Gaskins go to Yosemite

Taking full advantage of our time off, we took our 2nd road trip with Yaelle last week...this time to Yosemite! At 5 weeks, hoping Yaelle would be on her best sleeping behavior, we hit the road. Five hours and 2 feeding stops later, we arrived at the only 4-star resort at the south entrance of the park (using a great deal on a groupon of course).

The air was crisp and cool, but for mid-Feb, I was shocked to see absolutely NO snow, not even on the mountain peaks! We stayed 2 nights and 3 days, spoiling ourselves with room service and fat kid food. The first day we went hiking to the Giant Sequoias, the 2nd day we went on a beautifully scenic drive to the Yosemite Valley lookout, stopping at darn near every pull out along the way for a those necessary selfies.

Yaelle all suited up for the hike.

We were both soooo happy to get out of the house and were pleasantly surprised at how well Yaelle did on the entire trip. So well in fact, that I'm already planning our next one :)

Below are some of my favorite photos:

Hangin on to the roots of a fallen Giant Sequoia.

Standing at the foot of Giants. #iknow #socliche

Daddy and baby boo :)

Squinty selfie at the Yosemite Valley Lookout

Stopped at the side of the road just so I could climb that rock.

Yaelle told us to do this....and she also took the pic ;)

Placenta Goes to Guinda

Whether you eat it, bury it, or let the hospital dispose of it, more and more mothers today take one more thing into consideration when planning their births: "What will I do with my placenta?"

When considering ours, we decided to encapsulate it and that I would ingest during the post partum period. Gross? Maybe. But pills are like fried food, it doesn't really matter what's in the middle....it all tastes the same ;)

Some mothers and midwives believe that the placenta offers benefits that help recovery after birth -- increase in energy, reduction in bleeding, increase in milk production and mood stabilizer for the "baby blues". Doctors, tend to be more skeptical. I had decided to go with the midwives' side of things and give it a shot.

However, sometime during the last 3 hours of my labor, my temperature spiked to 101.7˚ and the nurses concluded there was an infection in my uterus. (Caused by one of them during one of the "checkings", of course.) I wasn't sure if this created an issue for ingestion, so I let my cousin know, who would be processing the placenta. It wasn't until after she had made the 3 hour trip down to the Bay Area to steam, dehydrate, grind and encapsulate Yaelle's placenta, that she received a response from a Placenta Encapsulation Specialist that the pills were NOT safe to ingest. Well, there goes that.

So we did the next best thing and decided to bury it, in pill form.

At 2 weeks old, we took Yaelle on a little road trip to Shobab's Family Ranch in Guinda, CA. The ranch is of particular significance in that we (Shobab and I) were legally married there...and in general, has a wealth of family history and memories.

We found a recently planted tree in the front of the property, buried it at the trunk base, snapped a few pics, and wished the tree a life of good growth and happiness. As Yaelle grows, so will the tree, and it'll be fun to keep a photo journal of the two every time we go back to visit. Another memory to add to the books :)

Behind the Name

Naming our daughter, especially our first, was a pretty daunting task...even more so when Shobab's siblings' names are a plethora of strong and unique ones-- Bela, Camalo, Talmai, Jotbathau, Milcah, Calvin and Aaron.

Then there's my siblings' names-- Timothy, Rachel and Philip.

But, as plain jane as mine are, there is also a common theme to all our names: They are all found in the Bible. So, in keeping that theme, at least we knew where to start.

Below is the meaning and/or reasoning behind her name: Yaelle Sylvia-Sanaa Gaskin

2 days old.

Yaelle: (Yah-el) - Hebrew origin. Our own variation in the original spelling "Yael".

Meaning - 1) Strength of God 2) Mountain (wild) goat, able to ascend. 

Biblical significance - A woman mentioned in the Book of Judges in the Bible, as the heroine who killed Sisera (Commander of the Caananite army) to deliver Israel from the troops of King Jabin. Sisera had fled to her tent under the assumption he was on peaceful ground. However, Yael waited until he fell asleep, then drove a tent stake through his head. Though she was going against her own authorities, she proved that she was only loyal to God by fighting for his people. 

Sylvia: We couldn't help but name the first granddaughter in my family after her awesome grandma ;) Watch the vid below to see my mom's reaction. Priceless. 

Sanaa: (Sah-naa) - African Swahili origin. Meaning Work of Art, beauty. 

Honestly, we just loved the name and wanted to fit it in somewhere...so we just added the hypen ;)

Yaelle has Arrived!

Yaelle Sylvia-Sanaa Gaskin blessed us with her presence on 1/15/15 at 5:36am, 6lbs 7ounces and 20.5" inches!!

A healthy baby girl came in the world staring at daddy Sho and actually gave him a little smile! Totally alert and started sucking on her hand after about 20 min, so we put her on the teet and she started latching right away!! (...to all other moms this means the world)

We've been recovering and resting in the hospital and will be back home by tomorrow morning. Daddy Sho has been the most helpful & loving partner and father that even several nurses have tried to hire him, lol. 

Yaelle is amazing: feeding like a champ every 2-3 hours, sleeping soundly through all the shuffle and passing her tests with flying colors. We'll see how night 2 goes...we hear that's when they actually realize their world is different and they get more fussy. 

Anyway, we are so thankful for her and the love of her many cousins, aunties, uncles and friends this lil' girl has been born into. God is great all the time. 

We love y'all!!!

For the next blog? Meaning of her name :) 

The Waiting Game (updated Jan 15)

Hi Y'all!

Little baby girl Gaskin is now 11 days past her "due date" with a little action here and there. Actually, a more appropriate description is "due month" where 38-42 weeks is considered full term. So really, she's all good and still within her timing. While it does seem like a lot of time has passed, we've been handling the "waiting" very well. It's given us time to get things in order and to relax before she changes our world.

It's touching to realize how many of our friends and family actually think about us when it seems like having a baby is just such a normal piece of life. However, in lieu of the million texts back and forth the last few days, we've decided to start this blog just to keep everyone in the loop as the action happens...or doesn't happen.

I'll update daily in the timeline below. Thank you all so much for your continual thoughts, well wishes and prayers, we are truly blessed!

xoxo - The Gaskins


Baby Timeline:

Jan 2nd - "Due Date", 40 weeks

Jan 12th - 9:15pm: baby girl still baking

Jan 13th - 

4am: Having regular contractions 3-4min since 2:30am. If this keeps up for another hour or 2, will consider going to hospital. Still blogging, so obviously manageable ;)

5:40am: Well that was anti-climactic... The contractions spaced back out and stopped. Back to bed, no baby. 

9:30pm: Contractions started again, but too spaced out to begin timing. Just relaxing and reading while baby listens to classical music and Shobab fixes various things around the house. 

Jan 14th --
2am: Contractions have been steady since they started earlier at 9:30, about 5-6 min apart. Progressively getting slightly lower and more painful, laboring on the yoga ball seems to help. Letting Shobab sleep now, if this continues I'll definitely need all his energy for me later :) As far as I know, water has not yet broke. 

6:30am: Still home, still having contractions....they were steady at about 2-3 min apart and more intense for a while (Shobab was counteracting pain/pressure by massaging and pushing on my lower back), but in last hour the contractions have spaced back out. Hopefully we'll be able to get some sleep before they get closer again. Soooo tired. 

12pm: Been steady laboring for a good 12 hours now. Still home, I caught a break around 8am and was able to get almost an hour sleep. Back at it, regular contractions about 3min apart, 6-7 out of 10 intensity level. So over it. 

2pm: Continuing labor at home, into the 14th hour. Mom came over to give Sho a break. Averaging 3 min apart still. Broke out the massage table and being tended to like a queen. Will prob head to hospital in an hour before traffic hits. As its going now, im anticipating a long and hopefully steadily progressing labor.... But I've got a great team :)

5pm: We just checked into our room at the hospital...I'm 4-5cm dialated, 80% effaced! (ie, encouraging  progress) Contractions are good, strong and steady. Shobab has been excellent support and a great coach throughout. I'm detached from monitors and free to walk around and make myself comfortable while I do my thang. 

Im sure as things progress, my blogging between contractions will diminish and my mom or sis will take over the updates. Let's do this!

6:20pm: Bag of water popped when the midwife was checking her. 6cm. Sarah is a superstar... handling like a champ.

8:25pm: Sarah is getting an epidural now. She has been laboring for almost 24 hours and with only 45 mins of sleep. The epi will not only make her feel like a million bucks, but will give her some time to rest before it's time to push.

Jan. 15---

12:00am: Contractions coming almost on top of each other, but no urge to push yet. Sho is getting anxious, so whoever is still up and reading this, please continue to pray.

1:15am: Sarah's comfortable... Just sitting around talking. Recent topics of conversation include nursing careers, kickboxing and Tim Hon.

2:10am: Everyone's sleeping or pretending to sleep. 

2:50am: Totally dilated and her head is nice and low!! Time to start pushing!!

4:00am: Still pushing... Best workout of her life (all you mamas know)! 

5:10am: please PRAY!! This baby needs to start moving in the next 30 mins or there may be some complications. Lord Jesus, get this baby out!

5:36am: aaaaand God is good! She was born a few pushes later. Gorgeous Yaelle Sylvia-Sanaa Gaskin. Healthy, deep cry, wavy black hair...she is so beautiful! :)