Eliana - an answered prayer

Our little girl Eliana was born on 2 April 2009 at 9.11pm. Narrowly missing being an April Fool's Day baby, which will spare her years of being teased by other kids in school. She weighed 3.1kg at birth, 0.3kg lighter than her big brother Jireh, but beating him in terms of length by 1cm at 49cm.

It took us a long time to decide on her name. We thought that the chances of her being a girl were quite low, since everyone else was "100% sure" that her mama's pointed tummy meant it would be a boy. We decided on Eliana a few days before her birth, a name that meant "God has answered". We figured if it were a girl, that would really be an apt name. We'd always wanted a girl (not that we don't love Jireh to bits).

So now our little Eliana is 11 days old. Am waiting for her to grow up a little, to reach the stage where she can smile back at us. Meanwhile, it's milk, poo and zzz for the girl. Oh yes, and not forgetting the crying... lots of that...

Being a mom the second time round is not much easier than the first. You'd think that it would come as second nature by now, but unfortunately, aside from a much more realistic view of what the first few weeks would be like (sleep deprivation, breastfeeding problems, etc), that's not how it is. But at least we know now for certain that the problems will not last forever. Eliana will eventually learn to sleep through the night. Eliana will not be grumpy forever.

So thank God for little Eliana (shown here hiccuping) - our answered prayer.