Power Me Up Scotty...

You know how there are days you should not get out of bed? Well, I think there are days you should not leave your house...today...I should NOT have left my house. We had a good night with the baby. I followed Dr. Tio Ernie's advise and did not feed in the middle of the night---I only comforted her back to sleep and she ended up having 4h-2h-1h-4hour cycles. So I woke up and felt good about my day... Then...10:30am rolled around and it was time to put up my "privacy screen" and get to milkin' ...so I get everything ready to go and nada...my "mommy machine" ( as I coined it today) is not singing its gentle rhythmic song...nothing!... I try another outlet...I try another power strip...(Houston, we have a problem....and utters that are at "11")...so I call D...he tells me that maybe its just the power source. Well, I can't just leave work...but how to I script the email to my Executive Director? "Dear B, My breast pump isn't working and my boobs are about to leak and explode" ??? This is where "mommy machine" was born... "Dear B, I am having a mommy emergency and I have to go home to power my mommy machine"...send email and rush home to see if the battery power pack will do the trick. Naturally my rush home is a crawl as there are not ONE but TWO accidents on US-1 South. Finally I get home...Don starts working on the chord and I pull out the hand powered "mommy machine" THAT THING IS CRAP! If ANYONE EVER tells you that the hand pump is better than the electric...they are smokin' SERIOUS CRACK! ...So, I'm hand pumping while Don sticks 100000 AA batteries into the power pack--- and suddenly that sweet sweet song started to come out of the mommy machine "shhhhh shhhooooo shhhhhh shooooo" ... all I needed was 10...15 minutes and then I could start hunting for the power source. ...can you believe that Medela's power source is not something that you can easily find?!... Buy Buy Baby (BUZZZZ) Babies R' Us (BUZZZZZ) Target (BUZZZZ) ...I call Medela... they tell me to go to Mercy Hospital! (Side note...I was just there YESTERDAY buying new "trumpets" for my mommy machine.) So I call Anita (who saved my life, my milk, my baby and my boobs in 2 days after I had the baby and was engorged)... "Hi Anita, it's C again...please don't think I am breaking my pump parts on purpose, but my power source is dead and I hear you all are the only place to get them locally"...Anita to the rescue AGAIN! ...So I wait for them to be done with classes...I go...I buy ... I think I conquer. I drive back to work (it is now 2:30pm and time to pump pump pump again)...I put up my screen...and my bottles and trumpets are HOME on the drying rack from the last session. OMG!!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME TODAY!? ...needless to say...I went home...got down to business...and am not planning on going anywhere else today since I am apparently in some sort of lactation induced state of stupidity. ....crap...I have to go pick up my baby...

March Madness

It's been a month of milestones in the Florida Room.
At our 4 month check up, C weighed in at 15.5 lbs and measured in at 26.5 inches putting her in the 95% in height and 75% in weight. Since this month she has been reaching, grabbing, and rolling over from tummy to back...the paper on the examination table was LOADS of fun for her at Tio Dr. Ernie's office.

Isn't this paper amazing?

We celebrated Mardi Gras at St. Philip's with pancakes and the Kauffman clan. Sometime in month 4 we not only found our feet and started the beginning stages of teething...but started fitting into 6 month clothes like this outfit which is one of Daddy's favorites!

D celebrated his 35th birthday this month too! We had a while weekend of celebrations which started on Friday night at the historic Bacardi building for a party- then celebrating with friends at the Irish Festival, later to be followed by cocktails and cake at our house and wrapping the weekend up with dinner and cake at Mimi and Babo's.

St. Patrick's Day shortly followed...and campaign season continued with signs popping up in front yards all around the city. ...and one of our favorite March traditions...The Dade County Youth Fair...that's what we will always call it.

This was our month of March.

Teething...We've Only Just Begun

Yes, she is only 4.5 months old...
but the crying we heard last night---not hunger.
Our sweet baby girl is definitely teething. For weeks now she has been sticking everything in her mouth and drooling...but last night WAILS!
Pobresita.
Fortunately Dr. Tio Ernie calmed us via text and as he suggested, we gave her a little baby Tylenol and she eventually calmed down and even had a pretty good night of sleep (off and on naturally).

...however in non-painful news...she has completely been rolling over onto her back from her tummy during tummy time. Too cute!

Lucky Kids Magazine + Pink Chicken

Lucky Kids Magazine launched this month and I visited the site today. It was chock-full of fun things for kids, and was SO happy to see our bee lunch bag by Skip+Hop was prominently displayed. I guess I AM a fashionable mom after all!
Anyhow---the site also introduced me to Pink Chicken. Where have I been? ...oh yeah, NOT having a baby until now... Anyhoo--- it's a little pricey, but terrribly cute! They even have frocks for moms! Here are some of my favorites... Skip + Hop Bee which I got at the Island Shop on Key Biscayne
how cute is this baby frock

diaper covers...how cute are these?

...and this frock for mom (which I have fallen in LOVE with!)

This Doesn't Seem Fair...

Tonight at D's birthday dinner with the family Olivia informed us that,

"Grown-Ups go to work and kids go on vacation."

Happy Spring Break!

Crew Cuts...

Is it wrong that I can't wait for my bebe to fit into J.Crew's crew cuts line? Size 2 here we come...in about a year...year and a half?

Funny Thing Happened on My Way to Hang Up Her Towel...

So a funny thing happened on my way to hang up C's towel after her bath last night. I rammed my pinky toe into the door..."Ouch"...a bad stubbing if I ever felt one.
Well, as the night progressed my pinky toe hurt just as much as it did when I initially stubbed it...and it kept hurting all night. I decided NOT to look at it until morning.
When I woke up today, the pain was there and my poor pinky was swollen... I decided to call my Doctor's office after dropping off C.
"Well, a phone consultation will cost you $20" the receptionist told me over the phone, "That's fine, I just need to know if I should go to the ER because I may have a broken toe" I said to him. "Oh, well the podiatrist is in today and she would refer you to him anyhow...would you like to come in and see him?" ... at 9:35 am I arrived for my 9:30am appointment with ...we'll call him, "Dr. Rush". I first saw Dr. Rush at about 10:15am while waiting in the "inner waiting room" of the office.
A man about 50 years of age wearing glasses, a Rush T-Shirt, jeans, sneakers and the smallest fanny pack comes in and casually says, "Cecilia"..."Yes?" "Dude! Those shades! It's like the Elvis Costello look! I'm going to have to call you Elvis for a whille." "Uh-Ok" I reluctantly respond...he then promises he'll be with me in 3 minutes... 15 minutes later he calls me back and bolts...I normally would be right behind him, but see my gimpy foot is keeping from doing so, so I hobble over in his direction as fast as possible. Once inside the room he asks me to take off my shoes so he can compare the injured toe to the healthy toe. I follow instructions and once he lays his eyes on pinky he says, "Oh baby, that's busted." (seriously how many times did he hit the bong before seeing patients today?)... so in order to get a real diagnosis he orders X-Rays and then sends me to the "inner waitingroom" again.
Joining me in the "inner waiting room" this time is an older woman about 70 with a fancy built in seat walker and a small oxygen tank, another older woman with the same sort of shmancy walker and a woman about 40 playing soduko on her iPhone.
The oxygened older woman begins to perfume herself with a large bottle of Eau de Je Nais Sais Pas... and the other walker bound woman starts talking to her partner, "Man, if I'd known he was going to see my feet today I would have scrubbed them. They are so dirty"...she then also goes on to share with us, "My fungus is so bad, my feet really hurt!"... as Charlie Sheen would say "WINNER!" ... the rooms slowly empties out and I am left alone when Dr. Rush comes by and hands me a quarter, "If it's broken I keep it, if it's not you keep it!" I take the quarter and thank him "This will come in handy for parking" I tell him. He then sits down and starts talking about my presummed broken toe and how to treat it, "We can't do much, we'll wrap it to the other toe...and you'll elevate it...be careful with it." he tells me, so I ask "What about the pain? It still hurts a lot", he looks up at me and says, "Well, what do you want?" (no joke...who needs a pill mill when you have Dr. Rush?!)...once he realizes I am breasfeeding he reccomends I take tylenol.
The X-Rays finally come back and we go take a looky loo in his office. "These are skinny toes!" he tells me, so I quietly think to myself, "Well, you are looking at my skeleton" and then he says "Ok, you're good...it's not broken" ...he continues by tellilng me that he will wrap my toe to the other and I should just watch it and be careful for the next few days.
I finally left the foot experience at 11:15am... and treated myself to a well deserved sushi and mac-n-cheese to-go lunch from Whole Foods. ... good times!

Baptism

C's baptism was yesterday, and it was a glorious day indeed! She was beautifully behaved not crying at all but rather sleeping for a good portion of mass. People came up to us after and asked what we had done...we're just blessed. Anyhow, she was surrounded by her family and friends and she looked gorgeous if I do say so myself.
Here are some of my favorite pictures in a backwards chronological order...starting at the reception and ending with the service.
Thank you everyone who could make it, and for those far away, we missed you but felt your love in our hearts. C with Daddy, Mimi and Babo

C with all her "primos" y "tios"

C with mommy, daddy and godparents

C with Coco, Mommy, Daddy and Tia Kiki

Rev. Maribeth Conroy about to baptize our baby girl.

St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Coral Gables

March 6, 2011

What a Difference a Year Makes

A year ago today our adventure began.

You see, we were going to our friends Robin and Aaron's wedding in Key Largo the next day (yes, 305) and I said to D as I made my way upstairs for a shower, "I'm going to take a pregnancy test to make sure I can drink at the wedding". Within 2 minutes the unbelievable results were there..."clear" and "easy" to read ...two lines.

I came downstairs and said, "Well, what do you want it to say?", "Either way I'll be happy...if we are that's great, if we aren't, then we'll try again."

I showed him the "stick" and told him "Well, according to this you are going to be a Daddy"..."Are you sure? Do you have another to take?" (we never thought it was going to happen as quickly as it did) "No, but I can get one tomorrow" I responded.

The next day, I did some calendar math and I left work early to head to the keys an don my way home I stopped at Target for the usual wedding needs, hairspray, mascara, suspenders for D and oh yeah...another pregnancy test. I rushed home...followed instructions again...and the result was the same. After telling D, I immediately called my OB/GYN's office and said, "Hi, I'm a patient of Dr. Perez's and I think I'm pregnant" the receptionist asked me, "Why do you think you are pregnant?", "I am 3 days late and I took 2 pregnancy tests that came back positive" I told her..."Well, our computer system is down so I can't give you an appointment...but two tests...you're pregnant. Can you call back later and get an appointment?" she asked me... "No, I'm on my way out of town for a wedding" I told her. "Well, just try and listen to your body, don't over do it and don't consume any alcohol"...I came downstairs and told D who said, "Well, lets not jump the gun, be careful but until we go to the doctor let's not assume anything"... so that night I took my last medium rare steak and had one last glass of wine while I fake drank beer and vodka all night. Monday I got an appointment for Wednesday...and the tests were confirmed.

Fast forward a year later...here I am enjoying my baby and loving every bit of her. What a difference a year makes!!