IT'S ABOUT TIME!

After only 40 weeks and 5 days, Mya Audrey Velazquez decided to join us! Not surprisingly, she is GORGEOUS! I mean, look at her parents.

Wendy didn't push for very long -- about 35 minutes. And for the record, she was a silent pusher! No screaming, no cursing at her husband -- just focus. This chick was in a ZONE!

Anyways, the vitals:
Mya Audrey Velazquez
Born: February 25, 2008 @ 1:22 p.m.
Weight: 8 lbs. 3 oz.
Length: 20 1/2 in.

Gwin, you were close with your guess of February 24, but Jenny Pearson, you nailed the delivery date. Yes, it still counts even though it was an induction.

Sergio, by going with the "under" on Melinda's guess, nailed the 8 lbs. 3 oz. birth weight.

Mama Val, you got her length correct at 20.5, as did Gwin. The jury is still out on her first words...

I can, without hesitation, tell you that Wendy and I spent the next hour crying and/or fighting back tears of joy. To see her bring our daughter into this world...well, I don't know if I'll ever be more amazed at something. Both mom and baby are doing fine and are recovering here at the hospital. Not surprisingly, our first night as a family was a rough one -- Mya was either wanting to eat or needing a diaper change all night. And parents, you know how fun those first few diapers are!

Thank you so much to everyone for all your thoughts, prayers, texts, calls, gifts and visits. She's our child but this was very much a community effort and we feel blessed to have such great family and friends to share this experience with. We're parents now and that's a tough thing to wrap our brains around. But we are both so in love with this little girl already that we are looking forward to the journey!

I will try to post more pics of this little love bundle soon. Time to get back to my girls -- I smell a full diaper!

Blessings,
Eric & Wendy

HOSPITAL TIME

Is this blog two days overdue? Yes. But bear with me and I'll give you the play-by-play in sequence.

Wendy and I checked into the hospital to start the induction process at 9:15 on Sunday evening after watching No Country for Old Men win all of the Oscars. Before we headed out, Wendy was really nervous -- it was go time and like any first-time mom, she didn't know what to expect.

After checking into a lovely room with two pee-proof beds -- and don't think I didn't test it out -- they started the induction process. But by morning, the hormones that they had given Wendy hadn't provided the punch they'd hoped. She was, by that time, still only 1-2 cm dilated -- as she had been for the past two weeks. So in came Dr. Russo on Monday morning to break Wendy's water. And because she knew what Wendy could expect after that, she recommended the epidural immediately. Wendy politely accepted. As you can see from the photo, she was pretty excited to get medicated because her contractions became incredibly intense within minutes after breaking her water. She took the epidural like a champ.


From there, things went fast. Wendy went from 2 cm to 10 cm dilated between 9:30 and about 12:45. That's when it was time to push!

40 WEEKS

How long are women supposed to be pregnant again? I read a few places that it is 40 weeks -- 10 months total, contrary to popular belief. Wendy is 39 weeks and 5 days along now. Mya is due on Wednesday! Of course, she'll come when she wants to come -- not when WE want her to.

This picture was taken during one of Mya's busy spells on Monday evening. At one point, she performed some of her token acrobatics, which seemed to completely reshape Wendy's belly.

We have an appointment with Dr. Russo on Tuesday morning. Wendy's hoping for a best case scenario in which Dr. Russo says we have to induce, or that Wendy's dilated and ready to be admitted. But based on the absence of contractions since Saturday, when she had nine that were about four minutes apart, it doesn't look like Mya's going anywhere quite yet. Her Braxton-Hicks contractions have become more frequent but are still very mild and never in regular intervals (except Saturday). Let it be noted for the record that daddy (that's me, kids) predicted a February 22 arrival date.

At the hospital, I'll have wireless internet access and plan to post to the blog with updates as often as possible. That means I'll post news whenever I'm not holding Wendy's hand or coaching her through contractions. (At least that's the plan!)

What I can say is that I already miss feeling Mya moving around inside Wendy's belly. I'm WAY excited for my wife that she'll be able to enjoy life's simple pleasures like sleeping on her stomach, exercising and breathing like a normal person again -- but these last 40 weeks have been so awesome, so miraculous for me. I will miss it for sure. But I'll get to hold our little girl soon, so I think I'll survive.

Remember to keep this link handy for updates. Remember -- our due date is Wednesday!

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS GIRL?

Okay...38 weeks and still no Mya. Would it be a first to put the face of an unborn child on a milk carton? These are the things we wonder. So here are a few bulletpoints on what the increasingly anxious parents-to-be are going through:

1. Why so anxious? Well, it depends on who you ask. For Wendy, it could be the fact that it feels like Mya is trying to tunnel her way out through her floating ribs so naturally, she is ready for the birthing and the pushing and the screaming. While some of the mid-pregnancy fun -- like hip pain and extreme fatigue -- hasn't completely gone away, it all seems to be overshadowed by this lingering rib pain for this poor mommy. But she's on maternity leave now. Which brings us to #2.

2. Wendy's on maternity leave. She went in this week for another baby shower, this time put on by her co-workers, but I don't think that counts as work. Now that she's home all day, she's been bored out of her mind but has been channeling that boredom into the house -- creating new storage, coming up with interesting new Mexican food recipes and finishing Mya's room. Onto #3.

3. One of the biggest reasons for the anxiety definitely has to do with the fact that the nursery is done and we are ready to receive! Okay, it's not ENTIRELY pristine. We have a few things to find room for still and, oh yeah...there was a leak in the ceiling.

4. THERE ARE LEAKS IN THE CEILING! I don't get the valley. For 11 1/2 months out of the year, it's 135 degrees and you can cook an egg on the sidewalk. But for two straight weekends, it poured buckets on our heads. Happily, it helped us find every single design flaw in our home. We had buckets, bowls and sponges out in full force for like 10 days but one of the worst leaks was in Mya's room. Yuk. Here's to the next 11 months.

5. Finally, Wendy's been having Braxton-Hicks contractions far more often. These practice contractions have given us both a chance to practice our breathing techniques for labor. She had three that were all pretty close together after the Super Bowl party at Jeff's -- they were all three minutes apart. But then the next one didn't come for another half hour. We're hoping that we only end up making ONE trip to the hospital. (insert Dave's "yeah right" here)

Aside from these things, we've just been watching movies (Cloverfield, Michael Clayton and Juno to name a few), playing poker (damn that Jared Evans) and relaxing when we can.

We really can't wait to meet this little girl.

The Waiting Game

So here we are -- Week 37. One week from now, Wendy will be considered "full term" -- not as OF today as I'd previously reported. (I'm a rookie dad, give me a break.) But I digest...

Though Wendy may protest, it looks to me like her belly growth has slowed considerably. It'd make sense though -- at this point, Mya's pretty near her birth length but still putting on her baby "phat" at a rate of about a half ounce per day. At our 35-week diagnostic ultrasound, she was 5 lbs. 13 oz. and Dr. Russo is predicting her to be around 7.5-8.0 pounds now. We'll soon see.

Alas, now we are playing the waiting game. Wendy is likely in her last week of work now. She's gone as long as she can -- trooper that she is -- but is becoming more uncomfortable by the day. She's feeding Mya the good stuff -- whole grains, milk and, as you can see here, peanut butter.

Papa Eric has been taking as many opportunties as possible to have a little fun while he can. Uncles Dennis and Dave took him snowboarding for the first time a few weeks back. The photo below, taken in Big Bear, is one of the only times that he wasn't face down in the snow. Learning hurts when you're 30.

Eric would also like to thank his cousins David and Jaime for kindly relieving him of $50 in a recent poker game. Hey, at least we kept it in the family!

Again, Mya's due date is February 20. We plan to e-mail folks with updates from the hospital -- rumor has it that they have a wireless connection there.

A special thanks to everyone for all the great gifts we've received for our little daughter. And we have 24 total votes here on who Mya looks like (the 3D/4D video and pics are below). If you haven't voted, please do so! Also, there's still time to drop your predictions on her birthday, length, weight and first words. Scroll down to "Betting Time" then click on "Comments" to leave your two cents.

Hot Mama!

These are a few of the photos taken by Wendy's sister Amy Ramirez on Sunday, January 13. Wendy, 34 weeks and change at the time these photos were snapped, is looking beautiful and ready to burst!


We're now just days away from turning the corner into Week 35. At Week 36, Wendy will be considered "full term." Mya could come at anytime -- in fact, Wendy would prefer sooner than later! -- but we figure she's gonna take the weeks she needs to finish cooking. Wendy's ready to push. Her rib cage is constantly achy, which makes it even tougher to sleep at night. As if the kicking baby, hip pain and leg cramping weren't enough, right?

We also want to say thanks to all the friends and family who have gotten us gifts already! To all you ladies who planned and participated in Wendy's shower over the weekend (Gwin, I'm looking at you!), thank you so much for your generosity. Next stop: the big shower, courtesy of grandma Patsy and grandma Ethel! We're going to need to add space to keep up with everyone's gifting! Do you think they'll let us add on to our condo?

Finally, to those of you who haven't voted already, there's still time to give your predictions on Mya's birth stats. Eric Biederman mercifully predicted that Mya would be here on February 9 -- Wendy loves you for that -- but then also said she'd be in the 8-pounds-plus club. Grandma Patsy, not surprisingly, is pulling for a 9-pounder, but predicted a birthday of February 28. Get in on this action while you can! Simply scroll down to the "Betting Time" post and click "Comments."

UPDATE: Today (Jan. 17), at our last visit with Dr. Bradley, our perinatologist, Mya measured 17 inches and weighed in at 5 lbs. 13 oz. At this pace, Dr. Bradley predicts that Mya will weigh "around 7 pounds." Uncle Dave Paterson is the closest to that mark, predicting 19 inches and 7 lbs. 3 oz.

Nursery Furniture: Just Add Baby

So here we are, just six weeks or so away from Mya's big cameo. In preparation for her arrival we are in full-blown nesting mode. It started a few weeks back with the arrival of her wonderful new nursery furniture (see photo). Thanks to grandma Patsy and grandpa Dave for buying it, thanks to uncle Jimmy P. for helping to get it to the house! Believe it or not, Eric actually put all of this together by himself. (In all honesty, the dresser pretty much came in one piece.) Miracles ARE possible!

In addition to the furniture assembly, we've been busy remodeling the closet for extra storage (that was ALL Wendy) and getting all of her new clothes washed. (Thanks to the family and friends who have already bought her some wonderful little outfits!)

In other news, Wendy is growing increasingly uncomfortable. The belly photo here, taken at Week 30, should show why. Early term hip pain and shortness of breath has now taken a backseat to rib pain on her right side. Nights? Not so great. She's usually only cozy in the same spot for an hour or two at the MOST. We think it'll make her a "motivated pusher" come delivery day. This little girl is growing fast!

MYA IN 3D

Here's a short clip from our 3D ultrasound with Dr. Bradley. About 5 seconds in, Mya starts to look bored, letting out a HUGE yawn!





And below are some of the still shots from the ultrasound. She was generally uncooperative with the doctor -- her head was settled pretty far down in Wendy's pelvis AND she was facing the posterior wall of the uterus. But eventually, she did give us some good looks at her little baby cheeks! The bottom photo is of her little foot. She has a giant toe! The consensus seems to be that she has my nose and Wendy's mouth. What do you guys think? Leave your thoughts by clicking on "Comments" at the bottom right part of this post.

Mya's First Christmas?

Okay, maybe not quite yet -- but we're getting there. We snapped this shot on December 5, the day after we got our Christmas tree. It's hard to believe that we're about to start Week 29. We're definitely in the homestretch. Childbirth classes start next week and we're looking forward to it. Next Christmas though...we'll be holding little Mya in front of the tree! (And we'll look GREAT!)

Merry Christmas!

Betting Time!

While we can no longer guess about the whole boy/girl thing -- unless we get a HUGE surprise when she's born! -- we can still make guesses on a few other things like when she's going to be born, what time, how much she'll weigh and how long she'll be. Below are the projected due date and the specs for Wendy and I when we were born. Click on "comments" in the bottom right portion of this box and leave your guesses. The closest ones win an undisclosed amount of babysitting opportunities.

THE WENDY FILE
Birthday: May 10, 1978
Birth time: 9:30 a.m.
Birth weight: 8 lbs., 6 oz.
Birth length: 21 in.

THE ERIC FILE
Birthday: August 17, 1977
Birth time: 8:40 a.m.
Birth weight: 7 lbs., 12 oz.
Birth length: 20 1/2 in.

MYA'S PROJECTED ARRIVAL DATE: February 20, 2008

* THE ERIC FILE and THE WENDY FILE are subject to angry dispute by our mothers who might expect us to know this stuff by now.