The last two weeks

In the days following Thanksgiving, things have been pretty low key. We've just been taking each day one day at a time and trying to be as flexible as possible. Yooper and I realized there was a fair amount of stuff we had forgotten from the first time around or had yet to deal with. Changing a little girls diapers was a bit odd at first. Brushing up on things like newborn swaddling, car seat installation, and burping all took a bit of a learning curve to recall. Also, Leila and I had a bit to figure out with the whole breatfeeding thing. Tanner was bottle fed so this is new territory for both of us. Again, I'll spare the details but let's just say that it took a few days to work out the bugs.

We're now at the point that a routine is finally starting to emerge and I'm physically mostly back to normal. I feel well enough to get back to all my normal activities of shopping and house stuff but Leila doesn't always allow it. We have to plan any activities around the feeding schedule which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Sunday I had to make a run to the parking lot to nurse in the midst of a Lowes excursion. So much for timing on that one.

I think the biggest challenge so far, of course, is sleep. I have such a long list of stuff to do that I try to be as productive as possible with my time, often at the expense of taking naps and sleeping as late as I need to. I realized over the weekend that I have no idea how I am still functioning with the current sleep deficit I'm on. At merely 4-6 hours per night for the last two weeks, I should be unconsious but somehow, I have managed to not only keep going, but stay fairly energetic which is very different that how I usually react to lack of sleep. Ususally on the 3rd or 4th night of that kind of schedule, I will shut down completely. Must be some sort of postpartum energy store I have tapped into. I have made a promise to myself to try and get as much sleep as possible this week and finally catch up. We'll see how that goes.

At first Leila wasn't sleeping well in her crib. Mostly because she's pretty squirmy and really doesn't like her arms in the swaddle. This meant pretty cold nights for her. It's winter time here which means some nights get in the low to mid 60's. Without a furnace to take the chill off, that's a bit too cold for a newborn. Yooper and I decided to bring her in with us and everyone has slept much better since. If she gets a bit of a chill, one of us can cuddle closer and she usually settles right down. We're a bit worried about spoiling her and when is most appropriate to cut off the special treatment but I feel that the risk far outweighs letting the poor thing freeze in her crib. And yes, we're very careful :)

All in all though, Leila has been a perfect baby so far. I say so far because I'm terrified of jinxing myself and I read somewhere that colic usually starts up around two weeks. So far however, she only fusses when hungry or getting changed. She really doesn't like the cold wipes :) She seems to be growing a ton already too. Her last checkup was at eight days old and she was already back to birth weight. Not a chubby baby though, very long and lean. She still doesn't seem to be getting close to fitting into the 0-3 month stuff though. I only had one onesie that fit her when we got home because she was such a peanut. I actually had to brave the mall on the day after Thanksgiving to get a few outfits that would fit her. Some longsleeve stuff too for the cold nights. Unfortunately, they only had longsleeves in blue with a winter theme - see pics below. Snowmen and "Let it Snow" in Hawaii? Oh well.

I think one of the most surprising things about her so far is how much she looks like Tanner. There are a few pictures of the two of them that I swear you could shuffle and have a hard time guessing which pic is which kid. I find the whole thing fairly interesting because I've never seen a strong resemblance to either side of the family with Tanner. At first I thought that maybe the whole similarity was just a baby thing and I was confusing the newborn look with family resemblance but most people who see her in the presence of Tanner comment on it, and these are people who never knew Tanner as an infant. I guess that means she'll be a cutie too :)

I'll try to continue to keep up with this blog an at a minimum, get pictures up every so often. Have to say now though, with the impending holiday as well as upcoming visits for both sets of Grandparents, I'm not too optimistic about timely updates.

Thanks SO MUCH for all the great gifts and emails. I'll hopefully be getting back to you all very soon. Until then, here's a few pictures from the last few weeks...

Thanksgiving

With so much to be thankful for this year, it was truly one of the best Thanksgivings ever. It was so nice to spend a day with just the four of us at home. Yooper made dinner which he kept telling me was messed up for this reason or that but I have to say that after 6+ months of continuous heartburn and reflux, it was probably the best tasting Thanksgiving dinner EVER. I could not believe how good food tasted without the after taste of Rolaids. I also have to admit, it was nice being spoiled a bit and have dinner cooked for me for once. Fairly low key day otherwise. Football, naps, and getting to know Leila. Perfect day.

Leila Kanoelehua Cleven

By now, most of you know that on Tuesday, November 20th, we welcomed Leila into our family. I have gotten tons of email from all of you and am in the midst of getting back to you all but until then, some details...

Leila's middle name. A question asked by almost everybody so far. Kanoelehua (Ka-no-eh-le-who-ah) is a Hawaiian name that translates to "mist of Lehua". Lehua is the name of the flower of the Ohi'a tree and is native to the Hawaiian Islands. The Lehua is the official flower of the Big Island where they commonly grow on the slopes of the volcanoes there. See the picture below. We felt this was a very appropriate name for our little bundle in that we are fairly certain she took hold of life on our weekend trip to the big island for Tanner's birthday in March. It was a misty rainy weekend the entire time.




The Delivery. I'll spare you all the gory details and just stick to the basics, promise :) This time around we opted for inducment. My doctor gave me the option and since things seemed to be shaping up like last time (strong irregular contractions that had been escalating for about a week) I said YES, PLEASE! We signed up for Tuesday and after dropping Tanner off at school, checked in at the hospital and got the drip started. By lunchtime I opted for the epidural and let me just say - what on earth was I thinking not taking advantage of that the first time through. Early afternoon I actually caught a little nap. About 4ish, the nurse woke me up because Leila was having some issues with a decreasing heartbeat. Turned out I was 9cm and ready to go so the doc hurried over and at 4:47 she finally was born. So much easier that Tanner's birth. Actually, things went so smoothly that Dr Schutte said that we could home Wednesday evening.

Later that evening, David and Angelica stopped in with Tanner and he FINALLY got to meet his little sis. Talk about proud. He asked a million questions and really did not want to let her go but it was getting late. The next day was spent mostly just hanging out in the room waiting for our time to expire so we could get home. By 6pm we were headed for the door to finally bring our little girl home. All in all, a MUCH better experience than last time around.

Tanner's a Rock Star!

For several months now Tanner has expressed an interest in guitar lessons. I finally went and did some research to see what was out there and found a guy in Kaneohe who teaches lessons at his own "School of Rock". Much like the movie, he has a bunch of kids starting at around Tanner's age up to adults that he teaches Guitar, Keyboard, Drums, and vocals to. It's hystercial to watch them play together and while most of the songs are just barely recognisable yet, the kids really have a blast. At the end of each session, Brian (the teacher) hosts a rock concert for the kids to show off their progress and ham it up a bit. Since Tanner started late in the last session, he only participated in vocals for one of the song's, Blue Sude Shoes, but he did really well and actually remembered most of the lyrics. Hopefully, for the next concert in February, he'll be on an instrument as well.

Hawaii vs. Fresno State

With no professional sports teams in Hawaii, University of Hawaii sports is everything around here. Always helps to have a winning team too. Yooper decided at the beginning of the season that he had to bring Tanner to a game this year and bought tickets. The game he choose was going to be pretty late in pregnancy for me so he just got two tickets and made it a father-son evening. Tanner had a great time taking in the atmosphere and launching dozens of paper airplanes at the Fresno fans below from the upper deck. Not quite the same atmosphere as Family Night at Lambeau but certainly worth the trip to Aloha Stadium. Final score - Hawaii Warriors - 37, Fresno State - 30.

MONSOON!!!

Wet weekend is one way to sum it up. It was quite nuts actually. We noticed on Friday night that there was a system moving in but really underestimated just how much rain would fall. In total, the storm dropped over a foot of rain at our house (Thanks to our super dorky but but totally fun weather station Yooper put up a few weeks ago). We even had real thunder and lighting most of the night both Saturday and Sunday nights. For those who aren't too familiar with Hawaiian weather, while it rains often and fairly plentifully on the the windward side, thunder and lighting NEVER happens. Until last night, I've heard one, very weak clap of thunder in the entire year here so far.

The best was waking up this morning and checking the news online. Here's my favorite story:

Loud thunder, heavy rain, blinding lightning reported

A rainstorm that spread over O'ahu began to intensify about 12:45 a.m.

Motorists on the H-1 Freeway said traffic was reduced to a crawl through Pearl City at about 12:20 a.m. as a result of extremely heavy downpours.

One motorist described the rain as "some of the heaviest I've ever been in."

Another newsroom caller reported "an incredible lightning show" taking place off O'ahu's Windward Coast at about 12:30 a.m.

Police received a call from someone in Central O'ahu about 11:45 p.m. complaining about loud booms, possibly from illegal aerial fireworks.

It was quickly determined the noise was being generated by loud thunder claps. (HonoluluAdvertiser.com)

You know thunderstorms are rare when people actually think that thunder is fireworks. Other stories included boulders crashing into homes in rock fall zones, power outages (very rare here). Kona enjoyed it though. The downspouts make excellent water fountains.

Trick-or-treating

The big evening started off in a downpour. Lots of rain, even by windward standards. We were a little worried about the main event getting washed out but decided to get some pizza for dinner and wait it out. After a 45 minute rain delay, things seemed to clear up so we made a run for it. We walked to Olomana, the neighborhood across the street, for our trick-or-treating date with Alanna and her family. Alanna is in Tanner's class, a total cutie and really seems to have him smitten :) We managed to cover quite a bit of ground and it was nice to hang out with Alanna's parents and their friends. Pretty night actually. First time ever Trick-or-treating in a tank top and warm weather. Got to love that. The rain held off until just after the last house on the route. Perfect timing. I managed to snap off this pic of Tanner and Alanna just as the sprinkles started back up then Tanner and I sped home as fast as my waddling legs could go. :)

In the meantime, out of respect for our cold climate roots, Yooper fired up the big copper fire bowl in the driveway at home, lit the pumpkins, prepared a cooler of beer and sat outside to hand out candy. The fire REALLY confused the locals. Most common comment was "what are you cooking?" He got a good laugh from the confusion. His favorite was a couple who came by with their son.

Kid - Why do you have a fire?
Yooper - Because where I grew up, you needed snow boots to trick-or-treat.
Mom - YES! Exactly! Me too!

Apparently they then stuck around for some small talk of colder times before pressing on. Funny stuff. Successful evening overall. TONS of candy and happy kids.

Crazy Hair Day

Halloween at Maunawili Elementary was crazy hair day. I think they were trying to avoid an awkward day of unruly costumes. Probably wise thinking. Anyway, Tanner decided he wanted a mohawk but his hair was both too long and too fine to support the doo. This was the best I could do with what I had available. Pretty silly but he was okay with it and it actually lasted the day much to my amazement.

Carving Pumpkins

As always, pumpkin carving was far more intense in our house than most. Yooper simply can't be satisfied with the standard smiley face or scary grimace in a pumpkin. It's got to be much more complicated than that. Considering it's about as artistic as he gets, I let him go nuts. This year wasn't quite the completely overboard all night affair given that we were carving on a Tuesday night. He was only up until midnight. :)

Eagle Ray

I finally managed to get some decent shots of a Spotted Eagle Ray out at the island. Usually they spook very easily and by the time I manage to fish out my camera, they are long gone. This guy either didn't see me or is braver than most. They are about two feet from wing tip to wing tip and are incredibly graceful as with most rays. Isn't he cute?

Blue Angels

A few weeks ago, the Blue Angles made an appearance here on Oahu. Super cool because they were at the Marine base here in Kaneohe which meant all practices and shows were right over our house. Tanner said that the whole school came pouring outside during their first fly over because of the noise. Anyone who has been to an air show of this sort knows exactly what I'm talking about. This was my first time so I was fairly surprised at the tricks, the noise, and the overall spectacle of it all.

Better yet for me was my new camera which was an early Christmas gift from my mom. Finally have a digital SLR to take some REALLY nice pictures with. For the show I was set it on "Sports Mode" with continuous shooting. Got some awesome shots :)