New Baby in this World

Caroline has arrived! September 28 at 2:13 AM Vitals: 20" 7 lbs. 1.2 oz. 8 out of 9 on the APGAR = healthy little girl Here is her first "professionally taken" picture (done at the hospital and on their website for the next few weeks). We took her in to the doctor yesterday, as she is slightly jaundiced (normal & common); this goes away in 5-7 days w/ regular exposure to direct sunlight and her normal poopie diapers - which she has started cranking out with startling efficiency and regularity. Today we are starting her on a regimen to get used to sleeping in the pack-n-play and co-sleeper; she's been fairly calm during the day, but gets active at night, so not only do we want to get her used to the idea those things are made to sleep in we'll work on getting her used to the notion that daytime is active time and night time is sleep time. Her first night home was rough, with none of us (Elisabeth is here to help us) getting much sleep and me making a 4:00 AM run to Wal-Mart for some anti-gas drops.

First family portrait, taken not long after delivery.

I've always liked taking pictures in b&w, and thanks to digital cameras it's so much easier. This picture was taken later in the day she was born. I think that's my mom holding her in the picture.

Soooooo sleeeeepy....although compared to what Jessica went through I suppose I had a pretty restful time. After she was born we didn't sleep more than an hour or so until the next night. So after waking up Thursday morning, Jessica at 4:00 and Barry at 6:00, we pretty much got 1-2 hours of sleep during a 40 hour stretch. Of course, what sleep we got after that was nothing to write home about, but we'll take what we can get.

Three generations of Caruso women. When we spend this Christmas in Florida with the Carusos and Granmere visits from Arizona, we'll have a picture with, count 'em, FOUR generations of beautiful Caruso girls! Caroline certainly has some good genes in her.
In the car for her ride home from the hospital...out of her first little world and into the rest of this great big one.
First steps into her new home.

"The Name" has been decreed

What started with the first page of "100,000 Baby Names" has been whittled down to one. This is what happened:

• 89 names from Jessica
• 78 names from Barry
• Dozens from family

We combined the ones that appeared on more than one list, along with the ones we (together) wanted to be "in the running", into a single list and began whittling them down.

• Round One - each protect 10 and scratch 5 (although I magnanimously allowed Jessica to scratch an extra one). The name we picked was protected by Jessica
• Round Two - same thing, except this time we both protected her eventual name
• Round Three - ditto, and ditto
• Round Four - we protected 10 each, but put the remainder up for discussion (ie: whacking); interestingly, I was the one who protected the name
• Round Five - the time arrived...Jessica scratched my favorite (Lydia) immediately, I cherished no illusions. Scratch, scratch, scratch on the way back home until only two are left: Gabrielle/Gabriella and....
• ...and then, last night, celebrating our Second Anniversary, we pulled the trigger.

Meet Caroline Marguerite Brandes, soon-to-be newest member of the Caruso/Brandes club. We chose her middle name to honor Jessica's grandmother (that's "grandmère" in lingua Franca). Now that THAT'S out of the way, let's keep on keeping on...just a couple months or so left to go until I can't sleep in on Saturday's any more. Sigh.

Amy & Bill's Wedding...and the name saga continues

After travelling nearly 7 hours to Orlando, arriving after midnight, enjoying a fun few days helping Amy and Bill celebrate their nuptials, then driving back home after spending some quality time with John & Elisabeth and Max & Maryellen and the boys, we almost didn't make it through the list of 18 names. We ultimately started on the list somewhere south of Brunswick, not finishing until we were somewhere on the Columbia side of Hilton Head. All in all, we've not had a single argument over the names...oh we've had plenty of disagreements, but no arguments. We were able to get it down to two names and we're sitting on them for at least a few days, hoping we'll have a nod one way or the other. I have my favorite of the two, which may or may not be the one Jessica favors, but we both like the two finalists and don't think we can go wrong either way. No hints, no "make a guess"...we're just going to mull them over before making any decision. Never let it be said we don't give a lot of thought to these things. Also, I finally got around to uploading some additional ultrasound videos, plus some photos from the wedding this weekend. We've a OB appointment tomorrow (July 10). Tomorrow evening, and Thursday night too, we're taking an infant CPR/First Aid class at the local Red Cross.