Maleah Ella Bigler

Born: May 18, 2007

12:23 pm
American Fork Hospital
7 lbs 15 oz
18 inches

She is a chunky monkey...and has a lot of blonde hair. We know now what Kaya would have looked like if she doubled her weight at birth.


Tasha is my hero. She did awesome. The labor was primarily in Tasha's back, which required me to push on her sacrum (to create some counter-pressure and relief). Contractions began late Wednesday, and by Thursday afternoon they were consistent (10 min apart) and by Friday morning we were at the hospital at 7am with contractions about 5 min apart. 10:30am they had to break her water b/c the contractions weren't "strong" enough (I thought they were plenty strong). By noon, her contractions became very "strong" and 25 minutes of good pushing and Maleah arrived.

How did Kaya react? She is very hyper about having a little sister, and very fascinated with all her little features. Kaya thought we were having a boy, so when she found out we had a girl she said: "I didn't get my little brother...I think he's lost." Well, maybe next time. :)

Kaya is already being very motherly and helping with EVERYTHING!!! We have to give boundaries or she will completely maul her with love.

Oh, yeah, I had my time in the bed too. :) My take on this birthing experience is: 1. It is truly a miracle. 2. After pushing on Tasha's sacrum steadily for 9 hours, I felt like I went to the gym and never put the weights down. My arms and shoulders hurt so bad!! But, of course I couldn't say anything because what I had to endure was weak sauce, compared to my hero, Tasha.

Proud Grandpa Cusick

Kaya's first "pony"

Well, she finally did it. We woke up one morning and Kaya had a pony tail. She makes her parent's proud!!!

Siding

As if we don't have enough to do before the baby comes...we are now working full steam ahead on our exterior. We hired a guy that recently moved here from Ohio and is starting his siding business back up. He was recommended to us by a neighbor, and so far so good. We are very excited about possibility of transforming our Smurf Blue house to something a little more palatable. But just in case you thought our house couldn't get any more ugly, just look at it without our blue cedar shakes:
Completion date is expected in one more week. I'm sure our neighbors will be just as glad as we will be to have it done--we had a neighborhood cleanup project last Saturday, where everyone helps each other with yard work. We most help the elderly and try to steer clear of the houses like ours that would occupy the rest of our lives with work if we let it. But nonetheless, we still managed to clear out all the railroad ties from our backyard.

The next day, Sunday, when the Bishop realized there were some big piles of green waste that needed to be removed from our street, he mentioned we would need helping hands to help with the project. And then he specifically requested that the owners of the green waste be there to participate as well (I'm sure he had me in mind--looking at a pile of railroad ties weighing in at a mere 200lbs/each make any good man think about the easier road to remodeling a 30 year old house: arson...any kind).

Noah's Ark in my basement

Alright...who opened the umbrella in our basement??? This flood couldn't have happened just because we live in a 30 year old house...it had to be something else right? Well, Noah only has one edge on me: My flood didn't require me to live in a self contained zoo for 40 days (although sometimes it feels like that around here :) The culprit was our outside faucet. It's funny...everytime I talk to someone about what caused our flood, they say, "You didn't unscrew your hose before winter, huh." Sometimes I wonder why I'm always in the dark on these important subjects, and why I always have to learn as I go. I'm liking the idea of "preventative maintenance".The quick story is this: Ryan (Tasha's brother) was outside washing his truck...noticing that he had low water pressure. After about 30 minutes he went inside to get something from his room. That's when he noticed the water coming in his shoes. Tasha and I were in Provo showing our duplex, and got the call that something was wrong. We hurried back, and 4 wet/dry vacs and 5 hours later, we got about all the water up we could.
You know when something happens that creates a domino effect...well, that was this flood. Now that the carpet is out, we can do what we were wanting to: texture the walls (old world style), replace baseboards and trim, tile--you know, simple stuff that only takes a minute. We are in the process now, and hope to be finished before the baby comes.

Easter

We spent Easter in Kaysville with my fam (which coincidentally almost equalls the total population of Tasha's home town :). My nephew got baptized, so we all went up to celebrate...and talk about an Easter egg hunt! For a while I thought we hired a young army to find all the loot. Kids were everywhere!! It took us 30 minutes to hide the candy, and they found it in 10. It was a blast.All the little kids paired up with a bigger kid so the candy would be equally distributed (I promise we don't practice Marxism!!!...but sometimes you have to equally distribute the wealth or the little kids just get trampled). The best part about Easter (aside from all the candy)? Seeing all the parental styles adjust to the influx of sugar in their kid's bloodstream.

Hiking

Sometimes little legs go real fast...sometimes not. Kaya has been feeling so good lately that when we hiked up to Bridal Veil Falls, she was outpacing the pregnant women and fatty daddy. At least she walked all the way up (with little coaxing). The way down however was another story. Thank goodness for all the people running the trail with their dogs! It was enough of a distraction that Kaya took her mind off "how long and boring" the hike down was turning out to be. It has been so nice to see Kaya with so much energy!