Long time no see!

Wow! It's been a long time since my last post. And I haven't translated it yet, but I promise I will someday not so far away!

Things got really busy and craaaazy around here since then!

Besides the most obvious of the things that took place (had a baby!), we had a lot of family members coming over from Brazil and still there are more to come! And last, but not least, I got an ipad mini as a birthday gift from my sweet parents which is awesome but because of this I hardly use a regular pc anymore, thus writing blog posts and posting full albums of pics on Facebook were left a little behind. That's also my excuse if I eventually missed your birthday on facebook (sorry, but hey, happy birthday!!)

So let me try to wrap up in here these last 2.5 months.

Mid Jan - Feb: Nothing much! Cleaned the house like craaaazy for the upcoming guests. Studied a lit bit.

Feb: "cooking, cleaning, talking/catching up with family!"
- Feb, 1st: My dad, sis Juliana (Ju) e and bro Alexandre (Le) were our first guests for 3 days! Meanwhile, we celebrated Dan's birthday on Feb, 2nd, with our very first BBQ on our very first outdoor grill (Dan's birthday present from my parents!)
- Dad and Le leave for Las Vegas (for the annual civil engineering conference daddy attends almost every year!) and Grand Canyon. BUT sis Ju stays for more 10 days!
- Sis Ju studies with Gabby (me) thus no more free time for blog posts, for example! (I wish! I kept running away of my awesome teacher and procrastinating....)
- Happy birthday to me on Feb, 10th.
- Sis Ju leaves for Cali and bro Le comes back from Las Vegas/Grand Canyon and stays for two weeks!
- MEANWHILE, brother and sister in law, Xande and Luiza visit us for 6 days.
- MEANWHILE, Sis Ju comes back with her boyfriend to visit us for more 3 days!
- Feb, 27th: EVERYONE goes back to Brazil.

March: "This baby could be born at anytime!!!!" Or so we thought!
Thus, from March, 1st - March 10th, Dan stays home working and I stop driving. Weekends summarized by watching "The Walking Dead" (and having some nightmares) and staying home all the time, except for Sunday Mass.

Talking about Sunday Mass, on March, 10th I woke up feeling weird! Like having some stomach pain, aching a bit, feeling like under the weather. I remember in these days just praying to God that the baby would wait for Sunday Mass. Well, he did, but barely!!! We missed the 9am Mass on March, 10th, because of the time change (duh, we fall for that!) thus, went to the 11am Mass. We had lunch, and hellooooo baby!

More specifically, around 12:40pm I started feeling some weak contractions. Every 10 min. "Uh-oh". I thought, "that's weird. Anyway, I don't want to think about it. Don't care if labor started, let me have some lunch because I will punch somebody if I have to go the hospital AGAIN with an empty stomach!"

After lunch, I decided to call my expert mom who had eleven babies herself. "Er, mom, so, what do you think? Is it labor? Would you drive now to Houston if you were me?"

"humm, yes, honey! I would!" - she gently said!

Dan was listening to our conversation and got super hyper and started carrying all of our bags and putting them in the trunk. Ok, so we got Rebecca and put her on the car too, leaving home without her nap, poor kid.

In the car, I called the hospital and talked with some guy (yes, a guy!). "Er, so, I think I'm in labor. Not sure. But I'm on my way to Houston, anyway." Doctor called me back. I explained to her I had been feeling weak contractions every 10 min for an hour and started crying, all of sudden. Doctor was super sweet and told me she would have a room ready for me at the hospital, because it seemed like I was in labor.

Good thing she said it because as soon as we finished talking I noticed my contractions became every 6 min apart and stronger. From my house to the hospital it's a 40 min drive. Good thing it was on a Sunday early afternoon, so no traffic jam.

Got to the hospital. Got to my room, and everything else was ready around 4pm. Nurse checked my cervix. It was 6cm dilated. Doc: "Good thing you decided to drive down to Houston, huh, Maria?".

Got fluids in my vein, got the epidural. Dan left with Rebecca for a drive trying to make her sleep in the car. I would call him when it was time to push. Around 5:30pm I told the nurse: "You know, I just felt some good pressure down there. Really!! Would you check it, please?". Sweet nurse checked my cervix, "Oh, yes. Call daddy!".

Dan was parked very close to hospital and got in time for the pushing phase. But stayed outside taking care of Rebecca. Less than 30 min later, baby Nico makes his debut! Daddy and Rebecca enter the room, and another sweet nurse takes pics of all of us on my ipad! Talked to family thru skype and they got to see the baby like 30 min after he is born. Thank goodness for technology!

Summary, 5h30min of labor, baby boy Nicholas Jose, Nico, is born at 6:09pm, weighting 6lb8oz (2,960kg) and measuring 19 inches (48,3cm).

Yay!!! Sweet precious boy, he is beautiful!!!!

Stayed for two days at the hospital. Meanwhile, on Tuesday morning, my parents arrived from Brazil. They got to see me in the hospital on my last day there!

We all go home! Mom and dad cook AMAZING meals for us, do all the driving, grocery shopping, cleaning  and also take care of Rebecca for two weeks!!! They also got to enjoy themselves a bit too! What a blessing!!!

(MEANWHILE, we have a Pope!!! Viva Pope Francis!)

Mom and dad go back to Brazil on tuesday, March, 26th and reality hits hard for some days! BUT, now everything seems better and back on track again. Finally, father and mother in law will arrive on Thursday, April, 4th! They will be staying for a month!

Nico's baptism will be on sunday, April, 7th. In laws will be his godparents!

And that's all folks!!!

Planning to post some pics on facebook soon!

Love to you all,

Gabby

xoxo