Baby, You're a Firework!!

     This weekend was filled with errands, celebrations, and the occasional WTF-did-I-get-myself-into moment. I'll save the celebrations for last, as a finale to all of my gloom and doom. To say that we have a lot going on would be an understatement. This week, we will be putting our apartment up for sale. We have three realtors coming to give us feedback, on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evening. I am not sure if "interviewing" realtors is standard procedure, but this is the route that my husband has chosen to take. I have been cleaning and boxing things up like a maniac for two weeks, and still do not feel prepared for these visits. All of this packing has been overwhelming in and of itself, and yet, in less than two weeks, we will be traveling to Greece to visit family. I am going to let all you mamas guess whose shoulders the responsibility of planning and packing has fallen on.

     But, it doesn't stop here. I have been stressing about my passport, as it did not yet arrive and we travel in precisely eleven days! I did, however, receive an email that it has been processed and mailed, so I will wait until Wednesday to have meltdown number 834,093 if it doesn't arrive. Inconvenience number two came in the form of an "urgent recall" on my car, for which I received notice last Tuesday, June 28th. The notification stated that I need to bring my car in immediately to be assessed for its safety. So, I called to make my urgent appointment, only to be told that they have nothing available until Friday, July 8th. Okay. Great.

     At the time of my appointment, the service department will check my car to see if it is in fact affected by the recall. If not, then I can be on my merry way. If so, one of two things can happen, depending on whether or not they have the part in stock. If it is not in stock, they will need to order the part, I will have to put my daughter back into the unsafe car, drive home (20 miles, and across a bridge), and come back when the part comes in. If they do have it in stock, the entire job will take three hours to complete (which in reality will be the better part of the entire day). But, they will give me a loaner. Not a bad deal, right? Wrong! Legally, they are unable to install a car seat into the loaner for me, even if I provide the seat. This would be a good time to mention that all of our car seats to date have been installed by either trained firemen or police officers. Please, everyone say a prayer that they check the car, and it is not affected by the recall. I need to be dealing with this like I need a hole in the head.

     Clearly, at this point, I have not taken on enough yet. This past week, I received a text message from the parent of a former student requesting tutoring for the summer. I was so ecstatic to a) feel needed, and b) be able to reconnect with this family (who has always held a special place in my heart), that I jumped at the opportunity to begin this week! Guess what? It's this week. Where does the time go? 

     Now on to the celebrations! Our Sunday, daytime events were postponed until Monday due to rain, which was good because the husband and I were having a pretty feel-lazy kind of day. In retrospect, we should have spent more of the day being productive, because Monday ended up being a cluster-cuss of events. In the evening on Sunday, we went to a barbecue at the house of a friend of hub's, along with little Miss Vivi. I will be honest in saying that I felt a little bit left out because everyone there was talking about a birthday party that they attended the night before. A party to which I wasn't invited. I probably wouldn't have gone anyway, because someone had to stay home with Vivi, but it still felt very awkward to hear everyone talking about an event to which I didn't receive an invite. The night before, my mother visited, and we sat, drank some wine, and played some video games. It was nice to have girl time.  
    
     Whoa, Monday. Once we got home from the barbecue on Sunday, Supermom took it upon herself to make smores cupcakes for Monday's barbecue (and totally forgot to take pictures for the blog. Doh!) I made 48 cupcakes in total, and was glad that I had time on Monday to frost them, or so I thought. On Monday, once we got moving, we didn't stop. We had to start preparing for our trip to Greece, which included running some errands to pick up last minute things such as sunblocks and baby food that can travel with us on the plane, as well as gifts for the family. We left the house at around 12:30 p.m. We got back at 6:09 p.m. precisely.

     The plan was to be at the barbecue by 6:30. My cupcakes were still not frosted. I do have to make a bit of a side note and mention that I am a bit of a snob when it comes to bringing food to events. I refuse, REFUSE, to bring store-made or bakery-baked goods. It is not that I don't approve of them. It's not that I don't like them. I just feel that baking is one of my strong suits, and it's just a much nicer gesture to bring something homemade. So, we got home and I started whipping up my marshmallow frosting. Only, it didn't whip. It didn't set. It flopped, and turned into a nasty, soup-like consistency. Luckily, I had a container of marshmallow fluff left, to take the place of the failed frosting (6:23 p.m.). I started frosting like a bat out of hell, got halfway through the cupcakes and ran out of fluff. Whomp, whomp. Hubs had to run out to the grocery store and buy another container. I used my time effectively while he was out and placed a single Hershey rectangle on each cupcake. They were looking good (by the time we got to the barbecue they completely melted). We were out the door by 6:42 p.m. At the barbecue by 7:00.

     Given the insanity of the day, I was pretty impressed with us for only being a half-hour late. Once at the barbecue, I was able to relax, unwind, and enjoy myself. We had a great time, with good food, wonderful friends, and finally, a break for Mommy. All in all it was a very successful weekend. I still have a ton of stuff to do in the next eleven days (so forgive me if my posts are a bit sporadic), but after those couple of hours to recharge, I feel much more positive in my outlook toward getting it all done. Here's hoping that you had a fantastic 4th of July weekend as well :)

And Baby Makes 3

     Three years ago, on the first day of summer, I married my best friend. Our wedding was gorgeous, celebrated with 200 of our closest friends and family. We had a beautiful Greek Orthodox ceremony, in honor of my husband's background. Afterwards, we threw quite the party. Every detail was planned to a T, as party planning is a favorite hobby of mine. There was no way my wedding wouldn't be meticulously planned and implemented. Here we are on that wonderful day.

     On our first anniversary, we renewed our vows in the Catholic church, a nod to my background, and went out to a beautiful dinner at Carmine's in Manhattan. Their portions are huge, served family-style, and we ended up eating leftovers for the next 3 days!! Our second anniversary was spent on the beach in Wildwood Crest, on the New Jersey shore. The trip was a combination anniversary/Father's Day/Babymoon trip. I was about 5 months pregnant, and we had recently found out that our raspbaby was in fact a girl. The stress of the school year ended two days before we left. The trip was exactly what we needed.

     This third anniversary of ours will have quite a different landscape. We will be a party of 3, dining at Tony Roma's. There will be no vows, no beachfront sunsets. Just myself, my husband, and our beautiful Viviana, celebrating three magical years, but our first as a family of three. The evening will be- in a word- perfection!

Three years later

Daddy's First Father's Day

     We had quite a successful first Father's Day. Despite the fact that my teething bundle of joy did not sleep one wink past 2 a.m. last night unless she was placed on my chest, we had a pancake breakfast, bright and early. I had forgotten what the sleepless nights are like, and taken my rest for granted once Vivi started sleeping through the night. It could be a sleep regression, or it could be the teeth that are threatening to make their appearance, but would rather torture my daughter for a bit longer than do so.
 

Love Bug. A Love Story

     As promised, today is the day that I share Vivi's story. All of my close friends and family know it, but until this point, I have never written it down. I would say that I don't like talking it, but everything that has happened has led to this point. Sometimes, you have to deal with some storms in order to get the rainbow. I can say with absolute certainty that every, single raindrop was worth it. Here goes:

     In February of 2010, during one of the horrible N.Y. snow storms, I woke up early to call into work (as a teacher) to see if we were closed for the day. As it ended up, we were, but I figured since I was awake already, I might as well take a pregnancy test, since it was officially accurate timing to test. Mind you, it was about 5 a.m. My husband and I had been trying for a few months, and I had just gotten used to the disappointment of the negative test each month. I tried to keep a positive outlook, as things had finally started to look up for our family. After being laid off for nearly a year, my husband had finally gained employment that fall, and thus, our journey to start a family began. I just knew that it had to happen for us soon. So, on that snowy morning, I took a test and finally saw the + I had been dying to see. Forgetting the time of day and the fact that my husband was in a dead sleep, I woke him up, jumping up and down, with the tears flowing (so much for my plan to tell him on Valentine's Day, if that month should be the month that I got my positive lol). Needless to say, we were absolutely blissful and in a bit of shock :) After work, I had hubby swing by the drugstore for more tests, just to be sure.

     Two months later, I was in tears yet again, because while I was elated over this new chapter in our lives, my husband found himself laid off for the second time in as many years. Marketing is a tough field, and one of the first to be cut when a company struggles in this economy. It was April, and I was due in October (on the 22nd). Our plan had always been for me to stay home and raise our children. Now suddenly we had this baby on the way, and our plans were slowly unraveling. Luxuries that we took for granted quickly had to be cut so that we could keep our heads above water on his unemployment and my small teacher's salary. No maternity pictures for us :(. We had to worry about how we were going to feed and clothe this baby.

     Fast forward to the summer. My husband, by August, was still unemployed, and my salary was due to end in September, as I was no longer a teacher at my school. We held a yard sale in late August to try to earn some money. It was very hot, and after two days on my feet, I was swollen!! My doctor had told me to give her a call if I should have any sudden swelling or a headache that wouldn't go away. After two days with the same headache, I decided to give her a call, and was sent to labor and delivery. At the hospital, they determined that my blood pressure was a bit elevated, and while it was not an emergency situation, I had to be monitored closely. My weekly appointments would begin a little earlier than customary.

     Two weeks later, I went to my weekly appointment for the routine blood pressure, protein, and weight check. It was September 15th. I was happy with the fact that I had a little over a month to go (I was 34 weeks, 5 days), and everything was in order. My plan was to go for my appointment, and then head to Babies R Us to exchange some things. In the office, my blood pressure and protein were high, and the doctor decided to send me to labor and delivery to be monitored for 24 hours, in case of pre eclampsia. So we headed to the hospital, and sat in the hallways of labor and delivery, as I listened to women in labor, screaming in pain (a very cruel joke for the hospital to play, by the way). I was brought into triage where I waited until there was a room set up for my 24 hour stay. Sometime between being set up in triage and brought to my room, my blood pressure sky rocketed, and what was supposed to be routine monitoring quickly turned into a serious situation. The nurse came in and said, "We need to induce, NOW." I burst into tears (and I am not a crier, at all). But it was too early! She needed to stay in there for another 5 weeks.

     Eighteen hours later, there was no progress (although there were sure as hell contractions) and my blood pressure was climbing still. We were going in for the emergency C-section, whether I liked it or not. Gone was my plan for the unmedicated birth. At 5:09 p.m. on September 16th, 2010, Viviana Melina  was born, shown to me, and whisked out of the room to NICU. She was exactly 4 lbs and 17 inches, and she was tiny. I was brought to recovery, and outside there was a tornado that destroyed a few homes in my neighborhood. I am told that I was yelling at my husband to call the neighbor or run home and check on our dog, Amos. Even in my drugged up state, I was terrified that he wasn't okay. Two days later, my blood pressure was still elevated, and the only reason that I was not admitted to cardiac ICU was that I wouldn't be able to see my daughter. My husband bribed the nurses to bring the baby to me (a platter of cookies goes a long way). My daughter was 2 days old, and I hadn't met her yet. She was in her ICU, and I was in the L&D version of mine. They did not send me to the postpartum wing where all of the other new mothers were cuddling their newborns. In hindsight, after seeing pictures of those first hours, it is probably better that I did not see her right away. She had tons of wires, and a CPAP (breathing) machine. It would have put me over the edge.

     Four days after having Viviana, I left the hospital, empty handed. My daughter went on to stay in NICU for two weeks. In my entire life, I have never felt like my heart was literally being ripped out of my chest until I had to go home every night, for two weeks, and leave my child in the hospital. The nurses were good, but they weren't Mommy. I felt I had failed her.

Poor little munchkin with all of her wires :(

Snuggled tight in her incubator

Being fed in the NICU. We started out with just a teaspoon of food at a time.

    To conclude my epic, all of our combined medical bills were staggering. Even with insurance, the out-of-pocket cost to us was a huge hit to our already-hurting finances. Luckily, my husband had secured employment, but was not due to start working until November 1st. His presence was a blessing to me, as I truly don't know how I would have gone through all of this alone, but my income was gone, and we were still trying to survive off of savings and his unemployment check. It has taken some time to recover from almost 2 years of his unemployment, all of the medical bills, and now the loss of my income, but things are starting to look up. Our daughter is 9 months old and absolutely thriving (thank God). You would never know she is a preemie. We are so blessed to have this miracle in our lives, even if it has been a bumpy road. I would do it ten times over to have the honor of being Vivi's Mommy.

My big girl!