Ashlyn @ 4 months

4 month stats

Height: 27" (>97%)

Weight: 14 lbs 11 oz (61%)

Head circ.: 42 cm (69%)

The doctor says she is the "tall girl of the class". She is keeping up with her brother!

We've been given the go-ahead to try cereal!

still in size 2 diapers but now in 6-9 month clothes (some 3-6 mo.)

loves to laugh at her daddy!

goes to bed between 8:30-9:00 and sleeps until 8:00-8:30 the next morning!

nurses 4 times a day

will lay on her back with her feet straight up in the air for the longest time!

loves to "talk"

Ashlyn @ 3 Months

3 Month Stats

13.5 lbs (according to our scale)

wearing size 2 diapers, size 3-6 month clothes

sleeps from 9 pm to 6:30-7:00 am

sleeps most of the morning, a long nap in the afternoon, and a short nap in the evening

nurses about 5 times a day, usually right at 3 hrs apart

loves to be tickled

has the sweetest laugh and smile

has rolled from tummy to back about 5 times

holds head up well

becomes very fussy and wants to be held right when I am wanting to fix dinner

loves to chew on her hand

gives me the cutest little smile when she is done nursing

Carter Update

I've been writing a lot about Ashlyn but not so much about Carter. He has had some things going on lately too so I better get them jotted down before I forget for good!


We attended our very first Parent/Teacher Conference on Sept. 13th. Ms Kristen told us that Carter is doing very well. He has had no troubles coming in to the classroom and starting his centers. He does need to be reminded to go to all of the centers and to spend some time at each one. He knows what he wants to do and doesn't want to do anything else! lol He still plays independently most of the time. He only mentions two other classmates, Fiona and Liam. Everything else she mentioned was on par for a three year old.


We've been having a power struggle lately with Carter. That three year old attitude is fierce!! I had been warned but wow! I'm counting down the days until he turns 4! We've had to come up with different strategies to get him to listen and obey. Hopefully we are doing the right thing! This parenting thing is tough!

One problem we've been dealing with is him purposefully wetting his pullups. He only wears them at naptime and at bedtime. For awhile he would have a freshly wet pullup so we knew he had just wet after waking up. To get him to stop doing that (and wasting a pullup) we started a sticker chart. Whenever he wakes up with a dry pullup, he gets to put a sticker on the chart. 10 stickers = a trip to Dollar Tree. He has earned 4 trips so far. I was hoping that would be enough and we would be able to stop but he still is wet every now and then. I'd rather keep this up than do laundry every day.

Another issue that COMPLETELY frustrates me is him purposefully having BM's in his underwear. He has been potty trained for a year now so I am blaming this on having a new baby in the house. It just drives me crazy knowing that he knows when he needs to go to the bathroom but is refusing to do so. I have started to throw any dirty underwear away because I'm tired of cleaning them out. He only has about 5 pair left so I'm doing laundry more frequently. His reward for going #2 on the potty is a piece of gum and getting to see mommy do the "Happy Poo-poo Dance"! Oh, the silly things we will do for our kids! haha

Carter - 6 wks

Ashlyn - 8 wks

Ashlyn @ 2 Months

Two Month Stats:

Height: 24.5" (>97%)

Weight: 12 lbs 6 oz (87%)

Head circ.: 40 cm (81%)

Accomplishments: has started sleeping through the night (at 8 wks)!

bats at toys on her toy gym

grasps toys and other objects

coos and "talks"

follows objects with her eyes

turns head towards noises

makes eye contact

Places visited this month: St Louis zoo, Aunt Tami's and Grandma Harriett's in Illinois, Aunt Chelle Chelle's

Eating Patterns: nurses every 3 hours for about 20 minutes total. Last feeding is between 7:30 and 9 pm.

Sleeping Patterns: Goes to bed around 9 pm and sleeps until 6 am. Eats and then goes back to sleep until 9 am. Her nap patterns still aren't constant but she takes two longer naps and then some shorter ones throughout the day.

See Any Resemblance?

Carter - 5 weeks
Ashlyn - 6 weeks

Carter - 4 weeks

Ashlyn - 4 weeks




Carter - 4 weeks

Ashlyn - 1 week

**I'll be looking for more to compare :o)

Ashlyn's first trip to the zoo

The last week of my maternity leave saw beautiful weather in the lower 80's. This was a much welcomed break from the 90-100* weather we had throughout most of the summer. Since the weather was so nice and it was going to be one of the last chances we would have to get out, I decided to take the kids to the zoo.

We met friends Alissha, Brady, and Luke, Tara and Campbell, and Aunt Chelle Chelle there.

Brady and Carter were the tour guides

Carter was happy that Aunt Chelle Chelle took the day off from work to join us!

Ashlyn Grace - 6 weeks old

She slept the entire time

We saw most of the outside exhibits but my favorite part was seeing the two baby elephants swimming! Adorable!

We left at noon and headed to a restaurant to meet my friend, Tracey. She hadn't met Ashlyn yet and she had a sweet pink and black afghan to give her! (Unfortunately I didn't think of taking a picture!)

It was a great day and a great way to end my time off!

Ashlyn @ 1 Month

1 month old

My how one month flies by! It seems like Little Miss Ashlyn has been with us all along! She is a sweet little girl who loves to cuddle and be held. She prefers to fall asleep while in your arms or lying on your chest. We are trying to break her of that before it is too late!!

She nurses 6-7 times a day. If she stays awake for the entire feeding (and that's a big "if"), she can finish in 20 minutes.

She has slept through the night one time (10:30 pm-5 am) but that was technically 3 days after she turned a month old so we will save that for next month's update. :o) She normally will go to bed around 8:30 pm. I will wake her for one last feeding around 10:30 pm. She will wake up for a feeding around 3:00 am and then sleep until 8 or 9 am. She sleeps pretty much throughout the day with only a few hours of awake time. Of course she is wide awake and fussy around 5:30 pm when I need to start dinner! Daddy is usually getting home around that time so that's when he gets the hand-off!

She has had some tummy issues lately where she will just kick and scream until we lay her on her tummy or rub it. Hopefully it isn't something that I'm eating that is giving her problems.

Ashlyn has rolled over from her tummy to her back 5 or so times. She likes to lay on her tummy with one of her arms under her chin so once she gets her legs kicking it doesn't take much for her to roll.

She has very strong legs and already likes to "stand". She has scooted around on the blanket some, too, pushing with her little legs.

She started smiling on the day she turned 4 weeks old.

She still looks a lot like her big brother!

1 week old

4 weeks old

Best Buds

Doctor Appointments

One nice thing about having the kids' birthdays so close together is that we will be able to combine their yearly doctor appointments. Ashlyn had to see the doctor the Monday after being released from the hospital (6 days old) to make sure she was nursing well and gaining weight. She left the hospital weighing 8 lbs (down 10 oz from birth) but was back up to 8 lbs 7 oz (82%). They were happy with this but wanted her biliruben retested because she still looked yellow (they had already tested her 3 times in the hospital and she passed each time). I had to go back to my doctor that afternoon to get my incision checked out (I overdid it over the weekend and had woke up covered in blood - oops!) so we took Ashlyn at the same time to get her test done. We both turned out just fine.

Both kids had to go back to the doctor on the 26th for Ashlyn's 2 week appointment and Carter's 3 year appointment. We were going to be there just in time for Ashlyn's feeding so I took a bottle with us. Good thing because she started fussing right before the doctor came in! Brad fed her her first bottle while Carter got checked out. She did a great job taking it. Carter did a great job getting his hearing and vision checked and didn't even flinch when he had to get a make-up shot!! They were pleased with Ashlyn's weight gain, although I was concerned since she sleeps ALL the time and doesn't always finish her feedings.

Carter's measurements at 3 years are: 39.75" (89%) and 34 lbs (74%).

Ashlyn's measurements for 2 weeks are: 22" (95%), 8 lbs 13 oz (65%), and head circ. of 37.5 cm (82%)

How did I get such big kids?!?

waiting for the doctor

One thing that we got for Carter's birthday was a swing. We don't have a swing set but have a high deck that is great for hanging a swing. I ordered one from Wal-Mart and it came in on his birthday. While Carter was at preschool, Brad and I went to pick it up plus the extra hardware needed to hang it. We surprised him with it when he got home. He loves it!

Carter's Birthday Bash

Carter turned 3 (!!) on Tuesday, July 20th. Since we had family here to meet Miss Ashlyn, we decided to have an early birthday celebration for Carter on Saturday, July 17th (yes, the day after we came home from the hospital)!

Partiers included: our new family of 4, Grandma Harriett, Great Grandma Harp, Uncle Roger, Aunt Chrissy, Aiden, Olivia, Aunt Tami, Unlce Larry, Zach, Torrey, Millie, and Aunt Michelle.

The kids enjoyed swimming in the morning and the big guys had fun throwing water balloons at them (from the 2nd story window)!

Brad and I had planned ahead and bought brats, hot dogs, and hamburgers, as well as some side dishes so not much else had to be done that day. We left the grilling up to Roger while the ladies fixed up the rest (I took it easy....kind of).

After dinner we enjoyed some Lightening McQueen cake (thanks Uncle Roger & Aunt Chrissy!!) and then opened presents. Some of the party goers hadn't ever seen "Cars" so we turned that on to catch them up.

Carter had a great birthday and enjoyed playing with his cousins. It was nice to give him some of the attention since it could have easily been all about his little sister.

Welcome Home, Ashlyn!

Ashlyn and I came home from the hospital on Friday, July 16. We could have stayed an extra day but we were both doing well (and the bed and the food was the pits) so we decided to come home. Because we left a day early and thus made the room available for someone else, the hospital gave us a $50 gift certificate to the mall!!! (We got one with Carter too but they mailed it to us with no explaination why we were getting it!)

Meeting us at home were Grandma Harriett, Great Grandma Harp, Carter, Great Uncle Larry, and Great Aunt Brenda.

Time to go home!

Carter was glad to have his little sister home

Scariest Moment of My Life

....happened in the hospital on Thursday, July 15th. My mom was with me and Ashlyn as Brad was home taking Carter to preschool. It was time for Ashlyn to eat but she was sound asleep in her bassinet. I picked her up so I could try to wake her. As soon as I picked her up her eyes popped open and she had a paniced look in her eyes. Almost right away she started turning blue. I was so scared and could not think straight. I yelled to my mom "She's not breathing!!" Mom rushed over and turned her upside down with her head to the floor and started hitting her back. I picked up the bulb syringe and tried sucking out her mouth. Some yellow gunk came out of her nose and she started crying a little but then seemed to choke again. I just sat there in disbelief when mom pushed the nurse button. We yelled "The baby is choking and turning blue!" and a few seconds later my nurse burst through the door, grabbed Ashlyn and ran out. I sat there stunned not knowing what was going on or what to do.

It seemed like an eternity but just a few minutes later another nurse came in the room and told us that she was ok and had started to pink up again as the first nurse was running her to the NICU down the hall. They were going to keep her for a couple of hours and run tests (chest x-ray, blood tests, blood pressure, etc) to make sure there was nothing wrong.

A few more minutes passed and the first nurse came back in and appologized for scaring me like that. I told her not to worry about that, I was just glad she was there so fast! She thought everything would be ok and that it was probably just amniotic fluid that got caught in her throat. Since she was a c-section baby, she didn't get all the fluid pushed out of her lungs. She said we would be able to go back and see her but they were changing shifts and we had to wait until all the reports had been given.

I sat trying to clear my head, but it was impossible. I cried everytime I thought of her little face turning blue (I'm crying now thinking about it!)

We finally were able to go back and see her in the NICU. (it was probably only 30 mins later but it felt like forever!) She looked so little lying in the warmer in just her diapers with monitors attached. They let me hold her and try to feed her but she was too sleepy. She had a hectic afternoon so we let her sleep. After just 30 mins. or so the hospital pediatrician came and talked to us. She said all the tests came back normal and that she had just choked. We were then allowed to take her back to the room.

It was the scariest things I have ever gone through and never want to do it again. I have taken infant CPR a handful of times but had no clue what to do when my child was choking. I'm SO thankful my mom was with me and had the clarity of mind to know what to do (she actually said the same thing happened to me when I was a baby and that's what the nurse did to me)!

First Day of Preschool

Carter is starting preschool this year. He will go on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for 3 hours. It isn't much but it will help his socialization and give me a little break at the same time! We live in a school district that goes year round so his first day was on Thursday, July 15. Ashlyn and I were still in the hospital so I wasn't able to take him :o( Brad went home the night before so he would be able to take Carter and my mom came to stay with me in the hospital. Here are some pics of his first day (Daddy was given strict instructions to take lots of pictures!)

Ready for school!

He looks so little with his big backpack!

He didn't hesitate at all when he saw the toys!

All smiles when Daddy picked him up!

Ashlyn's Birth Story

So Ashlyn will be a week old tomorrow and I'm just now getting around to posting this. sorry. I've been busy. Anyways, here is her birth story.....

We had scheduled a c-section a couple of months or so ago for Tuesday, July 13. Since she didn't make any effort to come early, it looked like we were sticking to that date. Mom and Grandma Harp came Monday evening to stay at our house and watch Carter while Brad and I were in the hospital.

night before delivery - 39 weeks

Brad and I had to be at the hospital at 5:30 am on Tuesday. I got up at 3:30 am to shower and get last minute things packed. Surprisingly we were in the car and ready to go at 5:00. We got checked in at Labor & Delivery right at 5:30. They took us back to a room where I changed and then they started an IV filled with some sort of electrolites (they said it was kind of like Gatoraid). The prep stuff was done right around 7:30 am. They walked me back to the OR where they gave me a spinal (ouch). I got all good and numb and then they let Brad in. At 7:54 am we had our baby girl! I was starting to feel a little dopey from the meds by this point so all I remember is that she didn't cry as much as Carter and she was a lot smaller than him.

Here are her stats:

Ashlyn Grace Brown

July 13, 2010

7:54 am

8 lbs 10 oz

22" long

short light brown hair

looks just like her big brother when he was born