Aubree Mieko Naheiakapuuwai Tano

Okay, I'm starting our blog from the day Aubree was born and going from there. Maybe one day I'll post pictures from before Aubree, but our life wasn't as interesting then! My due date was January 20 and the closer it got the more uncomfortable and grouchy I got. Bryce was a trooper and tried to make me as comfortable as possible. My doctor thought our daughter was going to come early and every week he would tell me 'I probably won't see you next week at our appt!'. But we made it to the appointments! And I wasn't really having contractions so I was so worried because I just wanted to give birth already. Finally on Jan 21 I started having more regular contractions, but they started out an hour apart. (The doctor told us to go to the hospital when my water broke or when my contractions were 5 mins apart.) Around 1 AM, the contractions were about 20 mins apart, but that was still not good enough so I endured the pain and we just got ready for bed. As we got ready for bed, my contractions started getting closer and closer. Bryce was timing them and they were only about 7 mins apart. I was in pain so I wanted to go to the hospital already. Bryce was saying 'But your contractions aren't 5 mins apart yet'.  I didn't care and we got ready for the hospital. Bryce was great and calm and would let me squeeze his hand whenever I had a contraction. While I was getting my bag and stuff ready, he made sure the apartment was clean. And then we were on our way to the hospital.


We got to the hospital around 4am and at 9:05 AM, our daughter was born. Once I got the epidural, I didn't feel anything. It was seriously the most comfortable I had been in 10 months! It was an amazing experience and when I saw Aubree, I was amazed, but still in shock that I had just given birth.

We decided to name her Aubree Mieko Naheiakapuuwai. We choose Aubree because initially I just liked the name, but it is actually the middle name of Bryce's younger sister, Mayumi Aubrey. We decided to spell it Aubree because my first name ends with 'ee' so we thought it would match! We found out that Aubree means 'Noble'. Bryce choose Mieko (実恵子). It means 'Child of Beauty and Kindness'. My dad came up with Naheiakapuuwai. It means soft/kind-hearted. 

Aubree weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces and was 21 inches. Bryce was able to follow the nurse while they cleaned her up. I could hear her crying, but I was still kind of out of it!

Our first reaction was 'She looks like a TANO!' and she has really really long eyelashes!