the day siena was born

The contraction woke me up at 6am.

I woke up and waited for a couple more to come to make sure I hadn't dreamt it. They felt real.

I decided to let not wake up Mike because I knew one of two things would happen:

1) He wouldn't believe me, roll back over, and go back to sleep, leaving me alone with excitement and anticipation. or,

2) He would get SO excited that he wouldn't sleep and waste precious hours of rest that we would soon not have the luxury of.

I texted my mom that I was having contractions and to be ready, as she was going to be watching Lia while we were at the hospital.

Jumped in the shower, then was too excited from the contractions that I had to tell Mike (I forgot about the wanting him to sleep part). I told him that we were going to have Siena today, and that I was going to take a walk around the neighborhood. I wanted to have Siena that same day, because that would give us three full days together before Mike had to leave for a gig in St. Louis with the band for seven days.

Headed out for my walk.

The weather surprisingly wasn't killing me at 6am, and I remember being grateful for the slight breeze that I was blessed with during my fast-paced-I'm-getting-this-baby-out walk. I couldn't wait to go home and see Cecilia - my baby girl, who, within a day, wouldn't be the baby girl any more. She would be my Big Girl, the Big Sister, the Big Helper, the Big Etc, Etc. As much in excitement I was for Siena's arrival, it was definitely the ending of something with my precious baby - it wasn't just the two of us, but our world would be changed.

So, I made it home... 

The contractions during the walk were about two within every song that I was listening to on my phone... and I still felt really good. Walking through them really helped so much - I felt on top of the world, even knowing that those were pretty close together. 

Home is where Mike was making breakfast for Cecilia, so I walked in to a bright, smiling face greeting me. She's so sweet. 

I had to snap some pictures of her and me because I have NO pics of us while I was pregnant! Thank you to photographer Mike for the shots of Lia and me. But first, Lia had to boogie. And I had to capture it:

After this I got up and continued to pace around the house, as walking felt so good still. I called my mom and told her to get ready to head down soon. We remembered the 5-1-1 rule in regards to contractions (every 5 minutes, 1 minute long, for 1 hour). I was past that part - we were at every 3 minutes for 1 minute for past an hour. I began to get more serious - and of course, anticipation eating away at me - called my mom again and told her to ACTUALLY head down (from North Scottsdale). Since she was about twenty minutes away, and I wanted to leave NOW (because I'm impatient), we called our good buddy Ross... well, actually, we called Ike, who lives with Ross, to wake up Ross, to come watch Lia. He's her [almost] favorite babysitter.

We headed to Chandler Regional.

My one goal with this labor was that I get to the hospital after I passed the 3cm mark. During labor with Cecilia, I was at a standstill at 3cm for FOREVER... so I just wanted to pass that goal line.

...They checked me, and I was at 5cm! I was so excited!! I felt like we accomplished something! And I felt even better about giving birth naturally, that I had passed the point where I had gotten an epidural with Cecilia.

Only 5cm to go... this should be sooo easy... right??

...little did I know!

Here's a short vid at around 9:55am that Mike took of us at the hospital.

After about an hour and a half of lots of fun "rushes" (not "pain"!), it was time for me to push. 

11:52am Two pushes... and Siena was out.

Insanity.

I got to hold Siena immediately after having her, per my birth plan, as keeping her really close to me instead of her being whisked away was really important to both Mike and me.

I was basically sitting there, holding our new baby girl, in complete shock. I couldn't believe what just happened. I felt slightly light-headed and overwhelmed. I just pushed a baby out without any drugs or anything.

I looked down at Siena in utter amazement and glanced at Mike who had tears in his eyes at the feat we just conquered.

Siena Clare Guizar

June 21, 2011

Born at 11:52am

7 lbs 10 oz (same as her Sissy ;) )

20 inches

This was such a beautiful day for Mike and me - we set a goal and accomplished that together. It was an incredible amount of hard work, determination and love... and we did it. Our beautiful baby girl was born, and that was the most important thing. 

Love is not even close to say our emotion as to what our beautiful family has turned into. The blessings the Lord has given to us are literally beyond my imagination. I am so grateful, beyond words, for what we've been given.

To readers: Thank you for this patience in this post - for your prayers, for your support, and for your love. 

Now on to the ever-coveted sleep, gotta catch it while I can ;)

"On the day that you were born the angels got together and decided to create a dream come true."

it has arrived!!

...my bump, that is :)

I realize I should probably put a picture with an exclamation like that, but it's dark out, and I'm not feeling so hot, yada yada... So, my apologies.

But really, I'm about 19 weeks now, and the bump is like - HUGE - and it literally came out of nowhere. I was really going to try to get through this whole pregnancy not looking pregnant at all, but that dream has finally ended with a huge bump that I'm growing (ahem) to love.

All of a sudden, with this expanding bump came the realization - HOLY CRAP I'M PREGNANT. I've literally been living every day with Cecilia and Mike like there is nothing else going on around us - when in reality, there is something very real, very life-changing, and very important happening inside of me.

With this awareness, I decided (well, we decided) that it's time to buckle down. I have approximately 20 weeks left of pregnancy to get fit, full and fabulous! Well, the fit part is really the main goal here. Mike and I decided that I should probably simmer down on my insanely high craving for sugar, sugar, sugar! and get better about the things that I am putting into my mouth for nutrition for myself and for the baby. This is tending to be a problem, as my brain literally canNOT stop thinking about above said-word that I shouldn't say... sugar.

I wake up, hm.... muffins! cereal! I get home from school... cereal! ice cream! cake! donuts! soda! anything unhealthy - get in mah belly!


Like, literally. This happened to become a trend and a growing problem. So we decided that we'll eat healthier together and that I would start walking 30 minutes a day to get my body ready for labor.

When we had Cecilia, we decided that it would be really awesome to try to have a natural delivery. I was so excited - and read up a lot on the hows and the tos to having a natural, safe and exciting childbirth experience. Alas, when the time came, we hadn't done our homework well enough, tripped up with a few things here and there, and I got an epidural with Cecilia coming to greet us a few hours later. To be honest, I still tend to struggle with this decision and action that happened as I was hopeful and excited to receive all of the benefits of a natural delivery. However, since I can't go back - and Cecilia was the most beautiful thing we've ever laid eyes on (and healthy and happy), all I can do is look forward.

This time I said to myself, Self, maybe it was the Bradley Method that had it all wrong - maybe I should research different natural childbirth resources and tap into those. I then stumbled upon HypnoBabies which is "a childbirth course that teaches painless childbirth techniques so mothers can enter hypnosis, deepen it themselves and remain mobile during labor, completely comfortable at times." Side note - you have to fully and intentionally believe in hypnosis and its abilities in order for this to work. Forget this. Back to Bradley.


I really did love the Bradley method of childbirth, and so I am excited to dive back into the infamous book, "Natural Childbirth: Bradley Way" which is an incredible book teaching all of the approaches to childbirth from Dr. Bradley. I am excited to jump into this adventure head first - well, belly first at times - and am optimistic that Mike and I will be even more well-read and comfortable with labor and childbirth, that things will go exactly as planned. Oh wait, never MY plans... HIS. I guess at that point - at the hospital, a few hours into labor, Mike tired from me hanging on him to get through contractions - it is all REALLY up to Him as to when He would like us to meet our little man/girl.

So, I'm pregnant. Weird to write that. And I'm ready to dive in and do whatever I can to have a healthy, happy and exciting childbirth and baby.

Now, what to do about this sweet tooth - that's the BIG question.