Sleep Deprivation is a B&@ch!

This past weekend was my 1st weekend alone with Nayeli and Gypsy. Joe took students from his wilderness class to Arizona Hot Springs all day Friday and Saturday. So while he was soaking in hot springs and boating down the Colorado River, I was getting up every 2 hours to feed the black hole that is Nayeli's stomach and calming her from her all-day and all-night fussiness (Do I sound bitter right now?) I got a total of maybe 3.5 hours of sleep (all interrupted) on Friday night, which only brought out the Incredible Hulk in me. You did NOT want to be near me on Saturday...I didn't even want to be near me on Saturday! I know that everyone and their mother has told me that you get very little sleep with a newborn, but I always thought I would handle it more gracefully than I am. I am definitely open to suggestions from my veteran parent friends and family as to how to be more "Dalai Lama" about the lack of sleep. Just a couple of hours of sleep can mean the difference between viewing parenthood as a total conspiracy to suck the life out of a person and a total joy and miracle. I say this because on Sunday morning, after I fed Nayeli, Joe took her into the living room and gave me the gift (it was truly a miraculous gift!) of 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep! I woke up refreshed, happy, loving, and energized--the complete opposite of what I was on Saturday. What's funny is that never before being a mom would I have ever considered 4 hours of sleep as refreshing! Anyway, Joe redeemed himself for having left me alone with a ravenous & hysterical baby & a sick dog (oh yeah, did I mention that Gypsy was also puking all over the place.) Moral of the story: Never let your partner leave the house so they can always be there to relieve you so that you can take naps!

Oh, and here are some other cute pictures of our family:

(Looking like an Oompa Loompa in my hat & chillin' in my swing!)

(Eyes wide open & calm...at least for a short while.)

(Dad loving on me 'cuz I'm super cute in my new pink pajama suit!)

(Can't a girl just burp in peace without the paparazzi breathing down my neck!)

(Please help! A dwarf human has stollen all the attention at my home and my mom & dad have forgotten all about me! Send extra TLC a.s.a.p.)

The Milky Way, Good Bye Grandma Lucy & Baby's 1st Bath

I am pleased to announce that the Anna Dairy is now open for business! I have eschewed my teaching job in order to go into the milk production and distribution industry full time. What can I say--it's a great experience but I think I'll have to have a talk with my supervisor, Nayeli, about the crazy hours and lack of vacation time! As you can see from the picture above, she really likes to delegate the work and then lays around with her arms crossed on MY chest--I mean talk about taking advantage of the situation!

"Grandmas hold our tiny hands for just a little while, but our hearts forever."
On another note, my mom (a.k.a. Grandma Lucy) left to go back to Chicago on Wednesday. She had stayed with us for one week and I was very sad to see her go. Not only was she great company but she was tons of help as well. It's funny to think about how much I needed my mom as I was learning to become a mom. I'm really grateful and blessed to have her love and support, especially during the past week--she wasn't able to have her mom, or any help besides my dad, around after my sister was born and I can't even imagine how hard that must have been for her! It was awesome to see my mom doting & loving on her first grand-daughter. It's so exciting to envision their future relationship together because my mom will have so many great things to share and pass onto Nayeli, lessons that I learned as well thru her that will be better appreciated a second time around. Anyway, thanks mom for all your help and your love. We love you very much and miss you already!

Last but not least we'd like to share pictures of Nayeli's first bath. We held off for a while bathing her as part of the hazing ritual that comes with being a member of our hippie family. Really we were just waiting for her umbilical cord to fall off which happened yesterday night. BTW: Does anyone know how to store an umbilical cord? We'd like to keep it to use as a humiliation tactic for when she become a teenager! Nayeli's first bath was definitely a team effort between Joe and I. Who knew we'd need so much coordination and strategy when dealing with a tiny newborn? As it turns out babies are slippery when wet and new parents are quite awkward when dealing with wet, slippery newborns that wail like an ambulance during their first bath! To our surprise, Nayeli did not become the dolphin we expected her to be during her bath. I'm sure that her father is not going to stop trying to convince her that she must LOVE the water--after all she does have a pink kayak waiting for her to grow into and kayaks are NOT used on dry land. She did smell like baby heaven afterwards (thanks Burt's Bees) and then passed out for a long time due to the exhaustion from such a traumatic event. Needless to say, we look forward to further traumatizing our daughter with water until she grows gills (or so says her papa!)

Here are just some other adorable pictures we'd like to share with you:

(Papa doing a good job burping me--no sailor has anything on my burps!)

(Mom and I singing a duet: We're practicing to take our show to Vegas.)

(Grandma Lucy made this headband for me and now I'm too sassy for this blog!)

Beautiful Nayeli Sol Devine

It is with great joy and pride that Joe and I introduce to you our new daughter, Nayeli Sol! She was born on November 26 at 3:39 am in Cottonwood, Arizona. She was only 4 hours away from being born on her papa's birthday, which was the 25th, but instead she was born on her cousin Tessa Devine's birthday! November truly is a blessed month with the celebration of Thanksgiving, giving thanks for all blessings in our lives including the cool people born this month!

Nayeli was born at the hospital after many, many hours of trying to birth her at home. I started having contractions at 3 am on November 25th. The midwife and her assistants came over to the home at 8am and by 4 pm I was fully dilated and ready to push. So for the next 5-6 hours I pushed and pushed and pushed Nayeli down to as far as she would go. I eventually ran out of energy & stamina (I had only 3 hours of sleep before the contractions started and kept me up) and had to be transported to Verde Valley Medical Center where I pushed for many more hours until the doctor offered to use the forceps to help deliver Nayeli because she was obviously stuck. Apparently the infamous Devine head was stuck under my pelvic bone and wouldn't allow her free passage! With a couple of tugs from the doctor she was finally born into our wonderful world--all 7 lbs. 13 oz. of her! She is a total doll and we love her so much already--sometimes it feels our hearts will explode with all the love we feel for this little girl! We very much look forward to introducing her to all of our beloved family and friends and creating special and loving memories with her.

It's Officially Official

As far as the law is concerned, Joe and I are officially hitched! I know it may seem like a shotgun union, but to us it's just a formality--in our mind, and in the eyes of all states that recognize common-law unions, we've been married for four years. But now we have the license to back us up in case of any medical or family emergencies. It's a shame that in so many states the same right isn't extended to same-sex couples. We really wanted to get a license in California, where up until one week ago they granted same-sex couples the right to marry, because to us equality for all is an important part of our belief system and it's something we want to pass onto Nayeli. Unfortunately, Proposition 8 was accepted by a little more than half of California's population, so there went our chance to get a license in a state not tainted by prejudice....we know that in Arizona same-sex unions would not be allowed because of how conservative this state is. We hope that we can still play some form of activist role in the future in this matter, but for now we had to do what was most practical for us and get the "piece of paper" in Prescott.

Oh, by the way, feel free to send any congratulatory gifts via USPS, FedEx, or UPS to our home and/or make out all personal checks to Joseph Devine & Anna Benitez:) LOL hehehehe

The Birthing Corner

Today was spent getting the rest of our birthing supplies ready and prepared for D-Day (the delivery day.) The picture above is of Joe blowing up the birthing pool, which has a sea theme going around it. I guess since we can't have the baby in the ocean, this would be the next best thing! Among the supplies we had to get are the following: wash clothes, batteries & flashlight, a fish/kitchen strainer, sea salt, bleach, Castor oil, tarps, garden hose, faucet adaptor, toilet paper & paper towels, garbage bags, super glue, stew pan, big towels, a bucket, Gatorade, and a ferret....just kidding about that last one:) Sounds like a list that McGuyver would request to build an airplane or something!

The other picture is of my birth corner up and ready--well almost. I'm not really liking the symmetry of the hanging sarongs from the ceiling, but I figured that I better save some stuff to do for my labor project during early labor. It was a lot of fun getting things ready. I have some birth art that Joe and I did in one of our birthing classes hanging from one wall. On the mirrors I have some positive affirmations written to remind Joe of what to say to me when I'm screaming and cursing at him for causing me so much pain:) It's really nice to be able to have a say in how your environment is during labor. The goal is to surround ourselves with as much positive and comforting energy as possible--what a great way to birth and to bring Nayeli into this crazy world!

37 weeks and counting

So this past Wednesday marked 37 weeks of pregnancy! Yipee! Our midwife, Paula, stated after checking me that she thought I would probably be another week to a week-and-a-half until I gave birth...apparently I went from 1/2 cms. dilated to 2 cms. in just 7 days, the baby had dropped substantially, and my cervix was even more effaced than the norm. So Joe and I went into overdrive today getting things ready for Nayeli--buying a hose to run hot water from the bathroom to the birthing tub, getting towels together, disinfecting & cleaning our home, etc. We get our birth tub this weekend and we're going to set it up and try it out before the birth, like a rehearsal birth:)

This Sunday we will also be having a "Family Blessing" sponsored by our school's director, Sue, and our very good friend and co-worker, Sarah Eastman. I am so excited to have a little party and to hang out with good friends and co-workers. We'll definitely take many pictures and share them with you all on the blog. In the meantime, here are some more belly pictures, as well as some pictures of Joe getting an orientation on a game called W.O.W.--this means I probably won't see him until Nayeli's birth:)

T.G.I.F.!!!

So we thought we'd share with you what our dorky selves like to do on a weekend night...

First off, we made a killer soup. It's my first time making soup from scratch--lame I know! The recipe is from my mom and it came out yummy, but not as yummy as hers--I'll never cook as amazing as she does. My soup included the following: lentils, brown rice, broccoli, onions, garlic, green peppers, potatoes, chicken stock, water, fresh parsley, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, bay leaves, and Adobo seasoning! We have leftovers now for about one week--thank goodness it's tasty and healthy!

Afterwards we rocked out to Rock Band--"Devine" on the guitar and "Lola" (that's me) on the microphone! The pic is of us jammin' to "Maps" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs! (We really are such dorks!)

Late Post for September

Alright, so we are playing catch up with our posts if you can't tell! We're on fall break from school and finally have time to do some things on our giant "TO DO" list, which includes this blogging business.

Anyway, we wanted to share with you how we spent out Labor Day weekend. We had a fabulous weekend getaway to San Antonio, TX to visit Josh, Cortney, Tessa, Molly, baby Max, & Jasper. Thank you so much Texan Devines for putting up with us for an entire weekend, which included making awesome gourmet meals, entertaining us with trips to the pool & Riverwalk, and teaching us about the benefits of playing Guitar Hero until 1 in the morning! We really did have a great time with them and, as always, it was hard to leave family. Our highlights definitely were grilling Josh & Cort about our upcoming baby journey, seeing just how much the girls have grown, and meeting cute-as-a-button Max! They definitely will be receiving many phone calls from us once Nayeli has arrived as they are true veterans to this crazy thing called parenthood!

Late Post for August

My parent's came to visit us in Prescott in August to celebrate my dad's 100th birthday--yeah he looks really good for his age (he gives all credit to Oil of Olay!) We had lots of fun with them as we usually do, but their trip was way too short....Vegas called them for a couple of days after Prescott.

Just wanted to post some pictures of his birthday celebration at Casa Bonita in Prescott Valley.

My First Pictures

We'd first like to start by welcoming you, our esteemed guest, to our blog! We finally got our butts in gear, at least for a day, to do this--we've been talking about doing a blog forever! Our short and long term memories are not as good as they used to be and we figured this would be a great way to help us remember the small and big things in life, as well as catch you up on what's been going on with us.



The biggest news we have to share is that we are expecting our first baby on Thanksgiving Day! It's a girl and we're excited to share the name that we've chosen for her, which is Nayeli Sol Devine. Her 1st name means "I love you" in Zapotec, which is a Mexican Native American dialect. Her 2nd name means "sun" in Spanish. Yeah, yeah we know we're hippies at heart:)

These are her first ultrasound pictures that were taken. I know you can't see much of anything--just squint your eyes and tilt your head, kind of like a Magic Eye, and maybe you'll be able to see her! We hope you enjoy our blog and we look forward to keeping it as up-to-date as possible, which keeps you as up-to-date on us as possible! Hugs to everyone!