Naomi's Mother's Day Surprise!

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is his reward. (Psalm 127:3)

Dearest Loved Ones,

The wait is finally over... Richie and I welcomed our precious daughter Naomi Arapeles Dimalanta...on Mother's Day!

After a long labor and delivery of almost 30 hours, Naomi made her debut on Sunday, May 10th. My bag of water broke at 5:30am on Saturday morning. At the hospital, since there weren't any rooms available, I was told to allow the labor to progress and come back.. not once but TWICE! With strong contractions in force, I was finally admitted and given a bed at 6pm. My labor progressed slowly but surely. I was dilated enough to start pushing at 9:30am, but that was only the start of the longest, hardest hour and a half of my life! After pushing for an hour and not getting very far, the nursing staff switched and a more experienced nurse came to the rescue! She realized that the baby was "sunny side up" and proceeded to manually twist my baby's head around until she was facing the proper direction. Trust me when I say, this was NOT a pleasant feeling... for me or baby!

The last half hour is really when my support team pulled through for me =) Richie was the biggest cheer leader, like he was watching a sporting event, complete with video camera and yelling "BRING HER HOME!" The nurse Jackie, and my mom Lily (also a registered nurse) thought Richie was hilarious and were laughing and bonding while continually encouraging me to "PUSH LIKE IT'S THE BIGGEST BOWEL MOVEMENT OF YOUR LIFE!" (Of course they couldn't refer to it as "taking a dump" since they still had to remain "professional"!). Richie's mom Edna was silently praying and holding back her tears, while supporting my head and encouraging me as well. FINALLY at 10:50AM, Naomi was born!

What should have been immediate joy, quickly turned into worry because when they placed her on my belly, she was so limp and wasn't crying. They assured me that she was okay, but took her to a corner of the room to "wake her up." Apparently, she was just as wiped out from the delivery as I was. She only let out a few small cries and it was a whole 15 minutes before they let me hold her again before taking her to the nursery for further monitoring. God must have heard my prayers because by the time she was wheeled into the nursery, the nurse said she had revived herself! What a relief to know she was healthy and thriving!

Naomi decided to make this the most memorable Mother's Day ever. Our Heavenly Father has blessed Richie and I with such a beautiful baby! Not only is she a cutie-pie, but she already has the personality to match =) So far, she is making this whole parenting thing seem like a piece of cake *knock on wood* She has already brought us such joy and wonder and it keeps getting better and better =)

Thank you, everyone, for all of the love and support and prayers that you have showered on us. Naomi can't wait to meet you all!

Blessings and Best Regards,
KathyLee, Richie and Naomi