Introducing Joaquin, our perfect bolliti
Our sweet baby Joaquin is finally here!
In just a few days I’ve lived the worst and best moments of my life. There are so many stories I wanted to share, like what it felt like to be among the 25% of pregnant women who deliver via a c-section. Obviously I was not prepared for that and could’ve never imagine all the emotional and physical distress I would go through. Nobody talks about that, or maybe I never looked for that kind of information.
Breastfeeding… Good Lord!… You take a class, or in my case, watch a video, and think that it’s that easy. But nobody tells you that on the night of your baby’s second day on earth, he gets fed up with colostrum and decides that it is time to get real milk, and unfortunately mom still doesn’t have it yet, and the bollito chiquitito makes you go through a night of horror after which a bunch of parents probably end up reaching desperately for a bottle of formula. I know it because Joey was very close to it, but seeing that his poor crippled sleepless wife still wanted to give breastfeeding a chance, he stuck around, and we conquered. That night was one of the worst yet funniest of my life. It felt like such an important family moment, I will remember it forever just as I remember the day of our wedding.

And then, the poop. After my milk came (an event everybody talks about at the hospital, kind of like who you’re taking to your high school prom) and Joaquin started nursing, we anxiously waited for the first poopie diaper as an indication that he was getting enough food. The poop didn’t come until the night I had to change Joaquin’s diaper for the first time. It was 3 am, I was alone with the baby, mom and I had a deal that I would call her to come upstairs if I needed help. There was poop in the diaper; I needed help. I reached for the phone and the darn thing was uncharged. I had to change the diaper by myself… I removed the dirty diaper and reached for a new one. But in that fraction of a second a fountain of new poop started streaming out of Joaquin’s butt. It had the consistency of toothpaste and it poured like a river all over his beautiful PJs. The mess was incredible… Poop all over…
This week has brought so many memorable moments I wanted to record, but the fog of recovering from abdominal surgery, and the time-intensive task of breastfeeding a hungry tiburón around the clock have made me forget so much… I’m not sure that I’ll be able to remember all the details. I keep trying to carve out some time to do some logging and uploading of photos for our families so they can see the changes Joaquin goes through every day. It’s hard, and yet I love this bollo so much. And as much as Joey and I loved each other before last Saturday, we now look at each other in a different way… A very nice and even more loving way… We seem to have grown more mature since Joaquin’s birth. I know now that whatever it is you think life will be after having a baby, you really have no clue until it really happens. Our baby has brought so much more to our home, and some time ago I didn’t know that was possible.
- Joey wrote a little something about his son’s birth. I just love it.
