4 Months Old

Today Carlos is a whopping 4 Months Old. He can control his hands, he grabs things, rolls over from front to back and back to front. He has excellent tummy time (it’s when babies lay on their stomachs for a period of time, to gain arm strength and neck strength for head control and crawling). He laughs out loud. He’s a very good mix of his father and I. Of course he has his very own look, but we are able to see little features of ourselves in him. He has his Dad’s body type, Big legs and a long torso. He has high cheek bones from me and both my children have my feet.
He’s always so happy, he wakes up with a smile on his face. He’ll just lay in bed talking and play with his hands until someone gets him. In the morning around 8:30 a.m. his Dad will talk to him, pick him up and bring him to me in bed. Carlos is all smiles and wont really eat first thing in the morning, he just wants to be up. After an hour he’s ready for milk and to go back to sleep for his first nap. If Emery didn’t sneak into our bed during the night she’ll be waking up around the same time and come to my bed to watch her “toons” and ask for some milk.
I noticed right away, my kids tend to favor a certain side when they sleep. Carlos for the first 3 months, loved having his head turned to the right side. Now that he knows how to turn over, he’s been sleeping on his left side.
We went on a trip to the Beach. It was Carlos’ first time, he did excellent on the 2 hour car trip. I just fed him before we left and he slept most of the way.
This little one is going to have a big personality, he’s so full of life. Without being able to say a single word he makes me happy and laugh. His smile is contagious, I am blessed to have him in my life.

Baby Carlos is here!

Long time no post, sorry for being absent so long. Blogs slipt my mind for a while when I was pregnant. All of the being sick all day and night really got to me. It was a long 9 months for me while I awaited the arrival of our son.
Turns out he needed to be induced, he wouldn’t come out on his own. I was scheduled to go in on a Wednesday at 3:00 on January 16, now I can’t remember the details of times anymore but around 6 p.m. that night I was given Cervical to get my cervix going and help induce labor. The Nurses said it could put me into labor fast because this is my second child and my body knows what to do, or it could be the waiting game. My contractions at this point were low and I didn’t feel a thing. Both my husband and I went to bed at an early 10 or 11 o’clock after walking the halls a dozen times to help my body speed up the delivery.
At 12:00 a.m. I woke up to what I thought were stomach aches. I was uncomfortable and then I realized, “Krystal, you’re in the Hospital, it might be contractions!”. As I layed there a little longer I felt a warm trickle, I thought I was peeing myself only I couldn’t stop it from happening. I wobbled myself into the restroom  and realized it wasn’t pee, there was blood everywhere. I yelled for Victor to wake up and get a Nurse. It scared the crap out of me, the Dr.s call it, “the blood show” but I never had one with Emery and I wasn’t sure if what I was going through was normal.
Turns out is wasn’t. But then again whats normal when you’re having a child, every thing is different for everyone just like pregnancies. The Nurses helped me back into bed and called in about 5 other Nurses, the lights came on and everyone was in a panic. They called for a Doctor to come check me out and see why I was loosing so much blood. My Husbands face was white like a ghost, as if he were going to faint. He looked terrified.  That look he had scared me more than the medical team rushing around me, for a second I thought, “what if I die at giving birth”.
Speculation started that my placenta might be coming off the wall, causing all the bleeding. Eventually the Midwife concluded that my body was just reacting fast to the Cervical. There was nothing they could do for the bleeding and the baby was still fine, he didn’t have a fast heart rate or a low heart rate indicating a problem.
By 4 a.m. I needed help, I had been laying in bed with the worst pain in my life. These were way worst than anything I had the first time around with Emery. Maybe it was because they came so fast but I was gripping the bed rail for dear life cussing under my breath. I couldn’t take it any longer and I buzzed for the Nurse. She gave me something in my I.V. that made me loopy and I fell asleep. The medicine was supposed to last an hour but it wore off in 20 minutes. I was back to gripping my rail and cursing. By 6 a.m. that sweet Angel walked into the room with the epidural.
After that I was so relaxed, no more being tensed up, I was able to joke around. By this time it was 8 a.m. and Victor had left to get my mom. I was checked again to see how far I was dilated (by the way, that’s the second worst feeling in the whole world). I was at 6 cm and the Midwife broke my water.
At 11 a.m. I felt the pressure. I was uncomfortable again. It felt like I had to poop. I’ve heard people say that before but i never experienced it myself until now. With Emery I didnt feel anything I just pushed, this time it was pressure. I had to keep myself from pushing. The Nurse did one last check and said she felt hair. My baby boy had hair! such an awesome thing to have someone be able to feel that. The Midwife was called up to Labor and Delivery, she was down stairs in the Ob/Gyn with appointments. After a long wait, 9 months and 42 weeks of anticipation it was go time.

I will say one thing, knowing why you feel the way you do with the contraction pain, is better than hurting with all that pain and not knowing whats wrong with yourself. I knew the end was coming soon and all that pain was for a reason. Soon I would be holding my son and able to see what he looked like. After months of many people asking me, “are you ready”, I was finally at a confident “YES”, Lets get this baby out! I knew what I had to do and my body was ready, I was struggling not to push. Like Emery I couldn’t feel my contractions, I just pushed until I was told to stop. Labor lasted 10 minutes and with three big pushes he was here, Carlos Martin Calderon my son in my arms born on January 17 at 12:45 p.m. born with the help of Midwife Spaberg, the same Midwife that delivered Emery. Victor has never cut his children’s umbilical cord. With his first son he was deployed overseas with the Navy. With Emery had the umbilical cord wrapped around her head at birth preventing him from cutting it and Carlos had the same issue. He had the cord around his neck, I felt so bad for my husband. We knew this was our last child and he still wouldn’t be able to cut the cord. Of course we wanted the cords off the baby’s necks as fast as possible but still I couldn’t help feeling bad for him. Umbilical cord knots occur in about one in every hundred pregnancies. 
The Nurse heard he hadn’t ever cut his children’s cords before so she left it long enough for him to cut it. I was so happy for him and for us having a healthy baby boy. The last baby born into this family, we are now complete with two boys and a daughter. Couldn’t ask for anymore or be any happier.

7.15 oz at birth and 19.5″

Mustache baby shower

Ever since I met my husband I’ve been into mustaches. He has one and has had it for what looks like forever, as I’ve looked back at his younger pictures through out the years. When ever I would see a mustache anything I would laugh and point it out at him. Slowly I seen more and more mustache everything come into play. When we found out we were having a little boy I of course looked into everything boy, including baby shower invitations. As soon as I seen a mustache I knew I had to pay tribute to my husband and his mustache. It was totally boy, it was the “new” thing and something I had loved for a few years. So this is my baby shower I had last Saturday, for my son, Carlos Martin Calderon.
After finding a theme for the shower I scoured the internet and Pinterest with my sister in law for hours. My husband came home with a mustache sticker and necklaces for my me and my daughter. I found mustaches for my guest to put on for pictures at Party City and Target. One sleepless pregnant night I got an email from Cricut on my phone, in a stroke of luck they had mustaches for sale for a dollar. I flipped out in silence thinking of the possibilities and all the things I could make with them. With this baby shower I wanted it to be all girls so that mothers could have a few hours relax with out their little ones and have some fun. My husband had a little guys day. He was suppose to go to a local Brewery but ended up going out to lunch and hanging out with friends.
Here are some pictures of my shower and my mustache findings. Enjoy!

Halloween 2012, Year of The Mouse.

Since Halloween was Wednesday its the perfect thing to write my blog about. This year was completely different from last years. Last year It was just Emery & I at home while her Dad was over seas at work. We spent what seemed like the whole month decorating the house with spider webs and all the other goodies one can find during the month. My sister who was staying with us to keep me company helped decorate the house and put up a cemetery fence. Needles to say I like to get into the spirit (no pun intended). For me this is the best and my most favorite holiday.

This year my husband was here, but since I’m 30 weeks pregnant as of Wednesday I hadn’t been feeling my usual Halloween self so the house ended up being really bare. Typically I would decorate the last week of September to insure I’m first on the block and to get the best use out of all the decoration. This year the weather here in southern California was so hot I couldn’t even bare to be outside to do anything, that and my lack or energy really put a damper on things. I decided just to put out the skull mat, get pumpkins, switch out a light and call it good. Three days later is the baby shower anyways and I really dont want the extra work of having to take down all that decoration and still having the house to clean.
Still I carved pumpkins with the kids and this year my sister had the idea of sticking glow sticks in the pumpkins for a fun safe way to add a pop of color. If you remember my 4th of July post from earlier in the year you will remember how fond we are of glow sticks. It turned out great! Also she had heard on T.V. that putting bleach in  your jack-o-lantern and then rinsing it with water protected it from rotting fast. I tried it and it seems to be working! Emery’s jack-o-lantern is going 5 days strong with no odor or bugs flying around it.

                                                            The kids pumpkins with the glow sticks in them. The little white pumpkin is for baby Carlos <3

                                                                                                     The two little mice! Minnie and a pregnant Mickey haha

I started doing matching outfits with Emery last year. First we were leopard cats, she got her little costume first and since I was out trick or treating with her for her first real year I decided why not dress up and bought little ears and a tale. This year we decided Minnie Mouse! She has really taken a liking to the cartoon, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the Disney Jr. channel so when I asked her if she wanted to be here she loved the idea. I had a hard time finding the costume in her size in the stores. But one day there it was, the last one and we got it! Now since she was Minnie logically I had to be a character and I choosed Mickey Mouse. Victor was supposed to be Donald Duck and I was to make our bloomers and his hat but I got lazy and was scared to mess up so I never made the shorts. I found a pair of red shorts for myself (luckily) and sowed big white buttons on them and found mouse ears at a local Halloween store. Surprisingly it was hard to find mice ears too. My husband didn’t dress up but there we were, the two mice ready to nibble on some goodies.

Since our house wasn’t decorated and we hadn’t bought candy yet I decided to try something new. Our town was having a get together at the Civic Center down town for kids. Real cheap fun with food, candy, games and the mary -go- round was open! I always wanted Emery to ride it. It was a blast! She loved the jump house and the mary-g0-round the best. Of course I couldn’t get her away from them but that was fine with me, we were there to have fun and for her to ware herself out.
It was still early when they closed up (8 p.m.) so we made a trip to the grandparents to show off our costumes. Quickly we could see lots of dark neighborhoods. We were disappointed to see nobody participating in the fun. Last year when we went there was lots of dark houses too, I thought it was just our block but I guess not. Still you see lots of trick or treaters but I don’t know where they’re getting their candies from.
Overall I think it was a fun night. I enjoyed seeing all the costumes and parents dressing up with their kids and I think we’ll return next year to the Civic Center for some pre party fun before coming home and handing out our own candy.

Acid Reflux

In my second trimester I got off Zofran for my sickness. I wouldn’t say it was morning sickness it was an all day any time sickness. Luckily I was able to stop taking it but still had a few episodes. Heading into my third trimester I was starting to get that sick feeling right away when I woke up. I would have to eat something carby like a muffin to take it away. I’m not a breakfast person and especially being sick I don’t want to even try eggs!
After seeing the Doctor a few weeks ago I mentioned in passing how I was getting sick again. Didn’t think it was a big deal, and I had read that it was typical to get that sick feeling again.
The Doctor seemed to think I had acid reflux right away. Never expected that! I didn’t have a burning feeling and I just thought it was me being pregnant. Guess not. She gave me Zantac to take twice a day before I get sick. I’m really bad at taking pills. I only remember my prenatal vitamins and everything else is an IF I remember to take it kinda thing. Bad I know but im trying.
It’s hard being so sick you need to eat but sick you don’t want to eat let alone make anything and then once you do … hello porcelain bowl. Guess I should be learning my lesson and have a pill next to the bed as soon as I wake up.

Our weekend vacation

The pumpkin patch 
Last year Emery & I traveled almost 4 hours to see my Dad. Vic was still gone on deployment and we decided to take a ride to Roseville Ca, just a few minutes past Sacramento. From there we went to an area in  Placerville called Apple hill which is about another hour outside of Sacramento. I fell in love with it. It’s a  small community of homes and apple orchards  and they have a festival with apple cider, apple pies, apple cotton candy, apple everything pretty much. there are also tons of handmade crafts , a petting zoo, a fishing pond, and little wineries and a brewery.
All year I’ve been talking about going back. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The beautiful scenery and how there was so much to do just captured my heart. When the time came around this year to find a pumpkin I knew where I wanted to go. I had to take my husband to Apple Hill. I would  be able to visit my family and he could finally see for himself why I loved this place so much.
As soon as we got there my husband flipped out, we hadn’t even gotten out of the car yet and he was saying ” I love this place!”. I was happy I didn’t disappoint. He loved the fact that we parked in apple orchards and it was so organized.
Emery seemed to remember it from last year, she was saying, “Apple Hill!”. This year she rode a pony, I was worried she wouldn’t want to once it was her turn but I was wrong, she loved every second of it.
We had apple cider and looked around, she was content in her jogging stroller just looking at all the things around us. Eventually we left one location and headed to the field of pumpkins so find ours to take home. By this time Emery and I were hungry and had a snack. After being re-energized we walked the field and found 6 pumpkins worthy of coming home with us. Every year Emery gets a small pumpkin special just for her, this year we decided to do the same for baby Carlos. His has a small little white pumpkin that Emery loves to take care of every time we go outside.
It’s easy to spend a whole day there and probably not be able to see all there is to offer.
Every year we also take family photos, we planned on taking our there this year but we were pooped by the end of the day. Maybe next year!
We decided to make it our family tradition to travel up north every year to this amazing place to get our pumpkins and spend time with family we dont get to see very often.

The California State Railroad Museum
Being so close to Sacramento and having lived there for a few years I knew there was so much to do! Right now Emery is into trains. Where we live we are surrounded by trains and the sound of them blowing their horns. My whole life I’ve never really lived far from a railroad track, even when I lived in the big city of San Jose. At night you could hear the trains horn in the distance. Its a soothing sound to me and Emery loves it.
One night we were laying in bed relaxing before turning the lights out and we watched a new cartoon we hadn’t seen before. Chuggington on the Disney Junior channel. One train had said, “Hi Emery”. Me and Emery looked at each other in disbelief. Emery confirmed what I had heard, “he said, ‘hi Emery’”. I rewound it and that’s what he had said! I called Victor into the room and we all flipped out. A train named Emery, how perfect for her.
I knew there was a train museum in Sacramento, I had been there once or twice before with my dad and i knew I had to take Emery there. Sunday before heading home we stopped by with the family and got to learn a little of the history and Emery was able to walk through a few trains herself. She loved it and got a few souvenirs, including a Chuggington flip book, two trains and an Emery wooden train with the name Emery & Emery’s Car underneath it.
I also found a penny presser, the kind of machine where you put 50 cents plus a penny and get a design to remember where you were. We have a little collection going for her.

Different bellies

Every women carries different, carrying low for boy and high for girl is a myth. To go along with that the high heart beat doesn’t pan out either. With Emery my stomach was really high and I had a hard time breathing. She also had the typical high heart rate ranging from 150 to 160. When we would go to the Naval Hospital the Midwife told us usually if the babies heart rate is consistently high it would be a girl. It was true for Emery. Carlos started off at a heart rate from 140 – 150, I thought it was high and we thought maybe it would be another girl.

“By the beginning of the 9th week of pregnancy, the normal fetal heart rate is an average of 175 BPM. At this point it begins a rapid deceleration to the normal fetal heart rate for the middle of the pregnancy of about 120-180 BPM.”

With Carlos I started carrying low like a typical boy. I thought it was “normal” and getting higher like it was with Emery but I noticed every time I would sit down he would start kicking, he was always real low and I would have to lay down or sit back to get comfortable. I didn’t think much of it at first because he was still growing but at the 26th week (the end of my second trimester) I feel like this baby should be higher.  My pregnancy pants are uncomfortable, if they have a band it hurts. So I’ve been stuck in yoga pants and my one pair of jeans with the elastic that goes over the stomach. Then my mom would say I was carrying different than I was with Emery. Typically they say boys are lower, however it’s not necessarily true. Everyone carries different. This week a friend came over and right away said I was totally different than I was with Emery too. It was kinda funny because I just started realizing I am carrying lower. Two weeks ago I went to the Doctors for a regular check up. The Dr. asked if I had back pain, ( I always seem to remember my pains a few hours after leaving the Doctors office, after I’ve had time to really think about the question) I told her yes, but nothing I would complain about. I have had back pain since I was in middle school and occasional back pain from the pregnancy. For some reason I had forgotten the times at home my back had gone out and I couldn’t walk or how before my pregnancy I was in therapy for my back! The Dr. sent in an order anyway for a Belly Cradle. As shown in the picture in the link, it goes under my stomach, around my back and across my chest. The first night I tried it on and right after taking it off I really noticed a difference. It held my stomach up slightly more and helped my back. I only need to wear it during the day but I find it getting in the way of my already restricted wardrobe. It’s still so hot in Central California that all I want to wear is a tank top and whatever pants I have to wear if I’m not home wearing my comfy pants. Wearing the Belly Cradle, I can only wear T-shirts because of how it fits across my chest. I don’t have many maternity shirts that are short-sleeved that will cover my chest. I have plenty of long sleeve shirts but I can’t wear them now. So I find myself wearing my cradle at home when I can or if I find a shirt that fits my growing belly. It’s a small complaint for something that will save my back as this little boy grows faster and faster in weight and soon with the cooler weather it wont be an issue.