Family of Five

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!