December 29th

The day we brought Annalise home was one of the happiest days of my life, I was so excited to finally bring our little one home but not before spending the entire day at the NICU going through paper work, tests and of course last minute supplies. I remember looking at the clock and thinking okay NOW can I take her home... it was definitely a long day. In the last hour of double checking we had everything and last minute questions being answered all of a sudden I was scared... what if something happened? I was so use to hearing the beeping of the machines and being able to see where her heart rate was and how her oxygen level was that I wasn't sure what to expect once we got home. I was scared of the unknown but with Marco in hand we sad good-bye to what had been Annalise's home for 59 days and stepped out into the world...

Annalise's Home for 59 days

All bundled up and ready to go

Thank you Erin!!!

Off we go... little did we know that the first week we won't get more than 1-2 hours of sleep at a time. It took us all some time to get use to things but in the end it was all worth it.

59 Days

The first time I was able to hold my little one was two days after she was born, my doctor had given me a pass to leave my hospital and have Marco drive me over to the NICU so I could spend a couple of hours with her. I can remember walking into the NICU and seeing all of these incubators and signs with each babies name. I looked around searching for my Annalise but I couldn't find her. I saw this tiny little baby and thought to my self wow she is so tiny and continued searching because I remembered my Annalise being bigger but to my surprise Marco lead me straight to this little baby... she was MY Annalise. I broke down in tears at the sight of all of the machines and seeing just how small she was...
1 lb 15 oz.

Proud Daddy

Proud Mommy

Annalise spent 59 days in the NICU and she had her good days and bad but one thing she was/is is a fighter. There were several times that she pulled out her feeding tube because she didn't like it and when she was hungry she would let you know as her nurse Julie knows oh so well. As days went by we saw her personality come through and watched in amazement how she went from a feeding tube to a Haberman bottle to a Dr. Brown's bottle and with each progression she gained weight which meant we would be able to take her home someday soon

I think the hardest part for us was leaving each day and wondering if today she would be a good night or a not so good night. There were a couple of times were she lost some weight or she didn't eat as much and she even had some nights were she couldn't hold her temperature in the open crib which meant she had to go back into the incubator... this meant more days in the NICU. We would call each morning and night to check-in and see how she was doing but each morning I couldn't wait to get up and be with her. There were days were I spent all day with her and I would just talk to her and hold her but like a good man that Marco is he would remind me that I needed rest and to eat because if I got sick then I wouldn't be able to see her, so off I would go to eat lunch and rest but there wasn't a day that went by that I wasn't by her side loving her and praying that we would soon bring home a healthy baby.

While Annalise was in the NICU Mom (Marco's) flew in from Philadelphia to be with us and take care of us. Every morning Marco would drive us to the hospital and we would spend hours taking turns with Annalise, the NICU only allowed two people per child so Marco and Mom would switch. The day Mom flew in we surprised her and took her straight to the NICU to see Annalise I can remember her face when she saw how tiny Annalise was and how thankful she was for our little miracle baby. Mom would talk to Annalise and pray over her each day and I think all of our love really helped her to stay strong and fight.

My little girl truly gave it all she had and managed to leave the NICU weighing 4 lbs and 11.8 oz. on December 29, 2010. She had such amazing doctors and two primary nurses Julie and Erin and many more that took such great care of her and I can't stop singing their praises. Thank you all for everything that you did for our daughter and the great care that you gave her.

December 29, 2010

I have to say a special thank you to Marco because I know it was very hard for him to see me cry and see his little girl in the NICU but through out all of this he was my rock. He held me up and reminded me that Annalise would be okay and that we just had to love her and be by her side because she had Dad's fighting spirit and lots of people were praying for her. I can't thank him enough for being my strength and being such an amazing man.

The Beginning

This will be my first post sine I started this blog and it was meant to be an on going thing while I was pregnant with our little one, but time got away from me so instead I'll try and fill you in on what has taken place over the last 9 months plus.

We found out we were pregnant on April 18, 2010 and it was a very exciting day. Marco knew from the very beginning, I on the other hand thought I was getting sick and was surprised when the pregnancy test read positive.... I called the doctor the next day and had blood work done and within a couple of days we found out we were pregnant.  I wanted to tell the world but Marco wanted to keep it a secret at least for a couple of months but we couldn't keep it in for very long. We told the family a few days before Mother's Day while Marco was in Philadelphia and I can remember hearing how excited Dad, Mom and Jackie were when they saw the video Marco had put together. I will never forget hearing how happy Dad was and what he said to me that day.

My pregnancy was pretty normal and easy going. I never had morning sickness or weird cravings but I did want fruit ALL the time. Overall I loved being pregnant and when I felt our little one kick for the first time my heart stopped and at that very moment I realized I was going to be a Mommy.  Throughout the months my belly grew and my want for sleep increased each day.

I went in for my usual appointment in October and everything checked out, my doctor was happy with my weight gain and foresaw a very healthy baby.  Halloween came around and we were invited to Nestor & Liz's Halloween party so of course we had to take advantage of the fact that I was pregnant to come up with some great costumes. Marco was going to be a baker with the whole baker get up and I was going to be the oven and when you opened the oven door you would see the "bun in the oven." Unfortunately that didn't work so we had to go with plan b which was Marco as baker Mickey and I was pregnant Minnie. Marco had made me a shirt that had a bun with a little pink bow. We had a great time at the party. The following day we decided to go to Coronado Island to take pictures where Marco had proposed. We wanted to capture my growing belly.

I had gone in to work November 1st but was very worried because our little one hadn't been moving a lot the previous day while we were taking pictures, I was going into work with the intention of leaving if things didn't change. I called Marco after lunch and told him that our little one hadn't moved all day. He did some research and called my doctor and called me back right away and told me to head home so we could go into Labor & Delivery. We checked-in at Scripps Mercy at 3:15 p.m. and within 30 minutes we were told the baby was in a lot of stress and her heart rate was dropping so we had to have an emergency c-section, you can only imagine how surprised I was when I heard this seeing as my due date was December 26. Emotions were running high and all I could do was cry and pray that everything would be okay with our little one. November 1st had marked 6 months since Lily was taken from us and 3 months since Dad passed away so to say the least I was a bit worried.

At 4:56 p.m. we welcomed our little girl, Annalise Hope weighing in at 1 lb. 15oz and 13 inches long.

My emotions were all over the place as I waited to hear her cry and after what seemed like hours we heard a tiny cry. Marco went to be with the baby for a little bit while the doctors worked on me but returned shortly to make sure I was okay. I didn't get to hold our daughter as she was too small and fragile but the doctors did bring her by while I was in recovery so I could see her before they took her to another hospital. Mercy had a level 2 NICU and Annalise required a level 3 so she was taken to UCSD- Hillcrest where she spent 59 days receiving amazing care by wonderful people and we were by her side every single day.