Introducing...

Eliana!

(Once I get home, I'll post a picture. The hospital's network is not letting me post pictures here or in email. All I can do is Facebook.)

(edited to add picture)

Here is the looong birth story:

Early Wednesday morning, I started having contractions. From 4am to 7am, they came every 8 to 10 minutes. All day Wednesday I was really uncomfortable with sporadic contractions, back pain, and just general crampiness. I dropped the boys off at my mom's house at night, and went home to do the final preparations. Marcelo and I ended up watching American Idol and going to bed waaay too late. I was so ridiculously nervous about my surgery and couldn't get my body to shut down. I ended up getting 3 hours of sleep.

On Thursday morning, we got up and ready to go to the hospital. We took one final picture of my pregnant belly and were out of the house by 5am. When we got to the hospital at 5:30, my first order of business was to demand a different anesthesiologist from last time. Luckily, the guy I had last time no longer works there, and the nurses all said they'd make sure I got a good one. I got started on my IV and Marcelo and I sat in a room until 7:45, which is when my doctor finally arrived. I can't describe what a nervous wreck I was!

I got wheeled into the OR around 7:50. They prepped me for my spinal, and the best nurse ever, Ann, helped me stay calm while they did it. It wasn't bad at all. I was hyper-aware of every little feeling because I was sooo scared that the anesthesia wasn't going to work like the last time. But then, I started feeling overly numb. Even my arms and hands were feeling tingly, so I started to panic that I had gotten too much anesthesia. On the verge of a panic attack, I took deep breaths and waited for Marcelo to get there. Once he was holding my hand, I was able to calm the heck down. My wonderful doctor had already gotten started and I didn't feel a thing. I took a big giant sigh of relief. It took a loooooong time to get through all my scar tissue. It was pretty unnerving. Dr. B commented on the insane amount of scar tissue I had. Marcelo was watching everything, so I looked up at him and said, "Are you sure you're going to be okay watching?" (You know, because of the little "near fainting" incident with Celo's eyebrow.) Marcelo said he was fine, but then a few minutes later, he was like, "I'm feeling a little weird." The nurses took it really seriously and whisked him away. They made him sit a few feet back and got him a cold wet rag. He was totally fine, but they've seen too many men keel over, so they didn't take it lightly. I knew he was fine, so I just teased him about getting full permission to make fun of him later. He was like, "We can't have that!" And finally came back to hold my hand.

At 8:16am, Eliana entered the world. The first thing she did was pee all over the place. Marcelo said, "She has so much hair!!" They cleaned her up and Marcelo brought her to me. I got to see her for a second and they took her away. I hate that part.

As they sewed me up, Dr. B talked to me about my scar and my uterus. He said that my wall was really thin, and that he was really happy that we did the c-section a week earlier than usual because if I had gone into labor and had some strong contractions, I would have been at high risk for rupturing. Scary!

Since they numbed me so well, I was in the recovery room for an hour and a half, and my legs still didn't wake up. The nurse was in kind of a rush, so she took me into my room anyway, even though I still couldn't bend my knees. This made it very difficult to move onto the bed, and I ended up straining my stomach muscles a bit. Lame. I didn't get to see Eliana until 2 hours after she had been born. When I finally saw her and held her, I just cried and cried. Well, first I laughed at the fact that she had ridiculous amounts of hair and looked Asian, and then I cried. I usually cry in the OR, but it all happened so fast this time and didn't hit me until I was holding her.

Her stats were so surprising! All 3 kids have been 19.5 inches. Diego weighed 6 pounds even, and Celo weighed 5 lbs 13 oz. Eliana is our biggest at 6 pounds 7 and a half oz! That's tiny for many people, but to me it's big! I was shocked. I had bought 2 preemie outfits for her because the boys wore preemie clothes out of the hospital. But the preemie clothes are too small for her so we donated them to the hospital.

She doesn't look at all like I imagined or like she looked in the dreams I had of her. The only thing I guessed right on was her black hair. But it still suprised me to see how jet black it is! And I had no idea there would be so much of it. Her nose and chin look just like mine in my baby pictures. But she's changing by the minute. Marcelo and I are cracking up at how Asian she looks. Her jet black hair is stick straight and looks like it gets longer by the hour.

With all the nurse interruptions, this has taken me forever to write! There's much more to say because my recovery isn't going as well as planned, but I'll have to write the rest later.

Bye Bye Belly!

I dropped the kids off at my mom's today because Marcelo and I have to be at the hospital at the ridiculous hour of 5:30am. Before I left, Marcelo took a couple of pictures of the boys saying goodbye to my belly. Diego was really sad about it! He was like, "I'm going to miss your big belly." I tried to get him excited about the fact that my belly being gone would mean that Eliana was here. (And let's be serious, it's not like the belly is going to be GONE gone. That'll take a little time.)This one made me tear up. I'll be in surgery in 9 hours. Well, as long as Eliana behaves tonight and lets me get some sleep. Early early this morning, I had contractions every 8 to 10 minutes from 4am until 7am. Then throughout the day I had them, but not very often. I'm just hoping it doesn't happen again when I go to bed tonight. It seems like they get worse when I lay down.

Anyway, the time has come. I'm so nervous. Wish us luck!

Eliana's Room

I'm finally posting pictures of Eliana's room. The colors don't look 100% true to real life because it was a really cloudy day and I had no lighting. Anyway, here it is:I originally wanted a room with a light green wall, but when I found this bedding, I fell in love with it and thought the best color to go with it was turquoise.

Changing table with teeny tiny newborn diapers ready to go.I copied the flowers and butterfly from the bedding and painted it on wood. I didn't want to paint directly on the wall this time. You can't really tell in the pictures, but the wall hangings are 3-D. I used wood glue to glue the butterflies and flowers onto the wooden squares. It took me forever to paint, but I'm so happy with it. I should have straightened that pink one before I took the picture, though, haha. The chair. On the ottoman is the blanket my grandma crocheted for Eliana. It's beautiful! And on that wall next to the window I'm going to hang a picture of the baby once she's here.Diaper stacker and closet and close up of the wainscoting Marcelo did for his little girl. It was allllll his idea to do that. He's spoiling her already.If it looks like the crib is crooked, it's because it is. Celo and Diego jumped on it and grabbed it and now Marcelo has to fix it. These are the other wall hangings I made. I'm not as crazy about these. I pictured them differently, but I guess they'll do. After hours and hours of painting, the perfectionist in me started to fade. I copied the flowers from the bedding.

One more view. We might add a shelf on the wall by the window. Not sure yet. But on the opposite wall on the other side of the crib there's a shelf. But it's a mess, so I didn't take a picture of it. Oh and I love the hot pink rug. The boys love to play with cars on it.

Now the room just needs a baby!

3 More Days

THREE. Ahhhhh! But I've got everything pretty much under control. Well, everything except my kids.


Last week, I went to the park with my good friend and at one point, our crazy boys ran into the street. As we were sprinting over to them, I slammed my shoulder blade into the playground equipment, causing me to fall to the ground. 9 months pregnant. I jumped back up, ran to Celo, scooped him up and started the "Never never never never" speech about running into the street. In the moment, he acted like he knew how serious I was and looked like he was about to cry. As the day went on, however, he started to question me. "But why? Why I can't go in the street?" I said that he would get big big owies, to which he responded, "And I go to the hospital?" He thinks the hospital is cool because he knows that's where I'm going to have the baby. So big owies that send him to the hospital can't be bad, right? Ugh.


Also, as the day went on, my body got more and more sore. The sprinting/falling resulted in a pulled muscle, which has been causing me to limp for days. Not good on the last few days before having this baby! I wanted to get a lot more done, but I've just been too sore and uncomfortable. Today I feel MUCH better, though. And like I said, most things that need to be done are under control.


BUT. My children. Ohhhh, my children. I don't know if it's because they know their lives are about to change, or what, but they are both acting up a ton. More specifically, they are acting like babies. Diego has been crying over everything. He'll get the tiniest little scratch or bump, or some type of small injury, and cries like his life is over. Or Celo will say something mean to him and he'll burst into hysterical tears. He's Mr. Sensitivity these days, crying over eeeeeverything. And then there's Celo. He will not stop talking like a baby. The kid is 100% capable of speaking in clear, full sentences. But no, now he talks like this, "Uhhhhhhhhhh! Naaaaaahhhhhhh!" He just makes little noises, does a dramatic pouty face, and points at what he wants. I tell him I don't understand him when he talks like that and ask him to try again using a big boy voice, but he refuses. He just keeps pointing and grunting. I take away his cars or his puppy because those are "big boy toys, not baby toys", but it doesn't phase him. He's so stubborn!!


It's pretty frustrating. They both seem excited about the baby, and I always try to make it all about them and make them feel special about being big brothers, so I don't know what the deal is. I'm getting them each a little present to give them when they come meet their baby sister in the hospital, but I don't know what else to do. My plan is to make it a really fun couple of days before the baby comes. Today we went on a playdate that they asbolutely loved. They got to swim, run, ride things with wheels, play with dogs, play in sprinklers, and get all their energy out. (Now they're napping.) Tomorrow, Marcelo and I are going to take them out to do something really fun as a family. Then Wednesday they're off to Tata's house for the rest of the week. They understand this and they know they'll be coming to visit me everyday. They seem to like the idea, but we'll see how it goes.

I can't believe she'll be here so soon!

More Maternity Pics

Here are the rest of the pictures Marcelo took of me and the boys. I'm so glad we took these because I know that in the future, they'll be priceless to me. With boys as obsessed with cars as mine are, we had to get some shots of them sharing their Mustangs with Eliana.

This last one is my favorite. We were almost done at this point and the kids were really excited for our photoshoot to be over. I had just told Diego that he was going to get to play in the puddles with his cars. Hence the happiness on his face.

I was 36 1/2 weeks in these pictures. I'm now 37 weeks and have 8 days left until my scheduled c-section. Not much left on my checklist besides sleep, paint my toenails, spend lots of time with the boys, sleep, buy a couple of little things, go out on one more date night, get at least ONE picture of me with Marcelo and the kids all together, and sleep.

Just a Few Things Crossed off the List

Make freezer meals: Check

Take maternity pictures with the boys: Check

I cooked and cooked and cooked today. Tomorrow will be another cooking day, and then I'll have approximately 21 night's worth of dinners in my freezer. Yay! So far there are a couple of chicken and pasta dishes like this one, chicken quesadillas, and beef quesadillas. Tomorrow's menu includes meatloaves, bbq pulled pork, and something else I'm forgetting. The best part is that I also made Diego-friendly versions of everything. Mmmmm, soy cheese quesadillas. Gross. Poor kid.

On Sunday, I begged Marcelo to take pictures of me and the kids. I wish we could have gotten some with Marcelo in them. Hopefully we can do that before Eliana gets here.

I was probably pretty annoying during our little photoshoot. I was bossing everyone around...I mean directing the photoshoot. "No, turn the camera. This shot would look better as a landscape. Okay boys, put your hands here. Babe, get closer." Probably not annoying at all. They were all great sports and I'm happy with what we got. Here is a little preview. There will be more to come. Countdown: 10 days to go

Celo's a Big Kid Now

Back in the middle of March, we put Diego and Celo in a room together. We kept Celo in his crib and gave them both about a month to get used to sleeping in the same room. Then in the middle of April, we moved Celo to a big boy bed.

We bought bunk beds before we had Celo. I'm too scared to have them sleep in bunks right now, so we're using them as two twin beds. I was about 7 months pregnant last time around when I stained Diego's bed. And now, 3 years later, I stained Celo's bed at about 8 months pregnant. I'm the "stainer" of the family because Marcelo doesn't quite have the patience for it. As I was doing it, I was so wishing I had just stained both beds 3 years ago. I was so sore the next day from squatting and twisting myself into uncomfortable positions. I tend to forget that I'm carrying a bowling ball around my midsection. Here is the finished product:And here is the view of both beds. And Diego making a funny face. Celo doesn't sleep on the side that the pillow is on. He puts the pillow down on the other end so he can be closer to Diego.Celo was more than ready to switch to a big bed. He was soooo happy to have a bed like Diego's. Yes, we went through a few days (okay, weeks) of him climbing out of bed a million times, but he's gotten used to it and bedtime has become relatively easy again. Naptimes were a much easier adjustment because Celo just likes naps. He only climbed out of bed during naptime a couple of times, and hasn't given me a problem since. Bedtime, however, became a huge hassle for several weeks. We tried all kinds of threats and punishments to get him to stay in bed and stop harassing Diego. Diego would say, "Celooooooo! Stop talking to me! I'm trying to go to sleep!" and Celo would just get louder and louder to annoy Diego. Or he'd climb out of bed and try to play with his toys, and Diego would get up and say, "Mommy, Celo's doing something he's not supposed to do!" OR, Celo would climb out of bed, knock on the door and say whatever...."I'm awaaake", "I need to ask you a question", "Diego's doing something he's not 'appost' to do", or some other excuse...and then when he'd hear us coming down the hallway he would excitedly squeal, "They're COMING!!!!" and climb back into bed as fast as possible. He knew that we wouldn't be happy when we came into the room, and found that to be absolutely hilarious. No amount of threatening to take away his beloved puppy, cars, or to make him sleep in another room did the trick. Time out was a joke. Every single thing we tried just made him laugh. We were at our wit's end.

I can finally say, though, that for about a week now, he has stopped making bedtime such a nightmare!! FINALLY. He lays in bed and talks to Diego for awhile until they get tired enough to fall asleep. I would share what we did that finally worked, but I'm afraid you'll call child services. Let's just say...there once was a boy who was afraid of a certain noise coming from a certain closet and this boy's father made a verbal threat involving said closet and the boy never climbed out of bed again. The end.

Don't judge. Fighting a 2.5 year old to stay in bed for two hours every night is not as fun as it sounds.

Baby Shower

Ready for a picture overload?

Last weekend, my mom and mother-in-law threw me a baby shower. It was beautiful! Here are the hostesses. My mom worked so hard on the food and decorations. She loves doing cutesy, crafty things, so she went to town with the decorations. The plates she found had little clothes on a clothesline, so she took that theme and ran with it.

Here is the dessert table, sans cake. I'm bummed I didn't get a picture of the cake she made. The little doll in the middle of the table is wearing an outfit crocheted by my great grandma.
My mom folded the napkins like little shirts and even glued a little flower button on them. So cute!!She made little clothes and hung them up all over the room.And then there were the cups!! She made little faces with everyone's name on them. These were the cups for the fruit salad. I am SO SAD that I forgot to take pictures of the drinking cups. They were lavander and instead of little faces, they each had a little dress attached with each person's name on it. So so cute.This was the table of goody bags.My throne. So awkward to sit there all by myself. Notice the clothes hanging under the balloons. I didn't get a close up of those either. I was totally not on my game, picture-wise.

Some of the food. My dad cut that watermelon to look like a baby carriage.In keeping with the theme, one of the games involved hanging up baby girl clothes on a clothesline. Each person had to hold a baby (an old cabbage patch doll of mine) and talk on the phone and race to hang up the most clothes. This was the winner, Olga.For another game, everyone had to make a dress for Eliana out of toilet paper. Here are the top 3 dresses. Luz Estella (black hair) won.And then there were the presents. Dresses, dresses, dresses! It was so so weird to open up little pink dresses and girly clothes. My mom likes to get me toys that are loud and sing songs. This one sings the chicken dance, one of the world's least annoying songs, ever. ;) And then there's the obligatory "bow hat" picture. Is that a hispanic thing, or does everyone do that? We do it at every shower.

A big thanks to my cousin for taking pictures and doing the games, my cousin's cousin for video taping, and thanks so much to everyone else who helped or participated! I felt loved and very blessed!

Mother's Day 2010

On Friday, Diego's school had a "Munchies with Mommy" Mother's Day party. Diego was so excited to go to the "mommy party", as he called it. He showed me his classroom and his favorite thing he likes to play with (cars and trucks....shocker). We sat down to look at some books his class made and I had a good laugh. His teacher, Ms. Denise, asks them questions, writes down their answers, laminates them, and puts them in a book with their artwork. My favorite was one where they had to make trucks out of construction paper and she asked them where their truck was going. Lots of kids said things like, "To the store, to school, this way, to church". I flipped the book open to Diego's page and read, "Diego's truck is going to Tata's house." Typical. Here we are on our way to the mommy party. On Mother's Day, Marcelo made me breakfast and the boys made me a card. Diego was so incredibly sweet all day and kept randomly giving me hugs and kisses. He said, "I want to give you a kiss for mother's day." Celo would run up to me throughout the day and say, "Mommy, happy mudders day." Adorable.

At church, I received a cookie bouquet that Marcelo bought for me. The young women made them.I can't imagine icing 300 cookies, but I really appreciate the fact that they were willing to do it!

After church we went to my parents' house and had a delicious lunch prepared by the men in the family. I got a little confused thinking it was my birthday because ceviche was on the menu. ;) My brother was in town, but it was such a teaser because I only got to spend a couple of hours with him. He'll be back soon, though. My uncle brought his karaoke machine and we all went to town. It was pretty funny. Afterwards, we went to my aunt-in-law's house for more food and fun. The boys had a blast driving the four-wheelers around.

It was a great Mother's Day. I'm so grateful to be a mom to my wild boys, and I feel so blessed to have such great examples of motherhood all around me, not just in my own mom and my mother-in-law, but in friends and other family members. They all inspire me to do a better job!