Siaosi Fuaofe Laulu 1-13-12

I am so far behind on posting on my blog!! Having 2 little boys has been CHALLENGING but so rewarding at the same time!! I haven't had much time for anything but I really wanted to make sure that this wonderful experience was recorded.

On Thursday, January 12th 2012, I had an appointment with Dr. Cole. I had had no signs of starting labor but was dilated to a 4 and 50% effaced and so we were discussing possible courses of action that we could take. We finally decided on striping my membranes at the appointment to see if that would get the ball rolling since the due date was the very next day. I left the office feeling super tired and experiencing a little bit of cramping. I decided to go home early from work to rest and so I left Toa at the babysitters and went home to take a little nap. I was super nervous about going into labor on my own since with Toa I was induced and knew exactly when the baby was coming (Alofa was frustrated with me this time because I couldn't tell him when Siaosi was going to be here, I didn't know :))

Alofa went and picked Toa up from the babysitter after work and brought him home. I cooked dinner and my mom showed up at the house. She was planning on waiting till the next day but then decided to come a day early just in case. We weren't sure if striping the membranes would actually start labor since my membranes were striped with Toa as well on a Monday and I didn't end up having him till that Friday. At 5pm I started having pretty consistent contractions but I still was sure if they meant anything since they were no where near as painful as when I was induced with Toa. At 9pm they started coming every 3 mins or so and that is when we decided to head to the hospital. When we got to the hospital I was dilated to a 5 so they admitted me and then I knew that it was baby time :) The contractions continued but they were not as consistent as they needed to be in order to help me progress in dilation so at around 1am they gave me some pitocin to help move along the delivery. At 2:30am I got an epidural (which DIDN'T even work except for making my right foot go numb and therefore I felt EVERYTHING with the delivery). Alofa starting getting a little impatient at this point and kept asking when the baby was going to be born. I, in a little bit of pain, was pretty irritable but didn't say anything except just kept telling him to be patient. Dr. Cole was wonderful and kept coming in to check on me and make sure that I was ok. At 6:30am I felt very strongly that I needed to push but when they checked me they said that I was only dilated to a 9 and that the baby was at station -3 which I understand to mean that he was still really far up in the birth canal so they thought that I would be pushing for quite a while before he would be born and they gave me the go ahead to start pushing to try to move him down the birth canal. Dr. Cole is a 1st year resident so they needed to have an attending physician there when the baby was born to make sure everything went ok so they called him and told him that the baby would probably be born in about an hour, they also called the nurses for the baby and told them the same thing. I started pushing at 6:30am and Siaosi Fuaofe Laulu was born at 6:43am!! That is right, 13 mins of pushing (a HUGE difference from 2 hrs of pushing with Toa) The attending physician and the nurses for the baby missed it!! Dr. Cole told me to stop pushing right before he was born but since I could feel EVERYTHING, I couldn't and so he gave me the go ahead to push and my sweet Siaosi Fuaofe Laulu was born!! The attending physician and the nurses made it just a few mins after Siaosi was born and everything turned out perfect. I ended up only needing 1 stitch (which was also very different from when I had Toa and needed a few stitches)

7 lbs 13 oz ; 23Inches long. Born at 6:43am January 13th, 2012

My sweet Siaosi, a healthy baby boy!!
Daddy holding Siaosi for the very first time. I love seeing Alofa with his baby boys, he is such a wonderful daddy and he just beams with pride and joy when he is interacting with them. Every time I see Alofa with our boys and see how good of a daddy he is, I fall even more madly and deeply in love with him!! He has given me two of the sweetest, most precious and handsome baby boys!! I will forever be grateful!!

Dr. Cole with Alofa, Siaosi and I. Such a great Dr!!

I CAN NOT explain the emotions that accompany having a baby, seeing and holding that sweet baby for the first time. When I first saw Siaosi after he was born and they laid him on my tummy, I broke into tears and once again my heart overflowed with pure love that that little angel. I have only experienced that feeling one other time, when I had Toa. It is an experience and feeling I will never forget and will cherish forever, the very most spiritual experience of my life. I love this picture of Siaosi and I. I love the way he is looking at me. So pure, innocent and sweet.

Toa meeting his little brother, Siaosi, for the first time at the hospital.

Siaosi loves to have his hands up by his face :)

Ready to go home!!

This picture was a few days after we came home. Toa wasn't too fond of Siaosi and tried pushing him off his lap right after this picture was taken. The night we came home from the hospital, Saturday, Toa was really sick and throwing up. What a stressful time!! Alofa stayed downstairs with Toa and I stayed upstairs with Siaosi to make sure that Siaosi didn't catch whatever Toa had. The next day, which was a Sunday, Toa was running around and playing. He didn't have a fever, I had checked him multiple times just to make sure that he was ok, so Alofa decided to take Toa over to Ben and Miala's for lunch so that Siaosi and I could rest. I took Toa's temperature right before they left and it was 97.8* He was fine. About an hour later I got a panicked phone call from Alofa. I could hardly understand anything he was saying. I heard him say that he was going to the emergency room with Toa and I THOUGHT I heard him say it was because Toa had a fever. I FREAKED out!! I handed Siaosi to my mom and aunt Carrie, who were over visiting, started running around the house getting dresses so that I could go to the E.R. to be with Toa. My mom was really worried about me driving but I left anyway and on my way to the hospital I called Alofa's phone to try to figure out what was going on. Tasi, the daughter of a friend of ours, answered the phone and when I asked what had happened she said that Toa had a seizure and wasn't breathing. I don't remember the rest of the drive to the E.R. I don't remember anything. I started crying hysterically and when I got to the hospital I ran into the E.R. to be with my baby. When I got in the room there were nurses and Doctors everywhere. He had tubes everywhere and Alofa was trying to keep me out of the room because he didn't want me to see my baby like that. Alofa was crying and so was Toa as he faded in and out of consciousness. He was shivering and his lips were blue. There was NO way Alofa was going to keep me out of that room. I was going to be with my baby no matter what. They took x-rays, blood and ran a bunch of tests. His temperature was 103.8* They gave him Tylenol and let me hold him. I cried. I sobbed. Alofa cried and sobbed with me, holding me and our baby Toa in our arms. We weren't sure what was wrong. Toa cried as I held him and finally fell asleep in my arms. The Dr. came back and said that he had a febrile seizure and that he would be fine. I had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude and started crying again. I was so grateful that he was going to be fine. After that Alofa and I were super paranoid about making sure that Toa and Siaosi were fever free and took their temperature MULTIPLE times a day just to make sure neither of them were sick. I love my boys and am so thankful to Heavenly Father for giving me healthy, happy baby boys, hearing our prayers and protecting them when they need it.

Siaosi at 1 week old

Toa LOVES to poke Siaosi. He will try to poke his eyes, nose or mouth. I love this picture of both of my boys.

Toa giving little brother, Siaosi, a kiss :)
Momma and her sweet little man

What a handsome little guy!

Our sweet family!!

Great grandpa Howerton and Siaosi

Great grandma Howerton and Siaosi

We are so thankful that Siaosi joined our family on January 13th, 2012 and that he arrived a healthy, happy baby. We are so in love with him. I love my little family so much! I am grateful that I get to be the mother to 2 very sweet boys who have completely captured my heart.

Halloween 2011

Toa with his pumpkin!!
Instead of carving the pumpkin, we decided to get this kit to push into the pumpkin since Toa was too small to carve a pumpkin. He LOVED it and kept showing daddy where to drill the hole so that we could push the pieces into the pumpkin. It was really alot of fun! Toa would make sure the pieces were in good by pushing them in after Alofa and I had already put them in place. He was so cute and funny about it!

Toa with his pumpkin!!

I think he likes it!!

This year we had a TON of festivities that we participated in based around the Halloween season. The Thursday before Halloween was my work trunk or treat so we dressed Toa up in his froggy costume and let him go to town. He wasn't really interested in the candy but LOVED running around and seeing everyone. We had a great time!!

Alofa, Toa and I at my work trunk or treat! So much fun!! :)

Toa got this lion costume for his birthday from some friends and since we already had his froggy costume we decided that he would be a lion for some of our festivities and a froggy for the others. On Friday night Tina invited us to her work trunk or treat. It was so much fun! Once again, Toa wasn't too excited about the candy but loved running around seeing every one!!

Toa with the pumpkins at papa's house

Toa with Cam (who was a spider) and papa with the pumpkins right before we left for our ward trunk or treat on Saturday night.

Great Grandma Howerton has some spiders hanging from her lamp that Toa just LOVED!! He kept trying to show Great Grandpa Howerton the spiders!!

Grandma Howerton with her Toa lion cub!

Sunday we stayed home and enjoyed family time and on Monday we took Toa trunk or treating at Celeste's work. 4 times trick or treating?!?! Yep!! He was wore out and slept like a champ the following night! He had a great Halloween and it was so fun to dress him up and watch him run around!!

10-1-11 Toa's first birthday!!

October 1st, 2011 we celebrated Toa's first birthday!! What a wonderful day with LOTS of food, family, friends and FUN!! The weather was PERFECT and the party went just how we hoped that it would. We had so much food and fun! It was the prefect way to celebrate the first birthday of our sweet Toa Thomas Laulu

Alofa and his friends manned the BBQ, cooking up a FEAST of meat and food!! We are so thankful for all of the work that our friends and family offered in order to make his birthday a success.
The birthday cake
Toa got his own birthday cake

At first he had NO idea what he was supposed to do with it. He kept looking to me, seeking permission to dive in. It took him a little while and some help from ALOT of the other kids at the party but he finally dove in and had so much fun destroying his very own cake. I honestly don't think he ate very much of it... Bless his heart!

And this is what the cake looked like when he was finished playing with it :)

Looks like a very happy birthday boy!!

Our little family at the end of a wonderful first birthday party!

I can not believe it has been a whole year since Alofa and My life was changed forever, for the better! We have loved every minute of watching him learn and grow over the past year. He never ceases to amaze us as we see him master new skills and learn new things. I never knew that have a child and raising him would bring so much joy and strength to our little family. Toa is the sweetest, funniest, smartest little man. He started walking in the middle of September and has been on the run ever since. He has 8 teeth, 4 on top and 4 on bottom. There are times where he will just sit down and start laughing at nothing, he's a very happy baby. He thinks it is sooo funny when I get scared by a bug and just laughs as I scramble, trying to figure out how to get rid of the bug. He LOVES his daddy and is super laid back just like him. Toa gives the best kisses and knows that if he really wants something all he has to do is give his momma or daddy a kiss and they melt. Every morning when I go to get Toa out of his crib he greets me with a big smile and a kiss when I pick him up. He loves to play with daddy's ties & belts and ALWAYS takes the spoons away from momma when she is trying to eat. He loves to be chased and will run away giggling when you pretend like you are gonna get him. He gets super excited and tries jumping all of the time, but his feet never leave the floor. He dances when music comes on and it is soo cute!! He is starting to learn new dance moves and his latest one looks like he is doing squats... It's pretty funny. He is such a good sleeper and goes to bed with no fuss most of the time. He loves to play with toy cars and trucks... He will drive them ALL OVER the front room. He also loves to play with balls. He will kick them and throw them just to chase them and do it again. He has completely won over his momma and daddy's hearts. We cherish him and adore him more than words can express. He has the biggest, sweetest, dark eyes that just sparkle when he smiles, and he is ALWAYS smiling. We love him so much and thank Heavenly Father for 10-1-10, the day that our sweet Toa came into our family forever!

Happy first birthday Toa!! We hope you had a WONDERFUL day!!

It's a BOY!!

Today we had the opportunity to go to the Dr. and get our ultrasound done. Alofa had taken the day off and so we both went with Toa to the appointment. At first Toa was an ANGEL! He sat in the chair and behaved himself so well! I had drank some juice before we went because I wanted to be sure that the baby was awake and so we could see him moving around and OH BOY was he awake!! It made it very difficult to get the pictures that the ultrasound tech needed so the ultrasound took FOREVER!! Toa wasn't so happy about that and started to get a little fussy. Alofa left the room with Toa and the ultrasound tech continued to work to try to get all of the pictures that he needed. Alofa kept coming back to the room to see if we had found out if it was a boy or a girl and even though we had tried to look a few times the cord was in the way and we couldn't tell. I thought we were going to have to leave without knowing what the sex of the baby was but then the baby flipped and there it was! A BOY!! Alofa was elated!! The tech said that the cord was still in the way a little but that he wouldn't go buy any pink because he was pretty sure it was a boy. It was so fun to see our sweet baby boy on the big screen!

We are so blessed to be able to have two of Heavenly Father's choice spirits in our home! We are so excited and humbled that he trusts us enough to raise His children! We love them so very much! We love our Father in Heaven for the blessings that we enjoy! Two very healthy, active boys!! We are so grateful!

Later that night Alfoa, Toa and I were downstairs playing in our living room. Toa has made it a habit to walk along our sectional and is now starting to get a little bit more brave to the point that he tries to walk really fast, maybe an attempt to run, around the sectional. On this night, he was going back and forth from Alofa and I as we sat at each end of the sectional. When he got to Alofa, he turned around and tried to walk across the room to his momma!! He took two steps and then fell down!! His FIRST STEPS!! I can not believe how fast these little ones grow! It has been such a wonderful experience to see them learn, grow and develop! To watch Toa discover the world through his own eyes! My whole life I have waited and wanted to be a mother, but I never dreamed that it would be as wonderful as it really is! My heart is full of gratitude and I love my Father in Heaven for allowing me the opportunity to be a mommy! I wouldn't change anything in my life for the WORLD! I already have the world! :)

2 WONDERFUL years!!

August 22nd, 2009

One of the very BEST days of my life!

The day I married my very best friend and eternal companion. I have no idea how I got so lucky! I find that I fall more and more in love with him EVERYDAY, he is the perfect man for me! He still makes me laugh everyday and does the dishes everyday. He is the perfect father and husband! He has a heart of gold and is so thoughtful of others, just the other night, we were in Wal~Mart checking out when there were some people ahead of us a few spots that couldn't pay for their groceries. First thing Alofa did was pull out his wallet and offer to pay for them. I stood there with my eyes full of tears at how generous and kind my sweet husband is. He does things like this ALL of the time! He makes me want to be a better person! I will be forever grateful that Alofa was willing to take a chance and marry me! My life is forever changed, for the better! 2 years down, an ETERNITY to go! There is nothing more that I look forward to than ETERNITY with my sweet babe! I love you Alofaaga Laulu! Thank you for giving me BEAUTIFUL children, being the PERFECT daddy and the BEST ETERNAL companion any woman could ask for!

Life is so GOOD!!

"And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less."
- Anna Quindlen, Loud and Clear

Toa is 10 months. I have no idea where the time has gone. I love him to death! He makes me smile EVERYDAY, multiple times a day! He has 4 teeth, two top and two bottom and the sweetest smile that I ever did see. He shakes his head "no" when anyone says "no-no" to him or when he is full and doesn't want any more food. I really think he knows what it means. He calls me mama sometimes and it just melts my heart! He isn't much of a cuddler so when he lets me love on him I take the chance. He just recently started doing the "motor boat" thing with his tongue when I try to kiss him, guess he doesn't want momma kissing on him so much! :) He just started crawling and is now keeping Alofa and I on our toes! When he is going to get something that he knows he shouldn't have and I go after him he tries to crawl faster to get away from me, silly little man! Just a few nights ago he crawled up the stairs and now this is part of our nightly ritual, climbing the stairs to bed, eating one last bottle while he plays with my lips as I cuddle him and hum to him and then he drifts off to dreamland. I hold him for a while before I put him in his crib and thank Heavenly Father that I get to be his mommy.

I worry at times that my house isn't clean enough or that I am not doing everything that a wife and a mother should be doing. I am so tired from working full time and being pregnant. The quote on the top of this post helps me not to feel so guilty, knowing that the time that I do get to spend with Toa, I TRY to cherish and treasure! I know that I can do better and I will work at that, he is growing to fast not to. Alofa is so kind and patient. He is the best father and husband that I could ever ask for. He can get Toa to laugh harder than I have ever seen him laugh, Toa ADORES his daddy!!

I love my sweet boys more than I could ever express. They are my heart and soul! I am so thankful for the blessings that I enjoy! I am thankful for the amazing man that I call my husband and is the father of our children. I am thankful that Heavenly Father has trusted us with Toa and is sending another sweet spirit to our home. Life is SO GOOD!

Toa's First Circus!!

We took Toa to the circus for the first time this year and really didn't know what to expect from him. I thought he might enjoy it but when we very first got there Alofa tried to give him a ride on a little pony and he started SCREAMING because he was so scared!! Bless his heart!! I was pretty nervous after that and wondered if he had just made a bad choice to bring him to the circus, with clowns and elephants that can be super scary, at such a young age. I was nervous that we would traumatize him for life!! Turns out that he LOVED it!!

We sat right by where all of the clowns and animals came out onto the stage and he was memorised!! It was so fun to watch him try to figure out what in the world was going on!Momma and her baby boy waiting for the show to begin!

Our sweet little family! Daddy and Toa
It really was such a good show! Alofa and I enjoyed it just as much or maybe even more than Toa did! We will for sure go again in the future! SO FUN!!

Toa's bed time hit at about half way through the show. So we just put him in his car seat and he slept through the rest while Alofa and I enjoyed what was left. We had a great time!

It's so fun to be able to take Toa to things like this and see him watch in amazement! He is growing so fast and we are LOVING every minute!