Eventful Week!

We've had an eventful week thus far. We went to an engagement party and met some other babies along with the bride and groom to be... Molly and Rico.




One of the great things we've begun to notice is his enormous amount of expressions he's beginning to figure out. Here are some pictures. Now, all these pictures were taken in a course of about two minutes. ;D







Some expressions I wasn't able to capture were the pucker face, his HUGE smile, and when he sticks his tongue out.

This week was really weird weather-wise... the week started off with record breaking heat!!!



Our lil Joey HATES the heat! It makes him VERY fussy. Here's a show once he finally got some rest in the A/C'd car!!!



This week we also got a present from one of our Neighbors in Sherman Oaks!
Thank you Ninette!!!



Wednesday, September 29th held a pretty momentous day! We started off the morning feeling pretty well rested.



My dad is on the transplant list with UCLA for a set of new lungs. For the first time he was called in to receive the donor lungs. We went ahead and left Joey with Grandma and Grandpa (David's parents) while David and I hightailed it out to UCLA's medical center. We made awesome time. They quickly prepped my dad for the arrival of the lungs. They called him and another guy out for the lungs. They would give the lungs to whomever was a better fit. The facility was impressive! From his private room you could see the UCLA football team practicing for their weekend game with Washington State University and you could also see the helicopter landing pad on the roof delivering the lungs!




The lungs were not viable and could not be transplanted into either the other guy or my dad :( I said it was kind of a blessing in disguise because really... no one was ready for this. It turned into reality real fast. (The transplant has been in waiting for a good couple years now.) You never know what God has planned and I wasn't ready for my dad to be on that table. Like my cousin said, "Maybe this is God's way of preparing everyone" and I think those words are holding very true. Once on our way home, all we could think about was our lil boy. We finally got home and we were able to hold him in our arms again!



The very first words out of my dad's mouth when we came to the hospital was "where's my Joey?" Kind of broke my heart. So the next day (after some rest of course)



and after my doctor's appointment in Irvine



David and I decided to surprise my dad with a visit from Joey. After a stressful night that was a little disappointing seeing Joey definitely lifted his spirits!



By the end of the week the weather cooled down significantly. With a near 30 degree difference in temperature, we were able to enjoy the lightning, thunder, rain and RAINBOWS!!! DOUBLE RAINBOWS to boot!

David also received his Daddy Diaper Bag that he's been wanting! It's pretty cool. Its called a DadGear bag. I'll post some pictures so you guys can see but if you want more details you can go to DadGear.com!




It's been an eventful week but overall, a great one!

Weeks 3 and 4!!!

Well... It's been some time since I've posted last. But our time has been a little consumed lately :) in the best possible way!

Some things to note: Joey is growing soooooo fast! He grew almost an INCH in just 2 weeks!!
Joey has started to smile and laugh! It's one of the cutest things!!!
He received his Social Security Card in the mail this week! Along with his own health card!!
Earlier in the weeks, we got Joey in his crib for the first time. It was for a nap but it's progress! (He does have a bassinet he sleeps in in our room for now)





We're doing alright on this end. David, Joey, and I are all still trying to find that schedule or routine. We're getting better at going through the "Cry Checklist" as we refer to it as. For instance... we ask ourselves.... "is he wet, is he hungry, is he hot or cold, tired, gassy???" all the above... We found that our little one is definitely (as the doctor put it...) Clingy. He would rather sleep with us (by with us, we mean ON us). We get roughly 1-2 hours more sleep with him sleeping with us. Joey also HATES being put down on his back. So that means when we put him down for the night... he better be OUT! And diaper changes... he's getting better... but usually he starts screaming the minute you put him down on the changing table.

We have had a few issues in the weight department with him. He may look huge but really he's still small. As of Monday this past week Joey had actually lost weight. He was back to his birth weight of 9 pounds 3 ounces. We have now started to increase his feedings (thus making it harder on me since we're breastfeeding - I just can't keep up, so that's been a struggle).

This past week we spent a couple days with Bachan and PopPop (my parents) so that Joey could get used to those surroundings as well. Zoe the dog adjusted VERY well. In fact, she is very protective of little Joey. Every time he cries even the slightest bit Zoe runs to Joey's side. Her tail is always wagging the minute we step in the door. Zoe sniffs him, licks his feet, then sits next to him as to protect him. It's cute. Luc (the cat) is still trying to figure Joey out. PopPop really enjoyed getting to spend some time with Joey. It was really nice. :)

With Bachan



This is a blanket a good friend of mine (Steph Cisneros) made for Joey! It's beautiful!!!



Here are some more photos that we've taken over the last couple weeks. Although these weeks have been exhausting, our lil Joey is all worth it! The 3 of us make a great team. A great Family! ;)

We End Joey's 2nd Week!!!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Joey got a visit from Bachan. He was pretty good all day long. We ran a series of errands and brought Joey along. He loves the car rides and getting out in the fresh air. It's wonderful to watch him look at everything around him. He takes it all in.

It wasn't until Thursday Night. It was a bit tough. We had a little one who was quite fussy and we didn't know why. We are breast feeding and were experiencing some troubles (as we found out, most women do). On Wednesday, Joey had fed then spit up (what we thought was EVERYTHING). He continued to cry and show cues of hunger. He cried and cried and cried. We tried EVERYTHING!!! We didn't know what to do so we gave him some formula to get him through the night. It was a very sleepless night. I called and made an appointment with the lactation clinic. My appointment was for Friday. In the meantime, David and I were just trying to get through.

One thing that we did learn is that our lil' Joey is intrigued with Baby Einstein! We showed him on our iPhone at 3:00 am. His little eyes we fixated!

Here's a photo once we actually got him asleep!



Friday, September 10, 2010

Today was the day we went to the lactation clinic. That was the BIGGEST help so far!!! They have a certified lactation nurse who looks at everything. She looked at the latch, Joey's anatomy, my anatomy, EVERYTHING! We also learned that we were overfeeding Joey. He had gotten weighed 6 days ago and had gained 14 ounces. He was only supposed to gain about 6!!! She let us know that babies are so immature neurologically that they don't know the difference between hunger pains and gas pains so they'll just give hunger cues for both! (ie. the sucking on their hands, the rooting with their heads, etc.) We also learned that some other signs that a baby has over eaten is the color of their poop (shockingly enough). If their poop is a green color then they've eaten too much. Also, she let us know that once they spit up, they've had enough. So when Joey had spit up everything [what we thought was everything] he had actually had more than enough. So we walked out of there much more confident that we were on the right track! We also got approved to use a pacifier! That's cool... turns out the nurse feels that Joey has a good enough latch that we can go to the pacifier.

We had a much happier baby that night!




Saturday, September 11, 2010

Today held some things to note! This morning Joey's umbilical cord came off. It happened in the morning so I didn't have to encounter it (I have a belly button phobia!) We spent the morning at home and got a visit from Cousins Amorita and Mick! After the visit, we headed out to the valley. Today was also PopPop's birthday! It was Joey's first car ride out to the valley. He did pretty well. It was nice, Joey got to meet a lot of people including neighbor's June, Robert, Rick, Emily, Ninette and the girls! Joey also got to meet Alex and Steve (the owners of Antonio's Pizzeria in Sherman Oaks). Today was also a first for Joey to smile and laugh!




Sunday, September 12, 2010

Today we end Joey's 2nd week with us!!! It's amazing how time flies!! We decided to stay home today and take it easy. We got a visit from Lindsey and George today! We also got my favorite hotdog from Portillos (If you've never eaten here before, you should!)

First Bath at Home

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Today was actually pretty tough. We had a very fussy baby on our hands. I was in my PJs until at least 4 o'clock this afternoon. It seemed no matter how much we fed him, how often we burped him, or how many times we changed him, he was still crying. Turns out, our lil guy has his first diaper rash. We did our best to avoid it, but unlike normal babies... when he sleeps in the middle of the night, he chooses not to let us know that he's soiled. Well during a diaper change, David noticed that his poor lil bum was all red! Let's just say that "Butt Paste" works WONDERS!!! Instant relief for our lil one!



Today also marked Joey's first bath at home!!! He LOVED it!!! He's definitely a lil water baby!!! Hopefully he'll take after his Mommy and love to swim and maybe take a liking to good ol' water polo! ;D




This is what a happy, bathed, baby looks like! :)



Today we also got our photos that were taken at the hospital! They came in color but I went ahead and made them all black and white as well. I'm going to post ALL of EM! Please let us know which you like best!!! ;D