Six weeks flies when you are having fun!

I cannot believe that my baby girl, Sarina Rose, is here AND is 6 weeks old today! Where does the time go? I feel so blessed, I had a wonderful pregnancy, and an equally wonderful delivery! Honest, I would go through that labor and delivery any day. Started the pitocin around 9am, and had it gradually increased every half hour. It took a while to even feel the contractions, and when they started, they weren't that bad. Around 1 pm, they started getting intense. Enough so that I had to stop what I was doing, close my eyes, and breath through it. On a scale of 1-10, they were about a 6.5. I think I could have kept going without any pain meds, but when I was checked, I was only 4cm dilated and I started vommitting a lot. Derick and I had a heart to heart with the nurse and she convinced me that things would go much smoother and faster if I had and epidural. Let me tell you, it was the best decision I have ever made! I was golden with it. Right after the meds were working, my mom came in (she made it from Florida just in time), gave me a kiss and wished me luck. An hour later I started pushing, and 30 minutes of pushing and Sarina was here!!! She was born on 1/22/10 at 3:44pm. She weighed 6 lbs, 8 ounces, was 19.34 inches long, and totally perfect.

She spent the first night in the NICU for observation because she was 4 weeks early and was having difficulty eating. The next morning she was fine, and spent the rest of the stay with Derick and I. Feeding has really been her only difficulty. We have spent 5 weeks with a lactation consultant teaching her how to latch on and feed properly. We went from spending 1.5 hours each feeding (times every 3 hours = 12 hours a day!) with a plastic nipple shield to just this week feeding without the shield and only taking 25 minutes! It has made being a mother MUCH more enjoyable.

Fast forward to today and she is changing every day. She weighs 7lbs 9 ounces! She can lift her head and turn to the other cheek when she is on her tummy. Today, she was able to entertain herself with her toys! She loves a certain toy that has 3 colorful bugs that you attach to a car or bouncy seat. When the bugs move, a pretty rattle sounds. She played with it for over 30 minutes this morning. She was even able to figure out how to reach up and move them to hear the sound! It is the most wonderful feeling to see your own baby learn something new. Derick and I are so in love with her. We shake our heads in disbelief everyday about how perfect she is.

My love for Derick has grown too. I didn't think it possible, but our relationship grew even stronger after the second she was born. He is the best dad, such a natural. He isn't phased by anything, not even a breast pump. (If seeing your wife pump breast milk while telling her she is beautiful, isn't love, I don't know what is) I get teary-eyed just thinking about how lucky we are to have her in our life, and to love each other as much as we do.

Of course, not every day is pink roses and butterflies. Yesterday for example, Sarina and I went to daily mass. Normally she is such a silent angel in church. We were a couple of minutes late (a personal pet peeve of mine) so I quietly find a pew in the back of the church, set her carseat down on the pew, and of course, it slipped a bit, and startled her awake. The next second, there was an ear-piercing scream coming from this angel's tiny mouth. I quickly try to get her out of the seat, which has a five-point harness system (similar to the one Nascar drivers wear I am sure). Whenever I try to do something quickly, it takes 3 times longer, which means her scream gets 3 times louder. So now everyone in the church is looking at me as I try to yank my child out of the seat and RUN to the back of the church. I thought I would die right then and there. It took a good 15 minutes to calm her down. I barely made it back to the pew for the "Our Father..." Tears of frustration were running down my cheek. It took a while for me to realize that this might be the first, but will not be the last time she publicly torments me. It was a patience practice-run for sure. She is worth it.

Enjoy the pictures of the past 6 weeks. If it takes a while for me to update this page, it is because I am enjoying my Daughter!