Joely B.

Joely B.
Joel at 1 week old

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Henry's birth

Thursday, November 21, 2013

6:00am- We arrived at Methodist Stone Oak for our scheduled induction on Henry's due date.

Between 6:30am-7:30am- The nurse tried to start my IV and my vein apparently "popped" twice. She kept saying, "It popped. Oh no. This is not good. It popped..." and I could feel blood spurting out of my hand, even though my head was turned and I couldn't see anything. This caused me to start feeling very nauseous and lightheaded, just like I had previously experienced at work a couple weeks back. The doctor called this a Vagel response/episode. Basically, the stress of the situation causes my blood pressure and heart rate to drop quickly and drastically. Which also affected the baby and his heart rate. The nurse called another nurse in to try the IV in my other arm. She did so with no problems. I looked up to see 4-5 nurses in the room looking at the baby monitor. My doctor was called in and he said he wasn't sure this baby was going to tolerate labor- not a good thing to hear. So Dr. Feinstein told me he wanted to let the baby and I relax for a while before we started any induction techniques.

9:00am- Dr. Feinstein came in and broke my water and started pitocin. I had been having contractions on my own, so the nurses were thinking this was going to go quickly.

10:20-ish- I sent Kristin a text that contractions were starting to hurt.

11:07am- Texted, "I'm about to say screw this and get an epidural." Then they upped the pitocin, so it was ago on the epidural.

12:00pm- I got an epidural. BUT it didn't work, not completely. My right side of my abdomen was numb, but the left side didn't take for some reason. The pain from the contractions went from being in the low center of my stomach to all of the left side of my torso. It hurt so bad I couldn't talk through them- all I could do was lay on my side and try to breathe through them. At one point I did start crying too. I remember the anthesialogist kept coming in and trying to give me more medicine, or adjusting the line in my back, but nothing was helping.

2:15pm- Dr. Feinstein came into the room dressed in his scrubs and ready to go! The nurse had been getting a little frantic beforehand and was moving around quickly. I'm not sure if I was a little out of it because I was still in a lot of pain, or if she just didn't say much, but the time before this all happened very quickly. A few minutes before Dr. Feinstein came in, Dr. Dubois came in again and gave me a double dose of medicine in the line in my back. So right before I started pushing, I FINALLY was numb on both sides. I remember pushing when the nurse told me I was having a contraction. We would do sets of three pushes. I could feel in my face I was pushing as hard as I could, but I couldn't feel my bottom area at all- so it was hard to tell if I was doing it right. All I could go off of was the nurses and Dr. telling me good job and that I was moving the baby down.

2:27pm- Henry is here! I was shocked when I opened my eyes to see him coming out- it happened so fast! They laid him on my stomach and he immediately started to pee, mostly on me :) The Dr. asked Benny if he wanted to cut the cord, but he didn't since he "doesn't feel qualified for that", so then the Dr. asked if I wanted to- so I did :)
7 lb. 5 oz. 20.5 inches long with beautiful dark hard and a healthy set of lungs. Love at first sight <3



Welcome Henry

Henry,
Welcome to the world baby boy. Today you are a week old and it just happens to be Thanksgiving Day. How fitting :) This year we have so much to be thankful for, and you definitely top our lists. I have adored you since the moment they laid you on my chest second after your birth. Your daddy loves you so much and is always so gentle with you. Your big brother Joel is smitten with you as well, and says the sweetest things like, "I could just hold him all day mommy." (Even though his holding you sessions as usually about a minute long and then he's ready to get up and go again).
At one week old you sleep. You wake up to eat every 3 hours. And you sleep. And sleep. I know this phase won't last forever, so I am soaking up all the snuggling time I get with you. You sleep best at night in our bed lying right next to me, and I definitely sleep better that way. Thank you :)
We had a lot of time together in the hospital since you roomed in with me, rather than going to the nursery. Your daddy went home at night since there was just a chair for him to sleep in, so I was able to take care of you by myself- which I didn't mind and actually enjoyed having the opportunity to get to know you!
Everyone says how sweet and easy of a baby you are. I agree of course. I always wondered how it would be to have two children and if I would be able to love another baby as I do your brother. But you have come into our family seamlessly. I already can't imagine life without you. I have been overcome with emotions a few times since you've been born. Not stemming from frustration or exhaustion, but of an overwhelming sense of gratitude and love. I know I am blessed beyond what I probably deserve with you boys. I am so thankful you are healthy and thriving. And I am thankful to have the opportunity to be your mother. I won't let you down- promise.
So welcome to the world sweet Henry David. I hope you see the best of it.
Love,
Mommy

Saturday, June 29, 2013

"It's probably a brother,"- Joel, Age 3

Well Joel was right! Baby brother is due this Thanksgiving and we couldn't be happier. Benny says he knew all along that it was a boy, and he really didn't ever mention much about it possibly being a girl. I honestly didn't have much of a hunch this time around. With Joel, I did really feel like it was a boy. This time, I think I was maybe preparing myself for it being a girl since we already have a boy- but I went back and forth as to what "feeling" I had. But on Thursday, June 27th we solved the mystery.
We went as a family to the sonogram to find out if Joel was having a brother or a sister. Everything looked good on the baby, weighing about 9 oz and all healthy organs. At the very end of the appointment we finally got to see the goods :) Henry David Del Castillo was clearly a BOY!
Joel isn't sold on the name. I think because he has a little boy at his daycare named Henry, so when we say the baby is Henry, he thinks we're saying it's that Henry. Before we found out the sex, Joel wanted to name the baby Pancake if it was a boy, and Cupcake if it was a girl. Now he says we'll just call him Baby Boy.
We came up with Henry David before we even got pregnant this time, so we haven't had to do any name searching or going back and forth. I loved the name Henry when we were pregnant with Joel, but Benny didn't like it. After Joel was born, we were talking about the possibility of baby #2 and Benny all the sudden loved the name. I think the idea of maybe calling him Hank sold him on the idea. His name is Henry, not Hank, just to be clear. David is my Dad's name and since Joel's middle name is Benjamin after Benny's dad, we thought that would work nicely.
I am so happy to be a mommy to two boys. I can't wait to see them play together and pick on each other likes brothers do. I hope they grow up to be close, best friends and always watch out for each other.
This will probably, 99% sure, be our last addition to our family- which of course is bittersweet. It's nice to know this is our family and we are set, but of course a little part of me will miss the possibility of having another baby. We were going to name the baby Mabel if it was a girl, so maybe we'll have to save that name for an addition of the four legged kind :)

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Potty woes

This is the first week of summer, which means we get to spend a lot more time with Joel! I'm not teaching summer school this year, which is for the best because I get to squeeze in some more time with my little man before baby #2 comes in the fall.
Today we worked more on potty training. Joel is getting pretty good at realizing when he has gone (if he has a diaper on) but he freaks out if he has an accident in his underwear and shorts. Makes sense because Joel doesn't like to be dirty at all. He has had two accidents so far, and now he's starting to hold in his pee, even if he has a diaper on. I think he is afraid it's going to make a mess when he goes potty, because he keeps talking about when he pee pee came out of his shorts. Poor guy. Tonight he was to the point of crying and squirming around because he was trying so hard to hold it. He finally went on our second trip to the bathroom (I had put his diaper back on in hopes he would just go). Hopefully it won't be long now until he is potty trained.
But other than that he has been a complete joy to be around. He is so talkative. Just a minute ago he told me, "Mommy, did you know you're the best?" Ahh, I love him so much. I know we'll love our kids the same, but it's going to be close ;)

Saturday, May 25, 2013

3rd birthday

Joel turned three on May 19th, and it's been a year since I've updated this thing! Bad mom. We had our first birthday party with friends invited, so that was fun. We went to Kiddie Park and had about 14 kids show up. The kids had a good time riding the rides, hitting the pinata, and eating cupcakes.
We also have the exciting news that we are expecting our second baby in November! Joel seems to be excited (most of the time) about having a little brother or sister. He will talk about helping teach the baby how to walk on the snow (?), or he'll ask to see my baby in my belly. He was there at our first sonogram, so he was able to see the baby on the screen and hear the heartbeat. He seems to get it that there's a baby in there, or at least he plays along :)
Joel has been a lot of fun lately. He's into pretend playing with us and with his toys. He'll say things like, "Mommy, just pretend I'm the sweetie (baby) and you're Ms. Pat." He'll make his toys talk to each other- mostly baby/daddy conversations where the baby asks for something and the daddy says, "No sweetie." Do we say no too much? :)
He has moved into sleeping in his big boy twin size bed as of two weeks or so ago. He probably stayed in his crib longer than most kids, but he never tried to climb out of it and loved sleeping in there. But I decided to move him out of it so there will be enough time for him to get over before the baby comes and he says, wait, that's MY bed.
We're still not potty trained, but we're working on it. He has been doing pretty good this week, but today he's been sick so I'd rather not push it when he doesn't feel well.

I asked him what his favorites were from the list below on his birthday, so here's his answers:




Show: Thomas (? He never watches this anymore. It's more like Chuggington, Bubble Guppies...but we'll go with his answer)
Color: blue
Food: Kolaches and Donuts
Toy: Toy Story toys, Lotzo Bear and Big Baby
Store: Walmart ( we've been here twice in his life)
Friend: Cousin Josh and Mason
Drink: Chocolate milk
Movie: Toy Story 3
Holiday: Halloween
Place: Train
Animal: Dinosaurs
When you grow up? Garbage Man