I Still Can't Believe She's Ours AND We Get To Keep Her!!

I am pleased to announce the arrival of our first child this past Sunday. She came into the world at 3:43pm at a weight of 7lb 12oz and measuring 20 inches long (much shorter than I was expecting) . We already knew we were having a little girl but had not decided on a name for her - we really wanted to see her before making our final decision.

After not too much deliberation, we decided her name would be Elena. Jen liked the name Anne as a middle name being it is the middle name of both her mom and sister and I agreed happily. Elena Anne.

And just to avoid confusion about pronunciation, the middle E is a long A sound. Uh-LAY-Nuh (as apposed to Uh-LEE-Nuh).

So we've been home a few days now and we are trying to get into the swing of having a newborn who pretty much sleeps, eats, fusses, roots for nipples (whether there or not), pees into the air when you wet-wipe her bottom, and shoots projectile yellowish/orange poo (again whether or not there's a diaper on her bum).

Elena likes to cluster feed at night and pretty much stays unconscious all day long. I like when she's awake and can see her cute dark eyes, but there's only a small window of time between asleep and awake where she's NOT crying to be fed. Those few moments make it all worth while.

Jen has enjoyed having me around for this week and next. I've been getting some projects done such as changing the lawnmower oil, cutting grass, weeding and landscaping, transplanting, digging up yucca plant shoots (hate those things!!), and keeping us fed - mmm... cinamon crumb-top blueberry muffins! Sad thing is there are STILL so many projects to do - I've only just begun...

We took Elena on her first stroller walk yesterday which was nice. The sidewalk, however, WASN'T so nice - we live within city limits so that isn't too surprising. Elena was a touch jaundice when we brought her home, but she's been eating and pooping like a champ and with a little sun she should be completely fine in the next couple of days. A home health aide visited us yesterday and said Elena was doing amazingly well for only being 4 days old. She's gained back all but 2oz of her birth weight and continues to feed like a monster. Poor Jen. :-P

We are hoping to get to Akron early next week to see Nana and family up there yet still be back home in time for our 1st pediatric visit on Wed.

I will try to keep the blog updated with anything new that develops. For now we just are enjoying being a family of 3 (and a Dolci dog) and getting adjusted to this new exciting yet challenging chapter of our lives. Hope everyone is well. Miss you all!

4:30AM - Are You KIDDING Me?!?!?

T-minus 30 hours and things are getting really real. Really.

It's getting close to Sunday and we're pulling some last minute things together. Jen, after an evening of thorough house cleaning while I was at work, has trimmed and resewn a changing pad to fit our unusual-sized table. I bought some last minute supplies including hard candy (Jen won't be allowed food/drink at the hospital) and some newborn diapers - we had TONS of size 1 but not a single newborn.

If you're still curious about the title of this entry, it's because we get to show up at the hospital at 4:30am. I can't even figure out what time to set our alarm Saturday night. Do I even TRY to sleep? WILL I be able to sleep? This will be very interesting indeed. Neither Jen or myself were very thrilled about the time of this "appointment" but what can we do?

So by Sunday evening (we've been told) our baby girl will make her arrival one way or another. We're hoping for the easiest and LEAST painful/surgical way of course. Keep your us in your prayers - especially Jen and the baby!