Shout-out to Grandmas!

Since I am now in the mood to blog...

I want to give a big Thank You to Mason's Grandma's! They are the best and have really made these last couple weeks run a whole lot smoother. My mom came to visit and didn't stop helping with:

making breakfast, lunch, and dinner

cleaning the house

Asking me if I needed anything

Being supportive and patient with me (hard to do!)

Alfonso's mom " Mama Luz" has been just as excited for Mason's arrival. She has spoiled us with:

Mounds of food from Costco

Making me her special chocolate milk whenever I want

Countless homemade meals and

Caring for Mason when I go back to work

We Love You Abuelitas!!!

Mason has Arrived!- and I'm finally blogging about it...

Words can't describe how excited I am to finally have my bouncing baby boy in my arms! This post is way overdue, but between sleep deprivation, breastfeeding struggles, diaper changes, and cuddling with Mason- time flies! I can't believe he is already going to be a month old this week! Throughout my whole pregnancy, I would hear story after story about other people's labor stories and I always wondered how mine would play out...drum roll please, so here it is! He was actually due on Monday, Feburary 22nd but on Tuesday night, February 17th around 11 p.m. I was on the couch and my water broke. Well, at least I thought my water broke- I wasn't really sure what it was supposed to be like. After asking me if I was a first time mom, the doctor told me," Now, if contractions don't start by 6 a.m., come to the hospital-otherwise, time the contractions once they get close together." So, that's what I did. At around 2 a.m., I felt like the contractions were really close together so Alfonso started timing them. We were told in our birth class to wait until they were 5 mins apart for 1 minute long. I really didn't want to be one of those "first time moms" that showed up to the hospital too early- but mine were 2 mins apart! So, we jumped in the car and headed to the hospital. It turns out I was dilated to 4 cm! YEA! At this point, I was getting pretty uncomfortable but Alfonso was amazing by my side, helping me breathe through each contraction.


The breathing methods really work! I can testify to that!! The "laugh about it later" part of the night is how the nurse kept asking me to sign all this paperwork, give my consent for medicine (just in case I punked out- and I didn't!), write down my personal items in the room, etc. I couldn't believe they make you do all that when you are freakin' trying to have a baby! So about two hours later, I felt the need to push and the nurse didn't believe me! She checked and realized I had fully dilated in that short amount of time, and ran out of the room yelling," The doctor is on her way-don't push until the doctor has gloves on!!" But we knew the doctor was probably asleep at her house and that they had completely underestimated how fast my labor would go because I was a "first time mom." Are you starting to notice how often this phrase comes up? What felt like hours later (it was only like 25 mins) Dr. DeQuattro decided to show up and about 6 pushes later- Mason was born! The Dr kept saying" Wow- and your a first time Mom!" I can't tell you how many times I heard that statement... Alfonso cut the cord and brought him up to me. Surprisingly, I didn't cry- I just kept saying- I'm so glad your here!!! This is the funniest picture because I am so exhausted but I am so excited at the same time- so I guess this is what my face ended up doing...
Our son was born, 7 lbs 12 oz. 20 inches long at 6:29 a.m. My labor was a total of 6 hours long and I went all natural! I pretty sure that was the proudest moment of my life.

We stayed in the hospital for two days and were very ready to go home!

My mom came the next Monday and stayed for about 10 days. It was such a blessing that she came out to help us. I was really surprised at how much I needed to recover and so grateful for all of her help! She was so excited to meet Mason and I can't wait for him to meet the rest of the fam in April!

Mason has already changed so much in a month! We had our first little scare last week when he had a fever and we had to be admitted to the hospital to monitor him. But he is doing just fine now! We are so grateful to have such a handsome, healthy blessing from heaven in our home.


Now I just have to figure out how to get out of going back to work in 6 weeks so I can spend all day, every day with him! Any ideas??? I was thinking the lottery may be an option.

Our Mini Get-Away

Alfonso and I wanted to take a mini trip together before the baby was born (I hear you don't get out much after that) so we booked a day trip to New York City! We caught a bus in Baltimore at 6:30 a.m. and showed up in NYC around 10:00 am. I was a little worried about being severely uncomfortable on the bus and running back and forth to the bathroom for the full 4 hours of the trip-- but none of that happened! I was 100% comfortable! It was magical...

As soon as we got there, we headed to catch a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. For your future reference: An all day pass on the subway: $8, dr. scholls shoe inserts for the long walks: $13, a ferry ride to Liberty & Ellis Island: $12.00, and a delicious lunch for two at Cafe Liberty: $20.00-- and it is all so worth it! We had a great time and the weather actually worked in our favor! Not too cold, not too hot. We were complete tourists and saw Ground Zero, the bull statue in the movie Hitch, Wall Street, Chinatown, and Times Square. Making a deal on faux Guess and Coach purses with the street vendors is a must if you ever go!


Last but definitely not least, we met up with Hyeku! She took us to a really neat Garden Exhibit, and before we knew it-- it was time to catch our bus home.

Excellence in YW

Since I was called as Young Women President, the event of the year I had been dreading was the YW in Excellence night in November. It would be all in Spanish, in front of all the parents, and all about Personal Progress (which my girls are a little behind in). Well, the night finally came and I was nervous but said a little prayer and headed out the door. Well, aside fron the fact that the weather made traffic so bad nobody was able to get there until 7:30 p.m.( it started at 7:00 p.m.)AND all the girls who signed up for refreshments completely forgot so we didn't have any-- the night was amazing!! My girls made me so proud! Each girl presented a value/project that they had worked on and by the end of the night the room was full of tears. There was such a strong spirit there and I was so impressed with how everything turned out! My little Presidency really stepped it up that night, and I truly appreciated all their hard work. Sigh, now for New Beginnings....

The first weekend in November took off to a great start because my mom came into town to visit! It was such a wonderful weekend! She spoiled us by cooking, cleaning and pampering us every day she was here. I am so blessed to have the best mom. I can't wait until she comes when the baby is born :) Ya know, sometimes it is really nice for someone else to clean up the house and decide what we are having for dinner every night ( not saying Alfonso doesn't sometimes do this but ya know what I mean). She even did my laundry while I was at work! I think we talked about babies non-stop that weekend and neither of us cared! It was so nice to have her here-- I definitely wish my parents lived closer. And this week during my annoying, dragged out 3 hour gestational diabetes test, I found out my dad is flying in to visit on Christmas Day!! Yea!!!

The News

This past weekend we finally told Alfonso's daughters that they were going to have a little brother. Don't tell them, but I think they were pretty much the last people on earth to know. I'm not sure what Alfonso's reason was for waiting so long, but I was trying to spare myself some time with the constant "When is the baby coming?" question. We all know how kids can keep asking the same question a million times! Their reaction was pretty cute, I must admit: confused, surprised and excited all at the same time. They ran over hugging and kissing me, and assured me that they were old enough to take care of the baby whenever I needed them to (umm, maybe in about ten years). They had mentioned to me before that they would specific like a baby brother and I told them I would see what I could do... I'm glad I pulled through for them! The only word that describes how Alfonso feels about our baby boy is: ecstatic. He is so excited, it cracks me up. Once we told the girls, it was like all of the sudden they realized my stomach had a little bump, and they kept pointing it out to me. See below :)
I'm exactly 20 weeks and I'm feeling much better. It's almost like the last 3-4 months of feeling nausea were just a bad dream that I had. I almost forgot what it felt like to have to run to the bathroom every time I ate something(keyword: almost). I hear it comes back towards the end, so I'm not looking forward to that... but I will take it over the swine flu any day. Is anybody else completely terrified of this virus AND the vaccine, or is it just me?

Stress Free Cuz I gotta be!

Ok, according to my husband I have officially fallen into the " I'm pregnant so I'm freakin' out about everything" category! And to a certain extent, this statement is true. Things bothered me before, but these days, I get so upset and annoyed about the LITTLEST things, that even ends up annoying me too! So, to make a long story short, from now on - I am going to deal with the things I can control and let go of the things I cannot. And I pledge to calm down about most things-not all- but most things that happen to me that I don't agree with. And though it may feel like physically I am falling apart, and emotionally I am crumbling, I will sigh and say "Everything works out in the end." And hopefully that will snap me back into reality where I start seeing the good side of things. Like for example, my fender bender accident that happened on Wednesday morning, the brighter side is : that if this is the accident I am going to be in while I am pregnant, then I am really glad it was just a fender bender and nobody was hurt. See? I'm already prepared for my next crisis.