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.

Still Alive

I'm sure many of you have given up hope of me ever updating this blog, since it's been almost a year since my last post (yikes!). Well, although I'd probably win the world's worst blogger award, I promise to try and do better this next year. Since I'm so behind, I'll just give the Reader's Digest version of our last year.

But first, the big news...we're expecting our second son in about 2 months (due Dec. 5th)! Of course we're thrilled to be welcoming another little one into the family, and it'll be so much fun for Bryce to have a little brother.

Bryce is just over 20 months old now and, well, he's just about as "boy" as they come! He's into all of the typical boy things: cars, tractors, trains, airplanes, sticks, rocks, bugs, balls...etc. Some of his other favorites are watching Finding Nemo, playing with his cousins, singing, and going for walks. Bryce is a little chatterbox, and has quite a large vocabulary. He's also a very friendly boy, and will often go up to complete strangers (especially kids) in Laser Mania, or in the store, and give them a hug or start talking to them.

This past June we went camping with Jarett's family in Idaho. It was so much fun being with the family, and of course Bryce had a blast being able to play outside all day long. Some of our activities during the trip included fishing, swimming, and going to a nearby park.

Fishing was very fun and relaxing, but we didn't have much luck in the catching department. Jarett caught 2 sucker fish which, as you fishermen will know, are unedible, and the most exciting thing I caught was a bundle of sticks. But it was fun nonetheless!

We also had our annual "beach week" in California at the end of July. As usual, we had so much fun being with my family and basking in the sunlight on the beach in San Diego. Below is Jarett playing Bochi-ball (sp?) with the boys, and all of us enjoying the relaxation of the beach.

I mentioned that Bryce likes to go for walks, but I forgot to say he'd actually much rather take someone else for a walk. He has a strange fettish for pushing strollers, be they empty or occupied. Here he is pushing his cousin Allison around.

Volleyball has always been one of Jarett's favorite sports, and he sure married into the right family! Here he is pulling some of his awesome moves during a sand volleyball game with the Seely clan.

Jarett and I have also enjoyed watching all of the BYU football games so far this season, and we've even taught Bryce part of the cougar cheer. Of course we'd never try to sway him in his choice of college in any way...yeah right, we've got to start him young! :) Laser Mania is also keeping us very busy. We're in the process of adding bumper cars as a third attraction, and we'll also be revamping our Laser Tag arena soon.


So, that's us in a nutshell. We're all healthy and happy...we feel blessed in so many ways. We do think of our family and friends often and we miss each of you! Thanks to most of you for being much better bloggers than I am, and for keeping us updated on your lives. So long for now, or as Bryce would say, "See ya!"

The Bryce Update

Although our blog is entitled "The Waite Update", I should probably change it to "The Bryce Update", because that's mostly what it is. You might find Jarett and I in a picture here or there, but we just can't compete with an adorable face like this!



Making messes is what Bryce does best!

Busted!
Here's Bryce with his adorable cousins. As you can see, he's a little outnumbered right now, but he's got two boy cousins on the way who'll be here early next year.

The proud Mama with her son.
Bryce and uncle Mitch always have fun together.

Cheerio boy!

Bryce and I went to Idaho to visit Jarett's family while Jarett was at a conference in Las Vegas. We had a wonderful time, as always. Bryce's favorite pastime was playing with the cat door, and with a little help he finally made it through to the other side.

Here's Bryce with Grandma and Grandpa Waite.

Jarett and I made a mini float for our Swiss Days parade, complete with a pioneer lady riding a rocket (don't ask for an explanation--we have none). The parade would have been great, except it poured, and I mean poured, rain the entire time. Poor Jarett was drenched, but he didn't look half as bad as our pioneer!

Bryce has lots of fun playing with (or mauling, as it may look to some) our pets. At least the chinchillas are caged, so they're protected from the wrath of Bryce. Auggie (our white cat) usually runs and hides when she sees Bryce approaching her, but Tica (seen below) is always up for a little wrestling match.

Bath time! (one of Bryce's favorite times of the day)

And that's Bryce! Thanks for letting us show him off to you!