a year ago today . . .

we were doing this . . .

in this beautiful chapel

now we are changing diapers! :) i can't believe it has only been one year. it seems much longer since we actually started dating in 2001! on our wedding day we didn't think we would be celebrating our one year anniversary with a 3 month old baby!


i will totally recap our wedding photos soon! we had the best wedding photographers :) all the pictures they took were priceless. because of them, we were chosen to be one of the couples featured in the Sept/Oct 2009 issue of Memory Makers scrapbooking magazine for DIY (do it yourself) weddings. as most of you know, i'm obsessed with scrapbooking so naturally i wanted to do everything for our wedding. it was a lot of work but so worth it for that one special day. :)

we will be celebrating our anniversary in las vegas at the venetian. we saved the top tier of our wedding cake so i'm hoping it will still be edible! it was hard to decide what flavor we wanted for our cake. damien wanted strawberry and i wanted red velvet. we compromised. i got the top tier. :)

12 weeks and growing

omg, it's been a long time since i've posted! kaia is 12 weeks old today! she is growing so fast. it feels like just yesterday we were impatiently waiting to welcome her into the world. so far i have taken a picture of her every single day of her life. she's so adorable :) here are her growth pics with the owl since my last post (@ 5 weeks).

6 weeks

7 weeks

8 weeks

9 weeks

10 weeks

11 weeks

12 weeks

5 weeks

I can't believe how fast Kaia is growing! She is 5 weeks old now and she is starting to coo and respond when we talk to her. She just gets cuter and cuter everyday! :)

4 weeks

5 weeks

I didn't realize she's wearing the same onesie in her 4th & 5th week growth pictures. The other day I was disappointed to find one of her cute pajamas (with the feet) doesn't fit her and I've been saving it until she got bigger but when we put it on her, it was super tight and she was so tall that it wouldn't go over her shoulder! It says "kisses for me" on the front. I guess I'll have to find it again in a bigger size! She is definitely growing. On Tuesday she weighed in at 10 lbs. 10.5 oz. So she gained 3 pounds since birth.

Last weekend the base of her umbilical cord finally fell off and she had her first bath . . .

gotta have a rubber duckie

She smiles and laughs a lot when she sleeps . . .



and sometimes if i'm lucky i catch her smile when she's awake

she's so cute when she puts her hand up to her face like she's posing . . .

Yesterday morning when I was lying next to her, I started dozing off but when I opened my eyes I saw her put her hand on my face and then she touched hers. It was the sweetest thing! :)

Here are more pictures of her just from today:

Family picture :)

We love our little girl!

She's finally here :)

Kaia Isabella
born May 8, 2009
@ 11:26 a.m.
7lb 10oz

21 inches

After 9 months of waiting, she's finally here! We couldn't be any happier. As new parents we are going through a lot of changes and adjustments (we're lucky to get atleast 2 hours of sleep in one night) while at the same time enjoying every minute of it. I'm finally updating our blog and I have soooo many pictures to share! :) Kaia is so cute that we could just stare at her all day.

My birth story
I was due on Monday, May 4th. I didn't have any real contractions so on Thursday Damien & I went for a walk with his sister Noella & her baby Elora at the park. I had a Fetal Non Stress Test that afternoon and I didn't expect to be admitted into the hospital that day. After 5 minutes into the test the nurse was concerned about the baby's heart rate dropping - it went from 156 bpm down to the 60s! The doctor came to check me and I was still 50% effaced and 1 cm dilated. They told me I had to be induced. After a long night with an IV in my hand, blood pressure cuff (that measured me every 30 minutes), an oxygen mask, trying to sleep on my left side, only eating ice chips, I was really exhausted. When they doctor checked me again in the morning I was still only 1 cm dilated and I still had to wait until I was 3 cm to be induced with pitocin. Around 11 a.m. on Friday I woke up all of a sudden and the doctor came in to check me because the baby's heart rate dropped again. They told me I had to go to emergency C section right then. They wheeled me out of the room so fast that Damien & I couldn't even say a word to each other. I was completely under general anesthesia (I was knocked out in less than 4 seconds) so I do not remember a thing. They told me after I woke up that the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck but that she was fine. The sad part is that I didn't get to experience holding my baby girl right after she was delivered. I really wanted to go through natural labor and experience all the joy and pain. But atleast we both made it through safely. It was pretty scary when they wheeled me away from Damien - he wasn't even allowed in the surgery room so he didn't get to cut the umbilical cord. Apparently she came into the world hungry and because she had low blood sugar they had to feed her formula right away.

I think she looks like both of us . . .

Damien

Kaia

me

She is growing really fast. Tomorrow she will already be 4 weeks old! Today she weighed in at 10 lbs 1.3 oz. Every week we've been taking her growth picture next to my favorite stuffed owl . . .

week 1

week 2

week 3

I have tons and tons of pictures to post but will have to do it next time.

40 weeks today . . .

Today is officially Kaia's due date but we are still waiting! I couldn't sleep last night with all the anticipation and finally starting to feel contractions (irregular) and baby moving more. This morning I had my 40 week check up. I was 50% effaced and my cervix was almost 1 cm dilated. I guess that's good progress! The baby dropped a little lower too. I was sent to labor & delivery for a fetal non-stress test to listen to her heartbeat and do an ultrasound to see how much fluid is surrounding her. She's ok and her heartbeat is very strong but the nurse commented on what a happy baby she is because she kept moving during the test! We are just waiting for now and I'm starting to notice more contractions. If I don't deliver by next Monday I will undergo induced labor - which I hope I won't have to go through! For now I leave you with a picture of a onesie that Damien's coworker gave us. Last Friday they threw a baby shower for him at work! We can't wait for Kaia to wear it! :)

maternity shoot

yesterday we had the most amazing maternity shoot with the wonderful jamie waters! :) jamie & her husband chris were our wedding photographers. as always, they do such great work and we wanted pictures of us right before kaia makes her appearance. :) here's a little slideshow sneak peek:

waiting for kaia

thank you jamie for an awesome maternity shoot! we love you! :)

Baby Update - 37 weeks!!!

Hoppy Easter everyone! :) I'm about to be 37 weeks tomorrow. . .



At my last prenatal checkup on Thursday the nurse midwife said the baby is upside down and could come anytime! She's guessing she weighs about 6 pounds and pretty active. We can't wait to meet her! :)


On Friday I went to The Scrapbook Oasis and made these:


I traced the images from die cuts I made with the Making Memories Slice machine and then stitched them by hand. I'll have to make more now since I only used the size 0-3 months onesies so I guess Kaia will only get to wear them once. But I think the owl is my favorite (of course)! :)


Since I haven't posted in forever I wanted to share some pics we took when we were picking out stuff for the baby registry.

new parent "survival kit"

these shoes are so cute! . . . do they come in mommy's size? :)

damien had a little too much fun . . .

daddy trying to figure out how to set up the car seat/stroller. . .

I'm such a lucky girl. I had 3 baby showers! :)

the first one was with my friends at the Oasis

2nd shower was the one my parents threw for us at Polliwog Park in Manhattan Beach.
We were lucky it didn't rain but it was extremely windy that day!


we had a game for the guys to play . . .


and the third, my coworkers suprised me with:

Thanks to everyone for celebrating with me! So far, this has been an easy pregnancy. The only thing is my "cabbage patch kid" swollen feet (I can't find my ankles!!!) and the pressure on my pelvic bones which makes me use the belly support belt all the time now. I just lost my voice the other day from a cold so I haven't been sleeping well. :( I have to admit though, I am scared about the labor & delivery part. I don't like needles and everyone tells me different things about getting the epidural. I kind of want to but then again, I'm terrified. I'm just hoping I won't have such a hard time.