Just the Five of Us

Mom snapped some photos before church last week.  It's hard to get five people lookin' good at the same time!  Here are two where we're all semi-normal.

Our Healing Garden

To answer your questions, yes, that was our yard in the Egg Hunt post. Isn't it beautiful?! It's one of the many perks of our new house. We're so happy here.

Actually there are four houses on the property, and we share the yard. And the gardener maintains the grounds. And we just set up our hammock in the screened-in porch. Woo-hoo! (I've been waiting 8 years to set up this hammock I bought in Venezuela.)

I feel like I'm living in one of those holistic-health, healing-garden, estate-places. Perfect for my post-partum recovery.

The big yard

Our house

This was one fabulous sunset.

I made this sign to announce our new arrival, and to give directions to friends since we have no street names or numbers.

Grandma Triumphs Again

My mom, Ann Fillmore, is a super hero.

She fears no diaper, no matter how gross.

She prepares a dozen meals in one morning.

She endures stacks of library books.

She's washed every dish in the house, multiple times.

She beats me in card games (that's actually not hard).

She makes my project dreams come true.
She completes all my daily tasks plus her own to-do's with ease.
She lets me nap everyday.
She calms a screaming newborn,
she occupies a mischievous toddler, and
she engages a curious little girl
... at the same time.

This woman amazes me.

Thanks for coming, Mom! We love you and miss you so much.

How's Owen?

"MALOSI."

That means strong & healthy. He's now 3 1/2 weeks (can you believe it's been that long?!) and everyday he looks slightly different. We can't tell who he resembles. He's just Owen.

Caught it.

Aren't newborns' heads just amazing? (Amazingly huge...)

We Adore Our Sweet Baby Owen

Egg Hunts

Saturday we enjoyed two egg hunts.  First the kids had a Primary activity at Maliumai beach resort.  Then we had an egg hunt in our yard with our neighbors.  My mom came into town again last Thursday, and she has been a huge help and lots of fun, of course!

Primary activity:

She did have fun, despite the frown.

Primary Picture.  Can you find Ella and Isaac?

Grandma helped the kids find eggs and get their lunch.

Then that afternoon our neighbors and some friends came over for a potluck/BBQ/egg hunt. Ella and Isaac decorated Easter egg balloons.

Enjoying the fruits of the day.

(Yes, that is a Halloween bucket.  We know no seasons here.  Easter... Halloween... just fill it with candy.)

Failele-Mother of a Newborn

I'm embarrased to say that one of my favorite things about recovering from childbirth is getting meals brought right to my door.

This morning our friends Lole and Ana brought over breakfast for me, the Failele. They explained that the failele, or mother of a newborn, needs nourishment early in the morning. They brought supoesi, or papaya soup. I'd been served this in the hospital, too and really liked it. Ana's supoesi had tapioca as a thickener. It was delicious, along with with wheat bread and butter they brought.

Last night for dinner our Korean friend Shin showed up at 5 pm with byoku, Seoul style. It was sesame beef soup with seaweed served over rice. She was so cute as she marched in the kitchen, plugged in her Zojirushi, found all the utensils, and served me up a nice warm bowl. She told us that new mothers eat this for every meal for a month. And they also serve it on birthdays. It tastes really good, I like it a lot, but I don't think I could eat it exclusively for a month. A few days, sure.

Our Kiwi friend (NZ) brought a fruit-based iron tonic. Our American friends brought chocolate chip cookies. Other friends brought Carl's Jr., casseroles, pastas, chicken soup, panipopo, and ice cream cones.

I feel so blessed to be here with such diverse and generous friends. So in case my family was wondering, yes, everyone's taking good care of me.

Owen

Melinda and I have such a hard time with boys names. For some reason Isaac came easy. And for some reason we can agree quickly on girls names. But boys names just aren't the same. Melinda likes Henry and Linus while I like Jethro and Leroy. Can you see the potential for challenge? We eventually came down to a list of about 10 names and then down to 3, which included Max. Max was a wild card that I came up with in the nursery at the hospital during baby's first morning. The kids liked it and we almost went for it, but Owen won out Sunday morning before church so that I'd have something to tell folks. Isaac still likes Max better. Oh, and Fa'amaoni includes meanings such as true, faithful, loyal, honest and integritous (why is there no adjective for integrity?).

We've just brought our third child into the world and to tell you the truth, the experience doesn't get any easier or predictable. Here are some stats for you:

• Ella - 6 days overdue, 23 hour labor, pitocin @ hour 18, 8lbs 7oz
• Isaac - 14 days overdue, induced 15 hour labor, pitocin at hour 5, epidural at hour 10, 8lbs 13oz
• Owen - 2 days overdue, 5.5 hour labor, 9lbs 7oz

The only thing we could really predict was that most of labor would happen at home. We were honestly nervous to deliver at the LBJ Tropical Medical Center as they have a high cesarean rate and figured if we just surprised them when Melinda was ready to push they wouldn't have a chance to intervene. So with some amazing advice and comforting words from Katie and Ken, Melinda's sister and brother in law, she labored at home. The advice to me was to watch for when Melinda would get serious between contractions, and then go to the hospital. I remembered that stage and so thought I could recognize it. But it never really came. It wasn't until she threw up a few times that I knew she was in transition and we should hele on to LBJ. Our wonderful neighbors came over to help. They also brought our camera to the hospital when we forgot to grab it. And they watched Ella and Isaac for us that night and during the next few days. What angels!

Some nurses got us a wheelchair when we arrived, but Melinda gave it up for another woman who was having a harder time. I felt honored to be with such a strong and generous woman. When we got to a room, the nurse checked Melinda and declared her "complete". "Completely what?", I asked. "Completely effaced, or completely dilated?" "Completely dilated but at -1 stage." Wow. Melinda said she wouldn't believe it because after only 4 hours of labor she should only have been 4-5 cm dilated. It was too good to be true. But it was! You wouldn't have known it for how casually she was laboring.

And after they broke her water it only took one contraction to push the baby out. Four pushes. Two minutes. It was completely amazing and an answer to prayer and fasting. So on Wednesday March 25 at 10 pm our perfect little boy was born. He looks a lot like Melinda did as a baby and is our first with light hair at birth.

Ella and Isaac got to meet Owen the following afternoon after we realized the rule to keep children under 12 out of the recovery rooms was unenforced. Isaac was sad and at one point walked out of the room and down the hallway, moping and sobbing. It was pretty cute, and after I chased him down he and I talked about how he felt about the new baby and his role as older brother. He felt better and by today he's feeling pretty good about Owen.

Owen and Melinda came home Friday morning.


Ken asked me how I felt early on in labor and I hadn't really thought about it. I told him I was excited but not nervous. I thought more about it after we spoke and realized there was more to it. I sure felt excited, but I also felt proud of Melinda and wished I could take some of the pain away or carry some of it. I felt a little more prepared to help with labor, but still not quite as useful as I would like. Melinda is a hero. And she sure makes cute babies. Welcome to our family, Owen.