Talking with her hands

Makenna is keeping us very entertained as we watch her grow. It's interesting to see how alert she is, and it seems like she has recently discovered the lamp. Lately she's been fixated on one of the lamps in our family room, and no matter what we do to try to distract her, she always finds her way back to staring at the lamp.

We're still trying to work out a schedule to keep to, but at times it seems like she's got a bigger appetite than her daddy! It's funny how content she acts when she finally gets full. Nothing really seems to bother her when she reaches that point, even a full diaper doesn't seem to phase her! Changing it on the other hand is a different story. The dirty diaper doesn't bother either of us, it's mainly her screaming when the diaper comes off that makes us want to scream back! Makenna is getting better at the whole changing thing, and she doesn't cry every time. But when she does, LOOK OUT!

Here's a great pic of our little one. It's more on the "Italian" side, because she appears to be doing the whole "talking with her hands" bit. It's almost like she's saying, "what do you want from me?" Enjoy!

Happy 2 weeks already?!!

So it's really hard to believe how quickly time has gone for our family. It's been a while since I last posted. As of this posting, our little Makenna is two weeks old! Funny how time flies when you're having fun, right?

It's been a real eye opener since the first day we brought her home. Those of you who have been following our journey already know that Makenna had an elevated level of jaundice which prevented her from coming home when she was supposed to. Of course, the staff at the hospital worked diligently to help bring Makenna's level down, and by the next day, she was able to come home with us.

She's been home with us for the last week and a half, and we're all still getting adjusted to the new schedule. Of course Makenna is oblivious to all the changes we've made to work around her, but that's how life works. From what everyone tells us, things almost always are expected to change once you "think" you get on top of a situation. Oh the joys of being a parent!

As of this post, Makenna has reached the 9 pound mark, and has grown 3/4ths of an inch! I guess since we see her daily it's a little hard to see the changes. But being around her so much, we're able to see her progress and become more in tune with her surroundings! We'll do our best to keep the updates coming, although they may be few & far between. Keep checking back, and hopefully the little one can put a smile on your face with one of her goofy little smirks, or just a story we tell.

MAKENNA REESE CAMERO

Please join us in welcoming the newest addition to the Camero family:

MAKENNA REESE CAMERO

The little peanut finally made her presence known on March 7, 2007 @ 11:48PM. She weighed in at 8 pounds & 8 ounces, and was 19.5 inches long. Not such a little peanut, huh?

As Enza reached her 40th week, we both were eagerly anticipating Makenna's arrival. We started to increase Enza's walking, and she had been off of work two weeks prior. Although many women go 1-2 weeks past their due dates, our doctor didn't want Enza to go far past hers, mainly because Enza was having an extremely hard time eating much, and started to lose weight during the last couple of weeks of the pregnancy. Our final appointment was the day after Makenna's due date of the 4th, and the doctor tried to stimulate Enza's body to go into labor, since she had been stuck @ 1cm for approximately 3 weeks. Once we found that to be unsuccessful, she recommended that Enza have a prostoglandin gel placed near her cervix to help the dilation process move along. A few hours after the gel, Enz started to have some serious cramping, and the contractions started coming more frequently. We went to the hospital at 4:30am on March 7th, where Enza was admitted, and we waited as the contractions became more frequent.

After a few hours, the doctor checked on Enz and found that her cervix was dilating very slowly. She recommended a drug called pitocin to help induce Enza's labor. Once that was administered, it only took a short amount of time for the contractions to become more intense and more frequent. Another measurement came and Enza was up to 3cm. Not much progress, but enough pain for Enz to request the epidural. Originally she wanted to do this without aid of any drugs, but since the pitocin can make the contractions feel much worse than they are, Enz didn't have much of a choice. We kept our spirits up though, because even through all this, we knew we would have our beautiful baby girl with us soon.



Things went on this way pretty much all morning, with Enza's cervix dilating to 5cm by lunchtime. Increases of pitocin were given throughout the day, as well as the epidural, but her cervix stayed firm at 5cm. Later in the afternoon, she got to 6cm, then 7cm, and by nighttime, she was up to 8cm. Enz was pretty exhausted from all the contractions, drugs, and machines she was hooked up to. It wasn't easy sitting beside her, feeling helpless because I couldn't do a damn thing to help ease her pain.



Later that night, around 10pm, we noticed that Enz started to develop a little fever, but that was attributed to all the stuff going on with Enza's body to help get her along. Shortly afterward, we noticed that Makenna's heartrate began a steady climb, and eventually topped out @ around 215bpm. As we sat and watched the heartrate climb, the staff came in to calm us down. The doctor then came in to discuss Enza having a c-section, because now that she had been stuck at 8cm and developed a fever, we were putting a lot of strain on the baby.

We both felt extremely emotional & helpless because we were doing all we could to keep from having a c-section. We almost felt that we had wasted our time trying to keep this natural, and in doing so, Enza had to lie there in pain for close to 21 hours. But that's life, and of course we all know that sometimes things are out of our control.

By 11:48pm, our daughter Makenna Reese was born, and it was such an exhilirating moment. Hearing her cry was such a wonderful and unforgettable sound. Enza was exhausted, and I was relieved. Our baby girl was finally with us!

Peanut at 40 weeks???

How your baby's growing: It's hard to say for sure how big your baby will be, but the average newborn weighs in at a little over 7 pounds and is about 20 inches long. Your baby will continue to grow with every passing day (her nails and hair will continue to get longer, too). Your baby's skull bones are still separated and they'll stay that way to allow the bones to compress enough to fit through the birth canal during labor (you'll notice soft spots or "fontanels" on your baby's head for a year or more after birth).

So today WAS our little Peanut's due date, and at the time of this post, she has yet to make her appearance! C'mon now little one, the weather has been beautiful this past weekend, what are you waiting for? Obviously Enz & I are still anxiously awaiting her arrival, and we do have another appointment tomorrow. Hopefully the doctor will help all of us out and we can determine exactly when we do expect to have her. Everyone seems to be just as anxious as we are, so please be patient! Just remember, she is half filipino!

That being said, special Congratulations to Nancy & Anthony on the birth of their baby daughter Brianna Isabella! Enz got a message today that Nancy had the baby! We can't wait to see you guys & meet the little one! Glad everything turned out well! Maybe our little peanut will be born the day Brianna was scheduled to be born this week? That would prove to be a strange turn of events now wouldn't it?!

Playing the waiting game...

Well, so far one of our wishes came true-we'll be having a March baby, making us the March family =) Not that big of a deal, but nevertheless, pretty cool.

Still no baby at this time though. We've increased our walks, which I've noticed have started to take their toll on Enz. Who am I fooling? I think I get tired before she does! It's almost like all that cardio didn't help me for $hit! Hehehe... Yesterday was probably the first time I've heard Enz really complain about feeling uncomfortable. The weight of her belly is doing a number on her back, and these past few nights she hasn't really slept well. All the stuff that others have told her to watch out for seemed to have just started a couple of days ago. Go figure!

We're keeping our fingers crossed that something special will happen this weekend. God knows the little peanut wants to come out and play. Besides, we're pretty certain that the inside of Enza's belly is permanently bruised!