Amelia Sophie

On Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 8:13 a.m., a child was born, Amelia Sophie. Her birth weight was measured at 3.14 kilograms (6 pounds, 15 ounces).

The Delivery

That morning, Elia was admitted to St. Joseph Medical Center and the Children’s Hospital of Orange County at 5:45 a.m. Two hours later, after being checked and placed onto a gurney, she was wheeled into the operating room, where the delivery team assembled itself. I sat on a small stool nearby Elia and conversed with her while the team proceeded to perform a C-section. The operation commenced and went painlessly and thereby smoothly. Everyone was delighted to hear the cries of a newborn baby ringing through the air.

In the instant I returned to Elia’s side holding the baby, she recognized her mom. Once she heard Elia’s voice, she stopped crying, opened her eyes, and motioned with her tiny tongue to feed. She had to wait another half hour, while the delivery team completed the procedure, before being handed to her mom. Elia and the baby have remained very close ever since.

Words cannot convey the love we have for our daughter, Amelia Sophie.

The Name

Amelia Sophie is a combination of the names of two people very important to both Elia and me. Amelia is the name of Elia’s grandma, and Sophie is the name of mine. Abuelita Amelia lives a few hours south of us in Playas de Tijuana. My grandma Sophie is still alive in the hearts of her eight grandchildren. Both of our grandmas are key sources of love in our lives. We are simply trying to return some of this love to the world.

Seb, the Bro-tector

To help Elia and me perform our duty to protect our little one, I commissioned Seb as the Big Bro-tector of the baby sister. As the Big Bro-tector, Seb watches out for his Baby Sister and is to be careful with her, not poke her in the nose with his finger and, instead of grabbing at her ears and cheeks, gently caress the tufts of hair on her soft head. Seb has accepted his role and is preparing himself to bro-tect his baby sister.

Seb's initial bro-tection duties include posing for photographs with Baby Sister.

So far, Seb is pleased to have a baby sister. About every half hour, he asks me to pick up Baby Sister and carry her on a walk around the house. I proceed to cradle Ameliasita while Seb accompanies me on a home mini-tour. With boundless enthusiasm, he points out the features he finds of interest to his baby sister: his nightly routine checklist, a posted menu of all the new foods he has tried, his Thomas the Train table, the home computer with all of his stored videos, the bathtub, and so forth. Once we are finished reviewing a station, Seb leaps forward and gallops ahead down the hall to the next.

At each station, he asks me to explain to Baby Sister the importance of a particular feature. “Here is the Pizza Truck, one of Seb’s favorite toys. Seb acquired it at a garage sale several years ago. Pizza happens to be one of Seb’s favorite foods. He enjoys eating melted cheese. When you are older, you and Seb will eat pizza together. Seb, why don’t you sing Baby Sister the Pizza Truck song?”

As we conclude the tour with a snack, he insists that I include the baby: “Papa, can you tell Baby Sister about what I’m drinking, please?”

What happened to 11-11-11?

One day, about a week ago, during a routine doctor visit, an administrative aide informed Elia that she had been bumped from an extraordinary Veteran’s Day celebration of the 11-11-11 birth date to one day earlier. Neither Elia nor I really attach any significance to numbers and birth times. Our primary objective was to ensure delivery of a 100% healthy baby. We agreed that the actual date, plus or minus a week, did not matter.

As Elia and I decided how to re-arrange our plans to conform to the updated delivery schedule, Elia commented on the significance Americans attach to dates and their associated zeal with anniversaries for everything from annual retail sales events to bloody acts of terror. Why should the definition of the personality for an individual or nation be founded on a schedule? I admit, I was disappointed in the so-called clerical error that advanced the birthday up the calendar from the coveted 11-11-11, but ultimately I am happy to have welcomed a new member of our family to our world on 11-10-11.