It's interesting to me how having a baby in the family changes your whole perspective about what constitutes a "big" event during the week. For example, this was a "big" week because we took Suzy to a park 2 blocks away for an organic market that they have there on the weekends, and also the fact that we went out to breakfast with her on Sunday was a huge event. Now our big events of the day revolve around a big smile of hers, a big poop of hers, a big feeding of hers, etc. It's amazing how you get back to appreciating the small things in life as really amazing big things. Another big event was taking her to get a TB vaccine...it was not fun having to hold her while they gave it to her. But, they also weighed her, and she is up to 6 pounds 6 ounces! She has gained 2 pounds in 2 weeks! This is a big deal and a big answer to prayer! Here we are at our big breakfast outing:Suzy's first trip in the sling to the park (she loved it!):Suzy at the park with the 20 juice oranges we bought for $1!

We are excited about spending our first family Christmas here...the fam is coming over tonight (Christmas is celebrated here on Christmas Eve night at midnight) with homemade tamales and Christmas chicken, and we will be surrounded by the booming fireworks that we fill the air from sundown to sunup. Suzy is all ready for Christmas...here are some of her Christmas poses and other random cute shots:Suzy's first hairbow:

Granddaddy teaching Suzy how to pray:

A Christmas smile for you!

Stick up your dukes:

a note from Suzy...

Hey guys, it's Suzy here writing to you all. Mom has already publicly thanked Tania and Efra for my cool tree mural in my room, but now that I'm here and my room is all ready, I wanted to thank some more people. First, thanks Ruby for my cool name plate on my door! Thanks ENanny for painting me this fun wall hanging!

Thanks ENanny for my new blanket and Judy for my rocking chair cushion! Thanks Tio Marty and Tia Sara for my cool new owl toy bag! Thanks Granny for my UNC teddy bear!
Thanks Lulu for painting me a picture and for the wall hangers! Thanks Ray and Theresa for my UNC cheerleader babydoll! Thanks UNC girls for all my books!
Thanks everybody (mostly ENanny and Granddaddy!) for all my new clothes! My clothes holder already broke it is so full!
Here is a view of my finished room from the door. I'm not sleeping in my crib yet (I like to be closer to Mommy and Papi at night) but during the nighttime, I eat every two hours in my rocking chair with either Mommy, ENanny, Granddaddy, or Papi. And we're getting a lot of use out of my changing table...my digestive system is working great now! Thanks for your prayers! Also, I went to the doctor yesterday, and I'm up to 5 pounds 12 ounces! I'm almost back up to my birth weight finally!
Also, people have been saying that I have my Papi's skinny butt. Well, you should see this picture of me using my new cloth diapers! They definitely give me more junk in the trunk!

Big week!

This has been a big week here in our household...first of all, Granddaddy got here on Monday! He greeted Suzy with tears of joy in his eyes. I think it was hard for him to be away from all of us for the past 2 weeks. here is their first encounter:


Monday was also a big day because it was Elvis's birthday!! So we were able to celebrate with his mom and sisters and with Mom and Dad too. Unfortunately, I was sick all day throwing up (apparently making up for the fact that I didn't throw up at all during pregnancy) but I'm now recovering (again...when will my defenses go up again?!) Here is a pic of the bday present I gave Elvis:

More pics of the proud family:



Thankfully, Granddaddy brought some preemie size clothes for Suzy, so now she finally has some outfits that fit!


Tomorrow we go to the doctor to see how much weight Suzy has gained!

New pics!

Suzy's first prospective novio came to visit:





check out how long her hair is already!


wide awake after bath time:

Back at home!

Just wanted to thank all of you for your prayers...we are back at home with a healthy, happy little girl now after spending 2 nights in the hospital! She responded so well to the fluids they gave her, and her weight is already up a half pound! i wish we had a picture of her in her cute little tiny hospital gown, but we will try to get some pictures up this weekend of the newly energized and growing Suzy. We are so thankful of how God has provided in so many ways and how He is taking care of her and helping us in all of our new-parent ignorance!
Thank you for all of the encouragement and prayers!!

prayers for suzy

hey everybody, just wanted to ask for your prayers for lil' Suzy...we had to spend the night at the hospital last night with her so she could get fluids and some tests done. her weight has gone down some more, so we have started her on a special formula to help her gain weight. all the tests have come back normal so far, thankfully, but her temperature got down last night and has been working on getting it up and getting hydrated. i think all of my sickness and medicines this week have affected her so we just ask for strength for her, and that she can put on some weight. oh, and for strength and rest for us...aside from all the late night feedings since she was born, we were only able to sleep last night from about 4:45am-6:15am. i think we will be going home from the hospital tonight, if everything still looks good.
thanks for your prayers,
ash, elvis, suzy, and enanny

Suzy's first week

Worn out after a hard day of work for Papi and eating and sleeping for Suzy:

All dressed up for her first outing to the doctor's office...too bad none of her cute clothes fit her yet...she's definitely got her daddy's skinny legs:






I can't believe Suzy is already over a week old! I have totally lost all sense of time with our new crazy baby schedule. We were able to get a few things accomplished this week, such as registering Suzy at the city hall to be able to get her birth certificate (they almost didn't let us spell Suzy with a "z" because the didn't have any record of that name in their system, but with a little convincing, they let us...so weird for someone to tell you how you can name your child...)
also, we went for Suzy's first week checkup yesterday, which was an adventure trying to get everybody fed and bathed and in the car, an a shocker for me to actually see sunlight and get out of the house! the doctor said that all babies lose weight the first week, but Suzy has lost a pound, so he put us on a feeding schedule where she needs to eat every 2 hours round the clock. so we are adjusting to that schedule, and lets be honest, it doesn't leave much time at all for sleeping or anything else. also, i had a high fever all day on friday, and found out that i have a urinary tract infection and stomach parasites. great. so im in treatment for that now, and feeling better. just please keep us in your prayers for all of these things!!

also, we want to thank all of your for your emails, calls, prayers, and gifts from here and from over there in the states...everyone has been so kind and generous with gifts ranging from loaning us an air conditioner for our room (praise the Lord!) to a live hen to celebrate Suzy's birth. =)

(E)Nanny's here!!

Bienvenida Suzy!

We are so happy to present to you our daughter, Suzy Noemi Henriquez Baldwin, born at 11:22am November 27th. She weighed 6 pounds at birth, and is perfect. Thankfully, labor was pretty quick (my water broke around 2:30am on Friday morning and contractions started a couple of hours later) and it was a natural birth. Elvis's sister did an awesome job as my doctor, and Elvis did an awesome job too as my coach. It was so neat to have family members taking care of me...who would do a better job? Elvis got to cut the cord and take her to the nursery...where we had a hard time getting him out of, he is so in love with Suzy! We came home yesterday afternoon, and Suzy got her first earrings put in at the hospital, so she is sporting those! The first night at home was a basically sleepless, but Suzy has been doing great today. I'm doing good too, but I'm a little (lot) sore. We are so thankful that Mom is coming tomorrow to help out (I think these have been looong days waiting to come meet Suzy!) and Elvis's mom has helped so much also. Thanks for all your prayers!! Everything went so smoothly!

Thankful...

With so many life-changing situations going on right now, we have a lot to be thankful for. First of all, we are sooo thankful that Elvis passed his 2 hour oral exam yesterday, the very last pre-requisite to be able to graduate!!! So now we are looking forward to not having to think about college ever again, after all these years, until the graduation, which will hopefully be in January.

And of course we continue to give thanks for his new job which he is still really enjoying and learning a lot, and of course for Suzy!! We went to the doctor yesterday, and the ultrasound showed that Suzy already weighs 7.5 pounds and is all ready, we just have to wait and see when she wants to make her appearance! Hopefully sooner than later, because if she keeps growing like this, they said a natural birth may be difficult. We are praying for a natural birth though. The doctor said she has long legs so she'll probably be tall like her daddy! I have not started dialating yet, so we are all in suspense as to when she will come. Not long though!

We are also very thankful that Mom is coming on Monday!! She will be such a great help, especially since Elvis isn't at home during the day anymore. We've asked Suzy to hold on until she gets here, then she has the green light to come!!

Yesterday I also gave thanks when I came home to a spotless house....even though the fact that David and Lucy left this week has been really hard for us, one blessing that came from that is that now the lady that cleaned their house and watched Lulu will be doing the same for us and will care for Suzy when I go back to work (I'm already dreading that day!). I feel really weird about having someone clean my house and thought I would never want that (even though it is so common in this culture), but after walking into the house yesterday and seeing all that she had done, I thought, Man i can get used to this!! Otherwise, it would be very hard for us to ever get housework done, especially since we only have water pressure to wash clothes in the mornings, when neither one of us are there. Elvis used to take care of all that stuff, but obviously he can't now that he isn't here in the mornings. Also, I feel good that she was praying for a job since David and Lucy were leaving, and now she has one.

We are also thankful for our friends Efra and Tania (the ones who painted Suzy's mural!) who got married this past weekend. It was a lovely wedding and we are happy to have married friends! Here are some pics from the wedding: