Cleanliness is next to Godliness

Gabe's umbilical cord fell off yesterday (I have no idea where it went, I was just changing his diaper and it was gone!) and so today he got his first immersed bath. He loved the water, or at least I assume this by the fact that he didn't cry until I took him out of it. I love that his hair gets curly when it's wet, but it dries straight. There is nothing so delicious as the smell of a clean baby smothered in Johnson's baby lotion...

Blessings

Yesterday Mario blessed Gabe at church. All of Mario's family in Argentina was there and my mom, and it was a beautiful day. Gabe maintained his usual behavior throughout - which is to say he slept through all of it! It was a really neat first Father's day for Mario to be able to bless him, and to have all of his family together. Gabe thinks his dad is fantastic and wants to thank him for giving him lots of kisses, changing his diapers, watching sports on television with him, being such a good example in life, and loving him lots.

Most of the family, including Violeta the dog...
Lots of friends who are in our ward or came for the blessing.

Gabe and I with Natalia and Sofia.
Eduardo, Esteban, Mario, Paco and Gabe. Lots of great fathers surrounding Gabe.
Gabe with his mom and nana.

Mario, Gabe and I. It is impossible to keep him awake and cooperating for photos! I am now realizing I didn't get any photos of just Gabe in his little blessing outfit, so obvioulsy I will have to stage a photos shoot and dress him in it again for his baby book...

Surviving the First Week

For those following, I apologize for being negligent. It seems that spending approximately 8 hours of every day nursing does in fact leave you with much less time on your hands!

We had a very exciting first week. Friday we went back to the dr. for Gabe's first "control" visit and immunization. He was given the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis, which was definitely more traumatic for me than for him. He didn't even make a peep, but I've been randomly obsessed with it all along because it leaves a scar on the upper arm where it is administered, and we don't get it in the US, but they still give it here. So in my hyper-emotional state I was crying in the dr's office. Poor Mario... We also found out that he has a bit of jaundice - not enough to check him in and put him under the lamps, but we are supposed to take off everything but his diaper and put him in the sun. Now someone tell me how I am supposed to do that in the middle of winter??? But it does seem to be getting better. He's also lost weight, which I know is normal but still does an amazing job of making you feel totally inadequate as a mother because you can't feed your child enough. But other than that he is healthy and great until the next weekly visit!


You can kind of see here that's he a bit yellow... but so sweet just the same. He seriously has NO neck, so his little head just sits on top of his shoulders and I feel like all his clothes choke him...

Mario has been sick, and doesn't want to get the baby sick so he went and got a face mask to wear. Here they are watching the NBA finals together, Mario informed me that Gabe will also be a big SPURS fan, for the simple reason that Ginobili plays for the SPURS. I wonder what will happen if Ginobili switches to another team...

Gabe also met his Uncle Paco, Aunt Alicia and cousin Pilar this weekend. Pilar has been the baby of the Resek family for quite sometime, and she was hilariously jealous of Gabe. Didn't want too much to do with him, I asked her if she wanted to give him a kiss, "no" ...do you want to hold him, "no" ...he wants to give you a kiss, "no" ...ok, well baby Gabe is going to go to bed now, "phew".

Pilar steadfastly ignoring Gabe.

Sleeping peacefully for Aunt Alicia. Alicia is a pediatric dentist and has cleared all fears that any pacifier/hand/thumb sucking will do future oral damage, which is good, because Gabe likes all of the above. He likes to suck his various fingers, and tries to put his whole hand in his mouth at times.

Here is my little angel sleeping peacefully for me today...this was right about the time I figured out that he had soaked through the diaper he had not been wearing more than 1.5 hours, his clothes, and MY bed. (I took him to nap with me because I looooove his sweet little sleeping body) Someone told me to be sure and point his penis down in his diaper and it seems I forgot. Learned my lesson on that one! Already in the first week he has caught me twice when I was changing him and soaked his clean clothes.

Photographic Time Record

These are just more pictures for my family - who at least for my benefit claims to want to see every second of his life - or anyone else who wants to browse.

Our friends came to visit with their 6 month-old Sofia who always seemed so little until we put her next to Gabe. Made me realize just how quickly he will grow, and how little time we have to enjoy this tiny new baby.

All the tiny parts...

I am in l-l-l-love with my baby. I think I am one of those dorky obsessed mothers, but I love staring at him and holding him and kissing him. I love his little mouth, and all the funny expressions he makes. Especially when he puckers up his little lips...

... I even love his funny tongue when he cries (which he did after getting annoyed that I had the camera in his face for so long).

I'm also amused by his feet. They are fairly long, but are soooo narrow!

I was changing him today and cracking up over his feet. They are actually as long as the socks, but they are so narrow that he can't keep the socks on. And before he was born I thought these socks were so tiny they would never fit!

The delivery details...

Now that Gabe is sleeping peacefully I will recount a bit better about the whole delivery experience, but there really isn't much to tell - I have nothing with which to compare it, but seems all went extremely well for a 1st delivery. I went to the doctor on Monday night and I hadn't had any contractions, but was dilated to a 5. So Monday morning I checked in at about 8 am (I was supposed to be there at 7, but anyone who knows me knows how I hate mornings and really, they couldn't start without me!) They started me on hormones to get my contractions started. About 10 am I'd been having regular but not very painful contractions and was dilated to a 7. The doctor examined me, which was incredibly painful, and the contractions following weren't so pleasant so they gave me an epidural about 11, and a little after 1, after about 20 minutes of pushing the dr. told me to open my eyes (he had to tell me like 3 times because I was afraid/concentrating too hard/something) and I looked down and there we was! My doctor was fantastic, and to those that asked, I have no idea if he spoke to me in English or Spanish. Most of my appointments have been in Spanish, but he does also speak English and I think maybe he was telling me to push or not in English?? Funny now that I think of it, that I don't recall. The hospital was great, we had a beautiful private room with an extra bed for Mario to spend the night with me. Everyone was fantastic, a lactation specialist came to my room just after I had the baby and 3 other times during my 24 hour stay. They offered to let me stay an extra day if I wanted but we opted for our own bed and a little more peace!

The only kind of hard thing was that you have to bring EVERYTHING with you - the hospital provides practically nothing. I had to bring diapers, clothes, sheets for the baby's crib, everything for myself, etc. At one point I was feeling overwhelmed emotionally and tired and the nurse asked me if I brought some kind of creme for my wounds and I just started crying - how in the world was I supposed to know to bring that?? It wasn't on the list they provided!!

But overall it was great, I'm feeling good, and although I'm not looking to repeat the experience too soon, it wasn't nearly as terrible as I thought it would be! The doctor predicts that my next child will just fall out on it's own. haha

Gabriel Arrives!!!

This will be brief, but here are the details and a few pictures.

Gabriel Mario Resek
June 5th 2007
1:13 pm
7 lbs 11 oz
19.75 inches

me hooked up to the monitor.
getting cleaned up by the nurse.
Mario held him while they stitched me up. My hat is too big!!!
Tying off the umbilical cord. A glimpse at his BIG hands.

First attempt at latching on. I love his little tongue.

Cute little face with lots of dark hair that has a slight curl to it. Mario's chin and lips, but maybe my mom's nose??

First pic home from the hospital. He's sleeping, apparently his favorite thing to do. Not too interested in eating, doesn't cry much, just wants to snooze. The nurses kept calling him lazy...