My mothers' day Present

Nana Elise came right on time. Just in time for mothers' day 2009. Mothers' day was May 10 and she was born on May 7th. She was the perfect gift for mothers' day. I could not ask for a better gift. She was a real present sent from Heaven. She is such a good baby and has made my motherhood experience thus far a great one. There are some bumps along the way but the joy that she brings up overcomes everything. She is not fussy( except when she has gas problems) and does not cry unless she is hungry. she is so sweet and content. She now weighs 7.4 and is 20 and half inches long. She still eats well and she got her first real bath on saturday after her cord fell off. She loves getting baths. She does not like the soaping part but she loves the warm water during rinsing. She also likes to be massaged. I learned about this baby massage that the chinese do with olive oil and that puts her to sleep. At the moment she is sleeping about 2 hours stretch and then it is time to eat. It was very frustrating when she started having her gassy episodes at night normally around 10pm which started when she was a week old. We did not know how to soothe her. She would be very uncomfortable and gassy. No position or anything would help. Now we are better at knowing what to do. I take her upstairs before it is 1000pm, give her a sponge bath and put her in her crib and dim the lights which works most of the time but not all the time. Sometimes playing some calming music works. Her pediatrician approved for her to get Mylicon( gas relief medicine) which I use as last resort if all natural attempts fail. That always works but I hate to give her medication so I try all other tricks first. So far she is healthy and everything is well. We thank God for our blessings each day.

Our Little Princess is finally here-Introducing Nana Ahenfoa Elise Corey

It is so surreal. It still feels like a dream. I do not want to click my heels in case it is a dream. Our baby girl is here and she is perfect. God has been so good to us. On May 7th around 2am, I started feeling some cramping but I did not thing anything of it. I went back to sleep and then around 330am I had been to the bathroom and returning to bed when my water broke. I could not believe it. I was joking around at work that I was not showing up for work that day because I was going to have the baby. Well, it turned out to be real. James was so excited when I woke him up to tell him we had to go to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital at around 500am. My contractions were strong but tolerable. I did not want to get an epidural because I wanted an all natural birth. James helped me use breathing techniques to get through the contractions. Apart from the contractions, I had very bad cramping in my legs and a very severe heartburn and this was making my labor even worse than it was supposed to be. My nurse, Ruth, was very helpful too. She gave me massages, encouragement and she was doing energy kinesiology which was surprisingly very helpful. James thought the use of energy kinesiology was weird and funny. It was helping me so I did not mind it at all. At about 1000am, I was 5cm dilated and the pain was unbearable so I opted for an epidural. I was so disappointed with myself and felt as if I was putting myself before my baby's. The epidural helped me relax and took all the pain away in about 15 minutes. I could feel the pressure of some of my contractions but no pain. I felt numb from the waist down and was afraid I would not be able to push since I had no feeling. At 1200 noon, I was 8cm dilated. At 200pm, I was still 8cm dilated and the baby's heart rate was dropping with my contractions. The doctors were concerned that I had not progressed in 2 hours so they gave me Pitocin to help make my contractions stronger and progress my dilation.I was also given oxygen to prevent the dropping in the baby's heart rate. I was upset because I knew the epidural had slowed down my labor, caused the drop in heart rate and was scared it was going to cause other complications. After I received the oxygen and pitocin, everything was fine. At 4pm, I was fully dilated and ready to push. I was scared and anxious about the pushing to the point that I was shaking. I thought it would be horrifying and long. Fortunately, it lasted only 15 minutes in 3 contractions and Nana Elise was out. She is the most beautiful and precious baby we have ever seen. She was born at 418pm on Thursday May 7th, 2009. She weighed 5.15 and was 19 inches long. She did not cry much when she came out. She is very calm and content. She is a good eater, and a wonderful baby. We are so in love with her.