5 Months Old

Dear Izzie:

Today you are 5 months old. It now feels like you have been with us forever. I could not imagine my life without you. You have gone through a lot of exciting changes in the last few weeks. It's been super fun to watch you grow and discover fresh talents.

You can now turn from your back to your belly and stay on your belly for really long time. You rock forward and back trying to get yourself forward and get frustrated if you can't flip onto your back again. We usually have to flip you and then you are happy again. You love your toys and explore them with touch and of course your mouth. You love to discover what a toy does and you observe with great interest if it squeaks, plays music, rattles, feels soft or is great for chewing. You still love your play mat and you also love to watch cartoons. We only let you watch it a few times a week but you giggle with excitement and currently your favorites are "Angelina Ballerina" and "Olivia". We also still read a lot of books together and you follow each picture with great interest. I cannot wait till we start doing crafts together. Your other big interest in the moment is to watch me put make up on. You pay very close attention to all the pretty colours in my shadow palette and all the brushes I use and of course you love lip gloss. I can tell you can't wait to get your hands on make up!

Having you teach Mom and Baby yoga with me is double fun now. You are enjoying so many poses and finally you love the "flying baby" pose. This is when I lift you up in the air as I lay on my back. I lower you down to kiss you and then lift you up again. You love leopard swing where you lay on top of my arm and I swing you from side to side. I think you must also love to explore the world from a different angle when we do standing poses such as warriors and tree as you look out into the world and smile at other babies. Baby yoga routines and massage continue to be a delight for both you and I. And I make you laugh every time I am in down dog and you get to pull my hair.

Other fun games and activities you enjoy is "peek a boo", "paddie cake" and "this little piggy". Whenever you pull a blanket, a bib or a towel over your face we say "where is the baby?" and you scream and kick with laughter...then we pull it down and say "there she is!!!!" and you laugh more. We also love to lay down with you and pretend we are eating your toes or fingers, you pull them away and then stick them right back at us so we can try again! Great fun! We love blowing raspberries on your tummy and you do too especially when we say "I'm gonna get you!" Mommy also uses a different voice for a toy or a doll and you actually think they are talking to you...and then you like when the toy kisses you and sometimes tickles you too.
You find it funny when mommy puts a random object on her head such as a towel, sweater, strainer, or a toy and then asks you "do you like my hat?". The play time is definitely one of our favourite pass times!

As far as body awareness goes you have discovered your tongue and your feet. You love to stick out your tongue, lick and smack your lips. You also love to hold your feet and pull them close to you. Its so fun to watch you go through these discoveries.

You are now sitting in a high chair and watch mommy cook. You love your high chair and you play in it with your toys. Soon you will eat your first solid foods!

We are so happy and blessed to have you. I still look at your ever day and cannot believe that you are my daughter. I look forward to a lifetime of love and fun we are going to share together. I will do my best to be the best parent, guide and a friend to you.

Love,
Mommy

4 months old

December 29, 2009

My Dear Princess:

Today you are 4 months old and I have no idea where the time went. It seems like yesterday that I held you in my arms for the very first time. You are such an amazing little girl. You are calm and content but also very curious about the world around you. You adapt to new situations quite well and you always know what you want...and what you want is to nap! You are an excellent napper and a great all night sleeper. We have spent our first Holidays together and it was a lot of fun. We took you to the mall to see Santa and you did not protest even one bit. You were calm as always and even tagged at Santa's beard. The photo turned out wonderful and we were so proud of you. What a great little girl you are! We visited 4 different houses with you and you took it all like a pro. You did not mind being held by everyone and took your naps even in the midst of chaos. This little angel is living up to her name. Everyone in the family is in love with you and your smiles.
Thank you for loving us and choosing us to be your parents.

xoxo
Mommy

Three Months Old

November 29, 2009

Dear Angel,

You are 3 months old today. You will be 3.5months on Christmas. As you can imagine we are exceptionally thrilled for the Holidays this year as you are going to be here. Last year on December 23rd I found out that I was pregnant. On Christmas Day we told our families we had a gift for them they could only see in 9 months. I cannot believe its been almost a year since you started to grow in my belly and 3 months since you are in the outside world.

You are learning new things with each passing day. You can also roll over one way, reach for toys, and you can bring your hands together. Ever since you found your voice you love to make new sounds and entertain yourself and us with "talking" and "singing". You are quite a chatterbox and you can get pretty loud too! You also giggle and laugh, which is the most amazing sound in the world. Daddy can make you laugh the most...apparently mommy is not as funny. You are always smiling as you are such a happy and content baby. Others always comment on how beautiful and happy you are. You have beautiful complexion, sweet smile, dark blue eyes and a lot of dark hair. You melt everyone's heart and even random people in the supermarket stop to talk to you.

You are fitting perfectly into 0-3m old clothing and sometimes even into 6month old clothing. You weight at around 14 pounds. You are now double your birth weight! Where did my tiny baby go? You are such an excellent sleeper that we have decided to put you in your crib to see how you would like it. Since you are getting bigger and sleep longer we want to make sure you are as comfortable as possible. You love your crib and you go to sleep at around 10pm and wake up at 9am. You feed and stay up for a bit and then go back to sleep for another hour or two. At night we swaddle you and rock you to sleep. Its amazing to watch you fall asleep in my or daddy's arms every night. In the morning when you wake up you greet us with the most amazing smiles...what a sight to wake up to!

You do very well at play dates and continue to enjoy Mom and Baby yoga. You love hanging out with other babies. Currently you love to hang out with baby Amatiel and baby Nathan who are your closest friends. Your other friends that you like are baby Rowan, baby Sophia, baby Avery, baby Aaoki and baby Toby. You also really enjoy spending time with grandma Eva who spoils you with attention and affection. She is just on cloud 9 to have you as granddaughter. She baby sits you every second Saturday for a couple of hours when I go to teach Prenatal Yoga. Grandma Sharon also baby sits you from time to time and also loves to spend time with you.

My heart is filled with love for you and I will always be grateful for my precious baby girl.
Thank you for being you and for choosing me to be your mommy.

Love,
Mom

Two Months Old

October 29, 2009

My sweet pumpkin pie,

You are two months old today. I cannot tell you enough how much we enjoy spending our time getting to know you, loving you and watching you grow. You are even more alert now and still very curious about everything around you. You want to look at lights, pictures, nature and study people's faces.

You are also making a lot of cooing sounds and are having tons of conversations with others. You love to connect with daddy when he gets back from work. You tell him all about your day with mama. It is so sweet to see you both immersed in a loving exchange. You are daddy's little girl and mommy's sweet angel. I thank you so much for coming to the world and making us a family.

At two months you have done so much discovering. You have came with me to Mom and Baby Yoga classes. You love to look at other babies and listen to meditation music. You even nap sometimes probably because of the music. I really enjoy all the baby yoga routines we do and baby massage. You seem to like when I massage you, stretch your little limbs, stroke your back and kiss and cuddle you as I go through my own practice. Our yoga practice is such a great way to get to know you, your body language and your behaviour. I love that we do yoga together just as we have done for 9 months of pregnancy. I think you are going to be a yoga star!You love going outside and as we go to the park you look at the sky and the trees. Then you fall asleep being rocked by the steady rhythm of a moving stroller. I smile at you and talk to you the entire time. I am so happy and fulfilled. I cannot belive that I actually sing to you and you don't mind. I love holding you. I love seeing wonder in your eyes as you observe things.

You started to sleep longer. You let us sleep through the night and give us 7-9hours of uninterrupted sleep. It feels good to know you enjoy your rest and trust us-so do we! I still continue to love sleeping with you. As we fall asleep I hold your little hand and you look so tiny in our big bed. I love waking up and seeing your little face next to mine. Its such a great feeling to see you first thing when I wake up. You still never cry and only get fussy sometimes but we are very good with knowing your needs. You just make it so easy for us. All you need is love, food and sleep and you are happy. Such low maintenance baby you are!

If I have learned one thing over the years is that nobody enjoys tired, stressed out and overwhelmed mother. I am so happy to be able to give you fresh and energized self. You can be secure and stable knowing that your mom is thriving too on this journey of motherhood.
Thank you for being you, for choosing us to be your parents, for making our lives richer and deeper on all levels. I will always do my best to guide you with love and patience on your path.

Love always,
Mom

One month old

September 29, 2009

My sweet little girl,

You have been with us for a month. When you were placed on my chest for the very first time and covered with a warm blanket my heart melted and I knew that I have truly never loved that deeply before. As I embraced you and whispered the words of welcome I felt the undeniable bond between us. I also wondered who is my little girl going to become? How is she going to grow? What personality will she have? And I knew in that moment that our journey has just began.

Today you are one month old. I cannot believe that you have been with us for four precious weeks. I love your presence in the outside world. You are so cute, cuddly and amazing. Your skin is the softest thing I have ever touched. I love the way you smell and the way you sound. You have gotten to experience so many things. You have been in your stroller when we have taken you for a beautiful summer walks. You have taken many bubble baths with me and you love the water. You are just fascinated with how it feels to be submerged in the warm water. You have been in your princess like swing, in the baby carrier close to my heart and in the bassinet. You do not like to sleep in the bassinet and prefer to sleep with us. We actually love sleeping with you as we have more time to bond and to respond to your needs better. I have tried to have you in the bassinet and really did not like it myself. After being so close to each other for 9 months having you sleep away from me is something I cannot enjoy.

We have watched you grow and get stronger every day. You have an amazing head control and you are very strong. You love kicking and stretching your legs and you observe everything around you. You are very curious about everything. You only cry briefly and not very intensely when you are hungry. You have a lovely and peaceful energy.

You have met all of the family and friends except for your grandpa Arman who will be visitng from the Philipines in the Spring. You are so lucky to have 3 grandmas and 3 grandpas. They are all so crazy about you. My mom and your grandma Eva is just over the moon with her first granddaughter. My dad and your grandpa Les cannot take his eyes off off you and constantly smiles at you. Your grandma Sharon is happy because you are her first granddaughter and third grandchild. Your cousins Chase and Brayden already love you and want to play with you every time they visit. We have to tell them that you are a very tiny baby and will play with them when you get a bit older.

I am so lucky to be your mama. The past month have been full of little surprises, smiles, joys and laughter. Even though there is sleep deprevation and an overwhealming sense of responsibility what I will remember most is how you have transformed our lives into that of enormous joy and love. I know its a cliche when you hear people say that when you have a child you love like you have never loved before but it is so very true. My heart has grown and expended and continues to expend even more with each day. Baby girl, I love you so much and I thank you so much for choosing me to be your mama.

Love,
Mommy

Isabella at 3 weeks old

It's been wonderful 3 weeks with Isabella. The first few days after her birth we took it really easy. We only had immediate family visit the day after and friends visit 5 days later. We wanted to make sure we had our baby moon-time to bond as a family. We kept the lights dim, noise to minimum, played lots of beautiful healing music and enjoyed our sweet little girl. I am so glad we did as those first few days are so precious and you will never get them back. Everyone else seemed to really understand and respect our wish to be left alone. After the first week, we were so much more rested and enjoyed having company. There were family and friends coming daily bearing gifts, and more gifts and meeting our little angel.

Isabella is still on every 3 hour feeding schedule and at this stage we are used to the routine. It was hard at first not to sleep through the night as its our first baby. Armando and I take turns to feed her so the other one can sleep and it works really well. There are nights where she sleeps 4-5hours straight and that is always a very nice treat. Armando took 2 weeks off from work so we could both take care of Isabella. We really got ourselves organized and learned a lot about her. We know that she likes to be swaddled most of the time, she loves sleeping with us and so do we, and she loves to be held and rocked to sleep after she eats. She is a good baby. She barley cries, and for most part is very content.

She is also very aware and alert when awake. There is a deep sense of knowing in her eyes. She can hold her gaze forever on us and is fascinated by lights. She follows with her eyes as we move and is able to lift her head and turn it from side to side. She smiles sometimes but at this point as everyone says its probably gas.

I have taken her to one of the yoga studios so she could meet some of my teacher friends. It was just amazing to be back in the yoga room where me and her did yoga for 9 months. It felt so good, so familiar so right. She gets a lot of attention as many students and teachers are already bonded with her. It's amazing to see that. I love that she is already a part of yoga community.

I love holding her, kissing her and cuddling with her. When I am away from her for a few hours I miss her. My husband and I had our first date since her birth this weekend and we went out to the movies. My mom and step dad were babysitting Izzie. I enjoyed our night out a lot but kept thinking of my little girl and was so happy to get back home and be with her. I also think of her as I practice yoga. This week I have been to 3 yoga classes and kept thinking of Izzie in my savasana :)

I am teaching my first class tonight. I am really looking forward to it. It's been great to get back to my yoga practice. I will write more about that in another post. I wanted to write about my diet and weight as many people have asked me if I thought raw food diet had a lot to do with healthy pregnancy and easy birth. I absolutely think so. Being able to keep my body clean and energized through raw food diet has definitely made my pregnancy and labour as easy as it was.
I also believe it had a lot to do with my fast recovery. I was able to move out and about few days later, got back to my yoga routine 2 weeks later and only had post-partum bleeding for 2.5 weeks.

Here is my weight in:

Pre-Pregnancy weight: 124 pounds
Pregnancy weight gain : 18 pounds (142 pounds)
3 weeks post partum weight: 127 pounds

My baby girl Isabella is here!!!

Born on Saturday, August 29th at 8:30pm at 40 weeks and 6 days. She was 7 pounds and 11 oz. not bad for being 6 days overdue! She is absolutely perfect and doing very well. I can't believe tomorrow she will be 2 weeks old. Every time I look at her I feel so much love and all I want to do is kiss and hold her. The past two weeks went super fast. It's been all about getting to know her, getting a new routine going and loving every minute of being a new mommy. I feel blessed, I feel happy, I feel fulfilled. Even though the adjustment to having a newborn is not a small task, making sure they are comfortable at all times, not getting all the sleep you were used to, taking so much longer to leave the house, etc. etc. it is all absolutely worth it. Before I say any more I'd like to share my birth story. So here it goes:

I ended up having a dream home birth. It was absolutely perfect. It was just like I imagined it to be down to almost every detail. I wanted a short, easy, gentle 6 hour labour and I wanted my baby to be born between 6-9pm. I did end up labouring for 6 hours, felt no pain (only fantastic pressure waves and amazing energy flowing through me) and my baby was born at 8:30pm.

My labour started with my water breaking at home. An hour later at 2:30pm I was in early labour for 45min and then went straight into active labour. It was a perfect, sunny and warm Saturday afternoon. Armando was at work and when he got home we had enough time to set things up before my contractions went to being every 5min apart. When that happened I immediately went within and started to focus on what my body was doing and my breath. I sat on my birthing ball, did some yoga poses and took a shower. All while listening to my hypnobirthing CDs. I was calm yet so happy and joyful! Finally it was happening.

My secondary midwife Diane arrived (Lucia was off for the weekend) and checked me. I was 4cm so we started filling the pool. At this point I got a little sick and Diane told me women who throw up tend to progress faster. She was right, my surges intensified so I got into the pool. It was heaven. The water felt so soothing and inviting. I relaxed and went more within. We run out of hot water so Armando had to boil water and bring it up in a pot. He later told me he was running up and down the stairs bringing a total of 10 pots of hot water.I had no idea at that time. I was so focused nothing else was really getting registered in my brain. I later realized how time ceased to exist. Maybe it was one of my hypnosis suggestions that every 20 min will seem like 5?

Soon after I started to feel different energy in my body. My body wanted to start pushing.I was surprised as it seemed to be going so fast. I was only labouring for not even 3 hours. As Diane checked me I was fully dilated and started to focus on bearing down.Wendy another midwife was called and as she arrived I was out of the pool and on a birthing stool pushing. I never met Wendy yet I connected with her immediately on a soul level. She was calm, peaceful and radiated love and kindness. Both Diane and Wendy sat on the floor and Armando was right behind me. He was absolutely amazing. He knew exactly what to say in every moment and how to support me. He used all of the hypnobirthing language telling me to go within, connect with my baby, connect with my inner wisdom, inner strength and power. He kept telling me I was doing wonderful, working together with my body and my baby and that we were going to meet our baby soon. It was the best part of my labour.He also made sure I was really relaxing in between surges. If he saw me tense my shoulders he would gently remind me to relax them and gently massage them. One thing which was funny was Diane telling me "Dominique get angry! Push the baby out!" So not in line with hypnobirthing language but fortunately I was able to ignore it. Next time I have to remember to tell my midwives to use hypnobirthing language.

I changed positions a lot at this point as the baby did not want to descend down. I went back into the pool but that just relaxed me too much. I actually did not desire water energy at this point. I needed stronger, more supportive Earth energy to bear down. So we used the stool and my bed. I also got on all fours but made most progress on the birthing stool.I pushed for 2 hours and that is when Diane told me we would have to soon think of the alternative. When she said that I suddenly snapped out of my meditative state. I told her if she meant going to the hospital there was no way I would do it. "I am not having this baby in the hospital! I am having her at home!" I exclaimed and that is when things started to change. My surges became longer and stronger and I loved it. I kept riding the waves and felt the baby descend down. She was past my pubic bone well into the birth canal ready to crown.

This is when I went from the birthing stool in one room to my bedroom. It was so hard to walk but I did. I semi sat on the bed with Armando behind me supporting me from behind.

Soon after a few amazingly strong surges the baby started to crown and I touched her head. It felt so soft and I was so happy! She was almost here! Diane told me to gently push here and I did. She later told me I had amazing control but that's only because I was listening to her directions, which at this point were great. After the head was born the body just slipped out and Isabella was born. I reached and grabbed her and with the midwives' help we placed her on my chest where she stayed for a long while. We welcomed her whispering softly how much we loved her and how great she did. Her body was so soft and she looked so beautiful. She let out a cry without any help and we looked at each other...instantly falling in love. I was ecstatic and felt pure bliss and love as Armando and I embraced our new little girl. At last the three of us together on one side :)

Moments after Izzie's birth. Feeling blissful and estatic. Natural birth is the best!

Fully alert and aware to welcome my baby-another benefit of drug free birth.

Bonding with our baby girl shortly after her birth in our own bed :)

Isabella is a calm and peaceful baby.