Leo’s first words

at about 8 months Leo started saying repeated sounds. The first sound he made was “bla bla bla” from his car seat, then “ba ba ba” which his brothers are claiming as bubu” and saying his first word was brother but I don’t think he was really saying it intentionally, next da dada” which was similar. I don’t think he was particularly saying anything. Then about two months later he said 6 real words on the same day :) the first one predictably was dog. He adores Wally so much! He laughs whenever he gets close to him and his favorite game is tug o war with Wally. He will grab Wallys chew snake and pull it around while Wally tried to get it and just laugh his head off. Sometime he chews on it too :) well a few minutes later he said ball while he chased one around, then he said “Hi” as he was waving to me :) he said dada for real, then “ma” for mommy. Then the next morning we were at Mimi’s house and I was pointing up at her saying “Mimi, Leo, see Mimi!” And Leo reached his arms toward Boo in the other direction and shrieked, “ Mimi!!”

Leo is the most easy baby. He is so happy all day just playing quietly and crawling all around the floor and examining all the things he finds :) he adores his siblings and they are amazing helping him and playing with him and making sure he is safe. He LOVES balls! He will just follow one all over the floor throwing it or pushing it or kicking it if someone helps him stand and be so very happy.

He loves to make a lot of noise too. Sometimes he is so loud at church that i have to go outside the building. He was growling loudly at church the other day and a little two year old said to his mommy, “ that baby isn’t very nice” I thought that was so funny because of course Leo was just grinning ear to ear as happy as could be.

He’s an angel! I love his chubby little cheeks and his sweet little happy squeals more than I could say.   He hates having his diaper changed, wakes up in the night but that’s probably because I still feed him to sleep. I love having a baby so much! Leo fills my days with happy :) but I am really tired. I would love to get a good night sleep sometime but I don’t want to wish away a minute of this time.

Galileo Ivan Buchelis birth story

Leos story starts when I was sick and pregnant with Esther actually. The spirit was with me so strongly through that time and it told me, "you can do this, and you can do it again!" Then after Esther was born we were so overwhelmed with our kids and we had our two boys and two girls. It made a lot of sense to be done but I started to get this feeling again that we weren't done. I kept feeling that if we had another child that he or she would be a great blessing to us and that if we didn't have them we would be missing that great blessing that God was ready to give us. Still it was scary. We were maxed out. We waited. We had a beautiful confirmation one day in the temple and then a couple months later, I heard an actual voice in the temple saying, "Mommy, please don't forget me." With tears streaming down my face I knew then that I didn't want to wait another minute for this sweet baby. Once we got on board and started trying it took us a long time. Almost 9 months before I was finally pregnant.

I was not as sick and miserable with Leo as I was with the girls but I was still pretty much incapacitated. Then just as it was starting to get better one night I was walking around and suddenly there was a gush of blood. after calling the nurse she assured us that it was probably fine and to come in the next day. They did an ultrasound and it turned out I had a very large subchorionic hemorrhage. The dr said there was about a 50% chance the baby would live. For two weeks I stayed on bedrest. So many dear friends brought us meals and came to talk with me. I felt so grateful. Especially my dear mom did so much for me and my kids through this pregnancy. It changed everything. It made everything bearable. She picked up Phoebe from preschool a million times and brought us meals and was just an angel! I wasn't really afraid through this time because I had felt so strongly that we needed to have this baby, I just knew it was in the Lords hands. We were so blessed and I got better :)

About 20 weeks in my autoimmune disorder started acting up pretty badly. I was sleeping ten hours every night and then requiring sometimes two or three long naps during the day just to make it through. In spite of all this sleep, I was exhausted every minute of the day. This sounds so dramatic and I hate to say it, but honestly I think what I was feeling is the tiredness people must feel when they are about to die. I could barely put one foot in front of the other and something like going grocery shopping might as well have been climbing mount everest. As soon as the kids fell asleep at night I would fall into bed and sleep through all of the noise and wake ups of the night like a dead person. Sometimes a small task like getting all the kids into the car would make me sit down and cry, just because I couldn't figure out how to find the strength to do it. I was too tired to smile and certainly too tired to talk at all.

On top of all this I was made of pain. Every joint in my body and all of my muscles hurt so badly and it didn't go away after a couple hours. In the beginning I was just experiencing tiredness, but if I only got 8 hours of sleep instead of ten, the pain was unbearable. After awhile I was so tired and sick I couldn't imagine that I would live through the pregnancy

Finally I was able to get on a low dose of steroids and everything got so much better. My third trimester felt like a piece of cake compared to the second. I could think clearly again and one short nap would get me through each day :)I was able to walk the kids to school. That description of the pain was written after I started the steroids though. The really crazy part about it was the fog. It was like I just wasn't really awake for months. I couldn't describe what I was experiencing until after i started feeling better.

In a way this was a blessing. I felt like this pregnancy went by like a dream. so quickly that I hardly noticed the hard parts. I think it was really a blessing. It was like God knew what a frightening thing it was for me to get pregnant with my disease and all the crazy of our lives and he truly blessed that faith. I felt his spirit with me throughout the pregnancy and I felt that he was pleased with me in spite of how short I was falling in everything. Im spite of needing so much help just to take care of my family. I felt very happy even in the midst of the fog and pain. I knew that I was doing the most important thing I could be doing. I felt heroic but mostly I could see with my eyes how God was filling the gaps.

Finally we got to the end. The last few weeks I started to lose my mind like always but it was also easier in a way this time because I knew I was not really myself and that it was normal to feel a little crazy during that part. I went to hospital with a false alarm once and then finally the day before Leos scheduled induction I went back to the hospital only to have my labor stop almost completely just as it was progressing rapidly. The dr was an angel and he let me stay and gave me some pitocin. I didn't want to use an epidural because I had had reactions to it during my previous three births. Instead I used Nitrous Oxide and it worked beautifully for all but the last hour of the labor. During the last hour the pain got so bad I couldn't even breathe the nitrous oxide anymore. I felt like I was being ripped apart. I had no idea how bad pain could be before this labor. If I ever have a baby again I will sign up for the epidural so happily. As I was screaming in pain, I finally got a spinal block for maybe the last contraction before pushing and the relief was immediate. 

The pain was so intense that I dont think I could have pushed without the epidural. 

 It’s been a wonderful busy September, salsa dancing has become our new favorite family hobby.  Leo will reach into anyone’s bowl for a handful of food if it’s in his reach. We had the opportunity to help clean the church. Sammy spent a day catching frogs. They all dote on baby brother and make sure he is tough and wild enough to be a Bucheli. Soccer and piano for three kids. Dance class for one. Scouts, choir, homework, it never ends. We fall into bed each night only to wake up three or four times in the night before we start all over again the next day but this is a wonderfully fun time! I’m exhausted but I also wish this time could last forever.

I love the way Phoebe walks around snapping her fingers these days! She has so many wonderful ideas and she will talk about everything a mile a minute: stories about her day, ideas for a game we are about to start, her new plan to open a bakery right now, describing to me all the intricacies of the pirates we are fighting or the lava surrounding us, all while snapping her fingers again and again :)

Max made a goal a couple months ago to read the Book of Mormon. He is reading a chapter a day and he is already in Mosiah! I am so proud of him, I can hardly believe it. He is really taking it in too. He will find connections to things in our lives saying, “that reminds me of something I read the other day...” He has been so sweet and responsible in so many ways lately. He bares his testimony every month in church. He is always to proud to stand up and sometimes he can convince Sammy or Phoebe to go with him. Today he said, “last week when my brother was blessed, I looked around and almost all the adults in my family were crying. I am so grateful to be part of such a loving family and I know that families are the most important part of Heavenly Fathers plan” . He had me crying again. Tears of pride and love and gratitude. He’s a good boy for sure! Tonight we went to my parents house and we walked out the door and the. Max ran back and gave them both great big hugs. I’m not sure he’s ever done that before. All three of us were so happy and proud.

Leo’s baby blessing was just incredible last week. He was blessed the day after sweet a sophie was married so we had a lot of people there. In addition to all of his aunts and uncles and cousins, he had Reynaldo Jean-Luis, and Sophie’s new in laws there. I felt so grateful  for so much support, for so many people to love our boy. He is a sweetheart. I love him so much! When I first brought him home from the hospital, he would cry if someone else held him and would turn to find me if he heard my voice. As he’s gotten bigger, now he loves when his siblings hold him! He smiles so sweetly and is starting to coo. He is so sweet and precious!!

Esther loves cats. She pretends to be one pretty often. Esther is great at staying in character and if she is a princess, she will not respond until you call her princess instead of Esther. She adores Leo! She lives for baths. She would take ten a day if I let her, and she thinks she should be allowed to drink hot chocolate milk to replace every meal. She has horrible asthma and every time she gets sick we have a week of sleepless nights a mornings where I feel so grateful we lived through them.  Max and Sammy almost never have asthma anymore so I’m hopefully she will outgrow it too.  Esther loves nursery more than any of our kids. She could t wait to go each Sunday, but she also loved her first day of primary today. We have four kids in primary this year! She allows me to give her a hairdo only for church on sundays.

Sammy is on the sixth Harry Potter book and addicted. He has always got it and I have to take the book with me when I kiss him good night or he would stay up all night reading . He also lives going to grown up soccer with his daddy. He scores goals against the adults and they are always so surprised that he can hold his own and fight for the ball and score against grown ups. He is very loyal to his friends and he has a huge fun friend group. Sammy loves to make people laugh. He has a hundred different funny voices and I can hardly remember what his real voice sounds like. He adores the baby. He loves to use a silly voice and tell me that he is Leo’s daddy and I am just his babysitter. He can keep him happy for a very long time and he doesn’t get tired of holding him so he is a huge help to me. He can hold the baby while I make dinner or clean a room. He is helpful in many ways. Sammy is always willing to help me out. To ale out the garbage or put something away. I appreciate him so much!  He was very sick last week with a fever for 5 or 6 days. He had dark circles under his eyes and lost weight and just wanted to lay around. It broke my heart. I love my boy!