Two Months

Hello, everyone! Sorry for not updated the blog sooner.  Annabelle only wants to be held these days so it makes it nearly impossible to get anything done!

As of today, Annabelle is two months and nine days old!  She has grown a whole lot this month!
When we took her to the doctor Friday, she weighed 12.5 pounds! That's 4 pounds more from last month and double the weight she was when she was born!  Thankfully, she is completely healthy; her doctor is still worried about her becoming obese.  We are trying to monitor her formula and only give her 4 ounces every 3 hours (she was drinking 5-6).  Sometimes, we have to give her bottle a little early cause she cries like she's never been fed when she's hungry!

My little piggy!

According to her doctor, she's a little developmentally advanced for her age.  She can already hold her head up, although it's a little wobbly sometimes.  She can focus on objects and will follow you with her eyes if you move around the room!  She's smiling more and almost laughing, which I love of course!  A lot of times, it's just a random smile, but every once in a while, we can make her smile.  Just a few mornings ago, I woke up with her laying in bed with me. I told her, "Good morning!" and she started grinning!  She's also cooing and trying to talk a little bit. I like to think that sometimes when she's crying, she says "mama," but I know it's just wishing!

Sweet smile :-)

Sitting up in the Boppy

Annabelle has had a very eventful month.  A friend of mine here let me borrow her infant car seat until I bring mine back from the States.  Therefore, we've been able to get out more!  At the beginning of March, we took her to Managua with us because I am trying to work on getting my residency.  She loves riding in the car!

March 8 was our friends Karla and Yeral's wedding, and we took her with us.  I got to dress her up for the first time in the cute little pink dress my Grandmother Fox gave her.  She did really good at the wedding! She just slept most of the time!

Looking precious in the dress her Grandmother Fox gave her!

Annabelle got to meet her Nana and her first family member from my side!  My mom came down March 12-26.  She had a good visit with Nana and loves being rocked by her on the boppy!

Rocking with Nana!

Before she left, we took Nana to the mountains in Nicaragua for a couple of days.  It's sooo much cooler up there!  Annabelle loved it and wants to go back!

At La Selva Negra in Matagalpa, Nicaragua.  Annabelle is in the Moby wrap!

The chapel at La Selva Negra

On March 22, while Nana was here, we took Annabelle to church for the first time and had her baby dedication!  She did good and just slept the whole time!  I was afraid the music would be too loud for her, but I think she liked it!  Sorry, I don't have a picture to post on here of that!

Here are some more things we figured out that she likes:
1.  Swinging in the hammock.  She's been staying at Luis's mom's house on Sundays while we go out to El Paraiso.  There's a hammock in her house, and as soon as we put her in it, she's so calm and a lot of times goes to sleep.
2.  Being outside.  We don't take her outside too much, but sometimes we go out to the back yard.  She loves looking at the trees and the sky!
3.  Walking around.  Of course, we do the walking.  This whole month it seems like when she's awake, she wants to be held and wants us to walk her around the house.  It's good exercise for me, but my back is killing me!

Luis and Annabelle on one of her daily strolls around the house

4.  Her stuffed puppy dog.  My friend, Hannah, that was here last year for 6 months made her the cutest present!  I unfortunately had to take it apart, but Annabelle and I play with the puppy.  She seems to love it; her eyes get big and acts like she's talking to it!

The present Hannah made for Annabelle.
The motorcycle is made out of diapers and receiving blankets!

5.  Regina.  She's my dear friend that cleans our house and gives Annabelle baths when she's here.  Annabelle NEVER cries when Regina gives her a bath! (She sometimes cries with me.)  Regina talks to her a lot, and I think Annabelle really likes that!

Regina and Annabelle

6.  Sucking on her fingers.  She'll resort to that if we don't give her a bottle or pacifier.  Bless her hungry little heart.

Already a thumb sucker

7.  Music.  Sometimes when she's fussy, I'll sing to her or put praise music on, and she's calm down and listen or go to sleep!  I think she's going to be a musician one day.

Her dislikes are the same: the heat, not liking her nose cleaned, etc.  I still can't get her to play with her play gym yet; she just cries because she wants to be held.

Today, she had her 2 month vaccinations (we were a little late).  She cried of course when they gave her a shot in each of her legs.  I cried, too.  I didn't like seeing my baby in pain!  She's okay now.  We've been giving her Tylenol and putting wet rags on her legs.  When the Tylenol sets in, she's fine and sleeps most of the time.  When she's awake, she cries or whimpers.  They say she'll probably have a fever tonight.  However, she was fine the first couple of hours and I got some really good pictures!  I think she might of been drunk on Tylenol, LOL.

Still a happy baby one hour after her vaccinations!
That Tylenol is good stuff!

That's all I can think of to tell for now.  Annabelle will be coming to Tennessee in May!  She and I will fly in for a month visit, the 6th-30th.  So please make your reservations with her if you want to see her!

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy her version of "Sleeping Beauty":

Please, Do Not Disturb

One Month Update!

Hello, friends and family!  Annabelle is a little over a month now and growing like a weed!  I can't believe how fast and slow the time has gone!  She is doing great though and is such a good baby!

Last Wednesday, we went for her one month check up.  Everything looks great except she's a little overweight!  She is weighing in at about 8.4 pounds (she feels like she weighs 10).  She has gained 800 grams (about 1.8 lbs) since she was born, and the normal weight gain is 600 grams (1.3 lbs).  This is due to the fact that she is drinking formula and a lot of it!  She was drinking 3-4 ounces of formula every 2 hours when, according to the doctor, she should only be drinking 3 ounces every 3 hours.  We tried to do it his way, but she cried the whole night of hunger!  So now, we're doing 3.5 to 4 ounces every 3 hours.  She's just a little piggy!  She even snorts like one!

My little chunky monkey on her one month birthday!

Due to her gluttonous appetite, she is now wearing 3 month clothes.  I'm kind of happy about that cause she has a lot of cute 3 month outfits that I've been wanting to get her in!  However, sometimes, she just wears a diaper because it's too hot for clothes during the day!

Developmentally, she seems to be coming along well.  She can lift her head to a 45 degree angle.  At about 3 weeks, she started recognizing faces. I was so excited about that!  I remember one day saying that I wanted her to look at me in the face, and the next day, she did!  She also grabs some things.  One day, I got her to hold on to a rattle with a thin handle, but she didn't really get the point of rattling it!  She does grab her pacifier and takes it out when she doesn't want it anymore!

Already a thinker!

Annabelle is really smart and already has a little attitude!  She seems to listen when I talk to her.  One day, I had to bathe her by myself (usually Luis or our house help helps me) and I asked her to to be good, and she was!  She can get mad and feisty when she's hot or bothered or hungry, which of course is often.  She grunts at us when we annoy her.  One morning, she was laying asleep between Luis and I in bed while he and I were talking. She started grunting at us, and we stopped talking, she stopped grunting.  She was mad that we were disturbing her sleep!

Full of personality!

Throwing a temper tantrum!

She does still do a lot of sleeping.  She sleeps most of the day. Before, she would be up most of the night, but now, she's starting to sleep more at night and be awake more in the day.  That helps Luis and I out a lot!

Sleeping in her crib

We have taken her out just a few times, but not a lot.  In Nicaragua, most people don't take newborns out until they're 3 months.  This is mostly cause of the heat and to keep them from being exposed to sickness.  However, she's gone to her abuelita's (grandmother's) a couple of times, she went to Luis's brother's wedding, to the doctor's a few times, to the store once, to Tamara's house once, and yesterday, we went to immigration in Managua with her.

Dressed up for her Uncle Jonathan's wedding!

There are a lot of things that Annabelle likes:

• riding in the car with air conditioning.  She loves cooling off in the air and always sleeps peacefully when we go for a car ride!
• visiting her abuelita (grandmother) aka Luis's mom.  We've taken her a few times over there, and she just seems so content!  It's probably because it's cooler and she gets held a lot!
• She loves being held.  Sometimes she'll cry just so we'll pick her up.

Sleeping on mommy's lap

• Sleeping in the bed with mommy and papa.  Sometimes we try to get her to sleep in the crib but she sleeps a lot better in the bed with us! I just have to be extra careful and not roll over at all.
• Being clean.  When she was just born, she hated bath time.  Now, she seems to enjoy it and is calm most of the time.  She only cries when she's ready for her bottle or the water's too cold!
• Her soft bunny blanket.  I introduced it to her a few days ago, and she seems to like the soft textures!

  

  Bunny and Annabelle

• Soothie pacifiers.  I started giving her pacifiers a couple of weeks ago to see if it would help her to go back to sleep at night.  She likes the soothie ones the best; the ones with the hole in the middle to put your finger in.  It cracks me up though cause you can see her little mouth moving in the hole!

Here are a few things she doesn't like:

• Being hot.  She cries a lot just cause she's hot.  That's normal for anyone.
• Infant swaddlers.  I have tried to put her in those things, but she will not have it!  She'd rather be sprawled out.
• Getting her nose cleaned out.  There's been a lot of dust and smoke in our house (thanks to our great neighbors for burning their trash all the time). So she's been stuffed up, and I've had to clean her nose.  She hates it!
• Her play gym. I have a little musical play gym that has little animals that hang and a piano for her to kick her feet and play.  Right now, I think it scares her. She cries when she kicks the piano or accidentally hits the toys.  I'm hoping she'll grow to like it.

So that's what we know about Annabelle!  There's so much that we've learned about her and about being parents this past month. I look forward to every day to see how she will grow and what she will do. We're so blessed to have her in our lives!

I'm looking forward to see what she will do this next month. I can't wait to see her really smiling and laughing and saying "ah-goo".  I'll let you know when she does! Until next time, remember Annabelle in your prayers that she will continue to grow healthy and in God's ways.  May God bless you!

This is what she looks like with a Bum Genius diaper on!

I love her smile! Can't wait till we can make her smile!

My sweetheart

I laid her down on her side....

.... I found her later like this.  I guess she can roll over!

She was a little sleepy

Who does she look like? Sometimes I think Luis or my mom or my dad. She looks like Annabelle though!

Our attempt at a photo shoot

She can see you!

She's happy :-)

The Birth Story

So Annabelle decided to come early!  And these past 2 weeks have been the longest yet quickest, craziest yet sweetest weeks.  Here's what happened...


Wednesday, January 23, I went to the doctor for what was supposed to be the first of my weekly visits.  Everything looked great, and according to the ultrasound, Annabelle was still on schedule to come February 17.  The only problem I had was swelling in my feet and my blood pressure was a little up from normal but not high at that time.  My doctor told me if I started having headaches or ringing in my ears to call her.


Friday, January 24, I woke up and had my quiet time and read my devotional from Jesus Calling.  This is what it said:



"My Peace is the treasure of treasure: the pearl of great price.  It is an exquisitely costly gift, both for the Giver and the receiver.  I purchased this Peace for you with My blood.  You receive this gift by trusting Me in the midst of life's storms.  If you have the world's peace--everything going your way--you don't seek My unfathomable Peace.  Thank Me when things do not go your way, because spiritual blessings come wrapped in trials.  Adverse circumstances are normal in a fallen world.  Expect them each day.  Rejoice in the face of hardship, for I have overcome the world." (Matthew 13:46, James 1:2, John 16:33)

After reading it, I wondered how it might apply to my day.  Then suddenly, I remembered my friend Christina McNally had framed the Jesus Calling page for the day her baby was born because it had gone right along with what happened.  I also began wondering if I would have more peace if I knew exactly when Annabelle was coming because I had started to get even more nervous about the birthing process.


Later that day, Luis went to El Paraiso to do youth activities, and I hung out at Tamara's house.  It was really hot, and my feet were swelling a lot.  Then, I started to get a headache... followed by the ringing in my ear.  I wanted to just shrug it off and thought maybe it was just the heat, but I remembered what the doctor had told me about calling her if I started getting headaches and a ringing in my ears.  Before I called, I decided to go to a pharmacy a couple of houses down from Tamara's to check my blood pressure.  Turned out that my blood pressure was 140/90 and the pharmacist told me that I should go to the doctor.  So I called my doctor, and of course, she told me to come in.  Thankfully, Tamara had just walked in from running errands, and she drove me over to the doctor's office.


I really thought my doctor, Dr. Baca, was just going to give me some medicine and send me home.  I did not expect her to tell me that I probably had hypertension and was at risk of having preeclampsia.  (I had already gained 3 pounds of fluid from Wednesday to Friday.)  I especially did not expect her to tell me that I was already having contractions.  What really threw me the loop was that she unexpectedly stripped my membranes to try to make me go into labor.  I was in complete shock!  Thankfully, Tamara was there, and she has a good knowledge of this things to help me understand a little more of what was happening. (She also started telling me how she had a dream the night before that I had given birth already). However, Luis wasn't, and I wasn't sure if I was hearing right about what was going on.  My doctor was telling me that I could wait to see if I go into labor or go ahead and have a C-section.  I was so confused about why and when or what to do.  The good thing was that Luis was on his way back from El Paraiso, and we waited in my doctor's office for him to arrive before making a decision about what to do.  I think he was surprised, but he handled it quite well.  We decided that we would wait to see what happened.  The next decision was to wait at home or in the clinic (private hospital).  Of course, I chose the clinic; I did not want to be riding the bumping roads of Leon while I was going into labor.


After we left the doctor, we went home, got my things together, called my family to tell them what was going on, and went to Tamara's to eat pizza before going to the clinic. Even though I was in shock, scared, and crying when we left the doctor's, I was calm and had peace about everything when we got to Tamara's.  That's what I kept asking God for: peace like described in the devotional.


By the morning of Saturday, January 25, I had only contracted about 2 cm.  Dr. Baca sent me to another clinic to have an ultrasound and test done to see if I was able to give birth naturally.  The ultrasound showed that everything was fine with the baby; she was fully developed and at about 7 lbs.  The only thing is that she was face up and had not dropped into the birth canal (just like my brother was when he was born).  The doctor doing the ultrasound told me that it could be very risky and dangerous to give birth that way.  Dr. Baca also said so and wanted to go ahead and do a C-section.  This was at about 11:00 am when we were discussing this.  I'm not kidding when I say that in less than an hour, I was going into the operating room.  Once again, I was scared to death and in shock.  I did call my parents and got a hold of my mom just as they were taking me out on the bed.  Everything was happening so fast that I didn't even have a chance to process what was going on!

Me before going into the OR

I was scared and crying when they wheeled me in.  I think what bothered me at the time was going in by myself... Luis wasn't allowed to go with me.  I was greeted in the OR by some sweet ladies that told me, "Don't cry! You're going to be holding your baby doll soon!"  One of them was another OB/GYN that spoke English (I had a dream the week before that I was going to have a C-section and people were speaking English to me).  She was very upbeat and helped me to calm down.  Dr. Baca was there, too, of course, and she held my hand and caressed my hair while they put the epidural in.  
:

Dr. Baca and Me before the epidural

Before long, they had me open and were pushing Annabelle out!  I'm thankful I couldn't see anything because I probably would have passed out.  However, I definitely felt them push her out.  Evidently she was snuggled up on my upper right side, and the doctor that spoke English had to push down on my rib cage to push her out.  I really thought she was going to break one of my ribs!  I kept praying, "Please help them, Lord Jesus! Please help them!"  And then... I heard my baby cry... I began sobbing! I cried a cry of joy and relief to hear my baby girl for the first time!

Seeing Annabelle for the first time

I only got to see her for a minute, then they took her out to her daddy while they finished sewing me up.  Tamara tells me that Annabelle was wailing when they brought her out, but the moment she was in Luis's arms, she stopped.  She knew who he was!

Luis holding Annabelle for the first time

So that is how Annabelle came into the world on Saturday, January 25, 2014 at 12:48 p.m. weighing 6.6 lbs and we still don't know how many inches (they told us in cm but we forgot).

The time Annabelle was born

Luis was just a little disappointed she didn't come on his birthday (the original due date February 17).  However, we remembered that the 25th is special to us.  On July 25, 2011, Luis and I started dating.  On September 25, 2012, Luis proposed marriage.  On March 25, 2013, we got married.  So it's fitting that our first child came on January 25!

We are so blessed beyond measure with our Annabelle Zyana.  She is such a sweet baby!  She hardly ever cries except when she's hungry or needs a diaper change.  She sleeps most of the day.  Her only fault is that she's more active and keeps her daddy up at night!  She's definitely got him around her little finger.  We're both so in love with her, and we thank God for His great gift and blessing!

Just born

One day old

One day old

2 days

3 days

4 days

6 days

1 week!

8 days- She pulled off the umbilical chord herself!

8 days- resting her feet on my legs

9 days

10 days!!