Claire Elise Brandenburg was born on Monday, June 11, 2007 at 12:09 p.m. She wighed 8 lbs. 1 oz. and measured 20.5 inches. She has a head full of dark hair, dark blue eyes, perfect skin and healthy vocal chords. She has the Brandenburg chin and mouth, and the Ratzlaff eyes and nose.
We arrived at the hospital at 5am Monday morning, got checked in and hooked up to monitor the baby's heartbeat as well as the strength of contractions. Around 6am, we decided to walk the halls a bit. After 30 minutes of walking & pretty intense contractions, I was ready for the epidural - there wasn't any award waiting for me at the hospital if I went "natural." What a difference a little medicine makes - I think the IV insertion was much worse than the epidural prick - and it was so easy to relax once this was in place. We slept in the delivery suite until about 8:30am - then they continued to monitor the progress & things moved along very smoothly. My nurse mid-wife was wonderful as well as the delivery nurse - and we pushed for approximately 25 minutes & our little Claire Elise was born at 12:09pm. It was such a surreal moment - when they put her on my belly. My first thought was, Wow! That was very easy - I would definately do this again. John cut the umbilical cord & went with her while she was being cleaned up and measured. We had a nice stay in the hospital & came home Wednesday around 12:30pm. It feels wonderful to be at home!! We are overwhelmed by God's goodness. She is healthy & adorable (our un-biased opinion, of course). I find myself just coming to God in prayer and recognize my need for Him right now - asking for wisdom with learning to feed her & meeting all her needs while being sleep deprived at the same time and amazed that I haven't reached the zombie state. We take one day at a time - and God has provided the energy & all that we need to keep going. We are truly blessed & we've received so many emails from friends and family sharing that they're praying for us - and prayed for a safe delivery. How amazing is the family of God - we have felt all the prayers - thank you! John will be at home with us for 2 weeks before he returns to work. We love hearing from you - and we'll try to keep our site updated - but things are much busier here than before. We love you all & we love our sweet Elise.
-> Check out a few video clips of our first day home!
Click on this Link
This week has been good - we visited the Dr. again on Friday and all looks good, however, we're still just a few ounces away from her original birth weight, so we're vigorously feeding to get back to that. We took our first stroller ride on Thursday, and she slept the whole time - just like the car rides. On Friday Grandma June arrived, and is helping us out for a while. She's been keeping me fed & watered, and has helped with the laundry & holding the baby when mom & dad need a little break. John goes back to work on Monday - which
is a little sad, because we've had such a great time for these past 2 weeks. Well, I hear a hungry baby..so I must sign off. Have a great week!
Here's a few more pictures...because all the family keeps calling and asking for more. It's been so much fun to have this sweet baby girl to take care of. We've felt so loved and blessed by our friends here in Charlotte. This past week we've had meals brought over and it's been so nice to have help with this. Today we went to have Elise weighed, and she's getting closer to her birth weight. After our appointment we ran a few errands. It was good to see a change of scenery.
Here's some fun pictures...Elise & then a picture of me as a baby & John as a baby. We think she's a mixture of both. Amazing how God does that!
We had a special day on Father's Day. We ate lunch on the patio, relaxed & I made John a lemon pie. John is a great Father, even though he's only had a short time to practice - he's definately taking care of us girls.
Everything is ready! We just need the baby to show up. Here are a few pictures of the nursery - since I don't think we've posted any to the website.
On Saturday I took a sewing class to make this diaper bag/tote bag. It was a full day of sewing (10am - 5pm) but I finished it up, and I'm very excited to have it all packed up and ready to take to the hospital. This was the last thing I wanted to check off my list before - so I was sure that the baby would come the next day - Sunday - however, it just hasn't happened yet. John and I even went to PF Chang's for lunch after church & ordered this spicy chicken & eggplant dish which the chef's there swear puts women into labor - but nothing yet.
The bags are packed - and the car seat is in the Jeep - and the bassinet/travel crib is set up in our room. We're both getting excited to see what this baby looks like - just a matter of time. We've been joking that it's almost like waiting for the day of the Lord - we don't know the day or time to expect it - just to be ready! We have our email distribution list set up and we'll send out a notice with any breaking news - so stay tuned...and we'll update the blog as well.
