3 weeks!

How old is baby? 3 weeks!!

Weight? Not sure. Hopefully I can get on the wii tonight and weigh him. I'll update it if I do.

Height? don't know. We'll find out at our next appointment on Monday.

Development:

•	During tummy time, your baby may now be able to move her head from side to side and lift it for a few seconds. (he's ahead of the game I guess... he holds his head up to look at me and can push up with his legs and fake crawl. He's strong!)

•	Babies at this age still see mostly in black and white, but also some gray and some bright, high-contrast colors. They can focus enough to see more complex shapes.

•	Your baby’s movements are still jerky (they'll smooth out in the next eight weeks), but she can already snuggle up to you.

Is that a fact? During growth spurts around 3, 6, 13 and 26 weeks, your baby could gain up to three ounces in 24 hours.

Sleep? not terrible. It changes every night. He’ll go anywhere from 2 to 4 hours straight and then wake up to eat. During the day... I have to wake him up to eat. He'll sleep through anything during the day!

Number of Diapers Changed? 194. He’s averaging about 10-12 wet and 4-6 poops a day.

Best Moment This Week: It was really special to get together with Grandma Richko. Not many families can say they have great grandma still around. Fortunately for us, we have a great grandma on both sides. Grandma Annie Zavala lives in California, and I reallllllly hope Santos gets to visit out there sometime soon to meet her and the rest of the Zavala familia out there. The majority of the Zavala’s live in California.

Milestones: His first trip out! He handled it like a champ too. Even with all of the noise and people coming over to meet him, he didn’t get fussy or even wake up really. Just to eat and then had a nice look around and went back to bed. Today, we had our very first photo session. (mine too, I've never been to a photography studio) Thanks to Tia Julie, we had newborn photos taken, and I can't wait to see how they turned out!! of course I'll share the link when we get them.

Number of Times the Pediatrician was called? None. But today I noticed a little bruise on his butt. Right around his tailbone. I’m thinking it’s from the bath tub. :-/

Mama and Daddy? Doing well. Sad that Daddy has to go back to work on Monday, but it was nice that he got the 4 weeks off. Baby and I will be fine though. I'm looking forward to getting the all clear from both his doctor and mine so we can start going out and exercising together. Well, me exercising with him in his stroller. I'm ready to go out on walks with him. I'm even looking into mommy and me yoga or something. If anyone knows of something good near us, please let me know. :-)

What’s coming up? The Bily Zavala’s are coming to visit! So excited. Stephie and Flo are coming from California and Santos will get to meet another Tio and Tia!

Weekly Photo:
This was just after he had a nice poop. So happy! :-)

Santos' first day out!

Santos met his Great Grandma Dottie yesterday! We had a great time visiting with family and friends. :-)

photos!

Bath time!

2 Weeks!

How old is baby? 2 weeks!!

Weight? At yesterday’s appointment, my jaw nearly hit the floor when they weighed him….. He weighs 9lbs 2oz. He gained almost a full pound in one week. I knew he was greedy and ate a lot, but a FULL POUND?!

Height? He grew an inch and a half (he‘s up to 22 inches now. I guess the hospital measured him incorrectly because at our one week appointment he was only 20.5 inches, not 21.5 like they told us). At any rate, he’s going to be tall just like his daddy.

Sleep? We had 2 nights where he slept most of the night through. I’m talking 5-6 hours straight. Lately it’s been more like 3 and a half and he’s up to eat. I’m telling you… he EATS. My poor boobs…

Number of Diapers Changed? Since I started using my app (pretty much since the hospital) we’ve changed 105 diapers and average 12-14 per day now. LOL that’s a lot of poop.

Best Moment This Week: Daddy was changing his diaper, and I *thought* monkey was peeing… He shot poop at his papa. LOL all I could say was “welcome to parenthood, papa”

Milestones: His belly button fell off a couple days ago - Gabe is very happy he now has a “normal” bellybutton.

Number of Times the Pediatrician was called? just once, and I had a pretty good reason. On Friday, I felt fine in the morning, but as the day went on I felt like I had the flu… when I got the chills, I got nervous and checked my temperature. I had a 101.5 fever… not alarmingly high, but a fever nonetheless. I got worried that I was sick and could pass something to the baby. I was reading my books, and it sounded like I had something called Mastitis, which is basically an infection that you get from the baby and it’s passed through the nipple during breastfeeding. I called my doctor first, she wasn’t available until Monday, so I called his doctor and they confirmed that it was mastitis and that the cure was to feed him and pump as much as possible. I was SOOOOO glad I didn’t have to give him formula. I am extremely determined to breastfeed. So that’s what I did. I nursed him and pumped pretty much every hour or more. It worked! I woke up Saturday morning drenched in sweat and it was gone. PHEW!

Mama and Daddy? Daddy is adjusting very well. He’s really great with Santito and is really enjoying being a papa! I knew he’d be a great Dad. When I asked him what he’d like to put in the blog he said: “Daddy is proud of mommy and baby, and he’s happy mama hasn’t killed him yet.” LOL He’s fine. He’s had a few times of playing xbox and he definitely gets more sleep than I do. (only because I’m breastfeeding, I figure why wake him up when I’m already up) So I’d say Daddy has it pretty darn good!

I’m doing good! I’m healing really well and am SOOO in love with my little monkey. He makes every ache, pain, minute awake so incredibly worth it. Seriously. That said, here’s some honesty… there are some aches and pains. LOL Breastfeeding is no easy feat. Let me tell you. But I’m thick headed and determined and have come this far so I refuse to give up. It is getting easier though. Baby and I are learning together. It’s nowhere near as painful as it was when I first started. Sometimes when he latches… he bites or gets over excited and is rough on the boob, but he settles into it and within minutes I have to give his cheek a tickle to wake him up to keep going. He makes the most adorable faces while he’s eating too. I love the special bonding time we get while I’m nursing him.

Other than that, the stitches are fine, I don’t even feel them anymore. I get up and down the stairs without pain at all (which is good because I’m up and down those stairs a lot!) I got on the scale again this morning and since the morning of September 7th, I have lost a total of 27 pounds. (yes, that includes the baby)

All in all, we’re doing really well if I do say so myself! We’ve had incredible support and love from our family (which included many home-cooked meals that were delicious!)

What’s coming up? This weekend we’re taking our first real trip out of the house. We’re going down to coral springs to Granny and Grandpa’s house where Santos will get to meet his great grandma and a few other family members and friends.

Weekly Photo:

One week!

I can't believe he's been here for a week already! It seriously flew by.

Milk drunk


First full diaper pail

Day 7 - first doctor visit

It went great! He got a baby physical, peed on the scale, gained 2 ounces since leaving the hospital, and got his hep b shot and barely cried. He slept all the way home and I eventually had to wake him up to nurse him. Seepies babies.

Day 6

Today both sets of grandparents came by and helped us greatly. We are so blessed. Tons of support :-)

My dad was hilarious. Apparently he got a shopping itch last night and bought a whole bunch of things for mijo. A piggy bank where people can donate to his college fund LOL and he wrote a letter to go along with it. Really sweet. He also got this adorable zebra and told us how he had a similar toy that he took with him everywhere when he was little.


We have awesome parents. Thanks guys, we love you so much!

Day 5

Today was Mari's wedding. I thought about her all day :) I seriously can't wait to see the photos and hear all about it. I'm sure it was fantastic :-) so wish we could have been there!!

i played with a new app for photos :-)






Nani and tata came by for a visit but mijo was only interested in sleep!




Thanks again for dinner nani :)

glamor shots

Click the photo to see the whole album

labor and birth day

Click the photo to see the rest of the album

Day 4

Already day 4!! Crazy.

Well, we made it through our first night home alone! I thought I'd be more scared. He is still having gas issues and was awake a lot but not awful. No screeching or really bad cries. Just fussy butt.

Beck left this morning and we were all sad :(

The rest of the day was pretty mellow. Slept, ate, pooped, repeat.

I caught him in a really good mood and grabbed my camera and went to town. I uploaded them to picasa so I'll post the link soon.



We gave him his first bath (at home) tonight and then daddy gave him a manicure.


In tmi news, my milk came in! Yay!!! He is a greedy little boy too :)

So far we're doing awesome and couldn't be happier or more thankful.

Day 3 - homecoming

Today we brought baby Santos home :)

Everyone behaved themselves for the most part - the birds started to get a little noisy and Mija started getting a little too close for comfort but nothing terrible.

Nani Gayle made us all an amazing dinner of chile verde with rice and guacamole. Yummmmmmm! So, SO thankful for that. I can't seem to stop eating. I guess it's the nursing or maybe I'm making up for labor day when I barely ate anything. Who knows. All I know is, dinner was delicious. Lol

Granny and grandpa Richko also made it up and grandpa held Santos for the first time and was thrilled to bits.

It was so awesome having everyone in our house with baby boy!

I got a chance to take a shower while they were here and oh my God it was amazing. :-)

Monkey is doing awesome! Nursing like a champ and good poops and pees and sleeps (I know, I've already transitioned into mom mode where I'm telling everyone about bowel movements like it means as much to them as it does to me)

So freaking happy :)

Welcome to your home Santito!

First Car Ride

The little Zavala's

Day 2

He's a little more fussy today but it's because he's transitioning to real poop and the gas is getting to him at times. He's doing good though! Little trooper we have :)

Snuggle bug



Just chillin'



3 generations


Burping!


We go home tomorrow afternoon and he'll get to see his room with the mural so lovingly painted just for him! He'll meet the cats and birds (who I really hope behave) and our real life starts as a new family! So exciting :-)

Before we go, he has one more round of testing in the morning. This time blood tests. Hope it's not too bad for him.

God, how can I love him so much!!!?? I only just met him yesterday! ;-)

Day 1- birth day!

I know I'm late but we were a little busy. :-)

I'm going to TRY to upload a photo every day. I know I'll definitely be taking a daily photo just because, but I hope to have a moment where I can upload it.

Here are a few from his birth day (from my phone, I'll make a whole album when I can):



I love how excited gee is in this one :)










Labor was better than I could have asked for. I won't go into the gory details but we began at 6am, epidural at 4cm (a little after 10am I think. Can't remember) Labored with barely any feelings until he was ready and then I felt the contractions again. Started pushing at around 2:20pm and he was here at 2:59. I cried... No, sobbed! Like a crazy person. So amazing. I won't even try to describe it. They fixed us both up and I was nursing within an hour. Exactly what I had hoped for.

We have video of everything. I mean everything! Don't worry, it's totally pg though. I'll try to add it too.

Our first night was also great! Took turns sleeping and he was so good!

Last tummy photos

Before:


During:



After:



I look a hot mess but whatever, I just had a baby yesterday. Lol!

It feels SO weird to not have a giant rock in my tummy but SO AMAZING to have my baby right here with me!!! :-)

"papa... I'm freakin' out"

So this morning I woke up and that was one of the first things I said to gee. Lol

I'm doing better than I thought I would be right now but I still have the rest of the night to get worse. To keep myself (and beck) busy, we have done lots and lots of things :-)



We went to publix to pick up some snacks for gee and beck to have at the hospital tomorrow, and I got a nice pack of depends. Lol I've been told that it's easier than changing a huge pad every 3 minutes. :-) I have no shame, I'll give em a whirl.



We also did a ton of baby related stuff today. Boiled bottles, soothers, and anything that generally should be boiled. We put everything in the nursery in it's right place. Did a couple of loads of laundry (baby and regular). Bought a steam cleaner and gee cleaned our bathroom with it :-)

You see where I'm going here. We stayed pretty busy. Beck is currently baking lots of cookies. Smells amazing.

I wish I would have thought to write something last week before my crazy nerves had set in. I'll just say that no matter what happens tomorrow, how much pain or embarrassment or whatever I go through, I know that I'd do it over and over regardless just to have my Santos. He is worth anything and everything to me :) I'm super excited that we finally get to hold him and see him and smooch his cute little pudgy face. I'm already in love with him... I know I'm so not prepared for how much more intense it'll be tomorrow. I can't wait!! :-)

Alright, off to take a bath to try to relax. Wish us luck for tomorrow :) we'll try to update as much as we can!

-39weeks4daysandcounting

39 Weeks!

How far along? 39 weeks. I seriously would have bet money we wouldn’t have made it to this week. I am totally surprised and a little disappointed to be honest that I’m writing another update and it’s not that he’s here!! I was SO SURE that the last week in August was our time. At least we have an official countdown now though and this IS the last “Thursday update” post I’ll be writing without my little one. ONLY 5 DAYS UNTIL OUR INDUCTION. Which means, I WILL be holding our son in less than a week. So amazing. I cannot believe we are going to be blessed with such a miracle. I can’t wait. ;-)

How big is baby? Who knows at this point. Beck came with me to my checkup on Tuesday and she got a little peeved at the doctor for saying we’re going to have a monster baby if we leave him in there to cook too long. Lol

Development: now he’s just comfy and knows he’ll stay fed and warm and keeps hitting the snooze button. He is our baby after all…

How huge is mama? No weight gain since last week, still huge though. The belly is definitely lower. I can now squish areas in my upper ribs that were once very hard.

Movement? Still really good, but noticeably less. He’s running out of room.

Food? Anything and everything. Curry, cheeseburgers, salsa… I’m eating for comfort now. LOL

Belly button? Same.

Preparations: We’ve tried EVERYTHING to get him to come out. I mean EVERYTHING!! Pressure points (which were awesome at giving me contractions, but not sending me into labor), spicy food (curry), walking walking and more walking (still doing that one because it’s only good for us), pineapple, eggplant parm, bunny hops (yes, exactly what you think), we even tried the caster oil… TWICE, which produced lots of cramps and contractions (and yucky bowel movements…sorry TMI) but no labor!! We’ve yelled at the belly, we’ve given him massages downward to try and get him to move down, I’ve done lunges and squats, and we even used the breast pump. ALL THIS and no baby yet. He’s as stubborn as his mama….

Pregnancy symptoms? I’m still pregnant. :-(

Crazy things giving me anxiety? I’m extremely nervous about being induced at this point. I really wanted to avoid it but if it’s the best thing for him than that’s what we’ll do. I was hoping to do this as natural as possible… I wanted to avoid an epidural for as long as I could but with the pitocin it’s guaranteed that you’ll need one. PLUS, I know me. I will not be sleeping at all Monday night.

Labor Signs? SO many signs!! How is he not here yet???? We’ve had contractions, cramps, I lost my mucus plug (again, sorry TMI), we’re dilating (not much but some is better than none), it feels sometimes like he’s about to just fall right out. LOL ayeyeye….

Milestones? Being pregnant. ;-) no matter how yucky I may have felt at any point (and to be honest, I was very, very lucky this whole pregnancy) I would do it 10 times over. Being a mom has always been a life goal of mine. I always said that I was meant to be a mommy, and I’m finally going to be one. I’m so excited, nervous, happy, anxious, (you name it). I have an amazing husband who I love to death and I’m about to have an amazing little boy who I already love with every bone in my body. Life is good!

Looking forward to next? Meeting my baby, of course! We’re not going to make it to 40 weeks so this is officially our last interview update. I can’t wait to be posting photo after photo of our sweet baby boy and sharing all about him. The blog will definitely continue, it’ll just be one big shrine to baby Santos! LOL I will definitely post all about our labor and all that fun stuff when he’s born.

I never entered a guess/predictions for the baby pool (thanks to everyone who did it! It was great to see all the guesses, I especially loved that little man, our cat, got in on the action LOL) so here’s mine:

Date: I was way off, I thought last week.
Weight: 8lbs 6oz.
Height: 21 inches
Looks like? His daddy with a full head of thick black hair :-) and maybe a blue dot on his bum?
Hope he gets: Daddy’s easygoingness and ability to befriend everyone in any room - always, mama’s teeth (Gee, make that appointment already…) and from the sonograms it looks like he already has mama‘s fat bottom lip, some sort of interest in the arts whether it be from the Zavala side with actual artistic ability or the Richko side with music, passion for whatever he intends on doing and follows through with it, I hope he’s respectful, caring, and outgoing, I hope he DOESN’T get addicted to video games like his daddy, and that he gets mama‘s cooking skills. Most of all…I hope he gets the life he deserves and all the love he can handle. He’s already loved more than he’ll ever know.

Come out already Santos… we’re all dying to meet you!


-39weeks0daysandcounting