....questions answered

as many of you read in my last post, i had a lot of unanswered questions.

 

well, i am back with most all of the answers...

• how will labor start (water breaking, contractions)?  it started with irregular contractions monday and some light bleeding.
• how long will it take once it starts?  once we arrived at the hospital at 4:30 am the bleeding had increased so they were concerned about the placenta. they did an ultrasound to confirm the location of the placenta. once they were certain the placenta was not in the way they were able to check me for dilation. she checked me and these were her words, "she is completely dilated with bulging bag of waters!" i was still in triage not yet in a delivery room, so they went into full action! if i wasn't in so much pain i would have found it humorous! it was like in the movies! they did an emergency call to the ob delivery wing that they needed a room asap! then they put the rails up on my bed and wheeled me, running through the halls to the delivery room. through all of this, i am going through transition with uncontrollable, full body shakes and contractions all over the place with no consistent pattern. she was born at 6:13 am.
• will i be able to have another drug free labor and delivery? yes! but i didn't really have an option this time!
• will i have the strength to endure the discomfort?  barely! when they were concerned about the placenta, as i convulsed from the shakes and contractions on top of each other, for a moment there i thought, "maybe a c-section would be a welcome relief from all this pain!" luckily, the placenta was not a problem, because i now am grateful to not have a cut on my belly that needs extra time to heal!
• will i make it to the hospital in time?  thankfully, yes! but it was the closest call that we've had! i was seriously worried about having to give birth in the car on the side of the road!
• will she be early or late? obviously, the answer is early! yippee! i like it when our babies come early! who wouldn't want to be pregnant a shorter amount of time!
• will i have back labor again? unfortunately the answer is a big, fat YES! the little rascal decided she wanted to come out sunny side up! all i can say is OUCH! my midwife said that in her whole career as a midwife she has only delivered about 5 babies that were sunny side up because most of them turn before actually being born! fortunate for me (read: very thick sarcasm!) i have given birth to 2 sunny side babies!! let me just say "OUCH!" again!
• will i bounce back after having her?  TBD....so far, it has been slower than the others, but i credit it to the intense back labor and the full body shakes! i am still hopeful that i can bounce back.
• will i ever be thin again? TBD....ha! sure doesn't feel like it! but, again, i am still hopeful!
• will i ever stop itching? a big huge, yeehaw! because it has stopped!
• will i ever be able to sleep again? well, you know how it is! i am able to sleep when she let's me!
• will i ever be able to rock with kawena and cuddle her close on my lap? i did it last night and i loved every minute of it! i'm pretty sure she enjoyed it too because she feel asleep on my lap! heavenly!
• will i ever be able to eat what i want again? YES! i had a cheeseburger at the hospital and pizza my first night home and i am looking forward to all the foods that we have planned for the next week! yum!
• will i ever walk without waddling?  still have yet to do that! but, again, i am very hopeful!
• will i ever run again? i sure hope so since the saturday before she was born we set up our new treadmill! i plan to get on it as soon as i feel up to it! that is how i plan to "bounce back" and "be thin" again!
• will i ever see my toes again? i'm lookin' at them right now!
• will i be able to be the mother of four girls? i guess i will have to figure it out! but i am very hopeful!

WHEN WILL SHE ARRIVE???

january 27th, 2009

6:13 am

7 pounds 4 ounces

20 inces long

mommie and baby are doing well and happy to be home!

*beautiful photography courtesy of malia johnson photography

so many questions......

as i become increasingly more uncomfortable every day, the big questions on my mind are,

• how will labor start (water breaking, contractions)?
• how long will it take once it starts?
• will i be able to have another drug free labor and delivery?
• will i have the strength to endure the discomfort?
• will we make it to the hospital in time?
• will she be early like our first (2 weeks early) and third (3 weeks early) daughters or will she be late (1 day late) like our second?
• will i have back labor, again?
• will i bounce back after having her?
• will i ever be thin again?
• will i ever stop itching?
• will i ever be able to sleep again?
• will i ever be able to rock with kawena and cuddle her close on my lap?
• will i ever be able to eat whatever i want again and not worry about it burning in my throat?
• will i ever walk without waddling?
• will i ever run again?
• will i ever see my toes again?
• will i be able to be the mother of four girls?
• will i ever....
• will i ever...

well, you get the picture!

 

but the real burning and important question that i have is:

 

WHEN WILL SHE ARRIVE???

 

any guesses? (my due date is february 8)

 

my little wiggies

when we moved into grandma's house in october, the girls found some very fun things to play with. in the girls bedroom, much to mitch's dislike, there was a makeup table with actual makeup, costume jewelry, fancy brush and mirror. the makeup made a quick disappearing act within the first couple days, but everything else pretty much was left for the girls to play with.

 

the one item that the girls found in their bedroom that continues to be played with is a wig.

 

today while nani was at school kale'a and kawena got it out and started fighting over it. so, of course, i got the trusty timer out (that was the best invention for a mother with children who fight over toys) and they each were able to play with it in 3 minute increments.

 

the timer on my watch is a miracle worker, let me tell you! i love that thing! it seriously has turned a screaming fit into peaceful play many a time!

 

but i digress...

 

as they took turns wearing the wig i had to grab my camera! look at how cute these two are as short reddish blondies!

 

when kawena saw this picture she screamed in her high, squeally voice "look! that sa-illy (silly) me!"

 

 

doesn't kale'a look totally different and so much older?? and kinda cute?

 

as cute as they are in the wig, i sure like their dark hair much better!  what do you think?!

 

all she wanted for christmas.....

...was to know the gender of her new grandchild.

 

as you all know, we have been withholding the gender of our new baby as our little secret. it wasn't just withheld from you, my dear friends. oh no! we didn't even tell anyone in our families. mitch and i, as well as our girls, are the only ones who have known.  that was until christmas day.

 

when asked what she wanted for christmas all my mom would say is, "i want to know if it's a girl or a boy!" that really was all that she wanted! sounds easy enough and she fully expected to get what she wanted. however, i was not so sure. it wasn't until christmas eve when mitch and i climbed, exhausted, into bed that we decided to leave a little something in her stocking to clue her in.

 

i stood ready to capture the moment on film. apparently, it wasn't a good enough clue because she pulled it out of her stocking and set it on the couch. i had to draw her attention back to the object. and then it clicked! (sorry mom, i know how much you don't like your picture being taken):

 

can you see what she is holding in her hand? it might be a little hard to tell what it is. let me help you out a little:

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so, there you have it!

 

and...... my mom got all that she wanted for christmas! merry christmas mom!

pregnancy update

i realize that i have not given much information regarding how my pregnancy is going since this post when it was all gloom and doom (well, it wasn't complete gloom and doom, but i was pretty concerned about the placenta previa and the thought of a mandatory c-section). i blame the move and craziness of christmas and visitors and, and, and...you get the idea!

 

anyway, many of you have asked how the whole pregnancy thing is going, so i thought i should probably update you since i've only got 3 more weeks left of pregnancy (thank goodness).

 

on our drive from oregon to new mexico i started to bleed some. as soon as we arrived in albuquerque i called a doctor and got in asap. they were a bit concerned so they scheduled a second ultrasound to see what was going on with the placenta. luckily, the bleeding subsided and has not resumed since!

 

the same day i had my second ultrasound, i also had my glucose tolerance test. while waiting for the results from the blood test i went in for the ultrasound. they saw that the placenta had moved a little bit and was not a complete previa, but a partial to low lying previa. that was good news.

 

however, they thought that the umbilical cord was inserted low on the placenta near the cervix. this is known as vasa previa and is significantly worse for the baby than placenta previa. they couldn't tell for sure, so i left that ultrasound a bit concerned. if that wasn't enough i was borderline diabetic. wonderful!

 

the best part of the ultrasound was that i left with this:

i understand that some of you may think that these pictures are kind of creepy (namely my sister!), but it was the first time i had seen one of our babies in 3-d and i think it's pretty cool! the placenta was covering the top of the head (the technician cut some of it out of the picture and that is why the head is not all there) and that is why it looks kinda weird. i think the baby is kinda cute, much cuter than the "alien babies" that the 2-d ultrasound pictures show! (this was at 28 weeks)

 

so, with thanksgiving and christmas approaching, i decided i needed to know if i truly had gestational diabetes or not. i wanted to be able to eat all those fabulous holiday goodies if i could. so, i did that horrible 3 hour glucose test and i thought i was going to pass out by the end of it. what a relief, when i got the call the day before thanksgiving telling me my levels were perfectly normal, not even close to the high range! so, i celebrated for the next month and a half and ate lots and lots of sugary, yummy goodness! probably not the best decision, but i did it anyway!

 

while my parents were here for christmas, i had my third ultrasound to check the location of the placenta and the insertion of the umbilical cord. in order to be able to deliver vaginally, the placenta needs to be a minimum of 2 cm away from the cervix. when measured, my placenta was 4 cm away! yippee! i was cleared for a normal delivery, barring any unforeseen complications. what they thought may have been an insertion of the cord down by the cervix was just a loop of cord because they found the true insertion towards the middle of the placenta!

 

now, i am happily seeing a midwife, instead of a doctor at the high risk clinic.

 

this whole crazy mess has been very interesting for us! we have seen many miracles and had many, many  prayers answered (thanks to all of your prayers that were offered on our behalf! they really have been felt and answered!). it seems like it has just been one thing after another. once one complication was cleared, a new one seemed to surface only to go away just as another complication would arise! it has helped us to really turn to the Lord and draw closer to Him. as we have seen our faith increase through these trials mitch and i have been drawn closer to each other and have seen a strengthening of our relationship!

 

we truly feel blessed! we know that we are being watched over and seasoned or refined. however, at the same time we are a bit worried about what all of this may be preparing us for in the future!?? but whatever comes, i guess we have been prepared, right?

 

now, we just wait for the payoff when we get to hold our beautiful baby in our arms.....

 

mine wagon!!

each christmas the girls get one big present from santa. we were having a hard time figuring out what kawena would be getting. but i think santa knew just what she would absolutely love! christmas morning as mitch carried kawena to see what was "under" the tree, this is what she did when she laid her eyes on it for the first time:

"mine wagon!"

 

and as she climbed in for the first time to try out her new wheels she was overjoyed!

little did santa know how MUCH she was going to love the wagon! you see she sat in that thing ALLDAY christmas and we all pulled her from room to room as she sat like a queen strapped into her new wagon.

 

when grandma and grandpa came over bearing way too many gifts, there she sat...

pulled to the front door to see who had come! "oh yipee! more people to pull me around in mine wagon!"

 

while everyone sat opening their stockings, there sat kawena checking out the cool cup holders in her wagon!

(pictured here is mitch's mom, nani, mitch's dad, mitch's grandma, aka. grandma great, my mom, and kawena sitting, surprisingly enough, in her wagon!)

 

she sat in her wagon during the whole present opening, while sisters and tutu's handed her presents to open! i mean, is that the life or what??!

since christmas, that girl has been pulled to the kitchen, to her room, to the den, up and down the hall countless times, to the bathroom, and pretty much any part of the house that she can possibly think of to be pulled in that wagon. she asks to have the wagon right next to her crib at night so she "can touch it!" she pretends to take a fully clothed bath in it. she sits in it to watch movies. she even asks me to sing the "wagon song" when i rock with her at night and nap time.  have any of you even heard of the "wagon song"?  yep, neither have i! but i make a new one up every time she asks for it! i'm just a good mom that way! i tell you this girl is infatuated with this radio flyer wagon! in fact, right now as i write this she is sitting in her wagon watching curious george perfectly content!

 

i'm pretty sure santa had absolutely NO idea just how PERFECT and how in L.O.V.E. kawena would be with her new wagon!

 

way to go santa!! you scored big time this year!

SOLD! SOLD! SOLD!

we thought this day would never come! but it is here and we are doing a happy dance in albuquerque!

 

it's almost surreal because the transaction has happened so fast and we've been waiting so long for this to happen.  we were beginning to think we would never sell our home, but now that it has happened it almost doesn't feel real!

on saturday about midnight, we got an email from our realtor that we had a second showing earlier that day. on sunday morning, while at church, we received an email telling us we had an offer forthcoming. yesterday afternoon, we got the offer and were floored when we saw it was for full asking price, something that is unheard of in this market. in fact, our realtor has told us that many buyers are very cruel in their offers simply because they can be in this terrible market! we were expecting at least $20,000-40,000 below asking price (that happened to us back in september.  obviously, we didn't sell to them!), so we had prepared ourselves for just that! wow! we didn't expect a full price offer! today, we signed the papers and tomorrow we will no longer be homeowners and we will have a big, fat equity check deposited in our little bank account!

 

from homeowners to non-homeowners in the space of 4 days! amazing! you're probably wondering how we could do it so fast?! it's a wonderful thing called "relocation"! when we got the offer, the relocation company from mitch's work bought the house from us and now they will be finishing up with the inspections and closing, etc. and we are free and clear of all that hassle! can i just say, "i love relocation!!!"

we feel so blessed right now! it is more than we could have expected!

 

now, if mitch can keep his job, then we can buy the land we picked out and start building our new house! i'm giddy with excitement!

3

how many diapers has kawena worn in the last three days:

• 3 (at bedtime)

how many accidents has kawena had in the last three days:

• 3

how many naps has kawena woken up from with dry panties in the last three days:

• 3

what are three of my favorite phrases at the moment (they are music to my ears!):

• "i haffa go potty!"
• "mommie i need to go tinkles!"
• "i go poopie in the toilet!"

can you believe it?

 

we have never had two children in diapers and mitch and i were wondering if this was going to be the one that broke our streak of luck! the gap between kawena and this baby is the smallest (2 years, 4 months) and since january had arrived and there was no interest in potty training, mitch and i were preparing ourselves for 2 in diapers.

 

in hopes of getting kawena out of diapers before the baby was born she got  2 packages of panties for christmas , one princess and one dora. included with the present was a large bag of jelly bellies. we tried  the day after christmas but it lasted about 2 hours and we put her back into her diaper, resloved to the fact that we may just have to suffer two in diapers!

 

well, she saw her panties this week and decided to wear them. and so far things are going pretty well! she made it through church today, all day errands yesterday and my midwife appointment friday with only one accident! the other two accidents were little ones at home!

 

so, we are hoping that things will continue to go well so we don't break our streak of only having one kid in diapers at a time!

 

tutu time

i ALWAYS look forward to any time that my parents come for a visit. we have never lived near them, so we L.O.V.E whenever they come to see us! it is always so much fun!

well, this christmas was no different! typically, my mom comes about every 3 or 4 months while my dad comes maybe once a year because he is so busy! so, you can imagine how thrilled we were when both of them came for the holidays!

 

i wish i had gotten more pictures, but it seems i only get the camera out on the last day right before they leave. i am really bad that way!

 

if i had gotten my camera out before the last day you would have seen the girls working on art projects with tutu. she is the coolest tutu, ever! whenever she comes she brings the goods! she brought stamps and stamp pads and super cool paper to stamp on. they made bracelets out of beads that you cook in the oven and melt to form butterflies and hearts and flowers! they made a cool stained glass window out of scraps. she gave them watercolors and stencils and woodless colored pencils and their own sketch pads for all of their creations. they have been "artsing" ever since!

 

if i had thought about it, those are the fun pictures you would have seen! but instead i have only these, which i still love:

 

i lied! i actually did manage to get a few pictures of tutu playing blokus (a christmas gift from grandma) with the girls on their last night here, but, of course, that is only because it was the last night!! she not only played with them, but taught them how to play!

now we play as a family! if you've never played it's a great game!

 

mom and dad, we loved having you here and, once again, as mitch says every time, "you never stay long enough!" (i am sooo glad that he feels that way!) we are very excited, however, that it will not be long before we see you again once this baby decides to come! there is always the next trip to look forward to! and we all are looking forward to it (especially me for all of the help you are after i give birth and REALLY NEED the help! can't wait!)

 

 

we love you!

christmas eve

instead of telling you what we did christmas eve, i figured it would be better to show you what we did.  so, here is a picture story of how we spent our christmas eve this year (or, technically it would be last year...). after driving around to see the luminaries we came home to get the girls ready for bed and do last minute preparations before santa came. of course, as we were doing all of this we were tracking santa on the norad santa tracker. this way the girls could make sure they went to bed before he got to our neck of the high desert!

as soon as the girls opened their christmas eve present, of our choosing, (new pj's) and got dressed in said new pj's, lala had to go outside and sprinkle oats for santa's reindeer. she got special oats with sparkles from preschool. the sparkles, if you were wondering, are to help the reindeer find the oats! who knew!?

 

 

while lala was busy sprinkling oats, nani was writing her note to santa.

 

 

then daddy read, "twas the night before christmas", while nani put the finishing touches on a homemade gift to put under the tree and lala pondered what she was going to write in her note to santa.

 

 

kawena wasn't interested in the book daddy was reading, so she found her own book (a great book called pinkalicious) to read to lala's pink bear. how appropriate!

 

 

then, it was time to turn to more spiritual things as we read the account of the birth of christ from luke 2.

 

 

with the stories read and the notes written, the girls placed a plate of goodies on the fireplace flanked by their notes which both contained very vital questions for santa!

 

 

i was very impressed with how well lala wrote her letters all by herself. not bad penmanship for a 5 year old!

 

 

and just before sending them off to visions of sugarplums, we snapped a photo of our girls in front of our purple and red christmas tree wearing their new pj's. do they look ready for sleep or what??!

 

and then the adults stayed up WAY too late preparing for christmas morning! why does that always happen?

an albuquerque christmas

being that this was our first christmas in albuquerque, we experienced some new traditions that we didn't have in oregon.

 

first of all, the best part of living in albuquerque ,and the main reason we moved here, is that we have family close by. mitch's sister lives just on the other side of the city and his grandma lives less than a mile away. plus, his parents drove back from their snow birding in arizona. not only do we have all of his family here, my parent's flew out from california to be with us! we LOVE having family with us during the holidays!

 

the week before the parents came, mona, mitch's sister, and wes, her husband, invited us to go experience the "river of lights". it's a botanical garden that they cover with lights for the christmas season. it was a cold night, so we bundled the girls up and headed out.

 

it was gorgeous and the girls loved it! here are some of the pictures that i got while there:

 

 

 

there is one section where you go "underground" and are smaller than an ant. the girls loved this section because everything was so big! here are some pictures of them exploring:

 

the girls riding on the back of an ant.

 

in the garden climbing on a potato with their cousin logan (she is 2 months younger than kale'a).

 

the girls got pretty cold, so we took them into the arboretum where it was warm and had some green hot chocolate, christmas goodies and watched a light display:

it was a very fun and successful christmas outing which i am sure will be a christmas tradition from now on!

 

once my parents arrived, my mom was determined to see a luminaries display. for those of you that are not familiar with what that is, it is a gorgeous display of candles in paper bags. here in albuquerque many families will put these luminaries out in place of, or in addition to the traditional christmas lights on their houses and along the sidewalks and walkways! it is really beautiful and like nothing i had ever seen before!

 

so, christmas eve we loaded up the car in search of a luminaries neighborhood. after a bit of driving and not exactly knowing where to go, we found a neighborhood that was covered in luminaries. it was very hard to get non-blurry photos because we were driving and it was hard to not get camera shake in a car full of people. plus i was hanging out of the car window trying to get the shots! but here are the best ones that i was able to get:

 

this is my best picture of what a luminary is (a paper sack with sand and a candle in the bottom):

 

there was also about 5 different hot air balloons at the park just next to the neighborhood. the balloons would be dark and then they would light up in a burst of flames to keep the balloons filled with hot air. it was truly beautiful:

 

thanks mom for insisting that we go see the luminaries! they really were breathtaking! although, the girls were not quite as impressed. kale'a kept asking, "where are the lights? when are we going to get out?" maybe next year she will appreciate it a bit more!

 

these are two albuquerque traditions that we will definitely continue while we are living here!

the wait is over

okay, so i know not everyone has been waiting for this post, but many of you have asked so here you go.....

 

while my parents were here for christmas (more on that to come!), my mom was on a mission to not leave without taking pictures of my ever increasing belly. so, thanks to her, all of you who have been wanting to see my prego belly, get to see it! these were taken a week ago today while i was just over 34 weeks along.

 

now, before i show you, i just have to  say that i am feeling HUGE! like i said in this post, i am uncomfortable, as is witnessed by my waddling. i am so ready to be done! and as a reference of comparison i am going to include some pics from my last pregnancy with kawena.

 

so here i am last week:

     

 

and because the girls are so cute and love to be featured on the blog here are 2 more:

     

(please ignore the hair! my last haircut was while we were still in oregon! yeah, i know that was like 3 months ago! i NEED to find someone good to go to! i need you kara!)

 

what do you think? am i as fat as santa? please, don't actually answer that!! if not having a lap for kids to actually sit on qualifies, well, then, we know the answer!

 

anyway, here i am in 2006 when i was expecting kawena:

     

i was tiny, right? oh i forgot to mention that these were taken 4 days before i went into labor! kawena was born five days after these pictures were taken!

 

currently, i still have 5 weeks left and i am bigger than i was with kawena!

now can you see why i waddle and am so ready to have this baby! i can always hope that this one will be 3 weeks early like kawena was, or even 2 weeks early like nani. but with my luck and just from the way this pregnancy has gone, i will probably have the baby a day late, like i was with kale'a! that thought makes my body ache and makes me want to cry!