Baby Love

Random thoughts and observations about my little love AJ:
It is hard to believe that 2 weeks have already passed since I went into labor. Two Thursdays ago at this very same time I was praying to be done with my pregnancy. And then just 2 short hours later I felt my first contraction. Already it seems like a lifetime has passed since AJ was born, which just goes to show you how quickly kids grow up. I want so badly to hold onto every moment with him. I think because Cienna was my first child I always wanted to know what the next month would bring...would she hold up her head? Start eating baby food? Start crawling? I didn't really take the time to enjoy everyday because I was always looking ahead to what the next milestone would be. This time I know what to expect and that is why I want to enjoy every single day because I know that he will not be a baby for long.
These last 2 weeks have been absolutely wonderful. After a few days of mixing up his days and nights we are finally on a good nighttime schedule. He feeds every 3 hours...like clockwork. I have run into a little snafu though. I seem to have forgotten how to put on a newborn diaper correctly. Almost every time he wakes me to feed he is wet somewhere on his back. So I have to change the outfit, change the bassinet bedding and change the diaper before feeding. I'll tell you it is exhausting. Having a boy is also very different from having a girl when it comes to changing diapers. Poor AJ has already shot himself in the head with his little firehose because I didn't cover him up in time! Then I have to change the outfit, change the changing pad cover...you know where I am going. There has been a TON of laundry these first 2 weeks!
I am finally getting used to calling him AJ. It was crazy at first...I was calling Tonka; Cienna, Tony; Zeus and AJ; Cienna. I think that I have everyone's name right now. We took AJ to his first doctor appointment this week and found out that he has gained 12oz and grew an inch in length. Just like his sister he is tall and skinny. 70th percentile in height and 10th percentile in weight. He had to have a heel prick to draw some blood for a test and he didn't even flinch, let alone cry. The nurse said that she had never had a baby not cry at all...and that he was "pretty special." I think that he is just a tough guy like his daddy. Everyone who has seen AJ has commented on his huge hands. It is something that stuck out to me from the beggining. I just keep imagining him socking some kid up at the bike racks at school with those mitts. Lets PLEASE hope not. I am praying for a studious young lad.
Cienna has not shown an ounce of jealousy so far but I am sure that is due in part to my mom being here for the last 2 weeks. Her little world is still revolving around her and it is not going to end anytime soon. Tony's mom is coming into town on Saturday and staying until we leave for CO for my birthday. When we return from CO we are driving back to CA and staying indefinately (well at least the kids and I are staying indefinately.) So it is going to be a whirlwind for her. Every day she pets AJ's little head and says "oh, he is so beautiful. My baby brother (which acutally sounds like "My baby brudah.") She seems to love the kid.
All I can say is that I am beyond happy with my little family. I feel like we are finally complete!

8.28.09

OK, now that I have had a moment to catch my breath and settle in at home I am ready to re-live 8.28.09. For those of you who have called to check on me I am sorry that I have not returned your calls. I am just too exhausted to repeat the "labor story" again. So here it is...
I went to the doctor at 1pm on Thursday, August 27th and AJ was moving down but I had only gone from 2 centimeters dilated to 3. The doctor stripped the membranes and told me if it was going to work I would be in labor sometime within the next 24-48 hours. At 6pm that evening I felt my first contraction. I went for a walk. I felt more contractions. I went for another walk. By 9:30pm I knew that we should head to the hospital.
When I showed up at the hospital I was dilated to a 4. After hooking me up to the monitors and checking the contractions for about an hour and a half I was moved to a room. I told the doctor that I wanted my epidural ASAP. Apparently someone else had the nerve to have a baby the same night / day and they were ahead of me on the epidural list. The contractions came on super strong. Then the pressure came. Between the pain and the pressure I could not focus on any one area. I dilated from a 4 to an 8 within 45 minutes and was still waiting for the epidural. I have never felt that much pain in my life. I was half crying, half yelling, half begging for my life. I kept telling the nurse that "she didn't understand" and "I need an epidural now!" I was saying things like "Oh My God" and "I Can't Do This" over and over. I was literally freaking out. Finally the anesthesiologist came in an administered my epidural. She hit the nerve and I felt an electric shock go down my right leg that locked my hip into place. Now my hip was killing me. Then another shock down the right leg. I thought "OK, only like 5 more contractions and I won't feel a thing." 25minutes later (and dilated to a 9) I was still feeling everything. Finally the anesthesiologist said "screw this, it should be working by now I need to do it over." So it was epidural take 2. Just when I thought that I was going to die I realized that I could not feel my legs. Sweet relief.
End of story right? Not so. As with Cienna, epidurals make my blood pressure crash. So within 5 minutes both my and AJ's blood pressure dropped dramatically. They called for every doctor and nurse in the maternity ward to come down to my room. They kicked Tony out. They started administering the Epinephrine like it was going out of style. Finally they were able to stabilize AJ but not me. For the next hour and a half they kept pumping me full of meds to try to bring my blood pressure back up. In the midst of all of this I dilated to a 10 and they told me to start pushing. Then the doctor asked if I had been in an accident that would have injured my right hip and I told her no. She said that there was something "funky" with my right hip and it curved inward which make it almost impossible for me to birth a baby the "old fashioned way." She said that I could continue to try to push but it was going to be from the OR just in case.
So now I am being wheeled into the OR and my blood pressure is still not stable but I still have hope of pushing baby boy out. After 10 minutes of pushing the doctor told me that it wasn't going to happen. A half hour later I heard his sweet cry. C-sections are not the best for baby bonding...you can't see your child until they show you (which in my case was about 3-4 minutes after first hearing the cry) and then they don't let you hold the baby because they have to stitch you up. And if everything that I had been through wasn't enough they thought they nicked my bladder again! It was like to deja vu from my experience with Cienna (minus dilating to a 9 before getting an epidural and I had an emergency c-section for a totally different reason) but everything else from the blood pressure crashing to the bladder nicking was the same.
Once I was finally able to hold AJ I realized how in love with him I am. He is cute beyond words. He smells amazing. And he snuggles like nobody's business. He doesn't cry like a baby....he squeaks like a tiny mouse. I am totally obsessed.
My mom has been here since the 26th helping me around the house and with the kids. OMG. Kids (plural!) Saying it (or typing it) out loud is crazy weird. I can't believe that I have kids! She is staying until the 10th and I can't thank her enough. Yesterday she vacuumed my house, mopped my floors, ran around Little Gym with Cienna and watered my plants. Today she washed sheets, mended clothes and dragged a screaming toddler through the mall that kept screaming that she needed ice cream when she really needed a nap. And on her birthday none the less. Thanks mom! I love ya!
I am so happy that I have my perfect little family. I have an amazing husband (who grocery shopped for me yesterday, got up with AJ in the middle of the night to bring him to me and then got up when Cienna couldn't find her "B" at 2 in the morning), my adorable daughter who makes me laugh every single day, and my mellow baby boy who we call AJ. I couldn't be happier than I am right now!
And now for some pics!

Last Picture Before Heading To The Hospital

My Bundle Of Joy That Caused Me So Much Pain!

Cienna Meeting Her Baby Brother For The First Time

Tony...All The Way

Getting Ready To Go Home

My Little Angel

AJ And His "B"

Our Happy Family

Our Teenie Tiny "Tony" Has Arrived

Anthony Michael Mazotti Jr. arrived on Friday, August 28th at 4:05am. He weighed 6lbs 10oz and was 20" long. Stay tuned for a more news later this week!

Long Lost Friends

Instead of begging God to allow me to go into labor this week I am going to take a different approach. Denial. I am not really pregnant. I am just bloated. I will attempt to control my bloatedness (yes, that is a word MOM!!) through diet this week and by next Monday I will feel much, much better. If not, I will simply have a little "cosmetic surgery" on the 1st to relieve my bloated belly and waddling hips. Stayed tuned for that.

See What I Mean About The Bloated Belly? I Know What You Are Thinking...Is That The ONLY Shirt She Owns? It Is In Every Picture On Her Blog. The Answer Is NOOOOOOOOOOO....It Is Not The Only Shirt That I Own It Just Happens To Be The Only Shirt That Fits!

OK, so enough about that. The last two weekends I have had visits from long lost friends. The first visit was from my very best co-worker / friend / coffee buddy / lunch date / sample house partner-in-crime at CPWM. Her name is Stephanie but I call her Blocker which is actually her maiden name that she has not gotten around to changing after 3 years of marriage. What can I say? The girl is busy. Anyway, she and her husband Scott are moving from northern CA to Louisiana so that Scott can attend law school. On their lovely drive along I-40, they stopped in ABQ to have a quick nap and breakfast. It was so fun to catch up with Blocker and her hubby. And to my surprise we didn't utter a single word about CPWM. Except to remind me that our boss's name was Guido which is Tony's absolutely favorite baby name EVER!

Breakfast at Gold Street Caffe

The next weekend my very best friend from college (and sorority sister) Breanne came through town on their way from CA to TX. They moved to Texas in 2007 against our very sound advice and they actually like it. I know....weird right? Not that Texas is the worst place on Earth, but I have conducted several informal / formal studies and concluded that only people who were actually born in Texas like it. It is my determination that if you are from CA, you are naturally pre-dispositioned to hate Texas. Unless you are the Bullards. Anyway, I digress.
So Bre and the fam came through town last weekend with their adorable two sons Gavin and Elijah. Cienna had a blast playing with them, eating with them and bathing with them. Note to self-Cienna appears to be moving a bit "fast" with boys. She should wait on the bathing part until she at least knows how to pronounce their name. And don't even get me started on the fact that their are two of them and one of her (and they are brothers for God's sakes!) Ahhhh!

Bre and I had a chance to catch up on the last 8 years (on everything that is not posted in our blogs at least) and her husband Mike was able to teach my daughter how to drag a stool over to the pinball machine, turn it on, press start and pull the lever so that she can play by herself. This is AMAZING considering that the pinball machine has been in our house for the last year and half and she was never able to do this before. She actually got to almost 1 million points yesterday AND got a skull lock! (If you don't know what a skull lock is you have obviously not been to my house in the last year and a half. Either that or you are like me and just don't know what it is because they are very hard to get!)

TFJ

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. Cienna started at ABQ Little Gym which is a gymnastics based Gymboree class basically. So we will be saying bye-bye to Gymbo for a few months while we try that out. We have a gopher that is digging up our front yard, the dump truck wouldn't shift out of gear and Tony has been running cadets into the ground. Oh and the dogs are still begging for someone to have enough energy to take them for a walk.

Did Someone Say Walk? Whooohooo!

So that is my little update. Off to start my diet now......
A

Please God....I Am Oh So Ready

I don't have any pictures for this post. I don't even have any real news to share. The only thing that I want to say is that I am OH SO READY to have this baby. I am officially in the uncomfortable stage. I get up 6-7 times a night to go pee and I don't know how that is even possible if I am not drinking water throughout the night. If I sit up my belly has no room to hang. If I lay down I can't breathe. My back hurts when I walk. My arm hurts for no reason. And I cry at least once a day. Sometimes I cry so hard that I can't catch my breath. Seriously. I am over it. Please pray that this baby comes soon!

Cienna Elise Mazotti

As I was sitting on the park bench this evening watching Cienna play, it suddenly dawned on me that I have less than 30 days of being only Cienna's mommy. Soon things will be much, much different for my first born child, the one that my world has revolved around for the last 2 1/2 years. There are so many things that I would love to say to her that I wish that she would understand and remember. But instead of disrupting her play time I will type it out so that one day she will know how I feel at this very moment. Here goes nothing.
- I love you more than words can truly say. And I think that you are the most amazing little person. Every day brings something new and your little phrases crack me up.
- I love how when we are at the park you try to play with everyone, regardless of age, gender or nationality. You say things like "hey guys, wait up!" or "I'm coming!" and sometimes they think you are cute and laugh and sometimes they leave you in the dust. You don't care either way. If you get left behind you simply look for someone else to play with. I hope that you never lose that.
- I love that when music comes on you automatically start to dance. You move your elbows mostly. It is so cute.
- I love when you say "mom, look at that mess!" Or "this is really dirty." You remind me just how similar we are.
- I love when you say to me "Momma, I love you. You are my best friend. You are so beautiful." It melts my heart every time.
- I love when you are having conversations with your imaginary friends. They consist of Mickey & Minnie Mouse, Goofy, and then two dogs that you have named Henny and Hono. You pretend to walk Henny and Hono and when I try to say hi to the dogs and get them mixed up you always correct me. "No! This is Henny!" It is one of the highlights of my day.
- I love when you ask me to hold you. I know that I will only be able to hold you for so long so I gladly do it. I wish that you would stay little forever.
- I love how you say everything with a french accent. Especially when you say paper (papeh), stroller (strolleh), and baby (babeh.)
- I love when you sing songs you close your eyes and move your head for the long, loud notes. Maybe mom has been singing to much in the car or too much American Idol watching but you have got stage presence girl!
- I love your courage and daredevil attitude. You pick the tallest slide and then go down head first.
- I love that when you know that I am mad at you you say "mom, I wanna make you happy!" and then you do this crazy laugh until I laugh. How did you even come up with that?
- Mostly I love that you are the person that you have become. I could not have asked for a brighter, funnier, or more loving child. I love you so much and I hope that you never change. And I hope that you know how much joy you have brought to my life!
Love,
Mom

Cienna's BFF

Cienna's BFF Brody came to visit this weekend from Lubbock. They first met in Gymboree last year and their relationship took off from there. It didn't hurt that Brody's mom and I think that we are actually sisters separated at birth, so getting the kids together was never hard to do. Last November they moved to Lubbock and every few months we get together to catch up and let the kids pick up bad habits from one another.
Yesterday we started the day at Gymboree and then headed to the fire station. We intended on giving them a ride on the truck but neither one of them was too enthused with that idea. Instead, we got them to pose next to the truck....

We then headed back to the house and made lunch, took naps and got ready for the zoo. We had a ton of fun testing our new double stroller out and watching the gorilla's grab their poop and toss it on the ground. It was so gross!

It was hot, hot, hot in the 95 degree weather and due to my expanding "form" I was dying. I went from looking like I swallowed a basketball to looking like I swallowed a hot air balloon. I am so ready for AJ to be here....

Tony was able to come with us (which is a treat considering even on his days off he is never really off.)

Cienna worked once again on her modeling poses...

And she and Brody continued their blossoming relationship...


It was one great weekend!