Aloha World!

My name is Caden Charles Koehl.

I was born of humble parentage on August 17th, 2007, at 5:08 PM HST, on the island of Oahu, in the beautiful State of Hawaii.

I weighed 6 pounds 15 ounces (including hair) and was 20 inches long.

And now, for my first official action, I hereby take command of this blog from my weary mother, as I am now the only one in the family with free hands (when I'm not swaddled).

Here are some photos of me and the fam, plus some movies.

Looking forward to meeting you!

Love and gurgles, Caden

It's the Due Date!

Knock, knock. Are you ready to come out, little guy? He's happy and content in there, still punching and kicking. Only Caden can decide if it's time.

Only about 4% of women will actually give birth on their due date. While the rest will give birth 2 weeks before or 2 weeks after. The average first time mother will go more than four days past her due date.

My sister has a theory that everyone has a particular day of the week when all their significant milestones happen. For her it's Thursday. She met her husband, Ed on a Thursday and both her kids were born on a Thursday. Crazy, huh? I think my day is Friday. We'll see. I'm aiming for Friday, August 17th.

10 Days to Go!

We wanted to get some pictures of my belly while it's still here. I can't believe it's the last week! A part of me is going to miss being pregnant. I have enjoyed every little kick, punch, and hiccup. Nine months of reading, worrying, advice seeking, having people open doors for me, letting friends touch my belly, strangers showing their friendly smiles. It's been an incredible experience.

Not Yet!

I had another doctor's appointment today. My internal exam revealed that I haven't started dilating and the baby has some time. Caden is getting bigger though and squirming a lot! No telling when he's going to come out, so we're just waiting. I get a lot of strangers saying "Whoooa, I guess it's pretty soon, huh?" You know I'm big when people start saying that. Luckily it's all in the belly! :-) We have some predictions on when he'll be here. Mom and Charlie think it will be August 7th. I say August 10th. Any guesses?

Ready for Take Off

I had my weekly doctor's appointment today. I was worried that the baby had turned sideways and fears of a C-section were in my head. Just to make sure, my OB-GYN did a quick ultrasound. I was so excited. I got to see our baby boy! Great news, he's head down and ready to make his move! It seems the hiccups that I was feeling high on my left side are just his butt jutting out everytime he takes a breath! How cute! His legs and arms are on my right side, which is why when I lie down on my right, I can feel the pitter-patter of hands and feet. We're so excited and counting down the days...29 to go! 3 more doctor's appointments! 1 little miracle!

Surprise! It's My Baby Shower!

My sister Tara and my Mom threw me a surprise baby shower at a quaint little place in downtown Honolulu called Tea at 1024. It was the perfect place to have it, so unique and everyone had such a great time. They serve tea, salad, and small sandwiches. For desert they had cream puffs, small cheescake squares, and cranberry scones. Mmmmm! To top it all off we had a chocolate sheet cake that read, "Welcome Baby Caden". Thanks to everyone who made this afternoon so special. It really meant a lot to me to see all of you. Charlie did a great job with getting me there. I was convinced that I could never be surprised, but he took me there saying that we were going on a 'date' together. I believed him only because everyone has been scaring us with how little time we'll spend together after the baby comes. What a shocker when I walked in and saw the balloons and smiling faces. It was great! Now I feel like Caden can officially arrive. We received almost everything on our registry and within hours of arriving home from the shower, we assembled, washed, organized, and stored all of his gifts.

Caden's Nursery

Well, his room is finally ready! The endless hours of combing through catalogs and bookmarking websites is finally over. It's perfect! We're so excited to show everyone. If you'd like to stop by and see it in person, we'd love to have you.

Baby Shower #1

Our dear friends, Eve and Tim In, surprised us by having a 'baby' breakfast at Cinnamon's in Kailua on the lucky 7/7/07! The morning was complete with gifts, roses, confetti, and favors. It was an added treat to see my family there too. Thanks Eve & Tim!

Finishing Touches

We bought the last piece of furniture for the nursery; a blue gingham upholstered rocker. Many a night will be spent in that chair nursing, rocking, and kissing little Caden to sleep.

Happy Hiccups

We started Lamaze classes and Stork classes this week. Along with breathing exercises, they also give you overall instruction on what we can expect now, during labor, and after we return home with the baby. The most fascinating thing we've learned is that the rhythmic kicks we are seeing below my belly button are the baby's hiccups! They are so amazing. He gets them everyday, sometimes lasting up to 15 minutes. This is happens when he's sucking his thumb and air bubbles get through. How cute is that?! The great news from all of this is that babies who suck their thumbs in utero are most likely to be great nursers because they already have their sucking reflex. Yahooooo!

We had a doctor's appointment today. My belly is measuring a bit larger than what it's supposed to, so we know that Caden is growing super fast. However, my weight is only at 20 pounds, which is at the low end of the scale. At 33 weeks I'm ALL baby and ALL ready to see this little guy!

30 Weeks Down, 10 To Go

Our baby is growing like a weed! He's about 3 pounds, 15 inches and he's creeping up with the kicks! This week I started feeling kicks about 4 inches above my belly button. I can't believe how big he's growing. I'm fascinated with seeing my whole 'basketball belly' move, shake, and vibrate. I've gained 19 pounds so far.

In other baby news, we are still putting the room together with the finishing touches. Soon we will hang the curtains and put down the soft cotton rug. Charlie just built the closet organizers this weekend. They look like perfect white custom built-in shelves. My plan was to incorporate as much storage capacity into our little house as possible because I am preparing for the multitude of toys. With all the family we have here, I'm sure this baby is going to be spoiled. Who could blame them.

On the medical front, I had to take a 4-hour glucose tolerance test to make sure I'm not developing gestational diabetes. I had to fast for 10 hours, drink a bunch of syrupy goop, and then have my arm pricked every hour for 4 hours. I'm awaiting the results of the test. I don't know what will happen if it comes back positive. We already eat so many veggies, grilled everything, organic everything. Plus I'm getting a lot of exercise.

We are getting so excited for Caden's arrival. Oh, I don't know if we told everyone his name. Yep, his name will be Caden Charles Koehl. Sounds like someone very important. We can't WAIT to meet him!

Making Room

Today Mom and Tara came over to paint the baby's room. We decided on a periwinkle blue with white trim. I'm obsessed with the Pottery Barn Kids catalog and ordered everything that could possibly coordinate with his "Aloha Blue" crib bedding. Yes, I'm a designer :-) Yesterday Charlie put in a Herculean effort and single-handedly carried the bed, a heavy dresser and a trillion other things to make our old bedroom, the baby's new bedroom. It looks so beautiful. All his furniture will be delivered at the end of the week and I can't wait to start putting everything together. It's 28 weeks and 14 pounds so far and we are still feeling great! Baby is kicking and rolling more than ever, especially thoughout the night. I think we're in trouble :-)

Bikini Shot, Take 3

Well, here I am at 25 weeks. I'm bursting out of my top, while the bottoms seem to be okay. We had a bit of a scare yesterday - I started to have mild contractions, so we rushed to the hospital to check out the situation. The good news was that we weren't going into labor. It seems that the baby is growing rapidly and my uterus is just a bit "agitated". It's normal to have mild contractions that prepare your uterus for delivery. Whew! In the next week we'll be picking out a crib, a dresser, a changing table, a car seat, and most importantly -- a baby jogger! 15 more weeks to go!

Kickin' It

We just returned from our month-long jaunt throughout Eastern Standard Time. From Boston to the Caribbean Islands, it has been an adventure. Only a few days into the trip, I was finally able to feel kicks and punches by touching my belly. It was amazing. The first time was in the middle of the night. I'm sound asleep, while the baby think's he's playing in the World Cup or something. I just lay there in the dark with tears streaming down my face. I'm now officially obessesed with watching my belly vibrate, pulse, and roll. I've been known to spend an extra hour in bed in the morning just to watch him move. All is well at the 24 week mark. Just getting over a bad cough and cold that I caught somewhere in NYC. It was somewhere between the 9 hour plane ride, the taxis, the subways, museums, and the Broadway show. Either way, Baby Koehl is blissful and warm in the belly as Mom hacks away.

It's a .............

We just got back from having the advanced ultrasound. The doctor measured every part of the baby to see if everything is healthy and progressing nicely. We saw the ventricles in the heart, the quadrants in the brain, the spine and even counted all the fingers and toes. GREAT NEWS -- the baby is totally normal and healthy! We are SO happy. She also counted something else! Yep, we're having a little boy!!!! Click below to see the full ultrasound. It's truly amazing. Special thanks to Baby's Daddy, the cameraman.

Ultrasound Movie at 19 Weeks! (Turn up your speakers.)

Everything's Peachy

We made a very difficult decision and decided not to do the amniocentesis. No matter what the result, we were not going to terminate the pregnancy anyway, so there was no use in taking the risk and hurting Baby Koehl. Instead, we took a blood test called the Triple Screen Test. It tests for the levels of three substances in the blood that can help doctors identify a fetus at risk for certain birth defects such as neural tube defects like spina bifida or chromosomal abnormalities like Down syndrome. We got the results and everything is NORMAL! Woo hoo! YEEHAA! We are looking up and looking forward to our super-duper ultrasound in two weeks where we will find out if it's a boy or a girl. Any bets?!?!

Hearing the Heart, Part 2

Another doctor's appointment today! It was great to finally meet the OB/GYN that will deliver the baby. Dr. Sunoo works very closely with the NP that usually gives me yearly check-ups, so I feel very comfortable with everyone on Team Baby Koehl. Charlie happened to get a recording of the baby's heart this time on his Treo 650. Check out the "Baby's Heartbeat" link at the end of this paragraph. More good news, I'm finally gaining weight, 3 pounds since last week's check-up. Here is a bikini pic of me at 15 weeks. Hopefully at the end of the pregnancy we will make a fun morphing movie showing my belly grow and grow and GROW!

Baby's Heartbeat!

Hearing the Heart

Another amazing day. Today we visited the doctor and heard the baby's heartbeat with a doppler device. The nurse said that the heartbeat sounded very strong at 152 beats per minute. Again, our little bundle was trying to avoid the rolling ball every time it passed over him! I guess the little guy really doesn't like to be poked! So cute. She sided with us on our feeling that it's a boy. We'll see in about three weeks when we receive the results from the amniocentesis. We definitely want to know and plan for our little arrival!

Bigger than Life

Nothing can explain the feeling when you see a living being inside you. I cried for the first 5 minutes of the ultrasound, while Charlie excitedly watched the monitor. I think I almost squeezed his hand off. It was amazing! Baby Koehl did 6 complete rotations and flips within a matter of seconds! The big surprise of the day was that Baby was bigger than we all had thought! I was over 13 weeks pregnant, not 9. Seems I ran the marathon pregnant! We better get some sleep now, I have a feeling we're going to have a spunky little one.

You can see her/his complete profile with little button nose, the leg curled up, and the umbilical cord. The little arm is up against the head.

Baby New Year

It's the classic case of "that time of the month never showing up". I waited a few days in disbelief until today I couldn't stand it anymore. I excitedly drove to Long's to buy a pregancy test. I got back home and after I took it, I had to look at it several times to make sure I was reading it correctly. Rubbing my eyes, reading the directions again and again. "How could this happen?" Yes, I know the answer, but this was just the beginning of something we had been waiting for. A feeling I just can't explain. I immediately called Charlie and asked him to step into the hallway, outside his office. I didn't want anyone else to know. Needless to say, Charlie was screaming and yelling and couldn't believe his ears. He was a Dad. Charlie's a Dad. I love the way that sounds.