pumped for her first day out and to meet her new doctor (which we LOVE by the way).

After all of the poking and probing though she was exhausted.  She was zonked when we got home.

We go back in 2 more weeks and are hoping all goes as well!

SO worth the wait!

We would've waited a whole 'nother 9 months if we had to, to finally meet our little Claire.  She is the most perfect beautiful little thing we've ever seen in our lives.  We still can't believe we get to keep her!  We feel like the luckiest two people on earth right now.  We can't wait for everyone to meet her.  We just want to show her off :)


So without further ado, here are some pics of our precious little baby girl, Claire Elise Grenko.  She was born on Monday, August 8th at 3:09pm weighing in at 7lbs 9ozs and measuring 21.5 inches long.

So how did it all happen?  How did we finally get to meet her?  We will never forget the whirlwind of events.


As I posted last, we were told on Sunday night they did not have any beds available for me to come in for an induction but I was second on the list for Monday morning so we set our alarm for 6am since that is when they told us they could potentially start calling and sure enough at 6:07am, our phone was ringing.  They were ready for us.  So off we went...


Last pic of the big ol' belly at 41 weeks and 1 day pregnant

Dad was so ready to go.

Last pic of the Grenko couple at home...when we return, we would finally be a family :)

We got to the hospital at 7:30am.  They took us to our room right away and hooked me up to begin monitoring the baby and my contractions.  Turns out I was having a bunch of contractions and didn't even know it.  In the hour I was being monitored before getting hooked up to the pitocin, I had about 12-14 contractions.  The doctor came in to check my cervix.  I was already 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced so they didn't even have to prep me for the induction.  I was off to a great start.

At 9am, they started the pitocin drip.  By 9:30am, the doctor came in and broke my water.  And that's when I started feeling the contractions.  By 10am, they were coming every 2-3 minutes and lasting a minute each. I was determined to have the baby without an epidural so I tried to stay as calm as possible and breathe through every contraction.  Patrick was an amazing support.  He made sure I knew he was there if I needed anything at all - something to drink, a back rub, a little game of words with friends - anything to keep my mind off of the pain.  I of course responded how any appreciative person would respond and told him I didn't want anything but for him NOT to look at me while I was having contractions.  Nice.  He kindly obliged.


The doctor came in to check on us before heading down to do a c-section for another patient at 1:15pm.  She said I was 5cm dilated and pretty much fully effaced at that point.  She said I could expect to start pushing at 4pm and that first time moms usually push for 1-2 hours without an epidural; 2-3 hours with an epidural (plenty motivation for me to stick with the no epidural plan).


After she left, the contractions really picked up.  Coming every minute and a half or so.  The nurse decided to turn down the pitocin to give me a little bit of a break.  At 2:30pm she came back in to have me switch positions since the baby's heart rate was going down with every contraction.  When I laid on my side as requested, I got an overwhelming urge to push - meaning my stomach was trying to push the baby out on it's own - with me trying to stop it.  I asked the nurse if the dr would be back anytime soon b/c I was having this feeling.  She wasn't sure so she had a resident come in to check me out.  At 2:40pm, the resident took a look and said I was indeed ready and ordered everyone to get into position.  We couldn't believe it was happening so fast.  We were beyond excited!


Last pic of the mom and dad to be...

The next half hour was unreal.  Next thing we knew there were 6-8 people in the room, lights and gadgets were coming down from the ceiling and everyone was ready for me to push.  With the first push, everyone but me could see the baby's hair - we were so close!  18 minutes later I gave one final push and  we finally heard the sound we had been waiting for for so long....our baby crying!  Patrick had the hugest grin on his face I'd ever seen.  He finally knew what we've been wondering for the last 9 months and I'll never forget what he said..."It's a girl, it's a girl!  Can you believe it??  And she's not even funny looking!  She's perfect!".  And boy was he right.  She's the most perfect little thing we've ever seen.


I of course got to hold her first :)

First family pic

Claire's first bath an hour after being born...look at that head of hair!

Then dad finally got to hold his little girl.

I couldn't believe how hard and fast you can fall in love with such a little thing.

Dad can't either.  He's a born natural.  The best diaper changer and swaddler I've ever seen.

He sure knows how to take care of his little girl.

One last family pic before leaving the hospital.

And we're on our way...

 I got to ride in the backseat with the cute little lady all bundled up.

And we finally made it back home.

 Claire's new home.

Can't imagine what it was like here before her.  

Thanks so much to EVERYONE for all of the kind words, support, and love.  This is such an amazing time for us and we feel unbelievably lucky to share it with all of you!