8 weeks today and 2 month appt

Happy 8 weeks Ashlan! We have much news to share! First, Ashlan’s two month checkup was today and she is in the 75%-90% percentile for height AND weight! She was 11 lbs 9 oz and 23 inches long! That’s up from 8 lbs 0.4 oz and 19 inches at birth. She is fitting into some size 2 diapers but still some size 1 also (they are getting tight though!). And I haven’t given up on cloth diapers! I keep trying them at least once a week but her legs are still a little too skinny for them. One of these days she will be in them! Anyway, she is about done with some 0-3 month clothes and is onto some 3 month clothes (ALREADY!). She still fits lengthwise on most 0-3 sleepers but her feet are actually too big for them! They end up looking too scrunched up so we originally just moved her into bigger sleepers to accommodate her big feet. It turns out she then fit into the bigger sleeper with only a little bit of room to spare! We have no idea where she got the big feet from either since Dan and I both have average size feet.

The checkup didn’t go so well at first (it was naptime) so she was pretty inconsolable almost immediately after we took her clothes off. This went on for about 10 minutes or so (poor doctor and nurse that were there to listen to it…and let me tell you, we got the fastest service at a doctor’s office that I had ever seen!). Because of that, Dan and I were not feeling too positive about her shots. However, she surprised us because she cried a little but not much at all. Then she ended up falling right to sleep after that.

So, we are idiots (or I guess you can call us first time parents). We have figured out why Ashlan wouldn’t take a bottle…she wanted it warmed up first, duh! I think the reason we didn’t put two and two together is because she took the milk cold since she was three weeks old and then all of a sudden, she wouldn’t take it anymore cold. We thought it was just the bottle but thankfully we found out she just wanted it warmed. This is good news because Dan and I are planning a date night for Valentine’s and needed her to take a bottle by then!

I managed to exercise for the first time since post-pregnancy. It didn’t go so bad actually. I managed to run three miles without too much trouble, though I am definitely out of shape! I haven’t ran since before I was pregnant and I only did the elliptical for the first few months so I have a long way to go before I can get up to five miles again, but three is a good start! I still have those 15 extra pounds to lose but I plan on putting our jogging stroller to work now that Ashlan is lasting longer between feedings and since the weather is getting nicer during the day (like in the 60s).

I was looking at Ashlan’s pictures and the poor girl always has a bib on! I guess that’s what happens when you have a spitter! We’d be changing her constantly if she didn’t have one on. As it is, we go through a bunch of bibs and burp cloths a day. We’re lucky we have so many!

Anyway, I had been pretty sick with a cold for the last week. I am finally feeling normal again. We weren’t sure if Ashlan got it but she has been pretty fussy the last few nights. She did have a runny nose and some congestion, so we’re thinking she did. Then we had a hard time getting her to sleep anywhere but our arms again. Poor thing! Day time has been normal though, so we can’t complain there. Her sleep is again sporadic with sleeping through the night but again, we can’t complain too much because we do get some great stretches!

Dan’s family is planning a trip in late February so we are excited for them to come meet Ashlan! She is smiling and cooing so much now that they will really get to enjoy her while they’re here. She is such a happy baby and we love seeing all her smiles throughout the day!

She loves her swing!

This is her trying to stand.  Granted, she's leaning on the boppy pillow, but she's putting her weight on her legs.  She gives me such a fight when I try to burp her sometimes...she's supposed to be sitting on the edge of the boppy pillow.  She's so strong!  Yes, I'm wearing a Gators shirt (sorry my PSU family)!

Tummy time!

My little Steeler girl!

This is how she stretches in the mornings when we take her out of her swaddle. 

Ashlan being introduced to Caesar's singing

I was just playing with Ashlan when Caesar jumped up on the couch and started singing for her!  She looks so confused!  I couldn't not post this!

Another video of Ashlan smiling/cooing

Just more pics and an update

Friday night through Monday night were awesome! We ended up getting about 6-7 hours of uninterrupted sleep. We could never figure out a pattern to why some nights she’d be up and some nights she’d sleep like an angel but we’re not complaining. We hope this continues! Tuesday was a not so good night but we’ll take one bad night for a bunch of good ones. She’s so funny though…we keep a camera on her to see what’s she’s doing at night when she’s supposed to be sleeping. We always put her down drowsy so she’ll make herself fall asleep and most of the time she’ll stare at the camera for awhile (before her eyes get heavy and she eventually falls asleep). Of course she doesn’t know we’re watching but it sure seems like it, and Dan and I are constantly laughing because she’ll just start smiling at the camera. It makes us want to go pick her up and kiss her but of course that would defeat the purpose of putting her to bed!

So we bought a webcam the other day and set up Skype this week so we hope to be using it more and more often with family so they can see Ashlan grow. Her next appointment (two months!!) is Friday the 28th (where she gets shots, oh boy!) and we are so excited to see how much she’s grown, though not excited at all for the shots! That’s gonna be a bad day, and probably night!

On Wednesday, the 19th, we got her 6 week pictures done and she was an angel the whole time. She didn’t smile as much as she does at home for pictures though (probably because we couldn’t get too close to her) so that was a bummer but we did get some cute ones. Of course, that meant she missed her nap so she was a little cranky afterwards but still slept 8 hours straight that night. But anyway, she is so strong too! She didn’t put her head down once when she was getting her pictures taken on her stomach. She also tries to stand now when I’m burping her (because of the position I put her in) and I attached a picture below. She actually does stand for a few seconds with all her weight on her feet, though she does lean against me or the boppy pillow. And she can sit straight up by herself too, though she wobbles a little sometimes. She’ll also “stand” on us when we hold her up, meaning she puts all her weight on her feet instead of pulling them up. I just can’t believe how fast time is flying!

So this bottle problem is not getting any better. We have already bought 5 different types of bottles and so far she doesn’t like any one over the other. We’re not sure how to resolve this but to keep trying with the hope that she accepts it one time. 

Sleeping on daddy. 

She loves looking at herself in the mirror for tummy time.

 I got a bunch of smiles here!

Double chin!!!

Can see her dimple in this one!

She was staring at the moving mobile.  She LOVES her swing!

She fell asleep on my lap while I was trying to hold her head up to take a picture!  Guess it was nap time!

She loves her toys, especially the one on her left!

Smiling and laughing at daddy.

This is her trying to stand!  I am holding her waist but she's pretty much on her own.  Of course, you can't see her feet but they are on the couch!

Daddy was feeding her the bottle (the first ounce or so when she was calm!) and I couldn't resist snapping a picture with her bow on.

Caesar always has to be with whomever is holding her.

Video of Ashlan smiling

I’ve attached a video of Ashlan smiling.  I hope this works!  It’s about one and a half minutes long and she is not smiling the whole time but you get the idea.  She does not like the camera in her face though…she’s much more reactive and smiley when it’s just us in her face, haha!  This one shows her personality so much better than the others I have of her.  I don’t think we’ll be uploading many more videos though as it takes FOREVER to do!  Maybe I'll get better at it; I'm still experimenting what works anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpiabPKsMtk

6 weeks on 1/14/11

I stepped on the scale with Ashlan to see how much she’s at and (it’s approximated of course but) at five weeks she was at 11 pounds! She was just a hair over 8 pounds when she was born so she’s gained over 3 since she went down a few ounces after birth. She is up to fitting into some 3 month outfits and doesn’t even fit into some of her 0-3 month clothes anymore! And her feet must be really big for her age because she’s fitting into some 6-12 month socks, unless the socks just run small. Also, we found out over the past few weeks that Ashlan seems to have ticklish feet! Unless it’s just a reaction, every time we run our fingers over the bottom of her foot, she’ll pull them away from us! She’s also smiling more and more lately and it’s so cute to see her smile at us for no reason at all!

My 6 week post partum appointment was on Friday and everything is fine. My incision is healing nicely and I am only 15 lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight. I was told I have the ok to start exercising, which I am excited to start doing…as soon as the weather warms up! My doctor told me to start slow anyway but I was planning on starting with running one mile and walking a mile, and so on until I feel up to solely running. So after my appointment, Ashlan was behaving herself so Dan and I went to Firehouse Subs (the best chain sub shop ever!) and then did a few errands.

Sleeping is still a work in progress! She still doesn’t like sleeping on her back (her doctor believes it’s due to reflux) but she’ll sleep (most of the time) in her carrier without a problem. Some nights she is up every 20 minutes (I am so serious about that and not exaggerating at all) and some nights she’ll sleep for 7 or 8 hours straight without a feeding! We’re trying to decipher the reasons why her nights can be so different, like if she doesn’t get enough naps in during the day, if we let her be too active, etc, but we really can’t come up with a sole reason. Either way, we can’t complain if we get some bad nights since we get plenty of good nights too.

Her new thing is that she doesn’t like to take a bottle! It’s a good thing breastfeeding is going well (which took some time and a few teary calls to the hospital’s lactation consultant) but we still want to get her to take a bottle in case I am gone. We don’t know what happened since she took the bottle starting when she was three weeks old and now all of a sudden she throws a fit! She will drink an ounce or two out of the bottle pretty fast and then it’s like she realizes it’s a bottle. Then she won’t take anymore until I breastfeed her a little. Once she’s been on for a little while, she will take the bottle again but only after maybe a few tries. So we’re not sure what’s up with that. We’re going to try a different bottle to see if that’s the problem and hopefully it is!

Here are some pics below of her between 5 and 6 weeks old. 

On her activity mat- she loves tummy time too! The burp cloth underneath her is because she is always spitting up (though just a little), even a few hours after a feeding!

Dan wanted me to include this one (although he took a picture with the flash on, poor baby!) because you can see her blue eyes.  We hope she keeps them!  He probably also liked her mohawk hair!  Haha!

This is a funny picture- she loves her binky but spits it out so it always is just sitting on her bib as her swing continues to rock her!

 Lifting her head up at tummy time! 

 She loves looking at herself in the mirror! 

 She frequently falls asleep like this after a feeding.  She loves to sit upright and sleep- we think it must be due to her reflux since she is almost never comfortable on her back.

I have a video (and other cute pictures of her) on my phone of her smiling and hope I can figure out how to upload it to here but so far I haven't had any luck! 

Hope I can figure it out soon!