Pierced ears & Cloth Diapers!

We have a growing collection now. Thanks to Colleen and Ella!  

Layla also got her ears pierced today ( July 17. ) She screamed and seemed so upset that the lady who she liked so much had betrayed her like this! It only last a minute or two & then she was back to loving everybody she could get to look at her! Layla gets quite the attention, it stems from her ginormous bows & big baby blues then she sucks you in with her smile & your hooked! ;)

ALMOST 7 MONTHS?!

8 Months!! Already?

I don't know where time has gone. Layla is getting so big & SO MUCH FUN! She's got quite a personality. I don't know where to start, it's been a while. She's crawling, backwards! ALMOST forward. ::laughing:: Shes not a big 'Solids' eater. Thats OK! She'll choose something she can hold in her hands before anything pureed. She was never big on bottles. Shes working on sippy cups but only water. She does best with the sippy cup with a straw attached. Still breastfed just as much as day one!! Go us! So proud of our big girl! Layla is such a joy to have around. She makes our life extremely easy! She's easy to take out & we get complimented EVERYTIME we take her to a restaurant on how well behaved she was! We also get complimented on how stunning she is EVERYWHERE we go. I'm probably just being bias but either way, shes beautiful and everyone knows it! :)

She had her first trip to the emergency room and was admitted for 3 days in May. Poor girl has a gastro infection! her fever was about 102.3-104 for 4 days in a row! The scariest few days of my entire life we're watching my little girl suffer in so much pain. When we were in the emergency department waiting for them to give her an IV, I stepped out to call my mom. When I walked thru the security door past the waiting room I heard the cry of a terrified baby. She was SCREAMING in fear & I knew it was my child. I cannot begin to describe the pain that filled my body listening to my baby cry like that. I ran back to her room and looked thru the window to see two nurses holding Layla down & Chris doing his best to calm her. I couldn't go into that room. Thank god for Chris. I have never been more proud of him. I would have never been able to get thru our daughter being so sick, without my amazing husband by our side! On a positive note, the Galisano Childrens hospital at Upstate University is amazing!! The entire staff who helped take care of Layla until we were 110% ready to take her home we wonderful & muchly appreciated!!

We took Layla to her first 4th of July show! She loves fireworks! She also loves swimming & we've been at my parents house almost everyday for the past week during this heat wave we're having!

Wrapping things up-

Shes in 12-18 months clothes

Still nursing 4-6 times a day

Sleeping mostly thru the night ( in my bed ) & yes! We are working on it!

She was 29.5 inches & 20 pounds at her 6 month ( almost 7 months) appointment!

Layla is almost 4 months old!!

Life with a new baby is very busy & I haven't had the time to update at all. Quick update!

My little baby girl is almost 4 months! Time is flyyyying by! Shes working on rolling over. Some days she gets it, some days she doesn't. she grabs her toys and plays with them. She laughs, SOMETIMES. Most of the time it's just a "empty laugh" as I like to call it. Laughing but no sound comes out! So cute, but I wish there was sound. :)

Hmm.. what else is our lovely Layla up to? We have successfully been breastfeeding for almost 4 months! YAY! I would love to make it to a full year if we can! It's so funny, because when I was pregnant I was all for breastfeeding but kinda thought to myself that I probably would last a week them switch to formula! No way! It's such an amazing feeling to be able to give this to my baby! So far she hasn't been sick with anything, not even the smallest of colds! Thank god! Especially since she was a winter baby in Upstate NY!

Our girl is getting so big!! I'm sure she is probably about 16 pounds now and about 27 or so inches. Shes still in a few 3 month outfits, mostly Circo onesies, but we're movin on up to 3-6 months in the majority of clothes! She's quite the looker too! I swear every parent thinks their child is beautiful, but Layla turns head everywhere! I even heard a man compliment my daughter to his son at the mall the other day!!

Cutting this short-- hopfully I'll update more soon!

Can you believe it's been a month?!

Time Really does Fly!

Layla's swinging in her swing, pretty happy and content, for now! Lets see if I can get a quick update!

Tomorrow Layla will be 5 weeks old already! I can't believe it. She's growing SO FAST. Already to 10 lbs. 12 oz. 22 3/4 inches long. She's really learning to smile now. She can follow things when you put them in front of her face. Right now shes got a HUGE grin on her face as she watches the butterflies go around and around above her. Being a mother is exactly what I imagined it to be, only better, because I'm not imagining it anymore. My baby girl is here & I could never ask for anything better than this!! When Chris goes to work in the morning, I get this huge feeling of HAPPY when he kisses us both goodbye and says "I love you both"

We had a good Thanksgiving, Twice. First at my parents then at Chris' Grandparents. We also had Christmas/newborn portraits done! Grandma Carolin came to visit for a few days. We really enjoyed having her & Ben here & we're definitely looking forward to visiting Houston for the wedding in March :)

2 weeks post baby!

Welcome to the world Layla!

My beautiful baby girl is taking a nap & while she's doing that, I'm going to attempt to recap Labor and Delivery & whats been going on since!

Layla is 2 weeks old already! It seems like just yesterday we were immpatiently waiting for my due date, which came and went.

November 6th 2009 Chris and I made our last trip from home as a couple, to become a family of three! We left the house at about 5:15pm and made our way to Crouse Irving Hospital! We checked in and got admitted. My room was waiting for me with a gift bag from Jessicas Mom! My first nurse just so happened to be the woman from our birthing class! :) I got hooked up to the monitor and IV & got checked for dilitation ( still at 1CM! ) The Dr. came in and gave me cervidil (sp?) to help me dialate. They say only about 10% of women actually go into labor from the cervidil. Chris was able to sleep, which was good! I was a little too excited and nervous to get a good nights rest. The nurse gave me some benadryl and I dozed a little better. It was kind of hard though, with IV fluids running non stop and Layla pushing even harder on my bladder, I was getting up at least every 45 minutes! Finally 12 hours later at about 8AM they took out the meds and checked my cervix which was at 4CM!!! I was in the 10% to go into labor!! They gave me the go ahead to shower and get something to eat. Chris ran to Dunkin Donuts while I showered then we ate & took a quick walk around the floor, before startingthe Pitocin at about 10AM. I have to say, this isn't going to be a very interesting story since I found the first 8 hours of labor to be a piece of CAKE! So much for the horror stories that being induced is so much worse. I couldn't have asked for a better experience! The pitocin started very low and they gradually increased the dosage every 15 minutes. We started at 2 ml and ended at about 52ml. Still managing the pain pretty well I got the epidural just incase I wouldn't be able to handle it when it got too late! The epidural was a cinch too, so glad I went through with that! After the epidural was in they asked me if it was working & I said I didn't know! The nurse said it was because the monitor was showing a HUGE contraction! YAY!

Chris got some more sleep while he could and I tried to stay busy, since I could not sleep! I was finally bored out of my mind and thirsty as anything so I sent Chris for his 100th trip to get me some juice which he did very quickly everytime I woke him up! :) Then we watched the penn state game while labor really increased! 6CM to 7 in about 2 hours. 7CM-8Cm in about and hour 8-9 in another hour. Then the pressure kicked in. This wasn't what I was expecting, it really hurt! With every contraction it was getting worse. Chris was great, he held my hand and rubbed my leg and counted for me. Enough was enough, about 45 minutes of that and I couldn't take it anymore. It was time to push!! Chris ran to get the nurse who said I wouldn't be ready yet. When the nurse and the resident made it to my room 10 minutes later I was fully dialated and READY! I had a few practice pushes and they said they could see hair! After about 45 minutes I could feel my babys head! Shortly after that, we welcomed our gorgeous baby girl, Layla Grace Bratt into the world at 7:52 PM! I remember Chris saying " She's here baby! She's beautiful! " They put her on my chest and wiped her clean. Layla wasn't crying. I honestly don't know that she was even breathing yet. I kept asking if she was OK & they told me yes. Then they took her from me & had to stick tubes down her throat and nose to clean the fluid from her lungs. Chris stayed with her & he looked SO PROUD! As scared as I was, Those were the most amazing moments of my entire life! They had to take Layla to the NICU for a "pit stop" as they called it. She was OK, but they just wanted to do a full check. Daddy went up with her.

When daddy brought her back we enjoyed our new addition and ate varsity pizza! Pizza will never taste as good as it did right after giving birth! :)

I guess the rest of the story & whats been going on are going to have to wait.

Mommy & Daddy love you more than you will ever know Layla!

Layla Grace Bratt

November 7th, 2009 at 7:52PM

9 pounds 1.5 oz. 20 3/4 inches

We're gonna be PARENTS!!

Checking into Labor & Delivery TONIGHT!

The big event starts off tonight. There's a million different feelings running through my head as I try to prepare myself for what Chris and I are about to go through. Apparently, Chris has everything ready for himself. I asked him last night if he was nervous and he told me "No." How are you not? It will never be just the two of us anymore. As much as we tried for this, wanted this and are very much as prepared as we can possibly get ourselves, our entire lives are going to change this weekend!! I knew from as far as I can remember that I wanted to be a mommy. I've been ready since the day we started trying for this little girl, in Oct. 07'. Now the final hours are here and I'm lost for words when I think about what it will be like to meet the little person Chris and I created!

How am I going to handle the pain? In the beginning I used to joke about how teeny she was in there but would eventually be very big and need to come out! It hasn't really hit me that she will be coming out whether I'm ready or not. I don't think you can prepare yourself for this type of thing. Chris says its inevitable, so just try to relax and we'll get through it when it comes! Yeah, he's right, but whose going to be birthing Layla? I'm more scared about this than I was about my lung surgery. They put you to sleep for those kinds of things. I really hope I don't need a C-section. I'm so worried about some type of emergency situation happening (since those things always happen to me!) and having to be put to sleep and not have chris there for an Emerg. C-section! I don't know why they put those thoughts in your head during the birthing classes. Ugh.

Chris is working right now. When he gets home we'll have dinner & make our final trip to the 8th floor at Crouse Hospital. The next time we come home, we'll be a family of THREE!

Kirby will be staying with my parents until we get home then they'll bring him over once we're all settled in! Kirby can't wait to be a big brother!

Well, Thats all for my pregnancy updates! Next time I post, There will be baby pictures!!!

We'll let everyone know once Layla arrives!

xoxo

We love you Layla

love mommy&daddy

OVERDUE :(

Layla is coming this weekend

whether she wants to or not!

My appointment this morning confirmed my fear of Layla's estimated weight! She is so big! When the tech scanned over her face, it looked double the size it was 3.5 weeks ago. Actually, it looked more like she mashed her face against a window! Her nose was all wrinkled up & her hand is still on her face, (the same place it's been for the last 4 months.) I guarantee she will come out Head/hand-to-face then shoulders! Anywhoo, She was still being very active, kicking those little thunder thighs all over the place. I think she's just trying to tell me she still has room and she wont be out until she doesn't! Sorry sweetheart, your mama has other plans!

I told the tech my fear of finding out her weight & at the end she asked me if I wanted to know. Obviously I needed to know. The look on her face was priceless when she looked at the screen for the result, and then she literally GASPED! 9 pounds 8 oz! I almost broke out into tears! This baby needs to come out NOW!

After that, I had a Non stress test and everything looked perfect! Then I saw the Doctor. Her first words were " You're still smiling, that's a good thing! " then she said the most beautiful combination of words, " Well, we can induce if you would like, but we don't have to." HAHA!

" ABSOLUTELY, take her out! Can we do it this Friday?"

She walked out and came back and I'm scheduled to be induced Friday, November 6Th at 6PM!

We will have a baby this weekend! :) :)

We can't wait to meet you, Layla!!

love mommy+daddy

It's your due date baby!

It's your due date baby, and your late to the party!

Dear Layla,

It's 10:00pm on Halloween night. You were expected to arrive today, but apparently your quite comfortable staying curled up inside of me! As much as I do love feeling you, barely able to squirm around, I would really like to meet the little lady with such a strong punch. Like the one I just felt on my bladder! Your daddy cannot wait to meet you! He carved your name into a pumpkin tonight, just in case! It's been approximately 40 weeks that I've been carrying you around. It's actually quite amazing! This whole experience is the most wonderful, nerve wracking, happy, anxious & scared time of both daddy and my life! We're so ready for the adventure to begin!! So, would you please make your entrance sweetheart, we're dieing to meet you!!!

EDIT: It's November 1st! Layla is officially late and going to be a November baby! I have a doctors appointment tomorrow morning. They're doing a sono to check growth & for the first time ever, I am TERRIFIED of how much they are going to tell me she weighs! I'm have this awful feeling they might say over 9lbs. I sure hope not! Either way, as long as shes healthy, I will be happy! This is also the first time Daddy wont be there with me to see his baby girl! That's OK. He'll see her soon enough, I Hope! I will be discussing induction with the doctor since I am overdue now. Hopefully, something is progressing though and we wont have to go that route.

Carolin,

Chris and I want to thank you again for the video camera! Now we're going to be able to capture this special occasion even better than I had hoped we would be able to! & Now, for as far into the future as I can see, you inbox and probably home mailbox will be overfilled with home movies and pictures of Layla! Thank you again. Layla, Chris and I are truly lucky to have you! We love you and can't wait to see you!

We love you Layla

love mommy & daddy