Fast asleep, newborn baby Jackson Dallas Sanders can't keep his eyes open. His mother can't take her eyes off him.
"I'm tired, but I just want to keep staring at him," said Kathleen Fairgood Sanders. "I haven't closed my eyes yet."
Sanders says she expected her 8-pound baby boy to come on a holiday, but not on the day reserved for giving thanks to mothers.
"Jackson was due on the 5th of May - on Cinco de Mayo," she said. "But he decided to show up on Mother's Day. He decided to give me and my husband a really good mother's day gift."
Sanders arrived at San Joaquin Community Hospital in Bakersfield just after midnight on Sunday. She sad she had an easy delivery, and her little boy came four hours later.
At Mercy Southwest Hospital, Marissa Munoz says she spent 13 hours in labor before her bundle of joy arrived.
"She cried for a couple minutes and then stopped real fast," Munoz said. "She's a very calm baby, sleeping, very peaceful."
Munoz says her 6-pound baby girl, Isabella Mia Munoz, came close to three weeks early. Also, she an her husband are newlyweds and also have a baby boy.
"It is a lot," she said. "Our wedding anniversary was two weeks ago, our two year anniversary. We have her and our son is still 14 months, so we have a lot going on but it's exciting."
On the day when moms just want to relax and receive presents, these local mothers agree a baby is a gift that keeps on giving.
"Even though I have two already that I love with all my heart," Sanders said. "Mother's Day will always be something different now that I've had a little baby."
