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.

10 Weeks

Well, I am officially 10 weeks pregnant and so far it hasn't been too bad. The morning sickness only lasted a week until I discovered that taking Prenatal Vitamins in the morning is a bad idea. They were causing the extreme nausea all day and once I started taking them at night, the nausea has all but disappeared. It still shows up occasionally, but now it's more of an annoyance than an actual problem.

My main complaint is the fatigue. No one tells you how tiring it is to grow a new human. I fall asleep at the drop of a hat now. Last week I fell asleep for about 20 minutes during my Flat Patternmaking class. Sad thing is, I didn't miss much. The teacher went through how to make the pattern for a roll collar during my nap and I woke up to her standing infront of me and my friend Caitlin, showing us the sample. Mrs. Zane gives me a concerned look and asks if I'm ok and continues to look at me funny throughout the rest of the class.

This week was our first prenatal appointment up at Tripler Army Medical Center. Unfortunately, there is nothing exciting to report. It was just a registration appointment and they didn't do anything, even listen to the baby's
heartbeat. The only thing they did was draw a ton of blood (8 vials!!) and I swear I had the worst lab tech they have. She went in at a funny angle and couldn't get a great flow, so she pumped it up and down as if she were looking for oil. My arm was sore for 2 day afterward. My next appointment is November 19 and I'm hoping ot have a much better results from it.

Between now and then is my birthday and Michael has something big planned, but he won't tell me what it is. I am not a patient person and have been trying to get him to tell me what all he has planned, but he won't. I guess I will just have to wait.

Let's try this again

Well, my first attempt at starting this blog didn't go very well, so let's start this thing again. Since our last post, a lot has happened. In February, I was finally able to join Michael in Beautiful Hawaii and start our married life together. We live in a nice house in a military housing community called Hale Moku (I'm not entirely sure what that means, but the house is pretty nice). We also found a great church here not too far from home, First Assembly of God, and started getting involved.



In March, we started attending Taekwondo classes at Oahu Taekwondo Center in Aiea and have been progressing fairly quickly through the ranks. Not a lot happened in April, but in May we celebrated Michael's 24th birthday. In June, we boarded a plane and went back to the mainland, stoppping in Washington to celebrate his sister's High School Graduation, then off to Wisconsin for our 2nd wedding reception/celebration of our marriage. The band was awesome and it was great to see people I haven't seen in a long time.



July was a rather big month with our first wedding anniversary, which we spent up at Turtle Bay Resort. It was amazing! The views up on the north shore of Oahu are breathtaking. A week later Michael was off to the mainland for 6 weeks of training in Georgia, but I was not able to join him. In Late August, I started back at school as a Fashion Technology major at Honolulu Community College. So far, I'm loving it!



Michael returned from Georgia in September and life returned to a normal routine, but with a few minor additions. We now are at church 2-3x a week rehearsing for the annual Christmas production. This year's production, titled A Baby Changes Everything, has been a lot of fun to work on. We still have a few more weeks to go before the production, but it is all coming together nicely.



A few weeks ago, after having some lab work done to check on my PCOS (PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome) I noticed I wasn't feeling great, but I just brushed it off as stress related. The lab work came back normal (Praise God!!!), but things didn't feel normal. I went in for one more blood test and sure enough, that one was slightly abnormal. The final test I went in for was a blood pregnancy test and I am pleased to report, I am now 8 weeks pregnant with a child doctors told me I would never be able to concieve! God is Still working Miracles!!!!



So far, things seem to be going well and my first appointment is on November 4. I will try to keep this blog updated a lot better with everything related to the pregnancy and coming baby. Thank you all for your prayers and support!

Winter Fun

Well, I finally got around to posting an update. Michael arrived in Alaska late on December 13 and was able to stay through the holidays. It was nice to have some extra help with work duties, especially the dishes. (He is great with the kids, too) It was also great to be able to spend our first Christmas together in a winter wonderland. For the first couple weeks it was fairly mild weather and not too much extra snow :) We made plans to spend New Year's Eve in Anchorage and then fly up to Fairbanks to visit the Chena Hot Springs for a few days. Unfortunately, the week after Christmas, the weather got drastically colder and we went from 20* down to -30* in just a matter of days. Up in Fairbanks the temperature was between 50-60* below 0 the entire weekend we were up there. It was so cold, we decided to go into the Ice Museum to warm up. (it's kept at 20* above year round to keep the ice frozen) That Sunday, we boarded a train to take us back to Anchorage. Because it was so cold outside, the train was not allowed to go full speed (65 mph). Instead we could only go 45 mph max, turning our 10 hour train ride into 12.5-13. There were also parts of the track that constricted so much in the cold that it formed cracks between the rail segments and we had to be "walked" over the gap (we could only go about 5-10 mph over the cracks to prevent derailment) There was even one part where we ended up going onto a siding to go around a segment of track that had broken completely in the cold.

A few short days later, Michael left for sunny San Diego while I stayed in Alaska to pack and finish the last few weeks of my work duties. After three weeks of training, Michael left San Diego and headed to Honolulu, Hawaii to start work and get things ready for my arrival. Tuesday he met with housing and by Thursday he was moving into our new home!!

That last week I was busy. The movers came Monday. Tuesday I ran some errands and got my hair done. Wednesday I worked most of the day and tried to finish packing and cleaning. Thursday was Bible study in the morning and working the rest of the afternoon/evening. My last day of work was Friday and that night I went to a friend's house for dinner and we both went to a women's praise and worship night at church. At the end of the evening, the ladies all gathered around me and prayed for my trip and the new adventure waiting for me in Hawaii. It has been such a blessing to have all of them in my life these last two and a half years. After the event was over a few of us went out to a local grocery store with a little coffee shop to sit and chat for a little. I finally returned home around 1:30 am. Saturday was spent finishing my cleaning and packing and last minute errands and Sunday was my last day at my church. I was able to say "good-bye" to most of the friends I had made over the last few years and I managed not to cry in front of people. Around midnight, I said good-bye to Kat and Steve took me to the airport. 14 hours later, I landed in Honolulu and was reunited with my hubby. Now we start our new life as a married couple!

Let's start this out

This is to give everyone a baseline as to what Jess and I have gone through, where we are, and were things are going with our lives in the next few months. I understand that most of you know this stuff, but I feel it is best to put this out so that anyone that doesn't know, has something to go off of.

Well the wedding went pretty smoothly. It was pretty small, but quite fun at the same time. It took place on July 26th, in my parents back yard. Her family was there, including her grandmother, aunt and uncle. For me, my grandmother, and her husband, as well as my aunt showed up. There were a couple of my friends that decided to show as well. If you would like to see pictures of the wedding, you can go to this link: http://s271.photobucket.com/albums/jj143/alaskannavalnanny/Wedding/

From there, we had a week of honeymoon on the Oregon coast. We had a good time, and very much enjoyed each others company. Unfortunatly, it ended all to soon, as I had to go back to work in Itlay, and she had to go back to Chicago to continue her work. We have spent the last 3 and a half months apart, and it has been really hard on both of us. However we are entering the home stretch. Jess just returned to Alaska from her stent with the family in Chicago, and I am entering my last month stationed over here in Italy. Once I am done here, we will get to spend a month together, some of which we will spend traveling through Alaska. We will also spend the time packing her stuff for the move to Hawaii, where I am going to be stationed next. We will also be helping the family that she works for, in their preperations to move.

From there, it is another waiting game. I will have several weeks of school that I have to go through. Then, once I reach Hawaii, I will have to get things in order so that Jess can join me. I hope that all this goes quickly, though the Navy has proved very difficult in trying to get some of the paperwork done.

Please keep us in prayer as we go through the next couple months. Though we are going to enjoy the time we will have together here in a month, there are still several hurdles that we have to get over before we are together permanetly.

God bless,
Michael