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Sabine!
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Sabine's most recent
page
Sabine's second page
Ultrasound Picture
The Nursery
Pregnancy Notes
Sabine's Name
Sabine Jane was born on Monday, July 22nd at 8:35 am. She was
delivered by C-section because she had been in the breech position.
Although the surgery took about an hour, she was actually born just six
minutes after the initial incision. She weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces,
and measured 19 inches.
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Daddy and Sabine
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Mark was able to stay with me during the surgery, and he actually got
to see more of her birth than I did! As soon as she was born, the
doctor showed her to me over the tarp, then the nurses took her to the
warming unit to clean her up. I couldn't see her, but I could see
the flash of the camera as her daddy took pictures! As they began to
close up my incision, Mark took the baby out to introduce her to the
family in the waiting room.
I was in the operating room and recovery for awhile after the
surgery. Apparently, quite a bit was happening in the
meantime. Her grandparents and aunts snapped plenty of photos, like
the one of her and her daddy wearing his scrubs. The nurses took
Sabine to finish cleaning her up and getting her statistics (she scored
very well). And Aunt Brooke had them make an extra set of footprints
which, along with a picture of the baby and a verse she wrote herself, she
used to make a wonderful wall display for me.
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Finally, I get to hold my baby!
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They finally took me back to my room
around 10 am. When they brought Sabine in and handed her to me, I
cried. This was actually the first time I was able to hold her
because they immobilized my arms down during surgery. I've been told
that you don't know what love is until you've had a child. It was
more true than I could've imagined. I loved her from the moment I
saw her and felt that I'd never seen anything more beautiful!
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Daddy and Grandma
admire the baby
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As soon as we we were settled in the
room, we began getting visits from friends and family. Of course,
Mark and I were thrilled to have so many visitors - we were anxious to
show off our gorgeous girl! Sabine received so many beautiful things
from so many wonderful people . . . flowers, clothes, candy (okay, that
was for me), and stuffed animals. The photos you see here are the
first of many, since everyone was snapping pictures. We'll post more
as we get them.
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The baby plays peek-a-boo!
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The Ultrasound
An ultrasound on March 5th gave us our first
glimpse of the little doll. You can see the baby playing
"peek-a-boo" in the picture above. Just before this photo was captured,
the baby raised both arms and placed them over his/her face, then moved
them just enough to peek out as the photo was taken. We decided not
to find out the sex, although we don't know if it would've been apparent
anyway - the technician carefully avoided that area for fear we'd see and
spoil the surprise.
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The Nursery
The nursery was one of the last
things we did in our major home renovation. But before we
even started we had a theme picked out - puppies and kittens!
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The nursery theme is based on
this wallpaper border.
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Rory and Jaime help paint their
little brother or sister's nursery. |
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From the left, here I am kicking back
in the rocking chair, Ayden models next to
the baby's little rocker, and the dresser fills out the corner of
the room nicely. |
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Here's the nursery furniture on
display in the
store where Grandma bought it.
We couldn't have it delivered until we finished the nursery several
weeks later. |
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| Pregnancy
Notes |
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My due date never changed from July 29th,
but we discovered at 38 weeks (thanks to an ultrasound) that the baby was
in a breech position. That meant a C-section, scheduled for Monday the 22nd.
Throughout the pregnancy, I didn't have any problems aside from a few bouts of
sciatica early on. The first episode was in February (I
watched part of the Olympics from the living room floor - I was told to
lie on a firm surface with ice packs on my back). The second attack
in March was less excruciating but lasted longer. I limped for
several weeks. After that, the baby must have found a more
comfortable position (more comfortable for me, anyway) and I felt
wonderful. I even got all the feeling back in my left leg (which was
partially numb from February through April)! As a matter of fact, I
still felt great approaching 39 weeks. If it weren't for the baby's
breech
position I'm sure I could have continued to my due date, and then some!
Overall, I consider myself very
lucky. I experienced no nausea during the early months and although
I had heartburn once or twice, it was so mild I barely noticed.
I also experienced very little swelling and I only gained about 25-30 pounds - from the
back, you could barely tell I was pregnant!
And I can honestly say I didn't miss most
of the food items that were off-limits to me. I didn't
given alcohol a second thought, although I would have dearly loved a good old
hot dog (too high in nitrates/nitrites) or an Italian sub loaded with
lunch meat (another no-no). I also couldn't wait to eat sushi again,
but I more than made up for the losses by loading up on
"treats."
I had one real craving that I could identify - berry pie ala
mode! Friendly's has a great triple-berry dessert and the Olive
Garden has something similar and equally good. Since I couldn't afford
to eat out every night, I loaded up on frozen berry pies from the
grocery store. Besides that, I found myself eating chocolate, ice
cream, and sweets more often. I also discovered that I really
love fruit! I don't remember it ever tasting so good! And just
about any kind of cereal was fine for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
I do sometimes miss being pregnant - it was a wonderful experience!
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From the left, Mark and I posed for
a picture on June 30th, the day before
our anniversary; center, Jaime, Rory, and I get
ready for a dip in the pool;
at right, Mark and I dined out on July 2nd at the
Holiday Inn.
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June 1st - in front of the
First Union Arena, where
Mom and I saw a
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
Pioneers football game
(they won).
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June 3rd - a friendly pat
from the Grump, the
mascot of the Wilkes-Barre /Scranton Red Barons
baseball team, taken June
3rd (they also won).
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March 31st - Easter Sunday,
the perfect opportunity
to wear my new pearls
from Mark!
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The photo at
left was taken the day of the ultrasound.
Jaime is at left, and Rory is behind me. I was finally starting to
show, but the sweater makes me look quite a bit bigger than I really was
at the time.
At right, a photo taken in late May of me in one of my favorite
maternity outfits!
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Sabine's Name
Mark was inspired by the name Sabine
(pronounced Sah-bean'-ah) while watching the Olympics. There were
several female athletes from Austria and Germany with that name, one of
whom was a speed skater who earned two silver medals. Although we'd
heard the name before, this was the first time it struck him as a
possibility for our baby. The name is very popular in
German-speaking countries, and since I speak German and plan to teach her,
it seems a perfect fit. Also, we know a woman named Sabine who
offered to help us out recently, so we have a very positive association
with the name. On September 14th, 2001, (just a few days after the
World Trade Center attacks) we were in the Munich airport hoping to catch
our flight home and we weren't sure if they were letting flights back into
the U.S. yet. Sabine, a friend of a friend, paged us at the airport
to make sure we could get the flight. She offered to let us stay
with her in Munich if we had to be rescheduled. It could have been
as much as a week - so it was a generous offer! Fortunately, our
flight was one of the few (and probably one of the first) allowed back
into the United States, so we got home as scheduled. But we were
very grateful to have a friend over there.
Sabine, which is of Latin origin, means
"of ancient Italian culture."
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This page was last
updated
July 26th, 2002.
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