Announcing Claire Elizabeth Vickery!

As many of our readers have likely heard, our daughter Claire Elizabeth Vickery was born on Wednesday September 14, 2011 at 4:50AM MDT at St. Luke's Hospital in Meridian.  She weighed 7lbs 6oz and was 21" tall!

Katie's doctor recommended that she be induced so we headed to the hospital around 2:30PM on Tuesday afternoon.  As the induction progressed, Katie's contractions intensified around 11PM and she labored through the early morning.  The nurses initially didn't think the labor was progressing well but around 3AM it became clear things were moving quickly.  By 4:15AM or so it became apparent to all of the staff that the baby was imminent and after a little bit of delivery drama, Claire emerged into the world healthy at 4:50AM!  It was truly a magical moment for me, unlike anything I've experienced before.  After I got to hold her, I was surprised how calm Claire was after such a traumatic experience!

The labor and delivery was difficult for Katie but she was great and healthy as well.  I'll let her elaborate on her experience in a future blog post!  Afterwards, we spent the next two nights at the hospital getting acquainted with Claire and trying to get her feeding properly, a task that is still ongoing but progressing nicely.  The nurses at the hospital were great and provided all kinds of help with regard to laboring, baby care, feeding, swaddling, and anything else we needed.  On Thursday Claire got her first visitors: our friend Diana, her Great-Grandma Dow, her Grandaunt Bonnie and her Granduncle Gary.  She may have not shown it, but I know she was super-excited to meet all the new people!  On Friday Claire got to go on her first car ride as we were officially discharged to begin our life together.  On Saturday Liz (Katie's Mom) arrived from Vancouver to meet her new granddaughter and hopefully make our transition a little less overwhelming.

Claire has her first doctor appointment tomorrow which will hopefully be all good news.  Then after that, she'll be ready for her one week birthday.  More soon!

Baby Pictures!