Tuesday, December 29, 2009

New Year's Resolution

My New Year's resolution for 2010 is to not have my little, sweet and precious daughter grow up to be a tramp. I took these pictures of the little one during the last few days.

Beautiful and perfect.






Then I got this hideous catalog in the mail for high school prom dresses.







Seriously? You would let your teen-aged daughter dress like a low-end Vegas prostitute? You may as well buy her a pole and some fake boobs. So, with that said, let us all refrain from letting our daughters make a mistake that they might not regret, but you certainly will.

Monday, December 21, 2009

My Husband is Extra Awesome


El Bambina at 10 days old, and yes, I am that Mom,
letting the kid cry so I can take a picture of it.


The babe has acid reflux. We have a prescription that we give her 3 times a day that has really helped. At our pediatrician's visit last week the doctor told us to call her if it seemed any of the original symptom were returning. El Bambina was diagnosed with the problem when she was about 4 weeks old. Well, now she is a big girl at 2 months (you know that 4 weeks in the life of a baby is about 100 years or so).

The doctor was right, the dosage needs to be changed.

Any sane person would have just asked her to do it at the time she gave us that little tidbit of information. So here I am instead at 2 in the morning waiting for the little darling to finish crying and to settle down for the night. El Senor is dealing with the def-con 5 situation, giving my arms and ears a much needed break. All I can say is that my husband rocks my world and I'm calling the pediatrician at 9am sharp.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Milestone

First off, I have to ask. Did anyone out there realize that Christmas is next week?!?!? I feel like a missed the memo reminding me to do my Christmas shopping. Apparently raising a baby is an all consuming job.

Right now the Bambina is passed out on the couch. She is 2 months old today, and went in for her first round of immunizations. No fever as of yet, but getting stuck with a needle for 3 shots and 1 given orally is enough to take the mickey out of a grown person...much less a little package like our girl. El Senor is right though, she took it like a champ. I think that I cried and was more upset than she was.

Her growth update is as follows, she now weighs 11lbs 9 ounces, measures out at 23 inches, and her head circumference is 15 inches. This puts her in the 71% for weight, 76% for height, and 40% for head circumference. For the Bowler Girl family members...this means that there is another Little Head that has joined our team. I think the Big Heads are getting out numbered.

Being away from work has been awesome. I like my job, however, being at home and taking care of the little one has been the best job ever. Can you imagine if someone gave you the following job description?

Responsibilities:
  • Change dirty diapers 7-10 times daily
  • Change onesies 2-3 times daily due to above blow-outs
  • Feed baby 8-12 times daily (no set schedule available at this time)
  • Help crying baby go to sleep 6-8 times daily
  • Coo nonsense at baby whenever she is awake
  • Console crying baby (even when you can't figure out what is wrong)
  • Take screaming baby on car rides at 3am whenever necessary
  • Be ready to wear your velcro baby at all times
  • Bath happy baby every 2-3 days, or as blow-outs deem necessary
  • Be ready to not talk to adults for 3-4 days at a time
  • Watch hours and hours of terrible daytime TV, since you are wearing the velcro baby and nothing else can get done
  • Read everything you can Google on how to help your baby be a smart adult
  • Change your diet to accommodate the needs of your breast-fed baby (no dairy, seriously!?!?!)
  • Be ready to add words to your daily vocabulary such as 'poops' 'pees' and 'toots' (totally embarrassing mommy talk)
  • Hold precious sleeping baby in the wee hours of the night
Compensation:
  • Zero Dollars for the above responsibilities
  • Eternal rewards, amazing
If someone gave that to me and asked me to do the job I would have told them they were nuts and to check into the closest loony bin. 8 weeks of doing this myself, and all I want to do is have more babies and do it again and again.

I know how glamorous it sounds. Really, who doesn't want to be changing messy diapers and voluntarily be cutting themselves off from the normal adult world? Well, the grass is always greener folks. I have friends that are stay at home moms, and all they want is to go to work. I go to work, and all I want is to stay at home with our sweet babe.

I'm just glad that we have insurance....those claims from the hospital started rolling in and all I could see was red. I'm not even going to get started on my rant about our health care system.

So this post is called "Milestone". I'm sure after all the above rambling you are trying to figure out why. I will tell the rest of the story in pictures.


The Bambina discovers mom and dad's bed
is better than her own crib for sleeping.



First sponge bath at home....waiting for that cord to come off.



First Halloween, looking good in a themed sleeper
and a little stoned, she must of just had some dinner.



Grandpa and Grandma Bowler visit.



Grandpa puts her to sleep like a pro.



No, that's not poop.
Her umbilical cord finally came off after 3 1/2 weeks.



Grandma T. makes her first visit. She was such a great help!



Is she waving? Oh, my!



Hanging out while Dad decorates the Christmas tree.



Just before her shots, so unsuspecting and sweet.



A kiss from Dad for good luck.



Weight, Head Circumference and Height
Sorry again Big Heads!



The after effects of going to the doctor, one tired baby.
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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Delicious

I must say, I think our little darling daughter is pretty delicious. I could just eat her up. Don't you agree? El Senor is absolutely smitten with her. I see a serious problem as she gets older and wants her way. Mom is bound to say no, Dad will be putty in her hands with a quick yes and a kiss. Enjoy the pictures.










Side note: Carina, am I no longer cool enough for the cool table?

Thursday, October 22, 2009

El Bambino Update

As you may have noticed, the baby countdown calendar stopped last week. El Senor and I are pleased to announce that our little numero uno has arrived! Last week was a flurry. I won't gross you out with all the details, but will give you the basic sequence of events.



Thursday, October 15th:
We went in for our weekly OB visit later in the day. My blood pressure was a higher than what the doctor wanted. After our check up, he told us to go have a good dinner, he felt that the baby would be coming within the next 72 hours. He told us to come in the next morning at 11am so my blood pressure could be reevaluated.

El Senor and I looked at each other and laughed....but felt a little panic creeping in. We still didn't have a car seat.

Following our doctor's advice, we ate that good meal and discussed the possibility of going into labor during the weekend. Saturday our friends were throwing us a baby shower. So we crossed our fingers, hoping that the 72 hour goal of our doctor was a little off. We proceeded to run to the store, grabbing batteries for the camera and a few last minute necessities. Then we called our families, putting them on high alert. Lastly, we headed to the baby store and bought the much needed car seat.

Once at home we looked at each other and nervously laughed some more. El Senor took a few pictures of my belly. I finished packing my hospital bag and we went to bed.


This is my 38 week belly. . .

Friday, October 16th:
3:00am I woke up with a slight back ache. Having insomnia off and on during the pregnancy I simply rolled over and went back to sleep.

7:00am I woke up and felt fine, just very, very pregnant. El Senor got up with me, helped me into the shower and asked what I planned on doing. I told him....going to work of course. I'll meet you at the doctor's at 11am for the follow up.

8:30am I made it to work. I wrote out a to-do list. Going through the list quickly, I realized that I was having some contractions. Not wanting to be the little girl who cried wolf I just quietly kept on working. After all, I was going to see the doctor at 11am....right?

9:30am I realized that the contractions were actually pretty consistent. I let Jack know that I was leaving sooner rather than later. She eyed me and asked if she needed to drive me to the doctor's. I declined and just asked that she keep it on the DL until I was sure I was in labor.

10:00am I contacted El Senor and let him know I was leaving for the doctor's office ASAP and to meet me there.

10:15am I was in the car, driving myself and calling the doctor's office, finding out if I should just head to the hospital. My contractions were now 2-3 minutes apart (consistently) lasting about 15-20 seconds each. I was told just to come to the office for a quick check up. (Sidebar, I know that sounds crazy, but the doctor's office is less than 5 minutes away from the hospital.)

10:45am: I was officially in labor. My doctor had done a quick check, and determined that I should head to the hospital. He was still concerned about my blood pressure being so high and wanted me to be monitored, even during the early stages of labor.

11:15am: El Senor and I entered the labor and delivery floor of the hospital. I was introduced to my L&D nurse, Karen. She was awesome. We were taken to a room, I was put in a hospital gown and we were off to the races.

11:30am - 2:30pm El Senor refers to this time as me being "in the dark place". The onset of my labor was fast and furious. That, or I just didn't notice that I was having contractions until they were at the 2-3 minute mark as I mentioned before. Needless to say, I continued on in the same manner for those first hours. Breathing was all I was capable of doing.

Originally I had wanted to have a natural delivery (aka, no epidural). Once we were going like gang-busters though....I had a quick turn around on the need of pain medication. I also had the complication of pre-eclamsia. I was tied to the bed by IVs, medication and a catheter. Since I wasn't able to move for relief during the contractions, I went with what my friend Laura always told me, "Being in pain isn't going to make you a better mother." With that said, I told Karen I needed an epidural ASAP. She made the goodness happen.

2:30pm-4:30pm This is were the goodness begins. The anesthesiologist had been in. After the long and scary needle was put in (El Senor's words not mine) I had immediate relief. I was still able to move my legs and wiggle my toes. I had good sensation, but the gripping pain was gone. We chatted, I tried to get the nurses to give me snacks and juice (which of course failed miserably), we laughed and El Senor was grateful the dark place was gone.

4:30- 6:00 pm I began to have the urge to push. Karen, El Senor and I began pushing every 15 minutes or so. Resting between several of the contractions. My doctor had been dropping in periodically, and returned to see the progress. Fully dilated to 10cm it was decided it was go-time.

6:15 - 7:27pm Pushing began in earnest. The epidural was dialed back a little, still not feeling pain but having the greater need to push, things continued to progress. It was awesome, like being on an episode of ER. Although a lot of people would be freaked out by having a bunch of strangers down in lady town, I was amazed by how fast everything seemed to be going. Suddenly I could see the head of the baby (yeah, I am one of those who watched the whole thing in a mirror).

7:28pm El Senor was supporting me through each contraction and helping me push like a champ. Under the bright lights of the L&D room I gave one final push before the baby's head emerged. Being told to give one more big push our little baby emerged. Gooey, red and beautiful. Although we did not find out if we expecting a boy or a girl, we strongly felt a little boy was in our near future. How surprised were we when our OB held up our baby and told us it was a little girl!

Please help us welcome our beautiful daughter, El Bambina.
Born October 16th 2009 at 7:28pm
Weighing 6lbs 14oz and measuring 21 inches
Equipped with a beautiful set of pipes









Mom, Dad, and Baby are healthy and happy.
Thanks for all your love and support.


Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Happy 33

Yesterday I turned a glorious odd number. I am finally done with 32 and have moved on to 33 for the remainder of 2009. El Senor thinks my odd obsession with odd numbers is funny. Example, if I am running on the treadmill (like that has been happening lately) I would always try to finish on an odd mile, with odd time and odd amount of calories burned. Definitely a little OCD, but I'm willing to embrace the weirdness fully.

Things were pretty low key as far as birthdays went. I woke up, went to work, worked (sort of), had lunch with my girlfriends, went to see a movie with El Senor and then picked up pizza from our local pizzeria. After all that frantic activity, I gave myself the night off and was asleep by 9:30pm.

Wooweeee, control the wild pregnant woman!

I will say that it was exactly what I wanted and, more importantly, what I needed. My favorite part of birthdays is just chatting with family and friends on the phone and getting sweet birthday wishes in the mail. Generally El Senor spoils me rotten . However, we had decided this year that we would keep the birthdays lower key. El Bambino is almost here and really, how many purses does a girl need when wearing your baby is suddenly looking like an awesome winter fashion statement?

Needless to say, El Senor somehow is able to still make me feel like a princess. When we got home from all our extra-curricular activities, I found a lovely stack of books with a card. El Senor said that books will be a necessity in the next bit, and therefore were not a splurge. All I could do was give him a big kiss and agree, as I poured over the back cover synopses of each one.


So thank you dear ones for wishing me well on my special day, because what makes it special are the wonderful people I was able to share it with.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Clip art from:

That about sums up last week for me. Well, not ever, ever....but it was a pretty great week to say the least.

El Senor and I have been patiently waiting to find out if I would need to deliver the Bambino via c-section. Although not the end of the world, in good old New Jersey it is the end to being able to ever have a natural delivery. The state is so rife with malpractice suits that doctors will rarely, if ever, attempt a VBAC.

Wednesday we went to get another anatomy ultra-sound. The weight and growth of the baby are great, if a little on the large side (El Senor was thrilled about this, you will need to inquire with him directly for his first parental pride moment). The best part, however, was that the placenta has completely cleared from the cervix. Needless to say there was much relief that (unless there is some other unforeseen emergency or complication) we will be able to deliver this little one naturally.

At our follow up, Doc V. agreed with the findings and told me to get my game face on. In a few weeks we will be attempting to push this baby out the good old fashioned way.

So, to all of you who pitched in your fervent prayers, thank you from the bottom of our hearts! I really feel that miracles happen in all ways, shapes and forms. After many months of concern we are relieved that all is well.

xoxoxo BG

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