Amelia one month old!

A month comes way too quickly. We know that one day, when she's asking to borrow the car or to go out with a boy, we will look back on these pictures and wonder, "Where did the time go...can we have our baby back?!" We are also excited to look back on these pictures to see how much changes from month to month. Here's our little Princess at one month old!

Amelia's newborn pictures

At just one week old we took Amelia to have her newborn pictures taken. As new parents it was a little tiring but she did great! She actually stayed awake for quite some time and we were lucky to get a couple of shots with her wide-eyed. She must have been wondering what all the fuss was about. Here are her pictures.

Amelia's first few days of life

Looking back at our first month with Amelia, time seemed to pass on super fast forward. There were many "firsts" for her - here are a few:

First bath in her bath tub. She didn't like it much and we have since transitioned her to the sponge. She now LOVES bath time every morning after her nap and feeding.

First visit to Mama & Papa Guerra. Mama and Papa are so excited about their third great-grand daughter. So far the count is girls: 3, boys: 0.

First restaurant outing. After Amelia's newborn pictures we decided to have lunch on 2nd street since we were in the area. This is her first time to a restaurant and it happened to be on St. Patrick's day. It was a little loud but she slept the entire time!

Amelia's first sponge bath. You can't tell here but she was not a happy camper! She received sponge baths for the first 2 weeks (until her umbilical cord fell off). She never got used to them, Mommy thinks she didn't like feeling cold.

It didn't take long before she had her first diaper explosion!

Due to her jaundice we had to take Amelia to the doctor's office when she was only 2 days old. Luckily she didn't have to be readmitted and the jaundice cleared on its own.

Amelia's first stroller ride - one day old to Long Beach Memorial hospital to have labs done to check her jaundice levels.

The arrival of Amelia Pi'ilani Walker

Two months later and we are finally (somewhat) caught up enough to update everyone on our new family! Amelia graced us with her presence on March 10, 2011 and is among the few who are actually born on their due date. We joke that with April, it's not much a surprise Amelia arrived right on schedule.

April's water broke at 1:50 a.m. on Thursday, March 10th. Once we had gone through the hospital check-in process we were finally taken to the labor and delivery room at 4 a.m. The L&D nurse determined that Amelia's heart rate and my contractions needed a better monitor than the external straps. While she placed the internal heart rate and contraction monitor she informed us that April was four centimeters dilated. At 4:50 a.m. the anesthesiologist administered the epidural. At noon the nurses determined that we were ready to start pushing. April powered her way through the first hour and a half. With very little progress the nurse found that Amelia was "sunny-side up" which made pushing more difficult. Normally, the baby is both head down AND face down. The face down position is easier for the baby to clear the pelvic bone. With Amelia face up we were worried that pushing wouldn't be enough to get her out. Finally, at 2:24 p.m. and after April's temperature spiked to 101, Amelia decided it was time to make her arrival.

Amelia came out with wide-eyes, looking at everyone as if to say, "Hello, I'm here!" The nurses rushed Amelia to the side to clear the meconium from her mouth and lungs. All her hard work during the 2.5 hours of pushing resulted in a temperature of 100.5. Though the doctor and nurses weren't too concerned with the higher temperatures they made sure to keep April on antibiotics for another 24 hours and monitored both Mommy and Baby until they left the hospital.

It's hard to sum up an incredibly special experience with a few paragraphs. There are no combination of words to express how blessed we feel to have a beautiful and healthy baby girl. There were many visitors during our two-day stay. We are so thankful to our mothers who stayed with us during the labor process and to Mama Helen who fed us through the next two days. We look forward to watching Amelia grow and sharing her growth with all of you.

Installing the Car Seat

Today Brandon installed the base and car seat in the Camry. The car seat has been sitting in the stroller for the last couple of weeks. The dogs were a little interested in what was going on.

Amelia's pink and grey stroller

Daddy getting ready to install the car seat

The dogs are wondering where he's going (check them out at the bottom of the photo)

Bruin and Alice are NOT fans of the stroller

Alice checking things out

Family Wedding

As our due date approaches (11 days and counting!) we had an event filled weekend, starting with Eric and Letha's wedding! The wedding was held at Khoury's in Long Beach. We had a great time seeing our entire family and celebrating the beginning of Eric and Letha's life as man and wife. The evening was quite chilly and it was also raining but a little rain never scared anyone (especially from April's side of the family!).

Grandma Lani & Pop

The Kids were having their own dance party

Kai and Pauly D.. I mean, Joseph :)

Beginning Our Countdown!

Today marks 16 days until Amelia's due date. We've been warned by our doctors that she could go past due which is in fact more likely with a first pregnancy. Although the nights are becoming more sleepless (if that were possible!) we are relishing the opportunity to continue to watch her grow.

37 weeks, 5 days!

We also bought a new juicer this weekend and are excited to try out all the possible concoctions! So far we've mastered the "green drink" which includes each of the following: orange, lemon (we've reduced the lemon to half to cut down on the acidic flavor), cucumber, celery stalk, carrot, apple and a handful of spinach. It's fun to add more or less to flavor. April will be juicing the 10lbs of carrots purchased from Costco - there just isn't enough room in the house for all the Costco sized fruits and veggies we've bought.