Anna was born on Monday the 23rd,
just past midnight. Shannon was in labor for 48 hours, so we were
not expecting the 23rd as a possibility when labor started on the 21st.
It works out pretty well though, two of my brothers were born on
the 23rd (of different months). Keeping the dates together makes
it much easier to remember!
I was so looking forward to making jokes about how much she
resembled Winston Churchill, only she doesn't. Not that I'm
prejudice or anything, but she is incredibly cute.
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Shannon had a natural delivery without any pain medication
however, there were some complications after the delivery. She
had to be transfered to the ICU at Albany Medical Center around 4:00am
on the 23rd (God was very gracious to us, but that's a story for
another time). Anna had to stay at Bellview (where she was
delivered). For the next two days Donna (Shannon's mom) and I ran
deliveries of breast milk back and forth between the hospitals.
Donna got the opportunity to feed Anna the day after she was
born. She has a syringe full of breast milk taped to her shirt.
A piece of thin surgical tubing is taped to one of the fingers on
the glove. This method of feeding is supposed to make the baby
work harder to feed then do traditional bottles. That way they
are not suprised with the effort required to feed when they are
reunited with their mothers.
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I was really surprised how alert she is. Right after birth she
was alert and looking around for quite a while. For the last few
days when she wakes up in the early hours of the morning and I am
walking her around she just looks and looks at everything.
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We were finally able to reunite mother and baby on Tuesday at
about 7:00pm. Shannon and Anna had only spent a few moments
together prior to this. I don't have any digital photos of the
reunion, but I took plenty of conventional ones that still need
developing.
This photo was taken on Wednesday when Anna was 3 days old.
For some reason photos make her look bigger then she really is.
This one gives a little perspective, especially when you see my
hands against her.
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A little close view of her face. She really loves to suck on her right fist.
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Anna has so many interesting expressions although catching them on
camera is tough. The lighting isn't very good in this photo, but
this is more how she looks when she is alert and interested in
something. We have compiled a few of her expressions that we managed to capture on another page.
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More looking and looking.
We actually called the pediatrician the second day we had her
home because she didn't seem to be sleeping as much as we expected.
She wasn't noisy or unhappy, we just thought that infants were
supposed to sleep most of the day. Anna seems to want to look
around and enjoy being with the family.
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Even though she
looks like she is about to cry in this photo she probably wasn't.
Anna has been unbelievably quiet. She cries a little when
we change her diaper, sometimes. When she is hungry or waking up
she will fuss some, but not loudly. Even yesterday, 5 days after
birth, I would be surprised if she cried for 4 minutes total over the
course of the whole day. This is probably part of her
personality, as her parents haven't displayed any uniquely adept
baby-care skills. (NOTE: as of day 6, this has changed. She seems
to be learning new ways to fuss, and using them more often!)
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Shannon's mom and friend
came over from Rochester to help us out for a few days. That gave
us a chance to get on our feet as we recovered from Shannon's hospital
stay and have begun adjusting to Anna's schedule.
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We found a book in the library, while we were expecting, entitled The Happiest Baby On The Block
that describes various methods for calming crying infants. One of
the techniques that it describes is swaddling. Anna seems
to love it. When she isn't swaddled she swings her arms and legs
wildly and gets all worked up. When she is swaddled, she calms
down pretty quickly and responds to being rocked or shushed. |
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Anna already seems to be pretty attached to her grandmother!
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Our happy family!
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