One Year Old

Amaya is officially a toddler now.  Where did this last year go?  It seems like just yesterday I was snuggling a newborn and now I'm chasing after a soon-to-be walker.  This year has definately been a learning experience for me, Michael, and of course Amaya.  It seems like as soon as we get a handle on her latest phase, she changes it up and moves onto a new one. 

She is now 22 pounds and 28 inches tall.  She loves her kitties and most of all her stuffed monkey.  She is not a picky eater, but insists on feeding herself.  Her favorite food is ravioli (with or without sauce) and she really likes Strawberry-Kiwi Fruit Splashers juice (Gerber).  She is growing like a weed and now wears 12-18month clothing and size 4/5 shoes (size 4 is a little too small, but 5 is too big yet).  She doesn't have a favorite color yet, but she seems to prefer bright colors over dull ones.  She is crawling (fast!) and trying to walk.  She will walk around the house holding onto our fingers or holding onto couches, tables, and toys. 

4 Months Old now!!

Amaya is now 4 months old and is growing like a weed. A couple weeks ago we went to Sears and got some adorable 3 month photos taken of her and the family. Here are some of our favorites:

Isn't she just adorable?!?!?!? She now weighs around 16 lbs and enjoys sitting up either in her bumbo seat or on Mom and Dad's laps. She also just figured out how to roll over from her back to her tummy!!! She is growing so fast, she may out-grow her 3-6 month clothes within the next month or so.

Her next doctor's appointment is on September 28 where we will see how big she is officially, get her some shots, and probably get the go- ahead for starting solid foods.

Too much time has passed...

Well, Since my last post a lot has happened. Things went well for the majority of the thrid trimester until about 30 weeks when I started gaining weight too quickly according to my midwives. By 32 weeks I started having fairly regular Braxton-Hicks contractions (at least 2 dozen a day, sometimes more) and was diagnosed with an "Irritable uterus" basically meaning I was having contractions, but they weren't anything to worry too much about. At 36 weeks they diagnosed me with Pre-ecclampsia due to borderline high blood pressure and some protein in my urine. So they scheduled my induction for May 13 (37 weeks).

We called that morning at 5:30am to see when to come in, but no beds were available. Same at 8am, but they said they would call us. Around 1, we call them again, and still nothing available so we called the midwife, who pulled some strings and got us in around 3:30. The induction didn't go very well. Becuase of my Pre-ecclampsia, they wanted me on Magnesium to prevent seizures, but it also prevents the uterus from contracting. They had me on the highest dose of pitocin they felt comfortable with and I still wasn't into a good labor pattern. I would get contractions every 90 seconds, lasting 60, all in my back, about 5 or 6 in a row then they would stop for about 5 minutes. Because I wasn't getting any rest between contractions, the pain just kept escalating and around 4am I asked for some pain meds which allowed me to sleep for a couple hours.

At 7 the midwife came in to check my progress and noticed I was still at 5 cm (and had been for hours) so we decided the best course of action would be to break my water. Unfortunately, the worst case scenario happened: part of the cord was starting to come out before the baby also known as cord prolapse. There is nothing they can do at that point except rush me in for an emergency c-section.

The next day or so was a complete blur as I slept a lot due to the pain meds they had me on. When I was awake, I tried to bond with our beautiful little girl, Amaya Ruth (7lbs 2.6oz, 19 inches). All I could really do at that point was hold her and try to breastfeed her. It was too painful to try to stand long enough to change her diaper.

Because I had lost so much blood during the surgery, I ended up needing a blood transfusion. All the while we were trying to get to know this little angel. The day before I was supposed to be released, however, the pediatrition came in and told us Amaya was losing too much weight to be discharged, so we had to wake her every 3 hours to try and feed her. The only problem was she wouldn't latch on for longer than a couple minutes. So we started supplementing with formula and trying to pump anything I could. That still wasn't enough and she lost more weight, bringing her to 15% down from her birthweight. By that point, Michael and I were spent and literally broke down in front of dr's, nurses and a midwife. They suggested that we allow the nurses to take Amaya down to the nurses' station and watch her for a few hours while we get some rest and reconnect. That was the best thing for us at that point. Michael and I got a chance to talk now that I wasn't completely doped up and we both got a decent nap. After our nap we went downstairs to Subway for lunch. It was one of the first times I had left my room since we got into the mom & baby wing.

While we were napping, the charge nurse did some research for us (on her own) She had found out that I had PCOS and discovered that PCOS can interfere with milk production. That little tidbit of information did help, but it also hurt at the same time. I was so bent on breastfeeding Amaya, that it ended up hurting her. For the next few weeks I really struggled with my "failure" of not being able to feed my own child and the fact my body was conspiring against me. I am pretty much over it now and I am glad we found out before leaving the hospital so we could fix the problem quickly. She is now formula fed and is doing very well.

We took her home when she was 5 days old and things really started to improve. My incision was healing nicely and it was getting easier and easier to do things. Michael was (and still is) really great helping with Amaya and around the house. By her 2 week check up, Amaya was back up to her birthweight and thriving. At 2 weeks, we no longer had to wake her to feed her, she was finally telling us she was hungry.

At 5 weeks, she met her grandparents (Michael's parents) for the first time as they came to visit from the mainland for 10 days. We all had a lot of fun playing tourist and showing Michael's family around the island. We went to a Luau, the USS Arizona memorial, North Shore, the Dole Plantation, and Waikiki. Amaya didn't really care what we were doing as long as she got fed.

Shortly after they left, we finally were able to start cloth diapering. The diapers I made didn't work out well, so we ended up purchasing some BumGenious Flip diapers. We loved them, but with just the one package of 6, we weren't able to do cloth full time, so I went on the hunt on craigslist and found a mom selling some Flip covers, inserts, and prefold diapers. After that we haven't bought a single disposable diaper. We have had to invest in 2 dozen more prefolds because I was sick of doing diaper laundry every other day. Now we do diapers about twice a week (every 3-4 days). The nice thing about these diapers is they grow with baby so we don't have to keep buying diapers everytime she grows out of one size.

When Amaya was 2.5 months old, my friend Desi came to visit for a week and Amaya had her first dr visit and shots. Amaya is 12lbs 1oz and 23" long and in the 70% for both height and weight. While Desi was here, we went to another Luau, and to Dole Plantation, but we also did some things we didn't do with Michael's family. Desi and I went to Sealife Park where she swam with the dolphins and Amaya got to touch a turtle and a hermit crab. We also put amaya's feet in the ocean for the first time. She wasn't too sure about that.

Amaya is now 3 months old and is a very happy baby, most of the time. She smiles a lot and loves her bathtime. She loves to "talk" and is now wanting to sit up (with support) and look around. I am so blessed to have her!

It has been entirely too long between posts...

So here we go again: Our original ultrasound was scheduled for January 22, but early that morning I got a call from the hospital saying that one of their techs had an emergency and they needed to reschedule. The next availability was the following Thursday at 9am. After crying for an hour and skipping my class that morning, everything seemed better. (Pregnancy hormones are crazy and I now find myself crying over the stupidest junk)

Thursday finally came and Michael and I headed to Tripler for the ultrasound. Of course, there was no parking available near the entrance we needed to use, so he dropped me off and went around to the other side of the building and found a parking spot in the most remote "lot" (aka patch of dirt) and met me in the Antipartum Diagnostic Center 20 minutes later. The ultrasound went very well, but I have to admit, it was wierd to feel and see the baby move on the screen. The tech started with the boring stuff: head, tummy, feet, legs; before moving on to the important parts: Princess Parts. That's right, if you don't already know, it's a Girl! Throughout the entire ultrasound she was moving and kicking up a storm. We even caught some kicking in a picture:

She was feet down and her favorite game to play that day (and still) was Let's See How Hard I Can Kick Mommy's Bladder! We were able to watch her kick and actually see my bladder depress each time she kicked. She also did not want us to take pics of her heart apparently, as she kept hiding it behind my belly button. Because of this, we had to go in for a second ultrasound last week to get better shots of her heart, but our midwife and the neonatologist who looked at the ultrasound pics said she looks healthy and perfect.

Since then, she has been kicking up a storm and moving all around. She has already discovered my ribs and a few other fun places to kick/punch/headbutt/whatever. Most of the time it's fun to feel her move and kick, but she has a tendency to pick the most innapropriate times to be active: bedtime, when I'm in class, worship and/or praying, talking with Michael.

Michael was laughing at me the other day when he was playing Aion (MMO game he's a part of online) and all of the sudden I said, "Would you stop that!" He replies with, "What?" "Not you! Amaya! She's kicking my ribs again and I need to concentrate on my sewing!"

Our next appointment is March 11 at which point I will be entering the third trimester! I can't believe how fast it's gone by!

18 Weeks

We have now entered a new year and with it a new stage of the pregnancy. Michael and I had a nice, quiet Christmas at home with our cat, Molokai (we call him Kai for short). New Years Eve again was just us at home with a bottle of Sparkling Apple-Mango Cider (very yummy!)

New Years day I got a little bit of a surprise: baby's kicks are becoming more distinct. Before, it was random fluttering. Now it's actual bumps and kicks. The kicking is still not extremely frequent, but I am feeling it more often. Up until New Years, I had only felt the flutters when I was sitting or laying down, but there were a couple times when I would feel it standing up and it would catch me off guard. It's such a fun feeling!

In a little over a week, I start back at school again and we get back into the daily grind. I'm actually looking forward to most of my classes this semester. In about 3 weeks, we will finally get to find out the gender of the baby!

16 weeks!

I know it's been a while since we last posted a blog, so here we go again

Since Veteran's day not a lot has happened. We celebrated Thanksgiving by going to a friend's house for dinner. After Thanksgiving I worked on finishing my semester projects and ending the semester strong. My semester ended on December 12 and I have gotten 3 out of 4 grades back and they're all A's. The final one should be ready in a week or two.

This week, we had our 16 week appointment with a midwife and everything was going normally until she tried to find baby's heartbeat. Every time she got close, baby would kick the doppler machine and move away. After a few minutes, she gave up and went to get the ultrasound machine. She came back with another midwife and had her try to find it. Apparently by then the baby had gotten tired and wasn't moving around as much and she was able to find it after only a couple minutes, but she had to keep moving slightly to keep a hold on the heartbeat.

I have started to feel some movement and when the baby gets in just the right spot, Michael is able to feel it a little, too!

Our next appointment isn't until January 22, but it's the most exciting appointment (in my opinion): the ultrasound! We are planning on finding out the gender as long as the baby cooperates.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Veteran's Day

Well, not much has happened this week, until yesterday. Yesterday Michael was supposed to have the day off and we were going to head out to Babies'R'Us and Target to do some shopping/start the baby registry. Those plans went out the window as soon as the day started.

At 12 Am, Michael's pager goes off and he gets called in to work because a specific piece of gear went down and he needed to figure out what was wrong and fix it. By 4Am, the problem still wasn't fixed, but his supervisor told him to go home, get some sleep and be back by 10. He worked from 10-4, finally having success and fixing it. Meanwhile, I was off doing all the shopping by myself. I found a lot of things I would love to get for the baby and got myself a few maternity shirts and another pair of pants, but it just wasn't as much fun as it would have been with Michael there.

Many of you know that I get migraines from artificial scents (purfumes, etc). Well, I guess I spent a little too much time near all the smelly stuff at Babies'R'Us and Wal-mart, and by the time Michael got home I had a huge migraine on my hands. It got so bad that we ended up heading to the Tripler Emergency Room for some pain meds. They were able to give me some meds that were safe for the baby, but they made me extremely jittery and almost anxious. Before they would discharge me, they wanted to make sure the baby was doing well by checking the heartbeat. They had a hard time getting a solid read through the fetal doppler, they would find the heartbeat for a second or two, then lose it, so they decided they needed to do an ultrasound to get a firm positive that baby was doing well. We were able to see the head, body, and the little heart beating. Seeing our baby for the first time completely makes up for all the crap we went through the rest of the day.