Pictures Day 1-Day 3

2 pm on Monday afternoon. This was the first I had smiled since my water broke at 10:45 am. Unfortunately she has a hat on so you can't see how beautiful her head looked. It is a good thing I know about the flexibility of a newborns head or I would have been a freaked out mother. I was surprised of her coloring- she has much darker skin from Corban and her hair is really dark.

Happy father!

It was about 2 hours after her birth that they actually weighed her. In the birthing center, as long as everything is fine, they leave the baby with the mother- I loved it!
5 pm on Tuesday we got released from the hospital.

Corban meets Malia for the second time (he did come to hospital and he was shy at first). He was very excited and interested in his little sister. He is even good at being soft.

Noni and Malia on day 2 of life. Noni says Mali looks a lot like what her babies looked like. Malia's head is starting to look much more normal- not so cone shaped.

I didn't get it in the picture, but Corban LOVES to kiss his little Malia. Every time I am feeding her, she's laying on the couch, or is sitting in her car seat, Corban wants to get up to see her and give her kisses. He is so soft and loving with her!

Day 3 for Malia. She is getting more and more beautiful. Her skin is so perfect- except in the places where her nails have gotten to her. Her head is now normal shaped with a little blister that is still healing (friction from the birth canal).

Still a happy father!

And our little Corban is looking more and more grown up! I love having him around to be my entertainment. Number 2 is so much fun because you have number 1 to play around and laugh with, while number 2 is there to cuddle and "be soft" with. I LOVE being a mother!

My little birth story

After a short 5 hours of sleep Amanda couldn’t sleep anymore and rolled out of bed at 4am. I didn’t realize she wasn’t there until 6:15, and I stumbled downstairs to check on her. She was on the computer, and I asked her if she couldn’t sleep…she said no, she was feeling “frequent cramping”.

“You mean ‘contractions’?”

“Oh, yeah, I guess that’s what it is. Go back to bed, you might need sleep to make it through today…”

Yeah right…so we were in labor. It didn’t take an hour before the contractions were a lot closer together. Heather and kids were on their way down to help take care of Corban, so we decided to stay at the house until they arrived. By the time they arrived we had everything ready to go. I had started giving pelvic counter pressure to Amanda around 7:30am…they arrived at 9:45. In between contractions Corban woke up, so I was feeding him and stopping to press on Amanda. Change Corban’s diaper, press Amanda. Feed, press, pack, press, get up to do something, don’t get up, press, press, press. You can see that the labor was progressing and I was only good for one thing…pressure. When Heather and kids arrived we started on our way to the van. Corban and Ellie were playing on the lawn and Amanda got nauseous during a contraction and vomited multiple times in front of both of them. They didn’t like that at all! Corban looked concerned for his mommy, but not enough to get any closer as he seemed disgusted by the vomit…and Ellie just looked shocked.
We got on our way around 9:45am and by the time we arrived at the hospital Amanda was dilated to a 7+. It was hard for the midwife to tell because the sack was bulging. Trisha, our doula, showed up around 10:30, and by then my arms needed a break. It was around 10:45 that her water broke, and by 11:00 she was fully dilated and the pushing began. Amanda was such a trooper. Totally made it without any drugs and was pushing so well. It was very painful and she was in all of the different positions that we could conjure up. This meant that I was in just as many positions trying to ease the pain, provide good grip, and assist by pressing her hips. Amanda only hit me once, gave me a wedgey a couple of times when pulling on my pants, and tried to pull off my shirt a couple of times…I survived. Amanda only once or twice whined and said that it was too hard and that she just wanted it to be over. She may have said the word “epidural” but I can’t be sure. What I am sure of is that it didn’t take much to get her mind back on track.
At 1:00 they told us that we would probably have to move down to labor and delivery. We were very bummed. The top of the head was swollen and they thought that with every push we might be aggrivating the swelling rather than progressing downward. While they called the doctors down there and brought in an IV to rehydrate my woman, we were still experiencing very close contractions and lots of pushing. At 1:15 they came back in and saw that we had made progress since they were gone. They still gave her the IV and then things progressed really well. Amanda didn’t want the mirror to see the progress, but I did. So she closed her eyes as she pushed with all her might. It was amazing seeing Malia emerge. I wanted to catch her, but when I made a move down there Amanda called for me and needed me to help her. Better to be at the side of your happy woman than at the feet of your unhappy woman. I jumped to her side and we made it through the last bit together. Amanda did reach down between contractions when Malia was crowning and felt her head. And then Malia was out on the next push. 2:00pm PST, she was 19 inches long and weighed 7 lbs 9 ounces. The perfect little angel! Her head looked funny, like two heads. She wasn’t in the best position for a vaginal birth. The midwife basically told us that her head was in the worst possible position. It’s the reason for the long pushing and for the delay in which they almost transferred us down to L&D. The midwife also told us that she had just had a patient with the same positioning who had decided to transfer early because of it and get the epidural. My wife is amazing. I love her. What a tough girl. Now, at 10:00pm Malia's head is almost normal shaped and we are looking forward to a good night’s rest and a brand new life with 2 kids.

Labor?

This may seem ridiculous, but I think I have just started going into labor. So why am I writing on my blog? Well, it is early, no one else is awake, and I can't sleep. I can't really tell if I am in labor for sure because when I am not cramping I feel fine. But about every 5 minutes I get a really bad cramp. As soon as I feel that it is a reasonable time to call, I will call my Doula and ask her if I am in labor :) No need to awake anyone early because it isn't like she is coming into this world right now...not even in the next couple of hours unless I was really lucky.
When I couldn't sleep, starting at 4:30 in the morning, I finally decided that I would quit trying and I came downstairs. First of all I set off the house alarm- luckily it didn't wake Jared or Corban. Next I wrote an email informing Erin that I need her help for Tuesday's RS enrichment/YW activity because I don't think I will be there. Then I decided I was hungry so I had a mini bagel and some cereal. Then I started to watch the cameras for our stores- there is a delivery being made at our Del Mar store and the not-so-smart delivery man has left the Walk-in (refrigerator) door open for 30 minutes! This is not something that makes me happy.
All the while I have been having "cramping" every 4-7 minutes. And when I am not cramping my mind reverts back to thinking, "This isn't really labor, is it?" It is completely different from how I experienced it before. So I have started to pull some things together just in case this is the real thing and I need to be prepared to go to the hospital in the next couple of hours.

Videos

The more you talk to smart people, the smarter you get. Someone recently shared the information with us that we can upload our videos a lot easier if we put them on You Tube and then imbed them. So we now have a You Tube channel. Feel free to subscribe, though I am not confident that we will keep it updated- but it is in the plan :)
Search sdgspooon at You Tube and our videos will come up. Here is one of very few so far:

No Babies...Plural

Heather and family came down and brought Steak and Stuffed Flounder for dinner. Wow, was that the best dinner I have had in a long time. If you didn't already know, Costco has the BEST steaks ever! But it takes a very skilled man to be able to cook them to perfection...which Roger is a pro!

Their whole plan was to come down and butter us up so we would be willing to part with our little man. Ideally we would have gone into labor Sunday night and Corban would have been in good hands without us having to scramble to get someone to watch him. It didn't work out quite that way, as you see I am still having time to sit down and write on the blog. How this plan was ideal is that Corban is having the time of his life with his cousins giving him undivided attention all day long. This is the greatest mini-vacation he has ever had.

I will admit that this has been great for mom and dad as well. Jared has been able to work on house projects without a little man under his feet, I spent the morning working and then running errands that I thought I never would get around to. Rooms are clean, laundry is done, "Thank You" cards are written (not delivered), and progress is happening on the never-ending house projects! Every minute I am more prepared than I have ever been in my life, which is kind of a shock to my system. I am not yet going overboard with this- like I don't have the baby announcements ready to go :) Maybe that will be today's task.

Among all the busy-ness of life, Jared and I were able to take some time to work on getting this baby out. We enjoyed a stop at the Del Mar Golden Spoon- having the employees ask me "Aren't you ready to pop any day now?" (They are young, they don't know you don't say those things to a pregnant lady), and getting satisfied with one of my favorite flavors- Mounds Bar. After our yogurts, we went to Del Mar beach and took a long walk on the more challenging sand. We talked about "before you" moments and Jared actually said, "You think you were an anomaly but you weren't." Don't worry, I reminded him right away that I was and am the anomaly for him :) His point was that he always got to know a girl before he kissed them. One of the ways I was and will forever be an anomaly is that he waited 7 WEEKS!!! to kiss me AND he asked me to marry him the same night :) We then came home and enjoyed a flat of raspberries ($.77 at Henry's! What a steal of a deal) while we sat on the couch watching "Dan In Real Life", a movie I can't get too much of.

It is fun to have time together with my "boyfriend" every once in a while to be reminded the wonderful man that I fell in love with and continue to love everyday. I am really good at allowing life to take over and all be serious. Last night was a great reminder that it is very refreshing to have release from that. Thank you Heather, Roger, Chase, Jacob and Ellie for loving and caring for Corban so we could make this possible before life is a little crazy with our new precious addition! I know Corban is completely enjoying it and you tell me you are thrilled to keep him.

Thank you to the rest of you that continue to make phone calls, send text messages, and write emails on my behalf. Hopefully we soon have news of how adorable our baby girl looks out of the womb!

Still Pregnant..and Loving It

Malia's due date was 3 days ago, August 4th. I actually was guessing her due date to be the 8th, so I am not too concerned with her not wanting to come out yet. I actually am perfectly happy with her in my belly because I know she is being taken care of. Once she exits, I will actually need to work at keeping her taken care of. Additionally, little Corban is keeping me so busy I am concerned with my abilities to take care of two!
I think I have realized now more than ever just how many people are really concerned and care about me. I receive no less than 4 phone calls or emails or text messages. This is HUGE because if it wasn't for these contacts, I would probably forget that I even passed my due date! Not really, but it is nice to know that you are all concerned about me and my comfort at this stage in pregnancy.
So to relieve all of you I will have you know that I am very comfortable considering I am over 40 weeks pregnant. I feel better than I did in the 8th month, when I was experiencing severe pain in my rib area. I use to think it was my ribs that were hurting, but now I am confident that it was a muscle or ligament in my right side that was somehow being irritated. Now that I have felt feet in my ribs, I know that is nothing compared to the pain I was feeling. I can handle the feet and would not call that painful. And I thank all of you who were praying for me because that severe pain did subside and I have had a wonderful July and August! I feel like I could last another month if she decided that was what she was going to do. Now it might make the rest of you crazy, so let's not hope for that :)
Malia has been very considerate of my To-Do list. I told her NOT to come last week because I had a lot of preparations to take care of with the San Marcos store closure, Jared had finals in 2 of his classes, and Heather was gone for the week. She listened. Then it was an absolute NO for the weekend because that was moving day...days, and an employee rewards BBQ. She again listened.

This is what the store looks like now. Jared was able to remove practically EVERYTHING.

Corban enjoyed helping his daddy with the tools. He would watch Jared work with the tool and then he would go and do the very same thing. It is a good thing we didn't care about the walls anymore. This week I was a little less demanding, except that I have said that if she doesn't come before Friday then she has to wait until next week. Everyday that has gone by I have worked hard to accomplish the little things that could have gone without HAVING to be done, but am so grateful that I have been able to accomplish them. Last night and today I have felt even that much more prepared...I finally started putting my hospital bag together. Hopefully she will wait it out through the weekend!

This is how my boys chill.

All in all I grateful that I have had so much to occupy my mind and time because, according to so many of you, at this stage I could have been driven crazy for every day she has gone past her due date. My only thought is that the longer she stays in there, the bigger she is going to be. I loved that I could brag about Corban being only 5lbs at birth and he stayed so little for so long. I have a feeling that Malia is going to be around 8lbs.
I also am running out of cloths that can fit this belly. I have been able to wear many non-maternity pants- I just wear them REALLY low, but now they are an irritation because her head is in my pelvis. So I pretty much wear the same 3 outfits over and over.
Thank you to all of you who communicate with me daily and help take care of my needs. I have appreciated the help and the offers to help with Corban, taking over of some of my RS duties, commandeering my Co-op days, requesting that I take a nap and stop working so hard, having my family over for dinner when I really should be having you over for dinner, and so much more. You are all so great and our family feels very loved!
There is one thing I haven't gotten to and that is getting a bunch of people/families that are interested in being Secret Shoppers at Golden Spoon this month. There will be free frozen yogurt, but along with that will be a little assignment to report the good and the bad. If you are at all interest (and you live in San Diego) please email me!
And just in case you are interested in how I am looking these days, here are a few pics of the belly:

July 25th @ the PQ Fun Run...I didn't run it, or walk it, we MARKETED it!

August 4th, Malia's due date! We had a busy day at San Marcos again. Notice the same outfit? Yeah, these are the only shorts that don't bother me too much. Also, in the first picture you will see that their is a little bit of white coming through the black shirt (where Corban's hand is)...yes, I am practically stretching it beyond capacity :)

I Need Your Prayers

I just realized that could be a title that causes panic. Nothing is wrong with me or the baby. The prayers are that she decides to bake a little longer. My Doula is on vacation for the weekend and I would really like to have her and not the substitute. I am sure the substitute would be great...and she is cheaper, however, I now have a relationship with the one I hired. So let's hope that I get to flash around this big belly for at least 2 more days!