Abraham Kalama is Born!!!

On 11/11/11 Abraham Kalama was born at 3:07 pm.  He weighed 6 lbs 13 oz and 19 3/4 in long.  He has been a joy since he was born and is growing so so so fast.  I have been wanting to document his birth story since even before he was born, and I am finally getting down to it.                          Here is Macy happy while Mommy was in labor.

With Macy, I was kind of talked into getting an epidural and pitocin, and I wasn't a fan.  So with this labor and delivery, I wanted to do it all naturally.  I was still going to be in the hospital with an obgyn, but I was gonna go without any drugs or an i.v.  My mom had told me a long time ago that I was the only one of her children that could have a baby on 11/11/11.  I thought she was crazy, but she must have known something cuz it worked!  My due date was on the 18th, so the 11th was exactly one week early.  The doc told me that he would induce me on the 11th if I wanted, but I was not going to give up my natural childbirth.  I did all the research I could on the internet about all the different methods of childbirth like hypnobirthing and the bradley method.  I took from them what seemed to fit for me.  I would visualize each night and try to prep Clark with affirmations to repeat to me when I was in labor.  I also read every birth story I could and watched video after video of natural childbirth.  I still had my worries, but I was determined to do this.

 On the 10th, I went to the doctors office and they stripped my membranes.  I was 2+/3 cm dilated and 80% effaced.  My mom and I went to the mall and walked walked walked.  That night she pushed on my pressure points and I took evening primrose oil.  The next morning nothing had happened.  I was pretty bummed, but I was still gonna try to go into labor.  After a little bit of trying to go into labor and having pretty consistant braxton hicks, my mom heated up a hamburger for us to share.  I took 2 bites and I felt a really strong contraction that peaked went down and then just peaked again.  Then I felt a gush of fluid.   I said, "I think my water just broke."  When I stood up, I was pretty sure it had, but when I got to the bathroom I saw that it was blood and a lot of it.  My grandma called at that moment(12:00) and asked if anything was happening.  I told her what was going on and she said the same thing happened when she went into labor with my mom.  I was worried that maybe my placenta was tearing off, so we just grabbed what we could and ran.  Macy hadn't even been changed for the day or had lunch. 

On the way to the hospital, I tried to get ahold of Clark who was at school.  He doesn't get reception in his lab, so I called his friends wife to call her husband to tell Clark to go to the hospital.  It's a good thing that worked, otherwise he would have missed it.  My mom wasn't really sure that I was in labor, but I knew that I was from the very consistant contractions.  I guess I just handled them well.

Once at the hospital, I told the nurses what was going on and one of them kind of freaked me out that I was gonna need an emergency c-section.  Luckily the nurse assigned to me was very calm and reassuring.  She said I would just need to have constant heart rate monitoring on the baby because of the large amount of blood I was losing.  His heart rate was great and he wasn't in stress the whole time, thank heavens.  I asked my nurse if she could tell how strong my contractions were and she said,"you tell me, you seem to be handling them well."  That was such a nice compliment.  I then warned her that I dilate quickly so be prepared.  She was scared to check me at first, but after talking to the doctor, she did and I was 5 cm.  Pretty soon after, I needed to use the restroom. I walked over and while going I started to get super light headed.  After a little bit of apple juice, I perked right up, but they still wheeled me back to the bed.

This is when the intensity of the contractions picked up.  I was 6 1/2 cm, but I knew that wouldn't last long.  I was stuck sitting on the bed, which was exactly what I didn't want, but I worked with it.  I tried getting in new positions, but the way I felt the best was just sitting with Clark's hand on my lower back.  I felt really tired and could hardly open my eyes.   When the contractions got stronger, I started to make an "oh" sound, and Macy copied me which was so cute. Between contractions I could still talk and enjoy myself.  The one time I lost it was when I was trying to move positions and my foot got caught in the cords.  I was standing on the bed on one foot in the middle of a contraction and I yelled,"I'm Stuck!"  I got checked shortly after and I was 8 cm.  This is when my mom and Macy left the room.  The nurse called the doctor and he arrived a couple minutes later, checked me at a 9 and broke my water and left the room to sit down.  He said that I was way too calm to be doing it all natural.  After the next contraction I felt the urge to push.  The nurse checked and said all I had left was a lip.  The doc came in and checked and said I was good to go.   I just kept saying,"I need to push, I need to push."  The doctor told me to push if I felt like pushing and not to if I didn't.  I love that he gave me the freedom to follow my body. 

Pushing was the craziest thing I have experienced.  It was like I wasn't even there and my body just took over.  I didn't even feel any pain.  I never realized how strong a uterus is until I felt it push so strongly.  The doctor had to give me an episiotomy because my previous scar was not tearing or stretching and he didn't want me to tear somewhere else (this was the only bummer).  Abraham was born 7 minutes after I started pushing.  The moment he came out I said,"That is the best feeling ever!"  I have never felt such a good feeling in my life, it was amazing the relief I felt.  They waited just a bit to cut the cord and placed him on my belly.  After weighing and measuring I got to nurse him and he latched right on.  He was so alert and calm.  I felt great and even walked from my delivery room to the recovery room.  Right after Abraham came out, the doctor asked me if I had a method I used...I said that I just researched and did what came to me.  The pediatric nurse said that I used a sing song method because my oh's sounded like singing I guess.  My labor was 3 hours and 7 minutes...awesome!

 I love how good I felt after having Abraham and how much better my recovery was.  I think the second time around is also better because I know what I am doing and am not stressed about everything.

 Clark loves his little man.

 After walking to the recovery room.

 Macy loves her brother...sometimes a little too much.

Post NZ California Visit

 The trampoline is what Macy wants to go on constantly when we are at my parents house.  Luckily she had Daddy there to play on it with her.

 Eating ribs at Lucille's...a Lund family favorite! 

 I love how she has started with a cheeser smile.

 We got our tortoise, Donatello, and Macy loved him.

More Pics from NZ

Rotorua

Rotorua is a must see if you are ever in New Zealand! The pictures are a little backward, but here are Raven, Kia and Keaka at the hot spring pools.
Macy loved the perfectly warm pool.
Keaka was so kind to take us to the skyline buffet. NZ has awesome seafood at all of their buffets...too bad I was pregnant.
THe big hit of the day was the luge. You sit on these little roller cars and you go down the mountain on concrete trails. I was able to take Macy with me down twice on the beginner trail. She LOVED it and loved riding back up the mountain on the ski lift pointing to all the cows on the mountain side. Kainoa watched her the last trip so that I could go on the intermediate trail...soooo fun. I smiled the entire time.

Of course in true NZ fashion, there was beautiful scenery.

Hamilton Zoo

My sister in laws family lives right down the street from the zoo in Hamilton, so one day Clark, Macy, Raven, Tama and I walked down there. Macy and I were both enthralled with the animals.

I love this picture of Clark and Macy.

Brisbane, Australia

On our way to New Zealand, we had a 12 hr 45 min layover in Brisbane, Australia. Luckily my second cousin, Mariann lives there and agreed to come pick us up and take us around a bit while we waited. We ate, walked around, and went to this really cool look out point to see all of Brisbane.

Disneyland for FREE!!!

After my little kiwis went to stay with Marcus and Tami, my little sister and her friend, Marissa, came down from Idaho. Julie just finished her semester and BYU-Idaho and was picking Macy and myself up on her way down to California. Our plan was to drive the entire way to CAlifornia on Monday, but Marissa's dad was put in the hospital and was in pretty bad shape, so we decided at 11 that we would leave at noon. I thought it would be a good idea to stop in Las Vegas and stay with Clark's Uncle Eric and Aunty Keahi...it's also where his mom lives. We arrived just in time for dinner. I was sad though, because that night we were supposed to have a family dinner with Clark's family and Raven and Erana were going to be there. I wasn't sure if that was the last time I was going to get to see them.

My family has a couple of friends that work at Disneyland, and my hope was that we could get one of them to sign us in. Erana had never been to Disneyland and Raven hadn't been since she was around 6. When we got to California, I put out all of my feelers and really worked on getting someone to sign us in. We had a possibly on Saturday, so I called my mother in law and told her. Then by some kind of miracle I got a text that a family friend, Laura would sign them in on Thursday at 4 pm. It was late, but we would still have 8 hours because the park didn't close until midnight. I hurried and called, and plans were made for them to get to California on Wednesday night. I was stoked!

In the meantime, Julie and I hung out with some of her friends and got our nails done. My mom didn't get in til Tuesday evening, so we were on our own for a little bit. Julie had an interview for an internship on Wednesday at my father's company so we went and met him for lunch at Islands and waited while she interviewed and got a drug test.

Wednesday night, the girls arrived and I was so happy to see them! The next day we had a little time to kill, so we went SHOPPING...and man can those girls shop. I loved watching them go through the stores and pick up item after item...they are gonna go back with a lot of loot.

We finally made it to Disneyland, but about 30 minutes early, so we waited in the hot sun and took pictures. After Laura signed us in, we thought we would go to Splash Mountain because we were so hot and we didn't want to get wet late at night. It was closed. Huge bummer since it is one of my favorite rides. We then went on Haunted Mansion because it is right next door. Macy rode between my mom and myself. I was a little worried that she would get scared, but she didn't, and she actually danced to the music.



After the Haunted Mansion, we headed over to Pirates of the Carribean. We started off with the little rides so that the rides would just get better and better.

Julie, my mom and Macy waiting in line for Pirates.

Erana and Raven waiting for some Yo Hoing.

Macy and me on Pirates.

After the ride, Julies friend called and told her to go get in line with her at Space Mountain, so she, Raven, and Erana ran on over. While they went on Space Mountain, my mom and I took Macy on Jungle Cruise. Macy loves animals, so we expected she would love the ride...which she did.

Macy would squeal and point at all the different animals she would see. I just loved seeing her excitement. Disneyland is definitely a magical place for little ones.

We had the perfect spot on the boat where Macy had a great view of everything.

After Jungle Cruise, my mom and I wanted to get in line for Indiana Jones. We asked about the child swap, and to our pleasant surprise they told us that we got to go through the fast lane. When the girls got back to us we hurried through the line and made it to the ride in no time. This is where the fun rides began. I just loved seeing the girls reactions on the rides. Erana was especially entertaining to watch and made me laugh all day and night.

Macy waited patiently with Grandma while we were on Indiana Jones. Once we got out, my mom went on the ride and took Raven with her. The rest of us headed over to Thunder Mountain. This time I waited while the rest of the gang went on the ride. Once they finished, Erana went back on with me. Again, we got to go in the fast lane...how awesome is having a baby! We laughed and screamed the whole way; Disneyland is so much fun with someone who has never been.

After Thunder Mountain, we were hungry so we headed over to California Adventure to get some grub. After Raven, Erana and I were done, we wanted to go get on Screamin' the rollercoaster...to our utter dismay, it was closed for the rest of the night and so were all of the rides on that side of California Adventure. I was so let down; I wanted the girls to get to go on the one upside down rollercoaster at Disneyland. Atleast Hollywood Tower or Terror wasn't closed. We headed over and got in line while my mom stayed with Macy. On the ride I couldn't stop laughing because Erana was pumping her fists in the air due to the extreme fun of the ride. After, Erana went back on it with my mom and my mom said that Erana looked like she was at a sporting event with the way she was swinging her arms...so funny.

We headed on back to Disneyland and took the must have pictures in front of the mickey face. Then we headed to the Matterhorn. Raven said that it was her favorite ride.

After, we had time for one last ride and the girls wanted to go back on space mountain. We headed over and got in line. A man came around saying that they were having technical difficulties. A bunch of people got out of line so we got to move way up. The ride started working shortly after and we were able to get on super quick. We screamed the entire time and lived up our last ride.

After the ride we did some must needed Disney shopping. It was late, and we headed home, but not with out a stop by McDonalds.

We all had a blast and were completely pooped the next morning. This was such a fun day for me and I really hope that it is an experience that Raven and Erana will never forget, I know I wont.

I hadn't had this much fun at Disneyland in a long time...I felt like a kid again.