Welcome Claire!

Bob and I celebrated Earth Day yesterday by contributing to overpopulation: Claire Josephine Heinrich was born at 8:07 a.m., weighed 9 pounds, 6 ounces, and was 21 inches long.

But she had one more surprise for us before entering the world—I went into labor, about 12 hours before my scheduled c-section! So much for getting one last good night of sleep before she was born. : ) I started noticing the contractions just after midnight, started timing them at about 12:30, and woke up Bob at about 1:15 when I established that they were definitely about seven to eight minutes apart. We called my doctor at about 1:30 a.m., and one of the other doctors in the practice recommended that we try to wait and see if the contractions spaced back out.

They didn't get any closer together, but they did get more intense, so we ended up calling Bob's parents to come pick up Elsa at about 2:45 a.m. They had to drive across town at 3 o'clock in the morning to get her! Bob and I left for the hospital at about 5 a.m. and the c-section was moved up to 7:30 a.m.

Bob cuts the cord:

Yes, she's big!

So, Claire has already made life interesting, that's for sure! She's beautiful, and looks so much like Elsa as a newborn it's a little frightening. : ) She does have quite a bit more hair than Elsa had (yes, Elsa did have some hair when she was born, she just lost it all and didn't get it back for a year and a half). And Claire's hair is blond, but it seems a little darker than Elsa's. We like her little shark fin up on top.
In addition to her size, we also discovered that she was breech, so the c-section was obviously the right choice. I am doing well and am already up, walking around, and eating solid food—a big improvement on my post-op experience when I had Elsa. Right now I feel about a thousand times better than I did just before I came down with the c-diff, so we're optimistic that's not happening this time!

Elsa came for a visit last night with Opa and Grandma. She wasn't able to go back to sleep after the big 3 a.m. pick-up, so she had a long, crazy day yesterday, too. By the time they got to the hospital to visit us at about 7:30 p.m., she was positively loopy with exhaustion. But she was happy to see me and to meet her new baby sister. She brought a teddy bear with her as a gift for Claire, and had several of her own gifts from Grandma and Opa, including a toy camera that she used to take lots of pictures of Claire.
Claire had a fussy first night, due (we think) to some congestion. Poor thing seemed like she could barely breathe. I wondered if she might have carried my stupid cold with her into the world, but the nurses said the congestion is fairly typical for c-section babies, and that crying would help her get rid of it. So she ended up going to the nursery at about 3 a.m. and apparently got some sleep after that. Today she seems much better, eating and sleeping well.

At this point, we expect to be home from the hospital on Sunday. Thanks to everybody for your calls and messages—Claire can't wait to meet all of you!