Uncles

My brothers crack me up. They both love babies so much. I've never known boys to want to hold babies and think they're cute like my brothers do (besides Mitch about his daughter, of course!). I'm glad they like babies because that means they love their niece! Jordan called me the other day. It makes me smile to think of what he said:

Jordan: How is my favorite niece doing?

Lacey: You mean your only niece?

Jordan: Well yeah, but she'll always be my favorite!

I love this picture. Layla being smothered by her uncles.

I'm sure she'll have a lot of fun with her uncles when she's older! And Natalie already claimed the title as "The Aunt Who Teaches Her Everything There Is To Know About Disney." Ha,ha. I'm sure Layla will LOVE to play princesses with Natalie some day! And Layla already loves Katie ... so much so that she projectile vomited all over poor Katie the other night. I felt really bad! Mitch said she only vomits on the ones she loves most. Ha,ha. She is lucky to have great aunts, uncles, and grandparents!

Here are some pics that Kathy/Gma. B. took the other day:

Harvey is adjusting well to having Layla around. Now when she cries he either wants to go outside or jumps on my lap to rub his head on her to comfort her. What a sweet cat. He got a bath the other day. I think he looks so funny after a bath!

The other day after work Mitch walked in the door and asked me to come look at something outside. I could tell by the sound of his voice that it was something unusual ... it was Harvey sitting in the driver's seat of my car! Apparently he jumped in my car without me noticing and had been trapped in there for over 3 hours!!! Oops. Poor Harvey, I hope he learned his lesson! It was pretty funny and we got a good laugh out of it. He sure was happy to come inside ...

On another note: GO JAZZ!!! I hope they win the series tomorrow night!

Happiness

It's been almost two weeks now since Layla was born and it's finally sunk in that I am a Mom ... and I love it! How can I not love looking at this adorable little face all day???

I'm feeling so much better and I'm finally adjusting to the lack of sleep. Layla has been great at breastfeeding and is already on a fairly predictable schedule. Actually, she is a champ when it comes to eating! At her one week pediatrician appointment she was only 2 ounces below her birth weight. She's kind of a little porker. Ha,ha. We are happy that she is so healthy.

Mitch is such a great dad. I love seeing how smitten he is with his daughter. I know she will grow up and absolutely adore him too. Mitch took a week off work to be with us. It was so nice to have him here. I wish we were independently wealthy so we could both be stay-at-home parents. But I'm glad that Mitch has such a great job. He had a hard time going back to work and I sure miss him when he's gone! He's my best friend.

Layla is a very happy baby. She only cries if she's really, really hungry or has a really, really nasty diaper. Other than that she is a very content little girl. I took the picture below at 2 a.m. the other morning (on my cell phone so it's kind of crappy quality). I had just finished feeding her and was trying to keep her awake to eat some more. She had her eyes closed and every time I would say her name, instead of opening her eyes, she would just smile. I don't think she knew she was smiling, it was probably just an automatic reaction to the sound of my voice, but it sure was cute!

Layla LOVES her Swaddle Me. She conks right out as soon as she's wrapped up tight. She HATES bath time and she HATES it when she gets the hiccups. Mitch and I LOVE putting huge flowers on her head. (Okay, maybe it's mostly me. But Mitch thinks it's cute too.) She might hate me for it when she's older, but we think she looks adorable.

Layla is so funny when she wakes up. She stretches, arches her back, stretches some more, and grunts A LOT. It makes me laugh every time she grunts. She sounds like a tiny, little man. She actually reminds me of my dad waking up in the morning, stretching and grunting, only it's a lot cuter when Layla does it. Ha,ha.

I am so glad that Layla came to join us and that Heavenly Father trusts Mitch and I enough to raise her and to know that our little family can be together for eternity. I love my husband and our baby girl more than I can say.

So Tired

Lacey and Layla are super tired. Life is hard when you are first born and growing by leaps and bounds all the time. Life is super hard when you are recovering from delivering a baby, having your body work double time to produce milk for the baby, and being up all hours of the night, every night, to feed the baby. Needless to say, there have been a lot of naps at our house lately.

Yesterday: what I found after coming in from fixing the A/C on my car...

Today: what I found when I came in from working on the yard...

I feel so bad for these two. Lacey says it is hard, but every time she sees that adorable face her heart melts and she is okay with being up at 3 a.m. to feed her. I've been helping out where I can, changing diapers, running to the store, and letting them nap when they get a chance.

Layla also met her Grandpa Miles yesterday. We dressed her up for the occasion. Isn't she adorable.

Being parents has been interesting and fun: I lost 2 shirts in 5 minutes last night to spit-up (where is a burp cloth when you need it!?!). We have dirtied both our changing tables all in one day from Layla, who loves to pee after you take her diaper off. We have both seen her smile a few times (sure, it isn't a real "smile", but it sure is cute). Lacey found that she missed Layla when she was away for an hour. Layla loves to "pose" for the camera. Harvey still panics when she cries. Happy 1 week B-day Layla!

Layla and Harvey

Lacey and I were a little concerned on how our cat, Harvey, would react to having baby Layla in the house. We kinda wondered how much he knew when Lacey was pregnant. Sometimes he would cuddle up to her belly and purr. It makes you wonder if animals know more about what is going on than we give them credit for, but who knows.

When we brought Layla home, Harvey seemed really interested in all her stuff. He smelled everything we brought home, except for her. We wonder if he is ignoring her because he is jealous. He still doesn't go near her.

One thing that sets him off is her crying. It really upsets him. Last night we decided to give Layla her first bath. She was not happy about it at all. She cried and cried while we tried to bathe her. Harvey freaked out the whole time. He started acting really worried and meowed a lot. Then he nipped my leg while I was holding the crying baby. I don't know if he thinks that we are hurting her, or if he just can't stand the crying and wants it to stop. Anyhow, we have learned that we have to keep Harvey out of the room if Layla is crying. I hope he can adjust because she is here to stay. We have had a ton of adventures in parenting so far. I'll let Lacey blog about them since she seems to end up with the brunt of it.

Layla

Well, after 10 hours of labor on Lacey's part, our little girl is finally here. We went in to the hospital at 7:30 yesterday morning. By about 8:30 Lacey had been started into labor. At first it wasn't too bad, but by about noon Lacey was starting to have some pain. An epidural came shortly after that, and Lacey was in heaven. She even took a nap for a little while, all while having contractions. Around 4:30 the pain started to come back. She got some more injections to manage the pain, but she wasn't quite numb. At about 5:45 she started to push and at 6:28 p.m. our little girl was born. We were shocked at her size. She was 8 pounds 3 ounces. The doctor originally thought she would be a 6 or 6.5 pound baby, but she decided to stay and extra week in the womb and she just kept getting bigger. She is 20.5 inches long and has a killer set of lungs. She started screaming right after she was born. She was especially mad at the antibiotic gel that was put in her eyes. She is catching on to feeding really fast and doing well. She mainly just sleeps. I did her first diaper change, which was a little crazy. Lets just say she made a big mess. Lacey is recovering well. She is super sore, but in good spirits and able to move around. Our parents and siblings came by yesterday to meet Layla Leslie Bott. She put on a little show for her grandparents, aunts and uncles. She showed how she can suck her fingers and she showed off her fuzzy hair.

We are super excited to take her home. She is doing well and has been a very well behaved baby for just coming into the world. Below are some picture of our bundle of joy!!!

Here is Lacey's last belly picture. She is smiling between contractions.

Proud papa.

Little Layla with her fuzzy hair.

One tough and happy mom.

Layla all dressed up for visitors

Car Seat Cover

My mom so kindly bought the material for this car seat cover. My Grandma Ruth so lovingly sewed the car seat cover. She just whipped this up like it was nothing. No pattern or anything. Thanks so much to both of you!

I think the fabric is so pretty. (My mom and I went together to pick out the material. My mom found this fabric, pointed it out to me, and I loved it. I must say that I think my mom has great taste. She always finds the cutest clothes, fabric, purses, or whatever.)

And the border and underside is a striped material. Cute!

These car seat covers are sold at Quilted Bear for 50 bucks ... the material for this one cost $15. Hmmm, kind of a no brainer, right? Thanks again, Mom and Grandma. I really love it! Now we just need a baby to put in the car seat ...

She's Late

April 2, 2010 will be over in a few hours. Baby Girl isn't here yet. She's late. The good news is she's still doing very well. I'm finally dilated to a whopping ONE. Maybe a two. So, it could be any time now. Otherwise Baby Girl will receive her eviction notice next week.

Mitch and I realized that today is the last Friday we will ever spend together without kids. How weird. So, we went to an I-max movie and ate at the Bombay House (and decided that we like Taste of India more). It was a good last date night before Baby comes.

We're both so excited for our little girl! I hope we're ready for this crazy adventure we're about to embark on ... we're as ready as we'll ever be, I guess. I also hope that everything goes well, with no complications, and that we have a healthy baby above all else ...