Month 3

Month 3 is upon us, my friends (Well, technically, it has come and gone). 

You know, it's kind of funny. With my previous kids I kinda hoped they would grow faster so we could accomplish more milestones or do fun things together, or that I would somehow have more time and enjoy their little selves while they were bigger. With him, I feel like he is gonna be my last for a while, and since I am not distracted by school or anything, I am trying to soak up every ounce of babyness from him. Even when he's a terrible sleeper at night, I don't hold it to him. I try to enjoy his good attitude and cheerful smiles. Yes, I am trying to drink in my baby boy. I'm pleading...stop growing up so fast!

Things I know about my 3 month old: 

Always so jolly
Extremely ticklish
When he's being tickled and laughs, he sounds like a duck quacking - it's like he's trying to laugh but it's being squished out of him, so it's more of a squawk!
Only 3 months, fitting in 6 month clothes.
Beautiful brown eyes
Hair in the back that always sticks up (from his lumpy spot); it doesn't ever go away
Slept all night (8 hours!!) for about a week, now he has his nights and days mixed up
Drinks mama's milk like a champ. Also, throws up like a champ.
Holds my fingers while nursing
Will usually sleep longer co-sleeping than in the swing. 
Loves baths, but hates getting dressed after 

I absolutely LOVE my three month old! He is a joy to have and I am constantly soaking him up. 

Month 2

Already a month has passed since I last wrote? That's cray cray. I think the more kids I have the less hours in a day I have. It's like an hour is sucked away each week. Probably doesn't help that I'm up all night and "sleep in" until 1pm. Daniel is a party animal, I know.


Here are some fun facts about my TWO MONTH OLD. I still don't like saying that. 

LOVES jumping when you hold him by his armpits

Smiles for Mommy ALL the time.
Loves when you talk to him.

His little lump on his head is going down, but his hair in that spot still sticks up :)

Parties all night 

Loves his sisters (until they poke him in the eye)

Bites his lower lip with his gums...and it is MY FAVORITE. Seriously, I gush every time. 

Has brown eyes (the girls' were dark, almost black eyes, so it's fun to see the color in his).  

Sleeps for 20 minute chunks during the night

I'm lucky if I get him to sleep for 2 hours during the day

 Likes being held while napping

Has the worst reflux EVER.

Needs to be burped a million times 

Is calmed down by white noise
Hates hiccups
Hates changing clothes
Likes getting his diaper changed
Likes bath time now.

Likes to suck on his fingers..although sometimes he feels like he can't find them

But wasn't even two months old and already wearing 3-6 month clothes and busting out the seems of anything smaller. :)

**Still waiting on his height and weight from his 2 month check up**



I love my little stud

Month 1

A month has already come and gone since sweet baby Daniel was born. I can't believe it. Why do littles grow so fast? It's really not fair.

Here are some of baby Daniel's favorite things to do in his one month of life. 

Sleeping all day

Awake all night

Smiling when almost asleep

Starting to coo

Toots himself awake 

Hates being cold

Tolerates bath time now

Loves being bundled up warm

Loves looking at lights

Smiling at Mommy right after a long, hard night

Hates tummy time

Pooping 3 times in a row

Screaming like an angry jungle monkey when not 100% content

***Stealing Hearts***

I love my little son

Daniel Javier Hernandez

SEPTEMBER 22ND, 2015

I had one of my last appointments with my OB doctor that day at 1:30pm. He stripped my membranes (for the 3rd time), said I was 3cm dilated and about 70% effaced with a "favorable cervix." He told me that if baby didn't come on his own he would be induced two days later on the 24th and explained to me how pitocin works. Baby must've been listening to that horrifying explanation because after we came home I took a short nap and woke up around 5:30pm with slightly more painful, consistent contractions than I had had the past few weeks. I kept timing them and could tell they were the real deal, so we packed the girls up to take to a family friend's house, and headed to the hospital by 7pm.

When I got there I got all checked in and they said I was already at a 6. After laboring for a while I had mentioned to the nurse that I really wanted my epidural and to make sure I got it. It's always right when you need it that the anesthesiologist seems like they take their sweet time to make it to your room. I was at 8cm for a while, got my epidural and finally got to rest. Unfortunately, I let the nurses dictate how the rest of my labor was going to go, which I sadly regret. I wish I had been more outspoken. While resting I felt comfortable, but my nurse kept asking almost every 10 minutes if I felt like pushing (which honestly got annoying..with Lydia they left the room and let me tell them when I felt like I was ready to push). After nothing for an hour, they were starting to get impatient so the OB on call wanted to give me some pitocin to speed things up (they had other women there waiting to be induced, but since I was delivering naturally I got priority and *I'm assuming* they wanted the baby out asap to be able to get to them). So they did that and I ended up feeling all the pressure from the extreme contractions, making it impossible to relax or rest. Finally I felt like pushing and they all came in and prepared for delivery. I can't imagine being induced with pitocin first, without an epidural. While I was pushing I could start to feel the baby's head come out, a stinging sensation, which made me laugh (that's how I handle pain apparently haha). The doctor laughed and everyone exclaimed, "Look! She's even smiling while she's pushing!" I do that normally during delivery, but this time it was to handle the pain, not because I was particularly enjoying it.

 

After a few minutes of pushing, sweet baby Daniel Javier Hernandez (middle name pronounced like ha-vee-air) came into this world at 11:28pm, weighing 8lbs 9oz, 21inches long, and was laid on my chest immediately after birth. It was a different feeling I had with him than I had with the girls. I started to get a little teary eyed when he was laid on my chest. Maybe it's a mother-son thing? Or perhaps it's the feeling of bringing your first son into the world. I felt such a connection to him. He laid there for a good while before he was taken to get cleaned up and then brought back to nurse. His temperature was low for about a day and a half which the nurses monitored but it eventually picked back up before we left. 

Also, he is a screamer. He hates getting his diaper changed, or bathing, or basically anything that makes him cold. He is JUST like his daddy, loves to be wrapped head to toe in blankets and is always freezing (I accidentally laid him naked on a cold pillow the other day, and boy did he let me know he hated it...oops.. I'm a mean mom ;) ). Not to mention he looked just like Jonathan when he was born. We showed this picture of Jonathan to the nurse and the nurse said, "Oh. My. Gosh. You just gave birth to your husband!"

Little baby Jonathan :)

Taking Hating his first bath

Who brought me into this cruel, cold world?

Unfortunately, during delivery he experienced some trauma so he's got a blood bruise on his head on his right side (which we are hoping will go away soon so Daddy can stop referring to him as Gumby ;) ). I personally think he got it because of the pitocin that they insisted on me having to rush my delivery and get him out fast. My girls always came on their own and let me progress naturally and they have never experienced cephalahematoma. I'm still mad at myself that I didn't take more control, and wish my OB had been there who had originally told me that he wanted everything to be how I wanted it to be. I think he would have let me decide what I wanted to do (or at least ask me if I wanted to do pitocin), instead of telling me what they all wanted to do. But anyway.. lesson learned I guess. 

Family Picture!

Daniel has so much hair you can barely tell in pictures that he has the large bruise on his head. 

September 24th was discharge day. After stopping by to say hi to my mom while before she got her biopsy done, we went home around 3pm and spent the rest of the day with the girls and Baby Boy, cuddling and loving on him. Every single day Lydia gives him hugs and kisses and tells him that she loves him. In the picture below she would whisper to him, over and over, "I love you... I love you so much."  It's so sweet. Both the girls love their baby brother. And I love my kids. 

She LOVES baby brother

Miss Me?

Hi....

It's been a whole year and a day since I've last posted. Oops. I kept promising myself that I would post for every big milestone or big event that happened within the last year and I obviously didn't pull through. Sorry! So, recapping everything since May 10th of last year.

Elena took her first steps

Lydia turned 3 in July

Went to the 4th of July parade (which Lydia is convinced was made for her since it's next to her birthday. That's all she wants this year.. a parade where people throw candy to her. Every kid's dream!)

Finished a hard, time-consuming semester with all straight As

Packed up and moved all our stuff into storage, drove to Colorado and flew to Alaska for a month (July 29-Sept 2)

Moved to a new apartment/ward once we got back

Officially decided we wanted to go to Alaska after we finished school

Had our first and last Christmas together in Rexburg where I made yummy Mexican pozole dinner and it snowed on Christmas Eve.

Rang in the New Year also in Rexburg, playing Call of Duty ;)

Got the surprise of our life finding out we are expecting another child early January 2015. Definitely a huge curve ball but we're determined to make this work amidst graduating and moving clear across the continent 6 weeks before I have this little child. It's absolutely kind of terrifying. Pray for us?

Passed another semester with straight As, including social science statistics. A miracle.

Surprised our family with baby news on Easter Sunday.

Took our last trip to Colorado to visit family for spring break, while Jonathan and his brothers flew to Texas for half the week to visit home. 

While in Colorado we celebrated Elena's 2nd birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. So fun!

Enjoyed my first trimester and most of the second practically symptom free (another way I was able to fool the majority of my friends hehe. I get so lucky in pregnancy. I truly am grateful.)

Found out we are having a baby boy and publicly announced it on May 4th, Star Wars style.

Have an interview scheduled for an internship that I desperately need. I want to cross that off my list before baby boy comes so when I graduate I can just focus on my family. 

And that's what's been going on in the Hernandez family so far. Trying to survive our last semester here and plan and prepare to sell our apartment contract, sell our car, get rid of a bunch of junk, clean, buy tickets for me and Lydia to fly up, and prepare for Jonathan, Elena and our friends to drive up. Then find housing, an internship/job and healthcare before September. Like I said, we'll need all the help we can get! We're taking a huge leap of faith. Lydia turned on the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration on Youtube last Sunday and we watched most of it before Church. In it, Joseph Smith says, 

"Perhaps I am meant to swim in deep waters. But better deep than shallow." 

I think that will be my new theme for this year.

I Never Want To Forget My 1 year old

Finally! I'm getting around to this post. I'm only almost a month late. Oops :) We're just so busy having fun (okay read: busy with school) I kind of neglect my little blog from time to time, as I'm sure you can tell.

Elena had a great birthday! We did lots of fun things (which I will save for another post). And now that she's officially 12 months, aka 1 YEAR OLD (sheesh, time really does fly) I want to post what I never ever want to forget about my sweet little girl.

I never want to forget

How she can say "hi" when prompted ..sounds more like "hi-eee" and "bye-bye" which sounds a lot like "ba ba" haha. Then when I ask her what a cow says and moo for her she goes, "mboo" and asking what a puppy says and bark for her she goes "ra!" and then tries to copy what a kitty says. Gosh it melts me to pieces. She is learning so fast!

On that note, she can sign milk, more, and is starting to fold her arms for prayer. She also can sign "father" and "mother" and "please." Again, smarty pants.

She has 8 "regular?" teeth..and 4 molars. And then the teeth in between those are on the verge of coming. I can see a lot of cranky days ahead of me...

She wants to do everything that Lydia does. Seriously. Drink from the same sippy cups, play with the same toys, bathe together, even jump on my bed when Lydia does it haha - I only know that because she whined as she stood at the foot of my bed while Lydia was doing it. Inseparable...despite their sibling rivalry.

She is still, hands down the easiest sleeper ever. When she does wake up in the night (usually a few hours after I put her down..proabably due to the nightlight Lydia needs to have in their room), I just make her a bottle and put her back into bed after it's done. It doesn't matter if she's just woken up, she'll go back to sleep eventually without crying. It's so nice. And when I ask her "you need to go ni-night?" She'll always look to her bedroom door, or aim her hand in that direction because she knows. :)

When she doesn't want to finish the rest of her bottle, she thinks it's just so fascinating to tip her bottle upside down and pour it on to the furniture or floor. Haha she knows it's naughty, little stinker!

She will lean in and give us kisses when we ask (usually).. and goes "mmm." It's the sweetest thing. Ever.

How she absolutely hates being cleaned up after eating. She squeals and screams. She hates it.. I have no idea why haha

I never want to forget

She's a year old and still only army crawls. It makes me laugh. She can't crawl on her hands and knees yet (although I saw her take a few ..crawls?..the other day before she fell on her tummy and started army crawling again). I know she'll get there. I was talking to my mom last night and she said she was impressed because how many babies do we know that crawl on their elbows and push off with their feet/knees while holding toys/objects in their hands (seriously, that's the main reason she won't crawl.. it's nicer to hold things in her hand and scoot haha). I guess that's pretty cool :)

She usually sleeps all night. Except for that since I put Lydia back in their room together she'll wake up randomly 2 hours after they go to sleep and she'll just talk and sing and click her tongue until Lydia wakes up and says, "shh! Be ka-wet (quiet)" lol

She has gotten kind of a 'tude now that she's turned one, ya gotta watch out! I'm convinced it's her teeth...I'm probably right since she normally has a very sweet disposition. :)

Sometimes while sitting in my (or someone else's lap that she is comfortable in), she will lay her head against your chest and look up at you and smile or softly moan or say "mmm." It's so sweet.

She likes to dump all the clothes she finds anywhere...on the ground. She'll take my nicely folded laundry and throw it to the floor. Not much different than when she's eating haha She knows she's not supposed to put food on the floor but she does it anyway. Little stinker.

As she's becoming more and more mobile she wants to sit with me less and less. It was sweet though, the other day she just laid on my tummy next to me as we cuddled. I told her not to grow up.

I never want to forget

Her face after I gave her some of my veggie juice lol. The first taste seemed kinda gross but she whined for more so I guess she liked it.

She can scale furniture. And she has stood for at least 10 seconds by herself today!

Her cute smile.

Her desire to put everything in her mouth...still.

Her love for other babies. We got her a fake baby for her birthday and boy was she excited to open that present! And she still loves her baby and likes to feed it its bottle. But she also loves real babies too and likes to "pet" them. :)

She has no problem drinking from a sippy cup and I've even put regular milk in one and she drinks it fine. I'm thinking we'll have no problem transitioning over. Yay!

She always, always loves sharing her food/milk with you. It's actually kind of cute. When she's drinking her bottle and she's drank..drunk? most of it, she'll offer some up to your lips. Or today during Church she kept offering her cracker to Jonathan and he'd pretend to take a bite and she'd start laughing, then do it again. Repeated like 10 times. It was cute.

She likes being dipped upside down and laughs while doing it.

I never want to forget

How she got a "birthday cake" hangover. I think it was too much chocolate cake. The next day she had a fever and a really gross diaper. But I think she felt better after the cake left her system haha.

She loves my green smoothies.

She likes watching movies with Lydia like Snow White.

She absolutely loves phones. I try not to let her play with mine. I don't want her to get attached, but every once in a while I'll click on the lock screen so she can see the picture of us 3 and that will make her laugh and smile.

She sometimes wears 2 year old clothes haha. Not because she's outgrown her 12 month clothes, but I like the way they look on her haha. Sheesh.. kids grow up too fast!

 How she dances. Oh man it just cracks me up. I love when she wiggles her body in dance!

Lately she's been going around saying "ba-ba BAP" haha over and over and over. And she likes hearing her echo in the Church bathroom. :)

I just mostly never want to forget my sweet, fun loving little 1 year old! She grew so fast over the last year. I just can't believe it. And now it's almost been a month since her birthday. Goodness, I love that little one. Earlier Jonathan said, "Man, I don't know what I ever did without Baby Sis. How did I live my life without her!" She is just a bright child that radiates happiness and her smile will no doubt make you smile. She is just incredibly sweet.

I Honor You

This Mother's Day, while I feel extremely grateful to have the opportunity to be a mom, and I am thankful for my own mom and mother-in-law, I can't help but think of the many women who desire to be a mom and aren't one yet. This Mother's Day all I can think of is my dear friend Whitney.

She is one of the selfless people I know. She always has your back. I've been blessed to know her for about 2 years now and I am so thankful she is in my life. I consider her one of my best friends, since being here at BYU-Idaho. She watches the girls and they absolutely love her. She invites us over for dinner and does as much as she can to make you comfortable, she's even taken the girls overnight so Jonathan and I could have a night to ourselves. She serves, she gives me advice, she cooks (for my own kids) changes their diapers, treats us out sometimes, and much more. She is incredibly Christ-like. She forgives, she encourages, she's a leader, she has patience, she loves; there are many things I admire about her.

You may not know this, but her and her husband have been wanting to have a baby for a long time now. My heart aches when I think about her pure desire that is not fulfilled at this time. I admire her (and their) strength and faith. I remember the first time we hung out with them (2 years ago) we had found out they had already been trying for 1.5 years. We went home that evening, knowing they would be great parents, and prayed that they might be able to start their family, thinking it would surely happen soon. We still pray for them. I get defensive about my dear friends when I hear insensitive comments toward them or others struggling with infertility (I had a tear fest at Broulims one night when she told me a terrible story that happened to her. I couldn't stop crying! It made me mad that some people have the nerve to say some things...anyway). I'm thankful that through knowing them I have learned a lot about infertility. I hope that I can sympathize with others who struggle through it. It has surely opened my eyes.

I  want to echo the words I wrote 2 years ago on Mother's Day in the post called "To All the Mothers Who Taught Me Something":

"I would like to thank those Moms, who desire to be a Mother, but can't - whether they must wait a few more, long, hopeful years to start their family, or their bodies are just physically unable. I can't even imagine how hard it would be to accept the fact that I couldn't have children, or couldn't have any more. Whenever I think I'm having a hard time, or feel discouraged in my parenting, all I have to do is be reminded of someone who can't carry their own child (or doesn't have the means to adopt), and I instantly count my many blessings. I have so much to be grateful for. Thank you for still having the longing to be a Mom, even though you feel your dreams seem far-reaching. Thank you for that desire. Blessed are the parents who desire to have children, and can't, over those who could but selfishly relinquish their parental duties. Thank you for reminding me of my ultimate desire and want - to be a Mother."


I understand that Mother's Day is probably the hardest holiday for women who simply want a child. But this Mother's Day, I want to let Whitney and all women out there know, especially those wanting to hold their own child in their arms, that I honor YOU as Mothers. You are mothers in my eyes.

You are mothers in eyes of the Lord.

"Motherhood is more than bearing children, though it is certainly that. It is the essence of who we are as women. It defines our very identity, our divine stature and nature, and the unique traits our Father gave us. For mother is the word that will define a righteous woman made perfect in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom, a woman who has qualified for eternal increase in posterity, wisdom, joy, and influence." (Sheri Dew "Are We Not All Mothers?")