Finally getting some good sleep!!!

Sleeping has been amazing lately! The last five nights she has had no wakeups at all (not even to eat) and has lasted between 8-10 hours! We’ll never know if it’s the fact that she can now turn onto her belly/side and is more comfortable sleeping or if it is due to her starting solids because they both happened around the same time. We don’t care either way, it’s just nice to get some sleep!

When we put her on her back now on her activity mat, she immediately flips over to her tummy. And she has been working on her crawling motions that she started a few weeks ago. She just doesn’t have the hands part down yet so it just looks like she’s running her face into the ground, lol!

Solids are going very well! Though I enjoy feeding Ashlan different things, I don’t care for changing her diapers anymore, lol! Besides squash, she’s had peas and carrots now and likes them all. In fact, she whines when I take the spoon out of her mouth until I give her another spoonful. She is also “talking” a lot more and she’s even incorporated a squeal into her vocabulary now, haha! She is such a ham when you get her laughing too, she cracks us up! And her fingers must taste good because she sucks on them all the time!

Running has been going good lately. Because I leave so early (after her 6:30am feeding), she usually falls asleep during the run again. Today she fell asleep 10 minutes in and then got a 30 minute nap until I was done (she always wakes up to the garage door opening) so I hope that continues.  She's not fussy when she’s awake though…she just looks around but it is pretty early for her to get up. I have to leave that early though because it’s pretty hot the rest of the day. If I don’t leave then, then I won’t run that day because it’s too hot for the both of us! It’s been around the mid 80’s to lower 90’s all last week. We didn’t seem to have very much spring this year either. We also neglected our yard work until this past weekend (well, we didn’t neglect it but Dan works every other weekend and then we were up in PA when he had off). It’s just amazing how fast weeds and our plants grew in that amount of time! So, we spent the majority of this past weekend weeding the rock area by the pool, digging up the garden to plant peppers, spraying weed kill on the rocks, laying down more rocks, and trimming our hedges. Luckily, the majority of it was done when there was shade to put Ashlan in so we both could help out at the same time to get it done quicker. She likes being outside though and it’s a good change of scenery for her. We ended up putting her in her exersaucer for some of it and then Dan brought her swing out when she got tired of that. She’s pretty happy entertaining herself usually though.

So I ran out of memory on my camera card already and I only purchased it a week before she arrived! Apparently we’ve taken 853 pictures since she’s been born and who knows how many short videos clips. I’m going to have to get another one here very soon because I can’t take any more pictures until I do!!

Ashlan entertaining herself while we do yard work.

First taste of peas.

Not so sure about them after that first bite.

This was the second bite, lol!  And notice she grabs

my hand the whole time I am feeding her!

Story time before bed time.  We read her at least two stories at bedtime and she always looks at all the pictures in the books.

Dan and Ashlan after Easter mass.

Andrea and Ashlan after Easter mass.

Solids, sleeping, and rolling over!

We have some great news! First, Ashlan learned to roll over, yay! We found her on her stomach three times on Saturday night! Also, Sunday night she slept a total of approximately 10 and ½ hours with one feeding and only two wake ups during that time (and we also found her on her tummy in the morning). Considering her wakings were every hour or two, this is such an improvement! Monday night she only slept about 8 ½ hours with two wakeups, with one to eat so she’s definitely getting better! And she’s also in her crib now and has been since we got home from vacation. We’re feeling pretty positive that the hourly night wakings are over (for now, haha)!

Also (and it could have been a coincidence), she ate three tablespoons of rice cereal before bedtime on Sunday night. We only prepared two but she looked like she wanted more so we fixed another tablespoon and she ate it all! She probably would have even eaten more if we gave it to her. This time not a drop was wasted! A pro already and it was only her third time eating solids! Today Ashlan had squash and she loved it! Never took one look back! That was her first attempt at “real” solids since she just had rice cereal mixed with breastmilk. I was worried she wasn’t going to like the taste and that I was going to have to mix it with breastmilk a bit but she just lunged forward at the spoon for more after the first bite, lol! She is such a little piggy when it comes to food. So today we all went to Babies’r’Us to buy her a highchair and then daddy put it together so we don’t have to use her swing anymore. I can’t believe how big she is getting, I wish time would just slow down a little!



I’ve been trying to get outside to weed lately (since apparently we’re growing a weed garden out back by the pool in the rock area) but I can only do it with Ashlan when there is shade back there (in the mornings) and it is slow going because she’ll only stay in her exersaucer for a half hour (not only that but I like to run in the mornings since it can get to the mid 80's during the day now). She loves being outside though and feeling the wind blow through her hair. I wish we had something to put over her to keep the sun out so I could enjoy the sun while she’s in the shade. We’re going to have to look into something. We’re also talking about putting a pool fence around the pool since she’ll be crawling and walking before we know it. I think we’re going to call around to get estimates so we can get it put in relatively soon.



And since I’m waiting on the RLR laundry treatment for 22 of my cloth diapers to get here (I ordered it online), I can only use the 12 other cloth diapers I have, which means we use them for two days and then use disposables for the laundry day of the cloth ones…so if you see pics of her in a sposie, I haven’t given up yet! I’m just waiting on the RLR to get here (and hopefully it’ll do the trick)!

Ashlan eating her baby.  :)

Daddy reading to Ashlan before bedtime.

A little smile behind the binky.  :)

Eating her rice cereal.

Ashlan watching me weed.

Squash!

Her new highchair.

Rolling over!!

Here's two videos of her rolling over.  The first one is more recent (but both were taken on the same day), so she's much faster now.  It's so funny that it took her until she was 4 1/2 months to roll over but now she does it pretty much anytime we set her down on her tummy!

Solids video

Here was our second try at solids.  Much more successful than the first but she's gotten even better on the third try and was even disappointed there wasn't more!  Girl loves food!

Exersaucer craziness

This was taken a few days ago...she is crazy in her exersaucer! 

Putting everything in her mouth

This video is from a few weeks ago, before we left for vacation but I didn't have a chance to post it until now.  This is how she reacts to everything she is handed.  She usually keeps it in her mouth longer now though.  Of course, she is a little fussy in the end...I had her doing this for awhile before I recorded it and I guess she had had enough, lol!

Ashlan's first taste of solids

We started rice cereal yesterday!  It went pretty much as I expected…more ended up on her bib than in her mouth but it was a good start.  The look on her face was so funny!  She seemed pretty confused and at first just let it sit in her mouth without moving it at all.  She eventually did grab the spoon though and pulled it towards her mouth and then kept holding it while I was feeding her, making it very difficult for me to control the spoon!  She is still so interested in what we’re eating so I bet she’ll learn fast.  Anyway, it probably did nothing for her sleep because she didn’t ingest much but she was a little better at home than the last few weeks on vacation.  I’m still hopeful it will help though…I think she just didn’t eat enough of it.  We’ll keep trying!

Before her taste of rice cereal.

Had to include these pics...

She was in this postion for a few minutes staring at the beach ball, lol!

PA visit and Ashlan's first plane ride

Well, this is going to be a long entry! Ashlan was 4 months on April 3rd, so we have a few pics that we took of her and her Steeler bear. She is definitely bigger than the last pictures done. She also started sucking her thumb a few days before she turned 4 months, it took her a long time to find it!

We just got back yesterday from a 10 day visit in PA to see family. Ashlan saw snow for the first time! Erie was so kind to bless us with snow for a few hours on Wednesday (haha)! Anyway, we left on Tuesday morning (very early flight) and Ashlan was an angel! We couldn’t check in the night before and when we got to the counter, the lady said our connecting flight was changed from getting in at noon to getting in at 6:30pm! Our first flight was at 6am! There is no way we would have booked a flight at 6am to get in at 6:30pm with a 4 month old! We could have almost driven in that amount of time! Luckily, she was able to find us another flight on a different airline that left at the same time and got in a tad bit earlier.

Of course, we happened to be delayed an hour in Jacksonville because of thunderstorms and were very worried we’d miss our connecting flight. We ended up sitting on the plane the whole time we were delayed. I took Ashlan out of her seat for a bit to unwind and eat until we were preparing to push off. She promptly felt asleep about 5 min before takeoff and stayed asleep for close to an hour. Then she was up for almost another hour but there really wasn’t a peep out of her. I was holding her hands the entire time or holding some toys in front of her and she seemed satisfied. She pretty much fell asleep for landing too. We only had about 45 min in between landing and our connecting flight and luckily, we were not very far from the other gate, which gave us enough time to use the restroom and change Ashlan’s diaper before we boarded the other flight.

She was an angel on the next flight too. She was awake during the takeoff but it didn’t seem to bother her ears. She did have her binky in her mouth the entire time though, so I’m sure that helped. We were so glad we bought her a seat, especially on this flight, because there was sooo much turbulence! We were bouncing around all over the place. Dan had to close his eyes for a bit…and even I was feeling it, and it usually takes a lot for me to feel sick. Ashlan slept right through it though!

So we finally landed in Pittsburgh, got our rental car, and drove the 2 ½ hours to Erie, stopping to change Ashlan and have a little lunch. She was pretty good in the car too, though you could tell she was getting a little tired of being in her car seat, since she had pretty much been in it all day except for diaper changes and feedings. Overall, we were very pleased with how well she did on her first plane ride!

We spent Tuesday evening through Saturday with my parents in Erie, and Sunday through Thursday morning with Dan’s parents in Pittsburgh. Both sets of grandparents had a great time with Ashlan and were sad to see their time with her come to an end. Both grandparents also had a little party for relatives to meet Ashlan and we were happy to see all of our family again since it seems like it’s so few and far between since we live so far away.

Sleeping for her was just awful on this trip. It all started a few weeks ago when we started putting her in her crib at night to sleep. She would sleep from 10-2am without a problem but then (after her 2am feeding) would wake up again at 3:30am and then maybe 5:30am. The night before we left, we put her in her car seat so we would all get some sleep before Dan and I had to wake up at 2am for our 6am flight. I’d say she did worse in her car seat! And on the trip, she wasn’t much better. We’d put her down at 8pm, then she’d wake at 12am to feed, and about every hour and a half until it was around 6am. If we put her down at 10pm she’d last until 2am when she’d feed, and then be up every hour after that until 6am. She doesn’t appear to be teething…we’ve been checking her mouth every few days but can’t see anything yet. She does put everything in her mouth but I think that’s just what babies do at this age. I’m really hoping getting her back in her crib will help but I have my doubts. I'm hoping it's just being in a different place than home that caused it.  I guess we’ll see.

I think we are going to start her on rice cereal in the next few days. I was going to breastfeed solely until Ashlan was 6 months but she just seems so interested in what we’re eating that we feel it’s time. It also might help her sleep a little longer at night, at least we’re hoping. Our Ped said we could start any time (at her 4 month appt) so we wanted to wait until after we got back from vacation.

For a few days now, Ashlan has been making army crawling movements when we have her down for tummy time. She sticks her butt up in the air and moves her legs. I managed to get a few pictures of this! She is so close to rolling over but then still gets stuck on her arm. Now she seems more interested in her feet than rolling though. She is obsessed with her feet, and also obsessed with putting things in her mouth. She also seems to be a little more vocal, so maybe that’s another reason why she’s up at night, though I thought they slept more when they were developing. Either way, she has changed so much in a few weeks time!

Here’s some pics…

Obsessed with her feet!

And putting things in her mouth!

Four months old!  Staring at her leggings!

Checking out the bear.  "What is this thing next to me?"

Much longer than the last pic a month ago!

More things in mouth...

Her thumb!  She doesn't curl the rest of her fingers though, lol!

First plane ride!

Snowing when we arrived in PA.

Nana and Ashlan.

Snow!

Erie decided to bless us with snow in honor of Ashlan's

first visit there (in April!).

Papa and Ashlan, staring at bink.

Ashlan's new doll.  She approves by putting it in her mouth.  :)

My family- clockwise from bottom left: Dan, me, Nana, Ashlan, Papa, my new niece, my sister-in-law, and my brother.

This was the best one we got of the three of us...Ashlan was too interested in her tutu, among other things.

Grammy and Ashlan

Her army crawl!!!

Aunt Katie and a tired Ashlan.

A very tired Ashlan!

Loves her toes!!  Every time she's on her back, her hands immediately reach for her feet.  Makes changing her diaper so much fun, lol!