The adventures of a newborn

For journaling purposes I want to write a few tidbits of what Levi is doing.
On Sunday (at 3 1/2 weeks old) he started legitimately smiling at me and then on Monday at Nelson. He really likes to smile at his daddy. It's quite cute. He stares into our eyes and gives us the biggest smiles. How fun to find a small way to interact with Levi!
Thanks to the realization that I should try swaddling again, Levi has slept much better the last three nights and only woke up 2 times as opposed to 4. Much better.
Levi loves to be held. By me. All the time.
Rebekah is in love with her baby brother. She is very possessive and protective of him. If anyone, Abuela in particular, teases about taking him home with them, Rebekah gets very upset and tells them NO in no uncertain terms. (This is her baby, and don't you forget it!)
Levi is still in Newborn clothes.
He has started to loose some of his hair at the front of his hair line, so he now looks like he has premature male pattern baldness. Further proof that he looks like his uncle Ben. (haha)

Photo shoot

Here are some of the photos taken by my sweet friend Kristen. Thanks so much, we love them!

Levi photos

Here are a few new pictures of Levi. He's not much of a sleeper at night, as the bags under my eyes will attest to, but he's sure a cutie! Rebekah absolutely adores him. I'm so glad that she hasn't been resentful or mean because of me having to share my time now. She had a hard time with me not being able to hold her at first, but now she's doing much better with that. She loves to kiss and hug Levi. She constantly wants to be beside him and touching him. It's to the point where she will wake him up from his naps because she just wants to love the little guy. (It's cute, but not conducive to resting or getting anything done!)
So all in all, I'm tired but life is good! I'm also feeling pretty good now, I just need to figure out how to go swimming with the two of them now...


First sponge bath at home

Sleeping cutie

Sleeping cutie, revisited

Skinny Legs!!

At the office, working with daddy

Painting for daddy

Little Levi

First photo

First time to hold the little guy

Father and son

After getting over her initial disappointment that the baby was not a girl ("I'm not going (to the hospital), I'm staying home. I want a girl!"), Rebekah was very excited to meet her baby brother!

Grandma, big sister and Levi

A happy family (Mom's smiling because Levi's finally here, and because she's still hooked up to her drugs.)

Rebekah's favorite place in the hospital room. She's pretending to order more room service.

Anxiously awaiting

41 plus weeks pregnant

Can you tell I'm not in labor yet? No way I'd be smiling like that if I was!

Great look for me, don't you think?

It's a boy!

Yeah! I finally had the baby! Only nine days overdue (seriously, can you believe it?!) So here's the scoop...
Last week at 41 weeks I had my appointment with the good doctor and he said that since I hadn't progressed any more (are you kidding me? I had been having strong contractions!) I had two choices if things didn't go on their own - scheduled c-section or induction. I didn't know that induction was an option but apparently it was with pitocin because I had already dilated a bit. So after much thought I chose induction because at least that way I could still try to do the VBAC. So I tried. On Thursday May 28th I was scheduled for induction in the morning. After about and hour and a half with a mild amount of pitocin the baby's (Levi) heart rate decreased a ton and so the nurse stopped the pitocin (at the doctor's orders) and we waited until the doctor came to talk with me. He said that the because the baby wasn't tolerating the contractions using even a low dose of pitocin, that the baby wouldn't be able to tolerate labor (this ended up being due to the placenta being old.) So yeah, C-Section it was. And I was absolutely okay with this. He had let me go 9 days over and be induces all so that I could try for the delivery that I'd been wanting. Well guess what, I got to try, and that's all that matters to me about that, and not that it wasn't successful, because it most certainly was not in the best interest of the little baby. I felt absolute peace about everything the whole time, so that was really neat.
Well, after a very quick c-section Levi Nelson Ortiz was born at 1:16 pm on Thursday May 28th. He was 7 pounds, 15 oz. and 20 1/4 inches long. Adorable!