1 Month

How is my baby 1 month already?  Layla is growing so fast!  She is a great baby and I can't seem to give her enough kisses.  Allee and Pierce love her so much and have been so helpful.  Not a day passes when they don't ask to hold her even if she is crying, it doesn't bother either of them.  It is awesome when I just want to change the laundry or do the dishes quickly.

Happy 7th Allee

 The night before Allee's party Aunt Christy headed back home so she gave Allee her present early.  Yes, we have a little "Beiber Fever" in this house.  I think I heard Baby Baby about a million times that night!

 Allee's friend party.  We had a PJ party.  They decorated cupcakes, made sleep masks, and watched Tangled.  Having a two week old, I thought we would keep it pretty low key, but the girls had a blast. 

  Allee's dinner of choice this year:  Dinner in a pumpkin.  Everyone loved it!
We also had Great and Gra visiting for her big day which was so fun.  It was exciting to spend a birthday with family again.

From Steph and Dave.  One of the few things Allee really wanted.  She was thrilled and sported it to school the next day!

The best part of Allee's birthday was a scavenger hunt around the house (thanks Derek for the idea).  Allee LOVED it, in fact she still talks about how awesome it was and it has been a few weeks!

It all ended with a new bike.  Allee had worn through the tire on her old bike, and I am not kidding, the tube popped because the tire was gone!  At least it was well used!  Perfect timing for a new bike.

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALLEE!

We love you so much!  You are a fantastic big sister and such a sweet girl.  You are thoughtful, fun to be around, and sweet.  You make us proud every day.  You are into everything that sparkles, you love pink, Justin Beiber, Selina Gomez, and accessories.  You are a joy to be around and we are so lucky to have you in our family!

Miss Layla

Layla is such a wonderful baby.  She is easy going and loves to be snuggled.  The best part is she only wakes up once or twice a night to eat and then goes right back to bed!  She gets the hiccups ALL THE TIME.  Poor little thing, I am constantly giving her a pacifier just to make them go away. 

At her 1 week check she weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and by 2 weeks she was back up to 7 lbs 11 oz exactly.

Layla never spits up, which has been really odd for us because our other two did all the time.  In fact the other day I asked Derek to get me a burp cloth because she had a mouth full of milk and he hollered from her bedroom, "Where ARE the burp cloths?"

Layla Claire

I went to my doctors appointment on September 8 which was one day before my due date, with the intention of insisting my doctor start me the next day.  After my exam she said she would call the hospital to schedule my induction, but that it probably wouldn't happen until Monday.  I was so disappointed, in fact I was down right pouting after she left the room.  When the nurse came back she asked if I could be at the hospital at 3:00 that afternoon, my jaw literally dropped and my mind went blank.  That was not the answer I was expecting!  We hurried home with only four short hours until we needed to be back at the hospital.  Derek wrapped everything up at work, I arranged a babysitter for the kids for the night, vacuumed, and started the dishwasher.  We hurried off to Allee's school to tell her the good news, and let her know that our great friend Sonya would be picking her up and she and Pierce would be spending the night there.  I gave her and Pierce big hugs and kisses, realizing this was the last time I was going to have two kids, and we were off to meet our little girl.

By the time we checked in it was 4:00.  The doctor broke my water at 5:15, and around 6:30 I was asked if I wanted my epidural now because the anesthesiologist was going in to do an appendectomy.  I had only felt a few contractions, but there is no way I was going to miss getting my epidural!  It was THE BEST epidural EVER!  Around 8:00 I was started on a pitocin drip, and went from 5 cm to 10 cm by 9:00.  The doctor came in and our sweet baby girl was born at 9:24 pm.

I had told Derek right before she was born that if she had blond hair then she would be Emme, but if she had dark hair then she was definitely Layla.  I had dreams of holding a little brunette baby girl we called Layla last November.  They were so vivid, so real, I knew that baby girl was coming to our family.

Sure enough, she has LOTS (by our standards!) of dark hair.  Welcome to the world

Layla Claire

 7 lbs. 11 oz.  19 1/2 inches

 Meeting Pierce, who couldn't get enough of her.  He says her name, "Aya"

 The proud big sister.  Allee couldn't be more proud.

 Getting ready to come home.  Aahh. . . . the adventures that await us!

For now I am just enjoying every second of this little peanut.  I can't put her down, and I feel so blessed to have this sweet spirit in our family.