2015 // a year in review

It's the end of January and it's about time I reviewed the past year. It's whatever, at least it's happening.

At the beginning of 2015, I thought my life could not get more eventful than 2014. Marriage, baby, how could there be more?

I was so so wrong.

JAN

Let's start with January. Leka turned 21 (I know- we're young. According to Leka he's an "old man"), I was coaching club volleyball and I just had to give up playing for the UVU women's club team because I couldn't afford it... little did I know it was a blessing in disguise because I found out that I was pregnant at the end of January. Ammon was barely 6 months old, but I wasn't nervous in the slightest. I love being a mama and I felt like having a second when we did was the perfect thing for our family. This pregnancy was already 100x harder though because of nausea and fatigue, which I didn't really experience with Ammon until the 3rd trimester.

FEB

February 1st was Ammon's blessing day. We celebrated our first wedding anniversary with a weekend up at Aspen Grove. It was a couples retreat for Valentines Day that my parents thought would be great for us. Well, not only were we the youngest ones there, we were about 10 years younger than the youngest couples there. It was still awesome, and we spent a lot of it hiking the beautiful snowy mountain trails and enjoying the scenery.
Me and Leka decided to keep our new pregnancy to ourselves, but my family found out about baby number 2!
Also Ammon got his first 2 teeth!

MAR

In March, my best friend Amanda got her mission call to Italy. We took an emergency trip to Cali to visit Leka's family and take care of some stuff. It just so happened to be the weekend, so we traveled back all Friday night (Leka drank so many energy drinks that he started to see things- like cops chasing him) so that I could make it to my club volleyball tournament Saturday morning, which also doubled as my birthday. I finally turned 20. I'm not going to lie, it was not a fun birthday. I was super emotional, had no sleep, and we were about 1 1/2 hours from home, but my team finally won a set, so it turned out to be a promising day.
Ammon started crawling in March and had his first dentist appointment!

APR 

April was pretty chill. Leka and I got to go to General Conference for the first time together. It was actually his first time ever. Also my lovely friend Kate got married! My sister noticed a very soft and slightly swollen spot on Ammon's head and I decided to have it checked out since his soft spots should've been gone by now. My doctor called me in a panic after getting the x-ray back that Ammon had a skull fracture. He kept hinting that it was no bump on the head, he had to have been dropped from a significant height or had some major impact. We guessed that it might have happened at the 24 hour fitness daycare since I dropped him off there twice a week while I coached practice. I'm still not positive that's what happened, but we tried to be a lot more careful with who watched Ammon after that.
We also got to walk through the Payson temple open house which is essentially the day we decided that's where we wanted to be sealed.
Leka's dad and stepmom welcomed a beautiful baby girl, Elisa on the 26th! It was such an amazing experience to meet Ammons new aunty.

MAY

In May, I got to take a trip to Arizona with my mom and sister for a "mother's retreat" for Mother's Day. It was a blast! If you've never been to Last Chance, it's an experience you definitely want- especially because I got 2 pairs of Nike Air's for $60! What a steal!!
Mother's Day is also the day I announced my pregnancy at about 4 months pregnant, and in the same weekend, Leka's brother Mike came to live with us!
My little brother Kevin graduated from high school!
We had our family reunion down in Las Vegas where Ammon took a couple of his first steps!

JUN

 

June was the month I found out the gender of our new baby via confetti cannon. Best decision I ever made. I love surprises! I think with the next one I'll wait until baby is born for the gender reveal!
We discovered a splash pad around the corner from our house and spent a lot of good summer days there. We also celebrated Leka's first father's day. My BFF Kim who also doubles as my cousin came home from her mission as well! We entered Ammon in the baby contest at Orem Summerfest, and although he didn't win anything for being cute, I told them they were crazy, cause obviously my baby is adorable (we did win a raffle prize though!)

Ammon officially started walking!

JUL

In July obviously we celebrated the 4th of July! It was so incredibly fun! Then a week and a half later we got to celebrate Ammon's first birthday! We hiked to stewart falls (6 months pregnant!) and then Mike moved back to California.

AUG

August was fun! Leka and I got to do the moonlight lift ride and go to a REAL Salt Lake soccer game! Got to watch my friend from high school, Alexia Meyer perform and compete on SYTYCD! Took Ammon to 7 peaks, and worked a part time job in HR at Provo Canyon School. Took Ammon to his first carnival. Leka's best friend, Hunter returned home from Guatemala.

SEP

September started out great! Though I was feeling very huge, we went to lots of weddings and took Ammon to the aquarium! On September 12 all of our hard work paid off and we got to enter the temple for the first time to receive our endowments. It was the most wonderful experience for me because for the first time in my life, I really had to work at getting myself worthy to enter and all of that paid off. The Mount Timpanogos temple is beautiful by the way! I had our sealing all scheduled for October 2 (yes, 10 days before my due date :) Then, 12 days later, I woke up and had a baby! You can find that story here!
Anyways that pretty much set off a chain reaction of events! Obviously we had to reschedule the sealing ;)

OCT

On October 3rd, we took Fina to general conference for her first time and then we finally got to bring our little miracle baby home from the NICU! A couple weeks later I had to get a colonoscopy/endoscopy to test for Chron's Disease. They did find something that looked like an infection in my small intestine. Thank goodness the GI doctor did a biopsy and gave me the news that it wasn't Chron's, but it was odd that I kept having the pains... eventually they went away and at my follow up they told me that ibuprofen had probably been the reason for problems in the hospital that did something to my digestive tract. My best friend Kim, the one who doubles as my cousin... yeah she married her sweetheart on October 22 and I got to witness their sealing in the temple. It was the first sealing I'd ever witnessed and it had me so excited for my own. We also found out that my sister in law, Sesi, was expecting a baby BOY! Yay for boy cousins! Then we celebrated Halloween by taking Ammon trick or treating... AKA going to maybe 5 houses before we were all worn out.

NOV

 

In November we went to the 3A high school football semifinals to support our cousin Wayne Alofipo as he coached them to the championship game! It was freezing, but they squashed them! We got our family pictures taken and then celebrated Thanksgiving in Las Vegas with my moms family.

DEC

Finally, December was a great month. Ammon said "mama" intentionally for the first time. He also got his first haircut just days before our little family was sealed for time and all eternity in the Payson Temple on December 5. I've never had a more spiritual experience. It was seriously indescribable. I felt so blessed knowing that everyone I loved most went out of their way to be there, including Leka's beautiful mama from California who dressed us in our Tongan attire. Funny side note to that day: my sister woke up and couldn't even move. She'd been having pain for a couple days but it was progressively getting worse. So they decided to give her a priesthood blessing, which got her through the sealing, but after the luncheon, they took her to the ER and found out she had a kidney stone. Priesthood blessings people- they work wonders. The next day, Leka got the awesome opportunity to bless baby Tyson.
My best friend Maddi got her mission call to New Mexico.
OH! On Dec. 10 I entered an Intermountain Moms contest. Their 12 days of giveaways. AND I WON! I've never won anything before in my life. It was a $75 gift card to massage envy.
A few weeks later, we left for Florida for Christmas vacation courtesy of my wonderful loving parents. I had back pain the entire week. Luckily, I had leftover percocet from the C-Section and I used it all week to help ease the pain. If I didn't have that, I don't know how I would've made it through Florida because when we flew into Vegas and then drove to St. George to have our family Christmas party, I ended up going to the ER during dinner because I couldn't even breathe. I honestly felt so stupid for going in, but it ended up being critical! After 4-5 hours in the ER, they told me that I needed to get my galbladder out because it was BAD! So I made the executive decision to drive back up to Orem to get it removed so that Leka could go to work and I could recover in my own bed. That drive was miserable, but the kids did great and Leka was such a trooper at holding down the fort. We literally drove straight to the ER, I didn't even go inside my house. So I spent the next 2 days in the hospital. Had to get another endoscopy to get a gallstone out that had passed and gotten stuck.


These days I find myself frustrated with my body and I can't understand why I am so tired all the time and I have to keep reminding myself that I went through a lot of traumatic events lately and I need time to heal! By next year, I'll be back to normal... and hopefully not pregnant again for at least 2 years!

Tyson's Birth Story

Life is crazy.

For the past couple weeks I've been adjusting to my new life. Going from one to two babies is not an easy transition, at least not physically and sometimes emotionally. However, my heart has just been exploding for the past couple weeks with love (cheesy, but extremely true).

I feel like my life has been completely turned upside down.

On Wednesday, September 23, I had a normal doctors appointment, I was 37 weeks along and I had been having a lot of pain in my upper abdomen for a couple weeks. My doctor couldn't really give me an answer and kind of just told me to suck it up. I even went in to labor and delivery on the previous Sunday (20th), and I didn't get any results there. So after all my frustration, I woke up Wednesday night (aka Thursday morning- like 2 am) like I always did to go to the bathroom, and when I went to lay back down I felt the pain come back, only this time it was a little bit lower and it was progressively getting worse. It got so incredibly overwhelming that I woke up Leka. It took me a total of 3 minutes to decide that a hospital trip was necessary, which alarmed Leka because no matter what kind of pain I was in previously, I always refused going to the hospital.

So apparently, I don't handle pain very well and I really only remember Leka grabbing me a robe and kind of awkwardly putting it on me and then me trying and miserably failing to walk to get to the car. He seriously considered calling an ambulance, but I decided we were way too dang close and I could do it. He ran around, forgetting: the hospital bag (that I finally packed that day before!), to turn any lights off, our first born son who was asleep (luckily my sister lives upstairs, so that wasn't a huge issue), and he even forgot to close the front door as we rushed out and I tried to get in the car. I couldn't find any relief. Any position I put my body into only made the pain worse. I pretty much yelled at Leka the entire car ride because he was either going too fast over the bumps and turns or he wasn't getting me there soon enough! Poor guy!

We went straight to the emergency room because I just wanted immediate help! The nurses ran out with a wheelchair and all I remember is making a huge scene in the ER. There were like 5 people there, but it was still pretty embarrassing, though at the time, I didn't care, not one bit. You could probably hear me from across town, I was so incredibly loud. I remember one old lady saying, "is she gonna have a baby?", and Leka responded with, "I'm not sure," and she says, "I think she's gonna have a baby." 

So they rushed me up to labor and delivery and had an entire room full of about 12 nurses ready to deliver me. They got me on the bed and the nurse went to check my cervix... "She's dilated to a one, everyone." 

If I wasn't in so much pain I would've been ticked. I think I assumed that that was going to happen. I was a one at my last two appointments and this didn't feel like labor to me. 

The nurses kept feeling my belly and telling me how hard it felt and they started an IV. It wasn't until I got the epidural that I felt some kind of relief. It took the edge off but I still felt major pain in my upper abdomen. Thankfully, my doctor came rushing in minutes later. I absolutely love my doctor and trust him 100%, so I knew my savior had been looking out for me.

Then came the bad news.

Since I wasn't dilating or making any progress, my doctor decided to perform an emergency C-Section when the baby's heart rate started to drop. In my head I was thinking "PLEASE, NO, I'LL DO ANYTHING!"- Surgeries freak me out and the thought of being cut open was not very appealing to me. But somehow, I kept my mouth shut and agreed and surprisingly stayed very calm despite my pain and uncomfortable state. The whole thing was miserable for about the next half hour. They wheeled my bed back, got me on a table and put up that cloth thing, separating my head from my body, and started spraying stuff on my belly. Really all I remember is constant shivering. It was freezing in that room, plus my body was releasing so much adrenaline from the pain and all the medication. Then I remember hearing my doctor say "making the incision now" and in my head feeling like I was gonna pass out. There was a tugging sensation in my abdomen as they cut and pulled him out. I heard the nurses say, "happy birthday, buddy!" and then they rushed him out of the room as another one said, "he's not breathing." They asked Leka if he wanted to go with baby, so he quickly kissed my forehead and rushed out of the room. The next 20 minutes were extremely hard. My body was in total shock and I was really uncomfortable lying on the table. So I closed my eyes and tried to focus on my breathing. I finally started to feel relaxed since I had woke up that morning at 2 and now it was almost 4:30. The doctors finished sewing me up and then a nurse brought me a body warmer. It was basically a big plastic bag that they blew warm air into. My teeth were chattering so hard. Then I saw Leka's face. It brought me so much comfort to have him there with me. Then they took me off the operating table and gave me a nice warm blanket. Everything got better from there.
Still no baby, but they took me back to my room where my parents were waiting for me. They offered me some nice medicine. I really don't remember what they gave me, but it was awesome and knocked me out for a couple hours. Apparently my mom took a video of me telling the story of what had happened, and not only was I shivering the whole time, I was so out of it. I really don't remember a thing.
When I woke up a couple hours later, they took me over to the NICU, where I got to see my baby for the first time. He was on the CPAP and I wasn't allowed to hold or even touch him, but it was definitely a moment that I needed. I was there for maybe 3 minutes and then they wheeled me down to my room. They told me I could come back later when I was a little more rested. The rest of that day was kind of a blur, I just remember how incredibly hard it was for me to move. My every nightmare about a C-Section had come true and I was just at the beginning of recovery. Everyone kept telling me that the fastest way to recover was to get up and move and I found that incredibly hard to believe! But after a couple hours, I really wanted to see my son and hold him!
The moment was surreal. He didn't really feel like my baby, but it was still a great moment. I don't think all the emotion had caught up to me yet.

To sum up the rest of the hospital stay, I was there for the next 3 days, so 4 days total. It was a big blur of trying to heal myself and see my baby as much as I could. By day 3, I was trying to stand and walk as much as I could.

The one thing I want to remember most about this whole crazy story, was how well Leka handled everything. I can't think of one person who I would've rather had by my side. He stayed calm and collected despite the lack of sleep and all of the pressure he was faced with. We cried a lot together in that hospital, but we also found reason to laugh and be happy, especially as Tyson grew stronger every day. I found myself expressing gratitude to and for him, pretty much the entire hospital stay. 
After I was discharged, I came back to the hospital every single day to attempt breastfeeding.

Tyson's only issues after he was off the CPAP was a lack of oxygen and he didn't have the natural reflex to suck, so they had to feed him through a tube. I did a really good job pumping so that I could keep up with him. I was so determined to breastfeed (SPOILER ALERT- I was successful ;)
After 8 days of what seemed like FOREVER, we got the car seat call! (basically just a call saying to bring in the car seat for inspection- in other words telling you your baby is ready to go home) I cried when I got that call. It doesn't matter how long your baby is in the NICU, it is a hard journey. 1 day or 1 month, it is emotionally draining.
We brought him home on the 9th day, after going to the morning session of general conference. It was such a great day, and one I will never forget.
Tyson Charles Palu

Born on September 24, 2015 at 3:41 am
Weight: 7lbs 6oz Height: 20 in
18 days early
He's our little fighter and we love him so so much. I can't believe how much my love grows for him every single day.
2 kids is tough, but so incredibly worth it! I love my family.