Grandma Anna/Mother's Day

Yesterday, on Mother's Day, my mom from Illinois flew in to Seattle for one week to visit her second granddaughter, Gabriella. Kevin and I were happy to have Gabriella here before mom came so we didn't have to worry about long after due if not born. What a relief. :-D However, Grandma Anna was thrilled and very anxious to meet Gabby for the first time. Grandma enjoyed being with Gabby and continued to hold her. Grandma couldn't see before how beautiful Gabby is, and in person noticed all of the appearance details about her. Of course, Gabriella is spoiled by Grandma with all sorts of gifts, including many adorable outfits. Also, Grandma brought other gifts from other family for Gabby.

Two Pictures Above: Grandma Anna & Gabriella

All the pictures below show us opening all gifts for Gabriella from Grandparents Dynda and other Dynda Family:

Kevin proudly showed Gabby's Cubs Outfit from Dynda Family! GO CUBS!

We want to say HAPPY BELATED MOTHER'S DAY to everybody and hope you all had a great Mother's Day. I enjoyed being mother to Gabby on my first day of Mother's Day with all wonderful gifts such as free spa coupon, foot massager, and cute outfit. My mother gave me a nice earring and necklace. I couldn't believe that I am already a mommy. What a blessing!



After things were settled, we all were relaxed and chatted to catch up. Also, Grandma wanted to be with and played with Gabby.

Gabriella's First Bath

Last Friday night, Kevin and I gave Gabriella her first bath at home. At first, we were wondering how Gabriella was doing during the bath, but she did great and seemed to enjoy it. She did not even cry! After the bath, Gabriella smelled wonderful from using baby bath.

2-Days-Old Gabriella

Last Thursday, Gabriella was two days old at our home. Things with Gabriella went smoothly but of course busy. In the morning, Daddy enjoyed taking pictures of Gabriella while I (Mommy) was sleeping. Daddy adores Gabriella and became attached to her. Kevin has been a wonderful father to Gabriella and husband to me with all of his help!! Kevin did and still does excellent fathering, especially for the first time.

Now, here are some pictures of Gabriella modelling. What do you think?!

Welcome Our Little Angel, Gabriella Darina Morge

On Sunday, May 4th, I was 39 weeks pregnant and was one week early from due when I started having contractions. At 10:00 pm, I started to have contractions and timed them to see how far apart they were. After 1 a.m., I woke up Kevin and told him that I started contracting. He timed me and helped me through it. I couldn't sleep all night or even during the day on Monday. I was very exhausted. On Monday afternoon, my contractions started to get painful. They were not yet five minutes apart, which is when we were to call my OB doctor. I made Kevin call the OB doctor about it anyway, and she said for us to go to her office right away. That way she could check my cervix to see how dilated it was. At that time, it was 1.5 cm. Afterward, we went home since they asked us to call the doctor when my contractions were five minutes apart. Once we got home, I had terrible, continuous contractions for about half hour. We decided to call OB doctor again, and she told us to go to the hospital right away. Kevin was excited, and I couldn't show my emotion except deal with pain and worked on my breathing through the contractions. At the Triage, I kept telling nurse that I need Epidural, and they kept me waiting and waiting while I was 2-3 cm dilated. For about half hour later, my room where I delivered was ready for me to transfer from Triage. The anthesiologist finally arrived to give me the epidural, and it was painful at the same time of a contraction. Kevin and Nurse Shannon (pictured, on right above) had to hold me hard to keep me from moving. Once the epidural was in, I was relieved. Thank God for epidurals! That time I was at 6 cm dilated, and I was like wow.. that was quick! We found out that my OB, Dr. Foltz, was going to be on-call the next morning. We were hoping that she would be there on duty to delivery our baby the next morning. Unfortunately, it didn't happen since I was progressing quickly and needed to get baby girl out. We were a little bummed. However, Dr. Harvey (on-call from OB office) (pictured, on left) came to break the water. She found out after water broke, there was meconium coming out. Dr. Harvey said not to worry about that. Dr. Harvey is a very nice lady. Kevin was waiting and was eager for baby girl to come out. One hour later, I was in 9.5 cm dilated. Nurse Shannon called on-call doctor from OB office that it was time for me to push to get the baby to come out. Kevin and Nurse Shannon helped me to push, and it took about two hours. Finally, welcome to our little girl, Gabriella Darina Morge. Gabriella was born Tuesday, May 6th at 1:58 a.m. and was 7 lbs. 7.8 oz. After 24 hours, she weighed 7 lbs. 2 oz, which is normal for babies to lose little weight. She is 21 inches long. It was very joyful, but at the same time exhausting! We are very blessed to have her as our new member family!

Gabriella Darina Morge

After the delivery, they transferred me to the post-partum room where Kevin and I were staying for two nights with our girl, Gabriella. We both were very exhausted. All nurses, pediatrician, audiologist, and much more were coming in to give us all the paperworks, helped whatever we needed, run tests, and all that stuff. However, during this time, Dr. Foltz did stop by while she was on call Tuesday. She was very happy to see Gabriella and know that we were all doing very well.

Gabriella passed both of her hearing tests. The next two days, things went well except Gabriella's initial test for Jaundice was little high. The nurse had to call the lab to come to take blood tests for Gabriella and me to check before they discharged us to go home. Kevin and I were very ready to go home with Gabriella. We waited for a few hours for Gabriella's result, and the blood results were normal. They finally discharged us, so we packed and got things all ready to go home.

Gabriella & Daddy

Adorable Gabriella's first time in her infant carseat to go home

As you see by this chart, Meghan Morge is the winner since her guess is the nearest to Gabriella's birth. We will have a surprise prize for her sometime this summer when we visit families in Peoria, IL. Smile! Congratulations, Meghan!!

Notes: Today, Kevin and I took Gabriella to her first pediatric appointment. Dr. Meghan Sheridan was very pleased with her health saying she is doing great! Gabriella is now 4 days old and is now 7 lbs. 6 oz. She gained four oz. since three days ago. Yay!!

Dr. Luba Foltz

Today, we met again with our OB/GYN physician, Dr. Luba Foltz. This is Week 37 of the pregnancy, so if the baby comes at any time now, it is not considered "pre term".

Dr. Foltz said everything looks GREAT. The results from the Ultrasound are good: Baby Gabriella is now approximately 7 pounds and 10 ounces, and she thinks her weight will be around 8 pounds if born on the due date (May 11th). Also, Gabriella's head is down, which is good (we guess), but has resulted in some painful kicks to Mommy's ribs! Finally, Dr. Foltz is VERY proud of Elzbieta's excellent job handling her gestational diabetes and weight throughout the pregnancy. What a GREAT Mommy!!!

After all of this good news, Dr Foltz agreed to pose for a quick photo with us, before rushing off to the hospital to deliver another baby.

Many thanks to Dr. Foltz: we just love her and our so glad that she is our physician and new friend. We look forward to her delivering our new baby girl!

Car-Seat Safety Inspection

This morning, Kevin and I were excited and worked as a team to put our new infant carseat in our SUV. Once we put it in, we made sure it was secured and established appropriately before our car-seat safety inspection appointment this morning. We knew that we put it in our SUV at the last minute, but it didn't take that long to do it. It looked like we did it.

After we were done setting the infant carseat, we met our Inspector, Jenny, who helped by explaining and displaying to us all of the infant carseat information and answering our questions. Inspector Jenny helped us a lot and checked the infant carseat we set up before. She was impressed with us that we set it up very securely and appropriately, but there was a little adjustment needed. It needed to be on a 45-degree angle but it was not at 45 degrees. Our backseat was not flat. So, Jen said that we needed to roll a towel and put it under the infant carseat to make it about 45 degrees for the baby to be in a comfortable position. That was all we need to do for the infant carseat. YAY!!! The appointment was supposed to be in half hour, but we talked and reveiwed everything for over an hour. Heheee! We enjoyed and learned a lot of new things about our infant carseat. Now, we are waiting for our little girl to arrive and put her in it!!

Elzbieta, Doll, & Inspector Jenny

8 Months Pregnant

Unbelievable that I am now 8 months pregnant (36 weeks)! I am ready for our little girl come out since I have been fatigued, have edema in my feet, cramps several times, sore, and lack of sleep. I can live with that for a few weeks until baby is born! Other than that, Kevin and I are very excited and are eager about when our girl is ready to get out of my belly.

Today, Kevin and I went to ultrasound appointment to see how our girl is doing due to my gestational diabetes. It had been a while for us to go to ultrasound to see our girl since the last time we saw her three months ago. Once we got in, we were thrilled to see our girl in ultrasound screen again and curious how she looks like, how big, and her progress so far. I asked the Technician to check our baby to make 100% sure it is girl, and it is officially a girl!!! Now, I can start working on clothes to do laundry and organize them nicely before our girl, Gabriella, is born. By the way, our radiologist said that our girl is doing great and is pretty close to normal for her due date. Also, she said that our girl is now about 7 lbs. 10 oz (possibly overestimating).

Face Profile showing Mouth Pucker

Adorable Face with eyes, nose, and mouth

Here is the updated chart for people who guessed about our little girl, Gabriella. If you don't see your name on the list, that means I deleted a several of you who guessed baby boy. Sorry you guys! Now, we all have to wait until when our girl will born and what her weight will be.