Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Eating Crow

You know when you make a statement about a certain situation that you really don't understand how so and so can do this and that because you know things could be done different???? hahahaha yes we have all done it, right?

This is the story of me - a mother of two - who used to think that you did not spoiled your baby by rocking it to sleep each night because you could control that, it was your job as a mother to just let them cry if it was needed so you didn't have to rock them. My mom used to tell me about my cousin who has a girl and how she had to rock her to sleep each night because otherwise my niece would not go to sleep. My experience with Nicolas was not like that at all, all I had to do was to put him down in his crib and he did go to sleep on his own, yes he cried sometimes just a little but nothing major and it always worked ... WELL let me tell you with my daughter things are TOTALLY different, she would not - I REPEAT would not - go to sleep unless we rock her, unless she has her paci in her mouth, unless all the stars are lined up in perfect balance and the world moves a certain way (by Golly that's what it seems like some nights) so now I'm eating crow. Doesn't taste really good but I'm getting used to its flavor :)

In the mid time I'm going to continue the rocking, the holding, the singing and the moving around with her in my arms because if that's what it takes well that's what needs to be done so there's not much option.

All I can say is that "each child is different" is an understatement, my kids are already total opposites (beside the fact that they are boy and girl). Nicolas never needed to be rocked to sleep, she does. He took nothing to go to sleep, she takes the world to go to sleep. He used to wake up very often at night, she can sleep up to 4 hours (when I'm lucky even 5) without interruptions. He hated the pacifier, she ADORES her paci. He hated his bath when he was a tiny baby, she could be in the middle of a crying fit but you put her in the bath and she is the calmest baby ever. Ok so now I'm gonna stop this because my mom used to compare me with my cousin (since I didn't have siblings) and I hated that so I gotta stop this and not make it a habit, at least not a public one :)

In other news .. we did make it to church for the first time, all four of us. Since Emilia was born, only the men of the house were attending church. It wasn't as hard as I thought since I got up early and got everyone ready to go. (how do you do it with 4 or 5 kids??? whew ... can't imagine), we even made it to Sunday school and lunch out and a baby shower ... I learned that day that a 5 week old baby does not need to be involved in so many activities in one day because she did not sleep all day, not at all ... she did for a few minutes and then she woke up. By the time Sunday was over, she was totally wore out, uncomfortable and so were we, that's why yesterday we slept literally all day and she still slept good at night.
Don't worry princess we'll take it easy next Sunday, I promise!

So that's life for us ... how's yours going?

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Pictures!!!!!!

I'm finally taking time to post some pictures on here. My house is a wreck, I should be cleaning or sleeping but instead I'm drooling over this pictures, much more fun than sleeping or cleaning, right?

Enjoy!

Holding on to Daddy minutes after being born.

First time Nicolas held his sister ... the first of bizillion times already.

Enjoying the arms of uncle David at the hospital on Day 2.

First outing, her trip to the doctor, Day 5

First smile on camera at day 6

In deep thought, day 9


After her first bath, day 12

Brotherly Love, Day 20


Wednesday, March 3, 2010

She's here and a horrible earthquake came too!

Well our sweet Emilia is 2 weeks and 2 days today!! She's a doll, eats wonderfully, I have been blessed with more milk this second time around, she sleeps well for 3, 4 or sometimes more hours at a time --- as long as she is close to her daddy or me --- she loves her paci and have her face covered with a small blankie. Looking back I remember Nicolas hated the paci, never had to rock him (or I had forgotten already) ... I'm assuming we girls are "Needy" from the beginning ... hahaha or we can just say we require more attention from birth :)

The hardest thing so far has been to recognize my new boy, yes he's like a different person now, he's still sweet (too sweet with sister, to the point that kissing her every 5 minutes gets on mommy's nerves) but he has become this loud, run everywhere ... never calm anymore boy! The first days I cried a lot because I wanted my calm boy back, I told Matt "I want my boy back the way he used to be" and my wise husband told me "honey, we'll never be the way we used to be, our family has now changed and we are all adjusting" which is so true. (hormones I hate you ... leave me alone soon).

Monday through Friday are easy days for me since is just us girls at home, we get to sleep late, since we wake up at 5ish in the morning, we watch TV, we have our morning talks and enjoy ourselves by being close together!! The 'boys' leave us around 7:30 to go to school and work and they get back around 6, then the hard part of the day starts, Nicolas is all hyper when he gets home, specially if we have company, Emilia starts her fussy hour, we try to eat together, we managed to do that a few times last week as some wonderful friends and family brought us supper so we had some "normal" time sitting at the table, enjoying our evening ... many of those times Emilia was eating while I was eating too :) but you do what can to have your family all together!

Weekends?! crazy ... we have to find something for Nicolas to go and do because staying home all day is just not an option anymore, add the rough weather and is not easy but it'll get better as she grows older, weather gets better and we are all more used to our family of four dynamics!

And now ... what has been breaking my heart since Saturday morning ... the earthquake in Chile. I watched the Chilean channel for a while on Friday night, there's a big festival that goes on this time of year (summer time right now) and enjoyed singers and bands that I haven't seen in a while, it was fun, it was nostalgic, it made me feel I wish I was there. Little I knew what I was going to see on that same channel the next morning when my sweet Emilia woke me up just in time to see live news from there as only an hour has been since the big earthquake happened there, because of that I was able to call and get in touch with family right away. Because it was so early in the morning the lines were not collapse yet, a lot of people around the world probably didn't know yet of what just happened and oh my what just happened ... there are no words to describe!!!!!!!!!! Put aside the fact that my mom and family are there, the level of destruction, desperation, chaos, needs, a feeling of no hope at all ... I don't know what words to use, when you see a whole town washed out by the waves that came right after the earthquake (8.8 that lasted two and a half minutes at 3:30 am). Last night all the networks came together and they did a telethon, they double their goal as every person, company, industry, citizen (even those who had nothing gave something ... amazing!) gave money to start rebuilding emergency housing for so many who have no where to sleep, nothing to eat, nothing to wear but have each other and at this point and always that's all it counts.

There's one lady I heard on TV that said, as she was crying "We lost everything, everything ... but thank God we are alive and my hands are healthy and ready to keep working", the first time I heard that I cried because she reminded me of one of my aunts, that's the spirit that's in the people I come from, hard working, never bending, always ready to keep fighting no matter how tough the road gets, putting God first ... we keep going!

It took a few days to be able to get in touch with my mom, but we finally spoke and half of our conversation were just tears, tears of emotions kept covered so we wouldn't lose our minds while we had to wait to hear each others voice, tears of gratefulness for what God did as she protected her and ALL my family (I've talked to many who told me they couldn't make it out of their bed because everything was moving so much, mom got up and walked all the way to her back patio, to one corner and then to the next as she was holding on to a wall that later collapse, didn't get a scratch as she walked barefooted on a floor filled with pieces of glass and broken dishes, not one scratch ... ), tears of fighting the thoughts of what if "the worse" had happened, Mom told me she thought she was going to dye, along with everyone else I've talked to, she said she looked up on the sky and told God she was ready if He decided this was her time, she asked him for forgiveness for her sins and close her eyes as she prepared to what she thought was her death, can you imagine????? In my 33 years I've never experience anything like that, I have no words except gratefulness for her to be alive!!