Category: MLV

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.

Mon., Mar. 2nd – I woke up feeling better physically, even though I was still worried about my incision becoming infected. I felt really guilty about Mario getting to work late, and although he did get a little chewed up about it, he didn’t hold it against me. I had my post-natal follow-up with Dr. C. that day and since I was already going to be there I took Eenan in since he’d had a fever and sore throat over the weekend. Sonia dropped Jaylen off after school and picked Emily and I up to go to the doctor. Alaethia threw a fit because she wanted to go to the doctor, too, but had to stay behind with Mom.

I couldn’t carry Emily around in the car seat because it’s so heavy, so I was glad Sonia stayed and got down with us. It didn’t take long at all, surprisingly, before they called us in to the vitals room. I weighed 129, so I’d lost 11 lbs. since I’d had Emily. Emily weighed 6 lbs. 12 oz. I was a little shocked by how “much” she’d lost, even though it’s normal. But I don’t remember the other kids actually losing any weight at my first post-natal visit.

Dr. C. was busy with OB patients, but ran in, took a seat while he held Emily, and I showed him my incision. He said yes, it was indeed infected but it didn’t rip open the way I thought I had. He said to continue cleaning it and covering it up like I had been and prescribed antibiotics. He handed Emily to me and let me know another doctor would come in to check Eenan. The new doctor was Dr. P. I’d never met him before. He checked Eenan and didn’t find a thing wrong with him. Eenan said, “I told you so, Mom!” I thought he was just saying that because he didn’t want to get swabbed for Strep. He said he’d be calling in a prescription for him anyway since he had a fever and sore throat over the weekend.

As I was giving my payment I ran into Laura and asked her about the numbness and tingling I’d felt the night before. She said she’d ask Dr. C., because they were odd symptoms. He said he didn’t think it was a big deal because I hadn’t had any more since that time, but to give them a call or go in if I felt them again. He looked at my left arm, where I still had a large bruise from where they’d drawn blood at the hospital, and was alarmed at how purple and red the area was. He said the tingling in that arm may have been because the bruise was infected, but I think it was just from carrying Emily’s car seat (Sonia had gone back to the waiting room so I had no choice but to carry it on my own. Laura said it was okay, though, just to not overdo it).

It took forever at the pharmacy and I was really pissed because they never called in Eenan’s prescription! We were there over an hour and I felt really bad for making Sonia wait so long so I just left it alone. When I called again later and when Yadira went to pick it up for me after work, they still hadn’t called anything in! I was so pissed, not to mention worried because Eenan had his TAKS test the next day and that’s all I needed: for him to be overcome with Strep and have to miss his test and re-take just like he did last year.

I actually got to make dinner that night, lasagna! The kiddos behaved perfectly while I worked and it was delicious :).

We (Mario, Aly, Emmy amd me; the boys had school the next day and were asleep with Mary watching them) went to Jorge and Maggie’s that night. I think it was my first night over there since I’d had Emily. I felt a little awkward, since Maggie’s family was over. I felt like I was intruding. Aide and Belle came over too and we sat in the living room with the girls. Alaethia started acting up, following Belle and the other kids everywhere and getting into everything, so I was quickly getting frustrated. Alaethia almost got squashed by a desk and was rescued by Maggie’s cousin’s little boy (he’d been shaking the cage of a poor Siamese hamster about an hour before). I tried being patient as possible, but that didn’t last long and I texted Mario that I wanted to come home.

Tues., Mar. 3rd – Night 2 of sleeping with Emily in the crook of my arm paid off, somewhat: I slept for 5 hours. I felt better than most of the other days when I woke up. What wasn’t so good was the reason I woke up; Emily was doing that weird gagging again. I can’t help but panicking when she does that, even though they did tell me it has to do with her neurological system and so on. If she kept doing it, I’d have to tell Dr. C. about it.

I actually got up to make Mario breakfast. Eenan came in and told us he’d gotten sick that morning, with diarrhea. My poor dude. I was more than sure it was nerves due to the TAKS test, but I still prayed and prayed that he’d be okay.

The phone started ringing around 9am. To my horror, the stupid phone wasn’t working correctly. Someone would call and the phone would automatically hang up. I started panicking, wondering if it was Eenan calling from the nurse’s office because he got worse. Mary had called to my cell phone as I was thinking about that and told me she’d called the school just in case and no, Eenan, nor any other 4th grader, had been to the nurse or office that morning. Whew.

I took advantage of the girls’ late morning and cleaned my incision carefully. I was going to pump but felt too tired. I figured I still had some time before I became engorged. I fed Emily and hoped to catch a few Z’s with her but Fed Aly woke up. I made her breakfast and had her sit at the table to eat. She took a few bites and decided she was done. When I had my back turned (I was changing Emmy’s diaper) she threw her whole plate, including her fork, into the trash. She got a scolding and soon after she started asking for juice. She always does that when she doesn’t want to eat; she drinks to make up for it. I told her she couldn’t have any juice because she threw her food away, she could have water. So what does she do? She took a handful of her bacon and eggs out of the trash, put them on her old paper plate, began to eat it and asked, “Now can I have juice?” She’s really something!

I waited all day for a call from Eenan but never got one. The kid who did call was Jaylen. The nurse said he’d had a tummy ache. I called around looking for someone to pick him up. I hated not being able to drive myself anywhere. I didn’t want to call Sonia, because I still felt bad that she’d had to wait so long with us at the pharmacy the day before, but Mary called her and she ended up being the one to bring him home. When Jaylen got here he asked if he could go outside and play. I said no, he was sick, right? So he needed to go to bed and get better. And the truth came out: he said, “But I’m not sick! My stomach doesn’t hurt anymore!” Grr. I lectured him about how it’s not right to lie to get picked up and how he inconvenienced Tia Sonia, who would now have to go back and pick Eenan up at 3, also. He was genuinely remorseful and went to my room to rest.

I took a nap from 1-3 with Emily while Mom watched Alaethia, which wasn’t a good idea. I woke up with a headache from the phone ringing and hearing Alaethia scream. I got up and pumped while I read the last few pages of New Moon. I pumped again about an hour later and was thrilled to have actually made 3 ounces of milk for once. Mario got home with my 316 pics I’d ordered from Walgreens online. We went to Dollar General with the middle kiddos while Mom stayed with Emily and Mary had Eenan. We picked up some McDonald’s on the way home. I really need to quit doing that—eating fast food–although I got a chicken sandwich. We went over to eat at Mary’s where we ate with the whole family. I felt perfectly at ease and just in total bliss at that moment, surrounded by the people I love. I felt like I needed to pinch myself.

When we came back home I blogged a bit, fed, changed and gave Emily a little washcloth bath (she hated every minute of it). Then I showered and pumped again. When I was ready to go to bed at 12am, she woke up and didn’t go back to sleep till 2 am. Then she was up from 5-7. I was beginning to notice a pattern.

Dad had come to visit but of course I don’t wake up before noon on Sunday, especially now that I’ve got Emmy, so he chilled out with Mom (oooh). They even took a trip to Walmart, where Mom got some yarn to start on a new blanket for Gramma. That’s her hobby of the moment, crocheting. I hope she keeps it up. She’s really good!

Once I was up Dad came in and met Emily. I made him some coffee and we sat for a good hour and a half and I took pictures. I got Mom and Dad in one holding Emily. It’s so strange and nice to have a photo of them together after all these years. The only other picture I have of them together is one of their wedding day.

Dad left and about an hour later Noelia and Andy came to visit. Noelia hadn’t had a chance to see Emily yet so she was excited. They brought gifts for all the kids which was really nice of them. They never want any of the kids to feel left out.

We watched Madagascar 2 and then we—well, not really me since I couldn’t move much—got the kids ready so they could go to Amy’s little boy’s birthday party. I was staying behind with Emily. My incision was still oozing, my boobs still hurt and I was still spending every other hour in the bathroom pumping. I was actually pumping when everyone got back from the party. I came out to say bye to Noey and Andy.

Later that evening, when Mario and I were watching TV in the living room my left arm, feet, hands and face were tingly and hot. I’d never felt like that before, outside of the hospital. It felt like my body did when the anesthesia was wearing off after the tubal and epidural.

When it was time for bed, around 12am, Emily was ready to be up. She wouldn’t let us put her in the bassinet at all when she’d been doing just fine since we brought her home.

During the time that she was awake I had a lot of time to think. It may be the post-partum depression settling in—God I hope not—but at that moment I just felt like a…failure. I started thinking about how I hadn’t potty trained Alaethia yet, how I couldn’t get her to sleep in her room and how I couldn’t even get Emily to sleep in her bassinet that night, when all the other nights she’d been fine. Then I started thinking about all the things that were going wrong, like my incision becoming infected and the weird tingling. What if something happened to me like it did to Mrs. Mendez from work? She almost died when her C-section incision became infected with Staph. And the tingling? I kept thinking of blood clots and organs being cut during the tubal that shouldn’t have been. That’s what I get for watching so much Discovery Health. I even told Mario before he fell asleep, “What if I have deep-vein thrombosis?!” He just rolled his eyes, chuckled and said, “Yes, Dr. Yajaira. Seriously, you really need to quit watching those shows.”

When she finally did fall asleep she woke up at 3am and refused to go back to sleep. I tried everything. Mario got up around 5:30 and offered to stay with her. I was exhausted and silently sobbing from said exhaustion as I rocked her when he got up. His excuse was that he’d fallen asleep early and he was wide awake. I told him I’d be fine. He had to work in the morning and I didn’t. He insisted, so he got her and walked around with her. I remember him doing the same thing with all the other kids, too :). I had an eye open, watching him and he said to go to sleep. I did, for about half an hour. When he was trying to put her back in the bassinet, she’d wake up. Alaethia’d woken up around 4am and was being loud and ready to play. She wouldn’t go to sleep, no matter what threats we threw at her. She finally passed out around 6:30 so Mario moved her to her crib in her room. He told me it was okay, I should just lay Emily in the crook of my arm and sleep with her. So I did…and she let me sleep. So well in fact, that I didn’t hear the alarm go off, or I turned it off and didn’t realize it. Mario was supposed to wake up around 7:30…and when I opened my eyes and looked at the clock it was 9:35!