Welcome to the world, baby boy!

Introducing Caden Michael:

born October 31, 2016 @ 4:58PM, 6 lb. 14 oz, 19" long.

Birth Story:

I was lying in bed that Monday morning and was half awake since Shaun had just hit the snooze on his alarm. He had just gotten back into bed from the bathroom when I was woken up by what I thought was gas pain at first, but then quickly realized that what I felt was a contraction. It was about 5:30 in the morning when I felt the pop.

I quickly sat up and told Shaun, "I think my water just broke." I slowly got up to go to the bathroom and felt more warm liquid and was pretty confident that it was time. I also started to lose my mucus plug at that same time. We were caught completely off guard since I was still two weeks out from my due date!

Once we were both out of bed, I called L&D to let them know and they said they'd see me when I got there. It was really happening!

I rushed around the house trying to make sure that we had everything we needed. Luckily, I pretty much had my bag and the baby's bag packed already and Shaun quickly threw some things in a bag for himself. About thirty minutes after my water broke, the contractions started getting worse. A friend mine told me that I'd know when I was in labor because I would be able to talk through the contractions; I'd say that's pretty accurate! 

We got in the car and headed for the hospital; Shaun drove while timing my contractions. At one point they were about 3-5 minutes apart and I was getting really nervous. In Hawaii, you do not want no get stuck in rush hour traffic and here it was about 6AM and we were right in the thick of it. Thankfully Shaun knew a "short cut" through some back roads and about 45 minutes later, we arrived (should have taken us half that!)

We got to the hospital at 7:00 and didn't have to wait long once we got there. They then took us back to examine me and test to make sure that my water really broke (I was 100% sure of this.) Once it was confirmed we were admitted and they brought us to our room in labor and delivery. It felt so surreal being in that room!

Before I knew it, a doctor had come in to run through everything with me; she kept mentioning pitocin and I was really confused as to why they were talking about that since my water had already broken and I was clearly in labor. Come to find out, if your water breaks, they want you to deliver in 18-24 hours to avoid any kind of infection. They put in my IV (terrible experience resulting in a blown vein in one arm and a very uncomfortable IV inserted into the other arm) and started a very low dose of Pitocin since by this time, my contractions had slowed down to about every ten minutes.

Since I hadn't eaten, they were nice enough to let me order breakfast from the cafeteria since we knew it would probably be a while. Things were going well, however, around 10:30, I was still only at 1 centimeter. They put the foley bulb in around that time and within about 3 hours, I was at 3-4 centimeters. The pain was definitely increasing, but I wasn't sure that I was ready for the epidural. They had me talk to the nurse anesthetist just as a precaution and we decided to move forward with it since he was going to be leaving for lunch and didn't want to come back to me being in extreme pain. Once the epidural was in place, they increased the Pitocin a little bit and I was feeling great.

When we had first gotten to our room, the nurse midwife had done an ultrasound to make sure that baby boy was still head down; during the same ultrasound, they found that he was, but he was also facing up! This isn't necessarily a problem, but can prolong labor and especially pushing. Because of this, they mostly had me lying on my side the whole time with an exercise ball between my knees in hopes that he was flip over (I also wasn't a very big fan of this, not very comfortable especially while experiencing contractions.)

At about 4:15pm, the nurse came back to examine me and I was already at 9 centimeters and baby boy was dropping with each contraction. She said that she would be back around 5-5:15 to check on me, but shortly after she left, I started feeling a lot pressure. It felt kind of painful, but definitely a different kind of sensation that I had been feeling. I was starting to get nervous that I was going to have the urge to push and no one was going to be in the room with us. I also had asked for something to help with this new pain that I was feeling so they had the anesthetist come back and add a dose of another pain medication to my epidural, it helped so much.

Luckily, the nurses were monitoring me from the nurses' station right around the corner because they noticed the baby's heart rate dropping a bit with each contraction. They said that it was due to head compressions when they came back in around 4:40 to start setting up for delivery. I remember thinking that that's what they were doing, but I still thought we had a while to go! Before I knew it, they were telling me to push! I pushed for about five contractions (15-20 minutes) and Caden was born at 4:58PM.

I remember pushing and having my eyes closed and then I opened them and he was there! Again, I had no idea he would come that fast and it was just so surreal. The nurses had asked if I wanted to have a mirror so I could watch and I declined, but I kind of wish that I hadn't. Shaun cut his cord after it stopped pulsing and once they finished examining him, they brought him over to me for a few moments before they took him to get cleaned up. 

The aftermath took much longer than the actual delivery since I had suffered a second-degree tear. Shaun and the nurses kept saying how Caden shot his arm out during the delivery, which probably caused it. That and maybe the fact that he came so fast. They took good care of me though and before I knew it, we had this tiny, little bundle, all wrapped up, and I was finally able to get a good look at his perfect little face. Shaun was loving holding our little guy and we sent photos to both of our parents, who were on the east coast.

Around 9:30pm, we were transferred to our room in the mother/baby unit. We were starving so we decided to order pizza delivery and I ate a whole small pizza myself haha. It was amazing. 

I absolutely could not believe how fast everything happened (just under 12 hours since my water broke), especially since this was my first pregnancy. Everyone kept making it sound like I would go way past my due date and even the nurse midwife told me that many first-time moms can push for up to three HOURS. Boy did we prove them all wrong! 

I feel EXTREMELY blessed to have had an easy pregnancy, a relatively easy labor and delivery and a perfect baby boy. We could not be happier to have our little man in our lives!

Warmest Aloha,

Exciting news!

I think I may have mentioned that my husband had been deployed for the last six months, but haven't talked a real lot about it since I've just been getting back into blogging recently.

Anyway, last Thursday, my baby bump and I got to welcome home our sailor! 

What an amazing day. Since we didn't even find out I was pregnant until a week after Shaun left, this was the first time he got to see our baby bump in person.

Special thanks to my friend, Ann Carter, of Ann Carter Photography for capturing these moments for us!

Warmest Aloha,

One week down..

We ended up doing the IUI (Intrauterine Insemination) last Saturday.

Everything went well and we had 15 million motile sperm. While that sounds like a lot, I realize it could have been a little better. The doctor did say that anything over 10 million was good so praying one of those little guys found it's way to wear it needed to go! haha

36 hours before the IUI was scheduled, we used an HCG injection to trigger ovulation. Because of this, doctors usually recommend waiting at least 14 days to take a pregnancy test otherwise, you run the risk of getting a false positive (HCG is the hormone that your body starts producing when you are pregnant and is what home pregnancy tests are looking for.)

My mom and dad get in to Hawaii tonight so I'm glad they will be here this weekend when I'm ready to test. Shaun left for his deployment last week so any distraction is definitely welcome. I'm really hoping and praying that I have some good news for him when I talk to him next!

I'm just trying to stay positive in the meantime. If we don't end up getting a positive this month, I really just want to work my butt off and get back into shape while Shaun's away. I've really slowed down on exercising, especially with the Follistim, as rigorous exercise is not recommend when using that medication :(

We also talked before he left and decided that if we don't get pregnant this month, we will start the IVF process when he gets home. There is a good chance we will be moving to Guam at the beginning of next year and we will no longer have the infertility benefits that we have here in Hawaii.

All your positive thoughts, prayers, and baby juju are appreciated! Five more days until test day!


Warmest Aloha,

The stars have aligned.

I went for another follow-up ultrasound this week on Tuesday. I still had the three follicles seen at my last appointment with the two larger ones at 15mm and one right behind at 12-13mm.

My doctor told me to continue the Follistim for a couple more days and trigger Thursday (tonight.) Our IUI is scheduled for bright and early on Saturday morning and I am thrilled to say that my husband came home today so it will work out perfectly for him to be there.

In addition to this, we received some more good news today - 

Shaun has been selected for LDO (Limited Duty Officer!) 

In non-military terms, this means that Shaun will be promoted from enlisted to officer, it's a HUGE deal and we are both thrilled! He won't get commissioned until later this year so until then, he'll continue his "chiefly" duties. Once commissioned, he will go to officer school for about five weeks then there is a good chance we will be moving again, although we won't know where until it gets closer.

I am so happy for my husband - he is the most hard-working, intelligent person I know and he is an excellent leader. This promotion suits him and I can't wait to see what he accomplishes. In all honesty, I am okay with moving around and with this Navy life we live. There isn't any place I wouldn't follow my husband to and I can't wait to see where this wild ride takes us!

Follicle Update.

Yesterday morning, I went in for another ultrasound to see how my follicles were doing and I got some interesting news.

First, the doctor saw an additional two larger follicles on my left ovary as opposed to just the one on my right from the other day. She also said that the one on my right hasn't really grown at all in the couple days since my last u/s. All three are about 11mm right now and they must be around 17+ mm in order to trigger ovulation and proceed with the IUI.

My body has been responding to this injectable medication much differently than the previous oral medications that I've tried; things seem to be progressing much more slowly.

At my Wednesday appointment, my doctor said that the IUI would probably be early next week, but with the news we received yesterday, it doesn't sound like that will be the case. 

This might turn out to be a good thing after all since Shaun has to go back to work for a few days and will not be available to do the IUI until later in the week.

My doctor initially said that she was going to increase my Follistim dosage to speed things up and hopefully trigger Monday, but then after explaining to her that Shaun won't be here until the end of the week, she said that we can keep it the same and kind of coast things along for now and do another u/s on Tuesday and go from there.

So, at my day 10 u/s, I was really upset because he had taken off work (which is not easy for him to do right now!) and we were WAY off; but then I got this news yesterday and it's kind of good? 

We did make arrangements for cryopreservation in the event that things take a turn and we do have to do the IUI before he comes home. 

I'm praying that our timing works out though and we don't have to use it after all.

Looking forward to seeing how things look on Tuesday!

Thanks for checking in!

Warmest Aloha,

Cycle update.

I had an ultrasound appointment this morning to check and see how many follicles have grown since I started the Follistim injections. The news was somewhat disappointing.

The doctor only saw one larger follicle that measured 11mm on my right ovary and several smaller ones on the left; she said that the ones on the left probably won't catch up in time for the IUI.

I was upset. I know I should be happy to have the one, but I could have accomplished that on my own without medication. From what I understand, the whole point of using medication is to try and get more than one follicle to mature to increase the possibility of conceiving.

I have to continue the nightly injections and go back on Friday morning for another ultrasound to see how much they've grown and if we can schedule the trigger injection and IUI procedure.

Another reason why this was so upsetting is because my husband took the rest of this week of from work to make sure he would be home for the IUI. So far, the IUIs that we've done have been around cycle day 13 or 14; with Saturday being cd13 and not having the option to do it on Sunday, I thought for sure it would be Saturday. Shaun won't be available next week due to work so our only option is to try naturally until he leaves and cryopreserve a semen sample for the procedure next week (sorry if TMI, but there ain't nothing about this process that isn't TMI!)

Needless to say, it was a rough morning. Shaun and I ended up down in Waikiki for lunch then he brought me to get a manicure; that all made me feel a little bit better ;)

On a happier note, we just booked the Sheraton Waikiki for next weekend. They had a great military rate and it's about time for a nice, little staycation.

Warmest Aloha,

Valentine's Day< 3

Shaun and I decided to have an early Valentine's dinner on Friday night to beat the crowds and have a nice day together doing other things on Sunday.

Friday night we ate at a little Italian restaurant in Kailua, called Baci Bistro. There is nowhere near the variety of restaurants here in Hawaii as there was in Charleson, which makes me miss Charleston soo much! Shaun briefly compared this place to Wild Olive; we both agreed the food was good, but the atmosphere didn't even come close.

On Sunday, Shaun was off-going from duty so we decided to get a hike in first thing. There's a couple hikes that I had been wanting to take him on and Lulumahu Falls was one of them. It's a fairly easy hike with a pretty good payoff at the end. It's also shaded and wooded so nice and cool and out of the sun.

I may have acquired a selfie stick over the holidays and Shaun just refuses to smile nice when I use it so here he is, snubbing my selfie stick, once again haha.

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day/ Galentine's Day!

Warmest Aloha,

The serious things.

Once again, it has been several months in between blog posts. I still think about it all the time and have decided to start blogging about one of the main things that has been on my heart lately.

As some of you know, Shaun and I got married in April 2014. We decided that we wanted to start a family right away, so I went off birth control in June 2014 and we starting trying to get pregnant.

While some people get pregnant right away, that is just not the case for others. It seems like I hear people say all the time that they got pregnant on their first try or within a few months of trying. What you rarely hear are the stories of those who took many months or even years to have a baby. Reality is, 1 in 8 couples struggle with infertility, and we are one of them.


After trying naturally for a year, I turned to an infertility specialist. We had some initial testing done - blood work, HSG, semen analysis, etc. What we ended up finding out was that everything on my end came back good, however, my husband's sperm count was on the low side of normal and he had very low motility. After the doctor gave us the results, she proceeded to tell us that we would probably never get pregnant naturally.

Looking back, that probably wasn't the best thing for her to tell us, especially at that time. We left the hospital feeling slightly defeated.

The doctor ordered another analysis for Shaun that ended up coming back worse than the first one.
The plan moving forward was to start oral medication for me, to increase follicle production and IUI (intrauterine insemination) to increase our chances of conceiving. I also researched some supplements for Shaun to take to try and help his sperm production and motility.

So far, we have done five medicated cycles with oral medications. Our first medicated cycle was with 50mg Clomid and I produced eight mature follies (potential eggs) so our IUI was cancelled for fear we could end up with HOM (high order multiples.) Our next three cycles were with 5mg Femara (letrozole) and I had three follicles each time; we did IUI on the second and third cycle, but not the fourth since it fell over Christmas and the offices were closed. Our last IUI was with 100mg Clomid and I ended up with five follicles. I think we could have had a great chance on this cycle, however, Shaun was gone for work during that time. We were able to freeze a "sample" for the IUI, however, we lost a LOT of motile sperm during the freezing/ thawing process.

The good thing about all these tries, is that each time we did an IUI and we got Shaun's results back, they got better and better. We attributed his initial bad results to a three month-long underway that he had just come back from. During that time, lack of sleep and high stress were inevitable, most likely causing his initial test results to come back so low.

This month, my doctors have decided not to have me do anymore oral medications and to move on to an injectable medication. I started two nights ago with an injections of 75 iu Follistim, which we'll do for six days. On the seventh day, I have an appointment for an ultrasound to see how many follicles have grown. I'm a little nervous because using injectable medications can cause OHSS (ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome.) If we end up with too many follicles again, they will cancel the IUI.

The kicker in our situation is that, ever since we got to Hawaii, we knew that there was a long deployment in our somewhat near future. We still had a while to try and we hoped to be able to time it so that I would have the baby after Shaun came home.

We've been trying for 19 months now with no luck and this is our last chance to try before Shaun leaves. As ridiculous as it may sound, he actually took leave from work so he could be sure to be home from work when it's time for the IUI. I'm praying that with this new medication protocol and Shaun's now normal test results, this month will end with a pregnancy for us.

Sorry for the long, detailed post (still probably doesn't include everything!), but just trying to get the blog up-to-date.

Will post more updates soon!


Aloha,

Hiking Hawaii: Diamond Head Crater

Thought I would take a little break from wedding posts to share some of my favorite experiences since we moved to Hawaii.

One of the first things that Shaun and I did once we arrived here, was hike Diamond Head.

I've now done this hike twice, the first time with Shaun and the second time with some lovely ladies that I've gotten to know through our boat.

This is, what I would consider, an easy hike. It is kid-friendly, but definitely not stroller-friendly. You do gain some elevation on the way up and there are quite a few stairs, but there are spots where you can  move off to the side of the trail and take a break. The second time I did this hike, one of the girls I was with, had her 26 lb. son in an Ergo carrier and she made it up with no problems.

If you ever get to visit Hawaii, I definitely recommend doing this hike.

Diamond Head from Waikiki.

The mountain to the left is Koko Head Crater and just over the one to the right is Hanauma Bay, a famous snorkeling spot.

Beautiful view of Honolulu and Waikiki.

The views that I have seen from the many mountain tops here are incredible and it seems like each new hike outdoes the previous. I feel so blessed to be living in such an amazing place and hope you all enjoy reading about it!

Thank y'all for stopping by!