Claire's first 3 months

Time has flown by so fast.  It seems like Claire went from a newborn to a very mobile 8 month old overnight.  Her first 3 months were very busy and full of new experiences!

The morning of February 8th, Will and I went to Trinity Hospital in Bettendorf for a scheduled c-section (due to the baby being breech) to finally meet our baby! 


9 months pregnant, the morning of Baby M's arrival



Last picture as a Family of 2

After a few hours of getting settled in at the hospital, and our scheduled section time getting pushed back, we were finally going to meet Baby Mineck!  At 12:05pm, Dr. Brenot announced "It's a Girl!"

Claire Elizabeth had arrived, and was 7 pounds, 4 ounces and 20 inches of love.  Over the next few days, we began a very steep learning curve on figuring out this new role as parents and caring for a newborn.  Luckily we were surrounded by our family and friends with their support and love for Baby Claire.







 



Over the next few weeks and months, we enjoyed watching Claire grow and take in this new world around her.  Her first months involved a lot of eating and sleeping, but also starting to enjoy bath time, find her voice and coo, giggle and smile, and her first big roadtrip!

 

1 week old

Road Trip!

3 weeks old

 I had a tumor on my right breast that had grown over the course of my pregnancy, and after testing it was found to be suspicious and was recommended to be removed.  We traveled to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota several times for consultations before finally having a lumpectomy surgery to remove the golf-ball sized mass.  While we were worried about what the result would be over several weeks, Claire was our sunshine that helped us thru it all and helped keep things positive. A few hours after the surgery, which seemed like days, we finally heard the best word "benign." 

A week and a half after the surgery, I went back to work part-time for a few weeks, to ease my way back to work and adjust to not spending every waking minute with our precious baby.  Going back to work just made the days speed by.  By the time she was 3 months old, she was 12lbs, 11oz.  She rolls to her side often and bats at toys in her "jungle" with hanging toys. 

 

The more active she gets, the more time seems to fly by.  Since we can't slow time, we'll just continue to soak up every second.