The Ashlan show: 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!