Category: Family

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.

My days were a blur of pumping (and reading) in the bathroom and trying to sneak in naps (not always voluntarily; I was passing out everywhere) whenever Emily slept. She was great during the day; it was during the night that she had her moments where she was up 2 hours straight at no particular time.

We were still having a bit of trouble with Alaethia at night. We’d have to wait for her to fall asleep in our bed, and then Mario would have to transfer her over to her crib in her bedroom. When Mario wasn’t around (usually outside drinking with the guys) I’d have to sleep with her (and Emily) in my bed.

I woke up around 10-ish that morning. Mom watched Alaethia (somewhat) so I got to sleep a bit more on the sofa, which is really one of the comfiest places to sleep. Emily cried from 11am-2:45pm straight. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her for the life of me. She’s always such a happy baby, really only crying when she’s hungry or while she’s having her diaper changed (not when she’s soiled, she rather likes the warm feeling, methinks).

She drank 4 ounces in one hour, which is crazy because she’s only 1 ½ weeks old and drinks 2 ounces in 2-3 hours. When I changed her diaper right after her bottle, I noticed that her umbilical cord stump had pulled and was bleeding a little. It looked “gray” and slimy where it’d pulled, like a fresh umbilical cord. I was worried. Nothing like that had ever happened with the other three. I called everyone I could think of that could possibly drive us to the doctor. I didn’t want to have to call and bother Sonia again. We couldn’t find anyone, so Mario eventually came home and we took her to the doctor.

She’d finally calmed down by the time we got her to the doctor’s office. She was so exhausted she slept quite peacefully. Mario and I joked around and laughed to pass the time. When we were called in she was weighed. She weighed 6 lbs. 13 oz, an ounce more than Monday’s appointment. Elizabeth was the one checking her and she said not to worry, that she probably wasn’t crying because it hurt. She didn’t know why she’d been crying because she seemed fine now, but she was going to try and cut the part that had come loose with these weird scissors. My heart sank when I saw them. She said she didn’t have the heart to do it; that was Dr. C.’s job but he wasn’t there LOL. So she carefully rubbed the edge of the stump with alcohol swabs hoping it would fall off on its own, but it didn’t. She said to keep doing it at home and if it seemed infected to take her back in. If it didn’t fall off by Friday then I should take her in to get it removed.

We got home and got the rest of the kids ready to go to El Patio for Cat’s birthday. Mario had already known about it and was trying to get out of it. I didn’t know why, he just kept saying he didn’t want to go. I was a little upset because it was my first time out since I’d had Emily and would have liked for him to be a little enthusiastic about it. I didn’t let it bother me. I was in a good mood, especially since I’d dressed the girls up in their matching dresses.

The girls both needed diaper changes at the same time. I took Emily and Mary took Alaethia. As I was pulling Emily’s dress over her tummy I heard something fall. Her umbilical cord stump had fallen off! Now all she had left was a tiny piece that needed to dry up.

When I went back to the table with the girls, Mario was nowhere in sight. And he’d conveniently left his phone behind. I figured he was out in the truck, sleeping. I had when he does that because it’s embarrassing when everyone’s asking me what happened and I have no idea!

I tried not to let it bother me and had a good time with the whole family, passing Emily around and talking. We sang “Happy Birthday” and had cake and then we packed up and got into our vehicles. Mario most definitely had been sleeping. I tried keeping my mouth shut, but I couldn’t hold in the verbal vomit when he got a call from Chris and he said sure, he’d pick up some beers and go over. I hate when he does that! How can he be so bothered to go out to eat with his family, but they bring up chilling out and beers and he’s all for it? I had an “oh hell no” moment and told him off. Of course he was going to turn around and leave once we got home, but I was too exhausted to care. My biggest concern was trying to get some sleep. I was so peeved inside though that I couldn’t sleep, even after the girls fell asleep. I read a little bit of Eclipse and finally found sleep.