Sunlight

When we left the hospital, the pediatrician told us to keep Alejo near windows (and sunlight) for the rest of the day, to help with the bilirubin issues. So, we put Alejo in the same place as all the other things in the house that need sunlight:

Super Lauren Saves the Day!

(Luis took this picture!)

Mid-May, Lauren volunteered to come out for a short visit soon after the baby was due to arrive. I was feeling a bit scared about how I would manage a new born and a 3.5 year old, and gratefully accepted her invitation. We planned for her to come out on July 1, as I was sure the baby would be early. And in the end he was, but not by much (1 day!).

Lauren holding Alejo

Lauren arrived Thursday afternoon, coming straight to the hospital, where she immediately charmed Luis! (And she brought him presents!) She played with him, cooed over Alejo, and chatted with Diego and me. When Luis started to get a little antsy (turns out that babies are sort of boring and hospital rooms have lots of rules!), Lauren walked Luis down to McDonalds, where they got ice cream together. It was great! When Diego took Luis home, Lauren stuck around to keep Alejo and me company.

Turns out that an inflatable beach ball is a pretty good toy to have in a hospital room - no damage done, lots of fun had.

Friday morning, Lauren escorted Luis to a friend's birthday party so that Diego could escort Alejo and me home from the hospital. Luis was thrilled to have his Aunt Lauren to go with. Then that night, she cooked a delicious shrimp dinner for all of us adults. In between she helped me organize baby clothes, changed several poopy diapers, played with Luis and held Alejo. I'm so thrilled that she came - especially in those first few days.

Luis LOVES to take pictures with my camera, and took this one of Lauren in the hospital

Everyone was sad to see her go home on Saturday morning...

Lauren, Alejo and Mary, just before Lauren left

Leah Comes to Visit

Leah (who kept Luis the night that Alejo arrived) came up for a visit on Thursday night - and very sweetly brought me the most delicious chocolate milk shake. Luis considers Leah to be his friend (not just mine). I hope that some day, Alejo feels the same way!

Mom & Alejo

Alejo - Day 3

This is group of pictures taken of Alejo on Day 3, our last day in the hospital. We both feel like Alejo looks a lot like his big brother.

Diego made the awesome collage (below) of Luis pictures shortly after Luis was born. In fact, I think that the pictures were all taken while we were still in the hospital. Do you see the family resemblance?

Our New Family

A big thanks to Lauren for taking these pictures for us - the first ones of our new family!

Glow Worm Alejandro!

At his 24-hour check up in the hospital, Alejandro's bilirubin level was high, indicating that he was a bit jaundiced. The pediatrician ordered "some time under the lights" to help. When the nurse brought him in to me at 2:30a (keep in mind that he was 24-hours old at 1:30 in the morning!), he was glowing this unearthly blue and green glow. In my exhausted stupor, I didn't even ask the nurse what was happening!! Never-the-less, she explained the elevated levels, the procedure, and how to keep Alejo in between the lights while he slept and nursed. Luis had been a little bit jaundiced, but had not required light therapy. Turns out that male babies are more prone than female babies, and second babies are more prone than first babies (learn something interesting every day!).

Hospital personnel all seemed to try to reassure us that the jaundice was normal and would pass with the light therapy. But neither Diego, nor Alejo, nor I were at all concerned about the lights.

The bassinet set-up looked kind scary - each of the tubes provide UV light to a heating pad-like pad, one he laid on and one was on his belly - and the two tied together to make a UV-Alejo sandwich.

His therapy included a little mask to protect his eyes from the lights. All bundled up like this, he looks kind of surreal.

This picture is kind of dark, but really shows what Alejo looked like at night, all bundled up in his UV lights.

Twenty four hours later, his levels were down, the lights came off and we went home. In the mean time, we got some pretty cool pictures of our "glow worm" baby. We did have to do a follow up with our pediatrician a couple of days later, and everything looked great.

Alejo - Day 2

Day 2 was much like Day 1 - Alejo slept about 23 hours of the day and had short nursing sessions in every couple of hours. He also cooled his jets under the UV lights. Diego came up (after staying home with Luis and getting him off to school), Lauren arrived, and I laid in the bed.

Alejo - Day 1

Alejo's first day was pretty uneventful. Diego went home before breakfast to see Luis and change clothes (he had a big meeting he hoped to get to). Alejo slept. Diego came back up to the hospital to see us. Alejo slept. Diego went home to get Luis so Luis could meet Alejo. Alejo slept. Luis checked out every button, gadget and item in the hospital room. Alejo slept. Diego took Luis home for dinner and bedtime. Alejo slept. He did wake up a few times to nurse, but then it was always right back to sleep.

Diego had a little nap, too - it had been a long night for all three of us.

Alejo did open his eyes for a few minutes, just enough time to get a couple of good pictures. Then it was back to sleep.

Super Smart Luis

When we went to the hospital (because I was in labor), my friend Leah came to stay with Luis. We had talked about the plan with Luis for a couple of weeks - to help minimize the chance that he'd freak out if he found Leah in our bed one night with Diego and I gone. We talked about how babies come whenever they are ready, and that we won't know when until it's time. We talked about how sometimes babies come in the middle of the night. We told Luis that the baby would be born at the hospital, and that Daddy and Dr. Reyes would be there to help me. We also explained that Luis would be able to come up AFTERWARDS to meet the baby and visit with Mommy. He seemed to be pretty hip to the plan...

The night Alejo was born, Luis came in to our room about 2a, and woke Leah up to ask if he could use "mommy's potty" to go to the bathroom. He didn't actually acknowledge that it wasn't me in the bed, or that Leah was there. After using the bathroom, he went straight back to bed. About two hours later, he came back in and woke Leah up again. She said, "Guess what Luis? You have a baby brother now! Your mom and dad are at the hospital!!" Luis didn't even blink and simply said, "I KNOW! That's why you're here."

Then he asked if he could snuggle her, climbed in the bed and went right back to sleep!

Luis y Alejo se encuentran por primera vez.

Welcome Alejandro Rincon!

Wednesday evening (June 29), I was feeling a bit poorly after my 40-week exam that afternoon (at which time my body was clearly getting ready for labor - 3cm dilated - but showing no immediate signs of it). I took it easy, and after getting Luis to bed, laid down on the couch for a rest. At 8:30, I realized that the "crampy" feeling I was having was happening ~ every 5 minutes. So I turned on the stopwatch function on my watch to get a better understanding of what was happening. And I sent a text to my friend Leah to put her on notice (she was our person to stay overnight with Luis should we need to go to the hospital). An hour later, I was having strong contractions every 4 minutes. I called the OB at 10, who suggested I take some Tylenol and call her back in 30 minutes. I told her I'd already had some Tylenol and that I was pretty sure I was in labor. She consented that I could head to the hospital "to see what's going on".

Leah came over and Diego and I headed out to Baylor at 10:30p. By now, the contractions are so strong and regular that I am sure I'm in labor. When I get to the hospital and they ask "how often" about the contractions I say "Very". They get me checked in and into a room. They get me on the fetal monitor to see how baby is doing, and then they check my progress. I was 8 cm dilated! The nurse assured me that my doctor was on her way and would be here soon. I told the nurse I was more interested in how soon the anesthesiologist could get there. My ideals of an epidural-free birth had vanished somewhere around 10:15p when the contractions had me doubled over.

The short version is that both the anesthesiologist and the OB made it in plenty of time. Despite an episode where baby's heatrate dropped during delivery, Alejandro Rincon was born at 1:39a. He weighed in at 7lbs 9oz and was a little over 20" long. Diego and I were both taken aback by the fact that Alejo was the spitting image of his big brother when Luis was born. In fact, Diego was with the nurses who were cleaning Alejo off and commented, "I've seen Luis make that face - TONIGHT at dinner!" And it's true. We both see a lot of Luis's features and Luis's expressions in Alejo's face.

[I am happy to share the "long version" of the story with anyone who is interested!]

Continuing to play Catch Up

I really, really am trying to get caught up with the blog, so that I can then try to stay current with the blog. To that end, I added fourteen new posts today, capturing May 2010 for the Rincons. I realize that April is missing, as is June - but hopefully not for long.

Today marks 39 weeks of my pregnancy, and really, I think the baby could come any day (or, it could be another 10 days, who really knows??). But I'd like to get caught up before then, because I think it will be MUUUUUUUUCH harder to catch up afterwards.

Enjoy the new pictures and stories, and stay tuned for more!

Did I mention that Luis likes to read the Wall Street Journal?

Today at school, Luis's class was discussing things that float and sink. When the teacher held up a plastic boat and asked Luis if it would float or sink, he said, "Float! Just like the oil in the ocean."

Along the same lines, when I turned the TV on this morning, Good Morning America was on and Matt Lauer was interviewing President Obama. Luis immediately said, "Look Momma, it's Barack Obama!" I commended him on this. Then after listening a minute to the interview, Luis asked, "Is he talking about the oil?"

(On a humorous note, Luis says 'oil' like a real East-Texan would - oeeeeel.)

Luis's Posse

Unfortunately, this isn't the clearest picture, but it is great in that it shows so many of Luis's friends. On the last day of (the spring session of) Luis's Parent's Day Out program, most of the kids in class met up at Toddler Park for a play date. In this picture, you can see (from Left to Right) Benjamin, Logan (red head), Collin, Luke and Luka. There were a surprisingly large number of boys in Luis's class this year!

A "Fire hose" for Luis!

Luis can spot someone using a hose from a block away. He recently noticed that our across-the-street-neighbors had a very cool hose attachment that made it like a low-pressure washer; though Luis thought it made the hose much more like a fireman's hose. Dave, the neighbor, very kindly allowed Luis to spray all of the plants, the concrete, both cars and most of his house with this "fireman's hose" before I wrangled Luis back across the street.

On his next trip to Home Depot, Diego picked up the $2 attachment for our hose and presented it to Luis, who then spent close to 45 minutes "putting out fires" in our back yard. Not the most conservative use of water, I'm afraid, but it did result in one EXTREMELY happy boy!

Zoo Trip!

There is a new exhibit at the zoo, Giants of the Savannah, that JUST opened. We went this morning for a quick trip to see this new area. We knew it was going to be hot, so we went early. Unfortunately, we'd have had to be there at 4a to arrive before the heat.

This new exhibit is towards the back of the zoo, meaning that we had to walk past lots of OTHER exhibits to get there. Exhibits that Luis was also interested in seeing. Exhibits that were distracting us from our mission. Exhibits that wasted precious minutes as the mercury was sky-rocketing.

By the time we got to the "main event", Diego, Luis and I were all sweating profusely and were all slightly annoyed (Luis that he kept getting dragged away from the thing he was looking at and D & me for having to drag). But it was worth it! The exhibit was fantastic!! We saw lions, cheetah's, giraffes, gazelle, zebra, and ostrich!

I was about to melt and in desperate need of a bathroom, and wondered in to one of the places that sells food. It turns out that this restaurant abuts the lion enclosure. I quickly discovered that 5 of the lions were lying up against the glass wall of the restaurant, presumably trying to cool off, just like I was. I scurried out to get Luis and Diego so that they could also enjoy this great view of the lions.

You don't have to see Luis's whole face to see how cool he thinks this is!

One of the things you can do is to feed the giraffes. What it really means is that you can spend $5 to buy 3 pieces of romaine lettuce and then elbow your way to the fence, and hope that the giraffes are still hungry. Luis loved it!!

Back in the summer of 2008 while in Florida, we went to the Brevard County Zoo. It was interesting to go back to that post and see Luis feeding the giraffes two years ago, wearing the same batman hat (and seem him just as hot as he was today!).

And, as Diego pointed out, it was so hot and humid that you truly felt like you were on an African Safari!

Not Sure What to Title This One!

Despite the rising temperatures (it was in the low 90's yesterday!), Luis still really, really likes to wear his winter coat outside (and his tall pants, and his long pajama pants, and his fleecy pj's, etc.). Take this picture for instance. It's hard to tell, but under his winter jacket is a fleece pj top. And he is again wearing his rescue shoes. Despite the rain, the temperature in this photo is in the upper 80's!!

35 Weeks

I'm trying to be better about getting pregnancy shots. But so far, I'm taking them myself, which doesn't make it any easier. This is right at 35 weeks - and I'm definitely showing! For a comparison shot, here is me a 34 weeks when I was pregnant with Luis. With the clothing being so different, I find it hard to compare, personally.

The last week or so has been tough - due to some minor swelling, I can no longer wear my wedding or engagement ring, and I'm down to just 2 pairs of shoes. These things happened last time, so I wasn't so surprised. But a couple of days ago, I woke up, put my contacts in, and realized that I couldn't really see out of my right eye. Got a new contact for that eye, and still everything was fuzzy. Took me a few more minutes to realize that this was another side effect of pregnancy swelling - that my eye ball had change shape just enough to render my current contact prescription "invalid" for me (not sure of the right word, but the bottom line is that everything was suddenly blurry!). I'm not looking forward to a month of just my glasses. The last time I bought new glasses was just after Luis was born. The prescription is way out of date AND the glasses don't fit well (easily slip down my nose every time I look down). Sigh. A small price to pay for a new life - or so I keep telling myself!!

I'm still trying to catch up on blog posts, and am posting a bit out of order. I am hoping to get a little more caught up over the weekend. At my last OB appointment (35 weeks!) my doctor told me I needed to be off my feet and resting more. This is bad news in terms of caring for Luis, Diego and the house, but it may be good news for my work with Thomas and updating the blog...