The year in review

Happy New Year everyone! We hope everyone arrived in 2009 happy and safe. Our New Year’s Eve was pretty boring. I worked until 7 and we were in bed by 10:30. While Caitlin slept through her first New Year’s celebration we were kept up by our loud, drunk neighbors up and down our street who insisted on setting off fireworks in the street while drinking and yelling profanity laced seasons greetings to their friends. Thankfully by 12:30 they had pretty much cleared out and we were able to sleep. As we start the new year, I’m going to dedicate this post to looking back over a year that I can only describe with 1 word – tumultuous.

2008 saw more changes than either of us expected at the beginning. Of course, we knew 2008 would be a year of change for us with Caitlin coming but we had no idea how many other changes were waiting along the way. At the start of the year, you may recall that I was working on getting my weight under control and being healthy. 2 years ago I was weighing in at 223.8 , last year on January 1st, I weighed in at 197.8. Today – 187.8. J I’m a little upset that I’ve actually gained 4 pounds since Caitlin was born but given all that has changed and learning how to be parents, I’m not too upset. This year I intend to find time to continue what I’ve been doing and reach my overall goal of 178.8 (50 pounds lost since my highest weight of 228.8).

The first quarter of the year was exciting in both good and bad ways. Toni started dealing with diabetes brought on by the pregnancy and was then taken off the medication until the end of the pregnancy by controlling it through diet. Our early appointments ranged from diabetes training, warnings about down syndrome and birth defects to the incredible moment when on February 29th, we saw Caitlin through a sonogram for the first time and it was confirmed that we were having a girl. We had already picked out her name even before we found out Toni was pregnant so it worked out well. We hadn’t even thought about boys names. If I had to pick out one day from the first 3 months of the year that will stay with me forever, the day of the sonogram would be it.

The second quarter seemed to drag at points. It seemed at times that the pregnancy was going to last forever! In April, I finished work on the nursery. It came out exactly like we wanted and it was a good multi-weekend project that took up pretty much the entire month. We also started shopping for baby stuff in April with our biggest purchase being Caitlin’s crib. In May, we hit a bump in the road when I lost my job but the thing I will remember most about April, May and June was the incredible baby showers given to us from my good friend Karen in San Antonio and by Toni’s family in Brownsville. What I will also remember about this time was that Toni really started showing. She had what I can only describe as a glow to her and as “The belly” continued to grow, I remember how beautiful I thought she looked being pregnant. June was filled with Doctor appointments and change. Our induction date was changed and we got to go on a 9 hour class to prepare us for the coming delivery. A class by the way that if you are a first timer I highly recommend if your hospital offers it. As Toni continued to get bigger, the diabetes was no longer controllable by diet alone and she was put back on insulin at the very end. Twice a day we gave her shots at a very low dosage but with the end in sight, Toni pushed through it like a champ!

The third quarter of the year was dominated by Caitlin’s arrival. Just days before Caitlin’s birth in July, I was offered a new job with Wachovia. The first 10 days of July were spent at the doctor doing stress tests to make sure Caitlin’s heart sounded good and measuring the rate of contractions that Toni had started having. We also lost our Doctor who left the practice in early July to move out of state. Despite changes with a new Doctor and the induction date, we finally arrived at the hospital on July 13th at 6:00AM for the induction. It is definitely a day I will never forget. It was without a doubt the most stressful day of my entire life but so worth it. It was nowhere near what either of us expected either. We were both expecting the emotional moments you see in the movies and it wasn’t like that at all. Toni wasn’t cursing in multiple languages at me during the delivery and seeing Caitlin for the first time wasn’t the emotional rush we were expecting. We both expected to be crying and emotional but it actually turned out to feel surreal. It was almost like watching everything as it happened through someone else’s eyes. I was more relieved that everything had turned out well and in awe of the entire situation. I think we were both speechless. All of the tests turned out great and Caitlin and Toni were released from the hospital and went home to relax. Our early days were spent getting little sleep, trying to recover, going to doctors appointments and lactation departments and trying to figure out what we were doing. I will forever remember the feelings of helplessness and being clueless as to what to do. Feeding and changing diapers dominated much of our time. I remember having my shirts covered in poop, pee and/or spit up on more than one occasion. Exploding diapers and spit up were daily occurrences in the Vargas household. Toni spent much of the 3rd part of the year on maternity leave and 2 weeks after Caitlin was born, I started my new job.

The end of the year seemed to go faster than the rest of the year. Watching Caitlin grow has been amazing. Caitlin got to go to a pumpkin patch for Halloween, Brownsville for Thanksgiving and to see Santa for the first time for Christmas. I think she’ll enjoy these things more next year when she’s older but watching her sit on Santa’s lap and refuse to let go of his real beard was priceless.

2009 promises to be another exciting year. I’ve got a couple of promising leads with other companies that I think may work out. Either way, I’ll find something. It’s only a job. As always, I’ll continue to update the blog as often as I can. As much as this has been a great way to keep in touch with people, it’s also been a great tool for chronicling our life. I continually backup the site so that someday when Caitlin is older she can look back and see what she and her family were like. I hope everyone has a safe, happy and healthy new year!