Christmas time with the Jackson's.

Laina's first clapping session on Christmas Eve.

Our Disneyland Adventure!

We took a trip down to Disneyland for um....Laina, and here are the pictures that prove it.  We stayed across the street from the entrance and hopped back and forth between the two parks for 5 days.  After it was all done, we realized 4 days might have been enough.  We were pooped.  However, guess who's been itching to go back already?  That's right, Keith.

Halloween!

 She just couldn't handle trunk-or-treating.

Her first attempt.

Laina tried "solid" food tonight.  I made a large batch of butternut squash, red potato, carrot, and chicken broth "baby food".  I sent it to the blender and then poured it into ice cube trays to freeze into about 1 oz. portions.  After they were frozen, I transferred them into two freezer bags and waited a little more than two weeks to offer some to her. 

See below for the results...

Could you die?

Laina is 6 months old!

Staying at Home

Well, I went back to work after four months of maternity leave.  I stuck it out for almost two months.  October 8th was my last day of work.  They had a cake made for me.  Notice the "Wishies". :)

It is weird being at home, officially.

I am no longer an employee.

I no longer take BART and I don't HAVE to pump!

I was at Kaiser for three years and it's definitely an adjustment staying at home on a permanent basis.  Though, I wouldn't change it for anything. I really miss the people that I worked with.  They became some of my best friends.  However, Laina is worth more than any of the benefits that my job provided.  It was definitely a decision based on priorities.  Maybe I'll go back at a later date.  As of now, I am a SAHM.

Where's Laina?

Keith's unit gave Laina some digital camo baby outfits.  Here she is all decked out with Daddy.

Enjoying Old Sacramento

It was hot.  However, we had some fun with the fam in Old Sacramento and then we went to dinner with Grandma Mary.  The next day, we had a great time at Uncle Chuck's house before we headed back home.

 

Good times with Mike.

On our way up to see Grandma Mary in Carmichael, we took a detour to see one of Keith's friends from the Marines.  He is married to Sunshine and they have a son named Ryder.  I sort of forced Keith to take a picture and include both of the kids.  Who knows when they'll have a chance to get together again.  He calls me the paparazzi but I don't mind.  We're documenting here!   

All clean!

Laina loves taking showers and getting baths.  She starts to cry when she's no longer in the water.  It's not a temperature issue, since our apartment stays warm without us trying.  She loves to stick her hands and feet in the flowing water.  Surprisingly, she's very still when in the shower and that makes it easy on mommy.  It's hard enough to wash a slippery baby when they're still. 

First Trip Outside of California (after being born)

Laina took her first trip out of state when we visited her uncles in Utah and Idaho.  She behaved extremely well on the long trip in Omi and Grandpop's Explorer.  She only had about 30 minutes of uncontrollable fussiness throughout our two-day trip out there.  She got to visit all of her cousins and experience her first baseball game.  She had her first plane ride on the way home.  Laina ate her breakfast on the takeoff.  She then played with mommy for a few minutes before making a wet diaper.  That was interesting for mommy, being alone on the plane.  We managed and she was able to fall asleep in time for the landing; she didn't even flinch when we touched down in Oakland.  Daddy met us at the airport as he was busy with military training and couldn't make the trip with us.  We went to eat a yummy breakfast to celebrate being home with Daddy!

We can't wait to make a family trip with Daddy to visit everyone in Utah and Idaho.  Hopefully, that'll come in December.

Three months old!

Okay, she's two days shy of three months old in this picture.  This was taken one Sunday after church. 

Don't mess with me.

The day our lives changed.

Laina was born on April 13th
7 lbs. 1 oz., 19 inches long

Birth Story

I went to bed on Sunday (4/11) night and could not get to sleep. I started having stomach and back pain around 2am and couldn't lie down anymore (enter prodromal labor). I went to the bathroom and basically emptied EVERYTHING from my body. I couldn't fall asleep again after that because I was too uncomfortable so I went on the computer to work on my state disability paper work. I never went to sleep that night and ended up having contractions throughout Monday. Around 1am on Tuesday morning, I was having contractions from 3-4 minutes apart for 2 hours. We went to L&D and had a super nurse at the beginning. She asked if I wanted a midwife or doc. I said midwife. Well, that midwife was soooo cold and distant. Her exam felt more like an assault and then she said I was only 2-3 cm at that point. She said that they could admit me but it would just be to keep me on pain medication. I told her that I wanted to try for a natural birth. She then said that if I was having that hard of a time with my contractions at 2-3 cm, there's no way I was going natural. Then she told me I was breathing wrong. I told her that breathing that way is what had gotten me through my contractions for the last 24 hours. Otherwise, I wouldn't be doing it that way. We decided to go home rather than wait it out at the hospital. By Tuesday, I was so tired since I hadn't slept in two days and finally made a drop-in appointment with my OB/GYN at 4pm to check my progress and see if it was time to go to L&D again. I had back-to-back contractions on the way to her office and felt like I was going to die in the parking lot. Slowly, we made it to her office and she said I was at 4 cm, which was the lucky number to be admitted! So, off we went to the hospital-again. I got to the birthing suite and had the best nurses! They went over my birth plan and explained what would most likely work and what might have to be left out. At that point, I didn't really care about every single thing I put on that piece of paper. I was checked by the midwife (this one was great!) on duty and she said I was between 5-6 cm. Based on that, they were expecting me to deliver around midnight. They checked the baby and then me and all was well, so I was given a saline lock and spent some time walking around the room and sitting through contractions. A little while later, the anesthesiologist came in for a consultation. I still hadn't decided to get an epidural yet but I wanted to see how long I had to make a choice. I was really thinking about getting one. Well, the midwife came back in a while later and suggested we check my progress before I get an epidural, since she knew I really wanted to go natural. I was at 9 cm! She said, "it's not really gonna get worse than this". So, I decided to go without the epidural.

The birthing suites have private bathrooms with showers attached and so I decided to go into the shower for a while. They gave me a chair and I just went back and forth from sitting in front of the water to turning and supporting myself by pressing on the chair and letting the water fall down my back through contractions. I must have looked like I was doing a tribal dance mixed with some ballet and salsa. I got a rhythm going and that's all that felt good. I was in there for a good half hour and Keith was going back and forth from rubbing my back from the opening of the shower to getting bites of food that my sister brought for him. I then started to feel lots of pressure. I ended up in a kneeling position between the chair and the water. Keith came back in and thought there was something wrong with me (besides being in labor) but I just told him I felt like I needed to push. He shouted out to the nurses that I needed to push and he said they swarmed the room like ants. As one of them came into the bathroom, my water broke (luckily, I was in the shower). She told me that when the next contraction slowed down, she was going to turn off the water. I soooo did not want her to do that. I just wanted to stay there. She kept saying it over and over and, finally, I managed to get up. Keith and the nurse dried me off and helped me to the bed. Since it was only a little after 8pm, and they were planning on me delivering later, the midwife was in another labor and couldn't come. A doctor took her place and, at that point, I was fine as long as someone was there to catch the baby. I mostly pushed on my side. The baby's heart rate was going lower and so they gave me oxygen. I started to feel the "ring of fire" and was surprised that it really wasn't that bad. What I hated, was the exhaustion from pushing. After 45 minutes of pushing, I felt her head and then each of her shoulders, and out she came! They put her on my chest and I totally cried. Keith was just soooo happy! He also was able to cut the cord. She had quite a bit of fluid in her so they spent some time sucking it all out with those awfully long tubes. I couldn't believe how far they were sticking those tubes down her throat. Finally, they gave her back to me and it was time to move into the 'mom and baby' unit. Keith wasn't able to stay the first night because I had a roommate. At least he was able to go home and get some sleep. However, he did stay the second night with me in the hospital. Laina didn't pass the hearing test with her left ear and they thought it might be because she still had some fluid. They tested it the next day and she passed. Every day we've had to go to the lab and check her bilirubin levels and they finally went a little lower on Sunday so she won't need light therapy.

Breastfeeding is something I'm really struggling with. I have done it exclusively but, it is extremely painful and I really don't look forward to it every two hours. It makes me really sad because I know that it's what's best for her but I just dread each feeding. I count the minutes until she's done. I'm going to go to another lactation consultant this week. Since Laina was born, I've probably have had 5 latches that didn't make me want to chop my boobs off.

The past week has been quite a journey. I can't believe that we now have our little baby with us. She is so precious and we've been checking her all over to see what parts each of us gave her...lol...She got Keith's lips, legs, ears, eyes, and top of the nose. She got my bottom of the nose, hands, feet, and head/face shape. She also got my love of sleep.

34 weeks pregnant

The hearts on the door were put there by Keith.  He did a very sweet thing.

I don't really look pregnant from the front...