Hayden Jean is here!

Hayden Jean was born on July 16th at 5:58 p.m. weighing 7 lbs 15.7 oz and is 21 1/2 inches long. She was a speedy delivery with coming to greet us only 1 1/2 hours after showing up at the hospital! We were also my doctor's fastest delivery she has ever experienced.

Enjoy the pictures. There will be more updates to come.

Lyla updates

I realized I haven't given many updates on Lyla lately so here you go:

• She is definitely in the "why" phase right now. Everything you do is "why" and if I ask her why, she just says "cuz"!



• Copies what you say in a question voice



• Says her baby sister's name is going to be Kristi. She just loves her Auntie Kristi.



• Got her big girl bed the beginning of June and has slept in it well from the beginning. At first she would call us when she woke up from her nap or bedtime but now she crawls out and comes to wake up mom and dad in the morning! She actually doesn't wake us up the morning, she pushes us out of bed b/c it's time for cartoons!



• I pulled out her Elmo potty the beginning of June to see if she would be interested in potty training. We are not pushing it since the baby is coming and I figured she would back track anyways. She goes off and on when she wants but nothing consistent.



• At 27 months she got her 18th tooth (2nd molar on the bottom L)



• She gets really crabby when she doesn't get her way



• Lastly, she is getting excited about her baby sister coming. She talks at daycare all the time saying "baby sister is coming soon." I hope she will love her as much as she talks about her when she arrives

Pictures of Lyla on the 4th:

All ready for the 4th of July parade
Hanging out with Ella

At the parade with Grandma and Grandpa Brown

40 weeks along

Today is my due date for Baby Brown Girl to come and greet us. I have been getting contractions here and there but nothing long enough to show I'm going into active labor. I had my doctors appointment this morning and she said I was already 2 cm dilated and she decided to rupture my membranes to get things rolling a little faster. She is going to be out of town on Sunday afternoon so we hope we can have this baby before she goes. She did say she thinks the baby will be here within 24 hours so cross your fingers that is the case. We can't wait to meet her!

We will keep you posted!

Baby's Room:

Happy 4th of July and Baby Updates

Happy 4th of July to everyone! I can't believe I'm even writing that right now. This half of the year has certainly flown by along with getting everything prepared for the baby to come. I think everything is pretty much ready and I plan on getting my hospital bag packed today so I'm really ready. Matt has been great and has been helping me get some things done around the house. As most of you know me, I like to have things done way in advance, even if it really doesn't need to get done, but it makes me feel better and Matt knows that (or at least if he wants a happy pregnant wife)! My parents were even out last weekend helping with weeding, mulching and cutting the grass. I don't know what we would do without this help!

My doctor decided to scare me a couple weeks ago and say I was going to have a 4th of July baby (probably b/c she was on call). I ended up working a lot of hours last week at night to try and get everything situated at work before I headed out. My doctors appointment on Friday showed that I was measuring 39 weeks (which I'm 38 now) but no signs of the baby coming really soon. It was probably a good thing my doctor scared me so I can be more at ease until I do actually leave. Let's just hope this baby is not late. I turn 30 1 week after my due date (July 15th) and I want to have this baby before I'm 30! The pregnancy continues to go well, just continued swelling in my feet and ankles but nothing too major. My blood pressure was high for a couple weeks but went back down this week which is great.

More belly pictures (Thanks Jody for letting me borrow your dress):

Lyla and I went to Aunt Nikki's bridal shower a couple weekends ago. Uncle Mike and Aunt Nikki are getting married August 20th and Lyla is going to be a flower girl for their wedding. We will be bringing a full load to the wedding with Baby Girl Brown and my mom coming to help.



I haven't gotten a shot of Lyla and Ella together for a while and was able to snap one yesterday. I'm so glad Ella lets Lyla crawl all over her, even if she doesn't necessarily like it. She will just have to wait until the baby comes and more kids crawling on her!


I love Cheetos! Nice orange face and teeth.




We are heading to a parade this afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa Brown and Lyla has a cute little 4th of July outfit to wear as well. I will have to update pictures afterwards. Have a great rest of your long weekend!

Lyla's 2 year pictures

I realized I never updated Lyla's 2 year pictures on the blog. She did a great job and look some beautiful pictures.

Enjoy!

33 weeks along

Here are some updates on the pregnancy of Baby Girl Brown. I'm already 33 weeks along and have around 7 weeks to go. I can't believe we will be welcoming a new addition to the family soon! I've been feeling pretty well overall, just more tired during the day, can't sleep well at night and starting to feel more uncomfortable as time goes. I've been lucky that it hasn't been a warm spring which helps the swelling of my feet and ankles. She has been an active one and likes to stretch out a lot. I'm carrying her pretty low so she hasn't been bothering my ribs but likes to push on my bladder a lot!

Here's some new baby bump pictures:

We are Nukers Free!

With everything else going in our life, Matt and I decided we needed to try and ween Lyla off of her Nuk (as we refer to as "Nukers"). I figured this was not going be an easy transition so I put it off a little longer than I wanted.
I actually started taking it away in the car as our routine is to give Lyla her Nuk and bunny. On the way to work she would sleep a lot of times and then it just became routine to always give it to her. The first couple of days were not fun as she didn't understand why she didn't have her Nuk but luckily with my new vehicle, we have a DVD player and we watched Mickey Mouse and Dora to distract her.
Then last Friday, right before nap time, I gathered up the Nuks in the house and had her say goodbye to all of them and put it in a box for the babies that needed them. She was okay with this and even closed the lid to the box but then asked for it when she was in her crib. She cried for 20 minutes and finally dozed off. When she woke up, she talked about how she gave her Nukers to the babies and she was a good girl!
I figured bedtime was going to be a disaster but she asked for it a couple of times and we talked about it again and she went right down with a fight. I was so proud of her! Every once in a while she will ask for it when she's really tired and we are not at home but she quickly remembers where they are. We are now over 1 week Nuk free and are ecstatic she took to it so easily. Now next Friday she is getting her big girl bed so we will see how this goes!