Sabrina Lucia

Well the elevated feet and crossed legs didn't work. Sabrina was born the following morning just hours before the Lorelei's graduation ceremony and the school performance. We were fortunate to have the grandparents here to take them and Maria shot some video. Jenna took photos for us, too.

Lindsay, always my go to photographer, took some shots of Sabrina. So far I just have this teaser one, but it is a beaut.

It is now 2 weeks later and Sabrina is an easy baby so far. She just eats and sleeps with very little awake time. Of course she wakes doesn't sleep for long stretches at night yet, but it is mostly manageable. Compared to Emma's eating schedule as a newborn, this is luxurious. Sabrina had her 2 week appointment with Dr. Finer yesterday. She is growing just fine. She eats about 2 oz. at a sitting. I looked back through my journal and found that at this age, Emma was drinking 3 1/2 oz. at a sitting. No wonder Emma gained 2 pounds above her birth weight in the first two weeks! Sabrina now weighs 8 lbs. 6 oz. ( up from 7 - 10) and is 20 1/4 inches long. That puts her smack dab at the 50th percentile for both her height and weight. Her head on the other hand..... at 13 3/4 inches is somewhere in the teens. I guess she's got a tiny head like her mom.

Who does she look like, you might be wondering? At times I see shades of each of the girls at the newborn stage but so far it is hard to tell. At other times I think she looks like no one else. She has a head shaped like Emma (and me), a nose that is straight with no little ski slope to it like mine of the other girls, dark hair like Emma had as a newborn (but of course it fell out and was replaced with blonde hair), curl to her hair - like Lorelei? (hard to say because Lorelei was bald for so long!), slate blue eyes that will inevitably turn brown on me, long fingers, feet and toes and a svelte little body. Wait - I haven't mentioned her perfect ears. Seriously. Her ears are absolutely perfect. I think that they are small like mine, but on the head of a baby it is hard for me to tell what is big and what is small.

Contraction Action!

I may or may not have said this before, but this pregnancy has just been so different in some ways from the other two and that has left me confused at times. With Lorelei and Emma I started having some cramping a day or two before they were born. Contractions started at some point the day before and were in earnest by midnight. I think I went to the hospital with Lorelei at 3:30 in the morning and maybe 2:30 am with Emma. And then they were born around the noon hour that day.

Well this time is different. I started having contractions 10 days ago. I seriously thought that the baby was going to be born on Thursday. But no. Then things calmed down for a few days (thankfully because Andres' parents hadn't yet arrived to care for the girls!) Then the night before the grandparents arrived the contractions kicked up again. That was the start of what has been an entire week of having sleep depriving nights that convince me that the hospital trip is inevitable, followed by a day of sporadic contractions. Finally yesterday morning I called the doctor's office to see if they could see me or tell me something reassuring. They sent me to the hospital for evaluation. Of course I had NO contractions of note while hooked up to the machine, but I was relieved to hear that all was well with the baby and that I was dilated to 2 cm and 50% effaced. I was sent for an ultrasound. All seemed fine except for the fact that she was so low in my pelvis that the technician couldn't really get a measurement of her head. And then I went home. Well, actually then I tool Lorelei to an appointment. Oh, how I was suffering with contractions and back pain. By the time we made it home I didn't think I could walk up the stairs to the apartment. Being stubborn came in handy and I made it. Straight to lie down in bed. I went against the medical community and took 800 mg of ibuprofen (it just felt so much like the worst menstrual cramps ever!) and things calmed down. I felt so much better that I remember thinking that I actually felt "drugged". I slept a few hours last night before the incredible back pain and contractions kicked in again. But nothing regular or particularly close together.

This morning I wasn't sure that I would make it to my 10:45 appointment, but I did. I am now 3 cm and 80% effaced. The baby is coming for sure. My doctor assured me that this labor would be much faster than the other two. It couldn't be I rebutted. I have already been in labor for a week!

Tomorrow is Lorelei's preschool graduation and end of school show. Emma has a special starring role and I would really hate to miss the whole thing, so right now I'm hoping that for having already been a prolonged process, she will wait until at least tomorrow afternoon once the show is over. Keep your fingers crossed. I'll keep my feet elevated and my legs crossed.