Give a “Hell YEAH!!” My son rolled over by himself for the first time today!!
I took my son, Baby M, to vote with me on Tuesday morning, November 4, 2008. Actually, the three of us, Mom, Dad and Baby M, went together as a Familia to vote. It was a great feeling to particpate in Democracy as a family. I knew that this vote would have historical significance for generations to come, and I wanted my son to be a part of history.
As we walked to the polling place, an old Senior Citizen at the front door took a look at Baby M in my arms and quipped with a smile, “he looks kind of young to vote, I bet they are going to check his ID inside”. I smiled and responded that Baby M was going in to vote for Obama!
Inside the polling place, my son was a hit with everybody there. I estimated that there was about 60 people in line. Baby M was very well-behaved throughout the process and did not cry or make any noise. He was too busy, wide-eyed, looking around at all the voting activity and smiling at people. After we voted, Baby M received an “I Voted” sticker which he proudly wore all day Tuesday.
I know my son is too young to remember what happened that day. But, when he gets older, we can tell him that he participated in a historic election, and that he “voted” for Obama. Later that night, watching the election returns on TV, watching history being made, we were filled with Hope. Both my wife and I wondered aloud about what our son would grow up to be in this great country. Would our son one day grow up to be President? It was a night filled with Hope for the future, and Hope for many different things.
A good friend of mine told me that, with respect to our family, we are like Picasso painting a masterpiece. Each day you add a brush stroke or different color. When you start painting, you don’t know what the finished piece is going to look like. As the years go by, you take a step back and begin to see the masterpiece that you are creating by your actions each day–your family. By your actions and how you treat your family, you can either paint a beautiful picture, or you can paint a nightmare scene. I really like that analogy.
Yeah, I am definitely painting my masterpiece every day. One thing that I really enjoy (more than I thought I would) is singing to my baby to put him to sleep at night. I sit in the wooden rocking chair, baby in my arms, lights dimmed really low. I just put on some lullabies on Itunes and sing away softly while he is in my arms and he stays looking at me with those beautiful eyes of his. At that moment, I forget about time. I forget about work. I forget about everything else in this world and its just me and my son. Priceless.
IT’S A BOY!
Our baby finally came into this world and officially made us into a family of Tres. Baby was born on Seven Eleven, 8lbs, 7oz, 21 inches long. Yes, he is a big boy and he came two weeks early (born at 38 weeks). My friend said it was because we were too organized and had his room ready, car seat installed, and everything taken care of beforehand. In short, we were just waiting for him and so he decided to come to the party early. It was probably a good thing anyway since the Doctor said that if he had gone to 40 weeks baby would easily have been a 9 pounder.
Overall, the pregnancy went wonderful but we had a little wrinkle at the end. Mom had a very difficult labor for 14 hours and was not able to dilate more than 1 cm. Finally the decision was made for the C-section. She is my hero for everything that she went through to give birth to our son. I’ve told her that many times.
The very good part is that both Mom and Baby are doing fine and resting at home now. I am doing everything I can to help Mom with her recovery. I was able to take 3 weeks off from work to take care of Mom and Baby. Baby is very healthy and inherited my healthy appetite for food. He eats every two-to-three hours round the clock, and of course what goes in must come out. I am a diaper changing pro now!
As you can imagine, sleep is more precious than gold (or a barrel of oil) right now and there is not much time for blogging or anything else. However, there is tons of material that I could write about. What a beautiful experience this has been. I am a very blessed and lucky man. Words cannot really convey the feeling, but I thought I knew what happiness was. That is until I experienced true happiness the moment and day that my son was born. It was awesome. I was on Cloud 9 with Euphoria for at least 4 days. I am still very happy now, even though its has been a lot of work. I hear the baby crying for Daddy, so bye for now.
This past Sunday, Mom2be and I went to the Thousand Oaks Mall to burn a gift card we received for the Baby Gap. All of a sudden we walked past this store called Build-A-Bear. We see a bunch of kids in there having fun and getting really excited building teddy bears. Of course, I immediately think of our son and how cool it would be for us to build a bear for him and his room.
It was a very cool experience! I actually had more fun in there that I imagined. Mom2be and I jointly picked the bear, a compromise as usual. We also picked out his teddy bear clothes. The teenage girl clerk asked us if we wanted to record a sound for the teddy bear. What??? Yes, we could record a 10-second message that would play every time the bear’s paw was squeezed. Of course! So we went into the recording studio (the women’s bathroom) and recorded a 10-second greeting in Espanol for our son.
The teenage clerk then had us pick out 2 red velvety hearts, one for each of us parents. Then we each kissed and rubbed them on our own hearts before putting them inside the teddy bear while making a wish. I wished and prayed for a beautiful and peaceful delivery with no complications, and for a healthy baby and mother.
All in all, it was happy experience which I thoroughly enjoyed, made even more special because I thought of our son the whole time. Below are a few of photos of Osito in his new home, waiting for Baby along with us.
Osito para Bebe
We had a co-ed Baby Shower last month. Its was very nice. One thing that was very neat was that our neice handed out 5 x 7 “New Mommy Advice Cards” to everyone. Everyone then had a chance to write some “advice” to us as new parents. Here is a sample of the advice we received.
1. Follow your own instincts when it comes to your baby – everyone will have advice but its not always good advice!
2. Try to rest when the Baby is sleeping. Take it easy. The cleaning of the house can wait.
3. Patience! Patience! Patience! It gets better! Really it does!
4. Come frijoles cuando el nino esta durmiendo. El Bebe siempre tiene la razon. No dejar que la presion o “stress” les afecte su matrimonio.
5. Rest all you can now and love, love, love your little baby. Save up now for baseball, soccer and all the great extra activities!
6. Spend as much time as possible with him. He will grow up quickly.
7. Sleep as much as you can & get lots of rest.
8. Patience, lots of patience. Let the kid be a kid.
9. You should have named the baby Austin.
10. To do what you think you should do. Tell the little baby I love him.
11. Enjoy this time in your lives. I am happy for the both of you. Spend a lot of quality time with the little baby.
12. Get ear plugs. remind the baby that your home is not Denny’s so you do not serve dinner 24/7! Hug your baby every chance you get, kiss ’em, and LOVE him because you are truly blessed!
We have reached Week 37! Technically, we have 21 days to go as the original due date is July 23, 2008. However, we went to see the doctor today for a regular check up. Dr. P said that he could feel the baby’s head really low. It was his opinion that the baby would be born anytime “within the next 2 weeks”. My eyes almost came out of my head, as I wasn’t expecting that, so soon. I thought we had three full weeks, but who knows, maybe baby will make an early appearance. The good thing is that everything appears to be normal and the baby is positioned well for birth, head down. So we are thankful that the baby is not in a breech position as that would really complicate things dramatically. I hope its been my prayers and my mom and dad’s prayers working.
That said, we have almost everything ready for the baby. His room is ready, the crib is waiting, empty right now. His name is up on the wall in his room, painted blue and gold, UCLA colors. I have really good baby music playing in his room frequently. Its a series called Rockabye. We bought his stroller this past weekend, and some bottles. I have my new video camera ready, and my new digital SLR camera, too. We installed his infant car seat last week, and we have an appointment next week with the CHP for an inspection to make sure its been installed correctly. Mom2be made her bag tonight. I had to tell her several times to do it. I think she was procrastinating a bit. Its ok, we’ll get through everything just fine.
Just a waiting game now, and I will have to fill my days with prayer and meditation because life is moving at light speed right now. I need to slow it down to fully enjoy this miracle, this gift, this blessing, this joy, this positive energy, this life, this moment.
The whole pregnancy/birth/baby life event has definitely been a very humbling experience for me. You feel this tremendous love for the baby and for your wife, while at the same time you realize that you have absolutely no control over anything. By that I mean regarding the health of the baby and the conditions of the delivery. All I can do is pray my heart out, keep up with the doctor visits and prenatal care, and hope that everything comes out just fine. Its just another reminder to me that so much of life is not within my control.
I remember the various scenes in Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto that whenever a warrior was going to die, another warrior offered a “blessing” of sorts to the effect of “have a safe journey to the other world.” I think of our baby’s time in the womb in the same vein, that the baby is an another world right now (the womb) preparing for his journey into this world. So I am constantly praying to the higher powers that be for my baby’s safe journey into this world, my world.
I don’t generally talk to my dad about my feelings or worries (I am a Chicano, remember, and Mexican dads from his generation don’t talk about feelings–which is a whole other post right there). However, I mentioned to him that I had been praying my butt off for my son’s safe journey into this world- that he be full of health and feel lots of love and peace. I also told him that I would give anything in this world within my power to be able to protect my son through the whole birth process, but that I am relegated to watching everything from the sidelines. My dad then responded with some of his old-school wisdom, that once you become a parent, there is constant worry about protecting your kids, and that as a father, you wish you could protect them from all harm and hurt. At the same time, you have to release your kids to the world so that they can live their own lives and experiences. So as a dad and parent, you end up in constant prayer–asking God to protect your children from all the harm in this world. Random thought: maybe this was the concept behind having your own “Guardian Angel”.
The whole pregnancy/birth/baby life event has also been a very spiritual experience for me so far. It has forced me to take time out of my busy day and reconnect with my spiritual side. Mostly through introspection, meditation, silent prarer and through music. I am definitely trying to learn to let go, as GOVINDA says to do. Learning to listen to the voice of the RIVER, just like SIDDHARTHA had to learn in order to get to the next level. I have found myself praying to the Gods, for a beautiful entry into this world for our baby, and for a beautiful and pain-free delivery with no complications for my wife. All done from the sidelines because I have no control over any of these matters. I am just a passenger in this car being driven around by forces of nature and God, and it is very humbling
Después de la eterna noche salio el Sol
Y la imagen de tu rostro aparece
En frente de mis ojos por primera vez
Una emoción ponderosa traversa
Por todo mi ser
Me subió a las nubes y a la misma vez
Me hiciste llorar de alegría
Después de verte tantas veces en mis sueños
Finalmente te vi en foto
La cual estudie por horas y días
Estabas como una flor esperando retoñar
Allí en la seguridad de el vientre de tu madre bella.
Tu nariz, de quien es?
Tu boca, la abriste como queriendo decirme algo
Y tus dulces labios, tan preciosos!
Aunque no te conozco,
Te conozco por una eternidad
Por que la sangre mía y de tus antepasados
Corre por nuestras venas.
Click on the Photo if you’d like to; use the back on your browser to get back
Rack of Baby Shoes
Wall of Crib Bedding
Wall of Baby Food Jars; We’ll soon be buying tons of this stuff
Baby’s Room Decor
Cribs on Sales Floor
Wall of Baby Carriers; I want one of these!
Born in 2008
As if that wasn’t enough, we headed over to Baby Depot
Where I ran into this; Walls and Walls of Baby Clothes! Enough!!!
Dulzura en Julio -- Sweetness in July: The Best of My Love for the New Baby 
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