Day 21

Ximena was a really good baby last night and slept well :) I generally sleep facing her since she sleeps better if I turn to my end of the bed she tends to wake up more. I think its funny how she ended up sleeping in our bed in the end. I definitely tried putting her in the co-sleeper but I didn't sleep nearly as well. And with still taking classes last thing I need is to be THAT tired. Even though I am tired not nearly as tired as I'd be if she was sleeping in her co-sleeper. She refuses to sleep there hoping to get her in there eventually and her crib when she gets older. She just woke up so nursing her while typing this before my evening anthro class tonight. Lol now just got home from antho class. It was interesting we talked about all the risks of having c-sections. I laugh because I had one almost 3 weeks ago... glad i didn't hear this lecture before it would've only made me more nervous then I already was. We watched the documentary "Pregnant in America" (only parts of it) but it was really interesting makes me want to go out and rent it to watch the rest of it. Ximena was being herself for Jake in the sense that she wanted to be in his arms bouncing or else she would cry. He said he bounced her for 45 mins straight or else she would cry. Poor daddy! I understand lately she's been awake more often. Its also accompanied by more time spent in the arms or she will scream. :( But I know that this newborn stage doesn't last long so enjoying it while it lasts!

Ximena wearing a pretty dress and smiling in her sleep :) 3/31/10

This dress is actually going to be small really soon. Its newborn size 5-8lbs. She's getting so big! :)

Day 20

Nothing really too exciting today. I hung out at home and rested. For some reason my whole body still aches like I have the flu but I don't. I think its just my body still recovering from surgery. Ximena was especially difficult last night. I went to sleep early but she still got up for what seemed every hour to nurse or cry. I woke up just exhausted and not feeling well so I stayed home from school. Which I really hate doing but at the same time I have to recover from the surgery and try not to overdo things. I tried to shower today while Ximena was in her bouncy but I feel bad because she ended up screaming herself to sleep even though I showered really quickly. When I got out of the shower she was asleep so I did a few dishes and washed her bottles.

 Ximena smiling at me while I'm talking to her and I managed to get a glimpse of it with my camera :) 3/30/10

Day 19

Phew up to date finally lol! Today I had my 2 week post op appointment. I lost 10 lbs from my last appointment a week ago. My swelling in my feet has gone down finally and I have ankles for the first time since I can remember! I didn't really have ankles the entire last trimester of my pregnancy. Its amazing how good I feel considering I just had surgery 2 weeks ago. My pregnancy was definitely classified as "difficult" in my book so recovery from having Ximena has been soooo much easier! I am tired from taking care of a newborn but I can finally sleep and my feet don't burn everyday its awesome!!!!! Ximena also had an appointment with Dr. Lyon today (her pediatrician) to check up on her from throwing up yesterday. He said her lungs sound clear and just to put one drop of saline drops in her nose to help break down the mucus. I told him the nose sucker thing always makes me nervous he said I didn't need to suction her nose just put one drop in periodically to help her break down the boogies in her nose. I did that when I got home and she definitely was not thrilled about it! She quickly recovered though after I nursed her. :) This morning when I was talking to her in bed after I changed her she smiled a huge smile for me it was so sweet! Its amazing how different every child is because I don't remember Mila or Tyler smiling this young at me! When she's alert she really listens when I'm talking to her and her facial expressions are so adorable!!!!I know the books say that they don't start smiling for real until the end of month two... but she definitely has smiled at me. Granted its not every time it really makes it special when she does... makes me feel loved! Makes all those difficult times during her pregnancy worthwhile. I love her :)

I love this outfit :) Ximena 3/29/10 sleeping on mommy and daddy's bed her favorite place! :)

Day 18

Day 18 late post for 3/28/10. Today Ximena wasn't feeling too well she threw up in the evening. Enough that I called her pediatrician office to talk to a nurse on call to see what they thought. She didn't have a fever and still had some mild congestion along with a small cough. The nurse said as long as she doesn't throw up again to make an appointment tomorrow with her doctor. She was good for the rest of the night just a little fussy. I think she had some tummy pains as well. I didn't feel well myself so i'm wondering if I was coming down with a mild stomach bug. Took some medicine and felt better after spending some of the day resting. I watched Jake and Mila do her science fair project which was about the strength of an electromagnet. She had a blast we took pictures and hopefully she did well we'll find out later in the week! Either way we are proud of her!

 Ximena sleeping after her not feeling well earlier poor baby! Look at the hair sticking up on the side of her head... sooo cute!!! <3

Day 17

Another late post of Day 17 on 3/27/10 :) We got home really early this morning (really late Friday night) from going out to the valley for Matt's surprise party out at the Tug. We drove home around 5am and got home at 6. Kids were asleep way earlier obviously just me and Jake that were awake. Everyone slept in until around noon including Ximena who went back to sleep after her morning feeding and changing. I stayed home and relaxed with the kids while Jake went out to a Korn concert later that day with our friends. If I wasn't 2 weeks post surgery I would've joined them! Sounds like they had a great time and I'm glad he got a chance to go. Ximena still continues to be "spoiled" and is happiest when in my arms. She also doesn't like to be wet or poopy and will be fussy when eating if she isn't changed. She is still mildly congested today which really sucks since she's too young for a cold! (least in my book she is!). She hung out for a few minutes in Tyler's room while I went and washed my hands after changing her. He's such a great big brother and LOVED having her in his room.

 Me playing with Ximena by kissing her on the cheek :) (Photo taken by Mila on my iphone)

Day 16 (a little late)

This is a late post of Friday 3/26/10. Today Ximena had her 2 week check at the doctors. It was with one of the nurse practitioners at the office she goes to since her pediatrician was out of the office that week. She now weighs 8lbs 3.3 oz and is 21 inches long. :) She's moved up from her weight the week before that was 7lbs 3 oz and has grown an inch in the last week. At this rate she's going to be just as chunky as Mila was as a baby! She also got her second PKU testing done as well where they prick her heel and take a few drops of blood on a piece of paper to mail in for testing. She screamed and screamed! She did not like it AT ALL! Tyler actually cried at seeing his sister pricked and screaming poor thing. He loves her! Mila was also worried by trying to watch what they were doing.

Daddy and Ximena taking a nap while Pepa intently watches the baby lol...

Day 15

Officially two weeks today! So nothing too exciting happened today. I stayed home from class since I was way too sore this morning when I woke up. Did too many errands yesterday between class, going to the store, and kids conferences. Today I just rested mostly and took care of the baby. And by taking care of the baby I mean.... the baby was constantly attached to me.... all day! I put her down... she wakes up and cries. Unless I'm holding her or nursing her or laying/sleeping next to her she's not happy. Its really my fault since she spends the majority of the time in my arms. We bought her a new bouncy chair hoping that she takes a liking to it!Also bought a new breastpump with a 15 month replacement warranty just in case I break it again.... Hoping not!

Picture of Ximena awake :) 3/25/10 Lol so is it obvious the girl is going to have her daddy's blonde hair? :P She's too cute! Even with her constant mommy/booby attachment. Kk sorry this is posted so late.... Pic was taken yesterday so still counts lol :P

Day 14

Ximena is almost two weeks old officially tomorrow. Its hard to believe she's been here for two weeks already. Her belly button fell off today!!!!!! She can now have a real bath :) Probably going to give her one tomorrow or this weekend depending how our time goes. This morning I woke up and changed her diaper and got two big smiles from her. I'm just amazed because i know all the books say that they typically do not smile on purpose until the end of month two but she has done this 3 separate times where she see's me and smiles! She is going to be so social I can already tell. Its nice to see that with the "difficult" pregnancy she appreciates me! You can tell how much she loves her mommy its just such an awesome feeling. Its amazing on how no matter how many children you have you always manage to find that extra room to love them all unconditionally and equally. Both Jake and I have been working on energy reserves on top of trying to keep up with our schooling. And while I sleep earlier then I did last week I still don't go to bed until around 2am on top of getting up every couple hours to feed her. And let me tell you she can EAT!!!!! Today alone she took three bottles of expressed breast milk. She has no problem taking a bottle, even took it cold one day for Jake! She likes her food and you can tell because she's starting to fill up and get chunkier. She even nursed on both sides after her massive bottle taking as well! On a very sad note I managed to break my Medela Pump in Style breast pump that I've owned for almost 9 years. :( Have to go out and buy a new 300 dollar pump *cringe*. The thought of buying a new one made me cry. That pump has lasted through both Mila and Tyler and got a TON of use i'm surprised it lasted this long. Not sure which Medela I'm going to get but looking at reviews to make sure I get another good pump. On a funny note I made Jake breakdown in laughter when I said I need to double pump... Something about the word "double pump" was funny lol... boys! :P And while Jake held the pump and plugged the hole of the plastic part i broke so i could at least finish pumping for tonight Ximena was on my lap trying to rip the plastic tubing off with her hands it was pretty funny. She was getting frustrated that I was pumping instead of nursing her even though she had just finished eating 6 oz of milk and nursing on one side right before!

 Ximena wearing Tyler's old baby outfit 3/24/2010

This is what Ximena looked like after she finished nursing for the 2nd time on top of having the two previous bottles of expressed breastmilk previously! Lol needless to say she was out... or as i call it the "boob coma"! 

SIDE NOTE: I know this is a blog about Ximena but figured I'd add other things that have to do with my other two children. I had parent/teacher conferences today for both Mila and Tyler today. Each of their teachers had wonderful things to say about them! I brought the baby with me to the conference and they informed me how proud the kids are about their new baby sister and talk about her often. Mila has showed kids in her class how to pronounce Ximena's name and spell it. She is now reading above grade level in English and improving tremendously in her Spanish reading. Her writing and pronunciation in Spanish has improved so much from the beginning of the year that her teacher is just astonished how well she's doing after joining the Spanish immersion program in 3rd grade. I'm proud of how well they are doing in school. Its so uplifting when you hear such wonderful things about your children. :) Ximena has good role-models and I have no doubt that when she gets to that age she will do just as well! Alrightie well i'm done for the night going to watch Jake finish studying for his calc test tomorrow and finish drinking my rootbeer :) Night night!

Day 13

So i think the exhaustion of having a newborn has officially set in! I was working on pure adrenaline last week and now this week I'm absolutely beyond exhausted. Ximena kept me up most the night last night. I'm not sure why but she kept getting up or coughing in the middle of the night which made me really nervous i kept waking up to make sure she was okay. She really does want me as a pacifier or constant food source. I'm going to invest in a bouncer tomorrow in hopes that maybe for a couple hours she can sit in that during the night. Because I'm not sure how much I slept last night but i know it wasn't much :(  I'm trying to get her to sleep in her co-sleeper but am having very little luck. I have no idea how to integrate her sleeping in there without crying. So at the moment nights are very sleepless. Today was my first day I returned back to school. I had two classes today an anthro class and a calc class this morning. Ximena did good for Jake this morning and slept. I came home after my math class and took a nap with the baby and then came back out for my afternoon class. Ximena woke up when I was in class and Jake fed her some breastmilk in the bottle which she took well :) I'm pretty sure she's gained alot of wait since her last weight check because she feels chunkier! She definitely was not happy when I picked her up from class because she was due for a diaper change so I hurried home to change her and feed her some more milk. I put her in some comfy pj's and she has been sleeping on and off since 5pm. Which it took at least an hour and a half to get her to calm down again because she was so upset from being in the carseat this morning. Poor girl she likes her house!

Ximena asleep after her "big day" on campus at UAA. 

It was funny because you can just tell she was happier here then in her carseat lol. She's all comfy and spread out in our bed its cute :) 

Day 12

I know that with after having two previous kids i should remember what it was like... but its amazing how much you forget after almost 6 years! Ximena is a good baby she just loves to live on me or my boob lol. I know i'm totally "spoiling" her since she spends so much time in my arms but I also know that this stage will pass all too quickly. For right now I will enjoy my sleepless nights, constant baby in my arm days, and eating more cold meals due to taking care of the baby :) Today the baby didn't want to let me shower at all. Lol everytime I went to attempt a shower she would wake up and cry so i ended up having on after Jake got home from school. Silly baby! Tomorrow I have to actually go to class since I can't afford to miss any more classes. I am really glad that I did take the week off to recover though. This c-section proved to be a little bit more difficult to recover from the my last two. Okay this post is going to be short since I actually fell asleep in the bed halfway through this post lol. Oh and picking just one picture per day is really REALLY hard! LOL don't be surprised if I end up having day 12.1 etc later on :P

Mila holding her baby sister, Ximena :) 

I'm really proud of how wonderful both Mila and Tyler have been with Ximena. They have been very attentive and loving with her. Its going to be great watching them all grow up together. While Mila and Tyler have their fighting movements they are really great siblings. Okie until tomorrow!  ~Naiara

Day 11

So I've been wanting to do a blog for such a long time. I just haven't had much time to get around to doing one. We had a get together yesterday with friends and Connie came up with a good idea about starting a blog for every day of Ximena's life attached with pictures for each day. That way I can keep track of how much she grows during the first year. Since babies grow so fast and its been nearly 6 years since we've had a newborn I'm excited in profiling her life every day. So this is technically day 1 of the blog but day 11 in her life. I will backtrack and post pictures from day 1-11 :) Sorry for the temporary out of order! Figure this will be a good way for family and friends to keep track of her progress and growth.

Daddy and Ximena 3/21/2010

Doesn't she look so much like her Daddy?? He's been so great with her and is such a wonderful father to Ximena as well as my two other children. I still can't believe that I met such a wonderful husband and perfect person to complete my life and family. I wouldn't trade them for the world! 

So that's all for today since its almost 4am but I figure its a start. :) Until tomorrow! ~Naiara