Caitlin's first Christmas!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Before I talk about our Christmas, let me update everyone on Caitlin's cold. Last weekend Caitlin was fighting a cold and on Monday we took her to the Doctor. Turns out she had a cold and an inner ear infection in both her ears. :( The Doctor put her on anti-biotics and she seems to be doing a lot better now. Her nose is still running a little but she's back to sleeping on her normal schedule and seems happier. She is also up to 17 pounds! She's almost doubled her weight since she was born!

Caitlin's first Christmas went pretty well. She got a lot of nice new toys and seemed to enjoy the day. I think she's still a little too young to understand what was going on but she was full of smiles all day while opening presents and playing with her new toys. We had a nice lunch here at the house had family come over in the afternoon. Caitlin got Toni a charm from James Avery of a mother and child and she got me a Sony PSP! :)

This week should go pretty quick with New Year's on Thursday. New Year's has never been a really big day for us here in the Vargas household but it will still be nice to have the day off. :) If I don't post again before then, I hope everyone has a safe and happy new year!

Merry Christmas!!

Today Caitlin had some visitors! She met Toni's sister Hilda and her husband Mark. They stopped by on their way to Brownsville all the way from Colorado! We had a nice visit with them. They even brought Caitlin a toy! :) I spent a lot of the visit playing with Hilda's iPhone. :) Totally cool!

This week was another busy one for us. Caitlin spent a couple of days this week fighting a cold. She's had a lot of sinus congestion and has had a hard time sleeping this week. At times she seems to be doing better but she still has coughing and congestion that comes on suddenly, especially after eating. Tomorrow we are going to take her to the Doctor just to have her checked out. With this insane weather, I'm surprised we're not all sick! There's something so wrong with the weather when it goes from being 80 one day to below 40 the next. Seems like that's happening every week here lately. I wouldn't be surprised if we go from the 40's tomorrow to the 70's on Christmas day...

This week Caitlin "discovered" her feet! She has started grabbing and playing with her feet and kicking a lot more than normal. I'm sure it won't be long before she starts taking her socks off! :) We've continued recording Caitlin with the camcorder. We've got some great scenes of her eating, playing with her feet, laughing and trying to play with Shiloh.

As this will probably be our last post before Christmas, we'd like to wish everyone a safe and Merry Christmas!

5 months old!

Only in south Texas can it be 80 degrees one afternoon and having snow flurries the next morning! This week Caitlin turned 5 months old. It still seems like she's been with us so much longer. This week was actually pretty busy. Wednesday morning Caitlin started day care and on the way, we actually saw snow flurries! Caitlin's daycare seems nice. It came highly recommended by one of Toni's friends who has her 2 kids there so we at least had a good idea of what kind of place it is. All of the staff seems very nice, they have a lot of security in place and they even have webcams setup so that we can login whenever we want and see how Caitlin is doing.

This week Caitlin also seemed to discover our dog Shiloh! She has started watching him and smiling and laughing when he comes near her. She even reached out to touch him. We got a high-definition camcorder during the week and have started recording Caitlin so we don't lose all of these special moments as she gets older. :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well, the weather might not be looking a lot like Christmas but the decorations are up! This weekend we went and got our Christmas tree and took Caitlin to see Santa. She didn't seem too interested in Santa, she did however seem very interested in whether or not his beard was real (it was). When I tried to take Caitlin off of Santa's lap after the pictures she refused to let go of Santa's beard. Santa was nice enough and calmly told Caitlin that she needed to let go because he was going to need his beard later. :)

I'm going to keep this post short this week since I posted a couple of days ago. Caitlin is doing good and so far has done well on the few cold days we've had so far. She's sleeping through the night in her room and continues to mature every day. She's continued laughing, smiling, reaching for things and making all kinds of noises trying to communicate. We've already got her Christmas shopping done and all of her gifts under the tree.

Last Friday marked 1 year since we had our first doctor's appointment and sonogram after learning that Toni was pregnant! Sometimes it seems like it was yesterday, others it seems like several years ago. The weirdest thing to me is that I remember while Toni was pregnant that those 9 months seemed to last forever. Now, looking back, it seems like Caitlin has been with us for far longer than Toni was pregnant! I'm so glad that I started this blog to chronicle everything. It's been really cool to be able to look back at everything. :)

This week we don't have much planned. Hopefully the weather will get at least a little cooler so it can start to actually feel like Christmas. It was definitely hard to get into the holiday spirit on Saturday walking around getting the tree and not wearing a jacket!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello everyone! Sorry this week's post is a little late. Last week was pretty busy for us. I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! Last week I only worked on Monday (what I call my dream work week) . Tuesday I spent the day with Caitlin and went to have lunch with friends and then stopped by Toni's job. Wednesday Toni had to work most of the day but we got on the road and headed to Brownsville around 5pm. Caitlin did pretty well on the drive and slept through most of it. It ended up taking about 5 hours to make the drive and by the time we got there, I now fully understand why there is a market for mini-vans. Making the almost 300 mile trip in my truck was pretty cramped. I'm not saying that I'll be trading in my truck for a mini-van anytime soon but I now understand why people buy them. If we ever have another baby, I'll definitely start looking at one.

Thanksgiving was nice. Everyone was amazed at how big Caitlin has gotten. We spent the trip at Toni's Dad's house and got to see a lot of family and friends during our stay. Thanksgiving also marked a special day for us, it was one year ago on Thanksgiving morning that we found out that after over 3 years of trying, Toni was pregnant!

We avoided the "Black Friday" crowds and just stayed in on Friday during the day and then spent Friday night at Toni's best friend Sonia's house. Saturday we drove home and Caitlin did well on the drive home and only got fussy toward the end. Sitting in the same spot for hours on end, I completely understand. :) Sunday we went and got Caitlin a high chair. Special thanks go out to Tia Blanca and Tio Bone for their generous gift of money to Caitlin which enabled us to get the high chair. It's a very nice chair and is rated for up to 55 pounds. With Caitlin tipping the scales at around 15 right now, we should get a good amount of use out of it. She seems to like it and has been enjoying her nightly serving of rice cereal. :)

This weekend we are hoping to take Caitlin to get pictures with Santa and get our Christmas tree!

Rice cereal.. Yummy!

This week went by pretty quick. Toni was out of town for the first 3 days and I was off work on Wednesday while Caitlin's Nana Bev did her civic duty and went to Jury duty. :( This week we started Caitlin on her rice cereal. Neither Toni or I have had the courage to taste it but Caitlin sure does seem to enjoy it! Once she learned how to eat from the spoon she started really seeming to enjoy it. She'll be on rice cereal for a while and then after she turns 6 months the Doctor wants to maybe start adding regular baby food.

I'm going to keep this post short this week. We will be heading to Brownsville this week for Thanksgiving. Hopefully Caitlin will do alright on such a long drive. We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

4 months old!

This week was another busy week for the Vargas family. I had Tuesday off work for Veterans day and I took Caitlin to have lunch with a couple of friends from my old job. We had a good time and I think Caitlin enjoyed seeing new people. After that, I took Caitlin to Toni's job so she could meet all of Toni's co-workers. Caitlin definitely attracted a lot of attention that day. :)

On Thursday, Caitlin turned 4 months old! To mark the occasion, she had her 4 month checkup. At this checkup she got 4 immunizations which she didn't enjoy at all and we had the Doctor pierce her ears. I don't think she liked how loud it got when they pierced her ears (the thing they used to do the piercing was pretty loud) but she hasn't seemed to notice the earrings since. I was a little concerned that they would bother her but so far she hasn't seemed to mind them. In other news, Caitlin has grown quite a bit in 4 months. Here's a comparison from when she was born. 8lbs 11oz at birth vs. 14lbs 15oz today. 20.5 inches long at birth vs. 25.5 inches long today. She's in the 90th percentile for height and the 78th percentile for weight. Her head size has also increased although I don't have the exact numbers. The Doctor has also told us that we can start feeding Caitlin rice cereal once a day to start introducing her to more solid foods. So far she hasn't really seemed too thrilled with it and I think she'd rather continue with her bottle because the cereal takes longer for her to eat. Caitlin's next appointment will be in January for her 6 month birthday.

This week Caitlin continued changing before our eyes. She continues to be more engaged with us and seems to be smiling, laughing and watching us more each day. She has started turning to watch TV and yesterday we got her a chair that she can rotate in that has 4 different playthings surrounding her. Yesterday after we showed her how to make a couple of them make noise, she actually reached out and interacted with it herself! We've put her in the chair a couple of times and she started playing on her own each time. We still think that she is left handed because every time she has reached for anything, she has used her left hand. Yesterday also marked another first, Caitlin slept in her own room for the first time. We have a baby monitor camera with night vision on the crib so we were able to see and hear her throughout the night. She seemed to enjoy her crib and slept throughout the night. I think she'll be more comfortable on the mattress and will have more space. She's starting to get too long to sleep comfortably in her pack and play so the crib should work out nicely.

This week should be another busy week. Toni will be going out of town on business for a few days and I'll be taking Wednesday off to take care of Caitlin. Caitlin's Nana Bev got summoned for jury duty and won't be able to watch her. Depending on the weather, I may take Caitlin to lunch with some friends or if the weather is too bad, just hang out around the house.

She's on a roll!

This week Caitlin hit a major milestone in her growth! For the first time, she was able to roll herself from her stomach onto her back! She's definitely getting stronger and I have a feeling that soon we're going to be chasing after her as she starts crawling and wanting to explore. She actually has enough strength in her legs to support herself if we balance her. Once her arms catch up with her legs, I think she's going to be off and running. Other than rolling over, Caitlin continues to amaze me every day. She continues trying to communicate with us and it seems like every day she's smiling and making more sounds than the day before.



On Saturday Caitlin got to go to her first birthday party for her Cousin Ethan's 3rd birthday. The party had a super hero theme focusing on Spiderman and Batman. The kids seemed to have fun whailing away on their Batman pinata that was actually bigger than most of them. :) Caitlin did great on the way to and from Austin for the party so I'm hopeful that she'll do as well when we make the much longer drive to Brownsville for Thanksgiving. Today we took Caitlin out to eat with us to go have lunch with friends and then came home to start getting ready for the week. This week I am off on Tuesday and will be going to have lunch with friends from my old job and then Thursday is Caitlin's 4 month birthday! Thursday morning we're taking Caitlin to the Doctor for her 4 month checkup and while we're there, the doctor will be piercing Caitlin's ears! Toni and I both feel safer having the Doctor pierce her ears rather than taking her to the mall to have it done. :)

Happy Birthday Toni!

This week we celebrated Toni's 37th birthday! Unfortunately she was out of town on business for half the week but we took the day after her birthday off so we could hang out with her father and then today we took Toni to lunch for Italian food. Nana Bev, Grampa Bob and Aunt Sarah all went as well to help Toni celebrate. This week went by pretty fast. I spent the first 3 days with Caitlin by myself at night while Toni and her dad went to Colorado. We got a webcam so we were able to have video chats at night so Toni was still able to see Caitlin every night. Technology is cool! :) Friday night we didn't do much for Halloween. Caitlin was the only one with a full costume (she was a sheep) and with Toni being out of town most of the week, we didn't have time to find her a Bo-Peep costume to go along with Caitlin's outfit. My plan was to go as Indiana Jones but the only thing I bought was the hat! Halloween turned out to be a non-event. Not a lot of people showed up for candy at the house so I donned my fedora, put our little sheep in the car seat and we all went to Chili's for dinner. :)

Caitlin has started using her hands a lot more this week. She is now grabbing things and we're starting to think she might be left handed. She tends to grab things with her left hand so we'll see what happens. It's totally amazing to watch her. Sometimes she'll look at us and her face will light up with a huge smile. It's so cool to see and really makes me forget any problems I have at that moment. She's also giggling and making all kinds of noises like she's trying to communicate. This week she seemed more vocal than at any time before.

This week should be a little slower for us. Toni's in town all week and it'll be business as usual for me. I've started applying for other jobs that I've seen that look good and am really hopeful about a job working for the school district that I applied for. The pay and schedule would be great and the job sounds like it would provide enough challenges to stay interesting.

The Pumpkin Patch

The biggest news this week was the good news we got from the Doctor about Caitlin's lab results. Everything came back good so it looks like the blood in her poop a couple weeks ago wasn't something serious. Yesterday we also took Caitlin to a pumpkin patch to get some pictures. The pumpkin patch was actually at a church on Tezel and Mainland. We got several good pictures of Caitlin and had a good time just getting out of the house.

Yesterday, Grampa Andres arrived and tomorrow he's going with Toni to Colorado to see family while Toni works. She has to go to a new property in Colorado this week and then in 2 weeks she'll go to Arizona. Caitlin and I will be hanging out at home together. We went and bought a webcam so that we can have video chats over the next couple of weeks when Toni goes out of town on business trips. Her and her dad will be in Colorado until Wednesday night and then Grampa Andres is staying until next weekend to spend some time with Caitlin here. This week Toni will also be celebrating her 37th birthday (on Wednesday) and then Friday night is Halloween. Caitlin is still too young to take out for candy so we'll probably just stay here and pass out candy with her. We've got a costume for her and we'll be sure to get plenty of pics. :) Not sure yet if Toni and I are going to dress up but we'll see. :)

I'm gonna keep it short today. Hope everyone has a great week!

Test results came back fine

We got the lab results and everything checked out good for Caitlin! they're not sure what caused the blood in her poop but it hasn't happened since last week and they couldn't find any problems so it was probably just Caitlin pushing too hard. The news is definitely a huge relief for Toni and I.

3 Months old!

Monday Caitlin celebrated her 3 month birthday! She continues to grow before our eyes and has gained almost 5 pounds since she was born (she's 13lbs, 6oz now) and 3 inches of height! This week was a busy one so I'll start at the beginning. Monday was a day off for me and I had planned to take Caitlin to lunch with me to see some friends from my old job. Unfortunately, the weather was horrible so I decided to postpone the lunch and stay at home out of the weather with Caitlin. Caitlin was having fun laughing and smiling so I figured taking her out in the rain would only sour her mood. Then I went to change her diaper.... Upon opening her diaper, I found a messy bunch of poop and found a small amount of blood... I can't even describe the fear that I felt. Although the blood was maybe half the size of a dime, any blood in a diaper is enough to stop a parent's heart mid-beat. I immediately called Toni and while talking to her, took a picture of the diaper to send to her at work. I'll spare everyone that little gem and let you instead enjoy the picture of Caitlin for her 3 month birthday. :) When Toni got the picture, she agreed that it wasn't normal and called the Pediatrician. The Doctor asked that we bring in Caitlin's dirty diapers so that she could send them to a lab to try to figure out what was going on. I stayed with Caitlin and Toni came home and took the diapers to the Doctor. The rest of the day Caitlin continued laughing and smiling.

The next day, Toni took Caitlin to the Doctor and they could find no problems but decided to change Caitlin's formula to a prescription only formula just in case. The Doctor also requested another poop sample and gave us a bunch of containers to transport them in. Caitlin's Nana Bev was the lucky one who got the next dirty diaper and with it, the honor of spooning poop into a jar. :) We're still waiting on the lab results but the blood seems to have cleared up on its own. It was always bright red so from what I've found after countless hours surfing the web, that's actually good news and means that the bleeding happened somewhere close to the "exit" point. If it had been something internal like the stomach or intestines, the blood would have been black. There was some black in the original diaper but none since. The blood continued at a reduced rate for the next 3 or 4 changes and is now gone. We're hoping it was just hemorrhoids or that she strained too hard and not something more serious. We're anxiously awaiting the lab results sometime this week. For now, Caitlin is definitely not enjoying the taste of her new formula but she's making the best of it. :)

In other news, Caitlin continues to try and communicate and has been smiling this week more than ever before. She has also started to grab at things and is growing stronger by the day. Today she also did something that she's never done before - followed us with her eyes while we were walking around. Usually she would focus on us if we were in front of her and if we moved wouldn't follow but this morning at breakfast she was watching us while we were walking! Pretty cool! She also smiles now when she sees us and has even started laughing more. I'm trying to get a good video of that to put on the blog. :)

Yesterday we took Caitlin down to the Greek 'Funstival'. It's an annual event downtown where they serve up Greek food, entertainment and have some vendors selling Greek items. We enjoyed some good food and I even tried a pretty good Greek Beer - Mythos. Toni was the designated driver. :) I'm not much of a beer drinker but it was actually pretty good. We didn't stay too long but I think Caitlin enjoyed getting out of the house for a bit.

Hopefully this week will be less action packed than last week and we'll get good news back from the lab. I'll post the news here as soon as we get it. Hope everyone has a great week!

Getting bigger by the day!

This week was another good week for Caitlin. She did have a couple of fussy days where she didn't want to sleep the entire night but overall she did very well. Every day she continues to be more engaging with us. She now will watch us while we're having dinner and smile when we look at her. She's also been spending a lot of time in her bouncy chair watching the lights on it and smiling when they come on. She has also started reaching for things and trying to interact with things more. This week she also was able to roll herself over from her stomach onto her back for the first time so she's definitely getting stronger. As for her growth, we're pretty much done with anything that was sized up to 3 months and she's actually gotten so tall that she no longer fits comfortably in her pack and play on the narrow side. We have to lay her lengthwise now so she has enough room!

Today Toni and I went to Government Canyon State Park by our house and bought an annual pass so we can go out there with Caitlin walking a lot. It's really nice and for only $60 a year, we have free admission to every state park in Texas so that's a good thing. Since it's so close to the house, we plan on going a couple of times a month so it will be a nice, inexpensive way to spend time together. :)

Tomorrow Caitlin will celebrate her 3 month birthday! I seriously can't believe that Caitlin is only 3 months old. In my mind it seems like she's been with us for over 6 months. We are going to take some good portrait pictures of her to mark the occasion. Tomorrow I am also off work for Columbus Day so I am going to have lunch with some friends from my old job and spend the day with Caitlin. My job is going alright. The purchase of Wachovia by Wells Fargo probably will not make any difference to my future there but I'm not totally giving up on something opening up and being able to stay on there. It's a long shot but I'll deal with that if the layoffs still happen. I'm definitely looking forward to having a short week this week and seeing my old friends tomorrow.

Grampa Andres visits!

This week Toni had a short week so she could spend some time with her Father, Grampa Andres who came to town on Thursday to see Caitlin. We had a good visit and Caitlin enjoyed seeing her Grampa again. There's still some debate as to who Caitlin looks like and Grampa Andres spent much of the weekend arguing his case that Caitlin has his eyes. If anyone would like to throw in their 2 cents, as always feel free to leave a comment on this post. :) Saturday Toni and I went to a wedding for one of Toni's co-workers and then out to eat with Grampa Andres. After dinner, we came home and watched Iron Man. Overall we just tried to stay around the house and relax.

Caitlin had a pretty good week. In the picture above she is in her dress from her Great Aunt Evelyn that she crocheted by hand for Caitlin. She's also wearing a hand made bonnet made by Mrs.Overland (The mother of one of my long time friends). While she had been sleeping through the night for the most part, she has started taking more naps during the day now as well. She still seems to be growing by the day and this week I think she smiled more often than in previous weeks. She's definitely becoming more alert and interested in her surroundings. We think she's weighing in at around 12.5 pounds but it seems like she's a lot heavier. Getting her in and out of the cars is starting to get a lot more difficult and for the first time in a long time, I'm wishing my truck wasn't so high off the ground!

On the job front, what can I say? Last week, the company was sold not once but twice! Neither sale really matters to me though. They are still proceeding with layoffs either way. Hopefully this week won't be quite as hectic. :)

This week flew by!

I'm not really sure why but this week seemed to go by very fast. Maybe it was because our nights were filled with so many new tv shows starting! Caitlin has been doing great. This week she was smiling at us a lot and even started sleeping over 8 hours straight throughout the night! Most of the week we actually got 8 hours of sleep a night so it seems like she's starting to get used to her routine. She's also continued being very photogenic. We are both very happy that we bought our new camera. We've taken almost 800 pictures so far and the battery is still 75% charged! The pictures are turning out great as well. We've printed out a few 8x10's and have been very pleased. The camera is the Nikon D60 DSLR. It's 10 megapixels and the quality is incredible.

We haven't weighed Caitlin since her 2 month checkup but she feels like she's gained more weight. Getting her in and out of the cars is getting more difficult every day. This week we continued pulling clothes out of Caitlin's closet that no longer fit. For her 3 month birthday on October 13th, we plan on dressing Caitlin in her Halloween outfit and taking some good quality pictures of her. We're both looking forward to the holidays with her this year. :)

Another busy week

This week Caitlin continued maturing. She now is making a lot more noises like she's trying to talk and thankfully the colic has cleared up so our nights are no longer marathons of crying. :) She definitely seems like she's becoming more aware of her surroundings and she seems like she's trying to communicate with us which has been amazing to see. She still is spitting up a little from time to time but it's a lot better than it was so we're very happy about that. Toni bought a jogging stroller at the end of the week and we've taken Caitlin out in it a few times and she really seems to enjoy it. It's made by Jeep and it has everything from an iPod holder and speaker to a battery powered dashboard that makes noises that Caitlin will be able to play with when she gets a little older. I'm hoping the weather will stay nice so I can start running again. Caitlin also seems to be enjoying her baths more as well. Initially she would cry pretty much from start to finish but lately she's been very well behaved. She's been wearing all of her bath robes and the picture of her above is her wearing one of them after a bath. :) We're already having to retire some of her clothes as well. She's getting so big that most of her newborn stuff doesn't fit anymore and even some of her 0-3 month old clothes aren't fitting anymore either. It has been amazing to watch her change before our eyes.

Today we went out so Toni could satisfy her craving for doughnuts from Shipley's and afterwards, we stopped to see what I had been planning to for my mid-life crisis before Caitlin was born - the 2009 Dodge Challenger. I can describe the car in 1 word -SWEET. Surprisingly it actually has enough room in the back seat for Caitlin but I don't think I'll be buying one anytime soon. We also looked at the new 2009 Dodge Ram which also was very nice but I think I'll keep my 2002 Ram for a while. It's paid for and still runs fine and at this point, I'd rather not have to deal with a car payment than have a new vehicle. Maybe in a couple of years I'll look at the Challenger again... :)

2 months old!

This week Caitlin turned 2 months old! To mark the occasion, she had a visit with the Pediatrician. Everything looks great and Caitlin is in the upper percentile when it comes to height, weight and head size. She's gone from 20.5 inches when she was born to 23.5 now, and increased from 8lbs, 11ounces to 11 lbs, 5ounces. All of her growth looks great and the Doctor was very happy. Caitlin also got 4 shots which she didn't enjoy at all but she did very well. :) Her spitting up seems to have good days and bad. The Doctor said that's to be expected. The marathon crying sessions have also slowed somewhat but like the spitting up, still has its good and bad days. Caitlin continues to change before our eyes. She has started smiling more and is starting to use her hands to grab and stuff even more than in previous weeks.

This week we also went and got a new digital camera so we can get really good pics of Caitlin. We got some professional pictures taken on Caitlin's first month birthday but the quality left a lot to be desired so we decided to get a good camera and do them ourselves. The picture above is one of my first attempts with it. I think Caitlin will probably end up being one of the most photographed babies in America. :) If you would like access to Caitlin's pictures that we have put on Walmart.com please let me know and I'll give you access. We've been ordering our pictures online through them and so far have been pleased with the results.

As for my job situation..... This Tuesday is "the day". Tuesday we will find out who has a job and who doesn't and when our last day will be if we're leaving. I still don't think it looks good. We're hearing that as high as 98% of the people we support in some states have been let go so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that they won't need us. Who knows, maybe I'll be surprised... I'd hate to have to add another bank to my list of companies I no longer do business with.... Anyway, I'll let everyone know on Tuesday how things work out. Hope everyone has a great week!

Week #8

This week went by pretty fast. With last weekend being a long weekend it was nice to have a 4 day workweek. We managed to get some nice pictures of Caitlin and I've posted them on picture link on the upper left hand part of this page or you can click on it at the bottom of this post. This week Caitlin did a lot better with spitting up and crying. The Prevacid may actually be helping. We still had a couple nights of an hour or so of crying but anything is easier to take than the 3 hour marathons Caitlin had been putting us through in the weeks before. :)

Caitlin continues to change before our eyes. This week she has started using her hands more and trying to hold on to things like her bottle. I also think her eyes are getting bigger by the day. Today Caitlin and I spent part of the afternoon watching the Pittsburgh Steelers shred the Houston Texans 38-17! :) Actually I watched and Caitlin slept but I'm trying to get her started out on the right path now. Heaven forbid she grows up to be a Dallas Cowboys fan! :)

Other than that, things are pretty quiet for us. We didn't get any definite news about the job situation but in my opinion, it doesn't look good. The Vice President came around on Friday to talk to us all and tell us what our severance package would be (zero for me) and that if we are laid off, we will be told within the next 2 weeks and then given at least 2 months before our last day. It still looks like all of the management will be going down with the ship in my area if we are let go so it's hard to get mad at them if it happens. If they were letting everyone go to save themselves or were going to be rewarded with a bonus or raise at the end of the year after letting their people go I might feel different. So it looks like sometime within the next 2 weeks I'll find out if I'll be looking for another job in 2008. I have a feeling we'll know sometime this week but no one really knows at this point.

This week Caitlin has her 2 month checkup on Friday morning. She will be getting a shot and getting checked out to make sure everything looks good. I'm going to be going to work late on Friday so that I can go to the appointment with Toni.

I've posted a new album of pictures of Caitlin here. Enjoy! http://picasaweb.google.com/vargas11055/CaitlinSeptember#

Week #7

Caitlin and her Nana Bev last week for her 60th birthday!


Colic... Even though it's 5 letters, it should really be categorized as a 4 letter word... The very word can send chills down the spine of even the most seasoned parent. I can definitely say that having now dealt with colic, my father makes a lot more sense to me. I now understand why his favorite word while I was growing up was, "huh?". :) Any of you unlucky enough to have dealt with it know all too well what our week #7 was like. Colic, for those of you who don't know is when a baby cries continuously for no reason. And I do mean continuously... Colic is like the Terminator - It can't be bargained with, it can't be reasoned with, it doesn't feel pity or remorse and it absolutely will not stop no matter what you do. Every night from 7-10 like clockwork, the crying commences. Worst thing is, nothing seems to help. Feeding, walking around with her, rocking her, rubbing her stomach, bouncy chairs, swings, chamomile tea, anti-gas medicine, hypo-allergenic formula, you name it, we've tried it. For about 3 hours every night we're subjected to an assault on our eardrums that I can only describe like an ice pick jabbing into your skull. Every night, I go to bed with my ears ringing, my shoulders filled with tension and a throbbing headache. I now feel like I can deal with anything and not be phased. Sit me next to a car alarm for hours on end, put me next to that annoying person on the plane who won't shut up. I say HAAA!! Child's play compared to colic! Unfortunately, no one is really sure why some babies develop colic and others don't. It seems to be related to excess gas hurting her stomach but nothing seems to be able to help it. All of the info I can find on the internet say that it usually clears up by the time the baby turns 3 months old but I hope Caitlin doesn't take that long! :)
Other than the colic every night, Caitlin is still spitting up quite a bit. Friday it was so bad that Toni took her to the Pediatrician. We now have Caitlin on Prevacid and Maalox but neither seems to be helping. We've tried everything from frequently burping her, to letting her fully eat before burping, medicine, watering down the formula, keeping her upright and even switching to a different hypo-allergenic formula with no improvement. I'm starting to think that we need to try a different formula completely because the hypo-allergenic stuff isn't helping at all. Toni is going to call the Pediatrician back tomorrow to give her an update on how the Prevacid and Maalox are doing so we'll see what she says then. One good thing though is that Caitlin is getting enough nutrition at least. On Friday she was tipping the scales at 11 pounds! :)

Toni's first week back to work went pretty well even though she left work early on Monday because she was so anxious to get home to Caitlin. The rest of the week she spent fighting traffic and now Toni officially hates her commute to work. :) The schedule seemed to work out ok with me taking Caitlin to her Grandparent's house in the mornings and Toni picking her up at night. Supposedly there are going to be big changes announced sometime this week in my department and a lot of people think that layoffs are coming. The interesting thing though is that for my area, if there are layoffs it doesn't sound like it will be Management throwing their people overboard to save their own jobs. It looks like if we go, they'll be going as well. Either way, I'm not really worried. If I lose this job, I'll just start looking for something else. No big deal. The rumor is that my group will probably be one of the few safe groups so we'll see. Either way, this week should be interesting.

Hopefully Caitlin will start feeling better soon too. We should have her 2 month checkup coming up very soon and as always, I'll keep everyone updated as to how everything goes.

For all of you who refuse to believe that colic could be that bad, here's a video clip. To get the full effect, play this clip at maximum volume repeatedly for 3 hours straight! :)

WARNING - THIS IS LOUD!!! DO NOT PLAY IF YOU ARE AROUND OTHER PEOPLE OR IN A WORK ENVIRONMENT!!!!!!

The week in review - Week #6

Week 6 saw a major milestone reached - Caitlin's grandmother turned 60 on Wednesday. To celebrate, we all took her to dinner. We got her a digital picture frame loaded with about 200 pictures of Caitlin over the last several weeks. It couldn't top the gift she'd been wanting for over 30 years and recently received though, a Grandchild. :)

Caitlin did pretty well this week. She's still spitting up from time to time but it's better than it was. We've also started a nightly ritual that has its good and bad side. Every night from about about 6:00-9:00 Caitlin keeps us entertained with what seems like endless screaming. Nothing seems to slow it for more than 5 or 10 minutes at a time. No matter what we do, it just continues. We can feed her, walk around with her, put her in her bed, her bouncer or her swing and still the screaming continues. That's obviously the bad part. The good part of all this? On these nights, she's also sleeping as long as 5-6 hours straight! This week there were no exploding diapers to report. At least nothing out of the ordinary. :) Caitlin seems to be more and more aware of her surroundings with each passing week and maintains eye contact for longer periods of time. She also continues to get stronger and is holding her head up and looking around on her own for several minutes at a time. I think her eyes are getting bigger by the day and right now they look either blue or green depending on the light.

I used to think that new parents must be crazy. All too often I've heard new parents go on and on about how their baby is the most beautiful baby in the world and I've always just rolled my eyes, chalked it up to parental blindness and gone about my business. I always swore that I would never be one of "those" parents who brag about how beautiful their baby is while the rest of us wonder if they are in need of an eye exam. Luckily in our case, Caitlin actually is the most beautiful baby in the world so it makes it okay for us to talk about it. :)

This week we will finally start settling into a routine in the Vargas house. I'll be starting my normal schedule (10-7) and Toni will be returning to work full time. Caitlin will be spending her days at her Nana Bev and Grampa Bob's house. It should work out nice. My mom only lives 1 mile from our house so it won't be a problem dropping Caitlin off in the mornings or for Toni to pick her up after work in the evenings.

I hope everyone has a great week!

The week in review - Week #5

This week on Wednesday the 13th, Caitlin celebrated her 1 month birthday. To mark the occasion, Toni took her to get pictures taken. We won't get them until sometime after next week but when we do, I'll be sure to post them. Caitlin is definitely getting bigger and maturing. She now focuses more on people rather than staring off into space and has even smiled a few times. Physically, she's had a few changes as well. Her eyebrows have grown in and today we tried weighing her and figured out that she's tipping the scales at around 10.2 pounds. The gain in weight is starting to become more evident every time we have to lift her! :)

As far as spitting up goes, Caitlin has her good days and bad days. We talked to the Pediatrician and she gave Caitlin a prescription for what is essentially infant level Zantac. I don't really think it's helping but we'll keep trying it for a little while and see how it goes. We've tried changing her formula to a different brand that the Pediatrician recommended and that seems to help a little. Of course, either formula the Pediatrician wants her on costs twice as much as the regular stuff!

Caitlin has also been continuing to keep us on our toes with her exploding diapers. This week, much to Toni's delight, I was on the receiving end of one of Mount St.Caitlin's eruptions. While changing her diaper, Caitlin decided she wasn't quite done yet and proceeded to resume what she had been doing. All I can say is that if "distance pooping" were an Olympic sport, Caitlin would be the Michael Phelps of it... Yes, like a squeeze bottle of mustard Caitlin erupted right at me. My arm, shorts, leg and even the carpet fell victim. It was so bad that I had to turn the diaper changing duties over to Toni and go take a shower. Toni has been enjoying telling everyone about my experience so I figured I'd post it here for everyone to enjoy. I think I'm going to look into getting a rain poncho or something for future changings. Note to self - always keep your mouth closed when changing Caitlin. :)

Friday Toni and I had our dentist appointments. Everything went well there and the Dentist told us that if Caitlin gets our teeth, she'll be in good shape. :) Toni also had a Doctor appointment and everything went well there.

This weekend we also had some visitors. Grampa Andres, Toni's sister and her family came out to see Caitlin. Everyone enjoyed spending time with Caitlin and I think she enjoyed seeing all of the new faces. :)

This coming week, I will be working 7:30-4:30. We're going to be down 2 people (half our team) and we need someone covering the open and closing hours so I'll be doing the opening shift for just next week. Toni will be working from home next week and then will return to work the following week. Hope everyone has a great week!

The week in review - Week #4

Today marks 4 weeks since Caitlin joined our family and I still honestly feel like it's been a lot longer. Caitlin is still keeping us on our toes everyday. She had an appointment with the Pediatrician early in the week and everything went well. Caitlin is still eating a lot but she's also spitting a lot up as well. The hypo-allergenic Similac doesn't seem to be helping with the spitting up problems. If it continues this way, we'll probably switch back to the normal stuff and see how she does with that. In a good deal of our pics with Caitlin we have spit up stains on our shirts! Friday night I was actually on my 3rd shirt within an hour of getting home! Caitlin spit up on the first one and then while I was feeding her later my stomach started burning badly. When I looked down at Caitlin, she was happily peeing with no concern for the fact that her diaper was full and it was running onto my stomach! What a way to welcome Daddy home from work! :) This week also had a couple more exploding diapers and Toni was the victim of both of them. Holding Caitlin on your chest when the diaper explodes isn't a good place to be..

Toni also had an appointment with her diabetes doctor this week and everything went great! She's still considered pre-diabetic but doesn't need insulin or even to check her blood sugars anymore!! Everything from here on out can be controlled with only diet and exercise. She's already lost a staggering 33 pounds since Caitlin was born and the Doctor would like her to lose another 15. Overall, the news was great for her!

Other than that, this week was fairly quiet. Toni is going to start working from home tomorrow and she'll do that for 2 weeks before physically going back to work. My job is going alright but I really keep hoping the lottery will come through for me soon. :) I've added a short video of Caitlin sneezing. If you have speakers I encourage you to listen to it. Her sneezes are hilarious. She more sounds like she's growling, especially the 2nd sneeze. :) This coming week should go pretty fast. Friday we have our dentist appointments and then Toni has another appointment with her Doctor immediately after that to see how she's doing. I hope everyone has a great week! Go check out Caitlin's picture section at the upper left of this page. I've uploaded several more pics!

Caitlin's checkup

Today Caitlin had an appoinment with the Pediatrician and everything went great! Caitlin has grown 1 inch and is now up to 9 pounds, .05 ounces. The dr. Said that we can up Caitlin's formula to 4 ounces from now on instead of the 2-3 she currently gets. The dr. Also suggested not burping her as often because she's probably taking in a lot of air when she gets mad when we try burping her because she's still hungry and that's probably causing a lot of the spitting up that Caitlin has been having. The Dr. Also said that she wants Caitlin to stay on the hypo-allergenic Similac for a while just to be on the safe side as well. Caitlin's next appointment is in 5 weeks for her 2 month checkup and vaccinations.

The week in review - Week #3

Ya know, it really doesn't seem possible to me that Caitlin is only 3 weeks old today. In my mind, it seems like she's been with us for 3 months, not 3 weeks. Today Toni and I decided to get out of the house and leave Caitlin with her Nana and Grampa Bob. We went to see The Dark Knight and then went out to lunch. It was nice to get out of the house for a little bit for a "date morning". :)

Unfortunately, Caitlin seems to be crying a lot more than she was before this week so sleep is becoming harder to come by for Toni and I. She still has a voracious appetite and seems like she's getting longer and heavier. She also picks her head up on her own and doesn't really need us to support her head much when we are holding her. She has even started focusing in on different things for longer periods of time and soon I expect that she'll start recognizing and reacting to Toni and I when she sees us with something other than endless crying. :) Next weekend we're going to go look into getting pictures done somewhere. We'd like to try to get monthly pictures taken so we have pictures to chronicle her growth. She's still keeping us on our toes with exploding diapers and spit ups as well. Lesson learned - never hold Caitlin on your lap if you're wearing anything you value. :) Speaking of which, I think I have found what has to be one of the worst smells in human history - spit up hypo-allergenic Similac. The closest thing I can imagine would have to be on the sweltering summer day of July 4th, 1776. Picture it, no air conditioning and 56 grown men in powdered wigs and heavy wool clothing gathered into Independence Hall. Then, after days of drafting The Declaration of Independence, John Hancock suddenly asks, "Whose cheese is this?" Okay, so maybe that's not how it happened but you get the idea. :)

On the job front, things are going okay. My area is understaffed to say the least. My area is supposed to have 6 people but is currently running with only 4 including me. There are no plans to add any staff and all hiring has been frozen until further notice. One positive though is that I have executive management who is honest. He's not standing up in front of our team and telling us something he knows to be a lie like "there's plenty of work to keep us busy" or "No one's gonna go losing their job". He's being very upfront that he doesn't know what will happened but isn't ruling anything out. My direct manager also is very honest when he says that he has no idea either. It's nice to be working for people who value honesty and live their lives by it, not just when it's convenient for them. This week I will be starting my new 10-7 shift and tomorrow Toni will be taking Caitlin to the Pediatrician for a checkup. I'll try to post more tomorrow to let you know how it goes.

The new job

Yesterday I started my new job and so far it seems okay. I'm still in training mode but should be starting to take calls on Friday. The only worrisome thing is that most of the people I work with seem to be expecting massive layoffs soon and some are even predicting that the entire department will be gone within a few weeks. I'm not too worried either way. For now I'm enjoying the 5 mile commute that's taking me around 10-15 minutes to complete. :) Toni and Caitlin are doing great. Caitlin is still eating well and hasn't been keeping us up too much so that's been nice

The week in review - Week #2

Well, this week was definitely less stressful than week #1 was. For the most part, Toni and I got to spend a lot of time with each other bonding with Caitlin. We don't have any Doctor appointments for Caitlin for another 3 weeks and she's eating well and seems to be gaining weight. Caitlin seems to be adjusting well to life at home and last night we actually got 5 uninterrupted hours of sleep so that was nice.

This coming week should be interesting. Toni is still off work for a couple more weeks but I will be returning to the workforce tomorrow. I am starting my new job tomorrow and for my first week, I'll be working 9-6. After that, I'll be working 10-7 which should work out really nice for me. My new job is 5 miles from the house and with those hours I should have a 10 minute commute and run into little if any traffic. I'm feeling mixed emotions about starting a new job. Like any other big change in life, I'm a little nervous about how things are going to be, excited about the possibilities and even a little bummed to be going back to work. I know there's a lot of people who say that they could never retire because they'd be bored out of their mind but I am definitely not one of them. I have thoroughly enjoyed not working over the last 2 1/2 months. There's a saying that "you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone" and I can definitely agree. I never realised just how stressful my old job was. Maybe the stress would have been worth it if I had been doing something big like curing cancer or helping to provide food to starving children but I wasn't. It's kind of sad when a work environment is more stressful than being unemployed. Hopefully my new company will be a lot more enjoyable on a daily basis. The only negative things I've found about starting over are losing my seniority and vacation hours and not seeing my old co-workers. I will definitely miss all of the people I worked with. If nothing else, I can use my experience of being laid off as a cautionary tale to teach Caitlin about character and honesty. Hopefully it can serve as an example of my motto in life, "hope for the best, but prepare for the worst." :-) I'll let everyone know how my new job goes and how Toni's first week with Caitlin by herself goes. Hope everyone has a great week!

Doctor visits

Just a quick update today. Today we had 2 appointments for Caitlin and both of them went great. First, we met with the Pediatrician and Caitlin's weight is up 8 ounces in the last 5 days. She's tipping the scales at 8 pounds 10 ounces. The Doctor said she likes to see at least 1 ounce of weight gain per day and Caitlin far surpassed that. Caitlin's color is also looking great so any worry about jaundice can pretty much be forgotten at this point. Caitlin continues to eat quite a bit and has a big appetite. We don't have to take her in for another checkup for another 3 weeks which was great news.

After that, we went to the hospital for Caitlin's newborn test. They checked her blood for 6 different disease markers which if present can be treated now and not become something that she'll deal with later in life. I don't have the list with me but we should get the result back in the next 2-3 weeks.

I've added more pics to the picture section so be sure to check them out!

Holy exploding diapers!

This weekend was a fairly relaxing one. Caitlin is doing great and seems to be adjusting to life at home very nicely. The advice from the new lactation department is working out great and Caitlin is responding very well. Today we had a follow-up appointment with the lactation counselor and everything went well there. It's amazing how much more professional and what a better experience it is compared to dealing with Amy at North Central Baptist.

A couple of people have mentioned that it appears by the pictures that we are dressing Caitlin in several different outfits a day and treating her like a dress up doll. If only that were the case... With Caitlin's appetite increasing by the day, let's just say that the wardrobe changes have been out of necessity! 2 things that I underestimated with having a baby was how many burp cloths and rags we would need and just how messy diaper changes could get. We've already had some changes that were so bad that it was easier to just put Caitlin in her tub and hose her off rather than trying to clean her up on the changing table. So far, I've ended up with most of the messy changes but Toni has ended up with the messiest one by far. :-) In fact, the outfit Caitlin is wearing in the picture above was pretty much destroyed beyond recognition by Caitlin last night.

Other than the exploding diapers, Caitlin has been incredibly well behaved. We are able to get a few hours of continuous sleep and she doesn't seem to get fussy for no reason. When she cries, 80% of the time it's because she's hungry and the other 20% of the time is for diaper changes. It has been working out well at night for us to be covering things in shifts as well. By doing this, we're both able to get around 5 hours of sleep each a night. Not a lot but it's so much better than I was expecting. In other news, Caitlin's umbilical cord came off tonight and she now has a flat stomach. It's comforting not have to worry about accidentally hurting her by pulling her cord while we're dressing her of changing her diaper.

Tomorrow we have an early appointment with the Pediatrician and then we're going to the hospital to get Caitlin's newborn screening done. I'm not sure what exactly is involved but they have some things they need to do after 7-10 days so we'll go get that taken care of this week. I'll update more tomorrow and let everyone know how things go with the appointments.

The week in review

Wow! I can't believe that Caitlin has been with us for a week tomorrow! This has been an incredibly busy week but I'm going to try to update everyone on our first week as parents. Caitlin entered the world on Sunday July 13th, 2008 at 10:09PM Central time with the following stats:

Weight - 8 lbs, 11 ounces
Length - 20 1/2 inches
Head - 14 1/2 inches
Chest - 14 1/4 inches

Monday - The day after Caitlin was born was a busy day. After Caitlin was born, I went to the nursery to watch her get cleaned up and spend some time bonding with her. I got home around 2am and tried to get some sleep. I got back out to the hospital around 8 or so. While the nurses and everyone we dealt with through the delivery were great, the customer service started to unravel after Caitlin was born.. In an effort to save money, the hospital hires some contract nurses rather than paying a little extra for people who actually have a vested interest in the hospital. What should have been a great experience for Toni (her first time to feed Caitlin) turned out to be every parent's worst nightmare - they brought Toni the wrong baby!! Luckily the issue was fixed quickly but it was still an inexcusable mistake for a hospital who prides itself on their security... The staff and supervisor apologized profusely to Toni and Caitlin was brought in quickly but it was still an extremely unprofessional mistake.. The rest of Monday was spent bonding with with Caitlin and with Toni trying to get some rest. Toni was also treated to a complimentary 20 minute massage from the hospital to help her relax.

Tuesday - Tuesday we got to go home! Before going, we had our "Stork dinner" - a complimentary lunch provided by the hospital. It was a nice relaxing meal before going home. I had chicken cordon bleu and Toni had filet mignon. It was actually a very good meal and the quality far surpassed what I expected from a hospital. I wouldn't have been upset if I had gone to a restaraunt and paid for it! The pediatrician (Dr. McCray) was concerned that Caitlin looked a little yellow but the test for Jaundice showed that she was in good health and that she was cleared to go home. We got home around 2:30pm and spent the rest of the day bonding. Shiloh was very excited about Caitlin and we were both pleasantly surprised that Caitlin slept pretty well her first night at home. Toni and I watched her in 3 hour shifts and she only woke up once for each of us. I quickly found that I will probably never sleep a full night again in my life though. I now know what parents mean when they say that you wake up at the slightest sound after your baby is born.

Wednesday - This was our day to relax. I took Toni's dad to the airport in the late afternoon and we had some of my family come by but Wednesday was spent entirely at home trying to recuperate. This is also the day that the poor customer service from the hospital showed up again.... Dr. McCray told us that we needed to monitor Caitlin's diaper changes to make sure she was getting enough food. We should get a couple dirty and a couple wet diapers a day. By about mid afternoon, we had only had 1 wet diaper all day. Toni called the lactation department at the hospital and their advice was as follows - Don't give Caitlin a bottle because she'll never attach to the breast. Force her to the breast and if need be, entice her with a few drops of formula on the breast. But do not give her a bottle... Now, I didn't go to lactation school but I'm not stupid either. Their advice hinges on 1 very important variable - how much milk Toni is producing. To find out, we used a breast pump and found that Toni wasn't yet producing much milk. We decided to ignore the advice of the lactation people and give Caitlin a bottle. Our 2nd night was pretty rough. Caitlin was extremely hungry and was making up for lost time by eating as much as we would give her. She also was spitting up a good amount of the formula as well. Luckily we had an appointment with Dr. McCray the next day...

Thursday - We met with Dr. McCray and explained our run in with the lactation department. She said we did the right thing in feeding Caitlin because Caitlin had lost a full 1 pound since being born. We also told the Dr. about the spitting up and she showed us different ways to burp Caitlin and told us to take little breaks and burp Caitlin more often during feeding. While we were being shown these techniques, Caitlin started spitting up quite a bit and the Dr. decided that Caitlin may have a sensitive stomach as well. She gave us hypo-allergenic Similac and that seemed to agree with Caitlin's stomach much better. Dr. McCray also asked us to go have another jaundice test done on Caitlin immediately because she was again concerned about her color. Because we had to get the Jaundice test done, we had to reschedule our appointment with the lactation department to Friday. Later in the day we got the results of the Jaundice test and everything looked good. Caitlin's result was a 15. Anything from 17-19 would require Caitlin be put under special lighting and anything 20 or higher would require her to be admitted back into the hospital. With everything checking out alright, we continued feeding Caitlin from the bottle and our 3rd night was a lot quieter for us.

Friday - We started the day back at the hospital to meet with the lactation department. We met with the head of the department (Amy) and I was floored by her complete lack of compassion and professionalism. She told us that we made a mistake feeding Caitlin from a bottle and that Caitlin may never latch on to the breast now because of it. When we argued that we weren't going to let our daughter starve to death and that she lost a pound doing things their way, she again reiterated that we may have caused more damage in the long run. We left the hospital disgusted and went to meet with Dr.McCray. While there, Caitlin was weighed again and it showed that she gained almost a quarter of a pound since we started with the bottle and her color looked like it was getting better so the jaundice didn't look like a problem. We also explained our problems with the lactation department and she was shocked. She sent us to another hospital to meet with a different lactation team. She managed to get us an immediate appointment and Toni and I were so glad to be dealing with someone other than Amy. We met with Patricia from Methodist hospital and she was a Godsend! She spent 2 hours working with Toni and Caitlin and got Caitlin latched on. She gave us a feeding schedule and explained how often Toni should pump and how much Similac we should supplement with breast milk based on the amount of milk Toni is currently producing. She's going to meet with us again next week to re-evaluate and give us a new plan if needed. While Amy had all the people skills of a cactus and should never man a suicide hot line, Patricia was one of the nicest and most compassionate people we've met thus far. She really helped take away a lot of the stress Toni and I had been feeling. After leaving her office, we both didn't have an overwhelmed feeling anymore for the first time since leaving the hospital. Last night we also gave Caitlin a bath and kept on the feeding schedule assigned by Patricia and Caitlin slept through the night, only waking for her feedings.

This weekend our plan is just to relax, de-stress and get some rest. I've added more pics of Caitlin to the album and will post more soon.

Pics!

You've asked for them and here you go! There's not a lot right now but as soon as I get the pics from my family, I'll be posting more. For now, enjoy these pics. I'll update more as soon as I can.

http://picasaweb.google.com/vargas11055/CaitlinJulianne

Relaxing at home

I am happy to report that Toni and Caitlin were both released from the hospital today with clean bills of health for the both of them. We have to go back to the hospital on Thursday for some follow up appointments and to meet with the Pediatrician but we'll at least have tomorrow to just be at home and try to catch up on a little sleep. So far Caitlin seems to be doing well at home and our dog Shiloh seems a little jealous and confused as to what's making so much noise every time Caitlin cries. I am totally in awe of everything that has happened over the last few days and I really feel very fortunate. Every time I look at Caitlin I marvel at how incredible it is that I helped create her.

I've had a couple people ask me some questions that you may all be wondering so I figure I'll post them here in case you are wondering them yourself. The #1 most asked question to me so far is, "did you make it through the delivery without passing out?" To that, I can happily report that YES, I did make it through the entire delivery without passing out! Now I really didn't pay attention to the "action" and we did request that when Caitlin came out that they not plop her on Toni's stomach but instead take her and clean her up but yes, I managed to get through it alright. Helping Toni count the contractions and even listening to my ipod in 1 ear to distract me helped as well. :)

The other question I have been asked more than once is, "how did you feel the first time you held Caitlin in your arms?" That's a hard one to answer actually. I didn't have that moment where it all hit me that I was a dad and there wasn't the flood of emotion that I was expecting. I've heard many people say they cried the first time they held their baby but I was actually just speechless. It was almost like it wasn't actually happening to me and the entire thing was a dream or something. It was an incredible experience to be sure but I think for me, I was more relieved than anything else. Which brings me my next point....

The person who said that men have it easy when it comes to childbirth must have been a bitter woman with an uncaring husband. For me, the day was the most physically and emotionally draining day of my entire life. By the time the day was over, I was seriously running on empty. Seeing Toni in pain and being unable to do anything was incredibly stressful for me. I spent the entire 20 hours as a bundle of stress and believe it or not, I would gladly have switched positions with her to spare her having to go through it. Toni was incredibly strong throughout and I admire her more than ever for her strength. It was definitely worth going through the experience to be able to hold Caitlin in my arms but it wasn't the cake walk that I've heard some women complain that their husbands experienced.

Now that she's home, I find that the thing I'm enjoying the most is just having Caitlin lay on my chest and listening to her breathe. It's incredible to look down at this beautiful little life that I helped create.

I'm going home!

Quick status update

I have to say, I'm extremely touched to hear that so many people are keeping up with this site and are interested in what's going on. When I started this site, I really wasn't sure if anyone would even follow it. Thank you everyone for your support and for sharing this incredible moment in our lives with us. I'm going to keep the update short tonight because I'm extremely tired and need to get some rest. Toni and Caitlin are doing great. Caitlin has passed all of her health screenings so we are both VERY happy to report that we have a HEALTHY baby girl. Toni and Caitlin should be coming home sometime tomorrow so I will try to update the site with more pics and updates then. Again, we are both extremely grateful to have so many good friends and family. Thank you.

First morning

8 lbs 11 ounces!!

Caitlin Julianne Vargas was welcomed into the world at 10:09PM. Mom and baby are doing great!!

update

Increasing pitosin and decreasing epidural. Will start pushing soon.

10!!

baby's head still has to drop a little before she can start pushing. Almost there!

9 cm's

Toni hit 9 cm's. Dr is going to check again in 45 minutes and Toni should be able to start pushing then. Pushing could take up to 3 hours worst case. Toni is comfortable and loves the epidural. :)

Still sleeping

Toni is still resting. Looks like the contractions are still coming strong according to the monitor.

6 cm's and countng

toni's been able to get a little sleep and is feeling better. She is 6 cm's and her cervix is thinning. Should take another 4 hours or so at least.

resting

The epidural kicked in fast. Toni is sleeping now Pain was getting pretty bad for her. Doing much better now.

Epidural taken

4 cm's and holding

No more dilation but contractions are stronger and closer

No more h2o

they've broken toni's water and she's at 4cm's.

Pitosin upped to 20.

Status update

Things are going along fine. The pitosin level is up from 6 this morning to 18 now. Toni says the contractions are bearable. The doctor should be here in a while to break toni's water so that should get things moving.

status

Everything is going good so far. Contractions are every 3 minutes or so. Toni is sleeping right now.

drip.. drip....

they've started the pitosin and are now going to check on Toni every 20 minutes to see how she's doing. she's currently at 3 cm's.

First light

Well, our journey has begun! We got up around 3:30 and we are in now in our room. The nurse should be in shortly to get things started. we're both excited. I think I'm more nervous than Toni at this point.

The final appointment

Today we had our final visit with the doctor and as usual, there's more change on the way. I know it sounds crazy to talk about change in the Vargas household but today we were told that the on call schedule has changed for the Doctor so now we will be doing the induction on Sunday at 6AM rather than on Saturday at 5AM. Hopefully that will be the last change. Or better yet, hopefully Caitlin will get bored and come early! :) Anyway, today's appointment was very fast and everything on the NST came back great. So with all of the appointments behind us, we're focused in on the finish line. We're both very excited and I have to say that this has probably been the longest 9 months I've ever lived! I will try to update the site from my phone on Sunday throughout the day just to keep everyone posted. We're both extremely excited that within a few days we're going to be able to hold our baby girl for the first time!