Packing on the pounds (in a good way!)

Today I took Elise to the breastfeeding support group at Community South, anxious to know a) her current weight and b) how many ounces she "gleans" from me during a feeding. Having just gotten the whole nursing thing worked out (still praising Jesus for that miracle), I've just been so curious to know how many ounces she takes in.

I weighed her before she ate, and she was 10# 2.6 oz!

From my left side she got 3 oz (wow!) and my left 2 oz! So by the time we left, she weighed in at 10# 7.6 oz.... big girl!

Of course, she probably rid herself of most of that temporary weight gain (in fact, I'm sure of it - as I always notice a lot of movement on the southern front), but I'm so so so glad to know she is gaining weight and that I am actually able to provide for her. That truly has been an answer to prayer (see previous post).

Having tracked her weight at her 1-week appt, 2-week appt, and today's group, she has gained exactly 2 oz per day since we left the hospital June 8 (weighing 8#). I'm so proud of my little (big?) girl!

If this kind of progress continues, Elise will weigh about 11 1/2# at one month old. We'll see!

More pictures to come soon......

Weight check & answered prayer....

Yesterday Elise had her 2nd visit to the doctor so her weight could be checked... The doc wanted to be sure she had reached at least her birth weight (8# 14oz) by 2 weeks, as she had left the hospital weighing in at 8# even. Elise's current weight is........... (baby placed on Biggest Loser scale while Alison Sweeney prepares to announce the results)

9# 6oz!

So we're doing well :) Granted, I personally can't take credit for the majority of that weight gain, as nursing has left much to be desired. That is, until a few days ago... which leads me to the second part of this post entitled "answered prayer."

Tuesday night I broke down in major tears because I simply couldn't nurse Elise - PERIOD. It wasn't working. We had been feeding her mostly bottles (formula or milk I had pumped) and I was thinking it would be too late to get her to successfully breastfeed after being used to bottles for so long. For 11 days I couldn't meet my child's needs, and as a new mom that definitely hurts. You enter into motherhood knowing it's going to be a tough road, you won't know what you're doing, you'll experience heartache, etc etc.... But I didn't expect to encounter such insurmountable obstacles as feeding my own baby. I thought at least SOMETHING must come naturally, right????

Wrong.

So all my frustration & sadness culminated on Tuesday night, and I had no idea what to do. I had nothing to say to God, not because I was mad at him, but because I didn't even know how to pray about such a difficult situation. (I'm glad the feelings are still fresh in my mind - I don't want to forget how miserable I felt in order that I can be reminded of how much God loves me and came through in this storm of mine.) Anyway, with absolutely no idea what to even ask of God, I just tried to lay the situation at his feet and move on. This whole difficulty probably sounds like no big deal to most of you, but like I said, it's an innate desire as a woman to want to provide for your own baby.... and not being able to was HORRIBLE.

"When does this story start improving? I'm losing interest."

Okay, so Wednesday morning I called a former neighbor of ours who is a labor & delivery nurse as well as a lactation counselor. She invited me to her house right away to help me work on the nursing issues. I showed up with Elise, and in a matter of 30 seconds Deb had her latched on without having to use ANY of the hospital-issued accoutrements (i.e. shields, feeding tubes, etc) that I had been struggling with for the previous 11 days. I was flabbergasted. I couldn't believe my body was actually able to feed my child so easily.

I returned to Deb's house for the next feeding so I could do a test run all by myself, and again: flabbergasted. It worked!

We took a step back in the following 36 hours, as the pain built and built and was too excrutiating to deal with. I went back to Deb's for a 3rd (and hopefully final) time yesterday after Elise's appointment, and figured out we just a little tweaking to do before nursing became pain free.

I can't tell you how awesome our God is that he would hear my cry (Ps 143:1) and come running to my rescue so quickly. It's an unfortunate sign of my weak faith that I didn't expect that from him to begin with, but nevertheless, I was and am so in awe of this wonderful MIRACLE he's performed in my life. Again, most of you think I'm nuts for even worrying about such an issue, but to me it was a hopeless situation that turned out to be abounding with hope. God deserves so much praise!

Thank you for praying for me over the past couple weeks, and for continued prayer that breastfeeding will remain successful. Peter and I are both exhausted (as expected) but so thrilled to have this little girl in our lives. She is a huge blessing.

You are now dismissed from the reading of my novel to view some lovely pictures of our baby girl :)

Elise at her FIRST appoinment (1 week old, June 12)

Peter's reaction to an awfully loud explosion in Elise's diaper

Hanging out at Sweetwater

Alicia & Toby looking oh-so-natural with a baby :)

A family outing to Edinburgh Outlet Mall

Does it get any cuter?

Our precious puppies sound asleep on the deck

Is this the Ralph Lauren family? Or the Chapman family? Yes, we coordinated. So sue me.

AGHHHH! I love it! Daddy & his little girl :)

Momma and Elise

Four generations

Not much to say....

We've made it 11 days with our baby girl, and we can't imagine having a better baby.... She is SO content & we are so thankful for being given such an amazing gift. It will be so fun to watch her grow up and see what (who) she looks like, what kind of character she has, and how she vastly adds to our lives. So exciting!

We gave Elise her first bath yesterday (Monday) as her "stump" finally came off and we could officially bathe her. She wasn't a huge fan, but certainly participated well :) I have no pictures because both Peter's and my hands were occupied. Needless to say, she is now one irresistibly clean baby.

For all you picture zealots, don't worry - I will post more very soon. Just wanted to post something to let you know I don't plan to give up on frequent blogging :)

Footnote: My cousin, Jay, is getting married on Friday to his lovely Linda (yay!!!).... so we have all sorts of family streaming in this week. I'm pretty excited to visit with everyone & show off our (near) perfect little baby girl. Looking forward to the big day Friday & lots of fun catching up with the Moore side of the family.

Celebrating 1 whole week of keeping Elise alive!

We've made it 1 whole week with this new little human - in one sense it feels like a month has passed (so much has happened:  labor, more labor, delivery, recovery, hospital time, coming home, getting used to being home), and on the other hand it's hard to think that I've been a mommy an entire WEEK already!  Time is so strange I guess.  But Peter and I are really enjoying our new role as parents, and we are so blessed to have made it 1 week without any major hiccups or issues.  We're sort of getting into a routine (how much of a routine can you really get into after only 4 full days home?) and Peter has taken over the "midnight feedings" for now - which really helps  :)   Elise LOVES her time with Daddy during the nights!  Daddy has pretty much taken over the diaper-changing department as well, so you can imagine she spends a lot of time with him  :)  Elise is definitely an alert little baby, looking around often & lifting her head up as much as she possibly can.

Today we went to Elise's first doctor appointment...   I was very anxious to find out her weight, as she had lost 9% of her birth weight by the time we were discharged from the hospital.  Here are the stats:

Birth weight - 8# 14.5 oz

Discharge weight - 8#

1 week weight - 8# 8.5 oz

Suffice it to say, she's doing well!  I am comforted to know she is actually eating & gaining some weight - not that I was ever really concerned she wouldn't be properly nourished, but in learning to nurse Elise (& waiting for all the physical things to occur in order for nursing to happen), we've had some rough days of confusing feeding habits.

Anyway, we are so blessed to have this little one in our lives and are so grateful that God would entrust us with such a beautiful baby.  We love our Elise!

Enjoy the pictures!

Simply perfect!

Mmmm I love my Daddy :)

Meeting my cousin, Rori, for the first time!

Aunt Sari is so good at snuggling :)

A future suitor, perhaps?  Meeting Liam Keizers - a very handsome fellow!

Uncle Bryan just won't let me go - I've got him wrapped around my little finger already!

Not sure what I think about Mommy yet....  haha!

One of many smiles :)

Hanging out with Daddy and one of my sisters (Brie)

Me & Daddy

and finally, Daddy feeding me like he does every night....

Greetings, Greetings, and Salutations

So that Elizabeth does not take any flak for not posting enough, I will step in and make an interim post on her behalf. As you might expect, we have a lot of action currently. We were released from the hospital Monday around midday. After getting everything loaded up in the van (much thanks to Tom (aka Grandpa)!!), we headed downtown for the condo. It's an interesting experience being released from the hospital with your first kid - the nurses so zealously look after your baby for three days only to turn her over to parents who don't really even know what they are doing!

We got back to the condo and Elizabeth crashed for an hour or two on the couch, trying to catch up on some much needed shuteye. We then trekked down south to see the dogs and to try and let Elizabeth take a shower. The dogs were so cute with Elise. We let them inside one at a time so that we could more easily control them. They were soooooo excited to see their mom! Lucy was wagging her tail and whining and so ready to sniff Elizabeth. After catching up with mom, Lucy got to walk over and sniff Elise - after 10-20 seconds of sniffing, Lucy was no longer interested and walked back to the porch. One down, one to go! Brie, meanwhile, was going nuts on the porch as she had to wait for Lucy to finish - Brie just always wants to play and be near you. She was barking and whimpering and crying that she couldn't see her mom! Finally, after what must have seemed an eternity, Brie got let in (on a leash) to see Elizabeth - she licked and whined with happiness.

A quick flashback: before we brought Elise home, I had brought her original hospital blanket to the house for the dogs to sniff. Lucy, similar to the above, sniffed for a few seconds and went about her day. Brie was quite scared of the blanket - she sniffed and immediately backed up. She was then confused and started barking. Chris and I were laughing so hard we couldn't focus. After about 10 minutes, Brie was able to come up and sniff the blanket calmly and without too much trepidation.

Back to "live" action: Brie then got to go sniff the baby. She again sniffed and acted startled and tried to start barking but eventually calmed down and sniffed Elise for awhile. It was quite cute. I can already tell Brie has taken to Elise. We set the car seat on the kitchen table and Brie (in her best "counter surfing" imitation), had her paws on the table to sniff the seat. The dogs are going to be so protective of their new little sister! We are so grateful that my parents are willing to watch the dogs for awhile. They have been down there for almost a whole week already! The dogs are in heaven with the yard and porch to play and sunbathe in, and Elizabeth and I can try to learn this whole "parenting" thing.

Back to Monday night - Bryan and Chris were most helpful and took the initiative to cook us some dinner. Elise also got to watch her first Yankees game - a monumental first!! We then were settling in for the dreaded "first night". As with most new parents, the first night was rough, albeit much more for Elizabeth than me. I took no notice of the random noises coming from the crib (what's that? child neglect you say? hogwash!). Elizabeth, however, was an alert new mommy that was concerned for her baby girl. In addition, the feedings were not yet going smoothly, and Elise was being much more fussy than usual. Elizabeth can fill you all in with more details later if she so desires. The dawn came, as it always does, and we persevered and made it to Tuesday morning. Elizabeth has been quite the trooper through the whole experience - I am always amazed at how much she can handle. She can be running on empty, with little to no sleep for days, in a lot of discomfort, unsure on what to do or what to expect, and still only thinks of the needs of others and how she can serve them, acts with patience and kindness, and "puts her hand to the plow" (i.e. gets things done). What a great Christlike model she will set for baby Elise.

On Tuesday, I was able to get my first bike ride in since the baby came, although it was cut short. 11 miles into the ride, Grandpa DeWitt and Sue called and said they were 30 minutes away as their doctor's appointment ended early (lest you chide them, we were expecting them Tuesday afternoon, just thought they would be a little later). So, I raced home and pulled up just as they were parking. Sue sat and held Elise for an hour and didn't say a word - just had a big smile on her face. Grandpa (or, as he said when I called him grandpa on the phone, "that's GREAT-grandpa to you buster!") unfortunately was recovering from poison ivy and couldn't touch the baby. But I was so happy to see him meet his first great-grandchild. Bryan, Philip, and I have been so blessed to have such awesome grandparents - on both the Chapman side and the DeWitt side. I am so thankful that GREAT-grandpa DeWitt is still around to see Elise.

Tuesday afternoon, Elizabeth and I heard a knock on the door and went to answer it. We opened the door and the "knocker" was gone! However, they had left a care package for us - the cutest baby socks and a LOT of food - a whole plate of cupcakes and two big containes of soup (just in time for lunch today as Chris complained all day on Tuesday that we had not fed him lunch :) ). We opened up the card and found that all this was from Carlton and Rachel - our upstairs neighbors. A really big thanks to Carlton and Rachel for their generosity. We are thankful to have such great neighbors and appreciate you taking the time to serve us - we are quite humbled!

Ok, enough rambling. Elise is done eating and is back sleeping soundly, so I can return to bed! Besides, you all only want to see pictures anyway. With no further ado, here are a few more. We will be getting all of our picture onto the web soon, so look for that later this week.

Isn't she cute?

I get lots of pictures on the blog today!

Grandpa x2

Uncle Chris :)

My biography - on one note card - I must be really young (or have led a really boring life)!

Hmmm, I'm not sure I like this guy holding me - I think I'll cry - that'll show him...

Bryan's new exercise regimen - arm workouts every day...

3 men and a baby...

And back to the star...

I'm a hip-hop baby...

Pictures of our Princess

Sleeping on Mommy's chest

Sleeping on Nana's chest

Diaper change by GREAT Grandma Joey!

Snuggling with Aunt Amy

"Who is this guy?  What?  It's THE Bryan Chapman I've been hearing about for 9 months?  Why is he holding me?  Is he feeling okay?"

Snuggling with Nana

Napping with Grandpa

Mmmm I love my Daddy's kisses  :)

Hospital Pics - Round 1

Hello all - Elizabeth reporting here.  Everything's going well today...  I got to sleep a few times since the C-section, waking up only to have my vitals checked & to nurse the baby.  I feel a nap coming on sometime soon, but I will make it through all the visitors first & then fall back asleep  :)  

I want to be sure and express the deep gratitude I have for everyone who supported us over the past couple days during labor/delivery.  It was certainly a long 37 hours, and although I HAD to be present the entire 37 hours, all my family and friends didn't need to be.  So the notion that you all stayed by my side by choice is something I so appreciate.  Thank you for coaching me, supporting me, encouraging me, and just standing by my side that entire time.  I can honestly say that, although frustrating toward the end, labor wasn't a horrible experience and isn't something I would ever dread doing again.... and I know I can attribute that to being with loved ones throughout the whole thing.  So THANK YOU!  Love you all!

Below are JUST a few pictures from our time here so far.  Peter has predominantly been using the video camera for still shots (as well as movies), and the pics below are from just our normal camera.  If I knew how to transfer pics from the video camera, I would do that now as well.  You'll just have to wait for Peter to do that though!  Until then, enjoy a few glimpses of the before & after of Elise's arrival!

I'm so ticked I didn't taken an "official" 40-week pictures like I had been doing every week prior to delivery.  So this is as good as I could do!

Gram & Peter waiting, waiting, waiting....

Peter all dressed up for the OR

Baby Elise getting all cleaned up!

Sweet baby girl with her sweet daddy - look at that blonde hair!

Elise with one set of her grandparents  :)

More pictures to come SOON!!!!

Finally...it's a girl!

Well, it has been quite the eventful day. After 36 hours of labor, Elise Lorraine Chapman has come into the world. Elizabeth can post the official stats tomorrow - I heard them but did not make note of the actual numbers and do not want to misquote them. I can say that the weight was 8 pounds 14 ounces.

Elizabeth reached full dilation around 1 pm and began the official delivery process around 3:30 pm. After more than 2.5 hours of delivery labor, it became clear that Elise was not going to cooperate with us. Our doctor had been called away during delivery for an emergency at another hospital, but fortunately one of her partners was able to assist us. The doctors consulted and strongly recommended that we deliver under a C Section. The doctors and nurses did not think that Elise was going to come naturally through Elizabeth.

So, after almost 36 hours of labor and delivery, we suited up for the operating room and took the plunge. I must say it was a most surreal experience to be in the operating room - after 36 hours of stress, tension, uncertainty, and (at times) anxiety, the room was suddenly quiet. Only the doctors and nurses were present (other than me). The speed at which we had transitioned from natural delivery to C Section left little time for reflection (but just enough time for quite a few prayers).

I was thankful as I walked into the operating room that this would be the end of the process. Elizabeth would finally get some relief, and we would finally get to meet Elise! The stress of an unexpected C Section quickly faded away into the mandate of "document the birth". Those of you who know me understand that I am a bit squeamish - and, having heard stories of C Sections, I was needless to say worried about what I was about to see.

However, I sat behind Elizabeth and filmed the first 12 minutes of the operation (after Elizabeth had already been prepped for surgery). The realities of my situation did not dawn upon me as I was intently focused on capturing the moment when Elise's head would pop out. Looking at surgery on a camera screen is much different (and fortunately better) than viewing it up close. When Elise came out after 12 minutes or so, I immediately followed (with the camera) her next stops - the clean up station, the weigh station, etc. After getting to touch Elise for the first time and after filming for a few more minutes, I sat down by Elizabeth again so that the nurses could finish their poking and prodding of Elise. Elizabeth was still struggling through the end of the C Section (i.e. depositing her insides back into her belly). The whole notion of "now being a dad" did not really sink in until the nurse came by and deposited Elise into my arms to hold so that Elizabeth could try and see her. Finally, after 9 long months, I could make a real emotional connection with Elise as I held her in my own arms and saw her for myself.

After the surgery, the family and friends who had waited for so long throughout the day got a few minutes to come in and say hi to the newest member of the Chapman clan. Everyone was then hustled out so that mom and the new baby could get some rest. Elizabeth is currently recovering and is catching some much-needed shuteye. After a marathon-like 36 hours with no food and no sleep, she has earned it! She is lying in the bed here in the room and can barely mutter more than one word without immediately falling asleep again.

The benefit for me is that I got to do all of the baby holding time tonight. After everyone left, Elizabeth was simply too tired and too early in recovery from surgery to breast feed, so after a few minutes of trying unsuccessfully at that operation, I got to feed Elise her first bottle (and, as it happens, my first bottle to any baby ever). It was certainly quite the experience. Elise then curled up in my arms and went sound asleep for 30 minutes. What a perfect ending to a great day!

Elizabeth and I are so thankful to all of our family and friends for all of their help during the last day. We appreciate each and everyone who stopped by, who assisted in the delivery process, or who offered encouragement. So many of you gave up an entire day to spend with us - what we kept predicting to be "almost over" stretched on for the entire day - yet you all stuck by our sides. Elizabeth is grateful for all of your support and encouragement.

Elizabeth and I are also thankful to our nurses and doctors. They have been so helpful during our stay here at Community South and have assisted us at every turn - answering all of our questions, filling in where needed, and simply taking care of us. The nurses especially have worked tirelessly on our behalf. In fact, the nurse who assisted during the natural delivery attempts worked well beyond her shift end to ensure a smooth transition (as the C Section occurred over a shift change) into the operating room and even stayed throughout the surgery to assist where needed!

As it is now almost midnight, I am going to wrap it up. Just wanted to close by saying thanks for all your prayers. Elizabeth and I at times were frustrated, anxious, or concerned during the last couple of days - but God is good all the time and was certainly in control of the process. Holding Elise in my arms, I could not help but think of both Psalm 127:3-5 and Psalm 139:13-14. God has blessed us with a beautiful baby girl.