Happy 3 Week Birthday, Chloe! - Jan 29

Hey, it's only fair right? Well I have to say it's been a whirl-wind this last few weeks. Quite eye opening to say the least. It's hard to believe if Chloe had gone "full term" we would still be waiting for her at this point but instead we have spent the last 3 weeks learning how to be parents lol. It has been tough(I'm not gonna lie) but we really are having a lot of fun. We have our next pediatrician visit next Monday so I'll report back the progress! =)

This is totally a trademark Brian half smile lol


And while the jury is still out on use of a pacifier at this point.. I like to give her the option every so often =p

-B+H+C

Dreaming, Again - Jan 23

I walking around with Chloe (trying to get her to sleep) and I wandered into her room. I decided to introduce her to her future bed. Then I decided she needed a picture taken..of her sleeping...yet again. =)

And this just because it quacks me up =p

Happy 2 Week Birthday, Chloe! - Jan 22

So this concludes our first two weeks with our beautiful little Chloe. Heather and I have had our hands full as you might imagine. =) We have had so much support from our friends and family it has really been life saving. By my count, we have gone through approximately 105 diapers, maybe 250 wipes, and no less than 15 loads of laundry. All this with around 20 hours of combined sleep. The weather here has been terrible this past week so it made staying inside that much easier...but I look forward to being able to get outside and cruise around a bit together. Warmer weather would be nice, too. =) Anyway, thanks for following along (if you have been) and while I'll still be updating the blog with photos, it may not be every day. I want to leave something to surprise for her birth announcements. =0
Happy 2 week birthday, Chloe!

xoxo- Mom & Pop

Bath Time! - Jan 21

This is actually from her first official bath(at home)last week. We gave her another bath tonight and while it went better than the first time...she still doesn't seem to like it very much. =(

Some Big Shoes To Fill - Jan 20

Heather's baby book print vs Chloe's little foot!

She sure loves to sleep with these soft blankets. I feel like I have a ton of pictures of her sleeping..but she does that a lot. =)

I Never Get Tired Of Seeing This - Jan 19

It seems that something like 90% of the clothing items for little girls says this on it lol. =)

Her Eyes Are Bigger Than Her Stomach - Jan 18

I thought this was cute the way she was holding the bottle..and also the fact that the bottle looks 10x her size lol.

So today was our "2 week" checkup although technically Chloe is now only 10 days old. We saw our pediatrician the day after we got out of the hospital and he thought it would be a better idea to check her a little before two weeks to check her weight gain and whatever else they check. The good news is she is back to her birth weight or just above and (I think they may have measured wrong) but also measures a little over an inch longer. Is that possible? Not sure. Everything else checks out normally and we will be back again in two weeks. Things are going well here but it is obvious that our lack of sleep is quickly catching up with us. It's supposed to rain all week here which is fine because we aren't going anywhere lol. I'm gonna try to catch an hour or two of sleep before the next feeding..but not before a few more pictures from today. =)

I call this one "baby burrito" lol




G'night yall~
B+H+C

Still Dreaming - Jan 17

I Make This Face, Too - Jan 16

Happy 1 Week Birthday, Chloe! - Jan 15

MMMMMM, Cookies - Jan 14

Today was another busy day for us but I managed to squeeze off a few pictures. The above photo is part of a cookie bouquet we received from our friends Ali & Josh. I have NEVER seen anything like this before and man is it cool. I almost don't want to eat it. Almost. =)



Heather got to experience another diaper explosion while she was changing Chloe. That's my girl. We're still working on getting our day into a routine but so far we are still chasing our tails...as you might expect. Either way, we're having fun.
So I'm a giant, or she's tiny... Or both.


xoxo



B+H+C

The Day After - Jan 13

Yesterday was a whirl-wind as you might imagine. We are getting settled in and trying to get into a groove with the things we have to do every couple hours. We had our first visit with the pediatrician yesterday who checked Chloe over and said things were going well. She gained another ounce from the last time they weighed her the day before in the hospital so that's good. Apparently babies lose some weight the first few days of life and then gain it back but when you are a little bean like she was they don't want her to be down to far. Much unlike myself, gaining weight is the goal here. =p
The other day I spoke to someone on the phone (while we were still in the hospital) and they asked if we were getting enough sleep. My answer to that was, "what's sleep but time not spent awake!" so we are spending a lot of time awake. That was *to be expected* but I thought I would acknowledge all the people that told us to "get as much sleep as you can now" before she is born. That method did not work because we're still tired. I'm trying to figure out a way today to get Heather a good 5 hours of straight sleep as she seems to be getting the shorter end of the stick. We'll see what happens!

-B+H+C

Homeward Bound - Jan 12

So, we're home! Unbelievable. That's all I can keep saying. Not one thing could have gone any better than it did. Chloe, is a superstar and so is her mother. I thought in my head all along that Heather would be like completely disabled by the whole c-section thing but she has completely blown my expectations away. Chloe, has done the same thing. It's only been a few days but with each day she has just changed so much. I know most people with kids would probably say the same thing so I guess I am here to assure you they weren't kidding. =)
We get the final visit from the doctor today and try to think of the questions about things we are sure to forget and remember once we get home and cannot ask. He gives us the green light for discharge and a few hours later, bam...we are home. The nurse removed Heathers staples and replaced them with what looked like scotch tape but with some fancy name. I take a few loads of junk out to the car until we are down to just one bag, a baby, and a car seat. They help us load her into the car seat and one of the nicest nurses we have met so far, Veronica, walked us out to the car. They have to make sure you have your base in your car and hear the seat "click" before they can let you go. She was our favorite nurse and we had her 12 hours all day Saturday and Sunday. With a couple of hugs we are on our way.

Now, it is about 1230am. I think I started this about an hour or three ago. This is how our lives are going to go from now on lol. Bring it on.







Veronica & Chloe






=)

The Car Seat Test - Jan 11

So she just finished the 1 hour car seat stress test. Basically, they attached her to heart and lung monitors for an hour while strapped into our car seat. She passed with "flying colors" according to the nurse so that's good news. We are set to go home tomorrow but we still have to get the final all clear from the pediatricians here. We had to scramble and get her a normal pediatrician outside of here so we did that today based on several recommendations from friends as well as the nursing staff. We have our first appointment on Wednesday(assuming we bring her home Tuesday). I am still in awe of how well she is doing. She has changed so much in just a few days it's amazing. She is much more active and alert and I'll be darned if she didn't smile at us just now. She might have been workin out a poop, but it was a smile. Can a 3 day old baby smile?

I guess so =)

I'll update tomorrow once we find out what's going on for sure.

B+H+C

Dreaming - Jan 11

Good Morning~
B+H+C

Thank You - Jan 10

I don't really have any new pictures to post for today. Yeah, I took a few but really today was consumed by the whirlwind that is having a new baby. We have had a lot of visitors in the past few days and we have received a lot of nice emails and text messages from various members of our families and I just wanted to say thank you. It seems like people are checking here so rather than write back individually to each of you hopefully this will serve a similar purpose and I can fill everybody in on what has been going on in the past few days.

So, the short version of the story is, Friday morning Heather was prepped and taken in for a c-section. Our doctor came in to our room about 815am and told us he thought it would be best to go ahead and deliver(due to the added risk of waiting any longer) and Chloe was born at 9:22am. At first I felt short changed by not getting a few more hours to prepare mentally for everything but to be honest after thinking about it, I'm glad it happened the way it did. I think we both are. Not that we weren't both completely freaked out but because everything happened so quickly we really just had to hang on for the ride.

Chloe was born at what they are calling 35 weeks 2 days. We were both very concerned obviously if she would be able to stay under care at this hospital(so we could stay with her)or if they would have to transport her to another hospital for more care than they can provide here. She came out crying and she was long at 19 inches but on the small side at 5lbs 12oz. Her breathing was slightly labored but she never once was hooked to oxygen. They had to keep Chloe in the "nursery"(what I later realised was code for icu) for 24 hours of observation to make sure she is able to maintain all her vital signs on her own and that she is able to eat on her own. A little more than 24 hours later she was with us in our room. She is a miracle. Everybody is impressed with her and the progress she makes every hour. She spends most of her time sleeping but she eats well, poops and pees like a champ and generally continues to amaze us every second. I literally almost got pooped on by some projectile black liquid this morning lol. People weren't kidding about that part and I got to experience it straight away. I'll take it.

So the plan is that we will be home on Tuesday. Standard turn around time for a c-section is 4 days and so long as Chloe continues doing as well as she is, she comes home with us too. They are still keeping an eye on her for jaundice (which can happen with any baby) specifically because she is premature and both Heather and I had it when we were born. She does appear to have a little going on but they have tested her several times and maintain she is totally normal. The other thing they have to do is a 1 hour car seat test. Tomorrow I have to bring in our car seat and they will hook Chloe into it with the monitors for an hour in the nursery. Apparently the test is to make sure she doesn't have any problems breathing or with her heart rate while riding in the car seat. Another test specifically because she is premature. If everything checks, we are home on Tuesday and the next part of the adventure begins!

So thanks again everybody for your support and well wishes. We are all doing great. I cannot believe how well Heather is doing for having such a major surgery. I guess the motivation to recover quickly is fairly obvious. =) I'll continue to update as time allows. We're about to feed her right now so...gotta go!!

B+H+C

Chloe Mae Gross - Jan 9

Introducing...


Miss Chloe Mae Gross! Even until the night before she was born, we weren't 100% sure what we were going to name her. The last thing I talked to Heather about that night was deciding on a name... because there was a chance the next day we would have to commit...and it turned out exactly that way. Heather said Chloe even before she was preggo..I just don't remember her saying it. We started looking in books and I thought long and hard about her name possibilities. After all, with a last name like "Gross", you have to be mindful of what you put in front of it. We went back and forth but it always came back to Chloe. We went out to dinner a few months ago at Fuddruckers(a hamburger joint) where you place your order and they call your name when it's ready. I decided to perform an experiment. When the guy asked for a name to put it under I said, "Chloe". When I bought a new laptop a few months back, I "named" the machine "Chloe", so every time you log on it says that on the screen just to see what it looked like seeing it all the time. It's safe to say, she's always been Chloe.

Right when we found out Chloe was a girl, I immediately thought of a middle name that I thought would be perfect....if only it would sound right with whatever first name we chose. Isn't that weird that I would think of a middle name BEFORE a first name? "Mae" was my Grandmother's middle name who recently passed away at the age of 90. She lived a long life full of children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren all of whom just loved and adored her. She was so fond of Heather and she always completely embraced her as part of our family. She's always been a big part of our lives so I thought it would be a perfect middle name for our little girl too.

So as it turns out, it's much more difficult to name a Baby than it is to name saaaaaaaay, a dog. People can name a dog something ridiculous and other dogs won't tease them in school or bark at them funny. When I was a kid I had a hamster named "Turbo". Turbo? Name your kid Turbo and see if they make it through 3rd grade.
I love our baby's name. I love it for a lot of reasons but one of the biggest reasons is the fact that we both had to discuss/argue/whatever different names and combinations but it came back to the first thing that we both originally wanted. Perfect.

Anyway, you read it here first ladies and gents. =)

B+H+C

Miss Chloe, Day 2 - Jan 9

check this guy out..one of the pediatricians. Nicest guy but reminds me of a sci-fi movie











Grandmas!






Grandpa!






More...eventually lol!

-B,H,&C

Baby Chloe - Jan 8

A few more photos to share..not much time yet to go into the whole story yet but she's doing great, Heathers doing great, I'm a wreck. =)