Category: Pregnancy

I have loved today. Woke up “late” (at 8:30), which is much better than waking up at 6:30am. The kids were already awake and were watching TV quietly in the living room. Made breakfast (breakfast sandwich for Mario and French toast for the rest of us) and just sat in absolute quiet bliss while enjoying my warm toast.

And then the kids started screaming. But only for a little while :).

This, the not having to rush around and leave the house to pick up/drop off kids 3 times a day, makes me wish Summer vacation was already near. We’re about 6 1/2 months away but at least I have 3 weeks of Christmas vacation to look foward to. Yay!

I decided that this year I wanted to have Dad over for Thanksgiving. I’ve never invited him over before, mostly because I was afraid I’d be scoffed at by the family, namely by my dramatic mother. And I couldn’t stand the thought of him spending another Thanksgiving either alone, or with other family-less friends at the Salvation Army dinner.

I spoke to Mario about it and he thought it was a great idea. I asked Mary first if it was okay, whom I figured wouldn’t have a problem with it since Elda’s already having her whole family over. Sure enough, she said it was fine. I presented the idea to John and Mom simultaneously. John didn’t say anything, which meant he approved. Mother, on the other hand, threw a fit.

“Oh, now he’s your father?”

“Oh, since he’s always been around!”

I tell her he’s always been my father; she’s the one who’s always tried to turn me against him. I tell her I know what he did–I’m well aware that he was a horrible parent, but I’d like to make ammends since he’s been making the effort the past couple of years to actually be a part of our lives. And why, when he’d call, would she spent at least half an hour to an hour talking to him like they were good ol’ pals? Why couldn’t we have a relationship with him?

I never had a grandfather–I’d like my daughter (along with my boys) to know hers, all of them. I let her know this. After she huffed and puffed and stuck her nose up at us (because John expressed his opinion, which matched mine, too) I gave up and said, “You know what, FINE, I won’t invite him!” She says, “How can you have him over with Mary’s family? How ridiculous!” I tell her, “Um, Mom, you’re kind of going to be there too, with Mary’s family.” I know there’s a difference, because she’s known Mary for years now and contributes to most holiday dinners/get-togethers, but there’s a similarity in that she’s not Mary’s blood, and that’s what my Mom was trying to use as justification.

When I tell her again to just drop it, I wasn’t going to invite him, she softens up and says, “Just tell him to come then.” Grr. My frustration with this woman never ends!

Which is also something I’ve been thinking about lately. Since Mom lives right next door she’s always here. I had to plead with her not to come over before 11am, because she was at the door at 8am every day. She talks during my tv shows, talks while I’m reading, yells at John for whatever reason when he comes over, amongst other annoying things. I’m probably even more irritable considering the pregnancy, but lately she’s had me at my wit’s end. It’s like I have a 3rd child.

At the end of the day I start thinking about it: what if she wasn’t here? Like, really not here. What if something happens to her? I’d feel horrible and guilty for snapping at her all the time and wishing she’d just go home. The day she’s not here anymore to “bother” me, is the day I’m going to wish she was.

I’m learning this Thanksgiving holiday that I need to be grateful for every last thing I have. I need to learn to appreciate everyone, regardless of their quirks and vexes. You never know how life will change; who’ll be taken away from you at the drop of a dime.

I’m grateful for so many things: the roof over our heads, food, working cars, our health, being able to pay our bills, Mario’s job, this pregnancy, my husband and children, my whole family, friends: old and new and ones I’ve thankfully gotten back in touch with this year. For another day in this world! I’m just thankful for everything.

If I don’t get around to individually telling everyone, I hope you have a great Thanksgiving, full of love and family and friends!

I never know what to title my entries anymore. Hmph.

I was reading my book (I’m polishing up on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix because I’m already forgetting the details of the book since the last time I read it and I want to be prepared for the movie, which unfortunately doesn’t come out till next July :*(!). I’m in the middle of doing laundry too, but at least it’s sort of a low-key day. Mario went into work since he didn’t work on Monday and Mary treated us all to lunch at Peter Piper Pizza. The kids are playing Star Wars II on Game Cube with Brandon and the house isn’t completely in shambles (yet) so why not blog?

Eenan’s cold got much worse Thursday night when he went to bed. I gave him a nebulizer treatment, his medicine, rubbed his chest in Vapo-Rub, and propped him up a little so he wouldn’t feel so congested. After 2 hours straight of coughing and trembling because he was afraid he’d throw up, he finally got some rest.

I asked him if he was up to going to school the next day, but he didn’t want to ruin his perfect attendance (he’s determined to get another trophy this year) so we agreed that he’d go in half a day and I’d pick him up when I picked Jaylen up from school. He pocketed some of his cough suppresant lollipops and we were off to school.

I told his teacher about his bad night (to which she replied, “He’s got such a bad cough! He got us all sick!” Grr) and that I’d be picking him up before lunch. She said it was fine. He only got to do one test, his Spelling one, and has two to make up but he said he could do them on Monday.

When I dropped Jaylen off, I spoke with his teachers about my pregnancy and Mrs. S. said she remembered Mario from somewhere. After we switched details for a while we discovered she was in band with Noelia and they graduated the same year. She said Mario must have looked so familiar because they look so much alike LOL.

Mario and I napped till it was time to pick the kids up. It was the best nap I’d ever taken. Usually, any small noise wakes me up or I have things on my mind like, ‘Did I set the alarm for 11?’

‘What if I don’t wake up on time?’

‘Where are my phones? What if there’s an emergency and they call me about the kids?’

But on Friday morning, I slept like a log. Nothing woke me up until the alarm went off at 11.

I picked the kids up, brought them home and called Elda to let her know I wouldn’t be picking Brandon up since I’d already picked up my kiddos. We chilled out, had lunch, and then we left to some hardware stores so Mario could find some tools he’d lost (again) at work. That man spends about $300 a year on tools that he’s constantly losing or leaving in customers’ cars!

We stopped at Pet Smart for some crickets for our lizards and then we headed home. My dad-in-law was here when we got here, along with his friend Ricky and we agreed to bar-b-q for dinner. Mario and I went to buy meat at the meat market place. I’d been craving a brownie so I bought one of those 25 cent ones from Little Debbie, or whatever the brand is. I ate half, then Mario at the other half. He growls and makes a face and tries fishing something out of his mouth with his fingers. We get to a red light and he opens the car door and spits. He tells me there was a LONG hair in his mouth that he chewed out of the brownie. I felt so sick. Sure, this type of thing unfortunately happens when you eat at restaurants or at home (my mother used to be guilty of never picking her hair up when she cooks *gag*) but this was a brownie that gets made and packaged at a factory. Bleh!

Anyway, it was cold out so the kids played and ate inside where John was watching him since he was on the computer. Mom, Big Mario, Ricky, Mario and I ate burgers and ribs outside while the men played pool.

When it was time to put the kids to bed, Eenan’s cough started up again. I gave him his nightly ritual of meds and a rub down with Vapo-Rub and kissed him goodnight. Then Jaylen started with his cough, though not as bad. Eenan kept coughing every 5-10 minutes for about an hour and then got up because his heart was racing and he felt like he would throw up. I gave him a cough lolly, a spray of Cloraseptic then Mario and I got smart and got their humidifer down from the closet shelf and turned it on. I swear to you, neither of them coughed the rest of the night.

Thank God too, since Eenan had a UIL meet the next morning on Saturday. I’d already made up my mind that he wouldn’t go since his cough had been so bad, but I thought I’d ask him anyway at 6am. He leaped out of bed and said, “Yup! I’ll go!”

I took his chipper mood as a sign that he was doing much better and gave him breakfast then got him ready. He put some of his cough lollys in his pocket, I strapped his DS pack onto his belt loop so he wouldn’t lose it and gave him $2 for snacks (which I later found out was wholly used to buy 1 Nerds Rope!).

We got to the school right on time and I wished him goodluck as he boarded the bus. I said a little prayer for him as I drove the few blocks home and slipped back into bed with Mario for another half hour before I woke him up for work.

Mario left and I ate breakfast while checking my mail. I didn’t want to fall back to sleep, though I was really sleepy because I’d be dropping John off at work at 9:30. I noticed Mario left his new drill bits in the car and I knew he needed them so I called and told him I’d drop them off to him. I also planned on buying the Harry Potter book since I didn’t feel like borrowing it from the library then worrying that I was going to have fees because I forgot, once again, to return them on time.

Mom tagged along and Jaylen was in a semi-bad mood since he’d woken up really early. We dropped Mario’s stuff off first, then stopped by the nursing home to see Gramma for half an hour. We talked and caught up and she asked to see my belly. I stood up and she gasped, “Yajaira! Are you sure there aren’t two in there?!” I laugh and tell her no, that I’m sure there’s only one girl in there and she says, “You’re so small it makes your belly look really big!”

We said our ‘see you laters’ and went to Target. Mom wandered around while I picking out my book and made a mental note of others I want to go back for. I got some Nitetime Triaminic for the kids and ended up coming home with various foods like canned pears, sprinkle yogurts, smoothies and other stuff I can’t remember right now because Jaylen wanted everything in sight. At least he didn’t whine for candies =\.

Yadira picked Eenan up for me at the UIL meet so I went to pick him up at her house. I’m so proud of my little dude; he went all the way to the Finals! We’re not sure what he placed, but his coach told Yadira that he should definitely get a ribbon. He was beaming. I sat and talked with Yadira for a while and then brought Eenan and Angela home with me. All 3 kids were very well-behaved while I ate lunch (they’d all already eaten) and then cleaned up a little.

I made tacos for dinner and after Mario had gotten home and eaten, we watched Accepted. It was much better than I thought it’d be. The chunky guy with the glasses (don’t know his name!) made it so funny. And the biggest surprise? There were NO BOOBS! There might have been one set, I’m not sure, because that was the time Eenan ran into the living room, sat next to me and I cupped my hands over his eyes since it looked like a girl was going to take her top off. When I told John he said, “For real? Well, thanks for warning me. Now I don’t want to watch it.” Dumbass :P.

I can’t wait to be done with laundry. I didn’t hate it as much as I do now, and that’s because now I actually have closet space. I wonder how many loads of laundry it’s going to be when Alaethia arrives. When Jaylen was born, I remember having to wash every 3 days!

And speaking of Alaethia, I really can’t wait to meet her :). Mario and John find it hilarious how I sit on the couch with my shirt pulled over my huge belly while I watch her move her knees around. I’ve put my bottle of water or remote on my belly and she’s literally kicked it to the floor!

I’m also realizing that I need to hurry up and finish cleaning my room and organizing my closet. I just feel so tired all the time! Seriously, no matter how well I sleep at night (well, I really don’t sleep “well” anymore) I’m still falling alseep all over the place during the day. I still don’t know when I should nag ask Mario to assemble the crib. I should do it soon, that way I’ll know if there’s enough room for the bassinet next to the bed. I also need an area rug, a nice, thick cushion for my rocking chair and God knows what else. There’s about 10 weeks left till she’s born. I’m so excited and nervous. Nervous because I don’t know how the last month of this pregnancy will be. I’ve never actually had my water break on my own; both Eenan and Jaylen were induced for one reason or another and my bag with Eenan was broken at the hospital while Jaylen’s broke right before I got my epidural put in at 4 centimeters dilated!

John just asked me what I was thinking about since I was daydreaming. “My water breaking,” I responded. All he heard was “water breaking” because he jumped foward and said, “REALLY?” I say, “No, I’m thinking about it!”

“Oh, good,” he says, “I was about to leave.”

My mouth drops and I ask him, “You’d really do that? You’d just leave me here?!” and he says, “I already had to watch Bookas (Brushka, our cat) go through that. I wouldn’t know what to do if it happened to you. I’d ask Bookas to bring some floss and tie the umblical cord like you did for her and I wouldn’t let her put you on your rug since you’d get mad once you came-to and saw blood everywhere. Or maybe I’d call the vet. And Mom would probably pass out before you so I’d have to call the doctor for her first.”

Lord, please let someone else other than John be here when Alaethia decides to come into this world.

It’s so nice out right now. I’d lost faith in our local meteorologists since the past few “Cold Fronts” we’ve had have been nothing but 2-3 degrees less scalding than usual. Last night though, it started to get really nice and cool outside (albeit windy) and this morning it was a crisp 45°! Love, love, love this weather. It officially feels like the Holidays. I still can’t believe Thanksgiving is next week. I knew once Halloween passed the rest of the holidays would zoom by, and it certainly feels that way. By the time I know it, it’ll be Christmas, then New Years and then Alaethia will be here! Ahhh!

Mario’s birthday was Sunday. We slept in and he got up to take a shower. He couldn’t find a shirt to wear so I presented him with the squirrel one I got him the day before. He loved it :).

We had plans to go eat at Jesse’s Mexican Food, one of his favorite restaurants, and then catch a movie. He checked out movie times online and was disappointed with his choices. He decided we’d go watch something for the kids, like Flushed Away.

We went over to Mary’s to see if everyone was ready to go. Noelia and Andy were there and so was Mary. The day started to crumble when we told them we were going to eat first, then catch a movie. Well, since Noelia and Andy had already eaten, they wanted to catch a movie first. We’d had breakfast too, but were willing to eat lunch right away. I was especially willing since it was Mario’s birthday and of course it was his choice what he wanted to do. Noelia and Andy decided to go to the movies alone and then Mary said she didn’t think she’d go anywhere with us. Talk about upsetting. Mario was quickly getting in a bad mood.

We started piling into the car and Mary said she changed her mind, she’d go with us but she’d meet us there. Cool.

We were barely out of our town and going into the next one when the kids started a fight over one of their game boys. Mario gave them two chances to calm down and when they didn’t he turned the car around and we came home. I thought he was being too impatient, but I didn’t dare say anything since I knew he was upset his day wasn’t going at all how he planned.

We got home and he locked himself in our room and watched Mallrats, which was one of the DVDs his mom gave him. I didn’t get near the room till I got some kind of sign that he’d calmed down. I know how he is already. His parents don’t apparently since they both came over and knocked on the door till he peeked his head out. First his mom, then his dad. Once his dad left he came out of the room and said, “No one leaves me alone!” and left to drive around. I figured he’d meet up with Chris and vent. When he was gone for an hour I called him to his cell and he didn’t answer. Another 30 minutes passed so I called again and he didn’t answer. I started feeling really bad, since I didn’t do anything to him. He got home just a few minutes later and went back to the bedroom. I snuck over there and tested the waters. He was fine. I laid in bed with him and the boys, who’d been grounded in their room for misbehaving, came over hopped on the bed to watch the Star Wars marathon on HBO. We ended up taking naps and once I’d slept enough, I got up and made dinner. The rest of the night was like every other Sunday. I watched Desperate Housewives while Mario went to Jorge’s. I got really upset at first because I thought, ‘How dare you throw a fit and have a miserable birthday while moping around the house and once nighttime comes around you happily run off to Jorge’s?!’ but he only went to pick up the pool balls since we’d forgotten them on Friday.

We uncovered and dusted off the pool table and got it as leveled as we could. We played about 4 games, two if which I actually won :), probably because the table wasn’t as leveled as it should be and the balls were rolling around everywhere, helping me get the balls into the pockets, buahaha. We had fun and ate peanuts (he had salty, I had honey roasted). We got tired around 12am and went to bed. While we cuddled I told him I’d make it up to him and he told me it wasn’t my fault, I didn’t have to. I want to though. I just need to figure out how.

Mario felt really shitty the next day, so he stayed home from work. I napped after dropping the kids off at school and figured he would too, but couldn’t sleep after he called in to work. Our stupid toilet had died on us again during the weekend, so we’d been having to use the bathroom at my mom-in-law’s. I woke up that morning to the toilet completely overflowed all over everything. I tried sopping up what I could, which was totally disgusting, and left it alone.

When I wake up Mario’s laying on the couch watching TV. He tells me, “Go look at how horrible the bathroom looks!” I brace myself and with one eye open, peer inside the bathroom. Everything’s sparkling white and the water’s at a good level again. I ask him, “Does it work?” and he says, “Flush it.” It works flawlessly. I have a great, handy husband. Instead of sleeping he spent the two hours I was sleeping fixing the toilet. Now that’s love :).

Nothing exciting happened during the week. I went to Muffins for Mom at the kids’ school on Monday morning. I read to them for half an hour in the library while we ate muffins and drank punch. They were so excited since they were having a Reading is Fundamental distribution, where they give all the kids a cute book of their choice.

Mario and I went grocery shopping that night, which is always nice because I hate to go alone. We always end up spending twice what I budget when we’re together though, which isn’t always a good thing LOL.

John didn’t work on Thursday and he asked me to accompany him to the National Lube Express to get a radiator flush on his car. I kept saying, “I think I should follow you in my truck,” but at the last minute I changed my mind and just left with John. When we got to the light at the end of the road I had this bad feeling in my chest and I told him, “Why do I get the feeling I should have followed you?” It was, after all, 1pm…I had to be back home and ready to pick up Eenan from school at 3. The car overheated and then started smoking after we left the place the first time, when he got an oil change done. Since he was getting the radiator flushed, we figured we’d be fine and done with plenty of time.

We spent about half an hour there trying to figure out if someone was in the bathroom because the light was on and the door was locked. I needed to pee really bad since I’d downed a Pepsi right before we got there. We kept making jokes about a person being in there and me being all rude, saying stuff like, “How long does it take to use the restroom?” I finally just asked the guy if I could borrow the key and prayed that nobody was in there when I opened the door. No one was in there. I suffered for 30 minutes for nothing.

The guys get to work on John’s car and call us over. They ask if we’ve been having trouble keeping the car on. We look at each other and say, “No?” We tell them it sometimes acts up when he first turns it on in the morning, but other than that it’s fine. He asks if it’s been smoking, which was a yes. We tell him about the fan behind the radiator that doesn’t move. He says it can be fixed. He says he can’t do the flush because the car needs to stay on to do it. Darn. They check the oil and to our absolute horror the liquid on the end of the dipstick is WHITE. They tell us there’s water in the oil, which is probably being pumped back from the radiator due to a cracked head in the engine. Lovely. The guy is nice enough not to charge John anything. We try to leave and it won’t turn on. It turns on and when we’re getting ready to leave we notice a lot of smoke coming out of the exhaust and 3 of the guys are waving their arms around to stop. I get off the car and get splashed with warm water. The exhaust is SPEWING water out like crazy. I realize I don’t have my cellphone. The guy lets me borrow the office phone. We decide to call Noelia to pick us up. I’m freaking out because it’s already 2:20 and I need to pick Eenan up at 3!! We can’t get ahold of her, so we call Mary, who thankfully gets ahold of her and she comes for us. Thank God she was home!

So yeah, John was pretty upset about that. I’ll be dropping him off now and he’ll be borrowing the car on Fridays when Mario doesn’t work till he figures out what he’s going to do with the Death Mobile. He figured he’d sell it for parts since he doesn’t want to waste any more money on it.

The kids had Pajama Day today. It was too cold out for them to wear their pajama tops and bottoms, so they just put their pajama tops on and some jeans plus their jackets. I saw lots of kids and teachers in their slippers, so tomorrow the boys will wear another pajama top plus their slippers (Jaylen has Hot Wheels, Eenan has Pikachu). Why didn’t we get to do cool stuff like that when we were in school?!

Both the kids are sick with colds again. Eenan’s getting worse and worse. I hope he can get some rest tonight. He had UIL practice today and his coach told me his cough wouldn’t let him hear anything. She’s afraid the same thing will happen Saturday, which is when his 2nd meet is, if his cough doesn’t get better. I don’t know what to do anymore. December can’t come fast enough. I NEED their damn insurance! I’m just praying they don’t come up with some bullshit when I try to use it. Supposedly I can use their confirmation letter as proof that they have coverage even before I get their new cards. We’ll see. Keep your fingers crossed and pray Eenan’s sickness doesn’t turn into Bronchitis or Pneumonia :(.

I hope I can get some sleep tonight. I have a terrible headache, partly because I didn’t get to take my nap this morning. I had to buy and drop off crimpers for Mario at work and John and I took Mom’s ridiculously long grocery list and bought everything she needed. Grr. My back hurts, my neck hurts, Alaethia’s trying to rip a hole in my right side (which I’m grateful for because at least I know she’s moving in there), and I wake up to pee 5 times a night now. I pee at least every 45 minutes to an hour, if not less. And the gas and constipation? Not cool.

I’m going to cuddle with Mario now. Maybe I can get him to give me a massage :).