More wrapping paper!

Since we weren't able to travel to visit Mamí's family for Christmas, we guess the silver lining is Roman has been getting to open gifts even after Christmas. His Aunt Sandra, Uncle Hector and cousins sent the coolest toy that he can grow up with. He wasn't feeling good this weekend, but nothing like wrapping paper to make him feel better. He also got an oufit but he had an accident and will have to post a pic later.

Total Score!

Roman totally scored this Christmas. Of course, he was much more interested in the wrapping paper and bows. He was a bit surprised that he was allowed to play with paper. He usually wants to grab the mail and newspapers, and we don't let him.

Check him out with is new toys!

Our favorite is of him eating his new shoe.

Feliz Navidad!

We haven't posted in awhile due to some unforseen circumstances. Eric had the flu for about a week then it got worse to the point that he had to be hospitalized for 8 days for pneumonia. His condition worsened until he had surgery to remove some liquid from his chest cavity. Thankfully, the surgery went well, and he was able to come home on Christmas Eve. He is recovering at home with us. We missed him terribly!

Thank you to everyone for the offers of help and the support we received from our friends in the form of dinners, babysitting, and errands completed during these past weeks. Your help was greatly appreciated!

We couldn't travel to valley to spend Roman's 1 st Christmas with the Hernandez/Roman crew, but we had an intimate family Christmas. Roman's aunt Patty stayed with us until dec 26. She helped us with everything from housecleaning, shopping, and taking care of Roman. thank you for everything!

check out the rest of our Christmas pictures www.romannapoleon.shutterfly.com

Last month's photo session

I forgot to add a post about Roman's first professional photo session that was done last month. He was great! His limit was 30 minutes of posing. which I think is pretty good for a 6 month old. But what do I know.

I have posted one of his shots. Doesn't he look like he is seriously posing... I can't post more because of photographer rules... But you can go to pictage.com (www. use a different window) and enter Roman, October 2006 in the event lines. If you are interested, you will have to sign in with a user name/password.

Thanksgiving Trip

We went down to the valley for the Thanksgiving holiday. We left Wednesday at 7 pm, so Roman could sleep. It was a success, not only did Roman sleep the entire car ride to the valley, but Eric made it down in 4 1/2 hours, non-stop, no traffic. Talk about express service. Thanks papá! You are the best!

We stayed at my parent's house with my sister Patty and my sister Laura and her family. Roman got to spend some time with his cousin Amanda. She lives in Michigan and is about 17 months old. She is super cute! My sister and her husband Fernando gave Roman a Detroit Tigers cap that is way cool. Apparently, Amanda has the same cap, she was like hey is that mine? We got exciting news from them. They are expecting! Due date is May 15th. Congrats!
We had Thanksgiving dinner at around 8 pm, which is a major improvement to our previous years (10 pm or later).... Our new brother-in-law James fried two turkeys, and we had all the traditional sides, including sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, corn, collard greens, and cornbread dressing. In addition, we have some favorites such as Patty's delicious shrimp appetizer and greek salad. Roman tried really hard to hang with us, but he fell asleep in his aunt Lucy's arms shortly after the start of dinner.

This is Roman and his aunt Patty. She read him his bedtime story "Pat the bunny". I am not actually sure its his favorite but he always seems to reach for it to put it in his mouth.

We wanted Eric and Roman to dress up as turkeys, but I didn't have time to make/buy costumes. So we don't have a funny picture to celebrate Thanksgiving. But here is a picture of his two aunts in their junior high pep squad pictures. I think its great! I am sure they are going to kill me for posting it!

Roman went to his first high school football game on Saturday night. His older cousin's football team was in an area playoff game. Unfortunately, Georgie's team lost. same as the Longhorns. My whole family was upset about this. Of course, Eric was very excited and was rubbing it in....

We came back Sunday morning, and Roman did really well during the car ride back to Austin. Of course, we had to make a couple of pit stops. Due to his introduction to solids, Roman's poopy diapers must be removed immediately (especially in a car)!

King of the World!

We went to the San Antonio Museum of Art today. It was a great day trip. Roman slept most of the way there. Although, we did have to stop at Target to feed him. He ate sweet peas for the first time! He liked them.

Roman was very impressed with the artwork at the museum. He kept telling us with squeals and laughter. I think his favorite exhibit was the modern art. I think he liked the geometric shapes. On our way out, Roman decided he wanted to try sit up in his stroller. Up until today, he always had a bit of incline in his stroller. But today, he was so excited to have no hands on the stroller. It reminded us of the Titanic movie scene!

Rough week for Roman

We haven't posted in about a week. Roman hasn't been feeling well. He had some congestion, and then he got an ear infection. But he is such a trooper, eating and sleeping ok.

He is just not his usual giggling, cheerful, talkative self (well, he thinks he is talking...)

We are posting a picture of Roman in bed. A couple of nights he slept with us because he wasn't feeling better. But he is getting better, so its off to his own crib! tough love...

Sitting Up!

This past weekend Roman was able to sit up for more than 10 seconds! He is starting to get the hang of sitting up.

He also is starting to flip over more often. He flipped over from back to front for the first time on October 5th, but was really not into it until this past weekend. It was really funny, I put him in his crib for naps, and I would find him minutes later turned over, entertaining himself by talking and looking around his room.

6 month anniversary!

yesterday was the 6 month anniversary of Roman's birth! hard to believe our baby boy is halfway to his 1st Birthday. He had his 6 month check up yesterday. Here are his stats:
Weight 20 lbs
length 27 inches
head circumference we can't remember the actual measurement but its in the 95% percentile. yikes!

Happy Halloween!

Sweet!

This past weekend, Roman moved on to sweet potatoes. He was a little surprised at first but then decided he could get with this new food.

He loved them! After reading more information on introducing solids, we have realized that we might be underfeeding Roman. The fact that he was waking up at 5 am ravenous instead of his usual 6:30/7ish wake up call should of been a clue. I bet we are not the first parents that wished babies came with a manual.

Give me some cereal!

For the past month, Roman has been eating rice cereal. He is still nursing, but we have begun the process to introduce solid foods. Apparently rice cereal is a good first food because it’s easy to digest and is the least type of food to cause allergies. Check out his picture in his high chair.

We are not sure if he likes the cereal or if he just wants to eat the bowl and spoon. Before we got the high chair, he was eating from his bumbo seat. For you non-parents, the bumbo seat is this awesome sturdy foam seat that babies can be sitted in w/ support starting at 3 months old.

The doctor told us at his fourth month check up that he could start eating cereal. But of course, I was not ready to admit that our baby was ready for solids. The picture on the left was one of the first attempts at giving him cereal. You can tell he is not sure what to do with this new substance.


Its also great that Eric can feed Roman. Up until 5 months, his only source of nutrition came from mami.

Kids Are First - Halloween Festival

Roman's childcare halloween festival was this past Saturday- October 21, 2006. We dressed him up as a skunk! He was such a trooper. I think he sensed how much his mommy loves to dress up for Halloween. Since Eric doesn't like to wear matching costumes with me, I am so excited to now have a partner to share in the spirit! Fun was had by all. Ok so Roman was too little to participate in the pinata, decorating his own cookie, or pick a floating pumpkin. It got late and we missed entering the "not so" haunted house. It was a great festival !

Big Boy!

Mommy picked up Roman yesterday at Kids Are First (his childcare program) and got some amazing news. The teacher explained that Roman held his bottle and drank it all on his own. She said he has a strong grip. Our baby is growing so fast. Of course, Mommy got on the phone with Roman's tia Laura and cried. This just confirms that time is flying by.

Stay Tuned!

Rather than trying fill in the past 5
months on this blog (an overwhelming task that would of prevented any postings), we are starting with our birth story and fast forwarding to 6 months.

Please check out http://www.romannapoleon.shutterfly.com/ for pictures of Roman from birth to 5 months. You don't have to sign in to view pics. Plus, you should view them as a slide show to see comments.

May 7, 2006
Our first week with Roman was a big adjustment for mom and dad. Everybody knows how the Hernandez like their naps!

Roman had to eat every 2.0-2.5 hours this first week. Of course, being first-time parents we had no idea what were in for.

Here is a picture of Karen and Eloy at one week. They were one of the first visitors (excludes Roman's grandmother who stayed with us to help us for two weeks & Roman's grandpa AKA Pop stayed for a couple of days).

Roman's homecoming

May 1, 2006
We arrived at our house at midnight to spend our first night as a family. We were so exhausted! We fell asleep around 1 am, and woke up 5 hours later! We were frantic, we were supposed to be feeding Roman every 2 hours. He was so sleepy..

My friend Leora let our street know about our new baby!

Our Birth Story

April 30, 2006
On the night before we welcomed Roman to the world, Eric and I talked about carpooling to work the next morning. I was still two and half weeks away from my due date (5/18) so I planned on working up until that date. Forget about going to work! My water broke on Monday morning at 2:45 am. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to wake Eric up. I thought about it for a couple of minutes... but then a contraction started.... I leaned over and woke Eric up and told him I thought it was time. He jumped right out of bed, and came to my side to let me know that everything was going to be fine, not to panic/worry. I was like I can do this. Boy, I started to get scared! In a few minutes the contractions started to intensify... I will never be able to describe the pain of contractions. I remembered our Bradley method breathing and relaxing exercises. I would take breaths in and out trying to relax during the contractions...


Eric called the Austin Area Birthing Center and talked to Heather. She asked how far apart my contractions were. Eric had been timing them, and they were a bit far apart. Heather suggested that I take a bath and see if the contractions subsided or weakened (it was my first delivery and my due date was still a bit away). Eric filled up the tub for me and helped me in. He even lit candles to help relax me. But the contractions kept coming and getting stronger... I told Eric to call Heather again and tell her that the contractions were not going away. I wanted to get to the birthing center ASAP! But Heather was great (you will see why later) She suggested that I labor at home until 7 am because the timing of contractions was still not close. She explained that she would meet us at the birthing center to check me out.. Well, I labored for about 2.5 hours at home. I remember how Eric was checking up on me and cleaning the house! He made sure to offer me all the methods of relaxation we learned in our childbirth class (i.e, massaging my back, lavender neck wrap). When it was time to go to the birthing center, I had to stop walking during contractions to concentrate on getting through the pain. which meant it took awhile to get in the car. On the way, we had to drive on Mopac and it was such a bumpy ride. I remember asking Eric to pull over a couple of times. When I got to the Birthing Center, Heather let us in. Even though we knew from class what to expect. Heather was so comforting and reassuring about what was coming up next. She examined me and to everyone's surprise, I was 9 cm dilated...she said we would be pushing within the next hour... BUT the baby was not further down than she would have liked.. So I worked through contractions for the next couple of hours, trying to help Roman down. Just my luck, contractions started to space apart. Roman was not making his way down. We tried everything: the pump, birthing stool, exercise ball, herbs, and sitting facing the toilet. Our midwife assistant, Stephanie, suggested that I try acupuncture and tried to show me how small the needles were. I told her the size of the needles didn'tÂ’t matter, I would try anything to get this baby moving along! After trying every midwife's trick for about 7 hours, I finally got the urge to push at around 3 pm. I pushed for the next hour or so with great encouragement from Eric, Heather, Joan and Stephanie. Just when I thought I had no more energy or strength to push, at 4:55 pm, knowing I had to give it my best shot (besides we all were anxious to meet this baby boy or girl with a full head of hair!) Roman made his way into our world. I can not express what I felt when the placed him on my chest immediately after his birth! It was the most challenging experience, but so empowering! I was amazed to see how big Roman was, and when Joan weighed him and let us know he was 10lbs and 9 oz. I was in disbelief! I wanted to weigh him on a different scale; the scale in the center's bathroom had always been kind to me...
I know that if I had been at a hospital, there is no way I would have been able to deliver Roman they way I had envisioned: natural, peaceful, and in a safe supportive environment.