Three Months

So tomorrow Clark turns 3 months old, and unlike those Junior High relationships where celebrating that kind of thing is really lame, we here at the Drake Home think it's the most incredible thing ever. Clark has been with us for 3 months now, and how he has changed our lives! I love it when he wakes up in the morning. Instead of crying, he blinks a couple of times, moves his tongue around to get rid of the that awful morning/formula breath, and lies there waiting patiently. This gives his mom and I time to go over and tell him good morning. He absolutely loves it, and because of his reactions, we do too! He starts giggling (the cutest thing ever) and starts flailing his arms and legs wildly. He'll turn his head from side to side and then begins to settle down just in time for us to start all over. His mom is better at it then I am, but that's ok. Needless to say, it makes our day. Julieta seems to be able to make him laugh a lot, and here's a video to prove it.

I unfortunately wasn't home when this was recorded, as I was at school, but she showed it to me on the way to get Uncle David from the airport and I absolutely loved it. Basically I love anything my little man does, but this was especially adorable.

Something he's not doing as often is making his cute little sounds when he sleeps. But every now and then he'll do them. He'll take a few sudden intakes of breath, and then quietly sigh them out. That's probably my favorite. Something he is starting to do more and more is "talking". The other night his mom was working on something for Nanny, and during that time we decided to watch a couple of movies together. He sat on my lap for 2 movies and told me all that he thought of them, the actors, the effects, etc. This is a video of him talking.

I mentioned that we had gone to get Uncle David from the airport. Little Rock is 3 hours from here, and on the way up Clark slept the entire time. He was even pretty good on the way back, but needless to say, including the stops we made while there, 8 hours in a car seat is probably too much for any child (unless you're Tanner and your mom has given you magic formula to help some). That was David and Clark's first time meeting, and Clark didn't know what to think of the strange guy that climbed in beside him in the truck. I feel these two pics tell the tale of their relationship better than words do.

Clark's hands are fuzzy in almost all of his pics because he can't seem to hold them still. He's discovered that he actually has hands and loves them.

His Uncle David also discovered something that his parents should have thought of from the beginning, but never had. Occasionally we have to suction his nose, and he HATES it. He screams and screams, and all I can do is hold his hands while mom tries to clean him out quickly. I hate it, that is, I used to, before this happened.

All you have to do is let him watch something, and that's all he focuses on. This is Uncle David showing him a video on his computer. His mom was able to take care of him without any problems. We've since used this a lot. It seems to calm him down no matter what the problem is.

As I was writing this post, David and Sarah came into our room. They wanted to show us something

Needless to say, their relationship is blossoming and they will get along just fine.

I thought I'd include just a few random pics as well. These are just some of my favorites:

This is Clark asleep in church. You know you've all wanted to do it.Then the choir started singing and woke him up.

This was me getting him dressed that morning for church. I loved him in his button up and cords. He's such a little man!Then of course this is him with his Nanny after a long day.This is doubtlessly the favorite part of both of their days. How is it babys can make any position look really comfortable?I feel like if nothing else, I owe Clark an explanation for this next one. We went to the Jingle on the Green at the ASUMH campus where I'm currently attending school. It was a cold one that night, and we didn't want our little man catching a cold. You think this is bad, you should have seen his stroller. His mom (who still hasn't quite adjusted to the cold here) took every precaution, including stuffing the inside with coats and blankets, and then laying blankets over the top of it as well. While we were on one side of the extreme, there was one mother who had her baby girl in nothing but a dress and a head band. I guess I'm glad we choose to error on the side of right. Sorry buddy...

This is Clark at the ward Christmas Brunch. There's not a lot that impresses this kid.

I do have one more video to post. It cracks me up because it just goes to show how much of a little "man" Clark really is.

So this has kind of turned out to be a tribute to Uncle David. Stay tuned for the next few days, we have Clark's first Christmas and New Year's coming up, along with the return of Emily, Chris and our favorite Tan-Man with all of his Tanner manners from Oregon.

Ok, so it's been a while. But now we have several new pics to blog about. We'll start with today, since there are lots to choose from.
This is Clark and I at the park. Look at that face, he is having a blast. Actually, so was I for that matter. I love my little man!
His mom was a little papa-razzi and he wasn't about to put up with that.


Momma wasn't feeling too much up to photos today, so she just took them instead. We stopped by Dairy Queen on the way to the park and enjoyed a banana split and a shake before the photo session.

Then later tonight Emily, Chris, and Tanner came over for dinner. Papa decided to re-institute an old tradition with the grandkids... BLANKET RIDES!!




This is Clark giving Papa the "OK" to get started. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but for the first time, he actually got to be on top of Tanner.


This was Papa and I carrying them to the couch after the blanket ride was over. This is the blanket ride in action.Being as this wasn't Tanner's first time, he was able to comfort Clark when the ride started. Look at this sweet boy holding his hand to comfort his cousin.





When Clark was born, Nanny and Papa presented him with a gift, one we thought wouldn't fit him for several months, but he's actually closer that we thought. They also got Tanner the same thing, so we couldn't resist getting some pictures of them together.

I think this picture says it all. At first Tanner didn't know what to think about what we were doing, but as soon as we sat Clark down next to him, his face lit up! You could tell that there were a million different ideas running through his head about what he could do to Clark, but luckily Emily has Tanner ESP and read each one of them and was able to react on time. You can tell Clark is just resigning himself to what's coming. Unfortunately, we were too slow a couple of times. Tanner was trying to get a finger into each hole in Clark's face, and just about succeeded.


He tried to play like he didn't know why Clark was crying, but his face gave him away.

A couple of weeks ago Aunt Laura and Aunt Sarah gave us a couple of surprises. Reminiscent of when Julieta and I drove out with David and Sarah to see Tanner when he was born, they flew out here to see Clark. The other surprise was that Sarah brought her boyfriend Johnny with her. Uncle David was going to come too, but unfortunately he wasn't able to. We were able to spend an enjoyable weekend with them.


It worked out, thanks to a little bit of orchestration from the only person who was in on the surprise, that Clark's blessing was that weekend as well. I did the blessing in Spanish, while it was translated into English for the rest of the family. It went really well, and I think we all walked away with a better understanding of how important Clark really is and will be to our little family.

Feedings

I just had to post a few of these pics from today. Clark must have figured that I didn't know what I was doing when I started feeding him today, because he soon took over for himself.




Then he got more agressive with it.

Is this even possible? He will be four weeks old tomorrow and 1 month old on the 23rd of this month. Speaking of, I have to post one more picture...

This is a new born sock. To think that we were actually worried about not having enough new born clothes for Clark.

Carving Pumpkins

Yesterday afternoon my sister Emily called and asked if we wanted to come over and carve pumpkins. We said yes, but what she forgot is that we seem to run on a totally different time-table than everybody else. We didn't make it over there until 7 p.m., about the time Tanner was supposed to be in bed. Little does she know we had conspired with Tanner to let him stay up later with the rest of us. Anyway, we showed up with pumpkin and Clark in hand, ready to carve away. Funny thing, it was the first time for not only Clark, but for my wife as well. First, it was my turn. I had just bought the thing that afternoon, but it was already time for its lobotomy.

Once the hard part was done, my wife "dug in".

She wasn't sure what to think of the insides of the pumpkin, but like the trooper she's been lately she dug right in. I was so proud of her.

Now it was my turn again. I had originally wanted to carve a Darth Vader pumpkin, but seeing as this was my first attempt at something more than a regular slap happy jack-o-lantern, I went with the Frankenstein face. I was pleased with how it turned out.


We can't forget about the other participants that night.

Tanner was having a blast getting his hands dirty too. What we forgot to explain to him is that you don't eat what you pull out. Oh well, he seemed to enjoy it.

That was when Emily asked if she could dress our pumpkin as a pumpkin. Sound redundant? Not so fast.

I don't think he liked it, but it made Aunt Emily happy, and that's important.
All in all we had a blast. Thanks Aunt Emily for having us over!

He's here!

This is Clark the night we decided to start his blog. He had woken up at 3:00 a.m. to eat and hadn't gone back down until about 6:00 a.m. I knew that I had to get up soon enough anyway, so instead of going back to sleep, we decided to get started.


Intro

We wanted to start this blog so that our friends and family both here and in Mexico could get to know our firstborn, Clark. He is amazing and we want to share the experiences that we have with him with our loved ones. But mostly this blog will be for him. I think back on my childhood and on all my wonderful memories, and then I think back on all that I would like to know more about and wonder. This is an effort to not forget any details of these days, but mostly, it’s for Clark. With that in mind, we'll get started. Clark, we love you. Our hope is that the memories and experiences that you've given us and that we share together as a family can spark in you a gentle reminder. A reminder that, no matter what, you are our little boy, and we will always love you.

Love,
Mom and Dad

So we waited our 9 months, Sept. 20 came and went, and Clark still hadn't come. We had our next appointment on the 23 of September at 10:00 a.m. We went there expecting an ultrasound and we were told that he was a big kid, approximately 10 lbs, but that this far along the ultrasound is less and less accurate. The doctor said that because of his size, he would recommend a c-section. He also said that if they baby turned out to be anything less than 10 lbs that my wife could give him a kidney punch. Small comfort, but he was pretty sure he was right. He then gave us the choice of going straight over to the hospital and starting the procedure around 2:00 p.m. that same afternoon, or of coming back at 5:00 a.m. the next morning. My wife has never been much of a morning person, and we figured that we wouldn't be sleeping much that night anyway, so despite her nervousness, we decided to go straight over and get started. My mom was there with us, and she offered what comfort she could to Julieta. She was actually handling it all extremely well. By this time we were ready to have the baby, at least that's what we thought. As they gave us our room, my wife changed into her gown and laid down in the bed.

It was noon now and I could hardly take it. In 2 hours I'd be holding in my arms the thing we'd most hoped for for more than 2 years. But as I looked at my wife, lying there in the hospital bed, I had to bring myself back to reality. What she was about to go through was not going to be easy. Despite all that she had been told, we weren't really sure what to expect. My wife is one of those people who has never had to go to the hospital, and before getting pregnant, had never been to the doctor's office either. She hates needles and she hates taking medicine. That being said, she did wonderfully. The staff at the hospital took excellent care of her, even going out of their way to provide for the language barrier. I looked at her and saw a mixture of emotions in her face, in her eyes. As she puts it, she became hungry, tired, and cold all at the same time. She couldn't find a comfortable position in the bed and began tossing and turning. She now had about an hour before the came to take her to the O.R., and in that hour she was able to nap. This helped calm her down immensely. Finally the hour had come, and the nurses showed up to wheel her away. With the advice of the anesthesiologist, we decided that they would put her to sleep. Unfortunately, that meant that I had to wait in the room for her. My poor wife had to be wheeled down a hallway by people that she didn't understand and into a room where she really had no idea what was about to take place. One of the nurses held her hand the whole way and even offered both of her hand to Julieta for her to squeeze when the gave her the epidural. Luckily, the Dr. arrived soon after and told us that we highly recommended that we not put her to sleep. That being the case, I was told to wash up and put my scrubs on, and that I would be allowed to be with her in the O.R. I suited up as fast as I could and waited to be let in. By the time I got there she had already had the epidural and the doctors were ready. I sat by her head and held her hand. She was shaking like a leaf, so I whispered whatever I could to calm her down. I don't know that it really helped, but within minutes we heard a tiny scream. They had him cleaned up in no time and asked me if I wanted to hold him. Of course I did.

Meet Clark Randall Drake, all 10 lbs 10 oz, and 21 ½ inches of him.

Aunt Emily teaching cousin Tanner how to be "soft" with his new cousin.


Papa with his boys.

We were soon left alone with our newborn son. Nurses came and went throughout the rest of the day and night. At about midnight they came to take him to the nursery to run some more tests on him. But they didn’t end up bringing him right back out to us. They soon informed us that they had detected a problem and that they would need to keep him in the nursery for a time. Clark still had fluid in his lungs, and was having trouble breathing normally. They hooked him up to pressurized oxygen and an I.V. and kept him on a heated bed. That was late Thursday night. It was hard on Julieta since she couldn't get out of bed, she couldn't go and see her baby. I was allowed to go into the nursery and be with Clark. I could also take one person in with me.

Nanny of course was the first to go in with me.


Perhaps this one pulls at me the most. This is my little man in intensive care in the nursery. He's got his momma stroking his hair and a tight grip on his dad's thumb. We like to think that he knew we were there with him.

Clark loves having "awake time". He's genuinely a happy kid, very content to just be awake a look around.

The next few days were difficult, but Julieta was finally discharged on Sunday, Sept 26 just before midnight. As nice as that was, Clark would be staying in the nursery under the constant care and supervision of the wonderful nurses at BRMC. While it was nice to be able to actually rest in a real bed (I ended up messing up my back pretty good trying to sleep on the hospital furniture), it was hard not having Clark with us. We would go and see him every day.
Despite the tongue sticking out we are sure he loves his little razorback.

This is Stewie the stegosaurus. Maybe we'll just have to let him decide a little later on, he's still got several at home to choose from.

It was amazing to see him respond to us. I know most people would say that that's impossible at his age, but during his time in the nursery we noticed that Clark was starting to track us with his eyes. Not just vaguely, but his eyes would lock dead on to ours. I particularly loved that the sound of my voice would even calm his cries (although that seems to have worn off now). Finally the day came, 11 days after his birth, for us to take him home.



This is Clark going home after 11 days in the hospital and wearing his 3 mo old clothes.

After getting him home, we began to settle into a routine. We were told to keep him home for the first month or so, which was fine for us. It meant having to share him less with others. We did take him for a walk in his stroller, all nicely bundled up.


Its been almost 3 weeks now and I can't believe how fast time has gone by. It makes me sad in a way, knowing that he won't always be so small and cuddly, but I'm definitely making the most of it. My favorite time with him is just after hes eaten, when I can burp him and he'll snuggle up on my shoulder and fall asleep. I'm slow to let go of him. My wife is also adjusting nicely. She's almost fully recovered from the delivery. She's an excellent, loving mother to her son. She's also an excellent, loving wife to her husband, who still needs her at least as much as her son, if not more.

We've noticed that Clark is doing things that we didn't expect for a few more months at least. We've begun to wonder if maybe the ultrasound dates weren't off by a few months. He tracks very well, responds to mine and Julieta's voices, and has even rolled onto his side several times. If he could just get that arm out from under him he'd go all the way over. The thing I like most is when he smiles at you, which he's been doing since he was in the hospital.


These are just some of the ones we were able to catch on camera.

It's fun watching him move his arms and his fingers, and kick his legs. When he stares at you, you can't help but wonder what he's thinking.

All in all, its been a whirl-wind last few weeks. I've had a "fun" time getting caught up on all of my missed school work, while trying to spend as much time as I can with my little family. Julieta has slipped nicely into a new routine based mostly around Clark. My family has been there through it all. I sometimes wonder if parents become parents so that they can one day become grand parents. Not that they don't love their kids, but being a grandparent must be the best thing ever. I say this based on watching my parents, Clark's "Nanny" and "Papa", spend time with him each day. It's all of the fun and none of the responsibility. They can spoil them rotten and give them back at the end of each day. It's getting late, and as I finish this post, I'm left wondering... can it get any better?