Four

Yesterday Louis and I celebrated our 4th anniversary. All day long I was thinking back to what I was doing at that time on our "big day," and brought out our wedding album to go through the pictures. Every time I open it up I start to cry, and yesterday was no exception! Our wedding was the MOST special event of my life. Why, you may ask, was this event more special than the birth of my children? Because without the marriage I wouldn't have the kids! Without the love, trust, commitment and covenant that Louis and I have in our marriage, we wouldn't have our family. I love my husband more than I could ever describe. No words in this blog would do justice to that. I know this blog is mostly filled with stories of my kids, because face it, life after kids is always about them, but this entry is dedicated to my husband =) The rock of our marriage and the head of our family. I really can't find the words to say right now without sounding completely cheezy, so I'm simply going to end this with a great big I LOVE YOU...and I can't wait for the next set of adventures that come our way as we continue through our marraige!

For your viewing pleasure!!

This is my feeble attempt at blogging for tonight! I just uploaded some great pictures that my cousin Rebecca took during the past few days when she was staying with us, and I thought that while I had the computer up and running I might as well share them with my readers =) We have been having quite the fun summer, doing quite a bit of swimming at Grandma's house, and now with our own (tiny!) kiddy pool. On Monday we are taking our very first trip as a family of four! We are spending two nights in Carlsbad. The agenda? The beach, Lego Land, and lots of time in the hotel swimming pool! I am so excited. I'm crossing my fingers that this is the only year where the kiddos join in on Mommy and Daddy' s anniversary trip I can't leave Evelynne overnight or else she'd starve =( We also need to get in all the family time together now that we can because the following week, Louis starts his new JOB!!! He got rehired BP- he had a VERY good contract position with them last year, which ended two weeks before Evelynne was born (yeah that was fun...) and now he has been rehired to launch a new project, all of which was his idea, and if it is as successful as they project it to be, then after 8 months he will be permanently hired! Praise God!!

....so perhaps this entry is just a smidge longer than I intended it to be =) Enjoy the pictures!

Jeremiah, 2 1/2 years old

Evelynne, almost 5 months old (on Friday!)

Here we are!

This is one of Evelynne's 3 month portraits. I have my kiddos portraits taken every 3 months (and picture worthy holiday- Easter, Halloween, and Christmas) during their first year. Evelynne is now 4 1/2 months old, rolling over, starting to eat rice cereal and babbling up a storm. So yes, I am quite a bit behind in my blogging! And that's okay. You have to learn what is a priority and what is not when you have two small children. For example- "clean" and "organized" take on a whole new meaning when it comes to the status of my house. As long as my house is sanitary and somewhat neat, I am perfectly happy. A house with a 2 1/2 year old and a 4 1/2 month old is NOT going to sparkle and constantly be spick and span. And I'm okay with that. However, since Marissa is now living with us, I try to be more consciencious of the state of tidiness that our house is in. Her mere presence in my household is such a motivation for me to be more on top of the housework after the kids are in bed rather than putting it off til the next day and cuddle up with Louis simply because I am too exhausted to think about it.

I can't believe that tomorrow we will already be in July. I am so thankful that (so far) this summer has been fairly mild. It's supposed to be in the mid 70's on the 4th of July! I hate it when it gets miserably hot. I have no desire to play outside with the kids or take them on walks if it is sweltering hot. Their rooms get so stuffy since we don't have central air conditioning, only the wall units, so naptime and bedtime can be quite difficult unless we have fans blasting. Speaking of July, on the 22nd Louis and I will be celebrating four years of marriage! The past three years have always been celebrated with taking a little vacation, just the two of us- Vegas, Laughlin or Coronado have been our prior weekend getaways. This year, with Evelynne still exclusively nursing (minus the one or two bottles of formula she gets every Saturday when my mom takes the kids for a few hours, and even then she will only drink an oz at a time) we will not be able to take a trip by ourselves. We are thinking about taking the kids on a little getaway to San Diego but still haven't made a firm decision on that yet. I would LOVE to get away for a few days with my little family and spend some time at the beach, however Jeremiah refuses to sleep in a regular bed. The only time he will crash with us (not that it's a bad thing!) is if he is very sick, like when he had the flu last month. He's too big for the play pen now (and besides, Evelynne would be sleeping in that). So I have no clue yet what we will be up to for our anniversary. Definitely a romantic date night, just the two of us, the night of our anniversary, but we don't know about any sort of trip yet.

That's about all i have time to write about now. Jeremiah's babysitter is here (she comes twice a week for two hours a time) and she's playing with Evelynne because Jeremiah is still taking his nap- so I'm going to relax myself!!

Evelynne's first (and hopefully LAST!) hospitalization

Evelynne came down with a fever out of the blue on Sat, with no other symptoms or even fussiness. since it peaked at 103 we were sent to the ER, but got released within a few hours since it was going down and had nothing else apparently wrong with her. The dr. didn't want to subject her to too much testing on day 1 of her illness. The fever was still there Monday night so we had to take her back, where we found out she had a urinary tract infection, which caused the fever. They ran blood work, did x-rays, and even a spinal to rule out meningitis. My poor little girl... it was SO hard seeing her subjected to all those needles and catheters! Shots I can handle; IV's, spinals and blood drawing is totally different. She had to stay in the hospital until today- luckily everything is perfect with her now! No allergic reactions to the medication, and all her other tests came out clean as well. I just felt so bad for all the other babies and children that I heard crying and screaming in the pediatric ward, especially since my little girl was so HAPPY the entire time, unless she was having something poked in her or prodded. I had so much to be thankful for.

I'll do my general "Evelynne update" like I did for Jeremiah later this weekend!

My Sweet Son!

I am going to do my updates in a few different segments to prevent me from having another LONG blog (such as Evelynne's birth story). Oh, Jeremiah. My sweet, sweet Jeremiah. Getting oh so big and amazing me every single day! His speech lessons are certainly paying off because I can't even count how many words he knows now, and new words are sprouting out of him every day. He is also starting to form small sentences, sometimes two words or three words. His favorite words all revolve around Evelynne- "Sister, Evy, and Diaper" are heard All Day Long. Speaking of his sister, he loves her to pieces. From the moment he wakes up he is asking for her and wanting to give her a hug and kiss. Very cute, but when she was still sleeping in her cradle in our room it would cause me much distress that he was going to wake her up! (We bring him in our room when he wakes up in the morning to cuddle, drink his sippy cup and watch a little TV). Now that she's in her crib in her own room things are much better =) I recently put away the majority of Jeremiah's "noise making toys"- the kinds with tons of buttons that light up and play music. He would spend the majority of his day just sitting down and pressing them rather than engaging in more social or educational play, even though most of those toys are labeled "educational." I call tehm "anti-social." He now LOVES wood puzzles, shape sorters, play doh, coloring, balls, his sand box, and racing dead batteries off of our coffee table (his little invention!) Twice a week he has a babysitter, a college student we had respond to an ad we put on Craigslist, come over and play while I hang out with Evy or clean if she is napping. He adores his babysitter and gets so excited when she comes over. I am so thankful for the four hours of undivided, individual attention that he gets each week from her that is so hard for me to give him right now. If you take a look at the picture closely, you will see Jeremiah's first set of stitches, which he got a week before Easter after running into the closet door. It was a mess- blood everywhere, and he absolutely hated getting straightjacketed to get the stitches, but my brave little man pulled through =) Boys will be boys!

Jeremiah is going through that terrible twos stage, embracing his independence and new abilities to vocalize just what he wants. He is known to change his mind about what he wants to eat as soon as I present him with his requests. He is still really picky with eating so I usually make him his own dinner for now, until he gets a more broad palette other than fish sticks, sandwiches, dino nuggets and hot dogs. It's a slow process but I'm hoping for the best that this won't last forever! He knows that he can get away with a LOT when I am nursing Evelynne- I can't exactly chase him down when I have the baby suctioned to me. Things have gotten better but I have more than a few gray hairs from this stage of his life.

Stay tuned for my update on Evelynne!

A Teaser =)

I have *FINALLY* uploaded more pictures to my laptop and fully intend on writing a good lengthy update, complete with pictu sometime in the next day or two- provided I see some feedback on my blog =) Honestly, PART of the reason that I hardly update anymore is due to lack of feedback. Anonymous or not, I love to hear from my readers!

Third Time's The Charm

Miss Evelynne Arlene is already two months old!!! I think it's finally time for me to actually blog about her birth, because I definitely do not want to forget it =) Be prepared- it's a bit lengthy!

I thought all along that Evelynne was going to be early- and we certainly had our share of false alarms with her, including two trips to the hospital- one at 38 weeks and one week later at 39 weeks. From that point on, I was having contractions on and off on a pretty regular basis. I kept waiting and waiting for it to be "time" but things just weren't happening (yet they were growing stronger and more painful), and I was going out of my mind being in so much pain for nothing. I tried everything in my power to get her out on my own- doing laps around Target with Jeremiah for what seemed like hours, taking him on walks in his wagon twice a day for an hour each (he loved that!), taking castor oil (blecchhh), you name it I probably tried it. I was so sick and tired of having contractions get started and painful, yet not going anywhere. And from being confined to our city limits- Louis was adamant that I would not leave Whittier in case I went into labor from the week before my due date. He wanted us close to the hospital so that I could get my epidural in time (sweet of him, I know, but it drove me nuts), which resulted in me missing out on a few family functions. I woke up on Valentines Day, my due date, praying to God that she would come that day. It certainly didn't seem like it- and it resulted in me having a few bouts of tears throughout the day. Call me an overly emotional pregnant mama who was ready to be done with the whole ordeal and meet her little girl!! It seemed like Tuesday, which was my next scheduled prenatal appointment, would never come, and Dr. Melnik promised that we would make an induction game plan that day if Evy wasn't here by then. Anyway, we took Jeremiah to the Children's Museum (which he LOVED), and to Steak Corral, which is our family tradition on Valentines Day. We got home that night, put Jeremiah to bed, and had a *romantic* evening cuddled in bed, watching the Olympics =)

Then the fun began.

I woke up sometime in the middle of the night (around 2:00ish or 3:00ish- I can't remember) with small, yet painful contractions. I thought, here we go again- more of those painful contractions that would keep me up all night and not go anywhere. I didn't bother timing them, I just did everything in my power to go back to sleep. That didn't happen. Finally, around 5:00, I decided to walk laps around our room to keep things going, woke Louis up, and we started timing them. They were coming every 5-7 minutes for around 30 seconds, but gradually were tapering off to the point where it wasn't even worth it to keep timing them. I was pissed. The contractions continued to come scattered throughout the morning. Louis and I took Jeremiah to the grocery store around 10:00, and then Louis dropped us off at home to go to a customer's. By the time Jeremiah was taking his nap, around 11:30, I was SO exhausted, could barely move, and tired of the contractions, which I was still convinced were fake and mostly were "cramps." However, I did start to see some signs that labor could possibly be happening- I started to lose lots of my mucus plug, which I lost 2 days before having Jeremiah. So I still wasn't buying that lI was in labor, just in TONS of pain. I called my mom and begged her to come help me with Jeremiah. She promised that she would pick him up to have him spend the night around 3:00.

After that I got a sudden burst of energy and started doing super cleaning around the house, and packed Jeremiah's things for an overnight trip to Grandma's. I was on and off the phone with my friend Tiffani throughout the day, and it was when we were talking around an hour before my parents arrived that I noticed the contractions, which were quite painful at that point, were consistently coming every 10 minutes. I think my mom sensed that something was going to happen because both she AND my dad came to get Jeremiah. When they arrived, I had the sudden urge to take a shower and asked them to stick around while I took it, just in case I doubled over in pain and slipped. I am very glad they stayed, because my contractions were becoming even more frequent at that point, but still scattered and never forming a perfect pattern.

My parents decided to stick around my house for a while, playing with Jeremiah so that I could rest. Yeah.... that didn't happen. I tried going in my room, closing the doors and watching TV but those darn contractions just would not stop, coming 2-3 times every 10 minute period, but not lasting longer than 30 seconds (usually you're supposed to wait for them to hit a minute before going to the hospital). I finally called Louis and asked him to come home. I went outside and sat on my birth ball for a bit, which helped *slightly* with the pain but not much. My mom and I were talking and she told me that my grandma had a little pool going on with my auntie Linda and two little cousins Hailee and Chase for when my baby would come. I called her up, asking *jokingly* what she was doing trying to make a profit on my baby, and she said that it was all in good fun, no $$ involved. I then asked who had that night because I had a feeling I was going to leave for the hospital within the next hour or two. My mom told me that she thought all throughout the day that I would be heading to the hospital between 6 and 8 pm, and I was starting to believe her! My mom then asked if I wanted her to paint my toes, since I never got around to getting my pedicure, and she wasn't able to finish- I was just in way too much pain to sit still. Louis showed up at that point, and, bless his heart, tried following me around the house with our laptop to time the contractions. I got pissed and told him to put it away, we needed to go to the hospital. He tried insisting that we should time them a bit (as if I hadn't kept my eyes on the clock for the past few hours)- I know the last th ing he wanted was to go to the hospital AGAIN and get sent home for a third time, three weeks in a row to the date. I told him to shove the laptop some place indecent, and bolted for teh car. My mom kept asking me for instructions on what to do w/ Jeremiah, which I had already given her several times, (I know she was just too excited to think straight too,) as I was getting in the car, and I was getting SO pissed off, frustrated and doubled over in pain that I started shouting at her, too! We were outside, so I think my neighbors must have thought I was nuts. Hopefully they saw my belly and my hospital bags and put two and two together! We gave Jeremiah one last "only child" kiss and headed down the street to the hospital (we could see Presbyterian from our front yard!)

By this time, we were quite the familiar face in the L&D admittance and triage area. I kept hearing "you're back again!" from several nurses. (I had been there every monday for the past 3 weeks, this time being my third appearance). I kept telling Louis that if they didn't keep me this time I was going to make them quite sorry, that I wasn't going to put up with being in all that pain yet again for nothing. I was filling out the now routine paperwork to go into triage when a dad brought his little boy up to meet his baby brother. He asked me if I was nervous, and I told him, no just in a lot of pain, and doubled over in another contraction. The lady at the desk told me she had a feeling they were going to keep me, and I was praying she was right. A few minutes later I was in my triage room, hooked up to the monitor and was being checked for dilation. Sure enough, the nurse told me "what do you say we have a baby? You're at 6!" I yelled out "Finally!! I can have my epidural!!" The epidural was ordered promptly so that it would be ready for me when I got to my room =) (A drug free delivery was NEVER in my plan!! However, like with Jeremiah, I refused to get one before 6 cm to get the most amt. of pain relief at the most crucial parts of labor, so I was quite happy to enter the hospital at my goal.) More questions were asked... most of which were answered by Louis since I was in pain, and phone calls were made by him as well. The triage nurse estimated that Evy would be there within 2-3 hours (it was around 5:30 pm by that point) and I was whisked off to my room, and only had about 20 min. before my best friend- aka the anesthesiologist showed up.

My epidural was in place by 6 pm, and my nurse told me she'd be back at 8:00 to check me. Around 20 min. or so after she left, I started having a really hard time breathing. It was like I could never catch my breath! I was having some sort of reaction to the epidural, which didn't happen last time. Thankfully, it was only affecting me and not the baby. My pulse and heart rate would go way up and then taper off to normal over and over again. Finally, the nurse had me lay on my side, gave me some oxygen, and by 8:00 I was somewhat stabalized, but I still kept the oxygen on. I was doing my best to rest, knowing that I was going to have a long night ahead of me, whether it be pushing or caring for a newborn, but I could NOT sleep. At 8:00 I was still 6 cm. dilated and the baby was very high- a -3 station. She also administered some pitocin to get my contractions going- they were still regularly every 2-3 min. but had yet to pick up the pace for duration. My water was also still in tact but bulging. The nurse had me switch sides every hour until 10:00 to try to lower her. At 10:00 she was a bit lower, I was at 7 cm and almost all the way thinned out. My nurse was about to break my water when all of a sudden it burst on its own- and she got out of the way from checking me JUST in time! When she came back at 10:30 to help me switch sides, I felt lots of pressure and the urge to push- something I never felt with Jeremiah, my epi was SO strong with him. She checked me and sure enough I was at 10 cm! She had me do a few practice pushes, and after two pushes she had me stop before she wound up delivering the baby! She called the doctor, and I was informed that my doctor was not going to be delivering me- he had switched on call shifts with a friend of his, Dr. Lopez, whom I had never met. This made a second delivery in which my OB did NOT deliver me =( The doctor said he would be at the hospital in 20 min, so we waited. And waited. And watched the Pairs Skating Finals on tv. The doctor was certainly taking his time, and I kept feeling tingling like I should push, so the nurse called in a resident just in case the baby started coming without me pushing. Finally, an hour later, the doctor showed up at 11:50 pm. By the time he gowned up, checked me and my stats, I was pushing around 11:57 or 11:58. Exactly at the stroke of midnight Evelynne Arlene Castillo was born, 7 pounds 8 oz, 19 1/2 inches. She was placed on my belly and I was basically in shock that she was here so easily and so effortlessly. I did not get to have Jeremiah on my belly and didn't get a peek at him for a few minutes, so I was so busy taking everything in. She was so cute and looked JUST like Jeremiah! Louis cut the cord and I got mended up (with WAY less damage this time around- a first degree tear compared to the THIRD DEGREE tear with him, and no episiotimy this time, yay!) . I thought I would cry when she was born like I did with JEremiah (tears of joy) but those didn't come until the next day. Yes I was THRILLED she was there, but for some reason the tears didn't come. After she was cleaned up, I let Louis be the first to hold her like I did with JEremiah, mostly because I could not stop shaking, which sometimes happens after delivery. Finally I got to hold my beauty and then nurse her- she fed for AN HOUR STRAIGHT. I couldn't get Jeremiah to nurse for anything until he was almost 3 weeks old! God answered that prayer! We finally brought the family in around 1:30 am. My parents, Joe, Lindsey, my mother in law, sister in law Lisa, her boyfriend Angel, and Louis's uncle Emmett were all there waiting to meet Evelynne Arlene,given her first name after a very sweet little old lady customer of Louis's, and given her middle name in memory of my grandma Arlene. I was in my room by 2:00 am, scarfed down a turkey sandwich, cookies and juice faster than I ever ate before from starvation, and tried my best to go to sleep while Louis and Evy were in the nursery. That did NOT happen. Finally she came back around 3:30. Louis asked if I wanted to hold her but I declined, not wanting to wake her up and for me to get sleep before I had to feed her again. The nurses let me sleep as long as I could, saying I could sleep til 7:00 am if I liked since she ate so well with me earlier. I got maybe an hour and a half of sleep, and I was up at 5:30, in such excitement and amazement that I had a daughter.

God has truly blessed me so much with her! I was really anxious for breastfeeding to go well this time around, and it has been picture perfect from the start. To this day, Evelynne will NOT take a pacifier and will hardly drink from a bottle. She's such an easy baby- very smiley, social, and does not mind at all being put down in her bouncer or playmat if I need to get something done or play wtih her brother. And Jeremiah thinks the sun rises and sets on his little sister. And she's a dream baby at night- in the beginning waking every 3-4 hours to feed and going RIGHT back to sleep. I don't even have to wait for her to fall asleep; I can put her down drowsy and she will go to sleep on her own. Now she basically only wakes up once before I have to get up =) Naps are a bit more of a challenge but still aren't as difficult as they were with Jeremiah.

So there you have it- the birth story of my beautiful little princess. And as it turns out, she really was right on time- I completely forgot until I delivered her that her original due date was February 15, which is when I went to the hospital with her! Had our doctor been on time to the hospital, she would have had that birthday rather than February 16. God is SO GOOD! Thank You for my perfect family!!

Easter Pictures!!

We took the kids to take their Easter pictures yesterday, and even though I'm completely, 100% biased, I'd say they came out extremely cute!! My mom and I went shopping for the kids Easter clothes on Saturday, and we couldn't make up our mind between two dresses for Evelynne, so we ended up buying both of them. However, we only had her wear one for her pictures. My sister in law Lindsey made her headband- that girl is extremely creative!! Hope you enjoy the pics of my gorgeous family!

Before I lose whatever readers I have...

I know I have been VERY absent lately. Lets face it, your priorities change BIG TIME when you have a new baby in the house. Whatever microscopic amount of free time I have is usually not spent at the computer- it's usually spent picking up the house or trying to scarf down a sandwich before one or both kids needs me. I do apologize!!

Baby Evy will be a month old on Tuesday. I can't believe how fast the time has flown- and how second nature it now seems to have two children to care for =) The first week of me being alone with both kids was TOUGH- especially considering we were having some work done in our back yard and jackhammers were going off for most of the afternoon. It turns out newborns do not like to nap (or stay happy) when big, loud machines are making tons of noise in their back yard. The second week was much easier, and now we're starting to develop a little bit of a routine! The "sleepless" nights aren't quite so sleepless- Evelynne is a pretty good night time baby. We all go to bed around 10:30, and usually she wakes up only two or three times to eat, and for the most part goes back to sleep as soon as she's finished her meal. We have been blessed! She is such a smiley, happy baby girl and is growing like crazy. And her big brother ADORES her. All day long all I hear is "Evy Evy Evy" and see him go to pat her head, give her a kiss or hold her hand. The jealousy has been minimal and is basically gone altogether.

I would love to write more, but Evy is due up from her nap any moment! I am working on writing out her birth story, so as soon as I have that finished I will post it on here, hopefully in a few days. Take care!! OH, and I didn't realize anonymous comments were turned off...I'm enabling them again. Show my blog some love, it's more fun to write when there is feedback!

Evelynne Arlene Castillo!

Born on Tuesday February 16th at exactly Midnight! (right after the pairs skating finals)
7 pounds 8 oz
19 1/2 inches

More to come later!

Four Days!

Man oh man, this little girl is already giving me gray hairs (err... I mean adding to the collection of gray hairs that I already have!) and she isn't even here yet! Let me tell you about the fun-filled week that I've had:

Ever since I got discharged from the hospital last Tuesday night, I've been having contractions on and off. Not just little ones, big ones! They have not been consistent enough to send me back to the hospital; however they have been plenty strong and consistent enough to keep me up most of the night in pain several nights in a row. I went to my doctor's appointment on Monday with high hopes that I would be well underway with dilation so that he could send me in for an induction- or at the very least, do a little something to get my labor going =) However, after two long hours waiting to even SEE my doctor (he got tushed away for an emergency c-section and then had a few patients before me to tend to), all he had to tell me was that while my cervix was beginning to soften, I was still completely CLOSED. UGH!!!! However, Dr. Melnik did tell me that he thinks the baby will be here by Friday. And she almost was...

I got home and immediately went to the restroom. That's when all the fun began- I started gushing bright red blood. I called my OB in a panic, thinking it could be the start of placenta previa. By that point, though, the gushing had slowed down to spotting so he told me to just monitor the baby's movement for a few hours, and if she wasn't making five kicks an hour to go in and get checked out. I thought all was well, until less than 10 min. later I started spouting out a little clot! That got me sent back to the hospital. I was scared out of my mind, thinking I was going to need a c-section or that something was wrong with the baby. Praise God, though, that everything turned out to be just fine- my cervix was just acting way sensitive from the exam I had that evening! And, when the nurse at the hospital checked me, I dilated to 1 cm! They monitored me for around an hour, and even though I was starting to contract, they sent me home. My contractions weren't long and regular enough to keep me, and they wanted me to labor at home as long as possible to avoid having a c-section, in case no progress was being made. They told me that I'd probably be back within 24 hours (ha...yeah... I'm still home 48 hours later!) Can you believe Louis wanted to wait until 2 1/2 men was over to go home?! I had to pry him away from our triage room and reassured him that the episode was being recorded on our DVR.

Yesterday (the day after the big blood scare) I was having tons of contractions all day long, and started waddling like the trees in the Lord of the Rings (Louis's words, not mine). I thought yesterday was going to be the day, but of course it was wishful thinking. I woke up this morning feeling absolutely fine once again. Tomorrow I have an ultrasound apt. to check the size of the baby, and I'm going to have the dr. check my progress again, just because =) I really hope my dr. was right about her coming by Friday, but I'll be thankful if she's here by my due date on Sunday! We'll see what happens.

10 Days!

Ten more days. T-E-N. Ten days til Valentines Day for you normal people who aren't carrying around a baby in their tummy. As for Louis and I, it is ten days until our precious daughter's due date! Not that a "due date" really means much, because hardly any babies are actually born on the predicted date. Take Jeremiah, for example. He was due on Thanksgiving Day 2007, November 22 (what is it with me conceiving babies who have due dates on holidays?!). November 22 came and went. As did the next 9 days that followed November 22, until December 2, the day he decided he had enough of Mommy's cozy belly and wanted to enter the big, bright world. So who knows when his little sister is going to make her grand entrance. Something always told me that Jeremiah was going to be at least a little late, so I wasn't too surprised that he didn't come right away. As for this little gal, I have thought all along that she would come early.

And she almost did.

Tuesday night started out as a wonderful evening here at the Castillo household. I finally made the corned beef that has been sitting in my freezer for a few months, and that I have been dying to make. It came out delicious. Louis and I curled up in front of the TV with our delicious dinner, and settled down to eat and watch the previous night's new episode of "2 1/2 Men" and that night's "American Idol." That's when all the fun began. I started getting lots of contractions- big, big contractions that wouldn't stop coming. Two hours later I was on the brink of tears, so I told Louis we better pack our hospital bag, just in case. The next day was laundry day, so most of the things we had to throw in the bag wasn't the cleanest. Anyway, I decided to call the dr. just to see what he wanted me to do- labor at home for a little longer, or go to the hospital. Judging from the fact that I was crying on the phone, he told me to get to the hospital ASAP. One hour later, after my mother in law arrived at our house to stay with Jeremiah, we made it to the hospital. And that's when everything stopped.

STOPPED.

All that pain, all that labor for nothing. Not just nothing- I didn't even begin to dilate a little! Not even a smidge! The nurses kept me for observation for the next 3 hours to see if anything would change, but nope- our daughter thought she played an excellent joke on Mommy and Daddy. We got to the hospital at 10:30 pm and walked through our door at 1:30 a.m.

I hate false alarms.

But what I hate even worse than false alarms are mommies that have to share my triage room, who come crying and practically screaming, and are already dilated to 7 cm, while I'm hooked up to a monitor, praying that those awful contractions that went away come back. Because massive pain sounded pretty good at that point.

We're 100 percent ready for this baby. In the past two weeks we had three fantastic baby showers. Our daughter has more clothes than she is probably going to be able to wear, tons of diapers for her little tushie, bottles, blankets, burp cloths, you name it she has it. Our hospital bag is re-packed, filled with plenty of clean clothes for us. Jeremiah's bag is packed as well. We have a bag of lunchables and snacks in our fridge for Louis to munch on when I'm laboring (something we didn't have on Tuesday night). We're all set and ready to go. I know I should take the next few days leading up to her birth enjoying the last days of having Jeremiah be an only child, of being able to nap when he naps, of having one independent kid to care for rather than a toddler and a needy newborn, of being able to sleep through the entire night. But I just want to hold her already!

Good news- I don't have any issues with my gallbladder or liver! The pain I've been having are because everything is extremely cramped right now, and my baby is pushing everything up into my ribs. The dr. said that because the pain is persistent all day long, rather than only after I eat, that I have "nothing to worry about." Well I guess that's good news... even though there's nothing I can do to make the pain go away! I suppose I'd rather be in pain all day long than receive medication for having a gallbladder or liver problem.

Today my mom and I are cooking up a storm so that my freezer will be nice and full of yummy things to eat when I come home from the hospital and don't feel like cooking. On the menu for today are: Spaghetti and meatballs (without the pasta- I"ll make that before I serve), chicken enchiladas, baked ziti, meatloaf, chicken brocolli and cheese casserole, and 15 bean soup. Lots of yummy things to eat so that I won't have to survive on Louis's cooking (aka constant take-out) until I'm back on my feet. I was rather spoiled last time when I had Jeremiah because Louis and I were (very temporarily until the tenants moved out of our house!) living with my parents, so pretty much I was waited on hand and foot by not only my loving husband but my parents and brother. My only job was to worry about recovering from my delivery and taking care of Jeremiah; all the cooking and cleaning was done by them, no questions asked =) This time around it will be our responsibility! Louis is going to take a week off of work after the baby comes and I'm so looking forward to it.

Tomorrow is 4 weeks til my due date!

Disneyland...with a two year old...by myself...one month away from my due date?!

WHAT THE HECK WAS I THINKING?!

Less than 10 minutes after my last post, my leg cramps, which have been absent for a few weeks, suddenly returned. Along with lots of cramps. And Braxton Hicks contractions (I think I was having false labor most of the afternoon? I had a ton of it with Jeremiah starting right around now, but he managed to stay inside me 10 days past my due date). Oh, and the crazy pain right underneath my left rib, which hasn't gone away in two months. I thought it was heartburn; it turns out I might have a gallbladder or liver issue brought on by my pregnancy. FUN! We'll find out more about that on Friday at my doctor's appointment. Oh and did I mention how low the baby is? Which makes walking around WITHOUT carrying Jeremiah harder than normal?

In short, I will NOT be taking Jeremiah to Disneyland tomorrow. No way Jose. Maybe I"ll take him to the playground this weekend. With Louis. Jeremiah isn't capable of understanding that our season pass expires next week, or that we won't be going again until the fall. With his baby sister. In other words, he'll never know what he's missing out on.

I'm so glad that Louis's only "trip" this week is a local one, not requiring him to be gone overnight.

5 more weeks

...and so much left to do to get ready for my princess. SO MUCH. My biggest concern is spending as much one on one time as possible with Jeremiah before the big day arrives, because once his little sister is here, he will not only be spending a few days away from home with his grandparents, but he will no longer have my undivided attention once he is home. How in the world am I going to manage having two small children?! I hear that the transition from having one child to two children is the hardest transition to make for any parent. Oy.

Our Disneyland pass expires on the 21st (next week). I know I said there was no way I was going to be bringing Jeremiah back there before our pass expired, but I am kind of tempted to take him for just an hour or two TOPS on Wednesday, just for one last special mommy-son outing. I would bring our lightweight umbrella stroller rather than his big, comfy (and bulky) travel system, and forego a back pack by cramming a few diapers, a munchie and small toy in my purse so I won't have that extra weight to tote around. We'd do his favorite things (It's a Small World, Dumbo, Goofy's playground, Winnie the Pooh and Pirates of the Caribbean) and head on home. If I feel up to it on Wednesday morning I think we'll do it. If not- oh, well.

Anyway, the things left on my to-do list before the Big Day are as follows:
*Organize the baby's room, which entails:
-Wash all hand-me-down clothes and blankets
-Separate clothing according to size.
-Figure out organizational system for dresser drawers
-Create an organized storage method for all clothes beyond 3 months sizes
-Sterilize Jeremiah's old infant toys (does anyone know if it is safe to put plush rattles and squeak toys in the washing machine, or will it ruin the sound effects?)
-Assemble Jeremiah's Rainforest Mobile; replace batteries and hang on her crib

*Purchase and assemble curtains for her room. Order an extra window valence that matches her crib set (it came with one; we need two)

*After all baby showers are over on January 31st (I am having three- what a blessed mama I am!), make a list of necessities that still need to be purchased and go shopping! Things I still need as of right now are fresh bibs, wash cloths, hooded towels, baby wash, nighttime bubble bath, socks, pacifiers and bottles (I'm planning on nursing as long as possible, but for those times when Grandma and Grandpa will watch her, or I feel like letting Louis take a turn at the nighttime feedings I will need new bottles. I fell in love with Sydney's Born Free and Dr. Brown's!). All of these things are standard new baby necessities that every new mama needs, no matter how many kiddos you have.

*Make lots of meals to freeze for when I come home from the hospital and don't feel like cooking. My mom is going to help me with this task this weekend =)

*Deep clean my entire house! We are considering splurging on having a housekeeper come a week before my due date because God knows I won't be up to doing this, and I don't think Louis has ever scrubbed the bathroom before.

*Stock up on basic household necessities so my grocery shopping trips will be shorter and less frequent when she arrives- lots of toilet paper, paper towels, paper plates/cups/cutlery (to minimize dishwashing the first few weeks she is home), toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, cleaning supplies, and lots of nonperishable foods- oatmeal, pasta/rice a roni, cereals, bottled water, frozen veggies, etc.

I have a doctor's appointment this Friday and I believe that I will be seeing my doctor on a weekly basis from now until my delivery! We're definitely on countdown!!