First Birthday!

Wow where has the time gone?! I can't believe it has already been a year with our little guy. Also, it has been WAY too long since I have blogged. I have missed it!

Here's an update about his first birthday. We love to camp and since it was a winter party, we thought a camping themed birthday would be fitting. We had a house full of all our friends and family. It happened to be one of the coldest day of the year {literally} and it still turned out to be a fun and memorable day! I did a lot of the decorations and had so much fun planning everything!

Welcome to Camp Nico
(Nick and his dad made all the wood signs to look just like the CA state park signs)

Desserts! All different s'mores treats and yummy cake!

The kids area all set up!

Drinks! Even found some 'Happy Camper' wine!

Build your own trail mix

Little guy all ready for his big day!

Some of the kiddos!

Nico's cake. I even made the tent for it!

He LOVED the cake!

Proud daddy and his boy!

The face of a happy kid in his camping jammies. He had such a fun day!





 One of the best parts about the whole weekend was that my parents surprised us and flew out my brother Landon and his girlfriend Brittany for the weekend! Seriously one of the best surprises ever!! Totally made the party perfect. Loved having them there.

 We are enjoying not having anything else to plan or do for a while. We are getting ready to plan what to do next on our house. I will have to do a seperate blog about our recent front yard remodel. That was our latest project that completed in November 2012.

We are still busy working full time. I love working and getting that time away. We have a really good routine and schedule going. Even though I sacrafice sleep working nights, I get so much time with my little guy! That's it for now!

 

4 Months

14 lbs. 10 oz and 25 inches long

Little guy with a big head! lol He's only 61% on his head, but he's still more than average! Love that round face! So kissable!

He is a healthy bubbly growing boy!! He is SO much fun and is changing daily! He rolling over more and more. He has officially rolled many times from back to belly. He loves blowing raspberries and talking. He has also found his feet and cant get enough of them! He loves playing with them and they have now found their way into his mouth!

He has hit the 4 month regression with sleep. Seems like he is waking up more often. Hopefully this passes soon. Mommy and daddy need some real sleep! We have finally stopped swaddling him. He has been doing great with that. He has become quite the wiggle worm in his crib. Waking up in all sorts of position. Makes me laugh. We have a video monitor and sometimes he dissapears from the screen because he has wiggled so much!

Sideways in the crib :)

He was started on rice cereal this month. He loves it. We've started just giving it in the evening between his second to last and last feeding. He still needs to work on the proper way to swallow and get his tongue figured out because so often a little sputters out. He loves it and opens his mouth for more and will tell us when he's done. Can't wait to try other foods with him!

I celebrated my first Mother's Day yesterday! It was a great day spent with our mothers and families! I loved every moment celebrating being a mom and having a mom. Between my mom and my mother in law, I am surely blessed with some great women in my life and they have shown me so much on how to be a loving mother to Nico.

Beppe with Nico on Mother's Day

"My Uncles are Awesome!" is what it should really say! I love this shirt....so hard to find uncle stuff!

Mother's day at Nonna's

My first Mother's day with my lil guy (Oh my look at those legs!!)

 Big boy in Andrew's swing with Daddy!

Love this age with Nico and I know it's just going to get better and better!!! He is such a happy lovable little guy! He has his momma's heart for sure!

Rolling Over...

Nico rolled over a couple weeks ago from back to belly. It was a one time thing. Yesterday he rolled over for the first time from belly to back. He did it a couple times and looked like he enjoyed it! He is so close to rolling from back to belly! He likes to roll and hang out on his side. Pretty sure it will happen very soon! 

(Please excuse my voice in the background) :)

Highlights

Last week had some very exciting events!

1) My sister-in-law Lauren got engaged! Her and Ryan are a very fun couple! So excited for their wedding!

Aren't they the cutest?!

2) Ryan (aka future brother-in-law) graduated from the Police Academy on Friday! So proud of him!!

3) FINALLY hit my pre-pregnancy weight! (took long enough huh?!). While Im happy to be back down to where I was, unfortunately I know my body will never be the same. It's going to take a lot of hard work. I still want to lose 10 more lbs. Thank goodness for nursing!! My goal is by July 6, when we leave for Hawaii!

4) Work and motherhood is going well! Finding my grove and routine. I have lots of help and it's been great! It feels good to be working again.

5) RECIPE: Spicy Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork Pulled Pork Recipe
Ahhh-mazzzing!! I have already made it twice and highly recommend it. Be warned....it can be super spicy. I only use half a can of the peppers and its perfect!

6) DEAL: Deal of the week happened at Target.

I bought 4 bags of Starbucks coffee at $7.99 each on sale. I used (2) $5 off 2 bags of Starbucks coffee Target coupons and (4) $1.50 off each back of Starbucks coffee. That brought each bag down to $3.99. Then each bag had a coupon on it for a free Startbucks canned drink (worth $2 each). I got (4) Double Shot Light Vanilla drinks. Lastly, each empty bag of starbucks coffee is worth a free tall coffee at Starbucks! The deal that keeps on giving!

Also, Target had their Mossimo tank tops on sale for $6! Target had $3 off Mossimo item.Well shirts were marked down to $5.60. So I got 4 tank tops for $2.60 each! Score! Love a good deal!

7) Nico is becoming more and more fun! He is about to really roll over any day! He did it once a couple weeks ago but hasn't since. He went in Nonna and Papoo's pool for first time last week! He had fun splashing around!!

Off to work I go!

Well the dreaded day of going back to work has come and gone! That means I survived! Woot!

I went back to work the night of Easter. I work nights as a Registered Nurse in the ICU. So our Easter wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been because I was full of nerves, anxiety and sadness. I made sure everything was ready and laid out for work, for Nick who takes care of him at night, and for his Mom who watches him during the day. I had lots of people praying for me during this time! Thank you all!

I am not going to lie...there were tears! Lots of them! The most I had been away from my little guy was 3 hours! I couldnt imagine 12+ hours! I made sure Nick texted me updates and pictures. It doesnt help my first two nights back were very busy and overwhelming! It made the time go by fast, but it took a couple nights to get back into my grove. My co-workers were great and helped ease my anxiety etc. I also have a great boss that understands how hard it was for me to be away from Nico, the need to pump, and any schedule changes I might need.

Typical night/day for me.
6pm: Leave for work
7pm: Start shift
10pm-12am: Find time for first pumping session
4am-6am: Find time for second pumping session
730am: Shift ends
800am: Home, pump again
830-1030am:Nap
11ish: Pick up Nico (Love how happy he is too see me)!

If I have to work 2 nights in a row (which I'm trying not to do, unless I have to, because it's too long to be away from Nico. Also, hard to have everything prepared and ready for basically 2 full days/nights), I would sleep 830-300pm and pick him up around 330pm and then get a couple hours with him before I leave again.

The pumping at work  has worked out. At first I did 3 sessions, but with being a nurse it can be very busy and unpredictable that I made sure to do at least 2 sessions. I think 2 will be enough because I pumped the same amount in 2, that I did for 3.

I am so thankful for my mother-in-law who watches Nico during the day! She also watches our nephew Andrew who just turned one. She has her hands full and loves those little guys so much! I know she loves to watch them and we are so grateful!

Nick has also been great! He has Nico all night, including his night time feeds. Nick is doing great and has really become hands on. I know he loves the special times he gets with Nico by himself.

We had one scare a week ago. It was Sunday night and I had only been at work for a half hour and I had a missed call from Nick. Stomach drop. He NEVER calls me at work, and wouldn't unless it was very important. Well I guess he was giving Nico his bath and halfway through he started screaming! It was his feeding time, so he got the bottle ready and started to feed him. He took about one ounce and then screamed again and started throwing up! Throwing up like he had never seen before and he would not stop screaming. He didn't know what to do with him because he has never done that before. So he called me. I didnt answer so he called his mom. Thankfully she lives 2 miles away and was able to help Nick and come over. I was able to call Nick back and hear everything that happened and told him to check his fever....none. Then I told him to give him some gas drops. He probably had a really bad stomach ache, gas or little bug. The gas drops helped and Nonna rocked him to sleep and he was fine! Phew! I felt so helpless and just wanted to hold my lil guy. He was in good hands at least. Ugh. I can't imagine when he is really sick. :( Dont want to think about it.

Well thats it for now. I love being able to take on working and being a mom! Working hard and then coming home to Nico makes it so much sweeter. I love having something to look forward to when work is done. God has surely blessed us with our careers and families. We are so grateful!

3 months

This big boy turned 3 months on April 4. Wow he is getting so big and so fun!! I don't have any stats on his weight or length, but if I had to guess anywhere from 13-14 lbs. Who knows. Dr thinks he could be tall and lean like his daddy.

He's just about done with his 3 month clothing and totally out of his 0-3 months clothes. He is laughing and smiling so much!! He loves having his clothes taken off. He giggles soooo much at that time. I think we are going to have a kid that loves being naked!

He still is waking up at night. I was hoping he would be outgrowing this, but I guess he loves to see his momma at 1 am. He still goes down great at 8pm. He also is still swaddled. Some nights I feel he really hates being swaddled and is constantly breaking free, and others its the only thing that gets him to sleep right away. It's a love-hate thing.

He is so strong! He loves being upright and standing on his feet! And he'll let know that he wants to stand. His arms and legs are constantly moving. We have a feeling he is going to be a mover and keep us on our toes early! We will see!

He got baptized on March 25th. It was a great time celebrating this special time with our families. He did so great! I was getting nervous for him before it was his turn because they baptized 5 people before him and saved him for last! But he did great and didnt make a peep! He just tried to lick the water off his face! We had a lunch afterwards with our families and enjoyed a rainy afternoon.

We had a hotel stay we had to use by end of March, so we made sure to use it. It was Nico's first hotel stay! We stayed at the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles. It had a great view of the city. We were on the 27th floor. It was very neat! Fun to get away and just relax as a family! 

Happy boy!

Nico has so much fun playing with his cousin Andrew. We had a fun little photo shoot with the two boys in their matching outfits!

We got some good ones, then they were over it! lol

The Lambs came over to meet Nico and see our house! Love this family! They are so fun and have the cutest 2 year old twins! They had fun exploring our backyard and house. It gave us a taste of the things Nico will get into one day. 



Love this boy!

Kidney stones VS. Labor

Aww the great debate! I started getting kidney stones during my pregnancy...you can read about that Here It was a never ending battle that resulted in double the ER visits, double the kidney ultrasounds and double the pain. It was awful! Not going to lie! I was uncomfortable allllll the time and could take nothing worth talking about! I was passing stones days before I gave birth, and even more days after giving birth. Those ones were larger too. Figures....baby out.....big stones out! Errr.

So during my whole pregnancy I heard that passing stones was really preparing me for labor. Okay great, weeks of agonizing pain to help me in the grand finale! Yay :/ But also a real YAY! because maybe I was getting some of the hard stuff out of the way! Well I have yet to write my L&D post (I know its been 3 months, I should really get on it before I forget), but I will! Long story short... I didnt go into labor on my own, but I was induced. Well when that pitocin was kicked into high gear, so did the contractions....the pain was unbearable, the worst EVER. Nothing to compare it to. It is in it's own category. Having a high tolerance for pain went out the window. I was told to wait until 4 cm before I could have the epidural and I was yelling for it at 2-3 cm because I was not going to wait until 4! Why be in pain if you don't have too?! That's just my opinion. To each their own. I wouldn't have a tooth pulled without pain meds, why push out an almost 8 lb human being feeling it all?!

Well the answer to the great debate.....Labor is NOTHING like kidney stones! It's worst!! But the end result is so worth it! Maybe stones are a minor comparison for men to relate, but in reality, it's false! I'm sorry men, but you will never know what labor feels like and we will just leave it at that!