Good-bye January 2010!

This was not how I had intended to start off 2010. With the exception of about a week, I have been sick this entire month! I welcome February with open arms! I am currently in the midst of fighting yet, another cold. I have never had so much difficulty with my immune system as I have had recently. I can only assume that my immune system is beaten down because for the last 3 years straight, I have been either pregnant or breastfeeding, and not sleeping through the night. I am happy to say that Nora has been sleeping better. She wakes up once or twice a night, but she just talks or fusses a little bit and goes back to sleep. My middle of the night feedings seem to have come to an end so I see a light at the end of the tunnel. I know, I know, she is almost 9 months old and the fact that I was getting up to feed her until recently is ridiculous. So many infant sleep theories exist out there and I have studied several, but, hey, I have been weak. She is, after all, my last baby.
Looking back, when Hailey was a baby, I usually nursed her to sleep and once she got older, I would tickle her back or pat her bottom until I thought she was asleep and then try and sneak out of the room, at about which time she would poke her little head up and summon me back. What can I say, I was young and didn't know any better back then. Sleep schedules were not the fad in those days.

 

Hailey Alexis, September 17, 1993

Luca didn't want to be nursed to sleep. If he wasn't hungry, he wasn't going to nurse for comfort. I used the Baby Whisperer's method of encouraging sleep with him and it worked pretty well for the most part. He is a great sleeper now. I was always able to put him down in his crib awake and he would put himself to sleep. He never got rocked, patted or otherwise. He has a bedtime routine that consists of reading, prayers and saying "nite nite" a couple of times. He reads and plays in his bed for about 30 minutes before he actually falls asleep.

Luca Roman,  December 12, 2007

Then Nora came along. She has my heart in a way that I can't even explain. I think it is because I know I will not be having any more babies and I just adore the baby stage! She gets rocked every night! While she is being rocked, she grabs at my nose and my ear and holds on for dear life! I can't say I don't know any better because I do. She is a very content baby so she usually lets me know when she is ready to be put into her bed. She fusses and pulls away from me. I usually lay her down awake and she puts herself to sleep, unless, of course, daddy is putting her to bed. In that case, she gets rocked until she is completely out.

 

Nora Eisley-Rose,  May 11, 2009

January 21, 2006...Perfect Wedding

Four years ago today, I married my best friend. I wanted to briefly share the story of our miracle wedding with many details left out because I could probably write a book on it.
We had the most beautiful wedding. It was a sit-down dinner in the backyard of Jerry and Rhonda Lilly. The weather was a perfect 74 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. Quite different from the weather outside today...so rainy, cloudy and windy!
Miracle after miracle happened for our wedding. We didn't have much money so we were planning on a small wedding with some appetizers. Our invitations even said " Hors D'Oeuveres" on them. (Our invitations and programs were given to us as a gift by my cousin Kara, and she made them by the way.) Jerry and Rhonda asked us if we would let them provide a sit down dinner and they wouldn't take "no" for an answer. Chicken, broccoli, and rice was on the menu, along with appetizers and dessert (which included a chocolate fountain). Everything was amazing! Unfortunately, the only thing that was not amazing was our photographer who failed to get any photos of the chocolate fountain or the food...

My friends did my make-up, set up the tables, chairs and put together the place settings, centerpieces and bouquets.

 

One of my most favorite photographs! 

They also ran the music and the kids from our church's youth group refilled drinks and served the guests. There were about 120-150 special family members and friends present. We guesstimated that our wedding should have cost a minimum of $15,000. What we actually spent was right around $3,000. That included our regrettable photographer and our videographer. Our rehearsal dinner was gifted to us...my dress was a gift...our hotel room the night of our wedding was a gift (at the Ritz), our ride to the hotel was a gift. So, if you can do the math in your head, you will realize that out of our pockets we paid for my shoes, my veil (which I actually made), the cake, a few rentals, the photographer, the videographer, the flowers (go Costco!) some miscellaneous stuff,  and the wedding favors. Miracle??? I think so! Many of our loved ones got together to make our wedding day elegant and very memorable. God went above and beyond what I ever dreamed or expected for my wedding day!
Everything aside, perfect wedding day or not, I am so thankful for my husband and my marriage. I have truly enjoyed our growth together over the last four years. We have experienced many difficulties and have grown closer together through them. We have also experienced many, many joys and through those too, have grown closer together. 

Thank you to everyone who made our day so special!

Christmas Day

Luca is getting to be a lot of fun when it comes to presents!

He actually plays with the toys rather than the boxes! I remember when Hailey was little, some gave me a hard time because she didn't have enough toys. Truth be told, she enjoyed the bags or boxes they came in much more than the toys themselves, so why waste the money! In Hailey's case, this pretty much continued into her childhood. I would get her a doll or some other toy, but she was never really interested. She continued to love bags, which developed into purses and she loved to play dress up! She is still very fond of both of those things. She also loved her little toy kitchen and tea parties...while she still enjoys tea, she is over the whole kitchen idea!  We go through periods of time when we have her cook once a week for the family. The food always tastes great, but she claims she doesn't enjoy preparing it.

Having young children around changes the whole feel of Christmas. It brings another level of excitement to the holidays. Remembering the true reason for Christmas is of top priority in our home. We are trying to brainstorm some creative ideas to model selflessness to our little ones. Some ideas we are thinking of implementing are:
* Adopt a family in need, one who doesn't have a Christmas tree, etc. Give them a tree with all the trimmings, Christmas dinner, and gifts.
* Go out to eat sometime during Christmas week with a card in hand and bless our server with an extraordinary tip (you never know how it will impact their life)
* Prison ministry. There are so many children whose parents have been incarcerated for one reason or another. There is a ministry that delivers gifts to these children, with a message from their absent parent. Hailey and I did this a couple of years ago and it had a huge impact on us and it blessed these precious children who had no control over their circumstances.

Give, give, give! After all, remember that God gave His only Son!

Nora with her Great Grammy

Waiting for Pictures!

My confession is that I have not yet posted this because in the midst of all the craziness in El Paso, I failed to take pictures myself. I am relying on my sisters who did not have their arms full of 2 babies to e-mail me the pictures that they took! The Christmas post and photos may have to come later, but in the meantime... 

Christmas in El Paso wouldn't be complete without hitting my two favorite El Paso spots...Avila's and Charcoaler. I worked at Avila's off and on in high school and through nursing school.  The food is fabulous and I love that some of the same wonderful people work there! Below you will see their famous Queso. If you have never tried it, it is an absolute must! I wish I had some right now!

Where I've Been...

Oh! I miss blogging! My life has been a whirlwind the entire month of December up until now.  We traveled to  El Paso to visit my family over Christmas and once we got back I was out of commission for a while.

Nora with her Gidi (my dad)

We had a great Christmas, but traveling with Luca and Nora was an experience in and of itself. I was more sleep deprived than I have ever been! Yes, that includes more sleep deprived than I was with a brand new baby. When we go to my parent's house, I sleep in my old room with Alessandro (when he's there) and Nora. Luca sleeps in his own room and Hailey in her's. Nora didn't sleep well and neither did we. Not sure which came first in this case, the chicken or the egg! Another factor was the fact that there are 5 dogs at my parent's house...I am allergic and was itchy and congested the entire time. We drove home the day after Christmas and it is not a big surprise that on New Year's Eve, I got sick. My immune system was probably down from exhaustion.

I have never been laid out like that from an infection before! It started with a sore throat and then I completely lost my voice. By Friday, New Year's Day, I was really feeling bad and thought I should go to the Walgreen's clinic, just in case. I was diagnosed with Acute Pharyngitis and told to take Muconex. I was told it was safe with breastfeeding, but that I needed to increase my fluids. Three doses later, I saw a significant decrease in my milk supply and had a frustrated little girl on my hands who doesn't take a bottle! I quit the musonex and called the Le Leche League for some advice. I began taking Fenugreek and pumping 3 times a day to increase my supply, all the while, still sick. A couple of days later, I was still laid out on the couch with fever, chills and a crazy cough. I called the nurse practitioner at the clinic and explained to her how I was feeling and at that point she told me it sounded like the flu and I just needed to drink plenty of fluids and wait it out. Several days after that, I had to take Luca into the clinic for a rash he developed on his leg and she took one look at me and informed me that I didn't look any better. She decided to prescribe some antibiotics. A few days into the medication, I finally started to feel better. Ten full days of lying on my couch! Only moms can understand what it is like to be sick and have nobody to take care of you, but still have others to take care of! We moms don't get days off! I am grateful to Hailey and Alessandro because when they were home, they were a huge help! Thankfully, nobody else in the house got sick.

Luca doing what he does best...eating icing!

So, I am back and have renewed energy. So much time has passed and I have so much to share, but if I tried to say it all in one blog, it would be ridiculously long. I will give it out in bits and pieces. The photos are really just to add some color to this post!

Below are my two sisters, Keturah and Salena.

My New Year started out a battle, but I intend to win in 2010 and am excited to see what God has in store for us!