extreme optimism or extreme fatigue?

I begin pretty much every night thinking, tonight is going to be the night that Oscar (and therefore, I) sleeps well! And I really believe it. Every night.

Tonight my rationale is that he was awake for most of the time during the past 6 hours, so surely he must be tired. And, he cried quite a bit of it, so SURELY he must be tired. Never mind that it might also mean that something is really bothering his tummy or upsetting him and why would the next 6 hours be drastically different?

This is the mind of an extreme optimist. Or an extremely sleep deprived person. Or an extremely sleep deprived optimist.

got milk?

The kids decided that they wanted to drink their milk without their sippies. And they didn't soak their clothes completely! We were really impressed. This will be a game changer. So, here's Rafa's first milk mustache:









Also, is it time to cut his hair again??

music to our ears

After another tired night, D got up to get breakfast ready for Sylvia and Rafael while I gave Oscar his. Sylvia and Rafa were sleeping in a little longer than usual, but we decided to get them up to not throw their day off too much. As we approached their room, we heard one of them start singing "Jesus loves me" and the other joined in. We stood outside their door savoring every note and every made up word, hearts melting. Then, as they finished the song, Rafa declared, "Otra!" (Another!)

Bravo, niños, bravo!!

colic, gas, needy baby?...

We are really struggling with Oscar at night. He just doesn't want to sleep. And worst of all, he screams like he is in major pain. Poor little guy. It seems to be worst between 9pm and 3am. Lucky us.

He's not a great sleeper during the day, either, and only sleeps for short periods before suffering from painful gas (we think), possible reflux, or who knows what else, but it appears to be some sort of tummy pain.

I think it's worse than it was with the twins, but to be perfectly honest, I don really remember those first four months to compare. I know Sylvia had her bouts with colic between midnight and 4am for a little while and that we gave both kids gas drops, so there must have been some tummy problems, but I don't remember exactly how bad it was. Either from sleep deprivation, I made no memories, or just god's little trick to convince us to have more children.

We're doing all sorts of things to try to sort it out and are still pretty confident that it will get better, hopefully soon. Until then, please forgive the sporadic posting as I'm trying to use every free moment to catch a few z's.

And, to top it off, Sylvia has suffered from a fever the past few days. We're hoping it's viral since she has no other symptoms except that she's only moving around 80mph instead of her usual 150.

2 weeks!

Oscar is 2 weeks old! Although it feels like at least a month. We're a little tired. Oscar doesn't like sleeping at night much. We got spoiled by the NICU with Sylvia and Rafael since they came home on perfect 3-hour feeding/sleeping schedules. We still have some work to do to get Oscar there.

We had our doc appointment on Monday and everything looks great.

Height: 21.5" (87%)
Weight: 8 lbs 13 oz (64%)
Head: 13.7" (22%)

I can't believe he's already gained a pound!

Here are some cheeks to prove it:

jailbreak!

We got out of the house!!



Packed 'em in like sardines. But, how wonderful is it to see them all together?!!



And enjoyed a dinner out! I don't know why I was skeptical, it ended up being quite fun. D did hold Oscar most of the time. He did not enjoy the car seat. But since he slept, D could still eat. It probably also helped that we accidentally skipped Sylvia and Rafa's afternoon snack, so they are really well and allowed us to eat, too.

I'm mostly amazed that I was up for the journey. I started feeling much better this morning compared to every other day since Oscar's arrival. Like a new woman appeared this morning. That is wonderful both physically and mentally/emotionally.

future hairdresser?

Voila!!