Baby's First Remodel

Deniz and I both grew up in homes that were in constant states of demolition. Some of the most significant memories I have involve power tools. A consequence of this was a father that was hardly ever really relaxed and always had something to do, even on Christmas! Because of this, I tried my hardest to find a home that didn't need significant work. I didn't want to raise a family where the only together time was painting or fixing the deck (Deniz' first visit to my parents house involved large amounts of manual labor)!

Well, we found the perfect house! It didn't need any work, not even paint! Perfect for us, especially considering that I was 7 months pregnant when we moved in. The only work the house needed wouldn't be for a long time, or so I thought!

The basement/garage has a large area in the back that was built with the intention to one day finish it off in some manner. There is all the plumbing for a full bath, french doors to the back yard, and even a fireplace! Our intention when we bought this house was to finish it into a family room/office in five years or so, no hurry. We don't really need more room until we have another baby.Well, here we are, less than four months in and the guys are in full swing on the remodel to turn our basement into an in law studio. Deniz' younger brother, Nuri's Fiancee, Becca just got a job in San Francisco and needs a place to stay until the wedding in September. She was out looking for apartments but we all decided that it would be better to finish the basement so she would have a place to live until she and Nuri are able to buy a house (we all know how long THAT can take!).

So now, Eli is just two months old and he is experiencing his first remodel! He seems to be handling it very well although, he is missing out on a lot of daddy time since Deniz is busy all day and basically falls over with exaustion by the time he is done every night.

I know it will all be worth it in the end, Becca will have a nice place to stay (and probably Nuri too once they're married) and, once they find a house, we'll have a nice family room as well. Plus, we are getting a nice break from the chaos this week when we visit my parents in Hawaii for 10 days! Should be fun, maybe Eli will learn to surf (too soon?)!

NICU Story

After swallowing and inhaling meconium during delivery, Eli had low body temp and poor oxygen levels so he ended up in the NICU for observation. It was a hard experience that was made even MORE difficult by the fact that Deniz had a bad cold and was not allowed in to see the new baby! He and my mother were both sick for nearly a week before Eli was born and coughing is simply not allowed around sick little babies. :( The whole experience was relly difficult especially since I was alone for much of the time and Deniz didn't really get to see his baby until he was 2 days old! For anyone who had problems in delivery or after, I hope everything worked out for you in the end, you know how hard it is to have complications of any kind! For all of you who had healthy pregnancies, labors, and babies, you are SO lucky! The added pressure is a lot to deal with, we are just so blessed to have such amazing people there to support us. Deniz was amazing the entire time of course but we both really needed help to make it through the emotional turmoil! We had my mom, Poppy, arrive from Hawaii 3 days before my due date and she stayed nearly 2 weeks after Eli was born to take care of us and the house (I think I forgot how to do the dishes!). Deniz' mom was wonderful during the entire hospital stay. She is a nurse so she understood everything a lot better than I did and that really helped me to feel like we were understanding everything. What was really nice was that, when I couldn't be in the NICU with Eli, she would sit with him for hours so he wouldn't have to be alone. Everyone from Deniz' family visited during the delivery (after my epidural!) and came back to visit several times during our 4 days in the NICU. It really helped to keep our spirits up to see how supportive everyone is.

So, on to the medical stuff...

His first day of life, while on all sorts of monitors, hie heart rate skyrocketed to 275 twice (his normal resting rate is around 120)! This caused alarm so the doctor ordered an EKG and an ECO of his heart. They discovered a few things wrong in his heart. First off, he has a congenital heart defect that is a small hole between the ventricles of his heart that causes a slight murmur. This is not as bad as it sounds and he will likely grow out of it in a few months, he is not being treated, they just monitor it and wait for it to go away. the second, more serious problem is a heart condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome (WPW). It is the presence of an extra abnormal electrical pathway in the heart that leads to periods of a very fast heartbeat. WPW occurs in 1% to 3% of the population. It is a condition that often is not noticed until adulthood because the symptoms don't usually present themselves in people until their early twenties. The condition has no complications or noticible symptoms in many people. When Eli's heartrate was spiking in the hospital, it was not noticible in his demeanor, he didn't even seem to notice.

So, for now, he is on beta blockers to keep his heartrate from getting too high and we see the cardiologist every month or so. Best case scenario, he will grow out of it by the time he is one year and he will go on to have no problems! If he does not grow out of it, he will likely have to have an surgery called an ablation where they destroy the extra pathway through a radiofrequency catheter procedure. This would likely be done around 4 or 5 years old, when he's a bit bigger so the catheter is less likely to cause damage. We are happy that it was found early so he can avoid having any complications without knowing what the problem is.
Well, in the end, we only had to stay in the hospital one extra day and Deniz and I were able to room in even though I had, technically been discharged. He came home from the hospital three days, 17 hours old and we are really enjoying getting to know our new little man.

If you are interested in reading more about WPW, the Mayo Clinic has a great site with information on symptoms, causes, complications, and treatments:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/wolff-parkinson-white-syndrome/DS00923

Eli's Birth Story

The labor process was both as expected and surprising at the same time (if that's possible).

I was due Saturday, April 25th but my doctor was expecting me to go well past the due date so we had plans to induce on Wednesday evening. Luckily, it didn't get to that!

I woke up Monday morning with cramps at around 7:30am and thought I was just uncomfortable so I got into the bath for a while (actually a long while). I waited until about 11:30 to wake Deniz because I figured, if it was labor, we were going to be in for a long day. For a few hours, I was still unconvinced that it was really labor since it wasn't that bad. My mom was here to help me and she, Deniz, and I played cribbage for a few hours until the contractions got bad enough that I was convinced it was for real, around 2 pm. At about 3:30, they were 5 minutes apart and 1 minute long so we decided to head to the hospital!

We made it to the hospital around 4:30 and, after waiting a while, I finally got checked out and was only 3 centimeters!! Oh boy! They said we had to wait a while longer before we could get checked in and get a room. We finally made it to a room (apparantly the best they had!) and I jumped into the tub first thing. When I emerged, I was ready for my epidural (I wanted to wait as long as possible, turns out, that wasn't very long!) and they were there as soon as I got dried off (I've heard stories about having to wait around for the anesthesiologist, boy am I glad THAT didn't happen!). It was wonderful! Labor is painful, I knew that going in but what I wasn't expecting was for it to be so exausting! The contractions hurt a ton and when they were over, I would feel like I was going to pass out. Deniz even had to catch me a few times because my knees would buckle. The Epidural really took care of that, it was wonderful. I was able to relax a bit, get all covered up and have Deniz' family come in to say hello (my mom was there most of the time already). The biggest reason I originally wanted to wait to get drugs is because you can't walk around once you get the epidural, you have to stay in bed. Turns out, I had NO desire to walk around AT ALL!! So it worked out well.

Just after the drugs came (around 9pm), I was merely 4 centimeters, barely any progression at all, looked like it was going to be a long night! About an hour later, the doctor finally came to check on me (not my doc though, she was on call the next day, I missed having her deliver by a just few hours) and I was 6 1/2 centimeters! The epidural really pushed my pregnancy into overdrive! He tried to break my water but it was already broken so he said he'd be back when it was time to push. About an hour later, I was in pain again and it turned out that the epidural was not strong enough for me and they had to give me more drugs.

Within a half an hour (around 11pm), I was feeling really weird but I didn't think it could be time to push because it had only been about 90 minutes since I was 6 1/2. My mom finally convinced me to call the nurse and she checked me and, sure enough, it was time to push!!!! So, we got ready and the nurse helped me get started. We pushed for a while and I was doing such a good job that they called for the doctor right away. Unfortunatley...the doctor was delivering another baby at the same time! After I pushed for 30 minutes, no doctor in sight, the nurse told me to STOP PUSHING!! So, for 20 minutes, I had to resist the urge to push (horrible!), waiting for the doctor to finish up with the other baby. Just when they were about to call in a different doctor, the other baby was born and our doctor came rushing in! Just a few contractions worth of pushing later and we had our baby!!! All-in-all, I was pushing for about an hour, including over 20 minutes of waiting.

They put our beautiful baby on my chest and he was beautiful! They were suctioning his nose and mouth and he was breathing very wet so they decided to call in the ICU because they thought he had inhaled some meconium. Turns out, he had inhaled and swallowed meconium so they had to suction his nose, throat, and airway with a tiny tube! Once he was breathing well, they bundled him up and let Deniz hold him. Then, his family and my mom joined us in the room to meet Eli. They weighed and measured him and gave him his first bath. After a while, everyone else went home (it WAS around 2am!) and we got a few minutes alone with our new baby.

At around 2:30 am, we were moved to our recovery room (about a third of the size of the delicery room) and, after a quick check-up they took our sleeping baby to the nursery to get evaluated and they told us he'd be back to feed around 4 am. We woke up at 6 am and guess what? No baby! When I called to ask about him, they told us that he had a low body temp so they were keeping him to try to warm him up and they would bring him to us soon. Within about 30 minutes, two nurses arrived (no baby) and one of them was the ICU nurse! Turns out, he had poor oxygen levels as well and they decided that, combined with the meconium incident, and the low body temp, he would need to be observed in the NICU in case of infection. This starts another story, see the next posting for the NICU saga.

Welcome to the World Baby Akmese!

We welcomed our baby boy into the world on Tuesday, April 28th at twenty minutes past midnight! He was a hearty 8lbs 11oz and 21 inches in length.

We named him Elias Wayne Akmese. Deniz' grandfather on his father's side was named Ilyas so we went with the more American version of Elias (we call him Eli) and My grandfather on my mother's side was named Edward Wayne but went by Wayne. It was so hard to pick a name! We were set on Jacob until we saw him and both thought he didn't look like a Jake. It took us a few days (and pressure from the birth certificate people!) but Deniz and I finally found the perfect name!!

He's a beauty, check out some of his first photos below and at this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=109274&id=824049553&l=5c387d2a4b


His model shot!


Just a few minutes old!


Feeding him for the first time


Sleeping like an angel!


First day home with mommy and daddy!

Baby Belly

I didn't particularly enjoy being pregnant, I was uncomfortable and in pain most of the time!

One thing I loved, however, was looking pregnant. I loved seeing that my baby was growing and really loved it when we could see and feel him moving around in there.

Funny thing is, now that I've had my baby, I actually kind of miss it! When pregnant, I thought I would never want to do it again but now I miss how close you feel to the baby and, of course, having people hold doors for you and all that is not bad either!
I was 10lbs 3 oz when I was born so the doctor wanted me to watch my weight gain during the pregnancy to hopefully avoid having a giant baby. Overall, I gained 25 pounds during the pregnancy, at least half during the last month (that's when my sweet tooth kicked in!). I was proud of myself and I did end up with a baby that was smaller than both Deniz and myself at birth (he was 9lbs 1oz).

Here are pictures of me at 28 weeks, 33 weeks, 38 weeks, and 40 weeks (the night before I went into labor!). For more pregnant pics, click the link below.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=94353&id=824049553&l=ab12658629
28 weeks



33 weeks









38 weeks





















40 weeks! I went into labor the very next morning!

Ultrasounds

My pregnancy went well despite one little hiccup (low amniotic fluid, no big deal) that caused us to have several extra ultrasounds. It was a bit stressful at the time, waiting to see if everything was ok but, the upside was that we got to see our little squid (that's what I thought it felt like to be pregnant, like a squid in my belly) much more than normal! Usually, you have an ultrasound at around 20 weeks and don't see your baby again until he joins the world, nearly 5 months later!! We had the normal 20 week ultrasound and also at 22, and 30 weeks. It was fun because we really got to see the baby growing bigger and, by the last one, he really looked like a baby and we could even tell that he had hair! It also really helped us to feel confident that that he is, indeed, a boy.
This picture is my favorite one, it's from the 20 week ultrasound. Our little boy was not cooperative and hardly ever let us see his face! They did 3D ultrasound too but there weren't any good ones, he was way to difficult. If you want to see more pics, check out the link below.

More pics from our first ultrasound:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1628664&l=987fca2486&id=824049553

Our New House!

As most of you know, Deniz and I have been living with his parents, Kemal and Alice for the past five and a half years. We have been looking for a house for a long time and with a baby on the way, the pressure was really on!

Well, after nearly two years of house hunting and touring probably 300 houses (I had very full weekends!), we finally found our perfect house!! It was early December when we went to an open house at a wonderful house in Pacifica. We put in an offer right away and, after a few weeks of negotiating back and forth, we got it! Escrow closed at the end of January and, with Deniz' whole family's help, we moved in at the end of February. It really was perfect timing, I was seven months pregnant and we were able to start living here just in time for my mom to visit and help unpack (we had NO IDEA that we had so much stuff!).

It has three bedrooms and two baths, is 1500 square feet upstairs, a wonderful view (that's what sold me), and a full basement/garage on the bottom level (that's what sold Deniz!)! We are so happy to be living on our own just in time to welcome our new baby!