My girls!

         It has been a busy first week with baby Rosie so I will keep this short and sweet.  My sister ended up with two boys to go along with her husband and her male boxer.  She also has a father in law that is over her house all day everyday.  So she has "The Boys".  On the other hand, I ended up with "The Girls".  My wife, Rosie, and my two little ladies Juno and Pax.  I love my girls!  They were awesome during Mon's pregnancy and spent every hour worrying and protecting Mo and the Baby.

       

          Juno and Pax are awesome puppies and are in love with Rosario already.  They follow us around the house whenever we are carrying her.  They are always standing at attention anytime Rosie cries or whimpers.  They are absolutely in love with her after only a week.  When we brought Rosie home the girls were crazy and jumping all over us because we had been in the hospital for the last three days.  However, once I went back out to the car to get the baby...the pups were calm and just sniffing and inspected lil Ro.  The senses that dogs have are unbelievable.  They knew to settle down as soon as the baby walked in.  Even Pax, who is an attention hog with a face licking fetish, calmly just sniffs the baby and smiles at her.

        Juno and Pax get so excited when we say Rosie's name and I know that they are just anxiously awaiting her to get big enough to snuggle up with her.  Pax is the biggest cuddler.  She is a lap dog stuck in a 65 lb body.  Juno is the body guard puppy.  Whenever the baby cries she is right next to us making sure that Rosie is ok.  Pax tries to warm her up with kindness and flatulence.  Poor Paxy has some bad gas.  I told her that she is a couple years to late and that Walter the Farting Dog is already a huge hit.  Sorry Pax, we can't make any money off of your cute farting stories with Rosie.



          Juno, on the other hand is quite different in personality.  When we have company, Juno sits and stares at them watching their every move in order to make sure that they are treating Rosie with the utmost care.  She thinks that she is Rosie's Kevin Costner.  I am just waiting for Rosie to break out into a Whitney Houston tribute for Juno.  So between the two of them we have all the bases covered.  We have the cuddly one and the protector.  God bless my ladies they are so great!

Welcome to the World Rosario!

          This has been one hell of a week...and baby Rosario is now here!  Wednesday evening we went to dinner with our friends from home.  Adam Capretta and his wife Mallory "Angel of Labor" Capretta joined us for dinner.  Back in November around Thanksgiving, Monica and I were home for her baby shower.  The night prior to the shower we were supposed to go to dinner with Mallory and Adam but Rosie had other plans.  Mon started getting contractions and went into pre-term labor thus postponing our dinner plans.  Mallory met us at the hospital though and helped Mon and I get through that difficult night.  Mo was discharged and we went to the baby shower but Rosario still had more plans to make Mommy's trip to Ohio last longer.  Mon had to go back into the hospital to stop the contractions and I had to fly back to Florida by myself because Monica had to remain in the hospital for another day or two.  The common denominator in each labor situation is Mallory so therefore she is now referred to as the "Angel of Labor" and is open for hire if you are ready to get your labor process started.

          At dinner the other night, Monica was having contractions and they were about 5 minutes apart the whole night.  When we got home from the restaurant we waited until about midnight to head over to All Children's Hospital.  Let me tell you this, watching a woman go through strong contractions is wicked. Only women know what it is like to manage that severe of pain.  Later on in Triage, her water broke on its own at about 2:30am and we knew we were in for a long night and morning.  Monica's contractions got worse as they moved us to labor and delivery.  To make matters worse, the epidural was running 2 hours behind schedule due to some emergencies that Anesthesia had to attend to that night.  Let me say just one thing of substance here, and adhere to this advice like it came straight from the Lord's mouth on top Mt. Sinai,  epidurals are a pregnant ladies best friend and are a husbands saving grace.  Once the epidural was done she was able to control her pain up until she was 8 or 9 cm.  

          The contractions got stronger and Mon began to push once she was close to 10cm. Throughout the whole pushing process there was a lot of pain and suffering for my wife.  However, due to her determined personality, this pain just pissed her off and made her want to push more often.  Monica is one tough little cookie.  She was pretty drugged up and in so much pain that she doesn't remember much of the event.  I have to say that the whole experience was beautiful and euphoric. It is so unbelievable because what it taught me that I could never love anyone as much as I love and respect my wife after being through this wondrous and surreal event.  She was amazing! 

          As Rosie entered the world they took her over to the warmer to poke and prod with the required tests for new babies.  At this point, the placenta needed to be delivered and little did I know that this would be worse pain than any other part of the day for my wife.  To be brief and not graphic, there was some complications and blood loss so she had to go to the OR.  I was trying to not be too frantic over the matter and trust the doctor but in retrospect this was a really scary experience.  It was me, yes me at this point who was told by the doc to take the baby to the nursery for skin to skin time.  I was the only man in this nursery and I think the nurses just wanted to see me with my shirt off.  I got to spend the first two hours of my child's life holding her to my bare chest with our family staring at me through the glass windows looking into the nursery.  In the meantime, poor Monica had to go deal with more pain.

           All in all, I could go on and on about this day and I will remember every detail for the rest of my life.  I will not bore you with that, but I will say that this day was a life changer!!!  I guess you never know how much you love your wife or how much you can love something until this day.  As I said before it is utopian and euphoric.  The closest thing to my humble understanding of nirvana that I have ever experienced.  I just wish that my grandpa and Monica's papa could have seen the baby.  One of the special bonds that we as a couple share is that our grandfather's meant the world to us.  These men embodied love with every fiber of their being and thankfully they shared that love with us.  Consequently, we share that love with each other on a daily basis and Rosie is a perfect little example of it.  Monica's grandma said that she hoped the baby would have a dimple so that she knew her papa saw her and gave her a kiss.  Sure enough, baby Rosie has a little dimple on her and she must have been kissed with a great grandfather's ethereal love.   

Love,

Daddy

Baby!!!!

6 lbs 13 oz

20.5 in

A Taste of Pregnancy...

          This week marked a record high for the Power-ball lottery jackpot at $325 million dollars in Florida.  In hopes of trying to alleviate some of the grocery and food costs over the past several months we were really banking on a Power-ball win.  Unfortunately, we came up just shy by hitting on the one of the six numbers...so close! 

          In the last couple of months I have realized what the saying "eating for two means".  My little wife has never put much of an emphasis on food as part of life.  She was a vegetarian for the last ten years.  So for those of you who have no experience with vegetarians...let me explain.  Most things she would eat at home would be fake food.  For instance, we would have eggs with fake bacon or imitation sausage.  We would dine with a vivid assortment of rice and vegetables. Whenever we would go out to eat it would be for pizza.  Consequently, grocery shopping was also not that large of an endeavor.  For the most part we stuck to the basics when it came to eating out or grocery shopping.  Now just to be clear this was not that bad of a lifestyle.  Mon was a cheap date and our grocery bills were low. 
 
          Oh my how times have changed!  Gone are the days of salads and cardboard flavored imposter meat products.  Gone are the 50 dollar receipts for once a week stops at the grocery store.  For several months now, we have been in full fledged eating for two mode.  Now this has benefits as well.  We seem to cook quite a bit more than we have in previous years and the menu at home is much more diverse and delectable. In fact, we cannot afford not to cook.  We singly handily  kept some Mexican restaurants' "all you can eat taco nights" in business this fall and winter.  Our days of the week are now labeled by names of food such as Taco Tuesday or Mexican Mondays.  For some reason Mon has really craved Mexican food during the course of the pregnancy.

          
          Additionally, appetizers and dessert at restaurants not optional anymore. One thing I have learned is that people in food service love pregnant ladies.  Waiters will prance over to our table, boisterously smiling as they slide along side our booth, asking rhetorically "Did you save room for dessert?".  Now these waiters know damn well there is still room for dessert and that they are the beneficiary of a larger bill and tip due to the situation. 

        Grocery shopping used to be a weekly run to grab the basics such as milk, eggs, fruit, and cereal while from time to time splurging on certain items.  Second and third trimesters of pregnancy are not times when you stick to the basics. Subsequently, I spend at least 4 days a week in the expansive aisles of a supermarket as the dollar signs add up.  Do you know the saying, "never go to the supermarket when you are hungry"?  Let me ask you this, how can you avoid going to the supermarket hungry... when pregnant?

          All in all, I have enjoyed seeing my wife enjoy dining and food more in life.  Dinner time is more enjoyable than it used to be and Monica has been quite funny throughout the process.   This is the last week of pregnancy and we are going to go out to eat one more time to enjoy this whole experience.  Next blog post will have the baby to celebrate!!!   

40 Weeks!!!  Due date is today!!!