Alyssa is 1 month old!!!!

Well life at the Manderscheid house is starting to get into a routine, for now!!! Alyssa is doing great! she really is a good baby!! She has a way of pulling on our hearts without even knowing it! JV had her last night, she was sleeping on his chest and he said "does she have to grow up?" and its funny because I was just thinking that before when I had her that we will never get that time back. She makes me cry all the time just looking at her. It def. makes me miss my mom though, I wish she was here to see and enjoy her with us!!!

Ok, enough of the sappy stuff!!! Right now she is eating about 3 1/2- 4 1/2 ounces at each feeding. During the day she goes about 3 hours but at night she is going about 6 or so!! The past 2 nights we have put her to bed at 11 (she has eaten about 9) and she sleeps till around 4!! then she is usually up again around 8! so she is sleeping very well!!!

I am loving being at home with her during the day! its hard not to be working though. Dad is doing wonderful at the shop. He is busy and learning lots of new things that I do, but he is doing well.

Alyssa goes back to the dr. on sept. 4th and she will get her first round of shots. I will plan on going back to work after that. We are thinking that when I go back I will go back 4 days a week. She will be in day care 2 days and John and Alice are going to watch her for 2 days (which is an amazing help!!) that will help big time on day care cost and then thats 3 less days per weeks she will have to be in day care.

Well I'm sure I could go on forever about all the funny and cute things she does but for time reasons I won't!! Bottom line, we are so so so blessed to have her in our lives and we are loving every min of!!!

WE ARE SO GREATFUL FOR ALL THE GREAT GIFTS AND HELP THAT WE HAVE GOTTEN WITH HER!!!

WE LOVE YOU ALL!!!

JV, Amy and Alyssa

Alyssa's 2 1/2 week visit 7/21/2009

Well we went back to the dr. today for her well baby check and she said "she is pretty much a perfect baby!" that is a great thing to hear! We think so too, but coming from the dr. thats always great! She did say in not so many words that Alyssa is a chunky monkey! She is up to 8lb's already. She was 7lb. 7oz last friday and now she is up to 8!!! so she is doing good on formula. She is eating usually 3oz every 3 hours, sometimes she eats more and sometimes less but its good to know that she is getting enough! She has grown 3/4" so she is 20 and 3/4" long.

She also said that Alyssa is a very very strong baby! she told us that we do not need to leave her on her changing table or anything b/c now she is concerned that she could roll over and off. She said ususally with a 2 week old thats not a problem, but b/c she is so strong she is not recommending it.

They gave me some more cream for her eyes b/c they are still goopie a lot, they are thinking its a clogged tear duck, which is common and usually works it self out by the time they are 1 so they are not to concerned!

Home life is going good. We are trying to get into a routine for bed time and its going ok. I try to put her down around 10:45 and usually she goes to sleep on her own with in about 45mins. and she has been sleeping till 4:00. Then I feed her and put her back to bed and she usually sleeps till 8 or 9! We have had a few hicups with that but nothing crazy!!! We are working on putting her to bed while she is still awake so she can learn to go to slept by her self, and its going pretty good, it takes some time but thats ok!!

She is staying awake more during the day too which is great! I love to have my Alyssa time when she is awake and not screaming!!!

We have had a great 2 1/2 weeks, it seems like we have had her much longer though, in a good way!

Well thats about it for now, but I will update again later. We go back to the dr. on Sept.4th for her 2 month and she will get her first round of shots!!!

Alyssa Is 1 week Old!!

Well we have made it almost through our first week with Alyssa! She is so amazing!!! it has been a wonderful experience this past week, but it has been different! We came home sat around 4:00pm. Things went well, JV spent a lot of night time with her on the couch. She didn't seem to like sleeping in her pack n play on her back, but she had no problems snoozing on dad's chest on the couch.

Monday night was a different story. She screamed for about 3 hours straight and there was nothing we could do to console her. So at 1:00am I went to walmart to get her some gas medicine. That seemed to do the trick b/c she went to sleep not long after that. Tuesday night went well. She still doesn't like sleeping on her back, but put her on the couch with one of us and she is good to go!!!

We have had lots of wonderful visitors and many wonderful meals made for us, which personally I really appreciate!!!!

We went to the dr. on Monday and they checked her out, she looked good but a little yellow so the sent us to the lab to do some blood work to check her belly ruben. The pricked her foot and had to fill 2 viles with blood one drip at a time. I didn't want to go so JV took her back. He said it broke his heart b/c she just cried and there was nothing he could do. Her level was a 14.6 which was a little high, and had gone up since in the hospital so they wanted us to come back on Tuesday to check it again and make sure it was going down. So on Tuesday we went back and they did it again, but this time I took her and she slept through the whole thing, so that made me feel better. Her results came back at 12.4 so they were pleased with that. They also checked her weight and she was back up to 7.6. (she was 7.8 when she was born, 7.4 on the 4th, 7.5 on the 5th, 7.5 on the 6th, and 7.6 on the 7th). we are going to go back tomorrow morning to check her weigh again, but they shouldn't need to do the belly ruben again. I think she looks much better now, not near as yellow!

JV had to go back to work on Wednesday. It was really hard for him to leave her, but he was so excited to come home and get his Alyssa time. Paige and Alex came over on wednesday and Paige sat with Alyssa so I could run to target and get a few things. Then Granpa and Grammy came over on Thursday got in there Alyssa time!

We are so lucky to have all these wonderful people to help out and that want to love on her!!!

Alyssa Jane is here!!!

Wow, talk about an amazing birthday present. Alyssa Jane was born on July 3, 2009 at 4:30am. She weighed 7lb 8oz and is 18"long. She is so perfect, words don't even describe how much in love with her we already are!!!

Well I went back to the dr. on Thursday morning at 11:30am and my blood pressure was still high. It was checked 2 times and was still a concern, so Dr. Alverez decided to have me go ahead and go to eastside to be monitored by Dr. Brownlee and Dr. Torke and then we would decided what to do. So with much anticipation JV and I headed to eastside about 1:00pm.


After I got situated the Dr.s came in told us the situation. They felt that my blood pressure was high and was enough to be concerned but they also believed that it was possible that it might not be a problem and I may still go into labor on my own. We were concerned with my blood pressure spiking while at home and me not knowing it and harming the baby so we decided to stay and go ahead and be induced.
They started all my IV's and started the Pitocin around 3:30pm. I was having contractions when I got there on my own so the drs. felt that i was favorable to be induced without having a C sec. so that was good news. I was 1 1/2 cm and 80% when I got there and started the process.

They came in and increased the pitocin by 2 points about every 15 mins and by 8:00pm I was at the max. I was having contractions but I was dealing with them fine at that point. The dr. came back in around 9:00pm and checked me again and I was at 3 cm and 100% effaced. She decided to break my water at that point to speed things along and man did it. My contractions totally changed and they were so painful. It was something I had never felt before. Most people compare it to a really bad period cramp but since I never really had a problem with that, this was news to me. I think I made it about 20 mins before I asked for the epidural so they started my fluids and in about an hour I had the epidural. That was a long hour! the epidural was great, kinda scary getting it but it was nice to know there was relief in sight!!

We all tried to get some sleep at that point (paige and JV stayed in the room with me the whole time, and there were several people who came and hung out for a while and some that stayed in the waiting room the whole night, dispite the uncomfortable chairs!)

Around 2:00am I started feeling alot of the contraction pain and called the nurse. so they gave me another dose of the epidural to stop that. At 3:30am Dr. Torke came back in and checked me again and I was at 10cm and ready to push. I was so out of it b/c I was asleep I wasn't really sure what was going on. I pushed 3 times and she decided to turn down my epidural by 1/2 so I could feel when to push and we would try again in 30 min.

she came back around 4:10 and I pushed for 20mins and Alyssa was here! I have to say that people who push for 2 hours are my hero's b/c I'm not sure I could of done it, that was a lot of hard work!!!

When they pulled her out, they immediately turned her toward JV and let him look to she "what" she was. It took him a sec. and he shouted, "its a girl!!" they laid her on my check and I got to see her for the first time. As "cheese" as she was she was perfect. I started crying when I saw her, I was just so amazed that she was here, and that she was a she!!!!

They took her and cleaned her up. She scored and 8 and a 9 on her first Apgar test so she was doing great. She didn't cry much she was just looking around at everyone and everything. As they were cleaning her up, I looked at jv and said, "she looks like an Alyssa" and he agreed. We were both pretty shocked that she was a girl. We had a boy in our minds for a while. But it was an amazing surprise and we couldn't be happier! Now that she is here I couldn't imagine it any other way.


So over all my labor was about 14 hours, so not to bad for the first time. JV asked me which was worse the 14 hours of labor or the last 2 weeks of pregnancy, and I would have to say the last 2 weeks of pregnancy. Labor was probably one of the hardest things I have ever done, but def. has the best reward. People talk about this instant love that you have for your kids when you have them and thats something that I never understood until 2 days ago. JV and I were instantly in Love, thats the best way to put it.

Our hospital stay was short, but good. They discharged me at 9:15am on Sat. the 4th and the ped. discharged Alyssa around 2:00pm. All of her test came back good and the ped. used the words "she seems perfect" so we are so blessed to have a healthy beautiful little girl.


We are taking her to the ped. tomorrow at Kaiser to have her first check up. Her belly ruben score was a 7 and they would like to see her at a 6 so they are going to check that.

She is eating like a champ. The breastfeeding thing isn't going so well but we are still trying. She is eating formula now and we are trying to breast feed in between. Shes having problems latching on and she gets frustrated and so do I so we are going to try pumping to get things going and see how that works!!!

Last night was pretty good. JV took her about 12:30pm so I could go to bed and sleep. I woke up around 3:45am and he was laying on the couch with her on his stomach and they were both sleeping like a rock. I took her and she slept with me till about 5:15am then JV took her again out into the living room. I woke up at 8:15am and they were snoozing again together, it was so precious. Then I took her and JV went to bed. She is sleeping right now in the bassinet and doing just fine. She is eating about an ounce of formula about ever 2 hours and burping just like her daddy!! hehe!! JV is an amazing dad already. He has been changing poopy diapers like a champ. He quite possible could get a job at Moe's also, b/c he has the burrito wrap down. Alyssa loves to be swaddled.

Over all Alyssa has been very very good. She was pretty fussy yesterday with all the people poking her and moving her everywhere but she settled down when we got home. Today she has slept a lot even with all the visitors but over all I think she is a very happy baby!!!

Kaiser sent a nurse by here this morning to check on me and Alyssa. I guess that’s what they do when they send you home so quick but both of us are doing good. My bp was good and everything is healing nicely!! Alyssa weighed 7lbs 5oz today and it was 7lbs and 4oz yesterday so she is doing good!!!

Well I think thats all the big things for now, We will update again soon. I can def. say this was the greatest birthday ever! I could never of asked for a better present!!! I want to say thank you for all your thoughts and prayers though out this journey. They are def. still needed as we open this new chapter but we are loving every min. of it!!!