Really??

JUST got Santi down for a nap and this is when some guys next door decide to use their chainsaw? Thankfully he's still asleep!

Crap! Spoke too soon - he's awake. Trying to lull him back to sleep to the sound of chainsawing... :| And now the guys are yelling to one another too...yay.

New video

I posted a new video of Santi today - last weekend we woke up and put him in his bouncy chair (which he is rapidly outgrowing!) and he proceeded to "talk" and "sing" to his "friends" (as we call them) on the bar above him - a raccoon, porcupine and an owl with a "magic mushroom" hanging from it.

He had quite a bit to say - http://vimeo.com/12749214

Life...

Life has a funny way of working out, doesn't it? Three months ago, we had plans for a natural delivery, but ended up attempting an induction after being admitted to the hospital with preeclampsia.

Then after the induction failed, due to the fact that my contractions were too close together and my baby wasn't tolerating them, I ended up with a c-section to welcome my beautiful little boy into the world.

We thought things were fine, and then he ended up with an infection and had to be admitted to the NICU, where he stayed for the next 14 days until they were able to get the bacillus cereus bacteria out of his system. In the meantime, as I was recovering from my c-section, I had a set back in the form of a hematoma that was over 1000 cc's in size (that's a liter of blood people!) I ended up having emergency surgery to clamp off and eventually remove what turned out to be an arterial bleed.

After the surgery, my incision was left open, I was given a wound vac for the next week, and then eventually stitched up and sent home. Three days later, we were able to bring our baby boy home. And things haven't been the same since!

I've worked into a routine as a "housewife"...I wake up, feed the baby, take a shower, change the baby's clothes and diaper, then we usually go off to our Stroller Strides exercise class, come home, I have lunch and the baby has lunch. We will go out for a walk if it's nice, or go and run errands, or stay home and do laundry and clean the house. Around 6pm, Tito comes home and we'll make dinner and put the baby to bed together and then enjoy some time with one another before heading to bed ourselves. In one week, I was set to disrupt this schedule by returning to work.

Due to circumstances that are beyond my control, I will be maintaining my "housewife" schedule longer than anticipated. One one hand, I'm disappointed to not be returning to work, to my profession, and to be able to use my brain in a way other than coming up with songs to sing to my baby, participating in tummy time, and watching him sleep. On the other hand, I'm so grateful for this extra time with him. He's really such a neat little person and I'm loving the time I'm spending with him. He changes everyday, he learns new things everyday, he amazes me everyday. To think this little person was once just a little cluster of cells growing in my body, and now he's a living, breathing, amazing little guy whose smiles make me melt, who is the best "talker" there is out there, and who I know will be laughing for real any day now and we know once he starts, won't be able to stop.

So for now, I'll accept the circumstances, and be thankful for this extra time with my little man. Hopefully someday he'll be better for it. And I know I will be as well.

Santi's three month letter

6/15/10

Dear Santiago:

You are now three months old! I can’t believe that you have been in our lives for 12 weeks already. You are growing everyday, and learning and doing new things that surprise us all the time.

You’re constantly smiling at us, and we know we can’t be sad when we see your little grin. You have started to get darker and although you still have brown hair, and green/hazel eyes, you are looking more and more like Daddy and more Peruvian everyday.

This month, you’ve added new things to what you can do:

• Recognizing mommy and daddy when we are in the room and when we leave the room you miss us
• Smiling at us constantly
• Grabbing your keys and rattle when mommy hands them to you
• Love music – musical toys, music on the tv, etc. make you dance and stop what you’re doing to listen
• Quickly outgrowing your swing and bouncy chair and car seat
• Wearing Size 2 diapers
• Wearing size 3-6 month pants, 3-6 month shirts and 6 month onesies
• Wearing size 1 shoes (although that doesn’t happen that often!)
• Wearing size 0-3 month hats
• Eating about 4-6 oz per feeding
• Loving your stroller more and more
• You’ve graduated to the jogger stroller most of the time. Mommy uses this when she takes you to Stroller Strides classes and you like being able to face out and see the world. Sometimes you’re still in your Snap and Go stroller but not as much
• You’re so close to laughing. Mommy thinks she heard a laugh the other day but isn’t quite sure
• You realize the cats are there now more and more. Epi sometimes will sit next to you and tickle you with her tail and you laugh when she does this
• You are sleeping through the night! Mommy and Daddy put you down at about 7pm and you will sleep until 6am or later!
• You take about 4 naps a day, usually no more than 20-30 minutes each, although sometimes you’ll surprise Mommy and take a 4 hour nap. This is hard for Mommy though because she thinks you’re going to wake up at any time so she can’t really do anything 
• You still love baths

We can’t wait to see what you have in store for us throughout this next month!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Professional photos

So I never posted these, but these are the photos we decided on of Santiago. He was only three weeks old when these were taken - hard to believe he was every that tiny. Even though it's only been 9 weeks since then, it seems like he's been in our lives for so much longer!

Guess who...

Is three months old?


Thought I'd share some photos of my cute little guy:

Hanging out in Mill Creek headed for a walk

Out for dinner enjoying "summer" - the one day we have had so far!

With Dad at Green Lake

At three months Santi is:

* "Talking" more - lots of coos, oohs, squeals, etc.

* Loving tummy time and able to lift his head up for longer periods of time

* Loves being able to look out and around when I'm holding him and when he's in the stroller

* Sleeping through the night! (Actually he has since about 2 months.) We put him down at about 6:30-7:30pm and he sleeps through until 6am or later (this morning was 6:30am.)

* Quickly outgrowing his bouncy seat and swing and car seat. I have no idea what I will do when he outgrows his bouncy seat - this is my lifeline for taking a shower right now

* Smiling all the time (when he's not crying) :)

* Recognizing Tito and I and when we're not in site of him

* Taking "cat naps" throughout the day. (about 20-30 mins each. But at this point since he's sleeping straight through the night I'm not complaining!) :)

Photos of Santi - a quick post

Just sharing some new photos of my little guy:

Practicing some tummy time and succeeding! Strong neck!

How can you not love this face? :)

Watching the first game of the World Cup with Dad...he's meant to be a soccer fan!

Tummy time with some help from Monet

Santi and Epi

Weekend
We had a great weekend. We went to Portland, and left Friday morning. Santiago did GREAT on the drive down! He basically slept the whole way...well until about 10 minutes outside of the city, and I managed to keep him entertained even though he was hungry so that he wasn't too upset in the car until we were able to get him to the hotel and feed him.

The weather could have been better. It was raining all the way down to Portland which made for some scary driving. Our hotel was great. Very cute, very boutiquey. They had a complimentary town car service into the city which unfortunately we couldn't take advantage of with the baby (took us a bit in the room to figure out that we couldn't use that service!) We were only about a 5 minute drive from the center of the city though so we just drove in and parked at the Smart lots and walked around. We went to OMSI (more for Tito and I), the Chinese Garden, attempted Voodoo Donuts but since it was Sunday morning there was a line around the block and Santi was getting antsy so we left. We also just walked around the Pioneer Square area, and went to Powells. All in all it was a great little trip.

Here are a few photos:

All packed and ready to leave

Yay! We're in Portland!

Heading out after dinner

Santi with a Mars rover at OMSI

Santi showing off his newest skill - grabbing and holding onto things!

My two guys - I love this photo

In the Chinese Garden

Chinese Garden



Santiago
Santi is great. He has pretty much gotten on a schedule and goes to bed between 7:30pm and 8pm every night. He sleeps until about 4:30am, and then we'll put him back and he will sleep until about 6:30am. After that he has been falling asleep on me for about another hour or two, which I'm enjoying. :) He takes about three naps a day (9:30am, after noon, and at about 4pm or 5pm.)

He's taking one bottle of milk a day (in addition to regular breast feeding) which we mix his vitamins with. We're trying to keep him interested in the bottle and the breast since I'll be going back to work soon and he had a bit of trouble when we went off the bottle for about a week and then reintroduced it. So we've got him back on track with the bottles.

He's developing his own little personality, loves smiling, recognizes us when we are in the room, recognizes and loves staring at himself in the mirror, and is thisclose to laughing. He'll smile really big and makes a laughing face but no sound comes out right now. I can't wait for those baby giggles! He's also cooing up a storm. I'm so in love with him and it gets stronger every day.

He's got a follow up on July 17th with the docs at UW since he is considered a high risk baby, because of his infection, the 14 day NICU stay and the fact that the antibiotics that they gave him have the possibility of damaging his hearing. Also they are checking him neurologically because they thought that he had meningitis for a bit when he was in the NICU and some of the meds they gave to him at the time could cause neurological/developmental issues. I think he is fine (his hearing is very good, and he has a great startle reflex) and he's hitting all of his developmental milestones on time/early. But I won't feel 100% ok about things until we've been given the all clear from the docs.

Me
I go back to work in 27 days. I am excited to get back to work and using my mind for something other than the routine with Santi, but I know I'm going to miss him. I know it'll be hard but I'm going to be very busy so the days will fly by.

I actually have feeling back in my stomach below my belly button again! I noticed it the other day and was so happy! It had basically been numb since the c-section because they cut the nerves down there, and I'd heard there was a possibility that it might not come back at all. But I'm glad it did, because it really creeped me out! Now I need to work on shrinking the belly....

I joined Weight Watchers online the other day. And I did 30 Day Shred today for the first time in over a year. Wowza. I am going to feel it tomorrow! My goal is to be more toned and hopefully 10 lbs lighter (which was what I was trying to do before I got pregnant) by Santiago's baptism when we'll have family in town. That's July 24th, so I've got just about two months. I think I can do it.

I also have been noticing a pain in my back, kind of in the middle. It hurt when Tito was rubbing my back one night and now I notice it hurts to lay on, even on soft surfaces like our bed. When I thought about it, it's exactly where they put in the epidural. Like a bruise, but it's been almost 12 weeks since I got the epidural, so I doubt there's still a bruise there now? So I'm going to go to the doctor and get it checked out just in case.