Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there!

James has really enjoyed these first 6 weeks of fatherhood. He's a very proud papa and loves spending time with his "Little Man". The two have become extremely close over the first six weeks!



This is James' first picture with Peyton - taken at the hospital the morning of Peyton's birth.

The two enjoy taking naps together.

Peyton is so in love with James always looking at him with fascination.

The fascination continues!

For Father's Day, I bought James two onesies for Peyton to wear during football season. I had to buy two as he'll grow out of the 3-6 month one before the end of the season. I assume Peyton's Aunt Tracey will keep Peyton dressed in Steeler-gear, so I went with Colts-gear considering that's for whom his namesake plays.

Happy Dad!

Go Colts!!

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Peyton's grandpa Oscar loves spending time with his first grandchild.

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Other Dads to celebrate:

My cousin Darlene welcomed her first baby on Tuesday, May 26th. Manuel Cruz Minjarez was 7 pounds, 3.5 ounces and was 20 inches long. Like Peyton, Manuelito was born with a full head of beautiful black hair.

Happy Father's Day Felix! You have two beautiful boys!

James' brother Matthew welcomed his first baby Elisabeth Joy Stafford on Monday, June 8th. Lisa weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces and measured 18 inches long. Following suit, Lisa was born with a full head of hair as well - a beautiful auburn red.

Congrats Matthew - Happy First Father's Day!

One Month Stats

Yesterday was Peyton's one month visit to the doctor. We got to meet his primary care physician at last - he was at a conference the week Peyton was born. Dr. Glinder was referred to us by a coworker/friend of mine; he's bee caring for her now 6-year old daughter since birth. Peyton responded really well to him so I think he's a keeper!

Peyton now weighs 9 pounds, 14 ounces and is 22 inches long. His head circumference is 37.7 centimeters. As a reminder, he was 7 pounds, 1 ounce at birth. He measured 19.25 inches and his head circumference was 34.8 centimeters.

Dr. Glinder is extremely pleased with his growth and overall progress. And, as with everyone who meets Peyton for the first time, his first reaction was "Wow, look at all that hair!". :-)

But the visit didn't end as nicely as it had started as it was time for Peyton's second Hepatitis-B shot. The poor thing was happily gurgling until the needle went in at which point he let out a blood curdling howl. I picked him up right away and was able to console him, but for the rest of the day, he wasn't happy unless he was in my or James' arms - which we happily obliged him with.

Here's a picture of Peyton in James arms. He really is growing!

He always looks at James like this. He perks up when he hears his voice and follows him with his eyes when James is walking around in his line of sight. Very cute!

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.

The First Happy Bath

Peyton hasn't enjoyed his baths to date. He would just scream and scream until we were done. But today was different. James and I braced ourselves for another scream-fest, but were pleasantly surprised to find that he actually enjoyed it!

And here are post-bath pictures of our clean little boy!

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!