Layla's Five Month Pictures

These pictures were taken on August 7th. There were so many good pictures, but these are the only three we bought. When you look at the collage, be sure to notice the center picture on the side. This is the look she kept giving us for the entire session. We just lucked out and snapped a few other looks.

Layla's Five Month Pictures

I can't believe how fast she's growing and growing up.

She now:
*holds on to you when you are walking
*has a very strong grip, especially on hair
*rolls all the way from front to back
*rolls 7/8 of the way from back to front before giving up and rolling back to her back
*eats rice cereal well, most days
*has tried all the vegetables (loved green beans and sweet potatoes most, like carrots least)
*is working on trying all the fruits (loves pears)
*laughs, coos, and chatters a lot
*turns her head around to look at you when you sit her in your lap
*enjoys playing with Madi and Abby at the sitter's (and Madi loves Layla)
*still drools constantly
*blows bubbles all the time, and will shower you if you're facing her and close enough.

After 5 amazing months at home with my sweet baby girl, I had to return to work on August 11th. We were fortunate to find an in-home sitter, and Layla started with her that day. Of course, Mommy was heart-broken and cried like a baby and Layla was just fine. She enjoys her time with Mrs. Denise, and she gets to play with Madi (3 yrs) and Abby (1 yr) every day and they love playing with her. They both get so excited when I walk in the door with her every morning, and they hug/kiss her goodbye every day when I pick her up. All this helps make it much easier on me to leave her there 5 days a week. I've always wanted to be a Stay-at-Home Mom, but since My Love is also a teacher, that just isn't an option. But, our God is so awesome and He has helped me through this way better than I thought it would go. Thank you Lord for Your peace and comfort! :)

Again, sorry it's been so long since I posted. And again, I'll try to post more often but I won't promise. Since the last post, Layla has swam in Greer's Ferry Lake, the Big Piney River, and the Atlantic Ocean. And, she's flown to Florida and back. She was quite the traveler this summer and did great! To see pictures from our trip to Florida to visit Dallas, Cindy, and Presley, click on "Gipsons on the Rocks" and you'll find them on Cindy's blog.

I love her so much and can't imagine life without her. :) Til later...

Layla's 4 Month Check-up

First of all, let me say "Happy 4-Month Birthday today Layla Scout!" My how time flies! She is such an amazing gift from God and blesses our lives every day! "Thank you God for entrusting this sweet angel of yours to us! Please help us raise her in Your ways! Amen!"

Next, Layla's 4 month check-up was last Thursday, July 2nd. She got her four month shots, and here are her stats:

She weighed 11 lbs 4.8 oz. (10%)

She measured 23.25 inches long (b/t 10 & 25 %).

And her head circumference was 16.54 inches (almost 40% - she's got a Westbrook head).

He also told us to go ahead and start her on rice cereal, fruits, and veggies. So, we began rice cereal on Sunday night. She didn't much care for the taste of it. She would let me give it to her with the spoon just great. But once she tasted it, she would spit it out. Then she began just leaving her mouth open so it would just roll right on out of there. :) And, she was crying the whole time. She was very thankful when we stopped giving her the rice cereal and I nursed her.

And, we can say that the first time we gave her "food" she kicked the bowl over. We were feeding her in her Bumbo and I set the bowl down on the table...a little too close to her foot. She was mad and kicking and kicked that bowl right over. Oops! It just made us laugh harder. Don't call us cruel...I guess you just had to be there. :)

When I get the video loaded on the computer, I'll post it b/c we were cracking up at her. Soo funny!

She's up and hungry. I'll post more later.

Layla's Two Month Pictures

These pictures were taken on May 16th (technically, she was 2 1/3 months old). Again, there were many good pictures, but these are the only four we bought:

Layla's Two Month Pictures

Layla's One Month Pictures

On April 7th, we had Layla's One Month pictures taken. These pictures were taken by Mandy Miller, whom I work with at one of my schools. She came to our house to take the pictures, which was nice and convenient. She did an excellent job and we loved them all! I recommend her to everyone and we will definitely use her again! I just wanted to share with you the six we bought:

Layla's One Month Pictures

Layla at 3 months

Okay, so time to do anything with two hands is very limited these days, and there's so much that needs to be done, so blogging gets pushed waayy back on the burner. Also, there's so much to share that I always think 'I don't have time to post it all.' So I don't post anything and then that list of things to post gets even longer. So here's a few things I can think of in these few moments:

At her two-month check-up she got her first shots (and, yes, I cried with her for these); she weighed 9 lbs 9 oz (25%) and was 21.5 in. long (5%). But her doctor isn't worried about her weight anymore, he says "they can't all be giants." Her head is growing like it should and he says that's what matters most. So it seems as though she's (thankfully) finally done with all her weight issues (she lost all the weigh down to 6 lbs 10 oz before finally putting weight on, although at a very slow rate). We are very glad to not have to worry with that anymore.

She sleeps through the night and has since about 3 wks old (probably would have been sooner if we wouldn't have been waking her to feed her).

When she's awake, she wants you to engage her. She doesn't like to be laid under her activity gym, or anywhere else, and left alone to entertain herself. If you're not there playing with her, she's crying, and usually within 10 minutes. But, she is very happy as long as you play with her (or take her with you around the house while you try to get something productive done).

She rolls from side to back and occasionally from back to side.

She does such a good job holding her head up and steady for long periods of time now.

She can stand on your lap for increasing lengths of time (with you helping her balance, of course).

She smiles, coos, and talks back to you if you do it to her.

She doesn't like baths, but loves to shower with you.

The changing pad is magic - she will talk, smile, and coo at you for as long as she's laying on it.

She still loves to be swaddled when she sleeps. If you lay her down unswaddled, she is very restless and wakes up often, but if you swaddle her tight first, she sleeps great.


May 3rd - May 9th, Dallas, Cindy, and Presley flew into town to meet Layla. She was 8 weeks old. It was so good to see them again. And it was really cool for me to see my brother holding and playing with my baby...so cool.

Keith and I had our first night away from her on Friday, June 5th. It was our 5-year anniversary and my parents called us and volunteered to keep her for us so we could have a date night. The date night was great (honestly don't remember the last time we had one of those) and I did enjoy the (mostly) uninterrupted sleep. But, I sure was glad to see her again on Saturday!


Click the picture below to see 44 pictures of our little girl from 1 to 3 1/2 months old:

Layla 1 to 3.5 months

Layla Scout Westbrook

Finally - the long awaited blog post on our sweet angel! God blessed us with her arrival a little earlier than the doctors predicted she would come.

On Friday, March 6th, at 4:27 a.m., my water broke and the long chain-of-events began. I awoke Keith and we packed our bags, called the parents, and went to the hospital. They admitted me and we began walking the halls - fun times for Keith b/c they were out of rolling poles so he carried my IV bag the whole time. I was not progressing very quickly so around 10:30 a.m. they started me on pitocin. I still didn't progress much. My doctor (who happened to be the one on-call at that time) said I should be dilating b/c my contractions were coming very regularly, were increasing, and were peaking off the charts. So, he suggested giving me an epidural bolus (sp?) shot b/c sometimes that relaxes the body enough that it will finally dilate. I agreed to that and they gave it to me at 3:45 p.m. (after one failed attempt at placing it, they got it right the second time). So, by 4 p.m. I was feeling relaxed and basically pain-free. The epidural did the trick. I finally started dilating. So when that one started to wear off, he gave me another bolus to help me stay relaxed to encourage dilation to continue. By the time that one wore off, 8 p.m., another doctor was on-call. At this time I was dilated to b/t 8 and 9 and she didn't want to give me another epidural and take the chance of slowing down the process. Then, at 12:30 a.m., after many hours of insane contractions, a lot of pain, and over 2 hours of pushing (and manually turning the baby b/c she was sunny-side up, and again b/c she flipped herself back up), the doctor finally ordered me a partial bolus to take the edge off to finish dilating me. The doctor came back 45 minutes after I received the shot (it was worn off) and we began pushing again for another hour. Finally, at 2:30 she told me that we were going to have to do an emergency C-section to get the baby out. The baby was caught on my pelvic bone and wasn't going to come on her own, especially not in 2 hours (the amount of time left b/c of my water breaking). I accepted this and we proceeded from there.

They took me back to a C-section room, told Keith to wait outside and he would soon be prepped and brought in, and then they began prepping me. The spinal went too high and I could not breathe. It took me a little while to convince the doctors and nurses of this, but they finally believed the panicked look on my face and began breathing for me with the bag. A few times, the nurse got distracted and forgot to squeeze the bag for me. This is the most scared I've ever felt - at this point I could not move any leg, toe, arm, finger, abs, chest, nothing. All I could do was open my eyes wide with panic and move my head just enough to bump the mask to get his attention and make him start squeezing again. SOOO SCARY!!!! The doctor then told me that they were going to have to put me completely under b/c of the breathing problem. I blinked yes and they did this. Meanwhile outside the room, Keith had been prepped and was suddenly told there had been complications, they were putting me under, he could no longer come in for the procedure, and they would let him know more when she was born.

Skip forward to when I come out of anesthesia, ask about my baby, and cry b/c she's not in there and no one will tell me anything. I am eventually informed that when they made my incision, her left foot was against the uterine wall and they cut her fourth toe. They discovered the cut when they were bathing her and had rushed her off to the NICU. While there they: called in an orthopedic surgeon to look at it; discussed flying her to Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock to have a pediatric orthopedic surgeon do the surgery to repair it; had phone consults with ACH and Memphis; determined they could repair it just as well here; and put four stitches in her toe. Finally, almost two hours after she was born, they brought her to Keith to take her to me to hold. Of course I cried the moment I touched her. My mom captured these first (teary) moments of us three on her camera but I have yet to get the pictures from her.

Here is a picture of me taken at the hospital right before I changed into my hospital attire. I was 38 weeks and 1 day pregnant:



After 23 hours of labor, Layla Scout Westbrook was born by emergency c-section at 3:24 a.m. on Saturday, March 7, 2009. She weighed 7 lbs 9 oz and measured 19.5 inches long. Click on the following picture to view 80 photos taken from the day we were dismissed (3-10-09) through today (4-6-09).

Layla Scout

We can't believe our little darling will be one month old tomorrow - already. This past month has gone so fast! She has been such a blessing to us and we thank God for her daily! Please join us in our prayers that we will be the Godly parents He wants us to be and that we will lead and guide her to follow in His footsteps.

Sorry it has taken me nearly a month to post this, but hopefully all you parents out there can remember bringing home your first newborn and be understanding. Another reason for the delay is b/c I knew that a majority of the people that read this blog also have Facebook and the lady doing my maternity leave had posted several pictures there. Thanks for checking in on us!

Dr.'s Visit 02-19-09

After the Dr.'s visit, Mom and Dad met me at my house and we webcammed w/Dallas, Cindy, and Presley, and then we went out to eat. During all this, Dad asked me what my plans were for working on the nursery for last night and today, so I told him. He then volunteered to stay and help me get the trim taped up so the walls could be painted. I said "Thanks" and accepted the help. By the time that was over, I was so tired and hurting that I showered and went to bed. So, here's the report on yesterday's doctor visit:

Keith was out of town so I asked my mom to go with me to the ultrasound (just in case there was bad news I wouldn't have to get it alone). Of course - she did.

The ultrasound was first, and it was great! It was so good to see her again, and there's no doubt she's a girl! Even I could very clearly tell those were girl parts! So, YEA on the lady being right at 19 weeks! My GA was 36 weeks, 0 days and Layla was measuring 36 weeks, 4 days. So, a little early but they're not changing my due date. They "estimated" her weight to be about 6 lbs 8 oz. But quickly told me that when they're this big, it's harder to guess and that could be off by as much as a pound. Even if it were off by a pound, she's almost definitely going to be bigger than Lucy and probably bigger than Presley too, since I've still got 4 weeks to go. Oh dear - this could be a big baby girl...maybe I will consider an epidural!

During the ultrasound, the lady flipped it over to 4D Real Time a little so we could see more detail - one of these times is what erased all doubt as to her gender! And, she was kind enough to print us two pictures from the 4D experience and two of the regular type pictures. The regular pictures are profile views and the 3D pictures are of her face, one almost straight on and one at a bit of an angle:










The ultrasound lady said everything looked great and that she was a good size and growing just fine. YEA!!! Thank you God and thanks to all of you who prayed for us! My doctor then looked at the ultrasound report and agreed that everything looked great on it, and that everything else was fine. I gained some weight this time, so that helped make up for the last two losses :) My blood pressure and other tests were also fine, and Layla's heartbeat was 131 bpm. So, everything seems to be going well and I'm now beginning my weekly visits. Wow! That helps me realize that the end is drawing near.

We're working on the nursery every chance we get, and it's coming along. The ice storm stopped our progress and we kinda lost our momentum. But, we're at it again and when it's completed I will post pictures for all to see. I hope I didn't forget anything. Thanks to all who called, e-mailed, texted, or IMed to ask about the appt. We appreciate the concern.