Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,
It is going to be my 1st Christmas and I would really like a red wagon. It will be the best gift since I will be able to ride in it and when I grow up I can help my dad by pulling the garden tools in it. I promise to be a good girl.
Sincerely,
Carolina

1st month

A month has already gone by and it feels like it just flew by. This month has had highs and lows. The highs have been watching Carolina grow, watching her smile, listening to her grunt, listening to her sleep. The lows seem to have been brutal. Paul keeps on reminding me that it's not bad compared to what other babies go thru in our little world, that is our family, it's still pretty crummy. What I'm referring to is the fact that out of Carolina's month of life I have been on antibiotics for 3 weeks. Usually being on antibiotics is not bad but since she's nursing, my milk makes her stomach hurt. She gets cramps and a lot of gas. The worst thing is that when she feels bad all wants to do is eat but when she eats it hurts her stomach and then she wants to eat and the evil circle repeats itself. It is heartbreaking to see her go from smiling to crying in pain. I never thought something so little could make me cry so much. Every time that she cries in pain I apologize (for having to be on antibiotics), hug her, and kiss her. I hope that she only remembers how much she is loved and not how much her stomach hurts.

Bath Time

Today was a big day. Today is the first time that I give Carolina a bath by myself. I was very happy because

1. Carolina didn't poop in the tub (only on my hand).
2. Carolina didn't cry
3. I didn't cry
4. I didn't drown the baby
5. We survived

The bath tired Carolina enough to make her want to take a nap. I took advantage and took a shower. It was probably the fastest shower but I showered.

Today is special because Carolina and I did this all by ourselves while Paul is at work bringing home the bacon.

Obedient Child

Lately every time that I give Carolina a bath she throws such a fit that she ends up pooping or peeing in the tub so last Friday I had a serious conversation with Carolina and very nicely asked her not to poo in the tub. She grunted and I assumed she was going to follow instructions. As I waited for Elvia to bring a washcloth I felt the front of my shirt getting warm and all of a sudden poo shot out and landed all over my hand, sock, and mat. Thankfully Elvia was there and she cleaned my hand with paper towels. At first I was a little aggravated and then I realized I have a very obedient child that followed the instructions she was given.

Parents do the dumbest stuff

I was released from the hospital on September 21st. Paul scheduled an appointment so that people at a church could check if Carolina's car seat was installed properly. Sleep deprived and all off we went and passed the inspection with flying colors. On our way home we decided to stop and put gas. So in order to do it faster both Paul and I jumped out of the car. I put the card in the pump and Paul began pumping gas. All of a sudden I got a feeling like we were missing something. I looked in the car and noticed that Carolina was in the car with the keys in the ignition and the radio on. I immediately ran to the car, got the keys out of the ignition, opened the passenger door and got in the back seat with Carolina. At that moment I realized that parents do the dumbest things. I had always wondered how kids ended up inside cars by themselves but I guess lack of sleep will make you do crazy things. Note to self: Don't forget the baby!

Once in a life time

Let's go back a couple of months. 10 to be exact. I found out that I was pregnant on Martin Luther King Day. I had gone to the Dr. because my hernia was really hurting. I was certain that they were going to send me to the hospital so I could have surgery. During the consultation he asked, could you be pregnant? I told him that we had been trying but that I was sure it was my hernia. So they made me pee in a cup and a few minutes later the Dr. comes back into the room with a little wheel chart and asks "what would you say if I told you that you're pregnant?" my response was "but I like to sleep". To make a long story short, he did the math and told me that I was about 6 weeks along. When I got home I called my OBGYN and scheduled an appointment. The following days were strange because I would wake up every night at 3:00am with pain. So I called the Dr. and they said come in asap. They were afraid that the baby might not be in the right place. So we went the following day and they did a sonogram. I was very happy to hear that everything was where it should be. The day before the 11 week apt. it began to snow. I was at work and it was snowing so much that they released the kids early. As usual I stayed late because I knew that if I got on the road early I would be stuck in traffic. The drive was not bad at all but when I tried to get in the drive way my car got stuck. Fortunately my neighbor Randy came out to help me shovel snow so my car could get in the garage. So here I was 11 weeks pregnant shoveling snow. ONCE IN A LIFE TIME- I got to shovel snow while living in TX. The next day we had our 11 week apt. We called in to make sure the Dr. office was open since there was a lot of snow and school had been canceled. To our surprise they were open and Paul and I got in his truck went on our snowy day adventure to the Dr. to see the first official sonogram of our baby.

We later found out that it had snowed so much that records were broken. http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/weather/record-breaking-snowfall-in-n.-texas ONCE IN A LIFE TIME- RECORD BREAKING SNOWFALL.

From then on it felt like all I was doing at night was puking. As soon as I would eat dinner I would have to sit very still if not I would puke. I was completely surprised since all of my life I have been able to eat all types of food and even drink tap water in Mexico. All of a sudden burgers tasted bad, wheat bread smelled, coffee smelled, and worst of all (I'm about to TMI you) I could not stand the smell of my own pee. The worst part was that my dream was over. I thought that during my pregnancy I would be living a fat girl's dream, eating everything in sight. Instead I was throwing up with such force that I kept on peeing on myself (TMI). It was such a weird feeling, being that out of control so all I could do was cry.

Speaking of burgers....the day I found out that burgers tasted like puke was one of the saddest days ever. Paul had made me a real yummy looking burger. I took one bite and it was bad, second bite bad, third bite and tears began to run down my face. When Paul saw me he told me to stop eating it and all I can think of was Paul went to the trouble of making my burger and I can't even choke it down and all I said was "but I love burgers" as tears streamed down my cheeks. He laughed and excused himself. I told him it was ok to laugh because I knew I was being ridiculous.

During spring break we went to El Paso so that we could tell our parents in person that we were going to have a baby. As usual my mom picked me up at the airport and cried. So it made me feel a little nervous thinking of how she would react to the news. I procrastinated as much as I could and waited until my dad got in the car (we were going to have lunch with Paul's parents). Finally it was time to tell my parents so I said "you're going to be grandparents". My mom looked at me and said "So what? It's going to be yours not mine" then my dad looks over from the back seat and asked "Are you sure you're not constipated?" As usual my dad's reaction was completely inappropriate but my mom's response is what shocked me the most. Here she had been crying for me less than 30 min. before and now when I tell her the biggest news ever all she said was "so what?". I was so confused! The following day she took me shopping for maternity clothes. At that point I knew she was ok she had probably just been shocked by the news. :) I told people about my pregnancy on Facebook. Some people got frustrated because I hadn't called to tell them but there was no way that I could call everybody and tell them one by one over the phone. So I just went the most impersonal way about it in the hopes that people's feeling wouldn't get hurt but always somebody gets their feelings hurt.

The only person that knew before my parents was Diana. I only told her because we needed her help. In March we went to Sara's quinceñera. On that night I knew there would be lots of drinking so in order not to drink I told Diana that she was not allowed to peer pressure me into drinking since I was knocked up. She agreed so the whole night we drank club soda in the same type of cup that they were serving cocktails. Lemon wedge on the side and all.

By week 18 I finally stopped throwing up. Yahoo!

By week 20 I had only gained 5 lbs. During that appointment we found out that we were having a girl. I told Paul that I was sorry that it wasn't a boy. I wanted to have a boy so Paul could have somebody to play with but then he said "now I have somebody to dance with". Best answer EVER!

When we were sure that the baby was a girl name negotiations began. Paul made his list and I made mine. Then we looked at each other's list and crossed out all the names that we didn't like. Surprisingly there were a couple of names that were the same on both list. So it was final, we were going to name her Abigail.

In June we went to Blane's birthday party. When the night ended and Paul and I were home, he pointed out that there was a little girl at the party named Abby. At that moment I realized that the name had to be changed. Granted we only see these people once a year at Blane's birthday but I could not imagine having two Abbys in one place. So we went back to the drawing block. We finally decided on the name Carolina. For me it was a hard decision because

1. I like the name



2. Carolina Trejo sounds like she could kick some @ss. :)



3. Diana didn't like the name (she's had bad experiences with people named Carolina)

I spoke with Diana about it and even though she doesn't love it she sounded like she could live with it. Other than Diana nobody else knew the name. Oh and that made people react in ways I never thought they would. Everybody kept on asking, trying to be sneaky, and trying to catch me off guard so they could get the name out of me. Amazingly I was pretty good at keeping the secret. Since people couldn't get the name out of me they began giving her a name. Baby Trejo's name became

Jeniah Beyonce Arianne Sheryl Emily Michaela Timbalena Nacho Trejo

In August Diana, Kathy, Lani & Jamie threw me a baby shower. My parents flew into town for the happy occasion. We went to Buca di Beppo in South Lake. Everybody says that it was not a baby shower that it was a bachelorette party. As usual my mom and Elvia were the life of the party. They kept on screaming at the waiter "chico" and surprisingly him with his limited Spanish and my family with their limited English they were still able to communicate. That day I felt super loved since all of my loved one were there. Ok maybe not all of my loved ones since it was a girls only event. August was a hot hot month and ONCE IN A LIFETIME-WE HAD NEAR RECORD BREAKING HEAT. http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Heat-in-Dallas-area-to-near-record-Sunday-stay-in-100s-all-week-99718579.html

September was time to go back to work and at work we had another baby shower. The shower was a joint shower with Coach Tapia's family since his wife was due a week after I was. Overall it was fun since the ladies that went to my other shower continued with "chico" chants. Mid septemer brought lots of rain. One day it rained so much it took me 3 hours to get to work. http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/090810dnmetweather.cd74c3b5.html

ONCE IN A LIFETIME-BEING 3 HOURS LATE FOR WORK

September 17th was a scary day. That morning I woke up and the next thing I know there was blood running down my leg. I didn't know what to do. I contemplated not telling Paul and just showering and going to work but fear kicked in and I figured we should go to the hospital to make sure my little critter was ok. When we got to the hospital they just put me on monitors and checked to see if I was dilate but I was told that I was only 1cm dilated. The first time that they checked to see if I was dilated I was surprised at how painful it was. It felt like the Dr. had put his whole arm in the cuchamanga. Anyway, after being monitored for over an hour I was told that I was ok and I went back to work. 40 weeks pregnant and I was still working.

September 19th was the day that would change our lives for EVER. At 1:00am I began to get contractions. The contractions came every hour until 3:00am. Then every 30 min. until 6:00am I was able to sleep in between contractions but when I was waking up with a contraction it felt like the worst cramps ever and I felt like I was going to pee all over the place, fortunately I always made it to the bathroom. At 7:00 I woke Paul up since the contractions seemed to be getting closer. We got ready and by 8:00 we were on our way to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital by 9:00 and once again they put the monitors on me. I was afraid that they were going to send me back home and my biggest fear was traffic. The Cowboys were playing their first home game of the season and I didn't want to get caught in all that traffic. Fortunately they just told me to walk around in the hospital to make the contractions come more frequently. They finally sent me to the delivery room and nurse Bonny kept on asking me if I was ready for my epidural. I kept saying no because I had heard that you could run out of it before you finished delivering so I wanted to wait. Finally Paul convinced me to get it but I think that's because it was just not fun to see me in so much pain. Once the anesthesiologist came I was crying because my contractions were hurting so much. The worst part of my epidural was the Dr. checking with his nail where he was going to put the needle in. After that it was all smooth sailing. I even turned around and asked Paul for my Popsicle lunch. This all happened around 1:00pm after that Dr. Fielder came in to break my water since they had pushed pitocin to make my contractions come more frequently. To tell you the truth I couldn't feel my legs. My legs felt like linguine. I would touch them with my hands and feel nothing,I knew I was touching them since I could feel them with my hands. The nurse began to tell me to hold my leg so I could begin to push. At that moment I told her "either my legs are really heavy or my arms are really weak" but my legs were so heavy and I still could feel nothing. I only knew that my contractions were happening because I could feel them at the stop of my stomach. Eventually the Dr. came in and after 20 minutes of pushing my sweet Carolina came into this world. Paul looked torn, he didn't know if he should stay with me or go see her. I went ahead and told him to go see her. I know that he thinks that I didn't notice but I know he teared up when he saw her. :)

By 5:30pm my mom arrived and all seemed good with the world. It finally felt like I could rest and enjoy being a mom. ONCE IN A LIFETIME- BEING A FIRST TIME MOM

When Carolina grows up I get to tell her that the year she was born was a Once in a Lifetime year.

P.S. The Rangers made it to the World Series :)

Perfect Game

I don't know if you knew but Paul installed a flat screen TV w/cable in Carolina's room. He says that it's for when he wakes up to help with night feedings. If it's going to buy me some extra sleeping time all I can say is YAHOO!!! Yesterday Paul got to enjoy the fruit of his labor. As I was feeding Carolina he sat in the room with us and we watched the Red Sox beat the Yankees. Midnight feeding + all 3 of us together + cable in the nursery + baseball + the Yankees loosing = a perfect game.