Eliza Rachel Byram

She's here!! And she's perfect! Eliza Rachel Byram joined our family on Wednesday, September 13, 2017 at 10:39 pm. She weighed 7 lbs, 1 oz and was 20 inches long.

It's not really a secret that I had a lot of fears and anxieties about her birth, but overall I'd say that while it was still insanely painful and not how my ideal birth would go, it was less traumatic for me than both Kate and Josh's births and all things considered, it went pretty darn smoothly. I am so, so grateful for that! (And especially for my amazing nurse Kristi and Michael for making it happen!)

I'd been walking around dilated to almost a 4 for a week already on the morning of my OB appointment on Wednesday, the 13th. I had been very nervous the whole week leading up to that day that I'd be going into labor at any second. I SO did not feel ready and hoped that she'd wait a little longer. (And she did just that! Ha!) I stopped exercising and tried to take it as easy as I possibly could in hopes that Eliza would wait until at least the 13th. Ideally, I wanted to make it to that day because that's when my mother in law (Kathy) would be coming into town. While I have amazing friends that would take my older kids for me in a heartbeat so me and Michael could go to the hospital to have a baby, it sure would make it a lot easier on everyone if Kathy was here so that she could take care of all that. I was also really hoping that she wouldn't be born on the 11th. Yes, there are worse things than being born on 9/11, but it's not the birthday I would choose for her.

Anyway, back to my OB appointment. I checked with Kathy to make sure she was still coming that day and then asked my doctor at the appointment to strip my membranes. It's kind of funny how well stripping my membranes works for me. For both Kate and Josh, I went into labor about 8-12 hours after stripping my membranes, so I was fairly certain that it would work again. And as scared as I was about labor and delivery, I was also super uncomfortable and knew that this baby would have to come out eventually... so might as well do it sooner rather than later. :-) Especially because I was 38.5 weeks and this girl was fully cooked!

Well, I tried to stay busy that day. I took Kate and Josh to see Halloween decorations at Walmart and then took Kate to preschool. I tried to clean up the house a little and spend some quality time with Josh before picking up Matthew and Kate from school. And then Kathy got into town. We hung out with her and then Michael came home from work and we had dinner. After that I got the kids ready for bed and read them books and laid with each one of them. While doing all this bedtime stuff I felt a few contractions. After I put them all down I went to our bedroom and just kinda sat on the couch in there. I couldn't do much other than play mindlessly on my phone because I was paying such close attention to my contractions and feeling kinda nervous about everything that I suspected might happen that night. The contractions continued but weren't very painful yet. I'd actually been having soooo many contractions for several weeks, so I didn't want to jump the gun and go running off to the hospital prematurely just because I was overly confident in getting my membranes swept. Well, Michael came upstairs and I let him know what was happening. It was probably around 8 or 8:30 pm. He got in the shower and by the time he got out I was preparing to go to the hospital. He asked what else we needed to pack and I told him to get my wallet and the phone charger and put it in the bag. After that we let Kathy know we were leaving and off we went!

We were chatting on the way to the hospital and even then I wasn't a thousand percent sure that we'd actually go in. I just wanted to be close just in case the contractions got super intense. (Looking back, if they were intense enough for me to drive towards the hospital, then then were intense enough.) However, the hospital is only five minutes away and by the time we pulled up, I was like, "WE ARE GOING IN." Haha. So glad we left when we did! We went right up to L&D and checked in. They informed us that it was insanely busy that day and there weren't even any delivery rooms open! UGH!!!!! Seriously, WHY does this always happen to me!? (Yep I just wrote that dramatic line, but I can't even begin to tell you how frustrating it is that I only seem to have my babies when it's insanely busy.) However, they sent me to triage and gave me a hospital gown to change into. After I did so I walked back out and I remember standing in the middle of the triage room with Michael, unsure of where to go next. There were no nurses around for a few minutes! So we just stood there and I wasn't happy that another contraction hit while I was just standing there in a hospital gown. Eventually a nurse directed me to what I think was the last open bed in triage. Agh. It was in the corner and was the smallest space ever. It barely fit the bed and didn't even have a chair for Michael. Michael did find a birthing ball in the common area and chose to sit on that. Haha!

Eventually my nurse, Kristi, came to see me. SHE WAS AMAZING!!! Seriously the best nurse ever. Michael explained to her what my labors are like (very very fast) and that this was our fourth kid and that if at all possible I'd love an epidural. As bad as I wanted one, I knew my chances weren't very high of getting one - especially since it was so busy. But Kristi jumped into action. I was so amazed and grateful for how hard she tried to move things along quickly and get me that epidural! She checked me, told me I was a 5, and got me officially admitted. Then she sent out to get my labs done and my IV bag going. She told me that as soon as the bag was gone or almost gone, I could get my epidural. I remember feeling a glimmer of hope because I thought, "Hm, it only takes a couple minutes to get those fluids in me, right????" (ha) She said she'd try her hardest to get me into a delivery room as soon as one opened.

I also want to mention that there was a girl right next to me (a curtain away) that was in labor and in a lot of pain. She was vocal and moaning and Michael joked that it sounded like a torture house in there, where everyone can hear other people being tortured. I thought that was funny, and true. But anyway, Kristi told me that that girl was kind of in a race with me to get the next available room. Even though she'd beaten me to triage, Kristi said she was going to try to get me in first because I was most likely to deliver first. Some guy came to get my labs and as soon as he was done they stuck me with the IV for my bag of fluids. I was so excited for how fast things were moving, especially since it was so busy that night! They also had me sign the paperwork for my epidural, and I remember wondering/doubting if that paperwork would even be necessary. I was still not feeling super hopeful about getting that epidural.

Well, eventually the contractions were getting so bad that I felt the panic start to creep up, as much as I tried to stop it. I remember looking at my IV bag and wondering WHY THOSE THINGS ARE SO FREAKING SLOW!? CAN'T I JUST SWALLOW IT OR SOMETHING!? After one particularly bad contraction I had a hard time not crying. I feel like a wimp admitting that but I could tell that transition was only minutes away and I was scared. Knowing (and suddenly remembering very clearly) just how bad that hurts is kinda terrifying. ;-) Michael was encouraging me, feeding me ice, and trying to get me to breathe a certain way. I was trying to stay in control and pretty much expecting my water to break at any second, since that usually happens when I'm around a 5 or 6 and that means that I'm in transition and birth is just a few minutes away. I really tried to remember all the empowering things about giving birth. Birth is miraculous! I can do this! Women's bodies are amazing, gosh darn it! It is truly awesome what we can do! But it is just so hard to focus on that when you're in that kind of pain.

Suddenly, in walks Krisi WITH THE EPIDURAL GUY! She went and got him for me and brought him into triage to give me my epidural right then and there, even though my IV bag was probably not even halfway gone. I couldn't believe my eyes. Michael did a little celebratory move. He was genuinely so happy for me, which I remember thinking was really cute. They had me sit up and Kristi had me hold onto a pillow. Michael was basically kicked out of the area since there was really no room for him in that tiny space with the anesthesiologist in there. I remember that as soon as I sat up and held onto the pillow, a contraction hit and it was absolutely a transition contraction. There was no doubt about it. I had no idea how to stay in control at this point and I remember thinking, "Um, is this epidural worth it at this point? I'll probably be ready to push in about three minutes...." As I'm thinking this the anesthesiologist is doing his thing and rubbing something on my back with and telling me to hold very, very still. SO HARD when you're in transition! I could hear Michael also telling me to hold still and also saying, "This is probably your LAST horrible contraction you'll feel.... EVER! You've got this!!" Somehow (it felt like a miracle) I managed to get through it by telling myself I was almost there, and this was almost done. The epidural was placed and I laid back down. They immediately started moving me out of triage and to the L&D room that had just opened up. As we were leaving I gave the anesthesiologist a very, very sincere thank you. I knew he probably didn't have to be so accommodating and I was truly grateful. However, as we went down the hall on the bed I did NOT feel the pain relief I was hoping for. (But I was being kinda silly because I was hoping to instantly feel nothing, HA!) I told Michael and Kristi how bad it still hurt and Kristi said that when you're really far along, it can take a while for the epidural to catch up... but that it should start working any second to at least take the edge off. We passed a nurse that asked where we were going and Kristi told her and the nurse was mad because she'd wanted that room for HER patient. (The one next to me in triage.) Again, Kristi totally had my back and was such a good advocate. Love her!

We got into the room and told the nurse in there that I was likely going to deliver very quickly, though my water hadn't broken yet. (Which was very surprising to me.) It was about 10:25 pm. I remember Michael telling her that it would be nice to have the baby after midnight since I'd mentioned that the 14th was a prettier day than the 13th. The nurse agreed and then checked me. She laughed and said, "You're definitely going to have a 13th baby. There is no cervix left - you're complete." I was still in a lot of pain and as I was telling Michael how frustrated I was that I was still in so much pain, he said to me, "But.... you're talking! You're telling me about it!" Haha - that was significant because usually in transition/once at a 10 I'm not able to communicate or speak or do anything really other than yell. ;-) So that was when I finally realized that the epidural had indeed helped. Without that epidural, I definitely would've ended up giving birth in triage, without a doctor present. It was the only reason I was able to hold the baby in as long as I did. And it was good because the doctors were SO busy and I had to wait another few minutes for a doctor to get in there!

When my doctor walked in, she looked at me and laughed because she was the one who'd stripped my membranes that morning. She joked about how she shouldn't have done it because of the surplus of deliveries that night. Then she set me up and said, "Let's have this baby!" Music to my ears. She quickly broke my water (can't believe it didn't break on its own!) and then with the next contraction I got her head out and with a push after that, the rest of her was out. Two pushes and it was over! (Same as Joshua!) I felt it way more than I expected to with an epidural, but I assume that's because it still hadn't caught up to my body.... so it was such a relief to have her OUT! They immediately gave her to me and I got to hold my baby girl! I truly love this part of birth- it really is so magical. Everything is 1000% worth it when you get to meet your child face to face. I love my babies so, so much. And Eliza immediately stole my heart. I was and still am in awe of the miracle of life, and I feel so blessed to be entrusted with another beautiful daughter.

Michael cut the cord and we got to enjoy Eliza for the next hour or so before they did any measurements or anything. I finally had a chance to thank Kristi profusely for being such a rockstar and she told me that the girl next to me in triage had ended up delivering in triage. Eek! I feel really bad for her but I would've felt a lot worse if I'd taken the room and then not delivered for a while. It was either going to be me or her delivering in triage, and I was the one who ended up with the better and more aggressive nurse. ;-) So even though I tend to be unlucky in that the whole world always seems to go into labor at the same time as me, at least I got lucky in a lot of other things that night. Anyway, they eventually took all of Eliza's stats and I found out she was my smallest baby at 7 lbs 1 oz! I was pretty surprised about this since I was actually the most physically uncomfortable with her during the third trimester than any of my other kids.

Michael's first time holding Eliza

When they moved me to a recovery room, they had to move me to a different wing (not maternity) because there were no available recovery rooms and they really needed my delivery room. Sheesh. I was more than happy to move of course, but my new room annoyed me because there was nowhere for Michael to sleep since it wasn't a maternity ward room. Also, my nurse was not a maternity nurse and while I appreciate that she stepped up to help with how busy they were, it was also apparent that she didn't really know what she was doing and she kept talking and talking to me at 3 or 4 am when I was pretty desperate to at least try to get a few minutes of sleep. I sent Michael home to sleep for a few hours because he actually had an important day of work the next day that he really couldn't miss.

The next morning Michael brought Matthew over for a few minutes to see Eliza on his way to school. Matthew was adorable and so excited to meet her. It made me so excited for the rest of them to come as well, which they did around dinner time that day. It was all kinds of chaos when they came, which was pretty hilarious. I love my family. I am truly blessed.

Matthew meeting Eliza for the first time.

 Joshua was so excited and proud to be a big brother!

Sisters!

First family photo as a family of 6!

I was so so excited to get out of the hospital the next day. (The 15th.)  I hate being interrupted every 10 seconds and pretty much unable to sleep at all. I am usually delirious by the time I get home, and this time was no exception. I got home, let the kids snuggle Eliza for a bit, and then went and took as long a nap as I possibly could. I am so grateful that Kathy stayed a few more days to help out with the kids. She was such a huge blessing to us and I owe her so much!

Meeting Grandma Kathy

Going home!

My mom was also able to come for a couple days and she was heaven sent. She takes over absolutely everything and makes the new baby transition 100 times easier. It is always so hard when she leaves.

Eliza is such a sweetheart. She's a tiny little thing but she loves to eat. She sleeps okay, which I'll take. She grunts a lot and is my only kid to not freak out and get angry about tummy time. She loooooves the bath and being outside. She is the perfect addition to our family and I'm so thankful that she's ours! Yes, I'm SO tired and newborns are hard, but these are some of my favorite days ever. They go much too fast and I know that in no time at all I'll be wishing I could enjoy these newborn snuggles again. Love you Eliza!

Baby #4!!!

Okay yikes, I am really really trying not to have this baby get the fourth child treatment, so I think it's about time she gets her own blog post. Especially since I'm over 37 weeks pregnant, whoa!!

So, rewinding way, way back.... I actually found out I was pregnant the morning of Kate's birthday!! (mid January) Matthew (very rudely, ahem) asked me if there was a baby in my belly because it looked like there might be. Considering that if there was, it was microscopic, I kinda wanted to kick his bum and send him to his room, but instead I just told him that was rude and how dare he ask me that. ;-) It got me thinking though....

I took a test a few hours later and what do ya know - POSITIVE!!! I actually kinda freaked out a little inside because I'd taken a test about 4 or 5 days earlier and it was definitely negative. Obviously I tested too early, but still. The positive test took me by surprise. I was super excited though!!! I celebrated the day with Kate and spoiled her as much as I could. I also went to find my box of 2T boys clothes. I'd just recently pulled out that size for Joshua and had left only a few items in there for him not to wear... one of those items was a shirt that said "Best Big Bro." While Matthew was already a big brother well before he was 2, Joshua definitely wasn't, so there was no way in heck I was going to have him wearing that shirt and giving people the wrong idea. BUT, I thought it would be a great way to let Michael know. I knew it would totally take him by surprise as well since I'd told him about my negative test the week prior.

Michael was understandably very distracted when he got home from work since it was Kate's birthday! It was the first time he'd seen her that day so he was being the usual Super Dad and and showering Kate with all kinds of love and attention. We had a plan to immediately go to Chick-Fil-A for dinner when he got home (Kate's choice) so he started loading up the kids into the car without paying attention to Josh's shirt at all. Well, eventually I was totally dying inside and laughing so hard!!!! He could NOT figure out what was so funny even when I was saying, (while laughing) "Josh!" Finally he was like, "WHAT!?" and I was like, "Josh's shirt!!!!" I was driving and he was in the passenger seat, but I managed to peek over at Michael as he was looking at Josh's shirt and oh man, the look on his face was SO priceless. His eyes got HUGE!!!! It's funny to me that our fourth kid (FOURTH kid, people) sorta felt like the biggest shock to both of us, but it really did! I could tell his head was spinning. And then of course I start cracking up even more. Michael was in a bit of a daze after that, but we of course managed to still have a wonderful time with the family and celebrate with Kate the rest of the night. I did, however, make Michael take a pic later that night with the "announcement." I told him to recreate his face and he gave me this. ;-)

And don't get me wrong - we were both SOOOO excited about this baby. Four kids definitely seemed like a lot, and we were like, "Are we crazy to have so many in 6 years????" but we were absolutely thrilled with the coming addition!

Anyway, after a few more weeks I definitely started to feel SICK. I have gotten progressively more sick with each of my pregnancies. It is hard for me to eat the absolute first thing in the morning because I usually have a kid or two demanding attention in some way, not to mention our routine usually consists of getting ready and THEN going downstairs for breakfast, but I quickly learned that my body just couldn't handle an empty stomach for even a little bit. If I didn't eat really quickly, I was literally dry heaving. My appetite changed for a while and I didn't crave the same things. It was actually kind of difficult to find foods that sounded good, yet I would also feel really sick if I didn't eat a lot. I was SO HUNGRY. Not super fun. Luckily it stayed manageable (I am SO GRATEFUL for that) and never really impacted my life too much. I was even able to enjoy Hawaii completely, other than the motion sickness of the boat and plane rides!

We told the kids about the baby right before Hawaii since we'd decided that after we returned from that trip we'd be okay with the kids telling anyone about it. (And they definitely told anyone and everyone, ha!) They were SO EXCITED!!!! I'd had a hunch that the baby was a boy so I tried to prepare them for that, even though both Matthew and Kate insisted that they wanted a baby sister. I was a little bummed that they'd most likely be a tiny bit disappointed if it was a boy, but figured they'd get over it. (HA!!!! Yes, I'm a terrible gender predictor. I pretty much thought all my babies were boys. I guess 50% isn't the worst....) :-) Anyway, I finally got Matthew and Kate at least saying, "Well, if it's a boy we'll be happy, but if it's a girl, we'll be REALLY happy!" 

And I should probably explain at least a little why I thought this one was a boy. By my fourth kid, I was pretty sure I knew my body really well and how it reacted to being pregnant with each gender. I noticed that I was SO much more hungry with my boys than I was with Kate. My food cravings also seemed more similar to what they were with my boys. I didn't really go off of how sick I was since I felt like each baby just made me more and more sick, but I really was convinced the baby was a boy!

We ended up not having insurance for about 6-7 weeks because Michael had a job change. Not fun to not have insurance when you're pregnant and have three little kids, by the way. Luckily we got suuuper lucky and nothing drastic happened during those six weeks! BUT, my big 20 week anatomy ultrasound was supposed to be during those six weeks and I knew I'd have the hardest time ever making it to 23 or 24ish weeks before getting to see the baby and finding out the gender! I also hated that I couldn't check on the baby, since I tend to worry. So, for the first time ever, we went to one of those ultrasound places where they tell you the gender of your baby as early as 15 weeks! I got a recommendation from a friend of a place to go and it was actually right down the street from us. Woohoo! I made my appointment for when I'd be 16 weeks along, which was mid April. (And the day before Easter) I wanted to tell the kids in a fun way, so the plan was for the ultrasound tech to tell me and Michael the gender and let the kids see the baby, but not let them hear the gender until we got home. Before our appointment I made some simple gender reveal cupcakes - three in each color.

I remember telling Michael that I was tempted to not even make any pink ones because I was so sure it was a boy. But Michael (the reasonable one) insisted that I make pink ones too just in case. So I did! I frosted them, separated them by color, and off we went to the ultrasound!

The place was SO nice. It was a HUGE sonogram room that was made to be comfortable and nice, since they run their business off of those rooms. :-) They had big comfy couches, a big screen TV in front of those couches, and even a kids play table. The lady got right to it after I laid down and showed us the gender area right away. Michael walked right up to the screen, looked at me with big eyes, and mouthed in shock, "THAT'S A GIRL!!!!!!"

I couldn't really tell, though I definitely didn't see the obvious boy parts, so I looked at the ultrasound tech to see if Michael was right. She smiled and said, "Yep it is!" I just about died from shock and excitement! Another girl!! Kate was going to get her little sister after all! And I was going to get another daughter! I was sooooo excited! Michael looked a little horrified again, though was able to keep it together better than he was at the ultrasound when he found out that Kate was a girl. Hahaha. It was really difficult for me to keep it quiet and not let the kids know - Michael kept having to remind me to be quiet so that the kids didn't hear anything. (Kate and Josh are pretty aloof, but Matthew definitely would've picked up on it if he'd heard anything.) 

As soon as we got in the car to go home Matthew asked us if we knew if it was a boy or a girl and we told him we did, but that he'd have to wait a few more minutes to find out. As soon as we got home we grabbed the plate of pink cupcakes (um, thank heavens for Michael making sure I made them! ha!) and sat the kids at the table in front of them. Then we recorded their reactions. I posted the video to social media, but here are a few pictures:

They were SO excited to see that pink, to say the least. Especially Kate! Well, I don't think Joshua really knew what was going on, but he was excited that his siblings were excited and that he got to eat a cupcake.

And not only have they been excited about the fact that they are getting a sister, but they have been so involved and excited about every aspect of this pregnancy. They think my growing belly is awesome, the kicks are even awesome-er, and ask every week at the grocery store to see the food item that baby sister is as big as. (And then they all have to hold it.) They love coming up with name ideas and seeing videos of the way the baby is progressing. I will really miss how much fun they are to teach and have so involved in all of this! Cuties. (This is a pic of them holding a sweet potato, which is what baby sis was at 18 weeks.)

Anyway, I feel like even though the sickness definitely got better about halfway through the pregnancy, the physical discomforts started soooo early. I swear my hips were already ripping apart around that time. Ha! My back hurt a lot and I had Braxton Hicks sooooo much. I couldn't believe how early all that was happening. It's like my body was like, "Oh yep, I've definitely done this before - let's get this party started!" Some days are super uncomfortable, but luckily sometimes my body gives me a break and I feel great. It's really so different.

This baby is similar to her siblings in that she is almost always on my right side, and gets the hiccups soooo much. She is similar to just Matthew in that she always has a foot up in my right ribs. (Seriously it's never the left, only the right.) She is so wiggly and anytime I've seen her on an ultrasound she has her hands near her face. (Also a Byram trait.) I always joke that I already know what she's going to look like. We don't have a ton of genetic variety in our family. :-)

Hmmm, what else do I want documented? I started wearing maternity shorts super early. I don't get why people want to put this off as long as possible. They are SO comfortable! Seriously the best! Oh, and being pregnant for all of the Phoenix summer is dumb. I'm already miserable here in the summer, but being pregnant for it is awful. I don't even sleep with a sheet. I feel menopausal with how hot I am all the time! Ha! On the bright side, the weather will start to get better in a little over a month and it'll be nice to be able to actually take Baby Girl outside for fresh air.

Naming this baby has been hard! I always knew I loved the name Kate, so she was easy. And if she'd been a boy, we already knew we were naming him Luke. But when she turned out to be a girl we were pretty stumped. We both really love the name Emily, but we gave it to Kate as a middle name because we didn't know if we'd ever have another girl. We eventually came up with a list of about five or six and have narrowed it down to two. We'll probably make our final decision in the hospital when we feel the pressure. :-)

Sleep has been pretty rough the last month. Any time I wake up in the night (which is OFTEN) my hips are in soooo much pain. This is new. While I experienced normal third trimester discomforts with my other kids, I have never had so much pain through the night like this. I usually feel like a total cripple while waddling over to the bathroom. Luckily, it is MUCH better throughout the day. I have tried to stay as active as I can throughout the pregnancy and feel like I've done a pretty good job with that.

I am finding it hard to find time to get proper nesting in. I clean something and with three other kids running around, it's dirty again 10 seconds later. I haven't officially moved Josh out of the crib so I set her up with a swing in our room for now. She doesn't really have a room just yet, but she DOES have a dresser and I finally managed to get my baby girl clothes washed and put away so YAY! I looooved being able to pull out all Kate's old clothes again. And the bows! I've bought several brand new ones because they're all made with nylon now and sooo much better than they were even a few years ago. Can't wait to dress this girl up!

I am getting close to 38 weeks now, and since I'm already dilated to past a 3, I know that birth is very, very near. I know I am probably super ridiculous to most people but I am beyond anxious about the birth. My births are SO fast and I am pretty positive that I once again won't have time to get an epidural. This is so NOT my style. Please don't get me wrong - I know how unbelievably blessed I am to have healthy babies that come when they are supposed to, so there are understandably people out there who deal with much bigger issues who probably want to punch me in the face- but man, I am really not the natural labor type, and I hate that I don't really have a choice. I would seriously do ANYTHING (other than put my baby in some sort of distress or danger) to be induced so that I could plan better and have some pain relief, but I have never made it to my due date before and it has proven impossible to find a doctor that would induce me before 40 weeks, even knowing my history of extremely fast births. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am for the labor and delivery to be over so that I can enjoy the newborn phase and have that looming anxiety gone. I am 3 for 3 for going into labor at night, so I am sort of expecting in my head to go into labor while I'm trying to go to bed. Ha! BUT! You just never know! It's even possible for me to make it to my due date for the first time ever, though I'd be super surprised if I did.

And check it out - I've even managed to take some pictures of my belly here and there! Go me! Any day now! Cross your fingers that I don't give birth in triage, and especially not in the car! Agh! Ready or not, she will be here soon! Can't wait to meet you Baby Girl!

Hawaii! Second half - Maui

*I am absolutely horrified by how few pictures I took in Maui!! I didn't even realize it until I wrote this blog post. So sad!!!

We got to Maui midday on Sunday and I was so happy to be off the airplane, even though it was a super short flight. I took a couple Tylenol and it helped me not feel quite so terrible. We then made it onto a shuttle to our car rental place, got our car, and drove it to the north part of the island, (I think it was Kahului) where we'd booked a room at the Maui Seaside Hotel. It was a great place to stay (pretty cheap!) but my biggest complaints were the crazy shower water temperatures (went from insanely hot to insanely cold with almost no middle, which was super annoying) and that the WiFi almost never worked in our room. Other than that, it was a good experience.

Anyway, after we dropped off our stuff we drove a little around the island, went up to a little river thing to enjoy the scenery in the mountains, went to Walmart for some snacks/essentials, and ate at a popular taco place. These were the tacos - which were nothing like a taco I'd ever had before. Haha.

I was excited to spend a few days exploring the island, which is so so pretty. It's different from Oahu in that it seemed more spread out, had fewer ghetto areas, and it was quicker to travel around the island.

The next morning we started out our day doing the Twin Falls hike. It was recommended to us by Adam and Steph and it was another absolutely gorgeous (and pretty easy!) hike.

You can jump off the falls if you know where to go, but we definitely didn't know (and didn't really have a desire anyway) so we just hung out around the bottom. It was beautiful.

Seriously I love these simple hikes. I guess it's the fact that I'm just used to the desert, but I loved the lush scenery and beautiful water so much. 

  

After we finished our hike we headed to a beach where turtles often hang out. I wanted to see those turtles so bad! I guess there are usually a bunch, but this time there was only one. Thank goodness for that one! Haha! And funny story about it too - there are signs that ask people not to disturb the turtles and obviously we respected that. This was the closest I got to the turtle (and we were very quiet and didn't bother the turtle AT ALL) and a tourist still yelled at us about how we weren't respecting nature. Haha! Ummm okay!

We then got some lunch and headed to Big Beach, which had gorgeous sand and big waves that crashed veeeery close to the water. I am SO BUMMED I didn't get any pictures there, though Michael did take the GoPro into the water when he went. I didn't go into the water because I'm extra paranoid when I'm pregnant and I really didn't want to get pummeled into the sand, (and those waves were pretty intense!) but I did enjoy watching Michael get pushed around by those waves. ;-)

We got dinner that evening at a mall in the town we were staying and then walked by a movie theater and thought, "Hey! We don't have any kid responsibilities! Let's go see a movie on a whim!!!!" (Craziest thought ever!) ;-) We ended up seeing the new Kong movie since we'd seen some of the set for that movie at Kualoa Ranch in Oahu. The movie was actually way more entertaining than we'd thought it would be!

The next morning we went on the most second-famous drive in Maui. We'd decided to skip the Road to Hana because we heard it was overrated, but Adam did suggest we drove along the Rugged Northwestern Sea Coast. Um, I called him immediately after we finished this drive and gave him an earful because it was THE SCARIEST DRIVE EVER!!! SERIOUSLY! I hadn't looked into it much before we went but after we finished I looked it up and all these people are like, "Don't do it! It's beyond terrifying and SO dangerous!" Adam was of course laughing and me and Michael had to make fun of him endlessly for suggesting it. In a nutshell, it's a drive up and around a mountain where most of it is one lane - for cars going both ways. If a car comes, someone has to stop and back up around VERY STEEP and VERY NARROW turns where you can see pretty much nothing until you finally get somewhere where you can get around. I was actually very near hyperventilating several times on the drive, absolutely horrified that my little brother was clearly trying to kill us. I guess the drive was pretty, but I didn't care at all because I was so scared the whole time. Even worse, there are two cool tourist spots that we were supposed to see on the way - some tide pools and a blowhole - that we totally MISSED because we were so distracted and had no service for our GPS to stop us. I was so so so sad! Michael said it would be a much shorter drive back the other way (once we'd finished the death drive) and that he was willing to go back, but I couldn't bring myself to get back on that road. So, we kept driving and made it to Lahaina and checked out some of the shops there. We ate at a yummy pizza place called Lahaina Pizza Company, got some Dole Whip, and just enjoyed the pretty scenery while I continued to calm down from the drive. Haha!!! We also checked out a couple of the beaches there before heading south.

I wanted to check out the stretch of beaches by the super nice resorts (the Wailea Beach area) so we went to those beaches and I DID get in the water there. :-) We enjoyed the late afternoon sun and I got a little sad knowing we'd be leaving Hawaii the next day. We also snuck in to see the grounds of the Grand Wailea (somewhere we'll never be able to afford to stay, ha!) just so we could see. It was full of lazy rivers, water slides, etc. Looked so fun! Anyway, we ate dinner and called it a night!

The next morning we drove down to Kihei to eat at Kihei Cafe for breakfast, which had amazing reviews. And it WAS good! And then we had to head back, pack up, and head to the airport. Luckily the flight home wasn't too bad for me, and we were SO excited to see our kids again! They were kinda like, "Oh hi Mom and Dad, did you leave?" HA! Thanks Grandma and Papa for taking such amazing care of them! They had such a blast! Matthew even looked like this on our drive back to Phoenix-

Sorry, buddy. I agree that California is such a blast! And so is Hawaii! Definitely a trip to remember! So glad we got to experience it!

Hawaii! First Half - Oahu

I have always wanted to go to Hawaii, and as soon as I got pregnant with Baby #4 I knew that we'd need to make it happen soon or it wouldn't happen for a long time.... especially since my parents - our vacation babysitters - had their mission call and would soon be unavailable for the next 3 years. ;-) Sooo, since my 30th birthday was also coming up, what better time to start bugging Michael about a lovely Hawaiian vacation than now? Ha!

Planning the vacation was fun. I ultimately decided on seeing two islands over the span of a week, and settled on Oahu and Maui. I knew for sure that I wanted Oahu (at least once in my life!) but had a hard time deciding between Maui and Kauai. I ultimately decided on Maui since it was more likely to have less rain and my brother had just gotten back from living there briefly so he was knowledgable about the island.

We drove to LA on a Tuesday and got the kids settled in with my parents, and then flew to Oahu early on Wednesday morning. Ugh - all the flights were NOT good to me. I don't usually do terribly on planes, but this pregnancy has been my hardest sick-wise and the flights were not pleasant. The last hour was the worst, but I managed to not throw up (woohoo!) and was SO excited when we landed. We took a shuttle to the place where we'd signed up to rent a car and then took it straight to a Target down the street for some simple food items. (A case of water bottles, a few apples and bananas, etc.) We were staying at an AirBnB so we wanted to make sure to have the essentials.

We then drove to Waikiki, which is where our condo was. It was great because it was so cheap and a very central location, but man - parking was horrendous! We got unbelievably lucky while we were there to find parking on a free street, but sometimes it would take a while of us driving around. We sure didn't want to pay $30 a night for parking though, so I'm so glad we had such good luck with that!

Anyway, we decided to go eat and check out a beach called Lanikai that I'd heard great things about. We ate at a cute cafe and then headed down to the beach. The sand was so soft and white and the water was absolutely gorgeous. We enjoyed walking along the shoreline and enjoying the view.

We then headed back to our condo - we were so tired and jetlagged and wanted to make sure that we got enough sleep before our next few (much busier) days on the island. Oh, but we also found this random hole-in-the-wall Hawaiian BBQ place down the street from our condo and grabbed some food there for a late-night dinner. (We weren't super starving but we kept a lot of it in the fridge to snack on later.)

Thursday morning we woke up early and went to a 24 hour diner that was attached to the Hilton down the street. It was SO GOOD. Michael got pancakes with strawberries and their homemade whipped cream and I got french toast. The place was also pretty much empty since we were definitely not adjusted to Hawaii time and it was about 5 am there in a party town. Haha. After breakfast we drove to the start of the Manoa Falls trail. I'd looked up a few hikes that I could do easily while pregnant and this was one that was short, simple, and beautiful.

It didn't disappoint at all. This hike was seriously insanely beautiful and I'd recommend it to anyone. It was only a couple miles each way and full of SO much lush greenery. Me and Michael were totally in awe the whole time. Pictures don't do it justice at all.

I was worried we would be rained on during our hike but other than some misty air, we pretty much avoided any type of rain. Yay! It would have been pretty muddy and gross if we'd had to do the hike in the rain.

We then headed to North Shore! We took the veeeery scenic route because for some reason the GPS on Michael's phone was set to "avoid highways," which we didn't notice until it was too late. Haha! That's okay though - the scenery in Hawaii is nothing to complain about. Well, other than that I was so easily carsick sick since I was pregnant. Totally worth it though! Such a pretty drive!

We drove by the temple and then headed to Pipeline. It was fun to watch the surfers there.

We hit up the famous Ted's Bakery for lunch and I liked it more than Michael. I got the garlic shrimp and was impressed. We then drove along the coast until we got to Matsumoto's Shave Ice, which is maybe the most famous shaved ice place in Oahu. We wanted to make sure we did the shaved ice thing right! It was located in a fun shopping area so I got to walk around for 20 minutes or so while Michael waited in the insane line for Matsumoto's. In Hawaii, (or at least at this place) they serve the shaved ice over vanilla ice cream. It makes it way better!

We went home along the west side of the island and happened to go right by the Dole Plantation. It wasn't necessarily in my plans to stop there since I wasn't planning on doing the tour, but since it was right there we figured we'd at least go take a look! Despite just having eaten shaved ice, we also had to get a Dole Whip because of course we did! It was super delicious. We took a short look around and then headed south.

As you can see, there was so much gray sky over us this day but miraculously we never got seriously rained on! It was kinda nice since we were out so much. Me and Michael both love the rain, but I definitely wasn't hoping for too much on our vacation!

We still had a couple hours to kill so we decided to check out a famous snorkel spot called Hanauma Bay. We got SO lucky because they let us in free! It usually costs a good amount but because we came so late, they just let us right in. I'm actually glad because we didn't realize we got there pretty close to closing time. We watched a required short video about respecting the wildlife and then headed down to the beach. We were able to snorkel for about a half hour until everyone got kicked out of the water and we had to walk back up to the cars/tour shops. That's okay though - for not having to pay I feel like we got some good time in. I'm just bummed I didn't take any cool pictures! It is so pretty there! Anyway, we headed back to the condo after this.

Friday morning was our big excursion. I'd booked it weeks before and was pretty excited about it! We were going over to the west side of the island for a boat ride out to swim with dolphins and whale watching! We got up SUPER early that morning, grabbed a quick breakfast to eat in the car, and checked into our excursion by 6:30am. (The tour started promptly at 7.) They gave us wetsuits to wear (not necessary but I definitely didn't want to get cold and have that be a hinderance to the experience) and some instructions before we headed out. Our tour guide let us know that there was almost always at least one person who got seasick and I remember laughing and nudging Michael, totally sure it would be him. Little did I know.....

Anyway, we started out the tour looking for both whales and dolphins and got lucky pretty quickly when we saw a big humpback whale in the distance. Definitely cool.

And it wasn't long before we ran into a pod of dolphins! Our tour guide told us to hurry and get on all our snorkel stuff and we turned off the boat engine and waited for them to come closer. They did and we jumped in.

We were instructed to just kinda hang out and swim slowly and calmly and that the dolphins would get curious and swim around us. And that's exactly what they did. So cool!

After they swam away me and Michael took a quick picture together and then it was time to get back on the boat to look for more sea creatures.

Sadly, this is when it all kinda went downhill for me. :-( The second I got back on the boat I didn't feel so hot, (which is weird because I was FINE until this point) and really hoped that us speeding along would help. It didn't. :-(

In the pic just above, you can't really tell but I'd moved to the absolute EDGE of the boat, to a spot that wasn't even a seat. Haha! We'd been told to go there if we thought we might throw up, and sadly I knew I'd pretty much gotten to that point. Michael wasn't feeling awesome either but definitely better than I was! He was way too amused at his not-usually-seasick-wife getting super sick. And yes, I puked off the back of the boat about two minutes after that picture was taken. So embarrassing. At least the tour guide was used to it and immediately brought me water.... while Michael laughed, because he's evil. ;-)

Our boat driver then took us to an awesome snorkel spot that had sea turtles and all sorts of cool and bright fish. Michael was able to stomach getting off the boat again to snorkel but I felt like death and could do nothing but lay on the boat. It was pretty pathetic but motion sickness+pregnancy is definitely not good to me.

When we left that spot it wasn't long before I puked again. :-( I'm glad it at least happened right before we ran into three humpback whales, so that I could properly appreciate that experience!!! Our boat driver was really respectful of nature and never would have purposely gotten as close to the whales as she did on accident. And we were SO close! They went right under our boat! Michael even got it on the Go Pro which is awesome. We were all so excited to see that! This picture only shows two, but there were definitely three!

And then it was time to head back. I was pretty queasy until we got off the boat, and then I was better within about three minutes.

Despite getting super sick, it was such a cool experience and I'm so glad we did it! Our excursion included lunch at a place called Spinner's Cafe, which was right there by the water. We got kalua park sandwiches and then headed back to our condo.

My original plan was to change and then go see Pearl Harbor, but oh man, we were both feeling kinda sick and sleepy so we ended up taking a nap. By the time we were up and feeling better, it was time to head across the island to the Polynesian Cultural Center. I'd bought us tickets for dinner and the night snow.

All the driving was at least pretty!

The PCC was cool. We had a little time to walk around before dinner and our show so we checked out some of the different island exhibits and enjoyed the pretty scenery.

Dinner was okay, but the show was awesome. It was called Ha - Breath of Life and was everything you'd hope for in a really awesome Polynesian cultural show. We both loved it but were SO tired by the time it was done. Yes, even with the nap we'd taken that day. :-) We drove back and slept so good that night.

Saturday was another really awesome day. We woke up feeling refreshed which was good because I had another hike planned for that morning. This time we did Diamondhead. It's one of the most famous hikes and super popular. It gives a great view of the island and is relatively short as well. My only issue with it was that the trail was insanely crowded!!! There were about a million Japanese tour buses that did the hike at the same time as us. It really was such a beautiful hike with an amazing view, but sheesh. After we saw only a handful of people on our other hike, it was kind of annoying to be on such a crowded one. Still.... I am glad we did it.

These stairs were pretty killer at the end!

After our hike we ate some lunch and then got ready to head to Kualoa Ranch. This was the other major excursion I'd booked for us weeks in advance, and I was really excited about this too! They have all kinds of tours you can take, including a zipline tour and an ATV tour, but I stuck with the Movie Sites tour. I would've LOVED to do the zipline tour but everything I read and everyone I talked to said you're not supposed to zipline when pregnant. Darn! On the bright side, the Movie Sites tour was cheap and still SO GOOD. We got taken all over the ranch on a small open bus-type vehicle and our tour guide gave us a bigger and longer tour than we paid for. He showed us the sets for a TON of TV shows and movies that have been filmed there, including Lost, Jurassic Park, 50 First Dates, and the new Kong movie. We both thoroughly enjoyed the tour and agreed that it was one of the prettiest places we went in Oahu.

Our tour guide was hilarious and took this pic for us. :-)

We went to a nearby beach after our time at Kualoa and hung out and walked along the shoreline. Hawaii beaches are just so beautiful. We then went to dinner at Haleiwa Joe's at Haiku Gardens. It is another insanely popular place. We ate pretty early to avoid the crazy crowds.

Oh! And there were wild chickens eeeeverywhere! So funny.

We got back to Waikiki and actually decided to explore that area, which we hadn't even done yet. Haha! We walked around a few shops, got some Hawaiian cookies, and then headed back.

The next day was Sunday and for some reason I woke up feeling SO SICK!!!!! Ugh!!! Luckily the only real thing I had planned for that day was to fly to Maui. Still, I was not looking forward to that flight while already feeling so sick! Luckily I had done most of the packing the night before, so we ate breakfast (me just barely choking it down) and headed to the car rental place to drop off the car and take the shuttle to the airport. The flight was pretty awful and at one point I had the barf bag out and ready to go, but somehow I made it to the Maui without throwing up. Yay! And thank goodness for a short flight!! Ha!