On January 7th at 11:07pm we welcomed Nora Emmanuela into the world. She weighed 7 lbs 10.4 oz and was 20.3" long. She is named for great grandmothers Nora Oakes and Nora Larsen, and grandmother Manuela "Nellie" Cardenas. She is beautiful, delicate, sweet, and uncomplicated... for now.
We spent two brief days in the hospital before bringing her home. The time in hospital was made better by the amazing timing of the birth of our dear friends' baby. The Gaines and Cohen additions came less than 24 hours apart--it seems they may have planned this in utero. Matt and Mike went back and forth, visiting each other and sharing bleary-eyed moments getting food and blankets for sleeping on the floor of the hospital rooms. We snapped a few photos of the babes together just in case there might be occasion for it later in life :)
Since Nora was born so late in the evening on Friday, we had the option of staying an extra night at the hospital. While having the nurse take the baby to the nursery for a few hours of shut-eye was enticing, we really wanted to get home to start our life together as a family of three. The first night at home we hardly slept for fear that this tiny creature might stop breathing.
We had to to make two trips to the pediatrician during that first week because Nora was slightly jaundice and needed to gain more weight. There also happened to be a blizzard in New York City that week. So Matt braved the snow and slush in the early morning traffic to find cabs those two mornings and we made it to the pediatrician's office on time. Also, Teri was hobbling behind due to injuring her pelvic ligaments during delivery. We must have been quite a sight on those mornings! Nora did well and was able to drop the formula supplements after a couple of days.
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| Nora Week 1 Bday |
Mom and Dad Gaines, who had been visiting from Seattle for three weeks at this point (waiting for Nora to make her debut) journeyed out to Long Island in efforts to give our new little family space and time together. That lasted maybe two days. By the third day here alone we were ready for reinforcements. We called for back up and, not only did John dig out an exit from their snowed-in parking lot, but Faith was on a bus to NYC that same afternoon. Thank God for grandparents!
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| At the beach before M&D Gaines left |
With Mom G taking care of laundry, errands and food preparation, and Matt taking care of Teri, we were all able to make it work somehow and watched Nora thrive enough to make her first trip out to the beach at one week old. We spent a few cozy, sunny, winter days out at the beach before Teri, Matt and baby headed back to the city and John and Faith headed back West. Our time together seemed so brief.
Nora weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs. at her next pediatrician's appointment. She seems to be doing well as a breastfed baby. She is now two whole weeks old and is filling out a bit. As a milestone, we gave her her first bath, and as a reward, she pooed all over Matt's arm! What great timing our girl has.
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| Nora week #2 bday |
We love our little Nora Emmanuela. While it has been a great challenge adjusting to a life of three hour sleep increments, numerous diaper changes, deciphering cries, not to mention learning how to handle all of this while recouperating from a difficult delivery, we welcome this new chapter in our lives and are grateful to learn and grow as a family of three.
We don't really know that much about our young daughter yet, except that she doesn't mind being swaddled as long as one or both of her arms are out, and she has very strong legs which she uses to kick and climb up to her Daddy's shoulder when she's hungry. She loves to arch her back way back when stretching, and she goes through many faces when waking. She can fall asleep in about five seconds when feeding, and she inevitably will make a dirty diaper during the feeding session--or right after we change her, or, as we have seen, right after she's had a bath and before the diaper goes on! She has used one "word" since week one--a sweet, non-cry "bah." We're still trying to look for patterns to see if she means anything specific by it. We have also noticed a fleeting, but lovely smile. We know it's probably just gas, but we'll take it :)
We will post as many pictures as we can on this blog, but there will also be pictures on Facebook and Snapfish if anyone is interested.
