Where has the time gone?

Nina is one month old! It's been a busy month...not only have we been getting to know her and figure out feeding, bathing, dressing, and sleeping a newborn, but we've also been busy buying a house. (More on that later - Cross your fingers...this one looks promising!)

In Nina's first month, she's grown a lot. She started at 7.5 lbs, went down to 7 lbs, and at last check was nearing 9 lbs. I'm pretty sure she's topped that by now! She's also really long. (We need to move the straps on her infant carrier up to the top slot, but she still needs the head support and that takes the top slot.)

Things she likes: eating, sleeping, riding in the car.
Things she doesn't like: being made to wait for diaper changes or food, red lights (when the car stops).
Things she's still not sure about: bottles, baths.

For those not on Facebook, here is a brief look at our first month as a family of 3. Happy One Month Nina Bell!

Having a Baby? Get health insurance.

Cost of room and board for 2 days at the local maternity ward - $8,560
Cost for labor and delivery of the baby - $2,303
Cost of lab services for mom and baby - $495
Cost of misc. "hospital services" - $568
Total cost of hospital bill for 2 days (August 27-29, 2009) - $11,926
Total payment by me - $0

Importance of having good health insurance - priceless

Nap Revolt

My 2.5 week old daughter has decided that naps were sooo last week. Over the past two days the only way we can get her to sleep longer than 10 minutes at time during the day is for her to be attached to me. As in attached like a calf to the milk cow. She's also really restless at night - when she sleeps she grunts and complains and cries out a lot.

Oh - gotta go, she's awake again and crying.

Congratulations!

Welcome to the world, Marija Kristina, and congratulations to Joe and Daina! We're so happy for you all. (But we're still bummed that you weren't Nina's birthday twin.) So what's better, Daina, a 3-hour labor and being 9 days overdue, or a 30-hour labor and being on the due date?? I'll let you decide!

Daina and me, in our skinnier, pre-pregnancy, pre-marital days.

Our Anniversary - 365 days together!

Feliz Anniversario, mi esposo! Te amo mucho y estoy muy contenta por el ano que hemos pasado juntos. Espero que lo hayas disfrutado tambien. ;) Por lo menos, este ano es mucho mas seco que la fecha en que nos casamos!

Nina Xuxabell's Arrival

Our little Nina is already a week old and what a week it was! While I'll spare most of the gory details, here's a recap for those that are interested:

I started with contractions on Tuesday night (the 25th) around 10 pm. They were pretty consistent - about 15 minutes apart. On Wednesday morning, I called the doctor and they had me come in that afternoon to be checked. The doctor said we could go straight to the hospital at that point, but the midwife talked to us and said that if went to the hospital, I'd probably end up hooked up to an IV and on drugs. Because I wanted to avoid that, she suggested we go walk around, go home, do our breathing exercises, and wait until the contractions were closer together.

We did that. I went to the hospital at 12:30 on Thursday morning (the 27th), was directly admitted to the maternity ward, and we were hooked up to the monitors. The nurses left Fredy and I alone pretty much and let us work through the process. By 4 AM, I announced that I was ready to push, but that I was sure it wasn't time yet. Fredy called the nurse (Mia), who announced that "Oh! We need to get the midwife here. She's at 10." She then told me to wait...that I needed to keep breathing. (Aargh! The longest minutes of my life...Fredy actually lost his temper and yelled at the nurse, "She doesn't want to wait. She wants to push! Where is Donna??" Mia calmly responded: "She's not here yet, she's at home, but she's on her way.") My water broke around 4:05.


Donna, the midwife, was at home asleep, but got there very quickly. As soon as she walked in the door, we were pushing. Nina Xuxabell Perez was born at 4:28 AM on Thursday, August 27, was 20 inches long and weighed 7.5 lbs. She inhaled quite a bit of fluid on her way out - 14 CCs, according to the peds nurse, the most she's ever suctioned out of a newborn! But she's healthy and strong and beautiful.

Donna, Nina, and Heather

She's definitely Papi's girl, with a head full of dark, wavy hair (Mami hopes it will be curly) and a round, cinnamon-colored face with dark eyes. Her ears are pixie-pointed and lay flat against her head (hopefully not Halpin ears), but she has long fingers and toes like her Mami. (Perfect for violin or piano!) We think she's beautiful, and hope you do too!

Her name was a bit of an evolutionary process. Ever since Mami and Papi were dating, Papi talked about having a daughter named Xuxabel [pronounced "Shooshabell"]. (He knew a girl in school in Guatemala with this name and always liked the name.) Mami liked the name, but didn't want the baby to have a name that would always have to be explained and spelled constantly and mispronounced. So we had been bouncing names back and forth and finally found "Nina" in a book of names. It worked with Xuxabel. And when she was born, she just seemed to look like a "Nina"...even more than a Bella, which was what we were planning to call her. So she's our little Nina Xuxabell, or Nina Bell or just Nina or occasionally Bella.

She's very sweet and rarely cries. So far, she's a gifted baby, passing all of the marks on the first week's tracking record (pees, poops, feedings) and she sleeps 4-5 hours at a time at night! :) We are enjoying her so much and are excited for everyone to meet her soon!