Angelica Fielding Munk 05/04/11 - 05/09/11

After five special days, our sweet baby Angelica has passed on. We laid her down to sleep between us around 11:30 pm, and she never woke up. Candice said that Angelica was breathing well and had good color around 2:15 am. We found that she had passed around 3:15 am. Angelica was pronounced dead at 3:55 am.

The funeral home picked up Angelica's little body within the hour. Among the multitude of tender mercies that we have experienced in the past few days was that the funeral director lived very close to our home, and had taken the infant carrier and our information home with him just yesterday. After the many blessings we have received in the past five days, I can't say that we were surprised that Heavenly Father was watching over this small detail as He has everything else.

Candice and I are happy. We feel that Angelica passed in the best possible circumstances. Heavenly Father blessed her in life and in death. We both agree that the past five days spent with Angelica were among the sweetest of our lives, and we look forward to seeing her again someday.

The Best Mother's Day Ever

Angelica has been alive 106 hours! We are going on our fifth day and we can't believe it. Going into this, we were really hoping for just a few minutes with her and we feel so blessed to have the time that we have had. This is truly the best Mother's Day present ever.
Here are my 2 little girls wearing their matching dresses I made for them:



Peter has been such a good husband and makes sure that I get time for a nap every day. I love snuggling up to my baby and taking a nap together. Peter took this picture yesterday while we were sleeping.

Update on Angelica

Angelica is now 80 hours old and still going strong. We have had a few close calls where she has stopped breathing for a few moments, but she was able to revive herself each time. We appreciate the chance to get to know our little girl.

Angelica Fielding Munk

Our sweet little daughter Angelica Fielding Munk was born on May 4 at 8:57 am. Despite a few tense moments during the night, labor and delivery went very well. We were blessed to have both sets of grandparents present, along with Laura and her own personal baby-sitter (thanks Julie). Angelica was 4 lbs 12 ozs and 17 inches long at birth.

After delivery, Angelica was placed directly on Candice's chest with minimal intervention from the hospital staff. The nurses and doctors were very sensitive to the fact that we might not have much time with the baby, and largely left us alone for the entire day. It was a special experience to spend the day with our new sweet baby. Candice said that it was the happiest day of her life. We didn't know if we would have minutes, hours, or days, so every moment was precious. We have since returned home, and are enjoying her here.

We have found out a few things about little Angelica (or as Laura calls her, Gicala): she is really cute; she looks like her big sister; someone is watching over her short little life; and she is quite the little fighter. To the last point, she has now been alive for over 48 hours, and is more alert and vigorous than any of the doctors expected. She drinks from a bottle, screams, makes messy diapers, and burps when she is done drinking. She is exceeding all expectations.

That being said, her grasp on life is tenuous. Yesterday before we left the hospital she turned dusky and stopped breathing for a few minutes. We thought that Angelica's time here was complete. However, Angelica surprised us all and revived herself. During her little episode, Angelica was peaceful, with no sign of struggle or pain.

Angelica has had two more episodes since we have been home, reminding us that every moment with her is special and shouldn't be taken for granted. The doctor said that she could go on like this for a week or more. Or it might not. We will enjoy every minute.

Thank you all for your concern and prayers. We are so grateful to our Heavenly Father for the many blessings we have enjoyed these last 48 hours. We will keep you all updated and provide more details as things develop.





For more pictures, see my friend Abbie Rufener's blog. She took some absolutely beautiful pictures for us. (abbierufener.com/blog)

Laura's Birthday

I feel like we have been celebrating Laura's birthday for the past 2 weeks. But I guess it all ended today since it is officially her birthday. She got to eat a cupcake for breakfast and open presents this morning. And then she got to open more presents (thanks to our good friends Paul and Nicole who spoil Laura) and eat cake and icecream this evening. It didn't take her long to get used to all this special treatment and by the end of the day she was running around saying, "I need more birthday."

I made her a farm cake with animal cupcakes. Laura loves animals right now so she thought it was pretty fun. She mostly just wanted to eat the candy off the top of each cupcake and would then put it back and reach for another one. Which was fine with me since I didn't want the candy on there spoiling my cupcake anyways.




I mentioned in my last post that I have been doing a lot of sewing. And I meant it. Lots of sewing. Laura's present for her birthday was a doll with lots of matching outfits. I'm not going to say how many because it is kind of embarrassing how much time I wasted on this project, but seriously how fun is it so sew something cute for your daughter, and then make a miniature version for her doll? Here she is in her matching giraffe jammies and knot dresses.




She also got a backpack with her name on it so she can store all the fun things that she constantly wants to bring with us when we leave the house (stuffed animals, snacks, balloons, blankets, Peter's football, etc...) She loves it. She calls it her "packpack" and insisted on wearing it to church today. She keeps putting it on and saying, "bye bye, mamma" and walking to the door. When I ask her where she is going she answers, "cools" (school). She knows the drill from watching her Daddy leave every morning.




Being Laura's mom brings me so much happiness. I love it! Even with everything we have been dealing with the last few months, it is hard to ever feel sad with such a beautiful and happy little daughter. I just wish she could stay this age forever because it is my favorite.