Archives for February 2015

I AM PRETTY SURE I MARRIED “SUPER MOMMA”!

Fun with kids Happy Number 7 Lessons learned life with twins mother of multiple Parenting Milestones Parenting multiples party of seven

If I were to tell someone that I have 3 week old twins – that’s right, not one but two newborns – plus 3 other kids under the age of 6 at home and my wife has yet to complain and/or act tired, people wouldn’t believe me.. Trust me, it is TRUE!

Becca has not only been Miss Amazing with every single one of her 4 pregnancies (very few complaints, zero to none weird cravings, etc), she also shines when it comes down to motherhood! Her level of patience with the kids and tackling all her responsibilities is to admire… and one virtue I wish I had more of… When shit hits the fan at home, I am usually the one to lose it first. Hehe.

Yeah, probably her many years as an Assistant Principal at a middle school and being surrounded by kids and loud noises helps… but man, she is good!

For the past couple of weeks we’ve had the privilege to have her mom and step dad at our home helping us out with the babies and with the other 3 kids (holding babies, changing diapers, taking kids to school and extracurricular activities, etc). But the day they left, Becca was put to the test. For the first time in 3 weeks, she would have to take care of Emilio, Alejandro AND Santiago at home, then pick up Nico and Nati from their school, take Nati to her dance class (wait for her with the other 4 kids in tow) and then head back home.

Knowing how daunting this was going to be, I offered help and offered to leave work early to go at least pick up Nati from dance class. She turned my offer down saying “I got it. I am going to have to do it someday, so I might as well start today”… I even gave her 1 more hour to change her mind but my phone never rang and I never got a text….

Not only did she rock the entire ordeal, but as I walked into our house, she was cooking dinner! And on top of that it was yummy!

I was crazy impressed and proud of her. Once again she tackled it head first, no ifs or buts about it. Rocked it. Her assertiveness gave me a peace of mind and a “we got this” feeling. Felt good.

Thanks Super Momma. You Rock. We are so lucky to have you. Keep on rocking. 🙂

P.S – the 2 graphics used on this pots were taken from Google Images… I claim no rights on these and definitely don’t want to get sued for using them – so there.

The babies are here! – How our other kids welcomed our new additions and the “Twins” phenomenon.

Baby Update being a father Happy Number 7 Life as Party of 7 Life Reflections Parenting Milestones Parenting multiples Raising multiples Raising Twins Strider

Besides the crazy rush we went through to deliver Emilio and Alejandro, (ok never mind it wasn’t THAT crazy) having twins seems to be a “novelty” and one you need to navigate carefully so everyone involved feels loved, cared for and important. Especially when you have 3 more kids to worry about!! 🙂

Going into this we knew we had our work cut out for us to make sure Nati, Nico and Santi were going to be ok with the arrival of two more babies into their lives. And not just 2 more babies… twins! Identical twins! Whoa! A phenomenon of its own! Since this is our 4^th rodeo, we kind of think we know what we are doing. We’ve dealt with “sibling displacement syndrome” (I totally just made that up) twice already and feel like we succeeded at it. But this is a different ball game ladies and gentlemen, this is twins. This is the “I want to dress them up the same and make them look so cute” game. This is the “Oh my God you have twins! How cute! Tell me all about it!” type of game. And because of this, I/we need to step up our game and say “Hey! Thank you, yes! They are twins (yet they are individuals… oh boy.. that’s another thing we’ll deal with) but check this out! We have 3 other kids who are amazing!! Yes, we are Catholic (very non-practicing) but that is not why we have so many… And these are their names AND they are awesome because they do this and this and this…

And don’t get me started with the looks we’ll get… and my struggle to hold back my desire to punch or say something to those I can tell who are judging us… This is definitely another post/rant. 🙂

So, because of all of the above and a ton more, we tried our hardest to make sure Nati, Nico and Santi felt not only special, but also so they could feel that everything was normal and their world was not turned upside down because Emi and Ale had arrived…

In an effort to do this and due to the timing of their arrival (one day before Nati’s 6^th birthday), my schedule was out of whack the first couple of days… trying to juggle being at the hospital to support Becca and tending to the newborns while still maintaining “normality” in everyone else’s lives!

This is sort of what Monday night and Tuesday looked like.

Monday 7:49PM: Welcome babies to the world.

Monday around 9pm: Nati, Nico and Santi come meet their new baby brothers. 🙂

Monday 9:30pm: I leave with the kiddos to put them to bed at home (about 25 mins away)

Monday 11pm: I head back to Hospital

Monday 11:30PM – Tuesday 6am: tend to newborns as needed. “Slept” in a very uncomfy chair.

Tuesday 6am: Get up and head home.

Tuesday 6:30 – 7:30am: Get showered, pack Santi’s lunch, wake up kiddos, get them ready for school.

Tuesday 7:40 – 9am: Drive Nati and Nico to school. Then drop off Santi at daycare and head back to Hospital.

Tuesday 9-11am: Tend to newborns and Becca as needed.

Tuesday 11am: Head out to Target to get cupcakes for Nati’s birthday and get lunch for Nati and Nico.

Tuesday 11:45 – 12:30pm: Brought cupcakes to Nati’s class, they sang to her, went to get Nico from his class and had lunch all together! I loved all of it. 🙂

Tuesday 1pm – 2:45pm: Back at the hospital.

Tuesday 2:45 – 3:45pm: Head out to pick up Nati and Nico from school and back to the hospital.

Tuesday 3:45 – 5pm: at the hospital.

Tuesday 5 – 5:45pm: Head out to pick up Santi from daycare and back to the hospital. We had dinner at the hospital.

Tuesday 8:30pm: Took all 3 kids home to put them in bed and once asleep, I went back to the hospital.

Rinse and repeat.

Phew…. That was ONE CRAZY DAY! But those are the sacrifices we needed to make for our kids to make sure their lives were “normal”. I would do it again if I had to (oh wow.. just jinxed myself… just kidding, we took care of that AND I probably will go double whammy and go in for my vasectomy too).

Besides all the crazy things we had to go through, the kiddos LOVED their new baby brothers. They wanted to see them at all times, they wanted to hold them, feed them and kiss them. Santi (our 2 year old) was the only one that was uneasy around them… as if they were too little and he was afraid of breaking them. Emilio and Alejandro couldn’t be loved any more by their sister and brothers. And now that it has been 2 weeks, I can honestly say no one has felt “displaced” or not loved. Heck, we do try hard and make a conscious effort so that everyone feels “special”- as parents each of the kids holds a special place in our hearts.

I am so proud of my Nati, Nico and Santi and so appreciative of how welcoming and loving they’ve been to Emi and Ale. It makes me smile to think about all the love they share and all the amazing memories they will build together. We are so excited about our adventure. It has only been 2 weeks and I would not change a single second.

We are seriously Happy Number 7. 🙂

The babies are here! Wait!! What?!? The babies are here! — The arrival

Baby Update being a father Parenting Milestones Parenting multiples Pregnancy Stories Pregnant with Twins

Yes! The twins are here! We are now officially a party of 7!! S@#t just got real!

There are is a lot that has happened over the last week, so I will break it down into preparation, arrival, the other 3 kiddos’ reactions, and our first week as a family of 7.

Let’s start with their arrival which I think is the most important..

The weekend before their arrival, Becca had started to feel some pressure in her belly and started to feel some contractions. They were not very consistent, but contractions nonetheless. When Monday came around, I went to drop off the kids as I do every other day and on my way out of their school, I called to check on B. She said that she was feeling the same and had made a Doctor’s appointment for 11am. We agreed that I would go to work and depending on what the Dr. said, I would go home or stay at work.

After her appointment, she told me the Dr. said that although the delivery process had “started”, it would be best to wait until we got further in as she wanted to keep the babies growing in her belly for at least 1-2 more weeks… With that being said, I headed out to the gym for what was my last workout as a father of only 3 kids…

Becca picked up the kids from school as usual and on her way home she called me to let me know that she was having regular contractions about 10 minutes apart!!! I wrapped up stuff at work and headed home as fast as I could!! All of our babies had been induced so this whole “rushing to the hospital” was new to us (we hadn’t even packed a bag)… Heck! All of this is new to us! We are rookies at everything “twin”…

While driving, I made plans with my mom and sister to drop off the kids at my sister’s house and to have my mom stay with the kids at our place for at least 1-3 nights. As soon as I got home, we packed up everyone and headed out!!

After dropping Nati, Nico and Santi at my sister’s house, we headed to the hospital and after Becca’s evaluation, the doctor said that we were not “fully” ready and that she would like the kids to “cook longer”.. I am not sure if that is what triggered Becca’s labor, but soon after that, the contractions started to spread only 2 minutes apart which drove the Dr. back into the room to let us know that we needed to start prepping for delivery!!! Holy crap…. Reality hit us…we will be welcoming 2 more kids into our home!! Were we ready? Were all of our preparations enough? Did we even bring enough stuff to the hospital to welcome them? … Regardless of the answers, it did not matter, they were on their way!!

After prepping Becca, they called me in. Although I really wanted to look behind the curtain (against every advice not to do so), I decided not to because I did not know how I would react and Becca needed me more than I needed to satisfy my curiosity (if I could handle it)…

At 7:49PM, the world welcomed Emilio and at 7:50PM, we welcomed Alejandro- two healthy baby boys. All was good in the world at that time. Momma was good, babies were good and kiddos were taken care of.

Monday 1/26/15 at 7:49PM, our world changed forever. Our hearts got even fuller with love. That day we became Happy Number 7! Yep, it could be the most challenging year yet, BUT we know that it will be the most rewarding one as well! We are so excited about the adventures and memories that await us.

P.S – the arrival of these little ones have also opened our eyes to how much love we are surrounded with. The positive energy, love and help we’ve received from family and friends (old and new) has been overwhelming and we (all 7 of us) will be forever grateful. Much love to everyone.