Look Who Turned 5 Months This Week

My little man!!! He's so big and so much fun. He has become a pro at rolling around everywhere I put him. We're working on sitting up longer, but once he sees his feet he goes at them. He goes crazy when he sees me after a long day without me. He laughs uncontrollably and get this, he makes scary noises. Yes you heard me right, scary noises! It's so freakin' cute. I have a short video of him growling I'll post it this weekend.
My chunky monkey was also featured baby of the day on Fox 11 morning news a few weeks ago, twice.
LC got his 20 seconds of fame.

4 Months Today

Yes LC has turned yet another month!! I ask myself where is the time going? It was just like yesterday LC was born and he looked like this

and look at him now

he's a skater boy! Now that I'm back to work I feel like it's going to go by even faster. I just hope that I don't miss too much of his first time happenings. Last Sat I got to witness him turning from his tummy to his back. R and me were so freaking excited. Then today I got to witness him turning from his back to his tummy. So far I'm not missing any "first times", yet. Last week I also started him with a tiny bit of Rice cereal. At first I thought he was going to dislike it, but no. Not once did he push out the cereal, on the other hand he slurped it. We were amazed at how much he liked it. 

He's also trying to sit on his own. When we have him in a laying down position in our arms he is always pulling himself up for us to sit him up. He HAS to up because he wants to know what's going on around him at all times. I tried to sit him up on his own and he did good for a few seconds. After that he was going forward or to the sides. Lastly, picking him up after work is such a joy. He gets so happy and gives me a big smile. He kicks and bounces in his bouncer waiting for me to pick him up. LC is so hilarious!! That is what I look forward to everyday.  

Back To Work!

After having almost 20 weeks off this was the day I was dreading, going back to work. I began to feel the anxiety sinced last month because I couldn't believe that my time with LC was coming to an end. 

Last month I began to look around for daycare centers, but in the area I needed LC to be was inpossible. I was only able to find a whole lot of home daycare centers. I looked at every single one in the area and not one I felt comfortable with.  At the end I decided to leave LC with a niece who decided to be a SAHM. So as my first day of work was quickly approaching, I started to feel so sad. I cried and cried. Hubby assured me that he will be o.k. and I will be o.k. On Tuesday I ended up getting to work late because I was having a really hard time leaving him. My sister in law happened to be off from work so she was there to assist her daughter in law with LC. There was no sense to even wear make up because it all came off within a half hour. I couldn't stop crying. My sister thought it was funny, but whatever. 

I was able to get over it and each day was better, long, but better. I always looked forward to coming home to my family, but this time we have LC in the picture. Since I'm still BFing him it's our catching up time.

LC is a thumb sucker since day one. I think it's so cute!

 

A Quick Post

I haven't posted an entry in awhile, so much as been going on. First, LC is now 3 months and 11 days old.

 

Before our trip my mom got to meet LC a week before. She needed to come into L.A. for a few days, but it was a bittersweet visit though. But before I get to that part here's a little on our trip.

Our plan ride was 3 hours long and LC was so super good going and coming back. The only bad thing was that we had a 4 hour delay in L.A. and a 1 hour delay in Arkansas. Despite all that LC didn't loose his cool. Here's daddy and LC when we arrived in AR.

It was kind of muggy over there, but we had fun. This is us in Eureka Springs, AR. There's my 

 

mom with LC, stepdad, brothers. My son is the one standing right next to me with the long hair (he's a skater and shirt is a skating co. name in case you were wondering why he's wearing a shirt that says Girl) and my daughter is the one on top. 

We did some sight seeing, but not too much. Overall, we enjoyed our short time in Arkansas. It's so peaceful, but then again anywhere out of L.A. is peaceful.

So now to the bittersweet part of this entry. The week of our trip I was suppose to bring one more person with me and that was my aunt. Well, unfortanately, she got sick a week before and was hospitalized with pneumonia. The very next day she went into a cardiac arrest and it took a team 8 mins to revive her. She was put on a ventilator and she had suffered some brain damage. On Tuesday her dr said that she couldn't do anymore for her and that all she could do was to make her comfortable. Well, on Thursday my sweet aunt passed away from a couple of infections and pneumonia. She was 45 years old and this woman was a Leukemia survior. 22 years of being cancer free, but suffered with so many other health complications, some that almost took her life. She was always in the hospital, but she fought her way out every single time. She was a true fighter. 

She leaves behind 2 adult daughters and 3 grandchildren whom she loved dearly. 

We're helping them with everything so they can focus on their children. Tomorrow is the viewing and Wed. is the burial. She will be laid to rest right next to my grandmother. 

I'm going to miss her so much. I'm going to miss her phone calls checking up on us especially on LC whom she adored. 

She's now in a better place and smiling down on us. She's probably jumping with joy because she doesn't need her wheelchair anymore. She'll be missed tremendously.  

2 Months Old

Look at how big my little man is. I can't believe how fast he has grown. I'm still EBFing and we're on a good schedule. Luciano is laughing out loud now and it's sounds so cute. Luciano is such a mama's boy, but I don't mind, I like it. :) Big brother and sister love him to death and they're super overprotective of him. 

Next month Luciano will be meeting his grandma (my mom) for the first time. We will be flying out to Arkansas for a week to spend some time with my mom and family. I'm so excited. 

Then, in Sept. Luciano will also be meeting his nonno & nonna (Rick's parents) for the first time. My in-laws are coming back, but maybe only for a few months though.

I'm so happy things couldn't be any perfect for us!

6 Wks Later and a Birth Story

I haven't posted an entry since May, wow. I know that this is very late, but I wanted to at least post my birth story for anyone who was interested. 

Since May 17th I was feeling some contractions about 20-30 mins apart, but they really didn't kick in until Tuesday. May 19th they were 15-20 mins then on the 20th about 1ish am they became stronger and I began to time them with Contraction Master. Around 3 am they were 8-10 mins apart. 

That morning I had a scheduled NST and I was hoping by the time I showed up I would have shown some progress. Sadly, there wasn't. I wasn't dialated and my contractions had completely stopped. I couldn't believe it. The dr however stripped my membranes to speed up the process and advised me to do some walking and to go to L&D around 4 p.m. if my contractions come back and are timeable. Sure enough my contractions came back once we got home so hubby decided to not go to work and stay with me. About a couple of hours later my SIL called and asked if I wanted to go with her to Target. Since I needed to walk I said yes. Before heading to Target we went to Pinochio Restaurant to look around. Her granddaughter's baptism was coming up and she needed to find a restaurant to hold the reception in. 

Anyways, walking around did make my contractions come on stronger. We then headed to the Taget at the Glendale Galleria. She decided to park on the other end of the mall. By 3 p.m. I thought I was going to pass out. People looking at me and wondering if I needed any help. It was quite funny actually. Every 10 mins I had to stop and grab my back and hold the bottom of my stomach. After 4 hours we headed to her house and we ate an early dinner. Hubby met me there and we then headed to L&D. After getting there I got wheeled upstairs and got hooked up immediately. After about 45 mins I was told that I was only 1 to 2 cm and that I wasn't ready. The dr suggested to go back home and wait it out for another few hours. Since I wasn't in the mood to go home I refused and asked for another alternative. She then told me to walk the hallways for an hour, so I did. Since I was so anixous I started to do skwats and other things to get my cervix to open up quicker. By then my contractions were every 5 mins, but not good enough for L&D. After the hour we went back in and I was 3 cm, but still not ready to be admitted. They did however kept in triage for about an hour because my contractions were coming every 2-3 mins. About 9:45 p.m. I felt a gush and I knew then that my water had broken. I told hubby to go and tell the nurse. After she checked me with the swab that turns blue she then started the admission. I was so happy! By then my contractions were now one after another. So close that by the time I caught my breath I had another one coming. About 1/2 hr later into the admission process I started to feel a lot of pressure. I kept telling the nurse that but all she was able to tell me was to wait that we were almost finished. So, after all that she checked me and said that I was 8 cm and was rushed to the delivery room. Well after being checked again by another nurse I was only 6 cm. I was so mad to find that the other nurse was wrong. It was almost 11 p.m. when I just couldn't handle the pain anymore. I couldn't breath right and I needed to push really bad. After doing my best to go all natural I gave in and got an epi at 11:10 p.m. I've never had an epi and I was so terrified, so terrified that for almost 10 mins during the process I had forgotten about my contractions. Once the epi was in I was still having bad contractions and they gave me another dose. After getting some relief a nurse emptied my bladder and checked me again and guess what...I was complete!! I was excited, but so bummed at the same time because if I had held out a bit longer I would have gone all the way. 

After 3 sets of pushing LC made his grand entrance and he was placed on my chest all hot and gooey. 

Now 6 weeks later he is so much different than the day he was born. He is smiling and making baby sounds now. The best part for me is seeing LC smile big at me at 3 am. I love it!! 

Daily Routine

A week and 2 days later and things couldn't be better. I can't believe that my little boy has been born for a little over a week now. He's so much fun especially when he's awake. I love every little thing about him. He has adjusted very well in these last few days. He sleeps good and nurses even better. We begin our daily routine at 7:30  a.m. when I have to take the kids to school now that hubby returned to work. Since Luciano's last feeding is usually around 4-5 a.m. he stays asleep until we get back around 8:30 a.m. Then after getting home it's diaper & feeding time. After he's finished we stare at each other for about a half an hour. Then about almost 10:00 he falls asleep for about 3 hours. When he wakes up we play for about 10-15 mins before feeding and then another diaper change. After that he stays up for about an hour and before going back to sleep there's another diaper change. I usually fall asleep at that time for about another 3 hours to catch up. Before we pick up the kids from school we do a quick feeding and another diaper change. One thing that Luciano does a lot is shart. Sometimes after I change his diaper he sharts and I have do another diaper change. 

Anyways, after getting home we finish up on feeding and he'll stay up and Elise will play with him for a little bit. He'll go back to sleep until after dinner and we'll do 2 more feeding before the end of the night is over. During the middle of the night he'll have 1 feeding and that's usually around 4-5 a.m. So I have no complaints about little one he's doing great! 

This picture was taken last Sat. and it's my favorite.