Abigail Jeanne Cuy Castellanos

Abigail Jeanne Cuy Castellanos was born at 3:41 PM on Friday, October 7, 2011. I was confused for a second because I really didn’t realize she had come even out. They all helped me get up into a chair pretty quickly and started nursing right away, to help me more than anything because I was losing a lot of blood. A little later mom took Abi and Aunt Bren and Jodi got to work on me. I won’t go into details but I almost think that was worse than labor!

I had lost quite a lot of blood, so I was really weak and tired and unfortunately I did not really enjoy my first moments of being a mommy. I don’t even remember when people started coming to see us, if it was that day or not until the next day. When they helped me get in bed that night I remember telling Aunt Bren that I felt terrible, like I had been in a car accident (and I would know what that feels like!). After I got settled in bed, Aunt Brenda got everything ready to weigh and measure Abi. It was pretty neat; she used the same scale to weigh Abigail that I got weighed with when I was born 28 years earlier. Abigail weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces, and was 19 ½ inches long. She felt so small, like such a little peanut.

I needed help throughout the night getting up to use the restroom, getting Abi in place to eat, e.g. It was a pretty rough first night but mom stayed overnight to help so we made it through. The next day everyone started coming over to meet our beautiful girl. Ten days after she was born, my friend Jess Hekman came over to take Abigail’s newborn pictures. She is an awesome photographer, and the newborn session was my baby shower gift from her.

I was blessed to be able to stay home from work for three entire months; it took that long to get adjusted to having a baby and still living life. To be completely honest though, I really did not totally enjoy my time off. I was dealing with some pretty bad pain (from birth complications) on a daily basis that made it hard to enjoy much of anything. It was really discouraging that the time I thought I would enjoy being home with my new baby was spent in pain that kept me from fully enjoying her. I went to several doctors, who suggested as probably my only option. I didn’t really want to do that so I tried other more “natural” things, none of which helped. I also made the mistake of looking up my problem on WebMD, and based on what other people posted, I was convinced the pain was never going to go away. Thanks to God alone, at five months postpartum (to the day), the pain just stopped. I don't know why or how, but I was not going to complain! Thankfully I have not had any other problems with it since.

Labor Day

I was due on Tuesday, October 4^th, but I really was hoping I would not go into labor until the week after that because I wanted my 12 weeks of FMLA coverage to allow me to be off until after New Years. I told everyone at work that I planned to keep working until I was in labor, even if I was at work when it happened. I wanted my desk to be cleared off and everything to be taken care of before I left. The baby did not quiet cooperate with my plan however, and when I woke up on October 6^th I knew she was coming soon. I told Willy before we left that morning to get ready; it was all going to happen fast. I went to work that day and worked really hard trying to get as much finished as I could. I was sending out emails all day with instructions on different projects I had been working and leaving notes all over my desk about things that needed to be completed still. I didn’t tell anyone what was going on until right before I left for the day. I told my friend Stephanie as I was leaving that I was pretty sure I was in the beginning stages of labor and would probably have the baby soon. She said “I knew it! You were acting funny today!” hahaha

When I got home from work, I called Aunt Brenda to let her know what was happening. She told me to eat a good dinner and get to bed early so I could rest as much as possible before it all really got started. A group of our friends get together every week for dinner at each other’s houses (rotating houses every week), so we headed out to Beaumont for dinner at the Odenbaugh’s. It was funny that on the way there, my boss sent me a text to see if I wanted to go out for lunch the next day since it would probably be the last time until I came back from maternity leave. I told her that I was actually in labor and had been all day! She was pretty surprised. Haha We got there a little late and everyone said they thought we weren’t coming because maybe I was in labor. They all got excited when I told them I was pretty sure I was. We enjoyed dinner and hung out for awhile, but I started getting really uncomfortable and we decided to leave a little early just in case. We got home and I decided I needed to get the house all clean, I knew it wasn’t going to be long before we had a full house and I wanted everything to be ready. Aunt Brenda called a little later that evening to check on me and told me I needed to stop cleaning and get to bed! I finally listened and we got in bed by about 10:30 PM.

I woke up at about 1:30 AM because the contractions started to get going. I told Willy but let him go back to sleep because I figured it would be a long day for him too. I went out to the couch and got on the computer to email my boss to let her know I for sure wouldn’t be at work that day, and sent a few other emails to some coworkers and friends in between the contractions, which were pretty mild at this point. Around 4:30 I woke Willy up because the contractions were starting to get stronger. I don’t really know what time everything happened after this point, but at some time that morning Aunt Brenda, her assistant Jodi arrived, then a little later on mom, and my sister Alison came. On Aunt Brenda’s instructions, Willy and I did a lot of walking up and down the street, usually stopping so I could lean on him during contractions. Eventually it was time to start pushing so I got in the birth tub which was set up where the kitchen table normally was. I know, it’s not very common to have a baby in the kitchen, especially not when it’s planned that way, but that’s what worked for us. Willy got in the water with me so I could lean against him, mom was fanning me and pouring water on me occasionally to help me keep cool, and Aunt Brenda and Jodi were monitoring me and the baby the whole time. I didn’t realize it at the time, but Alison was sending out updates to the family via text and taking pictures for us. Definitely not pictures I’ll be sharing with the world, but I guess they’re good to have. I think I was in the water pushing for a few hours, but it went by pretty fast for me because I just got into a ‘zone’ and was only concentrating on getting her out.

Thankfully I didn’t realize how scary it was at the time, but as Aunt Bren had been monitoring me and the baby, she stopped being able to hear her heart beat anymore. She told me if she wasn’t out on the next push I would have to get out of the water. The baby did not get out on that push, so they all helped me out of the water and onto the floor in front of the couch. It all happened pretty fast after that, and I really didn’t even know what was going on, but all of a sudden Aunt Bren told me to move my legs and then she handed me my baby! To be continued…

Starting Over

Well, last time I was here was in 2011, so... a lot has happened since then! I'm not even going to try to play catch-up and write posts about everything that has happened in our lives over the last two and a half years, but I’ll do a few re-caps, just for histories sake.

I think my last post was before I even knew I was pregnant with our precious little girl. I found out that I was pregnant in January, and we couldn't stand waiting to tell our family and friends so I pretty much announced it right away. I know "they" say you shouldn't tell people until you're past the first trimester, but we were too excited to wait. I thought I was going to have an easy pregnancy (both my mom and oldest sister had little to no "morning sickness" issues), but that wasn't in the cards for me! I still remember exactly when it started, February 13, 2011. We had gone up to Lake Arrowhead for our community group, and I got sick as soon as we got home. I thought it was just because of the drive, but I woke up the next day and was sick about every 15-30 minutes the entire day. Being the hypochondriac that I am, I thought for sure I was going to die! It was a miserable day, and the next 4-5 months didn’t get much better. I was sick pretty much all day long for the first 5 months of my pregnancy. Luckily it was not every day; otherwise I don’t know what I would have done. The days I was sick I spent the majority of my day running back and forth between my desk at work and the bathroom, which was not a short run when you’re sick!

Thankfully the sickness subsided and the rest of my pregnancy went pretty well. Willy and I took a birth class to help us get prepared, which was fun because my cousin Scott and his wife Jeanny were also in the class, along with two other couples we knew from church. I found a room design idea online that I really liked, so Willy got to work and did an awesome job, especially with painting the design I wanted on the walls. Mom and Dad bought the crib and mattress, and Grandpa and Grammy Martin helped us buy the dresser, which we planned to use as the changing table too. It was fun getting the room ready for our little girl.

On May 27^th we lost my sweet and wonderful Grandpa Martin, who had been battling cancer for several years. It was so hard to see him suffering, especially at the end when he was getting really confused and didn’t seem to know what was going on. Thankfully we were able to spend a lot of time with him and Grammy in the last few months of his life since they relocated to Yucaipa from Oregon. He was such a wonderful grandpa; I can still hear the sound of his whistling and his quiet laugh. Just a few hours before he passed away, he was still his normal self, making some joke about Willy eating all the leftovers or something. He died at home with the people he loved the most with him. Family came from all over California, even as far as Florida, to celebrate Grandpa’s life. We had a service at the funeral home in Redlands, then a graveside service at Forest Lawn in Covina, where he was buried close to Nana and Bapa Lane’s grave.  

It was so hard for all of us losing Grandpa, but I know it was the hardest for Grammy. They had been married for about 50 years, and had really never been apart. I remember her saying that she would need someone to teach her how to pump gas for her car, because Grandpa had always done that for her. She was so sad that he was gone; we all think she died of a broken heart just 13 days later on June 9^th. As hard as it was, I’m so happy that I was right next to her while she lay in the hospital emergency room bed and passed away. Willy had gone back to Guatemala to visit his family so he wasn’t able to be there, but a lot of the same family members were able to come back, and we had a service for her at the same Redlands funeral home, and a similar graveside service at Forest Lawn. She was buried with Grandpa, close to her mom and dad. I miss both of them so much. Part of the reason we decided to get pregnant when we did is because I knew all of my grandparents were getting older and I wanted my kids to meet and know them. Even though they never will get to Grandpa and Grammy Martin them, I talk about both of them often because I want to be sure they will know how wonderful they were.

My Blind Old Man

Soon after Willy arrived in the USA, I began to notice that he was squinting a lot and seemed to have a hard time reading anything far away. It didn’t really bother him too much, and he rarely even mentioned it, so I kind of forgot until a few months after our wedding. After he was on my health insurance plan, we tried to get him an appointment with an ophthalmologist. They were unfortunately booked until the end of January, so we went ahead and made the appointment and got put on a waiting list for a sooner opening. My mom works for the medical group we use, and called me about a week later to say there was a cancellation for a couple days later if we could make it in. Luckily my boss is very understanding and was fine with me leaving a few hours early to go with Willy to the doctor. It turns out that his vision is so bad he really should not even be driving without glasses, so we went the next morning to get the prescription filled and were able to get his new glasses in less than a week. Now that I know just how bad his vision really is, I feel so much better knowing he can see clearly with the glasses. I know I’m a bit prejudice, but I think he looks really cute too.