Reasons Alexia is learning to love her baby sister:
Us girls snuck in this picture and used it to make a card for Ryan. Two girls by the second Father’s Day, that deserves a celebration.
So in response to your question, “How is Alexia handling the new transition?”. This picture was taken shortly after Daddy had to put Baby Naiya on the cold, hard ground in order to accommodate Alexia’s jealous tears.
“Dear Alexia: We PROMISE there will be enough love to go around. Love, Mommy & Daddy”
Naiya May joined us 14 days early on Thursday, June 4th at 7:45 a.m. She weighed 7.6 pounds and was 20 inches long.
This time around, I switched to a midwife center late in my third trimester. The midwife on-call was Dona, a friend of our family since having delivered both Tanya’s (Ryan’s sister) boys, and she goes to our church. She was fabulous and made me so thankful for the last minute switch from OB to midwife. She was in the room throughout my whole labor (also keeping Ryan company while I slept through the end of my labor), and allowed Ryan to “catch” the baby, announce to me “it’s a girl” and cut the umbilical cord.
Naiya spent her first day being called “Baby Girl Grossman” as Ryan and I balked on the name we had agreed on a couple weeks earlier. Ryan actually was online searching for baby names while timing my contractions that morning at 2:30 a.m. And during my labor (while I was medicated and resting) I heard him going over names with Dona, trying to get her opinion. Alas, we settled on Naiya, a name conjured up from Ryan liking the name Maya, and my hearing and liking the name Anaiya while overhearing a mom calling her daughter’s name at the grocery store. And May is Ryan’s grandmother’s (on his dad’s side) middle name. Our newest baby girl is now lovingly referred to as “Naiya Papaya”.
HALLELUJAH!!!!!! Who knew one of the first things I would be excited about in the labor and delivery room is that I’M NOT PREGNANT ANYMORE! Yes, I was thankful for a healthy baby girl, for a 6 hour labor, for only 20 minutes of pushing, but after being pregnant for two straight years I would have jumped up and done a little dance had the epidural not turned my legs into jelly. Reality check that it’s time to get on some kind (any kind!) of contraceptive:
Doctor: “Mrs. Grossman, when was your last menstrual period?”
Shan: “Um, August 2007.”
