Birth Story...

Thomas Allen arrived on Wednesday, December 16th at 3:41am. 9lbs 3.6 ozs, 21 inches long.

Birth story -

On Tuesday afternoon, I was having contractions that were 20 minutes apart - not very painful so I wasn't convinced they were real. By the time we went to bed, they were 10 minutes apart - still not very painful. I woke up at 1:45am and the contractions were more intense. I was getting my shampoo and stuff ready. The contractions were definitely real. Jeff asked me how far apart they were but I hadn't even had a chance to time them. I told him it was time to leave!! He jumped up and got the girls out of bed. He started timing me and the contractions were 3 minutes apart. We dropped the girls off at a friends house and went to the hospital. We parked the van and starting walking to the entrance. I realized that walking wasn't going to work. Jeff ran inside and grabbed a wheelchair. I wish I had a video of him running out with the wheelchair! We went in and got a little lost - giving directions during a contraction doesn't work very well. We made it to the nurses desk. We checked in at about 2:30am and I was 6cm. My water broke when she checked me. We got to the delivery room and got the iv etc. I asked for an epidural but I knew it was probably too late. I will never know the relief of an epidural! Oh well. The nurse asked if I felt like pushing - I think my eyes bulged out as I said "YES". I was already 8cm. Pushed for 3 contractions and got my precious little boy! He looked great - he didn't cry and they had to work hard to get him to make a noise. He was fine - just didn't want to cry, same as Amelia. We donated his cord blood. They got 209 grams (which is apparently a lot). Within an hour of giving birth, they needed my room so they were hustling with last minute measurements and trying to draw more blood from me. They finally gave up and figured the maternity ward nurses would have better luck. As they were wheeling us out, I heard a nurse say "wow, that was a driveby delivery".

We spent the rest of our time in a maternity ward overflow room. Thankfully I didn't get a roommate. Thomas doesn't cry - he screams! He goes from zero to full throttle in about 5 seconds. Hopefully that will calm down soon. Jeff brought the girls to the hospital after school (They didn't go back to sleep after we dropped them off at 2am - so they were a little tired!). Madalyn was thrilled that Thomas looks like her. Amelia is excited for him to "be fun". They are both in love with him and "ooh and ahh" over his every move and especially when he opens his eyes (which he doesn't do very often).

Thursday morning we waited around for the pediatrican to come and do the circumcision. I had already been cleared to be discharged. They finally did the procedure at noon and then we just had to wait for him to pee. 4 hours later they gave up and let us go home. The nurse said to get him ready and come to the nurses station to remove the security bracelet. We didn't know there were two nurses stations in the maternity area. We went to the one I had seen in the L&D tour. On the walk there, we heard the alarms go off and the sign in the hallway said "Alarm -Nesheim Male"...oops! The nurse came running and directed us to the correct desk. Meanwhile, the elevators were locked while they got the key to reset the alarm! We like to keep things exciting.

By the way, 4pm is also rush hour at the hospital. The 7 mile drive took us over an hour. Luckily, Thomas slept the whole way home!

The girls are in love with him. I would cuddle with him all day if I could. Pure joy!

More of my family!

My Little Boy...

My sweet little boy has arrived!

Born December 16th - 9lbs 3.6 ozs, 21 inches long

38 Weeks Pregnant!

I made it to 38 weeks. I'm ready to go anyday, but apparently Thomas is comfortable. Today is my Grandma Ella's birthday so I was hoping we would have the baby today. Don't think it is going to happen.

Cravings - Spicy food, SubWay Veggie Sandwich
Ankles - Missing!
Feet - constantly swollen
Stretch marks - 1st pregnancy that I have gotten stretch marks!! Showed up 2 weeks ago.
Sleeping - Great, as long as I don't have to roll over or go to the bathroom.
Husband - Great!! Doing lots of cleaning and organizing. Reminding me to put my feet up. Got to love him!

Homecoming

Will post pictures soon!

Good Sign!

Best Baby Advice...so far

I had to share this advice I received from Tonya & Marna. With the girls, I used to put a mattress pad and waterproof pad on the crib under a sheet. Then I would only have to put on a clean sheet if something messy happened. Tonya & Marna were telling me that they put on layers - mattress pad, sheet, waterproof pad, sheet, and then a sheet saver. That way you can take off one layer and the bed is ready to go! I thought that sounded like a great idea! I have the crib all ready to go with the layers :) I just wanted to pass along a little tip. Just proves you can always learn something new!

Last Skype Pictures (at least from this deployment)

Jeff was in Yokosuka, Japan last week and we got to Skype. Here are a couple photos from his time there :)

This is where he was staying. They don't turn the heat on till

December 1st regardless of the temperature. He said it was very cold!!

Hurry Home Jeff!!

Baby Update!

Wow - I'm almost 37 weeks pregnant! I had a doctor's appointment today and she doesn't think I'll make it two more weeks. We'll see. I'm not getting my hopes up yet. My goal is to make it until Jeff gets back from deployment. I still have swollen feet which only go down if I lay on my side with my feet up higher than my head. Very comfortable...yeah right! I still need to pack my hospital bag and maybe pack an overnight bag for the girls in case I have the baby before Jeff gets back. Thank goodness for my great Navy friends! What a life saver they are!!

Madalyn's 9th Birthday!!

Madalyn celebrated her 9th birthday Egyptian style! She has been reading lots of books on the subject and decided she wanted an Egyptian party. We had a mummy wrapping race, colored bookmarks, made collars and belts and sculpted clay. They had a great time! Madalyn got to open her big present at the party - an Egyptian Play Mobile Pyramid. Huge hit :)

Baby Shower :)

Tonya hosted a wonderful baby shower for Rachel and I in the Orchids Restaurant at the Halekulani Hotel. It was a high tea with absolutely wonderful food. The view was beautiful and we got some great things for the baby. It was a very special day! Thanks Tonya!!

Happy Halloween!

(Trying to catch up on posts before the baby arrives!)

This year Madalyn decided to dress up as Cleopatra. Amelia decided to be King Kamehameha. Here is a link for those of you who don't know who that is! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamehameha_I

They had a great night and got way too much candy!!

Big Island Trip

I got home from Singapore on Thursday. On Friday, I took the girls and my parents to the Big Island. It was a good trip – hiked through a crater and lava tubes, watched lava flowing into the ocean, went to Black Sand Beach and some other stuff. When we got there, they didn’t have the rental vehicle that I reserved. They finally upgraded us to a 4x4 Ford Explorer – huge vehicle, uncomfortable drivers seat, badly designed 3rd row of seats – plus a gas guzzler. I was just happy to have a vehicle at that point. On the 2nd day, we sent down to Pahoa to watch the lava flow into the ocean. It was after dark when we left. I managed to hit a wild boar. Quite the thump!! There was no damage to the front of the vehicle – apparently, I ran over his head (2 puncture holes from his tusks in the tire) and that spun his body around to hit the side of the Explorer. While we were checking out the vehicle, someone apparently drug the boar off the road. The girls love telling everyone that I ran over a wild boar...lol!

Singapore

Where to start?!?! My parents came out to watch the girls while I flew to Singapore to see Jeff. We had such a great time! When he left, I was only 10 weeks pregnant. 18 weeks made a big difference in the size of my belly! He got to feel the baby moving and kicking. He even admitted he felt bad for me walking around in the crazy humid/hot weather of Singapore. His hips even hurt after a full day of walking around. Jeff's appearance had some changes too. (Reminder - for the boat's halfway, the guys paid $500 into the rec committee fund if Jeff would have his head shaved). They used a quadruple zero setting on the shaver! Luckily, he had about 2 weeks for it to grow in prior to Singapore. It was still very short, but at least he looked like he had hair. He plans to not cut the top till they get home. Hopefully it will be back to normal by then.

Day 1 - We arrived in Singapore at about midnight. I was on the same flight as the CO's family so that made the trip less stressful. Sleeping on a plane is hard. Sleeping on a plane when pregnant is nearly impossible. We were all exhausted by the time we got to the hotel. I think I fell asleep instantly!! We all met at breakfast to try to get acclimated to the new time zone (a day ahead, minus 6 hours). The guys were not pulling in till that afternoon so we went out exploring. We walked by several stores in the Orchard shopping district that I will never shop in - Dolce & Gabbana, Rolex, Tiffanys, etc. It was fun to look around though. Then we checked out the roof top pool. Beautiful view of the city and a nice way to relax. Then we went for a little walk to the Botanical Gardens (basically, wasting time till the guys got back). The gardens reminded me of London. Absolutely beautiful! Every city should have a garden like that. Singapore does a great job of utilizing all the available space for little gardens and huge trees. We were all sweaty when we got back to the hotel. And there sitting in the lobby was Jeff and the CO. So nice to see Jeff again! We went out for a little dinner and enjoyed spending some time together again. We walked down Orchard street and saw a fashion show in front of the mall.


Day 2 - We hopped aboard the Hippo Bus Tours and got to see an overview of the city. We stopped at the Raffles Hotel and Jeff had the famous Singapore Sling. It was a beautiful bar and a nice way to cool off. In the afternoon, we walked around Little India and checked out the temples. Getting back on the Hippo bus was a challenge, but we met a great couple from Australia during our walk. Later in the afternoon, we went to Chinatown and ran into the St.John family and another neighbor from McGrew. We walked over to Clarke Quay and went on a river cruise. We met another great family from Australia (they liked our accent...lol). I loved seeing the city at night. We even got an up close look at the Merlion from the water. It was another long fun day!


Day 3 - We went to Sentosa on day 3. Another hot day! They had a beautiful water area covered with mosaic tiles. It was interesting to check out all the animals interpreted with the tiles. We went to the butterfly garden (imagine you are in a very humid/hot country and then you walk into a butterfly garden which is even more humid - it was beautiful though), Underwater World, Fort Silosa (where we saw our first monkeys in the wild), Dolphin Gardens (pink dolphins!) and the Tiger Sky Tower. Jeff and the St John boys checked out the luge. I think all the kids enjoyed that one!! Jeff and I stayed till after dark to check out the Songs of the Sea water show. It happened to have already been raining so we were wet to start with and then the water spray with the lasers got us even more wet. It was a cute show - I prefer to watch the fountains spraying set to music with less of a story line. We managed to make it back to the hotel with our first ride on the MRT! Very clean!


Day 4 - Time for a day at the Singapore Zoo! They have an "open" zoo so there are few fences - mainly water barriers. It was great! We got to see some fox bats and three toed slothes up close! I could have reached out and touched them - not that I ever would!! It happened to be our 12th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by eating dinner in the first air conditioned place we could find - KFC!! We had Ben & Jerry's afterwards. Then we went on the Night Safari and watched the fire dancers. (bunch of crazy guys!!)


Day 5 - Jeff had to go to work till 2pm - so I went with the St.John family to the Botanical Garden and the Orchid Gardens. Absolutely beautiful! I even bought myself an orchid necklace (a real orchid that is dried and dipped in gold). It is amazing to see that many orchids in one place. Loved it :) On the walk back to the hotel, we got caught in a rain storm. (Of course, I had decided to lighten the backpack and took out the umbrella!) We sat under a beautiful gazebo and eventually the rain quit. When Jeff got back, we decided to walk around Orchard Drive.



Day 6 - We went to the Jurong Bird Park and saw lots of beautiful birds (and some ugly...lol). It also has the world's tallest man-made waterfall. Another great day!

Day 7 - Last day :( Jeff had to work till 2pm. I decided to take it easy and rested in hotel. When Jeff got back from work, we went down to Kampong Glam (the Arab part of Singapore) and looked around at the mosques and shops. Then we went over to Little India to check out a couple more temples. It is amazing how eloborately they are decorated! We met up with the St.John family at the Banana Leaf restaurant. Your plate is actually a banana leaf. The food was amazing. I can't tell you everything that we tasted, but it was all great! It was a wonderful way to end the trip!

Day 8 - Up at 3am to go to the airport :( It was hard to say goodbye, but it was a wonderful trip.

Jeff Again :)

Of course, I have to add the latest Skype pictures of Jeff. These are from late August and early September.

Skyping from Sasebo

Skyping from Chinhae, South Korea

South Korean Money :)

Showing off the bed that he could lay down on sideways. Big deal after sleeping in a rack :)

The next pictures of Jeff may be interesting. The crew put in $500 to shave Jeff's head. Nice fundraiser for the Rec Committee. We'll see how he looks though!

Wives Dinner

This month the FRG wives went out to dinner at Duke's. We had a great time. The Pasadena Foundation gave us all leis and long stem roses. The food was great and some of the wives even entertained us with the hula! We ended the evening with Hula pie....yummy!

Amelia the Soccer Star

Amelia scored her first goal at her soccer game on September 19th! She was so excited. The girls had games at the same time and I had just walked over to Madalyn's game when she scored. She was so excited to give me a play by play of her big goal. She is getting pretty good. She runs as fast as she can but she is just not as aggressive as the other girls. She is getting better though. Always fun to watch her play!

Madalyn's Life Plans

Yes, Madalyn does indeed have life plans. She informed me the other day of her 3 job ideas (complete with where she would live!). The first job was a paleontologist living in Arizona. This probably comes from reading the dinosaur book that doesn't seem to ever leave the van. The second job was a scientist living in Washington D.C. The third job was a French chef living in France. The other day she upgraded the chef job. She now wants to own a French restaurant in France. If she can't own the restaurant, she wants to be the sous chef. Got to love her dreams :)

Bad Blogger...

Sorry! I have not been a good blogger lately. My 2nd trimester energy has come crashing down and I'm definitely feeling pregnant. I love seeing and feeling him move, but he is making things a little more difficult!

Amelia had her birthday party this month. After much debate, she decided on a Star Wars theme. We started off at the pool and then went inside the community center for some crafts. The kids made star shrinky dink magnets (if you don't know what shrinky dinks are, you are missing out!). Then they made light sabers out of pool noodles. Then the kids headed outside to test out the light sabers. Quite the sight! 18 kids running around with pool noodles. Amelia had a great time. At the end of the party, I had her sit with her eyes covered so I could bring out her big gift. My parents and I got her a Razor Rip Rider 360. Basically, it is a big wheel except the back wheels are little and spin around. Her friend Thomas had one and she really liked it. You should have seen her eyes the first time she spun around. Now she is an expert and spins around without even putting her feet down to stop. That girl is a daredevil! (pics soon)

Kids' Halfway Party

Kids' Halfway Party

Random Pictures

Here are some picture of Amelia hanging out with Arwyn. Don't you just love Amelia's hat! It is my old hat but she loves it.

New Pictures of Thomas!

Thomas is doing great! The cysts are gone!! He was very active the entire ultrasound. He even peed when she was taking the “still a boy” picture…lol! He is measuring 12 days bigger than my due date, but within the “normal” range. He would have to be 15 days bigger before they would change my due date. Looks like another big baby! He is 1lb 9oz right now. He was 11oz at the last ultrasound 4 weeks ago. More than doubled his size!! Yikes!

After Snow ball fight pictures!

The snow ball fight, Hawaiian style!! (nylon filled with flour)

2nd Birthday Party of the Day!

Here are some pictures from the second birthday party!

Amelia trying to Limbo :)

Dodge ball :)

Hawaiian Snow ball fight - "before" pictures!