hello cora rose!

On April 25th, 2015 at 5:41pm, the day before her due date, Cora Rose Noelani made her grand entrance, in probably the most mellow way possible. I have learned that not all second babies come faster than the first, like I was expecting. 

At 39 weeks + 6 days pregnant, Cora decided it was time to show the world that she operates on her own schedule. At 16 weeks when it was determined I needed a cerclage, we prayed she could stay inside until 28 weeks. Well, she showed us. I had a feeling the night before that something was going to happen very soon. On Saturday morning at 4:45am my water broke which began the hustle of trying to wake Christian, pack the last minute necessities, and make it to the hospital 30 minutes away before the contractions started. I made it to the garage before the first one hit. Manageable, but uncomfortable. Thankfully it was early and a weekend, so traffic was minimal. [Insert "praise hands" emoji.]

When we arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the labor and delivery floor wasn't very busy, so I went right into triage. (Versus laboring in the waiting room for who knows how long, like I did with Christian.) 

My contractions were coming steadily, but were fairly spaced apart. Once they determined that I was actually in labor (I mean...), they sent me to a delivery room. Because my water had broken, they held off on checking to see how dilated I was due to the increased risk of infection. I knew without a doubt that I wanted an epidural this time, but I was confused as to when I should get it. Like, I didn't want it too soon, or too late. A doctor from the practice came in and said because my contractions weren't really coming any closer, she wanted to start Pitocin soon. I decided that I wanted to experience zero pain, and requested my Pitocin with a side of epidural. Best decision of my life. Side note: I was bummed my doctor WHOM I LOVE couldn't be there to deliver, but I already knew she was out of town this weekend.  

My labor with an epidural was ethereal compared to doing it without one. I actually enjoyed the process. I napped. I watched the Food Network, which I was told was the most popular channel amongst laboring moms. Ironic since we can't eat anything. Rob watched a movie, and ordered some fins for his new surfboard. I experienced "break through pain" only twice, where you still feel the pain of the contraction (vs just a little pressure) despite the epidural. And for that they give you a little button to push, and yay more meds! 

As they turned the Pitocin up, Cora's heart rate started to drop with each contraction, so they ended up turning it off. And with that, turning off my contractions. Womp. They gave it some time before restarting it, at the very lowest dose. At about 5:00pm I had finally progressed to "ready to push." (Note: I checked into the hospital at 6:15am.) As we were ready to go, the room across the hall rang their flight attendant call button, and got all the attention of the doctors and nurses. Turns out, their baby was coming with or without doctors present, so I took the back burner. 

My nurse came back to do some practice pushes, to which she immediately responded with, "OK STOP DON'T PUSH ANYMORE." When it was finally my turn, I only pushed for 20 minutes and she was here! The good that came out of waiting was that the contractions continued to bring Cora lower, and made the work I had to do very minimal. Rob, as expected, was very encouraging and a wonderful birth partner.  

Our beautiful daughter, our other miracle. 

Very soon after her arrival, Big Brother Christian got to meet Baby Sister for the first time. It was beautiful and perfect. He was so sweet, and super stoked at the gifts she brought for him. (And fairly enthusiastic about the one he picked out for her.) The nurses even let him listen to her heartbeat with the stethoscope. 

So how are we adjusting as a family of four? Overall, very good. Christian is still so sweet with her. He asks lots of questions like, "can I feed her a carrot?" and "how about she drink milk from a baby cup." More of a statement than a question. :) Christian is handling the change well, but we do notice a bit more clinginess than usual. We've both been intentional about spending one on one time with him. It's a bit harder for me, but we're working on it. And we're SO thankful that Mimi has come over every day to help out and bring food, because you know, it takes a village. 

This is one proud Big Brother!

And proud grandparents, too! 

We have had very few visitors because we're trying to keep her exposure at a minimum for the first month. I am totally NOT a germaphobe, but the first month of their life it is so critical to keep them well. A fever requires instant hospitalization, and I don't want to chance it. But don't worry, we won't live as hermits for the first month. ;) 

Cora's other big brother has been taking it all in stride. I know some of you were wondering. 

Cora has been a dream. She's very mellow and loves watching Christian run around her. She's feeding very well every 2-3 hours, sleeps a lot, and had a great doctor's visit yesterday where the doctor proclaimed her "ahead of schedule." She was impressed with her lack of jaundice too. Haha. We'll go back tomorrow for another weigh-in. I am a bit sleep deprived, because duh, but Rob has been wonderful. Every morning he takes her after her 6:30ish feeding so I can go back to sleep for a few hours. And in the evening he takes her while I turn in for an "early" bedtime and wakes me when it's time for her to eat. We have a pretty solid routine down for now, which I am thankful for. 

Overall, I feel good! I'm sure there are many reasons why I'm fairing better this time around. Even though labor was longer, it was easier. Pushing 20 minutes vs 2 hours probably made a huge difference. I also had my placenta encapsulated at the recommendation of a few friends, so I've been dutifully taking my "happy pills," as my friend Liisa called them. She was definitely onto something. (Thanks Liisa!) I highly recommend it! 

Thank you to everyone for all the wonderful comments, congratulations, prayers, thoughts, happy vibes, and encouragement along the way. We are immeasurably blessed and I am just so in love with my family!!

it's thursday!

Hello Thursday! It is HOT today.

So, here's a lovely flower that belongs to our neighbors and ever so slightly hangs into our yard. So purdy. It is actually a goal of mine to plant a hibiscus plant this year, because they grow like CRAZY, and are so so so pretty!

Status: Still eternally pregnant.

When I call my mom at work, which I do often, as soon as she answers I have to respond with, "still pregnant!" And then I hear all the disappointment in her voice. Just kidding, Mom!

I had my weekly doctor's appointment yesterday, and you guessed it, no progress in 3 weeks. Womp.



Baby is still high, and I haven't dilated any further, despite many many many MANY contractions. Did I mention that I have a lot of contractions? But my doctor was reassuring that it really doesn't matter, because like the good ol' saying goes, "when baby is ready..." Well, that day is going to be Tuesday, if not before. I know some people are adamantly against inductions, and I am not one of those people. Mostly because I trust my doctor, as I have trusted her throughout this entire pregnancy that she has successfully brought me through, and she feels that based on my general "high-risk" history, not going past 41 weeks is best for me and for baby. Healthy mom? Healthy baby? #winning

I have a NST (non-stress test) tomorrow morning. If they notice anything abnormal, which we are not expecting, they'll admit me to L&D, otherwise I'm off to the chiropractor for some mayjah adjustments. My due date is on Sunday (26th), and my induction is scheduled for Tuesday (28th) if she doesn't come before then. Fun fact: Rob and I's wedding anniversary is Wednesday (29th). I can't think of a better anniversary present, a baby that we (and so many others) have prayed for, for a long time. As I sit here listening to the old hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness, my heart is so full, because how great is His faithfulness, indeed. I honestly wasn't sure I would ever be pregnant again; I wasn't even sure I ever wanted to be pregnant again.

"Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." -Lamentations 3:22-23

I'm not sure I've ever lived any verses in the bible more than those. 

So, I sit here at Whole Foods, enjoying my last "quiet" Thursday morning doing this for a while. Or ever? Hah. I really don't have much else to report. Shocker. These past few weeks, especially these past few days, have completely revolved around baby's arrival. Rob is nesting for real. He repainted almost all of the outside trim of the house, all the trim in the "pineapple room," and did some major purging of old toys (in Christian's presence no less... guess how that went?). I barely have the energy to walk from room to room. I did however manage the energy to go to a new (to me) moms' group yesterday, and I'm so happy I did. All the women were so friendly, and welcoming, and Christian had a blast with all the other many many many many kids! 

I guess Christian took some pictures with my iPad while driving the other day... because all my iDevices sync, and I had these photos on my "camera roll" this morning. 

I'm still trying to figure out what the heck that building is. Wal-mart? Jail? 

And just because he's so stinkin' cute! 

Have a wonderful rest of your day! 

weekend recap

We had such a fun weekend! One that does not involve the arrival of one certain baby, but super fun nonetheless! 

Status: Pregnant. Home stretch! Currently 39 weeks + 1 day. 

If this babe is anything like her big brother, TOMORROW would be the big day. When I was pregnant with Christian, my water broke at 39 weeks + 2 days at around 8am when I woke up to make coffee (8am?? Much luxury), which put me into labor within hours, and he was born at 6:34pm. However, like I've heard many times before, and have somewhat experienced it, all pregnancies are different, and I'm sure all labor/deliveries are just as different. 

Here's a little weekend recap! Because it was a FUN one! 

Friday: Christian had THE TIME OF HIS LIFE. His friend Joey came over for a sleepover, and they had a BLAST. We picked Joey up in the morning and proceeded to the beach. My mama nerves were on complete edge with size of the waves they insisted on tumbling into. I just kept envisioning ambulances, broken bones, and all sorts of nonsense. These boys have NO FEAR, and I have ALL THE FEAR. Rob stayed close and made sure they were safe. Meanwhile, I hid out in the best beach invention ever - the half-tent. After several hours at the beach, we packed it up and headed to... Costco! To pick up a pizza, of course. When we got home, the boys decided they wanted to watch Ice Age and eat popcorn. We rounded out the evening with an early-ish bedtime, mostly because we knew they were e-x-h-a-u-s-t-e-d from hours of ocean play and no naps. 

Saturday: T-Ball! This "season" we decided to try out t-ball instead of soccer for a change. Christian seemed to love it, although I was a little (a lot) disappointed in the total lack of organization and coaches. Joey, the most patient 3-year old boy in the land of EVER, sat and watched Christian with nary a protest. Color me impressed. Christian did have a bit of a meltdown afterward, so we went home and Christian went down for a VERY early nap. Joey rejoined his folks, who were enjoying a fun celebratory weekend for Uncle Joel's birthday! 

Later Saturday evening, Brandi and I ventured out to the Honolulu Night Market in Kaka'ako. They do it on the 3rd Saturday of every month and it's where I discovered that hipsters do in fact live in Hawaii. There's always lots of local vendors (different ones every month), lots of food trucks, and lots of people. They also do a fashion show, have a beer garden, hookahs, and have music - whether a DJ or live. We had the most delicious crepe and shared a table with another fellow Virginian sporting a William & Mary t-shirt. A few of the vendors I was excited to check out, as I've followed them on Instagram forever were: Tidepool Love Jewelry, where I simply could not pass up these wave earrings, and of one sea. I picked up an adorable little onesie and of course a t-shirt for Christian... and maybe a tank top for myself as well. 

Sunday: Started the day off with church, and then ran 1,000 errands afterward. We actually ate lunch out, which we rarely do, hence posting about it. Our new headboard finally came in after much drama. Backstory: we thought we had a king size bed because that's what we were told it was. (Given to us from previous owner of our house.) So, we ordered a headboard from Pier 1, in king size. Ordering anything from Pier 1 in Hawaii or to be shipped to Hawaii is a total crap shoot. Prices are way more than mainland prices, and it's totally hit or miss whether they'll ship it here or not. So Pier 1 is usually not a good option for us. Sigh. Anyway, we had a headboard to be shipped here and when it arrived almost a month later, we learned that we do not have a king size bed, but a Cal king. Back to the store it went, and OF COURSE the Cal king size in the same headboard was not available to be shipped here, but we were put on a waiting list. It finally became available, we ordered it, and now 15 years later, it's in our possession. Aren't you glad you read this blog today? 

We "partied" the evening away with our friends, celebrating Joel's birthday!! We ate pizza, cake, and smashed the most indestructible piñata ever, carport style! 

And today I went outside to find our very first plumeria blossom on our tree!! This makes me so happy! Spring is here!

Have a wonderful week! Baby watch continues, and I love how Rob casually says, as he walks out the door to run errands, "Call me if you go into labor!" Roger that. 

happy aloha friday!

Happy Aloha Friday!!

Friday. Yes. Because for most of this morning I was convinced it was Saturday, hence why mom didn't answer the house phone when I called her. Because you know, that thing called work. I texted her, "not at home?" and she was confused. And then I was confused as to why she was confused. Even still when she responded, "no, at work," I was still confused. Until I called her at work, and she reminded me that it's FRIDAY. Ooooooohhhh.

Status: Pregnant. Still.

I had my weekly doctor's appointment yesterday and baby is measuring right on track, and heartbeat is good and strong. Praise God!

HOWEVER. Baby is still high, and I have made no progress otherwise. Womp. This is despite the fact that I have contractions ALL THE TIME. I now consider them "the boy who cried wolf," and ignore them.

My doctor said she won't let me go past 41 weeks. If I'm still pregnant by next week's appointment, she'll set an induction date. And to be clear, I am 1000000000% ok with this. That being said, I don't hit 40 weeks until April 26th, and 41 weeks is May 3rd. So there's still plenty of time for it to happen on it's own. These last few weeks are such a mind game, especially when I've been on edge basically this entire pregnancy thinking I could/would have a baby at any moment. I don't think anyone expected me to last this long, including me. But as my dear friend gently reminded me yesterday, "we did pray for a full term baby." Yes, we absolutely did.

So, if you were wondering why I'm looking for an acupuncturist... I'm not trying to induce the baby out now, and the baby is not breech. Yay! BUT, if the idea of induction becomes a real life induction, I would like to pursue all avenues to make it as effortless as possible. I had a nice chat with my sister-in-law and her successes with an acupuncturist. Which reminds, I need to see my chiropractor, because all my joints ache.

I had a lovely evening last night with Brandi. We gorged ourselves on food and milkshakes at The Counter, and talked about all the exciting things happening in our lives. It was so good to have some girl time with her! I'm hoping we can do it again before baby makes her grand appearance.

Can I just share the sweetest little onesie that a friend got for baby girl?

Fierce, indeed. Precious. (Thank you, Val! I LOOOVE it!)

In other news, tonight Christian's best buddy, Joey, is going to sleepover!! I can't wait to see how this all goes down. We're going to take them to the beach and skip naps.

Oh, I want this for our kitchen, above the cabinets.

I'm so serious. I love it!! Jen sent me a picture of them a while ago, and I haven't been able to get it out of my mind! Even Rob likes them. I went to the store (SoHa Living) yesterday, and admired them some more. However, at $75/letter, I'm not sure they're in our budget at the moment. (They're not.) Plus, I just bought a new computer (with birthday money!), but still. Actually, I'm probably going to return the computer, for a lot of reasons, but #1 reason is, I just can't get down with Windows after using a MacBook for the past 5 years. I can't. It was making my head spin last night, and I know I could "learn," but I'm stubborn and don't want to.

Have a wonderful weekend! Aloha!

monday funday?

Well, that's not something you normally hear. But yesterday, Monday, was a fantastic day. If I'm being 100% honest, I don't always tag along to the beach with Rob and Christian. They go a lot. And sometimes I just want to soak up a quiet house, nap, or go to Target. I know, I know. But when you live here (and are massively pregnant), you just sorta take for granted that the beach is ALWAYS there, so "next time" I tell myself. However, yesterday I decided to go because I feel my beach days are about to be numbered, at least for a little while. So like I've said before, I'm soaking up these last few days/weeks/hours (??) as a family of three.

When we lived on the east side of the island, my favorite beach was Kaimana. It's such a great beach for kids. Not overly crowded, calm clear waters, and easy to access. When we moved to the west side, I prayed we could find a beach we loved just as much. I've been to a few, and I just hadn't found any that I loved as much as Kaimana. UNTIL, I went to this beach yesterday. This beach is great! As a bonus, there are little "Waikiki waves" for surfing, but without the Waikiki crowd.

Christian loves the water. He loves the ocean, he loves to stick his head under and look for fish, but his favorite thing to do is "tumble in the waves." And I mean, tumble.  I (very nervously) watched from the comfort of my beach chair knowing that at any moment he would run to me for comfort after being rocked just a bit to hard. Nope. He goes back for MORE. MORE. And MORE. And high-fives for particularly good tumbles.

Then the boys decided to go out for a quick surf. 

Buuuut... Christian wanted to tumble some more, so they dropped the board off and back out they went. 

For my iPhone I have a Watershot iPhone Housing case. Rob took it out, and I'm always impressed with the photos we can take with my iPhone. In the water. 

And then of course, this photo. Which is probably one of my favorites of all time. 

When I do tag along (at least that's what it's felt like the past several months since I wasn't allowed in the water), I never regret it. 

Lucky We Live Hawaii, indeed. 

a birthday recap, of sorts

For my birthday I got a brand spankin' new camera - a Nikon D3300. It's basically the much much newer model of my previous Nikon D40. A lot of the functions are the same except with new features and much higher megapixels. It's pretty much the most basic DSLR Nikon makes, which is perfect for me. The camera is only part of the equation in achieving beautiful photos - it's in the lenses, the photographers skill/eye, technical knowledge, etc. If you have the skill/knowledge/experience, then it's the natural progression to buy "better" cameras/more lenses, but for me... it's just fun to play around with different settings and lenses, and I really have zero technical knowledge or skill. Hah.

This camera came with the standard 18-55mm lens, which I already had (came with my D40). I also already have a 55-200mm lens that I love and use mostly when Rob's surfing; it has great zoom! My favorite lens by far is my 50mm fixed lens. Another one of my most favorite gifts! This lens is great at creating that bokeh effect (blurred background) that a lot of people (including me) love. (Although not the only purpose of that particular lens.)

ANYWAY... yesterday, I got to play around with my new camera. I forgot the lens I wanted to use (of course), but I had so much fun yesterday afternoon celebrating my birthday with my two favorite boys! Last night we went out to dinner in Waikiki with one of our favorite families - the Liles (DON'T LEAVE!!), and had planned on seeing the Friday night fireworks afterward. Naturally, I brought my camera to take beautiful, whimsical photos of our boys playing on the beach with glowing faces lit by the ambiance of the fireworks. And just as naturally, the boys were wild and overtired (at least mine was) and we all went home after dinner instead. :)

It's been a while since we went to the skate park, so Christian was stoked. He rode his yellow bike for a while, but it was hard to pedal up the ramps, so he charged it on his Strider. He even did a few of the bigger ramps this time around! 

One of my favorites!

Another one of my favorites! ;)

This one too! Ok, I can't pick. I just love these boys.

Remnants of coco puff and scrapes on his face, bandaid on his chin (skateboard incident... of course), and determination. No fear, this one.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes! It was truly the perfect day!