Carlan's First Christmas

I'm a little slow on posting blogs for obvious reasons! Carlan had a good first Christmas. It was nice and quiet. We just hung out for most of the morning and didn't open presents until around noon. Carlan got a few things from all her grandparents and her great grandparents. Daddy and mommy (Gabe picked it out!) got her a jewelry box. :-) Apparently daddy will be buying Carlan a lot of jewels as she gets older.

We went to my parents house for dinner and opened a couple more presents there. More clothes and my sister Caitlin made everyone a calendar with pictures, ours had pics of our little Carlan. Other than that it was pretty uneventful. Carlan didn't mind having a quaint Christmas!

Carlan's First Doctors Appointment

She had her first doctor appointment on Friday and she checked out A-OK. We weren't sure if she was going to have an appointment on Friday because of the CRAZY weather we have. All this snow has been nuts! Luckily the pediatricians office was open. Her doctor wasn't there but she was able to be seen by another doctor.

She's lost a little weight since coming home from the hospital. The doctor said the amount that she has lost is normal, I think she measured in at right under 8 lbs. I wasn't able to hear half of what he said because she was being a fuss bucket and cried throughout most of the appointment! Her actual height is 20 in, the nurse that measured her said that half the time babies length differs from what they're measured at birth because they're still all curled up and is hard to get an accurate length. So she's an inch longer than what we thought. She's in the 50 percentile for both height and weight.

She's been sleeping A LOT better ever since my milk has come in. She's gotten up twice the past couple of nights which is a vast improvement since our first two nights home. The first two nights we camped out downstairs because she was getting up so often and I couldn't physically get out of bed! It was easier for me to get off the couch than getting out of bed.

We were a bit concerned about her poops since she pooped the first day we came home (Wednesday) and she hadn't pooped in three days. The doctor said it was normal for breast fed babies to not poop for up to 5 days. He instructed us what to do if she didn't pass a BM by today and it didn't sound very pleasant. But she finally pooped yesterday! Yay for poops!

We're all doing well and getting rest as best as we can! It hasn't been too bad (knock on wood) and figure it could be a lot worse. Gabe has been a trooper and Carly is here for the next few days to help out as well.

Mili

The Labor and Delivery

So as you all know, our Carlan is finally here. My water ended up breaking at around 930 am on Sunday morning. I wasn't sure if it really was my water breaking, but after a few minutes I immediately knew it was definitely my water. So we called the on call nurse and she told me to go to the hospital. We had to take showers (who knew when the next one would come) and gather a few more things to throw in the hospital bag. I think Gabe was more frantic than I was! We got to the hospital less than an hour after my water broke.

They immediately checked us in and assigned us a room. They brought in some paperwork that we would eventually need to fill out before being discharged from the hospital. The nurses came in to check on me and the on call doctor checked my cervix and I was dilated to 4 cm at that point. My contractions were coming on quick and strong, about every 2-4 mins. I got up and walked around a bit, relaxed in the jacuzzi tub with aromatherapy oil and finally got my epidural when I was dilated to 6 cm. Getting the epidural slowed down my contractions and I received pitocin to speed up the process. I was ready to push at 1230 am.

Gabe and Melissa were fantastic. Even though Melissa felt like an idiot counting to 10 as I pushed it helped a great deal. I ended up getting a fever of over 100, I was sweating like crazy and had to get put on antibiotics because it had been almost 24 hours since my water broke and was developing an infection. Carlan didn't want to turn and descend down, her head was stuck! The doctor tried to turn her because she was "sunny side-up" but was unsuccessful. They tried the vacuum and that didn't work either. At that point the doctor said that we had to do a c-section because of the infection and the baby and I getting distressed.

Melissa stayed back while Gabe put his scrubs on and waited while they set me up in the operating room. It was quite frightening and the epidural and run out a little while before they took me in for the c-section. I was in crazy pain, it sucked. They finally got me all set up and Gabe came in the operating room and they cut me open and got her out, she arrived at 514 am. She was beautiful. 8.47 lbs, 19 in long. They cleaned her up and cut her cord and had to take her to the nursery to get checked out. Gabe went with her while I got put back together.

Carlan had to get antibiotics because of the infection and I got antibiotics. They drew her blood and had to give her oxygen. They ended up having to keep her in the nursery for a few hours. I was taken back to our room, hooked back up to the IV and given pain medication. Gabe came back about an hour later. We slept and the nurses brought her back to the room a little after 900 am.

It was quite the ordeal and not the best labor and delivery experience I guess! I was exhausted and in quite a bit of pain. It was worth it for our beautiful baby girl. Welcome Carlan Kapilialoha Mondoy-Honaker.

Here are some more pictures....

Carlan Kapilialoha Mondoy-Honaker

She has finally arrived! After about 18 hours of being at the hospitol the baby was born. Here are a few picutures.

Mili Making Cookies

Next video blog: Trials and Tribulations of Labor as Seen Through the Eyes of a Father of the Year to Be (acted out by Mili)

9 More to Go

Had our weekly check up today. I'm dilated to 1 cm, so 9 more to go! Gabe got off early and was able to meet me at the doctor, it was nice to have him there with me. Doctor said I was doing great, progressing as normal. Blood pressure, weight gain, baby's heart beat all doing well.

They don't induce until you're a week overdue. We're hoping she comes this week! We'll see, there is a full moon on Friday!

Mili

No More Work

Yesterday was my last day of work. I am relieved. It was getting super hard to get up early in the morning after a crappy night of sleep regardless of what time I went to bed. At this point until baby is here I can at least get up at my own leisure!

I am trying to get things done prior to her arrival. Everything is set up and I'm about two-thirds finished washing all of her clothes, linens and diapers. I have wardrobe envy, this child has a lot of clothes! I was able to get my hair cut today, I have a dentist appointment tomorrow, just little things like that that I'm trying to accomplish before she's here. I know once she's here it's going to be difficult to get those type of things done.

I have yet to pack my hospital bag, I was going to do it this evening but the motivation just isn't there. I'm hoping the motivation is there tomorrow because I think this baby is ready to come out soon. Gabe mentioned this weekend that it looks like my belly is getting lower and lower. I told him that's a good thing when my belly starts dropping!

Other than that things are progressing as normal. I'm still going to water aerobics and my back and hips hurt like a son of a gun. Carrying all this weight around sure does take a toll on ones body. Next doctors appointment is Monday and she's going to be checking my cervix at that point.

Mili

P.S.

To all of my co-workers reading this, if I didn't get a chance to say good-bye, my apologies. Remember my absence is just temporary. Enjoy the workplace sans my crude sense of humor and bad language! Do keep in touch though, just no dangerous goods questions! ;-)