The day Lucas met his little sister

Lucas visited Celina and me in the hospital on Feb. 5, 2010 (his 3rd birthday). What a birthday present to meet his baby sister for the first time!

He was so proud and excited to meet her. And, that feeling hasn't changed. Almost three weeks later, he has shown no signs of jealousy. He doesn't seem to mind that he's spending a little less time with mama these days. That said, we do make an effort to make activities about the family. For instance, now he gets his bedtime story in our bed instead of his room and the four of us sit for story time (while I nurse Celina). He always gives her hugs and kisses and wants to be very involved in anything that has to do with her. He seems to adore her. I know, I know...there's bound to be some sibling rivalry along the way, but I think we're off to a great start.

Musical Lucas

Lucas loves to sing and he seems to be able to retain the words of songs quite well. Here he is singing "Somewhere Beyond the Sea." This video was taken in January 2010. Most recently, he's been rehearsing songs from Shrek like "I'm a Believer" and "All Stars."

Celina Viana Romero Arrives!

Celina Viana Romero was born on Feb. 4, 2010 - my birthday. She weighed 6 pounds 6 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.

While her arrival was a great present, her arrival caught me a bit by surprise. I had a doctor appointment that morning and the doctor noticed that she was no longer in position - she had turned breech. I had two options: have a c-section or attempt to manually turn her so that I could potentially have a regular delivery. The only real risks of having the baby manually turned involved me ending up having a c-section so there was really nothing to lose. I opted to try to have her manually turned, so I was instructed to check into the hospital at 12:30 p.m.

I called Pablo to share the news, and I went to pick up Lucas from school to take him back home to be with Tita. The doctor instructed me that I could not eat anything, which was possibly the hardest part of the whole experience because I was starving! Pablo and I headed to the hospital with our bags packed, but not knowing if we would be having a baby on my birthday.

We checked in at the hospital and waited for two doctors to come into the triage area. They slathered my belly with mineral oil and with one doctor on each side of me they began massaging my belly to try to manually turn her. The process was quite painful. Unfortunately, it didn't work so the suggested we schedule the c-section ASAP so that I wouldn't run the risk of having to have an emergency c-section. There happened to be space in the schedule on that day so they booked the surgery.

At around 4 p.m. the nurses began to prep me for surgery and Celina was born at 5:01 p.m.