Ashlyn update and more =)

Ashlyn had her 4 month check up (yep she is 4 months can you believe it) yesterday. She is doing amazing. Her stats where:

9lb 3oz and 21in

The Pediatrician said she see's babies born bigger than her all the time lol. She also said she is doing some things a 5 month full term baby does. (remember her corrected age is 3 month). Ashlyn supports her weight and sits assisted. She is smiling so much now. She rolls for tummy to back. She tries SOOOO hard to roll from her back to her belly, but not quite there yet. The best of all she is sleeping through the night. Overall she is doing amazing and progressing perfectly. =)

We got the ok to start trying rice cereal. So below are a couple pictures of her first bites from last night.

Her very first bite! It came right back out

She was not to sure about the spoon

Nope not liking this one bit

She finally started opening her mouth for the spoon. Still couldn't keep much in her mouth, but we will work on it

So with all these big milestones Ashlyn meets, brings bittersweet thoughts. I know this is my last child and it is like each day a chapter in our life ends. Don't get me wrong i NEVER want to pregnant again, we don't get along. And i am so thankful for both my healthy babies. But to think i will never hold a newborn that is mine, wake in the middle of the night with a newborn, be so tired it hurts. (i know i am crazy) Never see those first smiles again, never get to give those first bites. The only good thing about haveing a (healthy) preemie, is each stage last just a little longer. With Caiden i was in such a rush to move to the next stage, but i knew that some day we would add to our family. With Ashlyn i want to move as slow as possible. I am having the hardest time moving Ashlyn to her crib in her room. I did move her from her upright sleeper to laying flat in the pack-n-play in are room and she has been sleeping good. Guess i am just ready to close the "in our room sleeping" chapter. lol

Moving on, Caiden is doing amazing and growing so fast (which i don't like either). He is so independent these days. He wants to do everything himself. He is amazing with his sister and always wants to help with her. We have been trying to schedule some alone time with him, with just mommy or daddy. I took him grocery shopping with me the other day just me and him and he loved it. When daddy does yard work, he loves to spend that time with just them two. He has been starting to act out a little lately, so i think this one on one time will help a lot. i have already seen his behavior change a little. and of course i keep us very busy through out the week, which seems to help. We also started a reward system with him. He gets "coins" when he does something good with out being asked or listens. and at 5 coins (i did have it at 10 coins that did not work took to long to get 10 coins) he gets a prize. I took him to the dollar store and let him pick out a bunch of toys or whatever he wanted and we put them in a basket and he gets to pick one of the toys when he get his 5 coins. This also seems to help with his behavior. The Pediatrician thinks he is acting out for attention, since our time in now spit. All these techniques seem to be helping. He continues to amaze me each day. He is so smart and some of the things he says and knows blows my mind that it is coming from a 3 year old.

So the holidays are upon us and i am SOO excited. Last year i spent the holidays in bed sick out of my mind. Pregnancy was not nice to me. Not only will i be able to enjoy it but i will get to enjoy it with my babies and family. I am already done Christmas shopping for the kids and i only spent about $120. Love Kohls. Now i just have to be patient and wait to give them there gifts =)

Ashlyn's Development

Ashlyn had her 3 month weight check with the pediatrician on Tuesday and today we met with her Development Nurse. Needless to say, Ashlyn is doing GREAT and continues to amaze her doctors.

How Ashlyn is developing:

3 month -8lb 4oz and 20.5in

-Holds her head up

-Sits up assisted

-Rolls from tummy to her back

-Sleeps through the night 10pm-7:30am

-Focus on faces and objects

-Kicks

-Brings hands to her mouth

-Eats 4-6 ounces

What Ashlyn should be doing:

-smiling

-babbling

-trying to grasp objects

She is still very small for her age, being 3 months old and only the size of an average new born. Her corrected age is 7.5 weeks and is right on track for her corrected age for size.

Her developmental nurse is amazed with her development. She is doing all the things a 3 month old should be for the most part. There are only 3 things she is not doing. She said she should start smiling, babbling and grasping objects in the next month. Her nurse also said her motor skills are advanced for a preemie =). She said everything else will come and that she is very pleased with her development. We don't have to meet with her again till January. Usually she meets with most preemie's every month. Because Ashlyn is doing so well we can go 2 months. We also got the OK to start trying rice cereal in a month. Yikes my baby is growing fast!

All in all we are SOOOO happy with our vists this week. Pediatrician said she is very healthy and Developmental Nurse said she is right on track. It is so good to know that all we went trough with the pregnancy, and she is perfect. One happy mama here.

P.S. Caiden is doing amazing and loves being a big brother.

Weight loss

So we have decided that not just losing weight is in order but just eating healthy needs to happen in the Deaner household.

I am 5'7 and before i had Caiden i weighed about 135, after Caiden i weighed about 145, and after Ashlyn i weigh 153. I don't like that trend. I felt my best at between 140 and 145 (145 is pushing it). Weight has never been an issue for me and i know that i am not fat, i just don't feel comfortable in my skin.

Sooooooo, we are going to cut out all the junk (Lord help me) and i am going to try and cook some more healthy items and incorporate more veggies and fruit. This will be good for Caiden to cause i see him following in my junk food habit.

We also have been walking about 2 miles every week night and we do sprints up this huge hill at our community park. With the exercise and healthy eating i hope to lose a few and just feel better all around. I know Chris is excited to he always wants to lose a few. I will make sure to do update on starting and continuing or healthy lifestyle. Wish us luck

It is official Ashlyn is rolling!

We have a roller!!

ASHLYN ROLLED OVER

Guess who rolled over last night...... ASHLYN, from her tummy to her back.

Now i am not sure if it was an accident. But when i tried to get her to do it again she screamed.

So we shall try again today during tummy time =) and will try and get some pics as well.

This is huge for her, it means she may not be as far behind as we thought

Camping = Disaster

We went comping this past weekend. We thought it would be the perfect time to go, not to cold and not to hot. Oh boy where we wrong LOL

we left Saturday morning and drove to Bartlett Lake and set up camp. It was beautiful out. The temp out was i think in the high 70's low 80's. We spent the day setting up camp and just relaxing and enjoying the weather. Our friends Tony and Sherry met us out there. Everything was going great. Caiden was getting dirty and loving every minute of it and Ashlyn was just hanging out in her rocker taking it all in.

But once the sun went down Ashlyn was done with this whole camping thing. She had her night time bottle and slept for about an hour. she woke up screaming so we just held her thinking that maybe she was cold or just out of her element. The temp out at night was high 50's low 60's. So not super cold out. She was fine till we put her down to go to bed. She fussed a little but fell asleep for about another hour and then all hell broke lose. She woke up screaming at the top of her lungs. I mean you could hear her screams echoing off the mountains LOL. When i couldn't settle her down i thought maybe she was cold so i took her into the truck and turned the heat on and gave her a warm bottle. Needless to say i don't think she was cold. She continued to scream all night. I stayed in the truck with her to contain her screams so we didn't wake up everyone in a 5 mile radius. She finally wore her self out at about 4am and slept for about 2 hours. I didn't get any sleep. The truck looks big but trying to sleep in it is not comfy. Once the sun was up i was out of there. It warmed up quick so i took her out of the truck and put her in her rocker and of course she slept. after her morning nap she woke up and still was not happy. So we gave up and packed up and called it a day. We were home by 1pm on Sunday and she slept the rest of the day.

It wasn't all bad, Saturday night we enjoyed a camp fire with marsh-mellows. Tony brought his golf cart so we took that out and did a little exploring. We took Caiden down by the water and let him play. He loved playing in the dirt and running around getting dirty. When we got home i put him directly into the bath and he turned the bath water brown lol. Had to drain and refill the bath he was so dirty LOL. We saw skunks and of course ran the other way. One skunk made into out neighbors campsite and listening to them run and scream trying to get the thing out of there campsite was hilarious. Thank goodness the Skunk Chris and Caiden saw was down by the water and never made it to our campsite. Although we did smell one which was probably the one in our neighbors campsite.

All-n-all it wasn't all bad i was just tired and cranky on Sunday. We did have fun. There are some pictures below of our adventures. Guess we will have to try again next year when Ashlyn is a little older.

Our Tent

Caiden and Tony going out for a golf cart ride

This is how little boys pee while camping LOL right in front of everyone

Sitting around the camp fire

Sherry and Caiden

Ashlyn in the tent before the screaming

Caiden's Story

I am kinda sad i wasn't able to do this sooner with Caiden. It is 3 years later and memories have faded. Don't get me wrong i will never forget the day my baby boy was born, and some things like the song that was playing while they preformed my c-section, or how much he weighed and that first cry. But certain details and specifics have faded. But 3 years is better than 5 or even 10 years.

So here is Caiden's story:

My preganacy with Caiden was relativity easy compared to Ashlyn's. I did have morning sicknes with him that lasted about 6 weeks. Nothing like i had with Ashlyn. I was able to continue working and only lost about 10lbs which i gained back pretty quickly with him. I did develop mild Preeclampsia with him. I was able to maintain my blood pressure with out medication. Towards the end i did have to have twice weekly NST (non-stress tests) with him. Pretty much they just hooked me up to a monitor and monitored his heart rate for 20 mins. At 34 weeks my blood pressure did spike pretty high and i was put on bed rest for the last 4 weeks of my pregnancy. Which wasn't so bad. I was able to finish stuff up around the house and in the nursery. I was working full time as a Medical Assistant during my pregnancy with Caiden. "Bed Rest" was just nice 4 week vacation from work till he came.

My induction was scheduled for 38 weeks. I went in to the hospital bright and early on June 26th 2008, I think it was about 5am or maybe 7am (see details are getting hard to remember). They got me all hooked up to my I.V.'s and started the meds to induce labor and we waited.........and waited..........then waited some more........... and nothing. 12 long hours after staring the induction i had only dilated to 1cm. I had already had my epidural, so i was feeling good. The monitors where showing i was having some pretty good size contractions, which i couldn't feel =). The Doctor came in and said we can go another 12 hours with the induction or we can do a c-section and call it a day. LOL He recommended the c-section because of my blood pressure and the fact Caiden seemd ready to come out but my body was saying hell no. I agreed to the c-section. i was tired and ready to meet my baby.

They started all the preparations for surgery and i was starting to get nervous. I will never forget Chris standing they wide eyed and pale. He asked me "are you sure you want to do this". I couldn't help but laugh, there was no turning back now. Caiden couldn't stay in there forever. I was all ready and they wheeled me in to the operating room and Chris was next to me. I will never forget the song that was playing in the operating room as the doctor started my c-section. Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis! Kinda ironic if you listen to the words. That will forever be my song for Caiden.

At 8:06pm on June 26, 2008Caiden Edward Deaner came into this word weighing in at 7lb 10oz and 20 1/2in. He was perfect and healthy. His cry was loud and healthy. Another cry i will never forget. It was over and he was here healthy. They took me to recovery and Chris went with Caiden. About 30min later they brought him to me and the first time i held him was love at first sight. He was perfect in every way, MY baby boy. We spent the next three days in the hospital cuddling and loving on our baby boy, something i never got to do with Ashlyn cause she was in the NICU. I look back on those 3 days with Caiden and am so thankful that i was able to have him with me in my room and that he was as healthy as could be. Today Caiden is a healthy, wild 3 year old. A total boy in everyway. I love my perfect little family =)

Just mins old and mad!

My Handsome little guy