eva's first concert

Eva joined me in the audience to watch papa play the North Park Arts Festival. You can see how much she enjoyed watching papa rock out.

eva on the hosptial's website

http://www.sharp.com/baby/gallery.cfm?babyID=164512

She's got a silly look on her face but nonetheless, Eva is on another website. She is destined for musical greatness...not only because of her papa but look who shares her birthday!

my first mother's day

Eva has great timing. Only ten days old and she gave me the most wonderful first mother's day. She let me sleep in, I got to take pictures of her napping on papa, we introduced her to Oli's beach, and she was a quiet sleeper while we enjoyed a nice dinner with friends. To top it off, I had great well wishes from friends and family. I am a lucky mama!

making her mark

eva's first five days

Editor's note: I do know proper grammar but the captions won't allow apostrophes ;)

say hello to our daughter!

Evangelina Viola Amato
Evangelina - bringing joy and good news
Viola - lovely, violet, musical instrument
Amato - loved

born May 3, 2007 at 3:15 p.m.
8lbs 5.16 oz & 20 inches


Eva is amazing. She is already teaching us how to deal with last minute changes and be patient. Her facial expressions and chubby cheeks make everything seem ok. We learned how to work as a family during the last four days in the hospital. We are now home and doing wonderful.

We feel blessed to have such great family and friends sending us well wishes. We are on baby time so the responses won't flow as quickly as they did before. However, keep checking this blog for more updates on Baby Eva and lots of photos!

labor of love

My last day of work was Friday, April 27. I originally planned to work up until the due date but I was getting very tired and was hoping to coax Baby Amato out early. My wishes were granted. After my nightly shower on May 1, I started having contractions. They continued steady through the night. Things weren't progressing as I had hoped so we took a walk on the beach. The photo to the left is the last one of Baby Amato in the womb on the morning of May 2.

My contractions continued steady all day on May 2. By the evening, they were getting very strong and it was time to call in help. We went to our doula's birth center to wait out our hospital arrival as much as possible. I wanted to have a natural birth with as little interventions as possible so the best advice is to stay out of the hospital until close to delivery time. After a very long evening of very strong contractions, my water still hadn't broken and the contractions were not getting any closer than 3-5 minutes apart. By 6:00 a.m. and 32 hours of labor, I was getting very frustrated. The doula recommended we go home and rest, then see what is happening later in the day. I reluctantly agreed. We napped for about an hour then woke up to see that my water had broken and we were back on track. I opted to go right to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 9:00 a.m. and they checked to see that I was already halfway dilated and well on my way to delivery. When they checked me again at 12:30, I hadn't progressed as they hoped so they did an ultrasound. To our surprise, Baby Amato was breech (butt first) and a Cesarean delivery was required. I was very disappointed that I wasn't going to have my natural delivery but also somewhat relieved that I wouldn't have to deal with labor any longer. From here, it is all kind of a blur... I get a spinal epidural, Joe gets into his fancy scrubs, and then Baby Amato arrives ...