Hints for when your newborn is home...

When I learn I was pregnant I knew nothing was going to be the same...

After having my son and having A few problems with breastfeeding I learn that there are a few things one should know before having their baby.

1. Before having your baby find out who is going to help you out.

2. Talk about your wishes after your newborn. Meaning tell people what you want them to do. 

PRINT "a baby rule book by you"

-Write how you want your newborn to be feed as by bottle or by your milk only.

-Do you want them to wake you up to feed the baby or do you want them to bottle feed him until you wake up.

-What do expect from people that come to visit.

-What do you expect from people that volunteer to take care of your newborn and/or you. 

-Do you want music on all day or most of the day or do you want the music only on during the night.

-24 hour day: 

  +how much time do you want for yourself to sleep.

  +How much time do you want for yourself as to shower. (a nurse told me to take four (15 minute) breaks during the day to take care of oneself..

-Baby laundry: do you want to only do it yourself or is it ok for others to do it for you when you and the baby are taking a power nap.

-PRINT important info you want volunteers and visitors to know as:

  +Sorry No cofffee as I can't as I'm breastfeeding and put it on the coffee machine.

  +wash your hands before touching my newborn.

  +I gave birth to a baby not the vacuum cleaner; I will clean the house when he is 6 months old OR when we both can sleep 6 hours in a row.

  +I gave birth to a baby of course I'm emotional. It's called 40 days!! Deal with it!

To breastfeed or not

Fast forward and my son was born was early.  I couldn't get him to latch to me to eat so the nurses bottle feed him.  I asked for help to the lactation nurse. I even begged her to help me. She didn't care. She even told me she had another mother she had to help and to hurry up.  The last day there her suppervisor came and told us that our lactating nurse was out for lunch but she was going to be back before I left the hospital at 12 pm. She came about 2 pm hopping we weren't there or that we didn't need her any more as we were waiting to be discharged. With a bad attitude she came with a manual pump and told me to pump for 10 min each and to call her when I finished so they could give it to my son. When she came we saw a look at the time we didn't know why but now I do it's that it was to late and I was giving out milk and not the first "colostral" that he should drink at birth.

Days later my son and I were still trying to get him to drink from my breast with no positive results. He used me as "pacifier" but he didn't drink from me. 

Later he got bored of me being the pacifier and didn't even allow me to put my breast in his mouth.

My mother came days later to help me to get him to take me. By then my big size C breast had become smaller than size A. Telling you it hurt to see that what I had gain in my pregnancy I had lost because of the lack of breast feeding and Ironic because I was trying my hardest and I was failing.

A month had passed and he finally accepted me. It has horrible the screams and the crying of him because he didn't want to drink from me as he wanted the bottle.

Now that he accepted me, I see that I only had table spoons of milk not enough to fill his tommy which we had gotten him  used to drinking 2 oz every hours. 

I went to doctors for help. My general doctor told me "either he eats or he eats" there are no magic pill to get more milk the more he drinks the more you will make.

His doctor saw my sadness and willingness to fight for the right to breast feed him that she gave me a medication that made feel like I was on Fire. I took it all 7 days. I tolerated being cook alive inside out. My breast size return to normal size A. Happy to have seen them get a little bigger got me to have hope.

My FAULT!! I get it!! 

I'm not blaming anyone. I knowing that when my son was going to be two months I was going to return home to my husband so I let my family have him part of the day. 

Also I would be the night shift so I would sleep most of the day and i would be in silence with him at night. I wouldn't make a noise so no one would be bother and I wake up someone in the house. So I would wake up rush to the kitchen with him in my arms and make his milk and give it to him while I walked back to the room.

Well, I thought I was going to leave at the end of his second month so letting them have a little more time with him aas my way of making up that he wasn't going to be with them later on so I would not ask for Him to breastfeed him so when he cried I would get up and give them his bottle. 

A month passed: When I found out the news that he had to stay for longer than i thought. Oh crap!! I made a mistake and my dentist showed it to me as she got me to realize that I needed to breastfeed him more often even that tablespoon that came out of me.  All that week I breastfeed him as much as I could. I took a stand and asked for him to breastfeed him. 

Another excuse!! 

My tooth hurt so I started taking Advil every 6 hours and for 10 days I took medication to reduce the infection. A two days from taking this medication my son started to regect me to the point he didn't want to breastfeed. He would make an ewww face and make a gag noise after tasting my milk. It was decided not to give him breast milk for the 7 days + 2 to get the medication out of my system. BIG MISTAKE!!

Now he doesn't even want to be next to me because im trying to breastfeed him. 

The sad question I must answer is what am I doing wrong that he doesn't want to drink breast milk?

Should I stop trying to make him drink breast milk?

Silence is not golden!!!

I know when he was born I would put him in my chest and let him sleep there as that was the only way to get him to sleep. He would spend hours well as much as I could keep myself awake. Little by little I stop letting him sleep like that as one time I feel a sleep and I got so worried that I would accidentally drop him see I saw a video of shaking syndrome and that made me a worry.

I knew I was silent and when I was a wake I was so a costume of not talking at night that I wouldn't talk a lot to him in the day. 

When I was told what I was doing I cried for days as I didn't do it on purpose. I do talk to him now at night as much as I can as I want him to know that I love him

I found out I was pregnant...

I found out the greatest news of my life...

I was pregnant. With lots of joy We prepared for the arrival of my first baby. Being pregnant want easy... I want able to eat lots of food as chicken, tomatoes, onions, dairy, oranges, and many more.

With long talk my partner and I decided that I should move with my parents. They wanted to see of being in a new environment I would eat other things beside the only 4 things I ate daily that we're the only thing I could eat. And to drink I couldn't tolerate soft drinks and there was a time I hated the taste of water. It felt as I was drinking soap. I would force drinking it for the sake of my unborn baby. I would put lemon to make the soap taste but that stop working. That's when my parents and my husband decided that I should move with them. I flew to be with my partners and sister. My husband couldn't travel with me so he stayed. 

Grocery Shopping

When I was a kid and went shopping for groceries it would take Mom hours looking at each aisle looking for the best prices. As a kid I never thought that she was trying to save a few bucks by looking at the less expensive item to take.  I would whine "let’s go “since the moment we enter the store until we left. My sister would be so happy shopping with our Mom.  Since I remember she had a big smile while shopping with Mom. Mom would give a few coupons to the lady at the counter and we would go home walking! It wasn't far it was just 4 blocks.

When I was in high school, I was a pain in the butt when taken to buy groceries at the store. I would whine while pushing the cart and I would be the one slouching at the cart. Mom stopped using coupons which is my fault. I guess having a whiner with you during your shopping just wants you to want to leave faster.  My sister would help out while shopping and I would just stay slouching on the shopping cart.  Solution, I said "NO" when I was asked to go grocery shopping with them.

About a few years ago, My Dad does the shopping with no coupons and he goes in-an-out of the store. He is faster than my Mom but still, my bad habits are still there, I slouch at the cart while shopping.  I don’t even help at all like when I go with my Mom.  I do go and get cleaners to clean the house without being asked and I do go and get things that they ask me to like 'go pick a cereal".

There are some stores that I HATE GOING MORE and those are the ones that have vegetables/fruits as they spend their sweet time picking tomatoes, potatoes, onions, etc... I should help but I don’t know what they are going to buy it’s not like they have a grocery list... oh yeah they sometimes do! But they always take vegetables/fruits and other items that are not in the list.

When I am not with them and I am out of town with my fiancée, he likes going to the grocery store to get what we need. However, with my hate of going to the grocery store, it’s hard to get me to go so we don’t go. I have learned that when I go to buy what I want, it’s different and can get what we need and that’s it.  We go with a plan (list in our heads)... for example, hamburgers, we need to buy meat, bread carrots and toppings which are tomatoes, onions, guacamole, etc... That makes it easy to go get the things we need and its fast.

What have learned to make going to the grocery store a lot better for our kids?
1. When going with a little child sit them on the grocery cart and talk to them.
2. Give them a task to do:
If they are in the cart just tell them what you are looking for and ask them to point at it when they 'see it'. If they can walk just tell them what you are looking for and ask them to pick one. 
3. Don’t get mad when they pick the wrong item, remember that they can’t read or they are learning to read... when they understand then say 'pick the 12 oz package of cereal' until then...
Hint to them that you want the small one or the big size of the cereal.
4. When they are older give them a task to do and tell them that you will be going around the aisles. 
5. If you are going to go shopping with coupons let the kids be in charge of them. This means that you have to be prepared with what you want to buy. If they want something they can look at the coupon bag to see if it’s there, if it’s not then they can wait until its on sale and have a coupon.
Here is what a friend does: she gives her 10 year old twins six coupons to go get the item. They pick two items and they walk back to the cart, they show the coupon so she can see if they picked the right thing.  If the item is wrong from the coupon, she tells them if they want to go re-pick it for her.  They go together to get it.  This makes the shopping interesting for them as they have something to do.
When they are older you can divide the shopping list into how many people went with you and they go and get their part of the shopping list. Remind them that it’s not how fast they do it; it’s how accurate they do it.  If they do it wrong, then they have to go get it again and again until they do it right!

The Idea of buying a pet

-Present-
When I am thinking of buying a puppy that is a Chihuahua or a Shih Tzu, I feel that I am betraying my family dogs.  I mean they are part of our family, But when I am out of town, for 6 to 8 months, I dont have them with me, and I do miss them. I think of my chihuahua, who by the way 10 pounds and He cant go with me on my trips as he has to stay with my parents and sis. Why he cant go? because He cant go on the belly of the plane as he can die.  The Vet told us that if he flies he has to go under our chair. His airplane ticket has always cost 150 dollars just one way.  Every time he flies its with the entire family that way we can keep an eye on him and help him out when he needs to go pee.
Last few years they have stayed home on the last few trips as dad stayed home with them.

Adopting a pet is a big responsibility and totally worth it.. We have done it a few times but I want to adopt a dog that is small in size so he or she can come with me where ever I go. Or maybe I want a big dog like a Great Dane but She/he wouldn't be able to come with me specially when I come to visit my family but I know she or he would be in great hands with my fiancee back at the house. I want to be able to have a dog to play with while I am alone out of town with my fiancée.

SELFISHNESS: I have x-small size clothes for my future doggy.. And xxx-large collar for a great dane..

oh, I keep dreaming with my eyes open.. I should just stop thinking of getting a dog and just stay like I am right now..

Past Animals adopted or purchased

in the past we have had:
Small fishes but that was so many years ago that I dont know if I want a small fishes again.
After that we bought and adopted hamsters, one person tricked us into thinking that her pet was a hamster and it turn out to be a RAT with no tail after that I really DONT want another hamster EVER AGAIN!
We had big fishes not the size of a koi fish but they were big goldfishes.  We had to have 3 fish tanks to divide them as they were so big.  We went to the pet store and purchased a Plecostomus fish to clean the fish tanks and he/she took delivery of eating the fishes. We later learn that some Plecostomus fishes love to eat fishes. we moved him to a separate fish tank but he died as he didn't want to eat algie he just wanted LIVE FISHES. i dont want a plecostomus fish.
In my 20s we rescued a beautiful white Chihuahua, He is my little ball of joy and His smile makes me smile every day.
My dad adopted four parakeets, Laguna Beach name of female (RIP) and Angel name of male (RIP). HE was the sweetest parakeet ever.. you could pet him with no worry that he was going to do anything bad at you.. he even slept next to you. when called he would return walking to you as he never learn to fly. In the other hand His Female partner was totally the opposite she was Pure EVIL! thats why her name Laguna Beach because it sounds like... both were white with blue, she was more white than him.  The other Parakeet couple, ch'òoh name of female means BLUE in the Maya dialect as she was all blue and her mate was named Houdini. Why? because he knew how to open any window or door of any cage and fly out! I learn that my nose itches when I clean the cages so No we dont want BIRDS AGAIN!!!
A beautiful surprise came to us without looking.. Four years after getting our chihuahua, we adopted the shih tzu... She is a sweet little girl. When people meet her, they envy us as she is so kind, sweet and gentle, She never growls, or bites. I wanted her to be a therapy dog but she cant pass one part of the test and that is 'walking without a leash'.
I had a transparent small dwarf African frog. It was the last one on sale at Target and it had no food and it looked like it was dying. I was told it was going to be tiny.. however, to my surprise, not even two months later, it was big and black. After a year of having it, I started to fear it and thats why I kindly gave it away to my dads friend son that asked if he could keep the male frog to mate with his female dwarf African frog. I will never ever ever ever in a million years have another FROG!