Category: Events

I need to shower in approximately 14 minutes (it’s 10:16am), so I’m going to blog as long as I can while Alaethia’s asleep and I still have time.

Tuesday was Mario and I’s 8th year wedding anniversary. Everyone that asked how long we’d been together was in utter shock. They can’t believe it’s been that long. I can’t either, heh. It doesn’t feel like it, to tell you the truth. Feels like…5 years maybe?

I made Mario breakfast that morning then got Alaethia bathed before we had to head out the door at 9:30 for her 2 month physical and immunizations. Poor baby. I had no baby Tylenol to give her beforehand, so I knew she was going to be in pain :(.

Alaethia slept the whole time we waited and I read my book. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that book was written about me, heh.

They called us in after about an hour (maybe an hour and a half, I forget) and they take Alaethia’s vitals. She was asleep the whole time they weighed her (10.10 lbs.), measured her length (22 inches), and measured her head (I forget the size…23? I’m not sure). She’s in the 50th percentile for her height and weight, which Dr. C. said is excellent. She was still sleeping when Dr. C. was pulling and tugging at her extremeties and immediately started grunting and arching her back and stretching. I asked about the rash she has on her face which is now somewhat spreading to her legs and arms only, and Dr. C. said he wasn’t sure yet, but hopefully it wasn’t Eczema. Oh no :(. He advised me to bathe her only every 2-3 days and prescribed a cream.

She fell back to sleep after Dr. C. stopped handling her, so when Erica, the nurse, came in with three syringes I had to wake her up. Poor thing didn’t even know what hit her when she was injected with the first shot. It was torture having to hold her legs down so that she wouldn’t kick :(. Mother was a few feet away, watching over Erica’s shoulder with her hands cupped over her mouth. I’d been doing the same thing, plus bawling my eyes out but I had to help whether I liked it or not. She got two shots in her right leg and one on her left. Erica told me the one on her left is extremely painful, as it’s got 2 (or was it 3?) vaccines in one. My poor girl.

(continued at 12:30pm)

Mario and I would be meeting for lunch to celebrate our anniversary. Nothing fancy; just some pizza at the park, but it’s the quality time that counts. Mom was staying with Jaylen and I offered to take Alaethia since I knew she’d be moody due to her shots and I didn’t want Mom to have too much trouble (Jaylen was already in a mood himself), but she made me leave her with her.

I gathered everything we’d need (plates, sodas), stopped at the pharmacy to leave Alaethia’s prescriptions, picked up some cash from Mario so I wouldn’t use our debit card and then stopped for the pizza. We even saved $3 since I’d just gotten a coupon in the mail I picked up for that restaurant, woo!

I picked up Mario and we went to the park. We decided to stay inside the truck where it was nice and cool. “Spring” has sprung in south Texas and that only means that everything’s nice and green…and the weather’s hot. It was nice though, just being in eachother’s company and talking and laughing like we usually do. That’s what I love about us: we can always make eachother laugh and there’s always something to talk about.

It was Mario’s turn to buy snacks for work (they take turns each week) so we stopped by H-E-B to get some ice cream sandwiches and chewy chocolate chip cookies for work, and some Butterfinger ice cream and cookies for us. I also found some $.75 cardboard storage boxes that I figured I could use for my sheets, just to keep them out of sight in the closet. Too bad I still can’t put the darn things together!

I dropped Mario off and kissed him goodbye, then picked up Alaethia’s prescriptions, came home and ate a quick lunch (edit 3/31/07: I just realized I wrote I ‘ate a quick lunch’ but no, I didn’t eat another lunch LOL. I’m so used to doing that every day that I just typed it out!) and then picked up Eenan.

The in-laws invited the kids and I over for some bar-b-q and baked potatoes my dad-in-law made. I had a little, since I still had to come home and make some dinner for Mario. I made Chicken Alfredo while the boys were still at the in-laws and Alaethia was taking a nap, so it was a pretty unstressful night. Mario got home and he had dinner and instead of a bouquet of roses (I told him he didn’t have to spend any extra money getting me roses or anything, because he totally was), or chocolates or candles, we spent some time cuddling with Alaethia and getting to bed as soon as we could since we were both exhausted. What can I say, we’re an old married couple already LOL. I didn’t get to sleep till almost 2:30 again that night since Alaethia’d slept most of the day, but I got to nap in the morning.

After my somewhat-restful nap with her in the morning, I picked Jaylen up from school and since John was off and wanted to go to Target (again) we left Jaylen with Mom and he, Alaethia and I left. I would have taken Jaylen with us, but he’d thrown a HUGE fit over his homework. Since he gets out of school almost at noon, he gets moody since he needs his nap. Most of the time, he doesn’t take it, so you can imagine!

John spent about 45 minutes browsing around the electronics section so Alaethia and I browsed around, too. I know I shouldn’t have, but I went straight to the scrapbooking section and to my absolute horror, discovered that the abundant supply of beautiful, wonderful scrapbooking things that were just on clearance on Monday were all GONE. All that was left was opened, wrinkled, less-desirable stuff :(. Oh well, I would have spent loads anyway, so I guess it was a blessing in disguise *cries*.

John finally got all the shizz he wanted to buy (games for his DS and Playstation) and we left. He gave me $10 for my troubles — troubles meaning gas as I took him to Target on Monday and then again that day. Gas is once again expensive and is what’s keeping me from town today, dammit. I already filled up twice this week, which equals to a whopping $60!

We stopped by the thrift store, which was not so far from Target, and to my absolute horror, it’s closed! There’s a patronizing “See you Thursday morning!” scribbled on a cardboard sign propped on the window with an annoying smiley face at the bottom. Grr. A light bulb goes off above my head and I drive to the Salvation Army. I hadn’t been there in maybe 3 years, so I was excited.

Well, it sucked. I found a few books and a tiny Pokemon plush for the boys. 4 of the books I wasn’t too thrilled about but I think they may be growing on me. I was happy to find Little Altars Everywhere by Rebecca Wells and The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. I’ve seen the movie, of course, but have never read the book so I’m looking foward to that. Once I finish the Shopaholic series.

We get to the school just in time to pick up Eenan and Brandon and go home. Eenan forgot his spelling words for the third day in a row. He lost them somewhere and copied them down from his friend but left them in his desk. I let him know how disappointed I am and that he’s grounded from games. You’d think I told the boy I was selling him in exchange for scrapbooking supplies — he bawled his head off. He justified not doing his spelling homework with, “They’re super easy words, MOM! Like ‘prince’ and ‘princess’. I’ll get a hundred, easy!” I told him it wasn’t the point; he needed to do his homework anyway, no matter how easy it was. Today’s their practice spelling test. If he gets a hundred today, he won’t have to take the “real” test tomorrow. We’ll see *sigh*.

The boys spent the afternoon with the in-laws (well, Eenan did only for a little bit, as he was grounded). Jaylen went “practice” fishing with my dad-in-law at the lake and he loved it. Making dinner was easy again (meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn), thank goodness, since Mary and Mom were outside with Alaethia. It was nice and breezy and she loves looking at everything.

It was Dad’s birthday, so I called to wish him a happy birthday and chat. We’d just spoken the day before, but he had a lot to say. I haven’t mentioned it much but we’ve kept in touch pretty well. We’ve made plans to get together, but for one reason or another it never works out.

He told me some pretty interesting things on both days, one of those things being that he still loves Mom and would come back to her in a second if she asked him to. (Although, I know for a fact she wouldn’t.) He also, for the first time ever appologized for walking out on us and basically ruining our lives by cheating on Mom. He said around 1996, he’d contacted Mom and asked for forgiveness and that he’d change, but she didn’t take him back. I don’t think I would have wanted her to at the time, but a little part of me — the little girl that wished her parents could be together and have a picture-perfect life — wished that it would have happened. How different our lives would have been had dad actually tried to be there. But like John said, would I be married and have my kids? I don’t think I’d want to trade that part.

Mario got home and we chilled out watching TV while Alaethia slept on my chest. She woke up when I put her down, so we went to our bedroom to finish watching the show (Untold Stories of the E.R. on TLC). She fell asleep again on my chest, and as soon as the show was over we went to sleep. It was around 12am.

At exactly 1am I’m woken up by a small voice talking and then weeping. I realize it’s Jaylen, who’s got a knee-ache. Those darn things. I’d get them almost everyday when I was little, up until I was a teenager (and sometimes I still do) and now Jaylen gets them as well. I got him a nice warm Rice Sock and some Motrin and he went right to sleep.

I slept the rest of the night through till the alarm went off at 6:45. It was a little easier to get the kiddos ready in the morning. I fed Alaethia when she woke up, got Mario’s lunch together (he made himself breakfast) and then he left. And I stayed awake. Made my regular breakfast of French Vanilla frosted Mini Wheats and coffee. I’m itching to go to the thrift store, as it’s open today, but like I mentioned before, I don’t want to waste anymore gas. We really need to start saving up as we’re trying to figure out where to go for our summer trip. I feel like going to San Fransisco!

I’m going to go keep myself busy by either reading or putting one of my other shelves together. I definitely need to go to the storage unit today and take Jaylen’s old bed and non-working Powerwheels. That’ll free up a lot of much-needed space!

Life as a family of five (OMG) has been pretty darn sweet. I’m not even sure where to begin, since I’ve gone so many days without updating and I can only remember so much, but I’ll try and recall things as best as I can.

Let’s see…going back to Thursday, the 25th, we were released from the hospital around 2:30, which was great because Jaylen would already be home and Eenan would be arriving from school around the time we would. They kept threatening to keep Alaethia at the hospital, which was the exact same thing that happened with Jaylen, because she refused to take more than an ounce of formula during her feedings. All she wanted to do was breastfeed, which we were thrilled with, but the nurses weren’t for some weird reason (I really didn’t like that hospital–well, the postpartum part of it anyway). We ended up getting our way though, thank God.

Mario drove under the speed limit all the way home, and even flipped a guy off who was tailgating us and then cut us off when Mario refused to go 80 MPH. He was trying to be as careful as possible with our precious cargo.

We had a quick stop to make at Dollar General, since it hadn’t occured to me that I’d need a pack of extra large pads (ah, yes, the FUN part *sarcasm*). Mario offered to get them for me, willingly, all by himself. NEVER, in our almost 10 years together, has he offered to go buy me pads. They didn’t have the brand I use, but he found another brand and guess what? They were even better than the ones I used to use, I kid you not. Extra points for Mario.

We got home and Jaylen ran to the car, with ‘Welcome home, Alaethia!’ written on his Magna Doodle (with help from Mom, of course). He was so anxious to see what she looked like; he was almost in disbelief that this new little person was “his” and was real. I can’t even count how many times he said, “Aww, Mama, Alaethia Wohse (Rose) is so cute!”

Mario and I were exhausted, so we headed straight to our bedroom while Mom and Mary organized our bags and put them out of the way. Eenan got home and jumped on the bed to see his new sister. I’d been breastfeeding her and if I remember correctly I think he said something like, “So that’s what they’re for!” LOL

Brandon and Noelia came over to see Alaethia, and after everyone was gone, Mario took a nap and Alaethia and I tried taking one, too, but it didn’t last too long. I’d been getting horrible cramps since the night I had her and they weren’t getting any better. The more I breastfed, the more it hurt. I don’t remember ever having that kind of pain with the boys. I don’t remember them hurting even more than actual labor pains, either. I kept getting up to warm up my Rice Sock to get a little relief from all the pain I was feeling.

Yadira and the girls and Matthew came over later that evening to meet Alaethia. It was nice sitting and talking to everyone and relaying our experience. We got the boys ready for bed and everything went without a hitch, thank goodness.

That night, Mario took the first shift with Alaethia and let me rest. I’m telling you, this man is an angel. He said he was more than happy to take care of her since he got to sleep in the afternoon and I didn’t. When it was my turn to feed her that night she did so well and let me sleep about 6 1/2 hours (woke up twice during the night). Mario got up and got the boys ready and took them to school. I was already up making Alaethia a bottle at that time, so I helped him out a little but he did so good on his own. Model father, he is :).

Mario was home from work that Friday, the last day :(. He helped me as much as he could; picked Jaylen up from school and Eenan and Brandon, too. Mary made dinner for us that night, which was such a huge weight off my shoulders. She’d also done laundry for us while we were gone. She wanted to help out more with Alaethia, but couldn’t since she had pneumonia (and Noelia had bronchitis, Mom had a cold and so did Elda and my boys!)

We watched TV that night after we’d gotten into bed. At around 11pm, I started getting sleepy and Mario told me to go ahead and sleep, he’d watch Alaethia if she woke up. I could hear her crying around 1am so I got up to get her. Mario quietly told me not to worry about, he’d take care of her. I felt so bad since I knew he was going back to work the next day and needed his rest but he told me he was fine. He fed her and I drifted off into sleep again. A few moments later I could hear her crying so I opened my eyes and saw the most wonderful thing ever: Mario was changing her diaper–something he said he’d never do! I thought it was so sweet and wished I had my camera with me to capture the moment. I fell in love with him all over again :).

I stayed quiet and watched him fumble with the diaper and wipees and I hear him whisper something to her like, “I don’t know what I’m doing, Baby…” and he caught me looking at him. I asked, “Do you want help?” and he said, “Yes! I don’t know how to clean her!” I finished changing her and then went to sleep. She did pretty good that night, too.

I woke up Saturday morning to engorged breasts. I thought my milk was never going to come in and boy did it, with a vengance even. I was in absolute pain by night time. Mario’d told me to buy a breast pump and I didn’t listen. I was counting on WIC giving me one because Alaethia’s eligible for it but the woman who supposedly called and said she’d even make house calls never answered or returned my calls when I tried getting ahold of her. I was so desperate I called Mary and asked if she’d take me to Target that night to get one and a few other things I needed.

I got ready and to my horror realized I still needed to lose a few inches before I could fit into my jeans. I put on a pair of before/after maternity cargo pants I had and looked pretty decent. Mary even commented as we entered Target, “You look so skinny already!”

I got the pump, a First Years one, and some bassinet covers and I can’t remember what else. As soon as we got home I washed the pump and pumped away. I immediately felt better, but the darn pump didn’t work too well. After using it a few more times it definitely wasn’t working right. $25 down the drain. And since I’d begain pumping, the cramps I’d been having got worse once again.

Aunt Nora came over to visit on Sunday morning. My hair was a frazzled mess and I was still in my PJs and pumping my boob when she arrived, but she didn’t mind. We (Mom, Aunt Nora and I) stood around the bassinet where Alaethia was sleeping and oohed and ahhed at her cuteness and talked about our experiences with each of our labors. Aunt Nora even brought us Christmas presents. Mine was a gorgeous red/pink set of gloves, hat and scarf and an even more gorgeous silver jewelry set. Aunt Nora was here a good hour and a half or so and after she left, Grandma Ofelia stopped by.

She kept saying how pretty and alert Alaethia was. She said she looked really good for being 4 days old; not wrinkly and asleep like most newborns LOL. She gave me some advice about taking care of myself and we talked more about the baby and then she left to the church where she’d be meeting some friends for bingo :).

Sally was going to stop by and visit next, so after putting Alaethia in her bassinet once she started to get sleepy I took the opportunity to put some clothes on, brush my teeth, wash my face and for the love of God, brushed my hair.

Sally arrived and she told me how cute Alaethia was. We talked about Thursday, the day after she and Pete had visited us, and then had fun looking people up on Myspace and freaking out over how much some people have changed. We had great conversation, as always, and after an hour or so Annie, Cat and their kiddos came over. Annie kept saying how much she looks like Jaylen, and even resembled John, which is what a lot of people say about Jaylen, too.

Everyone asked about her sleeping patterns and if she was a good baby and I had nothing but good things to say. I must have jinxed myself because that night we had lots of broken sleep and I was up with her from 1am to 5:30am. I’m not sure if it was that night or not, but one night she had terrible constipation and the next she had HORRIBLE diarreah, probably due to the high-fiber diet I have to be on according to my doctor. It didn’t get any better, so I stopped breastfeeding :(. I gave it a two-day break, just pumped and threw the milk out, and she got better. When I resumed breastfeeding she got diarreah all over again so I stopped again. I haven’t breastfed her and she’s fine. I feel kind of disappointed and just really bummed that my milk could do that to her :(. I was so thrilled that I finally had a baby that latched on right and everything and this goes and happens.

I was freaking out the next day over how I was going to make it to my appointments but thankfully John got out of work early and picked Jaylen up for me, picked Eenan and Brandon up and took me to both appointments. At the doctor’s office I ran into a girl, Fabiola, that I’d met there and become friends with during my pregnancy. Her little girl is 3 months old now and is adorable (she was 9 months pregnant with her when we’d met). We talked about our babies for a good while until they called me in.

I weighed 122.5 lbs., which is 2 lbs. more than my scale at home (but the one at the doctor’s is correct since that’s the one I went by the whole pregnancy.) My iron was great; it was at 15 and I think 11’s usually the average. Alaethia still weighed the same as she did at birth, 6 lbs. 10 oz., but Dr. C. said that’s fine since they usually lose weight after birth (so not the case with her brothers, the eldest of which DOUBLED in weight at 2 weeks!). He said she looks great and I pointed out the little white “dots” she had on the roof of her mouth and he said those were calcium deposits, which are normal in some babies. I also pointed out the funny way her bootie “starts”, but he said we’d wait it out for a few months before getting X-rays or anything done. He says he thinks she’s just fine though. Thank goodness :).

The next couple of days are sort of a blur now, but I remember the boys got dropped off by Mario each morning, Jaylen was picked up by either Vito or John and Brandon and Eenan were picked up by John, too. I also got into the swing of my evening routine, which is helping Eenan with his homework, cleaning up a bit, tending to Alaethia, bathing the boys around 6pm and starting dinner around 6:30. I feed the boys, hopefully feed myself if Alaethia permits, get the boys ready for bed, serve Mario food when he gets home from work, bathe while Mario watches Alaethia and then get ready for bed myself. It’s been pretty easy; not as stressful as I thought it would be.

John got out of work early again on Thursday and our income tax refund check had come in so he took me to pick up and cash that and to get Alaethia some formula. Later after we picked the kids up from school and dropped them off with Mom, we dropped money off to Mario, who wanted to get some headrest TVs for the Equinox. John was supposedly going to get an Xbox 360 but changed his mind at the last minute as always, so we went to buy groceries instead.

Mario stayed at work a little late that night installing the TVs with his co-worker, Mario Z’s, help. He got home and asked me to go out to see the TVs and they looked fabulous! He even installed wireless headphones so the kids can watch TV while we listen to the radio or the iPod!

Friday was the first day I woke up at 6:30 to get the kids ready for school. Mario needed to be up to drive them at 7:45 and then had to drop Noelia off at work since she’s car-less at the moment and I knew he wouldn’t get much time to catch up on sleep since he had to pick Jaylen up at noon. So, I got up. I don’t remember how much sleep Alaethia let me get that night, but I did get sleep and I didn’t feel tired so I got up while I could and got them ready and then woke Mario up to drop them off. I came back to bed with Alaethia, who needed to be fed and then we slept.

After Mario picked Jaylen up from school, we went to pick up his paycheck and he drove around all over the place looking for a good, inexpensive magazine for his new gun (still so creeped out about having a gun in the house, but he’s got locks and stuff all over it and has it in a safe place. But still…guns…ew). We stopped by Mary’s office to show off Alaethia and spent a good amount of time there. Everyone was gushing about how cute she is and I got complimented on how nice I looked for having her a little over a week ago. That makes me feel so good about myself :).

We picked Eenan up from school that day and John went with us so he could buy some stuff from Target (which he didn’t end up doing, again!). We wanted to take Mom with us, but we had no room in the truck now that we have Alaethia’s huge carseat. We bought some movies at Target (The Guardian, Open Season, Talladega Nights) and then met Mary at Applebee’s for dinner. I was so disappointed to find out that the Friday’s in McAllen was CLOSED. I loved that place :(.

I ordered the Shrimp and Steak something-or-other from the 3-course Menu and Mario had the Chicken Fiesta one. He HATED it. Threw a fit about it and everything and I felt really bad, especially since we spent a huge amount of money. I enjoyed my plate at least–it was delicous. I even had the brownie dessert, yum. Alaethia was a total doll and behaved wonderfully. The boys were so well-behaved, too. Well, until they both suddenly needed to go poop and made Mary take them each to the bathroom for about 10 minutes, but other than that, they were great.

When we were walking out, an elderly lady reaches out and gently grabs my arm and says, “You’re a great mother.” I felt so good that someone, a stranger, noticed that I’m a decent parent and was on cloud 9 the rest of the night, even if Mario was in a crappy mood. He appologized before bed that night though, so all was forgiven.

Eenan needed to be at the school by 6:45am Saturday morning for their last UIL meet. He was one of 3 chosen to go. I’m not sure if it was 3 for Storytelling or 3 out of the whole school, but he was thrilled to be going. We found out later last night that he placed 2nd DISTRICT-WIDE!! I’m so proud of my little dude. He’s going to get the trophy he’d been desiring all year!

Elda and Jose got married for the 3rd time yesterday, only this time it was through the church. After Eenan got home from the UIL meet, I made him change his clothes and the rest of us got ready. Since Alaethia’s little umbilical cord stump fell off but it’s still not fully healed I can’t bathe her yet, but I did give her a washcloth bath. I was in such a hurry, but I managed to get all three kiddos ready, plus myself. I managed to fit into my pre-pregnancy nice black slacks and nice shirt. Shoot, I think I look better in them now that I did when I was working (when I bought them). I even wore the beautiful, expensive BCBG Max Azria sweater Mario bought me off of Eddie :). According to my scale, I now weigh 116, which is really 118. Yay!

Although the ceremony was sort of all over the place (they didn’t even let them rehearse or anything) and we all forgot our cameras it was nice. We got home and had Pozole that Elda had made and later had wedding cake that Annie had bought for them. We spent a good long time together just talking and laughing. Love days like that.

We woke up sort of early today and Mario picked up Burger King for us for breakfast. Mom watched Jaylen and Eenan went to CFF and church with Mary while Alaethia, Mario and I went to town to pay bills and buy things. We paid off most of our Home Depot credit card, since our interest goes up in March and it’s super high. We also went to Best Buy to get a $499 Toshiba laptop but of course, the whole 5 they had in stock had been sold in like 5 minutes, to the people who come from Mexico. Thankfully, Circuit City had the exact same one on sale, but with a mail-in rebate so we went and got it. Mario got down by himself at the store, since I was feeding Alaethia, and once he took half an hour I knew we’d gotten one. I’m updating from my bed at this very moment. The only reason I’m updating at all LOL.

We got the wireless router from Target, some curtains, a nice curtain rod and some toys for Alaethia. Not that she can actually play with them or anything; when I showed her one of the little toys that hangs from her carseat handle her eyes immediately crossed :P.

We went to Kmart next, where Mario wanted to show me some nice bunk beds he’d seen. We wanted new beds for the boys, but the ones we liked were huge and probably wouldn’t have fit in their bedroom. I loved the bunk beds so we got them. Now we only have to buy Jaylen a twin mattress.

We got home and started messing around with the laptop then went to Yadira’s where Elda and Jose were having a little get together in memory of Anthony’s 20th birthday. I still can’t believe he’s been gone for so long :(. I can’t believe he’d be 20 already.

We spent a few hours there and then went to Jorge and Maggie’s, where they were having a Superbowl bar-b-q. Maggie presented us with a huge colorful basket full of gifts for Alaethia. She bought the whole Fisher Price line with pink butterflies on it! I told her she didn’t have to–she seriously went all out but she insisted that she wanted to get her something nice. She really wants a little girl. I hope Jorge gives in ;).

We talked and I had a great time. Manny, their neighbor and Jorge’s good friend, kept saying that it didn’t even look like I had a baby. I’m hoping I can stay looking that way. The last time I got compliments like that, with Jaylen, I let it get to my head and I stopped watching what I ate. If I can help it, which I can, I’m not going to let that happen this time.

Okay, so now that it’s 12:25 and Alaethia’s been asleep for about half an hour I should get going before I’m up till 2am like yesterday. I’ve got so much to do tomorrow now that I’m going to start driving around again (well, I didn’t get the O-K till Wednesday, but what’s 2 days going to do? Now watch my uterus fall out *knocks on wood*). I’ve got bills to pay, appointments to make, things to return and a Gramma to show a new granddaughter to. I still can’t believe it. I gave my Gramma a granddaughter!

Just thought I’d leave you all a picture of my new addition, though most of you have probably already seen her in my Flickr page :). There’s so many more I need to add, but I’ll leave you with those for now.

OH MY GOSH!!! Just right now, at 10:09pm, Alaethia laughed in her sleep for the first time! It was the cutest thing, a little chuckle, and her eyes rolled for a split second. Aww…and now she’s smiling!

Thank you all so much for the comments, e-mails, Flickr comments and all other words of support and love you’ve sent us the past few days and weeks. It means a lot to all of us and I’m thrilled to share this new chapter of our lives with you :).

I’m so in love, guys. Everyone’s in love! The boys love her. Jaylen especially loves to help, but the poor things are both sick right now so they’re keeping their distance. Eenan almost cried today because he couldn’t hold her :(. Mario’s been the most awesome dad, ever! He seriously deserves the Dad (and Husband!) of the Year Award–no kidding.

It’s so hard for me to not hold and kiss her silky-soft cheeks all day long. It’s such a blessing and so wonderful to have her in our lives. She’s a happy baby and only fusses when she’s hungry or, like the past two days, has had a hard time doing #2. Poor baby. I was up with her from 1am to 5:30am, crying along with her because her tummy hurt and I had no idea what to do but hold her gently against my chest, rock her and rub her back. She eventually felt better (but still didn’t have a bowel movement), had a bottle and fell asleep on my chest. Even though I wanted to get her used to sleeping in her bassinet I have to admit that I love holding her while I sleep. If anything she’ll be just like her brothers and will hate to sleep alone. She loves to be in her bassinet during the day but not during the night.

I wanted to update on our last couple of days and I totally want to sit down and write my labor story but that’ll have to wait for now. Hopefully I’ll remember everything; if I don’t, I’ll poke Mario for details :P. Mario’s finally home and I fully intend on cuddling for a few minutes before I try and get some rest with Alaethia. Hopefully tonight will be better than last night!

P.S. I currently weigh 122.5–1 1/2 lbs. heavier than when I started the pregnancy! I hope, hope, hope I can lose the weight I need to before Noelia’s wedding in June!