Kanoa's Birth Story

 it was a dark and stormy night, the day before valentine's day...

well, yes and no. there was a storm about to come in---and it was the middle of the day. my back was really hurting that day and i just couldn't get it to stop. it wasn't bad enough that i thought i was having contractions, but it definitely was uncomfortable. 

i was texting Lincoln pretty non-stop just to complain about it. he's a huge trooper and put up with it all, but a little later in the day he asked me if i needed him to come home from work. he didn't have his car (for whatever reason, i don't remember), so he had a coworker bring him home from work early. he came home to me wriggling around on the bed trying to get comfortable.

he asked if i wanted to go to the hospital to check things out and i said, "no way kemosabe, lets just see how i feel in the morning." i thought going to check would be 3-4 hours of wasted time, it was getting late, and i was sleeeepy. 

friday morning rolls around and i slept pretty good! Lincoln and i wrote our cute little valentine's day posts about each other "'cause we love each other or something," he says (hehe), and he asked how i was feeling. a little better than the day before but definitely still uncomfortable. i did tell him, though, that if i was still uncomfy come the morning we would go check...so we started getting ready. 

we both had work that day, but Lincoln's shifts started a bit before mine. i made a joke about him having a good excuse to go in late---i thought we were going to be checked and sent home. we both texted our respective bosses saying we were heading up to the hospital to check things out and we'd keep them posted.

once we got there we got in pretty quick. the nurse (or whoever) came in to plug me in to some monitors and check my dilation. i was at a 3, so probably no baby. i said as much and she told me she'd have to go check with some people to see what we would do. 

when she came back she started to hook me up with a saline iv. 'weird,' i thought. "does this mean we're gonna have a baby today?" i had to ask. she told me, "no, this is just saline. it should help slow down the contractions." okily-dokily, sounds fine to me! but she turned to Lincoln. "have you eaten today?" she asked him. "nope, not yet," he'd said. 

she told him to run down to the vending machine and grab a drink and a snack. Lincoln thought that she just thought he looked a little hungry haha. after he had left she came back and told me, "we just sent another mom into the o.r., as soon as she is finished we'll take you back. it'll be about an hour." wait WHAT. "so we are having a baby today?!" and she said YUP!

i tried to call Lincoln (he was still getting his snacks) but he didn't answer, so i called my mom and told her we were about to be a family of 3! once Lincoln got back i said, real slow, "so....we're going to have a baby in an hour?" he got the biggest smile on his face and said, "really?! are you serious?!" we were both so excited and i think very, very nervous. 

they got Lincoln his 'dad outfit' and had some people come in and give us some run downs about how things would go, and then we waited for our turn. they wheeled me back and had Lincoln waiting in the hall for me to get pricked up, numbed out and situated. what we didn't realize, however, is that right before all of this (when the nurse told him to go get his snacks) he had downed two cokes as fast as he could and he. had. to. pee. a nurse walked by and he asked her where the bathroom was and she just said, "Nope youre just fine there! :)". we know, we know, he had to be clean in his scrub-stuff so he had to wait. but it was kinda funny. 

now, i don't remember any of what happened after i got my spinal tap because i had a panic attack (: so this next bit i'll have Lincoln write. 

Lincoln here, it's really hard to forget but this is how I remember things going down. I walked into the operating room and the first thing I thought was "DONT LOOK BEHIND THE CURTAIN." I did however look down to see my wifes arms outstretched, fists clenched with the biggest look of panic in her eyes. I immediately walked over to her and started saying "I love you, it's okay, we're okay." Etc. I remember hearing all the suction and grossness of the surgery but I remember also thinking "DONT PANIC" i was extremely panicked but I wasn't the one being cut open. Soon one of the nurses started to drop one side of the curtain and I thought to myself "why would they show me!" then a, "HI BUDDY" and all of a sudden there was a small pink thing hanging above the curtain that let out a big ole cry. I started to cry and so did my wife. the biggest look of relief washed over her face. She mumbled for me to go check on our sweet boy and I did. 

Now the scariest part of this all, because this is a blog and the nitty gritty will come out. I watched my sweet boys fingers start to go blue and then his arms, chest and face. I started to worry. but the nurses kept saying "he's okay he's okay" they shoved oxygen on him and tubes into his nose. And his wails were the worst thing. Finally they showed our boy to his BRAVE mama and she smiled and did nothing but kiss his hand. They then started to take him and said "We are going to the NICU" and I panicked (I panicked a lot if you couldn't tell, i also thought 'i need a coke!') because do I stay with my wife or go with my child.

"GO WITH HIM" Kalyana said in her best mom voice. So I did. and the first thing they did when i got to the nicu was say "Im going to drop him now!" (to test reflexes I guess but I think it was to prepare me for that feeling for the rest of my life with him) and they did and as I stared at my boy I asked "Is his Penis supposed to look like that?" the nurse smiled and said "No :)" 

After everything was settled I asked if I could finally leave to go to the restroom and once I got back I had no idea how to get to my wife or how to get to my son. Finally a nurse pointed me into the direction of Kalyana and when I saw her she said "Squishy I can't feel my toessss....doo yoU Likkkee your vantine pwesent?" I of course told her yes because it was the best present ever but seeing her flooded my body with relief, that is until I realized that the nurse was changing her pads out a lot and there was a lot of blood. Well long story short and a suppository later kalyana could move her toes and we learned she slightly hemorrhaged.  But still one of the best days of my life. My family grew!

with Kanoa being born a whole month early, his little lungs were not quite ready to be doing their own work. he had to get the help of a range of different breathing and feeding tubes, but other than that he did really, really well.

he was in the nicu for about 3 weeks before we got to bring him home, but when we did we were so excited! the nurses even sent us a little nicu graduation/congratulations card!

our little cub has been growing and growing and growing! he loves talking (even just to himself), singing along with papa, and his mouse-mouse (a mickey mouse toy we got from my aunt heather). 

only 4 months old (barely) and he's already too big for any of our solid 3/mo clothes, and just today we had to size up his diapers! watching our little chunky-butt growing up has already been so bittersweet. seeing his little newborn clothes and remembering how teeny and fragile he was makes me tear up sometimes. but we have absolutely loved watching him grow into his chatty, happy personality!

you're such a little miracle our Kanoa Rae. me and your papa love you so so much and we are so excited to see the little man you turn into! 

my introduction :)

howdy yall! i wanted to introduce myself and my family (as if you didn't already know us lol)

i'm Kalyana :D i am married to the most amazing and handsome Lincoln, and we have the absolute cutest baby in the world (its true look it up) Kanoa! 

these are our most recent pictures (with all of us in them hehe). Lincoln and i are catholic, and for Pentecost we celebrated by dressing up for mass---red, of course, the color for the holiday---taking Kanoa on the boat for the very first time (more on that later!), and having a very nice feast of texas roadhouse! it was a blast, but back to the introduction!

my husband and i are both turned 22 earlier this year and our little squish but is 4 months old. we started our little family on march 17 of 2023🍀. we have lived in idaho since we've been together, with a little 5 month stint in wyoming where we got to live in yellowstone national park! 

Lincoln is currently working at ISU and has been loving it! he's even been thinking about starting his own private cleaning company! i was working at a hotel in town before we had our little cub, but since then, and for the foreseeable future, i have been a stay at home mom.

we have two fur babies who we absolutely adore---when they're not being little menaces! 

Sammy Samson III is the gray & black one closest to the camera. French Bartholomew Toast With Syrup is the the tortie shell closest to the blanket. We got Frenchie from a friend around october (i think) a little after we moved in and she has just made herself right at home with us. she is definitely our little princess. we got sammy in april a little after we had Kanoa, and while he is also a big love bug he's definitely the biggest trouble maker out of the two!

i love our 'liddil' family so much and i'm really excited to share about our life with all of you! i'm gonna take a lot of inspiration from my mom and the blog that she had when i was a wee babe, and turn this into an online scrapbook/journal-type thing... we'll see how consistent i can be with it ;) 

until next time!!