Skype Me!

Ok, I may have a new love in my life!

If you don't know about Skype, let me tell you about it. Skype is a FREE online, video conferencing service. If each party has a webcam then you can talk to each other while virtually sitting in each others living rooms. However, if either or both parties don't have webcams you can still talk to each other over this service with amazing clarity. It actually allows me to talk to people inside my apartment vs at the end of my driveway hoping it doesn't start to rain.

Now, this might not be so great if you live in the same city (although, Dine and I have been known to talk over Skype vs use our cell phones!) but it is absolutely awesome for communicating with people far away - which for us, of course is everyone! So far we have been able to talk with Annie and Lucas in South Korea ( and got a virtual tour of their beautiful apartment), Meaghan, Jake and Carey in Wisconsin, my parents, sister, nephew, grandma, grandpa and aunt in Minneapolis, and Vonny and Justin in Minneapolis. All conversations have been highly successful and a lot of fun. Talking with Vonny and Justin was cool because they didn't have a webcam, but we were able to talk, and they were able to see me.

So what I'm saying to you, friends and family, is that you should take five minute to download Skype, sign up and look me up! You can look me up by name or username: kcvirki
Phil and I look forward to Skyping with you soon.

A Refreshing Medical Experience

Wow! I have to say I am totally excited about our latest medical experience. Last Wednesday Phil and I went to see Dr. Jacqueline Hahn, ND. What's an ND? ND stands for a licensed naturopathic physician ; a practitioner who takes a more "natural and holistic" approach to medicine. Dr. Hahn is also a licensed and practicing midwife and home birth specialist. Phil and I have been considering having a home birth and have really been interested in talking with someone other than our current care provider for another perspective.

After our hour consultation with Dr. Hahn I was thoroughly impressed. It was the single most comprehensive conversation we have had with anyone in the medical profession concerning our pregnancy and experience. Our visits with the OB have been a little disconcerting for several reasons. Every visit, including the first visit, has been very brief, very fast, and all questions with the Dr. have been met with round-about non-answers with one foot out the door. Even though I have expressed interest and concern about being a part of the conversation in terms of my pregnancy and delivery, I don't feel like that is or will be the case. 

With the midwife, however, I really got a sense of her philosophy on child birth and felt connected to what she offers. I also felt that she really heard our questions and concerns and answered them with sincerity. Phil was more skeptical about seeing a midwife than I was, and he was impressed with the our experience. The other cool thing was that she encouraged us to continue to see our OB for as long as we felt comfortable, and to take advantage of our insurance policy if we wanted. I appreciated this, because she didn't seem territorial about her patients, which are sentiments our OB certainly has expressed.

So after this visit, we haven't made any definite decisions about what we want to do. Phil wants to ask more questions at our OB appointment on Wednesday and get a tour of the hospital. But I feel really good about finally having some options and feeling good about those options. I think a home birth is definitely within the realm of possibilities both financially, emotionally, and physically - but we will see what happens.

Boy, oh boy, oh boy.........

That's right, ITS A BOY!!!!!!!!

Phil and I had a very successful trip to Oahu on Monday where we learned we have a healthy baby boy growing inside of me!
Neither of us had a real preference about the sex of the baby, but we were very excited to find out. Somehow I had a feeling it would be a boy. Not so much a recent feeling, but more of a long held, residual type of feeling that I would have boys.
My sister has a son, Kiernan (see pic), who is almost 4 months old now. He will soon have a cousin to play with (well, once we move a little closer) and I am excited they will be so close in age.
The whole experience in Oahu was a little strange and took us a couple of days to process. It wasn't that the trip was all that out of the ordinary (except for getting harassed by a crazy germaphobe in the Hilo airport parking lot) its just that it was highly anticipated and all over in about twenty minutes. We flew to Oahu, which is about a 50 minute flight, took the shuttle to the clinic, and were in and out of there in 25 minutes! The doctor that did the sonogram was a funny guy - trying to convince us that we didn't want to know the sex, telling us about the terror that his boys are, and that was about it!
Overall, everything went great - we are happy, and excited, and moving on the next big task - A NAME!!!

Fun With The Fam

Phil's Mom, Sue, and his two youngest sisters, Ellie and Maddie, have been visiting over the last ten days.
IT HAS BEEN FABULOUS!
We had tons of fun, which was easy with these guys. We explored a lot of the island that Phil and I haven't been to in awhile. We went kayaking at Captain Cook, four wheeling out to Green Sand Beach, hiking in Waipio Valley, whale watching in Hilo Bay - we hit all the hot spots!
The whale watching was amazing. We saw a calf and cow pair; apparently the first calf of the season. The calf was playing around the protection of its mother who stayed near the surface most of the time. We were really fortunate to see a couple of complete breaches by the calf and a lot of tail splashing from the adults in the area. It was a pretty windy and rocky day out on the boat, as evidenced by my sacrifice to the Ocean Gods, but overall it was a high light of my vacation with the Bonins!
Ellie and Maddie also visited UH Hilo as a possible school to transfer to next year. I'm trying not to get too excited (no pressure girls!), but it would be so great to have aunties around next year, maybe even living with us.
Even though I wasn't on vacation for the entirety of their visit, now that they have left I feel like I really have to return to the real world.
Thanks Maddie, Ellie, and Sue for a great time. It is always wonderful when family comes to visit.

Going to Oahu

On the 21st of January Phil and I get to fly over to Oahu for a doctor's appointment. Between 18 and 20 weeks they do an ultrasound and blood work to look for the three most common fetal disorders: Down's Syndrome, Edward's Syndrome, and Spina bifida. Also at this appointment they will be able to sex the baby, which Phil and I are opting to do! We are a little nervous about the any possible complications, but are really excited to learn the sex of this little bean!

A little note on health care in Hawaii. Although we live in the biggest city on the Big Island, that means very little in terms of accessibility to health care. There is definitely a shortage of health care professionals on the islands, and especially of medical specialists. There are very few specialists on the Big Island, and so many patients take the 45 minute flight over to Honolulu if they need to see anyone other than their general physician. There is also no intensive care unit for infants on this island (or for anything else really), and so, again, the really sick and their families are flown over to Oahu for medical care.
Living on an island has a lot of perks, but it can sometimes feel isolated and optionless. Alas, these are the adventures of living in Hawaii.