Too Busy!! :(

Sorry everyone that it's been awhile since I've posted anything. We've been busy busy busy!!

Shawn has been improving on his wrestling skills, thanks to Uncle Jojo and Daddy (Gev). We also signed him up for canoe season last Saturday and golf season begins in a few more weeks. Whew!! Shawn alone has us busy 4 days a week. Plus there's the annual car show that he loves to watch next weekend at the Cannery Mall. He's already marked the calendar.

Mia continues ballet. Her first recital is in May. Can't wait for that. I think this summer we'll have her try some hip hop classes too. Just to see if she likes it, if not we'll go back to ballet. She also started Hula lessons last week Wednesday. She's really cute, she worries about shaking her booty and hips more than she's suppose to move her feet. She loves dancing hula. They are really organized and an awesome halau. There are a bunch of little girls around her age too.

Megan is growing so fast. She is by far the easiest baby on earth. She's very sweet and not demanding at all. She eats, sleeps, and is very smiley when she's awake. She loves to coo at us and she's starting to smile more when she sees me or Gev. I would have more babies if they were all like her. Just kidding though, we can't afford anymore and seriously we're very content with the family size we have. Besides Gev and I would never be able to retire if we had more.

Happy Birthday Megan!!!

Wow!! Its hard to believe our baby is a month old already!! How time flies!!! The changes that have happened too since we've had her. She's so alert and cooing to us already. She's quite the noisy baby, takes after her sister I suppose. She's got really great head control and eating like a champ.

Both girls had a physical today and both had shots. Mia was a super big girl and had 2 shots but she never cried. She loves our new doctor. She was very shy with him, but they had great conversation and they laughed a lot together. Dr. Fox said that everything is going great with Mia and she's growing so fast. 3/4 of an inch since November's visit with Dr. Ripple. She's 40 1/4 inches tall. Yowza!! She's already tall enough for majority of the rides at Disneyland (hint hint daddy!!). Just trying to finish up her paperwork so she can go to kindergarten. Hooray for big girls!!

Megan is 9lbs and 1oz. (Ouch!! My arms), she's 21 1/2 inches long. Isn't it amazing how much she grew in just one month. She was also a champ when taking her shots, one shouting cry and I bounced her once and she went to sleep!! (Daddy's genes kicking in!!) Dr. Fox said she looks good. Unfortunately, she has a touch of thrush, poor baby!! So we were given some meds for her and she should be fine in couple of days.

Poor Shawn had a dentist appointment today too. Unfortunately for him, he had his baby incisors extracted. His adult teeth were coming in and pushing on the baby ones, causing him quite a bit of discomfort. He went in like a champ and came out with a mouth packed full of gauze. He told us it wasn't too sore for him and that he wasn't in much pain. (Of course, says the boy who took out his 2 front teeth 2 years ago). Oh yeah, and he had his first wrestling practice yesterday!! He loved it, he had a smile so big it looked like it went ear to ear! I'm just curious though what boy doesn't like to be able to push or slam their friend into a mat?? Gev would have been so proud to watch him in action. He was pretty good for someone who's never wrestled. I think only time and more acquired skills will help. But even if he never wins, he's having a good time and that's what counts at the end of the day.

Whew!! Quite an exhausting day for us, having to go back and forth to Kahului twice in one day, but very productive. Oh, I almost forgot, Happy St. Patty's Day everyone!! We had a baby luau to go to tonite, so we'll celebrate Megan's first month tomorrow with dinner with our family.

Happy Birthday Megan!! We love you so much!! You truly give your name the meaning we had hoped for!!! Akiko- bright light. Thank-you for brightening our lives everyday just by being you!!

Shawn and Mia

Sorry everyone, I didn't forget that I have 2 other kids that I need to keep you updated on.....sometimes you just get caught up with the new baby stuff.....

Shawn is doing better in school, its hard to believe he'll be 12 and in the 6th grade in a few months. He's decided that he'll play golf again. We're excited about that and he does have a pretty good golf swing. Wrestling sign ups are on Monday!!! And he's decided to join the Napili Canoe club, sign ups for that are next Saturday, so we'll have a very busy spring!! Hooray!!

Mia is still doing ballet. Her spring recital will be in May. All I know is that she'll be a butterfly. We can't wait to see her on stage!!! She loves ballet very much and she has her first playdate is tomorrow with her friend Elana from ballet class. She is very excited about that. I hope I'll be able to manage everything with the kids, but we'll probably go down to the park down the street from my mom's to play and have some lunch too!!

She's amazing!!!

So this morning, I put Megan down on her gymini to excercise on her stomach. Thanks to the Banaag Ohana, for the gift!!. She was doing her neck excercises and holding her head up with somewhat good control. Pushing, grunting and doing her baby thing. Next thing I knew she had kicked and rolled herself on her back. I know this was probably by accident, but wow, she's amazing at 3 weeks old!! Gevin cheered and said that he will have his olympic gold wrestler no matter what and that the intense training he has her on is paying off!! Hahahaha!!

The results

So yesterday I went to see Dr. Fox to get the lowdown on Meg's condition. I love the staff there by the way!! So Dr. Fox came in and I handed her the pamphlet and asked her to explain to me what Thalassemia was. She told me once she checked on Megan, she would explain to me what the condition was. She said Megan looked really well and that we were doing a good job. Megan weighs 8lbs and 10oz. Yeah!!
We sat down and she basically said what Megan has, been passed on genetically. So Gevin or I have the trait and we have to be tested to find out who the carrier. She also said that Megan will only have to deal with a slight anemia that we can control, not through meds, but with monitoring and so forth. The biggest problem that she will encounter is if she meets, marries and wants to have a family, her husband should not have the same condition because more than likely the baby will have a more serious condition.
Whoa!! Slow down, I know, right, she's only 3 weeks old!!! But all in all I feel better knowing her condition isn't serious and we still have a happy and healthy baby. We do have an appointment with the testing center on Oahu on the 30th. So hopefully we'll have even more answers. More on that TBA!!!

What is Alpha Thalassemia??

Unfortunately our beloved pediatrician Dr. Ripple has closed his practice and was offered a awesome job in San Luis Obispo. Congrats Doc!! We'll miss you. We do have a new doctor the Foxes who are awesome by the way. Dr. Ripples staff is finishing up the month by releasing all of their medical records....so Gev and I went to pick them up on Wednesday...boy were we in for a big shock.
Shawna (the office manager) presented me with Shawn's and Mia's charts and with Megan's, she handed me a pamphlet with some rather upseting news. She told me that Megan had an abnormal screening on her NST (blood test) in the hospital. I think that's the worst news a parent can be told. Megan will have to be rescheduled for a blood test and that we had to contact a genetics test office. Well I can barely pronounce what Meg's condition was let alone understand what the diagnosis was. I chatted with Shawna (who we'll miss dearly as well, I've known her and she's been with the practice since Shawn was 1) for a few minutes more.
That nite I went on google to do a search. Let me just say, do not ever do this. Most of what I could find in regards to this was the worst case scenario or a reprint from a book. I broke down and didn't know what to do as I started to panic. Gev calmed me down and told me to just make an appointment with the Dr. Foxes and see what they said.

Megan Utrillo

Many of you already know that Gevin and I had our baby back in February. Her name is Megan Akiko Utrillo. She was born on the 17th at 1:06am. She weighed 7 lbs 1oz and she was 19.5 inches long.
Let me just say for all of you who don't know is how great Gev was during labor. We took our sweet time getting to the hospital, can't do that again as labor was barely 4 hours. But atleast he kept bugging the nurses to get me some medicine for the pain. We got to the hospital a little before 11pm on the 16th and by the time I got the medicine. Half an hour later, Megan was there. Thankfully, it took only 3 pushes to bring her into this world. It was a lot less scarier than I expected. We all know I can't handle pain very well and I was worried about being in labor for too long. I know a lot of people don't like Maui Memorial. But my experience there was great. The staff was wonderful and basically everything went very smoothly. Thank-you to the awesome staff who were there to support and help us. Special thanks to Ma Arakawa, who kept checking on Megan and I during our stay!! We love you!! So Megan and I were able to check out of the hospital on the morning of the 18th.
Since bringing Megan home a lot of adjustments needed to be made. I don't know how all my friends who are mom's of 3 do it, but you all are super women. I still don't have the hang of managing all of my kids. Megan is by far the easiest baby I've had. Not demanding, she's already on a schedule and I only have to get up once a night to nurse her. She truly is a wonderful baby and we are very blessed to have her.
So this is all for now, Gev's going to show me how to post pictures, so hopefully by tomorrow, I'll be able to have some pics up for you to see!!

What you already may know??!!

I know I've been wanting to do this for a long time since some of our family and friends live far away. Hopefully this will keep everyone posted on how our ever expanding family is doing!! I hope you all enjoy being updated!! Miss you all and love you lots!!!