Mom tried to get a picture of me at an Oklahoma rest stop but all she got was the back of me running away!
McDonalds! Like my prirate's hat?
This is the mountains headed south to El Paso.
This is the Hotel in Juarez. We got checked in around 4:30 local time. Apparently they are on mountain time here.
This is the inside of our room.

For those of you wondering we made it to Springfield MO the first night and the second night we made it to Tecumari NM.

Yesterday while we were driving through Oklahoma it poured rain the whole day. It really slowed us down because I discovered that our car does not have great traction in downpours.

Miguel is definately glad we are here. He was having lots of fits in the car just screaming his head off because he wanted to get out.

We did see some border patrol on our way south. Nacho said he saw like 6 altogether....I only noticed 1....but I was driving and it was super windy today.

We stopped in Indy to pick up some stuff from my cousin Jazlynn's house. We had time to watch a couple cartoons before we left.
This is the arch in St. Louis. Mom said we didn't have time to stop. Maybe next time.
We had Burger King for supper. I didn't want to get back in the car.
Papi mad because I didn't want to get back in the car.
Alex could care less....he was sleeping.

Well Here is the hardship letter we have been working on. Ready for our appointment in Juarez. We got it from the lawyer this morning. We leave tomorrow morning and hope to arrive on Thursday. I will try and keep the blog updated to check back often to see how it is going. Once we get to his parent's house next Tuesday I don't know what kind of internet access I will have but I will do what I can.

I did find out from my MRI this morning that there is NOT a stone still in my bile duct. That makes me feel much better about going to Mexico! Now I can enjoy it! At least as much as I can with all the worrying!

Alex was baptised on Saturday. Here is a picture of the family! Our first all together I think. Miguel was more interested in running around the church!
Alex's ice cream cake!!! yum!!! Thanks Aunt Mindy!

All 4 cousins all lined up in a row!

Tummy Time! Alex can turn his head from one side to the other! He also weighed in at 6lbs 6 oz last week!

Miguel is trying to get Alex to play with his keys.
Run Miguel Run!!!!!


Happy Easter


Sorry I haven't been keeping up with my posting. I've been working really hard on our Hardship letter for Mexico. I got it turned in to the lawyer Monday. Hopefully it is good enough!

This morning Mommy had surgery to remove her gall bladder. That went well but......the doctor found that she has some stones in her bile duct.....so she has to have another procedure at MCO (or whatever it is now) in Toledo. So she still isn't feeling so great!

Green eyed monster!

Miguel can't miss out on anything that Alex does so when I laid Alex down on the bed to get Miguel dressed after his shower.....Miguel jumped right in with him! Miguel usually does pretty good with Alex but he can get a little rough. Especially when Alex is getting something that Miguel wants....like sitting in the bouncey seat!

Alex is home!

Alex got out of hospital on Monday afternoon. Sorry we weren't able to update the website....the computer at home was down and we had to wait on Grandma to get over her fever to come and fix it!
Here is Grandpa Beans with Alex the day before he was let out of the hospital!
Big Brother Miguel is playing peak a boo with Daddy in the Ronald McDonald House!
Miguel finally got to meet his little brother. We are going through a few difficulties.....but Miguel is adjusting. As long as his diaper gets changed when the baby does, he gets to sleep in the baby bed, and Mommy holds Miguel when she holds the baby.....you know.....the normal.
Great Grandma Thomas came to visit the baby too!

Papi and Miguel have been busy as home today. They got out the basinet and cleaned it and they also cleaned the carpets in the living room! Miguel thought it was great fun to have all of the furniture out of the living room. It made a great place to ride his bike! He could also get out all of his cars and play with them on the floor. He didn't care that the floor was wet and that his pants got all wet!

Ok....I'm so excited!!! Alex just successfully breastfed for the first time at his 6pm feeding!!!!! He fed for 9min on each side (and I think he would have went longer but I didn't want to wear him out!) and then he took 25 ml from the bottle!!!!! yeah!!!!! Maybe we will be able to go home sometime this week!

They are going to do his car seat test tonight.....which means they put him in his car seat for 4 hours and make sure he doesn't have any alarms on his monitors. They also had me put out his outfit for his photo so maybe that can be done in the morning.

So we are making some progress....finally! Last night he only had 1 1/2 feedings by tube! that is much better! Maybe today we can do all of them by bottle!

Weight update....Alex is now 5lbs 1 1/2 oz! We are gaining!

Grandma came to visit Alex last night. She even helped change a poopy diaper! The are changing up his feeding plan a little bit today. Same idea but a little different approach. He is allowed to eat anytime he wants every 2-4 hours and he can eat as much as he wants.....but he has to eat at least 120 ml in a 12 hour period. If he doesn't wake up on his own in 4 hours then I have to wake him up.....but of course if he is just too tired and won't wake up to eat....he is still tube fed. I don't think the 120 ml is enough to get him home....the nurse said that would just sustain him....not let him gain weight....but anything that he eats over that is bonus! We just started it so I will let you all know how it goes. He has nippled by bottle for all 3 feeding since 9 am and has already eaten 115 ml so far so good. We will see if he can keep it up. Still 2 more feeding there abouts to go before the end of the first 12 hours.

Not much change today for Alex. Still eating about 1/2 of his feedings from a bottle. The other half are fed to him through a tube. Very frustrating for mommy but the nurses keep telling me we don't want to push him too hard or he might stop eating all together. They also say that at this age I could come in one morning and he be a totally different kid. Sucking down bottles real fast and be ready to go home in two days. The not knowing is killing me.

Alex had a very busy day today. He got his hepetitis B shot, passed his hearing test, got his first bath, tried to breast feed 3 times (not going so good yet, he latches on but doesn't know how to suck once he does), and....was circumcised!!!! He was beat! He didn't even wake up when I changed his diaper for his 9pm feeding....so we gave him a break and just fed him through his tube!

Mommy's camera batteries are dead. She tried to put some new pics on last night but the camera wouldn't work. She will have to stop at the gift shop today and see if they have any.

Well.....we have yellow poop!!!!! We are making progress. The only tube Alex has now is his feeding tube. We are pretty much just down to getting Alex to eat. Sometimes he just gets too tired and has to be fed through his tube. Sunday he was fed through his tube for the noon and 3pm feedings but then at the 6pm and 9pm feedings Alex sucked down those bottles!!!! Progress!!!!

The nurse is saying that it will probably be another week that he is here. Come on Alex and eat!

Mommy's surprise!

Mommy had a great surprise when she came to see me this morning! I am no longer hooked up to any nose tubes and my feeding tube was out. The nurse came in and said that the feeding tube will be going back in (oh suck) She took the IV out! So the only tube I have to get rid of is my feeding tube!

I started eating less overnight last night. (finally hit the full line???) The nurse says the goal is to eat 35 ml every three hours. As a minimum. So eat Alex eat!!!!

Alex's Biliruben count went down again this morning because he has starting pooping!!!! So they are no longer going to be checking that. Just his blood sugar every 12 hours.

I had to share this photo. After complaining that I didn't get anything for Valentine's Day, Nacho had Guelly carry out my present, a dozen roses.....what a great couple of valentines!!!!
















This is Alex on the CPAP....I don't think he could see very well!













This was much better for Alex. We were very glad to get ride of those big tubes!












Here is Mommy holding Alex for the first time.













And Daddy's turn holding Alex. He was actually better for Daddy than Mommy.....the starving man wanted milk from Mommy and she isn't allowed to give it to him!

Alex has had a very good day today. The have lowered his air on his oxygen by half so maybe he will be coming off that soon! The also increased is feeding by more than double today....to 12 ml....still not a lot but hopefully it will keep him a little more full. We think his wonderful disposition is because he is so hungry all of the time. I got to hold him again tonight and he settled down with the help of a paci and sugar water and slept the whole time. He got a break from his feeding tube for a little while. The next one will probably be down his nose.

I got to spend the morning with Miguel. We had a good morning but he cried when I had to drop him off at Diane's. It broke my heart.

For all of you who know about our immigration stuff we got a call from our lawyer tonight. Our appointment is for April 14th!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stress!!!!!!!!!! I have to get our Hardship letter done!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cried when I told Nacho......so happy yet so scared!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alex had one step forward and two steps back. The good news is that he is no longer hooked up to the CPAP, he just has regular oxygen which means smaller tubes and he is much more comfortable.

The bad news is that he has/had a leak in an air sack of his lungs. He has some air in his chest cavity now. All of his numbers for his blood gases still look good and it doesn't seem to be bothering him so they aren't going to do anything to remove it right now. They are going to watch it and see if it resolves itself.

The other bad news is that Alex's biliruben level is double what it should be....that means he has jaundice and is under the bili lights.....gee I think I remember Miguel going through this too!

They have also stopped is feedings until some of these things come undercontrol. So we are back to freezing my milk for him. They do still have him hooked up the the bag of nutrition and the IV of fats so he should still gain weight. He really liked having food in his belly though so I feel for the little guy.

I will be going home tonight and will head back to Toledo tomorrow morning. Hopefully tomorrow the Ronald McDonald house can get me in. There are only two people on the list ahead of me as of this morning. I may just stay at the hospital until they can get me in. I can sleep on a pull out bed next to Alex. I haven't decided.

I will be able to post pictures after I go home tonight. I will grab the cord for my camera to upload them.

I will keep everyone updated.

My little brother was born on Sunday February 24th, 2008. He was 4lbs 10 oz and 18 inches long. His name is Alex Ruben. He was born early at 34 weeks so Mom says he has to stay at the hospital until he gets a little bigger and can breath better. I can't go see him because I'm too little.....so not fair. Mom can't get any pictures uploaded from the hospital. Her card is too big to fit in Grandma's computer and with the snowstorm we got today Papi didn't go up to see her and Alex to bring her cord for the camera.

Alex has started getting small feedings every 3 hours by his feeding tube. He is digesting some of it but not all. Hopefully things will begin moving soon for him. They decided to leave him on the CPAP for one more day. Maybe tomorrow they will move him to the smaller oxygen tubes to that Mom can hold him! And so Alex can move his head! He has a reputation in the NICU for having a temper.....so watch out! He will scream until he turns blue and has every monitor going off!

Look Mommy....I can dance!

I finally got close to Hannah. She isn't so bad. She just doesn't do much.
I got some more tractors! I can park them in the barn Santa brought me too!
This has to be the best present I got today. I didn't want to get off of it to go to Grandpa's house!
I didn't like it when everyone kept trying to get me to open more presents. Can't they see I want to play!

Grandpa finally got me to finish opening. Everyone was waiting on me!

My new cousin is a girl! Her name is Hannah Riley! This is her with Mommy.

This is about as close as I wanted to get. She doesn't impress me!

Santa scared me! But I liked the bag of candy he gave me! and then Grandpa let me look at all of the fire trucks!

Mom says tomorrow is a big day. Aunt Mindy is going to the hospital to be induced. Hopefully by the end of the day I will know if I have a new boy cousin or girl cousin!

Say tuned for pics and more info!

Ethan was helping me open my presents. Does that mean I get to help open his on his birthday? Cool Tractors!
I love all my new stuff!

Miguel and Ethan pigging out on Thanksgiving!
Papi and Me in front of our christmas tree!
What is it? A birthday Present?
Do I have to take a picture with my cake? I don't know about this!

Papi everyone is singing at me!