The Summer of Change

Hi and everything.  I've missed you!  Would you forgive me if I promise to make up for the lack of posts with lots of juicy information?  What about a promise to start posting weekly again from here on out?  Okay, good, then.  Here we go.  Get your readin' spectacles on, because your eyes are about to burn somethin' good. And so, without further ado...

Let's first celebrate life, shall we?

If you hadn't yet noticed the new and improved title of the blog, I'm here to tell you that we are very proud to announce that Team Torres has officially commenced Phase Two of our expansion project!!  Weren't you expecting me to post this at any moment?!?  Us too.  Our experience has been a little different this time, the main reason being that our first kid is so awesome that we were pretty stoked to have another.

Here is a reenactment of one of Alessandra's favorite games to play (with me, especially...funny how that works):

A: "Cloooosee your eyeeees mama!"
D: "okay!" [closes eyes]
A: [runs to playroom and grabs some random toy that is most of the time not even that cool, runs back to wherever I am]
A: "Surprise!!!!"
D: "wow.  thanks."

Yes, surprise indeed, Alessandra.  You have no idea, kid.

If children's characteristics remain steadfast, as little Ali would demonstrate, then 3 years from now, I assure you, we will not be humoring this next child in a half-hearted game of "Surprise".  This mama-to-be was READY!  (And so was daddy, but perhaps not AS ready as me.  I was getting to the point where I was mildly angry at every woman I saw with a bump.  I blame the hormones.)  I am happy to report that the latest and greatest Baby Torres was very good to his/her mother and didn't make me wait too long.  :)

Introducing Baby Torres!  Here at just about 11 weeks.

I am officially 16 weeks on Wednesday, and we've certainly had our fair share of ups and down with this pregnancy already too, some of which I'll get into now, some a little bit later on down the post.

During my first prenatal visit I wasn't sure how far along I was, I had guessed I was around 6 weeks or so.  Char the nurse practitioner thought I was feeling "quite a bit further than 6 weeks".  To which I replied: "Like...8???"  Char: "More like 12."  Dang!  If you'll recall, one of my favorite things during my first pregnancy was whenever someone would say to a not-so-serious issue "Let's go grab a quick ultrasound to check it out!"  Of course, I happily obliged.  As it turned out, simple arithmetic applied here, as 6 + 6 = 12.  What do I mean by this you might ask??  What I'm trying to say is that there were TWO Baby Torres'!!!!  Hold the phone (or ultrasound wand).  WHAT???? 

Well, the one thing I learned very quickly is that twin pregnancies require quite a bit more follow up, and they scheduled me for a "viability" ultrasound about two weeks later.  Longest. Two. Weeks.  EVER.  As it turned out, Baby A was thriving, and Baby B, not so much.  Baby B still had a heartbeat and was growing ever-so-slightly, but as compared to A, not to where they'd like to see it.  They thought that most likely I was experiencing "Vanishing Twin Syndrome" which probably happens more often than we know, but most women don't have cause to get an ultrasound so early.  Over the next few weeks, I continued to go in for viability ultrasounds until finally Baby B was no more.  It was definitely a very confusing feeling, I have to say.  To be honest, I was equally as enamored with the idea of having twins as I was terrified.  How fun would it have been to raise a set of twins?  They would have a best friend in each other forever, I'd dress them alike, and they'd be adorable and fun.  But as far as pragmatics go, it was absolutely not in our life plan.  We would have to get two new cars, a brand new set of EVERYTHING that we already had from Alessandra, a reevaluation of the size of our new house (bigger), and the budget we had to buy it (smaller).  Then I thought about Ali feeling like the third wheel around her siblings, and then nursing two kids at once and carrying two kids at once and delivering two kids at once and oh my!!!  So, in the end, sad as it is, I think we're quite relieved.

So, onward we go and are ecstatic about our new bundle of joy.  I will do my best to update weekly like before complete with belly shots.  (Much bigger this time around, I'm afraid...)

Baby T at only 14 weeks!

Big sister-to-be getting in on the belly action

 I know what you're going to ask next, and the answer is YES!  Besides my little Alessandra (and her favorite game),  I'm not a fan of surprises.  August 31st is the day that we will find out the gender, and I'll be sure to let you know then!  Oh yeah, and Baby T is scheduled to come into this world on January 25th.  Sorry, buddy, not the best month to be born.  I am well aware of this and I do apologize.

In a further celebration of life, I need to talk about something that's not so happy too.

Emily Francis Filipiak

July 27, 1920 - July 3, 2011

 
You remember me talking about "Germa Filly", right?  Part of the reason for the Florida trip was that we thought that it might be our last time seeing her.  As it turns out, my mother who has been taking care of her made the absolute right call.  Who knows what might have happened if circumstances had been different.  Had she not fallen and broken her ankle and foot would her will to live have lasted for a bit longer?  My theory is that she may have gone on for another few months but maybe not much longer.  Germa had been rendered blind by macular degeneration, and deaf by who knows what?  Old age?  Without the luxuries of sight and hearing, now you take away her mobility and she was feeling pretty down in the dumps.  Add the fact that at the end of all of this, she gets to join "Beepa" (Grandpa Filipiak) who has been gone for 18 years, and she was ready to go.  The day before she died, my grandma was laughing and my mom asked her "Are you having a party without me?!?" to which she nodded her head yes.  Next mom asked her "Is dad there?"  to which she also nodded yes.  Mom called me early on the 3rd of July, just shy of her 91st birthday, to tell me that Grams had gone peacefully in her sleep around midnight.  Sounds like she went to join that party for good.  We'll miss and love you forever, Germa, but are happy you're where you belong in Heaven with Beepa. 

My last time seeing Germa, and yes,  I was crying here, because I knew it.

While all of this was happening, I was in excruciating physical pain myself.  I couldn't figure out what was wrong with me, but was rendered into the fetal position from pain more often than not.  It got so bad that I was throwing up from the pain!  I knew it didn't have anything to do with Baby B because they told me that my body would just reabsorb everything from that.  Nevertheless, I couldn't help but worry about both babies, so I headed into the ER.  After several hours there, they couldn't find anything wrong with me so sent me home with a prescription for Vicodin and instructions to call up my regular doctor first thing.  Fast forward to my next visit with doc, and she did verify that something was up.  It felt like my uterus was 16 weeks along from outside of my tummy which was really inconsistent with anything going on in there.  So, of course, we went in for another ultrasound!  They were amazed that they had not noticed in any of my other previous ultrasounds that there was a very large cyst growing off of my left ovary!  I had to go in for an MRI (the big scary tube thing) to verify, and sure enough, this thing was large and in charge, clocking in at just about 10 cm!  Dr. West scheduled me for surgery right away, and the timing had to be just right.  With a cyst this large, there was a very good chance that she would have to remove my ovary, and ovaries support the fetus with hormones until the baby is old enough to sustain itself with placenta at around the 12 week mark, so we couldn't do the surgery too early.  And to wait to do it too late would also be not good for the baby (although she never exactly said why).  So, I had surgery on July 12th, just shy of Baby Torres' 12 week birthday.  She tried to do the surgery laparascopically (through a little pinhole and with a camera), but the cyst ended up being dermoidal (solid mass of skin, cells, and other icky stuff), as opposed to hemorrhagic (blood-filled), so rather than being able to drain a hemorrhagic cyst and cutting it out as she had anticipated, she had to work around a giant solid mass, so they had to slice me right open.  Not only did they find out that the cyst was dermoidal during the surgery, they also realized that it was much larger than it appeared before, it was over 12 centimeters and heavier than a can of pop!  No wonder I was in so much pain!

Can you believe this thing was inside of me?!?

Just about four weeks later, I am slowly but surely recovering and am finally feeling back to my normal self.  I'm not allowed to lift Alessandra for two more weeks (or any other heavy duty lifting or exertion) which has been really difficult.  She likes to remind me too, "Mama, no can carry you [me]."  She also frequently asks to look at my owie and always shakes her head and says "Oooh, mama" as though she feels sorry for me.  I love that kid.  :)  And speaking of mamas, mine came to help wait on me hand and foot during the first two weeks of my recovery.  We all miss her tremendously, and especially her cooking.

Ali was Grandma Jo's little sidekick for two weeks!

Although I wasn't much help, we also moved into our house and have settled into it quite nicely!  Ricardo's parents were also in for three weeks before my surgery to help clean the townhouse for our renters, pack up our entire life into bags and boxes, and move us into the new house!  They were such a colossal help and I'm not sure what we would have done without them.

Seriously, where are my thank you cards?!?  They have to be in one of those boxes somewhere!

Grandma Torres and Alessandra hanging out the night before the move

Grandpa and Grandma Torres

After all the grandparents left, Aunt Yolanda paid us a visit, and I'm embarrassed to say that I did not take any pictures!  I'll post some that she took with her camera (she was much better than I!) when she posts them.  We had a ton of fun and we miss Aunt Yole too!!

Now, after all the dust has settled, we are finally feeling like we belong in our new home.  Our neighbors are great and we have already enjoyed a night out on one of their boats!  Alessandra loves her new, big backyard.  She just got a new playset complete with swings, slide, rocketship, and sandbox, so she is in hog heaven!  (If anybody knows a quick way to get sand out of hair, I'd be more than happy to take your advice!)  She also frequents the sprinkler (on odd days ONLY!  Strictly enforced!  Ah, the joys of single family home ownership...), has her very own playroom on the main floor, and a soccer ball and goal in the basement.  The child has plenty to do.  And so do we with all that square footage to clean and furnish!

The [very exhausted] Torres family in front of our new home at the end of move-in day

Full steam ahead:  A daycare change starting next week.  (VERY bittersweet.  Very sad to leave Christi, but are happy to start with Tabytha, who will begin a preschool program for Ali...And she's literally right around the corner...We can walk!)  I'll be sure to update you on that transition next week.

And now, for a smattering of photos from this blur of a summer:

Ali and Ryan, her best Sapphire Point friend.  We miss you Ryan!

Lee and Ron, a "goodbye" photo...More Sapphire Point neighbors!

Ricardo and Ali with Troy and Hunter...Good friends of Ricardo's and bonus:  New neighbors!  Troy and family have been a HUGE help complete with moving, hauling, and his daughter Samantha will be our new babysitter!

Daddy still loves torturing our baby with kissy attacks.  :)

The proud moment after the completion of the grill that I assembled.  Who's your mama???

Grandma Torres and Alessandra exploring the backyard.

Running through the sprinkler.  We couldn't talk her into a "baby soup" for this run, so we ended up having to peel off wet clothes.

Playing Mexican Bingo with Grandma Torres

Cardo mowing the first ever lawn that he owns!

Alessandra reading to Grandma Jo

One lesson learned after the first night moved in:  Don't leave the door open for any length of time when you live on a body of water with lots of trees surrounding it.  Here our friend Joey is vacuuming the bug invasion while Sawyer and Ali make sure he hasn't missed a spot.

Ali practicing her new favorite skill that Grandma Jo taught her: Seeking out and pulling weeds.

The previous owner of our house meticulously kept a vegetable garden.  This was a cabbage that grew in it!  (Next to a quarter!)  There are also strawberries, tomatoes, pumpkins, various herbs and flowers.

Ali playing her Leapfrog

And more Leapfrog...

So, I missed my 15 week belly shot and owe you a 16 week one.  Guess that means I'll be writing again very soon!  Can't believe I'll be checking in once a week again!

Talk to you soon!

Team Torres,

Ricardo, Danielle, Alessandra, and Baby Torres!