Technical Note

Oh, by the way, if you haven't been able to figure out how to turn off the song to be able to hear the video scroll all the way down to the bottom of the blog--there are two song lists press pause on the one that is titled Maya's Theme Song. It is right above the family picture sticker. Enjoy!!

Almaya's Birth Video

Sorry it took me forever to figure out how to get this posted. Also, have no fear, there is no video of the actual birth--just before and about 30 seconds after. When the doctors checked me and found out that she was already popping out I called my mom but she didn't have time to get there before she was born to video tape the actual birth--although that is probably for the better. : ) It truly was a miracle though because my mom got there seriously just a few seconds after she was born so she was able to video tape all the cleaning-up and first few seconds and glances Almaya had of this world. Ahhhh

*The video is really long and probably very boring for most of you, haha--feel free to skip through to see the parts you want*

Maya's First Tanning Bed

The doctor said Maya's jaundice was bad enough that he wanted her to stay in a light bed for the weekend. It's not fun at all because all she wants is to be held but we can only take her out to change her diaper and feed her. Plus, someone has to be awake and in the same room as the machine the entire time it's on which means Jose and I haven't slept yet since we got it yesterday. It's so sad to see her cry and scream and not be able to pick her up. : (
She hates the blind fold that she has to wear. She's constantly taking it off. The stinker.

This is her "I'm just chillin'" pose. hehe

Here are a few pictures from the hospital of Maya wearing her first outfit. This is the outfit that I bought for Jose's birthday to tell him I was pregnant with Helaman (at the time I didn't know if it was a boy or a girl so I bought one of each).

She loves to wear tights--thank you Amy!!! She loves them. She was screaming, then the second we put them on she stopped and was so happy. : )

Almaya's Theme Song----Finally Home----Maya's Big Scare----and Possible Jaundice

Ever since I first got pregnant I heard this song and knew it was the perfect "Birth Song." "I'm a new soul. I came to this strange world hoping I could learn a thing about how to give and take." Ahh, the words are so perfect for the day a brand new soul enters into this world. I was planning ever since I heard it to put it on my very first post when Almaya was born but the internet at the hospital wouldn't let me enter the music website so it's a little late.


We got home yesterday afternoon and have just loved the past few hours together as a family in our very own home.

Because so many people came to visit and hold Maya the first day after she was born I didn't get a chance to feed her for almost five hours. I kept trying to steal her away from people nicely but could never accomplish it and kept letting it go because I wanted people to be able to hold her and be with her. The nurse stopped by after a while to run some tests on her and came back saying that her blood sugar was dangerously low and she was shaking from not eating for so long--in fact she was so weak that the nurse said they couldn't even get her to wake up long enough to eat anything. She gave me a bottle and told me to do whatever it takes to wake her up and either breastfeed her or bottle feed her right away. I felt so bad. I still feel bad. I was only a new mother for a few hours and I had already almost starved my child to death. So I did everything to try to get her to breastfeed but I couldn't get her to stay awake long enough to really get anything down. So I was worried that she hadn't gotten any nutrients so decided to bottle feed her a bit as well. I later learned that this was a huge mistake because since she was only getting colostrum from my breast her stomach was still the size of a marble and she felt full and satisfied with just the colostrum--however as soon as I gave her a little formula milk her stomach stretched out many times the size it was (which is normal but means that she will no longer feel full with just colostrum).

Every feeding after that she seemed so hungry. I was feeding her every two hours for more than an hour and a half every time but she was still acting like she was starving to death and completely miserable. I had no idea what was going on or what I was doing wrong. She was so fussy and that is not like her at all. Then, Tuesday night, Jose left for a few hours to do splits with the missionaries and that was the last straw for Almaya. She totally lost it a broke down without him there. She screamed without stopping for an hour (this coming from a baby that had never even screamed in her [short] lifetime). I was totally at a loss and had no idea what was wrong. After trying everything I called the nurse and told her I knew something was wrong. After doing some tests and talking to me for a while we figured out what had happened and determined that she would have to be supplemented with a bottle until my milk came in so she would feel full.

After I started supplementing her she was back to her old self and has not screamed like that ever since. Also, my milk finally came in last night so she is a very happy camper. Yay!

That experience made me realize that it's important to try to make people happy but it is even more important to keep my baby healthy. I still can't forgive myself for not sticking up for her and stealing her away to feed her. I could never forgive myself if something else happened to her in the future because I felt too bad to say anything. So I am making a general shout-out to everyone who plans on coming to visit Maya----

***We want everyone to come and visit her and hold her (we are so proud of our beautiful little girl) so please come visit, however because of RSV season her doctor advised us to ask that everyone washes their hands before they hold her and if they are sick to maybe wait a while to come see her.*** Not too bad right? We want everyone to come see her, just make sure you're healthy, also for some reason Maya's personality is such that she gets very overwhelmed with lots of people around and her blood pressure goes up so please don't ever be offended if there is a lot going on and I need to take her to a quiet place to calm her down a bit for a while.

Jaundice---the doctor is a little worried that Maya might have Jaundice so we are keeping our eye on that and should knew more by Friday. I will definitely update on that the second I know.

Jose and Maya

Jose has been so amazing taking care of Maya--changing her diaper, burping her, giving her the binki every two seconds, etc. Wow, his face just lights up every time he looks at her.

They were both pretty tired and I came out of the bathroom to find this...

Almaya has already learned that she doesn't have to sleep in her little bed--there is always someone who wants to hold her. : ) Uh-oh She has also learned that breastfeeding can also be used as a security blanket or a binki because her mother is the biggest softy in the world. I have made a goal to be strict with her and not let her take advantage for hours at a time. I think I will start tomorrow. ; )

It's a Girl!!

Almaya Paulina de la Luz Sanchez was born at 12:43 pm today. Sorry it's taken so long to update everything. I haven't been able to have two seconds without people visiting us in the room. So blame everyone else that came to visit us. haha

Here are the specs: 7.5 lbs 20 inches Blackish brown hair Brownish eyes Jose's nose Jose's mouth My eyes My forehead and Jose's dark skin

Once again I didn't have a very good experience with the epidural. It's didn't seem to do much, even after raising the dose--it just made it so I could feel the pain but couldn't move. So I was starting to really lose hope, honestly I was giving up. Jose gave me a blessing. They checked me about 20 min. later and I had gone from a 3 to a 6 (as previously mentioned). I found hope in that but figured it would still be another 4 or 5 hours. An hour later I asked Jose to help me turn over to my other side and he started freaking out because he said I was gushing blood. I got a little worried and called the nurse in. She took one look at me and said "she's coming" then ran out the door to get the doctor. The doctor came running in about 5 seconds later and they started running all over everywhere trying to get their scrubs on before she popped out. I was so confused and surprised. My mother was going to tape the birth for all of you guys to watch (a G-rated view of course). I asked the doctor if we could wait 10 min. for my mother to get there and he said "she's comin out right now!" So I pushed 9 times and she popped out. Very very different delivery from the last one. (Thank goodness). Thanks to all of your prayers and the power of the priesthood. The Lord definately had mercy on me and helped her pop right out.

Her personality? Just the same as we had experienced during utero. She is so calm and patient with everything. When she was born she didn't even cry. There was a bit of a whimper, then just wide eyes looking at everyone trying to figure out what was going on. She is so precious and such a blessing to us. We love her so much already.

Here are some pics of her (though she is much cuter in real life). : ) I will try to get the video to work as well so you can see her in motion.

Progress!!

I am dialated to a 6 and 90% efaced and throwing up. haha but the nurse says I am throwing up because she is coming so fast. Let's hope it stays that way. (maybe not the throwing up part)

Finally Got the Internet to Work!!

We have been wanting to update ever since we got here at midnight but couldn't get the internet to work. Urgh. Well, I suppose it was a mixture of the internet and my computer. So my mom brought up her computer and it works!!!

Here is what's been happening for the last 10 hours---NOTHING!!! We got here at midnight. By the time we got checked in and everything it was about 1 am when they finally started the potossin. By 7 am they checked me again and I had dialated from a 2 to a 2. Yeah, six hours of contractions for nothing. The nurse said that my body was still trying to fight the medicine thinking that it is still not time for Maya to be born and wouldn't get the hint until they broke my water. The doctor broke my water at 7:15 which definatly threw me into hard labor right away. Wow, very hard labor. I got the epidural a few minutes ago because the doctor said I wasn't going to progress because I was fighting the contractions too much.

They just checked me and I am dialated to a 3 and 80% efaced. Progress. Yay! That's a definate plus.

We will post every time there is an update now that we have a computer that works.

Trying to Sleep

Well here I am in bed at home watching Jose sleep and being jealous that I can't do the same. My wonderful family came over today and helped us finish cleaning the house so everything would be ready for Almaya to come home. We finished so early that Jose and I had a couple hours to take a nap before we head to the hospital at midnight. It's never easy to sleep while you are pregnant but I am finding it impossible to sleep tonight. I am a very large mixture of excited and terrified. I kept telling myself that I wasn't nervous to give birth this time around because I knew what to expect, but now that it's just around the corner I am beginning to actually remember what it's like and I think I am even more scared this time than the first time. With Helaman I had a horrible experience with the epidural--I was shaking and throwing up the whole time. So this time I am going to try to go as long as I can without it. Hrm, we will see how that goes. Well, I suppose I'd better try to get a few minutes rest before we head out. Love you all! We will keep you posted...

Happy 1st Birthday Helaman

Helaman's 1st birthday was the 6th of this month. It was tough but also happy. The Lord has blessed us with so much peace during this last year. It seems like much more than just a year has passed but it's also hard to believe that a whole year has already flown by.

It's often times hard to not think about what milestones he should have been reaching in his life by now but we just try to not think about that and concentrate on what he is probably accomplishing right now.

Jose made Heli a cake all by himself---it's was so yummy

Jose wanted me to post a few words about Heli and Maya--how they've been different and how they've been the same so far. We had the great blessing of getting to know Helaman very very well while he was still in utero. He has such a strong personality and it really showed through. Maya has been much more difficult to get to know. She is much much calmer and subdued. Heli always knew exactly what he wanted and would let us know the moment he was uncomfortable or unhappy. If Jose pushed his finger on my stomach Helaman would push back as hard as he could and not give up until Jose would move his finger. At night Helaman wanted his space. If Jose tried to get close to me Helaman would kick him until he moved. If fact, at the end of my pregnancy I had to sleep sitting up because Helaman wouldn't even let me lay down. He also had to be constantly entertained. If I wasn't talking to him or rubbing my belly he would kick and kick until I would give him attention. He loved any type of music with strong rhythms and he loved lots of people being around. I couldn't eat hardly anything other than spicy Mexican food and fruits and vegetables. He also seemed to prefer the sound of Spanish as opposed to English. I swear that kid never slept. There was one day that I think he slept for an entire hour--other than that he was constantly on the move and wanted to experience everything.

Maya, however, is completely opposite in every way. She is terrified of any type of loud noise. Lots of commotion also seems to upset her. I can't seem to eat anything remotely healthy. Fruits and vegetables make me nauseous. Chocolate and greasy foods and pretty much my staple. She only likes soft music--particularly anything with an organ playing. She doesn't seem to like the sound of Spanish (although maybe it is the tone that most Spanish speakers use is usually louder and more high pitched). If she is uncomfortable she will wait for quite a while to see if I move. If I don't she will kick a few times, but most often will give up and just deal with it. I can't believe how incredibly patient she is with Jose. He will push my stomach and blow raspberries and do everything to try to get her to react to him, but she will just put up with all of it. She also seems to be quite content in entertaining herself and doesn't require a lot of attention from me or Jose. She is impossible to wake up (that she gets from her dad). In fact, one day at the doctors office we had to do a test to count how many times she moved within 20 min. but she was asleep at the time so the doctor was trying to wake her up. He dug his fingers down into my belly below her head and firmly jiggled my stomach back and forth--all she did was stretch, turn over, and go back to sleep. haha

There are a few of the many differences between the two--the only real similarities that I have been able to gather are that they both loved to hear their daddy's voice and neither of them like when I am sitting or laying down.

Here is a photo update of me and Maya. I am now 39 weeks along. I have an appointment at midnight on Sunday night to start the induction. Yay! Only a few more days!! I can't wait to get to know Maya more. I hope she turns out looking like Jose, just like Helaman did, but we will just have to wait and see if we will have a little Morena (dark-skinned) or Gabacha (white-skinned). : )

Here is Jose at 39 weeks. haha He looks even more worn out by this pregnancy than I am!!!************* By the way--we will have our computer with us when we go to the hospital Sunday night so check the blog periodically for update on how the labor goes and to see the first pics of our precious Almaya!! (Hopefully we will stay on top of the blog entries so you can all experience it along with us). **************