My girls...

My girls have been keeping me busier than ever lately. Since Laylin's choking incident right before she turned two months old, we've all been in overdrive and I've mostly been unplugged from writing. We're getting back to normal, or I should say our new normal and Laylin is doing well. She's on a cardio-respiratory monitor which both keeps me up and night and gives me peace of mind at the same time. We're not sure how long she'll have to be on this or her medication at this point, but likely for at least another month if not longer. 

At 9 1/2 weeks old she finally tipped the scales over 10lbs. At two months she was still coming in under 10lbs at 9lbs 10oz. Our little peanut is in either the 20th percentile or below on the charts, but is growing proportionally from where she started at 6lbs, 9oz. I could really tell a difference in her weight while we were in the hospital. I could see her chunking up and her little rolls forming on her thighs and under her chin. I love a chunky baby! Isla had rolls like that too, even more so. 

Laylin is so so sweet. I look at her in awe every day. She has the tiniest dainty features. Small face and head, tiny hands and sweetest expressions. She even looks precious when she cries (which before this recent incident, she didn't cry much at all). I feel like God has blessed me with the best baby! 

She loves to cuddle, take baths, suck on her paci, swing, coo and she is even starting to laugh out now. I've noticed she really hates to wear hats, but other than that I haven't noticed anything that she notably dislikes. She is, for the most part, a vesry content baby. 

My other "baby" has really taken off growing a lot recently too. Isla loves to sing, dance, tell stories, color and anything princess or Tinkerbell related. But her most favorite thing in the whole wide world right now is SHOES! She loves shoes. She probably changes shoes at least ten times a day. I'm forever picking up tiny shoes all over the house and find them stashed all over the place. I think little Miss Isla is going to be a girly girl. She is so much fun and each day these two girls bring more joy to my life than I ever thought imaginable. I seriously feel like the richest person on this earth to be their Mommy!

Favorites of the Bradbury girls...

My girls are growing and changing so much every day. There are so many things I love about each of their stages/ages.

I'll start with Isla who is 2 years and nearly 4 months old...

• She calls popcorn, "copcorn"
• How she shouts "fireman" every time the fireworks display over the castle before a Disney movie
• The way she says yellow, "llellow" using no y at all 
• Her favorite word is, marvelous and she throws her hand over her head with a big expression when she says it.
• She loves wearing her dress up high heels. Its usually the first thing she does when she gets home... takes her normal shoes off and puts on her heels. She LOVES shoes!
• She tells me, "I love you sooooooooo much" often. She will point to her little eye, then cross her arms over her chest and then point to me. She did this the other morning when Joel was taking her to school. I watched her through the window pointing to her little eye, crossing her arms then pointing to me all while mouthing, "I love you."
• The way she plays with her babydolls and calls them all Laylin.
• How she rubs her earlobes when she gets sleepy or tired to soothe herself. She started doing this after we stopped nursing and hasn't stopped yet. Its so sweet.
• Her excitement and sweetness for life every morning. She brings so much pure joy to my life.

And our little peanut Laylin, who is 7 weeks new...

• I love her smiles while she is sleeping
• The soft "Ohhhs" that she coos back to me
• Her daintiness and petite little features
• The softness of her skin and little dimples on her hands
• The way she loves to snuggle and be warm. She loves to be swaddled
• How she loves to lay on my chest with her legs tucked up and around me like a little frog
• Her sweet whispy hair

My girls bring us so much love and laughter. I seriously never knew my heart could be this swollen with love and contentment. God has blessed me beyond measurement with their beating hearts!

Isla's got a BIG personality!

Isla's BIG personality has really been shining lately. She is such a talker. She enunciates really well, doesn't shy away from big words and repeats EVERYTHING. She'll even sing the last lyrics of a song right after it goes off.

My little mimicker is so fun at nearly 28 months old. She loves playing with her baby dolls, making us lay down and play like she is our mommy, tinker bell, wearing her wings and high heel shoes, stickers, stamps and going outside. Oh, she also LOVES her little sister Laylin. She can't stand for Laylin to sleep. She wants her to be awake and be two inches from her face at all time. She loves to help out when Laylin needs a diaper change or if Laylin is crying she will try to sooth her by saying "it's okay Laylin" and giving her the paci.

My little Isla Rae has finally become a good sleeper. She sleeps in her big girl bed all through the night now with no fuss about going to bed. We have a great routine down now and she looks forward to story time. One change recently is that she likes to "read" to us now since she has many of her favorite books memorized.

She doesn't like brushing her teeth, so this is always a battle. She also doesn't like a ton of veggies, but she is starting to try more. Most recently she started liking broccoli (score!). She's still crazy about her staple foods, oatmeal, noodles and cheese. It could be worse I guess. At least I can sneak berries into the oatmeal and veggies into the noodles.

Besides talking a lot, she is also singing a lot now too. She loves to sing the songs she has learned at school, church songs and "let it go" of course. She also loves to dance. Fridays have become "Dance party nights" at our house. Joel and I pick a Pandora station and we all dance together for about an hour or so. I love these fun, goofy Friday nights!

Now that Isla is getting older, we also started game night on Wednesdays and movie night on Thursdays. I love these little traditions in our household. It gives us all little simple things to look forward to and its such great family time.

Isla has such a fun sweet heart. I'm so thankful for all the time I've been able to spend with my two sweet girls lately! So far the terrible twos haven't been terrible at all!

Laylin Jane is 1 month old!

Sweet little peanut hit the one month milestone last week! She is such a little nugget. At five weeks, she just now weighs 8lbs, 12 oz and is 20.75 inches long. She is in the 20th percentile for height and weight and 6% for head. She has the tiniest, daintiest features.

She is such a good baby. I think it's a combination of her laid back temperament and us also being a little more laid back this time around. I guess you kind of have to be more laid back the second time around!

She's only had a few super fussy times thus far. She really only cries if she is having gas pains or is hungry. She's a great sleeper and nurser for the most part! I feel so blessed for this. She takes 2+ hour naps during the day and often will sleep for 4+ hour stretches at night. This was a big change from big sister who only liked to catnap at 30 minutes at a time.

She likes to cuddle and sleep on my chest like a little frog. I adore that she is a snuggle bug! She likes baths, showers, her paci and riding in her carseat. She's starting to make some noises outside of crying, but no cooing just yet.

We can't wait to see her develop and grow, but while we wait, we are soaking in all of her tininess. I love this little girl so much.

Laylin Jane Arrives!

We were blessed to welcome Laylin Jane into this world on August 9th, 2014 at 3:28am. She weighed 6lbs 9oz, and was 19 inches long.

Our little peanut only made us wait 2 days past her due date, unlike big sister who was 9 days late. I went into labor on Thursday after our 40 week check-up. We knew the contractions were different and stronger, but we couldn't get them to be consistent or in any kind of pattern for the 30+ hours I was in labor.

We headed to the hospital on Thursday night, August 7th, only to be turned away as I was only 2-3cm dilated. The contractions kept getting stronger so we went back to the doctor on Friday around lunchtime, but was sent home again. I was at a standstill and just wasn't progressing enough. I needed to be at least 4cm before being admitted to the hospital. The midwife suggested maybe it was false labor because I had been having contractions since late July, but we knew this time was different. It was more intense, and they weren't going away. With much disappointment (and a few tears) we headed back home to continue laboring. Luckily we had a lot of help from our mothers taking care of Isla during this time. I was fortunate enough to do most of the hard labor in the comfort of our own home and Isla was so good through it all. Somehow we managed to mask that I was in any discomfort or pain at all. At one point we told her I was cheering and she would cheer along with me.

I continued to labor at home with the best coach in the world, my husband, until 10pm Friday night. At this point it had been well over 24 hours since I went into labor and we knew I was getting exhausted, feeling defeated and well, in a lot of pain. We decided it was time to give it another shot... third time's the charm, right? We headed to the hospital and were so excited to learn I was 6cm. So excited that I cried tears of relief and pain all at the same time.

They admitted me and I ended up getting an epidural at midnight when I was 8cm. Things moved pretty quickly from there on out. My contractions were finally consistent at 1-2 minutes apart and my water broke. Around 3:10am on Saturday, I told the nurse I felt the baby coming. Sure enough, she was ready to make her big debut and came so quickly that the midwife couldn't get there in time. Our nurse, Racheal, delivered Laylin at 3:28. The ironic thing about our nurse is that her name is Racheal, just like my mother and they both spell it the same unique way. Neither one of them had ever met another Racheal that spelled their name that way. I thought  this was so cool.

After 3 big pushes, they laid Laylin up on my chest and it was one of the sweetest moments of my life. It was so intimate. It was just the nurses, Joel, Laylin and me. I held Laylin in my arms for a few hours before we even weighed her or did any of the other required stuff. She barely even cried.  She has been so content since her arrival. We feel incredibly blessed to have such a special, healthy, tiny girl.

Big sister, Isla, was the first visitor. She came to see her around 10am on Saturday and we explored Laylin together. Isla especially loved her tiny feet and toes. Because we had such a smooth delivery, we got to come home on Sunday at 11am. Isla was there waiting to welcome her baby sister home. She has been very excited about being a big sister and helping take care of her little sister. Besides occasionally wanting me to hold her when I'm holding Laylin, she's been adjusting very well. Her sweet heart is so refreshing and I can tell these girls are going to be lifetime best friends.

It's been a while...

Since I'm also blogging over at The Mommies, it has been a little more challenging to post my thoughts on here. I've had so many precious moments with Isla lately that I've wanted to jot down on paper so that I don't forget, but between work, motherhood, being a wifey and just plain being 40 weeks pregnant, I haven't had the time.

Isla is in the cutest stage now if I haven't told you already. She is having big girl conversations and saying the sweetest things. She has been praying for her pink ball nearly every night for a week now. I think she is concerned because it is dirty and I keep telling her I need to clean it. She also started praying for her paci since we have been trying to slowly persuade her to give it up. She prays for Joel and I, her sissy... (which we aren't sure where the phrase "sissy" came from because we have been calling baby #2 her little sister) and her cousins at night too.

She likes to talk to her sissy in my belly right now too. This morning she even disciplined her for the first time. I was walking around and the baby kicked me in an uncomfortable spot so I yelled out..."Ohhh!"

Isla responded, "You okay, mommy?" In a very concerning voice. I told her I was fine that it was just her baby sister moving around and kicking. Isla then lifted up my t-shirt, looked straight at my stretched belly and said... "No, no baby <insert baby's name>. Don't kick my mommy. That's not nice. Time-out!"

It was all I could do to keep from laughing. I squeezed her so tight. She has been giving the best hugs and squeezes lately and always so excited to see her dad and I if she has been away from us for any length of time.

I think she is going to do really well with the baby. She loves babies and doesn't seem to mind when I hold other children. I know there will be an adjustment period, but she is already so excited about the thought of a baby.

We have decked out the nook under our stairs with babydolls and babydoll furniture along with her other play things. We turned the unused space into a play area for her and she loves it! Of course, she always wants me to go in the tight space with her and sit down in the floor to play... or even lay down in the floor so that she can pretend to be my mommy and pat my back.

She's a constant reminder of one of my greatest purposes on this earth and we feel so blessed He entrusted us with such an awesome toddler!

Baby #2 is officially due tomorrow. We are as ready as we'll ever be and I'm looking forward to it finally being time as I've had so many false alarms in the past few weeks. These last weeks have been hard for me. I can't seem to get comfortable and sleep is no where to be found, but I'm trying to enjoy these last few days of pregnancy in case this happens to be our last child. We don't know what the future holds for our family, but we sure are grateful for today and the growth He has blessed us with!

Bradbury Babe Update

Less than a month to go (hopefully) until Baby B #2 arrives! I'm already dilated 1/2 centimeter which is way better than I was with Isla. Baby #2 is still very active, but I feel her mostly at night now. I can tell this sweet thing is going to have her days and nights confused already. She is head down and ready for take off whenever God gives her the green light. We are hoping for smooth sailing with her arrival and that it isn't a three day excursion like it was with little Ms. Isla Rae.

Isla is making big moves too! She moved up to the Twos class at school. We have noticed such a big change in her since she turned two. She's been talking very well for quite some time, but now it's even more than words and sentences. She is having great conversations with us daily. I love it when she asks me if I had a good day... or if I'm ok.

She loves to pretend. Her favorite toy right now is her baby doll... and she is calling all of her dolls by her little sister's name. (Yes, we have decided the name, but not completely sure on the spelling so we haven't fully announced it yet).

Some of my favorite Isla words and sayings right now...

Lellow - for Yellow
BELLLLLLL---AAAA - for our dog, Bella
She changed the words to Bingo to Bella and loves singing that song now
She still loves the song 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed and also loves to sing, I'm in the Lord's army
Since I've been sick with the baby, she asks me if I'm ok nearly 100 times a day now. She is so concerned for her mommy's well being
She calls holding hands, hand hugs and loves to snuggle with me in the mornings

She is simply the best thing and medicine for my heart. Although turning two has brought on challenges and lots of emotions, I wouldn't change a thing. She is learning so much and so am I. Each day we are learning, growing and teaching one another. I love her BIG personality!