Sasha' s First Doctor's Visit

In addition to Desmond's 3 year check up, yesterday was also Sasha's first doctor's visit.  The doctor informed us that Sasha was down to 5 lbs., 4 oz., which means she had lost about 12 ounces from her birth weight.  The doctor said that they don't like to see babies loose more than 8 ounces, but because her color looked good and everything else checked out okay, he wasn't that overly concerned.  But he did want us to come in next week so that they could check her weight again. He also said that with Sasha being so small, she will be sleepy for the first few weeks and also have a tendency to be a lazy nurser falling asleep soon after she starts nursing, which she does all of the time.

When we got home, I freaked about how much weight she had lost and David was concerned about Sasha not having enough wet diapers and becoming dehydrated.  So today, after she nursed, we supplemented with formula using the finger and tube syringe method (we did this Stella for the first few days after we got home and it didn't sabotage her ability to breastfeed).  After doing this twice, Sasha learned very quickly that the tube syringe method is a lot faster and less work than nursing.  So then when I would try to nurse her, she would fuss and cry because she was not getting the milk fast enough.  She preferred to get fed via the tube syringe way.  I really hope that this hasn't sabotaged my desires to breastfeed since I was looking forward to that so much.

Desmond's 3 Year Checkup

Desmond had his 3 year check up today and the pediatrician said that he is doing great physically and developmentally.  He has mastered and surpassed all of the developmental milestones for a three year old.  Like us, the pediatrician was very impressed with his verbal skills.  Here are our big boy's stats:
Weight - 33 lbs (between 50th-75th %)
Height - 38 inches (between 50th-75th %)

He did get a vaccination which of course he didn't like and cried.  But we told him that because he was such a brave boy and let the nurse give him a shot, he would get to go to the bookstore after wards and pick out a book.  The book he chose was entitled Farm Animals.

Big Brother

Des is definitely enjoying being a big brother!  He wants to hold and kiss and love on the baby all of the time.

Homecoming

Sasha is a day old today and she is doing great.  Thus far, she is a quiet and sweet baby who likes to sleep a lot, which was fine with us because it allowed us to get some much  needed rest after the crazy night we had.

When they brought her to me for the first time, she was alert and hungry and latched on right away.  She nursed for about 45 minutes and then dozed off to sleep making the sweetest newborn sounds.  She is so little; I can't believe how light she is when I hold her.  After the initial feed, I would wake her up every 3 hours to nurse and when we were done nursing, she would go back to sleep without a fuss.  Usually she would fall asleep while nursing.  One sweet thing we noticed about Sasha is that she smiles every single time she goes off to sleep and enters the REM cycle.  She even giggled during one of her REM cycles.  If only we knew what she dreams about that makes her smile and giggle so much.  We tried to capture one of her sleep smiles with the camera and this is the best we could do.

These smiles just makes my heart soar.  She is just the sweetest little thing in the world and I just want to hold her all day and all night long.  Love, love, love you sweet pea!

After a whole day and night in the hospital, we were ready to go home and luckily Sasha and I were given the a okay to be discharged.  We got Sasha ready by dressing her in her colorful going home outfit.  Even though it was the newborn size, the outfit was still big on her.  Sasha's little face is smaller than the bear's face that is on the front of her outfit!  I later found out from the discharge papers that Sasha was down to 5 lbs, 2 oz at the time of discharge.  What a teeny, tiny little bean?!?! 

With all of the paperwork involved, discharge always takes longer than it should, but Sasha did great during the wait.  Here we are at the front entrance of the hospital ready to go home with our new baby girl!

I rode in the back of the car with Sasha to keep an eye on her during the ride home.  I also snapped some pictures of her in her car seat.

We got home around 2 pm to a quiet house because Des was napping and Stella was at school.  When Des woke up, he was so, so excited to see his baby sister at home.  Soon after, Dada and Des left the house to pick up Stella from school.  Dada said that when he picked up Stella, she was looking all around the car for Sasha because she thought Sasha would be coming along for the ride!  Then three of them went to the airport to pick up Poppa, who was flying in to see his 7th grandchild.   Ommy went off to do grocery shopping and I was left alone in the house with my Scoot.  After nursing her, I Skyped Appachen so that he could see his newest granddaughter.

In the evening after dinner, we let the kids "hold" Sasha with a little supervision from me.  First it was Stella's turn.

Then it was Desmond's turn.

We are all happy to be home and reunited with each other and are slowly adjusting to being a family of five.  So far so good, especially since we have Ommy and Poppa around to help us with the day to day chores.

Happy Birthday Sasha Lily!

Today at 5:22 AM, our family was blessed beyond belief with the birth of our beautiful daughter, Sasha Lily!  Sasha weighed in at 6 lbs and was 19 inches long.  She is a tiny little bean and we fell in love with her instantly.  Her nickname is Scoot, a name her Dada affectionately coined while she was in utero.  Sasha has really light brown hair and big beautiful dark gray blue eyes.  She really doesn't look like Stella or Des and is her own little person.

Her entrance into this world was quite dramatic, to say the least.  Saturday (11/13) night into Sunday morning (10/14), I had been feeling painless contractions at regular intervals, but since they were painless, I didn't time them.  Then throughout the day Sunday, my contractions slowly got more and more uncomfortable and when they were about 5-8 minutes apart (around 11:30 PM) and painful, I decided to go to the hospital.  I figured, I'd rather go now at a reasonable time than in the middle of the night given the fact that this was my third pregnancy.

We were delivering at a women's hospital and the way they work is that you first go to the ER/L&D triage area and only when you are 4 cm dilated will they admit you to a L&D room.  When we got to the triage unit, the nurse (who looked like she was only about 16 years old! can you say inexperienced maybe?) examined me and said that I was 1 cm dilated and about 80% effaced.  The contractions kept coming every 5 minutes and after an hour of observation, I was still at 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced.  The ER doctor and the nurse sent me home because they thought that my labor was not far enough along to keep me there.  They told me to come back when my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart or when my water breaks.  The ER doctor even said that my labor was probably 24 hours away to which I replied, "How can that be when this is my 3rd pregnancy and each subsequent pregnancy's labor is shorter than the previous one by about 50% and I have all of the signs that I am in labor and my last labor lasted about 10 hours."  And her answer to me was that,"Well, sometimes the babies don't get the memo".  How condescending?!?!?! I don't know why they couldn't keep me there for longer considering the fact that I was the only patient there and they have about 12 beds in the triage area.     

We got home at 1:30 AM on Nov 15 and we retreated to our bedroom to try and rest in between my contractions.  My contractions got progressively worse and worse but they were still coming every 5 minutes apart, not every 3-4 minutes apart.  The nurse and the doc at the hospital had psyched us out so much that we still didn't leave for the hospital thinking that they were going to just send us home again.

At 4:50 AM, my water broke and when I got out of bed to clean myself up, I had the undeniable and unbearable sensation to push and that little Sasha was ready to come out.  Yikes!!!  Needless to say I was freaking out and couldn't really wrap my mind around what was happening.  In my previous two labors, my water broke early on in the labor process, not right before I was ready to push.  So this was a completely new experience for me.  Somehow, I managed to resist the urge to push.  Didn't think I was going to be able to walk all the way from our bedroom to the other side of the house to the garage to get in the car...but somehow, with David's help, I did.

We left the house at 5:10 AM with me lying completely supine on the passenger side with the seat back all the way down.  Got to the hospital in 10 minutes at 5:20 AM (normally a 15-20 minute ride, but David was running all sorts of red lights and speeding at 80+ mph on side streets to avoid a delivery in the car).   During one of the contractions in the car, I couldn't hold back and I pushed while screaming at the top of my lungs.  I truly believe the only thing that prevented Sasha from being born in the car was the fact that I had underwear and jeans on...the clothes impeded her from coming out!!!

We got to the hospital and David ran into to tell the triage staff that I was about to have my baby and they said to him, "Well, okay, tell her to come in here."  David told them that I was unable to walk in and so they then took their sweet old time getting a wheelchair to the car where I was, still not understanding that I was about to give birth any minute.  I somehow managed to get myself on the wheelchair, they wheeled me into the triage area, made me get out of the wheelchair, and told me to get undressed.  Because I was completely traumatized and in shock as to what was happening, I couldn't vocalize that there is no way I could get undressed or do anything because my baby is crowning right this minute and she was ready to born 20 minutes ago!  I just kept saying, "Please help me!" over and over.  David and one of the nurses managed to undress me and get the hospital gown on.

I got on the bed, and the same nurse who sent me home earlier in the night, told me to lay back down so that she can check how far dilated I am.  As I leaned back to lay down, I heard her say, "Oh never mind", because she could see that Sasha was crowning.  Not a second after she said that, another contraction came and without me even pushing, Sasha's whole body came flying out onto the bed at 5:22 AM, 2 minutes after we got to the hospital.  All I can say is that thank god I was on the bed because if I was still standing on the hard tile floor next to the bed still trying to get undressed when that last contraction came, I don't even want to imagine what would have happened to Sasha.

My first words when I saw her was, "She is so tiny!"  Then I said, "She doesn't look like either of our other two kids!"  They then whisked Sasha away to the nursery, so I didn't get to hold her until probably an hour or so later when I was admitted to a real Labor and Delivery room! 

So I had my last baby without an epidural, without an IV, without anything!  One of the nurses had the nerve to say, "Well, if you are going to have a baby, this is the way to do it!"  I mean, she really has no clue does she?...this is not the way to have a baby and I don't wish this sort of experience for anyone!

To say that David and I are quite traumatized by the experience is an understatement, but we have a beautiful and healthy baby girl and for that we are extremely, extremely thankful!!!

Now onto some pictures.  Stella didn't go to school today, instead, she, Des, and Ommy came to the hospital after breakfast to meet their little Sasha!

They wore their special "Big Sister" and "Big Brother" shirts for the special occasion.

Stella and Des were so excited to meet their baby sister.  They both wanted to hold her, but we didn't think that they were ready for that.  So they had to settle for giving their baby sister lots of kisses.

Here are some sweet pictures of Sasha with her Dada!

We love, love, love you so much tiny Sasha girl and are so thankful that you and I are okay, despite the crazy and traumatic birth experience!!!

Happy Halloween 2010

We had lots to do and lots of fun this Halloween.  First off was the annual neighborhood Halloween party.  But before we left for the party, we took some pictures outside.

Stella was dressed as Strawberry Shortcake, complete with a pink wig that she kept on all night, and Des was dressed as a monkey this year.  Des was not very cooperative during this particular photo shoot so we didn't get many pics of him smiling or even looking at the camera.

We were in such a rush to get to the Halloween party that Dada left the camera in the garage and thus sadly, we only have iPhone pictures from the party.  There was yummy treats, cookie decorating, face painting, craft making, hay rides, and a ghost shaped pinata for the kids at the party.  Stella especially loved the face painting and craft making activities.

Here's a shot of the strawberry she got painted on both of her cheeks.

A group shot of all of the kids were taken and here's a look at the shot Dada took with his iPhone.  Stella and Des are in the bottom right side of the picture.

After the party, we quickly got a bite to eat and then Dada, Stella, and Des were off to Trick-or-Treat, while I held down the fort at home.

Off to Trick-or-Treat!

The kids stayed out for about an hour and a half and by the end of it, they were both very tired, especially Des since he didn't have his usually nap.  But they were happy with all of the loot that they had collected.

We had an awesome Halloween and Stella and Des are already talking about what they want to dress up as for next year!

One Little Monkey Jumping on the Bed

Another set of cute pjs.  I got Stella these cute monkey fleece jammies recently and it finally got cold enough for her to wear it last night.  And so, I had to take a picture of my oldest monkey in her cute little pjs this morning.