Karis at 15 Months

Aside from becoming a big sister, Karis has been quite busy these days. She is non-stop all day long. She loves to be outside, either in her stroller where she watches for birds and airplanes, or exploring on her own. She loves the playground where she goes down the slide by herself, plays in the sand, and follows other kids around.

Inside, she likes to climb on furniture, read books, and learn new songs. She is learning her body parts with the song "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes."

She continues to enjoy meeting new people either at the house or out in public. She is fearless when it comes to people and being in new surroundings. Everything is an exciting opportunity!

She has been testing her limits and gets so frustrated when she doesn't get her way.

She has dropped her morning naps and is now only taking one nap per day.

Here are a few other things she's been doing lately:

She's been pretty good about playing by herself. One thing she does is carry around and play with her stuffed animals. She also takes her stuffed dogs for walks around the house.

Flip books are her favorite books to read.

She likes to put on big people shoes.

She also tries to dress herself and put on her own socks and shoes.

She now enjoys taking showers more than baths.

She has become pretty good with using a fork and spoon to feed herself.

And lastly, she loves to play with Sierra. She likes getting her face licked and going outside to give the dog her tennis ball. Unfortunately, she also likes to play in the dog's large water bowl.

I am loving this stage that Karis is in. I love how she understands more and more things each day. Just today, I put Makena in the car. Karis was upstairs so I stepped in the house and called for Karis to come down. I continued to pack the car and out comes Karis with a shoe in each hand, ready to go "bye-bye."

I thought I would be sad to see her grow up and no longer be a baby, but surprisingly I can't wait for to become a little girl!

The Day Makena Was Born

Some information about the day up on our room board. We checked in at 7 am and things got started at about 8 am. Our goal was to have the baby by 1 pm!

Experiencing some contractions and waiting for the intensity to increase.

In the meantime, Derek was updating our friends and family. He and Julie were also looking up some new baby names to consider.

At 2 pm, Makena Grace was born (though we didn't decide on her name until two days later)!

She was healthy, weighed 7 lbs 2 oz, and measured 19 1/2 inches long.

Makena Grace is born!

(I'm back-dating this to Tuesday, so forgive me if I mess up the verb tenses).

Makena Grace Robinson was born Tuesday, March 16 at 2:00 PM. She weighed 7 lbs 2 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long.

Lena was again quick to dilate... not as quick as last time. But she did jump from 7 to 10 cm just as fast as she was from 6 cm to 7 cm. Although we warned everyone and the doctor knew it, too, we (Lena) still caught them off-guard.

Julie and I were focused on the machine showing contractions and heartbeats. Lena or the baby would shift every so often, and we'd have to readjust the band that measures the contractions. At the end, Lena thought baby was shifting again... the baby had, but she was primed and ready to come out. [FLASHBACK: With Karis, I could she part of her head when they checked her. It was about the size of a quarter and they advised Lena not to do a practice push. We had to wait on the doctor to arrive. Upon doc's arrival, Lena pushed 4 times in about 12 minutes for Karis to emerge. ] Once again, Lena had arrived at 10 cm. They again enforced the "no push" rule. They called her doctor so she could rush from office to hospital. She apparently rushed a little too much and was pulled over for speeding (20 MPH over posted limit). When she explained her patient was at 10 cm and waiting, the officer advised she wasn't going to be able to assist if she were in an accident from speeding but left her off without a ticket.

Doctor arrives and is prepping at the foot of the bed. Don't know who said something to make Lena laugh (probably her hilarious husband), but she started laughing. The crowning that began even more than the quarter size of Karis, began to grow more. With each laugh, the baby was coming out. We had to add a "no laughing" rule until doc was ready. When she got the green light to push, Makena joined us on the first push. Lena almost literally birthed her from laughing. Reminded us of Abraham's wife Sarah in the Bible who was laughing as she didn't think she could be pregnant at 90 yrs old. They named baby Isaac which meant laughter. But we couldn't find a female equivalent that we liked.

Upon further baby name research, one of the top three names ("Makenna") had a variation in spelling that had a meaning we liked. Makena means "happy one" in Kikuyu (a tribe of Kenya). We were sold on it but cautiously took our time to make sure it fit. We can both attest that there is more pressure when you go into the hospital without a finalized name. I still like that we didn't go in with one name picked and that we were open to a selected few, but it was harder than I thought to narrow down. We even opened search up again.

I could tell a difference in the baby being born earlier in day. It seemed much easier on us both. Karis was born at 10:30 PM or so. It seemed like the doctors and nurses kept us up later with tests and such.

Sadly, Karis wasn't allowed into the hospital to visit her little sister. We didn't get the memo that no one under 16 was allowed up because of the flu scare. My mom and c0-worker Yukie worked really hard to get to the hospital so we could get a family photo at the hospital. But Grandma and Yukie both got to meet the unnamed baby at that point in time.

Thankfully, Lena was experiencing no pain afterwards all around. She did incur some sore plumbing apparatus as a result of a baby that sucks hard. We do need to take Makena to the pediatrician before the weekend as she's lost more than the acceptable amount of weight (7% vs the allowed 5-6%) and is showing signs of being jaundiced. She has still been spitting up fluids that had surrounded her and she ingested because perhaps she didn't have it forced out with many labor pushes. Prayers for healthy and quickly recovering mom and baby are appreciated.

We've posted photos and videos on Facebook (you don't need account to see them). Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55148&id=1483001948&l=837f3e92cb. We'll likely continue to add photos there, so bookmark it if you'd like.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for your continued prayers. We have a lot of learning and adjusting to do. We're very grateful that Grandma is here to help for another week.

For the record...

In 7 hours we'll be checking into the hospital to induce our second daughter's birth. I am not nervous one bit. I'm excited. I'm excited Lena will once again get to eat whatever she wants at will. I'm excited to see how great of a big sister Karis will be. I'm excited for changing teeny tiny diapers on a child that won't arch her back, kick her legs, or otherwise resist. =)

Now, also for the record, I will be nervous as heck the first day I am watching both girls by myself.

A name and plenty of photos will be forthcoming....

Pleasant surprises tonight

(Derek typing... finally)

Friends and family, thanks for visiting our blog to try and keep up with what is happening in our world. I'd much prefer to catch up over coffee (or boba tea), but sometimes we just have to do what works. I've been awful at posting entries, but am quite thankful Lena is consistent.

The other day Karis was being quiet while Lena and I were in the kitchen. I stepped out to see what she was doing, and saw her sitting next to the book shelf on the floor with a box of facial tissue. The tissues were supposed to be out of her reach.... I instantly shouted, "Karis, no!" and ran in to sweep her away. Afterall, she could have been victim to multiple paper cuts (I hear that there are microscopic paper particles in facial tissues) or possible suffocation as that pile of tissues removed the box was nearly as tall as Karis sitting down. Okay, okay, I wasn't concerned for Karis' safety. It was my gut instinct in stopping her from doing something wrong.

After about an hour of feeling distanced from both Lena and Karis, Lena made an astute comment about Karis not knowing it was wrong to remove the tissues from the box. So I pulled my daughter in close, looked her in the eyes, and then asked for forgiveness. I'm seeing that ugly side of me that catastrophizes. Upon first seeing Karis next to the pile of tissues, why couldn't I have turned back into the kitchen to laugh and invite Lena to witness? I am imperfect. Hoping I can work on that negative reaction quite a bit and soon. I can get better and I love that God is using my wife to be the voice to help me recognize and improve.

On a high note, Lena is away at a retreat. No, that isn't the high note. But my time today with Karis was fabulous. As I was talking with my sister on the phone tonight, Karis picked up one of her favorite books (yes, it's about dogs) that I often read to her. She made a long, drawn out noise while holding the book. I was wondering what she was doing when it dawned on me.... She had open the page where 9 dogs were sitting in the dark looking up at the moon while one howls "AAAAA-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO." (She likes it when I do the howling when I read it.) Then I realized she was howling! I am never cease to be amazed at what she is learning. She doesn't talk much outside of "momma" and "dadda" other than grunts. So I was quite impressed that she knew what page she was on in the book and that she made such a great howling sound.

Then as she was finishing her nighttime bottle and I was holding her across my lap in my arms, I told her it was time to say night night prayers. She immediately put her hands together as if to pray. She'll do that sometimes at dinner after she sees us do it but typically loses interest and stops shortly thereafter. She kept her hands together tonight, so I kept praying. =)

Digging this stage where she is better able to express herself.

Hope to post pictures of Karis' little sister very soon.

My Last Day of Work Before Baby #2

Today was my last day at work. My co-workers suprised me with a baby shower. They invited Derek and Karis to join us for pizza and opening of gifts. I was pleasantly suprised when I saw little Karis standing at my desk!

We are now stocked with diapers and wipes! And we also received a cute hamper for the nursery.

Being silly

My co-workers and I

Karis loved being the center of attention!