Some recent photos from the end of summer

Starting September 1, Michael began working in the intensive care unit. Our months spent in the unit are our hardest, both from a mental/emotional standpoint as well as in regards to time. Adelina and I have had to keep ourselves busy while he is away and here are some of the highlights:

My sister Rebecca came into town Labor Day weekend for a quick visit. We mostly just hung around the house, but on Saturday night we drove into Philadelphia to try Bobby's Burger Palace (as in Bobby Flay). We all had a very delicious burger and Adelina was so well behaved. She spent the entire time looking at the light fixtures and staring at the college boys seated next to us. We joked she was eavesdropping (like her mother is known to do).

On Labor Day, I flew home with Rebecca to Tampa. She helped me get through the airport and onto the plane with Adelina and all our gear. We had a great flight and Adelina did super on the flight-hardly any fussing and slept for the majority of the time (my prayers were very much answered). We arrived safely in Tampa and are now spending two weeks in Tampa with my family for both help, as well as the company.

This past Friday afternoon we took the baby for her first trip to the beach. We dipped her toes in the water and the sand and let the gulf breeze blow through her long(er) hair. I can't say she was thrilled to be there, but she also didn't act like she hated it. I think deep down she knows she comes from Florida blood. I can't wait until we can take her back when she can splash and play in the water on her own. I forgot how much I love the gulf coast, the water is so warm and blue and the sand so soft. I didn't want to leave.

Adelina in the jump-a-roo

Before Adelina was born I bought a swing from a yard sale. Every baby likes to swing or so we heard, but Adelina is apparently not "every baby". Not only did she not really dig the swing, it was broken and only swings at a speed that averages 60 mph (something I didn't know when I purchased it), so not the ideal safe baby item.

We retired the baby swing to the basement and last week found a jump-a-roo on Craigslist for $10. Adelina is not quite big enough for it, but she really loves to be in it. When we hold her, she is always wanting to stand up and jump around, so this toy is perfect for her.

Here is a short video of her in her jump-a-roo:

More of the bath

When Adelina had her first "real" bath, Mike took a video of the whole event. This video is about 10 minutes long and exceeds blogger's limit for video data, therefore unless we edit out some of the footage we cannot post it here.

So last night I asked Mike to take a second video of the little girl in the tub. I love watching her facial expressions as I pour the water over her. She seems to really enjoy her baths and an evening bath has really helped us with getting her into bed (and asleep) before midnight.

Enjoy the video, but ignore the bather-I ran on the treadmill earlier in the evening and had not yet made it to my own bath, hence the sweaty hair and no makeup face.

Adelina's 6 week Birthday

Today Adelina is 6 weeks old! I am not sure how time went by so quickly, but already our little baby is no longer the little newborn. She is now a ten pound girl who smiles, can sit up with support and who can just about crawl (she tries so hard whenever she is on her stomach).

To celebrate the day, we drove to Philadelphia and visited a few of our favorite places. We stopped and got lunch at Tommy Guns BBQ (best we have tasted this side of the Mason Dixon) and took our BBQ and fixins' to Wissahickon Park for a picnic. It was not quite as leisurely as in the past; coordinating two adults eating with two curious dogs and one hungry and curious baby is no easy task. After eating, we walked along the trail. The girls obviously loved it and Adelina took the whole thing in before eventually falling asleep. On our way home we stopped by Marcianos (an Italian bakery by our old house) and picked up some breads and a tomato pie.

All in all it was a great day. It was nice to be outside and to be out as a family.

Here is a quick video taken from our walk:

Adelina's Trick

Today Mike was holding Adelina and trying to keep her entertained during her waking hours. He was sticking his tongue out at her and after a couple of times doing this Adelina starting sticking her tongue out back at him. They did this a couple of times before we got the good idea to try to catch it on camera.

Here is our best attempt to capture it. Unfortunately our girl was beginning to tire and so the trick is not as good as it was in the beginning, but it is a cute video nonetheless.

At least someone is using it

One of my colleagues from work gave Adelina a vibrating bouncy chair as a shower gift. Adelina has probably spent a total of 15 minutes in this chair (not consecutively), she just is not a fan of it yet. Yesterday, I happened to look over at the chair and found that unlike Adelina, Sam is a fan of the chair.

A Quick Comparison

Daddy

Mommy

Baby

Adelina's First "Real" Bath

Since she came home from the hospital, I have been giving Adelina sponge baths. When she was around 2 weeks old, Mike bought her a baby tub so we could give her a real bath (her umbilical cord fell off around 2 weeks). Although we had this tub, I continued to give her sponge baths; always having an excuse for not using the tub (time, her attitude, Mike not being home).

This morning Mike and I were both home and since we didn't have anywhere to be and Adelina was in a very awake mood, we decided to give the new tub a try. She fussed a bit when we first placed her in the water, but she quickly quieted down and was very content through the whole process. She seemed to like the warm water and didn't even mind getting her hair wet.

Now that I see how easy this whole process is, I will be bringing the tub out more often.

Here are some pictures from the morning:

Adelina Lorraine Bianco

I am delayed in officially announcing her birth here on our blog, but better late than never, right?

Adelina Lorraine Bianco was born on July 14, 2010 at 2:28pm. She weighed 7 lbs, 7 oz and was 19.5 inches long. I was in labor with her for over 30 hours. She was very stubborn about making her appearance and even though my contractions began at 5:30am on July 13, she decided to wait and therefore be born on her paternal grandmother's birthday. She gave us a little scare when she was born; she had a mucous plug in her lungs and temporarily stopped breathing. Because of this, she spent her first 24 hours in the neonatal intensive care unit. She improved and was able to join us on the maternity floor by the next afternoon.

Adelina is now 5 weeks old. She is getting better about sleeping and can go for 3 hour stretches overnight (this makes her mommy and daddy very happy). She is starting to smile more and makes more noises than just crying and grunting. She is very strong; she has been able to hold her head up since birth. She currently weighs 9 lbs, 12 oz and is 21 1/4 inches long. She continues to amaze us and we are so blessed to have her in our lives!

Here are some pictures of the baby girl so far:

Picture update

I have seriously been lagging behind in updates on this pregnancy. Here is a picture from 32 weeks. I am now 35 weeks and I cannot believe I am already at this point. I have started having contractions, so I am trying to take it easy. As much as I want to meet this little girl, I do not want her to get here earlier than she needs to be. I am hoping to get at least 2 more weeks out of her. I still have things to do in the nursery and stuff to buy! I will try to get a more recent picture up this weekend, but don't hold your breath :)

26 weeks

This picture is outdated because it was taken two weeks ago, but I am just now getting around to posting it. I would like to take a new picture this weekend (I will be 28 weeks on Saturday) and hopefully I will get it posted before too long.

Everything is going great. I had a doctor's appointment last night and she said everything is perfect. I am growing the right amount and the baby is healthy. She continues to move around and make her presence known, especially at night. I am still relatively comfortable, but did have to buy compression stockings to wear at work to keep my feet from swelling to the size of basketballs. Now I have something is common with my patients!

I am having an ultrasound on Monday so I will post those pictures too. I am hoping to get better shots of her this time.

Week 23

Spring has sprung!

And so have I!

It seems in the past week I have gone from looking a little pudgy to looking un-deniably pregnant. People at work have begun to notice and I am getting asked by random strangers what I am craving (lots of salty foods, carbs, and especially chips and salsa; sorry no weird ones, yet).

In the past week I have also started to feel our little girl moving about and she seems to like to exercise around 11 o'clock at night (I blame our call schedule for this one). I am generally feeling good and can't complain. Although it is starting to get difficult to put on socks or to get up from sitting on the floor and I am worried about how I am going to shave my legs in the coming months.

This past week Mike and I have been on vacation. We used this time off to get the nursery in order. He put together the crib and changing table for me. My mom came up for a few days and we did some shopping for the room and were able to get it set up. I still need to find some things to hang on the walls, but I love the way it is looking so far.

We have had such a nice and relaxing week at home, it will be very hard to go back to work. The good news is we only have 3 1/2 months to go until this internship is officially behind us. This also means only 18 calls, with 6 being weekend shifts! Can you tell we are in countdown mode?

Our Baby Girl

The much anticipated 20 week ultrasound happened last Friday. Here she is:

The pictures don't do her justice, she is beautiful! She weighs 9 oz and is growing right on schedule. The ultrasound tech kept saying she was a very good baby because she kept "showing her parts"-meaning she showed us her heart, her feet, her kidneys, umbilical cord, etc whenever the tech was looking for them. She was a little more bashful about her hands and her face. She is positioned so that her head is nestled at the base of my uterus, making it very hard to get a good look at her head. She also kept turning her face away, so we really had to work to get the profile shot. As always, she is a very active baby; stretching and kicking her little heart out. I am getting worried about my comfort level once she gets big enough for me to feel all these movements on a regular basis.

I think that this positioning may explain why I have had some minor cramps and discomfort so low in my pelvis. The plus is she is already in the proper position for birth, I just need her to stay that way for at least 18 more weeks.

Mike and I are so excited to have a baby girl! We have already bought some very sweet little outfits with flowers and ruffles. I picked out a girly crib set with flowers. My Mom and Dad were here for the weekend and got to help with all the shopping, which was so much fun!

I will post another picture of me soon. I have not changed much and can't say that I look very pregnant. Most people at work have said that I am too tiny to be 5 months along. I think this just has to do with my build and the fact that she sits so low in my pelvis. My doctor said that I am growing just fine and meeting all the appropriate milestones.

Week 19

I can't believe I am almost to 20 weeks along, almost to the half-way mark of this pregnancy! It has passed quicker than I thought it would. I remember being 6 weeks pregnant and thinking it would take FOREVER to get to 20 weeks and be able to find out the sex of the baby. Now I only have to wait 6 more days. It's amazing.

Over the past month I have started to feel better. I am not as sick, I can eat a more varied diet, and I don't feel quite as nauseous all the time. I also have a little bit more energy and generally can say I feel as close to normal as I possibly can. In the past couple of weeks I have started to have some back aches, but luckily I have a husband who is willing to rub my back when I ask. I am still having the emotional ups and downs, but overall, things are looking up.

We are so excited to see our baby again next week. I can't wait to find out if it's a boy or a girl. I am going to run out afterwards and either buy a very frilly dress or very cute sports outfit (stereotypical, I know).

Blizzard 2010 - part 2

We got another snow storm last night, giving us another couple feet of snow. The storm was so bad that the governor declared a state of emergency. Snow was falling so fast and blowing around that it created a white-out. I (lucky lucky) got to work last night. It actually ended up being a great night on call. Very few people were dumb enough to try and drive in the storm, leaving little work for us to take care of in the hospital. I actually got to lay in bed from 1:00 am until 7:00 am (unheard of)!

Mike and I are down to one car since our little car is rear-wheel drive and is stuck in the garage right now. He drove me to work yesterday and picked me up this morning. We went out to breakfast (diners don't close because of a little bit of snow) and then came home to walk the girls in the winter wonderland. We also did a little shoveling of the front walk and steps. I shoveled our neighbor's steps and path because every storm she comes out and tries to do it and I worry that she is going to fall or have a heart attack (we see so many elderly people who have broken bones or heart attacks because of shoveling snow).

After all this activity, this pregnant woman came inside, showered and slept for 4 hours. The sun is out now and makes the snow look so beautiful!

Blizzard 2010

The first two years that we lived in Philadelphia, we saw very little snow and at the time I thought that was a lot of snow. Those wimpy snow storms were nothing compared to what we have seen this year. The first bad storm was in December and occurred the weekend that we flew to Florida to celebrate my sister's graduation. The second storm came this past weekend, while we were working.

Because we were stuck at the hospital throughout the storm, we missed watching it come down and missed being able to enjoy it right away. But as soon as we got home (and after we slept for 6 hours) we got the girls ready and went out for a walk in the snow. I think we got at least 24 inches and it was piled higher than I have ever seen it. Here are some pictures from our walk.