Welcome Baby Talia!

Our little angel has arrived! Talia Evelyn Waite was born on October 31 (yes, Halloween of all days) at 1:05 a.m. She was 8 pounds even, 21 inches long, and as perfect as can be.  We are so excited to welcome our little girl into our family.  Here she is on her birthday (photo shoot in the family room later that morning):

Everything went great with the labor and delivery.  I had been having pretty strong, but irregular contractions all day long on Saturday.  They started coming more regularly at around 7:00 that night.  Since Halloween was on a Sunday this year, and we live in a predominately LDS community, most people celebrated the holiday on Saturday.  So, Jarett and I took Bryce and Ty trick-or-treating around the block, pausing for my contractions.  Then I went home to rest and pass out candy while the boys went a little further.  Here are my cute little trick-or-treaters, Buzz Lightyear and a pug dog, about 6 hours before they got the best treat of all...a little sister.

After trick-or-treating we went to my parents' house for a Halloween party that my mom and little sister threw for all of the grandkids.  They had a blast, while I continued working through contractions. We got home around 9:30, put the boys to bed, and then the fun really began. :)  At around 10:00 the contractions started getting stronger and closer together.  My midwife and her assistants arrived around 10:30, followed shortly thereafter by my mom and sister-in-law, Brooke.  Everyone (especially Jarett, as usual), was so much help during labor, keeping me as comfortable as possible, and encouraging me through contractions.  My sister Kayla made it just as I was pushing.  As always, all the pain was well worth it when, after only 3 hours of hard labor, I was holding my sweet baby in my arms. 

Here's Talia with my midwife, Cyndi.  She was awesome!

 Grandma Seely welcomes her 6th granddaughter, and 9th grandchild into the world.

Grandma Waite was excited to hold her 1st granddaughter, and 4th grandchild a few days after her birth.

Later that morning Talia was able to meet her big brothers. Bryce immediately gave her a hug and said "I love you so much Talia. We got your room decorated!" Ty was a little less accepting at first, but is doing much better now.

Talia has been such a good baby so far; and I'm having the time of my life dressing my little girl!  We are truly, truly blessed!

The Prodigal Blogger

Well, I hope some of you will welcome me back into the blogging world even though I've been astray for so long.  I can't guarantee I'll be posting as often as I'd like, but I'll certainly try to not let another 15 months go by between posts (I'm pathetic, I know)!

Since my last post was about Ty's birth, I thought it would be fitting to start this one with his first birthday back in December.  It would be futile to even attempt to describe the joy our second little man has brought into our lives over the past year, so I'll just let the pictures show off his cuteness.

Of course the box is always much more fun than the toy, right?

You may be wondering why the cake looks almost as big as the 1-year-old.  Well, according to the CDC growth charts, Ty is very small for his age.  He's about the 5th percentile for height, and well below the chart lines for his weight.  He's just a tiny guy.

To say Ty enjoyed his cake would be a bit of an understatement.  When it was all said and done, I think he ended up eating 3 or 4 pieces.  We figured he needed the fattening up.

Bryce also had a birthday recently; he turned 3 in January. He's also been so much fun to watch grow up more and more this past year.  He's so full of energy and happiness--it's just so fun to see the little boy he's developing into.

Bryce is my little car boy--he loves trains, planes, helicopters, trucks, etc., but cars still win the most-played-with-toys award. So, when we asked Bryce what kind of a birthday cake he wanted, we weren't surprised when he requested a car cake.  I was busy making the birthday dinner all day, so Jarett was given the task of making the cake, and he created this masterpiece all by himself.  Impressed?  I sure was!

Some of my favorite moments throughout the day are watching my little guys playing together. I've been very impressed at what a good big brother Bryce is to Ty...he's generally willing to share toys and help Ty with whatever he needs.  And of course Ty adds much entertainment and happiness to Bryce's life as well.

For some odd reason, Bryce loves to check Ty's diapers for poops. 

Surprisingly, Ty always lets him.

One of Ty's favorite things to do is play in the sink. Some of his other favorites include chasing the kitties, reading books, playing outside (especially in the sandbox), cuddling, playing the piano and harp, and of course making lots and lots of messes.

 

One day when Jarett was getting ready for work, I caught Bryce in with him trying to shave.  My, they grow up so fast!

So, there's the long-overdue update of my 2 little ones.  Jarett and I are doing good as well.  Laser Mania had its best year ever last year, and we're working on opening a second location in Twin Falls, Idaho.  I'm still working 1 day a week at WIC while Jarett gets a daddy-day with the boys.  But most of my time is spent being a mommy--the best job on earth!  And now for the BIG NEWS...we're expecting our 3rd child at the end of October, which we're very excited about.  So life is good!  We love you all!

Introducing...Baby Ty!

Well, he finally made it! Tyler (Ty) David Waite was born on Saturday, December 13th at 4:15 a.m. He weighed in at 8lb 13 oz, was 21 1/2 inches long, and has quite the head full of blonde hair. Ty was 8 days overdue, so we were more than ready to welcome him into the family!

I had been having contractions on and off for about a week. There were several days when contractions were every 3-10 minutes apart all day long, and then they'd just stop at the end of the day. It was a bit frustrating because we'd get our hopes up, but then baby wouldn't come. Saturday morning I went to see my midwife, and she 'stripped my membranes' (don't you just love that phrase?). Throughout the day I had pretty strong contractions and they started getting stronger and closer together at around 11:00 at night. Then at 1:30 a.m. my water broke, and contractions became very intense and 30 seconds to 1 minute apart. We called our midwife right away, and my mom and sister (Kayla) came over shortly thereafter.

Labor was intense and painful, of course, but luckily I progressed very quickly. I went from being 4 cm dialated to 10 cm in just over 2 hours, and it only took about 5-10 minutes of hard pushing before baby Ty was delivered. Jarett was a lot of help and support during labor, as were my mom, sister, and midwife--I couldn't have done it without them.

Delivering our baby at home was an amazing experience--I would highly recommend it for anybody considering the idea. I'd love to share details as to why, or answer any questions or concerns about home births for those interested. Feel free to contact me for my two bits.

Baby and I are both doing very well. Jarett and my family have been a big help in taking care of us, Bryce, and the house while I'm recovering. Bryce thinks the baby is pretty neat, and enjoys giving him "loves"...he has a hard time remembering to be gentle though, so we're working on that. We feel so blessed to now have two beautiful sons as part of our little family.

Home Birth

As my due date approaches, we're getting prepared for our first home birth experience. We had to purchase a birth kit with all sorts of goodies in it (pictured below), and several other supplies. It's definitely a different experience preparing for a home birth rather than a hospital birth.

When I tell people I'm having a home birth, 90% of the time their response is "you're so brave!" Now, I've come to realize they generally mean one or both of 2 things-- #1: "I can't believe you're not going to take the drugs!", and #2: "I can't believe you're going to risk your life and the life of your baby like that!"

Of course I have my reasons for choosing a home birth--I'd love to share them with anybody who's interested. However, for those of you questioning my sanity and/or concerned about our safety (which I do appreciate), please rest assured that we did plenty of research into the safety of home birth, as well as plenty of praying, before making our decision. Study after study has shown that home births are just as safe as (and in some cases, even safer than) hospital births for low-risk pregnancies.

My mom had all 6 of her children at home, so a home birth wasn't ever a strange concept for me, but it was a pretty foreign idea to Jarett at first. Once I told him I wanted to think about having our baby at home, he spent the next few days researching all he could about safety concerns. He also met with the midwife I was planning on using and drilled her on all of the "what if's" he could think of, and how she would handle them. I won't go into detail about what he learned, but in the end I guess you could call him converted. :)

Statistically speaking, there is still a 5% chance I'll end up having to go to the hospital for one reason or another, so I'm not ruling out the possibility. But I'm very much looking forward to (hopefully) welcoming our new little one into the world in the comfort of our own home.

Happy Halloween!

Here's our little monkey on Halloween. It was Bryce's first experience with trick-or-treating, and he did pretty well for the most part. We just took him to a few houses up and down our street. On the way to each house we'd practice saying "trick or treat!" and he'd say it great for us. But each time we got to a door for some reason all he'd say was "please." Oh well, at least he was polite.

After we went trick-or-treating we went down to my mom's house and Bryce saw his little cousins, Myah and Hailey for a while. Aren't they adorable?

I worked at WIC Halloween day, and when I got there everyone was dressed up in costumes. My fellow employees had forgotten to tell me that I was supposed to come dressed up (I often miss news like that since I work so few hours), but luckily someone had brought some extra costumes. Of course most wouldn't fit over my enormous belly, but I found a cape and one of the ladies made me a "Super Mom" badge for my belly.