The Portillo Family: Welcome Leah Rachele into the Portillo Family

Merry Christmas from the Portillo Family!

We wanted to thank all of you for your prayers and thoughts over the past 3 weeks! So much has happened in our lives since the 1st of December and we wanted to just fill you in alittle!

We are getting ready to move as many of you know already. We are scheduled to report to Fort Drum, New York in the beginning of the new year but still do not have a date as of yet. We have received our extention orders to keep us here for at least 45 days to 60 days longer than expected. Thank God! With all the change, it would be hard to pick up and leave right now!

Hello everyone and welcome to our recently updated Blog! I'm sorry that it has been weeks since our last post but life here is sort of ....... well, busy to say the least! Heeee heee

Leah Rachele was born December 3rd at 4:42 p.m. (a whole day earlier than we had expected). I had been scheduled for a c-section on December 4th and went into the Maternity Ward on the 3rd for a routine Non-stress test. This is where the doctor checks the babies heartrate and contractions that Mom is having to be sure baby is safe and comfortable in there. It generally takes no more than 20 minutes, tops! After sitting there for 2 1/2 hours of being on the machines, I was still sitting there with a doctor over me saying, "What is going on with you and that baby?" My uterus was having seisures and the baby wasn't handling it very well. Her heartrate was up to 191 and that worried the doctor on call. They decided to hydrate me with an IV at that time. Once the IV was in, Leah's heartrate declined slowly over the next few minutes and went down to 50. That worried the doctor even more. Then, they lost her heartrate all together. That is when they said, "That's it. Let's go get your baby out of there." She was in distress and Dr. Carson wasn't going to have it. So within 40 minutes, Lea was born and born healthy. She was breach in there though. Her butt was the first thing the doctor delivered. She was funny. I remember laying on the table and hearing her say, "That's not a head. That's her booty!".

Now, I know that many of you have asked about Leah's ultrasound. Because of the way she was sitting inside, one of her hips didn't form all the way, the way it should have because of how she was positioned. The doctor checked her out Wednesday and said that he can feel that one of her hips pops but doesn't actually pop out of the joint, which is a good sign. So to be on the safe side, they wanted to do an ultrasound to see how the hip was doing and formed. He told me that he expected the results to come back as "normal" or "watch with development; repeat ultrasound in 6 weeks". He told me that he didn't expect anything to be wrong with her hip but that we just needed to keep an eye on it. And I trust our Peds doc. He is FABULOUS!!!!!!

Hope you like the pictures! Sorry it has been so long since we've updated! I promise to be better about it!

Leah on Ultrasound day!

Leah's first day home! She is such a calm and relaxed baby!

Our BEAUTIFUL and WONDERFUL Portillo Children! We are so proud of all of them and very thankful to welcome Ms. Leah to our family!

My bestest friend, Michelle, shows of Leah and her big eyes. I'm so thankful that Michelle came to visit when Leah was born. She actually got to really check her out before anyone else. Roni, Frank's sister, and the kids (Jack and Gabi) had not made it back yet. And when I was still in the operating room, Michelle was there in the room with Leah and Frank. I was SOOOO thankful to have her there!

Sitting pretty on picture day at the hospital! And even though she never woke up for pictures, she is still adorable!

Daddy shows Leah off on the day we came home from the hospital!

The only way that we could get Gabi really close to Leah was by making her do it unknowingly! Heeee heeee The two of them only slept together for a minute or so to take this picture but at least she was close to her during her time in the hospital!