March 2010 Update

It has been a while since last post but here is what we have been up to in the last month or so.
Nicolas' Birthday was about a month ago and it was great.


I love my Abuela Loli!


And these are just some random pictures from last month.

Nicolas loves Pebbles while Pebbles is trying to ignore him.



Nicolas is being silly and loves to roll on the floor and be silly. His eyes are still dark as black marbles. He is my inspiration.

and lastly a non-baby related picture. I follow a photography forum and the picture of the week (POTW) for last week was pink. It is finally spring in NC and this was one of the first blooms.

Favorite pics of Nicolas in January

Nicolas was eating his net. He loves to put things in his mouth like his father.

And this is the fish he caught with his net.

And lastly this is him sitting eating breakfast. I love capturing his dark brown eyes.


To see more pics of his 10 months, click on the link.
http://picasaweb.google.com/nataliasanc/Nicolas10Months?feat=directlink

Fav pics of the last weeks: Raleigh and New Bern NC

This is my favorite house in Downtown Raleigh. It is creepy but awesome. All I did was crop it and add sephia in picasa.

This was the sunrise in New Bern, NC. I was there for a business trip and decided to take advantage of the scenery. The sunrise and sunset was awesome.

Again this was in New Bern. This tree towered in the middle of the park so I tried to capture it while the sun was coming up.


To see more pics here is the link to the picasa web albums.
http://picasaweb.google.com/nataliasanc/PhotographyPics?feat=directlink

Favorites pics from December

Happy New Year Everyone! It was a busy end of the year and it was great to reflect on 2009 and look ahead to 2010.
I will be sharpening my photography skills in the upcoming months. I'm taking a class at the community college starting Monday, Jan. 11. I can't believe I'm going back to "school".

Here are some of my best pics of the last month.
This is Nicolas looking peaceful while looking at the reindeer antler.
 
This was a fun day at the beach. As you can see Nicolas was loving it.
 
This picture was taken at the zoo. This is the life of a tiger in captivity.
 
Lastly,this is Pebbles enjoying the fireplace. It has been a cold beginning of the year.
 

Later and keep on clicking!

It has been over 9 months...

It has been over 9 months since my last entry and SO much has changed. Nicolas is a blessing and I can not put into words how much I love him. But let me be honest the first few months were really hard. It was a really rough time where I felt like I lost myself. I had no time to take care of myself because he (like any other baby) was so demanding. But with time, he became a little person and more independent and I learned to juggle a full time job, a mom, a wife, and our home. I have started to jog again (very limited but it is a start) and I have started a new hobby. Now 9 months into our new lives and I can not fathom our lives without him.

With this first entry in 9 months, I would like to introduce a new format for my blog. Nicolas cute face has inspired me to take up a new hobby, photography. I hope to portray the sweet and fun little boy he is. Here are the best pictures taken this weekend with my new SLR camera. (To see more click on either of the pics)

From Nicolas 9 months

From Nicolas 9 months

Seven weeks down...

Hey all,
Just wanted to share how our first 7 weeks with Nicolas has been. The first two weeks were pretty rough. I didn't know what we got ourselves into but the time flew and now Nicolas is 7 weeks and we are doing great!

All the visitors came and went and now it is going to be just me and him for the next 5 weeks. Thanks to all our friends and family that have come to visit us during these 7 weeks. My mom's visit was so helpful during the first two weeks. She helped with the baby and the house. I am truly grateful for the time she spent with us. Carolina came for first weekend and I know she is going to be a great aunt and Godmother! My dad and Carlos came this last week and it was so nice to actually spend time with them. The baby really liked Carlos he would always laugh and coo at him.

Here are some highlights. Nicolas has peed on everyone, including the dog. One day after his bath we were sunbathing and the dog was smelling Nicolas legs. Then Nicolas peed on Pebbles face. Pebbles did not know what hit her and kept rubbing her face with her paw. It was hilarious.

Leo was sick when the baby was about 2.5 weeks and that sucked. This last week he had the flu but he is better now. Aside from being sick he is doing so good with Nicolas. On weekends we alternate who sleeps in and he helps out the nights when Nicolas is having a rough night.

We have been homebodies for the last 7 weeks. It is sort of hard going from carefree to being completely consumed by this new life but we are adjusting. Because Nicolas is such a good baby we have been able to go out to dinner.

Yesterday he had a really rough day where all he did was eat, poop, cry and take 10 minute naps. We figured out that all he wanted to do was sleep. Once he finally fell asleep he only woke up to feed and today he is having a better day.

I'm going to take advantage of the next 5 weeks and cherish the moments I have with him. I've started to think of how hard it is going to be leaving him at daycare. But don't want to think about it too much so I won't get sad.

He has his two month appointment on April 23. He is getting really big, we are estimating his weight to be close to 10 lbs!

Here is a link to all my albums of Nicolas.

Birth Story and the first days with Nicolas

Hey all,

From Nicolas week 1

So most of you all know that Nicolas has arrived on February 23 at 9:41 am. But let me start at the beginning.

On Friday night, 02/20 my due date, Leo and I went out to get dinner. We got home and while watching tv, I feel asleep as normal. We went to sleep at around 12:30am. At about 1:30am, I woke up having a "pain" in my stomach. I thought it was indigestion so I tried to go back to sleep. The "pain" went away and then as I was drifting back off to sleep the "pain" hit again and then again, at 10 minute intervals. I went to the bathroom and came back and the "pain" was still coming and going. I woke up Leo and I told him that I thought I was having contractions. He then says, "so do you feel like pushing." He got a little ahead of himself. We started timing the contractions and they were coming every 10-15 minutes. I could not go back to sleep so I just tried to relax and rest. I got up around 9am and took a shower, washed my hair and picked up around the house. I also finished packing my bag because I thought that the contractions would get closer together and we may be heading to the hospital that day. Leo, Pebbles and I went for a 2 mile walk around the neighborhood and got back and the contractions were getting stronger and were coming for often maybe 8 minutes apart. We decided to go to dinner and got back but the contractions were not getting any closer or stronger. We decided to go to bed at around midnight after we tried watching a movie. The contractions were getting really strong especially when I was lying down. So every time I'd have a contraction I would get up from bed and try to breath through them. Leo tried to sleep but I didn't get any sleep. I decided to call the doc and ask them what I should do. The doc told me to have 2 tylenol and 2 benadryls and try to sleep. This didn't do anything for the pain and it didn't get me drowsy. We got up and decided to go to the mall and walk around to see if the contractions got any worse and then we could finally go to the hospital. I was having to stop every few minutes and breath through the contractions. The people at the mall were looking at us like we were crazy.

We got home and I decided to call the doc again and ask them what else I could do. The doc told me to take an Ambien (a very strong sleeping pill). I took the pill and I was able to sleep for only 20 minutes. This was at about 5 pm. I roughed out the contractions for another 3 hours and then the contractions were coming every six minutes, lasting more than a minute and I really had to concentrate to get through them. I told Leo that we should go to the hospital, I was so tired of being up for 2 days with no rest. I was hoping that these contractions were real and that the baby would soon be here. We got to the hospital at around 8:30pm, they checked me out and I was 2-3 centimeters dilated and contracting every 4 minutes. They decided to admit me. It then hit me that I was in real labor. They took us to the room and then monitored the baby and me for about 20 minutes. The nurse then let us go for a walk around the hospital to try to make the pain more bearable. We walked for about 40 minutes which flew by. We got back to the room at around 11:45 pm and while I really wanted to go natural, I stood up to try to get through the contraction and my legs were so weak they started trembling. I then knew that I could not handle labor if I were to have to go a few more hours with the pain and the lack of sleep. The anesthesiologist came by at around 12:15 am, 02/23, and gave me the epidural. I was 5 cm dilated at this time. I was finally able to sit and lay down and I slept for at most 3 hours and the rest of the time I just rested in bed. Leo slept that whole time in a chair next to me.

At around 6 am I felt a gush, I called the nurse and she confirmed that my water had broken. The 2nd nurse came in at 7am and checked me and said I was fully dilated and was ready to push. That freaked me out a little. I had no urge to push so I wanted to wait for my body to tell me to push. I asked if I could have like 30 minutes to see if I ever felt the urge to push. The nurse came back and I still didn't feel any urge but I figured I couldn't stall anymore. So we started pushing at 8am. I pushed with the nurse and the help of Leo for the next hour. The nurse called the doctor in and the doctor made it at around 9:15am. Those last 26 minutes were the hardest. I thought he was never going to come out. Finally the doc said, ok he is coming and then he was finally out! It was such a wonderful feeling. There were so many emotions in those minutes when they put the baby on my stomach. The one that stands out is of pure and utter love. The tears just started rolling and I felt so relived that labor to finally over and that Nicolas was finally out. He was healthy and beautiful. He was born at 9:41 am, weighed 6 lbs 13 ounces, was 19.5 inches and has a full head of hair.

The hospital stay was great. The nurses were wonderful and we tried to rest while we were there b/c we knew it would only get harder once we got home. We stayed at the hospital until Wednesday.

Nicolas is doing great, he cries when he is hungry, dirty and cold. The first night home was pretty rough. He was feeding almost every 1.5 hours. The pediatrician said that he was doing great and the lactation consultant was awesome and gave us some really great information.

From Nicolas week 1

And while we are sleep deprived, emotions are running high and we are adjusting to our new lives, I would not trade it for anything. I truly love Leo more now then before, I can't describe the love I feel for my son and could not imagine our family (including Pebbles) any other way.

PS: Pebbles is doing great. She is respecting his space and we only let her get close enough to lick his feet. She is very curious about him but not overly excited. Nicolas does not even flinch when Pebbles barks. He is used to her barking since he's been hearing it since he's been in my belly.

Sorry this is so long but I wanted to share what I was feeling with all my friends and family.

Here is a link to pics of us at the hospital and Nicolas.
http://picasaweb.google.com/nataliasanc/NicolasWeek1?feat=directlink