Due Date

It's hard to believe that given my history of being overdue, today I should still look like this:


Instead, I am lucky to be 25 lbs lighter and get to snuggle my sweet baby from the outside, rather than in.


Today I am more than grateful I am not still pregnant, but I wouldn't mind if my sweet baby were 1 day old again. He is already growing so fast!

Mānoa Benjamin

It's hard to believe a week has passed since we welcomed our sweet baby boy into our family. Mānoa Benjamin Vakameilalo Tu'ifua arrived at 10:09 a.m. on March 7th, at 8 lbs 6 oz and 20 inches long. I feel so blessed that I was able to carry him to 38 weeks and that we are both healthy and doing well.



My doctor and the nurses and staff at the hospital were SO good to make sure my delivery this time around was easier emotionally and physically than when I had to have an emergency c-section with Jacob. It was a much better experience all around and already I am recovering so much better than before.


Mānoa is an angel baby. I don't want to jinx myself, but it appears he will be much calmer and easier than Jacob was. He is already on a schedule, and is a great sleeper at night and only wakes every 3-4 hours to eat. Some unique characteristics - he has a small patch of blond hair above his left ear and long fingers and fingernails. Other than that, I feel like I am looking at Jacob as a newborn all over again!


Jacob had a hard time the first day adjusting to his new baby brother, and said several times at the hospital "No baby Mānoa ." However, by the time we checked out, he actually smiled while holding him. Now that we are home, he has turned into a big helper and pats his head when he cries, helps change his diaper, holds his binky in his mouth and gives him lots of kisses. He does however still have bouts of jealousy where he wants attention - the funniest to me has been that he demands he get HIS diaper changed first. All in all, he's handled the transition great!


Having a new baby is a little slice of heaven. I don't know that there is anything better in the world than snuggling my baby in my arms!

New & Improved

I had been waiting to do anything with Jacob's room until we knew the gender of the baby and would therefore know whether I had to figure out something gender neutral, or could go all out BOY. As soon as I found out Jacob would have a little brother, I knew I wanted to copy the design from this blog. Surprisingly enough, it took me a couple months to get the guts to do it. I was worried the navy would make the room too dark, or that one day the white on the bottom would come back to haunt me, (i.e. imagine what could happen if markers fell into the hands of toddlers if left unattended) but I finally went with it, and I am loving it!

BEFORE

AFTER

It obviously still needs lots of work with accessories, bedding, etc; and it will never look as awesome as the room I got the idea from, but it is amazing how much a bit of paint and trim can transform a room!

I originally had considered using beadboard, but after pricing it, it just wasn't in our budget, and I had heard it can be a pain to install. Instead, the faux board and batten was SO easy and because we already had the white paint left over from finishing the basement, all we had to buy was the blue paint and trim, totaling a mere $114.27.

And for good measure, a recent picture of the soon-to-be big brother who is loving his new room!

Not the best picture as he is sick (crossing my fingers he'll get better quickly and we'll all get at least one full night of sleep before baby arrives!) but as you can see, my little guy is all grown up. I can't wait to see him love on his baby brother!

Life as we now know it

For any of you who still read this blog, don't have a heart attack. Yes, it's true, I am posting! Hopefully it will be a more regular occurrence because it is something I enjoy and that I have missed, but just couldn't warrant the time to keep up with it until now.

Many have asked for an update on my pregnancy complications and what exactly I am up to these days... so this may not be the greatest "comeback" post, but hopefully I'll have more interesting posts in the near future!

At the beginning of January I went to my 29 week OB appointment and my only worry was that I had put on way too much weight over the holidays. Lucky for me, weight gain was great (only 3 lbs over the past 4 weeks!) but I had elevated blood pressure and traces of protein in my urine sample. So, my doctor ordered a non-stress test and more extensive labwork to test for preeclampsia. Long story short, at that point I wasn't concerned and assumed the results would come back negative. WRONG. I went to my appointment a week later and was officially diagnosed. Unfortunately for me, I have known people who had suffered from worst-case scenario preeclampsia and freaked out. Yet luckily for me, I was at the best-case scenario stage and should I worsen, I was far enough along that hopefully my baby boy would survive without any long-term damage.

The month of January was spent trying to finish up at my job, trying to get at least the important things in order should I need to deliver early, undergoing twice-a-week NST's, labwork and doctor appointments, all while trying to "take it easy" so that my blood pressure stayed at a normal level.

This past week was my first full week as a real stay-at-home mom, and I have loved it! It was hard to leave work after having been there for 5 1/2 years, but surprisingly the transition has been much easier than I anticipated. It is amazing how much I can get done in one day at home - clean, cook a healthy meal, play with my little monster and still fit in a nap and some "me" time! Aside from the continued twice-a-week tests that can take anywhere from 1-4 hours, life is good!

It has been a physically and emotionally past few weeks and I am already exhausted from all the testing, etc. However, the one positive in all of this - because of my condition, they won't let me carry past 38 weeks, so the c-section is scheduled and I know that 4 weeks from now I will officially be DONE being pregnant and have a beautiful new baby boy!