Oh baby, baby

| Aunt Jemima at 40 weeks |

| Obviously, make-up is no longer a priority in my life |

It would probably be a little self-centered of me to think that you may be wondering if I'm still pregnant or not.  So I'll just talk about other stuff.  

| Before |

| After |

| Brent officially owns his own SUP board and he is happy happy! |

| Stand up paddling at 38 weeks |

I call Brent's new friends his apostles...Brent's first name is actually Christopher (bearer of Christ)

| This is Paul |

| and this is Peter :) |

Kai, my friend Bubba's sweet baby swam to his mamma (water-birth) on August 25th, all naturally and at home.

Kai and Ariella kisses :)

The weather is nice today.  The weather is nice every day.  Yesterday, I was like, "Can it please just rain or something, geez?!"

Just kidding haha (I really did say that though)

Ok, so I am still pregnant, y'all.  Today marks 40 weeks and 4 days.

I refuse to call myself "over-due" because last time I checked, our baby did not get checked out from the library.

I've been trying to lay a little low on texting, Facebook, and Instagram because after trying and failing at every single type of natural induction method since week 39, I realized that it kind of put me in the wrong state of mind.  All this time, I thought surely Ariella Love would come early.  Then it dawned on me that every pregnant person probably thinks that way.

Ways that I tried to naturally induce labor:

1. Labor cookies.  Ok so I had to make them twice because the first batch that I made were literally not fit for ingestion.  They are a lot like ginger snaps, just spicier (cayenne pepper).  Since I was set on going into labor that day, I may or may not have added WAY too much cayenne pepper.  I thought something was a little odd when my hands started burning while rolling the dough into balls...Needless to say, I ate half a cookie and thought I was going to die.  I made another batch the next day with the appropriate amount of spices, but they were still too gross for me to eat more than one.  I think for them to be some what effective, you may have to eat like 3 or 4 in one sitting.  Brent sure liked them though! He was chugging those babies down with a huge glass of milk and a huge grin on his face.  Too bad he's not the one pregnant.

2. Walking.  This is more like walking with a mission.  I mean, I walk around the house and I walk to the grocery store and such.  But this was me going to the treadmill, setting the incline to 2.0, at 3 mph, and walking until I could barely walk anymore.  I ended up walking 4.75 miles.

3. Spicy Food.  I've had Hawaiian Jerk chicken, extra spicy.  We ordered wings the other night with the mango habanero sauce that burned my mouth and gave me extra horrendous heartburn.  I add Louisiana Hot Sauce to pretty much every meal I eat.

4. Pineapple.  It contains a proteolytic enzyme called bromelain and is said to help soften the cervix, stimulate muscle contractions, and may shorten the duration of labor.  Living in Hawaii, this was easy and delicious...until I ate enough pineapple that it gave me a sugar high and made me a little sick.  Brent was like "Keep eating!"  I was like "Por favor, no mas, no mas!"  I'm not sure why I'm suddenly speaking Spanish.  Then I find out that apparently, you're so supposed to eat like 5 pineapples for this to "maybe" work.  Yeesh.  Over it.

5. Love making.  Bow chicka bow wow.  It's all about that love (oxytocin) hormone, y'all!  I won't elaborate on this, however, I do think it's important to stock up on love making prior to having a baby since you won't be able to do so for a few weeks post-partum.

6. Acupressure.  I got a mani/pedi last week and told the sweet little girl to make sure that the majority of the massage happens around my ankle area.  It freaked her out a little, "But what if you go into labor here at the salon?"  I was like "yes, that's exactly what I want to happen!"  haha  I also tried acupressure between my thumb and index finger (another labor trigger point).

7. Evening Primrose Oil 500mg.  I've been taking this since week 36 and have titrated up to 2 tablets in the morning, and 1 tablet at night.  My midwife recommended not to start taking it until week 35-36 as it has the potential to induce labor.  If you know me enough to understand the severity of my ridiculousness, then yes, the thought of overdosing on EPO has indeed crossed my mind..but Brent talked some sense into me!  Its major function though is to ripen the cervix and get it ready for birth.

8. Red Raspberry Leaf Tea.  Currently drinking this as I type this post and it's delicious.  I add some honey for a tinge of sweetness.  Though it's not known to induce labor directly, it helps tone the uterus.  I just started drinking it yesterday because for probably the majority of these past 2-3 weeks,  I just couldn't be bothered with leaving the house and actually waddling my way to the health food store, or anywhere for the matter.

The only well known natural labor inducer that I am not willing to try is castor oil.  Our midwife doesn't recommend it unless as an absolute last resort.  It can cause major diarrhea and lead to dehydration, which both don't sound like any fun if you're trying to birth a baby.

We don't plan on artificial induction unless the baby or I start showing signs of distress (positive stress test, low amniotic fluid, abnormal heart rate, placenta decomposition, etc).  Close to 40 weeks is when I finally came to be at a state of peace about baby Ari Love's arrival.

Brent and I have complete faith in God's perfect timing.

Happy living y'all!

34 weeks & counting

Wobble wobble.

Shake it shake it.

If you're from my generation, you know exactly the song that I'm talking about...from middle school perhaps?  Geez I'm getting old.  Oh and by the way, my 10 year High School reunion happened a couple of weekends ago.  So weird.
Anyways, if you don't know that song...consider yourself lucky.  Your generation probably had better music.  Brent and I should have been born in the 60's-70's era. *sigh*

I digress yet again.

So back to that annoying rap song...it basically describes exactly how I'm walking now-a-days.  Can't really help it and I don't know if I want to :)

We had a midwife appointment on Wednesday and everything is still looking great.  Ari's heart was beating at 150 bpm and it always beats faster when she hears our voices which makes me so emotional! <3  Love this little girl so much!

Don't you love this apron?!  T.J. Maxx :)

34 weeks & 5 days // My belly dropped this week, can you tell?

Her little booty is all the way on my left side and her arms and legs are on my right.  At our last appointment, she was fully sunny side up so I've been doing these lower back exercises that Dr. Lori recommended to try to turn her a bit.  Either way is not bad but it's usually easier to birth babies that are turned and facing down.

The crazy, most surreal thing is that we're already at that point where it really could be any time now.  Dr. Lori wants to make sure that we are at least as prepared as we can be for anything to happen from this point forward. Of course, we want her to stay in my uterus as close to 40 weeks as possible so that her lungs and systems are fully developed.  Basically, she just needs to stay there until she decides that she's ready to come out.

Symptoms that have really been apparent lately are urinary frequency, fatigue, and pregnancy induced carpal tunnel syndrome!

The first few nights where my hands and arms kept falling asleep were so horribly painful.  I would get up to shake them out and it wouldn't really work.  Then when the blood would start to circulate again, it would hurt so bad.  I cried.  For me, I know the pain tends to accumulate and get worse as I get more and more sleep deprived, so Brent and I stayed home all last weekend so that I could catch up on sleep during the day when the symptoms weren't as bad.  I got some wrist splints and they really seem to be helping.  Dr. Lori also recommended I take Vitamin B6 to help with the cramping.  Even if it's just placebo effect, the B6 seems to be helping.

Just a little fun fact about me, I have a mild case of narcolepsy.  I've had it since I can remember.  Not like where I spontaneously fall asleep.  Although that would be kind of cool.  Well probably more scary though now that I think about.
Mine is more of the kind that if I get really tired, I have to go to sleep right away or else my whole body starts cramping really bad.  It's just weird/boring, neither cool nor scary.  It used to happen to me all the time when I was in Pharmacy School pulling all nighters.  It would get to the point where I had full body spasms, everything would hurt.  Sleeping was the only remedy.

Dr. Lori knows this and she has officially prescribed mandatory daily naps from now until I go into labor.  We're afraid that I may start cramping/spasming from fatigue if I end up having a long labor without any rest.  She said not to skip a day because if I do, then that will most likely be the day that I go into labor...

I took a 4 hour nap today.  Doctor's orders :D

Brent grilled out for me since I've been having to rest so much with this carpal tunnel business and nap time.

Goodness, he's such a hunk!

Our building has a nifty little grill and picnic area

Ari and I really enjoyed this hamburger.  Especially since we didn't have to make it.. :)

 The other part of this weekend was spent at the Dragonboat races.

The Surf Riders!

Show me your game face!

The Surf Riders won 1st place in the Chinese Division (the only one that really matters since China invented this sport) haha

It's hard to believe that yet another busy week has passed.  

I can only imagine that life will be a little like this, except times 1 million when there's a sweet, gorgeous, adorable, poopy, snuggly, little human added to the mix.  Brent and I can't wait to meet her.

Happy living y'all.

With a little help from our friends

This week has FLOWN by!

Brent works with some really amazing people.  Not only is he super grateful for them, but so am I!

Not just because Ross made me banana muffins, I promise :)  

Ross and his wife Kimber are so awesome, we've hung out with them a few times, and Brent is on their dragon race team.

The object of the race is to row really fast and in synchrony

AND they are throwing us a baby shower in August.  We are so very blessed.

It's amazing how your schedule suddenly fills up with all kinds of fun activities when you make friends.

Wednesday, I had a dream that I gave birth to Ariella early, and in my sleep (must be my consciousness getting ready for my pain-free childbirth).  I woke up and there she was in the bed with us!  While amazed, happy, and in awe, I realized that I was absolutely not prepared for her arrival, and had no diapers on hand to change her.  I woke up totally freaking out!  Since I believe that my anxiety is only a product of unfinished business, I set out on my baby shopping mission.

 So this happened...

Mama's Fiat is full of goodies!

Pack 'n' Play all assembled by moi :)

Brent's favorite baby item, by far.  B.O.B. Stroller & Chicco car seat

My exercise ball is also my favorite chair, and will later be used for laboring

I also bought her a cute little bathtub from Babies 'R' Us.  

The last things to come in will be her cloth diapers, which I ordered from a really neat store I visited in the Manoa Marketplace called Baby Awearness.  The sales lady, Marisa, was so incredibly nice, gave me all sorts of useful information on cloth diapering, and she also became one of my new friends.  I had so much fun hanging out with her and her 3 & 1/2 year old son the next day!

Hayden the yogini

Beachin' it

Sharing a delicious Acai bowl with a little birdie friend

The crazy thing is that Marisa is also Arabic (which really blew my mind).  I mean, what are the odds that there would be two free spirited Arabs on an island?!

Brent and I had our first (and as Brent would excitingly add) our last birthing class this past week.  The class was way more fun for me than for Brent for sure.  He made it through the first few hours okay, but then got super antsy the last hour of it where all we talked about was breast-feeding and elimination communication haha!  I can foresee a future consisting of many communication elimination posts, simply because I am so intrigued by this subject!  Check it out if you're curious :)

The birthing class yielded yet another sweet friend named Bubba, who is due a week before I am.  They also happen to live in the next building over from us!

Ari giving her new friend Kai kisses 

As if all this wasn't exciting enough, I can't wait to tell you all about our new church family!  I got a new SD card for my camera and failed to format it prior to using.  I'll be posting about the New Hope Voyager Crew as soon as the Google machine helps me figure out how to fix my photos!

Happy living y'all.

So here's the thing..

..I have my whole post-pregnancy work out/eating routine planned out.  I'm like...bring on the B.O.B. jogging stroller, walks to the beach, swimming, yoga with baby, breast-feeding marathons, and everything else that helps you lose the baby pounds.

But right now, I'm honestly lucky if I have the energy to turn the page of the child-birthing book that I'm currently reading.

I am so tired all the time.  Someone please help me.

Ari's blanket that I'm already using...

Sometimes, I get so hungry that it hurts to even eat.  Sometimes, all I want to eat are pickles.  

 Sometimes, I don't want anything to do with food.

Looking at myself in the mirror, I don't think that I look that big.  Then Brent took this photo of me and I literally gasped out loud!  Is that really me?!

           

28 weeks pregnant

Someone asked me if I was having twins.  When I said no, she asked if I was sure.

OF COURSE I'M SURE. 

29 weeks pregnant

I think.

I'll be honest and say that it made me feel really self-concious.  Already, my body is going through all these changes, my hormones are raging, I'm heavier than I have ever been in my life, and the last thing I want to hear is what a man trying to be nice said to me in the elevator, "so you must be due any day now huh?"  Bless his heart.

No.  I'm not due any day now.  I still have about 2 months to go.  Oh.  Awkward moment.  Ding.  Elevator door opens.  Not sure if this is my floor but I'm getting out anyway.  Yeah.

I've always been a huge fitness junkie.  But it all started for the wrong reasons.  I began to run when I was 13 years old because I was overweight, had low self-esteem, and had a lot of issues with my body image.  Over time though, (a period of 8 or so years), I realized that it was more important to be healthy and fit for myself, and not for anyone else.  This mind set turned my whole life around.  I became the healthiest mentally and physically than I had ever been.

My midwife is really supportive and said that as long as I'm eating healthy and exercising, then the amount of weight I gain is not an issue at all.  I've been eating healthy and exercising regularly, but sometimes it's really hard for me to accept the weight gain.  Especially when the fatigue and swelling kicks in and I can't do anything about it.

This has honestly been the hardest part about pregnancy for me.  Especially since it's something that I've previously struggled with, I think those issues re-surface every now and again and I just can't stop myself from crying.  Thank goodness for my precious husband who is always so in tune with my emotions.

I don't fear going into labor, contractions, child-birthing, or any of those things.  But what I have realized I do fear is that my husband won't think I'm attractive if I gain too much weight.  I know it's silly, but it's really how I feel.  I told Brent this yesterday in between crying and laughing at the same time.  He was so confused bless his heart.  Holy Moly hormones are ridiculous.  This is what he tells me and has basically always told me:

You are beautiful, but not like those girls in the magazines.  It's more than that.  You are beautiful, for the way you think.  You are beautiful, for that sparkle in your eyes when you talk about something you love.  You are beautiful, for your ability to make other people smile even if you are sad.  You are not beautiful for something as temporary as your looks.  It's more than that.  You are beautiful, deep down to your soul.

I know.  I love him too.

I feel the same way about him.  My McDreamy.

He's my treasure at the end of the rainbow

F.E.A.R. - False Evidence Appearing Real

F.A.I.T.H. - Full Assurance In The Heart