95...75...50...and rolling over!

Last week Valin went to his two month check up where he got his shots :( and the doctor told me how he was progressing. His head size is in the 95 percental, height: 75% and weight: 50%. the doctor wasn't worried about his weight because Valin has been gaining an ounce a day which is average. I had to come to grips with the fact that I wasn't going to have a chubby baby. There's no way that we are underfedding him. I practically shove the bottle in his mouth and make sure that we give him the bottle before anything else, but he is the one chooses to suck and swallow. He really never has been a big eater -which is a shock considering his parents -so I guess that's just how he is. He might be one of those people who's physical development is seconded to the development of his brain. He might just be the smartest kid around considering he's in the 95%. Who knows. No matter what, I'll love him whether he is an Enstien or Olympus.

Other than that, everything has been going great. I don't really know if you call the sounds he makes cooes because they have distinct consonant and vowel combinations. Since he was a month old he has been saying "Mum" though he doesn't connect it with me. He's been smiling since he was 6 weeks old but now they are more in response to what we do then just because he's content and sees one of us. Oh, yesterday I was changing his diaper and started to tickle his tummy and he started laughing, I mean laugh-out-loud, more-than-just-giggling laughing. He laugh so hard he gave himself hiccups. It is the cutiest, more rewarding sound in the world. I plan on getting it on video soon. Oh it is so cute!

Yesterday I had laid Valin on his back with some toys while I was in the kitchen. After a few minutes I heard him cry and came into the room. I found him on his stomach reaching for a toy I had laid to his right. He totally rolled over on his own and he's not even 3 months yet! I wonder if he knew what he was doing, probably not. Boy, is he growing up. This part is so much fun! I love every minute of being a mother, well almost every moment.

Valin's Baby blessing

Today was Valin's baby blessing. My family (Mom, Dad, Jen, Nick, and Jill) came up for it as well as Patxi's Parents, brother Tice and sister Seren and cousin Joesph and his wife Ivy. It was great to see them all again.

Saturday my fam came up and we went out to dinner and hung out at the pool of their hotel. It was so much fun. Even though I still haven't lost the weight to fit in my swimsuit, I was able to get over it and have fun anyway.





Then for the blessing, Patxi's family met us at the church. My calling is to lead the music in Sacrament Meeting so I was very watchful, waiting for my family to come. So then after a few hymns preformed by a chorus of bells, a comfirmation, and 20 minutes of annoucments, we were up, but my family wasn't there. Patxi gave a wonderful blessing and my fam still didn't show up. It turned out that they got lost. It was sad and ironic that they didn't get there because they were the reason why we changed it. But what can you do? Valin won't remember, and it'll always be an interesting story.

Then after that Patxi and I had cooked an Easter lunch for everyone (yes, 13 people) which was a little stressful trying to fit everyone into our little apartment. But we got wonderful complaments from everyone so I think it succeeded everyone's Easter Dinner expectations.

Then afterwards, we played games, watched movies, and I pumped; it was great fun!

Cutiest laugh

He is so interactive now and loves to makes sounds while laying on his back. It is the cutiest thing! We were so luckly to capture his cute little laugh.

Sorry that the picture isn't the best. Patxi played with the settings and I just haven't had the time to put it back.

Mr. Smiles

Valin is now becoming more active and I thought that I might share with you the smile that warms my life (besides Patxi's of course). He is the cutiest thing in the world!

Oregon Coast

For Spring Break Patxi and I decided to go to the coast since we had the time and it was an hour away. We wnt to Lincoln City and bought a much wanted Kithen Aid mixer at the outlet stores. (I had to make bread with it when we got home. It was great!) We drove up the coast to Tilamock and found a cool beach full of tide pools. here are the picutres.

I've made a decision

Last Tuesday, we tried to wean Valin off his bottle, cold turkey. He nursed like normal at first and fell asleep (like normal) so we let him sleep and hope that he took enough to last him an hour before he was hungry again. After about 25 minutes he was awake again and we nursed. After a moment, he started to cry and pull off. I would try to latch him again but he would continue to cry, harder by each try. He was crying for his bottle. My milk supply was up and I was compressing it into his mouth, so the flow wasn't what dissatisfied him. He continued to cry, since we refused to give him his bottle, for the next 3-ish hours until I buckled and finally gave it to him. The next few feedings, even getting into the position to nurse, he would cry hard.
After that Patxi and I re-grouped and thought that a gradual weaning might work; give him the bottle every-other feeding and them gradually change to every-third, forth and then stop completely. The next day we tried that and twice he would nurse, and then fall asleep. We prayed that he would get enough milk to sleep for and hour before he was hungry again. We would than nurse him and feed him his bottle. But the other 6 feeding that day he would nurse and then cry for his bottle after a few minutes. I would of course try to calm him and nurse but he wouldn't have it.
This is the pattern that we've continued. I deliberated for the next three days wondering what I should do. I prayed a lot, knowing that I knew so little of what would work and what was best for Valin. I would have three options: continue the way we were (spending an hour and a half feeding him every three hours, seeking a goal of exclusively nursing which now didn't seem likable), just feeding him a bottle of milk I've pumped (which isn't the most convenient -just knocking 30-45 minutes off the feeding time- but he would still get my milk -the best for him) or bottle feed him formula (which isn't the best for him but not bad). Patxi and I decided that formula wasn't something we wanted to feed him and I was willing to nurse, but Valin wasn't really up to it. So that meant that I would only bottle feed him pumped milk and let go of my desire to nurse (until our next child comes and will try agian of course). I felt a huge release once I decided. Suddenly all the stress of struggling to nurse left me. At church today I smiled so much, I felt so good.
I hope that this option will work until I wean him with soild food. And I also hope that the WIC pump I have I'll be able to have on loan until then as well. I'm grateful to finally make tha decision and let go of the stress.

Trip to Utah

Last week Patxi's Grandmother past away and her funeral was on Monday in Bountiful, Utah. I was alittle worried about traveling for 9 hours with a newborn, but we went with Patxis' dad in their van so there was enough room to nurse. I also worried about the cold I caught the day before we left. Saturday I could barly carry on a conversation because I coughed and sneezed so much. But luckily, aside from feeding and changing my baby, I slept for those 9 hours. I felt ten time better by Monday morning. The one cool things about the trip was that all of Patxi's Grandma's prosparity was there. So that meant that all of Patxi's 10 brothers and sisters, Californian cousin and their famlies came together. It was great to see everyone and show off my adorable baby and the newist Waite. It's sad that a funneral was the reason why we all got together.

We were all able to stay at a hotel which meant swimming adventures for everyone. I got some great pictures









This is Rowen. He swallowed too much water and threw up in the pool.


Everyone was forced to jump into the jacuzee while the pool was cleaned. Rowen closed the pool down for a full 24 hours.



The next day, Elliot was in the jacuzee in just his platic pants that cover his cloth diapper when he messed and it leaked. Everyone was forced out. The Waites didn't seem to have good luck with public pools.

I was also able to see my sisters, which was so awesome being with them; bantering like no time had passed.

I was so happy to have them see Valin. It meant so much to me; to have them apart of my life. I loved to see them love and adore him. He really is the cutiest thing in the world! I love them so much.

Breastfeeding Update

Things are going alright. I just went to the Support group at the hospital and he took only one ounce. He had been grasing during the two hours earlier. He also would lacth, suck for a little while and then cry. Generally he would either cry or fall asleep. To me I would think he was done or just didn't want it anymore, but he still acted hungry. I fed him from the bottle next and he didn't cry but ate quickly and finnished it off. We guessed that he would be getting mad because he wasn't getting the amount of milk he wanted per suck. So we thought that if I up my milk supply, than he'll be more active and drink more. So this is my goal for this week. I am to pump for longer periods of time and at a higher pressure and even try using lactation enhancers, like herbs and teas. Once that happens, then hopefully breastfeeding won't be a struggle. Then the week after that I plan on winning him from the bottle. So...soon I hope he will exclusively be breastfeeding. I see the light at the end of that tunnel! I feel like, those I must sacrifce a little more sleep and the house can be dirty, Valin and I will succeed. Wich us luck! and keep us in your prayer.

more pictures!

taking a nap with grandpa.






Poor baby, he has newborn rash. I hope it goes away soon




Like father, like son


Patxi gave Valin a mo-hawk



my sister Jen and Patxi's also sucked on those fingers

More picutres of the cutiest boys in my life!

This shows a little bit how yellow he was. He is much better now.

Life seems like one 200 hour days with a few naps here and there

Life has been...I really can't find the best word to describe everything about being a new mom. It's crazy, amazing, wonderful, exhasting, scary, highest of highs and lowest of lows. Valin just had his two week bithday yesterday, and it doesn't seem like two weeks have passed. And yet it also seems like two weeks would never come.

Here is a little up-date on the last two weeks. Whe we took him home from the hospitol, he was a little Juandise (condition affecting the liver), which meant that he was very sleepy and a little yellow. Breastfeeding him was hard because he was so sleepy and both of us were trying to get a hang of the lacthing thing. I was determined to breastfeed him though, and made up my mind that that was exactly what I was going to do, no matter what. Anyway, it was hard. I was sore, everywhere and very tired and so was Valin. I was getting the latching and Valin wouldn't stay a wake for more than two minutes. So I went to the Breastfeeding support group at the hospitol and got help breastfeeding. There I weight him before and after feeding to see what he took. They noticed the trouble I was having and saw that he was yellow so they suggested a three step feeding process for me. First I would try to nurse him, then give him what I've pumped previously through a speciality flow bottle, and then pump for the next time. This was all supposed to be done within an hour, at least every three hours. The odject was to get him to take in a lot so he would pee a lot and clean up his liver.

So by the following Tuesday, I went to the support group agian, and he didn't look yellow at all and he would generally last about five minutes nursing before we would have to struggle to keep him awake. He was 11 days at the time and weighed 7.3. Babies are supposed to be back at their birth weight by the time they are two weeks so we had three days to get him to gain 6 oz. So we were to stick to the three step feeding plan, but get 8-10 feedings in a 24 hours. Valin was also having a hard time latching. We found out that we needed to treat the bottle nipple as if we are trying to latch him to it.

Valin's latcing has been doing better and we weighed him on Friday at the support group and he was 7.9. So our efforts paid off. Valin was still falling a sleep, even though he was two weeks old. We decided that it was because Valin has a very weak suck. He sucks well for the frist few minutes and then he gets so exhasted that he shuts down and sleeps. They suggested that I try finger-sucking exercises and then express milk while he is sucking so he gets more for his efforts. This seems to be working. He stays awake for ten minutes now, which is wonderful and a relief! I'm also going to be getting help from a lactatist that specializes in strenthing his suck.

So that's were we are now, just wanting for the day where Valin will nurse for twenty minutes on both sides without tryign to keep him awake -the light at the end of the very long tunnel. Wish me luck and please pray for Valin.

He's Here!!!!! Finally!

Join with me in welcoming to earth from God's arms:
Valin Kade Waite


He was born Feburary 6th at 3:14 pm, 7.7 pounds and 20 1/2 inches long.

I started to get contractions about 7:30 that morning and after like two, me water partially broke. After that they started coming less then 5 minutes apart and pretty darn intense. I was getting labor shakes and pretty nausea. At about 9:00 we got to the hospital around 10:00. By the time I got up stairs, I was in pain and just wanted an epidural. After the usual paper work, Patxi and mom joined me just in time to catch my vomit. Than they wheeled me into a room, and by that time I was having contractions about 1-2 minutes apart lasting 1-2 mintues. They checked me and I was already diliatled to a 5 and totally efaced. At this point all I wanted was an epidural. Every contraction I would moan "epidural!" while trying to relax, of course. It took about an hour before I had enough fluids to see the anesthesialogist. After that miracle worker, I was the happiest person in the world! I was actually able to sleep and rest. Oh, it was great! so then around 2:00 they checked me agian and I was fully dialated. Patxi was at class so I texted him to get out. So then I started to push around 2:50 and had him at 3:14. I torn in two different places, but besides that everything went very well. Patxi held my lag and helped me so much. His encouragment meant so much more than any thing the midwife could say.

So now enjoy the rest of the pictures from the hospital.