I taught her to wink

Not really, she did it on her own. :)

Josie & the little one

Josephine has been pretty good with Leona so far, she seems to just want to lick her head and sniff her face constantly. Leona doesn't like it so we try to keep them at a respectable distance from each other for now, until they get more used to each other. Today they napped together for bit after Josie was worn out from playing. A step in the right direction!

First Bath

Here is Leona's first bath in the big girl tub! Success!

Lazy Sunday

One week old

These pictures were taken on Wednesday. Leona was just one week old!

A lot of firsts!

Here is Leona's first visit to the doctor.

Leona meets the grandparents!

The first ten days

Leona is officially 10 days old today! My how time flies, I can't believe it. Anthony and I have been hunkered down in the apartment just getting to know her, changing diapers, feeding her, and trying to remember words to songs that we can sing to her when she cries. I was going to write out the whole birth story but I think I'll just share some of my favorite images from her first week instead. Here are some of my favorite pictures my mom took in the hospital.

She's finally here!!!!

Leona Belle Mastropietro was born at 2:29 pm on Wednesday at 8lb 5oz and 20 1/2" long. She's our little St. Patrick's Day lucky charm! We are all home and doing well. I'll post more soon on the details, for now here are a couple of photos. Hurray!!!! She was so worth the wait. :)

We're off!

Anthony and I are heading off to check in for the induction in a couple of hours, so if all goes well little Leona should be born any time tomorrow. Turns out she'll be a St. Patty's day baby! Nothing wrong with that, though I hope she likes green. Please send good vibes our way, we're both a little nervous but I'm sure everything will be fine. I'll post again once we are home in a few days. Thanks to everyone who reads this! Lots of love to you all. April

A Walk in the Park

Today we decided to get out of the house for awhile since we've been a bit cooped up in the apartment. Mom & I took the train in to the city to meet Anthony and walk around Central Park. I've heard that taking a long walk can induce labor so I thought it was worth a try. It's also supposed to start raining tomorrow and not stop until Monday, so we figured we'd take advantage of the warmer weather. We started down at the 72nd street east entrance and showed mom the boat house and bethesda terrace, then we had lunch and listened to a pretty great jazzy band near the mall. After that we weren't totally worn out yet so we walked up behind the met to show Mom the reservoir. I'm pretty beat now so if walking is supposed to get things started we'll find out soon enough. If not, we'll have to come up with other ideas to pass the time. I think I've tried all of the natural induction options (except for acupuncture, which I'm too chicken to try.)
Here's a picture of Grandma, Leona, and I in the park.
And here's Anthony, Leona, and I in front of the firehouse on the way home.

False alarm!

No baby news yet, but we're getting closer! Leona is officially five days past her due date. Today we had a bit of excitement (or anxiety, depending on how you look at it.) We went in for the biweekly check-up and got hooked up for the non-stress test. That's basically just a heart monitor set up on the baby for a half hour. It turned out that my blood pressure was a little high and her heart rate dipped below normal a couple times, so they sent us to the hospital. Once we got there we found out that a ton of women are having babies at the moment so there was no space available. All they really wanted to do was hook me up to the blood pressure machine and monitor Leona's heart rate for a few hours. So instead of having us wait forever they emptied out a corner of the supply closet and put a bed in there for me. It was pretty funny, and really hot in there. All the nurses kept coming in to get supplies from the other side of the room and I think they were surprised to find us in there. So after a few hours they said all was just fine and sent us home with an appointment to induce next week. We'll see if she decides to come on her own before then. OH! And we met a nurse who works on the birthing floor named Leona Belle! That is no joke, I thought I'd misheard her but indeed she has the same name, and she was a very lovely lady. I took that as a good sign at the time that everything was going to be okay.

Just Chillin

The wait is on! Leona was officially due yesterday so we're just hanging out and waiting for her arrival now. Woo-hoo! So far no contractions but she has been kicking and rolling around in there. I imagine she will want to make a grand entrance, so maybe she'll hold out until Oscar night. Today was pretty productive, I finished my wedding album and we watched Rent the movie. :) Mom is busy making some crazy casserole and Josie is barking at her to try to get her to play instead.
Here's a picture from earlier today, Josie is taking a little nap on my gigantic, swollen feet.