Hospital Photo Shoot

Bella Baby Photography took these adorable shots of Claire.  I must admit, trying all those bows on her was very fun!!  Thanks, Katie, for the extensive bow collection from Isabelle:)

 This is the same pose as the one we loved of Luke - I adore seeing the two side by side.

Coincidentally our photographer was the same one who took Luke's photos 2.5 years ago!  She recognized us and showed us a picture of Luke that she uses on the homepage of her photography website.  How funny is that?

Happy 35th Birthday to Matt!

 Matt turned 35 on February 27th, and since Claire arrived on February 26th, her and Matt's birthday will forever be intact as separate special days (which we wanted).  This year Matt's birthday was undoubtedly overshadowed by his daughter's birth, but  he didn't seem to mind:)  Isolene was so sweet to bring Matt his favorite dessert, a Baker's Square French Silk Pie, to the hospital along with a birthday hat, plates and napkins - not to mention a decked out Lukers ready for family pictures.  Donna and Emil also brought Matt a cake, and he had several presents to open too, so he got some celebration at least.

That same day Matt and Grandpa Mackus did their traditional celebratory shot of "Old Grandad" whiskey.  They both forgot how strong it is!

Isolene and Claire getting to know each other.

Hi princess!

Mackus family tradition.  This bottle was left over from Luke's birth!

Hanging out in the hospital room.  We had our special hospital dinner that night that doubled as Matt's birthday dinner. Filet Mignon a la Lake Forest Hospital - not too shabby!

Miss Claire meets her family

Claire made her debut on the day of a huge snowstorm.  Businesses closed early, the roads were a mess, and Grandma & Grandpa Mackus flew in from Tucson just in the nick of time!  We were so glad to have both sets of grandparents at the hospital to welcome her as soon as she arrived.  Her big brother Luke came to the hospital soon after to meet her for the first time, too.  She can't wait to meet the rest of her family in the  coming weeks!  

Luke was a little intimidated by the hospital and all the people in the delivery room that first night.  

Luke felt much more comfortable the next day in the recovery room, giving his baby sister a little kiss!

First family picture of the 4 of us!

Introducing Claire Mae!

We joyfully announce the birth of our beautiful daughter!

Claire Mae Baranko
February 26, 2013 at 3:55pm
7 pounds, 12.8 ounces
20 inches long

Claire arrived healthy and with relative ease, just 19 hours after they started the induction, with an impressive APGAR score of 8-9.  She has already stolen our hearts:)  She is the spitting image of Luke as a newborn, who was the spitting image of Matt as a baby.  Look at that full head of dark hair!

Waiting for Baby

Being overdue again with no signs of going into labor on my own, we resigned ourselves to another scheduled induction.  With a hospital admittance date and time of Monday evening 2/25 at 9pm, we had one last weekend of downtime before our exciting addition arrived to change our lives forever.  We tried to spoil our Lukers as much as possible before his life is turned upside down by a little person who would steal some of our attention.  One of the ways we did this was by taking him to Chuck E. Cheese's for the first time.  How times have changed since Matt and I were there in our childhoods!  

Handsome boy

Eating funny face pancakes

Watching Aladdin for the first time - holding my musical Genie lamp

Helping Mom make chocolate cake - YUMMY.  Note the little apron he's wearing, which was given to us by Aunt Kathy and Uncle Bob.  I think it was my cousins'Doug & Warren's apron at some point!

Having a picnic in the playroom

Elaborate Hot Wheels set up.  Luke LOVES to race his cars down the big ramp and have them do loops.

This fort is awesome, too.  He wants you to ring the doorbell on the house door to get in.  That tent on the side is his garage and another access door to the fort:)  Sometimes he moves it and says it is Isolene's house and she's his neighbor.  

At Chuck E. Cheese's.  A lot of the games were too big for him, but his favorites were the merry go round and the "fun bus".

There's Chuck!

Matt and I took Luke to his gymnastics class on Monday morning, then saw a matinee before we had to go to the hospital.  It was a great day!

Luke is so good at gymnastics!

At the hospital ready to have labor induced.

D Day!

Today is my due date!  My thoughtful friend from work gave me this little cake that says "D Day".  It was delicious and a great way to celebrate the day we've been looking forward to for 10 months.  Shockingly (note the sarcasm), I don't think I'll be having the baby in the next 2 hours, so the wait continues:)