6-27-06

 

This kid is growing like a weed!  He was 10 pounds 4 ounces at 5 weeks, and then this morning he was 10 pounds 6 ounces.  It's been about 2 ounces or more each day!  Yesterday the bottle thing didn't go so well.  I was getting a little over confident I think because I figured I'd nurse first and then give him the bottle after.  Well, he nursed plenty and then refused to take the bottle because he wasn't hungry.  So... the bottle doesn't go over so well when he isn't hungry I guess.  The good news though is that I only pumped not even 2 ounces so apparently he is taking a lot more milk in his growth spurt and I was worried about not being able to pump more.  His not being hungry makes me feel good though.

I was looking at photos of him and Gavin at the same age and he doens't look a whole lot like Gav.  It'll be interesting to see him grow.

 

6-23-06

 

Ash is 1 month old now!  His weight on his 1 month birthday was 9 pounds 14 ounces.  Now that he has more then one weight on the chart, I've copied it onto the bottom of this page.  Of course, it is from the evil formula feeding website so we'll take the results with that in mind I guess.  OH, I got a HUGE package in the mail today from Enfamil with a booklet on "tips for successfull breastfeeding" in it.  They gave me all sorts of helpful tips about how all these foods I eat could make my baby sick and about how I need to be sure to nurse 8-12 times every single day, and how to start supplementing if, you know, I wanted to do that.  They also sent me a check for $5 of formula and 2 huge cans of formula for free.  Nice.  (note sarcasm)  I love formula companies.  They rock.  On the nursing subject though, I did happen to give Ash a test with a bottle with a little water in it to see what he'd do.  He flat out refused it and screamed.  The water was dripping out pretty fast though so I dumped out the water to see if he'd just suck on the nipple and he wasn't too interested in that either.  SO... later that day (yesterday) I pumped about 2 ounces of milk and found a nipple that didn't flow so fast and tested that out with Ash, and he did awesome with that!  It was extremely messy though, so I'm very glad I don't have to bottle feed him normally.  I'd be changing him with every feed!  I guess every few days now I'll have to pump some and make sure he stays used to the bottle.  He went back to nursing just fine after that so we're good.  Well... "just fine" as in the same as he normally does which means he took about 20 minutes to get latched on right.  He sure likes to play with his, um, food. 

There was this nurse back when Gavin was born that told me "10 pounds is the magic weight."  What she meant was that once a baby reaches 10 pounds, they seem to be able to sleep through the night better.  Now, this nurse was talking about Gavin, who was 10 pounds practically before coming home from the hospital, and didn't sleep through the night until he was over 1, but whatever.  Last night Ash slept from about 10PM to 5AM.  I was very shocked.  Also very full!  I nursed him at 5 and then went to pump because he didn't nurse nearly all that milk.  I pumped 5 whole ounces this morning!!  Then I went back to sleep until about 8.

I had a fun lunch date today when my friend Jeanette came over.  We went out to this place that has great bottomless bowls of soup.  We had a great time and she got Ash this adorable little outfit with a tiny hat and some onsies.  We had Ash wear the hat but he was so squirmy that it kept going over his eyes.  He was also pulling it down over his eyes with his hands which was really cute.  In exchange, Ash thanked her by pooping on her.  I think we'll have to work on manners.  Actually, he pooped on me, but I didn't know it until I handed him over to Jeanette and she noticed it.  Thankfully it didn't get on her clothes.  Yuck!  We rushed to the restroom and cleaned him up and all was well.  Later when we got home his 2nd outfit was all wet so apparently the diaper had leaked then too.  Go figure.  I put disposables on him because I didn't want to deal with the cloth while out and about.  Ya, did I say yuck?

 

6-21-06

 

A day away from his 1 month birthday and he was 9 pounds 11 ounces today.  Technically he's gone up 2 pounds in less then a month since he got down under 7 pounds 9 ounces before going back up.  Not too bad Ash!  I can tell that he is getting bigger too because his diapers need to be snapped on the next setting.  He is getting older too because not only does he have his eyes open more, but he spends more time awake and looking around.  He smiles a lot, but not always when you are trying to engage him... sometimes though.  Yesterday and the day before I went for walks with Ash in the front carrier thing that I have.  He seemed to enjoy it because he fell asleep right away and didn't wake until we got home.  Yesterday he was so asleep when we got home that I laid the carrier down on the carpet with him in it while I went to the bathroom and when I came out, he was just laying in the thing asleep on the carpet.  It was so funny I had to take some pictures.  I just wish that he wouldn't bury his face in my chest with that thing because I get worried that he isn't breathing.  I also wish it had a little sun shade thing because his little face and head are very exposed.  It is much easier to walk in the mall with that thing!  It also gets really hot since it is hot outside and then I get hot from the walking.  Anyway, it is nice exercise and I can really feel it in my back. 

Ash's sleeping habits have been getting set.  I'm not overly thrilled, but then again, I think this is really a good balance between letting me get some sleep, and keeping the nursing going so I don't go too long in between.  He tends to fall asleep around 9-10, sleep until 1-3 or so, then sleep again until 4-6.  Most mornings, he will sleep again after that until 9 or 10 ish, but the mornings are not as well set.  I've found that he wakes up at that 1-3 ish time regardless of me waking him to feed him when I go to sleep, so I don't wake him up before going to sleep to feed him again anymore.  This morning, for instance, he thought 5AM was a perfectly good time to be alert and awake and wanting to be held but not nursing. 

 

6-15-06

 

Ash had his first playdate when my friend Michelle came over with her daughter Brianna.  Bri is just a bit younger then Jessie so it is fun to get the girls together.  Jessie and Bri kept making faces at each other and cracking each other up - that was really cute!  Michelle also brought over THE cutest little outfits!  I was just so touched by the little shirt with "tater tot" on the front I nearly started crying!  Thanks so much again Michelle, that was an amazing find!

 

Speaking of really touching gifts, I've had two deliveries in the last two days that were totally shocks and very sweet.  The first was yesterday when we recieved a package with a personalized blanket for Asher from my work.  Now Gavin and Asher have matching blankets with their names on them!  I had been using Gavin's with Ash so now I can use his. :)  The funny thing is, I was working for McKesson with Gavin, and they sent over the blanket.  I was working for Medtronic with Ash, and they sent that blanket.  I was working for Honeywell with Jessie and Anily... hmm... well maybe I can contact the company and get Jessie a matching one anyway.  Anily, BTW, got one too because one of the people from my online world sent it to us.   The other gift was from Foss Swim School.  OK, this is a long story....  the kids have been taking lessons at Foss for some time now.  It is a great school but really spendy and we did not re-register for the summer session.  While we were going, they had gotten these cute little stuffed animals that they were selling in the front "swim shop" area.  One of the animals was a stuffed alligator.  With Ash's room, we got a bunch of stuffed animals but one that we just couldn't find anywhere was a stuffed alligator (or is that crocodile from the jungle??)  We've got the zebra, elephant, monkey, giraffe, all sorts of those... but no alligator.  Had I KNOWN this back when they had the alligator in the swim shop, I'd have snatched one up.  As it was, they were sold out of that right away.  I must have mentioned something about it to Gavin because when we went the first time they had sold out of the alligators, Gavin asked at the front desk if they had any more so he could get one for his baby brother-to-be.  They said no, but when they reordered they would be sure to get more alligators.  Months went by and they never got more.  Our last session was last Sat, and they didn't have any of the animals then.  Today I get a package in the mail from Foss and I have NO idea what is inside it.  I figure they must've found something like a pair of goggles or something and thought that we had accidentally left it there but I couldn't figure out why they mailed it instead of just calling to have us come pick it up.  Very curious, I opened the box.  Inside was one of the stuffed alligators with a note from Foss.  They had REMEMBERED Gavin asking about the alligator for his brother and evidentally they just got the new shipment in and they sent us one with a congrats on the new baby!!  OK, so THAT almost made me cry... and I'm not even pregnant anymore!  (Tell that to my ankles though because seriously, they need to stop being swollen NOW.)  Wow, I'm just stunned by how nice that was.

 

*sigh*  OK, on to more mundane things.  Ash was 9 pounds 3 ounces today.  I love watching him grow even though it is quite bittersweet to see my last baby get bigger.  I was trying to get him to go to sleep this morning so I could get in the shower but Jessie kept talking to me and running in and out of the room so he didn't really want to fall asleep.  I ended up just putting him down in the crib with the mobile going and jumping in the shower anyway.  He was a great baby though and just laid there watching his mobile and chatting with the animals in his crib. :)  He didn't like his mobile music running out so I had to keep re-winding that up.  What I wouldn't give for that thing to be on a remote so I could keep it going!  Then we went downstairs to watch the Duggar family shows I taped from "baby week" on TLC.  He did finally fall asleep and I got a chance to address and put together a bunch of birth announcements.  I managed to get most of those sent out today.  BTW - Kristina - I need your updated address because I don't have it.  I also ran out of 2 cent stamps to put wth my 37 cent stamps so not all of them got mailed unfortunately.  Later this evening I gave Ash another bath.  He is still not real thrilled with it but what are ya gonna do?  The boy needs to be cleaned from time to time.

 

6-13-06

 

This morning's weight check showed Ash to be at 9 pounds already!  Granted, he is still smaller then his big brother was at birth, but he is sure growing!  He also had an amazing night last night!  If I had known he was going to sleep as much as he did, I'd have pumped before going to bed.  As it was, I pumped in the morning and still had time to get a bit more sleep before the kids got me up.  He slept from about 10 until almost 3!  Then he went back to sleep and slept until about 7.  He went back to sleep then and I'm not sure when he got up except it was after I pumped, showered, slept, Jessie got up, and we got Jessie dressed and all that.  YAY!

 

I got our birth announcements done today.  I was looking around online for a company that I could order them from.  The first place I went to had these great photo announcements with a nice earthy tone card so I went ahead and personalized it to see how much my order would cost and what it would look like.  Well, evidentally, they didn't allow you to actually put the pictures on for a preview.  Also, your pictures needed to be a minimum of 1000X1000 - which the ones I wanted to use were not.  SO... I have to admit that I copied the preview image onto my computer and then added my pictures on myself and printed out all I needed from my home printer.  Anyway, they look great, if I do say so myself!  I put one on the front page of our site.

 

Ash is really looking around now!  For keeping his eyes shut the whole first 2 weeks or so, he is quite interactive now!  The other two kids took MUCH longer before they would act like they even saw me or acknowledged my existance.  Ash even seems to be smiling at the things we do from time to time.  He is great at holding that head up and when I hold him on my shoulder, he can even push away and stay like that for quite some time before nose diving back to my shoulder again.  hehe!  I just LOVE this little tiny stage.  It is crazy how much I wish they'd stay that way and how much I want to see them grow at the same time.  I wish time was something you could fast forward and freeze and rewind!

 

6-6-06

 

Ash has gained back his birth weight!  He was 8 pounds 5.5 ounces this morning.  Ash and I made a trip in to work today and it was a lot of fun!  I had gone in the back area to see a friend that works in a different department and then there is this "short cut" through a meeting room back to the main area but there was a meeting in session so when I saw people through the window in the door I started to back away.  Well, one of the people in the room recognized me and he yelled "It's Robyn!" and motioned for me to come in.  Everyone was all excited to see Ash and it was a lot of fun!  They also were talking about this thing they wanted to do in the clean room and how they were just talking about how they "needed Robyn" and ya, I liked being needed!  :)  Actually, it wouldn't be too bad going to work and bringing Ash along at this early stage as long as I didn't need to go out to my car every time he wanted to nurse.  I think more work places should consider that and just letting the moms nurse at their desks.

 

On the way home from work I stopped at a place to look at nursing wear and when I went to get Ash out of the van I figured I should change him first because it had been awhile.  Well, as soon as I got the new diaper on him, he had a massive poop so I went to change THAT diaper and while diaperless he pooped AGAIN all over the car seat.  I'm thinking I can still salvage this and clean everything up and change him and go shopping but while I'm trying to manuver him to get things cleaned and get him diapered he pees on something else.  I finally just gave up and buckled naked boy into the car seat again to bring everything home and wash it all!  Evidentally, he did not want to go shopping.  Let me just say... gross.  He also was not very fond of his bath but too bad for him because that's what you get when you poop on everything.  He is now snoozing away in his cradle.  Twice now he has been a little fussy but not interested in nursing and yawning a lot so I just went and put him down in his cradle and he just went to sleep all on his own!!  I've never known a baby to do that without nursing to sleep.  I also got in a pumping session tonight and I got 3 and 3/4 ounces after nursing him!  I'm totally excited because I wasn't thinking I'd get a lot tonight.  Hopefully now I'm not up all night nursing him to make up for the amount I pumped.  I now have over 3 full "servings" (4 ounces) of milk in the freezer.  Not a lot, I know, but you gotta start somewhere, right?  I'm planning on starting a 1 bottle a day thing at about 6 weeks but we'll see when I get closer.  I don't want him to refuse the bottle like Jessie did but I hate the whole fuss of having to give him a bottle and pump when I don't HAVE to, ya know?

 

6-4-06

 

Our naming ceremony was a success, thanks to all the help we got!  Big thanks to my mother for all the cleaning, and to my mother in law for helping with all the food!!!  I can now say that baby Asher is happily snoozing away in his cradle after a busy day of being passed around and not eating every second that he was awake like he normally does.  Ya, Asher won the name contest, but that wasn't why we picked it. :)  Mostly because it was what each member of the family really wanted.  You should've seen how excited Gavin was when he learned we really were naming him Ash!!  Now I can share some funny stories.  Both of these are from the clinic, which is the only place we've been using his real name... actually there are 3 stories.  OK, one, when the doctor came into the room to see him, he was so excited to see a little Asher.  This doctor was Jewish you see, and it is really a Hebrew name.  He went on about how it was a good old biblical name and all that.  It was great that he was so excited, but I felt a little like I was stealing the name from a different culture being that we are not Jewish at all.  I just kept thinking... um... can we still use the name anyway?  Hopefully no one gets upset with us using it anyway.  Story number two would be when we went to the clinic the second time.  They had his name down as "Asner"  OK - I KNOW all about the odd names and I'm not saying Asher is totally tease-free.. but SERIOUSLY... ASNER?  I don't think so.  Story number three was the third time we went in.  My older sister was with us due to car troubles and it hadn't even occured to me until I went to check in that we'd have to use his real name.  Well, on all his paperwork, I have "Tate" filled in as his nickname and it is really a 50/50 chance that they'll call "Asher" or "Tate" when the nurse comes to get us from the waiting room.  No, not 50/50.  Usually they say Asher.  The nurse this time said Tate though - so haha to my sister because she didn't get to hear his name early.  :)  Unless she heard me check him in, which I don't know if she did.  I think she'd have said something to tease me about having heard it if she did though so I'm going to assume she didn't.

 

Ash was at 8 pounds 2.5 ounces when I weighed him this morning.  He is very nearly at his birth weight now.  I know they say they want them to get their birth weight back by 2 weeks, but he'll be close since 2 weeks is tomorrow.  Jessie didn't get her birth weight back for quite a bit longer then 2 weeks so we're OK there.  He is also sleeping a bit better now - at least he is getting into a routine so I know what to expect anyway.  I like that he is willing to go back to sleep when he gets up between 4-6 and then he'll sleep until 8 or so.  I've generally been only getting up once around 1-2 and then once around 4-6 for the last few days, so that's not too bad.  It's better if I go to sleep for that first session he does from 9-1 but usually I have too much other stuff to do (like updating his website) so I don't go to sleep utill midnight, which makes that 1-2 wake up time icky.

 

Nursing is going really well I think.  My milk supply is going up each day.  I was able to only pump about 1 1/4 ounce about a week ago, the next day it was 1 1/2 ounce, then a couple days later it was up to almost 3 ounces, and then last night I got almost 4 full ounces!  And that is pumping at night before I go to sleep so after Ash has nursed his fill.  All day yesterday I was feeling really full so I knew I had to pump to keep that full supply up, and today Ash was really nuring a lot and I wasn't feeling nearly as full so YAY on that supply going up even more!  And it is AMAZING how many wet and poopy diapers this kid can produce.  You just change him and he's messing them again.  Lots of diaper laundry with this kid!  I just wish that he'd STAY latched on once he is on for nursing.  He is always letting go and it takes about 2 minutes to get him latched so that he'll stay on.  Of course, that means I have let down and everything gets wet!  He's not going to know what to do when he learns to latch on right and he has to actually wait while nursing a bit for that let down.  Hopefully once he's a little older and those hands and arms are in a bit more control it'll be better.

 

5-31-06

 

Baby Tater is now just over a week old.  He is doing well.  His weight went down to about 7 pounds 9 ounces but has been going up for awhile now.  He is at about 7 pounds 13 ounces depending on when you weigh him.  Tate became a little jaundice just like his siblings, and he got plenty of heal pokes.  I find it so hard to believe that we didn't even know jaundice was something to worry about with Gavin.  He got all yellow and even the home nurse just said "Oh, that's just jaundice, it'll go away."  Well, Tate wasn't put back into the hospital for it, so it never got as bad as Jessie's did.  That's good. He maxed out at 17 and his last check was down to 15 so we're on the way back from yellow skin land.  He has been pretty sleepy, but that's typical newbornness too.  For the first few days, he was really more likely to sleep his "chunks" of sleep (anything over 2 hours at a time) during the day, but last night we had a real NIGHT of sleep!!  YAY!!!  He actually tends to fall asleep around 9:30 or so and sleep until 12:30 or 1.  After that, it is awake time for much longer then Mommy appriciates - but last night he nursed and went back to sleep for another 3 hour bit, and then he nursed and went back to sleep AGAIN.  He loves to sleep in his carseat, but he does well in his crib and cradle as well.  We've found that if you use a nice thick blanket and make a nest for him, he'll snuggle into the nest and sleep.  Right after he was born he showed that he was NOT going to stand for swaddling.  The nurses all tried and all he'd do was kick and punch at the blankets until we took them off.  Then he'd throw his arms up over his head and promptly fall asleep.  He loves to have his hands up around his face.  It makes nursing difficult so I keep threatening to get myself a baby straight jacket.  Now that he is a week old, he is finally starting to open his eyes and look around.  He gets very interested in what is around him.  It is so fun to see him looking at the pictures on his wall or the things I put together for him in his room.  I was getting frustrated that he would not open those eyes.