Castillo Family, Party of 5!

On March 28, 2014, after a roller coaster third trimester, Miss Abigail Elizabeth entered the world!  She is the perfect final addition to our family.  As I did with Jeremiah and Evelynne, I want to document her birth story- so bear with me, this is going to be long, as it requires a lot of back tracking.

On January 21, approx 30 weeks along, I went in for what was supposed to be my mid-point ultrasound (10 weeks late because we were waiting on insurance issues to be squared away).  Our baby looked so adorable!  I was expecting to hear about the baby's position being questionable- I strongly suspected the baby was transverse for around two months.  The baby wasn't transverse at the time, but was breech, and was expected to flip before long.  We could deal with this.  What we weren't expecting was to walk away from this ultrasound with me being put on bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy.  The baby was measuring a week behind overall in development, and the measurements of the baby's abdomen were measuring two weeks behind.  The lack of development is known as Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR), something I had never heard of.  The disproportionate growth is what landed me on bed rest.  The dr suspected that my over activity from all the running around I have to do with Jeremiah and Evy both being in school, and Jeremiah's therapy, plus Luis working so much caused this to happen, and the bed rest was supposed to help plump the baby back up.  I wasn't completely confined to the bed or couch, but on orders to stay off my feet as much as I possibly could.  I was really blessed with my parents stepping up from day one of this diagnosis , spending 3-4 nights a week at my house helping out with everything from shuttling the kids home from school, to cooking and cleaning for me so that I could focus on being a couch potato.  This diagnosis got my visits with my OB bumped up from 36 weeks to immediately (Normally you don't see the OB at my practice until the last 4 weeks, you see a nurse practitioner til then), plus in depth ultrasounds every other week, and NST 2x a week.  I was very busy, and very sick of dr appointments by the end of my pregnancy.  Thankfully though, the baby started plumping up around 36 weeks.  

We also had a slight scare the week after I got put on bed rest, thinking my water had broken.  I had a huge gush of clear, sticky, watery fluid and was told to come in to the hospital immediately.  Thank GOD it wasn't my water  (we still don't know what it was!)

I also started losing my mucus plug at 34 weeks, something that didn't happen until 24 hours before labor with Jeremiah, and 2 hours before labor with Evy.  This made me very nervous, as preterm delivery is a big side effect of IUGR.  I was losing huge globs every 2-3 days up until the day I finally delivered (at 39w3d!)  

At my 36 week ultrasound, Luis and I showed up with our car packed to head straight to the hospital if needed, as that was the earliest the ultrasound specialist said he would deliver me if growth wasn't plumping up.  However, the baby finally started to show a significant change of growth- but threw another curve ball at us.  The umbilical cord was wrapped 2x around the neck, causing my NST to be upped to 3x a week from 2x.  

On March 19, at my 38 week ultrasound,  I got the happy news that the baby was finally at 6 pounds 15 oz (approximately) and that bed rest was no longer necessary.   I celebrated by spending two hours at Target and walking laps around the dog park across the street for an hour.  The next day, I thought all of this activity had put me into labor- I was contracting hard, felt like I was going to throw up, and more.  Turns out it was the start of a stomach virus (thank you kids!), and I spent part of that night and 12 hours the next day in L&D as well as the ER , trying to stop the early labor that had started and keeping me hydrated.  I was in NO position to deliver a baby at that point even though I was full term , 2 cm and 50% effaced.  

On March 27, at 39w2d, I had two appointments- my NST as well as an OB appointment.  That morning, I posted on Facebook that I was hoping it would be my last day of double doctor appointments- not anticipating how true this would turn out to be.  My NST went pretty poorly.  The baby was very sluggish and just BARELY passed the NST.  This coupled with the cord wrapped around the neck earned me a one way ticket to Labor and Delivery for an induction.  The sluggishness could have been from me being sick the week prior, or running out of space with my due date the following week, or from the cord. The doctors didn't want to wait to see if the problem was going to get worse or not.  I was very nervous and somewhat in a state of shock.  It was never my plan to ever have an induction.  I was given my induction papers, gave Maria, my NST lady, a big hug, and left to meet my dad across the street from the hospital to give him the kids car seats .

 Since there was no big rush to induce, and since I hadn't eaten a thing for breakfast, I stopped inside Vons to grab a quick bite - some soup and bananas- and then drove myself across the street to the hospital.  Yes, I drove myself and checked myself in alone, since Luis was coming from Ontario an hour away and was planning on stopping home to pick up a few things that didn't make it into our hospital bag.  It was extremely strange being admitted without being in labor, and even more strange not showing up with Luis.   He showed up shortly after I got gowned and placed in a triage room.  In the tradition of all of my births, my OB was NOT on call for my delivery.  Thankfully, the doctor that was on call was VERY open to me trying to get things started without the use of pitocin unless as a last resort.  I was 3 cm dilated, 75 percent effaced, and a -2 station.  Since I was somewhat contracting on a regular basis (but not to the point of me being in any sort of discomfort), he wanted to give me two hours to see if things kicked into gear without any intervention.  Those two hours passed with me answering tons of questions for admittance, several failed attempts at getting an IV in my arm- with the success resulting in a geyser of blood (ouch!), Luis and I watching TV, and me sneaking his labor snacks (I was supposed to be on a liquid only diet- that wasn't even close to being satisfying!).

When the time period passed and I obviously was not in labor, the doctor came in to strip my membranes.  I was all for having my very first epidural free delivery until that point- stripping my membranes felt like the dr shoved his entire fist inside of me to scrape my cervical region.  OMG the pain! I was cursing like a sailor and telling Luis that there was no way I was going to go without an epidural (more on that later).  After I recovered from that horrific ordeal, I dragged Luis to the hallways to walk laps with me for an hour.  I power walked quite briskly for someone who was 39 weeks pregnant, determined to get things going without the dreaded pitocin.   Luis joined me for half of it, then wound up crashing in the waiting room to watch TV and enjoy treats from the vending machine.  I didn't care, I was a momma on a mission and he was slowing me down!  Anyway, the walking didn't put me in labor either, but did succeed in lowering the baby to a 0 station.  LOW!

Remember how I said I was planning on trying for an epi free delivery? Well, shortly before going on bed rest, I hired Jessica, a student doula, to assist me in my labor.  She's such a sweet heart and quite possibly the world's greatest cheer leader for a mom trying to go without pain meds.  We had been texting through out the day as to when she should come.  She finally arrived at the hospital around 6 pm , as to avoid traffic for when I did finally go into labor.  Since nothing was going on yet, and we were waiting at that point for Dr. Wong to get out of a C Section to break my water, she went to hang out in the cafeteria to give Luis and I some alone time.  I was also in correspondence with my sister in law, Lindsey (who is now pregnant with my little niece Rachel!). She was at my house with my mom, mother in law, Jacob, sister in law Lisa and her boyfriend Angel.  I was unsuccessfully trying to convince the grandmas that there was no need to come to the hospital that night since my induction hadn't even began yet, and who knew how long labor would take. Trying to convince two grandmas to stay away from the hospital is darn near impossible, LOL.  My dad wound up taking the kids back to his house so the grandmas could be there for the meet and greet.

My water was broken by 8:00, and the first round of HELL (AKA Pitocin) by 8:30.  Somewhere around 9:00 we let Jessica back in.  Contractions started coming uncomfortably within 10  minutes of the pitocin being turned on.  They were coming steadily every 1-2 min, even though they only lasted 30 seconds or so.  I was miserable in the bed right from the beginning.  I spent quite a bit of time switching from swaying and sitting on the toilet.  The baby was so low that even sitting in the bed was miserable.  They increased my pitocin, much to my dismay, about 30 min later.  Thats when the real misery began.  I felt like I was going to vomit, even from Luis' touch or the heat of his body.  Jessica's cheer leading was becoming less comforting and more annoying by the minute.  I didn't even want her , let alone Luis, touching me to provide relief with massage.  Even though I was trying my hardest to talk myself out of an epidural because of a BAD reaction to my prior one with Evy (my heart rate was sky rocketing , making me out of breath, for almost two hours, plus I got a bad rash), I just couldn't take it any more.  I kept setting mental time goals of how much longer to make it without one, not expecting to be progressing very quickly (even though the pain was practically unbearable), but around 10:45 (I think) I asked to be checked.  I was 5 cm- 1 cm less than my minimum goal for an epidural with Jeremiah and Evy.  I didn't care- I yelled that I wanted an epidural.  I was adamant.  And I was furious that I was told I had a 45 minute wait to get one- between finishing the necessary bag of fluids needed to have one, and waiting for the anesthesiologist.  Jessica didn't try to talk me out of the epidural at first- I'm sure she figured she had 45 minutes to talk me out of it.  I spent a good deal of time just siting by myself in the dark bathroom, just wanting some space from her and Luis (he wasn't getting on my nerves, but I felt like I was going to throw up just being next to him) or sitting on the edge of my bed.  Finally, the anesthesiologist came.  Jessica said she could tell I was very close and asked if I wanted to be checked before the epidural- I yelled out NO!  Just being checked was agony.  I was so glad to get the epidural- and when they checked me as soon as the epidural was in, I was 8 cm.  8!!!  So close!  Within 10 minutes of my epidural kicking in I felt the urge to push- and sure enough, not only was I 10 cm , but TONS of hair was already sticking out.  She was coming out without any effort from me, and I had to will my body not to push while the dr came in .  We let Jessica come back in for the delivery, and two contractions later Abigail Elizabeth was born- 6 pounds 12 oz, 20 1/2 inches of perfection, at 12:14 am on March 28- my father in law's birthday :) FOUR HOURS TOTAL from the time they broke my water (the official start of the induction) to the time of her birth.  I remember in the midst of my misery thinking that I wish I could just enjoy the birth of my final child like I did my first two, and the epidural allowed me that.  And I had no reaction to it this time!  She had quite a bit of fluid that needed suctioning , so after initially placing her on my tummy she was taken to the baby table to be suctioned and cleaned up.  I remember feeling so odd having her out of my tummy.  After she was all cleaned up, and I stopped shaking enough to hold her, I got to do some skin to skin and breast feed her.  My girl has breast fed like a champ right from the start :)  We let our family in an hour or so later for a very quick meet and greet, and then went to our room.

We stayed in the hospital a total of 3 nights.  Jeremiah and Evy came to visit her that afternoon, and had nothing but enthusiasm and adoration for their little sister right from the start.  A memory I will always treasure.  Another memory from the day of her birth- earthquakes!  The epicenter was in La Habra, really close to our Whittier house (and even closer to my in laws house, where several windows and lots of posessions broke).  We felt it at the hospital too.  I had my tubes tied on Saturday the 29th.  I am so glad that my birth had next to no recovery (Very minimal tearing/stitches- didn't even need the spray or witch hazel pads, or ice packs!) because my tube tying recovery was NOT fun.  We left on Sunday the 30th around 5 pm (thanks to running her Jaundice labs) and were welcomed home by the kids, my parents, Joe and Lindsey.

Abigail has been such a delight to have in our family.  She is one month old today.  I will be posting more about our wonderful daughter sometime later this week.  Thanks for reading!!  

24 Weeks

24 weeks and Baby Castillo #3 is growing, growing, growing!  I am really enjoying how active he or she has been- and now I"m able to see movement on my belly rather than just feeling it :)  We still don't know if #3 is a boy or a girl, and still don't have any plans on finding out until D-Day, but I have to say my curiosity is starting to get the best of me.  I'm starting to get hunches, but I will keep those to myself for now as well :)

Now that I'm starting to look pregnant, (I actually had a few moms at Jer's school tell me they finally believe I"m pregnant this week!), I'm really starting to FEEL pregnant, beyond the first trimester queasy, tired etc.  Those not-so-fun calf cramps have returned, shortness of breath, major heartburn when driving (or even sitting in the car for more than 10 min at a time), difficulty bending (wrapping presents is getting difficult), and the oh-so-sad knowledge that no matter how much I try to convince myself that a lot of my pre-pregnancy clothes still fit, reality is sinking in that they just don't.  

Preparations for #3 are under way as well- we bought a mini van last week!  A 2002 Honda Oddessy.  I remember just the thought of having to buy a larger vehicle was one of the things that was stressing me to the point of sheer panic the day before I tested positive, but with God's guidance we did it- and it was a piece of cake :)  We (well, rather, I!) have also decided to go the cloth diapering route this time around - at least when I'm the one in charge during the day.  I have a feeling we will do disposables at night, and definitely when Luis is in charge or if we have a baby sitter.  At any rate, I"m looking forward to all the cute, brightly colored fluff that will be covering our baby's tushie!!!

Surprise!

14 Weeks with #3

On August 13, the day before Jeremiah started kindergarten, we got quite the surprise!  A third little munchkin is going to join our family!  Luis and the kids were very excited right from the start; it took a few extra days for the shock to wear off for me but now I am on the thrilled bandwagon as well :)  I am due on April 7, 2014.  Just like with Jeremiah, we don't intend on finding out the gender of this munchkin.  We figured we started this pregnancy off with a surprise,  and we started off our family not knowing gender, so we might as well end the final chapter of our family with a surprise gender reveal as well! With Jeremiah I knew right away he was a boy, but so far God is answering my prayers about being clueless as to what is growing inside of me.  We have names finalized (something we did NOT have until a week before Jeremiah was born, but we kept our girl name for Evy), but are keeping up with our tradition of not disclosing those names until D-Day.  If we ever leaked to you what Evy was going to be named if she was a boy, we have completely changed our choices.  

Anyway, I know I have been keeping up with this blog maybe once a year (although I certainly still keep up reading blogs!) but since I actively blogged for both Jeremiah and Evelynne's pregnancies, I am going to keep this blog up again- if not for an audience, but for my own notes.  I love re reading my entries from my pregnancies, childbirth experiences, and babyhood of each of my kids.  

Speaking of which, here are Evy and Jeremiah the day before I found out about #3, on our very last trip to Disneyland before our passes expired- and will not be renewed for a few years at least.  They are now 3 1/2 and almost 6.  I'm shaking my head at how fast the years go by- I'm looking forward to little baby snuggles come Easter!!  

A HUGE Sigh of Relief

Yesterday we got some pretty amazing news.  Evy officially does not have Autism!  Because she receives early intervention services thru the Regional Center, she qualified for a psychological evaluation.  Even though I was fairly certain she doesn't have it, it was still very reassuring to hear it from a professional.  The psychologist did tell us that Evy does have a phonological disorder (trouble pronouncing certain sounds- ex she calls kitties "titties") and so he is recommending that our school district continue to give her speech therapy.  He is confident that within a year it will become a non issue, but since her pronunciation is pretty off on several sounds and not just a little here and there, he is recommending therapy sooner rather than waiting waiting til she gets older if she doesn't grow out of it.

In addition to testing for autism, the psychologist also ran some other tests, and told us that Evy's cognitive and social skills fall in the "gifted" range, and that even with her speech issues, she tested for speech at the absolute top of "normal" and will be "gifted" once her speech clears up.  Already he's talking to us about considering gifted programs for her when she reaches 2nd or 3rd grade if she seems bored in class!  Lots to think about....

This past year.....

September 2012

So much has happened this past year!! I always have the best intention of blogging, and definitely love keeping up on everybody else's blogs, but between having two kids in preschool at different locations , and Jeremiah having nearly 20 hours a week of in home therapy after school, plus all the usual day to day tasks of being a mom and a wife, I just have not been motivated to sit down and write.  So in the off chance that I actually still have readers , here's what we've been up to the past year:

Moving Day- July 20- last pic in our Whittier house

As a family.....

*We moved from Whittier to Altadena in July.  We now live in my grandparents' old house .  We absolutely LOVE IT!! It's in the foothills of the mountains, right next to a trail, and has a big stretch of grass across the street going down hill.  There's so much wildlife here- we see squirrels and a variety of birds every time we look outside, plus flocks of peacocks and even coyotes.  Everybody walks their dogs across the street too, so that's fun for the kids to see.  The move was a surprisingly easy adjustment for the kids, which was an answer to prayer.  I think its helped that we moved to a house that they were already familiar with . 

*Luis and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary two days after the big move.  We went to Vegas for 4 nights at 3 am following our move.  It was great to have some uninturrupted time together, relax, and watch Jerry Seinfeld live :)

*In fact... today is the 11th anniversary of us entering a relationship, and the 9th anniversary of our engagement! We still celebrate this anniversary by going out to dinner.  Any excuse for romance and nostalgia :) 

*Have gained a nephew and baby cousin! Lindsey gave birth to Micah Clark on February 21.  We absolutely love our little guy, and it's so cute to see the kids play with him.  

Cal Poly Pumpkin Patch 

Jeremiah....

*Will be 5 years old on Dec 2.  So hard to believe that this week 5 years ago I had my last day of work (substitute teaching and tutoring) and haven't looked back!

*Started his final year of preschool in September- next year kindergarten! 

*Is improving by leaps and bounds verbally, behaviorally and socially.  Just today I witnessed him initiate play with a classmate at the park- something I've only dreamed about before!

*Loves his sister to pieces- and she loves him equally. They are best buds

*Loves playing with marbles, bubbles, his iTouch, going to the park, Disneyland-and riding all the big rides!, chasing our dog, and anything to do with  birthday cakes and candles.

Evy is....

*Loving every moment of preschool! Because of Jeremiah's autism, she qualified for early intervention preschool for kids under 3 just to be on the safe side.  However, any little question marks we have had about her possibly having autism have gone out the window.  She's a very verbal, very social little gal!   

*Loves her brother to pieces.  She loves dressing him up just as much as she loves playing tackle football with him :) 

*Loves to sing.  All day, every day.  In the car, in her crib during naptime, while she's playing, you name it.  And if she's not singing she's talking.  nonstop.  My little chatterbox

*Loves to read, which I'm sooooo excited about because I'm definitely a reader too! Her favorites are Dr. Seuss books and Eric Carle books.  

*Wants to do everything that Jeremiah does... even if it's climbing up those scary ladders and rock climbing walls at the park.  And she does it so well! 

*a veggie-holic.  She loves vegetables to pieces.  Seriously, what two year old has to be told she can't have her veggies until she finishes her mac n cheese??? 

Adventures in Undies, Day 1

Evelynne is really interested in Jeremiah's potty training. She loves watching him go and has been asking to "go pee pee" on the toilet the past few days. She hasn't actually made a movement in the toilet, but her willingness to sit on it is a step in the right direction.

Anyway, I decided to buy her her own little undies today, because Jeremiah started learning the quickest how to control his bladder when I let him run around in underwear. Evy was THRILLED to pieces to have her own undies. She spent 20 min playing with them in the cart at Target (and I was a nice mommy and didn't take pictures of her pink Yo Gabba Gabba undies on her head!). I put them on her at home, and within 2 minutes I hear her start to cry "oh no, yucky yucky!" with tears streaming down her face. Yup, she had an accident. Poor baby! Later on that afternoon she brought me another pair of her undies, excited to try again. The same thing happened again less than 2 minutes later. Oh well, she'll get the hang of it soon enough :) If Luis had it his way, she'd stay in diapers forever, because "she's a baby, and babies wear diapers." She will always be my baby....but I can't wait for our diaper expense to be cut! It's already gone down a bit with Jeremiah being in undies only when we're at home, but at night and out in public he's still in pull ups.

My Crazy Kiddos!

I am so excited to be blogging again! It is great getting back into the swing of things. I especially love it when my readers reply to my entries even anonymously. I know it seems like all I write about are my kiddos... but they are my life! As a stay home mom, (who is actually now a work at home mom- more on that later!), Jeremiah and Evelynne occupy every moment of every day for me. Whether it be playing with them, teaching them, getting things ready for an outing/meal/bath/bedtime/etc. or thinking ahead for the next outing/meal/bath/bedtime/etc. So, apologies are in order if I have nothing but my babies to write about :)

Today I'm going to be doing a quick "catch up" on the kiddos- how they're growing and what they've been up to!

Jeremiah Luis

Jeremiah has been my busy bee! He has been in preschool since his third birthday (Dec. 2). He absolutely LOVES school. He goes 5 days a week, 4 hours a day. Last year he was in an autistic class at Maizeland Preschool, and adored his teacher, Ms. Lincoln, and even made a few little friends. This year things are switching up a bit- he will be in a special needs class with kids of various disabilities, and 3x a week "typical" peers are brought in to work on social skills. Luis is excited because his preschool class is on the same campus as his old elementary school, Aeolian. He starts on Tuesday!

Jeremiah is such an active little boy, always on the go. He loves playing outside, getting dirty,and playing in the water (give him access to the sprinklers or the hose and he's a happy camper, or better yet, take him swimming!). He loves watching TV (what kid doesn't?!) Favorites include Toy Story 1 and 3, the Leapfrog DVDs (he knows ALL his letters and their sounds, and can count to and ID all numbers up to 20), Special Agent Oso, Sesame Street, and Finding Nemo. He also loves, loves LOVES birthdays. Birthday cakes, birthday parties, birthday presents, and especially candles on birthday cakes. He loves to find things around our house (ex: my hair brush), pretend it is a cake with candles, sing the birthday song, blow the candles out and cheer. I can't wait for his 4th birthday- he's going to have a blast.

For the past two weeks we have intensively been working on potty training my big boy. He's done SO good with it! His accidents are minimal (if at all) for #1! We have him in undies if he's at home or at my mom's house; pull ups are only for long outings and overnight. #2 is another story...but we're working on it :) I swear if he poops in the toilet I'll buy him a Lexus :) In the beginning we were giving him pieces of ice cream sandwich as an incentive for going #1, and on the second day, Evy caught on to this and was cheering him on when he was sitting on the toilet. She got up in his face and yelled "pee! pee!!" So cute. He's absolutely fine now with just verbal praise (although my princess misses her ice cream!) On Thursday Jeremiah had a big break through and went 3 times at Disneyland- he has yet to use a toilet other than ours and my moms until then. Yay!! Only a mother would get more excited about 3 pees in the toilet at Disneyland than renewing passes :)

Evelynne Arlene

I jokingly refer to this as Evelynne's "Am I pretty?" picture, taken purely by coincidence as she was stretching while I was trying to get her to smile for the camera. At 18 1/2 months, Evelynne is already such a girly girl. She loves playing mommy to her stuffed animals and dolls, carrying around her purse and putting things in it, playing with Little People (or other little figurines), coloring (everywhere. the walls. our sliding back door. the bed frame in our play room. and sometimes coloring books). And...as of today...she adores getting her nails done. She found a bottle of nail polish, ran over to me, plopped her self in my lap, handed me the nail polish and told me "okay!!!" She was thrilled to get pink toes! She wasn't a huge fan of getting her nails done before (I've painted them a few times) but this time she loved it- and sat still for almost all of it :) She also loves looking at the pretty dresses and Disney/Princess emblem clothing when we're out shopping...and thank goodness I have enough self restraint not to buy every pretty thing she sees and tries to grab for! Although I am very excited that she's just about outgrown all of her 18 month clothing so it's time to go SHOPPING soon! She'll finally get the Rapunzel shirt and PJs she's been eyeing.

Evelynne loves playing with Jeremiah, and saying "hi" to almost every kid she sees when we are out- picking up Jeremiah, at the park, etc. She prefers kids Jeremiah's size and up to kids her age, but she's getting better at socializing with them, too. One of her regular playmates, Ian, is a few months younger than Evelynne and therefore is smaller than her- and she has gotten very jealous on a few occasions where I have picked him up and held him. I'm praying this phase passes before February, when their first BABY COUSIN, Micah is born! That's right- I'm going to be an AUNTIE for the first time! My brother Joe and his wife Lindsey are expecting their first child, a boy, due just 5 days after Evy's 2nd birthday.

Evy has been a chatter box for a long time now. Her vocabulary well exceeds the expected vocabulary of a typical 18 month old. I think the norm is 6 words, according to books and her pediatrician, but I can't even count how many words she knows- and small phrases. All day long I'm hearing her talk, and now starting to link words together, rather than just standard phrases like "oh boy", "oh no," "all done," etc. As wrong as it is to compare your children, I think it's fun to see how a "typical" kid develops linguistically versus Jeremiah (who I am equally as proud of! It's just that the spot she is at right now is where he was at when he was 2 1/2 , almost 3). It's the cutest thing ever!

My Princess Met a Princess!

It's no secret that my kids and I love to go to Disneyland. A lot. I got my first pass when Jeremiah was 13 months old, and renewed it last September when he was almost 3 and Evy 6 months old. Originally I wasn't going to get my pass til closer to Evelynne's first birthday, but Jeremiah's OT recommended we get him one so that he could get used to being around big crowds, loud noises, and become desensitized to lots of flashing lights/colors/etc. You didn't have to ask me twice! I got the most basic pass you could get (which still cost an arm and a leg!), that only lets you go weekdays only during non peak seasons and is blocked out the rest of the time. I kid you not, when the pass isn't blocked out we are usually there at least once a week, sometimes twice (and once I think 3 time in one week!). Luis didn't get a pass because too much Disney and him do not mix, but next week he will be getting one :) We usually only went for the afternoon, and almost always met a friend or two there for play dates. Both of my kids absolutely adore going. And now that Evelynne is getting older, more aware of her surroundings and more verbal she knows exactly where we are headed! In fact, we pulled into the parking lot today and she yelled out "Oh boy! Minnie!" before you could even see ANYTHING Disney related; just the boring parking structure. I think I'm in trouble :)

Jeremiah's OT was right- getting the pass has worked wonders for him. Definitely the best money I have ever spent! Some of my friends and family are in a state of shock that I think it's way easier to take both my kids to Disneyland for the afternoon, just me and them without any help, than to the playground for 30 min. I laid down the law very firmly and VERY early on that you always always hold my hand, stay put, do not run, etc. and it has worked beautifully. Now that Evy is very mobile things are getting a little trickier, but she has always been better at holding hands, staying put and listening than Jeremiah was in the earlier years. So far so good.

The picture to the right was taken today with Ariel- Evelynne's first time meeting a princess! I think she liked her.

Catching Up on Growing Up

Nearly a year has passed since the urge to blog has come. I used to blog a heck of a lot more when Jeremiah was small, and when I was pregnant with Evelynne. I had the best intentions of blogging last year, during her first year of life, but in the beginning I had the fall back excuse of "I'm so busy with having a newborn and a toddler!" Then as the year went on and Evelynne required less demands of me, the demands required of me from Jeremiah were growing so much more. Things that should have become easier as he grew up got increasingly harder, and were not getting easier. Last year was supposed to be one of the happiest years of my life- gaining another child, especially the daughter I dreamed of and prayed for so long and so hard for (especially after a failed pregnancy), Luis and I were doing well financially, and Jeremiah was growing up... yet it was one of the darkest times for me. One that I really had no desire to blog about.

I believe I posted that Jeremiah started receiving speech therapy and occupational therapy when he was 21 months old (September 2009). I went into his speech therapies thankful for the services provided for him, but thinking that he would "blossom" and not need the therapies within six months. I was wrong. I had a gut feeling deep down from the moment his pediatrician even suggested that I look into interventions for him that something bigger might be wrong with him than being a "late bloomer," and that feeling turned into stress. And fear. (Because what parent actually wants something to be wrong with their child?) And my worst fears were confirmed on October 5, 2010, when my precious Jeremiah was diagnosed with a high functioning form of autism. It was not something I wanted to talk about, let alone blog about. Only a small handful of friends and even family members knew for the first few months. But now that nearly a year has passed since the diagnosis, I am finally able to talk about everything with confidence and pride, not discouragement, depression and anxiety. I've had to take baby steps- talking about it first with friends and family, then talking about it here and there on Facebook, and now actually journaling about it. It's not a secret anymore. I never wanted it to be a secret, but for a long time it wasn't something I could really talk about without tearing up. It's one thing to mention casually to someone in person or on Facebook about Jeremiah's interventions or progress; it's another to actually tell its story. And I'm ready to start telling our story again- because I truly miss capturing my children's childhood in words. So I'm back... I'm going to start blogging again :) The pictures above were taken just yesterday. Jeremiah is going to be four years old in just a little over 3 months, and Evelynne just turned 18 months old. I can't wait to continue sharing our story...but for tonight this is plenty for me. Stay tuned for more!

Sibling Rivalry is Sinking In!

Jeremiah has gone from doting older brother to pesky older brother overnight. Gone are the days where he runs up to hug and kiss Evelynne all day long. Yes, he still hugs and kisses her; however it is usually after he takes a toy from her and makes her cry, and we scold him.

This morning, my sneaky little son truly amazed me. I saw him toss his basketball into his bedroom. He knew Evelynne would chase right after it, and sure enough, she crawled at breakneck speed into his bedroom. I saw the little guy grin, shut his door and yell "bye bye, Evy! Bye bye, Evy!", knowing that my poor little princess would not be able to get out.

One thing is for sure...kids with autism are SMART and CLEVER!

Kids...

Thank goodness my daughter is no pushover! She is going to need every assertive bone in her body!

Happy New Year!!!

New Years Resolution #1: Get back to blogging!! No matter how short the post may be, i want to make it a goal to update at least once a week. The past five months have been absolutely insane in my household, with lots of family changes taking place not only in our personal lives but also in our daily routines, so come the end of a very long and stressful day, the thought of blogging was absolutely not appealing to me at all. Time to get back into the swing of things. I certainly miss writing about my beautiful family! So keep your eyes posted for a few big updates very soon- there are a bunch of things I want to get off my chest :) Happy New Year!! (BTW- those huge kids you see sitting in our laps are now 3 years old and 10 1/2 months old!)

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!