Little Chatterbox

This morning I was feeding Lauren when Bradley went to get Claire out of bed. I heard about 10 minutes of random comments to him from her. I couldn't help but laugh at all of her randomness. She gets so excited when she wakes up from her nap that she just starts talking to talk. Hmmm...I wonder who she takes after? Uh, certainly not my "chooses his words wisely" husband. :) Here are some things that I overheard this morning:

*"Daddy!"...with excitement that he came and woke her
*"I sit"...sometimes she sits up in bed when we come and get her
*"A nap"...she thinks that when she wakes up in the morning she's just woken from a nap
*"Book!"...she must've seen a book
*"Dora Seat"...she has a little couch in her room that has Dora the Explorer on it
*"Bear"...she was playing with a little bear last night before going to bed...she must've seen it
*"Neckie"...i.e. necklace...she was playing with it last night before going to bed...same as above
*"Diaper"...she gets her diaper changed
*"Mama, Lauren"...Bradley just told her that Mama was in with Lauren
*"Eat?"...even if she's not hungry...she asks to eat after waking up in the morning.
*"Dog goes 'ruff ruff'"...who knows why this was said!! :)

And of course...I overheard Bradley cracking up at our sweet little girl. She is so funny to us. Now that she's learning so many new words each day...she wants to "practice" saying them constantly. We love it and we love her!

Jesus Book

Claire loves to read. Just this morning, during her roomtime she was sitting in the floor surrounded by all of her books, reading. I have a pile of books in Lauren's room for Claire to look at while I'm feeding Lauren. One of those books is the Bible that Bradley and I purchased her when I was still pregnant with her. She calls it her "Jesus Book". It is so sweet and everytime I hear her refer to her Bible as the Jesus Book, I just melt. (I know, I melt at a lot of things that she says & does).

Claire is also learning more and more words each day. She is repeating just about everything that we say in hopes to learn how to say the words. It is precious! Some words that are in her daily vocabulary are:

~"hibbits"...i.e. hiccups. Both Claire & Lauren had the "hibbits" yesterday.


~dog, cat, monkey, hippo, lion, frog, sheep, duck, bird, walrus, bear, bunny...etc. All animals that you can think of. She loves animals and the sounds they make.


~All family member's names: Nannie (Nana), Gampa (Grandpa), Gamma (Grandma), Gee (Granddaddy), Ashee (Ashley), Titeen (Christine), Tia (Tara), Teton (Steven), Angy (easy to say, I guess), Don (John), Char-Jake (refers to both Charlie AND Jake together), Adeeya (Adaya), Ellio (Elliot). She even knows the family dogs names: Cletus, Duke, Sam, Laddie, Rosie, Baxter.



It is a JOY to be the mom of this precious girl. I love teaching her new things. I love the look on her face when she learns something new. I love the look on her face when she knows that she has obeyed me and I'm happy about that. That precious smile. I love the excitement that she gets when she hears her daddy's truck pulling into the driveway after a day at work. I love that she enjoys going to wake up Lauren from her naps with me. I love that she enjoys the outdoors like her daddy does. I love that she calls her Bible her "Jesus Book". I just love this precious girl.

And baby makes 4

It seems as though the last 6 months, I just can't keep this blog updated! Well, a lot has happened with our family. On November 23, we welcomed our second daughter, Lauren Kathryn Wilkie. Even though it was 3 days past my due date, we were still taken a little by surprise. I had been experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions for several weeks and had even sat at home timing contractions a few times the week that she was born. The week before Lauren was born I saw my doctor and she strongly recommended that I not go past 41 weeks. I was very anxious about when Lauren's arrival was going to be because of the Sears store...Bradley HAD to work Black Friday, which was 6 days after my due date. (Claire was 8 days past her due date). My doctor had me schedule an ultrasound for 2 days after my due date for us to make sure the baby was still healthy and thriving. I was familiar with this because I went through it when I was pregnant with Claire too. However, with Lauren, unlike Claire, the ultrasound did not show that Lauren was "thriving". They measure several different movements as well as the level of fluid and on one of the tests, Lauren measured 1 out of 4...which didn't make the doctors happy. They recommended that I go in THAT NIGHT for an induction. I was SUPER sad...I even started crying at the appointment. I did NOT want to be induced again...I wanted this baby to come on his/her own time. (We did not find out the gender of Lauren before she was born...we did the same with Claire). Well I, of course, trusted my doctors and followed their recommendations and proceeded to make the round of phone calls and run a few errands before checking myself into the hospital. First to be called...Bradley...who was SHOCKED that I was heading to the hospital (as was I). Why were we so surprised? I mean, I was 2 days late!! Once we both made it to the hospital and I got settled into my room, I met with the doctor. She told me that they were going to induce me a different way than I was induced with Claire. In most women, it jump starts labor within 6 hours. In a small percentage of women, labor starts within 1 hour and in another small percentage of women, they have to start pitocin (which is what I had with Claire) after the 6 hour mark. Because it took several hours for labor to start when I was induced with Claire, Bradley and I settled in for a long night. His brother even stopped by to see us after he got off of work. Well, during that visit, I started to feel bad...could I have contractions already?? It had been less than 30 mins since I was induced! Well, in less than an hour I was having some serious contractions...the kind that you have to concentrate on....the kind that you cannot talk through. Bradley walked his brother to the car and while he was out there got my overnight bag and a few other things. And while he was gone, labor progressed fast! My labor and delivery nurse was right there with me through it all and said that she thought we would have a baby before midnight! WHAT? My labor with Claire was 15 hours! And didn't the doc say that most women took hours for this kind of induction to start? It had only been 45 mins to an hour!! I was in so much pain, though, that I went ahead and asked for my epidural...before Bradley even returned from the car! He was SHOCKED that I asked for it in that short amount of time. Finally, I got my epidural...and we both thought that we could get some sleep or at least some rest before this baby came. Well...Lauren had a different plan. As soon as I laid down, I started feeling bad. There was no sleep and no rest for me! At 12:48 am on November 23, we welcomed our second baby girl into this world. I was CONVINCED that she was going to be a boy! And THRILLED that she was a girl! I couldn't believe it! We had TWO girls!! We were both so overcome with joy...and surprised...that Lauren was here. My labor was a total of just 5 hours and 15 mins! Start to finish. As I'm typing this, I still can't believe it!

Well, the next few days for us weren't as smooth as the first. We found out that Lauren's bilirubin level was high and she needed to stay in the hospital longer than we expected. She was put on a bili-bed on Wednesday and HATED it. She cried literally all day. We could not hold her, unless I was feeding her. And because she was awake and crying all day, everytime I'd feed her she'd fall right to sleep. By that night her glucose level dropped dangerously low and we were persuaded to supplement with some formula (which devestated me). After quite the ordeal on
Wednesday and Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) we finally got the go-ahead to come home on Thursday evening. We got home at 6 pm on Thanksgiving night. Bradley's parents brought Claire home to us and I finally got to spend some quality time with my firstborn. I missed her so much when I was at the hospital. My heart hurt I missed her so much. The next few weeks with her would be tough. It was a bit of a transition for her, going from only child to older sister. But, after a few weeks, she grew to love Lauren and now asks me where she is and asks to kiss her head when I go to put Lauren down for naps. She is so sweet with her and it fills this Mom's heart with joy that she loves her so much. It's been 2 months since we brought Lauren home from the hospital. The first 2 weeks were tough...Bradley worked A LOT, I slept very little, Claire had some emotional days when I didn't know what to do with her. But, the Lord was good to me...He showed me grace and love and answered my many prayers for my family. Lauren is such a sweet baby. From the beginning, she's really been a great nighttime sleeper. What a blessing! She is now starting to organize her daytime sleep. Here are some other 2 month stats:

~12 1/2 lbs...over 1 lb heavier than her big sister was at the same age!
~smiles a lot...the person she smiles at the most? Big Sister, of course!
~she is a social child. she is calm as can be as long as someone else is in the room with her.
~much to her mama's dismay...she is not sleeping longer than 5 hours at a time at night...however, she will go right back to sleep. I have not had to walk around the house bouncing her to soothe her. So even though I may not be getting a lot of sleep yet, at least I'm not up for hours at a time!

I love this little girl more than I ever imagined. She is a true joy in our lives and often makes us laugh. I always knew I wanted to be a mom, but never imagined being a mom would be SO rewarding! Thank you, Lord, for giving me these children. They are a true blessing and I can't imagine my life with out them.