Amanda is 1 month old today

I can't believe it - our little baby is ONE month old today. It flew by so fast. I am kind of sad to think this is how fast our baby girl will grow out of being baby.


This first month has been little bit blur, getting used to changes newborn baby brings along. Challenging month but filled with lots of happy moments. Waking up at night and in early morning hours probably has been the most difficult part and not being able to sleep when baby sleeps since there is toddler that needs her share of attention and energy when you have very little of it ;) Also getting out of the house in the mornings with two kids requires totally new set of skills and level of patience. But seeing how much Izzy loves her baby sister, constantly wants to kiss her, hug her and hold her, makes it all worth it. I thought maybe excitement of having little baby in the house will wear off in few weeks and she will be over being big sister but as a very pleasant surprise to me, she is still as excited as on day one. Izzy is so gentle with the baby, it comes so natural to her to be big sister, filled with love and adore for baby. She keeps telling me it is "my Baby", we keep having this funny conversation where I tell her it is "my Baby" and she says back - "no, it's my Baby". Friend of mine Rebekah had told me this while I was pregnant that her son was like that when his baby sister was born, it was his baby, not hers. I did not fully understand what she meant until it happened to us. Izzy totally has claimed ownership of the baby ;)




Few facts from Amanda's first month:
She has used up about 270 diapers in her first month, yes I can't believe the number too but we realized yesterday that big Costco box with size 1 diapers is empty. What a great pooper!!!
Her umbilical cord fell off on day 8 (Friday, August 7th).
Amanda's first outing was at 5 days old to Hollin Farms for peach and raspberry picking together with Grandma Coralie.
Our first family of 4 outing was on July 19th, 20 days old, to the 60th Annual Prince William County Fair. She did really good, while big sister enjoyed her first rides alone, little sister slept in Moby carrier.
At the 2 week check up she was 8lbs 11oz, exact same weight as her big sister at birth. They both were the same lenght 20.5 inc.
Amanda is starting to hold her head up very nicely and starting day 25 she can see more. She is so much more alert and looking around, and starting to follow objects with her eyes.
She loves bath time. I love how she streches out, looks like little froggy to me, pushing with her legs off baby bathtub.


It has been a great first month and we all are looking forward to Amanda's first month party this afternoon. ;)

P.S. Pictures taken on August 8th, 2009 by Rebekah Wehner. Amanda 9 days old at the time.

Amanda is here!!!

On July 30th at 4:49pm our beautiful baby girl Amanda was born at Hylton Birthing Center in Manassas, VA. Same lenght as her big sister 20 1/2 inches but little bit smaller 7 lbs 14 oz. Big Sister Izzy and GrandMa Coralie came to the delivery room shorty after baby sister was born and we had wonderful and very special first hour of Amanda's life together. Interestingly both girls were born in the same delivery room #5. Both of their first pictures look so much a like.

I was really hoping for natural delivery without pain relief this time since I had epidural with Isabella but ended up having one with Amanda too. Baby sister just really liked inside of me and did not want to come out even after the due date passed.

On the morning of July 30th, we arrived at the birthing center around 7:30am. After monitoring for about 45 minutes and signing all the paper work, I was able to walk around little. Around 9:30am my Dr Eugene Louie-NG arrived, checked, still only 2,5 cm dilated, he broke my bag of water and we decided to wait few hours hoping that it would trigger for the labor to start. I guess having about 1 contraction in half an hour does not count ;) I was reading book, Jason went home to check on Izzy and Grandma, they even managed to go to Farmers Market while I was in so called labor ;) Around Noon I asked to start Pitocin. Hearing newborn cry in other delivery rooms did not help, I decided it is time to have plan B. After having Pitocin dose upped from 6 to 32, I could not take it anymore and asked for Epidural. I was getting sleepy and drowsy. It was given to me around 2pm. I was able to take a nap. Around 3pm Nurse checked I had progressed from 3cm to 5cm, decided to sleep a little longer, but woke up 40 minutes later with feeling that baby is coming. Sure enough, Nurse checked and I was 10 cm and she said - Baby is about to fall out! I had strong urge to push but waited for my Dr Ng to rush over for delivery. We called GrandMa and told to get Izzy in the car as baby is ready to be born. Since everything happened so fast there was no time to turn off my Epidural and it made pushing stage more challenging since I could not feel contractions, just the urge to push. After about 15 minutes of pushing Baby Amanda was born. I think it is one of the most miraculous and amazing feelings in the world when warm baby is put on Mommy's belly, all sticky and wet but so special. I could not believe she was out although she was right there in front of me. Tears poored down my cheeks and I could not be happier!!! Very special moment!

Amanda looks so much like Izzy when she was born

Meet our new Family of Four

My 2 beautiful girls meet each other for the first time - could not be happier!!!

Happy GrandMa Coralie