Gonzalez Relatives

As many of you know, my sister in law had her first baby two weeks before I had Ella. These were the first grandchildren for Gustavo's parents. Needless to say, this has been a very exciting time for Gustavo's family. I figured I would post some pictures at least for Em and Laz who still haven't been able to see the babies. Hopefully the rest of you will enjoy them as well.

Even though they look like they are the same size in this picture, Gabe is definitely bigger. He is adorable. I am so excited for them to be so close in age. It will be lots of fun to watch them grow up together.

Gustavo's mom was the first person at the hospital for both babies. She loves them so much. She only speaks Spanish to them so hopefully Ella will learn from her abuela.

Gustavo's dad came to see Ella when she was about 2 weeks old.

He was hesitant to hold her since she is so fragile, but he agreed to for a picture!

Gustavo's cousin Natalie and Aunt Jilda came to see Gabriel and Ella after we'd been home for a week. Natalie had her son Nicholas in September so she had lots of advice for us. I must admit that when we get together with Gustavo's relatives I tend to get lost in the conversation since at least half of it is in Spanish so it took me a while to realize that Jilda kept referring to Ella by different names like Bella Mya. I never would have guessed their initial reaction to the name Ella, but they made it very clear! It was pretty amusing. I'm sure they'll get used to it soon and they will definitely love her. After taking a Spanish class and realizing that ella means her/she I understand the confusion, but if they always pronounce the "l" sound like the English word that seems to make it less confusing (what do I know though!)

sleep?

Sleep? I need it, but hardly remember what it feels like to have real sleep. I haven't slept for more than 3 hours straight since February 9th. I miss it. Ella doesn't sleep at night. She was great one night and waited 4 hours between feedings so that night I got to sleep in 3 hour increments. Usually she doesn't even let me sleep for 1 hour during the night because she is fussy or needy. I love her, but I would love to have some sleep every now and then as well! Yesterday felt good and I accumulated 4 1/2 hours of sleep during 3 naps. If any of you are those mom's I'm incredibly jealous of who have babies who sleep during the night let me know your secret!

2 Weeks

Ella had her two week check up on February 26th. We found out the she is doing WONDERFUL! She weighed 8 lbs. 5 oz. was 21 1/4 inches long, and had a head circumference of 36 1/2 centimeters. She was in the 40th percentile for weight, 50th percentile for height, and 60th percentile for head circumference.
In other words, she is perfect!

Four Incredible Years

It is hard to believe that Gustavo and I have been married for four years! In some ways that seems short, and in other ways it seems like a very significant amount of time. I've been thinking about all of the incredible things that have happened during our four years together.

2005- the year of HUGE changes!
- We were married February 26, 2005
- I graduated and got my first job teaching first grade at Meadow Elementary School
- We bought our house

2006
- We fixed up the house and made it ours
- We decided to finally take a trip together and went to Las Vegas
(I can't find our pictures)

2007
- We went back east for 2 weeks to visit Emily & Laz in Virginia and Meg & John in Pennsylvania. While we were there we also went to Washington D.C., Palmyra, NY, and New York City.
-We went with Laz to an Orioles vs. Yankees game in Baltimore

-We saw all the sights in NYC

-Our favorite part of New York was definitely when Gustavo won 2 tickets in the Wicked lottery. We both strongly recommend seeing it. It was amazing!

2008
- Gustavo graduated with his degree in Business Management
- We went on a cruise with Adam & Jennie to Catalina and Mexico
- I got pregnant so we spent lots of time getting ready for Ella
- We went on one last vacation as just the 2 of us to Vegas with Levi & Jessie

2009

- We had Ella and our whole world changed!

I love you so much Gustavo. Thank you for being my best friend and the love of my life. I feel so blessed to be your wife. I appreciate all that you do for me, especially right now!

One Week

Ella is a week old! This week has been full of excitement and adjustments. As you can see by looking at Ella's very chubby cheeks, she is back to her birth weight! During our 2 days at the hospital Ella lost 11 ounces. Now after being home for only 5 days she has gained it all back! We love our adorable chubby baby. Gustavo has always said that he wanted our babies to have chubby cheeks and he definitely got his wish.

We can't get enough of our little girl.

She is so kissable!

A lot of you have inquired about Gustavo's ankle. He went to the specialist yesterday and was told that it is broken, but it is a small chip so he won't need a hard cast or surgery. He is just supposed to keep it wrapped and wear this boot. He hates the boot, but it isn't too bad.

Thank You

We feel so blessed to be surrounded by wonderful friends and family who have been so generous. I had 4 different baby showers during my pregnancy. My ward, family, school, and class each threw a shower for me. My room mom organized a surprise baby shower as the Valentine's Day party so I unfortunately missed it, but it was so sweet to look through the cards and valentines from students when I got home from the hospital. We really feel so loved by all of you.
Thanks for everything you've done for us!

Ella Marie Gonzalez

Ella Marie Gonzalez was born February 11, 2009 at 5:29 a.m.

She weighed 7 lbs 13 oz and was 19 inches long.

On Tuesday I went to school feeling horrible! Everyone at work can unfortunately attest to that because they either saw me waddling around, or laying in the faculty lounge. The only reason I survived both Monday and Tuesday was my student teacher who started her lead teaching on Monday. I wasn't sure if my body was preparing me for labor or if I had the flu. I had an appointment on Tuesday after school where I found out that I was dilated to a 3 1/2 and 80% effaced. The doctor told me the same thing; he would possibly see me that night or at my next appointment. I came home from my appointment and called Gustavo to find out that he was in terrible pain from almost breaking his ankle. He had spent his afternoon in the emergency room.When he got home my contractions were mild, but I was feeling achy and nauseous. I quickly realized that Gustavo was in so much pain that we definitely needed to go and get his prescriptions filled. We hobbled to Albertsons where Gustavo waited in line and I waddled around to get 7 Up and saltines for my stomach. Gustavo felt bad because we was using me as a crutch and I was leaning over the cart during each contraction. We got home and started timing the contractions. I called my sisters and at 8:30 finally decided I'd better go to the hospital. I was admitted at about 10:15 and was all settled in with my epidural at midnight. At 5:00 I started pushing. Right away we knew that she would come quickly, but her hear rate started dropping so respiratory nurses were called in along with some extra back up. The doctor decided to use forceps to help her get out as quickly as possible. I pushed through 3 or 4 contractions and she was here. I was so reassured to hear that everything was fine. We were able to keep her with us for an hour or 2 while I was stitched (the forceps left me with 3rd degree tearing which I'm not excited about) and then able to nurse.
As soon as Gustavo came from the nursery with our beautiful little Ella he received a call where he was informed that his ankle was broken. He spent a significant amount of time during our stay at the hospital trying to get everything taken care of with insurance and specialists. Ella scared every nurse with her "grunting." Gustavo took this video so you can all hear.

Although every nurse worried this meant she was struggling to breath, they soon found after checking her that her oxygen saturation was between 97 and 100 percent. Even though everyone reported that, each nurse wanted to test it for themselves. I was only sad when this meant she had to be hooked to a monitor that I was supposed to watch and alert the nurse if it ever went below 90 percent. She is healthy and her breathing was always great. Now that she is eating better she doesn't ever grunt!

We love our little Ella more and more every minute. As cheesy as it sounds it is true. She is amazing!