Peyton is 9 Months Old!!

It still amazes me just how quickly this year is flying by. It feels like we just brought Peyton home from the hospital a few weeks ago, and he's now 9 MONTHS old! Incredible.

We went to see Dr. Glinder today for his 9-month check up. He continues to be thrilled with his development. Peyton showed the "right" amount of stranger anxiety when he came in. And, he kept looking at James for reassurance while he checked out the doctor.

Dr. Glinder was surprised to hear that Peyton is standing up and cruising already, but given that James was an early walker, we're not too surprised ourselves. He was more surprised to hear that Peyton has already started "talking". His vocabulary is expanding and is bilingual! He now says "Mama", "Dada", "Daddy", "Papa" (my Dad), and has switched to calling my Mom "Abu". In addition, he says "Atta" which we finally figured out means "Alli esta" - Spanish for "There it is".

Dr. Glinder agrees with us that we're going to have an extremely active and, it seems, smart little boy, so we've got our work cut out for us (I wouldn't have it any other way!).

The visit started out with his measurements, so here you go!

Weight: 20 pounds, 9-1/4 ounces (52nd percentile)
Height: 27-1/2 inches long (25th percentile)
Head circumference: 44.5 centimeters (27th percentile)

He's getting so big - we had to upgrade him to a bigger carseat last month. We opted for the Britax Roundabout, a convertible carseat that holds babies from 5 pounds to 40 pounds. It converts from rear-facing to forward-facing, so it should be a while before we need to replace it (or rather them - we bought two; one for each car).

And, here are a few pictures to show you what Peyton is up to these days.

He just LOVES it when James throws him up in the air.



He loves to play with his blocks. (More on that below.)



And, as he's teething (no teeth yet), this is extremely typical for him: He'll pick up a toy.....



...and it immediately goes into his mouth!



He loves to play with his talking Cookie Monster. He picks it up by the eyes because it talks when you open his mouth.

He can stand up really quickly now. He can do it all in just one action. From his knees...

...to his feet in less than 2 seconds!

He likes playing in the kitchen. We got a new refrigerator last year that has a reflective black finish. Peyton is fascinated with his reflection in the freezer door. We've nicknamed his reflection "Pedro". Here he is kissing Pedro. Peyton loves giving kisses.

As I mentioned above, Peyton really enjoys playing with his blocks. We have confirmed that he can stack the blocks, but he doesn't really like to. He much rather prefers to knock them down. It makes it a fun game for us all as James and I will stack the blocks into various shapes and sizes, and Peyton bulldozes them!

As you can see, we're having a ton of fun. :-)

Peyton's First Superbowl

Superbowl Sunday was exciting for us. From the beginning of the season, James and I both said that if the Colts weren't in the Superbowl, then we wanted the Saints to win. So, to have both teams make it to the Superbowl made for an interesting game. :-)

Of course, James is grooming Peyton to follow in his footsteps as a Colts fan, thus dressing him "appropriately" for the game.



Peyton is still really enjoying playing with the coasters, and we thought it would be fitting to let him play with the Peyton coaster.



We were invited to our neighbor's annual Superbowl party. It's always great fun, and this year the majority of the attendees were rooting for the Saints.



We had a great time! Peyton has definitely started having separation anxiety and is quite clingy when around strangers, so I spent most of the time with him in my arms.



Everyone was in good spirits when the Saints took the lead.

The Colts fans were still in good spirits after the game. We got a family picture.

And even though the Colts didn't win, we were very happy for the New Orleans Saints and the amazing season they had. It was wonderful for the city of New Orleans, the inhabitants of which were still in need of something good. Who Dat! :-)

Sitting Up

As mentioned in my last post, I've had a difficult time capturing Peyton's ability to sit up by himself on film. Well, I finally managed to get a video of it this week.

Enjoy!

Fun at Day Care

Peyton is having such a fun time at day care with Grandma Nelida, Grandpa Oscar, and Great-Aunt Angela (Grandma #3). Angela also has a day care but currently only has one child so she brings him over to play with Peyton everyday to help with each of their socialization skills.

Grandma and Grandpa have a nice backyard with a giant play structure and soft padded ground cover. They put up a jumper which Peyton just loves to play in. He just loves being outside!






The play structure has two swings and Peyton just loves to feel the wind in his face as he swings!

Baby Sounds

Here's a short video of Peyton hanging out on his mat while listening to President Obama.

Shirley and Patrick's First Visit!

Peyton got his first out of town guests last weekend - my sister Shirley and her husband Patrick flew up from Mexico City. They moved there last year when Patrick accepted a position at the new Mexican corporate offices of Best Buy.

Peyton loved his aunt and uncle which is great because they also have agreed to be his godparents! The baptism plans are underway - more information to come. They also spent the weekend strategizing how to take Peyton back to Mexico with them without me and James noticing - didn't work. :-)

Here are a few pictures of Shirley and Peyton (Patrick was working on overthrowing James' high score on the Wii Fit Slalom exercise - he succeeded).

(This is Peyton's Automatic Sprinkler onesie which definitely suits its owner).

Peyton was very sad to see Shirley and Patrick leave on Tuesday. :-( But they'll be back soon enough!

The First Four Weeks in Pictures

To track Peyton's development, I take a picture of Peyton every Monday. Here are the pictures from his first four weeks. We're two days into his second month - amazing!

May 11, 2009

Minutes old - in Grandma Nelida's arms. (Love at first sight).

Later that morning; already thinking!

Monday, May 18, 2009

In the car, on the way to the doctor's office for his final bilirubin check. Just staring at the light filtering in through the window.

One of his favorite sleeping positions. Super relaxed!

Monday, May 25, 2009 (original due date)

Wriggly feet - check out those long toes!

Sleeping on Mommy's lap. The beautiful crocheted blanket was made by Peyton's great-grandmother Martha when James was a baby!

Monday, June 1, 2009

Snoozing away on the couch.

He readjusts a lot (just like his Dad)!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Once again, sleeping on the couch. He loves the couch!

His cheeks are really full, and he's developed some baby acne which should clear up in the next month or two.

The First Three+ Weeks

The past three+ weeks have just flown by! Peyton cleared all the tests - he's perfectly healthy. But, being two weeks early, he did develop a touch of jaundice. This required him to sleep on a bilirubin bed for one night. They started him in a bilirubin blanket, but the machine stopped working (turns out the plug dislodged from the back of the machine). Here's a picture I took when it was still working.

The nurse couldn't find another blanket so she brought a bilirubin bed. This is a special bed with a mattress that emits UV light. Since the entire mattress emits the light, it required Peyton to wear a mask to protect his eyes. He hated not being able to see!

The pediatrician at the hospital was kind enough to order a blanket for us to use at home so that we could all go home on Wednesday.

Let's just say that the blanket made for some interesting nights as Peyton just hated it, but it was necessary. We had three visits to the pediatrician, who finally told us we could stop using it Monday night. His weight was up (he had dropped to 6 pounds, 5.5 ounces on Thursday, May 14th) and he was starting to look better. It'll still take some time for all the yellow to clear, but he's doing better! He's a big eater. It's hard, but I do manage to keep up with him.

He's also already shown that he has a mind of his own and that he knows what he likes. He doesn't like to be completely swaddled. He must have his arms out.

And, it took just over two weeks before he'd sleep in his bassinet.

A Son is Born!

Well, so much for having two weeks! The morning of May 9th, James and I decided to go back to Stacks for breakfast. As he was putting our names on the waiting list, I felt something strange. Since my legs/feet were really swollen, I thought I had just suffered from another third trimester possibilty albeit not a pretty one - loss of bladder control - but as it didn't dissipate over time, and actually got worse, we agreed it was time to call the doctor. He directed us to make our way to the hospital.


Luckily, James had already started packing the bag after my fall, so off to Sequoia we went! I was admitted immediately (just after 4pm) as my water had indeed broken at 10am that morning outside of Stacks (mental note: refrain from eating at Stacks in Menlo Park for a while). Baby boy Stafford was on his way just in time for Mother's Day! Or not... It took a while for things to start moving. I was "stuck" at 2cm from 7pm Saturday until 3pm Sunday.

The pitocin drip was started at 11pm Saturday night, and we all thought he'd come some time during the night. The anesthesiologist had to start my IV as my veins weren't cooperating and, since we thought it would only be hours, I agreed to have him start the line for the epidural. This would make it easier and faster to get the epidural when the time came. Well, the time came at 4pm Sunday afternoon when I was 2.9cm dilated. (After three shots of fentanyl which stopped working quickly.)


Everyone hoped the epidural would speed things along. I was 4cm at 6pm. Then 7cm (!) at 9pm. The baby was head down but was posterior (facing up towards my belly rather than my back). The doctor hoped I would progress at the same rate (1 cm/hour) and called for another check at 11pm at which point he would try to turn the baby. 11pm rolled around and voilà! I was finally 10cm dilated and the baby had turned himself. Okay, the hard part's over, right? Now it's time to start pushing. There was a chance he could still be a Mother's Day baby.

Well, it was not easier and it took two additional hours, but with the help of the vacuum, little Peyton August was born at 1:10am on Monday, May 11th! he was a healthy 7 pounds, 1 ounce and 19.25 inches long. He was born with a full head of hair and was alert and beautiful from the beginning!








James was an absolute champ during delivery. He had planned to "focus on my face" throughout the delivery, but when the time came he was right there holding my legs, counting my push lengths, and he cut the cord! He was just amazing. I'm a very lucky woman.






We agreed on the name later that morning. We had already picked his middle name, August, after my maternal grandmother, Agustina. We had decided to "meet" the little guy before picking his first name. We had a list of 8 names (another thing I was supposed to do during those two weeks off - narrow the list down to three or four names), but it didn't take long. Peyton was a long time favorite, and yes, he's named after our favorite quarterback.







He was early but right on time, really, as we can't imagine not having him with us over the past almost four weeks!