Crib progress

So Ashlan has been sleeping mostly in her crib for the past five nights. They have gone pretty well for the most part, absolutely no crying. This is good news and bad news. Good news: she doesn’t cry. Bad news: she wakes up a few times and our sleep is very broken and nothing like it was when she was in her car seat. She would be out the minute she went in the carrier and would stay asleep (not even moving) from like 10 or 11 until 5 or 6 usually. We would LOVE that again! It is definitely progress though. The fact that she doesn’t so much mind being on her back anymore and that she stopped flailing her arms and legs so much is a great sign! However, she did end up backwards the other day! Dan and I got a big kick out of that! She will usually be in her crib by 10pm and then will stay there until 2 or 3. Then she starts tossing and turning and will wake up, though she never cries, she just starts talking. So Dan or I will rock her just a little until she gets sleepy again and put her down. Then she usually stays down for another hour or two and then she’s up talking again. We try the rocking thing again and put her back in the crib and she may last another 40 min or so by this time. After she wakes up a third or fourth time, she’s either up for the day or we just put her in her carrier again because we want sleep! I just hope she gets used to the crib soon and is as good of a sleeper as she was in her carrier! And we’ll work on naps in the crib after she masters it for bedtime, I guess. She gets a few here or there in it but certainly not all. I do love to hold her but I want her to sleep in the crib for naps sometimes so I can do stuff. However, the Babyhawk Mei Tai has been working well for that. I can never count on her taking a nap on me though…sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn’t. I went grocery shopping today and she fell asleep in it for the last 20 min or so, so not bad but definitely not a good nap.


Yesterday and today I put a 9 month onesie on Ashlan! It is a little big on her but not much. Since she’s not even 4 months yet, this is really crazy to me! Apparently though, she must be big because people still comment to us how big she is for her age. I know the cloth diapers do add a little bulk but even the t-shirt part looks like it fits her. Her 4 month appointment is tomorrow so we’ll see how much she weighs then. My guess is 15-16 lbs.  Not looking forward to her shots though! She also must be long because the 0-6 month sleeper blankets also don’t fit her anymore. She’d have to bend at the legs to get her to fit into them. So, she is now onto 6-12 months or 0-9 month ones. When they say they grow fast, they weren’t kidding!


Cloth diapering…ugh, where to begin. I really do love cloth diapering. Apparently, the detergent I was using (tide) was building up on the inserts and it created a major absorbency issue. Since I am new to this, I had no idea what to do to remedy it. I knew it could happen but I didn’t think it would be this fast. The diapers worked great for 3 weeks or so. Then all of a sudden I was getting peed on several times a day when I would hold her. I am part of an internet birthing board (it’s called BabyCenter) and they have a cloth diapering board within that website so I created a post and thankfully was able to get in touch with other cloth diapering mommas who helped me figure out what I was doing wrong. You can’t use regular diaper cream either, which I wasn’t, but I was using California baby diaper cream which is supposed to be cloth diaper friendly. However, the combo of tide, hard water, and apparently the diaper cream gave me such a bad build up that the diapers were leaking within 3 weeks of me using them! From what I’ve read this build up happened super fast since it usually takes 3 months or so before the repelling (lack of absorbency) starts. I thought I had wasted the diapers. However, I found I needed to strip the diapers, which consists of running them through a cold rinse, then a hot wash with borax, blue dawn, and regular detergent and then I needed to run 4-5 warm rinses after. Well, after all that, it didn’t work! And that took me all day! After a suggestion from another mom, I ended up scrubbing every diaper and insert by hand (that also took me forever- I had 32 inserts and 22 diapers of those kind) with blue dawn. I tested one first to make sure the absorbency was back and it was pretty good but not completely up to par. So now I’m going to try one more thing that was recommended for good measure. Although it’s taking forever to do, I am hopeful to save all those diapers. I’ve heard that sometimes build up can be so bad that the diapers are wasted. At the recommendation of another mom, I ended up going to Whole Foods to get the detergent that she uses. I’m not sure if it will work for me but I hope so! It seems to be holding up fine as of now on the new diapers but I guess we’ll see in a few weeks time. So far the new diapers are awesome and I haven’t had a problem with those.

I did not put those in her hands.  Both were in front of her and she grabbed them on her own!  :)

My little chub with my favorite cloth diaper on her.

She loves her diaper changes!

Another Mei Tai pic...yes, I chopped my hair.

A 9 month onesie on her!  A tad big but she won't fit into the 3-9 month ones anymore.

My new toys are here!!!

I normally wouldn't post so soon after the last post but both my diapers and Babyhawk Mei Tai were delivered today!  I just had to share!  These are the Sunbaby 4.0 diapers with hip snaps in prints.  Aren't they cute?

Teddy bears

Sunflowers

Apples

Pink grid with stars and hearts

And here's my custom made Babyhawk Mei Tai!  It is reversible (two different patterns) and has a toy ring on it for toys.  It was pretty challenging getting her into this by myself...I need practice!  This is the back carry.

And this is the front carry.

Another back carry shot.

15 week pics and update

Within the last two weeks Ashlan has started laughing. We have seen her laugh a few times in her sleep since she was a few weeks old but never as a response to us. It is so cute to have her laugh at us when we make funny faces at her! I just love this age! Dan and I will try to tape it this weekend to put the clip online so family can see. But it won’t be long now since we’ll see family again and we’re very excited for her to meet family members she’s never met before! We’re a little nervous about the flights but hopefully she’ll do ok. I’m more worried about lugging baby things around (and forgetting something) than I am about her behaving though! She always (usually) puts on a good show for strangers!

She was totally hamming it up at church on Sunday. We went early Sunday morning, which we used to go to this mass all the time before we had Ashlan but haven’t been to that one since (because when you have a newborn, sleep and feedings run your life especially when they nurse because they feed so much more often). Anyway, since she was up at 6am (which is her usual wake up time now), we figured we’d go to that one. We had a whole bunch of people come up to us after mass to see her and tell us how precious she is (always nice to hear)! This one particular lady in the row behind us was certainly enjoying herself with Ashlan! She kept waving at Ashlan and Ashlan kept smiling at her the whole time and even laughed at her a few times as well! We were all trying to not laugh because it was so funny to see her smile and laugh at this lady. After mass, another lady that was sitting two rows in front of us came over and said she had no idea we had a baby back there because she was so good. People still look so shocked when we say how old she is and say she looks bigger than that. I’ve also been told I look great too, which I LOVE hearing (who wouldn't?), even though I still have a few pounds to go! But that makes me feel like all the running I'm doing is worth it!

Speaking of running, Ashlan has not been falling asleep so easily on the runs anymore. Since I am pretty much back down to my 8 ½ minute miles, I’ve started to run 4 miles now and eventually hope to get back to 5 or 6. So even though I’m running longer, she is only falling asleep with 5 minutes or so left in my run, whereas before she used to get a good 20 minute nap in. This means she’s either crankier when I get out of the shower until she gets her nap, or she is fussier all day until she gets her 2-3 hour nap in. She still seems to be in good spirits on the run; she never cries and is always looking around.

This weekend will be busy! Friday night we’re going to our church’s fish fry. Because of Dan working and us being in PA, this will be the last one this year that we can make unfortunately. Then on Saturday, we have plans to hang out with friends and on Sunday we’re hanging out by the pool with another friend we haven’t seen in awhile. Our pool is only 72 degrees though right now so I don’t think I’ll be going in! I can’t believe bathing suit season is here already, I need more time!!!

Bottle feedings are going pretty well now that we figured out that our little diva likes her milk a certain temperature. She’s pretty particular though…if it’s off a little bit either way we’ll hear about it! But at least she’s taking the bottle still. I mainly nurse her though, so daddy only gets to feed her when he’s off, of course, and that's the only time we bottle feed because it's so much harder. She’s getting harder and harder to maneuver around though when nursing since she is a little piglet! I’m guessing she’s around 15 pounds? Her 4 month checkup and shots are in a week so we’ll find out then what she weighs.

I love her little dimples!  And this is a 6-9 month onesie and she's only 15 weeks here!  A tad big but not much!

There's the fist in her mouth!

And here too...

She LOVES her exersaucer!  Keeps her busy!

Had to get this bib the other day. 

It says, "Star of mommy's blog", HAHA!!

I did not put her hands like this, she did!

New toy and bathtime!

Mommy and Ashlan went shopping on Tuesday for a few things for Ashlan and she was an angel!  We went to Once Upon a Child and found an exersaucer for Ashlan.  I put her in it for a few minutes when we got home (after I cleaned it) and she LOVED it!  Her feet are touching and since her head and neck control are so good we think she can use it now even though it does state for 4+ mos on it.  We’ll still watch her in it, of course, but she is so fascinated with all there is to do on it!  We had her in it when Dan and I ate dinner on Wednesday night and it kept her entertained the whole time and then some!  She and I also went to Target and got a few more 6-9 month onesies, which are just a tad big on her but not much!  I also picked up some bows for her hair (because I just HAD too!) and they make her look like Pebbles from the Flintstones, haha!

I am still waiting on the Babyhawk Mei Tai to get here and I’m getting a little annoyed!  I know it was custom made but I ordered in on the 5th and it still says “processing” when I look at my order status.  Apparently it takes 10-14 days for custom orders plus shipping time so I hope I get it before we go to PA because I’d really like it for the airport!  Since we purchased three seats, we have an extra bag allowance but we only have so many hands and plan on using her stroller to carry a bag or two, which is why I want to wear her! Haha!

We are skyping regularly with Nana and Papa (my parents) and it’s so great that they get to interact with her because she is growing too fast!  She does see them on the screen and will smile at hearing their voices but I’m not sure if she is putting two and two together yet.  Either way, it is fun to see her reactions to them.

Tummy time with Caesar chewing on a bone behind her.

This was just before we went on a run.  Weather was 70 degrees and sunny!

 She loves sucking on her fingers, though I guess it’s not that new.  She did just start putting her whole fist in her mouth though.

Her new exersaucer...she loves it!

This pic makes me laugh!

After dinner Wednesday night. 

Bathtime!  Cute little cloth diaper! 

She loves splashing around!

Daddy dressed me this morning...he picked out my babylegs even!

These are the 6-9 month onesies.  A little big but not huge!

 I love this pic!  Too cute!

Her Pebbles bow...I love how her little hair sticks up,

though you can barely see it!