Mysterious

I don't know if it's just me, but, I swear Alette is magic. Sort of anyway. She just manages to do somethings that I have no idea how she was able to do it, and it's always when my back is turned! Examples:

- We set her in her crib one way and when I go to get her in the morning she is laying in the opposite direction.

- She manages to push herself off of her blanket when she's on the ground.

Well, those are the only two I can think of at the moment, but I know there are more examples I just can't think of. I try watching her to see if I can catch her moving, nothing. She simply will not move around like that when I'm looking. She's a bit stubborn, but I will catch her. Maybe.

2 month and 2 feet

Alette sitting in her bumbo.

Alette has hit her two month mark. She is growing SO fast it's unbelievable.

Her new stats:

Weight: 13 lbs 4 oz (at birth she weighed 6 lbs 15 oz) She's in the 97%

Length: 24 1/2 in (at birth she measured 19 inches) Can you believe that, in 2 months she's grown 5 1/2 INCHES! She's off the charts for height.

At two months Alette can:

Hold her head up for about 5 minutes

Smiles when you talk to her and smile at her

Sleep through the night (she slept 11 hours last night, went to bed at 7:30 pm woke up at 6:30 am)

Put herself to sleep

Things that make Alette happy:

She LOVES to eat, she eats a HUGE amount for such a small belly

Bath time, she will sit in her bath and smile and coo at us, she splashes her little legs too

Sitting up on the couch or in her Bumbo

Her Binky when she's about to go to bed, she'll suck for a little while and then spit it out when she's ready to be put in her crib

Let's not forget...Daddy makes her happiest! (written by her daddy)

Alette's Blessing

Alette was blessed on May 9th, 2010. A day after she hit 1 month. She is growing so fast, and looks so adorable in these pictures. Nick's mom is a seamstress, a very good one too, she made Alette's blessing dress and it turned out to be absolutely beautiful! After her blessing my brother and Nick's family and friends came over to the house and had a nice little get together. It was nice to spend the day with family, my parents weren't able to make it but, I will be able to go to Hawaii in a couple months so that my family can spend some time with Alette. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

She's so perfect!

(I know I'm being bias, but just look at her!)
Notice how blue her eyes are! Nick and I both have brown eyes, I know they have a chance of changing but with how light they are I am pretty sure she will be our blonde hair/blue eyed beauty!
I had to post this one because I love it when she makes this face.
Our first family photo!

Loving Every Moment

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! Sweet smiles that let you know you're doing something right. It makes waking up in the odd hours of the night worth it. It makes absolutely everything worth it!

P.S. Blessing photo's to come soon.

A Long Wait

After many weeks of being put off over and over again, we finally got our final placement letter from the St. Georges University Clinical Department for our clinical rotations. The way it works is they gave us a preliminary placement back in December for St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, NJ. The reason why it was preliminary is because we still had to take Step 1 USMLE exam. Sometimes kids fail that test and are not allowed to move onto clinical rotations. This means the school and hospitals have to make some changes in order to accomodate the change in number of students. The University does their best to keep you on yourpreliminary placement but sometimes they do have to change you. This means that you cannot get a lease on an apartment or make any arrangements at all to move to your new place until you get this final letter confirming your placement. Normally, the school is supposed to give you this final placement 4 weeks in advance from the start date of your orientation at the hospital. SGU is notorious for making mistakes and dragging their feet and they did not disappoint this time either. 9 working days after the deadline to get us our placement they finally sent it. I had explained to them we needed our placement on time because flights were filling up fast and we would have to rent a car if they were late sending our letter because we had to ship our car and it takes two weeks at least to get there. The response I got to my stern email was " it will be there sometime this week." I had heard that from them before, "It will be there in one or two weeks", "It will be there next week", "It will be there late this week or early next week", and so on. Luckily, finally this was the week and we were confirmed to go to St. Joseph's FINALLY!!!! I am relieved and excited but still upset because now we do have to rent a car because SGU was so late getting their act together. Oh well, I will be working at the hospital for the next year and a half, then I will graduate and will no longer need to deal with the school's administration any longer!

Little Alette

This is Alette when she was first born...

And, this is Alette 9 days old...

I can't believe it's been a week and a half since our little girl decided to make her appearance. She is growing so much and so fast. She is a good sleeper, the last few days she has been waking up only twice a night (knock on wood). She also eats a ton (she's starting to get a double chin). I love being her mommy, she makes me so happy. It's amazing how fast these little ones grab your heart. All I want to do is make her happy. She smiles a ton, though, I know it's involuntary it's still melts my heart. She has definitely changed our lives and we're loving every minute of her.

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.