Alana - 1 week old

Tomorrow is Alana's one week birthday!  I can not believe that only a week ago I was still pregnant and waiting for the baby - thinking that I had 3 more weeks to go!  We have gone through a lot in this first week.

When Alana was born, she was 5lb. 14 oz.  She lost a little bit of her birth weight because that is normal during the first couple of days.  However, her weight dropped down to 5lb. 3oz.  The doctor started to become concerned when her jaundice levels were getting higher and higher with the passing days.  The doctor was concerned because she was born early and her weight was so low to begin with.  We monitored her closely, and the doctor ordered a special blanket for her to wear that emits blue light which sort of imitates the sun light she needs.  The blanket was not fun and we were constantly worried that she would accidentally kick it off during the night and look at the light (which was actually not good for her or us to look at).  Jeff was the one who figured out how to wrap her up so tight that she couldn't wiggle her way out.

With the passing days, her levels went down.  She has been eating a lot and she has already gained back to her birth weight.  The doctor was very pleased with  this, and she told us that most babies don't gain their birth weight back until 2 weeks old!  Alana has been doing so well with everything so far, and we can't be happier with her progress.  She's got some chub rolls now, and she's filling in her skin.

She has a really good disposition so far.  She only cries when she needs something - mainly to eat or that her diaper is dirty.  Otherwise she has been really good to us.  We feel very lucky to have her.

I know all friends have been anxious to visit.  We are waiting for her to get her shots and we will let everyone know when they can come visit.  In the meantime, here are some pictures to hold you over :)

Alana - 2 days old

We were discharged from the hospital today around 1pm.  As we drove away from the hospital, I felt happy but I also felt overwhelmed.  What if we couldn't handle it on our own without the nurses for questions and advice?

It was a beautiful day out, so I felt good about going home.  It felt like a good day.  Alana was so quiet on the way home.  She enjoyed the car ride very much.  When we got home, she was sleeping for quite a while and then it was the same pattern pretty much.  Poop, eat, sleep.  She has not been very active lately.  We have a checkup with the Pediatrician tomorrow.  She's passed all of her tests so far, so we just hope and pray she doesn't have anything for us to worry about.

She just gets cuter and cuter every day!

The Baby is Here!

I predicted it would happen.  The baby came early!  3 weeks and 1 day early to be exact!

We just wanted to make it to full term, which is technically 37 weeks, but she came 1 day before.  It's ok though, she made it and she is thriving so far!  She was born 5lbs and 15oz.  Tiny little thing she is, but oh so cute!  She is 19.25in long, so she is average height.  She has normal sized pinkies and she likes to curl her toes to grab things - like a true monkey  :)

So how did this all happen?  I won't go into the gory details.  My water broke around 2:45am on March 16.    We took our time at home, since I was not having any contractions yet, and Jeff had not packed his bags yet.  So I took a shower and Jeff got his bags ready.  We were admitted to the hospital around 4am.  Approximately 10 hours later at 2:23pm, I gave birth to our baby girl!  Oh she is so adorable.  When she was born, she had really pink lips.  It looked like she was wearing lip gloss!  She doesn't really have any Asian features yet, but I guess it's going to take a while to see who she looks more like.  The nurses say she has my lips, but I think she looks a lot like Jeff when she is sleeping.  She sort of has the Cambodian nose, but I think that will change.  She has a full head of hair, we think it's going to be wavy like Jeff's.  Oh, and it's light brown!  So pretty :)

It was an exhausting day for both of us.  I was not able to eat anything all day and I was so starving!  But the baby comes first, of course.  She's been a champ at everything so far.  We are so proud of her :)

Oh yes, and we have finally decided on a name for the baby after much debate.  Her official name is Alana Kaliyani DelChiaro.

 

Pregnancy Week 36

Yesterday was my last day of work... Woo Hoo!

I had my weekly exam today.  Good news!  I am now dilated by 2 cm. and 50% effaced (thinned out)!  That means the baby is progressing and the doctor said that I can really have the baby any day!  When she told me that, I didn't know how to feel.  I felt that I wasn't ready, and I still had so much to do at home!  I also felt excited and that I couldn't wait to call Jeff and tell him.  I also felt relieved because I am so ready for this pregnancy to be over with!

Well, hopefully she will wait a little while longer so I can have a chance to relax.  She is still in the head down position which is really good.  So we have 4 more weeks to go!

Pregnancy Week 35

So far so good.  The pregnancy is coming along and I am on target as far as weight and size.  I am 35 weeks, and the doctor says that in 2 weeks I will be considered Full Term!  That means the baby can be safely delivered at any time!  The doctor examined me and we discovered that we are dilated by 1cm!  It's a bit too early to have the baby, so we are monitoring this closely.  Jeff has been feeling my stomach every chance he gets to see if the baby is moving.  He checks morning, noon and night - all hours!

The baby is moving plenty.  In fact, she is already head down so she is in position.  Now that she is situated head down, I feel a lot of kicks in the ribs.  Her movements are more like rolls along my stomach now.  Sometimes, we can feel a limb here and there.

We had many baby showers, and we are in the process of sorting through everything.  I am washing all the clothes and putting them away.  It makes me so excited and I can't wait to have a baby to wear all the cute clothes that everyone bought for us.  We still have a couple of things that we want to purchase, so we will be making a trip to Babies R Us this weekend.  We also need to purchase a bookshelf or shelving unit of some sort for the baby's room.