Our Sweet Lyla May!

"How sweet to hold a newborn baby, and feel the pride and joy she brings,

but greater still the calm assurance,

this child can face uncertain days because He lives"
hymn -Because He lives

Finally (only 2.5 weeks after she arrived) we so thrilled to welcome our sweet Lyla May to our world!

only moments old! not even weighed yet!

She arrived right on time, October 2 @ 220am. This labour and delivery was a lot different then the first 2, and I would have to say my best labour experience! ( not to be confused with easy, but best:) She did come out sideways with her hand up over her face, which is how she looked in the ultrasound the day before, and still 2.5 weeks late constantly has her hands up in her face! Maybe being in the new hospital with a room to myself and knowing Daniel would beable to stay the night with me was what made the labour and delivery better, or maybe that we were barely at the hospital an hour before she was here did the trick! We may have stayed at home a little too long as everything progressed so much faster this time! Good thing we left when we did tho!

We were a little worried about the size this baby would be as the first thing our doctor said after Lexi was born (face up and 10lbs) was "oh my, well the next one is usually bigger!" However she was a perfect 8lbs, 2oz and 20.5 inc long. She defiently has her own look, we see bits of Dexter and Lexi in her in different expressions, but she is all Lyla!

People ask if she is a "good baby" well, babies cry, eat, poop, snuggle, sleep, wake up in the night, and melt your heart by just being them, and she is wonderful at all those things, so yes she is a great baby! As far as the adjustment to having 3, I love it! There has definetly been crazy days, and days where I am counting seconds till Daniel gets home, but I am loving this stage of life! I feel like the adjustment to 3 has almost been easier then 2 was. Dexter and Lexi are starting to play together better now, so I have done all I can to soak up every minute of the newborn stage with Lyla, (which you could tell that if you saw the state of my house these days!) while they take turns playing farm, babies, rodeo, bouncy (wrestling on the spare bed.....probably not the safest, but we've had no major injuries so far, and I love hearing the squeels of laughter coming from there!) They also love hide and seek, dance parties, colouring and playing puppies! Going out tends to be a bit more work, however after several days of Daniel being extremly busy and having several evenings of the the kids and I by ourselves, I braved a grocery trip to Vernon with Dexter and the chicklets by myself!! It went surprisingly well, but after the 3rd stop we were done and ready for french fries for the ride home!
As for me, I can get a bit teary these days as I try to enjoy every minute of this stage rather then mourning every change and becoming overwhelmed with how fast it all goes! (And the lack of sleep doesn't help these matters either!) Also, I can't get over how much easier eveything is when you're not pregnant! I really do enjoy being pregnant and feeling the baby move inside of me, and knowing that a sweet little person is being carefully knit together inside of me, that I don't realize how much more effort little tasks take, and how much energy is being used up to carry that little person. Things like taking Lexi to the bathroom (even when I have Lyla in one arm!) carrying laundry baskets, playing with the kids and much more are all so much easier now!
I truely just feel so blessed to have 3 beautiful kids, a wonderful husband who is loving father too, and the ability to stay home with my kids! Eventually I will get caught up on laundry that needs to be folded and floors that should be washed, and toys that need to be organized and bins of clothes that need to be gone thru, but right now I am just soaking in our sweet family and the last little bit of outside play before the winter coats and mitts come out!

and then there were 5!

all the grandparents were there to meet her!

even great grandparents!

she had many more visitors as well!

going home sweater set made with love

by great grandma Oviatt!

heading home!