Happy Birthday Daddy

Sweet 16 (days)

(thanx Precious for some of your photos!)

Leyna is 16 days old today and had her 2nd Dr. appt. She's healthy and doing great. The nurse was impressed that she stayed knocked out during all the vitals, including when taking her temperature in the not so comfy place. hehe. Her height is now 20 inches, which is 1 inch shorter but I suspect it's because her "conehead" is rounding out since the delivery. She's been eating a lot, which is evident in her weight of 8.5 lbs now! (We better get her in all her newborn outfits before she outgrows them) She keeps us busy with about 3 diapers changes for every feeding, but good to know her digestive system is working (almost too) well. The good news is we can stop the rigorous schedule of feeding her every 2 hrs. and pretty much let her sleep and wake up on her own up to 4hrs apart...woohoo, a bit more sleep for us (assuming she agrees with the adjustment.)

It's all been worth it. She's been such a joy, and entertains us with all her cute noises and numerous expressions. She's got amazing leg strength already (yea we've both been kicked in the gut many times), and she's also got a mean hammer-fist when I'm feeding her! haha. She loves the breeze, and grins when you blow at her face. She loves flailing her arms everywhere, so every time we would swaddle her, she'd always figure out how to get her lil hands free as you can see - what an escape artist!

Leyna's Birth

The last pics of Leyna in belly. My friend Precious happened to shoot these photos of me and belly at it's max just in time, taken 4 days before Leyna made her appearance!Now here's Daddy's run-down of Leyna's birth...

July 2, 10pm…watch Gran Torino? or fold Leyna’s clothes? We decided to fold and sort all of Leyna’s baby gear...build her pack n’ play which will act as her temporary crib…and start packing the labor bag. Car seat we decide to install tomorrow. 1am…finally went to bed for what turned out to be a very short nap.

July 3, 2:30am…Loralee nudges me and asks me to go turn on the light. She suspects her water might have broken. We spend the next half hour looking on Google and our baby resources to determine if we need to go to the hospital. We called the hospital and they told us to come in to check. Time to finish packing the labor bag and install that car seat!

July 3, 3:15am…we arrive at the hospital and Loralee gets monitored and checked by a nurse. False alarm. Phew! Water didn’t break, and she was only 2cm dilated. Contractions came every 5 minutes but she was unable to feel them. They sent us back home saying we’re far from early labor and it could be anywhere from a day to another week until Loralee gives birth. On our way home we enjoy breakfast at McDonalds (McDs is delicious out here!)

July 3, 5am…back home and ready to sleep. Loralee tells me that she’s finally starting to feel contractions now. She starts keeping record. I tell her to try to sleep off the contractions and get some rest because she needs energy for the actual labor and delivery. I pass out to re-energize. I wake up around 11am. Loralee was hunched over the bed on the yoga ball with a pen in one hand, her notes in the other, and her cell phone as her stopwatch. Apparently she wasn’t able to sleep off the contractions. They’ve been consistent every 4 minutes lasting about 60-90 seconds in length the whole night!

July 3, 4pm…Loralee soaks in a warm bath to help alleviate the pain. Nothing. Contractions come closer to 3 minutes apart.

July 3, 5pm…Loralee and I called the hospital again and told them about the past 12 hours of contractions. They suspect it was probably due to her exam earlier that day, told her to take a warm shower, take some Tylenol, and come in when contractions are so bad they make her cry. Loralee takes Tylenol. Nothing. She endures another 2 hours of strong contractions...without shedding a tear, though very painful!

July 3, 7pm…we decide to head back to the hospital, thinking we shouldn't get sent back home this time. Turned out she was way past “early labor.” Loralee was already 7cm dilated! (for those of you that don’t know, 10cm is time to push!) We get settled in the labor room…an inexperienced nurse missed the veins twice for the IV leaving some nasty bruising…Loralee enjoyed some lime otter pops and ice chips…the epidural went perfectly, she didn’t feel a thing and it reduced the pain at least 50%...They wait until 11pm to manually break Loralee’s water which was like a water balloon ready to burst. I called Russ and asked him to cover for my duty that I was scheduled for on July 4.
July 3, 11:20pm…They break her water, and we wait for the contractions to naturally make more progress. Loralee gets a quick lesson on how to push in preparation for the home stretch…

July 4, 12:48pm…Three sets of pushing, Leyna is born 6lbs 13 oz, 21 inches...screaming and crying her head off. She was absolutely adorable and with some mighty strong lungs. Docs did some routine reflex tests and told us she got an apgar score of 9/9 which is really good. I stood by to cut the cord. They quickly return Leyna to momma and Loralee falls in love with her baby girl. Later I watched her get measured, weighed, foot printed and helped with her sponge bath.
July 4, 3am…We spend this joyous 4th of July together as a family in the postpartum department, where we stay for the next few days. The feeding sessions every 2 hours and the diaper duty begins!
July 6...We return to home sweet home, and same night pick up Grandma at the airport whose staying with us for a whole month. Perfect timing! =D

Going home

Happy Leyna just before going home.

In between the feedings round the clock and fighting to stay awake, I'll find a way to post more!...stay tuned.

Leyna Taylor

I've been on an emotional high since she's been born and haven't had a chance to contact everyone and thank them individually for their thoughts and prayers. But our friends here in Okinawa have been so supportive and truly like family to us. They've been amazing, giving us all the help we need. I'll write again soon. In the meantime take care and thank you all again! I truly appreciate everything ya'll have done for us.

I'll have to re-write my original post with the birth story, because Blogger deleted it. but here are some pics of Leyna Taylor

stats
born 4 July at 1248
6 lbs 13 oz
21 inches long