Category: Emily

I picked the boys up from school yesterday and went straight to my appointment. Jaylen really wanted to go to the Scholastic Book Fair they’re having at school, but I couldn’t take him so I promised I’d take him today. I’d completely forgotten that Eenan has percussion practice on Wednesdays, but thankfully Jose picked him up for me.

I talked and joked around with Elisa when I got there. She asked if I was ready to get it removed and I said sure, we’ll see what Dr. C. said when he saw me.

I read a chapter or two of Eclipse and after what seemed like forever was called in to the vitals room. I had a whole slew of questions I wanted to ask Dr. C., now that I had a chance and had actually made a list. When the girl taking my vitals asked me what I came in for I told her it was mainly so that Dr. C. could assess the ganglion cyst I needed removed. I figured he needed to give me an order for the hospital or something.

I get sent into a room and I’m in there another hour or so. I was completely bored and remembered that it was April Fool’s Day, so I thought of the perfect joke to play on Mario. I was giddy with anticipation. I texted him that they did a urine test (which they didn’t) and that he’d never guess what…I was pregnant! How could that be?!

He takes a while to respond and when he does, texts You better stfu! LOL I didn’t want him to be mad, or die of a coronary, so I texted back ROFL! April Fool’s!

Again it takes him a few minutes to respond and says That’s impossible…

My response: I’m bored. I bet you panicked a lil’, tho! 😉

He says: F u. Don’t talk to me for the rest of the day. U’re the devil.

OMG I couldn’t stop laughing.

We keep chatting and 45 minutes later I text Lord Jeebus. I reckon they forgot about me…

He says U’re little 🙁 Stand up. How rude LOL.

Right when he sent that Dr. C. comes in and we exchange some small talk and takes my hand in his. He turns my wrist from side to side and says he’s going to get everything ready. I laugh, thinking it’s some kind of April Fool’s gag and he’s completely serious. I almost puked. I was so not ready! I didn’t even know what he was going to do!

Laura comes in and we chit-chat and she leaves then comes back with a rolling cart full of stuff. My heart immediately starts pounding.

But not as much as when I saw these and heard Dr. C. telling Laura he needed the biggest gauge needle she could find. Then he said to forget it, he’d just use a scalpel. Again I thought he was playing a prank on me…but he wasn’t.

First of all, I HATE needles. I’m a total wuss when it comes to having IVs inserted into my hands and arms. These needles were MUCH bigger than those. I started feeling really sweaty and nervous when Laura rubbed that brown, sterilizing stuff on my wrist.

She walked out and left my door open. I could hear them talking outside, Dr. C. making jokes about ex-girlfriends and talking about work. Laura gasped and said be quiet, then peeked in and said, “Oh it’s Yajaira anyway. She’s family!” That made me feel so happy :).

Dr. C. took a seat opposite me and started tapping the syringe to numb the bump. I really started panicking, even though I was laughing to brush it off, and I seriously almost started hyperventilating. I took a deep breath and told him, “Wait, wait, wait! I’m not ready!” Laura ran to my side when she saw me freaking out and held my hand.

Dr. C. told me I’d be fine and I just stared, waiting for the pain I knew was about to come. Laura told me, “You don’t have to look!” So she pulled my face over to her chest and covered my eyes. I braced myself and winced when I felt the needle break the skin and then the sharp pain when the liquid started making its way in. I slowly pulled Laura’s hand off of my eyes and peeked to see what happened. The cyst was double the size it originally was and Dr. C. playfully says, “You did say you wanted it double the size it was, right?”

I nervously laugh and start panicking again when Dr. C. reaches for the scalpel. I quickly place Laura’s hand over my eyes and ask her, “Laura, Laura! Is it gonna hurt?!”

Dr. C. chuckles and says, “It’s okay, I’m already cutting. You don’t feel anything, right?”

I exhale, because I’d been holding my breath the whole time and remove Laura’s hand from my face. Sure enough, Dr. C.’s already gently piercing a little hole in the cyst and I don’t feel a thing. Next thing I know, clear goop is bubbling out of the tiny incision.

Of course I was going to get a picture of it! Mario requested this one in particular LOL.

Dr. C. gently squeezed out all the gel, covered it with a thick wad of gauze and tightly rolled some medical tape around it. He said I should keep a bandaid on it and then wrap it in something tight, like an ACE bandage. He gave me some literature on ganglion cysts and told me that unfortunately they come back in 50% of people once they have them aspirated like I did. I hope I’m not one of those people :(.

We joked around as he was cleaning up and Laura said she was going to miss seeing me as often as she got to during my pregnancies. I told her I should just go work with them when I was ready. Her eyes lit up and she said I totally should and started explaining benefits to me right away! I really, truly would consider working there; I love all the girls and Dr. C. Once I was ready, of course.

I waited in the pharmacy area for my antibiotics prescription and helped Laura measure a window. I get a text from Mario telling me that he just missed a call from Border Patrol. I automatically think, “He’s totally getting back at me for the pregnancy joke,” but then I start wondering what if it’s for real?

He goes into this whole spiel about how he was talking on the phone with his boss and he called back and they explained to him what the next step would be, which was picking up his ticket. He would be leaving on Monday. My heart sank when he told me this, but again, I just had a feeling he was joking. I kept telling him he was lying LOL.

I went to Target and then Home Depot. Mario talked to me during my drive and was going on and on about how sad he was; how he wasn’t even going to get to finish our new living room. When I hung up with him I texted Maggie and asked her if Mario had mentioned anything about the call from Border Patrol, because he’d just told me he was leaving on Monday. She said no, that he didn’t. I told her not to say anything about it. She asked if I could do her a favor and text Jorge. She wanted to trick him, too.

So I text him What happened today? Mario got home from work and said he wasn’t going back tomorrow!

I know Mario did have a crappy day, so it was jiving with what I said. Jorge texted back that he didn’t blame Mario for feeling that way and so on.

I had just gotten home and Mario was already here. I try getting it out of him for about 15 minutes that he’s joking, but he’s playing the part really well. I finally tell him to break the news to his Mom and the boys and he can’t help but break a smile. I then get a great idea…supposedly he got the call around 5:30, so I check his call log on his cell and there isn’t anything about Border Patrol or Homeland Security or any number I don’t recognize. He has no choice but to confess LOL.

I tell him about the whole Jorge thing. Maggie texts me and says, Jorge is walking around all sad and mad LOL. I feel bad, so I text Jorge back April Fool! Don’t hate me! Heh.

Jorge texts back, I already told the boss he quit!

I KNOW he’s trying to trick me, so, using Mario’s prank to my advantage, I text back, Well, I guess that’s good because Border Patrol just called Mario. He leaves on Monday!

Jorge doesn’t waste time in calling Mario to confirm LOL. Of course Mario tells him it’s all a joke and we’re going over.

Mom offered to watch Alaethia and Mary had the boys, so we only took Emily with us. We ended up having an impromptu movie night, watching Monsters vs. Aliens first (which was really cute!) and then Last House on the Left (which was really effed up).

We got home around 12:30 and were in bed by 1am. Emily didn’t let me fall asleep till around 1:30 or so, which I was grateful for because she slept the whole time we’d been at Jorge and Maggie’s.

She woke up at 6 for a bottle and of course, was wide awake and didn’t let me go back to sleep till 8am, when Mario needed to get up to go to work. I feel awful when I don’t can’t get up to make him breakfast. The good thing was, she let me sleep till 10:45 and then all of us girls came to the kitchen to have breakfast.

It was a lazy day, for the most part. John came over and I told him about my cyst, which he called his “Cyst-er”, because he says it was so big it could be another person LOL. I went to deposit at the bank, paid bills online and did some housework, like laundry and tidying up. I can’t get much done with Emily. Even when Mom holds her she howls for me. As soon as I get her, she’s completely fine. Her wails turn into whimpers and dissolve into content sighs once she’s in my arms. As hard as it is to get things done around the house, I have to admit that it makes me feel super special inside knowing she’s happiest being with her Mama :).

I picked the boys up from school while Mom watched the girls and took the boys to the Book Fair. I spoke to a few of the kids’ teachers and then we were on our way. Jaylen had been making a big fuss about it yesterday and almost didn’t buy anything today. He just got one book. Eenan did, too, although if he had his way, he would have bought a whole bunch of expensive ones LOL.

I spent the rest of the day with Emily and then Mom watched her while I made dinner (artichoke lasagna). Adan, Aide and Belle came over and us girls sat around talking while the guys were outside doing guy things, like installing a radio and drinking. We found out Kilala had her puppies sometime today! Mario discovered her under our storage shed and declared, “I’m a grandpa!” LOL

I bathed Alaethia and then sorted through her clothes in the closet. There were tons of things she outgrew, so I weeded them out and put them in storage bins for Emily.

I took off my bandage and replaced my bandaid earlier and realized I still have a bit of the bump on my wrist. I’m not sure if there’s liquid in there still or if it’s swollen from the procedure but I stupidly tried to squeeze out whatever was in there. Now it’s throbbing more than it had been, but thankfully it hurts a lot less than I thought it would.

And now I’m waiting for Emily to wake up for her first bottle of the night. Her bath will wait till the morning. I have a few dishes in the sink and that’s where I bathe her. My wrist hurts so I’m trying to take it easy and not move things around. Believe it or not, typing doesn’t bother me. I’m supposed to keep my fingers busy, and what better way than a gajillion-word blog entry?

So I guess it’s safe to say that it’s going to take me forever to “catch up” on my backed-up entries. I update almost daily, believe it or not, but I update to a super-long Word document since I’m trying to keep the entry numbers in order. Screw that, I say. I’m just going to update again starting from today and worry about adding the backed-up ones when I have a chance (which isn’t too often because of Emily and Alaethia LOL).

I guess I feel like I *have* to remember everything 1) because Emily’s my last baby and 2) because I was so caught up with work and life in general when Alaethia was a baby and I feel like I missed out on a lot, entry-wise and milestone-wise. I don’t even think I ever got to add the entry about her first birthday party! 🙁

So far, things are going really well. The boys are wonderful with Emily, especially Jaylen, who’s a really confident big brother. If she starts crying while she’s in her bassinet or swing and Jaylen notices that I’m busy, he’ll gladly unfasten her from the swing and carry her or pick her up out of the bassinet. It’s amazing watching him with her. Eenan’s good with her too, but he gets a little more nervous when she cries.

Alaethia’s also very good with her. She has her moments when she gets over-excited and starts patting her a little too enthusiastically on her head (ack, the soft spot!) but for the most part she’s great. I think she’s finally realized that Emily’s a real baby and not a dolly.

Emily’s pretty awesome at night. She has these little bouts of complete awakeness sometimes for about 2-3 hours straight, but she’s getting better. She’s my first baby to actually have a pattern. I know exactly when she’s going to be awake and asleep at night and during the day. She’s really happy and easy to care for for the most part.

The only problem we’ve been having is that, yes, a week after I stopped breastfeeding she started having trouble pooping. She’s 5 weeks old this week, as of yesterday, and she’s finally doing much better in that department.

Speaking of, she turned a month old on the 24th!

Isn’t she a beauty?? So far, everyone says she looks like me, but I don’t really see it except for maybe our noses LOL. And maybe the skin color, but she’s still lighter than me. She’s light like Mom and Gramma.

My dad-in-law was going to surprise us with a new addition to the house, a bigger living room! He decided to tell us about it because he thought we’d get a bit suspicious when new walls started going up LOL.

I’m so excited! Big Mario designed the room (it’s part of the old party porch, heh) and Mario’s designing the whole entertainment part of the room. That corner where Mario and his dad are standing in the photo is where the built-in entertainment shelf will be and there’ll be another on the opposite side (the south wall) for books and picture frames and whatnot. I really can’t wait to see it done, though there’s a lot to do, like leveling the floors, removing that darn tree stump:

and sanding the hardwood floors and varnishing them before the insulation and drywall goes up.

Mario and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary on the 27th. We didn’t get to do much because he was working tons of overtime (they were having this pain-in-the-ass show at the convention center that his boss waited till the last minute to tell them about) and of course we didn’t have much money. But we did go to one of our favorite restaurants, Kumori, for sushi.

As for yesterday, I took Alaethia and Eenan for check-ups at the doctor. Alaethia had her 2-year physical. She was such a good girl! She was excited about her appointment. She was very quiet and well-behaved when the doctor was checking her chest for her heart-murmur (she still has it so she’ll have another appointment with the specialist) and she didn’t even cry during her shot!

Eenan’s been having trouble with squinting at school so I took him in just in case and sure enough, he’ll be needing glasses again. He doesn’t want to wear them, I think mostly because there’s a class bully and he’s having enough trouble with him already. He hasn’t singled Eenan out; everyone has trouble with him. But still.

I got home and literally carried Emily around for about 2 hours. That’s the only thing about Emily: she’s a wonderful baby, but it’s hard to get things done because she wants to be held. And not just by anyone–it has to be me. It makes me feel great, that she knows when I’m holding her and that she wants to be with me all the time, but I do have to cook and clean the house once in a while!

I gave her to Mom to hold and started dinner. Jorge, Maggie and the kids were coming over so I made meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans and deviled eggs. It was the first time in a long time that I actually got to make a nice meal.

We chilled out eating inside and then we went out to talk with Mom and Elda. We sat in the new living room–well, whatever’s built so far of the living room LOL. Then we joined the guys (Mario, Jorge and Adan) outside and talked and joked till around 12:30am.

I was supposed to go to the doctor this morning so Dr. C. can assess the cyst I need removed from my wrist, and I did, but I went late since I didn’t have anyone to watch the girls while I showered. Mom came over around 9:45 and I left around 10:30. The office was packed and they weren’t seeing patients anymore so I’d have to wait till after 2 and go to Mission. I figured I’d pack up the router we’d just gotten last week (that really, really sucks) and return it at Target while I was already in Mission.

*whew* This feels good. To post an entry on the actual day OF the entry. I hope to keep up from now on!

Mario had work to do in the morning. So I lazied in bed after he left, fell asleep again, and woke up around 10am with the girls. I fed them both then Aly watched Noggin while Emily cooed in her bassinet. I finally had the chance to make myself some French toast and decaf coffee. I started cleaning up a bit. It was the first time I could actually freely walk around with little to no pain in my abdomen. Mary was doing my laundry. I swept and was gonna mop, but she didn’t let me. She practically cleaned the whole house, including my closet where Mario dumped everything after starting his newest project: moving all the wires, game equipment, phone, etc. into our bedroom closet, which is right behind the living room wall. He wanted nothing on the TV wall but the TV and wanted to eliminate the entertainment center so hence the reason he was doing all this.

Big Mario had the girls so I started putting my new pack of 316 pictures into my albums when I was at their house, finally. I’m gonna need another album. Now I want to go to Ross to get one. Too bad I can’t drive yet.

Jorge almost smacked me for carrying the stack of albums back to the house when I was done. I got dressed, since everyone was coming over for a cookout. I’m looking a little less chunky, although I’m still wearing my maternity pants since my incision still feels sore when I apply pressure. The good thing is, the pants are maternity and post-maternity so you can’t tell ;). I kept sneaking peeks in to make sure there weren’t any shoes on the sofas LOL.

I swaddled Emily up really well and joined everyone outside. I had a house-full of boys; my kids, the cousins and the neighborhood boys were all playing video games in the living room. Then Sammy linked his Xbox with ours from my bedroom, so there were more boys in there.

Mario worked till late, so he missed the whole bar-b-q. Circuit City was closing, so his boss was buying the displays and equipment for cheap and the guys were helping him disassemble everything and move it to the shop. It took forever.

I came inside when everyone was going home. Mario called that he was on his way home an hour later, and would I like something from the store since he was buying beer. I’d been craving a pint of ice cream (I swear I crave more things after pregnancy than during and that’s bad!). I’d been eating very well just to have that pint. He gets home and all he has is beer in his hands. He forgot about my ice cream :(. He always does that!!

I’ve decided to stop breastfeeding, as guilty as I feel, since my back and chest hurt so much and no matter how much I pump, it doesn’t make a difference. I even put Emily to the breast, which almost made me chew off my arm since she can’t latch on well, and nothing. I feel so awful about this, but my body feels miserable. I can feel the glares and hear the rude, unsolicited advice already.