Life Lately, November 2022

As we travel full throttle towards holiday-land, I want to take a few minutes to give a quick update on all THREE of the little Laydens while Jules (hopefully naps). Reid and Adeline are home from school today but out playing with Apa and Nee Nee (and Sloane) at a park somewhere.Anyway, here goes:

Reid: Reid turned 7 in October and is an incredible big brother. Although he teases Adeline more than I would like, he can be very loving and protective with her and they often play really well together. (It helps that she is a bit of a tomboy and enjoys wrestling and sword fighting and playing Floor is Lava, etc.) Reid is very athletic, active, funny, curious, quietly sensitive, kind, and many other things. And when it comes to baby Jules, he is smitten- the most caring and loving big brother I've ever seen. One of my favorite things about Reid right now is that he has really grown to love reading this school year. While he is steadfastly curious about many things (especially major historic events like war stories and the sinking of the Titanic), he really enjoys his graphic novels (Dog Man, Investigators) and R. Dahl books (The Twits, Charlie and the Glass Elevator). He has also been enjoying drawing more and still likes to play chess and, of course, Roblux and other games on his Ipad. His best friends right now are, according to him, Caleb and Grady, and he really likes his 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Nasser. I am so excited to see how he continues to grow!

Adeline: Adeline turned 4 last April and is in VPK at All Saints (Ms. Nancy and Ms. Nichole). She seems to really love the school and has impressed us with how smoothly she transitioned to a new school. She loves to keep up with Reid and, although not super interested in sports, she really enjoyed going to her 1st soccer camp at XL yesterday. She loves to climb, enjoys gymnastics class, sings throughout the day (and often makes up songs about what she is doing), loves on her baby sister, and has shifted her passion from dinosaurs to horses. She told me yesterday she wants to be a horse vet that rides horses when she is older. She is funny, a bit quirky, talkative, sensitive, cuddly etc. Love my Addie girl!

Jules: Juliette, our sweet little babe, is almost 9 months old. She has two bottom teeth and two top teeth coming in, enjoys eating solids and baby snacks (like teething biscuits and yogurt drops), drinks water out of a sippy cup, says "ma ma," "ba ba," "da da," and "pa pa," and just started really crawling last week. We have also caught her pulling up to stand a few times recently. She has loved her experience swinging at the park, shrieks and flaps her arms when she is really happy/excited, recently learned to clap, is very inteterested in Finn and cell phones, seems to enjoy facetime chats with her favorites (dad and grandparents, mostly), and is very enamored with her siblings. She sleeps most nights from around 7/730 to 6/630, although the recent daylight savings time took some adjusting. Although she occasionally wakes up in the nights, she often self soothes with the help of her beloved Frigg pacis! I'm so proud of how she has developed!

Although life is a bit chaotic and stressful at times with our three little loves depending on us for so many things (and all of life's other needs), I am always, always, always grateful, proud, and completely in love with my little babes! Now on to the holidays!

Long overdue update - Introducing Baby J!

 Life lately.. wow, where do I begin? Since the last post, the world has gone through an incredibly trying and (for many) life altering pandemic. Cue Covid-19 talk. In March 2020, the world went on pause- schools were closed, quarantine bubbles were formed, plans were cancelled, masks and lysol wipes were bought, and we all braced ourselves for two weeks of, basically, home confinement to "flatten the curve" and "stop the spread" of Covid-19/coronavirus. Two weeks turned in to one month, which turned in to two, which turned in to one year, etc. But that is news for another time because the biggest and best news of all since my last update is that we welcomed a new little love to our world on March 6, 2022: Juliette Diana Layden after a largely uneventful (although very exhausting) pregnancy. Juliette's due date was March 10th, but I was induced on March 6th because of excess amniotic fluid and a "failed" nonstress test.  We showed up to the hospital at 5 a.m. after very little sleep (I had a ton of anxiety the night before about something going wrong for me or Baby J) and pitocin was started around 11 a.m. (had to wait for a bed- they set us up in the ICU ward to wait and that put things in to perspective for me). I labored for a while and then got an epidural in the early evening and labored for a few more hours. Baby J was "sunnyside up" and had the cord wrapped around her neck so that was worrisome for a moment but everything went pretty well over all. Although I pushed longer with Baby J than Adeline, the experience felt well-managed and safe and calm. I almost tried childbirth sans an epidural but changed my mind after talking to Doctor Nguyen, Andy, and my mom (my support team) and realizing that an epidural may help speed things along (everything seemed to be stalled). Since Juliette was "sunnyside up," I would have gone through extremely painful back labor if I did not get the epidural. I did get the chance to experience some very painful contractions before going through with the epidural. Anyway, our beautiful brown-eyed, dark haired Juliette was born at 8:10 p.m., weighed 7 lbs, 14 oz, and measured 19 inches long. She cried a bunch when first born and latched on to nurse immediately. Two days later, after much debate and looking at a ton of names, we decided to name her Juliette Diana Layden. Then, on Tuesday afternoon (after a quick stop at the birth certificate office on the way home to declare her name and order her birth certificate because we waited so long to decide), our babiest girl was introduced to our two other babies. Andy arranged for a big "Welcome Baby Layden" sign in our front yard,  Nee Nee and Apa left us balloons and an orchid, Grandpa visited during his lunch break earlier in the day, and the big kids excitedly ran around the house with their new cameras (a gift from baby) snapping pics of the newest addition (and other random things). Juliette "Jules" Layden has been such a wonderful addition to our family. She seems to sit back and take the craziness in that surrounds her with a calm, happy demeanor. Although the sleepless nights were difficult to adjust to, as well as breastfeeding again and being on the baby's schedule, the adjustment to a family of 5 (+1 with Finn) has felt pretty natural and wonderful overall. Jules is now seven months old, scream laughs (and gives typical giggles but loves to flap her arms and legs and scream with delight when really happy), eats solid foods (avocado was the first and then banana and sweet potato- the last being a favorite), drinks water from a sippy cup or miracle munchkin cup, rolls over both ways, sits up very well, and is on the brink of crawling (rocks back and forth and moves her hands forwards and sometimes a leg or two before going back to her stomach). She is obsessed with Reid and Adeline, has started showing a preference to being held by mom and dad over other adults, has had two bottom teeth for maybe two months, sleeps mostly through the night with a bed time around 730 and a wake up time between 6-7, sleeps with a pacifier, enjoys watching Finn, relishes being outside, tries to chew almost any thing that comes her way, isn't a huge fan of eating beans, and has the sweetest spirit (and cutest cheeks and chunky thighs). Oh, how we love our Baby Jules!