The Brandes: 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.