First Food experience

We had a great time with Jason this past Sunday May 17, 2009 when we gave him his very first taste of food!

I mixed up some rice cereal for him and the fun commenced at breakfast time. He didn't know what to make of it and.....well, see for yourself!




As the days go on, I am thickening the cereal a little each day. By day 3, Jason was over his inital reticence and now he *loves* it! Wants more of it and actually fusses at me if I don't shovel it into his mouth fast enough! What a big boy!

Some photos of Jason in action

Over the last few months, I've relied on my trusty Blackberry to take spur of the moment photos of Jason when needed. Here are a few from the past few months:

Me 'n' Jason in the hospital - Day one of his life! (Dec 10 2008) Boy was I tired!

January 2009 - Jason all dressed up for his Passport photo! (the actual photo didn't turn out well at all - he kind of looks like a squished up raisin!)


Valentine's Day 2009 - Peace and love, man!

March 2009 - The very first time Jason slept without his swaddle blanket!

March 14, 2009 - Jason's very first time he sucked his thumb

St Patty's Day 2009 - Our Little O'Cutie Pie

March 2009 - Hanging with mom 'n' dad on a lazy Sunday

March 2009 - Jason and his favorite friend, Matteo the Monkey

April 2009 - Jason discovers Dudley!

I'll keep taking candids and posting them periodically so you can see the kid in action!

Four Months Old and pics from our trip to Mazatlan!

**EDITED April 22 to include photos from our trip!**

I can't believe how fast time flies!
In our last post, Jason had just turned 3 months old.
He is now 4 months old and is continuing to develop at an amazing rate!

He had his four month checkup on Tuesday this week, and we learned that he is now 26 inches long (putting him in the 90th percentile for height) and 16 lbs 3 ozs (putting him in the 75th percentile for weight)! Dr. Rossell kept remarking on how handsome he is and what a good natured baby he is turning out to be. He in turned kept charming her with his winning smile and crinkled up nose every time she talked to him. If it weren't for the shots, we would have thoroughly enjoyed the whole visit!

Speaking of shots, he has reacted more negatively to the shots this time around. Our sweet boy had his heart broken when he got those 4 needles in his legs and was difficult to console for several minutes after the vaccinations were administered. Now, two days later, each of his legs have big red welts on them and he favors his left leg very strongly. We've spent the majority of the last two days holding and consoling him. He also does not have an appetite at all - so we are now really out of whack with his eating routine. I just keep feeding him whenever he shows any interest, hoping that we'll get back to normal in the next few days. I know this will pass soon enough, it just makes me sad to see our happy little boy so uncomfortable.

On to other more upbeat news -

We have now taken our first family vacation! Alberto, Jason and I spent 6 days in beautiful Mazatlan last week introducing Jason to all of his Mexican relatives.

It was a whirlwind of activity from start to finish which was only made more intense by the fact that we had gone during Semana Santa. The craziness outside of our hotel for the holiday was almost nonstop from sundown to sunrise every night. Fortunately, we got a room higher up (on the 7th floor) and the a/c unit drowned out most of the chaos happening below.

Jason was wonderful the whole trip.

He handled the plane well, he handled the constant barrage of attention from adoring family members well, he even handled the nonstop on-the-go lifestyle we had! The family was also very helpful in respecting when he needed to be left alone for his naps. But when he was awake he was always basking in the attention of his grandmother, his aunts and uncles, and all of his little cousins.

He also was able to spend a lot of time with his sister, Jenny, and they took to each other very well. Jenny would play with him and tickle him and he would laugh hilariously and caress her face.

My favorite part of the trip was when I took Jason in the swimming pool at the hotel.


This pool was really cool - it was beautiful with its sparkling blue water and waterfall in the center. The steps into the pool were fashioned like rocks you'd use to walk into a stream. The water was crystal clear but cold!




Jason didn't know what to think at first, but clearly ended up enjoying it!

We got to take some video of our time there, as well as photos on our 35mm camera. I now have 4 rolls of film to develop, so once these are ready I will edit this post with photos from the trip!

In the meantime, we are still working on rolling over (he's very very close to rolling over from back to front!), sleeping through the night (average 50% success rate!) and motor skill coordination (he is now grabbing things with his hands and is very good at depth perception).

Jason is now able to track movement with both his eyes and his head and he is really quick to notice what is going on around him. Yesterday, he noticed Dudley for the very first time and even petted his doggie gently. Dudley was, as always, very patient with him.

And our biggest milestone so far this month -
Jason is now sleeping in his crib in his own room! We started this the night after we got back from Mazatlan, and so far we have had very little problem. Jason is a very happy boy and wakes up in a good mood even though he isn't next to us anymore. Such a big boy!

three month milestone!

I am writing this blog entry on my blackberry from under my blanket so that I don't wake Jason up with the light from the device :)
Jason is three months old today! I can't believe this much time has already passed. He has grown so much in so many ways. Not only is he rapidly on his way to weighing 14 pounds, but he is also developing in a variety of ways.
He talks to us with many different sounds now, including a few different coos, a whispered "ya", a lilting "ah-aa-ah", and screeches. He has become very adept at using the different noises to communicate different things to us including frustration, hunger, impatience and delight. And on March 5 we were graced with his very first laugh!
We have begun experimenting with leaving one or both of his arms out of his swaddle blanket while he naps since he is demonstrating increased control over his arms. He is very cute when he does this as he concentrates very hard on keeping both of his arms elevated over his body in what looks like a ready-to-fight pose. He'll stay like that for a very long time, all the while watching me to make sure I notice and give him encouragement.
And today for the first time he was fascinated with his own image in the mirror.
Jason is an incredibly happy baby as long as he gets enough sleep. This isn't always the case as he seems to have decided recently that he doesn't like to go to sleep and fights it at most naptimes.
Our digital camera has decided to break at this most inopportune time, so I am relying on an old 35mm camera for photos. In the meantime Alberto Jason and I took some family photos a couple of weeks ago that turned out lovely. If I can get them scanned into the computer I'll post some for you to see.
I return to work on March 16 (one week from today) and I am of course nervous about that. My mom will be taking care of Jason during the week while I work so I feel pretty good about the situation, its still just difficult to accept that in 6 more days my life won't center around raising such an awesome kid. Fortunately, I am very lucky to have the opportunity to work from home when I am not traveling so that will make it much more bearable.

We have also booked our family trip to mazatlan, where Jason will get to meet all of his Mexican relatives. We will be there the week leading up to Easter, called Semana Santa or Holy Week. I am really looking forward to seeing mazatlan again. We haven't been there since our wedding in 2006!

2009 so far...

So far 2009 has been pretty full. Jason keeps us on our toes pretty regularly, and Alberto is staying busy working side jobs and doing his regular work as well. I am busy with...well just Jason, but that is quite enough! It's been difficult to get things together, but with a little help from Liz and Mom we have finally got our house back in order, our bills paid (including our *mountain* of medical bills) and are looking forward instead of just catching up.

Mom just came and visited for two weeks, and it was a great help to us in every way. She and Jason really bonded, and today when she left Jason cried for almost an hour because he desperately wanted his Nana to hold him and didn't understand why she wasn't here. A little snack finally calmed him down and I managed to get him down for a nice long nap.

While Mom was here we took Jason (when he was 7 weeks) to get his first photo portraits done at JC Penney! Though we couldn't get him to smile on cue, they are still adorable. I learned to fully feed the baby immediately before the photo session, and things go a lot more smoothly! I'll be more prepared next time.

We also got some wonderful photos of Jason at home, and I have posted a few of them here. It's amazing to see how much he has changed - he doesn't look like a newborn at all anymore. In fact, sometimes he doesn't even look like a baby to me, but more like a child!

We have also learned something really important about him - after weeks of congestion and painful cries and restless sleep, a visit to Jason's pediatrician finally revealed the problem - He has GERD, otherwise known as acid reflux. She prescribed .6 mL of Zantac to him three times a day and within a few days there was a very noticeable improvement. Now, for the last four nights he has slept for 6 to 7 hours at a time, and he is much more happy and comfortable while he is awake. Thank goodness for Zantac!

Rub a dub dub in the kitchen sink!

Jason's Super Bowl photo!

Practicing his soap star pose!

Watching the Beisbol Serie de Caribe with Daddy

Jason and his Rainforest buddies

All dressed up and ready to see the other babies at Mommy's Baby Group

Hanging with Mommy

Baby Jason's first Christmas season

We had a whirlwind holiday season, with lots of family in town and everyone eager to spend some time with the newest family member. Steph and Mom did an amazing job helping me and Alberto to get our bearings, and this week was actually the first time that we were on our own since the baby's birth.

Jason did wonderfully all throughout the holiday season, and was quite handsome on Christmas day in his Christmas onesie. It says (in Spanish) "Who needs Santa when I have Grandma". One big milestone we also passed on Christmas Day is that Jason lost his umbilical cord! He has a very cute innie belly button now :)

I have posted some pics below to share a few of the special moments we had:

Our first bath!

A handsome grin from our baby, a few hours before the umbilical cord came off

Sleepytime - I can't resist taking pictures of our sleeping boy!

Jason in his Christmas outfit

Sharing a moment with Daddy

A Christmas Day family picture

Basking in the love of women everywhere!

At long last - Jason Dominic Serrano has arrived!

Alberto and I are ecstatic to announce that our beautiful son has finally arrived!

Jason Dominic Serrano arrived on Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 8:12 pm.

He was 7 lbs 3.5 oz and 19 inches in length.

Here is a picture of him after getting his footprints taken, alongside his parents' fingerprints:

We had quite an eventful day on Tuesday the 9th. I was continuing to have intermittent contractions after the post made on Sunday December 7th, but they kept going away only to come back in the middle of the night.

But on Tuesday December 9th, there was no turning back. Mom and Stephanie, having been kept updated throughout the process, decided to go ahead and head into Houston on Monday afternoon in anticipation of a delivery in the near future. We all wokeup on Tuesday morning and started counting my contractions at 6 am.

I had a doctor appointment that morning anyway, and at 9:30 am Dr. Behrmann measured me at 4 centimeters dilated. She recommended that with the new dilation and the contractions, that I should come back later in the day for a recheck and then she could evaluate if it was time to head to the hospital. We made arrangements for me to come back at 2 pm, and Mom, Steph and I headed to lunch.

Between 11:00 and 1:00 things really got interesting. The contractions were starting to come closer together and pretty intense. Our waitress at Luby's kept coming by the table to check on us and make sure that I was going to be ok! I am so glad I had such a good lunch at that time, because that was the last opportunity I got!

After lunch we decided to go home and pack our hospital bags into the car just in case we'd be going straight to the hospital from the doctor appointment. Well, by the time we got home, I'd already progressed to the point that I decided for all of us there would be no doctor visit. It was straight to labor and delivery for me! We called Alberto and within 10 minutes he had joined us at home.

Alberto, Stephanie and I arrived at the hospital to find that there were no labor and delivery rooms available. Must have been a busy day! Alberto and I did the slow dance in the waiting room for about 20 minutes until there was one available and met our labor nurse, named Jennifer. Mom and Elizabeth joined us there a few minutes later, and every started to get settled in for the wait.

Once I was situated in my hospital gown and bed, I was rechecked, and I had dilated to 6 centimeters. Things were really coming along! I had also made the critical decision to go ahead with an epidural, and the anesthesiologist showed up about 20 minutes later with the blessed cocktail.

I say blessed cocktail, and I mean it! I was incredibly thankful for the pain relief. The doctor did a great job of administering just enough to get rid of the pain, but I could still feel the contractions and know when to push during delivery. I will never doubt the wonderful properties of the epidural again! :)

At 5:15 I was 10 centimeters and ready to push, and everyone was shooed out of the room except the doctor, nurse, Alberto and me.

Everything was going great with the delivery with one exception - the baby was in a sideways position and didn't want to turn!

It took almost 3 hours to get him out, and some extra effort from Dr. Behrmann to encourage him to rotate. Every time we had gotten him rotated a bit, he went right back to his sideways position. This kid was not ready to leave his nest!

Finally, at 8:12 Jason Dominic arrived and he looked great!

He is a really beautiful baby, with dark brown hair and cobalt blue eyes. He is the spitting image of his Daddy, though Alberto says he has my nose and chin. He has long fingers and toes and is incredibly strong! We have all marveled at how this days-old baby is already able to lift his own head, and practically rolls himself over!

Our stay in the hospital was fine, though we were all exhausted, even the baby! Check out this great photo we got of him, as if to say "Wow, what a day I've had!"

We went home on Thursday night, December 11th, and have been getting adjusted to life with baby ever since.

I have had a bit more difficulty recovering than the baby has, which is why it has taken so long to get this posted and to start calling friends and family. I apologize for the delay, but it really was necessary for me to get back on my feet.

I am still in bed most of each day, just trying to heal, but we anticipate being able to start receiving visitors to meet the baby next week.

Thank you to everyone who has been so thoughtful and kind to send us flowers and well wishes and gifts! We feel very blessed to have such a wonderful network of friends and family and we love each of you as well!