1 week old

I know some of you may have wanted another picture or two of Isabel, but I went a little bit nuts. We took many pictures the last few days, especially today, since she is now 1 week old. The best way to describe Isabel is sweet. She is just a happy little baby girl. All the love, attention, noise, etc around her doesn't bother her one bit. She sleeps so much, and still sleeps at night - and when she's awake she is pleasant... (please I hope I don't jinx myself).

Isabel coming home

These are a few days late, but I wanted to get them up, because it shows how excited these big kids were to meet their new sister.

In all of Isabel's 4 days of life, she has shown a very laid back personality. She seems to put up with most discomfort without a fuss. And of course, noise, love, and kisses from her siblings are all a normal part of her life.

Where did her name come from? We have liked variations of Isabel "God's promise" or "God is my oath" for 4 years (since before we had Joey). And Mario always liked the nickname "Izzy" which finally grew on me. We were slightly concerned with the popularity of her name now - but we had been calling her Isabel/Izzy for the last 9 months and just could not change. Isabel will reflect her hispanic background. There is a St. Isabel, but we also like to think her name references St. Elizabeth of Portugal - who to many Spanish people is called "Isabel".

Kiera "key-air-uh" reflects her Irish background. This was in the running with Maura - which I really like meaning "Little Mary" but we weren't sure about having Maura as a middle name so close to Suarez. Kiera has so many different spellings and a few different pronunciations. But they all mean "dark-hair or dark-skin". We're hoping she'll have dark hair and it looks like she may.



As for her birth story - it was not nearly as complicated as it may have seemed. Being 5 cm at 40 weeks 5 days, with GBS+ ...we decided to try for a breaking the water induction. I was already a little low on amniotic fluid, and with the few mild contractions I had, her heart rate seemed to dip a little (meaning the cord may be compressed)...this was a little worrisome. After 4 hours of not being in actual labor and waiting for things to pick up, we agreed to a "whif" of pitocin, which was all it seemed my body needed. They started the low dose of pitocin at 4:20pm, and Isabel was born at 6:37pm.