San Diego recap - Day 2

Day 2 was all about the Kawasaki Disease Foundation and the gala event. We had a symposium to go to in the morning and then we had a little free time and then we had the gala event that evening.

We were fortunate that there was babysitting set up for the event in the morning, so we left Santi with the girls (all high school/college aged girls). There were two girls who were in love with the two babies who were there (Santi and another little little one) so they took over with them and we just checked in during breaks and for food and other than that he was fine which was a relief. And the girls were in love with him so that made it easy to leave him.



After the symposium


We had lunch on the campus (symposium took place at one of the UCSD campuses) and totally felt like we were back in college again at the Union (despite the different feel of having a baby there with us!) After the event, we had several hours to kill so we figured the only thing to do was to go back to the pool (had to take advantage of the sunshine while we could!)



Note the water on my face as Santi had discovered splashing!





Beach baby



Sleepy baby back in the room - I noted to Tito how Santi sleeps the same way I do

After a nap, we got dressed up and headed to a VIP reception for the gala. There was wine and appetizers on the terrace. We had Santi with us until the baby sitters were available.





Our guest speaker was Jimmy Garcia - he's the oldest KD kid - wasn't diagnosed with Kawasaki Disease when he was young and had it and didn't know he had it until about a year ago when he had a heart attack at 51 and they went in and discovered he had KD. He is an amazing individual and has the same mantra of "live your life and don't let anything hold you back" that I do. He is also a camera man on American Idol (he does all of the "home" stories and also when you see Ryan Seacrest waiting to greet people outside of the auditions, he is the camera man for those scenes.) So of course, Tito and I got the chance to pump him for AI insider info. :) We confirmed that Ryan Seacrest is short (about 5'8"), that they shoot the home stories before they even know who is going to go through (it'd been Tito's theory that they only shoot the home stories on those who go through), that all of the kids who have come through AI are really nice and humble, with the exception of Jennifer Hudson who was apparently pretty demanding even before she was a "star".



Dessert


Kimberly Caldwell from Season 4 of American Idol was our emcee. Justin Guarini was supposed to do it but had something come up at the last minute so he asked Kim to stand in for him. She did a great job and wasn't as tiny in real life as I'd imagined her to be (she's taller than I thought and looks normal, not super skinny.) She sang Melissa Ethridge's "Come to my Window" and was great!



With Dr. Burns - the doctor who tirelessly researches KD in the hopes of finding a diagnostic test for it. She recently discovered a genetic link in the disease. She's one of the most amazing people I know.



With Jimmy (he's short too as I'm wearing 3 inch heels here which makes me about 5'5"). He's such an amazing person and he introduced me to his whole family who was there as well and was telling them all about me and my KD story. His girlfriend was so sweet and said she thought I was 23 years old and I had to correct her and tell her I was 33!



With my "story" which was placed with others throughout the silent auction room

Santi spent some of the event with us at the table and then the rest in a back room being watched. I went in to check on him to find him crying as the girl was feeding him. I said I'd take him and the poor kid had a major blowout then and there. I had to change him (thank goodness for extra clothes!) and then we took him back to the table until he was tired so we brought him back to the room and put him to sleep in his stroller.

At one point during the dinner we'd discovered that the girl who had been watching Santi (he was the only kid being watched) had left him sleeping in the room alone. So we ran back there and stayed until we found another girl to watch him (thankfully only about 2 minutes had passed in the time she'd left until we saw her and ran back there.)

After the event was over, we headed back to our room and put Santi to bed officially while we enjoyed some wine and relaxed.

San Diego recap - Day 1

Finally I'm getting this down!

So we left the house at about 3am in order to make it to the airport and check in for our flight which was at 6am. We thought we were all prepared, and had put Santi to sleep in his clothes he was wearing the next day - well of course he peed all over himself so I had to change him! And then he pooped all over that outfit about 15 minutes after I'd put it on him! So the plan of keeping him "calm and quiet" and just moving him from his crib to the car didn't work out so well!

Got to the airport and all checked in and then got to the gate where we had enough time to get something for breakfast and then also get some food and milk into Santi. Boarded the plane and had a full flight. The poor guy sitting next to us (a 20 something) wasn't prepared for a grabby baby (who kept trying to grab his Kindle or would stroke his hand over the guy's arm if mom stopped watching for a second!) I ended up nursing Santi as the plane took off and he fell asleep and slept for about an hour of the 2 hour flight. The rest of the time we played with some new toys (a new car and Elmo doll) and then we were there!


Santi and I on the flight - someone's not looking so confident in the pilot's abilities!



We're here! And ready to go!

Once we got our rental car, we headed to the hotel which was in Carlsbad, CA. It was gorgeous weather and such a nice drive.





Arriving at the resort

We checked in to our room and then decided to go out and look around the resort and check out the pool since it was so nice!



Santi in the room



Our shower with the rain spout - making it difficult to bathe Santi while we were there since there was no tub! We ended up showering with him!



Lime trees on the property! I dared Tito to snag one but he wouldn't!

After exploring the resort, we headed to lunch and to grab some baby food at Target, and then decided to see if we could find the beach.



On our way to the beach - we almost didn't recognize this glowing ball in the sky!



Surfer dude!



Beach!



Santi was mesmerized by the waves



The family - California style!





Surfer dude in the making?

After the beach we headed back to the hotel and to the pool. They had three pools - one was a kiddie only pool which was shallow and had a beach area. The other was an adult and older kid pool and the final pool was the waterslide pool. It took everything in me not to want to jump on those waterslides! I love them!



At the pool - Santi did awesome! He is definitely a water baby. By the end of the trip we had him in up to his armpits and he was laughing and smiling the whole time!



After the pool, we went and helped with some set up for the gala the next evening and then had some dinner and went to bed.

New update - finally!

So what's been going on with us? Santi is now 7.5 months old! Eating solids like a champ, and moving onto more solid, non-pureed food. He had toast yesterday and loves puffs and these little Gerber Yogurt Melts.

He's still sleeping through the night and has learned to self soothe himself, which means we no longer have to rock him to sleep and can instead put him down in bed, give him his "lovie" (a tiny blanket my mom made him) and he will roll onto his side and put himself to sleep. It's so nice for naps and for in the evening.

He's rolling everywhere! He now pretty much hates being on his back unless he puts himself there. If we put him on his back he does everything in his power to roll onto his tummy. Which means we're strapping him into his changing pad, and watching him like a hawk when he's on the bed. He's already rolled off the bed and the couch but thankfully wasn't hurt, just a little stunned.

Since he's rolling, we need to start getting serious about childproofing - we're tackling that this weekend. It will involve some furniture rearrangement, and putting away of some of our nicer things that we don't want little hands touching. We're also looking for a soft ottoman to use as a coffee table since the one we currently have is rectangle with some sharp corners. We also have a fireplace to deal with covering up (and it's got no cover for the actual fireplace spot, so it'll need a baby gate around the whole thing.) We weren't actually planning on being here when he became mobile so we didn't think too much about these things but now we have to tackle them.

He loves anything that moves - he has a little car that we can roll up and across the floor to him which he loves. But he gets so frustrated when he can't pick it up because even though it's a toy for kids at 6+ months old the designers didn't think about that when they were making it because it's too big for little hands to pick up! He also has a snail that plays music and is on wheels so he loves to move that around too.

He also loves anything musical. I recently got him a toy drum kit that he can bang on and has a bunch of other instruments that are stored inside (a tambourine, bells, xylophone, and rattle) and he loves it. I picked it up at a consignment store for $10 so I was happy that something so cheap can make him so happy.

He is getting ready for his 2nd plane ride next month. We'll be heading to Peru for 3 weeks during the holidays. We're excited and anxious about the travel. We went to San Diego last month for an event and brought Santi along and it was actually pretty easy to travel with him. But that flight was only 2 hours. The flight to Peru is 5 hours from here to Atlanta and then 7 hours from Atlanta to Lima. And he's into grabbing everything now. And he's also starting to arch his back and whole body if he's not happy with things. (We know we're in store for some full body drop-to-the-floor tantrums when he hits 2 or before!) So we're hoping he'll sleep at least for the longer flight, since it leaves around his bedtime and we arrive at about 1am. We have two seats alone on this flight and he's sitting on our lap. For the flight from Seattle to Atlanta we have booked the aisle and the window seat in hopes that someone won't book the middle seat and we can put Santi there during the flight if needed.

We also picked him up this:

It's a piece that goes on the tray and has all sorts of exciting things for a 9 month old to play with - crinkly, velcro balls, mirrors, zippers, a photo album, etc.












We're going to get some new toys for him to open during the flight too in order to keep him entertained.

Now, for some videos - I've been taking a lot of videos of him lately since he's doing so many new things.

Santi and the cereal puff:

Santi and the cereal puff from Kate Davila on Vimeo.

Rolling all over the place (our nightly routine):

Rolling all over the place from Kate Davila on Vimeo.

Jumping with dad:

Jumping with dad 2 from Kate Davila on Vimeo.

Driving man:

Driving man... from Kate Davila on Vimeo.

7 months old:

7 months old! from Kate Davila on Vimeo

Santiago's 7 month letter

I can't believe our little guy is 7 months old already! He's changed so much and is now such a little "baby" as opposed to a newborn. So interactive, funny, happy and sometimes serious and concentrated. He definitely has a mix of both of our personalities!

Here's our monthly letter to him:

10/15/10

Dear Santiago:

You are now seven months old! Wow! We are amazed at how quickly our time with you has flown by so far.

You are so close to crawling. We can see it in your face – you sit up and will look at something in front of you and reach for it. If you can’t reach it, you get so frustrated and give a little scream or shout. Usually we’ll let you try a few times, and sometimes we’ll position you on your tummy to see if you will crawl – but you are smarter than we are and instead of crawling, you’ve taken to rolling everywhere! The problem is that you can only roll from left to right or vice versa, so if something is in front of you you can’t get to it! You are also pushing up on your arms all the way and we often find you this way in your crib. Now if you can just get the strength the hold that belly off the ground, we know you’ll be crawling in no time!

You love the cats – when you’re on the floor, they’ll come over and sniff you and Monet will often be seen “marking” you with her head. I guess they’ve finally realized you’re not going anywhere, so they are going to say you’re “theirs.”

You are eating like a champ! You love all foods that we put in front of you, although sometimes we have to mix them together to get a combination that you enjoy! You are such a happy, smiley baby, and always smile when we go in to pick you up from sleeping from the night before or for naps. Nothing makes us feel better than to see your little smiling face peering back at us from your crib.

You have also taken to being serious a lot more, and we can see the wheels turning as you examine things, be it a toy you’re passing back and forth between your hands, or watching one of us. You’re so observant and we think you get that quality from your dad.

Here are some of the things you’re doing this month:

• Pushing up on your arms all the way

• Passing toys back and forth between your hands

• Playing with your feet and getting them to your mouth after the bath

• Outgrowing your bath seat – we had to buy a new pad for the tub to sit you on to bathe you since you outgrew your baby tub

• Still working with the sippy cup. You can hold it in your hands, you just like to use the spout as a chew toy right now

• Working on another tooth – you now have three, all along the bottom but we think we can see a fourth on the bottom coming in

• Holding spit or something in your mouth and then smiling and laughing with your mouth closed

• Rolling everywhere! Not just while on the floor but at night when we try to change you after your bath we have to work around your constant rolling to dress you!

• Hating having shirts and jackets put on. For some reason you’re ok with all other clothing going on but if we have to put your arms through any sleeves, you will scream in protest

• Wearing Size 3 diapers

• Wearing size 6-9 month pants, 6-12 month shirts, 12 month onesies (although a little long in the sleeves)

• Wearing size 2 shoes

• Wearing size 6 month hats

• Eating about 6-8 oz per feeding in three bottles a day and one nursing session

• Having formula mixed in with mom’s milk

• Rarely spitting up anymore

• Putting your arms out to be picked up when you’re in your bouncer or on the floor or bed

• Trying to help us feed you when you have a bottle or we use a spoon

• Start out sleeping on your back, then your side and you always end up on your tummy. You sleep just like mom usually, with one leg bent up

• Have three teeth but almost a fourth one coming in. All along the bottom

We love every minute we spend with you. Daddy and I both race home to hold you and play with you before we give you dinner, bath, story and milk and put you to bed. And on the weekends, we love spending as much time as we can with you. You constantly amaze us and you are so smart – figuring things out for yourself that we haven’t even figured out. We can’t wait to see what you have in store for us next month!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Dragon

So we have decided what Santi is going to be for Halloween. After going back and forth (Tito wanting a cowboy or Superman, me wanting something "cute" and an animal, since I'll have years ahead of me when my little boy will want to be something superhero or whatnot) Santi decided for himself. Lately, he has truly found his voice - this includes babbling (babababa and mamamama and dadadada, etc.) screaming (something I'm not a fan of) and doing this sort of roar. It all came to a head this past weekend when we were in Costco and I was pushing him in his stroller and he would let out a "roooaar!" every aisle or so, which made Tito and I (and anyone around him lucky enough to hear) laugh. So when I saw this costume in the store, I knew it was for Santi...may I present the cutest little dragon you will ever see! (Of course we're biased!)

(Click on the links to see the videos!)

http://vimeo.com/15561451

http://vimeo.com/15553237

San Diego 2010, by Kate Davila

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
Click here to view photos

This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to attend a benefit gala for Kawasaki Disease research in San Diego, CA. I was asked, as a "KD Kid", to share my story with Kawasaki Disease. They, in turn, printed it on a large foam core poster and placed it, along with several other "KD Kids" boards throughout the event. Below is my story:

With my poster at the event

My Kawasaki Disease experience

In December of 1993, at the age of 15, I became ill during my school’s winter break. My symptoms included flu-like stomach issues, red, bloodshot eyes, swollen lymph nodes in my neck, and dry, cracked lips. After three trips to the pediatrician over the course of 10 days, I was admitted to the emergency room for re-hydration via IV. While there, I started to feel worse. I began throwing up and they performed blood tests, chest x-rays, and a spinal tap to rule out meningitis. All tests came back negative. I was admitted to the hospital and placed in isolation. My pediatrician went home and poured over his medical books until he found what he felt was a proper diagnosis for me – Kawasaki Disease.

He contacted doctors at a larger hospital about an hour away and they agreed to admit me. I was brought down via ambulance, and started treatment with gamma globulin. Within 24 hours, I felt better. After a few days, I had a routine echocardiogram, which revealed that I had developed coronary aneurysms. I then had a cardiac catherization and it was determined that I had multiple, “giant” (8mm – 13mm in size) aneurysms on my left and right coronary arteries. I was placed on Coumadin, a blood thinner. After two weeks, I was released from the hospital and returned to my “normal” life, participating in sports with the encouragement of my cardiologist. I entered college in 1995, where one morning, about a year and a half into my college career, I awoke at 5am with arm pain on my right side only. The pain would not subside, so I called my cardiologist, who directed me to the ER for an EKG. Additionally, an enzyme test was performed and it was determined I’d suffered a small heart attack. I was 19 years old. My cardiologist informed me that my Coumadin levels (INR) had been too low and I’d formed a clot in one of the aneurysms. A few months later, I awoke with arm pain in both arms, went to the ER and had the same results via enzyme test – a second, albeit minor, heart attack. Despite the heart attacks, I was continually encouraged by my doctors to maintain a healthy lifestyle (eating right and exercising.)

Since 1997, I had occasional episodes of angina, but had no heart attacks. I had annual stress tests, echocardiograms, EKG’s and took Coumadin. I also had cardiac catherizations every three years to check on the aneurysms, which showed no change.

I maintained a healthy lifestyle, got married, moved from Maine, to Florida, to Washington State, where I live currently. In July of 2009, after a year’s worth of consultation with a perinatologist specializing in women with heart conditions, I became pregnant. I spent 9 months giving myself Heparin injections, and my pregnancy progressed normally and without complication. On March 15, 2010, my husband and I welcomed our beautiful son Santiago to the world via c-section. Having been on blood thinners prior to the surgery created some complication, and I developed a hematoma beneath my skin that required a second, exploratory surgery to remove it. After an 8 week resting period once I returned home, I began working out five days a week and started training for a 10k road race.

Unfortunately, on August 20, 2010, I suffered another small heart attack and endured my fifth cardiac catherization, which showed no change in aneurysm size but determined that a clot had formed in a tiny branch off of a main coronary artery. Again, my heart showed no damage, and since then, I’ve maintained my exercise routine with my doctor’s blessing.

I am currently 32 years old, and despite my past issues, plan to continue maintaining my active lifestyle, and have more children. Despite the occasional “set backs” of chest pains and the like, I consider myself to be very lucky – I have a wonderful husband, and a beautiful 6-month old son, who continues to amaze us every day. I try to maintain a positive outlook about life, without making light of my situation.

Santi's growing up

My almost-6-month-old Santi (seriously, how did THAT happen? How do I not still have a 3 week old little baby that I just brought home from the hospital? How is it that I don't have to support his head when I carry him all the time? How is it that he's gone from basically a little lump of a baby to a person who can roll over both ways, sit up, babble, play with his hands, play with his feet, recognize my voice and smile when he sees me, cries real tears, eats solid food and is super social? It's crazy to me!)

Anyway, since he's growing up, he's also gaining weight (sorry buddy!) and is now a hefty 18lbs. Which means carrying him and the infant car seat = almost 28lbs. Which carrying for short distances is fine, but carrying for more than that is too hard even for Tito. So we decided to get him his new convertible car seat that will stay in the car all the time. And since we were getting rid of his infant car seat, we had to get him a new stroller since the strollers we have are a jogging stroller (too big to use as a regular stroller in stores and such) and a Snap and Go, which, if not using the infant car seat, we can't use since it's just a stroller base without a seat. I love this stroller by the way, but it's time to move on to his more permanent stroller and car seat.

So after a lot of looking, and after getting one stroller (the Combi Cosmo stroller which we hated because the wheels got stuck all the time, there was no room in the underseat basket - which didn't matter because you can't get anything out of it once the kid is in the seat),we decided that it just generally sucked overall. So we returned it after a week.

Our choice (after a lot of looking and trying out in the stores) for a stroller was the Chicco Liteway


The seat folds all the way down, the basket isn't that big but we don't mind that, and we're getting a system to hang on the back of the stroller anyway to hold his stuff. It's just a really smooth stroller and he was really comfortable in it (whereas with the Combi he cried after being in it for a few minutes.)

And for his car seat, we looked at a lot of different types and brands. We decided on the Evenflo Symphony because it's basically the same as a Britax Marathon at half the price. And this seat will fit him up to 35lbs rear facing in the car, up to 65lbs forward facing in the car and will fit him up to 100lbs as a booster seat, so we don't have to buy him a separate booster seat after he's done with the car seat. And, after reading the reviews, we discovered that it's a good size and will fit in my Toyota Corolla which a lot of the larger convertible seats have a hard time fitting into smaller cars in the rear facing position.

And I found a deal on Amazon.com where the seat was $60 off the regular price! I'm excited about these items arriving (this week!) although it's a little sad that my little baby is becoming a little boy!

Fall

I do believe that fall has arrived in the Pacific NW. Not that we really had a summer, in my opinion. I can count on one hand the amount of times we went to the pool or the beach, which is sad. Oh well, fall is fun too...this year we're planning on doing some apple picking, going to a pumpkin patch (we feel like we can do this now because we have a little one!) and we'll also be celebrating my 33rd birthday! What a year it's been for me, but I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat!

Yesterday I ran a 10k race that I'd been training for since June. Not as consistently as I'd like but my goal was to run the entire race and not walk at all. Which I didn't. One blister and some very sore legs and 6.2 miles later, I crossed the finish line, finishing the race in just over an hour. I was pleased with myself, and managed to time the end of the race with Black Eyed Peas song "I Gotta Feeling" which is also the first song I heard on the radio when I got the official confirmation that I was pregnant with Santiago. So that song always makes me think of Santi, and I was running the race with him as my inspiration. Here are a few photos from the day:

With my friend Jess - a great training partner! (And yes, I'm wearing a skirt to run in..."real women run in skirts" don't you know? It has spandex shorts underneath and is seriously the best thing I've ever run in..and it's cute to, so I love it!)

With Santi before the race

With Papa Beto, Tito and Santi before the race

Mid run - one lap down, one to go!

After the race with Jess

With Santi

And just because you all read this blog to see Santi more than you do to see me, here are some of his latest photos - he's wearing his lobster hat, as he's really a "Maine" boy at heart!

Santi is sitting now! We've been seeing him strain to sit up for awhile now, but we tried him sitting with a boppy around him today and he sat up for quite some time! I was so excited and took a video, which you can see here:

Santi sitting