So Cal Sundseths

This birth of Khloe Mai was definitely a memorable one. Sorry for the length of this post but there were a lot of things going on when Khloe Mai decided to pop out!

So it all started when I had to make some emergency plans to go and see dad, he's been battling colon cancer now for 2 yrs. After talking with his oncologist and primary about his condition both Geanie and I thought it would be best to go and see him ASAP. I had planned on staying a week, Oct 11-18. The visit was good, I was able to see dad and spend some quality time with him at his bedside and was also able to help get some work done on my parent's house during the week. My sister Marlo and her son Nathan flew in from Aloha OR to visit dad too and it was great to see them.

On my last night there things got interesting, my brother Mike and his wife Annie we're in the hospital giving birth to their first son Lucas Rune Sundseth! We were able to go up to Waimea that night and see him. It was awesome! This was the first time I was able to see one of my nieces/nephews right after they were born!

Then things took a drastic turn. I was woken up by mom on Saturday morning telling me to make sure the ambulance didn't hit the house when coming down the driveway! It turned out dad was in extreme pain throughout the night and was having difficulty breathing. He was rushed to ER and we all followed him up there and spent the afternoon pacing the ER wondering if this was it. I rescheduled my afternoon flight home that day to the redeye that evening to make sure he would be admitted for care into the hospital.

He was finally admitted and Dave, Jordy, Kaeo and I actually went back home and worked more on dad's driveway. After a visit to the Hospital for my final farewell to dad I called Geanie around 6:00pm Hawaii time to make sure everything was ok. It turns out she was not ok, contractions every 5-8min at least was not ok for me, especially being 2500+mi away and my flight not arriving in San Diego until Sunday at 10:20am!

Needless to say, the redeye was awesome! Nothing like wondering if you've missed your child's birth with a stinky triathlete thinking your shoulder was a headrest for 5hrs! I arrived in San Francisco and called Geanie before the plane had landed, Ashley ended up answering and I found out she was admitted into Triage at 11:30pm PST and was 8.5cm dilated!

To make a long story short I ended up buying a different flight down to San Diego to get in 1.5hrs earlier at 8:50am. Roy picked me up and we sped off to Mary Birch Hospital for Women. I ran into the delivery room and Geanie was exhausted! Most women try to get the labor pains to go away by pushing the baby out, Geanie had to endure the labor pains to hold the baby in until I arrived! After a 12 pushes (3/contraction and there were 4 contractions) they said "Stop, you're about to crown we're calling the Dr!" Well, just as luck would have it, our Dr was called into another birth literally seconds before us, there was a baby with breathing issues apparently being born so Geanie was waiting again, luckily not for me this time. After literally taking a 30-45min nap from sheer exhaustion, in comes the Dr and starts working with Geanie.

I said I wasn't going to watch the full frontal assault but curiosity always seemed to get the better of me. I was like watching a car wreck as one of my friend's described, you know it's not pleasant be in that situation but you just have to watch. I think I was just intrigued by the anatomical changes that happen down there, it's utterly amazing yet horrifying in a nice way.

After 1.5hrs of being in the delivery room with Geanie, Geanie successfully had our awesome little gremlin, Khloe Mai Sundseth. Born officially at 11:04am October 19, 2008 weighing in at a healthy 6lbs 9oz and 45cm long with a full head of jet black hair and brown eyes. It's amazing to see your flesh and blood creation lying in front of you, and to top it off, having a healthy and smooth pregnancy, except for the last 12hrs, we could not have been more grateful to become parents!