P-A-D: Day 20, Pile on Daddy!

On May 2nd, I was feeling stumped about how to photograph our girl. She was really cranky when she was awake, and definitely not up for any wardrobe changes. It was the day of her first bath, but we were so nervous and she was so upset, there was no time for pictures. I was losing hope, afraid I would have to resort to yet another photo of her zonked out in her bouncer, when Eric called to me quietly, "Get the camera."

Daddy meant to use the pillow in his lap for little baby Kailea, but our cat Nikka had other plans.

P-A-D: Day 19, Lei Day

Did you know that May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii? As a child, I remember making leis the night before that would be taken to school, flown over to Oahu, and then placed on the graves of fallen soldiers at Punchbowl (The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific). There was always an unofficial competition between classmates to see who would make the most leis, but one was usually enough for me. I always used white plumerias, my favorite Hawaiian flower. Even as a kid, I understood the sacredness of giving and receiving of a lei, so as an adult I have made a few for very special occasions. When my mother placed the lei around my neck on my wedding day, I cried.

I honored this tradition by making a tiny (too tiny I would find) lei for my little girl. I used the plastic flowers that decorated a bouquet of washcloths given to us at the hospital by my Sister-in-Law Heidi to celebrate Kailea's birth. I was really tempted to go outside and pick some real ones, but didn't want to deal with the milk that gets all over your hands when you work with fresh flowers. Plus, I can keep this little lei as a souvenir of my girl's very first Lei Day.

P-A-D: Day 18, Tulip Festival

Day 18, April 30: It was 2:05pm on a Monday when I had the grand idea that we should brave the blustery, occasionally rainy weather to head out to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival to see a little color. We arrived at Tulip Town shortly before 4pm. We had an hour to visit the tulips. And the muddy, muddy fields they lived in. Yikes! The stroller will never be the same.

It would have been nice to get some pictures of the girl outside with actual live, growing tulips, but it was rather chilly and we knew once we lifted her out of the stroller, there would be no getting her peacefully back in. Plus, all that mud made everything very slippery, and I wasn't about to risk falling flat on my face with my precious little Kailea in my arms! We had to settle for some indoor pictures with arranged flowers. Oh well!

P-A-D: Day 17, A Glooming of Eeyores

On April 29, Day 17 of my Photo-A-Day Challenge, I introduced my girl to Eeyore. Actually, a whole bunch of Eeyores. I have officially decided that a group of Eeyores shall now be known as a "glooming".

P-A-D: Day 16, Mommy's New Hair

I'm allowed to be in these baby photos too, right? I've been dying to cut off that wretched orange grow-out for months, and now that Kailea has finally been born, I can dye it again! Although, I think for now I'll just stick with a new haircut...

Photo-A-Day Challenge: A Year of Kailea in Pictures

I've decided to set a challenge for myself: to take at least one photo of Kailea every day for her first year of life. Sadly, there are two days missing there at the beginning, but no one can fault me for being a little too doped up after major abdominal surgery to keep track of stuff like that! Also, I'm not convinced that some of the photos I have aren't from those days, and that they've just been tagged improperly when shared by others. I need to find the time to sift through the metadata of all the photos that have been shared with me from those first days to see if any of them are indeed from those two missing days.

Until then, I'm content that I've uploaded Kailea's first two week's in photos via the previous two posts. So now I can start posting one per day.

So here we have April 27, Kailea's 15th day of life, where she was re-introduced to Nurse Becky.

I have huge heaps of gratitude for Nurse Becky, as her diligence in monitoring little Kailea's non-stress test results that fateful day quite possibly saved our little girl's life. Everyone wanted to send me home. I wanted to go home. Kailea just wanted to continue stewing inside of me. But Nurse Becky kept coming back to dote on me and check the monitors, still not convinced that everything was completely kosher. As it happened, a weak contraction was all it took to plummet Kailea's heart rate dangerously low because her embilical cord was wrapped around her neck.

So thank you, Nurse Becky.  Another nurse took over monitoring at one point, my OB actually lifted Kailea from my womb, an amazing anaesthesiologist doped me up really well, and a whole team of amazing medical staff made my entire stay at Northwest Hospital and Medical Center as comfortable as possible. Certainly more than I had expected! But it's Nurse Becky that I credit most with sticking by me and my baby, making sure we indeed were united as Mother and Daughter outside the womb. Thank you!

Kai's Second Week of Life

When last we saw our fearless heroes, their adventure had just found them returning home for the first time as a family of three. Gone were the days of being a mere duo!

And so our adventure continues. Is there really ever an end to the adventure known as parenthood? Probably not, but we would prefer a few breathers in between the adrenaline rushes. Kailea continues to grow and thrive, but with too many bumps in the road! Despite efforts to combat her reflux, she continues to spit up.

Now, all babies spit up. But with Kailea, it is a bit beyond your typical burp that brings up some of her latest meal yet undigested. Not quite Exorcist Baby, but a little too close for comfort.

But really, the main problem I think is us. Our time spent in the hospital has trained us to constantly watch the baby with a critical eye, looking for problems in every thing she does. We classify her spit-ups, we log her diapers with descriptions of her poops, we turn on the light to check on her every time she makes a noise in the middle of the night. I soaked up all of this information from Eric's Mom about how "normal" baby behavior can seem bizarre - spitting up, straining to poop, going "too long" between poops, etc. (Have I mentioned that having a baby nurse in the family is amazing?) But being in the hospital and all of these things being signs of concern, now they are of concern to us. It doesn't help that they have all of these goals that she's supposed to be hitting.

X many poopy diapers, X many wet. X many ounces per feeding, X many ounces per day. X many ounces weight gain per day. Gah! Numbers sound so important, and they flash in your head like neon lights, so you can't stop thinking about them. She had X-1 wet diapers today, she ate only X-3 ounces, she only gained 1/2X ounces today. AAAAAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!!! Make it stop!

She is so calm and alert and content, with good color, and a healthy appetite. I think that's enough for now. I really, really do.

Am I becoming an optimistic Mommy?