Welcome home Jordan...and Happy Mother's Day!

We brought Jordan Thomas Madrid home from the hospital Saturday morning. Such a weird feeling! I don't think I've ever seen Gabriel drive so carefully :) Jordan looked like a line-backed in his huge carseat. So hard to think he would grow! We took him home at only 7.4 ounces...so little!

Gabriel and I took care of Jordan for our first night Saturday night. Our parents rescued us early Sunday morning and we got to sleep. When we woke up it was time to celebrate Mother's Day! Who knew I would have a new born :) The BEST Mother's Day present anyone could ask for! I also got a sweet, sweet, card from Gabriel...flowers...and a leather purse. I am blessed!

Monday's doctor's appointment...surprise!

So Monday, May 7th, I had a sonogram and doctors appointment scheduled to "just check" and make sure everything was okay. After being in radiology for several hours I knew something was wrong as soon as the specialist ordered a doppler scan and told me not to leave until I went to see my doctor. It did make me laugh though...in Oklahoma Dopplers are for tornados not babies!

Of course this was one of those times where I had forgotten my cell phone in the car....several buildings away. So when I got to the doctor's office I called Gabe on the waiting room phone...told him something wasn't right...and of course they called me in and I had to let him go. I knew he'd panic but I figured I wouldn't be in there for long. WRONG! She told me my amniotic fluid level was 4.2 and the normal range is 8-25. While she was checking a few more things a nurse came in and asked if the lady in the room next door had time to go home before she checked into the hospital. The doctor said no way...and turned her attention back to me. I said, "I'm glad that's not me I'm not even packed". Wrong thing to say! Dr. Thompson said actually I was going to have to be admitted immediately. SHOCKER! Luckily they didn't have a room ready yet so she let me drive home.

On the way home I called Gabe...who was already leaving work. He had known something was wrong since I hadn't called yet. So we met at home and grabbed as much as possible. Oh and we called our parents, Joyce, a few other people (my work)and tried to get everything we would need. Good thing we had gone to Target the night before! When I got home Coco was frantically packing the car....I guess Gabe had panomimed to her what was going on and she was just as nervous as we were. So we kissed Bentley and Bailey goodbye and took off to the hospital.

Once at the hospital we were in for a long stay. I checked in at 1:30pm May 7th, and they started the cervix ripening at 3pm. By then my parents were there and Gabe's parents were on their way from Dallas. Things were pretty good...my mom was more nervous then anyone. She couldn't stop eating twizzlers...right in front of a pregnant woman that only gets ice chips! Landon came by with his friend. We pretty much hung out. My parents went home around midnight and Gabe and I slept. At 3am they took out the cervix ripening strip and the doctor decided to let us sleep and check for dialating at 8am.








8am May 8th - The nurse came in to check for progression but nothing yet. So they administered an IV with drugs to induce labor. The doctor said we would know if it was working in 12 hours. At about 1pm Gabe's parents and my parents were at the hospital. I had started to have labor pains but wasn't dilating. A few more hours of labor pains...only 1 minute apart...but still only dilated 1cm. So the doctors checked at 4pm for progression. At that point they decided my pelvic bone was too narrow for a baby anyways (shouldn't they have noticed this earlier?)...so we had two choices...A) break my water and see if they can get him out...but probably not likely with a small pelvic bone B) do a c-section. So we decided a c-section was the safest route.

They immediately rushed me into the operating room and Gabe was there for everything but the epideral. Dr. Holstein performed the surgery but our doctor, Dr. Thompson, got there at the last minute and stayed the whole time. One of the technicians offered to take pictures so Gabe got to concentrate and helping me. I was pretty much knocked out but having a hard time breathing...and after the birth I was almost shaking off the table!

Baby Jordan came out with no problems...sucking his thumb! Gabe left for a few minutes with the baby and to go tell our family. Such a thrill! Then he came back and stayed with me in recovery until I had stocked shaking and got to go back to my room.




I ended up staying in the hospital until Saturday (a total of 6 days) because I was having migraines off and on. Which was fine with me! Jordan was in great care with the nurses and we needed the sleep.


http://photos.themadrids.com/gallery/2826606#151339483

We are bad parents already!

So yesterday we spent most of the day doing "last minute" items...getting deodorant, cleaning the cars, installing the carseat...the usual weekend things...but possibly a last time without a baby! We worked in the garden a bit and went to dinner with my parents.

Well, Coco had been at dance lessons all day but luckily she got back in time to meet my parents. My mom helped her with the sewing machine (which somehow I had managed to screw up the tension setting) and demonstrated some different stitches for Coco's dance troup outfits. She stayed home and rested while we went to dinner.

So halfway through dinner I get a call on my cell phone from Coco..I was SHOCKED! She has never called me before so I was panicking the house was on fire or something. Turns out she wanted to know if we had fed the dogs. OH MY GOSH WE HAD TOTALLY FORGOTTEN!!!! I guess the dogs much speak Spanish b/c we always feed them at 2-3pm (or she does) and she obviously had figured out they hadn't eaten. Geez how embarrassing!!!!

Hopefully she doesn't think we are horrible parents already :)

Bethany

Only a few days left!

So I haven't been the most dedicated in writing in this blog, but work and home has kept me very busy!

I've been on bedrest, but still working, for the last few weeks. I'm really sick of typing while laying in bed on my side :) Oh well, at least I can still work!

Our new nanny/housekeeper Coco (Consuelo) moved in almost 2 weeks ago. She is a HUGE blessing for us! Even though the language barrier has been a challenge we are getting better. We have had a few minor incidents with the translation...here are a few of the problems we've had:

- Coco seems to really like cooking, which we didn't expect. So we have been eating the healthy chicken and vegetable based ballerina diet. Plus she feeds ME fresh beet juice which tastes like dirt and other fresh juices....including milk with boiled celery water. Good thing I have a strong stomach! So a few days after she got here I came downstairs and she was cooking. She had out a package of dry Wasabi peas to put in the salad. I though...oh that won't be bad in a salad...but then she put the WHOLE PACKAGE in a pot of vegetables she was steaming. So she obviously had no clue about the Wasabi. Ooops! I didn't have the heart to say anything.

- I went to let the dogs out (which the porch is off of her room) and noticied there were little articles of underwear scattered around the backyard drying. Once again - didn't know if I should say anything b/c I know this is acceptable in Latin countries. So I didn't. But a few minutes later I left to go run errands and noticed my neighbor was letting a group of 6 women into his house to look at buying it. I sure hope they didn't see the undies!!!

- A few nights ago we had some major confusion...I think she was ready to move out. She was downstairs in her room doing laundry (with underwear outside) and a Centerpoint energy rep jumped the fence. She came running upstairs and the dogs were growling....luckily Gabe was here. So Gabe ran downstairs and confronted the guy....who told him he had to get a gas meter reading no matter what...and continued to jump the fence of our neighbor. Gabe said Coco looked at him like "why didn't you protect us and knock this guy out?". So Gabe got on the phone with the gas company and they said they have the right....which was a huge mess. We ended up calling Gabe's mom and having her calm Coco down. Gabe put up some tack carpet tacks on the fence...so be REALLY careful if you try to climb over! I think I would be freaked out if it happened to me too, but you have to remember in Colombia if someone jumped the fence it would be deadly b/c they have so much crime. So it was understandable. But there is no calming someone down when they don't understand what you are saying!

- The most recent incident was last night. Coco is working on sewing some dance uniforms for her ballet and the sewing machine stich is messed up. So I called my mom and she agree to come over Saturday to take a look and try to help. I tried translating to Coco that she was coming to fix the machine Saturday when she was going to be at dance practice and that I would work with her to get it fixed...and she didn't have to be here. Well 30 minutes later she comes up the stairs with Gabe's sister Diri on the phone, and she had misunderstood - thinking since my mom was coming Saturday night she needed to leave and find somewhere else to stay. So luckily Diri translated everything for us and it was fine.

Whew! We would be in so much trouble if we didn't have family and friends that were fluent in Spanish! THANK GOODNESS!

So as a baby update....a week and a half until my May 15th due date. As of last Wednesday the cervix is not softening or lowering and the baby is not moving down. So I go in Monday for a sonogram. Plus I have a lost a few pounds but I think that is due to Coco's healthy cooking. Depending on the sonogram Monday, the doctor says she will probably want to induce labor a few days before my due date. So we will see what happens! I just hope I can continue to work through all of next week. Does that make me a work-a-holic?

Take care and I'll try to write more!

Bethany

Madrid Family Update

So we have been pretty busy lately. Two weekends ago we traveled to Dallas for a "family and friends" baby shower hosted by Gabriels mother and sister-in-law Michelle. We had a great weekend with the family and enjoyed getting to see everyone. You can see all the pictures on www.themadrids.com.




My parents were able to join us and brought some adorable "surfer baby" items for the nursery. I'm sure baby Madrid will love them! Annette and her mom, Yvonne, were also there - despite some food poisening adventures. Chrys, Mike, Oliver and Jordan joined us...Oliver is so cute! We had lots of family and Dallas friends! We played some hilarious games...including "sculpting" a baby (or something) our of playdo and identifying different diaper smells. Yuck! You can see from the picture below...Gabe was so excited!











This past weekend we took on a few more challenges that need to be completed before baby Madrid gets here. We had Ricardo start working on the nursery wall and french doors. It is now week two but things are getting done slowly and surely. He's such a patient worker! Take a look at the blurry camera phone picture....you'll notice ALL THREE CATS sitting in the middle of the construction zone. Every day when the workers leave they try to regain their territory. They are such a mess!



Gabriel has been hard at work on the backyard. He cleared out (and hauled) over 100 tiles to a donation center...then cleaned everything off (yucky poopoo) and leveled it out for some St. Augustine grass. We got everything done, but ran out of grass...so that is a "to be continued" project for next weekend.

I think that's about it. Baby Madrid is doing great. He's already a little gymnast! We are all anxiously awaiting...only 49 days (or less) to go!

Later - Bethany

Getting ready for a big weekend!

So we officially have 8 weeks left...we had calculated 10 but hopefully the doctor is correct. It seems way too close! Still so much to do.

Last weekend Gabe and I both had flu symptoms and spent all weekend trying to rest. We did get out of bed enough to get the guest bathroom completed. It looks great!

So we made a little discovery. Gabe starts snoring and I always yell at him at night to try to get him to stop...like that's going to work! Well I guess the dogs can't stand it either. When we were sick Gabe slept downstairs and apparantley Bailey decided he wanted his quiet room back...so he started barking everytime Gabe would start snoring or breathing hard. YOU GO BAILEY! Finally I'm not the only one that it annoys!

This week has been the strangest weather...which I guess in normal for Houston. We have been spoiled with beautiful, 70ish weather with clear days every day. Well a few days this week we had the usual Houston hurricane rain. We had a doctor's checkup Wednesday afternoon and spent a few hours in traffic thanks to flooded street.


Tonight we take off for a few days in Dallas. We have a family friends baby shower at Gabe's families house Saturday afternoon. Can't wait to see everyone! And Amanda, Gabe's aspiring neice that is an aspiring photographer - is going to take some belly pics this weekend. Fun stuff huh!

Too much work!

I thought this picture was cute (not so clear but oh well). Gabe has been getting lots of calls from work in the evenings and last night he decided to steal the babies rocker for a bit!