Happy 1st Birthday baby Kaia

As i sit here early this morning, i remember back to a year ago when i was in labor at the hospital. Waiting, with much anticipation for the arrival of our baby girl. She came 3 weeks early and was a tiny little thing  5lbs 14 oz. But somehow that tiny thing was able to reach inside and steal my heart. Before i had Kaia, it was hard to imagine loving another child as much as i love Dane. He was our everything. And yet, i love Kaia just as deeply. It makes sense though. Our Heavenly Father has enough love for each of us. And he loves us all the same as His children. So it's only natural that we have the capacity to love equally.

Kaia - you have brought more joy, happiness, laughter and light into our home. Before you arrived we went through a dark period. But we never lost hope. It might have been buried a little and we had to work but we made it. And you were the best blessing/gift in the end. Your middle name is Hope. You are strong, bright, beautiful and I know you are going to be a strength to our family. You are the reminder to never lose hope when faced with trials. Good things will always come in the end. In our case, we got you. We are so grateful everyday that you came into our lives. 

Here are some highlights from the 1st year of Kaia's life.

• Gained 11 lbs: 5lbs 14 oz to 16lbs 8 oz. You are in the 10% for weight but over 40% for height. 
• Been to Disneyland 3 times already
• Took 8 major road trips: California 3 times, Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Northeast (NY, Mass, Conn, Vermont, NH, Maine, Rhode Island), Nevada
• Flew in a plane twice
• Still wake up 2 times a night (that's about to change!)
• Gone through over 1000 diapers
• Loves blueberries, grapes, gerber puffs, anything you can pick up with your hands
• Loves to read - will just sit and look at books with 
• Loves baby einstein movies
• Laughs with your brother
• Sits at the gate outside your brother's room, waiting for him to play with you
• Shrieks with excitement
• Loves bath time
• Hates having your face wiped
• Constantly removes socks - we now have numerous unmatched socks
• started crawling about 6 months
• has 6 1/2 teeth (currently waiting for #7 to poke through)
• stands by self for 2 seconds - not quite ready to walk yet
• can crawl up stairs by self
• wears size 12mth clothes (could wear 9 mth but too tall now)

We love you, Kaia! You are pure joy. You are sweet and sassy and perfect in every way. 

Dane the detective

My dad worked for the FBI for 28 years. I have always felt like I inherited his intuition/detective genes. And it looks like those were passed on to Dane.

Tonight at dinner Paul let one fly/passed gas/farted whatever you want to call it. And the following conversation occurred:

Dane: "Eww, who was that?"
Dad: "Mom"
Meanwhile i'm pointing to Paul.
Dane: "Are you playing with me? Who did it?"
Mom: "Dane, who do you think would be telling you the truth about this? Who would be lying?"
Dane: I know how i can figure it out. I can sniff you both.
Laughs!
Dane: Mom, i can sniff you right here. (as he touches my hip and bends down to sniff my backside). Then right away stands up.
Dane (pointing at dad): It was you, Dad! Gross.

Dane, you sure are a thinker. We love your ingenuity in problem-solving.

Newborn photos of Kaia

Here are some of my favorite shots of Kaia in the hospital and also her newborn photo shoot at 8 days old.

 Dane adores his little sister.

 Look at how tiny our peanut is.

 So blessed to have my parent live close to come visit. And to watch Dane. Love you mom and dad.

Baby Kaia arrived... 5 months ago

I'm super slacktasic. I need to start blogging more consistently. So much has happened since my last blog when we left Brazil. The most important of which was on March 7, 2012. We experienced a miracle in our family. The birth of our baby girl, Kaia Hope Barlow. She was 5lbs 14oz, 18.5 inches long and came 3 weeks early. Her arrival was much like that of Dane’s. Down to the day of the week too (both were born on a Wednesday morning).

Labor & Delivery Story: (Don’t read if you don’t want details…)

Tuesday, March 6 I woke up and went to the bathroom about 6am. I noticed a decent amount of bloody show. I’d had my 37 week exam 4 days before so I knew this wasn’t aftermath of that. I called the dr that morning and they said to stay home and rest all day. So I laid in bed and worked. I thought of a million other things I needed to do to get ready for the baby in the next couple weeks but I tried to take it easy.

I was having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions but no pain and it didn’t seem very consistent. A storm was rolling in that night so I don’t know if the change in barometric pressure changed things. Paul got home from his meeting that night and as I laid down to go to bed, I felt like the contractions were a little more intense. So for the first time all day I decided to time them. They were consistently about 6 minutes apart and lasting for 30 seconds each time.

I debated for about an hour, then finally at 11:15, I called my parents and asked them to come down to the house to watch Dane so we could go to the hospital. I was still in denial that I was in labor. But just in case, I got the car seat out of the box, finished packing my hospital bag, etc. I couldn’t sleep. At about 330 I told Paul I wanted to go to the hospital. I wasn’t really having ‘painful’ contractions but I wanted to get an epidural so I could get some sleep. I know, pretty lame excuse. On the drive over we were joking around and it totally didn’t even feel like I was in labor or having a baby. I was in denial that she was coming already. I was only 37 weeks.

After checking in about 345, they measured me and I was at a 3.5 dialation (same as my last dr apt. So they monitored me for an hour. No change. At 5, they said I could walk the halls for an hour to see if they were a change. Checked again about 6 – still no change. Paul and I talked about it and we were going to go home so we could tell Dane what was going on since he was asleep when we left. I was a little nervous though because my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart by now and 45 seconds to 1 minute long. If we went home, how would I know when to come back?

Well, the dr on call wanted me to stay one more hour since I was still having bloody show. So Paul stayed in the room and I went to walk for 30 more minutes. It didn’t hurt as bad while walking. Except I had 3 major contractions that felt totally different than I had been feeling. So I asked to be checked again. If nothing happened, I was going to ask for some pain meds at this point.

Progress! I went from a 3.5 to 5. J The nurse said “Let’s get you admitted. You’re gonna have a baby.” I looked at Paul and it finally became real. That’s when I started to cry. By now it was about 645am. I asked for the epidural as soon as possible because it was getting pretty intense. While in the delivery room, I started to feel nauseated and puked a few times. I think the lack of sleep coupled with the quick, intense pain brought it on. About 730 the anesthesiologist came in and started the epidural. By 8am I didn’t feel anything.

I had told my nurse that my first baby came pretty quick so she started to get the room ready just in case. By this time I was about an 8 dialated. Then I felt some pretty intense pressure. I had the nurse recheck me and I was at a10. At 6am I was still at a 3.5. At 845 I was at a 10. So that’s about 7 centimeters in less than 3 hours. My body works fast.

The nurse went to find the doctor. He came in and got me all ready and by 9 I was ready to start pushing. I pushed through 3 contractions and Kaia Hope Barlow was born at 9:11am March 7, 2012. She was 5lbs 14oz and 18.5 inches. Her original due date was March 25.

We love our little angel from heaven. Thank you, Heavenly Father for allowing us to be her earthly parents. We promise to take good care of her and love her unconditionally. 

Rio - day 19 Barlow time

Monday Oct 24.

Today was our last full day in Brazil. All other house guests left so all that remained were 3 1/2 Barlows. It was the first time in 19 days where it was just us. And i loved it!

Dane took a picture of us kissing.
Then he wanted a turn.
And our first and last dinner together as just the 3 of us.

Rio - 18 weeks

Sun Oct 23

I'm unable to suck it in anymore so might as well start taking the weekly pics of the growing belly. Here i am at 18 weeks. I swear I've put on WAY too much weight on this trip, and being pregos, I have a feeling it's not going to come off until after March. Baby, I hope you felt well fed. I know your mom did. Can't wait to meet you, little one.

Day 18 - the Party

Sunday Oct 23 -

Today we hosted some of the top leaders here in Brazil. We had about 60 people at the party, which luckily for me was catered. I've decided catering is the way to go. If I was in charge, it would have ended up being paper plates, plastic cups, hamburgers and hot dogs. As you'll see below, that's not how they do things here in Brazil...

Some pre party pics at the beach.
This is our beach house in the background.
The food.

Servers bringing you drinks. Oh the guarnana, how i'll miss you.

Paul in the background.

Rubia and I enjoying our meal. The meat was soooooooooo delicious.

Rio day 17 -

Saturday Oct 22

Today we made a quick trip to Rio to do some shopping. I was pretty unimpressed at the market we went to. Half of it was electronic stuff - cell phones, etc. And the rest was just crap. I bought two small things but wasn't really in love with them. Next trip I'll have to find a better place to shop.

Dane and Paul outside of the Revv office. There is a really cool plaza with the theatre and other cool buildings.
Just chillin in the hammock.

Dane learned a new word today. 'Padaria'. Means bakery. But he doesn't care about the baked goods. It's where he gets a popsicle. I guess the key will be teaching him words around things he is interested in.

Rio - day 16 - Family Song

Dane has found a new favorite song.

rio day 15 - huge surf

Oct 20 - Thursday. We woke up to the sound of waves, much like we do every morning, but today was different. The waves were HUGE. And it wasn't just in the morning. It last all day. I swear i spent half the day just watching the ocean. Some of them were easily 10 ft. Could have been more.

In the pic above you can see how high the water came up on the right side of the picture (which is about 100 feet from where the waves were breaking. There is a huge drop off that you can't really get from this picture but that's what made the whole things that much more impressive.
The guy running on the beach gives a little perspective as to how big the waves were getting.
Mom holding onto Dane, getting ready to run if needed.
Look how high the spray was from the wave crashing behind Rubia. Impressive. Powerful.
And as the day wore on, the waves just kept getting bigger. What a sight.
And the day ended with a manicure/pedicure. It took almost two hours and didn't include any massages or parafin wax. I guess i needed a lot of work. But it only cost $10. So who got ripped off, me or them? I'm thinking them.