Ke'alohimaikalanimai - The Shining Brilliance from Heaven Here Upon Us.

Kuulei was due to have Alette on April 21, 2010. We went visit the doctor on April 7 and he said, "If I were a betting man, which I am not, I would say you are going to have your baby April 8." I thought, well wait that is tomorrow! We were initially shocked at such news but were very excited. Our little angel was going to come early! We went on the rest of the day minding our business and went to bed. Neither of us could sleep for some reason, I finally fell asleep around 12:30 AM. At about 1:00 AM Kuulei woke me up and said she was having back pains. We knew about back labor so I asked her if the pain was constant or coming in waves. She said it was coming in waves so I thought it was time to take her in. We had planned to have Alette at Orem Community Hospital. I had always heard good things about their Labor & Delivery department and our doctor preferred Orem Hospital over Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. We showed up and sure enough the contractions were coming...and they were coming stronger and stronger. Kuulei was in exquisite pain for about 2 hours until the anesthesiologist showed up with an epidural. After that Kuulei was much more comfortable. Our doctor was alerted that Kuulei was in labor but he was in the middle of a C-section for another patient so we had to try and wait for him to finish. I guess Alette was too excited to come because they had to give Kuulei some drugs to kind of slow things down a bit so the doctor could get there. Finally, around 7:20 AM the doctor showed up and began the process of getting Alette out. I was standing by watching and I saw a little umbilical cord coming out. Not a good thing for a baby because all the blood supply from the mother can be cut off and the baby can get into big trouble. Our doctor calm as ever said, "oh wow look at that" as if he had done this a million times. He got the tongs out and started to pull, I saw a little head full of blonde hair coming out and I thought, hmmm how did someone else's child get in there! Then I saw a big beautiful purple face followed by a 6 lbs 15 oz purple body. It was Alette! All the sudden she let out a little wail, it was great to hear her voice. She measured 20 in. and had no real complications. All in all it took about 6 hours from the time we brought Kuulei in to the time Alette said hello. I got to watch Alette get a bath and it was so funny to see her little naked body getting scrubbed down. Her golden locks seemed to beam after a nice shampoo. She has been a quiet little thing as long as she doesn't get messed with too much. Perhaps she is like her dad in that when she is comfortable she doesn't want to be bothered. Kuulei and Alette were doing so well they discharged them 12 hours early so last night was our first night with Alette. She all the sudden did not act like the quiet, mellow baby she had been the past 48 hours! We had fed her, cleaned her, and everything else so I couldn't quite find out why she wouldnt' settle down and get some sleep. Around 2 AM after Kuulei and I were getting so tired staying up with her I thought, hmmm maybe she just hates her little bed? I put down a nice soft microfleece blanket on the floor and laid her down. Voila! She calmed down. We still didn't get any sleep though because we were watching her like a hawk hoping she wouldn't suffocate or anything. I knew I would be an over-protective parent. I am sure with experience I will be less nervous. So there you have it, that is pretty much the story of how Alette Ke'alohimaikalanimai Harker came into the world. Kuulei and I just adore her and look forward to all the years of excitement as we watch our precious daughter learn and grow.

Well I've hit 37 weeks, which means Alette can be considered "full term". I thought I would never reach the end and now that it's in sight it feels like it has slowed down a ton. We are so excited for our little girl to make her appearance. We are actually pretty anxious for her to hurry up and get here. We have so much that will be going on in the next month, we just want a little quiet time with her. I was thinking she will be coming a little early and now I'm not too sure. I guess she'll come when she's good and ready!

Writer's Blog

You have heard of "writer's block", well we have been experiencing what I call "writer's blog". Ah Ah Ah, get it? That is just one of the many corny things I say that Kuulei has to put up with. Anyway, we have not written on our blog for awhile because there isn't too much to say I guess. All I do is study for the board exam and teach one day a week at Utah Valley University. It has been a real blessing for me to work there because with just 6 hours of work per week I get paid as much as I would working 20 hours a week somewhere else. That way I can make money all while not losing too much time for my studies. Kuulei was working at OrangeSoda.com not long ago but quit because the baby is soon here. We got about 6 more weeks! I helped my dad fix a plumbing leak in our shower upstairs...that is about the highlights of the last 3 months. When I take my exam and get my score back I am sure we will have plenty of things to say and update you on so don't give up on us yet!

Knowing is Half the Battle

We found out what the seh of our child is this month. Yes, I said seh. Our family has an inside joke that we don't say sex because it is a bad word. Instead we just say seh. That has kind of morphed into other uses such as call me on my seh phone rather than cell phone but I digress. Anyway, Kuulei and I went down for an ultra sound Dec 14th the Monday after I came home from Grenada. I had a huge smile on my face just like cookie monster always does when he sees cookies. I saw a head, arms, legs, and then we got down to the nitty gritty to see if it was a boy or girl. I saw what seemed to be a boy then all the sudden the ultrasound got into focus and there was no doubt we were having a girl! I was very happy and excited but at the same time I thought, "heaven help me when she is a teenager". I am sure I will be one of those dads. We had Ezekiel as a name for a boy and Alette for a girl's name so looks like our daughter is going to be called Alette Ke'Alohimaikalanimai Harker. I have been practicing saying her middle name. Kuulei's eldest brother came up with the middle name for us, it means the shining brilliance from heaven here upon us. I thought that was quite fitting because that is how I feel about the whole thing. Our little angel, I can't wait to see her in person.

All Now Rejoice the Long Night is O'er

It was a funny feeling, Jan 11 I usually head back to Grenada for another round of school. This time though, I stayed here. It wasn't because I couldn't get a flight, nor was it because I was sick. Ok well, I did have the flu that week but that isn't why we didn't head back to Grenada. We stayed in Utah because I finished all of my work in Grenada!!! 5th term was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work. Of course you can't go through a semester of medical school without a lot of stress as well so I experienced a lot of that too. As most of you know Kuulei got sick with morning sickness and had to go back to the U.S. so I was stuck in Grenada to fend for myself. I found joy in cooking treats for neighbors that were always so kind and helpful to me, and I also enjoyed hosting weekly BYU football games. We were fortunate enough to have some classmates that had slingbox so we could catch the Cougs in action. Without cooking and football I had nothing to look forward to each week other than the Sunday night skype with the fam and Kuulei. 5th term was fun, I enjoyed pharmacology and did well in that class. I didn't like the way pathophysiology was taught and I especially didn't like the way we were examined in there either but I figured out a few tricks that helped me do well enough. I won't comment on clinical skills for 5th term, they know what they did and I hope they make the changes for the other incoming 5th termers this semester. Shame shame shame. Anyway, I actually did the best grade-wise in 5th term. I also got to go to the hospital on rotations once a week and it was fun to see how the hospitals ran, or didn't run, in Grenada. I always enjoyed meeting patients and it was fun to see that I am actually able to kind of piece together some of the things I am learning in school to actually help people feel better. I am glad that I am done in Grenada, but I already miss some things. Coke, ting, sitting on the bus and chatting with my pals and who could forget going to church! It was a long tough two years but I find great joy and satisfaction in knowing I accomplished something like that. I believe we all have the power to accomplish great feats no matter what it is if we are tenacious, hard working, and never give up.

All Apologies

Well we have kind of slacked a little here on our little blog. For those of you who like to follow along we are sorry about the lack of updates. For those of you that don't like to follow our blog, don't worry about it because you didn't even notice! Kuulei told me to tell everyone how the end of my 5th term went and about our baby update. I have written about both of these on my own personal blog nickolasharkermd.blogspot.com. However, maybe not everyone follows along there so I will post about these two stories here. I hope you enjoy the news!

We Know Where We Are Going!

I think one of the hardest things about beginning a career in medicine has been the unknown. I began doing this in 2005 not knowing if I would even get in or not. I was an art major and didn't care about my grades because all I had to be was a good artist. For two and a half years I worked on getting pre-requisites done and trying to get a decent MCAT score. I had always hoped that I wouldnt' be wasting my time. Two and a half years is a long time. Luckily, St. Georges was willing to give me a chance and suddenly a lot of the unknowns became known as I knew I would at least be in Grenada for the next two years. Once I got to Grenada I thought, "Well what happens after Grenada? Will I be able to get good enough grades to make it? More unknowns crept back into my life. I made it to 5th term and did well on my first two sets of exams and only had one more set to go. It appeared that it would be very difficult to fail and I would be able to move on to the next step in life. However, I had no clue where that next step was. Friday night I found out though, we are going to St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, NJ! It is nice to have an idea where we will be and how much money it is going to cost. (A lot!) I think each chapter in life is going to have a lot of unknowns but it is not worthwhile to worry about them. One of my favorite books is "The monster at the end of this book". Sesame Street's Grover is the star and the whole book is about him trying to convince you to stop turning the pages because there is a monster at the end. He tries to rope up the pages, and build brick walls to keep you from turning the pages. Quite ingenius really. At the end of the book Grover finds that the monster at the end of the book was him. It turned out there was nothing to be afraid of. I can liken our experience here to my favorite book. It is scary and we try not to find any monsters but in the end things have always had a way of working out. We are excited to move to New Jersey and see what it has in store for us!