He finally did it!!!

He slept all night...kinda... :) He fell asleep like at 9pm and woke up at 12ish to eat. He fell back asleep and woke up at 7ish! I was sooooo happy!

The down side is that he hasnt slept all day. I think combined he slept maybe about an hour and its almost 7:30pm. I think he isnt feeling well.

So if I must choose sleep all night and raise heck all day or wake up 2 times and give mommy peace and quiet during the day, i choose.....not sure. In both scenarios I am tired. :)

Update

Well, its been a while. I am noticing that the older he gets, the less free time I have. Thats not a complaint, just an observation.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving. We spent the whole day with Mando's family. The food was yummy and Ricky behaved so good. He is a very social baby. He loves being around people and seeing there faces. He loves being in the middle of everything and fights his sleep with all his might whenever we are around other people. He doesnt want to miss out on anything. We took our picture for our Christmas card. Whoever reads this gets one:) Just dont forget to leave your address:)

Ricky is doing well. He got his first cold this last thursday and has been sick ever since. He is doing a lot better. And for a baby who must be feeling miserable, he wasnt too bad. He was just a little fussier than usual but not what i would have expected. I was expecting mush worse (knock on wood).

Other than that he is doing amazing. He got this new thing of vomiting half of what he eats (a little exaggeration) and then when we clean him up he is just smiling away.

He laughed for the very first time out loud on monday. It was the cutest thing ever. What was even more adorable was that he was sleeping when it happened. Who knows what he was dreamimg about. We got his birth certificate and are getting ready to travel at the end of this month. Hopefully he has fully recovered.

Until next time!

2 months

sorry its been along time. He has gotten in the habit of not sleeping. I thought all babies ever did is eat, sleep and poop. Well he eats and poops all right but sleep not so much. He naps for a couple of minutes and then wakes up. As soon as he wakes up he thinks its eating time no matter when the last time he ate. He keeps my hands full. Good thing he is so cute:)

He is sleeping better at night. He is waking up 2 times. Most of the nights. There has been a few nights when he wakes up EVERY HOUR!!! No joke. Then he doesnt sleep during the day. Those days are very tiring. People keep telling me its only for a few months...I sure hope that is true.

We took him to his 2 month follow up. He is weighing 9.1 lbs and measuring 21 inches. He is doing great. He got his shots as well. He was such a trooper he hardly cried. He cried for 2 seconds and that was it. He just looked at us and looked away. He had a little fever the next day and had a really tiring night but thankfully he is doing lots better.

He loves to look at everything. He stays awake and looks around at everything. He smiles directly at me now. I talk with him and he smiles back. It's not a random smile but one that is directed at me. I melt every time he does that.

I love him so much. I cant believe he is two months already. We are looking forward to the holidays. Cant wait for my dad to meet him.

My brother Jacob was here for a few days. We had so much fun. Jake would sing to Ricky and Ricky loved it. We went to the Alamo and went to the AT&T Center. I loved having Jake with me. Thanks Jake for coming. It meant so much to us. Jake is leaving for his mission and will be gone for 2 years. Glad that he was at least able to meet the baby and be with him for a few days.

Well, till next time

Tender Moment

We have been trying to start a routine for Ricky. More specifically a bedtime routine because I am tired and miss my sleep. For a less selfish reason, I hear its good for them to have routines. So I was reading that at night time you should dim the lights, lessen the interaction you have with the lil one and speak softly. Well since Armando is at work all day and when he comes home Ricky is sleeping, the only time he has to play with him is right when we are trying to put him to bed. It's kinda hard to limit the interactions when Daddy wants to play. It's the cutest thing seeing Armando with Ricky. He is so gentle and loving. Ricky adores him as you can tell by the picture...either that or he was scared...we haven't figured that out yet...

Happy Halloween!

Ricky dressed up as a cat this year. My brother Joey and Lidia bought him his costume. We had them over for a few days this weekend and we had a blast. Its so nice being around people that love you:) I miss that... We ate a lot this weekend...Ricky loved it! Thanks for coming over guys. :)

He has been a bit fussy lately. These last few nights I haven't slept very much. I miss sleeping! He is weighing 7.11 lbs and measuring 19 1/2 in. Well this was on Tuesday. By now he has got to be weighing more because all he does is EAT!

Gotta make this a short one, he is crying again:)

Sad day....

Well, my mom went back home yesterday. She was with me for five weeks. Man, she helped me out so much. I woke up being on my own for the first time with the baby. So far he is doing good. He hasnt thrown to much of a tantrum:) I think he misses his Grandma. The good thing is that we will see her and my family at the end of December.

On to good news, the nurse came by today. He is weighing 6.8lbs and measuring 19in! He is getting soooo big. He was approved for the Synagis shots. He gets the first one next week.

On a funny note, we discovered that Ricky likes being naked:) He likes being in his diaper and just chill. He can be crying but as soon as you strip him down, all is quiet!

Untill next time!

Ciao!

One Month

So he turned one month on thursday. I had typed out a great blog then i did something and closed this out. :) Now I dont remember what I said.

He is weighing almost 6 lbs now and measures 18 1/2 in. When we go out, everyone asks if he is a new born. When I tell them he is a month old, they always say "he is so tiny!". Well, compared to a month ago, he is huge:) He fits into his clothes (kinda)and outgrowing some as well.

He doesnt cry anymore, he screams at us when he wants something. Already he thinks that he is the boss. He has kept me up a few nights already. He used to sleep pretty good at night, dont know what happened.

We took him to the lung specialist. Since he is a preemie,he needs some shots called Synagis to fight RSV. RSV is a respiratory infection that preemies are at high risk for. In adults or other babies, RSV would be like a regular cold. In him, it could send him back to the NICU. We need to wait to see if the insurance company will authorize it. Please include him in your prayers that they will authorize it and that he can get this treatment.

Well, Gotta go. He woke up and isnt happy:)

He blessed Grandma!

He took a nice bath yesterday. We didnt wake him up this time, so he didnt cry...as much:)But as mom was washing his hair he decided to pee on her. All of a sudden I see a squirt and mom says "he is peeing on me!" Good times!

News on the Lil Chunker!

So he had his doctor's appointment yesterday. Since he was born under 5 lbs, they need to make sure I am being a good mother and fattening him up:) He has to gain about 1 to 1 1/2 ounces a day. Last wednesday he was weighing 4.8lbs. Yesterday he came in at 5.2lbs! He gained 10 ounces in a week. He also has a nurse that comes in every week for 3 weeks to make sure he is gaining weight and that everything is going well. Well Ricky left her in shock. He gained weight and got longer. He is measuring 18 1/4 in. She said that it is really rare when a baby does both. You either get taller or gain weight and not only did he do both but it was a big weight gain and a significant amount he grew!

He is doing amazing well! We noticed that his eyes are a nice grayish color and under the right sunlight, they have a blue tint to them. Now Mando's Gma has blue eyes so there is a possibility Ricky can have them. But I think he will have they eye color like his Daddy, a nice honey brown. And one thing that has been driving all the girls crazy (his Gma's, Doctor, nurse etc)are his eyelashes. They are getting fuller, longer and they curl up very nicely. I am afraid I will have to keep this son of mine locked away in a tower:)

Now good news...We wanted to fly to Cali at the end of the year but with all the restrictions we have on him we were not sure if that was going to be possible. I asked the doc yesterday and she said...YES! We can continue with our plans to be with my family for New Years. I am stoked and so is Ricky.

Well that is it for this morning. He is waking up and instead of crying he get really mad and grunts really loud. :) It's the cutest thing ever!
Ciao!

3 Weeks Old

He is 3 weeks old today. Time flies so fast. Since our last post, his belly button thingy fell off. I was changing him at 5am on thursday and it just fell off. It was so weird. I woke Mando up to show him.

We (and by that I mean Mando) put together his stroller. He went on his first outing saturday afternoon. We took him to La Cantera (an outside shopping center)and walked around for a bit. He was asleep the whole time. I put together his little bouncer thing all by myself. And the best part, I didnt have extra parts left over;)

He had his first real bath on sunday evening. He wasnt too happy. The reason was probably because he was asleep when we decided to bathe him. He doesnt like being woken up.

He is getting bigger by the day. We have a doctor's appt tomorrow to check his weight and see if he is growing. Having a preemie is hard work. :) I love this lil guy so much. It doesn't even bother me to get up at 2am everyday to feed him and them wake up 2 hours later and feed him again:)He is getting a little lazy when it comes to eating. He is preferring the bottle and that isn't good. I'll let you know what the doctor tells us tomorrow:)
Ciao!

Welcome Everyone!

Hello There,
We decided that we had too many important people in our lives that we want to be a part of our lil guy's life. It's kinda hard for that to happen when most of you are so far away. We hope that maybe with this you will feel like you are a part of the action. He is growing up so quickly and getting bigger everyday. We want to be able to share with all of you everything we are getting to enjoy here at home.

To start off, here is a little bit of his birth. He was due Oct 21, 2010. Monday Sept 13th I went in for a regular doctor's appointment and it turned out that my blood pressure was way to high. I was sent to Labor and Delivery. Tuesday morning, they induced me and by 5pm I had only dilated 5 cm. The doctor decided to do the C-Section and by 5:36pm Ricardo Lehi Alvarado was born. He weighed 4.1lbs and measured 17 7/8 in. He was taken to the NICU and had oxygen for 2 days. After that he was breathing all on his own and the IV was taken out as well. He was left only with a feeding tube. He pulled out his feeding tube 9/23/10 and the nurse didnt have the heart to put it back in. Seeing s how he had done that already 2 times that day and the night before. He came home Monday Sept 27th and I couldn't be happier.

He is such a good baby. He doesn't cry unless he is hungry. He wakes up about three times during the night and he is such a fighter. He has done excellent. Everyone at the hospital was impressed by his progress.

Well that is it for now. Kinda long, sorry:) If you read through all this, Thanks! I will be adding more as Ricardo continuous to grow and develop.