The Albericos

Despite all the political nonsense from the past year, I think 2010 was a great way to start the decade!

This year brought us a 2 year old who is blossoming into such smart, funny and compassionate little man.  I truly enjoy watching Dominic grow and he inspires me to be the best I can be for him.

This year we were given a second wonderful gift, Vincent.  Despite the initial 3+ months of hardships with his reflux and GI discomfort, he is growing into such a happy little guy who can easily fill your heart with tremendous joy just by looking at you with his BIG Beautiful Blue Eyes and Smile.

This year showed me what a strong, confident wife and mother Lori really is.  My wife is truly amazing and I have witnessed just how powerful her love and spirit truly is.  I am blessed beyond words to have such a wonderful love and partner to go through life with and our sons have a great role model of what a women should be.

This year showed me even more of how great a source of love and support our families are to us, we are blessed.

This year brought a tremendous amount of work and an even greater appreciation of how blessed I am to be doing what I do and with whom I work with.  Thanks guys!

This year I witnessed more friends helping each other out and this left me with a greater appreciation of friendships.

Looking back, this really was a great way to begin the next decade.  I hope the coming years are as good if not better!

Life is really starting to accelerate and I just have to remember to make more moments to slow down and allow myself to enjoy and appreciate it better.

Happy New Years to all my family and friends, may 2011 be kind to you all!

To all our Family and Friends, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with many blessings and joy.  Thank you for all your love and support.

Thanks for filling our walls with photos and greetings!

Here is the story (as I remember it) of the day Vincent arrived.

Due to Lori’s marathon labor with Dominic (some 27 hours) which ended up in a C-section because Dominic was just too large, the doctors advised us that we should probably plan on a C-section with Vincent since he’s likely to be similar sized.

While this is great because you get to schedule the day your child arrives, it’s also super terrifying because you know your wife is going in that day for major abdominal surgery.  This anticipation brought much worry even though the last time the same procedure happened, making the decision that much easier due being way over-tired.

This time, since the new Downey Kaiser hospital was open, fully operational, brand spanking and super convenient for friends and family new we decided to deliver there over the Lakeview/Anaheim Hills location.  We really enjoyed our experience at Lakeview (and the private rooms) but the distance was just too much.

Our appointment was scheduled for August 13 at 10am and Vincent was to be delivered by the same woman that delivered the OCTOMOM!  The night before, Dominic went to spend the night with Grandma and Pop-Pop Castelli so Lori and I could get one last night of restful sleep, yeah right!  We woke up at about 5:45 in the morning after not being able to sleep much from the excitement.  We got ready, packed the car and drove to Kasier in Downey.

We checked into the triage where we were informed that we’ll be the 11am case and not 10am like we thought.  They checked us into a Labor and Delivery room to hang until the time came.  The rooms are very nice at this new hospital and we just hung out and tried to pass the time.  It sure is agonizing waiting!  I love Lori, she is such a brave woman.  There is no way I would be as brave waiting to go into surgery like that!

I believe it was about 10:30 when the Anesthesiologist came in to explain the process to us.  At first glance, he seemed like a strange looking fellow; thin medium tall middle-eastern man with taliban beard.  He turned out to be such a nice fellow and sure did make the process go so well for Lori, I totally appreciate the man and his skills.

About 10:45 or so they loaded Lori up onto a gurney and we wheeled out of the L&D room and her into the OR room while I went into the OR recovery room, to wait until being called in.  At this time I put on my poor excuse for a Devo Suit and mask and hair net (instead of a wicked cool energy dome) and sat in this sterile hospital room, left to my own thoughts.

I was probably in there for 25 minutes though it felt longer than the previous 9 months!  Each minute I began to shake more and more with nervous anticipation, almost to the point of crying.  About then a nice older nurse came (probably recognized what I was doing) and sparked up a fun conversation about gambling, she was addicted!

Finally they called me into the OR room, now this was my second experience in this situation and I learned a few things from the last time.  One, I’m staying on the “safe” side of the tent and hanging onto Lori.  Two, I’m not moving! :)

All sorts of interesting noises in there from machines beeping to suction and just, yeah, that’s all I need to remember.  I remembered from the last time I saw things on the other side of the tent that I didn’t ever need to see again (it’s like a 50’s horror/sci-fi movie) so I managed to stay low.

After maybe 10 or so minutes at approx (11:31 am) we heard a familiar statement, “oh boy he’s a big one” then followed by a loud cry.  This immediately brought tears to my eyes, I was so happy all over again.  After maybe a minute they said, Dad, look up and you can see your baby.  I have to admit I must’ve been in shock (or just scared to look on the other side) but I looked up and over and they were holding Vincent horizontally and balls first (man they were huge) then I saw his full head of hair, what a surprise that was.  I thought, wow is that really our child, I mean Dominic had some hair but maybe a 1/3 this little guy has.

Next I walked over to the warmer (keeping my eyes away from the science experiment that was my wife on the OR table) and I started to interact with him a bit.  They weighted and measured him, 9lbs 11oz and 20” long and he cried pretty loud most of the time in there.  Next we went over to where Lori was to allow her to see him and give him a kiss on the cheek.  She would stay in there for another 10 or 15 minutes while Vincent and I walked and rolled next door into the OR recovery room.

Vincent received his first bath and spent a little more time under the warmer while we waited for Lori to arrive.  She came in and the 3 of us hung out in that room for the next 2 hours while Lori’s anesthesia wore off.

While in the OR recovery room we were able to just hang out and allow Vincent to start breast feeding and bonding with Lori and I.  This was nice, the reality of this little guy set in and I was feeling super good about the future of our family.

After Lori began to regain some feeling in her legs and be able to move them they allowed us to transfer to the recovery room where we would spend the next few days in the hospital until we were allowed to leave.

We arrived in the room and I was on my way out to the car to get our bags.  It was there I saw our family pulling up and I finally got to see Dominic.  I snuck up on him and said Hi, I was immediately greeted with “dada dado dada dada” what a great feeling to see my little guy so excited and happy.

We all walked up to the room together and now it was time for Dominic to meet his new brother.  He wasn’t to sure about him and I think the shock of all the people in the room and seeing his mom hooked up to devices and laying in a bed may have been too much for him.  He started to tune people out and focus on his toys.  I made sure to sit and play with him and his trucks.

The second day we were there, the hospital brought us a special congratulatory meal.  It was actually pretty good and I felt it was a nice gesture on their part.  Overall the hospital staff were very nice and we had nothing but good experiences with them.  I’m very grateful for good healthcare.

In total, we spent two nights in the hospital and by the time the 3rd day came, we were both feeling tired and nervous to go home and leave the comfort of having a nurse/help at your beckoning call but we were very ready to leave!

We were discharged before 12pm on Sunday and made our way home.  Entering the world as a family of 4!

More photos from this event are up on our FLICKR account here.

PS it took 3 days/attempts to write this blog, man having two kids sure does soak up a lot of free time, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!