Happy Thoughts from the Last 10 Days

It's fairly hard to blog with just one hand and my little guy likes to be held so-not a lot of blogging going on in my house. But, here are a few pictures of things that have made me happy.

Juan Carlos was "decorated" by Margarita and Julio while Guapo and I were out to dinner last week:

This is what I found out Costco yesterday, just my most favorite cereal EVER: (so exciting because I have never found it in Mexico)

Bed mates Ron and Pedro:

My friend lent me this bathtub-I have been bathing Pedro in the sink because to buy one of these basic tubs here costs $40 USD. No way. So, tonight Pedro had his first bath!

Here's to little things that brighten your day!

Presenting Pedro and His Cheeta-Print Bed

So I had forgotten about the sleepless nights.

I guess it's one of those things we forget so that the human race will continue to procreate, like morning sickness and the pain of giving birth. Julio and Juan Carlos spoiled me by coming home from the hospital knowing day from night. Margarita was a bit harder, but I figured it was due to the fact that I was a nervous first-time mom.

Little Pedro (thanks to all those who suggested names!!) is giving me a run for my money in the sleep department. He feels no shame in waking me up every 2 hours to have a very little bite and then head back off into dreamland.

Unfortunately, we have other sleep issues as well. This is what we often find in Pedro's bed:




That's Ron, our Venezuelan kitty. Guapo, who does not like cats, but kindly tolerates them to keep his wife and kids happy, was very disturbed by this.

So, he headed off one day to run an "errand" and this is what he returned with, much to Margarita's delight:



A cat bed that cost $50.00. That's 50 U.S. Dollars, not pesos. For those of you who know Guapo, you know he is not into spending money-especially on frivolous purchases, so this was big for him. Poor naive sap really believed that the cats would take to sleeping in their cat bed instead of in Pedro's or our bed.

Kitty has checked it a couple of times, but Ron has yet to approach the bed.

Most of the time the bed looks like this:


I told him not to feel bad, that his purchase was not a total waste of money. Here's where Pedro's sleeping these days:

Sweet dreams!!!

Our Newest Addition

It's about time I get back to blogging. We've been home for a week now with our new little addition and it's been great. The adult to kid ratio has been 1:1.667, not to bad. All that changed today as my mom headed home. Now we are at 1:2, and on Wednesday when Guapo resumes his crazy travel schedule, it will be 1:4, give or take a muchacha here and there.

I still have not given my sweet little boy a blog name-I am open to suggestions.

His delivery went very smoothly: here's a brief recap so as not to bore any of you.

Friday March 3, 10:00 am: I go in for my weekly check-up, the doctor tells me there hasn't been a lot of change, and that I am at a "generous" 1 cm. Generous seems like a weird adjective to use along with 1 cm, but whatever.

3:00: fairly regular, but not hard, contractions begin

3:30 pm: Margarita arrives home from school with her birthday party in tow. We decided to do her party a little early this year so it wouldn't get lost in the baby shuffle. We had 6 girls here for a swimming party. We ate haystacks and I made a very tall, 7-layer, ice-cream cake (Guapo family tradition).



9:30 pm: last guests leave and not a minute too soon- my contractions were getting stronger and I was starting to feel panicky.

9:45 pm: blog

10:15 pm: I tell Guapo I think that this may be it and that I had better call the doctor.

10:20 pm: Doctor tells me to go to the hospital


10:25: I call my friend to come over and stay with the kids.


10:30-10:45: frantic packing

11:00: we leave for the hospital. NO traffic which is amazing for Big City.

11:10: we arrive at the hospital and my doctor was waiting for me. I was at 4 cm.

11:45 pm: Yay! epidural in place!!! (me giving Guapo the "thumb's up", a traditional picture we take during each birth after I get an epidural)



Four short hours later: New little guy born.



Later that day, the kids were able to come and meet there new little brother. Here's Julio (6 yrs old), and Juan Carlos (3 yrs old), meeting the baby.



This was probably the best, easiest delivery I have ever had. My doctor was wonderful and the hospital was very nice. There were several differences that we noted between having a baby in the States and having a baby in Mexico.

1. Number of People that Saw Me "Desnuda": 10 people were in the delivery room. My doctor, the anesthesiologist, OUR PEDIATRICIAN???, two other random doctors, four nurses and Guapo.
   


2. Security. At some point in this hospital's history, some babies must have been nabbed because it was pretty hard to get our hands on our baby. He was born at 4:00 in the morning and we didn't see him again until 9:30 am. When he was brought to and from our room, he was brought by a nurse accompanied by an armed guard. And when the nursery was open for viewing the babies (forget about going into the nursery!!),you had to stand well within the viewing range of the security camera. When they finally handed him over to us, he was accompanied by the armed guard and 4 nurses. We had to sign about 10 different forms to finally get him.

3. Toast: They sell pre-toasted toast in grocery stores here. The slices are like huge unflavored croutons. I never knew what they were for-but I was served this pre-toasted toast numerous times in my 2 day stay in the hospital. Odd. Let's ask our expert in all things Mexican, No Cool Story: what's up with this toast? Do Mexicans just not want the hassle of a toaster?

All in all, it was a great experience and we are doing well here at home. My mom was a great help; she was the official bather and poopy-diaper changer. Here she is with Margarita (9 yrs old) giving little guy his first bath:

Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers. Remember-I need help with his blog name-give me your best suggestion!

It's A Boy!!!

The newest member of our family, an adorable, sweet-smelling, normally-named, little boy was born early Saturday morning. Apparently I am not too good at willing labor to stop.

He weighed 7 lbs 13 oz and is 22 inches long.

My delivery was probably the fastest and easiest I've ever had.

I just got home from the hospital and will report more when I am feeling a little less tired.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

T-9

Ok, saying I am going to blog everyday until the baby is born, after months of lazy blogging, was a tad-bit ambitious on my part. So, this won't be long.

This morning was my weekly check-up. Not a lot has changed in the last week, cervically speaking. That was disappointing.

But, now I am sitting here trying to decide if I am in real labor, or annoying false labor. I have had hours of contractions now, pretty regular, but not really intensifying.

???

I really don't want to get turned away from the hospital having my fourth child, but at the same time, I don't want to get stuck in Big City Friday night traffic and miss the blessed-epidural-window-of-opportunity.

I'M NOT READY. And, I am interviewing a new muchacha tomorrow morning at 9:00, so I kind-of have to be here. I don't think I've ever hoped for false-labor before. It feels odd, watching the clock, hoping my contractions are getting farther and farther apart.

If I don't post by tomorrow night, you'll know where I'm at!

T-10 Days

10 days until my due date.

I plan to do a little update every day until the child leaves me. If you've been pregnant, you know how bad the last few days can be, so you can expect a lot of whining and moaning. I'll totally understand if you pass on my blog.

So here's an update:

Maid Situation: After getting rid of the temporary maid that didn't like kids, I talked to the maid that I actually like with the ovarian cyst. She has been receiving medical advice from her cousin who is a doctor. OF PODIATRY (yes, that is sarcasm you can hear). The podiatrist/cousin told her she needs AT LEAST a month's rest to recover. So we are currently muchacha-free which is kind-of refreshing.

What I've Been Up To:

Cleaning: see above.

Nesting: check out my pantry.

Cooking: My nice friend came over last week and we made 31 freezer meals, or "frozen delights" as Guapo calls them. I'm set.

One Act of Desperation:

These are the overalls I vowed NEVER to wear again after my last pregnancy. I kept them only to use them to be a farmer for Halloween.

I have been driven back into my overalls by the new fangled low-rise maternity pants. They look so cute in the store-then you get them home and they fall down every time you move. You'd have to wear suspenders to make them practical.

Of course the shoulder straps of the overalls are kind-of a pain seeing that I have to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes.

Guapo's Most Recent Addition to the Name Pool: Mort and Fannie.

One Cute Juan Carlos Quote: He asked me the other day, "How does the baby sleep in you with out a pillow and a blanket?"

See you tomorrow!