WE'RE HOME!

Evan Eduardo Talusan Vega is home as of 11:20am (and Lolo has already asked if Grammy was cooking rice and beans for lunch... his priorities...!).

Not a lot of time to write at this moment, but wanted to just put up some pictures. Here you go!

Sisters meet Baby Evan for the first time on Tuesday, March 24th at 5:30pm


Lolo and Lola meet Evan Eduardo

The grandparents

Grammy and Pops were the first family members to meet Baby Evan!
Baby Evan celebrating his 1 day old moment - taken at 10:15am on March 25th


Getting ready to go home on March 26th at 10:40am


Yup, still the World Greatest ($.25) Dad! (Jorge bought this sweatshirt for $.25 -- yes, CENTS -- when Joli was born!)

Jada Grace welcoming Evan Eduardo to our house!


Jada welcomes home Baby Evan

I'm sure more to come later, but c'mon, we just got home 15 minutes ago (actually, this is my -Liza's- way of avoiding the diaper change that is taking place ;)

EVAN EDUARDO TALUSAN VEGA



Hurray! Evan is here!

Details:

so, of course, I've been anticipating labor for, oh, about 4 weeks now. But, on Tuesday, March 24th at about 3:00am, I woke up feeling pretty regular (every 6 minutes) contractions. Nothing too painful, but certainly enough to get out of bed and start counting. Jorge woke up with me once I said, "I'm timing now!"

Around 4:15am, we called Lola and Lolo to tell them to make their way slowly over to our house because my contractions were getting closer and stronger - every 5 minutes or so. Knowing we were going to go, I brought out the hospital bag (which, yes, had been packed for weeks) and went to take a shower. Grandparents arrived around 5:00am, and Jorge and I woke the girls to tell them.

Liza: "Girls, Mama and Daddy are going to go to the hospital now to deliver baby! Lola and Lolo are here to watch you while we are gone, okay?"
Jada: "No, Mama!! I just want to snuggle you, Mama! Not Lola! Only Mamaa!!"
Joli: "Oh, you're going to the hospital? You think the baby will come? Okay, I'm going back to sleep."

We left the house at 5:09am - with Lolo screaming "GO ALREADY!! Stop talking and GO ALREADY!"

Had a few strong contractions in the car and made it to the hospital. Went upstairs, was 4 cm dilated already and got the most horrible, painful and awful epidural ever. Let's just say that it was good Jorge was NOT in the room because I was screaming bloody murder! I don't think I have ever screamed that much out of pain (yes, even during labor). So, needless to say, that was awful. The epidural was also way too strong once it was in, and I quickly went numb. So, for about an hour, I felt nothing. On one hand, it was a good thing because I went from 6 cm to fully dilated with the baby already descended way down into the birth canal -- imagine, that's how numb I was... I didn't even feel THAT.

When I told the doctor I couldn't feel anything, they all but turned off the epidural. The numbness went away very quickly and soon I was feeling everything! Yes, everything.

At 10:00am, it was time to push -- a few quick pushes, lots of "it HURTS!!", and Evan Eduardo Talusan Vega made his way into the world at 10:15am! Fifteen minutes - that's definitely a record in our family!

"IT'S A BOY!!" they all yelled as I actually got to pull Evan the final way out. Good thing -- because at 9:00am, Jorge and I still didn't have a baby girl name!

So, why EVAN EDUARDO TALUSAN VEGA?

Evan is named after Jorge's mom -- Eva Nydia. Vega (get it... Eva.. N... Evan)
Eduardo is Liza's Dad
Talusan is his Middle Name
Vega is his last name

The girls are the same way - double 1st names, Talusan as their middle name, and Vega as their last name.

All three babies, though, when they were born, spent the first day or so as "Baby Talusan" because of my last name. So, for the first 24+ hours, he was Evan Eduardo Talusan. But, as of 3:00pm on March 25th, he officially became a Vega baby boy.

The first text from Pedro Vega was something like, "Thank you for taking the weight off of my shoulders for being the last Vega boy... now there is Evan!"

I love the story of how Jorge came to Evan's name:
At about 8 1/2 months, I took a really bad fall. When I was brought to the hospital via ambulance, the EMT's and the Firefighters were all telling me I should name my kid after them. There was a John, a Mike, a few others, and an Evan. I told Jorge that story, and we both kind of laughed.

That night, Jorge had a tough time sleeping. I even remember him getting up sometime around 4:30am and not coming back to bed. At about 6:00am, he woke me up to say, "I think the EMT was right -- let's name him Evan. But, not after the EMT.. after my Mom." And, that was that. We knew Baby Boy would be named Evan for a few weeks now - we just didn't tell anyone ;)

So, here he is -- Evan Eduardo Talusan Vega. Born Tuesday, March 24th, 10:15am, 7 lbs 5 ounces, 20 inches long, good head of hair, dark brown eyes

We took lots of pictures and I'll post those as soon as I get home.

Yes, I am writing this from my recovery bed.... ;)

Pregnancy News

Yes, still pregnant as of March 23rd. I keep thinking the time is coming (and, of course, given the odds, the time IS coming!), but the time keeps passing by. Two weeks ago was, officially, my last day of work, but I keep going in to save up my vacation time. So, I've still been working about 40 hours a week.

Today I am officially entering into my 39th week - as we can see in the latest photo taken today. The hospital bag is packed, the car is ready, clothes are washed, diapers are here, and the girls are ready for Baby ? to arrive!






I'm not sure what this picture is from, but it's cute. So, here you go!



Jorge has been spending some really great time with Jada as he's been on vacation for the past week. The two of them went to the library for different story time events and they've gone on little outings together. It has been kind of nice for Jada to get some Daddy time since she's about to end her reign as the "baby" of the family!

So, stay tuned! It must be coming soon, right??

Here is a funny little video of the girls "naming the baby". Enjoy!

Gettin' Ready!

The girls have started to get ready for the arrival of Baby #3.

Just 1 week before Jada was born, I brought Joli to the Roger Williams Park Zoo. So, we thought we'd recreate that and bring both Joli and Jada .... hopefully one week before baby is born?? Wishful thinking, I'm sure. (though, I feel like I'm delivering every single day!)




Okay, so Joli is "mini-Liza" in a particular way. On Saturday, I was told "Mama, do NOT come into my room! I am doing something." So, of course, I went into her room. And, what was Joli doing .... she was organizing her dresser drawers!!! She took all the clothes out of both her drawers and Jada's drawers and was folding all of the clothes and neatly putting them back. Oh, be still my heart!

In the process of cleaning the drawers, Joli found a pair of pants that *I* wore when I was about 4 years old. I haven't yet found any pictures of me wearing them yet, but I was promised by my mom that, indeed, I wore them. And, given their 1970's style, a broken waistband, and the polyester, I'm pretty sure it's true! I think if you click on the picture, it will enlarge and you can see the details of the pants!



On Sunday, we decided to make "Big Sister" shirts. The girls did awesome! Check out these shirts that they will wear to welcome "Baby #3!"










And, last but not least, here is my gigantic belly at 35 weeks... egads!

Some more fun with our video!

Quick update: I've been having really strong Braxton-Hicks contractions, but apparently they aren't doing much of anything. The doctor said that he thinks there might be another week or so at least!

As this is my last pregnancy, we did a great photo shoot with Alonso. Here is a snippet of our experience that day doing a section of the shoot with the girls!



Here is the biggest reason why I'm always running late in the morning. Because the girls don't always see one another for very long during the day, I try to give them some time to play whenever they can. This particular video is the latest of their adventures -- note, they've also been watching a whole lot of old school Power Puff Girls cartoons as well as boxing with Jorge!

NOTE: you may want to turn your volume down... they sound like little yapping puppies if you don't see the video with it!





Enjoy! Hopefully a post will be coming soon about a hospital trip and a baby!! Gosh, I hope I deliver this baby soon.....

We went to the dentist!

Joli and Jada went to the dentist for the first time (finally!) and had a great time! They really loved it, and they even asked when they could come back! Thankfully, they had no cavities and so they were spared some of that first experience.

I completely expected Joli to go first, given that she's so used to being at the doctor. But, no, it was Jada who jumped into the chair and made herself right at home. The cutest thing was that Joli held her hand the whole time .... ooohh!! It was just too cute! Jada even opened wide, let the dentist do all that he needed to, and was so excited to have her teeth "painted" with flouride.




Joli was equally as great! One of the tools the dentist uses was called "Mr. Thirsty" because he sucks the water out of the kids mouth. Joli, my ever the Feminist, said, "Uh, excuse me. Why does that Thirsty have to be a MR Thirsty. Why can't it be MISS Thirsty?" Aww yeah!!!! Such a proud moment!



This past weekend, Alonso also came and took some family pregnancy photos. As this is our last pregnancy (I'm having my oopherectomy within the year to reduce my risk of ovarian cancer), I wanted to get some great photos of what it was like to have a pregnant belly. Can't wait to see the photos! I managed to get this one photo of my belly, but there are great photos of me and the girls coming along!



Check out Joli being the awesome big sister and holding Jada's hand during the teeth counting!