Schmidt Summer

Life has certainly become fuller and busier in our budding family. Now, at the end of the summer 2010, Haley is (already!) 7 months old. She's nearly crawling and is enthusiastically trying to keep up with her big brother. She's always looking around for him.

Much of the summer has been spent at parks and at Grandma Notary's pool. We enjoyed seeing Andrea's brother Joe and family early on in the summer, as they were in Estes Park for several weeks. Josh spent a lot of time training and racing his mountain bike. He was preparing to ride the Leadville Trail 100, but a nagging knee injury kept him from racing in this 100-mile challenge.

Caleb continues to grow in both language and physical bulk. He's become a stout young boy, but he hasn't changed in terms of his love of cars, trucks and trains. Whether or not he's got a buddy around, these little vehicles almost completely occupy him. Andrea has made his summer rich with many play dates, trips to the zoo and nearly every park in our area.

Most recently, we were blessed with a few days at our friends' condo in Winter Park. We had a blast up there! We even got Caleb on his first hike (under his own power) to see his first waterfall! Of course, Haley was with us, but Mommy was carrying her.

With fall coming soon, we're glad to have made so much of summertime. No doubt, we have excitement for future summers as our family grows together. We still have to do our first official camping trip!

3 Months of Haley!

It is deserving that we share a little more of our new, wonderful little girl, Haley. Having two children is a lot more work, and we've had little time to polish up the old blog. But better late than never, eh?!

Grandma Notary, Aunt Stacey, Mommy & Haley, Great

Grandma White, and Nana Nancy at Haley's Baby Shower

Haley is now 3 months old. She's still a petite little girl, but she is growing! She's got the same perfectly round head, like her big brother, with just a splash of hair. (Our guess is that it won't really start growing until she's a year old.) You have to see her eyes in person - they're deeply brown and lovely. Haley is in the ballpark of 12 or 13 lbs. She's smiling and cooing at even the slightest glance by one of us. We're also amazed that her little body can handle a full night's sleep, but she does it! What a blessing!

Haley's parents are starting to emerge back into the land of normal living. Newborn life is taxing, especially on mom (if that makes any sense). These last 3 months have flown by though!

Caleb continues to astound us by his sweet and caring approach to big-brotherhood. When Haley is crying, we often hear him say, "It's okay Haley." So cute! What a gift it is to have siblings in our lives.

The New Schmidt Bundle of Joy

On January 23, we were over at Grandpa Schmidt's house for small get-together. Andrea was playing ping-pong and enjoying the night. She had a few noticeable contractions, but nothing really all that serious.

However, that same night she was awoken by increasingly painful contractions around midnight. She stirred Josh at around 1:30am. We started timing contractions and found that they were in the 3-7 minute range and getting stronger. We quickly called Grandma (Josh's mom), who was on standby for several days now, at 3am. By 4am, we were out the door speeding to St. Joseph's Hospital in downtown Denver. We were going to have a baby!

By the time we reached the hospital, Andrea was laboring fairly intensely. The last time we went through this, at Caleb's birth, Andrea arrived at the hospital only 4cm dilated. This time we were shocked to find that she was 8cm dilated! Almost there!! The next 2.5 were intense and comical at the same time. Andrea's contractions were stronger and definitely more painful; however, between peaks, she was chatty and positive about things. She hovered at 8cm for awhile, so the doctor decided to break Andrea's water. It still took some time for her to become fully dilated, but, sure enough, she got there.

When it came time to push, Andrea was in severe pain. She heroically fought through 10 hard minutes of pushing and then our baby was born! Now, we had deliberately chosen to wait to find out what the sex of our baby was. The doctors had talked to Josh prior if he wanted to announce the sex of the baby. He was excited too! Much to our great joy, we found that Andrea had delivered a baby girl! We named her Haley Joy Schmidt. Several years prior to her birth, and even Caleb's, we had thrown out this name for a girl, and it stuck!

Haley was born at 6:45 am on Sunday, January 24, 2010. She weighed a petit 6 lbs 8 oz, and measured 19 inches long. Here she is!