Sienna Marie

Explaining the heart rate and contraction monitor Dr. Monzon Bonatti making us laugh. My parents thought he looked like Dudley Moore! After the epidural - I didn't feel drugged at the time, but I sound like it on this video! The epidural starts to wear off after one hour and my friend Michelle and Dr. Monzon arrive. The anesthesiologist gives me a second dose of the epidural, which lasts another hour and takes me through labor. Discussing Sienna's arrival time - we wanted it to be in the eight o'clock hour because it was August 8, 2008. Sienna arrives at 8:28 pm - ocho veintiocho!!!!! My mom cut the original cord and here my dad trims it up with my doctor teasing my friends Jen and Jaime that it's a Guatemalan custom for the friends to eat the placenta!! You'll get an idea of what a party it was in the delivery room! The pediatrician doing another checkup, grammy holding Sienna and talking about the pediatrician piercing her ears in the hospital, very common in Lati...

I'm at home, enjoying the maternity leave I didn't think I was getting!! I'll be returning to school on Oct 6, so they gave me a very nice 7 weeks of paid leave. I couldn't feel more fortunate! I thought I'd share these pics because I'm walking around the apartment with Sienna in a bag (courtesy of Mindy Morris-Totaro - thank you!!) around my shoulders and she's loving it! It's warm and dark, like being in the womb - I think she could sleep all day in here. The reason I have to have her attached to me is she's started to insist on being held...constantly. I may have created this monster, along with my nanny Reina, as we're almost constantly holding her. I even have her sleeping in my bed - there's plenty of room and it's so cute and cozy having her right next to me. Sienna was an EXCELLENT baby the first 3 weeks of life - eating, burping, pooping and sleeping just as she should. Then, she took a bit of a colicky road during week 3 and rea...

BATH TIME & NANNY ROUTINE I gave Sie nna Bean a bath today, so she's sporting her Zoolander hair-do! She's so good in the bath - not even a peep from her - and she actually seems to like it, if kept to a short period of time. I've also figured out a routine to make bathing and dressing afterward quick and easy and her little body as warm as possible at all times. After a bath, she's relaxed and likes to chill out in her swing. It was perfect because today Reina whipped up some lunch, which I ate while Sien na was swinging, and then went into the bathroom to clean it all up. What a HUGE help she is! We have a pretty good routine worked out. I sleep with Sienna and wake up with her in the night, typically every 2-4 hours. Around 6:30 am, Reina is up and ready to go and Sienna usually is, as well, so I hand her off and head back to sleep for two more hours of much needed zz's. When I get up at 8:30 am, the coffee's on and I have a chance to eat some oatmeal...

Sienna is three weeks old toda y and we’re getting into a pretty good routine. There’s only been one night since my parents left that she seemed to have confused her day and night. Other than that, she’s pretty much textbook, waking up every 2-4 hours in the night to eat, burp, have a diaper change, bounce around a bit and go back to bed. I love the picture to the left because she's sleeping like a frog and her cousin Madi loves frogs! The pic below was taken just after a bath and I laughed to tears at her hair standing straight up! She's so cute! Although I have a bassinet in my room, she’s been sleeping next to me on my bed in between one of those you-can’t-roll-over-two-cushion deals. As a paranoid first mom, I’ve liked having her next to me so I can make sure she’s breathing through the night :) I’m much better than I was the first two weeks, but it’s still a comfort to have her there. I try not to jump up at every move, but I peak over at her to make sure she’s okay when s...

I’m finally sitting down to update my blog. Sienna turns two weeks old today and my parents left two days ago after two weeks of fun and training. My mom was a great teacher - I have a lot to learn being this is my first baby, but so far all is well. To update you on the details of the birth, I’ll start from the beginning. Although if you received my KodakGallery photos, you probably feel as if you were in th e delivery room with us. My mom, dad and I arrived at Hospital Esperanza at 8:00 a.m. and were shown to our room. A guy came in to fill out a form on my medical history and I was given a pros taglandin tablet to start the dilation process. T hings progressed well and I d ilated to a 3 in three hours, but then didn’t dilate for the next two hours, so I was given oxytocin, or Pitocin, to get things going again. All day my doctor had been saying that Sienna was going to arrive at 8:00 pm, so she’d be born on 8/8/08 at 8, but I was doubtful that the pace would pick up that much. A...

My friend Jaime sent me this map that her boyfriend sent to her showing the route from her house to my house (in yellow) and my house to the hospital (in red). It's only about six blocks away, but there are various una vias , one ways, involved, so you have to zig-zag around. He even posted little landmarks along the way! Reina, our live-in nanny, arrived on Monday 21 July, so we've been able to get to know one another a bit before Sienna's arrival. She works all week, but leaves on Saturdays around noon and returns on Sundays around 6pm - that's the typical weekend for nannies in Guatemala. We're quite bored waiting around, but she's managed to busy herself by cleaning the apartment every day! Her routine has been to sweep, mop, clean the bathroom, make beds, do laundry, clean dishes and cook. I think of my friend Kathy all the time who asked my sister if there was anything I was going to have to do once the nanny arrived...not much! Reina's 22 or 23 years...

Immediately after school let out, I hopped on a plane to Los Angeles for my cousin Louis’ graduation from High School party. My sister, mom and niece met me there and we spent a nice weekend visiting with family and sweating in the unusually hot and humid temps of Orange County, California. We flew to Minnesota on Monday and my dad picked us up at the airport. I spent the week relaxing and catching up with friends. On Saturday, all of my aunts threw me a beautiful shower at my aunt Cindy’s house. It was fun to see everybody, eat delicious food and open cute gifts for Sienna. It’s a good thing I brought an empty suitcase to fill! On Sunday, my parents had a backyard picnic for friends and family. It was a beautiful day and the neighbors let us use one of those huge, inflated jumpers that they rented for a previous party, but it hadn’t been picked up yet. It was perfect as lots of people brought their kids and it kept them busy for hours. Melanie and Rachel, friends that I worked with in...