Last Day in Phoenix

Michael’s conference ended today!!! Yay!!!  Not only did that mean I had help with Daniel, and I also had someone to talk to during my museum trips.  Daniel is wonderful company and charms everyone there, but I can only have some many one-sided conversations. 

The day started off rather slowly with Daniel fighting a nap like it was going out of style.  Finally Daniel Darlin’ fell asleep which meant the remainder of the day would be much more pleasant.  After nap time, Daniel and I did a little bit of shopping while we were waiting for the conference to end.  Finally it ended, and we went off to the Heard Museum.  I had had no idea that so many Native American tribes and communities had lived/live in the area.  Their art work, pottery, textiles, jewelry, and spiritual items were unbelievable.  So much culture and history are connected with these tribes.  We also viewed an exhibit on Geronimo.  Very fascinating information.
After the museum, we met up with a good college friend, Sam Almy and his girlfriend at a restaurant called Fez.  It was so wonderful to catch up with him.  Some things never change between good swimmer friends.  Swimming is such a wonderful sport.  My friendships I’ve made through swimming have been some of the strongest.  Even if we don’t speak for ages, it doesn’t matter.  A beat is never missed, and we tend to pick up where we left off.

That night I had to pack up our hotel room for our voyage to the Grand Canyon the next day.  Not only did we get to bed rather late, but then the hotel’s fire alarm was pulled.  Daniel, of whom loves sleeping on his tummy, pushed up on his arms and looked at me saying what is that loud noise for???  Somehow we got out the door and started down the stairs.  I know that 10 floors is rather high, but it never occurred to me how high up 10 floors was until I had to carry a baby down them half asleep without falling.  It’s all good though, false alarm and back upstairs we all went.  Luckily, Daniel fell right back to sleep J.

Daniel’s First Swim

This afternoon, by bear of a child would not calm down.  He didn’t want to eat, needed to nap desperately but just couldn’t, so I decided it was time to go outside.  I knew the stroller wouldn’t go over well, and he is just too darn heavy to carry for too long.  So, I decided to take him swimming for the first time.  I put on my swim suit then put him in his.  He thought the process was just fantastic and thought that his suit’s fabric felt cool against his skin.  He kept rubbing the sleeves with those sweet, soft, little hands.  His suit is 18 months and really wasn’t that large on him.  Plus, a swim in the hotel pool meant mommy was going to carry him to his destination.

Daniel loves his baths, but swimming is a totally different sensation for baby’s bodies.  They really do move with the feel of the water as they have no idea how to control how they are supposed to move in the water.  Of course I held him the entire time, but his first initial face when we walked in was pure joy.  Then I started swooshing him around, popping him in and out, and letting him slash about in the water (everything mentioned made him giggle which made me laugh and Daniel to giggle even more).  While I was holding him out in front of me, he started to move his legs except they weren’t kicking anything which confused him for a minute.  He got over it quick enough and then realized he could splash with his hands.  Naturally he enjoyed that part of swimming. 

The pool had steps to enter into it.  I took Daniel over to the second step so he could stand in the water.  I balanced him, took my hands off to just in front of him to allow him to fall forward into my arms.  He loved it!  I also laid him on his back so he could feel what being flat in the water would feel like.  Normally, I allow water to go into the ears as that is the feeling most children hate, but as we are a couple thousand miles from home, I did not want to take the chance of water getting stuck to cause an ear infection.  However, with that being said, I did dunk him just once.  The way water fills the ears is just a little different with a dunk.  Anyway, it was incredibly fast, and the expression on his face was priceless.  He sputtered out the water with wide eyes and looked at me as if to say, “what the…”.  I was sure he would cry, but not a single tear.  My baby is just wonderful.  Lastly, Daniel tasted the water.  He gave it the most disgusted tasting face ever!  Overall, swimming was a gigantic success, and I can’t wait to go again with someone else so we can take pictures!!!

Pueblo Grande and the Phoenix Museum of Art

Daniel is such a little trooper.  He’s been rolling along in his stroller to all kinds of places with his crazy momma.  Yesterday we went to the Pueblo Grande Museum and Archeological Site.  The museum had some interesting artifacts to share about the society that used to live there, but the best part was the tour around the ruins.  They played some sort of ball, lived in groupings like suburbs, followed the stars to know when to harvest their crops, and hiked to various mountains to collect the rocks needed for building their village.  I still find it amazing that buildings and artifacts have survived for so long.  I know I lived in Egypt where their artifacts have survived for even longer, but there’s something very cool about the fact that our country has ancient artifacts too.  Everything displayed in the museum had a function at one point in time.  I enjoyed the exhibits and Daniel snoozed and people watched while gnawing on his froggie.  Before heading back to the downtown area of Phoenix, Daniel enjoyed a bottle out in the fresh air.  That kid just loves being outside!  I should also mention that on Tuesday Daniel rode on his first metro ride!  He slept one way and was people watching on the way back.  The remainder of Tuesday was slow with us walking around and playing with a bedtime of 6:30.

Daniel needs his sleep and loves to sprawl out.  This past week has been rather tough on him because he cannot seem to fall asleep easily in the afternoon which means my afternoons are rough as well.  I appreciate the hotel providing a hotel version of a pack-n-play, but it could be a bit bigger.  In addition, Daniel now wears size 12month sleepers and he’s not even 6 months yet!  I have a point for mentioning this.  Size 12 month sleepers are intended for kids who are starting to walk, thus there is plastic gripping on the bottom of the feet which Daniel has discovered makes noise when he kicks his feet against the side of the crib.  The plastic grips slide on the mesh providing entertainment for him and waking us up at the same time.  Around 4am he wakes up and tries to get comfy to fall back asleep, but really that means he kicking around in his crib.  Finally we take him out, change his diaper, feed him a bottle to then lay him down next to me in the bed where he proceeds to pass back out.  Thank goodness!!!  My day with a baby whose internal clock is so confused does not need to be any longer!!!
Today, Daniel and I went to the Phoenix Museum of Art.  I really enjoyed the museum, but it had a bit too much contemporary and modern art for my taste.  I understand that there is meaning in most of it, but when something looks like a toddler’s scribbles, I have a hard time finding the meaning when it is an adult who created it.  The more modern type portraits, landscapes, and still-life’s I get.  The museum housed a few Georgia O’Keeffe’s, a Claude Monet, and 20 Thorne miniatures as well as many other things.  I really enjoyed the American Art section that focused on the western landscapes, romanticized cowboys, and Native Americans.  Their selection got me excited to go to the Heard Museum tomorrow.   

A Dream Dreamt Many Years before Daniel’s Birth and One of His Mother’s

Daniel’s name was our favorite before he was born and would probably become his name.  I had to see first before I made that decision.  Little did I know, but my Aunt Elizabeth knew that his name was to be Daniel.  When she was pregnant with my cousin Aaron, she dreamt that dark, curlied hair baby boy was to be born into the family and name Daniel.  Well, my Aunt Elizabeth has beautiful red hair and my Uncle Pat has a lighter color of brown hair so her dream really didn’t fit their family.  Then I go and marry a dark, curly hair man name Michael.  I too have dark, curly hair so it was inevitable that our children would have dark hair with more than likely curls to go with it.  When Daniel was born, he had dark hair with the tuft of curls at the top of his head which he hasn’t lost to this day.  And we named him, Daniel.  My Aunt Elizabeth didn’t tell me this dream of hers until after he arrived.

I too had a dream about his name when I was pregnant.  I dreamt that I had given birth to my baby boy and named his Daniel.  In the dream, I had no idea what he looked like, but I woke thinking that his name was to be Daniel.  Anyone else would have decided that the name of her unborn child would have been decided by such a vivid dream.  Not me though!  I had to see my little boy to know that I had chosen the right name for him.

Daniel’s Birth Story*

*I will keep it as PG as I can. And it is long…

Now that I have time to think, mainly because I’m in a single hotel room where Daniel is sleeping in a dark corner which means I can’t go anywhere, it’s time to put into words Daniel’s birth story.  Yet again, I’m inspired to do so because of my friend Stacy who just had her baby boy and has managed to write hers down one week later.  She’s a rock star of a mom and has a very good point that the story will be forgotten the longer I wait. 

One other thing, I really need to make it clear that I had not yet decided Daniel was going to be his name.  I had to see him first to make any decision, but as he is here now, it is just easier to call him by his name.  So here it goes…

A few weeks leading up to Daniel’s due date I was having blood pressure trouble, thus I was put on mild bed rest as my blood pressure would go down to a reasonable rate.    If you’ve seen any pictures of me in my last trimester, you saw that I was huge.  Because of this fact and my blood pressure issues, my doctor ordered a sonogram for me when I was 37 weeks.  The sonogram measured Daniel at 9lbs13ozs give or take a pound.  It occurred to me to me that my baby boy was not going to be an easy delivery, and I was determined to deliver him the way nature intended.  As the weeks wore on, I was showing no signs of labor.  A few Braxton Hicks contractions every now and then but really no change was happening.  My cervix wasn’t softening or dilating, so my doctors suggested an induction to help the process along as they knew the baby was going to be big.  If I hadn’t been my usual stubborn self, I might have listened and avoided the following 36 hours…

Inductions have to be scheduled, and I kept getting wait listed until I got the message that on Tuesday September 27^th I had been approved for an induction.  There are only five slots for voluntary inductions otherwise one is wait listed.  Anyway, I got approved for my date and would report to the hospital the night before for something called Cervadil to be used to help soften the cervix for the next day.  I was terrified that night as I had no idea what to expect the next day.  A rather sleepless night followed, even with the help of some sleeping meds.

Tuesday morning arrived.  Around 10am, I began the induction process.  I was hooked up to all the necessary machines, and we began what would be a 15 hour process before the eventual c-section.  Usually labor progresses with an induction because all the necessary hormones kick in, but mine kept stalling.  The nurses would boost the Pitocin, I would have a few nasty contractions and then it would settle again.  I decided to go with an epidural.  I hated it.  It not only made me so nauseated that I was throwing up all the liquids I was allowed, but it also did not take to my body well.  My left leg had become a heavy tree trunk while I could still feel contractions on my right side.  At some point during the day, my Grandma Ruth and Aunt Toni dropped by to say hi.  That evening my mom arrived from TN and would stay through the wee hours of the morning to see Daniel.

My labor just wasn’t progressing and I was not doing well on the epidural.  The nurse gave me some meds that would put me to sleep for a while around 11pm.  When I woke up between 1 and 1:30am, what I needed to do was clear.  I was on the highest levels of Pitocin and nothing was happening; therefore, it was time for a c-section that I was surprisingly ok with by that point.  I must make it clear that Daniel had been moving around all day and had a steady heartbeat.  If for a second he had had trouble, then I would have had him out asap, but he was doing just fine.  Thus, I thought it was just a matter of time for him to come out.  All of the necessary pre-op measures were taken and off I went to the operating room. 

Now comes the part I just hated.  I was laid out on the surgical table, draped with the cloth, and the epidural made my entire body from the shoulders down numb.  It felt like I couldn’t breath, my arms were lead weights, and the epidural was making me feel nauseated once more.  I had been told that the procedure would take 30 min.  In the time before Michael was allowed in, I thought the next 30 min would be some of the longest of my life.  Finally the surgical team allowed Michael into the room, and I felt a little bit better. 

Before I knew it, Daniel was born at 2:38am Wednesday September 28, 2011.  Michael had the camera snapping pictures like it was going out of style!  In my drugged state, I made the technician with my baby prove to me that Daniel was indeed a boy.  I know I had seen the results on the sonogram machine, but I wanted to see it for myself on my baby.  Sure enough, I had given birth to a baby boy!  Once Daniel had been weighed, cleaned a bit, and swaddled they brought him over so I could meet him.  I started talking to him and he turned towards my voice and slightly opened his eyes as if to look at his mommy.  It was the most amazing moment of my life.  My baby knew me.

A Tour, Art, Science and Everything Else

The morning began bright and early once more! Daniel was ready to get moving at about 6am which is actually fine with me since we end up sleeping fairly early because we are all in the same room.  Today’s plan was to see touristy things within walking distance of our hotel.  Michael’s conference began during the afternoon, so we did not venture too far from the hotel.  However, this does not mean we did nothing.

A tour of Chase Field, the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, began the day’s activities.  The stadium was really cool.  There’s something eerie about walking around an empty baseball park.  We learned many things about the field such as it has a retractable roof that can close in about 4 minutes and people can rent out a swimming pool for a party to watch the game.  I had totally forgotten that the team had changed colors a few years ago, thus, I kept looking for the turquoise and purple which wasn’t there.  Silly mommy.  Daniel toured the field in the baby bjorn with Michael.  His head was a little swivel/bobble head as he was twisting and turning to take in everything around him.  I love watching him observe his little world.  After the tour, we truly embraced being tourists to eat lunch at the Hard Rock Café – Phoenix where I drank some wine and needed to nap.  Luckily, Daniel decided that a nap was in order for him too!

Post nap, Daniel and I set off for the Arizona Science Center where there was a traveling exhibit called Van Gogh Alive.  The hands-on science stuff was cool too, but the exhibit was awesome!  Talk about a new way of displaying his artwork.  The room was completely dark with gigantic screen set up around the perimeter of the room and up the columns and screen boxes on the floor.  His artwork was shown in movements that basically went chronologically through his life.  As the paintings were being shown, music was playing that fit the tone and mood of the paintings.  In addition, excerpts from his journals would narrate the paintings and music.  My description is not at all doing the exhibit justice.  It was such a unique way to look at his paintings.  The journal entries brought Van Gogh himself to life outside of his work.  Daniel thought the paintings were quite cool too as he kept looking every which way to see the new set of colors that would pop up on the screen.  Eventually, he began to fall asleep all nestled in my arms and then in his stroller.

Sightseeing with a baby is a new experience.  The day moves at a very slow pace, and I really have to adopt the attitude of, “Oh well, I will get to it tomorrow or later.”  In many ways, Daniel makes me really slow down and take in my surroundings.  He charms everyone we come across, naturally.  Tomorrow we are off to see something that I cannot remember the name too at the moment.

A Quest for Baby Food

Sunday morning came and so did the early wake up hour of the Lutfi family.  Daniel initially woke up at 4am.  However, that just wasn’t going to work for Michael and me.  So, in between the two of us he went to fall asleep.  In typical Daniel style, he did not stay on his back.  Rather he flipped over to sleep diagonally taking up a fairly large portion of our king size bed.  Around 6am, Daniel was wide awake and so was Michael, so the boys went to hang out at Starbucks.  Most of the morning was spent hunting for rice cereal and formula.  We tried the local CVS-nothing, we walked through the ASU campus-nothing, and we walked different roads back to the hotel-nothing.  Finally, the hotel people told us of a Safeway a few miles away.  So off we ventured…  On our way there, we crossed over I-10 where we saw an interstate sign for Los Angeles.  It really occurred to me that we truly out west near these kinds of places.  We found that to be very cool.  Rice cereal and formula were indeed found as well as a mini hail storm on our way back where Daniel was sick of being in his stroller and became very vocal about that fact.  Therefore, Michael caved and carried him for the remainder of the walk.  Nevertheless, our quest was successful!  Thanks to the adventure, we really discovered a good bit of Phoenix.  Even though we didn’t do anything cultural, we took in the city.  I was able to figure out where Daniel and I would be visiting during the next few days.

I would also like to add that Daniel did some hotel room discovering of his own.  I needed to use the restroom, so I laid him down in the middle of the floor far away from anything he could get his hands on.  Now, I realized the room had gotten rather quiet so I quickly returned to find Daniel had rolled over onto his tummy and proceed to twist, turn, and squirm to make his way half way under the bed.  Were his spirits dampened, of course not!  Instead, he looked at me as if to say exploring the floor was the best thing to happen since his bottle earlier that day.  Daniel also seems to think that he can feed himself these days.  Any spoon coming near his little mouth is an immediate call for both hands to grasp the spoon and attempt to shove it into his mouth while spilling its contents all over his face and bib.  Luckily, he realizes that the spoon has yummy food and will allow us to properly feed him the remainder of his food.  Feeding Daniel is always an event!

Traveling to Phoenix

Michael has finally realized that I am a neurotic nut about time especially when it comes to airplane travel.  I cannot count the amount of times I nearly had a nervous breakdown because the speedy bag drop off line was too long or the security line snaked along for about five rows.  This time air travel included an infant and all the stuff that goes with him.  Thus, for a 5:00pm departure, we left our house at 1:45pm to arrive at the baggage drop off at about 2:20pm.  I pushed Daniel darlin’ while Michael drug the suitcases.  Both lines were incredibly short especially the security one making me extremely happy.  I was a nervous wreck about our first flight with Daniel, but Michael was awesome to help calm my nerves.  It also really helped that Daniel charmed everyone with whom he came into contact. My little bundle got a big fussy as it was very close to bed time yet a new set of people to watch gave him great entertainment.  On the flight itself, Daniel drank his take-off bottle, snoozed, fussed a bit, flirted with all the passengers passing by, flirted with the flight attendant, ate sweet potatoes, made a mess with the sweet potatoes, snoozed some more, fussed, and then finally feel sound asleep on momma during landing while I was singing to him.  Michael and I never knew how exhausting a 4 hour flight can be.  I knew that Daniel required work as I am with him all the time, but travelling is a whole new event.  Plane flights will not be calm and relaxing again for a very long time. 
I nearly forgot this anecdote.  Michael tried to listen to some music.  Well, Daniel darling’ found the headphone cords to be the most fascinating thing since Manga’s nose.  Thus, Michael did not listen to any music and Daniel was thoroughly entertained while I was giggling next to them.

We took a taxi from the airport to the hotel.  And I thought I was back in Cairo!  A crazy taxi driver, barely staying within the lines, tearing through the streets of Phoenix made me feel back at home in Cairo.  I never thought I would say that the desert is like a home to me, but it is.  Daniel felt right at home practically falling asleep during the ride over to the hotel.  Now, it was way past his bedtime, but he usually doesn’t like a car that’s moving him around rather roughly.  Once we made it into our room, I set up the crib, sang Daniel a song, laid him down and out he went like a light J.