Here She Is!

Well, she must have inherited Mike's punctuality... or, rather, his admirable habit of being early! Although Daddy had plans to welcome her into the world over Labor Day weekend, our baby girl took the initiative to welcome him home from Kansas. I guess she was so excited to see her daddy, she just couldn't wait for the weekend. ;)

Maya Lourdes Miranda Mercado was born on 8/28/08 at 12:08pm--less than an hour after I walked into the hospital! Weighing in at 6lbs 4oz and measuring 18.5 inches (with APGARs of 8 and 9 for the medically-inclined audience), she made quite an entrance.

The labor that preceded this unexpected delivery was nothing like my experience with Maxwell's birth, hence, the vagueness and my uncertainty of whether or not I was truly in labor! With strong contractions almost every hour starting at around midnight, Maya gave me plenty of warning to tell me she was on her way, but I still wasn't convinced. Even at 6:30am, when the contractions started coming every 8-10 minutes, I kept telling myself "Maybe if I just relax or go for a walk the contractions will slow down." Looking back, I think I was just in denial that I was going to have this baby without my dear husband to coach me through it! Kudos to my beloved mom for taking on the role of coach, camera person, and videographer all at a moment's notice--literally!

As healthy as she was (and has been), Maya unfortunately did have a temperature of 101.6 just a couple hours after birth, which bought her a ticket to the NICU (neonatal ICU) and 5 days of IV antibiotics. As soon as she was discharged from the hospital, we took her straight to the airport with us to bid goodbye to Mike once again. Needless to say, we're looking forward to some quality family time when Mike comes home one last time before he leaves the country.

Here's a glimpse of Maya's first week of life...