One Month Old

Noelle turned one month old yesterday. Time is flying by fast (although the nights seem to be long). She is now a whopping 9 pounds. Noelle and I have enjoyed going on walks and going to the Women's Health Center to attend Mom's groups.

Noelle sings

As we have mentioned before, Noelle likes to make lots of groaning noises. Here is just a little sampling of some of the more subdued noises she makes.

Click on the play button below for the Noelle noise experience....

four week chunky monkey

This week marks Noelle's fourth week and she has officially surpassed her original due date. With an eating schedule of every 2 to 3 hours she is growing like a weed and filling out in her chunkyness. On Wednesday she weighed in at a solid 8 pounds, which is a 1 pound 3 ounce weight gain in 8 days and means she has added 30% to her original birth weight.

showing her feisty side

exercising the neck muscles

blissful after eating trance

ahhh,dreamland...

Noelle also had lots of visitors again this week. Grandma Flo was able to grab a standby seat on Aloha airlines (much thanks to Michele) and came over on Monday night to spend the week helping out. Regan was also in town from St. Louis for work and was able to swing by the house and meet Noelle. Then on Saturday the Tahiras came by and brought us all dinner and Brianna was finally able to meet Noelle. She was sooo excited!

Almost 3 weeks

Noelle is almost 3 weeks old now and we have started to settle into a routine. Everyday she is a bit different and we are enjoying watching her grow and change. At her 2 week doctor's visit she surpassed her birth weight by a lot - she was 6 pounds and 13 ounces!
Noelle has started to grunt and groan in her sleep. As a result, we don't get much sleep. We've learned to live on little sleep and get sleep while we can.
We took Noelle on her first stroller walk on the trail in our neighborhood. She slept the whole time, but we enjoyed the fresh air.
We've enjoyed having visitors meet Noelle. Auntie Michele from Hawaii had a couple layovers in Oakland so she got to visit a couple of days.

Hawaii Friends Virtual Baby Shower

Our Mililani gang sent us a big box of goodies for our "virtual baby shower." Here's Noelle with all her new fun stuff. The best part was the vide0 they put together with everyone giving us their messages of congratulations and tips. We had so much fun watching it and we laughed a lot. We are hoping to bring Noelle home to visit all her aunties, uncles and friends soon.

The exciting times of Noelle

Noelle is now 10 days old and it's hard to think of where all the time went....oh yeah, it was feeding, changing diapers, feeding, sleeping, feeding, feeding....Noelle has been a good baby so far and hardly cries at all. She went to her first doctor's appointment and subsequently had to be tested for jaundice. Her levels were slightly high so the poor thing had to do light treatment. She was our neon glowy baby. Her levels went way down when she was tested today so now more light blanket...yea!

Grandma Ann came over for a couple days to help us out. It was great having someone help with meals, laundry, cleaning, etc. It gave Kirk and I a chance to rest.

Noelle goes home

We stayed at the hospital for two nights, and by Wednesday we were ready to go home and show Noelle her new home.

Noelle among all the flowers that were sent to us at the hospital and at home.

Since we were experiencing a bit of a heat wave I set the thermostat so that the air conditioning would get the house cool before we got home. So when we finally did come home on Wednesday the house was nice and cool. However, as the afternoon and evening progressed, the house kept getting warmer until it topped out at about 84 degrees. So the next morning we called someone out to take a look at the A/C system and found out that the compressor was shot and we would likely need a new one. So we scheduled someone else to come out Friday morning to take another look and to give an estimate. That evening the house got to about 88 degrees, which made it very unpleasant for us all. Noelle of course took it all in stride.

After the guy came out on Friday morning and told us that yes, the unit needed to be replaced and that he couldn't do it until Monday, we decided that we couldn't take the heat any longer. Especially since the forecast called for three more days of over 100 degrees outside. So we called up Grandma and Grandpa Johnston and asked if we could stay at their place for a couple of days until we could get the A/C fixed. So Noelle took her first road trip to Grandma and Grandpa's.

Noelle playing it cool

The Johnston Family at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Taking a snooze on Dad's chest

Noelle's first sponge bath!

It's a Girl....Noelle Emiko arrives! (a little early)

At 36 weeks and 1 day, Kirk and I were not physically or mentally prepared for the upcoming arrival of Baby Johnston. At 11:40 pm on Sunday, August 26th, just as we turned off the light to go to bed, whoooosh, my water breaks. Coincidentally (or maybe by premonition), I had put a towel under the sheet that night before we went to bed. We were up in a flash after I said "uh oh." After the doctor said to "go to the hospital now," we were running around like mad getting our bags packed. I had my bag mostly packed, but Kirk hadn't packed yet.

We arrived at John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek and I was not having any contractions yet. They proceeded to put me on pitocin to induce labor and away we went. In the photo above, I was still happy and enduring the contractions. Later on, I wasn't so happy and refused to take any more photos. We labored all night and had to share our OB with another of his patients who was delivering a couple rooms down. Baby Johnston was born at 2:04pm on Monday August 27th. At the time she was born, both Kirk and I had forgotten that we didn't know the sex of the baby until the doctor said..."and it's a.....GIRL!!!!!" We were both so happy to hear her start screaming away as they started to clean her and check her.

She weighed in at 6 pounds, 1 ounce and is 19" long.

Proud Dad

Tired, but happy Mom

Noelle was bright eyed for a while after she was born. After that, she slept a lot.

And baby makes 3!

Grandma and Grandpa Johnston rushed to the hospital as soon as we told them we were going into labor. They waited patiently all night long to meet their first grandchild. They were Noelle's first visitors.

Uncle Eric, Auntie Susan and cousin Morgan visited Noelle on her first night. Other visitors were Auntie Joyce, Auntie Renee and Auntie Donna.

Noelle rested peacefully in the hospital for 2 nights, barely making a peep.

Baby Noelle shares the same birthday as her cousin Maile (3 years older) and also is also born on Grandma and Grandpa Iida's anniversary.

Cousin's Shower...Just in Time

My cousin's Renee, Joyce and Janice threw Kirk and I a baby shower at Renee and Dave's house in Pleasanton (2 days before our baby girl was born). We are lucky to have cousin's with kids that can give us great parenting and baby tips. We will sure be relying on them a lot for help!

Cliff (Grandpa), the master craftsman, made the baby a beautiful wooden cradle.