Bath time!!!

Sam was born on the sixth of July and his cord stump fell off on July twenty-fourth, he was ready for his big boy bath! This event was something we as parents were looking forward to for quite some time. Up until then he was only getting the once over with a wet wipe or damp cloth. Now, Sam as sweet as he is, is not a messy child…no he doesn’t drool, hasn’t had crazy blow-out diapers, nor is able to get into stuff quite yet, however because he is so sweet and handsome …gets covered with a gazillion kisses on a regular basis and smothered by anyone and everyone within a hundred mile radius J . So, as you can imagine we were eager to get the ok from the pediatrician and ready to give him a scrub down.

Now, I thought that once the cord stump came off, we were good to go…wrong! We had to wait an additional four days to be on the safe side. Who knows if this is too much information… but there was still stuff (blood and guts…as David might say) oozing out after it had fallen out…ok not that much stuff but enough to make us hold off for a few days…finally on July twenty-eighth a full twenty-two days after he was born we were able to bathe him…if you don’t count his bath at the hospital the day he was born…which I don’t because I, his mommy, and daddy didn’t give it to him and besides they don’t even use soap!

We had everything set up by his big boy tub: Johnson and Johnson soap…don’t you love that smell, his rubber ducky, warm water in two basins and two different squirt bottles, washcloths, cotton balls for his eyes, q-tips for his nose and ears, lotion…to keep him cuddly soft, a diaper and new set of clothes on hand…just as all the parenting books and magazines said and David had both the digital and video camera with batteries charged up…we were ready.

Now mind you, in July in Fresno the weather is HOOOOOOT, but inside we kept it nice and cool…or rather a little on the cold side…just so we would be able to swaddle Sam and hold him real close. So on this particular evening we deliberately turned off the AC…just in a precautionary effort to keep Sam comfortable. He had just been feed and was awake and alert…quite content actually (my sweet sweet boy) and barely fussed as we undressed him…that’s how awesome he is.

He took to the bath like a fish in water…he looked lovingly at us. When the water flowed over him…his arms flailed up…but once he figured out it was warm…he barely flinched. He seemed to enjoy the head massage and good soapy rub down. When he got showered with water he cooed with delight. But then it was time to bathe his back side and that was tricky…or should I say slippery…for this first bath it required two sets of hands, which was difficult to manage because we were also trying to record the event. We somehow managed and then I gave him a final rinse and lifted him to get out of the bath tub and to hand him to Daddy.

Did I mention, Sam was slippery, and Dad had two cameras in hand, and that however prepared we thought we were we had forgotten to bring a TOWEL!!! What to do…what to do…I could have sworn it was ten degrees cooler in the house …did the AC kick back on…was there a draft in the bathroom now…what to do! I can’t hand him to Dad, because he wasn’t ready, I can’t put him on me…I will “contaminate” him with my cooties and I didn’t want to put him back in the tub…now it was yucky bathwater and what if it was cold!?! Then the crying and fussing began…no not from Sam, from me his mom…because his picture perfect bath was being tainted by his unprepared parents. Poor Dad was scrambling around (I was surprised he didn’t slip and fall) to get a towel and instead brought me a robe...but of course the silly that I am refused it because I wanted the “memorable” bath towel…you know the one with the hood. Oh man was Sam slippery and poor baby still has a wobbly head too…it seemed ten times worse. All the while as Dad was trying to get us what we needed, though he still managed to record the whole thing!!! Finally we were able to cover him up and Sam was seemingly un-phased by his cuckoo parents. We “toweled” him, lotioned him up, dressed him, rocked him to sleep and then had a good laugh.

We hope we can always be prepared for what life may bring for Sam and if not we’ll scramble around to make sure we get him what he needs…it may not always be picture perfect, but it will be memorable and we hope we are able to laugh in the end J

500 Miles

If you were wondering about the song your listening to "I'm gonna be (500 miles)" then let me explain. Since having my baby son Samuel, Patty and I have been up around the clock! Patty, of course, is breast feeding and I get to change the diapers. We also work together to rock baby Samuel to sleep! One night, Patty started laughing out of nowhere, as I was pacing throughout our house trying to get the baby to fall asleep. When I asked Patty why she was laughing, she reminded me of one of our favorite show "How I met your mother." There was an episode when Marshall's old car played only one cassette tape, with only one song...you guessed it...."500 Miles." Patty found that the song was (and is) fitting to what we do every night! We WALK 500 miles trying to get our son to rest for a couple of hours.

The Feedings

I had never really favored the idea of breast-feeding. The thought of it grossed me out. I know...I know...it's natural, well not to me. It took just about the whole nine months for me to warm up to the idea. When I started leaking the colostrum stuff during the seventh month of my pregnancy I just about gagged. The cost of formula (and that stuff is expensive!) didn't even push me towards breast-feeding. I had read all about it in my pregnancy books, but I was never really sold on the idea. It wasn't until the beginning of my ninth month of pregnancy, during our Lamaze classes, when I realized that breast was best, and any child of mine definitely deserved the best...right?

Our little Samuel came to us on a Monday at a whopping 8lbs 4oz, and latched on well or so I thought. I was sure I would have plenty of milk...especially since I had been leaking the pre-milk for so long, however that same Thursday, Sam had dropped down to 7lbs 11oz, we were somewhat alarmed, but were told that it was completely normal for newborns to lose their "mucus weight". The next day, on Friday morning he dropped weight again to 7lbs 7oz. My big baby was shrinking before my eyes...not cool...apparently newborns can lose up to 10% of their weight without cause for alarm, but since he was a July baby, our pediatrician was concerned with dehydration and my milk production so she suggested that we supplement his feeding with formula, and so as not to confuse Sam with other nipples, we were to cup feed him ( you know with one of those ounce cups... like cups that come with NyQuil).

I was heartbroken to say the least and discouraged against breastfeeding altogether. I mean hey it's tiring, feeding every two hours...sometimes every hour, watching what I eat was hard enough during pregnancy, now to keep track at how Sam might respond to any of my food choices, and never really knowing how much he was consuming, only looking at his diapers for some clues as to how he was eating. At the point I would have bought can of formula at any cost to help my baby Sam pack on the pounds. David, however, never waivered. He was calm and collected and ever so confident that I had all the milk Sam needed. He reluctantly took me to look at the different formulas to purchase, but once there, in front of all of our options, looked at me and said Sam would be fine and I was all he needed..to keep faith. We went home with a prayer and without formula (with David's promise to return if need be, of course, at a moments notice if I so desired)... sure enough that evening Sam's milk arrived and I was elated and my little Sam was somewhat confused at the change in his diet. David was like...well yeah what did you expect...we prayed right. On the following Monday, he had maintained his weight, our peditrician said Sam's weight had plateaued. Ten days after that his weight jumped up to 8lbs 13 oz and we all were amazed.

We knew we would have to get Samuel used to a bottle at some point, so that I could go back to work. It was a little tricky for me to pump out "extra" milk to keep on hand and we weren't sure how Sam would react to it. Two days ago, on Monday July 27th, Samuel turned three weeks old, and for the first time, his Daddy was able to cater to his every need. David was able to feed our son. They took to it like pros, both David and Sam. I am sure it helped that, David usually brings my Sam to feed and then burps him after and soothes him to sleep. Their bond during this feeding time was special for me; I was so happy for the both of them. It was at the point, that I cherished being able to provide for Sam and didn't take it for granted...I realized my blessing. We hope we are always able to provide the best for Samuel, no matter what the cost to us may be and with every confidence that the Lord will be with us and hear our prayers.

The Diapers

As his mama, I was afraid of those first few diaper changes. I was afraid of what I would find...meconium...its this black tarry stuff that newborns poop, not only that... I was nervous about messing with his belly button...or rather my umbilical cord...I didn't want to disturb him, didn't want him to get a diaper rash and I didn't want to get peed on...I kept thinking is the diaper on to loose...too tight. My saving grace were the diapers with that fabulous line in the front that change color when it's time to change diapers. I did my best those first days in the hospital, in my fatigue and with swollen fingers. Luckily Samuel has the best daddy in the world, as soon as we were all home, he took over diaper duty...a fair exchange of responsibility (I take care of what goes in and he takes care of what goes out:). David and I kept excellent records of his poop and pee, to make sure he was gaining weight and wasn't dehydrated. Never had we been so excited about bowel movements and I was amazed each time David would come back to report yet another exciting color of poop. I still can't get how there can be such an array of colors from milk or how it could be seedy!?!

Since we were pregnant... almost everyone with kids told us about the infamous "blowouts", we weren't quite sure what that would be like....until an outing to Target...we heard the now normal gurgles and rumbles from our adorable little boy and when it came time to change him, David delightfully picked up our son, only to find "mustard" all over his car seat!! so we thought oh sorry baby that was our fault we must have put the diaper on to loose...I proceeded to checkout and David headed for the Family restroom...not long after I caught up with them only to find wipes thrown about, my son half naked, and David yelling !paper towels, paper towels! the "condiments" kept coming...and we were now running low on wipes. Sure enough just as David had pratically bathed him and was getting on a new diaper Sam tinkled all over himself and poor David...it must have been cold for Sam...needless to say after plenty of laughs and two outfits later we managed to get out of Target. A pristine little boy and his disheveled parents.

Now like I have mentioned, since we've come home from the hospital David as been on diaper duty. Along with diaper changes, David was taking great care of Sam's cord. This early on, it was seemingly rewarding because day to day there were changes, the rainbow of colors and texture changes and really they don't stink...so at the end of two weeks all the excitment was beginning to taper off. Besides doing this noble task out of pure love, David's only motivation was the inevitable day that Samuel's umbilical cord would fall of. For about 20 days David was the only one to have changed Sam's diaper until July 24th, Sam's grandma (my mom) thought it would be nice to change Sam and whisked him away without out a word to anyone (she's discreet like that) and you guessed it...sure enough when the diaper came off...at the very tippy top came the umbilical cord stump. She squealed with excitment and we all ran to see what the fuss was about (me and David, my dad, my brother eric and his family). David and I were proud parents, we took a picture and I felt kinda bad we had "missed the moment"...but those feelings quickly passed...as David soon informed me...after the cord falls off...there is still some cleaning and caring to be had with that cute belly button...even after a few days David said he was cleaning out what he thought was dried up blood and stuff... then he reassured me that in fact our son had a inny. Yippee!

I'm sure, as much as we care for our son, these days won't be the only ones where we'll fuss over his pee and poop, we hope he is never ill, and we look forward to potty training when he's ready :)

The sleep

Sam is now about three weeks old and basically sleeps when he feels like it, most of the day and night about 20 hours. The first two nights at home, we were so excited to see him we could barely put him down. We had waited so long to see his eyes that when he opened them, even at three in the morning, we could hardly resist and followed along with his demands. We spent the nights walking around in our dark house, talking, swaying, singing, reading...completely in love.

On the third, fourth and fifth night, deliriously happy, sleep deprived and determined to get some rest we relucantly put him to sleep with us in our bed. We loved watching him sleep and periodically made sure he was breathing as we made ourselves skinny at each side of him, of course worried that we might roll over on him, and really not sleeping at all. Patty's parents came over during that first week and allowed us to sleep between his feedings, as tired as we were, it was still hard to do, but greatly appreciated and we took advantage of it. By the end of the first week and heading into Sam's second week with us, we decided that he was a "big boy" and could sleep in his bassinet next to our bed. It was more of a difficult transition for us as parents than for Sam, he took to it rather easily and it took us some time to not jump at every cooing sound he makes.

Though he sleeps for a large portion of the day, it's only for about an hour to two at a time and when he goes over two hours we are suprised. We often wonder what he dreams about, at times he smiles, scrunches his face, moves around... he makes the best faces. It's a precious moment when his eyes are open these days, and although we are privleged to it, not all visitors are. I remember one day his grandparents (Patty's parents) waited for four hours to see him awake, but Sam was not in the mood, and sure enough as soon as they left the driveway, you guessed it, he woke up and was awake for about an hour. We pray that Sam always sleeps as peacefully as he does now.

Welcome baby Arzola. IT"S A BOY!

Here is how we remember the birth of our son Samuel David Arzola born July 6, 2009 at 01:11 am! Weighing 8 lbs 4 oz! and measuring 21 1/2 inches. 

The Thursday before he was born (39 wks 1 day) we had our normal weekly baby appointment.  The nurse said that both mom and the baby were doing fine and that most likely the baby would come "late" or past the due date (July 8, 2009) by at least a week.  The baby had not "dropped" and Patty had not felt any Braxton-Hicks/false labor contractions at all.  We both were emotional and anxious about when our baby would arrive.

As June ended and July began, we started getting text messages, phone calls, and emails about our baby.  "Is the baby born?" "Have you had your baby?" "Still pregnant?" "When's the baby due?" "Is it a boy or a girl?" Because of all this attention and love, we started this family blog.

On Saturday, 4th of July, we told family and friends that our baby would be "late." Everyone understood and said things like: "Start walking" or "Eat ______ to start labor" or "Do _____ to begin labor" or "Ooooh, yeah, first babies are always late" or "Oooo, you're gonna have a big baby." After letting everybody know, we felt more at ease and accepted that our due date could come and go, but regardless, our baby would come when he or she was ready.

On Sunday, July 5, 2009, we went to church as usual. It was a good Mass and message about the Quality of Faith that we as Christian should have in our God.  Since we learned we were pregnant, we always prayed for our baby in one way or another and this was no different...BUT I know Patty must've put in a special request.  Then we continued with our day.  We visited Patty's parents' home after church. We usually eat/snack on something over there; that day we had homemade bean, cheese, and jalapeno burritos.  By this time during the day, Patty felt a little uncomfortable, but nothing to get excited about.  We continued our day by meeting up with some friends (Sam and Nikol) for lunch.  We all decided to have lunch at one of many favorite spots, Chipotle.  Patty ended up not eating Chipotle, but instead enjoyed a Pomegranate-Pick-me-up from Jamba Juice.  She figured it might help the "indigestion" from the jalapenos she had earlier.  After lunch with our friends, Patty's brother, Eric, invited us to watch a movie at his house.  We went over to and hung out with Eric, Christina, and their kids.  By this time, Patty was having cramps and the uncomfortable feelings.  Christina excitedly said, "Oh, you're having Braxton-Hicks like we talked about. Go home and relax so they'll go away."  We waited a little bit but ended up not finishing the movie and tried to leave, BUT our car WOULD NOT START!  NO GAS!  We were shocked.  We knew we had forgotten to do something?  By the grace of God, the car started and we raced to the nearest gas station.  After feeling up on gas, we headed for home.  On the way home, Patty said the words I had been wanting to hear and was prepared for "We need to go to the Hospital."  We safely proceed on our way home to pick up our stuff and headed to the Hospital.  We still weren't convinced that we were in labor, but didn't want to take any chances.  

We arrive at Clovis Community Hospital a little after 6 p.m..  We had to go straight to the Emergency Entrance because it was a Sunday.  Since we were pre-registered, we were sent up to the Family Birth Center, 2nd Floor.  They examined Patty and found that she was only dilated 2 cm far from the 10 cm we needed.  We thought for sure that they would send us home.  They suggested that we walk around for 1 hour to see if there would be any changes in order to be officially admitted to the hospital.  By this point Patty was feeling the contractions and we were timing them at 4-5 minutes apart.  We took laps around "The Track," an area on the 2nd floor that women in labor often use to walk.  After about 5 laps, including a few bites from Patty, and several contractions later, Patty asked how long until the hour is up.  I told her we had only walked 10 minutes.  She said, that's enough  and we went back to be seen again.  We were in Rm. 502 and in that short time Patty dilated up to 4 cm.  We saw the doctor on call, and she said, "You are not going anywhere, we're gonna keep you!"

We were officially admitted to the hospital at about 7 p.m.! Despite Patty's intention about not getting medication, she immediately asked for an epidural.  She was told she couldn't receive one until she got blood work done and it would take 45 minutes.  Her thought was, "45 minutes!!! That is 9 more contractions!!!" By the time she received it, she was at 7 cm!  This was about 9 p.m.  After that Patty was back to her cheery self.  At 10:30 p.m. Patty was dilated to 9 1/2 cm! SO CLOSE!  She would stay that way for over an hour.  During this time we made a few phone call to inform family that we were in labor at the hospital.  Now with the epidural, Patty and I were able to talk happily, and watch Food Network and CNN (coverage of Michael Jackson).  We had snacks which included healthy lollipops and gatorade.  We had a major discovery, they had BIG pellet ice! Patty's favorite!  The Pushing began just after midnight, but with the epidural, Patty could barely feel her own strength.  The nurse and doctor decided to lower the dosage of the epidural and about 45 minutes later, we had our first baby! I was in charge of holding one of Patty's legs during the pushing, and kept my focus Up at Patty's face.  I saw my baby in doctors arms and asked with emotion, "what is it? Patty do you know, boy or girl!?!" The doctor said, "I'm not gonna tell you...I'll show you."  We both realized that we had a Son! We were overcome with emotion and joy!  After I cut the umbilical cord, the doctor  immediately placed our newborn son on Patty and we enjoyed our moment as a family.  

Since the birth of our Son, Samuel David Arzola, until now (this blog post), we have had an outpour of love from family and friends.  We would like YOU to share your comments about our family below. We are interested about how you learned about Samuel's entrance into this world.

 

Visit this blog soon for NEW Pictures and video!

I see you! 

This is the ultrasound of our baby taken on February 26, 2009.  

Purpose of Arzola Blog

The purpose for this blog is to keep all interested parties (family, friends, etc) updated on the status of our family, The Arzola Family. As our family grows, you will have access to keep up and/or interact with us. Please feel free to comment. Thank you for your interest in our family.