I wuv my bwuvuh (brother)

The three little girls love to hold their brother. Here is Aria with Kainoah......
Joelle with Kainoah......

And Lana with Kainoah......

Kamri propped them both up on the bean bag in this picture.

Two little poppets......

Baby on the boppy....... the easiest way to hold him.

More pictures of Kainoah........

"I like my swing!!"
"Hello."
"Do you like my hat?"
"Good-bye."

"This outfit is 40 years old and it still fits!!"

"Help! I am already being fed BYU juice."

"All right. I give up. I'll go to BYU. Go Cougars!!!"

"Just chillin'."

"My first bath."

"Burrrr!!!! I don't like this part."

"Burrito baby!! When I'm swaddled, I'll sleep for four hours."

"Hello, again."

"And now do you like my hat?"

"Good-bye again."

Who Does Kainoah Look Like?

Kainoah and Daddy.......... Kainoah and Mommy.........

Kainoah and Adam..............

Kainoah and Kamri..............(I have to put two pictures here because it's hard to catch Kamri smiling, but in her "smiley" picture, you can't compare her to the baby because he is yawning.) .............

Kainoah and Jairin......(Had to put to of Jairin as well, "smiley and not smiley").................



























Kainoah and Mimi (Miri).............................
Caroline can't hold Kainoah, but she looks at him very intently everytime we hold him close to her.

Kainoah and Aria..........................

Kainoah and Gabelle (Joelle)........................

Little Baby (Kainoah) and Big Baby (Lana)............(I couldn't decide which picture was cuter)..........................

At the hospital

It's taken awhile to find time to do some blogging. We have now added not only a new baby, but seminary (what a challenge -- and we have 20 more years of it! ), and two sons attending a new junior high and a new high school, 40 minutes away. This is in addition to Caroline, virtual school for the older two girls and homeschool for the two little girls. Housework, church callings, Rob off-island for a week, etc. Haven't figured out how to exercise amidst all this, but I am determined to get some blogging of Kainoah done. So here it goes.

July 22nd, 2009 Wednesday

About 10:30 am

Here I am with my pile of books waiting to have a baby.................

and waiting......................................and waiting.....................................and waiting........................................and waiting...........................................

I've finished my novel and started another and still no baby.

Fourteen hours after entering the hospital, it is now 10:45 pm and ................................still no baby. The doctor hopes that maybe gravity will help, but I can't quite bring myself to do jumping jacks. Joy!! At 11:32 pm., we finally have a new baby boy. 7 lbs. 5 oz. 20 inches Unfortunately, after holding him for only a couple minutes, he is whisked off to the nursery because he is grunting which is a sign of respiratory distress. Sigh....... Not again!!

At first he is only placed on oxygen.
But it's not long before he gets hooked up to everything, oxygen level, blood pressure, and pulse monitors in addition to the oxygen tube in his nose. They also put an IV in his arm, although I don't know how they found such a tiny little vein. Because I can't nurse him until he is stable, fluids and antibiotics go through his IV.














Poor little guy. But he doesn't cry. He is a very calm baby. Is that curly hair?

]

Four long days in the hospital...moving from my bed (loss of blood and anemia make me too weak to do much else) to the nursery (where I can finally nurse the baby) and back to bed. At least I have my beautiful purple flowers which Rob brought to brighten my room and my day.

I need to send him some flowers because while I am in the hospital, he is the one holding down the fort and tending to the other eight children at home. Somehow he still finds time to visit the baby and me twice a day. And he brings yummy food every time :-). It feels so good to eat without heartburn.

July 26th 2009 Sunday

Baby Kainoah is finally breathing on his own and he gets to come home Sunday evening. After church, Rob and I go to the hospital to pick him up. It's been a rough couple days, driving 30 min. back and forth to the hospital to nurse him as much as possible. We are so happy he is coming home, but I don't think he wants to wear real clothes.

The other children are overjoyed to finally have their new brother home. The only problem is that four of them have fevers (Miri, Aria, Joelle and Caroline). We dig out a mask to keep the germs away and let them each have a turn holding him anyway.

His full name is Kainoah Priddis Brantley. Kainoah is a Hawaiian name meaning "the name" (referring to God), but it is also a Hebrew name. We chose the Hebrew spelling (the "h" on the end). In Hebrew Kainoah means "angel of rest/peace." Yes, it was a hint about what temperament we hoped he'd have, and yes, so far so good. He is a very good baby. He is content and rarely cries.

This is the exhausted Mommy, very happy to have her new little bundle home.

Snogging Anyone?

In honor of Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince, we spent Monday evening and all day Tuesday watching the first five Harry Potter movies in order.

For breakfast Tuesday morning, we had pumpkin pasties (pumpkin muffins). For dinner, we tried to find an English recipe that looked edible, but blood sausage casserole, beef and liver stew and beef and kidney pie just did not whet our appetites. We noticed, however, that the British eat all sorts of pies, so we developed our own meat pie recipe. I dare any Brit to come up with a yummier meat pie recipe. It was so good, we added it to our recipe collection. We also celebrated with Butterbeer (spiced-up vanilla ice cream served in sparkling apple juice) and fruit pies (peach, pumpkin and apple).

At 11:00 pm, Rob left with the older four kids to attend the premier showing of Harry Potter at the theater down town. They got to the theater 1/2 hour early only to find that Maui has more Harry Potter fans than we anticipated. They found a madhouse -- Harry Potter maniacs everywhere, some even dressed up. What they didn't find was good seating. Their theater (and three others) were entirely full and there were ticket-checkers at the doors, so you could not switch theaters. They did not get to sit together. Jairin found a single seat near the top and opted to sit alone in a good seat rather than with the others. Adam and Miri sat on the second row on the side, and Rob and Kamri sat on the first row in the corner. They came home at 3 am with aching necks.

Rob and I went the next night.

Our opinion of the movie? -- great acting and a somewhat dark and disconnected plot held together with a lot of humorous snogging.

Everything grows in Volcanic Dirt

One of Rob's favorite past times is gardening and what better place to garden than Maui with its nutrient-filled red volcanic dirt and year-round temperate climate.

Me--- I enjoy the fresh produce, but I have a brown thumb and everything I touch dies. Actually, I have only to look at some plants before they wither and die, which is why all the plants in our house are fake. Besides, I hate dirt on my feet and dirt under my nails. I also hate dirt in the house, but I'm having to tolerate more of that here on Maui --my price for paradise :-). So, I am happy to have a husband with a green thumb who enjoys gardening. This way, we follow the commandment to have a garden, but I only have to reap the rewards. Some of the little Brantleys appear to be taking after their dad, particularly Jairin, Miri and Aria who love to help water the garden and pick the vegetables.




Unfortunately, the climate also lends itself to fungus, so now the gardeners are trying to save their tomato crop, which has been smitten with blight.

Messes with Mommy

The three little girls love to help Mommy make bread. And because they enjoy it so much, Mommy is happy to clean up the mess.