Daniel David - The Early Days

Happy Birthday Elena!

In the midst of the hub-bub that comes with a new baby, we also got to celebrate Elena's 2nd birthday. She started the day with a big present from Mom and dad...

She celebrated the big day with a Dora themed party. Her aunts and uncles came and she even got to invite her (boy)friend Liam.

Of course with birthday's comes the check in with the doctor too... She weighed just shy of 30 pounds and was 34.5 inches tall- putting her in the 75th percentile for wieght and height.

Announcing...

I promised myself I would document child #2 with the same fervor that I documented Elena's first year. Nine months later I say better late than never.

To start, we got our positive pregnancy test on January 4th. From the beginning, this pregnancy was NOTHING like my my first pregnancy. It didn't take long for the morning sickness to hit with a vengeance. I struggled to keep down any food from weeks six through about week 16 or so. Juan was amazing through the entire ordeal. He totally took the lead with Elena and the house and taking care of me. It was all I could do to make it through a full day at work and get home. Elena time consisted of a lot of cuddling on the couch because it was all I could manage.

We had a few weeks of happy second trimester fun and soon we found out we were having a little boy. Juan was like a kid on Christmas morning when the ultrasound technician gave us the news. Our family would be complete! One little girl and one little boy.

Anyone who looked at me could tell that I was carrying this baby very very high. By early June, Baby V was consistently kicking my right rib cage. Our future soccer player was kicking so hard that he actually bruised the cartilage. Nothing I did made me comfortable. It took acupuncture and a course of prednisone, and finally 8 weeks later the baby dropping for me to get any relief.

The third trimester treated me to the hottest summer on record in Baltimore. I had to stay indoors just about all summer. By mid August I was having non-productive contractions daily.

They say tough pregnancies mean easy deliveries and in my case this was 100% true. As labor day weekend approached, we headed daily to Arundel Mills Mall to walk laps. On September 4, we did two laps (two miles) with no contractions. Disappointed by the lack of progress, I treated myself to a pedicure. With no contractions coming, I went to bed.
At 1:00 am on September 5, I was awoken by a strong contraction. 15 minutes later, another. From there they picked up. At 3:00 am I woke up Juan and took a shower and we started timing the contractions. By 5:00 am they were coming every 7-8 minutes. Juan headed out to get me food as we knew as soon as we got to the hospital I wouldn't be able to eat. At 7:00 am Elena woke up. Every time I had a contraction she got worried and said "Mommy OK?" So mommy had to pretend everything was OK during each contraction. By 7:30 am, we knew it was time to wake up Anna to watch Elena and call the doctor.

We headed to the hospital a little after 8:00 am. They put me on the monitors and checked me, and sent me to walk for an hour. When we came back from walking I was dilated to 3 cm and contracting every 5 minutes. We decided to have the doctor break my water to get things going. From there things went quickly. I got my epidural about 30 minutes later and didn't feel any more contractions after that.

At 4:47, I was feeling that something was happening. They came in to check me and asked me to do some "practice pushes" so we could see what would happen. After only two practice pushes they yelled at me to stop- the baby was ready to come. The doctor rushed to get the room set up and I was asking if I could push as they were finishing. Literally 3 pushes later, Daniel David was here. He came into the world at 5:18 pm weighing 7 pounds 13 ounces. He was given apgar scores of 9 and 9. We immediately fell in love.

Happy October!

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I want to ride my bicycle!

Check out Elena riding in her new bike seat! Its the coolest way for a baby to get around Baltimore.

One Year Stats

Elena brought in 1 with a bang. Tuesday night she was crankier than we've ever seen her, and she woke up approximately 50 million times before the night was over. She ended up spending a good part of the night in bed with Mom and Dad.

Turns out she was coming down with Roseola! Wednesday (which was her birthday) she spiked a fever of 104.6 and dad rushed her to the Doctor. Our little Laneybug spent the next three days curled up with either mom or dad on the couch, cuddling with her bunny and watching Sesame street. Poor little Laney!

Friday was her "well check" for 12 months. They gave her a full work up, but no shots because she was too sick. We get to go back in two weeks for her shots.

Here are her stats:

Weight: 22.8 lbs (75th percentile)
Height: 30 and 3/4 inches (95th percentile)
Head: 46.5 centemeters (90th percentile)

Laneybug Turns 1!

Sunday, September 20 Elena celebrated her 1st birthday with about fifty of her closest family and friends. We had a great celebration at Riverside Park (right by her house). Nana and Pop-Pop, Ita and Ito and Babi and Dzia Dzi all were huge helps as we go everything together on Saturday and Sunday. Dzia Dzi, Pop-Pop, Dad and Aunt Becca even found some time to head to Camden Yards to see their beloved Red Sox.

Sunday Morning after church, Elena was allowed to open some of her presents. Her Uncle Dave sent her hands down the cutest outfit of all:
Aunt Becca gave her a Juniata hoodie so she is all ready for family weekend at the end of next month, and Mom and Dad gave her her first American Girl Doll, Bitty Baby.
Elena went down for a nap and everyone got to work getting the food together and getting Riverside pavilion ready for her birthday Fiesta.
When Elena woke up from her nap, Nana got her dressed in her special birthday outfit (a Nana Swaintek original) and she headed up to the park to get the party started.
Elena's guests spent some time decorating bug jars and then they went on a bug hunt (more pictures coming). Elena's next door neighbor Rachel won the hunt with a grand total of 26 bugs.

Everyone gathered around and we sang Happy Birthday to Laneybug....
...then Elena enjoyed her very first cupcake.
Thank you to everyone who spent this special day with us!